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scripture_n	church_n	word_n	write_a	3,648	5	10.7659	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34152	A compendious discourse, proving episcopacy to be of apostolicall, and conseqvently of divine, institution by a cleare and weighty testimony of St. Irenaeus, a glorious martyr, and renowned Bishop of Lyons in France, upon the yeere of our Lord, 184 : the said testimony being so declared, pressed, and vindicated from all exceptions : that thereby an intelligent and conscionable reader may receive abundant satisfaction in this behalfe / by Peloni Almoni, Cosmopolites.	Almoni, Peloni, Cosmopolites.	1641 (1641)	Wing C5607; ESTC R1019	8,451	16

A Compendious Discourse PROVING EPISCOPACY TO BE OF APOSTOLICALL AND CONSEQVENTLY OF DIVINE INSTITUTION BY A cleare and weighty testimony of St. Irenaeus a glorious Martyr and renowned Bishop of Lyons in France upon the yeere of our Lord 184. The said Testimony being so declared pressed and vindicated from all exceptions that thereby an intelligent and conscionable Reader may receive abundant satisfaction in this behalfe ISAIAH 39. 8. Let there be peace and truth in my daies BY Peloni Almoni Cosmopolites LONDON Printed by E. G. for Richard Whitaker at the Kings Armes in Pauls Church-yard 1641. To the Christian and Judicious Reader IT is true in this particular case of Episcopacy which Salomon speaketh in the general How good is a word spoken in due season It is like apples of gold in pictures of silver If ever there were a season to write or speake in defence of Episcopacy it is now or never wherein men travaile in birth to bring forth their severall conceipts some doubting whether it be of divine or humane institution some affirming the one some the other some desiring to preserve it some to destroy it In such a time silence is dangerous wherein liberty is ill given to or ill taken by the adversaries of Gods ordinance to publish their raw and undigested discourses fraught with more malice then truth But cantabunt cygni cum graculi tacuerint As for my selfe I hope that I may make use of this publique liberty without offence which I seeke not or danger which I regard not to speake a word for my Reverend Mother the Church of England and my Venerable Fathers the Bishops thereof for I may say with S. Hierome in a cause Ecclesiasticall Mori possum tacere non possum I passe a while under an unknowne name as some adversaries of Episcopacy do the person is little to the matter Res cum re causa cum causa ratio cum ratione concertet as S. Augustine writeth Meane while know thus much of me unknowne that I have no dependance upon any Bishop though there be one singularly learned and truely religious in that sacred Order Cui debeo quicquid possum non possum to use S. Hieromes words from whom yet as from the rest I expect nothing being rich in my contentment and private course of life wherein though I enjoy little yet I seeke nothing more but that the truth may have victory the Church peace and God the glory Amen Lond. May 31. 1641. Thy friend in Christ Peloni Almoni A Compendious Discourse proving Episcopacy to be of Apostolicall and consequently of Divine Institution It is a vanity to speake much of a little and a difficulty to speake little of much as in this copious argument of Episcopacy which pleadeth discent from the blessed Apostles to which purpose I might produce many proofes from Scripture Antiquity Fathers and Histories from the most famous Divines of forraine Churches and our owne and finally from Reasons depending upon the sacred oracles of God But now in this latitude of matter to avoyd longitude of discourse I have confined my selfe especially to one important Testimony one in stead of many or of all in pursuit explication and defence whereof I shall have occasion fairely presented unto me to reflect a little upon those other grounds and so out of all to give as plentifull satisfaction upon this point as it doth require or so compendious a discourse can permit Understand then you that are ignorant or remember you that are learned that S. Irenaus confuteth the Marcionites and Valentinians leaden heretickes in that golden age by a double probation first out of the holy Scriptures and then by Apostolicall Tradition not in the Popish sense of an unwritten word but in an orthodoxall sense of the doctrine preached by the Apostles and by them planted in the Churches which is also in the written word the same descending from the time of the Apostles unto the time of Irenaeus himselfe To this end and purpose he first produceth the Church of Rome then most famous in the world as instructed by S. Peter and S. Paul who as he conceiveth governed it joyntly and taught it fully in all the mysteries of Christian doctrine which finally they watered with their owne blood from and after whom saith he in a lineall succession Eleutherius now the twelfth in order possesseth the Episcopacy of the same If any man doubt whether this Romane Episcopacy were of Apostolicall institution or not the substance of Irenaeus his discourse in that place will beare it well to which I now remit the ingenuous Reader because I make hast unto his subsequent discourse which taketh away all doubt for first plantation of Episcopacy in the Church For thus he writeth Polycarp was not onely taught by the Apostles and conversed with many of them who saw the Lord but was also constituted by the Apostles BISHOP in Asia and in the Church of Smyrna there whom we also saw in our first age being his Disciple as S. Hierom de viris illustr. doth record This testimony is so cleare and ponderous that it may sufficiently determine the whole cause if you consider the Person who it is that speaketh and the Matter which he speaketh But since nothing is so cleare which may not seeme obscure and nothing so ponderous which may not seeme light to a mind possessed with unreasonable prejudice I will now further declare presse this testimony of Irenaeus fencing it also against all objections which may be framed against it or against our cause which doth depend upon it First then consider with me the Authour or Relator rather himselfe Note his antiquity he lived in the time of Eleutherius the twelfth Bishop of Rome upon the yeere of our Lord * 185. We have few Authors grave and certaine now extant who lived before his time except Ignatius whose 7. Epistles as they are his owne and aproved for his by Vedelius and are some of them lately cited by the adversaries of Episcopacy under his name so they fully expresse the cleare distinction of Bishops Presbyters and Deacons in the first age of the Christian Church and after him of Justinus Martyr who under the name of {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} governour or prefect doth well discover what Episcopacy was in the second age of the Church Note then his quality He was an holy man a learned man a peaceable man as it may appeare by his Epistles addressed unto Uictor Bishop of the Church of Rome a constant defendour of the truth and finally a patient sufferer for the same What is your exception against him The late unworthy Authour of a booke intituled Of Reformation c. hath found some quarrell against him but Fevardentius in his apologeticall preface in the defence of Irenaeus hath well answered such exceptions Howbeit whatsoever errours more or fewer greater or lesser Irenaeus had or had not it is nothing to the point now in

question for if he erred it was in a point dogmaticall we are now upon a point historicall viz. Whether this relation of Irenaeus concerning the Episcopacy of Polycarpus which he received from the Apostles be true or not Wherein he had information immediately from Polycarp himselfe and the whole Church of Smyrna wherein he lived Who wil who can who dareth say that Irenaeus hath lyed in this report He knew Polycarp very well and knew undoubtedly that his Episcopall office was derived from the Apostles why should this relation seeme incredible unto you The Scriptures themselves informe us so much For when S. John writeth to the Angell of the Church of Smyrna who is this Angell Polycarp So the concordance of Scriptures and histories so the judgement of many learned men some protestants do informe us And why is Polycarp here an Angell because he is praepositus Ecclesiae the Governour or Bishop of the Church many Presbyters being therein but he in title distinct from them and in power superiour to them as wee may clearely collect out of S. Augustine epist. 162. where first he sheweth and proveth that under the name of Angels are not understood celestiall Angels in these 7. Churches as Origen and some others following him did conceive and then particularly for the Angell of Ephesus he saith afterward that he is praepositus Ecclesiae the governour of the Church Now since we read of many Presbyters in Ephesus Act. 20. 28. and here of one Angell in it he must needs be a person in place and office as well as name distinguished from the common Presbyters of the Church as Epiphanius more ancient then Aug. doth hence collect and constantly affirme Haeres 25. This explication is confirmed by our best Divines as namely by venerable Bullinger conc. 9. in Apocal. saying An heavenly Epistle is destinated to the Angell of the Church of Smyrna Now histories doe testifie that the Angel or pastor of this Church was Polycarp ordained a Bishop by the Apostles even by John himselfe To him I conjoyne worthy Marlorat saying that in Apoc. 2. 1 Iohn doth not set upon the people but upon principem Cleri utique Episcopum the Bishop Prince or chiefe of the Clergy Presbyters and Deacons in that Church To both them I adde the famous Clerk David Pareus who dareth not say though some doe that Timothy was then the Angell but denieth not that we was sometimes the Angell or Bishop there and therefore he putteth there this question in the margine Was Timothy Bishop of the Ephesine Church at that time He saith tunc then he saith not unquam at any time which is a plaine concession that in his judgement Timothy was sometimes as indeed he was the Bishop of that Church Also in Apocal. 3. 1. he confesseth ingenuously upon evidence of the text that under the name of Angell there is to be understood ANTISTES the Chiefe the Prelate the Bishop of the Church Which resolution of ancient and moderne Divines to which I adde the judgement of the great Divine D. Rainolds Confer. with Hart. cap. 8. divis 3 is confirmed by the perspicuous evidence of undeniable reason for in the Church of Ephesus and so in the rest why is one man where many Presbyters were called an Angell specially but for his speciall eminency above the rest And why was the succession of one man to one observed in Histories and registred in the Diptycha of the Church rather then of many to many As here in the Church of Ephesus of Smyrna and the rest one man singularly is remembred and why one if this one man did not in dignity of his place and office therein excell the ' common Presbyters as their Governour and Prefect placed over these Presbyters by the holy Apostles To this effect speaketh Leontius B. of Magnesia in the Councell of Chalcedon Act. 11. amongst 630. Bishops that Memnon then B. of Ephesus was the 27. Bishop in succession from and after Timothy as being the first Bishop of that Church For as the subscription of the second Epistle of S. Paul to Timothy doth directly beare it so we have a cleare attestation to it from Eusebius l. 3. c. 4. Epiphanius har●s 75. Chrysostome praf● in 1. ad Timoth homil. 1. in Epist. id Philip Hierome de viris illustr. * Primasius paefrat in 1 ep. ad Timoth. To all which and others I may adde Oecumenius who lived in the yeere 1080. as also Tertullian who intimateth this truth sufficiently in his book of Prescriptions cap. 36 and finally S. Ambrose praefat. in 1. epist. ad Timoth but that I esteeme the authour to be a counterfet whom yet I conceive to be very ancient Finally then to end this point Irenaeus hath now related no more touching Polycarps Episcopacy then is warrantable by Scriptures Fathers Historians and our owne Divines I end therefore with Hierome ep. 85. affirming that the Apostles by their tradition did institute Bishops Presbyters and Deacons in the new Testament looking unto the answerable degrees of the High priest the inferiour Priests and Levites in the old and telling us in his exposition of Psal 45. 16. that Bishops are there foretold as Aug. also doth himselfe conceive To that ancient Hierome I adde a latter viz. the most learned Zanchius confessing fairely and truely Miscellan t. 2. d● primatu papae p. 193. impres Neostad●i in 4. Anno D. 1608. that in the Church FIRST Presbyters onely were SECONDLY saith he additi Episcopi idque Apostolorum temporibus Bishops were added as being in degree place and office distinct from Presbyters and that also was done in the Apostles times If in their times then by their meanes as any rationall man may thereupon conclude For who durst institute Bishops in their times without their direction where in Scripture or history doe they impugne this institution And if they made not this institution who made it What Councell generall or provinciall when where produce any evidence of probable truth I say not certaine in this behalfe And thus having justified the relation of Irenaeus concerning the Episcopacy of Polycarp to which the Apostles and particularly S. Iohn did advance him I proceed to some other poore exceptions against the aforesaid testimony which need not so large a discussion as the former that being the very substance and center of our whole discourse A second exception is that perhaps this place hath beene forged or corrupted But this objection is of no force or value For as this place now standeth in Irenaeus so it stood word for word in the time of Eusebius upon the yeere 330. who hath thence transcribed it into his Ecclesiasticall history lib. 9. c. 14. This is an old device of heretickes to say that the place is corrupted when they cannot ●nswer it as S. Augustine observeth Confes. lib. 5. c. 11. A third exception is that Irenaeus was himselfe a Bishop and so not a competent witnesse in such a case