we differ he indeed saith much to little purpose and finally giveth away his Cause or as he merrily telleth his Adversary pag. 62. l. 3. 6. 47. he useth it as Sir Christopher Blunt's head was used after his apprension first healed and then cut off For 1. in his lib. 3. Where he speaketh of the power of Ordination he not only confesseth that it is in Presbyters with the Bishops and that the Bishops have but a superiority of power therein but is angry with his Adversary for supposing the contrary saying ch 3. p. 68. But where good Sir do I say they must have the sole power in Ordination which you have so oft objected and now again repeat make you no conscience of publishing untruths Cannot Bishops be superiour to other Ministers in the power of Ordination and Jurisdiction which is the thing which I maintain unless they have the sole power so p. 64 c. Therefore he granteth that extraordinarily in case of necessity Presbyters may Ordain that is without a Bishop page 69. and page 108. he giveth this reason for the validity of their Ordination Because Imposition of hands in Confirmation of the Baptized and Reconciliation of Penitents were reserved to Bishops as well as Ordination and yet in the absence of Bishops may be done by Presbyters And that the Papists themselves grant that the Pope may license a Presbyter to Ordain Presbyters If therefore saith he by the Popes license a Presbyter may Ordain Presbyters much better may a Company of Presbyters to whom in the want of a Bishop the Charge of the Church is divolved be authorized thereto by necessity And if all this be so no doubt but the Power of Ordination is in Presbyters as such though they are not to exercise it alone nor without or against the Bishop And so formerly they were not to Preach or Baptize nor Congregate the Church without him For why cannot a Lay-man Ordain with the Bishop but because he hath no such authority And Cap. 5. as to the power of Jurisdiction he saith the same p. 110. 111. I deny not Presbyters which have charge of souls to have Jurisdiction both severally in their Parishes and jointly in Provincial Synods And I have confessed before that Presbyters have with and under the Bishops exercised some Jurisdiction I grant that Godly Bishops before they had the countenance and assistance of Christian Magistracy and direction of Christian Laws used in all matters of moment to consult with their Clergy This was practised by Cyprian Ambrose also in 1 Tim. 5. 1. teacheth that there was a time when nothing was done without the advice of the Presbyters which therefore by Ignatius are called the Counsellors and Co-assessors of the Bishops Which course if it were used still as it would ease the Bishops burden very much so would it nothing detract from their superiority in Governing And page 115. The thing which I was to prove if it had been needful was that whereas Presbyters did Govern each one the People of a Parish and that privately the Bishop Governeth the People of the whole Diocess and that publickly So that both Ordination and Jurisdiction belong to the Presbyters Office though in the exercise of it they must be governed themselves Is not this the very sum of Archbishop Usher's Model of Primitive Episcopacy which we offered his Majesty and the Bishops at first for Concord and the Bishops would not once take it into their Consideration nor so much as vouchsafe to talk of it or bring it under any deliberation When alas we poor undertrodden Persons not only desired to be low our selves but yielded to submit to all their heights their Lordships Parliament dignities grandure and to let them alone with their real sole Ordination and Jurisdiction over us poor Presbyters and to have taken as much care of the People as they would so we could but have obtained any tolerable degree of Government to be setled in each particular Church either in all the Presbyters or in one Bishop and not have had all the particular Churches deprived of Bishops and all the Pastoral Jurisdiction But our great Controversie is handled by Bishop Downame in his second Book wherein he laboureth to prove that the Bishops Church or rather Charge was not a Parish but a Diocess And first page 4. he giveth us a scheme of the Scripture acception of the word Church as preparatory to his design In which there are many Texts cited not only without any shew of proof that they speak of what he affirmeth them to speak but contrary to the plain scope of the places And he tells us that the word Church is used in Scripture for the Church Militant Congregated in an Universal or Occumenical Synod And offereth us not one Text for instance which he doth though injuriously for all the rest Nor is there any that so speaketh He tells us that the word is used particularly to signifie the Church of a Nation in the singular number but could name no such place as to any Church since Christ but only the Jewish Church Acts 7. 38. And he saith it is used to signifie particularly and definitely the Church of a Nation in the plural number And is not this a strange kind of Allegation The Scripture speaketh of the Churches in a Nation Therefore it useth the word for the Church of a Nation in the plural number Is one Church and many all one with him Would he have applauded that man that would have said that such an Author useth the word College for the College of an University in the plural number because he named the College in an University and this to prove that an University is one College Had it not been better said The New Testament never useth the word Church for all the Churches in one Nation since Christ definitely but ever calleth them plurally Churches Therefore to call them all One National Church is not to imitate the Scripture His first Instance is Rom. 6. 4. All the Churches of the Gentiles A sad proof of a National Church What Nation is it that the word Gentiles signifieth No doubt the Gentile Churches were in Gentile Nations But that doth not prove that the Christians in any Nation are ever called in Scripture since the Jews Nation One Church but Churches His next instance is 1 Cor. 16. 1. The Churches of Galatia And the rest are all such v. 19. 2 Cor. 8. 1. Gal. 1. 2. 22. The Churches of Asia Macedonia Judaea But I hope he intended no more than to tell you that the Christians of several Nations are never called a Church but Churches as having any sort of Union than National He giveth many instances when the word Church is used definitely to signifie the Church of a City and Country adjoyning But to prove it used to signifie several Churches in City and Country adjoyning but one only Two Texts he alledgeth to prove that the word Church is used
in their Communion and that are directed when they meet together to cast him out and not to eat with him 4. Would it not be Calumny according to all rational Laws to accuse all the Churches of Achaia of all those Crimes which the Church at Corinth is accused of without a better proof than this 5. Was it all the Churches of Achaia which 1 Cor. 14. are said to meet all in one place and to have so many Prophets and Interpreters in that one Assembly I am not at leisure to say more of this But who denieth that the same Epistle which was directed first to the Corinthians was secondarily directed to the rest of Achia and to be Communicated to them And yet not the Churches of Achaia be all said to be or dwell at Corinth When 2 Cor. 11. 10. Paul speaketh of the Regions of Achaia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he saith that sheweth that the matter belonged to the whole Church of Achaia But how long have they all been challenged to name one Text of Scripture that speaketh singularly of the Church of a Province or Countrey consisting of many particular Churches Yet addeth he In re manifesta non pluribus opus est Cap. 3. He only mentioneth the occasion of Clements Epistle where without any Proof he extendeth the Sedition then raised by them to the disturbance of the Civil Government and Peace And if he had proved as he endeavoureth that by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is meant the Civil Rulers which is utterly uncertain yet the commendation of their Obedience formerly to the Civil Power as part of the Character of their orderliness and peaceableness doth not prove that Rebellion against them was part of their following disorder Cap. 4. Is to tell us 1. That Clemens puts Obedience to Rulers and due honouring of Presbyters as a Law of God which is not to be doubted of 2. That Bishops were sent by the Apostles as the Apostles by Christ but were joyned only with Deacons to attend them Mark here Reader that he doth not only acknowledge that de facto the Order of Mungrel or Half-Priests was not yet Existent but also that none such were sent by the Apostles and so not Instituted and that Clemens himself taketh notice of no such even in his times But how the Dr. will prove that no great Churches and particularly this of Corinth had but one Bishop you shall see with little satisfaction 3. He noteth that these Bishops thus sent were constituted every where Ecclesias nondum natas sed ad partum bonis Dei auspâ—cus festinantes brachiis atque ulnis suis susceptum administratum to receive in their Arms and Arms the Churches not yet born but by Gods Blessing hastning to the Birth whereas of his own Head he had before said that the Bishops were sent by the Apostles when Clement saith no such thing but only that they were Constituted sending being the word used of Itenerant Preachers gathering and visiting Churches and Constituting with Ordaining the usual word of Bishops and Presbyters who as such are fixed to particular Churches so now he more boldly forgeteth that Bishops were yea every where to receive Churches that were yet no Churches Where he contradicteth both Scripture and common use of the word Bishop and abuseth Clement 1. Let any Man that can shew us thatin the New Testament the word Bishop is ever used of any Pastor that was not related to a Church and as signifying that Relation and that Bishop and Flock are yet as much Relatives as King and Kingdom 2 Let him shew that can that the word was used otherwise by Christians for many a hundred years after Christ Though I grant that Ministers in general were and may be ordained sine titulo to Preach and gather Churches and help others yet never Bishops the word signifying an Over-seer of the Flock or Church to which he is related 3. If it were certain that the futurity of believing mentioned by Clemens had relation to the Constitution of Bishops and not to the Apostles Preaching only yet Clemens saith not that there were yet no Believers or no Churches where they were constituted Bishops Where there were but a few Believers the Apostles placed Bishops and Deacons over those few who should receive others into the same Society till it was full and no further who should after believe It is an abuse of Clemens to say it was to Churches yet not born when he hath no such word As if it could not be for future Believers unless at present there were no Believers And it is an abuse of him to seign him to assert that the Apostles did every where as soon as they had once Converted one Man presently make that new Baptized Novice a Bishop before they Converted any more saving perhaps one or two to be his Deacons Or that they used to make Deacons or Bishops either to Churches future that were yet no Churches When as the Scripture telleth the contrary most expresly that the Church at Jerusalem was before the Deacons Act. 7. That they ordained Elders in every Church Act. 14. 23. and not in no Church as he implyeth And Tit. 1. 5. every City is equivalent to every Church for it was not in every Infidel City that had no Christians Which beyond all modest contradiction is proved by the Rules given to Timothy and Titus for the Ordination of Bishops and Deacons Who were to be approved chosen persons that had ruled their own Houses well not Novices apt to teach well reported of those without which supposeth some to be within Tim. 3. 14 15. These things I write unto thee that thou mayest know how to behave thy self in the House of God which is the Church of the Living God a Pillar and Basis of the truth The first that were converted did not always prove the fittest to be Bishops perhaps they might be Women or weakly guiâ—ted To feign that the Apostles did that every where which none can prove that ever they did once to make a Bishop and Deacons of the two or three first Novice-converts before there were any more Converted and to make Bishops and Deacons before there were any Christians to constitute Churches meerly for future Churches this is not Clemens act whoever else will own it 4. Lastly he noteth here that this was done by the Revelation of the Spirit whereby they examined and tryed who was worthy of that Dignity And 1. What use for examination who was worthy where there was no other to stand in Competition and where the first Convert still was taken Election is è multis And if he be compelled to grant that there were more Christians over whom the Bishop was set it is a Contradiction to say that a Bishop and his Flock though small is no Church 2. It is hard to believe that the multitude of ignorant Lads and wicked Men that are now set over Churches are Constituted by this Apostolical choice and
Tryal by the Holy Ghost Cap. 5. § 5. He now acknowledgeth that where many were at first Converted not always the first but the fittest was chosen Bishop And how prove you that he and his Flock were no Church The same he maintaineth § 11. And after from the choice usually made by suffrages and other reasons well confuteth the former conceit when he took it to be Blondels but sure he could not believe that they were Ecclesiae nondum natâ— or future Believers that chose Bishops by Suffrages But having so fully in this Chapter confuted his former as Blondel's opinion I doubt not but Blondel is in this as easily reconciled to him as he to himself and meant no more but 1. That the Apostles used not to make Bishops of the first Converts simply but to choose them out of the ancient grown and proved Christians 2. And that being so chosen not he that was first Baptized but he that was first ordained had the presidence in the Conâ—essus of their Presbyters Which the Dr. might easily have seen and spared his insulting upon the contrary supposition But let it here again be noted that § 9. he expresly and confidently asserteth all that I now desire viz. That Clemens doth speak of that time of the Churches beginning in which there were not yet many Believers and therefore without doubt neither Presbyters instituted If he means no Subject Presbyters or if he means not many in a Church but one Bishop I desire no more For then no Bishop had more Church Assemblies than one nor any half Presbyters were ordained by the Apostles For Clemens doth not tell us what the Apostles did in the beginning of their Preaching only but giveth us this as an account of all their course in settling Offices in the Churches where they came Cap. 6. He confesseth that Clemens mentioneth but two Orders Bishops and Deacons and we would have no more and § 4. is over angry with Blundel for gathering hence that he did not do as those that from the Jewish Elders or Priests or the 70 gather another order what is there in this Collection that deserveth the sharp words of that § Cap. 7. Whether Clemens well cited Isai 60. 17. we need not debate But if yet any think that the Dr. hath not fully granted us our Cause let him take these additions § 7. He well gathereth from Clemens that this form of Government founded in Bishops and Deacons in each Church being setled by Men entrusted by Christ is no less to be ascribed to Gods Command than if Christ himself had constituted Bishops and Deacons in every City Let who dare then approve of the alteration by the Introduction of another Order of Priests And § 8. He noteth also out of Clemens that the foresight of the contention that would be about Episcopacy caused this establishment of Bishops and Deacons No doubt God foreknew both that the popular sort would oppose Government and that the Monarchical Prelates would depose all the Bishops of the same Church save themselves and the Arch-Prelates would depose all the Bishops of particular Churches and set up half Priests in their stead And he doth well not to pass the following words in Clemens though hard yet plainly subverting the Doctors opinion that from this same foresight the Apostles constituted the foresaid Bishops and Deacons in every Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. ac descriptas deinceps ministrorum officiorumque vices reliquerunt ut in defunctorum locum alii viri probati succedere illorum munia exequi possent as Pat. Junius translateth it The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 can allow no such doubt as shall make this much of the sense to be questionable 1. That upon the foresight of the Contentions about Episcopacy the Apostles made by the Spirit an established Description of the Orders and Offices which should be in the Church not only in their times but afterwards 2. And that the approved men that should hereafter be ordained should succeed in those same Orders which the Apostles had established and described even to the same Work or Office 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. That the Apostles thus setled or described no mungrel or half Priests but only Bishops and Deacons nor any Churches that had not each a Bishop and Deacon 4. Therefore no such half Priests should be brought in but only such as the Apostles instituted or described I can scarce speak my thoughts plainlier than by the Doctors next words § 9. It is evident that by the immediate impulse of the Spirit of God Bishops were constituted Deacons only joyned to them in every Church and so at Corinth and the rest of the Cities of Achaia And that by the command of the same Divine Prophesie or Revelation successors were assigned to them after their departure not a new order invented Christ thus consulting and providing for the Churches peace c. And § 14. he well granteth 1. That the form of Church Government was no where changed by the Apostles and so no middle order instituted by them 2. That through all their Age and when they were consummate in the middle under their Disciples the Government of every Church was in the power of the Bishops and Deacons in common But whereas § 13 c. he layeth this as the ground of his Cause 1. That it was not the Church at Corinth alone but of all Achaia that Clemens writeth to under this name 2. And that there were not many Bishops in one Church but one to each of these particular Churches I desire the Reader 1. To try impartially whether in all the Drs. Book there be one word of cogent Evidence to prove what he saith yea or to make it credible or likely 2. To consider these Reasons following for the contrary 1. As is said whether Scripture custom of speech will allow us to call all the Churches of a Region A Church in the singular Number Shew one Text for it if you can 2. Whether any ancient Ecclesiastical use of speech will allow us to say that the Churches of Achaia dwell at Corinth as Clemens speaketh p. 1. 3. Whether I have not proved from 1 Cor. 14. c. that the Church of Corinth had more Ministers or Clergy men or Pastors in it than one in Paul's time And therefore was not without so soon after 4. Whether it be credible that when it was but one or two Persons p. 62. by whom or for whose cause the Preâ—byters were ejected that it is like either this one or two were members of more particular Churches in Achaia than one or two Or that all the Churches of Achaia would so far own one or two mutineers in a particular Church as to cast out many of their Ministers for their sakes 5. Yea when Clemens whole scope intimateth that this one or two did this because they aspired after Power or Preeminence themselves Could they expect themselves to be made the Rulers of more
brought And much he hath elsewhere which granteth that the Presbyters are Church governours though not in equality with the Bishops V. Dr. Field lib. 5. c. 27. shewing how the Apostles first limiting and fixing of Pastors to particular Churches was a giving them Jurisdiction saith this assigning to men having the power of order the persons to whom they were to minister holy things and of whom they were to take the care and the subjecting of such persons to them gave them the power of Jurisdiction which they had not before And As another of my Rank cannot have that Jurisdiction within my Church as I have but if he will have any thing to do there he must be inferiour in degree to me so we read in the Revelation of the Angel of the Church of Ephesus c. So that with him a Bishop is but one of the Presbyters of the same Rank having the first charge of the Church as every Incumbent in respect to his Curates and so above his Curates in Degree And As the Presbyters may do nothing without the Bishop so he may do nothing in matters of greatest moment without their presence and advice Conc. Carthag 4. c. 23. It is therefore most false that Bellarmine saith that Presbyters have no power of Jurisdiction For it is most clear and evident that in all Provincial Synods Presbyters did sit give voices and subscribe as well as Bishops And the Bishops that were present in General Councils bringing the resolution and consent of the provincial Synods of those Churches from whence they came in which Synods Presbyters had their voices they had a kind of consent to the decrees of General Councils also and nothing was passed in them without their concurrence And Chap. 49. The Papists think that this is the peculiar right of Bishops But they are clearly refuted by the universal practice of the whole Church from the beginning For in all Provincial and National Synods Presbyters did ever give voice and subscribe in the very same sort that Bishops did whether they were assembled to make Canons of Discipline to hear Causes or to define doubtful points of doctrine And that they did not anciently sit and give decisive voices in General Councils the reason was not because they have no interest in such deliberations and resolutions but because seeing all cannot meet in Councils that have interest in such business â—but some must be deputed for and authorized by the rest it was thought fit that the Bishops So here are Bishops authorized by Presbyters as their Deputies in the greatest affairs in General Councils He proceedeth to prove this by instances Concil Later sub Innoc. 3. c. VI. Even Archbishop Whitgift maintaineth as Doctor Stillingfleet hath collected Iren. pag. 394. that No kind of Government is expressed in the word or can necessarily be concluded thence No form of Church Government is by the Scriptures commanded to the Church of God or prescribed And Doctor Stillingfleet there citeth many testimonies to prove this the judgment of the Church of England And if so it must be only men and not God who make any difference between a Presbyter and a Bishop in the point of Jurisdiction VII Bishop Bilson Perpet Govern p. 16. c. 391. saith The Synod of Antioch which deposed Paulus Samosat as Eusebius sheweth lib. 7. c. 38. in Concil Eliber about the time of the first Nicene Council sate Bishops and Presbyters even 36. In the second Concil Arelat About the same time subscribed twelve Presbyters besides Deacons So in Concil Rom. sub Hilario Gregor where 34 Presbyters subscribed after 22 Bishops And in the first sub Symmach where after 72 Bishops subscribed 67 Presbyters So in the third fifth and sixth under the same Symmachus Felix had a council of 43 Bishops and 74 Presbyters The Concil Antisiod c 7. saith Let all the Presbyters being called come to the Synod in the City Concil Tolet. 4. c. 3. saith Let the Bishops assembled go to the Church together and sit according to the time of their Ordination After all the Bishops are entred and set let the Presbyters be called and the Bishops sitting in a compass let the Presbyters sit behind them and the Deacons stand before them Even in the General Council at Lateran sub Innoc. 3. were 482 Bishops and 800 Abbots and Priors conventual saith Platina Thus Bilson and more VIII To the same purpose writeth the Greatest Defender of Prelacy Bishop Downam Def. lib. 1. c. 2. sect 11. pag. 43 44. and the places before cited out of him professing that the Bishop hath but a chief and not sole jurisdiction IX Bishop Ushers judgment is fully opened in his Model which we offered to the King and Bishops in vain and which he owned to me with his own mouth X. Because the citing of mens words is tedious I add that All those whom I cited Christ Concord p. 57 c. to shew that they judge the Presbyters Ordination may be lawful and valid do much more thereby infer that they are not void of a Governing power over their own flocks viz. 1. Dr. Field lib. 3. c. 32. 2. Bishop Downam Def. lib. 3. c. 4. p. 108. 3. Bishop Jewel Def. of Apol. Part 2. p. 131. 4. Saravia De divers Min. Grad cap. p. 10 11. 5. Bishop Alley Poor mans Libr. Prelect 3. 6. p. 95 96. 6. Bishop Pilkington 7. Bishop Bridges 8. Bishop Bilson Of Subject p. 540 541 542 233 234 c. 9. Alex. Nowel 10. Grotius de imper 11. Mr. Chisenhall 12. Lord Digby then a Protestant 13. Bishop Davenant Determ Q. 42. p. 191 192. 14. Bishop Prideaux cont de Disciplin Eccles p. 249. 15. Bishop Andrews 16. Chillingworth To which I add 17. Bishop Bramhall in his Answer to Mileterius's Epistle to the King 18. Dr. Steward's Answer to Fountains Letter 19. Dr. Fern. 20. Mason at large 21. Bishop Morton Apolog. XI Spalatensis is large to prove the power of the Keys to belong in common to Presbyters as such I cited the words before Lib. 5. c. 9. n. 2. c. 2. n. 48 c. XII Even Gropperus the Papist pleadeth in the Council of Trent for the restoring of Synods of Presbyters instead of Officials the thing so much detested in England as that all we undergo must rather be endured yet saith Gropperus Restore the Synodals which are not subject to so great corruption removing those Officers by whom the world is so much scandalized because it is not possible that Germany should endure them The Spaniards and Dutch men willingly heard this but not the rest Hist p. 334. lib. 4. XIII The opinion of Paulus himself the author of that History is so fully and excellently laid down of the Original of the Bishops grandeur and of the manner of introducing the Ecclesiastical Courts by the occasion of Pacifications Arbitrations and Constantines Edict as that I intreat the Reader to turn to and peruse p. 330 331
willing minds these things are plain Church Discipline hath its effect on the Consciences of men and these things take as they come with spiritual life light and love We see in our Preaching how much all work is lost which is done proudly unskilfully and marred in the manner And true Pastoral discipline must work just as Preaching must do it being but a more particular application of the same word to persons and carses Athanasius Patriarcha Constantinop in his fifth Epistle for the residence of Bishops Bibl. Patr. T. 3. p. 159. saith of constant preaching Haec nocte dieque debent singuli Pastores gregibus suis inculcare quae tam necessaria sunt quam est respirare animanti Necessarium inquam omnia judicia testimonia Dei denunciare ita ut ab hoc est prosperitas opulentia And in his three last Epistles he counselleth the Emperor to force those Bishops to Preaching and Vigilancy that will not do it without force And indeed unjust Excommunications most hurt the Excommunicators Read Nicon's Epistle ad Euch de injusta Excommunicatione proving that an unjust Excommunication bindeth not another but falleth on the Excommunicators head But the sad truth is that it 's usual with the Prelates to confess the vanity of their own Spiritual power and to call it a leaden sword which would but be despised if it were not backt with the Magistrates sword which is the very thing they trust to But of this anon III. And lastly let it be considered objectively what work it is that every Bishop hath to do and then you shall see whether it be possible 1. As to the number of Sins in specie 2. As to the number of Sinners 1. Such sins as are in other Countries and as are condemned in Scripture are among us also 1. As to Intellectual evils we have ignorant persons who neither know what Christ or Christianity is or what a Sacrament is or what are the Essentials of Faith We have Atheists that think there is no God or say so at least we have more Infidels that deride Christ and Christianity we have impious persons who make a mock of Godliness we have Quakers and Familists and Seekers who either deny the Scripture to be Gods word or true or say Scripture Church and Ministry are lost or turn Scripture into an Allegory or that prefer the light within every man Heathens and all as sufficient without it and Enthusiasts and true Fanaticks who trust to inward Revelations and impulses instead of Gods word We have Papists we have Antinomians Libertines and more Sects which the Bishops themselves can name you and overcharge 2. And for more voluntary sins we have almost all the breaches of all the commandments We have open enemies of preaching praying sacraments family duties catechizing the Lords days holy observation Common scorners of those that fear to sin and diligently seek God We have if the Bishops could know them malignant persecutors that would force Gods servants to most odious sins that hinder Christs Ministers from doing the work to which they are devoted and from preaching to sinners the Gospel of Christ and calling them to Repent and live We have idolaters false worshippers blasphemers perjured persons common prophane swearers and cursers and liars and we have children despisers and dishonourers of their parents and servants of their masters and subjects of Princes and Rulers and whether of Bishops and Pastors let the Bishops judge Profane families husband and wife living in open enmity or wrath we have murderers fighters railers such as maliciously seek the ruine of others great and small oppressors thieves defrauders adulterers and fornicators filthy speakers gluttons drunkards such as waste their lives in gaming plays and idleness false-witnesses Simoniacal bribe-takers subverters of justice to say nothing of the notorious effects of gross uncharitableness covetousness and pride These and more than these are here 2. And for the number of sinners 1. Conjecture by the number of persons 2. And then by the commonness of the sins 1. I have before oft told you that some Dioceses have many hundred Parishes some above a thousand and in the lesser sort of these Parishes commonly there are in some 50 in most 100 or 200 families and in the greater and Market Towns there are in some of the lesser about 1000 souls in the middle sort about 2000 or 3000 or 4000 and in the bigger about 5000 or 6000 and some few 10000 And in the greatest Parishes of all in London some 20000 some 40000 some 50000 and it is said in some many thousands more 2. And for the sins 1. The Bishops themselves say that Atheism Infidelity and derision of Scripture and Religion aboundeth among such as I will not name 2. They say themselves that Rebels and Quakers and Seekers and Enthusiasts c. are so many as that they know not what to do with them 3. They say themselves that Papists so increase as that they give out their hopes to swallow up all 4. One sort which they call Schismaticks as being against their interest they really exercise their power against and find that this one sort are more than they know what to do with 5. The number that malignantly labour to make all seriousness and diligence in seeking God to become a scorned hated thing and make it to seem meer self-conceitedness and hypocrisie and to keep people from obeying God is so great as we cannot reckon them 6. The number of the grosly ignorant is lamentably great 7. Common swearers and cursers are usually met with in our ordinary converse 8. How common drunkenness is let lamenting Parents grieved wives and beggered families tell you 9. Whether fornication and adultery rarely heard of till of late comparatively be now grown common if not in fashion I leave the Prelates themselves to judge 10. To pass by all the rest Whether serious credible Repentance though not expressed by the ancient severe penances be now a common thing for these or many other sins I am content that any English man be judge that ever laboured to bring men to Repentance and knoweth what Repentance is And now by this conjecture 1. How many thousands I say not the Bishop who puts it off but the Lay-chancellor hath to stand at his bar at once if discipline were tolerably exercised 2. How many years the accusers and offenders were like to wait before a cause could be heard 3. Or how spiritually powerfully meltingly this Lay-man that never preached is like to draw all these thousands to Repentance 4. What the Sinner and the Church shall do till the year come that they can be heard 5. Whether it be possible for any such thing as true Pastoral conviction exhortation discipline to be ever exercised on them at all whilest that new sins even heinous ones are still committed and the Bishop or Chancellor or Surrogate that had a thousand or ten thousand sinners at once to speak to when he could deal but
A TREATISE OF EPISCOPACY CONFUTING BY SCRIPTURE REASON and the CHURCHES TESTIMONY that sort of Diocesan Churches PRELACY and GOVERNMENT Which casteth out The Primitive Church-Species Episcopacy Ministry and Discipline and confoundeth the Christian World by Corruption Usurpation Schism and Persecution Meditated in the Year 1640. when the Et caetera Oath was imposed Written 1671. and cast by Published 1680 by the importunity of our Superiours who demand the Reasons of our Nonconformity By RICHARD BAXTER LONDON Printed for Nevil Simmons at the Three Cocks at the West end of S. Paul's and Thomas Simmons at the Princes Arms in Ludgate-street 1681. The History of the Production of this Treatise with its Design and Sum to prevent mis-understanding BEcause many of late as well as Justice Roger L'Estrange do seem to believe themselves in their accusation of me as changing with the Times though I greatly affect the change of a Proficient and know not at what age it is that such men would fix us that we may grow no wiser nor ever repent of former Ignorance or Errour yet I will here confess to them that if what I here write against be good and right I have been forty years unchanged in my Errour My mutability hath been little to my advantage for this world For further than I was for the King I never was one year on that which was called the upper or stronger prevailing side as far as I understand it Nor to the very day that I was turned out of all did my Preferments or Riches ever serve me so much as to have a House or keep a Servant man save in Travail or Woman save one aged Woman that provided me necessaries in a few top rooms of another mans House which I mention for the sake of the mistaken French stranger Mr. Durel that tells the World another story And as to this Subject this is the Breviate of its History ab origine I was in my Child hood first bred up under the School and Church-teaching of eight several men of whom only two preached once a month and the rest were but Readers of the Liturgie and most of very scandalous lives After that I fell into the hands of a Teacher that studied for preferment and reviled Puritanes and after that I fell into the happier acquaintance of three ancient Divines that were called then Conformable Puritanes and all of them bred in me an Opinion that Nonconformists were unlearned men addicted to humorous causeless Singularity For I knew but one who was an honest plain Preacher but of little learning And to settle me the Divines that I followed made me read Bishop Downame's Defence Bishop Andrews and others for Episcopacy and Mr. Sprint Dr. Burges and others for the Ceremonies And I verily judged them to be in the right But as soon as I was ordained I removed into a Countrey where were some Nonconformists some few of them Learned Ministers and many Lay-men of whom one in the house with me was oft disputing the Case with me and I thought I had still the better And the Nonconformable Ministers there were men of so much Holiness and Peace that they would scarce ever talk of the matters in difference but of Holiness and Heaven and repressing the over-much heat of the Lay men And the famous William Fenner being lately of the next Parish a Conformist of learning yet plain and affectionate in preaching God had blest his Ministry with so great success in the Conversion of many ungodly Persons as that the reverence of him kept up the honour of Conformity among the Religious people thereabouts But in 1640. I was removed to Brignorth and the Canons newly made imposed on us an Oath which had these words I A. B. do swear that I do approve of the Doctrine and Discipline or Government of the Church of England as concerning all things necessary to Salvation Nor will I ever give my CONSENT to alter the Government of this Church by Arch-Bishops Bishops Deans and Arch-Deacons c. As it stands now established and as by right it ought to stand And all these things I do plainly and sincerely acknowledge and swear according to the plain and common sence and understanding of the same words without any equivocation or mental evasion or secret reservation whatsoever And this I do heartily willingly and truly upon the Faith of a Christian So help me God in Jesus Christ Though every Minister in the Countrey as well I was for Episcopacy yet this Oath so startled them that they appointed a meeting at Brignorth to consult about it It fell out on my Lecture day and at the meeting it fell to my lot to be the Objecter or Opponent against Mr. Christopher Cartwright a good Man incomparably beyond me in Learning the Derender of K. Ch. 1. against the Marquess of Worcester and the Author of the Rabbinnical Commentary on Gen. whose Papers of Justification I since answered He defended the Oath and though my Objections were such as were none of the strongest the Ministers thought he failed in answering them and we broke up more dubious than before I had a little before set my self to a more serious study of the Case of the Ceremonies than before and upon the reading of Dr. Ames Fresh suit and some others having before read little on that side I came to see that there was a great difference between the determination of such Circumstances of Order as the Law of Nature or Scripture allow and oblige men to determine one way or other the Genus being necessary and the making of new mystical significant teaching Ordinances and Symbols of Christianity of which see Bishop Jer. Taylor cited in my 2d Plea And hereupon I had setled my Judgment only against the imposed use of the Cross in Baptism and the abuse of undertaking Godfathers But now I resolved before I took such an Oath as this to study over again the Controversie of Episcopacy which else I think I should scarce have done For I saw 1. That such an Oath and Covenant so Universally imposed was made the test and terms of Church concord and so would be an Engine of division by shutting out all that could not take it The Scotch Oath and Covenant was not the first imposed on us The Bishops Oath and Covenant to the contrary went here before it 2. I saw that the whole frame of the present Church-Government was about to be fixed as by an Oath of Allegiance on the Land as if it were as necessary as Monarchy and to be woven into the fundamental unchangeable constitution and it were true No Bishop no King 3. I askt What was the meaning of the Et caetera and could have no solution but from the following words As it stands now established And understood not well how far Lay chancellous Officials Surrogates Registers Proctors Advocates were part of the established Government but I saw it certainly included Arch-bishops Deans and Archdeacons 4. I
of the first rank afore-described must govern it statedly as present by himself and not absent by others Chap. 12. The just opening and understanding of the true nature of the Pastoral Office and Church Government would end these Controversies about Prelacy Chap. 13. That there is no need of such as our Diocesâ—nes for the Unity or the Government of the particular Ministers nor for the silencing of the unworthy Chap. 14. The true original of the warrantable sort of Episcopacy in particular Churches was the notorious disparity of abilities in the Pastors And tho original of that tyrannical Prelacy into which it did degenerate was the worldly Spirit in the Pastors and people which with the World came by prosperity into the Church Quaere Whether the thing cease not when the Reason of it ceaseth PART II. Chap. 1. THe clearing of the State of the Question Chap. 2. The first Argument against the aforedescribed Diocesanes that their form quantum in se destroyeth the particular Church form of Gods institution and setteth up a humane form in its stead Chap. 3. That the Primitive Episcopal Churches of the Holy Ghosts Institution were but such Congregations as I before described Proved by Scripture Chap. 4. The same proved by the Concessions of the most learned Defenders of Prelacy Chap. 5. The same proved by the full Testimony of Antiquity Chap. 6. The same further confirmed by the Ancients Chap. 7. More proof of the aforesaid Ancient Church limits from the Ancient Customs Chap. 8. That the Diocesanes cause the Error of the Separatists who avoid our Churches as false in their Constitution and would disable us to confute them Chap. 9. The second Argument from the deposition of the Primitive species of Bishops and the erecting of a humane inconsiâ—tent species in their stead A specifi k difference proved Chap. 10. Whether any form of Church Government be instituted by God as necessary or all be left to humane prudence and choice Chap. 11. Argument third from the destruction of the Order of Presbyters of divine Institution and the invention of a new Order of half Sub-presbyters in their stead Chap. 12. That God instituted such Presbyters as had the foresaid power of the Keyes in doctrine worship and discipline and no other proved by the Scriptures Chap. 13. The same confirmed by the Ancients Chap. 14. And by the Confessions of the greatest and learnedest Prelatists Chap. 15. Whether this Government belonging to the Presbyters be in foro Ecclesiastico exteriore or only in foro Conscientiae vel interiore Chap. 16. That the English Diocesane Government doth change this Office of a Presbyter of God's institution quantum in se into another of humane invention The difference opened Twenty instances of taking away the Presbyters power from them Chap. 17. That the great change of Government hitherto described the making of a new species of Churches Bishops and Presbyters and deposing the old was sinfully done and not according to the intent of the Apostles Chap. 18. Argument fourth from the impossibility of their performance of the Episcopal Office in a Diocesane Church And the certain exclusion and destruction of the perticular Church Government while one man only will undertake a work too great for many hundreds when their work is further opened in perticulars Chap 19. The same impossibility proved by experience 1. Of the ancient Church 2. Of the Foreign Churches 3. Of the Church of England 4. Of our selves Chap. 20. Objections against Parish discipline answered The need of it proved Chap. 21. The Magistrates sword 1. Is neither the strength of Church discipline 2. Nor will serve instead of it 3. Nor should be too much used to second and enforce it The mischeifs of enforcing men to Sacramental Communion opened in twenty instances Chap. 22. An Answer to the Objections 1. No Bishop no King 2. Of the Rebellions and Seditions of them that have been against Bishops Chah 23. Certain brief consectaries Chap. 24. Some Testinonies of Prelatists themselves of the late state of the Church of England its Bishops and Clergy lest we be thought to wrong them in our description of them and their fruits Chap. 25. The Ordination lately exercised by the Presbyters in England when the Bishops were put down by the Parliament is valid and Re ordination not to be required jure divino as supposing it null A TREATISE OF EPISCOPACY Confuting by SCRIPTURE REASON And the CHURCHES TESTIMONY That sort of Diocesan Churches Prelacy and Government which casteth out the Primitive Church-species Episcopacy Ministry and Discipline and confoundeth the Christian world by Corruption Usurpation Schismes and Persecution Meditated 1640 when the c. Oath was imposed Written 1671 and cast by Published 1680 by the Call of Mr. H. Dodwel and the Importunity of our Superiors who demand the Reasons of our Nonconformity The designe of this book is not to weaken the Church of England its Government Riches Honour or Unity But to strengthen and secure it 1. By the concord of all true Protestants who can never unite in the present Impositions 2. And by the necessary reformation of Parish-Churches and those abuses which else will in all ages keep up a succession of Nonconformists As an Account why we dare not Covenant by Oath or Subscription never to endeavour any amending alteration of the Church Government by lawful meanes as Subjects nor make our selves the justifying vouchers for all the unknown persons in the Kingdom who vowed and swore it that none of them are obliged to such lawful endeavour by their vow By RICHARD BAXTER a Catholick Christian for love concord and peace of all true Christians and obedience to all lawful commands of Rulers but made called and used as a Nonconformist London Printed for Nevil Simmons at the three Cocks at the West end of Saint Pauls and Thomas Simmons at the Prince's Armes in Ludgate-street MDCLXXXI These Books following are printed for and sold by Nevil Simmons at the three Golden Cocks at the west end of St. Pauls A Christian Directory or sum of practical Theology and cases of Conscience directing Christians how to use their Knowledge and Faith how to improve all helps and meanes and to performe all duties how to overcome temptations and to escape or mortifie every sin in four parts 1. Christian Ethicks or private Duties 2. Christian Oeconomicks or Family Duties 3. Christian Ecclesiasticks or Church Duties 4. Christian Politicks or Duties to Our selves and Neighbours in Folio Catholick Theology Plain Pure Peaceable for Pacification in three Books 1. Pacifying Principles c. 2. Pacifying Praxis c. 3. Pacifying Disputations c. in Folio The Life of Faith in three Parts The first Sermon preached before his Majesty c. The Second Instructions for confirming believers in the Christian faith The third directions how to live by faith or how to exercise it in all occasions in Quarto Naked Popery or the naked Falshood of a book called the Catholick naked Truth
serve to the being of a particular Church we might be of the same particular Church with men in the several parts of the World 32. Deacons are subordinate Officers or Ministers to Christs Ministers not essential to the Church but only Integral as needful to its well being in such Churches where the number and benefit of the People do require them 33. The necessity of these Individual or particular Churches is founded in the necessity of the foresaid publick worshiping of God and in the use of the mutual assistance of Christian Neighbours in the matters of salvation and in the need of the personal inspection and conduct of the Pastors over all the Flock 34. The difference between this personal Communion and the distant Communion by Letters or Delegates or meerly internal in Faith and Love is so great and notorious as must make those Societies specifically distinct which are associated for such distinct Ends. 35. Yet do we not hold that all true Churches do Assemble together in one place or that they consist of no more than can meet at once For whole Families seldom go all at once to the Assembly Therefore if one part go to day and another the next day they worship God publickly in personal Communion though not all at the same time 2. And many may be sick and many infants and many aged and the great distance of some may make a Chapel or subordinate Meeting often needful And yet 1. they may all come together in one place at several times for Church communion 2. And they may live so near that one may be capable of neighbourly converse with others and of admonishing exhorting and encouraging each other in their Christian Course 36. Where a Church is so small as to need but one Pastor Christ doth not require that they have more And One can neither be superiour or inferiour to himself 37. But it is most desirable that a Church be as numerous or great as will consist with that sort of Communion which is the end of the Society and consequently that they have many Pastors Because this tendeth to their strength and beauty and it is a joyful thing to worship God in full Assemblies 38. The work of a Bishop or Pastor of a single Church is to mention it more particularly to Teach the Church the meaning of the Scriptures especially of all the Articles of Faith and the things to be Desired in Prayer and the matters and order of Obedience to all the commands of Christ To instruct the Children in the Catechistical or Fundamental verities To Baptize to Pray in the Assembly to praise God to celebrate the Lords Supper to visit the Sick and pray for them To visit the several Families or personally instruct those ignorant ones that understand not publick Preaching as far as he hath opportunity To watch over the Conversations of the several Members and to receive informations concerning them To resolve the doubts of those that seek resolutions and to offer help to them that are so sensless as not to seek it when their need appeareth To comfort the sad and afflicted To reprove the scandalous To admonish the obstinate before all To censure and cast out the impenitent that continue to reject such admonition To absolve the penitent To take care of the Poor And to be exemplary in holiness sobriety justice and charity I pass by Marriage Burials and such other particular Offices And I meddle not here with Ordination or any thing that concerneth other Churches but only with the work of a Bishop or Pastor to the People of his proper Flock 39. The ablest Man among us for mind and body may find full and needful employment of this sort among an hundred persons especially such as our common Christians are But if he have five hundred or a thousand he hath so much to do as will constrain him to leave something undone which belongeth to his Office Therefore our Market Towns and large Country Parishes where there are ordinarily two three or four thousand in a Parish have need of many pastors to do that for which the Pastoral Office was ordained Much more our greatest City and Town Parishes that have ten thousand twenty thousand and some above thirty if not forty or fifty thousand in a Parish 40. The office of a Pastor containing the Power of the Keys as subordinate Ministerially to Christ in his Teaching Ruling and priestly work is not by man to be divided and part of it to be given to one sort and part to another though they that have the whole power may variously exercise it as there is cause But every Church must have such as have the whole power as far as concerneth the People of that Church 41. To divide the essential parts of the Sacred Office as to give one the power of Teaching only another of Worshiping only and another of Ruling only or any two of these without the third is to destroy it and change the species as much as in them lieth that do it And as no one is a man without his Animal Vital and Natural parts so no one is a true Pastor without the threefold power forementioned of Teaching Ruleing that Church by Pastoral means and Conducting them in publick Worship He may be a Pastor that is hindered from the exercise of some one of these or more but not he that hath not the Power in his Office Dividers therefore make new Church Offices and destroy the old 42. Churches headed by such a new sort of Officers specifically distinct from the old of Christ's Institution are Churches specifically differing from the Churches which Christ Instituted Because the Society is specified by the species of its Head or Governour 43. To make a new sort of Church-Heads or Rulers as their Constitutive parts is to make a new sort of Churches 44. The three forsaid Essential parts of the Pastoral Office are not to be exercised by any Lay-man nor by any man that hath not that Office Nor may the Pastors do that work per alios or delegate Lay-men or men of another Office to do it as in their stead For the Office is nothing but just Authority and Obligation to do that work And if they convey such Authority and Obligation to another they convey the Office to another And so he is no longer a Lay-man or of another Office only 45. Therefore though many Pastors of the same Office may in a great Church distribute the work among them yet none of them must do it only as the delegate of another not having himself from God the Office which containeth the power of doing it 46. But the Accidentals of the Pastoral Office may be committed to a Lay-man or one that is no Pastor As to summon Assemblies to keep Registers or the Church Books Goods Buildings with many the like And so some think that the Apostles instituting Deacons was but a communicating the Accidentals of their Office to other men Therefore if
Churches For they might be but single Parish Churches though they were in Cities only and the Country Members joyned with them in the Cities And his own Confession is page 35. that besides Rome and Alexandria that had many Churches in the City there is not the like evidence for multitude of Parishes in other Cities imediately after the Apostles times I suppose by his Citations he meaneth till the third Century And if this be granted us of all the great Cities of the World that they cannot be proved to have many Churches we have no great reason to look for many in the Country Villages His next Argument is Churches containing within their Circuit not only Cities with their Suburbs but also whole Countries subject to them were Diocesses But the Churches subject to the ancient Bishops in the Primitive Church contained c. Therefore they were Diocesses Ans Either this is his Description of a Diocess or we have none from him that I can find And let who will Dispute about the Names of Diocess and Parish for I will not And if by a Diocess he meaneth a Church consisting of all the Christians in City and Country associated for Personal holy Communion having One Altar and One Bishop this is that which we call a single Church or some a Parish-Church and if he call it a Diocess he may please himself But if he mean that in these Cities and whole Countries were several such Churches that had each an Altar and were fixed Societies for personal holy Communion not having any proper Bishop of their own but one Bishop in Common with whose Cathedral Church they did not and could not Communicate through Number or distance I deny his Minor proposed in this sense as to the two first Centuries though not as to the following Ages But if by Cities Suburbs and whole Countries subject he mean all the unconverted Infidels of that space for doubtless he calls not the soil or place the Church I deny the very subject There were no such Churches Infidels and Heathens make not Churches Though Hereticks made somewhat like them sicut vespa faciunt â—avos as Tertullian speaketh If the Diocesan Churches Disputed for be Churches of Pagans and Infidels we know no such things But if he mean that all the Heathens in that Circuit are the Bishops Charge in order to Conversion I answer 1. That maketh them no parts of the Church Therefore the Church is of never the larger extent for the soil or Infidel Inhabitants 2. The Apostles and other General Preachers like the Jesuits in the Indies may divide their Labourers by Provinces for the Peoples Convetsion before there be any Churches at all 3. This distribution is a meer prudential Ordering of an accident or circumstance and therefore not the Divine Institution of a Church Form or Species 4. Neither Scripture nor prudence so distributeth Circuits or Provinces to Preachers in order to conversion of Infidels as that other Preachers may not come and Preach there as freely as one that claimeth it as his Province For 1. Christ sent out his Apostles by two and two at first 2. Paul had Barnabas or some other Evangelist or General Preacher usually with him And Peter and Paul are both said to be at Rome at Antioch and other places And many Apostles were long together at Jerusalem even many years after Christ's Resurrection Christ that bid them go into all the World never commanded that one should not come where another was nor have power to Preach to Infidels in that Diocess And what is the Episcopal power over Infidels which is claimed It is not a power to Ordain or to Excommunicate them It can be no other than a power to Preach to them and Baptize them when converted And this is confessed to belong to Presbyters If the Bishops would divide the World into Diocesses and be the only Preachers in those Diocesses it would be no wonder if the World be unconverted It is not Bishops that are sent by the Papists themselves to convert the Indians But perhaps you may say that the Bishops rule those Presbyters that do it I answer 1. It 's an imperfect kind of Government which a Bishop in England can exercise over Presbyters that daily Preach as Mr. Eliat his helpers to the Natives in a Wilderness many thousand Miles from them 2. But if they do rule the Preachers that maketh not the Soil nor the Heathens to be any parts of their Church but the Preachers only Therefore a Diocess with them and a Church must be different things His first Reason therefore page 36. from the Circuit is vain His second page 37. that the City Bishops had a right from the beginning over many Churches that had no other Bishops and did not after usurp it he proveth not at all For the words of Men three or four hundred years after Christ alledging ancient custome are no proof When the 25 Can. Trull cited by himself maketh thirty years possession enough against all that would question their Title And abundance of things had Custome and Antiquity alledged for them so long after that were known Innovations His third Reason is from the Chorepiscopi as the Bishops suffragan which sheweth no more but that the City Bishops whether justly or by usurpation were at last really Archbishops or Rulers of Bishops But of this before His fourth Reason from Succession will be good when he that affirmeth that no Church was governed by the Parish Discipline hath proved that all many yea or any Bishops from the Apostles days had many Churches under them that had no Bishops of their own Till then he saith nothing As to his instance of the Scythians having but one Bishop the Reason was because it was but little of their Country at first that were made Christians or that were at all in the Roman Empire So that the Bishop was setled at Tomis in the borders of the Empire in the Maritine part of the Euxine Sea that thence he might have an influence on the rest of the Scythians over whom the Romans had no power and where there were many Cities indeed but few Christians as may be seen in Theodoret Tripart Nicephor and many others Of his other three or four instances I shall after speak Chap. 3. lib. 2. He pretends to prove that the seven Asian Churches were Diocesan and not Parochial and never defineth a Diocess and Parish which is lost labour His first Argument is Churches whose Circuit contained Cities and Countries adjoining were Diocesses But c. This is before answered Our Question is Whether they were as our Diocesan Churches such as had in these Cities and Countries many Altars and Churches without Bishops under them Trees and Houses and Fields and Heathen People make not Churches nor yet scattered Christians that were Members only of the City Church His proof of the Minor is 1. These Churches comprized all the Churches of Asia Ans If he mean that all the rest
of the Churches of Asia had no Bishops but Parish Presbyters under these seven Bishops he should prove it and confute Dr. Hammond that is so contrary to him had he then lived Till then we take it as a contemptible incredible assertion that Asia had but seven Bishops and yet a multitude of Churches If he mean only that these seven were Archbishops his impertinency is too palbable Particularly he saith The Church of Ephesus Smyrna c. Contained a great City and the Country belonging to it c. Ans We talk of Churches under Churches and he talketh only of Cities and Countries Again I say Let him take his Diocess of Infidels Houses and Ground we know no such Churches Page 46. He saith Cenchrea was subject to the Church of Corinth and never had a Bishop of their own But not a syllable of proof It is not a Family Church which we speak of therefore he need not here have mentioned that But a Church associated for ordinary Communion in God's publick worship which cannot be celebrated without a Pastor Let him prove that Cenchrea was such a Church and yet had no Bishop In § 6. p. 49. He would prove that the Circuit of a Church was in the Intention of the Apostles or first Founders the same from the beginning befor◠the division of Churches as after Which I shall in due place disprove His reasons are 1. Because the whole Church since the Apostles days hath so understood the intention of the Apostles Ans 1. This is not proved 2. I shall anone prove the contrary that the Apostles had no intention that Churches should be defined by the limits of the place and Country nor did they themselves ever appoint any such bounds to any one Church and say so far it shall extend Nor did they ever take any but Christians in any Circuits for Members of the Church And I shall prove that all Churches were but such as I described single Churches with their Bishops at the first and that some Villages had Bishops four or five hundred years after And his own Reason that Churches followed the Civil Form proveth the mutability of their bounds seeing the Civil Forms were mutable His next Reason is because that division of Churches which was 300 or 400 Years after Christ with their Limits and Circuits were ordinarily the same which had been from the beginning as divers Councils testifie Ans Those Councils mean no more than that it had been an old or setled Custome as many Learned men have proved And if they could be proved to mean that from the Apostolical plantations the bounds of all the Diocess were set I marvel that any man could believe them But they say no such thing as were it not tedious to the Reader an examination of each particular would shew Else no new Churches and Bishops must be setled in the World but those that the Apostles converted in any Cities between or near them For the unconverted Cities in the inter-spaces were as much those Bishops Diocesses as the Villages of equal distance And then the making of new Cities would have made one a Bishop of many Cities contrary to the Canons His third Reason is that the Distribution of the Churches usually followed the division of the Common wealth Ans 1. If so as is said they must be various and mutable All the World was not divided just as the Roman Empire was And the Imperial divisions had great changes 2. I think it lost labour to dispute with him that holdeth this assimilating the Church to the Civil Form was of Divine Apostolical Institution If any can think so let him give us his proof that the Church Constitution must vary as Monarchical Aristocratical and Democratical States do As Empires and free Cities do And that from the King to the Constable we must have a correspondent Officer And that the Papacy as Capital in the Roman Empire was of Gods Institution And that an Emperour King or popular State may change the Form of the Churches as oft as they may the Form of their subordinate Governments Are not these small Reasons to prove that when the Apostles planted Bishops in all single Churches they intended that those Bishops should be the sole Bishops of many hundred Churches when they should be raised in the Circuit of ground which now is called their Diocesses But more of this in due place But next he appealeth to mens consciences Whether it be not unlikely that there was but one Congregation belonging to these famous Cities towards the end of the Apostles days Of which more afterward In Chap. 4. p. 69. He argueth The Presbyteries ordained by the Apostles were appointed for Diocesses and not to Parishes Therefore the Churches endued with the power of Ecclesiastical Government were not Parishes but Diocesses Ans Our Question is Whether they were single Churches as before defined or only One Diocesan Church made up of many such single Churches 1. If by Presbyteries be meant many Presbyters a College or Consessus I deny the Consequence because every Church that had Government had not such a Presbytery But one Bishop or Pastor did serve for some of the lesser Churches and yet that one had Governing power 2. I deny the Major It was single Churches that had then many Elders set over them 3. Reader it seemeth to me no small disparagement to the Diocesan Cause that the grand Patrons of it so extreamly differ among themselves Dr. Hammond holdeth that in all the Scripture times no one Church had any Presbyters at all save only one single Bishop This Bishop Downame seemeth to hold that every Governed Church had a Presbytery And no one and every one extreamly differ Yet either of them would have censure him that had gain-sayed them His proof of the Antecedent is this They who were appointed to whole Cities and Countries to labour so far as they were able the conversion of all that belonged to God were appointed to Diocesses not to Parishes But c. Ans Is not here frustration instead of edification to the Reader for want of defining a Diocess and a Parish I thought we had talkt of a Diocesan Church and here is a Diocess described which may be a single Church or no Church at all as the Bishop pleaseth Here is not so much as any Christians much less Congregations of them mentioned as the Bishops Flock But many an Apostle Evangelist and Converting Preacher hath been set over Cities and Countries to labour mens Conversion as far as they were able before they had converted any or at least enow to make a Church and after that before they had converted more than one Assembly The Jesuits in the Indies thus laboured in several Provinces before they were Bishops of those Provinces or called them Provincial Churches But now we perceive what he meaneth by a Diocess even a space of Ground containing Inhabitants to be converted if we can I will shorten my Answer to the
they forsake him or refuse to use him and Excommunicateth a man when they avoid his communion and declare him unmeet for communion In all which the Church useth her own right but taketh not away another mans Then for the Canonical Enquiries after faults and impositions of Penence or delays of absolution he sheweth that both the Canons and Judgments by them being but prudential Determinations of Modes and Circumstances bound none but Consenters without the Magistrates Law except as the Law of Nature bound them to avoid offences He should add and as obedience in general is due to Church-guides of Christ's appointment And how the Magistrate may constrain the Pastors to their duty Chap. 10. He sheweth that there are two perpetual Functions in the Church Presbyters and Deacons I call them Presbyters saith he with all the Ancient Church who feed the Church with the Preaching of the Word the Sacraments and the Keys which by Divine Right are individual or inseparable Note that And § 27. He saith It is doubtful whether Pastors where no Bishops are and so are under none though over none are to be numbered with Bishops or meer Presbyters § 31. His counsel for the choice of Pastors is that as in Justinian's time none be forced on the People against their wills and yet a power reserv'd in the chief Rulers to rescind such elections as are made to the destruction of Church or Commonwealth Chap. 11. § 10. He sheweth that Bishops are not by Divine precept And § 1. That therefore the different Government of the Churches that have Bishops or that have none should be no hindrance to Unity And § 10 11. That some Cities had no Bishops and some more than one And that not only in the Apostles â—ays but after one City had several Bishops in iâ—â—tation of the jews who to every Synagogue had an Archisynagogus Page 357. He sheweth that there have been at Rome and elsewhere long vacancies of the Bishops See in which the Presbyters Governed the Church without a Bishop And saith that all the Ancients do confess that there is no act so proper to a Bishop but a Presbyter may do it except the right of Ordination Yet sheweth p. 358. that Presbyters ordained with Bishops and expoundeth the Canon thus that Presbyters should Ordain none contemning the Bishop And p. 359. He sheweth that where there is no Bishop Presbyters may Ordain as Altisiodorensis saith among the Schoolmen And questioneth again whether the Presbyters that have no Bishops over them be not rather Bishops than meer Presbyters citing Ambrose's words He that had no one above him was a Bishop what would he have said of our City and Corporation Pastors that have divers Chapels and Curates under them Or of our Presidents of Synods or such as the Pastor of the first Town that ever I was Preacher in Bridgnorth in Shropshire who had six Parishes in an exempt Jurisdiction four or five of them great ones and kept Court as ordinary like the Bishops being under none but the Archbishop And § 12. He sheweth that there was great cause for many Churches to lay by Episcopacy for a time And p. 360. he saith Certainly Christ gave the Keys to be exercised by the same men to whom he gave the power of Preaching and Baptizing That which God hath joyned let no man separate But then how should Satan have used the Churches as he hath done And he sheweth of meer ruling Elders as he had done of Bishops that they are not necessary but are lawful and that it may be proved from Scripture that they are not displeasing to God and that formerly the Laity joyned in Councils Only he puts these Cautions which I consent to 1. That they be not set up as by God's command 2. That they meddle no otherwise with the Pastoral Office or Excommunication than by way of Counsel 3. That none be chosen that are unfit 4. That they use no coactive power but what is given them by the Soveraign 5. That they know their power to be mutable as being not by Gods command but from man And Chap. 11. § 8. He delivereth his opinion of the Original of Episcopacy that it was not fetcht from the Temple pattern so much as from the Synagogues where as he said before every Synagogue had a chief Ruler 14. As for J. D. and many other lesser Writers Sir Thomas Aston c. who say but half the same with those forementioned it is not worth your time and labour to read any more Animadversions on them 15. But the great Learned M. Ant. de Dominis Spalatensis deserveth a more distinct consideration who in his very learned Books De Repub. Eccles doth copiously handle all the matter of Church-Government But let us consider what it is that he maintaineth In his lib. 5. c. 1. he maintaineth that the whole proper Ecclesiastical Power is meerly Spiritual In cap. 2. that no Power with true Prefecture Jurisdiction Coaction and Domination belongeth to the Church In c. 3. he sheweth that an improper Jurisdiction belongs to it Where he overthroweth the old Schoolmens Description of Power of Jurisdiction and sheweth also the vanity of the common distinction of Power of Order and of Jurisdiction and maintaineth 1. that Power of Jurisdiction followeth ab Ordine as Light from the Sun 2. That all the Power of the Keys which is exercised for Internal effects although about External Matters of Worship or Government belongeth directly to the Potestas Ordinis 3. That the Power of Jurisdiction as distinct from Order and reserved to the Bishops is but the power about the Ordering of External things which is used Principally and Directly for an External Effect that is Church order § 5. p. 35. 4. That it is foolish to separate power of Order from any power of Jurisdiction whatsoever that is properly Ecclesiastical it being wholly Spiritual 5. The Episcopal Jurisdiction not properly Ecclesiastical he maketh to consist in ordering Rites and Ceremonies and Circumstances and Temporals about the Church and about such Modal Determinations about particular persons and actions as are matters of humane prudence which have only a General Rule in Nature or Scripture 6. By which though he hold Episcopacy Jure Divino that it is but such things that he supposeth proper to the Bishop which the Magistrate may determine and make Laws for as Grotius and others prove at last and himself after and as Sir Roger Twisden hath Historically proved to have been used by the Kings of England Histor Def. Cap. 5. 7. That all Ecclesiastical power whatsoever is fully and perfectly conjunct with Order page 36. 8. That this plenitude of power is totally and equally in all Bishops and Presbyters lawfully Ordained and that it is a meer vanity to distinguish in such power of Order Plenitudinem potestatis a parte solicitudinis 9. That this equal power of the Bishop and Presbyter floweth from Ordination and is the Essential Ordinary Ministerial
saying at most and if it be given If not able his ability must be plainly deficient as to the decision of our main controversie of the difference between Bishops and Presbyters which dependeth on it If unwilling he was unwilling to give us any solid satisfactory decision of this Case 2. Being his Neighbour I wrote in his Life time a Confutation of that Assertion that the ordained received their Office and Power properly from the Ordainer as the neerest Efficient of it in my Disput of Ordination in my Disput of Church-Government and I proved that the Power or Office is immediately from Christ and that the Ordainers do but design the Person that shall receive it and Ministerially deliver him possession by an investing Sign 3. Either the Office of a Presbyter is of Divine Institution or of Humane Either fixed by the Holy Ghost in the Apostles immutably or made and alterable by the Bishops If the Office be of Divine institution and fixed for the Churches constant use whether by Christ immediately or by the Holy Ghost in the Apostles than it is not in the Bishops Power to Altar it And so whatever the Ordainers please to give them is none of the measure of their Power As the Arch-Bishop may Crown or anoint the King and yet not give him what Power he please Or rather as it is of Divine appointment that the Husband should be the Governour of the Wife And she that chooseth him and he that Marrieth them cannot alter it nor do they give him his measure of Power as they please but suppose him endowed with that by God and do only choose the Person that shall receive it and Ministerially invest him in the Possession of it And if the Priest that marrieth them should by any words Contradict or limit this institution of God it were a Nullity and invalid If he do but say I pronounce you Husband and Wife He therefore pronounceth the man to have that Power of a Husband which God hath given him though he vainly say after you shall have but so much or so much of it And so it is in present Case If God have made the Ministerial Office he hath made it something constituted of its essential parts And if so what man hath Power to alter it But if it be humane yea and made by the Bishops then I confess they may alter it or destroy it And if a Presbyter have what power the Ordainers please to give him every Ordainer may alter the Office and make a new Species of Church Ministers at his pleasure Prove that and our dispute is at an end But Papists Greeks and Protestants are agreed against it 4. If Presbyters receive that which he calleth the first Power which he would not deny though he would not grant it is all that at present I am pleading for it And it isall that in their ordination they receive as he saith as to the Word and Sacraments If then the Office of a Presbyter continue the same Power of the Keys as to Excommunication and Absolution as it doth of administring the Word and Sacraments at present I rest satisfied with this In which Learned Spalatensis and those that go with him cannot be confuted For this proveth that their Divinely-instituted Office Essentially containeth this Power of the Keys though to be exercised under the inspection of a Superiour 5. And if this Inspection would prove that they have not the Power or that their Office or Order is therefore distinct it will also prove that Bishops have not the Power of the Keys because they exercise it under the Inspection of Metropolitans Arch-Bishops Primates or Patriarchs And also that they are of a distinct Order from all these And that a Physition hath no Power to Guide or Govern his voluntary Patients in order to Cure and that he is off a distinct Office from the Colledge and President because he is under their inspection And are not all Bishops under the Government of the King as well as Physitions and other Subjects And have they no Power of the Keys because he ruleth them And as a Presbyter might do nothing without the Bishop so no one Bishop could do any thing without other Bishops For he had no Episcopal Power till they ordained him And as to after Government or that which he calleth the grant of a Second Power 6. Is it any thing but Humane License to Exercise the Power of Office of Divine institution before received And is not the Magistrates License as necessary to the Bishop and the Presbyter too as the Bishops is to the Presbyter 7. And I take it for undenied among Christians that humane Power of Government extendeth but to the Ordering and not the Nulling of a Function instituted by God It is not referred to King or Bishop whether there shall be a Preaching or none Sacraments or none Church discipline and exercise of the Keys or none no more than whether there shall be a Scripture and Divine Law a Christ a Heaven and whether men shall be good or bad saved or damned But only by whom and when and how this Divine Function shall be so exercised as may best attain the end as to those circumstances not determined of by God and not contradicting Gods Institutions Therefore if the Bishops say that the Preachers of the Gospel shall be silenced perhaps by hundreds or thousands while the necessity of the Peoples Souls is undeniable their Authority in this should hinder no man from going to Preach further than their violence hindreth And so by his own Rule it must be as to Discipline if Discipline be a Work belonging to a Presbyter And as Spalatensis saith of Confirmation the Presbyter should do it though the Bishop rorbid him 8. The Second Power which the Presbyter must receive from the Prelate for Teaching Worshipping and Governing the Plock is either 1. For the exercise of it in General to any fit persons or else for the limitation of him to such a particular Flock 2. And it is either a General License or power at once given to do all his Work or to do this of Government whenever there is cause or else it is a particular License for each particular act 1. We deny not but that as a Physician Licensed to practice is not thereby made the Physician of this or that Person Hospital or City but have a particular Call for such an Exercise or Application of his skill So an Ordained Minister of Christ hath no prepared Object on which to Exercise a Pastoral Office but by a particular Call to such a Flock But however you Censure our simplicity for it we are resolved to believe till you say more against it 1. That the same may be said of a Bishop too and therefore by your Argument when this Bishop is fixed in a particular Flock he receiveth a second power as you call it and so without it hath not the power of the Keys any more than the
now to his Arguments 1. Paul planted Paul onely was their Father What then Ergo Paul onely was their Bishop I deny the Consequence and may long wait for a syllable of proof Contrarily Paul onely was not their Apostle Ergo Paul onely was not their Bishop For every Apostle you say hath Episcopal Power included in the Apostolical and none of them ceased to have Apostolical Power where-ever they came though they were many together as at Jerusalem Ergo None of them ceased to have Episcopal Power The conceit of Conversion and Paternity entituling to sole Episcopacy I shall confute by it self anon 2. But Paul judged the incestuous person and speaketh of coming with the rod. And what followeth Ergo None but Paul might do the same in that Diocess I deny the Consequence Any other Apostle might do the same Where is your Proof And if all this were granted it is nothing against the Cause that we maintain And next let us inquire whether this Church had no Bishops or Presbyters but Paul As here is not a word of proof on their side so I prove the contrary 1. Because the Apostles ordained Elders or Bishops in every Church and City Acts 14. 23. Tit. 1. 5. Therefore the Church of Corinth had such 2. If they had not Presbyters or Bishops they could hold no ordinary Christian Church-Assemblies for all Gods publick Worship e. g. They could not communicate in the Lords Supper for Lay-men may not be the Ministers of it nor the ordinary Guides and Teachers of a Worshipping Church But they did hold such ordinary Assemblies communicating in the Lords Supper And to say that they had onely Pastors that were itinerant in transitu as they came one after another that way is to speak without book and against it and to make them differ from all other Churches without proof 3. 1 Cor. 14. doth plainly end that Controversie with 1 Cor. 11. when they had so many Prophets and Teachers and gifted Persons in their Assemblies that Paul is put to restrain and regulate their Publick Exercises directing them to speak but one or two and the rest to judge and this rather by the way of edifying plainness than by Tongues c. And c. 11. they had enow to be the ordinary Ministers of the Sacraments And cb 5. they had Instructions for Church-Discipline both as to the incestuous man and for all the scandalous for the time to come and are chidden for not using it before And who but the Separatists do hold that the power of the Keys for the exercise of this Discipline is in the Peoples hands Therefore most certainly they had a Clergy And if all this go not for proof against a bare Affirmation of the contrary we can prove nothing 4. And 1 Cor. 4. 15. I scarce think that Paul would have had occasion to say Though you have ten thousand instructers if they had not had qualified Persons enow to afford them one or two for Presbyters Cap. 2. proving no more of any one Apostles fixed Episcopacy he cometh to their secondary Bishops or Apostles And whereas we judge that Apostles and Evangelists and the Apostles Assistants were unfixed Ministers appropriating no Churches or Diocesses to themselves in point of Power but planting setling and confirming Churches in an itinerant way and distributing their Provinces onely arbitrarily and changeably and as the Spirit guided them at the present time of their work and that Bishops and Elders were such Pastors as these Church-gatherers fixed in a stated relation to particular Churches so that an Apostle was a Bishop eminenter but not formaliter and that a Bishop as such was no Apostle in the eminent sense but was also an itinerant Preacher limitedly because while he oversaw his Flock he was also to endeavour the conversion of others as far as his opportunity allowed him I say this being our judgment this learned Doctor supposeth Apostles as such to be Bishops and the fixed Bishops as such to be second Apostles And I so avoid contending about Names even where it is of some importance to the Matter that I will not waste my time upon it till it be necessary In § 1. he telleth us that these second Apostles were made partakers of the same Jurisdiction and Name with the first and either planted and ruled Churches or ruled such as others had planted Answ 1. We doubt not but the Apostles had indefinite itinerant Assistants and definite fixed Bishops placed by them as aforesaid But the indefinite and the definite must not be confounded 2. And were not Luke Mark Timothy and other itinerant Evangelists as such of the Clergy and such Assistants or secondary Apostles Exclude them and you can prove none but the fixed Bishops But if they were why did you before deny Evangelists Dissert 3. cap. 6. the power of the Keys and make them meer converting Preachers below Doctors and Pastors and the same with Deacons whereas Paul Ephes 4. 11. doth place them before Pastors and Teachers But avoiding the Controversie de nomine call them what you will we believe that these itinerant Assistants of the Apostles were of that One sacred Office commonly called the Priesthood or Ministry though not yet fixed and that the assigning them to particular Churches did not make them of a new Order but onely give them a new object and opportunity to exercise the Power which they had before and that Philip and other Deacons were not Evangelists meerly as Deacons which term denoteth a fixed Office in one Church but by a further Call And that you never did prove that ever the Scripture knew one Presbyter that had not the power of the Keys as Bishops have yea you confess your self the contrary All therefore that followeth in that Chapter and your Book of James the Just and Mark and others having Episcopal power is nothing against us The thing that we put you to prove is that ever the Apostles ordained such an Officer as a Presbyter that hath not Episcopal Power and Obligation too as to his Flock that is the Power of governing that Church according to God's Word And I would learn if I could whether all the Apostles which staid long at Jerusalem while James is supposed to be their Bishop were not Bishops also with him Whether they ceased to be Apostles to the People there Or whether they were Apostles and not Bishops And whether they lost any of their Power by making James Bishop And whether one Church then had not many Bishops at once And if they made James greater than themselves Whether according to your Premonition they did not give a Power or Honour which they had not which you think unanswerable in our Case Cap. 4. come in the Angels of the Churches Rev. 1 2 3. of which though the matter be little to our Cause I have said enough before why I prefer the Exposition of Ticoniui which Augustine seemeth to favour And I find nothing here to the
contrary that needeth a Reply Cap. 5. he would prove the Angels to be Archbishops which if done would not touch our Cause who meddle not with Archbishops but onely prove that the full Pastoral or Episcopal Office or power of the Keys as over the Flock should be found in every particular Church that hath unum Altaere To prove Metropolitans again he tells us how that in Provinces we find Churches mentioned in the Plural number and in Cities onely a Church singularly not perceiving how hereby he overthrows his Cause when he can never prove that in Scripture many particular Churches are called A Church Diocesane or Metropolitan as united in one Bishop as our Diooesane and Metropolitan Churches now are Nay indeed though the Society be specified by the Government yet the Name sticketh in their teeth here in England and they seldom use the Title of the Church of Canterbury and York for the whole Province and they use to say the Diocese of Lincoln London Winchester Worcester Coventry and Litchfield c. rather than the Church of Lincoln London Coventry and Litchfield c. lest the Hearers would so hardly he seduced from the proper sense of the word Church as not to understand them His Proofs of the Civil or Jewish distinction of Metropolitans § 4 5 c. let them mind that think it pertinent But § 9. we have a great word that It may be proved by many examples that after this Image the Apostles took care every where to dispose of the Churches and constituted a subordination and dependence of the lesser on the more eminent Cities in all their Plantations Answ This is to some purpose if it be made good The first Instance is Acts 14. 26. 16. 4. and 15. 2 3 22 23 30. Not a word else out of Scripture And what 's here Why Paul and Barnabas are sent to Jerusalem from Antioch to the Apostles and Elders about the Question and were brought on their way by the Church and passed thorow Phenice and Samaria Chosen men are sent to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas Judas and Silas with Letters from the Apostles Elders and Brethren even to the Brethren of the Gentiles in Antioch Syria and Cilicia And when they came to Antioch they delivered the Letters and Paul and Timothy as they went thorow the Cities delivered them the Decrees to keep that were ordained by the Apostles and Elders that were at Jerusalem Doth not the Reader wonder where is the Proof And wonder he may for me unless this be it The Apostles and Elders were at Jerusalem when they wrote this Letter and thence sent it to Antioch Syria and Cilicia Ergo They established the Bishop of Jerusalem to be the Governour and Metropolitan of Antioch Syria and Cilicia The Apostle Paul went from Antioch to other Cities and delivered them these Decrees Ergo Antioch is the governing Metropolis of those Cities I think the major Propositions are Every City from which Apostles send their Letters to other Cities and every City from which an Apostle carrieth such Letters or Decrees to other Cities is by those Apostles made the Governing Metropolis of those other Cities What dull Heads are the Puritans to question such a Proposition as this But it is not given to all Men to be wise And we ignorant Persons are left in doubt Q. 1. Whether the Universal Headship or Papacy of the Bishop of Jerusalem be not of Apostolical Institution and that more than by one Apostle even by all of them that were then at Jerusalem Q. 2. Whether the Apostles did not this as they did other parts of Church-settlement by the Spirit of God and so whether it be not jure Divino yea by a more eminent Authority than the Scriptures which were written by parts by several single Men some Apostles and some Evangelists when this is said to be done by all together Q. 3. Whether Christ's Life Death Resurrection Ascension and sending the Apostles thence into all the World and not into the Roman Empire onely do not incomparably more evidently make Jerusalem the Universal Metropolis of the Earth and so set it above Rome which is but the Metropolis of one Empire Q. 4. Whether then an Universal Head of the Church or Vicar of Christ be not jure Divino and so a Jerusalem Papacy be not essential to the true Church and Religion Q. 5. Whether then all the Emperours Bishops and Churches that did set up Rome Alexandria Antioch and Constantinople above Jerusalem were not Traytors against the Universal Sovereign of the Church and guilty of Usurpation and gross Schism Q. 6. To what parpose this Sovereignty was given to Jerusalem which was never possess'd and exercised Q. 7. Whether Peter's being at Rome could alter this Church-Constitution and one Apostle could undo what all together had done Q. 8. Whether the Apostles carried this Metropolitical Prerogative with them from place to place where-ever they came And whether it did belong to the Men or the Place And whether to the Place whence they first set out or to every place where they came or to the place where they dyed Judge what is the proof of any of these Q. 9. When they were scattered which of their Seats was the Metropolitan to the rest or were they all equal Q. 10. If the Power followed the Civil Power of the Metropolitane Rulers whether Caesar did not more in constituting the Church-Order and giving power comparatively to the Metropolitanes than Christ and his Apostles Q. 11. Whether it was not in Caesar's power to unmake all the Church Metropolitans and Bishops at his pleasure by dissolving the Priviledges and Charters of Cities Q. 12. If it please any King or be the Custom of any Kingdom as it is in many parts of America that the Kingdom have no Cities or Metropolis whether it must have any Churches Bishops or Metropolitane Q. 13. Whether when Paul wrote his Letters from Corinth to Rome he thereby made the Bishop of Corinth the Governour of the Bishop and Diocess of Rome And whether little Cenchrea was over them also because Phoebe carried the Letter And did his writing from Philippi to Corinth subject Corinth to the Bishop of Philippi And did his writing from Rome to Galatia Ephesus Philippi the Colossians and from Athens to the Thessalonians and from Laodicea and Rome to Timothy and from Nicopolis to Titus and John's writing from Patmos to the Asian Metropolitanes produce the same effect Q. 14. If Paul's carrying the Letters from Antioch to other Cities proved Antioch the Governour of the rest whether when he returned from the other to Antioch again he made not the other the Governours of Antioch I am ashamed to prosecute this Fiction any further His following Citations from the Fathers I think unworthy of an Answer till it be proved 1. That these Fathers took the Metropolitane Order as such to be of Apostolical Institution and not in complyance with the Roman Government by meer humane
maintaining that the word Presbyter in the places of the New Testament cited by him doth mean only a Bishop that is a Pastor of one only Congregation that had no Presbyter under him but Deacons and that no mention is made by the Apostles of other Presbyters § 6. And he gratifieth us with Epiphanius his Reasons § 4. because as yet there was not a multitude of Believers And that the Elders that Paul speaketh to Timothy of ordaining and rebuking and those that were worthy of double honour were only Bishops that had no subject Presbyters Whether they were set over the Churches as Moses was over Israel with a design that they should make subordinate Officers under them I shall enquire in due place Cap. 20. He goeth over most of the other Texts in the New Testament that mention Elders shewing that they mean such Bishops and that even at Hierusalem the Elders Acts 15. were not our new half Priests but the Bishops of all the Churches of Judaea and so of others here again repeated by him But it sticketh with me that these Bishops having no subject Presbyters are found so oft in the Metropolitane City and so oft in travel and so oft many hundred Miles from home that I doubt it was but a few Churches in the world that kept the Lords day and assembled for publick Worship or had any Sacraments frequently but lived as the Atheists and impious contemners of Church-Communion now do or else that with the Fanaticks we must hold that Lay-men or Deacons did play the Priests in all Church Offices Cap. 21. He vindicateth that one remaining Text Jam. 5. 14. which mentioneth Presbyters visiting the sick as meant only of Bishops and not of mungrel Priests And so being secured that these were never found in the Scripture times and consequently no Bishop except Archbishops that had more worshipping Churches than one we must look who presumed to institute another Office And here § 3. he perswadeth us to be so civil to Ignatius as thankfully to acknowledge him the first Patron of our Office-dignity intimating that there is no earlier proof of the invention of this mungrel Office than the Epistles of Ignatius Cap. 22. He tells us that the word Presbyter is also taken for Bishops by Polycarp Papias Irenaeus Tertullian and Clemens Alexand. so that our cause will be carried beyond Scripture times But again finding so many Bishops with Polycarp I doubt he maketh Bishops too unwearied Travellers and too great non-Residents and Gods Publick Worship too often interrupted by their absence Cap. 23 24 25 26. He speaketh of Deacons the word and Office which we have now no business with but to note that cap. 26. § 8. he is again at Epiphanius allowing a single Bishop without Presbyters but not without Deacons because he cannot be a Bishop without Deacons which I believe not nor do our Prelates but without subject Presbyters he may better than with them And § 10. he excellently argueth from the Epistle to Timothy that seeing Paul instructeth him in all things belonging to the Church of God 1 Tim. 3. 15. and yet never mentioneth these Medioxumos Presbyteros mungrel or middle Priests it is plain that the reason is because none such were instituted when the Apostle wrote To which I add nor afterward by the Apostles as far as can be proved and therefore never should have been Cap. 27. He speaketh of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tit. 1. and 2. and 1 Tim. 5. shewing that these Women were in Orders Of which I have no mind to contend so that by the Name it be not inferred that they are she-Bishops and that they argue not as a Preacher did since we were silenced I can name the Man and place from St. John's Epistle to the Elect Lady to prove that there were Lord-Bishops in the Apostles daies viz. an Elect Lady supposeth an Elect Lord But there are no Elect Lords but Elect Lord-Bishops Ergo We have not yet seen all Dr. Hammond's confutation of our Diocesan Prelacie In his fifth Dissertation we have more Cap. 1. He speaketh of Clemens Rom. and whereas we think that the confusion among Historians came partly from the little notice that came down from those times of such particulars and partly from the identity of the Office of Linus Cletus and Clemens being all Bishops at once of a great Church the Half-Presbyters being not yet ordained he gratifyeth us by proving that not only at Rome but also in Antioch Ephesus Corinth and Jerusalem there were more Churches than one with their several Bishops Even one of the Jews and one of the Gentiles how the local Diocese were then divided is hard to tell and where it was that one Apostle had Power of the Keys and where not I shall improve this Concession in due place Cap. 2. Of Clements Epistle he first takes notice of the Inscription to the Church of God dwelling or sojourning at Corinth The same Phrase as Philip. ◠1 2. And by this Church he proveth by confident affirming that all the Churches of Achaia are meant And that the same is to be said of Paul's Epistle to the Corinthians he unresistibly proveth by saying that Quisquis eas vel leviter degustaverit tuo scilicet gustu hoc omnino pronunciandum esse nobiscum statuet Nec igitur de hac Clementis ambigi poterit And so all that Controversie is ended But though without Scripture proof imagination might handsomely feign that the many Churches of Achaia are called singularly the Church of Corinth as one because of the Unity of the Metropolitane yet 1. I would have heard somewhat like reason for and some instances of the use of such a speech as this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Church of God dwelling or sojourning at Rome to the Church of God dwelling or sojourning at Corinth And why and where and by what good writers all Achaia is called Corinth or all Macedonia Philippi or all the Cities about it indeed as the County of Worcester the County of York of Warwick c. are usual Titles so may the Church of York Worcester Warwick be in the Diocesans sense But whoever said of all the County or Diocess To the County Diocess dwelling at York Worcester Warwick As if all the Countrey and Towns belonging to that Circuit were called Warwick c. 2. Doth not his own proof evidently confute him 2 Cor. 1. 1. To the Church of God which is at Corinth with all the Saints which are in all Achaia Are the last words Tautological doth with signifie no addition at all If by the Church which is at Corinth be meant all the Churches and Christians in Achaia what sense is there in the addition of with all the Saints which are in Achaia O what kind of proof will satisfie some Learned Men 3. Was it all the Churches of Achaia that the incestuous person 1 Cor. 5. dwelt with and that are chidden for suffering him
much to the same purpose p. 87. One City with the Territories adjoyning to it being ruled by one single Bishop was to be called a singular Church And therefore that which is said to be done in every Church Act. 14. 23. is said to be done in every City Tit. 1. 5. Tâ—e sum of which observation is only this that one City with the Territories adjoyning to it never makes above one Church in the Scripture Style And yet he largely proveth the contrary that there was one Church and Bishop of Jewish Christians and one of Gentiles whereas a Province or Countrey or Nations consists of many Cities and so of many Episcopal Sees or Churches The like he hath again p. 90 § 53. But whereas p. 88. â—e would Prove that a Province or Nation of many Churches may be called one Church because the Churches in all the World are so called in our Creed and in the Scripture I answer That he can never prove that many Churches are ever in Scripture called one save only the Universal Church which is but one being Headed by one Head even Christ The Universal Church as he said before of a Church compared to Persons is One Collective body as a Political Society related to Christ or constituted of Christ and all Christians And a particular Church is one as constituted of the Ministerial Pastors and People But find any Text of Scripture that calleth the Churches of a Nation or Province one Church in all the new Testament if you can In pag. 103. he giveth Reasons for his singularity in interpreting so many Texts of Scripture and sheweth that as the Fathers differ from each other as Tirinus sheweth so we may also differ from them and I know not of any Expositor that ever wrote that hath more need of this Apology than Grotius and he And I mislike not his Reasons But then how unsavoury is it for the same person to expect that we should in reverence to one expository word in Irenaeus and another in Epiphanius forsake the common sense of the Fathers where they do agree or that we must bow to every ancient Canon But I would not have him thought more singular than he is lest when I have answered him the Prelatists forsake him and say that they are still unanswered therefore I crave the Readers special observation of his words p. 104 105. I might truly say that for those minute considerations and conjectures wheren this Doctor diffâ—rs from some others who have written before him as to the manner of interpreting some few Texts he hath the Suffrages of many of the learnedst men of this Church at this day and as far as he knows OF ALL that embrace the same cause with him Of which I only say that if he do but minutely differ from others and not at all from the most I hope my confutation of him will not be impertinent as to the rest But if he lay the very stress of his cause upon novel Expositions of almost every Text which mentioneth Bishops Presbyters Pastors and quite cross the way of almost all save Petavius that ever went before him then think whether that cause stand on so firm ground as some perswade which needeth such new foundations or ways of support at this Age in the judgement of such learned men as these Pag. 119 120 121. He proveth that Diocesane Bishops are the only Elders of the Church which James adviseth the sick to send for supposing the City Churches even of Jerusalem to be yet no bigger than that one Bishop and a Deacon who yet was not this Visiter of the sick might do all the Ministerial work Where I confess he quite outgoeth me in extenuating the Churches in S. James's time If the Church of Jerusalem had seven Deacons I will not belive him pardon the incivility that they had but one Presbyter And pardon me a greater boldness in saying if he had tryed but as much as I have done what it is to do all the Pastoral work for one Parish of 2 or 3000 Persons in publick and private he could not possibly have been of this Opinion Nor do I think it likely that when it is a singular Person that James bids send for the Elders of the Church but that it implyeth that the Church where he was had more Elders than one I confess that if it had been spoken either to Persons plurally or of Churches plurally the phrase might well have signified the single Elders of the several Churches But to say to each sick man singularly Let him send for the Elders of the Church singularly in common use of speech signifieth that there were many Elders for that man to send for in the Church And whereas he asketh whether a sick man must send for the Colledge of Presbyters I answer that a sick man may well send for the Presbyters or Ministers either one after another as there is occasion or more than one at once if need require for his Resolution If we say to a sick man in London send for the Physicians of the City and let them advise you c. it signifieth that the City hath more Physicians than one and that he may advise with one or more at once oâ— per vices as he findeth Cause and no man would speak so to him if London had but one Physician and Norwich another and York another c. And when p. 121. he supposeth the Objection that they have a mean opinion of visiting the sick because they say it is not the Bishops work which he well maketh it to be methinks this should suit with no English Ears who will quickly understand that they speak de facto of our Bishops to whom a sick man may send an hundred or fifty or twenty Miles to desire him to come presently and pray with him if his disease be a Phrensie which depriveth him of his Wits and all about him be as mad And the Bishop with us may be said to visit the sick of his Diocess as a man may be said to weed a Field that plucketh up a weed or two where he goeth or to build a City because he knockt up a Naâ—l or two in his own House Pag. 120. It is observable which he saith Indeed if it were not the Bishops work to visit the sick how could it be â—y the Bishop when other parts of his Office became his full Employment commited to the Presbyter For 1. he could not commit that to others if he first had it not in himself And 2. This was the only Reason of ordaining inferior Officers in the Church that part of the Bishops taâ—k might be performed by them Ans Either he believed that the Office of a Subject Presbyter or Order as they call it was instituted by God and setled in the Church as necessary by his Spirit and Law or not If he do then Qu. 1. Whether the work of these Presbyters after the institution be not the work of their own
for Chronology and History A few leaves of whose over-large Collections Dr. Hammond hath Answered as you have heard and given his reason for going no further because Blond extendeth the Ministerial Parity but to 140. But to us it is not so inconsiderable to see by what degres the Prelacy rose and to see it proved so copiously that even in after Ages the species extent and of Churches and the Order or Species of Presbyters were not altered notwithstanding accidental alterations And therefore I shall undertake to bring proofenough of what I now plead for from times much lower than 140 such as I think the impartal will rest satisfied in though interest and preconceived Idea's are seldom satisfied or conqueredly a Confutation CHAP. VI. That it is not of Gods institution nor is pleasing to him that there be no Churches and Bishops but in Cities or that a City with its territories or Country adjacent be the bounds of each Church SOme late most esteemed defenders of Diocesanes especially Dr. Hammond lay so great a stress upon the supposition that the Apostles setled the Churches in the Metropolitane and Diocesane order and that they did partly in imitation of the Jewish policy and partly as a thing necessary by the nature of the thing that even in Heathen Kingdomes when Churches are gathered in any Cities they must have a difference of Church power over each other as they find the Cities to have a civil power as you heard before from Dr. H. that I think it meet here breifly to prove 1. That it was not of the Apostles purpose to have Churches and Bishops placed only in Cities and not in Villages 2. Nor that Church power should thus follow the civil 3. Nor that a City with its territories should be the measure of the habitation of each Churches members The licet in some cases I deny not but the oportet is the question yea and the licet in other cases The two first are proved together by these reasons following 1. Christ himself our grand examplar did not only preach and convert Christians in Cities but in Country villages where he held assemblies and preacht and prayed yea in mountains and in Ships And though he planted no particular Churches with fixed Bishops there yet that was because he did so no where He performed all offices in the Country which he did in the Cities except that which was appropriated to Jerusalem by the Law and the institution of his last supper which could be done but in one place 2. There is no Law of God direct or indirect which maketh it a duty to settle Churches and Bishops in Cities only and forbiddeth the setling them in Country villages This is most evident to him that will search the Scripture and but try the pretended proofs of the late Prelatists for the vanity of their pretensions will easily appear They have not so fair a pretense in the New Testament for asserting such a Law as the Pop hath for his supermacy in Peter feed my sheep And where there is no Law there is no obligation on us unto duty and no sin in omission If they say that the Apostles did plant Churches only in Cities comprehending their territories I answer 1. They prove that they planted them in Cities but the silence of the Scriptures proveth not the Negative that they planted none in Villages 2. Nor have they a word of proof that each Church contained all Christians in the Cities with all the interjacent Villages 3. Much less that they must contain all such when all the Countries were converted and the Christians were enow for many Churches 4. Nor can they ever prove that the Apostles planting Churches only in Cities was intended as a Law to restrain men from planting them any where else Any more than their not converting the Villages or the generality of the Cities will prove that they must not be converted by any other Or than that their setting up no Christian Magistrates or converting no Princes will prove that there must be no such thing Whoever extended the obligation of Apostolical example to such Negatives as to do nothing which they did not 5. The reason is most apparent why they preached first in Cities because there is no such fishing as in the Sea They had there the frequentest fullest audirories And so they planted their first Churches there because they had most converts there And it is known that Judea a barren mountainous Coutrey of it self had been so harressed with Wars that there was little safety and quiet expected in Countrey Villages and the Roman Empire had been free from the same plague by such short intervals that as many people as could got into the Cities for all that know by experience what War is do know the misery of poor Country people who are at every wicked Soldiers mercy It was therefore among poor scattered labourers a hard thing to get a considerable auditory which maketh Mr. Eliots and his helpers work go on so heavily among the scattered Americans who have no Cities or great Towns because they can rarely speak to any considerable numbers Now to gather from hence either that Villages must have no Churches or no Bishops is an impiety next to a concluding that they must not be assembled taught or worship God 3. The reasons are vain and null which are pretended for such a modelling of Churches to the form of the civil Government and thus confining them to Cities For 1. There is no need that one Bishop be the Governour of another at all 2. And therefore no need that the Bishop of a Metropolis govern the Bishop of a lesser City or he the Bishop of a Village 1. God hath not given one Bishop power over another as meer Bishops As Cyprian saith in his Carth. Council none of us are Bishops of Bishops but Colleagues Dr. Hammond himself saith that the Bishops are the Apostles Successors and the Apostles were equal in power and Independent Annot. in 1 Tim. 3. c. p 732. Jesus Christ dispensing them all the particular Churches of the whole world by himself and administring them severally not by any one Oeconomus but by the several Bishops as inferiour heads of unity to the severalbodies so constituted by the several Apostles in their plantations each of them having 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a several distinct commission from Christ immediately and subordinate to none but the supreme donor or plenipotentiary Indeed if it be not Bishops but Archbishops or Bishops of Bishops which are the Apostles Successors in order over the Bishops as they are supposed to be over the Priests then such an order of Arch-Bishops is of divine right But not as Metropolitanes or for the Cities sake but as general Officers to take care of many Churches succeeding the Apostles 2. And that Apostolical succession is not the foundation of the Metropolitan or City power is plain 1. Because if the Bishop or Arch-Bishop be the immediate successors of
may end a Church by Wood and stone though the Country still have never so many Christians and when the City is gone the Church is gone 10. Yea it will be in the power of every king even of Heathens whether Christ shall have any Church or Bishop in his kingdoms or not Because he can un-city or dispriviledge all the Cities in his kingdom at his pleasure and consequently unchurch all the Churches 11. And by their way Christ hath setled as various Church forms as there be forms of Government in the world For all Dominions are not divided into Provinces under Prisidents c as the Roman Empire was In many Countries the Metropolis hath no superiority over the other City or the Country and so that will be of divine institution in one Country which will be a sin in others 12. Yea by this Rule many vast Countries must have no Bishops or Churches at all because they have no Cities as is known among the Americans and others must have but one Church and Bishop in a whole Country of many hundred Miles 13. And by their Rule all the Bishops of England are unbishoped and their Diocesan Churches are unchurched For 1. Some of them in Wales and Man have no Cities now called such 2. Others of them have many Cities not only Coventry and Lichfield Bath and Wells now called Cities but abundance of Corporations really Cities 3. And the Cities in England Scotland and Ireland have no Civil Government over all the Countries Corporations Villages of the Diocefe at all nor are they Seats of Presidents or Lieutenants that have such Rule so that our Dioceses are not modelled to the form of the Civil Government What subjection doth Hartfordshire Bedfordshire Buckinghamshire c. owe to the Town of Lincolne 14. By their model it is not Bishops and Metropolitans alone that are of divine right For if the Church Government must be modelled to the Civill the Imperial Churches must have had Officers to answer all the Proconsuls and Presects the Lieutenants the Vicars the Consular Presidents the Corrâ—ctors c. For who can prove that one sort or two oaly must by imitated and not others 15. They must by their rule set up in England an inconsistent or self destroying form For in many if not most Counties our Lord Lieutenants Deputy Lieutenants and Sherifs and most Justices dwell in Countrey mannors and Villages and not in Cities And so either Cities must not be the Seats of Bishops and Churches or else the Seat of Civil Government must not be the Seat of the Ecclesiastical If they say that Assizes and Sessions are kept in the County Towns I answer 1. So Church assemblies called Synods or Councils may be held in them and yet not be the Bishops Seat For they are not the Judges or Justices Seat because of Assizes and quarterly Sessions 2. The observation is not universally true Yea no Assizes or Sessions at all are therefore held in any Town because it is the County Town but because it is the convenientest place for meeting The choice of which is left to the Judges and Justices who sometimes choose the County-Town and sometimes another as they please As Bridgnorth in Shropshire Aleshury not Buckingham ordinarily in Buckinghamshire and so of others 3. And thâ—se County Towns are few of them either Cities or Bishops Seats As Buckingham Hartford Bedford Cambridge Huntington Warwick Darby Nottingham Sherwsbury Ipswich Colchester Lancaster Flint Denbigh Montgomery Merioneth Radnor Cardigan Carnarvon Pembrook Carmarthen Breeknock and divers others 16. This model of theirs is in most parts of the world or many quite contrary to the Interest of the Church and therefore forbidden by God in Nature and Scripture by that rule Let the end be preferred and the means which best serve it Let all things be done to edification For in most of the world the Rulers are enemies to Christianity and disposed to persecute the Pastors of the Church therefore they will least endure Ecclesiastical Courts and Bishops in their Imperial Cities and under their noses as we say Obj. The Romans did endure it Ans For all the ten persecutions the Romans gave ordinarily more liberty of Religion than most of the world doth at this day Bishops and Pastors are glad to keep out of the way of Infidel and Heathen Rulers And I think verily our most Zealous English Prelates would be loath if they had their language to go set up a Church and Bishops seat at Madrid Vienna Jngolsted yea at Florence Milan Ravenna Venice Lisbone Warsaw c. And if they must needs be in those Countries they would rather chose a more private and less offensive seat 17. I think that few Churches or Bishops in the world except the Italian if they are of the opinion now opposed by me The Greek Church is not For though for honor sake they retain the name of the ancient Seats yet they ordinarily dwell in Countrey Villages And so doth the Patriarck of Antioch himself often or at least Antioch is now no City of which he hath the name And Socrates and after him other Historians tell us that of old this practise varied as a thing indifferent in several Countries according to their several customes which had no Law of God for them and therefore were not accounted necessary 18. Our English Bishops have been for the most part of another mind till Dr. Hammond and others turned this way of late Not only Jeâ—el Bilson and many others have asserted that Patriarks Metropolitans and Primates and such like are of human right and mutable but few if any were found heretofore to contradict them And at this day many Bishops ordinarily dwell in their Country houses As the Bishop of Lincolne did at Bugden the Bishop of Coventree and Lichfield formerly at Eccleshall Castle the Bishop of Chester now at Wigan and so of others And I think that is the Bishops Seat where usually his dwelling is and not where a Lay-Chancellor keepes a Court or where a Dean and Chapter dwell who are no Bishops 19. There have as Dr. Hammond hath well proved been of old several Churches in one City one of Jews and one of Gentiles with their several Bishops and Clergy Therefore one City with its territories is not jure Divino the measure or boundaries of one only Church 20. If the Church Government must be modelled to the Civil then in every Monarchie or Empire there must be one Universal Pastor to rule all the rest as there is one King And in every Aristocracy there must be a Synod of Prelates in Church Supremacy and in every Democracy who or what But then the Papacy will be proved not only lawful but of Divine institution as the Head or Church Soveraign of the Roman Empire though not of all the world at Rome first and at Constantinople after And indeed I know no word of reason that can be given to draw an impartial man of Judgment to doubt
be a worthy Pastor 2. And to get the best they can For cohabitation or proximity or vicinity is necessary to Church ends both to publick and private communion and mutual help But the Minister that converth them may dwell far off that Therefore indeed the Reasons why all in a City and vicinity were wont to be of the same Church if there were room was not because that Minister converted them but because they were fit for such Communion by cohabitation 9. And were it otherwise the Bishop and his Presbyters preaching to the same people the Presbyter might convert more and become joint Bishop 10. And certainly it would unbishop all the English Bishops almost that I am acquainted with who nether converted their Dioceses from Infidelity nor baptized them nor convert many that ever we hearof from a wicked life to serious holiness which the Presbyters have done by very many and so must there be made the Bishops if they would CHAP. X. That a particular Church of the first or lowest order must consist of Neighbour Christians associated for Personal Communion in local presence in holy worship and conversation and not of strangres so remote as have only an Internal Heart-Communion or an External Communion by the mediation of others LEt it be here noted that none dally with the Name Church as an equivocal that 1. I speak of no meer Community of Christians nor of any accidentall assembly which have no Pastors or no intent of sacred ends Call them what you will But of a proper Christian society constituted of the Pars gubernans and the Pars gubernata the Pastor and Flock 2. That I speak not of a Family Church which consisteth of the Master and the Family 3. Nor yet of the Universal Political Church as visible or as mysticall which consisteth of Christ the head and all visible or sincere believers 4. Nor of any Christian Churches confined by Agreement for Concord of Churches being many 5. Nor of any such Churches accidentaly united in one kingdom under one king or Civil Governor whether Christian or Infidel 6. Nor of many Churches headed by humane appointment with one Metropolitane Primate or Patriack being a Pastor thus exalted by men above the rest 7. Nor yet of many Churches under one Arch-Bishop or general Apostolical Visitor or Pastor claiming this general oversight by Divine right whether rightly or wrongfully I now take no notice 8. But the Church which I treat of is only the political society of Christians of the first ranck and so of a Bishop of the lowest ranck or a meer Bishop that is no Arch-Bishop Not of an Oratory or Chappel of ease where part of a true Church often meet but of a true entire Church of the first magnitude or rank And I take it for granted 1. That such Churches there should be 2. and that every true Church should have its Bishop as Doctor Hummond and many others grant taking the Church in this political notion or if that be not granted I will proove it further anon And that these lowest true political or Organized Churches must be Neighbours united for Personal Communion as aforesaid I prove 1. First from all the Scripture instances The Churches at Jerusalem Antioch Ephesus Corinth c. were all such as is fuller to be opened in the 2d Part. 2. From the instances of all the Churches of the first and second age of which also more is after to be said 3. From the dutyes of Church members which are as followeth 1. To assemble together for Gods publick service Act. 4. Heb. 10. 25. 1. Cor. 14. c. And how can they do this that are utterly out of reach and never know or see each other 2. To have the same Pastors that are among them and over them and preach to them the word of God and go before them by the example of an holy life 1 Thes 5. 12 13. Heb. 13. 7 17 24. 1 Tim. 3. 6 7 c. And how can they hear the Pastors that never Preach to them or be Guided by those that never see them or follow their example whom they never knew or come for counsel to them that are out of their reach and knowledg 3. To send to their Pastors when they are sick to pray with them and advise them which they cannot do to them that are out of their reach Jam. 5. 4. To provoke one another to Love and to good works and to consider one another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to that end A word that signifieth knowledge and more even Observation of that which we see or know In which and v. 25. saith Dr. Hammond Let us weigh and consider all advantages we can have upon one another to provoke and excite one another to Charity and all actions of piety such as are joyning in the publick service And not suffer our selves to proceed so far towards defections as to give over the publick assemblies the forsaking of which is not is not only deserting the publick profession of Chriâ—t but also of the meanes of growth in grace but stir up one another to the performance of this All which suppose propinquity and and consist not with the distance of uncapable strangers Heb. 3. 13. To exhort one another daily while it is called to day lest any be hardened by the deceâ—tfulness of sin Which we cannot do by men of another Countrey with whom we have no converse All is plainly expressed 1 Thes 5. 11. 12 13. Wherefore comfort your selves together and edifie one another even as also ye do And we beseech you brethren to know them which labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish â—ou and to esteem them very highly in love for their work sake and to be at peace among your selves But how can they comfort themselves together that never came together or see each other There can no peace but Negative be among them that are not among each other and have no converse They cannot edifie utter strangers How can I know the Bishop of the Diocese who never saw him nor ever had opportunity to see him tho I live about an hundred miles neerer him being at London than some parts of his Diocese are I know those that Labour among us in this Parish but the Bishop never laboured among us nor was here that ever I heard of nor do I know one in the Parish that useth not to Travaile that ever saw him and few that by heaâ—say know his name Rom. 15. 7. 14. Receive ye one another as Christ also received us to the Glory of God 6. That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorifie God of which saith Dr Hammond That ye may joyn unanimously Jews and Gentiles into one and assembling together worship and serve the Lord wherefore in all humility of condescension and kindness embrace and succour one another help them up when they are fallen instead of despising and driving them from your communion v. 14.
in the Government of one Presbytery And our ordinary Parishes have Chappels in them and yet are one Church Ans 1. We must be excused from submitting now to the opinions of Presbyterians or any other party while we are giving an account of our own judgment in the case 2. The Presbyterians are not all of a mind in that point whether each of those Parishes be not a true political Church and have not its own plenary Pastor or Bishop and such a Government as belongeth to a particular Church though as they all think subordinate to a Presbytery of many Churches conjunct or as some call it of one Church denominated so from the higher Government 3. And as to our Chappels ordinarily they are but places for the Assembling of such as by age or foul weather or weakness cannot travaile to the Parish Churches and they are for distance and number in those Parishes that have them no more or other than may consist not only with the personal acquaintance of the members of the Parish Church but also with the frequent Communion of them all by turnes in the same Parish Church if they please to travaile to it as they may So that these Chappels of case as they are commonly called are not inconsistent with all the fore-described ends and dutyes of Church-members And even the Independants do confess that age distance persecution c. may allow one of their Churches to meet at once in several houses or places where several Pastors may pro tempore officiate and yet this consisteth with all the forementioned ends of the relation 4. And indeed disorders and confusions in Churches must not be our measure to judge of their Nature and constitution by though one in a Swoone may be hardly discerned from a dead man yet life is nevertheless essential to a man The Principalities in Germany may be so curtaled and intangled that it shall be hard for Lawyers to judge whether the Princes be proper Soverains and Monarchs or not And yet what doth constitute Monarchy and Soveraignity is known A Ship may be made so little and a Barge so big as that it may be hard to distinguish them by name and yet a Ship and Barge are divers If in one great house there be several men with their Wives Children and Servants in several rooms or parts and â—ne have some superiority over the rest they being free journy-men or labourers under him the degree of the Power of the chief Master here may be in several cases so various as that it shall be hard for any man to say whether this be one Family only or many But must we therefore remove all distinction of Families or forsake the old and usual definition The same I say of Primary perticular Churches Stepney Parish or Giles Criplegate or Martins in the fields may be so great as to make a doubt of it whether they are single Churches and so may some Lancashire Parishes that have very distant and large Chapelries But shall the disease or extraordinary case or dicffiulty of such a Parish make us change the old and true definition of a Church And thus some Presbyterians have argued from the Multitude of Converts at Jerusalem and Ephesus that they could not be one particular Church so as to meet all in one place which is the common and strongest objection against us But 1. undoubtedly there were many strangers there that were ready to pass away to other places 2. And the Spirit knew that the Church was quickly by persecution to be scattered 3. And on a suddain there was not time to settle them in exact order as afterward they did in all the Churches Acts. 14. 23. But many Apostles being there they might transiently have divers meetings at once 4. And the number and distance of them all was no greater then might consist with the forementioned Church Ends and definition They that meet one day with one Apostle might meet the next day with another and might have Personal Communion and Conversation And 5. The text saith that they did meet all in one place and as Doctor Hammond aforecited saith they deny the plain text that do deny it they were not distributed into divers assembles and the All that meet together must mean the greater part of the Church members at once And I my self have Preached to a Congregation supposed by understanding persons in it to be six thousand and all to have heard and as many more might have heard the next day and so twenty thousand might make a Church when vicinity maketh them otherwise capable and in Judaea we find that men speaking to Armies yea the Enemies Armies shew that far more could hear at once then can do with us whether voices or aire did make the difference I Know not and if the fore-named Parishes that have but one ordinary meeting place have 30000 or 40000 or 50000 souls in them we may conjecture at the case of Jerusalem hereby For though among those new Converts there were not so many neglecters of the Assemblies yet the passing strangers might be many To make the case plain I would but desire the dissenters to consider 4. Whether that Gods publick worship be not a duty Even the Communion of Christians in Doctrine Prayer and Sacrament 2. Whether there must not be some present Pastors to officiate before the Church in all these 3. Whether this Congregation must not be Christians and persons qualified for Communion and whether the Churches have not alwaies by the holy Spirits appointment differenced between Christians and Infidels and between Heretical or flagitious persons and the orderly and obedient and admitted the first sort only to Communion 4. Whether he that is present and delivereth the Sacrament should not know what he doth and to whom he giveth it and should not in the administring make a difference and keep away the Infidels Heriticks and openly flagitious and should not know the people whom he overseeth 5. And whether he can do all or any of this to a transient multitude that as the waters of a river are passing away when he still seeth strange faces only and those are his Auditors and Commuicants whom he never saw before or knoweth how can he know whether they are Baptized Christians or unbaptized Jews or other Infidels 6. Therefore is not an ordinary Cohabitation or vicinity of necessity to a fixed Church and Pastor that he may know them and they may know each other These things I suppose are past dispute 7. And then I ask whether such a society as this be not a true Church and such as is described in scripture and such as should ordinarily be continued in the world whether it be part of a more compounded general Church and under the general oversight of Apostolical Bishops is none of my question now but whether this be not an ordinary political Church of the first order 8. And if so whether every such Church by Acts. 14. 23 should
livers But men that more fear to sin against God who can cast both soul and body into Hell than to lie in prison perhaps it is such Ministers as now are silenced for not saying subscribing or swearing as they are bid or it is some Church-Wardens who fear that they should be guilty of Persecution or Perjury which in their opinion are neither of them things indifferent if they should take the Oaths with the Articles that sometimes are offered them Or perhaps it is some one for not receiving the Sacrament either when a troubled Conscience maketh them fear lest they should eat and drink damnation to themselves or from a Minister or with a Church which they think the Scripture commandeth them to avoid whether such be in the right or in the wrong no wonder if they refuse to repent though they suffer when they fear a greater suffering from God Obj But the Minister of the place though he excommunicates none may seek to bring the sinner to repentance and may satisfie the Church of the justness of the excommunication Ans 1. In the nature of the thing they go together and are the work of the same persons And therefore Tertullian assureth us that in his time Discipline was exercised in the Church-meeting when they had been worshipping God 2. Who is either so fit or so obliged to satisfie the Church of the Act as he that doth it and hath examined all the Cause A parish Minister cannot bring any unwilling person to come over to speak with him not that we would have him have a forcing power but he cannot do his own Ministerial part which is to refuse to be the Pastor of such a man as refuseth to speak with him at all or to take him for his Pastor nor to forbear himself to give him the Sacrament so that he that neither heard the examination of the Cause by the Chancellor nor perhaps can have any speech with the person or at least with the Accuser or any of the Witnesses is very unfit to justifie another mans act and to satisfie the Church that it is well done much less to exhort the offender to repent who to him perhaps if he vouchsafe to speak to him will justifie his own cause when he cannot call witnesses to convince him And to speak to that which is our common case we have few persons excommunicated that ever I saw or knew of in forty years time save only the Conscientious persons beforementioned And when the parish Minister oft taketh them for the godliest persons in his Parish and the Bishop or Chancellor excommunicates them as Impenitent schismaticks how shall such a parish Minister justifie that and satisfie the person or people of the justice of it which he himself lamenteth as a hainous sin which tendeth to the dissipation of his flock But I come nearer to enquire into this officiating per alium by which an absent Bishop is supposed to do his office in the several Parishes of his Diocese 1. That alius or Official is either a Layman or a Clergyman 2. If a Clergyman he is either one of the same Order with the Bishop or another 3. Either it is the meer accidentals of his sacred function which he committeth to another or the proper Acts of it 4. Either it is pro hac vice in some case of necessity or it is as by an ordinary stated Official 1. If it be a Layman and the work be but Accidental or Extrinsick to the sacred function I grant that he may do it But for such works we need no Bishop For what a Layman may do when he bids him he may do when the King or his Magistrates bids him This is not the thing in question But if it be a proper Pastoral Act this Layman that doth it either receiveth from the Bishop power and obligation to do it or not If not he cannot do it as his Official If he do then he is a Pastor or Bishop himself and is Ordained and so no Layman For I provoke any dissenter living to tell me wherein the sacred office or any other lieth but in a Power or Authority and an Obligation to do the proper works of that office so that undeniably here is a contradiction And if any were of opinion that pro tempore in a case of necessity a Layman might do any Ministerial sacred act as Preach Baptize Consecrate the Sacrament of Christs body and blood excommunicate absolve c. 1. I answer if that were true if would but prove that those Acts are not proper to the sacred function in such a case of necessity as single Acts but only as ordinarily and statedly done by one separated to them 2. And therefore this would not at all concern our case which is not about extroardinary Acts in cases of necessity but about an ordinary stated course by Courts Chancellors and Officials 2. But if the Agent or Official were not a Lay Chancellor but a Clergyman if he be of the same Order with the Bishop than I grant all for it granteth me all even that every Church should have an ordinarily present Bishop But if he be supposed to be but of an inferior Order then I proceed as before either the Bishop giveth him power and obligation to do the proper work of the Bishop or not If not he is not hereby enabled to do it If yea then he hath thereby made him a Bishop For to be a Bishop is nothing else than to have Authority and Obligation to do the proper work of a Bishop But if it be but an Accidental or a common work which another may do it is not that in question nor do we need the Office of a Bishop for it Moreover either the Bishop pro hic nunc was himself obliged to do that Act which he committeth to another or not he but the other was by office obliged to do it If he himself was obliged to do it he sinned in not doing it If he were not it was not truly his act or part of his office work nor did he do it by another but that other did only his own work for which not the Bishop but he shall have the reward Obj. But doth not he that sendeth his servant to pay a debt himself in Law-sense pay it per alium what another doth as his Instrument reputatively he doth himself Ans I grant it because it is none of the debtors proper work nor is he at all obliged to it to bring the money and deliver it himself but to cause it to be delivered Therefore in sending it he doth all that he is obliged to do and when another is his instrument it is supposed that he is not obliged himself to do that which his instrument doth but only to cause the doing of it by himself or an Instrument as he please so that stil this is nothing to the case of a work that is proper to the Bishops Office Obj. But we therefore
then his Office is more sacred If the Bishops or both alike then that Bishops work may no more be done per alium then the Presbyters Moreover I know no Bishops but would willingly be more Respected and Honoured than the Presbyters and if they desire it should be only by way of fear they neither think or wish like Ministers of Christ nor like sober men But if by way of love who knoweth not what advantage the present Pastor hath above the absent caeteris paribus to get the peoples love and Paul would have it to be so 1 Thes 5. 12 13. It is those that Labour among them and admonish them whom they must esteem highly in Love not for their titles and dignities but for their work sake And who knoweth not that he that Loveth a man for Preaching the word of salvation to him is likelier to come to him whose doctrine daily edifieth him and comforteth him than to him whom one of a hundred of his Diocese never heard a Sermon or a good word from in all their lives If it be for the work sake that they must or will be Loved is not he liker to be most Loved who is still with them and prayeth and praiseth God with them and comforteth and confirmeth them and resolveth their doubts and quieteth their troubled Consciences and visiteth them in sickness and taketh care of the poor and visiteth them from house to house than he that once or never came among them and is unknnown And if the people be Rebellious and wicked it is the present Pastor who shall be most hated and opposed which if it be for Christ is a good and comfortable thing and hath a special promise Mat. 5 10. 11 12. And that Pastor who is most beloved of the good people and most hated by the bad is he that will do most good for mens salvation and will have most comfort in his Soul and at last the greatest reward from God and that is caeteris paribus the present Pastor And it were worth the noting if blind men would see that this is our great reason of the common calamities of the Churches that when the best of the people love their present faithfull Pastors and the worst hate them most and love best the Absent Bishops that trouble them as they do the dead Saints for whom they keep holy â—â—ajes these wicked people fly to the Bishop and seek to make the present Pastors suspected or odious to him as Schismaticks or such as are against the Bishops mind and honour and because these Villains Love the absent Bishop better then the present Pastors therefore the Bishop that knoweth them not but by hearsay taketh such for the honestest men in the Parish and so taketh their words against the Ministers and to the utmost of my experience I speak it ordinarily that Minister shall pass with the Bishop for a Schismatick a Puritan a seditious Fellow or a stark knave let him be more Learned than Hierom more industrious than Augustin more holy than Macarius or at least as suspected of these crimes whom the flattering malignant will so represent to him especially if he be a sensual Gentleman that cannot endure to have his lusts and licentiousnes reproved or controlled by a Minister of Christ And when these lies and slanders have encouraged the ungodly accusers by their successe while they engage the Bishop against the present Pastors and cause him to turn their troubler hinderer or persecutor then is the Prelate and the Pastor become as enemies whose interests are grown inconsistent and then they come to have their several Parties and the debauched take one side and the sober and religious the other and what followeth upon this he is mad in this age who is ignorant after so great experience But I shall add more of this subject in the Chapter following CHAP. XII The just opening and understanding of the true nature of the Pastoral office and Church Government would end these controversies about Episcopacy THe name of Church Government so far deceiveth undistinguishing gross crinconsiderate wits as that they take the controversie to be but whether we shall have order or anarchie Church Government or none As if neither the Magistrates Government of the Sword were any thing nor yet the Pastors Government by the word But I would fain know of these men what more it is that they would have and what is the Church Government which they so much contend for 1. Is it an Universal Legislation It is high and damnable Treason against Christ for any mortal men to claime it Universal Legislation is the prerogative of the Universal King There is no Universal King but Christ who else is Governour of all the world or all the Churches in the world And Christ hath in nature and Scripture given the world already an Universal Law If he hath done it well take not on you to amend it If you say he hath done it ill either take not on you to be Christians or else call your self the Christ that is Anti-Christ if you will take Christs place and take upon you to amend his work If you dream of an Universal Pope or General Council as having this power you will but make true Anti-Christs of them and foolishly confound a humane constitution with a Divine and the Roman Empire with all the world For you are ignorant in Church History if you see not plainly that Popes Patriarks and Primates stand all on the same foundation And that both they and Councils falsly called General were but Imperial or confined to one Princes Dominion called or ruled usually by the Emperours who had no power in other Princes Territories No Councils conteining any considerable members but such as were in that one Empire or formerly had been of it and so kept the custome which then they had received except that the Romans placed one Bishop on the borders of Scythia or Tartary and one on the borders of Persia in hope that he might have influence further into the Countries and rarely one or two such might be at a Council called General so that certainly there is no Universal Law-giver or Judge but Christ This therefore is not the Church Government of Bishops which men contend for 2. What is it then is it an Universal Exposition of the Scripture or of Christs Laws why an exposition truly Universal is for Regulation as the Law it self And none ever had such power even in civil Government but the Law-givers themselves Else the Expositor of the Lawes should be King and not the maker seeing it is his sence that the subject must be ruled by But if it be a particular decisive exposition which you meane such as a Judge in deciding particular controversies I shall say more to that anon 3. If it be any Coactive or Coercive power of Church Government that you meant by mulcts or Corporal penalties no Bishops as such have any thing to do with it not only
2. The 2d Reason that ordination is an Act of Superiority 1. Is granted because the person to be ordained is yet no Minister of Christ and therefore is Inferior to the Presbyters that ordain him till he have received his office 2. But that afterward the ordainer must be of an higher order as well as greater antiquity in office than him that is ordained by him I deny For than Bishops could not ordain Bishops nor Arch-Bishops ordain Arch-Bishops and who shall ordain the Patriarcks or if you be for him the Pope Have they all superiours to do it 3. The third Reason from History I shall confute in due place only here retorting it thus In Scripture times no fixed Diocesan ever did ordain therefore none such should now ordain 2. But next let us distinguish 1. Between ordaining to the Ministry in the Universal Church without affixing to a particular Charge and the fixing of a Pastor in that particular Church And 2. Between ordaining a Bishop or Plenary Pastor and a half Pastor called now a Presbyter 1. As Baptism as such doth joyn a man to no particular Church but only to the Universal but yet they that have opportunity should secondarily by a faither act of consent also joyn themselves to the particular Church where they live but if they live where they have no such opportunity they must do it after as soon as such opportunity cometh Even so ordination to the sacred Ministry as such doth fix a man to no particular Church but make him a Minister of Christ to the world for mens convertion and to the Universal Church for Christians edification as he shall have any particular opportunity for exercise which the Church of England expresseth by the words when thou shalt be thereunto Lawfully called meaning a call ad exercitium to the exercise of the office received But yet where there are not many unchurched Infidels to be converted but all profess Christianity it is not fit such shall be ordained sine titulo as they speak lest it occasion irregularity and poverty in the Clergy but be at once affixed to a particular Church which fixed Ministers are in Scripture usually called Bishops Presbyters and Pastors with relation to their particular flock or Church besides their primary relation to the World and to the universal Church from which the extraordinary Officers were called Apostles and Evangelists and the ordinary ones Ministers of Christ in general Though I deny not but even the unfixed may be called Bishops Elders and Pastors as being virtually such and in an Office which wanteth nothing but a particular Call to that fixation and exercise Now 1. To call a Minister already made such to a particular Church and so to make a Bishop or Pastor or Presbyter of him doth not necesarily require a Diocesan For 1. The people that are at liberty may do it and ordinarily have done as Blondel hath fully proved And in our times if a free people only choose a man already ordained and take him for their Pastor no man taketh this for a nullity no not the Prelatists themselves 2. And a Pastor Magistrate or Prince may do it without a Bishop as none deny 3. And a Minister may frequently on just occasion be removed from place to place and needeth not a Bishop for every change at least as to the being of his office 2. And as to the first ordination of a Minister as such if there must be a Diocesan to do it this is gathered either from the nature of the thing or from divine institution 1. As to the nature of the thing it sheweth no such necessity but rather contradicteth it for 1. As to Efficiency if a Bishop or Arch-Bishop or Primate or Patriark may be made without the agency of any one of a higher order then so may a Presbyter For the reason is the same 2. And as to the object 1. The first object of the sacred Ministry as such is the Infidel world to whom they are to Preach the Gospel and offer Christ and Salvation and beseech them in Christs stead to be reconciled to God to call them from darkness to light and the power of Satan unto God And to think that none but Apostles should do this and that all the world must be left to the Devil when the Apostles were dead is an unchristian thought To those that must do this Christ promised his presence to the end of the world Now. 1. The Infidel world is no more under the power of a Diocesan than of a Presbyter If it be it is either 1. As he is a Prelate 2. Or as a Diocesan 1. Not as a Prelate in general For if the world be the object of the Ministers office it can be no more of the Prelates as such 2. Not as a Diocesan For the Infidel world Egypt Tartary Japan China Persia c. is no part of any Bishops Diocese 2. And as to the work of a Preacher to the Infidels it is the very fame whether it be done by a Bishop or a Presbyter There is nothing to do for them but preach and baptize and neither of those is a work proper to a Bishop If it be said that it is not because of the object or the work are proper to a Bishop but because the sending forth a man for that work is proper to him I answer that when I have proved past contradiction that he fendeth a man to do as high a work as he could there do himself and to the very same it sheweth that ex natura rei there needeth no higher order than the Ministers to send him No more than there needeth a higher progenitor than a man to beget a man 2. And as his office is related to the Church-Universal all the same argumentation will hold good For the Church-Universal is the object of the Ministers office as well as of the Prelates and no more than his own Diocese is the special charge of a Diocesan as such and the work to which the Minister is ordained in general to the whole Church can no otherwise be proved less than the Prelates unless by proving a Divine institution which they will grant 2. And as for a Divine institution as to the ordaining power I will say but this much which may take with cordate men till I come to speak more largely of the point 1. That Doctor Hammond and as far as he knew all that owned the same cause with him doth grant that the Apostles nor any other in Scripture times did not so much as institute the office of a Presbyter as distinct from a Bishop much less ever ordain any one to such an office And that in all their Instructions to Timothy and Titus about ordination of Bishops or elders and Deacons they have not a syllable about any ordination or qualification of such subject Presbyters but only about ordaining Bishops Therefore if Bishops be the successors of the Apostles in ordination they cannot do
called Of which sort were abundance of Christians towards each others Bishops in former ages and such are the Papists now towards you So that neither Papist nor Protestant that I ever knew silenced by you doth forbear upon Conscience of this your pretended authority at all And what a silencing power is that which scarce any man would be ever silenced by You cannot choose but know this to be true 2. And really should Magistrates themselves be so servile to you as to silence all Ministers by the Sword whom a Prelate judgeth to be silent while he knoweth not whether it be deservedly or not God forbid that Protestants like the Popes sheald make Kings to be their Executioners or hangmen A meer Executioner indeed is not bound to know or examine whether the sentence was just or not though in most cases to forbear if it be notoriously unjust but what a King or Magistrate doth he must do as a publick Judge and therefore must hear the cause himself and try whether he be really guilty or not and not only whether a Bishop judged him so Else Magistrates will either be involved in the bloody sin of persecution as oÌ„ft as a Prelate will but command them and so must be damned and help to damn others when Prelates please Or else it is no sin for a Magistrate to silence all the holyest Ministers of Christ to the damnation of thousands of ignorant untaught Souls so be it the Prelates do but bid him and he keep himself unacquainted with the cause And next they must obey the Counsel at Laterane sub Inoc. 3. And exterminate all subjects out of their Dominions though it be all that are there and must burn Holy-Christians to ashes because the Pope or Prelates bid them 3. I need not make also a particular application of this case to the people When they know nothing but wise and sound and holy in the Doctrine or life of their Pastors and God bids them know such as labour among them and are over them in the Lord and highly esteem them in Love for their work sake they will hardly be so debauched as to violate this command of God as oft as a Diocesan will but say I know some Heresie or Crime by your Teacher which you do not and therefore he must Preach no more and you must no more use his ministry Were I one of these people I would be bold to ask the Diocesan Sir what is the Heresie or Crime that he is guilty of If he refuse to tell me I would slight him as a Tyrant General Counsels told the people of the Heresies for which they did despose their Pastors If he told me what it was I would try it by Gods word If I were unable I would seek help If the Diocesan silenced my Teacher and ten neighbour Bishops wiser than he did tell me that it was for Truth and Duty and that the Heresie was the Bishops I would hear my Teacher and believe the other Bishops before him without taking them to be of a higher order The objections against this and what is before said shall be answered in the next Chapter You see when it is but opened how the Diocesans power vanisheth into the air CHAP. XIII That there is no need of such as our Diocesans for the Unity or the Government of the particular Ministers nor for the silencing of the unworthy IT stuck much in the minds of the Ancient Doctors and Christians that Episcopacy was necessary to avoid Schism and discord among the Ministers and the people and that it was introduced for that reason And I am so averse to singularity in Religion that I will not be he that shall gainsay it A double yea a treble Episcopacy though I cannot prove instituted of Christ yet will I not contradict because one sort I cannot disprove and the other two I take to be but a prudential humane determination of the Circomstances of one and the same sacred Ministerial office-worke 1. That which I cannot disprove as to a Divine Institution is a General Ministry over many Churches like the Scors Visiters at their Reformation who as Successors to the Apostles and Evangelists in the durable parts of their office were by a conjunction of Scripture evidence and Divine authority of office to perswade Pasâ—ors and people to their several duties and to have a chief hand in ordaining and removing Ministers 2. That which I will not contradict antiquity in is a Bishop in every particular Church to be as the chief Presbyter like the chief Justice on the bench or one of the Quorum as our Parish Ministers now are in respect to all their Curates of the Chappels under them 3. And I would not deny but at all Ministerial Synods one man may be Moderator either pro tempore or for continuance as there is cause These two last are but Prudential circumstances as Doctor Stiling fleet hath proved And in all these I like the Discipline of the Waldenses Bâ—â—emian and Polonian Churches But no Government of the Presbyters no concord no keeping out of Heresie requireth such as our Diocesans 1. Who put down all the Bishops of the particular Churches under them 2. And pretending Spiritual Power Govern by the force of the Magistrates Sword 3. And obtrude themselves on the people and Pastors without their consent and against their wills being by multitudes taken for the enemies of the Church 4. And visibly before the world introducing so many bad Ministers and silencing so many faithful ones as in this age they have done Without them we have all these means of concord following 1. We have a clear description of the duty of Ministers and people in Gods word 2. We have Ministers to Preach up all these duties by Office 3. The people are taught by Scripture what Ministers to choose 4. We find it natural to the people to before Learned and godly Ministers though many of them be bad themselves And though it be not so with them all yet the sober part do usually perswade the rest So that in London and else where those Parishes where the people choose had usually far worthier Pastors than the rest especially than those in the Bishops presentation 5. The people are obliged by God to marke those Ministers that cause division and contention and avoid them 6. The Ministers are bound to give notice to the people of false teachers and Schismaticks and to command them to avoid them And themselves to renounce Communion with them after the first and second admonition 7. These Ministers may have correspondence by Synods to keep up concord by agreement among themselves So we have over all a Christian King and Magistracy who are the rightful Governours of the Clergy as well as of all other subjects and may constrain the negligent to their duty and restrain the Heretical Schismatical and wicked from their sin And may not all this do much to keep up Concord 2. What our Diocesans really
and as he that will know the nature and difference of fruits or animals must stay till they are come to their full growth and ripeness and not take them green and young so he that will judge either of Schism or of Church-tyranny Lust do 2. And whether the Quakers Ranters Familists and Munster monsters be not Schismaticks ripe and at full growth and therefore a young Schismatick is not â—o tell us what Schism is but should himself see what he will be when he is ripe And so whether Popery be not the Diocesane Prelacy full grown and ripe and whether they should not therefore see what they would come to if that which withoâ—deth in the several Kingdoms were taken out of the way as the Pope hath removed it in the Empire If the Diocesans Metropolitanes Patriarks and Pope as to his Primacy in the Empire did not all stand on the same humane foundation then are they not the things that I am speaking of Obj. But the late and present Schismes in England shew that it is the adversaries of Prelacy that are the causes Ans Very true for Prelacy maketh it self adversaries and so maketh some of the Schismaticks There are two sort of Schismatickâ— some Prelatists as the Papists the Novatians the Donatists and most of the old Schismaticks were and some Anti-prelatists And there are two sorts of Anti prelatists Some Catholick being for the Primitive Episcopacy and some Schismaticks And these last the Prelates make and then complain of them It is their state and practice hereafter described that driveth men to distast them and so precipitateth the injudicious into the Contrary extreme It is Prelacy that maketh almost all the Sects that be in England at this day When they see how the Spiritual Keys are secularly used by Laymen in their Courts when they see what Ministers and how many hundred of them are silenced and what Fellows in many places are set up in their stead they think they can never fly far enough from such Prelates To tell the world It is Schismaticks that we silence and they are obedient and Orthodox persons that we set up may signifie something in another land or age but it doth but increase the disaffâ—ction of those that are upon the place and know what kind of men the Prelates commend and who they discommend and silence A very Child when he is eating his â—pple will not cast it away because a Prelate saith it is a Crab nor when he tasteth a Crab will he eate it if a Prelate Swear it is a sweat apple Though he that doth but look on them may possibly believe him I believe they that thought that Prelacy was the only cure of our Schismes do know by this time by experience that by that time the Prelates had again ruled but seven years there were seven and seven against them for one that was so before And we that dwell among them do take those that dislike their course and waies to be the Generality of the most Religious and sober people of the land alwaies excepting the King and Parliament and those that must be still excepted CHAP. XIV The true Original of the warrantable Episcopacy in particular Churches was the notorious disparity of abilities in the Pastors And the original of that tyrannical Prelacy into which it did degenerate was the worldly Spirit in the Pastors and people which with the world came by prosperity into the Church Quaere Whether the thing cease not where the reason of it ceaseth GOd doth not carry on his work upon mens Souls by names and empty titles but by such real demonstrating evidences of his Power Wisdome and Goodness as are apt to work on the Reason of man And therefore he that would make his Apostles the Foundations or chief Pillars and Instruments in and of his Churches would accordingly endow them with proportionable abilities that in the Miracu'ous demonstrations of Power and the convincing demonstrations of Wisdome and the amiable holy demonstrations of goodness they might as far excelothers as they did in authority And nature it self teaceth us to difference men in our esteem and affection as they really differ in worth and loveliness And this Law of Nature is the Primary Law of God And the holy Scriptures plainly second it telling us oft of the diversity of Gods gifts in his Servants which all make for concord but not for equality of esteem and that there are greater and lesser in the Kingdom of God and that Gods gifts in all men must be honoured Math. 12. 1 Cor. 12. Eph. 4. Heb. 5. 10. 11. 12. 6. 1. 2. 3. 4. And God that would have his various gifts variously esteemed did in all ages himself diversifie his Servants gifts All were not Apostles nor all Prophets nor all Evangelists And after their daies all the Ministers or Elders of the Churches were not men of Learning nor of so full acquaintance with the sacred Doctrine nor so grave prudent staied holy charitable or peaceable as some were usually when miraculous gifts did cease and very few Philosophers or men of learning turned Christians Any man may know that had not been told it by Church History that their Elders or Pastors were such as the better sort of our unlearned Christians are who can pray well and worship God sincerely and read the Scripture and in a plain familiar manner can teach the Catechistical points and perswade to duty and reprove vice But as for Sermons in a methodical accurate way as now used and defending the truth and opposing Heresies and stopping the mouths of gainsayers they must needs be far below the Learned But yet here and there a Philosopher was converted and of those that had no such Learning then called secular and the Learning of the Gentiles some few were far better Learned than others in the sacred Scriptures and the customes and Learning of the Jews And it was long before the Christians had Schools and Academies of their own That this was so appeareth 1. In the reason of the thing For no effect can exceed the total cause Therefore they that had not the inspirations prophetical or miraculous guists nor Academies and Schools of secular Learning nor so much as Riches and leisure but Poverty and persecution and worldly trouble and labour were not like to have more Learning than the holy Scriptures taught them 2. And this appeareth by the forecited Canons of Counsels which forbad Pastors ever almost three hundred years after Christ to read the Gentiles books By which the former custome of the Church may easily be perceived And also by abundance of reproaches which are cast upon some Hereticks in the Ancients writings for being too much skilled in Logick and other of the Gentiles Learning 3. And it appeareth by the parity of writers of the second and third Centuries 4. And also by the paucity of famous Divines that are mentioned in the Histories of those times 5. And above all by the
shall obey as his Ministers any whomsoever the King shall commit any part of his power about Church matters to and promise them due obedience as such And so you see what is not the Question now to be debated But the Question is Whether the present Church Government in England as distinct from the Kings and Magistrates part be so good or lawful that we should swear or subscribe our approbation of it our obedience to it or that we will never in our place and calling endeavour an alteration of it no though the King command us and that every man in the three Kingdoms that vowed to endeavour such alteration is so clearly and utterly disobliged as that all strangers that never knew him may subscribe or declare that he is disobliged or not obliged to it by that Vow CHAP. II. The first Argument against the English Diocesans That their form quantum in se destroyeth the particular Church Form of God's Institution and setteth up a Humane Form in its stead ARGUMENT I. WE cannot subscribe or swear to that form of Church Government as good or lawful which in its nature excludeth or destroyeth the very specifical nature of the particular Churches which were instituted by the Holy Ghost and setled in the primitive times and is it self a humane from set up in their stead But such we take the present Diocesane form to be Ergo The Major will be denied by very few that we have now to do with And those few that will deny it must do it on this supposition 1. That the Holy Ghost did institute that particular Church Form which is destroyed but pro tempore And Secondly That he allowed men since to set up one or more of their own in its stead But the disproof of this supposition will fall in more fitly when I have shewed what Church Form was first setled The Minor I thus prove The Species of a particular Church which the Holy Ghost did institute was one Society of Christians united under one or more Bishops for personal Communion in publick worship and holy living The Diocesane English frame is destructive of or inconsistent with this species of a particular Church Ergo The Diocesane English frame is inconsistent with or destructive of the Species of the Holy Ghosts institution In the Major 1. By Bishops I mean Sacred Ministers authorized by Divine appointment to be the stated Guides of the Church by Doctrine Worship and Discipline under Christ the Teacher Priest and Ruler of the Church Whether he have a superior Arch-Bishop I determine not Nor now whether he may ordain Pastors for other Churches What I mean by Personal Communion and whether it be consistent with divers Assemblies I have fully shewed before I mean that the said Churches were no more numerous than our English Parishes nor had more Assemblies Or no more than could have the same personal Communion and that there were never any Churches infimaeâ—vel prime speciei which consisted of many such stated Assemblies I shall therefore now prove 1. That the Churches of the Holy Ghosts institution were no more numerous or were such single Congregations And that they had each such Bishops and Pastors will be proved partly herewith and partly afterward 2. And that such Churches do tota specie differ from the Diocesane Churches and from our present Parish Churches as they define them and are inconsistent with them And the first I shall prove 1. From the Holy Scriptures 2. From the Confessions of the Diocesanes 3. From the testimony of Antiquity All proving fully that the ancient Episcopal Churches were but such single Societies or Congregations as I have described and such as our Diocesses of many hundred Churches are different from and inconsistent with CHAP. III. That the primitive Episcopal Churches of the Holy Ghosts Institution were but such Congregations as afore described THese following particulars set together I think will by the Impartial be taken for full proof 1. In all the New Testament where ever there were more stated societies than one for publick worship as afore described they are called Churches in the Plural Number and never once a Church in the Singular Number except when the Universal Church is mentioned which containeth them all This is visible in Act. 9. 31. and 14. 41. and 16. 5. Rom. 16. 4 and 16. 1 Cor. 7. 17. and 11. 16. and 14. 33 34. unless that mean the several meetings of the same Assembly at several times and 16. 1 19. 2 Cor. 8. 1 18 19 23 24. and 11. 8 28. Gal. 1. 22. 1 Thess 2. 14. 2 Thess 1. 4. Rev. 1. 4 11 20. and 2. 7 11 17 29. and 3. 6 13 22 23. and 22. 16. If any say how prove you that all these were but single Congregations I answer 1. It is granted me by all that these plural terms Churches included many single Congregations 2. I shall prove anon that the most of the particular Churches named in Scripture were but such Congregations 3. And no man can give me any proof that a Society consisting of divers such Congregations is any where called a Church singularly And therefore we are not to believe that the plural term meaneth many such singulars as are no where singularly named 2. Particular Churches are described so in Scripture as fully proveth my aforesaid limitation and description As 1 Cor. 11. 16 18 20 22. When ye come together in the Church I hear that there be divisions among you A Church consisted of such as came together When ye come together into one place this is not to eat the Lords Supper And it is the Assemblies that are called Churches when he saith We have no such custom nor the Churches of God So 1 Cor. 14. 4. He that prophesieth edifieth the Church that is the Assembly that heareth him and not many hundred such Assemblies that are out of hearing Vers 5. Except he interpret that the Church may receive edifying Vers 12. Seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the Church Object May not the whole Church be edified per partes Ans Yes but it must be per plures vel diversis vicibus Not at once by the same man if the far greatest part of the Church be absent Obj. But is not the whole man edified naturally or morally by the edification of a part Answ Yes if it be a noble part Because the whole man being naturally One by the unity of the soul or form there is a natural Communion and Communication from part to part But one Corporation in a Kingdom may be edified or enriched without the wealth or edification of the rest And this Text plainly speaketh of Immediate Edification of that Church that heareth and this at once and by one speaker So Vers 19. In the Church I had rather speak one word with my understanding that I may teach others Here the Church is plainly taken for the Assembly Vers 23. If therefore the whole Church be come together
in one place and speak with tongues what can be more expresly spoken to shew that it is not only a part of the Church but the whole which cometh together into one place So Vers 24. If there be no Interpreter let him keep silence in the Church So Vers 34. For God is not the Author of Confusion but of Peace as in all the Churches of the Saints So Vers 14. Let your women keep silence in the Church for it is a shame for women to speak in the Church So Act. 11. 26. A whole year they assembled themselves with the Church and taught much people Act. 14. 27. When they were come and had gathered the Church together they rehearsed all that God had done by them Act. 15. 3. And they were brought on their way by the Church which must signifie such a number as might be called the Church when part was but for the whole at least Act. 2. 1. They were all with one accord in one place which it's like was all the Church with the Apostles Vers 44. 46. And all that believed were together And they continuing daily with one accord in the Temple c. Act. 4. 31 32. And the place was shaken where they were assembled together And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul Act. 5. 12. And they were all with one accord in Solomon ' s Porch and of the rest durst no man joyn himself to them If any here say that so many thousands could not be of one Assembly I have answered it before 1. I have preached as was supposed to ten thousand at once 2. Some of our Parishes that have but one Church are thirty thousand some forty thousand some fifty thousand 3. There were strangers at Jerusalem from all parts 4. The next Verse saith There came also a multitude out of the Cities round about unto Jerusalem 5. The multitude were not yet perfectly embodied and were quickly scattered Col. 4. 16. When this Epistle is read among you cause that it be read also in the Church of the Laodiceans c. It is not to the Church for then you might have said that so it may be if the Church consisted of many Assemblies But it is in the Church which intimateth that the Church was but one Assembly And so that of Colosse answerably All these Texts and others such plainly tell us whether a Church there was one Assembly or many hundred 3. This is made yet much more evident by the Scriptures description of a Bishops work even such as the Apostles then appointed over every Church 1. They were to be the ordinary publick present teachers of all the Flock which they did oversee 1 Thess 5. 12 13. Know them which labour among you and are over you in the Lord and esteem them highly in love for their work sake Those then that were over every Church were present with the Church and laboured among them which they could not do in one of our Diocesses saving as a man may be said to labour among a Kingdom or the World because they labour in it Heb. 13. 8 17 24. Remember them which have the rule over you which have spoken to you the word of God Obey them that have the Rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your souls as they that must give account So that a Church was no bigger than the Bishops could speak the word of God to and could watch for their souls But I never saw the face of the Bishop of the Diocess where I live and know but very few men in his Diocess that ever did see him 2. And this care was to extend to the particular persons of the Flocks Act. 20. 20 28 31. I taught you publickly and from house to house Take heed to your selves and to all the Flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you Bishops to fâ—ed or rule the Church of God c. Remembor that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears 1 Pet. 1. 2. 3. The Elders which are among you I exhort who am also an Elder feed the Flock of God which is among you taking the oversight thereof not by constraint c. that is saith Doctor Hammond The Bishops of your several Churches I exhort take care of your several Churches and govern them not as Secular Rulers by force but as Pastors do their Sheep by calling and going before them that so they may follow of their own accord See also Doctor Hammond's Annot. on Heb. 13. 7 17. 1 Thess 5. 12 13. And saith Doctor Jeremy Taylor of Repent Praef. I am sure we cannot give account of souls of which we have no notice O terrible word to the undertakers of so many hundred Churches and so many thousand or ten thousand souls which they never knew This made Ignatius à s after cited say that The Bishop must look after or take account of each person as much as Servants and Maids Object But there may be more in a Parish than a Minister can know Answ If a Parish may be too large for a Bishops work how little reason have they to make a Church and take the Pastoral Care of many hundred Parishes 2. We must judge by the ordinary common case In a Parish a Minister may know every one except it be some few strangers or retired persons or except it be a Parish or Church of too great a swelling bigness But in a Diocess of many hundred Churches it is not one of a hundred that the Bishop will ever know 3. I know by experience what may be done whatever slothful persons say I had a Parish of about three of four thousand souls A Market Town with twenty Villages and except three or four Families that refused to come to me whom yet I knew by other means I knew not only the persons but the measures of all or almost all their understandings in the Town and my assistants in the Villages knew the rest by personal conference each family coming to us by turns 4. And where a Church is too large for one there may be and must be assistant Ministers and that may be done by many which cannot be done by one alone Object So may a Bishop and his Presbyters in a Diocess Answ In a Diocess of many Churches the Presbyters only know the people and do the Ministerial Office for them except in some one or few Churches where the Bishop dwells and sometimes preacheth But in the same Church all the Ministers preach to the same persons ordinarily per vices and they all know them and all watch over them though they assist each other in particular offices for them There is much difference between a School-master and his assistants in the same School and one School-master only with several Ushers in many hundred Schools As there is between a Master Mistriss and Steward ruling the same Family and one Master with
Stewards ruling many hundred Families of which more anon 3. Another part of the Bishops work in those times was to Baptize For it was part of the Apostles work Matth. 28. 19 20. And how great a work that was to try the peoples due preparations and to see that they did understandingly and seriously what they did I desire no other proof than the great care taken in all the ancient Churches of this business which brought up the Custom of baptizing but twice a year Object The Apostles baptized three thousand at once Answ The Jews were supposed to be bred up in the knowledge of other parts of Religion and wanted only the knowledge of the true Messiah and his Salvation which might be taught them in a shorter time than the Gentiles could be taught the whole substance of Religion that knew but little Therefore as soon as the Jews were convinced of the true Messiah and the righteousness of Faith and consented to the Covenant they might be baptized 2. The extraordinary effusions of the Spirit in that time did make a shorter preparation sufficient At least Baptizing must be an addition to the Bishops work 4. As the Apostles laid hands on Believers to convey the Holy Ghost so the Prelatists think that the Bishops then Confirmed Believers with Imposition of hands saith Doctor Hammond on Heb. 13. a. To teach exhort confirm and impose hands all which were the Bishops office in that place And O what a work it is to know the persons of many hundred Parishes to be capable of Confirmation and so to confirm them of which more afterward 5. I need not prove that the Bishops then were the Masters of the Assemblies and called them appointing time and place as the Rulers of the Synagogues did which sheweth that they were present with the Church Assemblies 6. The Bishops administred the Lords Supper as all confess and therefore must have some Pastoral notice of the fitness of all the Church to receive it which intimateth sufficiently the extent of the Church 7. They went before the Assemblies usually in performance of the publick worship They prayed with them and praised God And Doctor Hammond thinks that in all this in Scripture times they had not so much as a Presbyter to assist them 8. They admonished the unruly and disorderly and received Accusations and openly reproved and excommunicated the Impenitent And O how great a work is it to deal with one Soul aright as must be done before it cometh to Excommunication Much more with all in a Parish Much more in many hundred Parishes 9. It is confessed that it was the Bishops work to absolve the penitent publickly And then he must judge of their Repentance and then he must try it And for how many thousand can a Bishop do this with the rest 10. The Bishop did dismiss the Congregation with a Benediction as is maintained by those that we dispute with and therefore must be present in it 11. They were to visit and pray with the sick and all the sick to send for them to that end Jam. 4. 14. If any be sick among you let him call for the Elders of the Church and let them pray over him saith Doctor Hammond Because there is no evidence whereby these inferior Presbyters may appear to have been brought into the Church so early And because the visiting of the sick is anciently mentioned as one branch of the office of Bishops therefore it may very reasonably be resolved that the Bishops of the Church one in each particular Church but many in the universal are here meant Though I am far from believing him that the sick person is bid to send but for one when the term is plural or that he must send for many out of other Churches I will take his concession that this was the Bishops work 12. Lastly They were to take care of the poor and of the Contributions and Church stock saith Doctor Hammond on 1 Cor 12. 28. The supreme trust and charge was reserved to the Apostles and Bishops of the Church So in the 41st Canon of the Apostles the Bishop must have the care of the moneys so that by his power all â—e dispensed to the poor by the Presbyters and Deacons and we command that â—e have in his power the Church Goods So Justin Martyr Apol. 2. That which is gathered is doeposited by the Praefect or Bishop and he helpeth or relieveth the Orphans and Widows and becometh the Curator and Guardian of all absolutely that be in want So Ignatius to Polycarp After the Lord thou shalt be the Curator of the Widows And Polycarp himself speaking of the Elders or Bishops They visit and take care of all that are sick not neglecting the Widows the Orphans and the Poor So far Doctor Hammond So that by this time it is easie to see how great the ancient Churches were yea and how great they were to be continued when all this is the Bishops Office and Work We are willing that they have Diocesses as big as they can do this work in even with a Consessus of assisting Presbyters There is no one of all these twelve alone that a Bishop can do for a Diocess of many score or hundred Churches How much less all these set together Nay what one considerable Parish would not find a Bishop with divers assistants work enough in all these kinds if it be faithfully done As for the doing of it per se aut per alium I have so far confuted it before as that I may be bold to tell them now that they may also receive the reward in se aut in alio And if he that will not work should not eat quaere whether they should eat per alium I add If all this as Doctor Hammond maintaineth was made by the Spirit in the Apostles the Bishops work if they may make new Church-Officers to commit part of their work to there may be twelve sorts of Officers made by them for these twelve parts of their work And then we shall better understand them Whatever is the work of a Bishop as a Presbyter every Presbyter may and must do according to his ability and opportunity But whatever belongeth to a Bishop as a Bishop cannot be done by another either Lay-man or Presbyter Therefore let us have but Bishops enough to do it or else confess that it is no necessary work So great a trust as the Gospel and mens souls which Christ hath committed to Bishops may not be cast upon others without his consent that did commit it to them But they can shew no consent of Christ to make new Officers to do their work by Timothy was to commit the same to others which he had received 2 Tim. 2. 2. The things thou hast heard of me among many witnesses the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also And who knoweth not that if a Tutor commit his work statedly to another he maketh
that other a Tutor And so if a Physician commit his work statedly to another or a Pilot or the Master of a Family he maketh the other a Physician a Pilot a Master And so if a Bishop or Presbyter commit his work statedly to another he maketh that other a Bishop or Presbyter And then that Bishop or Presbyter so made is himself obliged as well as empowred and the work that he doth is his own work and not his that delivered him his Commission So that this doing these twelve parts of a Bishops work per alium is a meer mockery unless they speak unfitly and mean the making of all those to be Bishops as they are or else by perfidious usurpation casting their trust and work on others For if they could prove that God himself had instituted the Species of Sub-presbyters it would be to do their own work and not another mans My next proof of the limitation of Churches in Scripture times is that Deacons and Bishops were distinct Officers appointed to the same Churches The Church which the Deacon was related to was the very same and of the same extent with the Church which the Bishop was related to as is plain in all Texts where they are described Act. 6. 1 Tim. 3. Tit. 7. c. But it is most clear that no Deacon then had the charge of many hundred Churches or more than one such as I have described Therefore neither had the Bishop of that Church They that have now extended the Office of the Deacons further and have alienated them from their first works of attending at the Sacred Tables and taking care of the Poor cannot deny but that this was at least a great part of their work in the Scripture times and some Ages after at least when Jerome ad Evagr. described the Offices of the Presbyters and Deacons And was any man then made a Deacon to a Diocess or to many hundred Churches or to more than one Did he attend the Tables of many Churches each Lords day at the same time If you say that there were many Deacons and some were in one Church and some in another it is true that is They were in several Assemblies which were every one a true Church and they were oft many in one Assembly But there was no one that was related to Many stated Church Assemblies nor to a Church of a lesser size or magnitude than the Bishop was 5. And that there was no Church then without a Bishop one or more is evident from Act. 14. 23. They ordained them Elders in every Church compared with other Texts that call them Bishops And Doctor Hammond sheweth that these Elders were Bishops And indeed it was not a Church in a proper political sense that had no Bishops formally or eminently No more than there can be a Kingdom without a King a School without a School-master or a family without a Master Object They are called Churches Act. 14. 23. before they had ordained Elders Answ 1. It is not certain from the Text for the name might be given from their state in fieri or which they were now entring into 2. If it were so it is certain that the appellation was equivocal as it is usual to distinguish the Kingdom from the King the School from the School-master the Family from the Master but not in the strict political sense of the words for that comprehendeth both 3. The truth is they were true political Churches before For they had temporary unfixed Bishops even the Apostles and Evangelists that converted them and officiated among them Otherwise they could have held no Sacred Assemblies for holy Communion and the Lords Supper as having none to administer it The fixing of peculiar Bishops did not make them first Churches but made them setled Churches in such an order as God would establish 6. Lastly The setling of Churches with Bishops in every City Tit. 1. 5. doth shew of what magnitude the Churches were in the Scripture times For 1. It is known that small Towns in Judea were called Cities 2. And that Creete which was called Hecatompolis as having an hundred Cities must needs then have small ones and near together 3. And it is a confessed thing that the number of Converts was not then so great as to make City Churches so numerous near as our Parishes are And if the consideration of all this together will not convince any that the Churches that had Bishops in Scripture times consisted not of many stated Assemblies as afore described but of one only and were not bigger than our Parishes let such enjoy their error still CHAP. IV. The same proved by the Concession of the most Learned Defenders of Diocesane Prelacy THough the Scripture Evidence be most satisfactory in it self yet in controversie it much easeth the mind that doubteth to find the Cause fully and expresly granted by those that most learnedly defend those consequents which it overthrows And if I do not bring plain Concessions here I will not deprecate the Readers indignation 1. Among all Christians the Papists are the highest Prelatists And among all Papists the Jesuits and among all the Jesuits Petavius who hath written against Salmasius c. on this Subject Petavius Dissert Ecclesiast de Episcop dignit jurisd p. 22. concludeth his first Chapter in which he had cited the chiefest of the Fathers Hactenus igitur ex antiquorum authoritate conficitur primis temporibus Presbyterorum Episcoporum non tantum appellationes sed etiam ordines in easdem concurrisse personas iidem ut essent utrique i. e. Hitherto it is proved by the Authority of the Ancients that in the first times not only the Names but the Orders of Presbyters and Bishops did concurr into the same persons so that both were the same men And if so I shall shew the consequents anon And pag. 23. He thus beginneth his third Chapter as opening the only necessary way to avoid the Scripture Arguments against Episcopacy Si quis amnia illa scripturae loca diligenter expendat id necessario consequens ex illis esse statuet eos ipsos qui ibi Presbyteri vocantur plus aliquid quam simplices fuisse presbyteros cujusmodi hodieque sunt nec dubitabit quin Episcopi fuerint iidem non vocabulo tantum sed re etiam potestate i. e. If any one will diligently weigh all those places of Scripture he will conclude that this is the necessary consequent of them that those that are there called Presbyters were somewhat more than simple Presbyters and such as now they are and he will not doubt but the same men were Bishops not only in name but in deed and in power Pag. 24. Existimo Presbyteros vel omnes vel eorum plerosque sic ordinatos esse ut Episcopi pariter ac presbyteri gradum obtinerent I think that either all or most of the Presbyters were so ordained as that they obtained both the degree of Bishop and
of Presbyter Which he proceedeth to shew that he thinks was done that there might be a store of Bishops prepared for all Countries Pag. 25. he thus far differs from Doctor Hammond but not from the truth as to hold that Plures in eadem Ecclesia velut Ephâ—sina Episcopi fuere There were many Bishops in one Church as in that of Ephesus Which he taketh for a particular Church and not a Province and saith that the simple manners of the Church would then bear this till Ambition had depraved men and Charity and Humility and the imitation of Christ waxed cold then came that which Hierome speaketh of that For a remedy of Schism one was chosen out of the company of Presbyters and set above the rest So Pag. 26. In eadem capita passim ambo conferebantur And p. 27. Hoc si ita est quid aliud restat nisi ut penes eosdem Nam plures una in Ecclesia fuisse tales iisdem ex locis argumentum ducitur tam nomen illud duplex quam conveniens nomini potestas authoritas utraque fuisse dicatur that is If this be so what else remaineth but that both the double name and the agreeable double power and authority be said to have been in the same persons for that there were many of them in one Church may be proved from the same places And Pag. 95 96 97 98 99. he sheweth out of Justin Martyr first That all things in the sacred Assemblies and Sacraments were done by the Bishop alone and that he was the Curator and Moderator both of the Sacraments to be administred and of teaching the people and of the Churches money The Bishop consecrated the Sacraments and by the Deacons administred them to the people He prayeth and preacheth He had the care of the Church-moneys and kept them with it he relieved the Orphans Widows Sick Prisoners Travellers c. And from Tertullian that the Christians received not the Sacrament from the hands of any but the Bishops Were there not then as many Bishops as Church-Assemblies And that they chiefly did baptize And p. 112. he citeth the Can. 7. 8. Concil Gangrensis which anathematizeth those that without the Bishops consent durst give or receive the Church Oblations c. And p. 141. out of Prosper de vita contempl c. 20. that a Bishop must excel in knowledge that he may instruct those that live under him And p. 144 145 147. he citeth Can. 3. Concil Arelat 3. an 813. That every Bishop in his own Parish do perfectly and studiously teach the Presbyters and all the people and not neglect to instruct them And Concil Turonens 3. Can. 4. Let every Bishop diligently study by sacred preaching to inform the flock committed to him what they must do and what they must avoid And Concil Rhemens 2. Can. 14. That Bishops preach the Word of God to all And Concil Cabilonens 3. Can. 1. That Bishops be diligent in reading and search the mysteries of Gods Word that they may shine by the brightness of Doctrine in the Church and cease not to satiate the souls subject to them by nutriment of Gods Words And p. 147. That in the formula by which the Kings of France committed Episcopacy to any it is said You shall study by daily Sermons to edifie or polish the people committed to you according to Canonical Institution And ibid. Can. 19. Concil Constant in Trullo The Church Presidents must every day but especially the Lords day teach all the Clergy and people the things that belong to piety gathering from the Scriptures the sentences and judgments of verity And p. 149. he citeth Concil Lateran sub Innoc. 3. c. 10. allowing Bishops to take helpers in preaching when business or sickness hindred them And p. 150 152 153. he mentioneth it as somewhat rare that at Alexandria Presbyters preached and at Antioch Chrysostom and at Hippo Augustine while Flavianus and Valerius were Bishops I do not cite all this now as to prove the sense of Antiquity but the sense of Petavius who plainly intimateth that the Churches were no larger of a long time than that a Bishop might preach to all the Clergy and People every Lords day and that in Scripture times all or near all the Presbyters were Bishops which is it that we contend for and consequently you may judge what the Churches were And though it still look much farther than Scripture times I will shew you what Petavius thought of the Magnitude of City-Churches even near four hundred years after Christ in Epiphanius's days in his Animadvers on Epiphan ad Haer. 69. p. 276. Singularem tunc temporis Alexandriae morem hunc fuisse vel saltem paucis in Ecclesiis usurpatum c. i. e. That this was a singular custom of Alexandria or at least used in few Churches you may hence conjecture because he so expresly mentioneth this custom as peculiar to the Alexandrian Church to wit that in the same City there should be many Titles to each of which should be assigned a proper Presbyter who should there perform the Church Offices But yet the same was formerly elsewhere instituted that is at Rome where the Presbyters did every one rule his own people being distributed by Titles that is setled Sub-Assemblies To them the Bishops on the Lords days sent Leaven or hallowed Bread in token of Communion See what a shift they were at first put to lest the several Assemblies should seem several Churches For it is not to be imagined that this was done to signifie that common Christian Communion which they had with all other Christian Churches but that nearest Communion which belongeth to those that are embodied under one Pastor or the same Pastor in Common that is one particular Church Even as if these divers Altars or Tables were at a distance in the same Church and the Bishop would signifie the Union of the several Companies in the same Society by sending some of the Bread which he had blessed to them all But Petavius proceedeth Non dubito majoribus duntaxat in urbibus c. I doubt not but that it was in the Greater Cities only that there were more than one Titles within the bounds or Liberties when within the same Walls they would not be contained and meet together and so had Presbyters put on the several Churches But in the smaller and less frequented Cities there was one only Church into which they all did come together Of which sort were the Cities of Cyprus And therefore Epiphanius noteth the custom of Alexandria as a thing strange to his Country-men and unusual Hence was the original of Parishes which word was transferred from the Country Churches to the City Churches And adding the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with their Bishops or Curators setled in Rome by Servius Tullius he saith Quibus Christianorum in agris Paroeciae quam simillimae fuerunt Nam illic 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. To which the Parishes of the
Christians in the Countries were most like For there also were Bishops or rather Chorepiscopi rural Bishops placed of old which some Latine interpretations of the Canons call the Vicars of the Bishops but others far more rightly than they the Country or Village Bishops of which more after So that you see in Petavius opinion even when Epiphanius wrote the ordinary Cities of the World had but one Assembly in each City and Suburbs And only some extraordinary Cities of which only Alexandria could be named by Epiphanius and Rome also by Petavius and no more by any other Author had divers setled Titles under their several Presbyters And even those Titles in those two Cities were but Chappels like our Parish Chappels received consecrated Bread from the Bishops Church lest they should think that they were a distinct body of themselves Yea and that the Villages that had Assemblies had their proper Bishops And so I dismiss Petavius with thanks for his free Concession 2. My next Witness is Bishop Downame the strongest that hath written against Parish Bishops for Diocesanes who lib. 1. cap. 1. before recited saith Indeed at the very first Conversion of Cities the whole number of the people converted being somewhere not much greater than the number of Presbyters placed among them were able to make but a small Congregation And cap. 6. pag. 104. At the first and namely the time of the Apostle Paul the most of the Churches so soon after their Conversion did not each of them exceed the proportion of a populous Congregation Though this reach not so low as Petavius Concession it is as much as I need to the present business 3. My third Witness shall be that learned moderate man Mr. Joseph Mede who in his discourse of Churches pag. 48 49 50. saith Nay more than this it should seem that in those first times before Diocesses were divided into those lesser and subordinate Churches which we now call Parishes and Presbyters assigned to them they had not only one Altar to a Church or Dominicum but one Altar to a Church taking Church for the Company or Corporation of the faithful united under one Bishop or Paster and that was in the City or place where the Bishop had his See and Residence Like as the Jews had but one Altar and Temple for the whole Nation united under one High Priest And yet as the Jews had their Synagogues so perhaps might they have more Oratories than one though their Altar were but one there namely where the Bishop was Die solis saith Justin Martyr omnium qui vel in oppidis vel ruâ—i degunt in eundem locum Conventus fit Namely as he there tells us to celebrate and participate the holy Eucharist Why was this but because they had not many places to celebrate it in And unless this were so whence came it else that a Schismatical Bishop was said Constituere or collocare aliud altare And that a Bishop and an Altar are made correlatives See St. Cyprian Epist 40 72 73. de unit Eccles c. So that Mr. Mede granteth that every Church that had a Bishop had no more people than communicated at one Altar To which purpose he goeth on further to Ignatius Testimony of which anon 4. Bishop Bilson's Testimony Perp. Gov. cap. 13. pag. 256. See afterward 5. Grotius is large in his endeavours to prove that not only every City had a Bishop but also every stated Assembly of which there were divers in one and the same City and that the Government was not suited to the Temple way but to the Synagogues and as every Synagogue had its chief Ruler of which there were many in a City so had every Church in a City its Bishop and that only the Church of Alexandria had the custom of having but one Bishop in the whole City Thus he de Imper. Sum. Pot. p. 355 356 357. And in his Annot. in 1 Tim. 5. 17. Sed notandum est una urbe sicut plures Synagogas ita plures fuisse Ecclesias id est conventus Christianorum cuique Ecclesiae fuisse suum praesidem qui populum alloqueretur Presbyteros ordinaret Alexandriae tantum eum fuisse morem ut unus esset in tota urbe praeses qui ad docendum Presbyteros Per urbem distribueret docet nos Sozomenus l. 1. c. 14. Epiphanius c. Thus Grotius thought that of old every stated Assembly had a Bishop that had power of Ordination I confess I interpret not Zozomen nor Epiphanius as Grotius doth nor believe I that he can bring us frequent proof of two Churches with Bishops in one City much less many unless in Doctor Hammond's instance before and after mentioned But the rest I accept 6. I may take it for a full Concession from Bishop Jeremy Tailor which is before cited though in few words Praef. Treat of Repent I am sure we cannot give account of souls of which we have no notice And I am sure a full Parish is as many as a more able and diligent man than ever I was can take such notice of as to do the Pastors Office to them 7. But the last and greatest Champion for Diocesanes is Doctor Hammond his Concessions are mentioned before but now are purposely to be cited But remember still that we are yet speaking but of the matter of Fact In his Annot. in Act. 11. 30. he saith Although this Title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Elders have been also extended to a second Order in the Church and now is only in use for them under the name of Presbyters yet in the Scripture times it belonged principally if not alone to Bishops there being no evidence that any of the second order were then instituted though soon after before the writing of Ignatius Epistles there were such instituted in all Churches Though so suddain a change be unlikely I pass it by In his Dissert p. 208 209 211. cap. 10. sect 19 20 21. 11. sect 2. c. he saith Prius non usquequaque verum esse quod pro concesso sumitur in una civitate non fuisse plures Episcopos Quamvis enim in una Ecclesia aut coetu plures simul Episcopi nunquam fuerint nihil tamen obstare quin in eadem civitate duo aliquando disterminati coetus fuerint a duobus Apostolis ad fidem adducti c. as I have before more largely cited him Yea Dissert Epist Sect. 30 31. he will have the question stated only of a Bishop in singulari Ecclesia in singulari coetu The controversie is not Quibus demum nominibus cogniti fuerint Ecclesiarum rectores sed an ad unum in singulari Ecclesia an ad plures potestas ista devenerit Nos ad unum singularem praefectum quem ex famosiore Ecclesiae usu Episcopum vulgo dicimus potestatem istam in singulari coetu ex Christi Apostolorum institutione nunquam non pertinuisse
affirmamus So that it is a Bishop of one Assembly or Church which Doctor Hammond will have the question stated about 2. And such a Church or Assembly as great Cities a while had divers of and so divers Bishops 3. And this was after the Scripture times for they had divers Bishops with a divers Clergy 4. But that in Scripture times the Order of Sub-Presbyters cannot be proved instituted 5. And in his Annotations he expoundeth all the Texts of the New Testament of Bishops that mention Presbyters 6. But in his Answer to the London Ministers not daring yet to hold that they were of Humane and not of Divine Institution he holds that they were instituted in the end of St. John's days after all the Scripture was written which was about two or three years before his death and so were of Divine Institution though all the rest of the Apostles were dead Before I apply this I will subjoyn his words of more numerous Witnesses to our opinion with himself for he saith 8. Doctor Hammond of the rest Vindication against London Minsters pag. 104. And though I might truly say that for those more minute considerations or conjectures wherein this Doctor differs from some others he hath the suffrages of many of the learnedst men of this Church at this day and as far as he knoweth of all that embrace the same Cause with him I purposely pass by such Bishops as Cranmer Jewel c. and such conformable Divines as Doctor Whitaker Fulke c. as being not high enough to be valued by those that I have now to do with As Jewel Art 4. p. 171. sheweth that every Church must have one Bishop and but one and out of Cyprian that the Fraternitas universa was to chuse him Et â—piscopus delegatur plebe praesente de universae fraternitatis suffragio Episcopatus ei Sabino deferretur And mentioneth the Rescript of Honorius the Emperor to Boniface that If two Bishops through division and contention happen to be chosen we will that neither of them be allowed as Bishop but that he only remain in the Apostolick Seat whom out of the number of the Clergy Godly discretion and the consent of the whole Brotherhood shall chuse by a new Election How big yet was the Church even then Now all this being asserted 1. It is evident that they hold that in Scripture times no Church consisted of more than one ordinary stated worshipping Assembly 2. And that every such Assembly had a Bishop For if there were no Presbyters there could be no Assembly but where a Bishop was present for the Lords days were then used for publick Worship and the people could not do that without a Minister for they had Communion in the Lords Supper every Lords day And therefore they must have a Bishop or have no such Worship And Doctor Hammond departeth from Petavius in holding that no Church had more Bishops than one So that de facto he granteth all that I desire 1. That the Churches were but so many Assemblies having each a Bishop 2. And that no Sub-Presbyters were instituted in Scripture times And by what right the change was made we shall enquire anon CHAP. V. The same proved by the full Testimony of Antiquity THat the particular Churches infimae speciei vel ordinis of which combined Associated Churches were constituted were no larger than is before described and had but Unum Altare I shall prove Historically from Antiquity I. And Order requireth that I begin with Clemens Romanus But let the Reader still remember that while I cite him and others oft cited heretofore by many I do it not to the same end as they who thence prove that Bishops and Presbyters were then the same but to prove the Churches to be but such single Congregations as are fore-described Ep. ad Cor. pag. 54 55. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Per regiones igitur urbes verbum praedicantes primitias eorum spiritu probantes Episcopos Diaconos eorum qui credituri erant constituerunt Here are these concurrent evidences to our purpose 1. In that he speaketh only of Bishops and Deacons and neither here nor elsewhere one syllable of any other Presbyters but Bishops it is apparent that in those times there were no Subject-Presbyters distinct from Bishops in being Nor could Doctor Hammond any other way answer Blondel here but by confessing and maintaining this and so expounding Clemens as speaking of Bishops only before other Presbyters were in the Church And if so then there could be none but Churches of single Assemblies then or such as one man could officiate in because there was then no more to do it 2. In that Cities and Countries are made the Seats of these Bishops for though some would make them to be mentioned only as the places where the Apostles preached the obvious plain sense of the words is connexive of preaching and constituting Bishops by preaching they made believers in Cities and Countries and over those believers they placed Bishops and Deacons which implieth it to be in the same places And whereas some would strain the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signifie Provinces and not Country Villages it must then as distinct from Cities have meant many Cities and so have stled Bishops and Arch-Bishops intimating Subject-Presbyters under them But here is no such word or intimation Yea when the Countries are made first the Place of the Apostles preaching as they confess let any impartial man judge whether this be like to be the sense They preached in Provinces that is in the Cities of Provinces and in Cities And if there were Country Churches and Bishops seâ—ied by the Apostle's its easie to see that each particular Church-Assembly had a Bishop when even the City Churches themselves were no bigger than Petavius and others mention 3. Ad hominem Though I believe that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eorum qui credituri erant be intended only to signifie the subsequence of believing to their preaching yet waving that to them that suppose it to intend the subsequence of believing to making Bishops it must needs imply that the Churches then consisted but of few and were yet to be filled up But whether one Bishop to have many Churches is a question which must be otherwise and aliunde decided 4. The magnitude of the Churches is plainly intimated when he saith p. 57. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Constitutos itaque ab illis vel deinceps ab aliis viris celebribus cum consensu universae Ecclesiae qui inculpate ovili Christi inservierunt c. If the Bishops were chosen by the Consent of all the Church it was no greater a Church than would and did meet to signifie their consent and not such as our Diocesses now are 5. Also the same is intimated by pag. 69. If it be for me that Contention Sedition and Schisms arise I will depart I will be gone whither you will and will do what
luxit recipe cuncta Ecclesia pro eo deprecante c. And much more works he adds Whereby it appeareth that the Bishoprick was no greater than that he could take a personal care of every member over the meanest sound and unsound And that it was one Assembly where all did intercede for the restoring of the Penitent So cap. 20. opening the Bishop's duty to the Laity he repeateth Omnes monens omnes increpans c. And ibid. Medice ergo Ecclesiae Domini adhibe medicinam cuique aegrotantium convenientem Omnibus modis cura sana factos sanos redde Ecclesiae pasce gregem non per vim neque imperiose cum ludibrio despectu quasi dominatum teneas sed tanquam bonus pastor in sinum ac complexum agnos congrega oves gravidas hortare And it concerneth them to know well what they do for cap. 2. Scitote quod qui eum qui injuriam non fecit ejicit aut qui se convertit non recipit fratrem suum occidit sanguinem ejus fudit sicut Cain sanguinem fratris sui fudit cujus sanguis qui ad Deum clamat requiretur Similiter eveniet ei qui ab Episcopo suo sine iusta causa fuerit excommunicatus Qui tanquam pestiferum ejicit eum qui est extra culpam is quidem saevior est interfectore Violentior est ipso homicida qui corpus perimit is qui innocentem ex ecclesia ejicit Et cap. 25. Oportet ut qui in Ecclesia assidui sunt eos Ecclesia aelat viz. Pontificem Sacerdotes Levitas where the Assembly is the Church which maintaineth the Bishop and Presbyters And cap. 26. It is the Bishop that to all the Church is Minister Verbi scientiae custos Mediator Dei vestrum in iis quae ad eum colendum pertinent that is officiateth in Church Worship hic est magister pietatis ac religionis hic est secundum Deum pater vester qui vos per aquam Spiritum sanctum regeneravit c. Episcopus igitur vobis praesideat ut dignitate Dei cohonestatus qua clerum sub potestate sua tenet toti populo praeest Diaconus vero assistat huic c. So that a Bishops Church was no greater than that he could be the constant Teacher Guide Baptizer c. of them all And cap. 27. All the Oblations were to be brought to the Bishop himself by themselves that offered or by the Deacons Immo primitias quoque decimas quae sponte offeruntur is enim probe novit afflictos cuique tribuit ut congruit ne quis eadem die aut eadem hebdom I de bis aut saepius accipiat alius vero nihil penitus So that the reason why all the Offerings Tythes and Gifts in his whole Diocess were brought to the Bishop himself was because he was well acquainted with all the Poor of his Diocess and was every day to relieve them and see that one did not receive twice the same day or the same Week and another have none How many hundred Churches think you had a Church then in the Belly of it and how large was such a Diocess And cap. 28. In their Love-Feasts the Bishop was to have always his special part of the Feast even sent him if he were absent Sure if his Diocess had six hundred or a thousand Parishes and as many Feasts and some of them as far off as I am from the Cathedral Church about fourscore Miles it will cost more the Carriage of the Bishop's Supper than it is worth and it will be cold and it is well if it stink not by the way And the Presbyters that were all to have a double portion also of the Feast are called tanquam Consiliarii Episcopi Ecclesiae Corona sunt enim Consilium Senatus Ecclesiae So that it was but one City Congregation yet that had Bishops and Presbyters and Deacons c. And in cap. 30. and many Chapters there is mentioned often the Bishops doing all without any help save the Deacons which would make one think that de facto Doctor Hammond was in the right and that some of the Constitutions were written when in most Churches there was no Presbyters with the Bishop but Deacons only Cap. 32. If the Deacon knew any to be poor he must tell the Bishop and do nothing without him How large was this Diocess cap. 34. This Bishop must be loved as a Father feared as a King honoured as a God offering him our Fruits and the works of our hands for his Blessing giving him as God's Priest our First-fruits Tythes First-fruits of Corn Wine Oyl Apples Wool and all that God shall give us Was all this carried him from many hundred Parishes many score Miles And cap. 36. The Bishop's Church was no farther off than that all the Members were to come to it in the morning before they went to any work and at Evening when they had done How big was this Diocess Cap. 44. The Deacon is to be the Bishop's Eye and Ear and Mouth and to help him that he may not be overwhelmed with his work If he had a thousand subject Presbyters one Deacon's help only would not have been named Cap. 56. The Bishop is to see that this Deacon speak Peace to every one that entreth into the Church to worship Which implyeth that he was present in the Church Cap. 57. The description of a Church Order is that the Bishop's Seat be in the midst and that the Presbyters sit on each side of him and so for the rest And the Order of Officiating was that the Deacons seeing all orderly keep their Seats the Reader first read the old Scriptures and the Deacon or Presbyters the Gospels then that the Presbyters exhort the people not all at once but one by one and last of all the Bishop c. These were then the Churches where every Altar had a Bishop So cap. 50. Cum doces Episcope jube mone populum frequent are quotidie Ecclesiam mane vespere ut omnino abesse nolit immo assidue conveniat neque Ullus subducendo se Ecclesiam mutilam faciat a corpore Christi unum membrum decerpat Neque enim de solis Sacerdotibus dictum est sed potius quisque Laicus c. So that a Bishop's Diocess or Church was so great as that no one Lay Member should be absent Morning or Evening Lib. 4. cap. The Bishop had the particular care of all the Pupils Widows Labourers Weak Naked Sick Virgins c. And cap. 5. He is to know well who they be that offer all the Oblations and is to reject the Oblations of all the Wicked For cap. 7. Let the Poor have never so much â—eed it 's better perish by Famine than receive anything from the Enemies of God which may be contumelious to his Friends Lib 8. cap. 4. The Ordering of a Bishop must be de quo nulla est querela qui sit a
arbitrabatur And cap. 25. Cum ipso semper Clerici una etiam domo mensa sumptibusque communibus alebantur vestiebantur Yea he ordered just how many Cups in a day his Clergy-men with him should drink and if any sware an Oath he lost one of his Cups Through God's Mercy sober Godly Ministers now need no such Law By this it evidently appeareth that the Church which he and his Presbyters ruled was not many hundred but one Congregation or City-Church There being no mention of any Country Presbyters that he had elsewhere as far as I remember And when Augustine was dying the People with one consent accepted of his choice of Eradius to be his Successor Epist 110. pag. 195. To recite all that is in Austin's Works intimating these Church-limits would be tedious XX Epiphanius's Testimony I have before mentioned as produced by Petavius that there were few Cities if any besides Alexandria in those Countries that had more than one Congregation and particularly none of his own And Doctor Hammond trusteth to him and Irenaeus to prove that the Apostles setled single Bishops in single Congregations in many places without any Sub-Presbyters XXI Socrates l. 5. c. 21. saith The Church of Antioch in Syria is situate contrary to other Churches for the Altar stands not to the East but to the West Which Speech implieth that besides Chappels if any there was but one Church that was notable in Antioch while he calleth it The Church at Antioch without distinction from any other there XXII Socrates l. 7. c. 3. tells us a notable story of Theodosius Bishop of Synada who went to Constantinople for Power to persecute Agapetus the Macedonian Bishop in that City But while he was absent Agapetus turned Orthodox and his Church and the Orthodox Church joyned together and made Agapetus Bishop and excluded Theodosius who made his Complaint of it to Atticus the Patriarch of Constantinople a wise and peaceable Man who desired Theodosius to live quietly in private because it was for the Churches good May such causes oft have such decisions and Lordly troublesome Prelates such success By which story you may guess how many Congregations both Parties made in Synada XXIII Socrates l. 7. c. 26. tells us that Sisinnius was chosen Bishop of Constantinople by the Laity against the Clergy And cap. 28. Sisinnius sent Proclus to be Bishop of Cyziâ—um but the People chose Dalmatius and refused him And this custom of the People's Choice must needs rise at first from hence that the whole Church being but one Congregation was present For what Right can any one Church in a Diocess have to chuse a Bishop for all the rest any more than the many hundred that are far off and uncapable to chuse XXIV Sozomen's Testimony even so late is very observable lib. 7. cap. 15. who mentioning the differences of the East and West about Easter and inferring that the Churches should not break Communion for such Customs saith Frivolum enim merito quidem judicarunt consuetudinis gratia a se mutuo segregari eos qui in praecipuis Religionis capitibus consentirent Neque enim easdem traditiones per omnia similes in omnibus Ecclesiis quamvis inter se consentientes reperire posses And he instanceth in this Etenim per Scythiam cum sint Civitates multae unum dâ—ntaxat hae omnes Episcopum habent I told you the reason of this Rarity before Apud alias vero nationes reperias ubi Pagis Episcopi ordinantur Sicut apud Arabes Cyprios ego comperi He speaketh of his own knowledge No wonder then if Epiphanius be to be interpreted as Petavius doth when in Cyprus not only the Cities had but one Church but also the Villages had Bishops To these he addeth the Novatians and the Phrygian Montanists And let none think their instances inconsiderable For the Montanists were for high Prelacy even for Patriarchs as in Tertullian appeareth And the Novatians were for Bishops and had many very Godly Bishops and were tolerated by the Emperors even in Constantinople as good People and Orthodox in the Faith And Novatus was martyred in Valerian's Persecution as Socrates l. 4. c. 23. saith XXV Even Clemens Roman or whoever he was that wrote in his name Epist 3. sheweth that Teaching the People is the Bishop's Office and concludeth in Crab p. 45. Audire Episcopum attentius oportet ab ipso suscipere doctrinam fidei Monita autem vitae a Presbyteris inquire a Diaconis vero ordinem Disciplinae By which Partition of Offices it is evident that the Bishop only and not the Presbyters then used to preach to the Church and that the Presbyters though ejusdem ordinis and not Lay-Elders used to instruct the People personally and give them Monita vitae and that they were all in one Church together and not in several distant Churches XXVI Paul himself telleth us that Cenchrea had a Church and the Scripture saith They ordained Elders in every Church And though Downame without any proof obtrude upon us that it was under the Bishop of Corinth and had a Presbyter of his to teach them yet of what Authority soever in other respects the Constitutions called Clements or the Apostles be they are of more than his in this where lib. 7. cap. 46. in that old Liturgy Lucius is said to be Bishop of Cenchrea ordained by the Apostles XXVII Gennadius de viris illustr l. 1. c. 10. saith that Asclepius was Vici non grandis Episcopus Bishop of a Village not great XXVIII Saith Cartwright Four or five of the Towns which were Seats of the Bishops of the Concil Carthag which Cyprian mentioneth are so inconsiderable that they are not found in the Geographical Tables XXIX And faith Altare Damascen p. 294. Oppidum trium Tabernarum Velitris vicinum was a Bishop's Seat for all the nearness and smallness of the Towns And Gregor lib. 2. Epist 35. laid the Relicts of the wasted Church to the Bishoprick of Veliterno Castrum Lumanum had a Bishop till Gregory joyned it to Benevatus Bishop of Micenas and so had many Castra ordinarily Remigius did appoint a Bishop within his own Diocess when he found that the number of persons needed it Viz. apud Laudunum clavatum Castrum suae Dioeceseos Of Spiridion the Bishop of Trimithantis I spake before XXX Theoph. Alexand. Epist Pasch 3. in Bibl. Pat. To. 3. concludeth thus Pro defunctis Episcopis in locis singulorum constituti In urbe Nichio pro Theopempto Theodosius In Terenuthide Aisinthius In oppido Geras pro Eudaemone Pirozus In Achaeis pro Apolline Musaeus In Athrivide pro Isidoro Athanasius In Cleopatride Offellus In Oppido Lato pro Timotheo Apelles And the nearness and smallness of some of these sheweth the Dioceses small The same Theoph. Alex. saith Epist Canon Can. 6. De iis qui ordinandi sunt haec erit forma ut quicquid est Sacerdotalis ordinis consentiat eligat tunc Episcopus examinet
vel ei etiam assentiente Sacerdotali ordine in media Ecclesia ordinet praesente populo Episcopo alloquente an etiam posset ei populus ferre testimonium Ordinatio autem non fiat clanculum Ecclesia enim pacem habente decet praesentibus sanctis ordinationes fieri in Ecclesia Undoubtedly as Balsamon noteth by Saints is meant fideles the People Here then you see that the Churches then were such where all the Clergy were present with the Bishop who ordained Ministers to a single Church where all the people could be present to be consulted XXXI In the Life of Fulgentius it is said that Plebs ipsius loci ubi fuerat Monasterium constitutum differre suam prorsus Electionem donec inveniret B. Fulgentium cogitabat where the Bishops resolved to ordain though the King forbad it them And though the King persecuted them for it it is added Repleta jam fuerat Provincia Bizacena novis Sacerdotibus pene vix paucarum plebium Cathedrae remanserant destitutae And the Phrase plebium Cathedrae doth signifie a Bishop's Seat in one Congregation of People One Plebs was one Congregation and had its proper Cathedram XXXII Sozomen after Socrates mentioning the diversity of Church Customs as aforesaid l. 7. c. 19. saith that at Alexandria the Arch-Deacon only readeth the Holy Scriptures in other places only the Deacons and in many Churches only the Priests and on solemn days the Bishops By which words it appeareth that then every Church was supposed to have a Bishop Priests and Deacons present in their publick Worship For the Bishop on his solemn days could not be reading in many Churches much less many hundred at once XXXIII Histor Tripartit l. 1. c. 19. out of Sozomen l. 1. c. 14. Edit Lat. Basil p. 1587. telleth us how Arius seeketh as from the Bithynian Synod to Paulinus of Tyre Euseb Caesar Patroph Scythopol ut una cum suis juberetur cum populo qui cum eo erat solennia Sacramenta Ecclesiae celebrare Esse dicens consuetudinem in Alexandria sicut etiam nunc ut uno existente super omnes Episcopo Presbyteri scorsim Ecclesias obtinerent populus in eis Câ—â—â—â—ctas solemniter celebraret Tunc illi una cum aliis Episcopis c. By this with what is said before out of Epiphanius it is undeniable that this gathering of Assemblies by the Presbyters in the same City and administring the Sacrament to them besides the Church where the Bishop was was taken to be Alexandria's singularity even as low as Sozomen's time And yet note that here is even at Alexandria no mention of many Churches in the Countries at a distance much less hundreds thus gathered but only of some few in that great City And if even in a great City and in Epiphan and in Sozomen's days a Presbyter's Church was an Alexandrian Rarity what need we more Historical Evidence of the Case of the Churches in those times XXXIV Ferrandus Diaconus in Epist de 5. Quaest saith to Fulgentius Sanctos Presbyteros Diaconos beatamque Congregationem which was his Church saluto And that you may again see what Congregation or Church that was In vita Fulgentii cap. 17. pag. 8. it is said that the Plebs sought and chose him and that in despight of Foelix the ambitious Deacon who sought the place and sought the life of Fulgentius Populus super suam Cathedram eum collocavit Celebrata sunt eodem die Divina solenniter Sacramenta de manibus Fulgentii Communicans omnis populus laetus discessit And if in the noble City of Ruspe so late as the days of Fulgentius the Bishop's Church-members were no more than could chuse him set him on his seat and all communicate that day at his hands it is easie by this to judge of most other Churches XXXV Concil Parisiens 1. in Caranz pag. 244. Can. 5. saith Nullus civibus invitis ordinetur Episcopus nisi quem Populi Clericorum Electio plenissima quaesierit voluntate Non principis imperio neque per quamlibet conditionem Metropolis voluntate Episcoporum Comprovincialium ingeratur Quod si per ordinationem Regiam honoris sui culmen pervadere aliquis nimia temeritate praesumpserit a Comprovincialibus loci ipsius Episcopis recipi nullatenus mereatur quem indebite assumptum agnoscunt Siquis de Comprovincialibus recipere eum contra indicta praesumpserit sit a fratribus omnibus segregatus ab ipsorum omnium Charitate remotus Here again you see how late all the Church was to chuse every Bishop plenissima voluntate and consequently how great the Church was And were this Canon obeyed all the people must separate from all the Bishops of England as here all are commanded to do from all those Bishops that do but receive one that is put in by the King and not by the free choice of all the Clergy and People of his Church Note that Crab Vol. 2. pag. 144. hath it contra Metropolis voluntatem But both that and Caranza's Reading who omitteth contra seem contrary to the scope and it 's most likely that it should be read Metropolis voluntate contra Episcoporum comprov scilicet voluntatem XXXVI Leo 1. P. Rom. Epist 89. pag. mihi 160. damning Saint Hillary Magisterially yet saith Expectarentur certe vota Civium testimonia populorum quaereretur honoratorum arbitrium Electio Clericorum quae in Sacerdotum solent ordinationibus ab his qui norunt patrum regulas custodiri ut Apostolicae authoritatis norma in omnibus servaretur qua praecipitur ut Sacerdos Ecclesiae praefuturus non solum attestatione fidelium c. Et postea Teneatur subscriptio Clericorum honoratorum testimonium ordinis consensus Plebis Qui praefuturus est omnibus ab omnibus eligatur And how great must that Diocess be where all the Laity must chuse and vote c. It 's true that Epist 87. c. 2. p. 158. he would not have little Congregations to have a Bishop to whom one Presbyter is enough and no wonder at that time that this great Bishop of Rome the first that notably contended for their undue Supremacy in the Empire was of that mind who also Epist 88. saith of the Chorepiscopi Qui juxta Can. Neocaesar sive secundum aliorum decreta patrum iidem sunt qui Presbyteri The falsehood of which being too plain Petavius in Epiphan ad Haeres 74. p. 278. judgeth that these words being in a Parenthesis are irreptitious And ibid. Epist 88. he saith that by the Can. all these things following are forbidden the Chorepisc and Presbyter Presbyterorum Diaconorum aut Virginum consecratio sicut constitutio Altaris ac benedictio vel unctio Siquidem nec erigere eis Altaria nec Ecclesias vel Altaria consecrare licet nec per impositiones manuum fidelibus baptizandis vel conversis ex haeresi Paracletum Spiritum Sanctum tradere nec Chrisma conficere nec Chrismate Baptizatorum frontes
a particle of the foresaid proportion But when others do it he saith He doth it by them 3. He doth not at all govern his flock with that which is the true Pastoral Government which is in person among them to guide them and resolve their doubts and admit those to Communion that are fit and refuse the unfit To admonish all the scandalous and unruly as personally known to him to watch over them and confirm the weak and refel seducers when they come among them But instead of this he never seeth them as to the main body of his flock nor knoweth them but summoneth their Teachers and Church-wardens and such as others that dwell among them or his Apparitors will accuse to him to come before his Lay-Chancellours Court as aforesaid and in his Viâ—itation to meet him so that here is none of the same work no nor Government it self but another kind of Government And here note 1. That the foresaid three parts of the office Teaching Worshipping and Ruling are all Essential to the office so that if he wanted but any One of them he were not an Officer of the same species with those that have them all much more if he have but One yea not One of all 2. That the flock or Church is not to be denominated from a small or inconsiderable part of it but from the main Body Therefore he that is the Teacher but of one Congregation of a thousand or many hundreds or scores is not to be therefore called the Teacher of that Church or Flock which consisteth of so many Congregations And so also for Worship and personal conduct He is not a Priest to that flock c. Much less when he undertaketh not one Parish Obj. So you may say of one of the old City Churches such as Alexandria where the Bishop preached but to one Congregation or of our Parishes that have Chappels where the Curate teacheth in the Chappels or wherever there are many Presbyters to a Congregation All do not preach at least to all the people Ans 1. I doubt not but Alexandria and all such places should have had many Churches and Bishops as the Christians grew too many to be in and under one 2. But yet when they had several Churches and Presbyters the people were not at all tyed to their own Parishes but might come to hear and joyn with the Bishop as oft as they pleased which though they could not do all at once they might do by turns some one day and some another And so they did So that still they had personal Communion with him though not every day 3. And they lived in Vicinity where they were capable of Converse and personal notice and private help from one another 4. And the Presbyters all joyned in personal oversight or Government of the whole flock and were each one capable of personal admonition and exhortation to any member 5. And those that attended the Bishop and did not frequently officiate in the chief actions yet were present with the Church and assisted him in officiating and were ready to do the rest when ever he appointed them or there was need so that though quoad exercitium they did not the chief parts of the work every day or usually yet 1. it was all the three parts of the Pastoral office which they did and undertook to do in season 2. And that to the same Church in person by themselves So that though Churches that swell to a disordered bulk are not in that perfect order as more capable Societies may be yet whilest their Communion is personal present as aforesaid the Church species is not altered as in our Dioceses it is III. A divers fundamentum vel ratio fundandi proveth a diversity of Relations But a true Parish Bishop and our Diocesanes have fundamenta that are in specie divers And so have a particular Church and a Diocesane Church Ergo a Parish Church and Bishop and a Diocesane Church and Bishop are specie divers The Major is undeniable The Minor I prove by shewing the diversity 1. The Fundamentum of the Relation of a Particular Church is either 1. Of the Relation of the Church to God 2. Or their relation as fellow members one to another 3. Or of their joynt relation to their Pastors or Bishops 4. Or of their Bishops or Pastors relation to them For certainly a Church is not only compounded of various Materials but its form is a compounded of these Four Relations set together and every one is Essential to it And he that cannot distinguish cannot understand Now everyone of all these compounding Relations is founded in a mutual consent 1. The Relation of the Members Pastors and the whole Church to God is founded in Gods consent and theirs Gods is signified 1. By his Scripture Institution and Command 2. By his qualifying and disposing the persons 3. By his providential giving them opportunity 4. And ad ordinem where it can be had by the Ordainers as to the Pastors relation who are Gods ministers to invest them in the office 5. And by his moving the hearts of the People to consent which belongeth to the giving of opportunity The Relation of all these to God is secondarily founded in their own consent that it may be a Contract The Pastors express theirs in their Ordination in general and in their Induction or fixing in that particular Church to the Ordainers and to the people The members express their consent either plainly in a Contract or impliedly by actual convention and submission and performing of their duties 2. The Relation of the members to each other is founded in their said Explicite or Implicite consent among themselves joyned to their foresaid consent to God 3. The Relation of the Members to their Pastors is founded Remotely in the said signification of Gods will by his Word and Providence and by the Ordainers for they are but Ministers and operate but by signifying Gods will And nextly by the mutual consent of the People and the Pastors 4. The Relation of the Pastors to the flock is accordingly founded 1. Remotely in the said signification of Gods will by his Word Gifts Disposition Opportunity and by the Ministery of the Ordainers 2. And nextly by the consent of Pastors and People Thus is a particular Church-relation founded and all these parts are necessary thereunto But as for our Diocesane Churches which have no particular Churches under them nor Bishops but only Congregations with several Curates being not politically and properly Churches For I meddle not with such A. Bishops Dioceses as consist of many true Churches with their proper Bishops let us see from what foundation they result 1. As to their Relation to God he never expressed his Consent nor owneth them that ever I could hear proved And therefore the Fundamental Contract is wanting Those that go Dr. Stillingfleet's and Bishop Reynold's way and say No Form of Government is of Gods appointment do grant that the
Prelacy to be so made And were they Christians or no Christians that made the Diocesane Form If Christians were they orderly Christians or rebellious If orderly how happened it that they were of no Church themselves when the Apostles setled so much of Church Form and Order as I have before named If rebellious they were a dishonourable original of Diocesanes And if the Church Form be not of Divine institution then the Church it self is not For forma dat nomen esse And so the cause is given up to the Brownists by these Learned moderate men so far as that there is no Church in England of Divine institution Were it not that when in general they have said that no Church Form of Government is so Divine they again so far unsay it as to confess the Parith Churches or Congregations with their Pastors to be of Divine institution and of continued necessity All that is to be said by and for them is this That the Apostles were the makers of the English or Diocesane Form but not of that only but of the Presbyterian and Independent also and so made no one necessary but left all indifferent Or that they made one of these Forms as mutable allowing men to change it Answ But 1. I have proved what they made Let them prove that they made any other of a different sort not subordinate or supraordinate if they can 2. And let them prove the mutability of that which they made and their power to change it which they assert Till one of these is proved we are or should be in possession of that which was certainly first made I am bold to conclude this argument with the speech of a bold but a wise and holy man Joh. Chrysostome de Sacerdotio lib. 3. pag. mihi 48. cap. 15. And when some Bishops have obtained that prefecture of a Province not belonging to them and others of one FAR GREATER THAN THEIR OWN proper STRENGTH CAN BEAR THEY CERTAINLY BRING TO PASS THAT THE CHURCH OF GOD SEEMETH NOTHING TO DIFFER FROM AN EURIPUS or a confused turbulent changeling thing pag. 49. AND DO NOT THESE THINGS DESERVE GODS THUNDERBOLT A THOUSAND TIMES ARE THEY NOT WORTHY TO BE PUNISHED WITH THE FIRE OF HELL NOT THAT hell WHICH THE HOLY SCRIPTURES THREATEN TO US BUT EVEN OF ONE THAT IS FAR MORE GRIEVOUS Forgive the words my Lords They are not mine but Chrysostome's or if you will not forgive the citing of them I will bear it as he did the like Only I will abate you in my prognostication or sentence that far sorer hell fire than the Scripture threameth supposing this will be sharp enough even for the most dispersing silencing persecuting Prelate and imputing those words to honest Chrysostome's vehement Oratory And I 'le tell you what went next before these words And they do not only take in the unworthy into the Priesthood but they cast out the worthy For as if they had agreed both ways to spoil the Church of God and the first cause were not enough to kindle the wrath of God they add the second or worse to the former For I judge it equally pestilent to drive out the Profitable and to take in the unprofitable which certainly they do that the flock of Christ may from no part either find consolation or be able to take breath O what would this man have said had he lived now in England CHAP. XI Argument 3. From the destruction of the order of Presbyters of Divine Institution and the Invention of a new order of Sub-half-Presbyters in their stead ARGUMENT III. THe office of Presbyters instituted by the Holy Ghost containeth an Obligation and Authority to Guide by Doctrine Worship and Discipline the flocks committed to their care But the office of a Diocesane being one only Bishop over many score or hundred Congregations is destructive of that office of Presbyters which containeth an obligation and authority to Guide by Doctrine Worship and Discipline or the exercise of the Church keys the flocks committed to their care Therefore the office of such a Diocesane is destructive of the office of Presbyters instituted by the Holy Ghost The Major is thus proved by the Enumeration of the Acts which contain the general office and by the proof of the General power extending to those Acts viz. 1. They that had the Authority and Obligation to exercise the Church keys in the Scripture sence had the authority and obligation to Guide their flocks by Doctrine Worship and Discipline But the Presbyters of the Holy Ghosts institution had the authority and obligation to exercise the Church keys in the Scripture sence Ergo they had authority and obligation to Guide their flocks by Doctrine Worship and Discipline 2. Again The office which contained an Authority and Obligation to Teach Exhort Rebuke publickly and privately to judge of persons baptizable and to baptize them to Pray Praise God and administer the Lords Supper to the Church and to judge of them that are to receive it to watch over them privately and publickly to Excommunicate the obstinately impenitent and absolve the penitent doth contain authority and obligation to Guide that flock by Doctrine Worship and Discipline But such is the Office of Presbyters as instituted by the Holy Ghost Ergo c. Here note 1. That I am not now medling with the Questions Whether such Presbyters hold this power in subordination to any superiour Bishops nor whether there lie any appeal from them to a higher power in the Church 2. Nor am I now questioning Whether in Scripture sence Bishops and Presbyters are all one in Name or thing 3. But that which I maintain is 1. That there is no proof in Scripture that God ever instituted any order of Presbyters which had not the forementioned power of the keys 2. And that God did institute such an Order of Presbyters as had that power de nomine de re And 3. That the Diocesane Office destroyeth such and setteth up others in their stead What God instituted I will prove 1. Out of the Scripture records 2. Out of the History of the Church which long retained them in some degree CHAP. XII That God instituted such Presbyters as had the foresaid power of the Keys in Doctrine Worship and Discipline and no other proved by the Sacred Scriptures THat God instituted such Presbyters and no other I shall prove by the enumeration and perusal of all the Texts of Scripture which mention them viz. as instituted in the New Testament and now in force Act. 14. 23. When they had Ordained them Elders in every Church Compared with Tit. 1. 5. That thou shouldest Ordain Elders in every City as I had appointed thee 7. For a Bishop must be blameless as the steward of God And his power is described v. 11 13. Ch. 2. 1 7 15. and 3. 10. intimate it Compare this with 1 Tim. 3. 1 2 5 6. 1 Tim. 5. 17. Let the Elders that rule well be
counted worthy of double honour especially they who labour in the Word and Doctrine compared with 1 Cor. 9. 14. Gal. 6. 6. which shew that preaching the Gospel was their work as well as Ruling the Churches under them as 1 Cor. 12. 28. Eph. 4. 11 12. Rom. 12. 7 8. intimate Acts 20. 17 28. He sent to Ephesus and called the Elders of the Church Take heed to your selves and to all the flocks over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers or Bishops to feed or rule the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own bloud v. 31. Therefore watch c. v. 35. So labouring ye ought to support the weak Acts 11. 30. They sent it to the Elders by the hands of Barnabas and Soul Acts 15. 2. 6. 22 23. To the Apostles and Elders And the Apostles and Elders came together to consider Then pleased it the Apostles and Elders with the whole Church The Apostles Elders and Brethren send greeting See v. 25 28. Acts. 6. 4. The decrees which were ordained of the Apostles and Elders which were at Jerusalem Acts 2â— 18. The day following Paul went in with us unto James and all the Elders were present 1 â—im 4. 14. Neglect not the gift which is in thee which was given thee by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery 1 Pet. 5. 1. The Elders which are among you â—exhort who also am an Elder Feed the flock of God which is among you taking the oversight or Episcopacy thereof not by constraint but willingly Neither as being Lords over Gods heritage but being ensamples to the flock And when the chief Shepherd shall appear 2 Joh. 1. The Elder to the Elect Lady Whether those Texts 1 Tim. 5. 1. Rebuke not an Elder v. 19. Receive not an accusation against an Elder speak of an Elder by Office or by Age is uncertain if it be by Office the other Texts describe them Jam. 5. 14. Is any man sick Let him call for the Elders of the Church All these Texts shew that every Church had Elders by the institution of the Holy Ghost That they were the Teachers Worshippers Rulers and were among the people present with their flock personally doing their Offices c. And the Scripture mentioneth no other that I can find And of this I have Dr. Hammonds full confession Annotat. in Act. 11. dissert before cited with all those whom he mentioneth of his party and mind And as for them of the contrary opinion they tell us that in Scripture times the Names Presbyter Bishop were common And that the word Bishops sometimes signified all the Presbyters the Bishops as Presbyters and the Subpresbyters as in Phil. 1. 1 2. And that the word Presbyters sometimes signifieth the Bishops only and sometime both conjunctly But they are none of them able to give us any one instance with proof of a Text which speaketh of Subject Presbyters I mean subject in Order or degree to Bishops of the single Churches and not subject to the Apostles and General officers And while we prove that God appointed such entire Presbyters as are here described and they cannot prove against Dr. Hammond or us that any one text speaketh of a lower order or rank I think we need no other Scripture evidence CHAP. XIII The same confirmed by the Ancients AS for Humane testimony the heap is so great brought in by Dav. Blondel that I have the less mind to say any more of it But shall only besides all that is said before on the by recite a few of those testimones which most convinced my own understanding in the reading of them in the Authors themselves leaving others to take what they see best out of Blondels store I. I know that somewhat may be said against what I shall first cite but I think not of sufficient force I begin with it though not first in time because first in Authority The 1. Concil Nicaen in their Epistle to the Church of Alexand. and all the Churches of Egypt Libya and Pentapolis thus decree concerning those that were Ordained by Meletius as Socrat. lib. 1. c. 6. translated by Grynaeus Hi autem qui Dei gratia vestris precibus adjuti ad nullum schisma deflexisse comperti sunt sed intra Catholicae Apostolicae Ecclesiae fines ab erroris labe vacuos se continuerint authoritatem habeant tum Ministros ordinandi tum eos qui clero digni fuerint nominandi tum denique omnia ex lege instituto Ecclesiastico libere exequendi Now ordaining Ministers and nominating men for the Clergy are acts which if any shew Presbyters to be Rulers in the Church Obj. 1. Perhaps it is Bishops ordained by Meletius that are here spoken of or Bishops with the Presbyters respectively Answ There is no more in the Text but this They decreed further touching such as were entred into holy Orders by his laying on of hands that they after confirmation with more mystical laying on of hands should be admitted into the fellowship of the Church with this condition that they should enjoy their dignity and degree of Ministry yet that they be inferiour to all the Pastors throughout every province and Church Moreover that they have no authority to elect the Ministers approved by their censures no not so much as to nominate them which are to execute the Ecclesiastical functions nor to intermeddle with any thing touching them that are within Alexanders jurisdiction without the consent of the Bishop of the Catholick Church And then they add as afore that those that fell not into Schism as they did shall have authority to Consecrate Ministers and nominate such as shall be thought worthy of the Clergy Now that it is Presbyters and not Bishops that are here spoken of appeareth 1. In that it is without any note of eminency said to be such as were entred into Holy Orders 2. In that it is such as so entred by the Laying on of Meletius's hands Wherereas a Bishop must be ordained by the hands of three Bishops And the Schism of one of the three would not have frustrated the Ordination if the other two stood firm in the Catholick Union 3. Because it is the priviledge of Presbyters that is denyed them Though they be not degraded they are to be below all other Pastors in every Church which cannot be that they shall be Bishops below all Presbyters 4. Because the consent of the Bishop of the Catholick Church where they shall come is necessary to their officiating But if it could have been proved that Bishops had been here included yet while Presbyters also are included it will not invalidate the testimony But indeed here is no such proof I confess that Nicephorus a less credible Author seemeth to apply it to Bishops Ordained by Meletius But no such thing can be gathered out of Sozomen either Tripart lib. 1. c. 18. where he describeth Meletius and his party or Tripart lib. 2.
that the Presbyters office which was instituted by God and used by the ancient Churches contained an obligation and Authority not only to Teach and Worship but also the rest of the Power of the Keys to Rule the Churches committed to their care not by the sword or force but by a pastoral perswasive power judging who is to be taken in and put out and what persons are fit objects for the respective exercises of their own Ministerial acts which was the thing I was engaged to make good CHAP. XV. Whether this Government belonging to the office of Presbyters be in foro Ecclesiae exteriore or only in foro Conscientiae interiore THe last shift that some Prelatists have is to distinguish between the forum internum Conscientiae poenitentiale and the forum externum Ecclesiasticum and to tell us that indeed Presbyters have the Power of the Keys in private or in the first sense but not in Publick or in the second Answ 1. Note that the question is not whether they have the sole power or the chief power or with what limitations it is fit for them to exercise it nor what appeals there should be from them But whether the power of the Keys be part of their office 2. That the question is not of the power of Governing the Church by the sword which belongeth to the King and is Extrinsick to the Pastoral office and to the being of the Church As protecting the Church punishing Church-offenders corporally c. For this is proper to the Magistrate and belongeth neither to Bishops nor Presbyters as such We claim no part with the Prelates in any such secular Government as their Courts use except when they come to Excommunication and Absolution At least no coercive power at all 3. All the question is of the power of the Keys of Admission Conduct and Exclusion of judging who shall have Sacraments and Church-Communion with our assemblies that is Who shall be pronounced fit or unfit for it by our selves And that this belongeth to Presbyters in foro publico Ecclesiae I prove 1. Because they are Publick officers or Pastors over that Church and therefore their power of the Keys is a publick Church power else they had none of the Keys as Pastors of that Church at all For the Keys are to Let in and put out They are the Church Keys and he that hath power only to speak secretly to a single person doth not thereby take in to the Church or put any out nor Guide them publickly A man that is a Minister at least may convince satisfie comfort any mans conscience in secret of what Church soever he be even as he is a member of the Universal Church But he that is a publick Officer and Governour of the Church may publickly Govern the Church But a Presbyter is a publick officer and Governour Ergo. 2. The rest of his office may be publickly performed Coram Ecclesia and not in secret only He may Preach to the Church Pray with the Church Praise God with them Give them the Sacrament Therefore by parity of Reason he may publickly exercise discipline unless any by-accident pro tempore forbid it 3. Else he must be made a meer Instrument of another and not a rational free Agent and Minister of Christ Yea perhaps more like to an Asse who may carry Bread and Wine to the Church or like a Parrot that may say what he is bid than a man who hath a discerning judgment what he is to do I must publickly baptize and publickly preach and pray and publickly give the Lords Body and Bloud And if I must be no Judge my self to whom I must do this then 1. Either I may and must do it to any one without offending God to whom the Bishop bids me do it And if so I may Excommunicate the faithful and curse Gods children and absolve the most notoriously wicked if the Bishop bid me And how come they to have more power than King Balak had over Balaam or than a Christian Emperour had over Chrysostom He that saith to the wicked Thou art righteous Nations shall curse him people shall abhor him Prov. 24. 24. Wo to them that call evil good and good evil But what if the Bishop bid them If I may not preach lies or heresies if the Bishop bid me then I may not lyingly curse the faithful nor bless the wicked if he bid me If I may not forbear preaching the Gospel meerly for the will of man when God calleth me to it much less may I speak slanders yea and lie in the name of God when men bid me The French Priest did wiselier than so that being bid from the Pope to Curse and Excommunicate the Emperour said I know not who it is that is in the right and who is in the wrong but I do Excommunicate him that is in the wrong whoever he be 2. Or else it will follow that I am bound to sin and damn my soul thereby whenever the Bishop will command me which is a contradiction 3. Or else it will follow that I am a beast that am not to judge or know what I do and therefore my acts are neither sin nor duty 4. If he have not the Keys to use publickly in foro Ecclesiae he hath no power of Excommunication and Restitution at all For to Excommunicater is publickly to notifie to the Church that this person is none of them nor to be communicated with and to charge them to avoid his company 5. The Bishops themselves put the Presbyters to proclaim or read the Excommunication and if this be any Ministerial or Pastoral act certainly it is in foro Ecclesiae 6. Most of the Acts before named as their concessions as to be in the Convocation c. are acts in foro publico 7. The full proofs before brought from Antiquity of Presbyters sitting in Councils Judging Excommunicating c. are of publick not private exercise of the Keys 8. They are the same Keys or Office power which Christ hath committed to the Pastors even the Guidance of his Church to feed his lambs And ubi Lex non distinguit non est distinguendum Where doth Christ or Scripture say You shall use the Keys of Church-power privately but not in the Church or publickly 9. All this striving against Power in the Ministers of Christ is but striving against their duty work and the ends and benefits of it He that hath no Power for publick discipline hath no obligation to use it and so he is to neglect it And this is it that the Devil would have to keep a thousand or many hundred Pastors in a Diocese from doing the publick work of Discipline And as if he could confine Preaching to Diocesans only And I verily believe they are better of the two at Preaching than at Discipline he knoweth that it is but few souls of many thousands that would be taught Even so when he can confine Church discipline to the Diocesanes
change in their Church Orders Either it was part of the Apostolical Commission and work to settle Church Offices and orders for Government or not as to the species if Christ had not before done it or to settle it by revealing what Christ did command them either from Christ's mouth or the Spirits inspiration to â—â—tle the Catholick Church as Moses did the Jewish If it were none of their Commissioned Office work then it was none of John's And then it is done so as may be yet undone But if it were John's work it was Theirs And if theirs why did they not perform it Even while they had that promise Matth. 15. 20 21. Where two or three are gathered together in my Name c. And If two of you agree of a thing c. If you say that there was no need till they were all dead I answer It is a Fiction The greatest numerous Church at Jerusalem had more need of more than One to officiate among them and so had Ephesus Antioch Coritnb c. than most Churches else had in St. John's days And were all the Apostles so negligent and forgetful 2. What proof is there that St. John did make this change It is either by Scripture that it is proved or by History 1. Not by Scripture For 1. No Scripture mentioneth S. John's doing it 2. Dr. Hammond and his followers confess that it was not done as can be proved in Scripture times And Chronologers suppose that there was but a year or two between his death and the end of Scripture times that is the writing of his Apocalypse And is it probable that he began so great a Change the last year of his life 2. And History maketh no mention of it at all For I am ashamed to answer their nonconcluding reason from St. John's bringing a young prodigal to a Presbyter to be educated or his Ordaining Presbyters when it is no more than is said of the other Apostles Let them give us if they can any Satisfactory proof that S. John alone a year or two ere he died made this new species of Presbyters and Churches that we may believe it to be of God But blind presumptions we dare not trust 3. None of the Ancient Churches Councils or Doctors that ever I could find did ever hold that Subpresbyters were instituted by St. John alone and these changes made by him How then shall we think that men of yesterday can tell us without them and better than they and contrary to them the history of those times 4. By as good a course as this what humane corruption may not be defended and Scripture supposed insufficient to notifie Gods Church-institutions to us When there is nothing said in Scripture for them the Papists or others may say that S. John made this or that Change when all the rest were dead But why must we believe them 5. And the Church hath rejected this plea already long ago When Papias pleaded that he had the Millenary Doctrine from St. John himself and when the Eastern Churches pretended his Authority for their time of Easters observation here was incomparably a fairer shew of St. John's Authority than is produced by Dr. H. in the present case And yet both were over-ruled by the Consent of the Churches II. And that it cannot be proved to be the Apostles intentions that their establishment herein should be but temporary and left to the will of man to change I have largely proved in my Disput 1. of Church Government long ago I now only say 1. That which the Apostles did in execution of a Commission of Christ for which he promised and gave them his infallible Spirit was the work of Christ himself and the Spirit and not to be changed but by an Authority equal to that which did it But such was the setling of the species of Churches and Elders Ergo c. The Commission is before recited from Scripture and so is the promise and gift of the Spirit to perform it 2. Where there is full proof of a Divine Institution by the Apostles and no proof of a purpose that men should afterward change it or that this institution should be but for a time and then cease there that Institution is to be supposed to stand in force and the repeal cessation or allowed mutation to befeigned But there is full proof of a Divine institution by the Apostles that Preesbyters with the power of Government were placed over single Churches and no other saith Dr. H. And there is no proof brought us at all of either Repeal Cessation or Allowance for mutation Ergo c. They confess de facto all that we desire viz. 1. That there was then none but single Churches or Congregations under one Bishop 2. That there were no Subpresbyters Let them now prove the Allowance of a Change 3. That supposition is not to be granted which leaveth nothing sure in the Christian Churches and Religion But such is the supposition of a change of the Apostles Orders in these points Ergo. If the after times may change these Orders who can prove that they may not change all things else of supernatural institution As the Lords day Baptism the Lords Supper the Bible the Ministry yet remaining c. And if so nothing is sure Object Christ himself instituted these and therefore they may not be changed Answ 1. It was not Christ himself that wrote the Scripture but his servants by his Spirit 2. Christ himself did that mediately which his Apostles did by his Mandate and Spirit Matth. 28. 20. The Spirit was given them to bring all things to their remembrance which he had spoken to them And to cause them to Teach the Churches all things which Christ had commanded them And as Christ made the Sin against the Holy Ghost to be greater than that which was but directly against his humanity and as he promised his Disciples that by that Spirit they should do greater works than his so that which his Spirit in them did establish was of no less authority than if Christ had personally established it 4. By this rule the Prelates themselves may be yet taken down by as good authority as the Apostles other settlement was changed For if it was done by Humane Authority there is yet as great Humane power to make that further change Wherever they place it in Kings Bishops or Councils they may yet put down Bishops by as good authority as they put down what the Apostles set up and may set up more new orders still by as good authority as they set up these half-presbyters And so the Church shall change as the Moon 5. That which is accounted a reproach to all Governours is not without proof to be imputed to God and his inspired Apostles But to make oft and sudden changes of Government is accounted a reproach to all Governours Ergo For it is supposed that they wanted either foresight and wisdom to know what was to be
done or Power to maintain it To make Laws and seâ— up Churches Officers and Orders this year and to take them down and set up new ones a few years after seemeth levity and mutability in man And therefore must not without cause and proof be ascribed to God And the rather because that Moses Laws had stood so long and the taking down of them was a scandal very hardly born And if the Apostles that did it should set up by the Spirit others in their stead to continue but till they died this would be more strange and increase the offence 6. There was no sufficient change of the Reason of the thing Therefore there was no sufficient reason to change the thing it self if Prelates had had Authority to do it If you say That in Scripture times there were not worthy men enow to make Subpresbyters and Bishops both of I answer It is notoriously false by what Scripture speaketh 1. Of the large pourings out of the Spirit in those times 2. Of the many Prophets Teachers Interpreters and other inspired speakers which were then in one Congregation Act. 13. 1 2. And 1 Cor. 14. Insomuch that at Corinth Paul was put to limit them in the number of speakers and the exercise of their gifts 2. And it 's known by history and the great paucity of Writers in the next age that when those miraculous gifts abated there was a greater paucity of fit Teachers proportionably to the number of Churches than before 3. And who can prove that if there had been more men the Apostles would have made a new Order of Presbyters and not only more of the same Order 2. Obj. But the Churches grew greater after than before Answ 1. Where was there three Churches in the whole world for 300 years so numerous as the Church at Jerusalem is said to have been in Scripture 2. If the Churches were more numerous why might they not have been distributed into more particular Churches 3. Or how prove you that Presbyters should not rather have been increased in the number of the same Order than a new Order invented 4. This contradicts the former objection For if that Churches were so small and few before it 's like there might have been the more gifted persons spared to have made two Orders in a Church 5. And what if in Constantine's days the Churches grew yet greater than they did in the second or third age compared to the Apostles will it follow that still more new Orders may be devised as Subpriests were 7. There are worser reasons of the change too visible And therefore it is not to be imputed to a secret unproved mental intention of the Apostles In Christs own time even the Apostles themselves strove who should be the greatest False Apostles afterward troubled Paul by striving for a superiority of reputation Diotrephes loved to have the preeminence Sect-masters rose up in the Apostles days Acts 20. 30. Of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them Some caused Divisions and Offences contrary to the Doctrine which they had learned Rom. 16. 17. In Clem. Rom. time the Church of Corinth was contending about Episcopacy and superiority even Lay-men aspiring to the chair Peter seemeth to foresee what Pastors would do when he forewarneth them not to Lord it over Gods heritage 1 Pet. 5. 1 2 3. Victor quickly practised the contrary when he Excommunicated the Asian Bishops See Grotius his complaint of the early and ancient pride contention and tyranny of the Bishops De Imper. sum Pot. p. 360 361. Novatian with Novatus quickly shewed this spirit if they be not wronged at Rome and Carthage and so did Felicissimus and his partners against Cyprian What stirrs were there for many ages between the Cecilians and the Donatists What horrid work was there at the Concil Ephes 1. And Concil Chalcedon Concil Eph. 2. between the contending Bishops on each side The reading of the Acts would make a Christians face to blush What strife between Anthymius and Basil for a larger Diocese What work against Nazianzen to cast him out of Constantinople What sad exclamations maketh he against Synods and against these Names and Titles of preeminence and higher seats wishing the Church had never known them And yet he was angry with his friend Basil for placing him in so small a Bishoprick as Sosunis What abundance of Epistles doth Isidore Pelusiota write to Eusebius the Bishop and Sosimus and the other wicked Priests detecting and reproving their malignity drunkenness and horrid wickedness And how sharply doth he lament that a faithful Ministry is degenerate into carnal formal Tyranny and that the Bishops adorned the Temples under the name of the Church while they maligned and persecuted the Godly who are the Church indeed How lamentable a description doth Sulpit. Severus give of the whole Synods of Bishops that followed Ithacius and Idacius And in particular of Ithacius himself as a fellow that made no conscience of what he said And what did Martin think of them who avoided all their Communions to the death and would never come to any of their Synods Especially because by stirring up the Magistrate against the Priscillianists they had taught the vulgar fury to abuse and reproach any man that did but read and pray and fast and live strictly as if he were to be suspected of Priscillianism which Hooker himself complaineth of Pref. And Ambrose also did avoid them What bloody work did Cyril and his party make at Alexandria What a man was Theophilus after him What work made he against Chrysostom What a Character doth Socrates give of him What insolence and furious zeal did Epiphanius shew in the same cause in thrusting himself into the Church of Chrysostom to stir up his hearers to forsake him Hierom had a finger in the same cause His quarrels with Johan Hierosol with Ruffinus his abusive bitterness against Vigilantius c. are well known The multitudes of Canons for preserving the grandeur of Patriarchs and Metropolitanes and Prelates on one side and for keeping small Cities without Bishops ne vilescat nomen Episcopi and for restraining Pride self-exaltation enlargement of Diocese encroachment on each other on the other side do all shew the diseases that needed such a Cure or that had such a vent In a word the Bishops never ceased contending partly for their several opinions and errours and partly for preeminence and rule till they had brought it to that pass as we see it at this day between Rome and Constantinople and the most of the Christian world From all which it is most apparent that Pride and Contention were cured but in part in the Pastors of the Churches And that the remaining part was so strong and operative as maketh it too credible that there were ill causes enow for enlarging of Dioceses and getting many Churches into one mans power and setting up a new Order of half-subpresbyters And that the event of
me all nations baptizing them And Dr. H. thinketh that no Presbyter but Bishops baptized in Scripture time because there were then no other existent And it is too evident in Antiquity by what I before cited that no child or aged person was usually baptized without a Bishop when Bishops came up at least they used to anoint their nostrils c. with holy oyl And doubtless they that Baptized or admitted to baptism did examine them of their faith and resolutions before they took them into the Covenant and Vow of God And how many hundreds in a year can the Bishop do this for besides all his other work 6. It is by the English Canons and Rubrick the Bishops duty to confirm all that were baptized many think it is meant in Heb. 6. 1 2. Our Bishops take it for a proper part of their work And they that must confirm them according to our Liturgy must know their understanding and receive their profession of their faith and standing to their Baptismal Covenant which requireth some time and labour with each one for him that will not make a mockery of it Look into the Bills of London which tell you how many are born every week and thence conjecture how many hundreds in a year the Bishop hath in that Diocese to Confirm and consequently in other Dioceses proportionably Or if that will not inform you try over England where you come how many are though but cursorily as a hasty ceremony confirmedat all Whether it be one of many hundreds And set this to the rest of the Bishops work 7. It is the Bishops work to defend the truth against gainsayers to confute and stop the mouths of Hereticks and contradicters and confirm the troubled and wavering minded in the faith not by fire and sword nor by a quick prohibition of others to preach but by sober conferences and weight of evidence and by Epistles as Paul did when they are not at hand yea even to other Churches and as one that is gentle to all men apt to teach patient in meekness instructing them that oppose themselves if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth 2 Tim. 2. 24 25. And shall the Bishop do this for many hundred Churches While he is defending the poor flock against Papists Quakers Arrians Socinians Infidels alas how numerous are the deceivers at Newark or Gainsborough or Boston what shall they all do between that and Barnet or the remotest part of Buckinghamshire II. The second part of the Bishops office is to be the peoples Priestly guides in Gods worship principally in the publick Assemblies and oft in private viz. 1. To confess the peoples sins and their own To be their own and the Churches mouth in prayer thanksgiving and the praises of the Lord. And in how many hundred Congregations at once will they do this 2. To consecrate and distribute the Sacrament of Communion and consequently to discern who are fit for it And in how many Churches at once will he do this 3. To bless the Congregation at the end of every meeting All these I have before proved that the ancient Bishops did and Dr. Hammond saith No other in Scripture times And what Ubiquitary shall do this 4. And in private it is the Bishop that must visit the sick that must be sent for by them all and must pray with them As Dr. H. at large proveth Annot. in Jam. 5. I have told you before how well and for how many he is able to do this in one of our Dioceses If that serve not turn I pray you if you are foreigners ask English men what number it is of sick men in a Diocese that are visited and prayed with by the Bishop Compare them with the Bills of Mortality in London and judge proportionably of the rest whether he visit one of many thousands of such as die to say nothing of all the sick that do recover 5. And it is the Bishops work to receive all the offerings first-fruits tythes and other maintenance of the Church as the Canons before cited say And see Dr. H. on Act. 2. c. and Act. 4. 33 34 35 c. 6. It was the Bishops work to take care of all the Poor Orphans Widows Strangers as the Canons cited shew And Dr. H. on 1 Cor. 12. 28. c. saith The supreme trust aâ—d charge was reserved to the Apostles and Bishops of the Church So in Can. 41. Apost A Bishop must have the care of the moneys so that by his power all be dispensed to the poor c. where he citeth Just Mart. and Polycarp for a particular care I have before told you that if the poor of every parish be not relieved till the Bishop take notice of them few of the poor in England would be any more for Bishops than for famine nakedness and death III. But the principal thing which I reckon impossible and is and must be destroyed by Diocesanes is the Government of all the particular Churches or Parishes in the Dioâ—â—se Where note 1. That I speak not of the Magistrates Government 2. Noâ— of that General Inspection by which an Archbishop or General Pastor overseeth the inferiour Bishops with their flocks as a general Officer doth the Regiments and Troops in his Army which have Colonels and Captains of their own But I speak of the particular Church Government of the Bishops of single Churches like that of Captains over their own troops or rather Schoolmasters in their several Schools And I the rather mention this because Bishops making it more proper to themselves than Teaching or Worship must hold were they consistent with themselves that they can less delegate it to others The exercise of the Keys are 1. For entrance by Baptism 2. By confirmation rightly understood as in a peculiar Treatise I have opened it 3. By Reproof Consolation Excommunication and Absolution of particular persons which I am now to speak of Where distinctly note I. What the work is Materially II. In what manner it must be done III. On how great a number of persons I. 1. To receive accusations and informations of all the great and perilous heresies crimes and scandals in the Diocese 2. To judge of the credibility of the witnesses hardly done by a stranger and of the validity of their proofs For Councils themselves have petitioned the Emperours that ungodly persons might not be witnesses who make so small a matter of other sins as that they may be supposed to make but little of false witnessing Else an Atheist or Infidel or man of no conscience as he never need to miss of Church preferment for want of conforming to mens wills so he may be master of the â—ame liberty and lives of all honest men at his pleasure and govern them that govern Church and State Therefore Bishops themselves must difference between witnesses And to say I know an honest man that knoweth an honest man that saith they are honest men is a poor
the true Church or godly people while the Walls were adorned as if Christ had come from Heaven more for Walls than Souls c. of which before In a word nothing is more evident than that true Discipline was shut out at the times and in the degrees as Diocesses were enlarged and that in Aâ—rick and other places where the Churches or Diocesses were more small and numerous discipline was best preserved II. The second sort of experience is that of almost all the Reformed Churches who have found the Pastoral work and Discipline particularly to be so great as that less than all the Parish Ministers concurring could not perform it 1. Those Churches which with Calvin set up Presbytery exclude no Pastor from the Governing part but took in Elders of the people to help them because experience had told them that all the Ministers were too few what then would one Bishop and Chancellour or Vicar have been able to do 2. The Lutherans who set up superintendants commonly so set them over the Pastors as not to take away the true Pastoral power of governing their particular flocks as finding by experience that the old way of Prelacy would not do it And usually they join Magistrates with them as they also in the Palatinate did And it is such an oderate supriority which is exercised in Hungary Transilvania and in Poland till the Papists rooted them out thence 3. The Helvetian Divines exercise a certain measure of power in keeping the unfit from the Sacrament but not what they judge to be the Churches duty because the Magistrate never would consent That the Pastors are for it as needful to the right ordering of the Churches you may see in Polani Syntag. at large and in most of their Divines of Basil Bern Zurich c. I will now only cite the honest hearty words of Musculus above 100 years ago because he was a man most clear and candid and that did mancipate his judgment neither to Luther Calvin nor any party as such but took liberty to differ from them all as in the points of Redemption perseverance c. At Bern in his Loci Commun ed. 1567. p. 421 He proveth Bishops and Presbyters and Doctors and Pastors to be all one And p. 422. that in the Apostolick Primitive Church they governed the Church in common being subject to no head or president But after the Apostles daies as Hierome saith to avoid schism but as he thinketh more out of a desire of Majority one got the name and presidency of a Bishop But saith he whether this counsel did profit the Church or not by which such Bishops were introduced as Hierome saith by custome rather than by truth of divine disposition to be above the Presbyters it hath been better manifested to after ages than when this custome was first brought in which we must thank for all the insolency wealth and tyranny of the Principal and Equestral Bishops yea for the corruption of all the Churches which if Hierome had seen undoubtedly he would have known that it was the devise not of the Spirit of God to take away schisms as was pretended but of Satan himself to lay waste and destroy the ancient Ministers for feeding the Lords flock whereby it might come to pass that the Church might have not true Pastors Doctors Presbyters and Bishops but under the masks of those names idle-bellies and magnisick Princes who will not only not themselves feed the people of God with sound Apostolick Doctrine but also take care by most wicked violence that it be done by no one else By this devise of Satan it is brought to pass that instead of Bishops the Churches have potent Lords and Princes for the most chosen out of the order of Nobles and great men who being upheld by their own and their kindreds power may domineer over the flock of God as they list And p. 423. The office appointed to the Bishops that came after the Apostles times was to preach to the people to adminster the sacred things to prescribe repentance to take the care of the clergy and the people both in City and Country to ordain to visit to take care that the goods of the Church be rightly kept and dispensed and to take the patronage of Church-matters with Princes And if the Bishops had but staid here it had been better with the Church Or if the Prelates and Pastors of our times would return to these Canonical Rules there might be hope that the Eccleasiastical State and order might possibly be reformed and the controversies of these times might be ended by the word of God Hence it is plain that the office of true Presbyters and Bishops in the Church of Christ is to feed the Lords flock with sound Doctrine and to be truly Pastors and Teachers But now the false Bishops pretend a Pastoral Cure when going to the Assembly-Offices they are as they take it Episcopally cloathed They put on a white stole longer than ordinary with a girdle not such as John Baptist wore c. The maskd Pastor thus dressed doth not feed the flock of God but performeth the Church service in such a gesture Ceremony and dralect that all the matters of the Church may be nothing else than certaine vaine and pompous shewes so that if one of the Apostles were there he would never so much as dreame that this were the Episcopal feeding of the Lords flock Thus the Bishop doing once or twice a year doth Suffciently performe his Office what ever he do the rest of the time The ordination of Ministers and other things accounted Ecclesiastical he committeth partly to his suffiragane and partly to his Vicar or Chancellor The office of Teaching he committeth to some Doctor or Monk so sworne as that he shall not dare to speake a word or hisse besides what is prescribed him in the formes of Lawes Thus far I confess he speakes of the Popish Bishops But who would believe he meant not ours that had seen them And how little do they differ Well you shall next hear him speak of Protestant Bishops Pag. 425 Let us now come to other Ministers Pastors and Bishops divers from these who do nothing in the Church of Christ but Preach and teach They have certaine daies of the weeke on which they Preach And that is well They Preach only out of the holy Scriptures And that well too But this is not well that very many of them speak formally and coldly and not from the heart so that what Seneca somewhere saith agreeth to them Animum non faciunt quia animum non habent They make not men hearty or serious because they are not so themselves And that of the Roman Orator thou wouldst never talk thus if thou speakest from the heart Nor do they accommodate the word of God to the Hearers by pertinent and profitable distribution but they think they have well performed their office if they have any how spoken out the hour In the
mean time they observe not the peoples mindes and lives much lesse do they reforme them Nor do they take care how the people grow in the knowledge of God the faith of Christ and in true Godliness They apply not themselves to the study of the Scriptures nor perswade the people to read them in their houses they neither take care of the poor and strangers nor visit the sick as little caring how and with what faith they depart And thus they discharge their Ministry neither faithfully prudently nor profitably It is indeed of great moment that they bring not strange Doctrine into the Church but teach the Scripture Doâ—â—rine and that they use not superstitious rites but are not content with simple administration of the Sacraments according to the custome of the Primitive Church But in this they are to be blamed that they do things right and profitable not from the hearts but sleightly as on the by and what is accordingly to be else done by a faithful Minister they wholly neglect While they thus Minister they do not indeed bring Errour and superstitions into the Churches as in the foregoing ages was done But in the mean time inclining to the other extreme they take the course which by degrees will bring the people into that indifferency in Religions which is the most pestilent and to drink in Epicurism the waster and extniguisher of all religion Wherefore I beseech them in the Lord that they fully performe and discharge their Ministry and not thus by the halves Thus far he describeth our ordinary better sort of the Clergie but not our Bishops And Pa. 431. They that labour more to keep up the authority of Bishops than to save the people when they cannot convince the Ministers called by the Magistrate of error do raise a question about their calling being themselves neither lawfully chosen nor called saying what Suffragane ordained you minister what Bishop called you to the office As the Priests by Christ They questioned not his work which they could find no fault with but his power so these where they cannot by Gods word defend their own errours and abuses nor disprove our true doctrine they fly to the Episcopal power and authority as if they did passess any such umblamable and lawful power when they neither discharge the office nor have the power of true Bishops wherefore let no true sincere Minister of Christ regard the barking of these men but as content with the testimony of his Conscience and his calling to teach by the Lawful Magistrate go on in the Lords work with alacrity of spirit Here he addeth the manner of their calling at Bern by the election of the Pastors and confirmation of the Magistrates and reception of the people that you may know what he meaneth by the Magistrates Call And p. 436. having told us that Christianity falleth where the election and Pastoral care of the Ministry falleth he addeth But now they that endeavour to put out the light of truth boast much of the power of Bishops Arch-Bishops Metropolitanes Patriarcks and the Roman Pope where if you urge them to it they are not able to prove by any truth of divine institution that so much as this first ministerial power of Ministring in the Church is in those Bishops Arch-bishops Metropolitanes Patriarcks or Pope that is in these Church Lords Satrapes Let them prove that these are true Ministers of Christ I strive not about Episcopacy simply in it self whether it be to be numbred with Christs true Ministers But the controversie is whether such Bishops as our age too patiently tolerateth are to be numbred with Christs true Ministers It is greatly to be feared lest in the day of judgment they will hear that dreadful word from God Depart from me ye workers of iniquity I know you not I have added more of Musculus then directly concerneth the point now in hand because I would take him all together And because the Helvetians are not accounted Presbyterians I add Bullinger Decad. 5. Serm. 3. p. mihi 377. 378. and Serm. 4. p. 383. Where he sheweth that Diocesan Bishops have not the sole power of ordination that Presbyters and Bishops were the same and had the same work and the horrid abuses that came into the Church by the degenerating of Episcopacy And Decad. 5. Serm 10. p. 491. that in latter Ages Prelates and Bishops snatching by tyranny that power of excommunication to themselves which before was used by the Pastors in Synods in common and sacrilegiously using it against the first institution had tarned a wholesome medicine into deadly poyson and made it abaminable to good and bad But I may not recite all Wagundus was no Presbyterian being superintendent of Magdeburgh first and after of Wismaria and after of Jene and after Bishop Pomeraniensis nor yet Math. Iudex yet go they the same way as may be seen Sytagm p. 1049. de excom p. 1114. de Eccles p. 1135. de Minist Should I cite all that is said by those that never were called Presbyterians about the degeneration of Episcopacy the largeness of their charge the ruine of discipline by their tyranny ambition and grasping wealth and titles when they neither will nor can perform the work I mean by Luther Melancton Illyricus Chytraeus Tzegedine Bucer Zuinglius Oecolampadius Gryneus Aretius Gualther Pet. Martyr Paraeus Chenmitius Pelargus c. I should but over-weary the Readers patience I only add that if the Churches of France Belgia Geneva and the rest of the Presbyterians and the Churches of Transilvania Hungary and formerly Poland that were Orthodox and Bobemia Brandenburgh Saxony the Palatinate c. that set up another sort of Episcopacy had found that the old or English species would have done the Ministerial works it is not credible that they would all have rejected it III. The third part of that experience which I alledge is the Bishops own 1. This is signified by their confessions before named Ar. Bishop Ushers reasons for the ancient use of Episcopacy with their Presbyters who shall be acknowledged true Church Governours over their flocks is fetcht from the need of so many to the work And Mr. Stanley Gower late of Dorchester was wont to profess being long intimate with him that he professed to him that he took a Bishop to be but primus Presbyterorum of the same order and every Presbyter a Governour of the flock And when he asked him why then he would be a Primate as he was he told him that he took it not for any part of his office as instituted by Christ but for a Collateral Dignity which the King was pleased to bestow on him for the more advantageous discharge of his Spiritual Office What Bishop Jewels opinion was to the like purpose is plain enough in his works Bishop Reignolds that now is professed to me his opinion to be the same when he took the Bishoprick and when he saw Dr. Stillingfliets book that no form of Church Government is
execution And the same Sulpitius tells you that when this new way of seeking to the Emperour was first set on foot by Ithacius and his Synodists the Priscillianists quickly got the handle of the sword and by a Courtier got even Gratian to be on their side against the Bishops And yet that was not all the mischief but when Maximus had killed Gratian it was this pleasing of these bloody Orthodox Prelates which he trusted to as his means to possess the Empire and so punished the Priscillianists to please them and serve himself of them of which more anon But you may see here that Bellarmine himself seemeth to disown Bishops seeking to Magistrates to punish Hereticks As if he had forgotten their bloody Inquisition and Massacres And Baronius invit Ambros would perswade us that Ambrose who was of Martins mind did not disown the punishment of hereticks by the sword but he would not have Churchmen seek it As if it were not evident enough that it was the thing it self that he and Martin were against and that Martin was reproached by the Prelates as a fâ—â—tor of Hereticks for travelling to Maximus Court and importuning him to save them And as if the Inquisitors did not seek to the Magistrate and more even Judge and execute the sword themselves It s true that Augustine was at last for the use of the sword against the Donatists But it s as true 1. That he wrote much before against it 2. That it was so much against the Churches former judgement and practice that he was fain to write his Apology and reasons 3. And that the Donatists Circumcellians used frequent and cruel violence against the Christians that were Orthodox or Cecâ—llians and catch'd their Presbyter in the streets of Carthage dragg'd him in the dirt and abused him cruelty two Church daies before they let him go with many such outrages Yea the Catholicks could not go safely in the streets for them And among other devises they mixt Lime and Vinegar together and cast it in mens eyes as they passed in the streets to put out their eyes And they were so mad that they wounded and killed themselves to bring odium on the Catholicks And they were so numerous that they called themselves the whole Catholick Church 4. And Austin did never desire the Magistrate to force them to the Sacrament but to defend the Church and repress their insolencies 5. And yet the whole Clergy joyned first in a representation of all this to the Donatists Bishop Januarius as being an old experienced peaceable man and to desire him to remedy it before they would fly for aid to the Magistrate all this you may see in their Epist to him inter Augustini Epistolas And what work did the Arrians make with the Orthodox when they had got the Emperours sword to serve them Nay indeed it was the Arrians who did first set this work on foot after the Jewes and Heathens They so depopulated the Churches by it in the daâ—es of Constantius and Valens that they seemed all to be turned Arrians and thâ— Orthodox party seemed to be almost conquered if not extinct And their Sergius the Monk that instructed Mahomet set him by this way of the sword on that extirpation of Christianity which hath so dolefully prevailed in the Eastern Empire And so great was the swords success against the faith of the Trinity that Philostorgius of Old and out of him Sandius of late would make us believe that almost all the ancient Bishops indeed were Arrians But the saddest instance of the mischief of too much serving Church-men by the sword is the case of the Papal faction when Cyril had begun the trade at Alexandria saith Socrates Episcopus Romanus non aliter atque Alexandrinus quasi extra sacerdotis fines egressus ad secularem principatum erat jam ante delapsus it seems Rome had the primacy in a Sanguinary Prelacy And saith he Then Pope Celestine first took their Churches from the Novations and compelled their Bishop Ruricolae to keep their meetings privately in houses And though the Bishops commended them as Orthodox yet they spoiled them of their fortunes Socrat. l. 7. c. 11. so impatient are armed Prelates of any that are not of their mind and way how honest otherwise soever they acknowledge them But alas since then what streams of blood have been shed to â—ack the Romane discipline How many hundred thousand of the Waldenses and Albigenses did they murther How many thousands in Belgia France Germany Poland Ireland c. And when at first they precariously got the Magistrates to serve them voluntarily with the sword at last they would constrain them to it as their duty and such a duty as they must perform on pain of losing their dominions For the Pope having first excommunicated them next may give away their dominions to others as is fully expressed Concil Lateran sub Innoc. 3. Can. 3. Concil Rom. sub Gregor 7. And do I yet need to say more what mischief hath come by overmuch backing Church discipline by the sword If I do let this be the close that God knoweth how many Great men and Commanders are now in Hell for the persecutions and murders which Church men have thus drawn them to 2. Lastly most certain this course of forcing all men into the Church and to the Sacrament by prison and sword will keep up perpetual divisions in the Churches The more religious sort of people will still in all ages be flying away from such Churches as from a Pest-house or infected place or ruinous house that 's ready to fall The unexperienced Prelates think that it is but some few preachers that teach the people such strict opinions and if those were cut off all would be well But their ignorance is the Churches plague and their own 1. There is somewhat in Scripture that perswadeth them that God hateth all the workers of iniquity and that holiness and unholiness are as Light and Darkness and that he that nameth the name of Christ must depart from iniquity and that the impenitent and scandalous must be avoided and ashamed and hereticks after a first and second admonition and that he that bids them Good speed is partaker of their evil deeds and that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump and therefore the wicked must be cast out and must be to us if obstinate after admonition as Heathens and Publicans These are not the words of phanaticks but of Christ 2. There is something in the newborn soul which is contrary to wickedness and which inclineth men to an enmity with the Serpents seed as such though a love to them as men that are yet capable of grace and which disposeth men to obey all the foresaid words of Christ 3. And there is in the people more than in the Pastors some remnants of ignorance which makes them more liable to stretch these words of Christ too far and by mistake to run further from wicked men than
God would have them But when they see the Wilderness called the Garden of God and the wicked not only tolerated in the Church but forced into it by the Sword and so the Church to contain the world and to be as vicious as Infidels what ever men should do I dare confidently prophecy what they will do All the Prelates in the world no nor all the godly that preach will never prevent it but every age will bring forth new divisions and the stricter sort will be still flying from such Churches as these to worship God in purer societies And if you are angry with the Scriptures and with the Papists keep them from their knowledge you must do so also by the Creed Lords Prayer and ten Commandments or else the very Article of the Communion of Saints and the praying Thy Name be hallowed thy Kingdome come thy Will be done in earth as it is heaven with the precepts of Holiness and Righteousness will have the same kind of operation Obj. But in the Church of Rome there is unity and concord and no Sects and therefore that sheweth us what the sword may do Ans 1. But the Church of Rome is it self but a fraction divided from the rest of the Church Do they not differ sufficiently from the Greeks Armenians Abassines c. Did they not drive from them Germany Belgia and the rest of the Protestants Yea even by their cruelty so far was cruelty from preventing it The Anabaptists and many other Sects may be at one among themselves and yet not at one with any others 2. Are you willing of a concord in your Churches upon the same terms as the Church of Rome hath it What with the same ignorance and ungodliness Locking up the Scriptures in Latin Prayers and Masses and a Catholick Tyrant or Usurper and all this procured by the blood of so many hundred thousands and kept up by the same Love-killing means would you indeed have such a concord Et cum solitudinem facitis pacem vocabitis as Tertullian speaketh 3. But indeed the Church of Rome hath one other means for concord which you want and that is various houses and orders of Monasticks Ignorance and prophaness will serve for the concord of the worst but there will be still some who believe and forethink of a life to come and therefore will be religious and for these when they cannot have communion with the wicked this politickly holy Church hath provided this expedient every one that will be Religiouser than the rest hath a hive or society to fliâ— to at their choice and may betake themselves to that which is most strict or most suited to their own conceits And if you would make Independant Churches to be like such Monasteries where the Religiouser sort may have Communion with one another you may do much to prevent a further breach Object II. But the sword will prevail with the most In the changes of â— Religion in England and else where the People have alwayes changed with the he King Answ 1. Men may seemingly leave an ill way with the King Because they are wicked that walk in it and therefore can say any thing But men will not so easily leave a good way when a King shall leave it Because they that are in a good way are often Good men and true to God and hold Truth and Goodness faster than bad Men hold Error and Evil. 2. Indeed this is the way to have a Church onely of perfidious wicked Men who will turn to any thing with their tongues because they will not turn to God with their hearts And to have no true Christian left among you for such fear not them that can kill the body onely in comparison of him that can damn the Soul Luke 12. 4. 3. Do not France and all the Churches and Our selves at this day fully shew you the falseness of this Objection CHAP. XXII An Answer to the Objections 1. No Bishops no King 2. And of the Rebellions and Seditions of those that have been against Bishops I Come not for your own sake to meddle with such matters as these but you put a necessity on us by making us odious by such pretences 1. To the first I answer 1. Were not all the very Heathen Emperors heretofore and are not all the Heathen Kings still Kings and as great as others without Bishops And may not Christian Kings much more 2. If the Presbyterians had said no Presbyters no King you would have taken it for treasonable as if they had threatned that the King shall not be King unless they may have their way and shall not the King be King unless you may be Bishops 3. What is in the nature of the thing to warrant this assertion Presbyterians own every text and Article for Monarchy as the Prelatists do even as ever any Christian Council or Confession asserted as far as we can learn They plead no other divine right for their offices than our Prelates do And save what some of them have held by the Magistrates own gift they pretend to no power over any mans body or purse Many of them and the Independants meddle no further than their own Congregations What is in all this against Kings That an Aristocratical Church Government may not live quietly under Monarchy or a Monarchial Church Government under Aristocracy is an asserted fiction without all proof Otherwise by the same reason you would perswade Venice Holland and all such Governments that Prelacy may not be endured under them 4. But what if it were all as true as it is false What is it to those Nonconformists that craved Bishop Ushers Episcopacy The question is but whether a humble Bishop in a Parish or Market Town without any Lordship or great revenews or interest in the sword may not live as safely and obediently under Kings as our Lord Bishops Yea in very deed most of the Independant Churches themselves have a kind of Episcopacy whether they own the name or not For usually one single Pastor hath as much as a Negative voice in the management of all disciplinary affairs II. But the answer to the second will fuller answer this 1. Do you not know that where Prelacy is at the highest there Kings and Emperours have been at the lowest Do you not know how the Papal Prelacy at the present usurpeth one part of their Government and is ready to take away the other when they can when ever Kings displease them Can any thing be said to hide this by him that readeth but the two forenamed Councils Later Rom. sub Gregor 7. Did Prelacy preserve those Emperors of the East that suffered by it Doth it now preserve the Emperour of Moscovy where the Patriarks interest is pretended in the rebellion Did it preserve Frederick and the two Henries of Germany or Henry 3. and 4th of France Did it preserve the Kings of England Will. 2. Hen. 2. and 3. John c. from their wars and troubles
time And that though he was made a Bishop and great when the King was restored yet he was the only Bishop of them all that in our conference at the Savoy did desire and endeavour by such concessions to have reconciled us altogether VII I must not tire the Reader with more such long citations I next wish him to see Mr. Alesburies Treatise of confession p. 21. 24 28 104 105 169. Where he describeth the ancient discipline and sheweth from our own Prelates that it is every particular member of the flock that the Pastor should personally know and counsel And see how far we are from this VIII But none of these speak of the times that we are now fallen into It can hardly be expected that any of their own party should yet dare to speak against them yet in private talk how common is it But because it will be too tedious to recite the words I desire the Reason to peruse a Book called Icabod or the five groans of the Church which in sharpness and high charges upon the Prelates since their return exceedeth all that are before cited And that you may know that he is sufficiently Episcopal one of his accusations of them is for accepting so many into the Church now that were lately against conformity I know the man who is said to be the Author and know him to be conformable to this time and in possession of a benefice in the Church IX Let the Reader remember that the division between the Conformists and Non-conformists began at Frankford in Queen Maries days and that Dr. Ri. Coxe was the man than began this stir against the English Church there by his forcible obtruding the Common-Prayer book on them and that long led that party And let him read in Cassander his 20th Epistle where he will find that the said Dr. Coxe when he was made Bishop of Ely in Queen Elizabeths time wrote to Cassander for directions about setting up Cruciâ—â—xes or crosses in the Churches and Cassander instructeth him in what shape the Cross is to be made And his Prec Eccles gave us some of our Collects X. Yea when the Popish Prelacy is described it is so like to ours that when Dr. Bastwick and others wrote against the Italian Bishops ours take it as spoken of them Hear Bishop Jewl Serm. on Mat. 9. 37. 38 But the labourers are few I say not there are but few Cardinals few Bishops few Priests that should be preachers few Archbishops few Chancellors few Deans few Prebendaries few Vicars few Parish priests few Monks few Fryers For the number of these is almost infinite And p 198. And what shall I speak of Bishops Their cloven Mitre signifieth perfect knowledge of the old and new Testament Their Crosiar staff signifieth diligence in attending the flock of Christ Their purple boots and sandals signifie that they should ever be booted and ready to go abroad through thick and thin to teach the Gospel But alas in what kind of things do they bear themselves as Bishops These mystical titles and shews are not enough to fetch in the Lords harvest They are garments more meet for Players than for good labourers whatsoever apparel they have on unless they will fall to work Christ will not know them for Labourers Pag. 144. The Christians in old time when they lived under Tyrants and were daily put to most shameful deaths and were hated and despised of all the world yet never lacked Ministers to instruct them It is therefore most lamentable that Christians living under a Christian Prince in the peace and liberty of the Gospel should lack Learned Ministers to teach them and instruct them in the word of God This is the greatest plague that God doth send on any people To which I add on the by that if any say we would labour if the Bishops would give us leave Though the charge against them thus intimated is grievous and it were better for that man that offendeth one of Christs little ones much more that hindereth multitudes from their duty in seeking mens salvation that a Mill-stone were hanged about his neck and he were cast into the depths of the Sea yet that this will not excuse men from the preaching of the Gospel to the utmost of their power see Bishop Bilson himself Asserting viz. that silenced Ministers should not therefore give over preaching in his Christian subject XI Yea read but Caesars description of the Heathen Druides and tell us whether their Character agree not better with the Prelacy which hath prevailed in the Churches these seven hundred years at least than Christs Character in the Scripture save onely that it is Christianty which they profess Caesar Comment lib. 6. p. 72 In omni Gallia c. In all France there are two sorts of men in some number and honour for the common people are accounted almost but as servants which of themselves dare do nothing nor are used in any consultations most of then being pressed with debts or the greatness of tributes or the injuries of the more powerful do give themselves in servitude to the nobles who have all that power over them as Lords over their servants And of these two sorts one are Druides the other Knights The former are interested in Divine affaires they procure publick and private sacrifices they interpret Religions To these flock abundance of young men for discipline and they are with them in great honour For they determine of almost all controversies private and publick And if any crime be committed if murder be done if there be any controversies of inheritanc or bounds these men determine them and do award rewards and punishments If any private person or the people stand not to their award or decree they forbid them the sacrifices This is with them the most grievous punishment Those that are thus interdicted are accounted in the number of the ungodly and wicked All men depart from them and fly from their presence and their speech lest they get any hurt by the contagion nor is any Right or Law afforded them when they seek it nor any honour done them And over all these Druides there is one in chief who hath the highest authority among them When he is dead if any one of the rest excel in worthiness he succeedeth But if there be many equal he is chosen by the suff age of the Druides And sometimes they contend for the principality by Arms. At a certain time of the year in the borders of the Carnuli Chartres which is counted the middle of all France they have a Consess or Convocation in a consecrated place Hither come all that have controversies from all parts and obey their judgments and decrees It is thought that this Discipline was found in Brittain and there translated into France And now they that more diligently would know that business for the most part go thither to learn it The Druides use not to go to the Wars nor do they pay tribute with
unum nomine Vivilo quem nos ante tempus ordinavimus Presbyteros vero quos ibidem reperisti si incogniti fuerint viri illi à quibus sunt ordinati dubium est eos Episcopos fuisse an non qui eos ordinaverunt si bonae actionis cathoâ—ici viri sunt ipsi Presbyteri in ministerio Christi omnemque legem sanctam â—docti apti ab Episcopo suo benedictionem Presbyteratus suscipiant consâ—â—râ—ntur siâ— ministerio sacro fungantur 11. Of old it was the Custom of the Church that Presbyters joyn with the Bishops in Ordination Concil Carth. c. 3. All the Presbyters present must impose their hands on the head of the Presbyter to be ordained with the Bishop Which fully sheweth that it is an act belonging to their Office and therefore not null when done by them alone in certain cases and that it was but for order sake that they were not to do it without a Bishop who was then the Ruler of the Presbyters in that and other Actions And its worth noting That ib. Can. 4. The Bishop alone without any Presbyters was to lay hands on a Deacon though not on a Presbyter Because he was ordained non ad sacerdotium sed ad ministerium not to the Priesthood but to a Ministery or service which plainly intimateth what Arch-Bishop Usher said to me that Ad Ordinem pertinet ordinare quamvis ad Gradum Episcopalem ordinationes regere The Priesthood containeth a power to ordain Priests but the Episcopal Jurisdiction as such sufficeth to ordain a Deacon Or that the Bishop ordaineth Presbyters as he is a Presbyter his Prelacy giving him the government of the action but he ordaineth Deacons as a Ruler only Arg. II. Ordination by Bishops such as were in Scripture time is valid and lawful But the Ordinations in England now questioned were performed by Bishops such as were in Scripture times Ergo the late ordinations in England now questionedare valid and lawful The Major speaking de nomine officio is granted by all The Minor I prove thus 1. The Ordinations in England now questioned were many or most performed by the cheif particular Pastors of City Churches together with their Colleagues or fellow Presbyters that had Presbyters under them But the Cheif particular Pastors of City Churches having Presbyters under them were such Bishops as were in Scripture times Ergo the Ordinations in England now questioned were performed by Bishops such as were in Scripture times I must first here explain what I mean by a particular Pastor as in an Army or Navy a General Officer that taketh up the General care of all is distinct from the inferiour particular Captains that take a particular care of every Souldier or person under their command so in the Church in Scripture times there were 1. General Officers that took care of many Churches viz. a general care And 2. perticular Bishops and Presbyters that were fixed in every City or perticular Church that took a perticular care of every Soul in that Church It is only these last that I speak of that were Bishops infimi gradûs not such as the Apostles and Evangelists but such as are mentioned Acts 14. 23. and Acts 20. 28. Tit. 1. 5. c. Now for the Major it is notoriously known 1. That ordinarily some of our Ordainers were City Pastors 2. That they had Presbyters under them viz. one or more Curates that administred there with them or in Oratorics called Chappels in the Parish 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Oppidum and our Boroughs and Towns Corporate are such Cities as are signified by that word And there are few of these but have more Presbyters than one of whom one is the Cheif and the rest ruled by him Besides that one was oft-times President of the Assembly chosen by the rest For instance if I had ever medled in Ordainings as I did not 1. I was my self a Pastor of a Church in a City or Burough 2. I had two or three Presbyters with me that were ruled by me so that I was statedly their Chief I was statedly chosen by the neighbourhood associated Pastors to be their Moderatour which was such a power as made Bishops at Alexandria before the Nicene Council Now that such were Bishops such as were in Scripture-times I prove 1. By the Confession of the Opponents Doctor Hammond and his followers maintain that there were no subject Presbyters instituted in Scripture times and consequently that a Bishop was but the single Pastour of a single ongregation having not so much as one Presbyter under him but one or more Deacons which granteth us more than now I plead for and that afterwards when Believers were encreased he assumed Presbyters in partem curae So that our Bishops which I plead for are of the stature of those after Scripture times in the Doctors sence Defacto this is granted 2. The Bishops in Scripture times were ordained in every City and in every Church Tit. 1 5. and Acts 13. 23. So are ours They had the particular Episcopacy over-sight rule and teaching of all the Flock committed to them Acts 20. 28. and if the Angel of the Church of Ephesus were one cheif he was but one of these and over these in the same Church and charge And so have our Parochial Pastours these very words Acts 20. 28. being read and applyed to them in their ordination They had the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven committed to them and so have ours If it be said that these are but things common to the Bishop with the Presbyter 1. What then is proper to a Bishop To say Ordination is but to beg the question And Ordination it self is not proper in the sense of our own Church that requireth that Ordination be performed as well by the laying on of the hands of the Presbyters as of the Bishop 2. They use themselves to make the governing or superiority over many Presbyters to be proper to a Bishop 3. Those to whom the description of Bishops in Scripture belongeth are truly and properly Bishops But the Description of Bishops in Scripture agreeth at least to the chief particular Pastors of City Churches having Presbyters under them Ergo such are truly and properly Bishops The Minor which only needeth proof is proved by an induction of the several Texts containing such descriptions as Acts 20. and 13. 23. 1 Tim. 3. and 5. 17. Tit. 1. 5. c. 1 Thes 5. 12. Hebr. 13. 7. 17 24. 1 Pet. 5. 1 2 3. and the rest 4. If our Parochial Churches or at least our City Churches those in each Town Corporate and Borough be true Churches then the cheif particular Pastors of them are true Bishops but they are true Churches Ergo. Still note 1. That I speak of Churches as governed Societies in sensu Politico and not as a Company of private Christians 2. That I speak only of particular Pastors or Bishops infimi gradus and not of Arch-Bishops and
General Pastors And therefore it they say It is not the Presbyters but the Diocesane that is the cheif Pastor of your Parish Church I answer there is none above the Resident or incumbent Presbyters that take the particular charge and oversight The Bishop takes but the general charge as a general Officer in an Army If they do indeed take the particular Pastoral charge of every Soul which belongs to the Bishops infimi gradus then woe to that man that voluntary takes such a charge upon him and hath such a charge to answer for before the Lord. If they say that the Presbyters have the particular charge for teaching and Sacraments but the Bishops for ruling I answer 1. It is Government that we are speaking of if they are Bishops infimi gradus then there are no Bishops or Governours under them And if so then it is they that must perform and answer for Government of every particular Soul And then woe to them 2. Governing and teaching are acts of the same Office by Christs institution as appears in 1 Tim. 5 17. Acts 20. 28. c. And indeed they are much the same thing For Government in our Church sense is nothing but the explication of Gods Word and the application of it to particular Cases And this is Teaching Let them that would divide prove that Christ hath allowed a division If one man would be the general Schoolmaster of a whole Diocess only to oversee the particular School-masters and give them rules we might bear with them But if he will say to all the particular Schoolmasters you are but to teach and I only must govern all your Scholars when governing them is necessarily the act of him that is upon the place conjunct with teaching this man would need no words for the manifestation of the vanity of his ambition The same I may say of the Masters of every Science whose government is such as our Church Government is not Imperial but Doctoral yea of the Army or the Navy where the government is most imperial Now for the Argument 1. The consequence of the Major is undeniable because every such Society is essentially constituted of the Ruling and Ruled parts as every Common-wealth of the pars imperans and the pars subdita So every organized Church of the Pastor and the Flock 2. And for the Minor if they denyed both our Parish Churches and our City Churches that is those in Towns Corporate to be true Churches they then confess the shame and open the ulcer and leprosic of their way of governing that to build up one Diocesane Church which is not of Christs institution but destructive of his institution they destroy and pull down five hundred or a thousand Parish Churches and many City Churches If they will also feign a specifique difference of Churches as they do of Pastors and say that Parish Churches are Ecclesiae dociae but Diocesan Churches are only Ecclesiae gubernatae of which the Parish Churches are but parts I answer 1. The Scripture knoweth no such distinction of stated Churches All stated Churches for worship are to be governed Churches and the government is but guidance and therefore to be by them that are their Guides 2. I have before proved that every worshipping Church that had unum altare was to have a Bishop or Government by Presbyters at least Arg. III. That Ordination which is much better than the ordination of the Church of Rome or of any Diocesane Bishops of the same sort with theirs is valid The Ordination now questioned by some in England is much better then the Ordination of the Church of Rome or of any Diocesane Bishops of the same sort with theirs Ergo the Ordination now questioned by some in England is valid The Major will not be denied by those which we plead with because they hold the Ordination of the Church of Rome to be valid and their Priests not to be re-ordained The Minor I prove If the Ordination that hath no Reason of its validity alledged but that it is not done by Diocesane Bishops be much better than the Ordination of such as derive their power from a meer Usurper of Headship over the universal Church whose succession hath been oft interrupted and of such as profess themselves Pastors of a false Church as having a Head and form of divine Institution and that ordain into that false Church and cause the ordained to swear to be obedient to the Pope to swear to false Doctrine as Articles of Faith and ordain him to the Office of making a peice of Bread to be accounted no Bread but the Body of Christ which being Bread still is to be worshipped as God by himself and others to pass by the rest than the Ordination now questioned in England is much better than the Ordination of the Church of Rome But the Antecedent is true Ergo so is the consequent And for the other part of the Minor I further prove it If the Office and government of the Romish Bishops and of any Diocesanes of the same sort with them be destructive of that form of Episcopacy and Church Government which was instituted by Christ and used in the Primitive Church then the Ordination now questioned by some in England is much better than that which is done by such Diocesanes But the Office and Covernment of the Romish Bishops and of any Diocesanes of the same sort with them is destructive of that form of Episcopacy and Church Government which was instituted by Christ and used in the Primitive Church Ergo The Ordination now questioned by some in England is much better than that which is done by such Diocesanes The Reason of the consequence is because the Ordination of Presbyters now in question is not destructive of the Episcopacy and Government instituted by Christ and used in the Primitive Church Or if it were that 's the worst that can be said of it And therefore if other Ordination may be valid notwithstanding that fault so may it N. B. 1. I here suppose the Reader to understand what that Ordination is now questioned in England viz. Such as we affirm to be by Bishops not only as Presbyters as such are called Bishops but as the cheif Presbyters of particular Churches especially City Churches having Curates under them and also as the Presidents of Synods are called Bishops 2. Note that all I say hereafter about Diocesanes is to be understood only of those Bishops of a Diocess of many hundred or score Churches which are infimi gradus having no Bishops under them who are only Priests who are denied to have any proper Church Government And not at all of those Diocesane Bishops who are Arch-Bishops having many Bishops under them or under whom each Parish Pastor is Episcopus Gregis having the true Church Government of his particular Flock And thus because the Major is of great moment I shall handle it the more largely The Viciousnes of the Romish Ordinations appeareth thus 1.
when vacant by the Bishops death Now all these lived together as in a little Colledge thus the Churches were planted and the Gospel disseminated through the world But at first every Bishop had but one Parish yet afterwards when the numbers of the Christians increased that they could not conveniently meet in one place and when through the violence of persecution they durst not assemble in great multitudes the Bishops divided their charges in lesser Parishes and gave assignments to the Presbyters of particular flocks which was done first in Rome in the begining of the 2d Century And things continued thus in a Parochial Government till toward the end of the 2d Century the Bishop being chiefly intrusted with the cure of Souls a share whereof was also committed to the Presbyters who were subject to him and particularly to be ordained by him nor could any ordination be without the Bishop who in ordaining was to carry along with him the concurrence of the Presbyters as in every other act of Ecclesiastical jurisdiction Pag. 308. 309. Corruptions broke in upon Church Officers especially after the 4th Centurie that the Empire became Christian Which as it brought much riches and splendor on Church employments so it let in great Swarmes of corrupt men on the Christian Assemblies And then the Election to Church offices which was formerly in the hands of the people was taken from them by reason of the tumults and disonders that were in these Elections which some time ended in blood and occasioned much Faction and Schism And Anâ—bitus became now such an universal sin among Churchmen that c. Pag. 310. I do not alledge a Bishop to be a distinct office from a Presbyter but a different degree in the same office c. Pag. 320. As for the sole power of ordination and Jurisdiction none among us claime it but willingly allow the Presbyters a concurence in both these Pag. 322. That whole frame of Metropolitans and Patriarks was taken from the division of the Roman Empire which made but one great National Church Pag. 331. I acknowledged Bishop and Presbyter to be one and the same office and so plead for no new office bearer in the Church The first branch of their power is their authority to publish the Gospell to manage the worship and dispence the Sacraments And this is all that is of Divine right in the Ministry in which Bishops and Presbyters are equal sharers but besides this the Church claimeth a power of Jurisdiction of making rules for discipline and applying and executing the same All which is indeed suitable to the common laws of societies and the general rules of Scripture but hath no positive warrant from any Scripture precept And all these Constitutions of Churches into Synods and the Canons of discipline taking their rise from the divisions of the world into the several provinces and beginning in the 2d and beginning of the 3d. Century do clearly shew they can be derived from no Divine original and so were a to their particular forme but of humane constitution Therefore as to the managment of this Jurisdiction it is in the Churches power to cast it into what mould she will But we ought to be much more determined by the Laws of the land In things necessary to be done by Divine precept since no power on earth can Council the authority of a Divine Law the Churches restraints are not to be considered Pag. 335. I acknowledge that without Scripture warrant no new offices may be instituted Pag. 337. I am not to annul these ordinations that pass by Presbyters where no Bishop can be had And this layes no claime to a new office but only to a higher degree of inspection in the same office whereby the exercise of some acts of jurisdiction are restrained to such a Method And this may be done either by the Churches free consent or by the Kings authority Pag. 348. In Augustines time it appears from the journal of a conference he had with the Donatists that there were about 500 Bishopricks in a small tract of ground Pag. 30. Observe the Bishops were to be ordained in the presence of the people where every one might propose his exceptions yet the popular Elections were not wholly taken away and at least the peoples consent was asked Pag. 41. Vossâ—is from all the manuscripts of Damasus his lives of the Popes shewes that S. Peter ordained both Linus and Gletus Bishops of Rome and after some enquiry into the matter he concludes that at first there were three Bishops in Rome at once Linus Cletus and Aneneletus in the next succession he placeth Cletus Anencltus and Clemens Pag. 48. Among the Jewes where ever there were an hundred and twenty of them together they did erect a Synagoguge Pag. 49. At a conference which Augustine and the Bishops of that Province had with the Donatists there were of Bishops 286 present and 120 absent and 60 Sees vacant And there were 279 of the Donatists Bishops Pag. 51. The Gothick Churches are said to be planted 70 years before Ulphilas their first Bishop came to them Pag. 50 He she weth the like of the Scots By the streine of Ignatius Epistles especially that to Smyrna it would appear that there was but one Church at least but one place where there was one Altar and Communion in each of these Parishes which was the Bishops whole charge Pag. 56. The enlarging of the Diocesses hath wholly altered the figure of Primitive Episcopacy That the Bishops were chosen by the people and by the Clergy and people and at last not obtruded without the peoples consent Father Paul Saript de Beneficiis oft tells you and I have fully proved by many Canons in my abstract of Church-history of Councils FINIS * Where Dr. Allestree was bred His next Neighbor a Cosins Tab. 3. b Cosins Tab. 4. c Cosins Tab. 5. d Cos Tab. 6. e Cos Tab. 2. f Cos Tab. 8. g Cos Tab. 2. Tab. 8. h Cos ibid. i Cos ibid. k Cos Tab. 2. l Act of Uniform That Parish Priests have no Governing power see Dr. Zouch as also that the King is the Ecclesiastical Supream m Cos Tab. 13. n Cos Tab. 11. Acts 14. 23. Tit. 1. 5. ☞ Vid. Epist 2. Edict Anacleti de forma provinciali Metrapol c. Turrian pro Epist decr c. 24. De novitate hujus formae leg Blondel cont Decr. p. 1. 27. who giveth full testimony of it cont Anaclet Ep. 2. 41. Leg. Vitaâ— Ambros per Baron August li. de opera Monecheâ—â—â—n Invit Ambros per Baron Vit. Ambros per Baron Socrat l. 3. c. 15. Theodoret Eccles Hist l. 1. cap. 10. Leg. Valentiniani Valentus Legem seu Literas in Theodoreti Eccl. Hist l. 4. c. 7. Hestor Andaeanorum c. 9. Messalianorum c. 10. cum interpretatione D. Hookeri li. 7. p. 66. de Audio Euseb l. 8. c. 1. Dr. Hanmer's Translat p. 144 145. Socrat. l. 2. c. 3. Id. ib.
prescribed in Scripture professed that it was always his opinion And joyned with us in our proposals for Bishop Ushers Model Dr Stillingfleet in his Irenicon hath said so much against the Jus Divinum of our Prelacy as can never be answered I have talked with many of the Bishops and Episcopal Conformists my self of these matters and I do not remember that ever I spake to one accounted a Learned man that did not confess when driven to it that the Greatness of the Diocesses and the Chancellors Government by the Church Keyes were causes of so great a lapse of discipline as is to be groaned under And can shew us no probability it possibility of restoring it while it so stands And yet they would have us subscribe and swear never to endeavour any alteration of the Church Government not excepting in our place and calling by petition or otherwise no though the King commanded us Bishop Hall in his Mod. Offer doth confess the faultiness and desires reformation and in his excellent Peace-maker would take up even with a presidencie durante vita as sufficient to reconcile us Dr. Hammond himself oft complaineth of the lapse of discipline and the clergies and peoples vices thereupon The Liturgy wisheth the godly Discipline restored but doth it not as if in our case it could not be done Abundance of their Writers lament the scandals of clergy and people which have abounded of which I shall say somewhat more anon 2. And this is yet plainlier confessed by the Actual omission of discipline We need not to dispute whether that can or be ever like to be done by our Prelacy which is no where done and never was done no not by any one man of them not excepting the very best so that if they had not come neer the Erastian opinion in their hearts and thought this use of the Keyes to consist but in bare Teaching or the rest to be of no great need it had not been possible that they should have quieted their Consciences Or at least if they did not do it by saying I cannot help it It is not long of me As Bishop Goodman layeth it on the King in the case of Chancellours and most lay it on the Church-Wardens and Ministers for presenting no more But all must confess that little is done besides the troubling of Nonconformists It is not one of a thousand in a Diocesse I am confident that ever is brought under the excercise of Church discipline that ought to be Nor one of many thousand that should be so according to the ancient Canons of the Churches If I should give no other instance than the ordinarie neglect of all Gods publick worship Preaching Prayer and Sacraments in publick Churches or any other Religious Assemblies I do not think but ten thousand persons in this Diocesse and twenty thousand if not fourty in London Diocesse are guilty that were never questioned by the Church I may therefore argue thus That which never was done by any one Bishop in England being the confessed work of their office is naturally or Morally Impossible to be done or if it have a possibility it is as bad as none when it never was once reduced into act But the true exercise of Church discipline on all or the hundredth or many hundredth person that it is due to was never done by one Bishop in England that can by any credible History be proved since the deformation or reformation Ergo. The strength of the Major is plain 1. From the Bishops own mouths who use to praise themselves as the Wisest Learn dst and best of the Clergie and therefore fitter to be trusted with the Government of the Church than all or any of the Presbyters though but under then And they would take it heynously if we question their wisdom conscience or honesty and if they are all or most so good sure it is long of the state and constitution of their places and not long of their persons that their very proper work is made but a shaddow and a dream 2. But though this be but ad homines yet really we have had very worthy and excellent persons to be Bishops what a man was Jewell Arch-bishop Grindal had Godliness enough and resolution too to make him odiâ—s and favoured Lectures and Preaching c. Enough to bring him down if Cambden Godwin or Fuller are to be believed but never could do this work of discipline upon one of hundreds or thousands under him We had an excellent Arch-Bishop-Abbot afterwards good enough to be reproached by Heylin and to suffer what I need not mention but never able to do this work What Learned Judicious worthy men were his Brother Robert Abbot and after him Davenant Bishops of Salisbury And how good a man was peaceable Bishop Hall so Usher in Ireland Moron and many more But no such thing was done by any of them what should I say now of Bishop Reignolds and Bishop Wilkins Men Learned and extraordinary honest in these times But let any man enquire whether any such thing as the discipline in question is exercised on the thousandth Criminal in their Diocese Indeed we have heard in Bishop Reignolds Diocese of a great number censured for Nonconformity And it is his praise that it was not his doing but his Chancellours though heretofore Judge Advocate in Fairefaxes or Cromwells Army And to say now that it is long of Church-Wardens Chancellours c. Is but to say that the Church is corrupted the Episcopal discipline almost quite cast out and all the remedy is to say It is long of somebody Like the Physician whose Praise was that his patients dyed according to the rules of art or the nurse whose praise was that though most of the Children perished it was long of themselves or somebody else IV. But the fullest experience which so far satisfieth me that all the books in the world cannot change me in this is my own and the rest of my Brethren in the Ministry I have lived now through Gods wonderful mercy threescore years wanting lesse than four In all this time whilst the Bishops ruled I never heard one man or woman called openly to repentance for any sin nor one ever publikely confess or lament any sin Nor one that was excommunicate in any Country where I came except the Nonconformists Nor did I hear of any but one man to my remembrance who did formal penance for Fornication I doubt not but there have been more But the number may be conjectuâ—ed by this I lived under a great number of drunken and ignorant Curates that never preached and Schoolmasters my self and many more were round about us that were never troubled with discipline or cast out I never lived where drunkards and swearers were not common but never one of them underwent the Churches discipline But those that met to fast and pray and went to hear a Sermon two miles off when they had none at home But yet this is the last