5. That these Presbyters teaching and ruling Elders must be of the professing members own voluntary Election and regular Ordination 6. That their Office-extent reacheth from Christs ascension to the Creations dissolution This is granted in a right sense 7. And for all this you bring your proofs out of the Scripture Acts 6.5 Acts 14.23 c. This is the Analysis of the whole and I descend to examine it by the parts and shall open the Scriptures as I conceive they referre to the proposition Proposition 1. That the Church of the last and longest constitution was a Presbyterial or Combinational Church THat the Church you meane viz. the Church of Christ is to be last is easily granted but whether to be the longest or no is more than you or I or any man else can tell But to let this passe Hic opus est Oedipo for I conceive not well the sense of your proposition because you phrase it Presbyterial or Combinational since these two by the contending parties are made Disparata and then must really differ I know not therefore what to make of this Or whether it be here a Divisive or an Explanative particle If you make it Divisive then it seemes not to agree with your following words for you know that those of the Presbyterial Church though they will allow your professing members liberty to elect yet they stoutly and with open mouth decry their power to Ordaine and you allow the Church you speak of to do both If you make Or Expositive then it can but onely declare the sense of the former word Presbyterial and will be farre from your intent which is if I mistake not that all the professing members of a Church be combined in a Church Covenant which you know the Presbyterial Church will never admit For although Presbyters can be content to be in their own sense Covenanters yet they abominate to be in a Church-Combination and again though the Church combiners will joyne in a Church Covenant yet they will not yield to be Presbyterial Covenanters These Disparata then are not hansomely coupled in this place neither can I guesse at any other intent you have in it except it be to Umpire betwixt the two parties by finding out a Church that should be both Presbyterial and Combinational which hitherto the heat of zeale would never suffer the learnedest of both sides to do For the Presbyterians condemne your Combination by a Church Covenant as a Chimera a fancy a novelty a meere humane invention contrary to Christs Ordinance and destructive of all Church power And the Combiners on the other side judge as harshly of the Presbyterian Elderships in the whole reformed Churches as of the Prelacy nay and worse too if Bastwicks words be true which he hath in the Postscript of his second part page 6. viz. The Presbyterial government not suiting with the humour of the Independents they abhorre it and all such as endeavour to establish it and wish rather that the old trumpery were brought in again and professe they had rather have the government of Prelates That which follows I forbear that I offend not Thus Bastwick which if true 't is not possible that a Presbyterial and a Combinational Church should be all one as you seeme to make it And therefore you must forgo one of the termes and make it onely Presbyterial or onely Combinational if you will speak intelligibly in this question But I shall make the best sense I can of your words and in order speak to them both And first of the Presbyterial Church which you call also Combinational upon what ground I know not for I meet with neither of these Epithets fixed to the Church of Christ in the Scriptures nor in any antiquity The first of these is new and and the second naught for I never read of a Combination in a good sense Why can we not speak as good Christians have done before us and call it the Christian Catholick and Apostolical Church but must please our fancies with these new termes of Presbyterial or Combinational Act. 20.28 c. Col. 1.24 and 13. Act. 11.26 Ephes 2.20 I often read in the Scriptures of the Church of God and that this Church is the Body of Christ the kingdom of Christ to whom because it was united by faith it was called Christian And that this Church was built upon the foundation of the Prophets Apostles Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone Whence it was called Apostolike And again that this Church is Totum integrale Ames medulla lib. 1. c. 31. Sect 19. of which the parts quae totum integrant are all several and particular Churches diffused in all Nations in all places at all times whence it was called Catholick But of a Presbyterial or Combinational Church I hear not Good Sir consider how harsh it sounds to stile Christs Church the Presbyters Church and the number of the Professors that are united by faith to Christ to be combined in I know not what But now I shall take into consideration these termes severally and first I will begin with the last 1. A Combinational Church The first Author whom I meet with it is Amesius and he defines it to be Parochialis vel unius congregationis cujus membra inter se Combinantur lib. 1. c. 39. Sect 22. cap. 2. Sect. 4. there 's your word ordinarie conveniant in uno loco ad publicum religionis exercitium This your Synod at Cambridge in New England chose rather to call Congregational for the word Independent they like not though I see no cause of dislike if the particular Congregations must not depend one of another but remaine in full liberty as Ames delivers in the same chapter Sect. 20. 26 27. And thus you there define this Congregational Church to be a company of Saints by calling united into one body by a holy Covenant for the publick worship of God But I pray you tell me what needs this combination by a second Covenant would not the first in Baptisme have served if heeded and kept to have done all this and it seemed it did by the very text your Synod produces to prove it Acts 2.42 For the Penitents and beleevers pricked to the heart by Peters sermon gladly received the word and were baptized and continued stedfastly in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayer c. where we read of their Baptisme and continuance in Church-fellowship and in the duty of that fellowship but that this is done by a combination a confederation or holy Covenant a Vow other than that made in their Baptisme we read not 2. And indeed it needs not for what is it that Professors can binde themselves unto by Covenant when they are admitted into the Congregation that they have not in their Baptisme bound themselves to before Whether you shall consider the Mystery the Form or the end 1. In Baptisme for the
Levites that served the Priests 1 Chron. 24.18 31. ch 25.26 ch 27. The Musicians also were divided into as many and the Dore-keepers There were also of every course that served the King twenty four thousand Seeing then the whole Congregation of Levi and the people that served the King were divided by twenty four it might be a shadow and type of that number who were made Kings and Priests unto God to serve Christ under that number the whole people under this the whole company of the redeemed are contain'd Couper 3. And Couper saith the same that under this number the whole Church both Militant and Triumphant is contain'd though he make his allusion otherwise for he divides the twenty four into two halfs the first he makes to consist of the twelve Patriarchs from whon descended the Jews the other of the twelve Apostles who converted the Gentiles the Elders then of both Nations that is the professours in both were about the throne and he proves this sense out of the fifth Chapter Ver. 9. where the twenty foure Elders fell down before the Lamb Rev. 5.8.9 having harâ—s in their hands and they â—ang a new song saying Thou art worthy O Lord. For thou wast slain and thou hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and Nation 10. and hast made us unto our God Kings and Priests c. Beza 4. Beza conceives these Elders to be Prophets and Apostles Summus judex saith he comitatu honorificentissimo instructus Prophetarum Apostolorum tum veteris tum novae Ecclesiae Greg. lib. 4 in reg 1. ch 9. 5. Gregory expounds this of the Preachers of Gods holy Word being graves moribus sensu maturi 6. But most interpret this of the Saints departed out of this world Bullinger Traberâ—n Marlorat and now reigning with the Lord Jesus in heaven Indeed their number is without number chap. 7.9 But the set and certain number is put for the full and compleat number of the Saints under the Law and under the Gospel discending I say from the twelve Patriarchs or begotten by the twelve Apostles The Jewes and Gentiles with their twenty foure Elders are to sit upon twenty four seats cloathed with white rayment having on their heads crowns of gold I leave it now to your choice which sense to follow and it is evident if you will follow any of them that your Ruling Elders can never be fetch'd out of any of these Among the company I confesse they are in the Church Militant or Triumphant because they are professours but in a districtive notion to call them Elders and prove them so from these three texts is toto errare caelo that I say no worse Conclusio Parainetica All this while you have bestowed your labour in the building and erecting a Presbyterial or Combinational Church and having set it up as you supposed you have call'd me to view your goodly fabrique I with heed looked upon it searched into the foundation and considered the walls and columns and at last judg'd that it could not stand because the foundation was laid in the sand and the pillars and supporters over-weak the materials you have dugge out of your own fancy not out of the true Rock and cemented them together with mortar of your own making Whether this be so or not I leave it to them to judge who shall sadly weigh those stones you have collected and brought out of the quarry of Gods book to set out this your work You in the Acts finde an Election by the Church of Deacons will it thence follow that all future Elections for Presbyters must necessarily proceed by and from their votes and voices or that such Election is of the necessary constitution of a Church the Apostles to avoid an imputation that might be laid upon them in medling with many matters and that they might attend more seriously a greater businesse suffered it to be then so done and is it a good consequent that therefore it must be alwayes done Paul and Barnabas ordained Elders in every Church can any man thence rationally conclude that the Presbyters and Teaching and Ruling Elders must be of the Combinational Churches Regular Ordination What were Paul and Barnabas of the people or were they the Combinational Church A twisted cord will never draw and knit the premises and the conclusions together The Apostle to the Romans to the Corinthians gives a large Catalogue of the gifts and graces of the Spirit and must there therefore be so many functions in the Church He speaks of governments must they be of necessity in the hands of such governours as you suppose In the Revelation he mentions twenty foure Elders and will you thence deduce that they must be necessarily such Elders as you fancy in your brains Had all or any of these texts inforced your conclusions a wonder it is to me that none of the ancient fathers none of the reformed Churches a Barrow Cann Robinson Johnson Syons Prerogative voted by Bayly page 35. 36. Vide etiam eundem p. 104. 105 108 109 c. Bayly page 53 54 55. for you set them all by as well as the Church of Old England in this your device should out of these Mines digge such stones for the building In labours they were indefatigable for piety exemplar in judgment acute for learning very eminent in defence of Religion couragious great talents and measures of the Spirit they no question received content they were to hazard all life limbs goods preferments as many at this day do for the truth and can it be conceived that the Spirit of our good God would suffer them all to be blinded or hood-winked in this necessary of Church-government till you arose It is not yet full twenty six years since Robinson the first perswader of this way arrived at Plymouth in New England from him Mr. Cotton took it up and transmitted it thence to Mr. Thomas Goodwin who helped in this our land to propagate it you see then your Discipline hath not yet the third part of the full age of a man 'T is so youthful that as yet the beard is not well grown and will you then say that all parochial cathedral provincial national oecumenical Churches are degenerated from it you must adorne it with more gray haires and make it Apostolical which you can never do before any man will believe you Your indeavours I have frustrated by restoring the Scriptures you produce to their genuine sense about which I have not relyed wholly upon my own private spirit but upon the judgment of the learnedst gravest and most pious Divines new and old indeed upon the concurrent judgment of the whole Church Tantum veritati obstrâ—pit adulter sensus Tertullian quantum corruptor stilus And indeed I am possessed with such fear when I am to interpret the Word of God lest I should say thus saith the Lord when he
place to the Romans are five different from these ministring exhorting teaching giving shewing mercy In all sixteen I hope you will not say there must be so many distinct Offices and functions in the Church For so it may happen that the offices may exceed the number of the officers and so every one must have more than two of them Robinsons Justif p. 107. p. 111. three at least or else the Church shall nor be supplied For put case that Robinsons words be true that a company consisting though but of two or three gathered by a Covenant made to walk in the wayes of God known unto them is a Church and so hath the whole power of Christ Answer to the 32. Quest p. 43 even the same right with two or three thousand Generally you know it is received among you that seven will make a full and perfect Congregation and that the association of these few thus separate by a Covenant is the essential forme of the Church Which if true then is it not possible to find so many distinct functions in the Church because in so small a number there cannot be found men for them Let it be then granted that the Apostle in this chapter speaks of diversities of gifts not of functions and the sense will be clear Apostles there were then in the Church and they had all these gifts in a greater measure than any other Prophets there were and Teachers and to these the Spirit divided the gifts as he pleased in what measure and to what persons he best liked to one to work miracles to another to heale to help and comfort to guide and governe to speak tongues to interpret tongues as might best serve to gather the Saints to plant the Church I must professe unto you that I have both now and heretofore looked into this text with as quick an eye as my weaknesse would give leave and could never yet finde it in any thing that made for your Ruling Elders No you perhaps will say do you not finde here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 governments Yes I do but will it thence follow that it must upon necessity be the government of the Lay-Ruling-Elders you dreame of Why might not the Apostles the Prophets the Teachers here mentioned by the Apostle be those Governours here intended for ought you know Of them the other gifts were verified and why not then this also They could work miracles they could heale they could help and comfort they could speak all languages and interpret tongues what should now hinder but they might by the same Spirit be endowed with the gift of government also Which if it fall out to be true as it indeed did yet the Apostles either by themselves or by those they placed in the Churches which they planted who were Bishops and onely Bishops exercised the jurisdiction you shall never be able to conclude out of this or any other place of Scripture that the Governours of the Churches were a distinct company from the Pastours which is I know that you drive at But to gratifie you a little I shall here willingly yield you more than I need That in the Apostolical Church and after till Constantines time there might be certain men chosen by common consent of the Church to judge of all civil debates that might arise betwixt man and man you perhaps would call these Governours I should rather call them Arbitratours because they had no coactive power to compel any Christian to stand to their Arbitration farther than they would binde themselves And in case that any were refractory and obstinate the Pastour might and did make use of the Church-Key and debarre him from the participation of Christian priviledges so that he was by them esteemed no better than a Heathen or Publican 1 Cor. 6.1 c. And now I will shew you the ground of my conjecture 't is out of Saint Pauls words Dare any of you having an action against another a Christian he means go to Law before the unjust and not before the Saints Paul did not debarre the Magistrates that were Infidels of their jurisdiction nor create new Judges or Governours for civil offences in the Church it was beyond his calling and commission to do either of them but when he perceived the Christians for private quarrels pursued each other before unbelievers to the great shame and scandal of Christian profession he saith Ver. 7. they were better to suffer losse to take wrong to be defrauded Ver. 4.5 But if this would not satisfie if yet there were who would be contentious then he wills them to choose if not the wisest yet the lest esteemed among them in the Church to arbitrate their causes rather than to expose themselves and their profession to the mocks and taunts of Heathen and Profane Judges These Arbitratours you may call Governours if you please but properly they were not so because they were chosen either by consent of the Litigants or else appointed as I am induc'd to opine by the choice of the Church for that purpose but they could not interpose themselves as Judges authoriz'd by Christ because he himself as Mediatour claimed no such power would use none Luke 12.24 You know his answer to the brother that moved him to divide the inheritance Man who made me a Judge or Divider among you Now grant that all this be true and that such Governours began betime and continued long in the Church even untill the Conversion of the Heathen Emperours Can you hence conclude that they must upon necessity continue still no such matter For the Civil power and the Sword is in the Magistrates hand and he is to take up all debates betwixt man and man of these then there is no use From these then to argue that there must be Lay Ruling Elders in the Church is a fallacy since the causes they were to dcide were other and their Authority by Church-right none at all A d such 't is probable may be found in the Scriptures and in the Church-story but never any other Ruling Elders invested with the power of the Keys except in Orders I have been long upon this place to the Corinths but it was because I would leave no scruple unsatisfied That I be not tedious of it I will adde no more but consider your next proof which you bring out of the Epistle to the Ephesians Ephesians Chap. 4. Verse 7. and Verse 14. Ver. 7. But to every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ Ver. 14. That we henceforth be no more children tossed too and fro and carried about with every winde of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftinesse whereby they lie in wait to deceive Now here I must confesse it befel me which happens to them who search for gold-ore in the vaults of the earth they open the turfe dig delve labour long to effect their desire but at last
more eminent degree Will you then ask me what are Metropolitans Primates Patriarchs I readily answer gradus in Episcopatu all set in the chief places of the Army for the safe guard of the whole and for the better advantage to fight against the enemy Yea but who set them there Prudence and 't is nere the more to be disliked for that it was prudentially done for I must tell you that prudence is to bear a great sway in Church-Discipline The substance it may not alter neither hath it but in the circumstantials it hath a power and if Saints Pauls rule be observed 1 Cor. 14.40 Let all things be done decently and in order all 's well What more decent among Church-governours then that some be superiours some subordinate how can order be better observed then making the Church like an Army Even among the twelve were there not chief Apostles They were all equal Apostolatu all equal in power yet some priority and precedency might be among them For Peter James and John are call'd Pâ—llars Gal. 2. Chrysost in loc Victor Antioch in Mar. cap. 9. Hieron ad Evagr Cyprian de simplicitate Praelatorum hi tres tanquam Coriphaei prÃmas inter Apostolos obtinebant Thus is it with their Successours the Bishops they are all pares potestate in the power he at Eugubium is as great as he at Rome he at Tanais equal with him of Alexandria for he is ejusdem meriti ejusdem sacerdotii that rule of Cyprian being undoubtedly true Episcopatus unus est cujus a singulis in solidum pars tenetur But yet for all this one Bishop may be set in a higher degree then another and one set over another and I shall make little doubt to make m words good out of the Scriptures for what was Titus and Timothy were they not more than ordinary Bishops Titus had the charge over the whole Isle of Crete Miraeus lib. 4. de Notitia Episc pag. 181. Chrysost Hâ—m 1. in Titum in which there were seven Bishops besides This was Pauls companion saith Chrysostome that was approved otherwise Paul would not have committed unto him all whole Island and the trial and judgment of so many Bishops To Timothy if we beleeve Theodoret and other Ancients was committed all Asia the lesse in which were questionlesse instituted by the Apostles many Bishops Of the last example there may be some scruple of the first there can be no doubt to any one that lists not to be contentious but the Ancient evident and constant course in the Primitive Church to admit of these degrees in Episcopacy and to have Primates and Metropolitanes for the calling and guiding of Synods in every Province is to me a pregnant proof that this order was either delivered or allowed by the Apostles and their Scholars oâ— found so needful in the first government of the Church that the whole Christian world till some of late fell from it ever since received and continued the same If you suppose it came from Rome you are much mistaken for it bore sway in all the Eastern Churches before the Romane Bishop was of any great note power or reputation or at least had any more precedency then any of the Eastern Patriarchs Socrates relates that the first Councel of Constantinople 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ordain'd Patriarchs Socrat. lib. 5.8 may be the title was then given to those who were onely call'd Primates or Metropolitans before and bounds set to their jurisdictions which any man will judge that considerately reads that place in Socrates The truth is this The name of Patriarch I finde taken in a double sense largely or strictly Largely for a Primate of any Province that was under the chief Patriarch and so there are manâ— at this day Brexwoods enquiry of Religion and Languages as the Abannah the Patriarch of the Aethiopians or the Primate of Mosco who is the Patriarch of all Christians under the Muscovites Empire The Primates of Sic and Sebasha who are the Patriarchs of the Armenians The Primate of the Jacobites who hath his Patriarchal Church in the Monastery of Saphran near the City Merdin in Mesopotamiâ— The Primate of the Maronites who resides in Mount Libanuâ— The Patriarch of the Nestorians who hath his residence in Muzal or Mosal I could give in a list of many more of this kinde as well in Europe as in the Eastern Churches by which it appears that in a large sense the Prime Bishops set over one or more Provinces may be called Patriarchs Spalat lib. 3. c. 10. Sect. 43.44 And it is the judgment of a learned but unhappy man that were there more of this kinde erected in Europe who should have no dependence on Rome that it would be a ready way to restore peace and unity to the distracted Church and to shut out the confusion we groan under All which are under one or other of those Patriarchs of the Church as their jurisdictions were limited in the fiâ—st erection for that is the strict acception of the word 2. And three they were onely at first The fiâ—st at Rome the second at Alexandria the third at Antioch the first had the power in Europe and in the West the second in Africa and in the South the third in Asia and over the East Neither were their seats there placed as Baronius would perswade us because that the Apostles founded those Churches for were this reason good we should have more Patriarchates than these three there being more Churches planted by the Apostles than these neither were all the Churches they founded Patriarchates Hegesipp de excid Urb. Hieros lib. 3. c. 5. not Corinth not Ephesius not Philippi Smyrna the reason then is that which Hegesippus the younger hath given because these three Cities were the three Metropolies of the Empire and so the Church in the institution for the seats of their Patriarchs followed the secular power of the Roman Empire The dignity of the Cities gave them the dignity and priority of their Seas And it should seeme the erection of these three was very ancient in that when the Alexandrian Patriarch began to incroach upon his neighbours Concil Nic. can 6. the Nicene Council made this Decree Mos antiquus perduret in Aegypto Lybia Pentapoli ut Alexandrinus Episcopus horum omnium habeat potestatem quoniam quidem Episcopo Romano parilis mos est similitèr autem apud Antiochiam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Canon it seemes even then 't was an old custome and the Council of Antioch in the like case though it names not the Churches Concil Antioch c. 9. yet provides to secure the rights 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 secundum antiquam consuetudinem à patribus nostris constitutam And again upon the unjust claime of the Patriarchs of Antioch over the Bishops of Cyprus the Ephesine Council decreed ut singulis provinciis pura inviolata manerent quae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
consist of heterogeneous parts and so doth yours which if it should marre the constitution of a Church it must needs marre yours as well as others For I hope you will not say that all yours are Saints more than by calling and so are all Christians even those at Corinth and all 1 Cor. 16.2 Cap. 1.12 13. cap. 5.1 cap. 6.15 cap. 11.21 cap. 15.35 cap. 8.12 13. among whom yet were schismatical and contentious persons envying and strife incest and incest tolerated going to Law with their brethren Harlotry coming to the Lords Table drunk a denying of a fundamental point of saith the resurrection little charity to the weak brother Now then if Corinth were a Presbyterial Church certainly in the Primitive constitution it was not composed of living stones onely c. To conclude to the constitution of a Church there can be but two things required the materiale and the formale the matter are a people gathered and united called by the Word to live in a divine policy under Christ their head The forme that unites them to him is as you say rightly faith and charity That they be truly and indeed united to him requisite it is that their faith be lively working by love But that they be united to the body the visible Church which is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is no more nor can be no more expected but that they make outwardly a profession of faith and fraternal love For whether either be true unfeigned and sincere or no we can never know and should we stay till those were manifest unto us it would be long enough before we should constitute our's or you your Church pray take this better into your consideration Now I proceed to that wh ch you more aime at viz. 2. That the rise of the rottening of the Church was its falling from a pure poor Presbyterial Church into an impure unpolished Parochial Church TO which I have this to say First that if this position be true then Amesius was mistaken Ames Med. l. 1. cap. 39. Sect. 22. who makes a Combinational Church all one with a Parochial He tells us there of a Church instituted by God and saith that it was not National Provincial nor Diocesan but Parochialis vel unius Congregationis cujus membra inter se combinantur ordinarie couveniunt in eodem loco ad publicum Religionis exercitium If you shall say that this kind of Parochial Church differs from ours at this day because it is combined in Covenant which ours is not I grant it but adde that such a Combination is not necessary For I know no other Covenant requisite but that in Baptisme to make a man a member of any Church as I formerly proved unto you Neither can you give any one instance of any such Covenant before your time was taken by any Parochial Church in Amesius sense Secondly I shall here again put you in minde of that I intimated at first about this word Parochia and give you farther light in it For Parochia hath a double acception eirher as it was at first Selden of tyths cap. 6. Sect. 3. or as it is used in our dayes At first the word Parochia denoted a whole Bishoprick which is but a greater Parish and signified no other than a Diocesse That in these there were Towns and Villages cannot be denyed for the proof of this we need but run over the names of Cities Towns c. of Judea mentioned in the Old and New Testament and all plantations will teach us that in processe of time it comes to be thus at first in greater Cities then in these Religion was planted Among these it cannot be well conceived that the whole hamlet was at once converted but it must be done by little and little till at last the whole Township received the faith Together then they met for the service of God and as the Jewes in their several Towns had to that purpose their Synagogues so Christians began to think of convenient places where they might meet to this purpose as you in New-England they built them Churches and so from meeting in private houses they met in these Where yet they entered not into a Combination to be an absolute and Independent Congregation but did depend on the chief Church where the Bishop was resident and this is evident by what I shall now say The Pastours of these Parishes were such as the Bishop appointed under him to have care of souls in them and those are they Conc. Neoces cap. 58. Conc. Antioch cap. 87. 89. whom the Old Greek Councils call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And in the Churches where they kept their cure the offerings of devout Christians were received All that was received in the Bishoprick was as a common treasury to be thus dispensed one part of it was allowed the maintenance of the Ministry another to the relief of the poor sick and strangers a third Conc. Antioch cap. 103 104. to the reparation of Churches the fourth part to the Bishop Thus it was many years before the Council of Nice that the Bishops Parochia extended far and that the whole was under his jurisdiction and consequently had not absolute power within themselves 2. But when the word Parish in that sense it is now used began it is not so easie to avouch yet for it we have these Records Damasus in pontific Euseb l. 2. c. 17. Epiphan Haeres 69. Euseb l. 6. c. 43. Evaristus who lived in Trajans time and succeeded Clemens divided Rome into seven Parishes assigning to every one a Presbyter And it may be easily collected out of Eusebius that it was thus at Alexandria and Epiphanius names many which bore these titles Theonae Serapionis Pierii Persiae Diseae Mendidii Amriani Baucalis c. For indeed necessity required it when the Christians grew to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Cornelius called the Christians and did implâ—re omnia Tertull. Apol. cap. 37. Then they were forced to divide Congregations and assigne several Presbyters to their cures yet in subordination to their Bishops as is evident in all Records of the Church This being so how is it possible that the rottening of the pure poor Presbyterial Church should be the rise of the Parochial when the Parochial in the first sense was the first Church that ever was in the world as I have before manifested In which sense it is that Cyril calls Saint James Cyril Catechis 16. primum hujus Parochiae meaning Jerusal Episcopum and in that signification it is very obvious to be read in the old Councils of both tongues as Filesacus hath observed you then argue ex non concessis For in the first sense the Parochial had the precedency and was older than your new device Your Combinational might corrupt and rotten it but that could never corrupt and rotten that which was not If you take it
true in your sense yet one example will make no rule again a servant she might be and yet not such as you intend for if you will admit of Ignatius description of those servants and he was near the Apostles age and could best describe them I dare say you will not acknowledge your Deaconesses to be such his words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat. Ep. ad Antioch But to yield to you all you can ask Aretius gives you a reason why they may be spared You advise that these places be compared with 1 Tim. 3.1 I suppose it should be the 11. And then Expositours will tell you that Saint Paul speaks not all of Deaconesses but of the wives of Deacons and other Church men enjoyning that they be grave Matrons no Slaunderers but sober faithful in all things Your last place Tit. 1.5 6. makes clearly against you for if Titus were left in Crete to ordain then the Combinational Church was not to elect and ordain Pastours Teachers c. Here I can finde no Canon for that Logicians observe that those arguments have little force in them that mutatis mutandis may be returned for they are but like Tennis balls that are banded from hand to hand and serve onely for sport Will you have but patience then while I return your discourse The first rise of rottening the Church being it's falling from a poor pure Apostolical Church which in its primitive constitution was made up of living stones c. was at that time when ceasing to elect and ordain Bishops Presbyters Evangelists Teachers Catechizers in conformity to the heavenly Canon 1 Tim. 3.1 2 3 4. Titus 1.5 6. Ephes 4.11 2 Tim. 4.5 Gal. 6.6 it was well content to admit accept of Approvers Ruling Elders Lecturers Itinerants by which wisdome of the flesh being no better then enmity against God in this last age of the world long after the Apostles dayes Christs spiritual house and growing as well as spiritual Temple was turned and transformed into a carnal and dead Congregation an Apostatizing Combinational Church No question the argument thus returned will displease and yet there is as much strength in this as in the other This may make us both wary how we make use of such Cothurni reasons that as buskins may be drawn on either leg That which in the last place you alledge is 4. The very beginning and breeding of which Parochial Church is seen to have been in the time of Polycarp and Irenaeus WHat 's this I read a Parish Church of that antiquity Parsons Vicars Wardens Over-seers of the poor then What these while Saint John might be for ought we know yet alive For Polycarp you confesse was his Disciple and in it you say true for thus Irenaeus witnesseth Polycarpus non solum ab Apostolis edoctus Iren. lib. 3. c. 3. conversatus cum multis ex eis qui Dominum nostrum viderunt sed etiam ab Apostolis in Asia in eâ quae est Smyrnis Ecclesia constitutus Episcopus This is greater antiquity for a Parish Church in that sense you intend then I or any body else could ever finde before That which deceived you as I am apt to beleeve is the translation by Hanmer who renders the words of the Epistle of the Church of Smyrna unto the Parishes throughout Pontus Euseb l. 4. c. 15. not understanding that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Greek word is often taken and most usually in the eldest of the Greek Writers for regiones suburbicariae the neighbouring habitations before there was any distinction of Parishes Ephesus Smyrna Pergamus Laodicea were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in respect of secular jurisdiction so also in Ecclesiastical regiment when then the Smyrneans directed their letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they meant no other then those Churches which were under the Smyrnean jurisdiction But admit it were true in your sense what have you gained by it nay rather what have you not lost for to say your Combinational Church should fail in the Apostles or his Disciples time by the setting up of the Parochial will give such encouragement to the adverse party that they will not doubt to say That was well done which was then done especially when they cannot finde for sixteen hundred years any man that opened his mouth against it And the self-same answer will serve to your other instance of Irenaeus Of these two worthies you affirme that one of them was an Elder of the Church of Smyrna the other Pastour of Lyons And I pray why could you not as well have called them by other names I am sure your Authour Eusebius doth For of the last thus he saith Euseb l. 5. c. 5. that when Pothinus of the age of ninety years had ended his life Irenaeus succeeded him in the Bishoprick He was a Bishop then but if you take Pastour in that sense as it is almost taken in Church Records we agree But yet I must remember you that Lyons was a great City and somewhat more than a Parish as you mean As for Polycarp your Authour tells you that he was President of the Church of Smyrna and so Irenaeus calls him Episcopus ab Apostolis constitutus and under that title Ignatius writes to him Ignat. Epist ad Polycarp and in all probability he is that Angel of the Church of Smyrna to whom that Epistle was written Rev. 2. He was then capable of a higher title then of an ordinary Elder he had indeed in his Church many Elders even a whole Presbytery and therefore Ignatius gives this direction to those of Smyrna 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Idem Epist ad Smyrn In this elegant gradation you see he makes a distinction of Laicks Deacons Presbyters and a Bishop and therefore Polycarp was more than a common Presbyter to whom he perswades all the Presbyters to be in subjection And which is yet more which makes clearly against your Combinational Churches for you grant there were Parishes at Smyrna in the close of his Epistle to Polycarp he perswades them to continue in the unity of God and the Bishop his words are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In which unity had we remained we had not lived to see the Church so rent and overcome with so many Heresies as we behold and lament at this day I come to your third degree of corruption SECT V. The words of the Letter The third degree of the Presbyterial Churches degeneracy was its climbing up to the stile of a Provincial Church whose Pastour was not afrai'd nor asham'd to assume the name and office of an Arch-Bishop and Metropolitane leaving the servile and subservient titles of Prebende Surrogate and Vicar-general as termes good enough to the inferiour Officers his underlings Of which proud and prophane Pest-house that Austin who was sent from Gregory the last of the good Bishops and the first of the bad Popes of Rome is reputed and recorded to have
been the father and founder in this Land even then when he was stoutly and stifly oppos'd by the Monks of Bangor Anno Domini 596. and in the reign of King Ethelbert witnesse Fox his Martyrol page 119. together with the rest of our Eng. Hist and Evagr. lib. 2. c. 8. Reply Sect. 5. YOu so promiscuously use these termes Presbyterial and Combinational that I know not readily how to shape my answer for were I to deale with the Presbyterians I should reply one way but to you I must returne another answer You say here that the third degree of corruption was when it degenerated into the Provincial Church But this is not likely for when the Church became Cathedral and Parochial your Combinational Church vanished it was no more now what hath no existence cannot by degrees degenerate since degrees belong to qualities which have must have some subject to exist in Had you then said the Church by these degrees rottened it had been sense but to say that that which long before this was not did rot and degenerate is not intelligible But to omit this I shall now consider in what you place this Degeneration 1. This was when it climed to be stiled a Provincial Church 2. When the Pastour was not afraid nor ashamed to assume the name and office of Arch-bishop and Metropolitane 3. When he left the servile and subservient names or titles of Prebend Surrogate and Vicar-General to inferiour Officers 4. That of this proud and prophane Pest-house Austin sent from Gregory was the father and founder in this our Land This is the summe of what you deliver To which I returne you this answer with what brevity I can 1. The degeneration was when it climbed up to be a Provincial Church But what if this prove no Degeneration at all For every thing is said to degenerate when it is changrd to the worse whereas this change if there were any which I shall not easily grant you was into the better for by this the Church was better ordered and governed than it could be without it At first the Church was so small that an upper roome was able to containe it it enlarged in Cities then in Countries after into whole Provinces Governed it must be when small or great and governed it was by the Apostles while they lived and by those whom they appointed These Governours by them placed were seated in chief Cities as at Jerusalem Antioch Ephesus Corinth c. And because they had the Provinces allotted to them the Churches were called Provincial This I have shewed before clearly in Titus who was set over Crete But it may be said the Provinces were not then converted how then could such Governours be set over them This is not material For as the Apostles might rightly be called the Governours of the whole world because Christ committed all Nations to their charge though at first a small Congregation did obey them actually So that Governour that was placad in any Metropolis or chief City by them though actually he had in his communion and subjection some few yet he had in Charge the conversion of the whole Countrey and being converted they were under his government and he was called their Metropolitane That you startle not at the word I have told you before that it was very ancient to be found in the Apostolical Canons in the Nicene Antiochian Conc. Ephes edictum post adventum episc Cypri and Ephesine Councils the words of this last Council being these It seemeth good to this sacred and Oecumenical Council to reserve unto every Province untouched and undiminished the rights which they have had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the first beginning every Metropolitan having liberty according to the old custome to take the copy of our Acts for his security I know well what you will cast in my teeth that this was the wisdome of the flesh and the wisdome of the flesh is enmity with God But first consider that it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a custome of old and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a custome from the beginning and the period of that may be for what we know to the contrary set in the Apostles Secondly I deny it absolutely to be the wisdome of the flesh For there is flesh that is unregenerate and the wisdome of that flesh is enmity with God for ambition that is a corrupt quality residing in it will prompt it to desire honour covetousnesse to aime at wealth selfe-love to promote and serve its lusts But there is flesh again that is regenerate and borne anew which is contented to be guided by Gods Spirit instructing a man to obey Gods will revealed in his Word and this is not enmity with God I shall never think that Grace outs any man of his reason it may perfect heighten enlighten it but darken or dimme it it can never do Whatsoever therefore a man shall do by the light of reason raised by Grace to this pitch I shall not call it the wisdome of the flesh nor be perswaded it is enmity against God The first Fathers of the Church were men very eminent for the graces and gifts of the Spirit men who were signal for illuminated reason Even reason taught them that there must needs be confusion where there was no order where there was equality there could be no order and therefore in an equality it was not possible the Church should continue They saw that there was in one family but one Master in one Army but one General in one ship but one Pilot in one Bee-hive but one King reason taught them that there must be and experience that there was sub supra in all Societies and therefore that it must be so in the Societies of Gods people Thus farre nature But Reason improved by Grace taught them again that God would not be served according to mans inventions and therefore they must look that though Reason suggested this or that yet nothing must be done that was contrary to Gods will revealed in his Word They here then cast about to finde if they could any thing contrary to what reason dictated now this appeared not but rather the contrary for they found it written Let all things be done decently and in order all to edification and that this was a precept for the regulating of the Church And upon it it was established 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the beginning to this day that in all Provinces there should be one chief Bishop which from the mother City was called a Metropolitan to whom all the other Bishops should be subject and who to him should be accomptable for what was done through the whole Province This then was not the wisdome of the flesh but the wisdome of God who would have all things done in order If any man did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 teach other things than he taught or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 teach any new things and not according to the
Truth would ever have owned it been once stiled by it And so you see that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. When he left the servile and subservient names of Prebend Surrogate Vicar General to inferiour Officers his underlings THese names or titles I never heard the Arch-Bishop or Metropolitane had therefore I know not how he could leave them Under him perhaps these were but for the Prebend he was no Officer The Bishop and his Colledge of Presbyters first lived together and were maintained out of a common stock or treasury of the Church the Bishop allotted to every one his salary monthly which in Tertullian is called stipes in Cyprian sportula Tertull. Apol. c. 39. 42. and it was an honourable stipend or portion as appears by the words of Cyprian when he would have Clemens and Aurelius who were Confessors admitted into the Colledge of Presbyters that they might be honoured with this stipend Sciatis nos honorem Presbyteris illis jam d signasse Cypr. Ep. 34. Edit Pammel 27. 36. ut iisdem sportutis cum Presbyteris honorentur and in another Epistle he calls these menstrae divisiones agreeing with his Master Tertullian who saith these stipes were given menstruâ die Thus it was at first but afterward when Cathedral Churches were built these Presbyters were called Prebends and their salary Praebenda Spalatens lib. 2. cap. 9. Sect. 6. not that they had a separate part or portion of that Church revenue to themselves as afterwards it was thought fit sed quod cuique ex communi illius Ecclesiae reditu alimenta praebebantur Now this was the Original of Prebends neither was he any more a Church Officer then as a Presbyter which if you take in the old sense you have no reason to carp at 2. As for the Surrogate I do not finde that ever any Arch-Bishop had such an Officer I suppose that you should aime at Conc. Ancyr Can. 13. Neoces 13. Antioch 10. Conc. Sardic cap. 6 Laodic cap. 56. Socrat. Schol. lib. 5. cap. 21. Possidon in vita Aug. Aug. Ep. 110. Naucler Vol. 2. Generat p. 667. is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Rural Bishops who were brought into the Church to supply the Bishops place in absence or sicknesse who because they abused their power were disliked and timely abrogated Or if not these yet the suffragan Bishops or Coadjutors for such then were as it appears in the Church Records Agelius the Novatian Bishop being ready to dye first imposed hands on Sisimius to succeed him but upon the request of the people made choice of Marcian then of Sisimius the story is worth your reading in Socrates Austin was also made the Suffragan to Valerius in Hippo and afterward Austin himself took for his Coadjutor Eradius Thus you may see a Coadjutor was allowed but such a one as should be onely a Presbyter while the Bishop lived and therefore long after the time of Augustine when Zachary Bishop of Rome associated another Bishop as a Coadjutor to Boniface the Bishop of Mentz he confessed it to be a thing forbidden by the Canons and worthy reprehension but that upon his importunity of special favour he had yielded so much unto him that he might have such a Coadjutor whom with the advice of his brethren he might appoint to succeed him when he should dye Now if you do aime at these there could be no great errour in the institution if the Bishop either when he was in remotis agendis as the Lawyers speak or disabled by infirmity or age he made choice of some worthy person to be his Coadjutor no otherwise then the High Priests among the Jewes did of their Saganim For I read not of any expresse text of holy writ that could or did warrant them to do it 3. Thirdly the last name that doth displease is the Vicar General but neither was he properly any Church Officer A Judge he was in the Arch-Bishops Court for such matters as were reserved by Princes to the Christian judicature to visit for the Metropolitane the whole Province and and so came into the place of them whom the Laodicean Council calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Caranza translates the word Visitatores but Meursius Circitatores Lustratores quorum munus esset circumire per omnes universae regionis Ecclesias Laodic Conc. Can. 57. Meursii Lexico mixobarb Balsam in Can. 57. Conc. Laodiceni inquirere de illarum statu And of these Balsamâ—â— upon the Canon of the Laodicean Council hath these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Commission to this purpose I finde given by Henry the eighth to Thomas Cromwel after Earle of Essex that great instrument of expulsion of the Popes power out of England by which authority he visited all the Abbies and Monasteries of the Land and finding in them foul enormities opened them in Parliament the next year in which he sate with the title of Vicegerent or Custos spiritualitatum this power was not much unlike a Vicar General And were it safe to utter my thoughts I should not stick to put you in minde of those who have lately done the same work under other names For what else I pray were the Propagators of the Gospel what else the Commissioners for scandalous and ignorant Ministers what else the Committee men under whom I am sure the Clergy felt a sharp visitation yea and sharper then that of the Custos spiritualitatum for then the ejected had a competency of maintenance allowed them for their lives which by these is not done Lastly if I should call your Approvers Vicar Generals too I should not much erre for have they not the care of all the Churches Modesty retains me or else I could say that some of your Pastours of Congregational Churches have been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and been Informers or Agents to the prejudice of many an honest and laborious Minister But you say these Officers were Underlings how otherwise could it be if they were Officers for Officers must be under they were subservient so they must be also for indicitur ministratio whosoever will be great among you Mat. 20.26 let him be your Minister To be under was humility to be subservient their duty but if among them any were servile so slavish as to be at the Arch-Bishops or Metropolitans beck and to drudge for his ends this was basenesse and if you note the men they shall not be defended but condemned by me as well as you But while I go along with you in the pursuit of these I finde my self in some danger for I finde a Pest-house nigh in which plaguey people are used to be put and to this those you mention are sent for their pride and profanesse and I wish that all who are infected with the same Leprosie were placed there with them for then 't is possible we might meet with Corah Dathan and Abiram there as well as Moses
tollitur corruptione nisi rotati quam vocant interitum Ecclesia non tollit partialis corruptio sed infirmat Ecclesia Romana omnia habet corrupta sed non omnino haet non interitus est fed partialis corruptio ejus disendu est And therefore to your accusation it is fit for them to answer not for me who maintain none of their corruptions God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ grant by his eternal Spirit that Spirit of eternal Truth that all the deceits and fallacies of Satan being laid asidet we may daily grow up in Christ and his Church and in the truth of Christ and his Church and that we may confirme and establish one another more and more by unfeigned Charity and the bonds of peace to his glory and the common salvation of our selves and all Christians Amen A KEY to open the Debate about a Combinational Church and the power of the KEYES The Third Part. HItherto you have held forth the doctrine in your Letter now you come to the use and application and that you may be the better understood you have thought upon five heads and upon every one of these fastned either a bitter or a joculary Epithite one is vile and virulent another is violent a third is haughty and horrible the fourth is idle and addle and the last an odde head The Spaniard gives us this caution that he whose head is of glasse ought to take heed how he casts up stones into the aire left by chance they fall upon his own pate and crack his crown Before then you made your self so merry with these heads you should have considered whether some ridiculum caput could not have created to himself and others laughter at the invention of more heads in your Combinational Churches than yet you could finde in the Catholick and tell you that you are a Monster of many heads that the Presbyter is a vile and virulent head the Independent a violent the Anabaptist a haughty and horrible the Notioner an idle and addle the Quaker an odde head You perhaps will ask him how it will be proved I will answer for him on the same day when you prove your words true of these Churches you jest at 'T is but the imagination of your own head it is so and I know not anybody that is bound presently to fall down and worship it But I come to your Letter The words of the Letter MAy not any one to whose inwards the knowledge of these particulars is come ingenuously confesse that his very soul is clearly convinced of the mighty and wonderful corruptions which have crept into are cherisht within and contested about by many yea by too too many Christians of too too many Churches The Reply Those indeed who are convinced that they are mighty and wonderful corruptions in ingenuity can do no lesse but confesse it But it is not a bure relation or recital without any proof as you for the most part have done that will convince any ingenuous man You must set to work again and fortifie your words with plain Scripture or sound domonstration yea and remove those blocks I have cast in your way before you shall convince any one who is not of a weak and servile judgment If they crept in you must shew when and by whom which you have not done your bare affirmation being of no validity That they were cherished was well because no corruptions as I have shewed That too too many Christians and too too many Churches contest about them I am sorry for it Better it were we were at peace with our selves and imploy'd our forces against the common enemy to whose entrance by our dissensions we have opened too wide a gap I fear me we shall contest so long that his words will be verified who said at his death Venient Romani The words of the Letter ANd may not I though a stranger to my nearest friends because an Exile newly arrived in the Land of my Nativity safely appeal to any person either of conscience or common sense whither Christ Jesus our supreme Lord Protectour upon whose shoulder the government of the Churches is laid hath not of late years bo n a loud witnesse against every one of those five aforementioned kinds of deformed Churches and that in these very Countries which are counted and commonly call'd Christendome If so God forbid that there should be any Christian man and more especially any Clergy man so carnal or so carelesse in all those coasts as not to be both able and willing to conceive and to conclude himself to be called upon for to consider and lay to heart the great and grievous desolations which his hand hath made amongst the most and mightiest of the sonnes of men The Reply And here I shall with teares in my eyes Eccho back unto you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God forbid it should be otherwise Oh never let any Christian of what rank soever add that talent of lead to that sinne which hath so highly provoked our good God to pour out the vials of his wrath against this our Church and these three Nations that I mention not the other of Christendome as not to lay it to heart Conceive not there can be so much carnality or carelessenesse yet left in any person imbued with conscience and common sense who hath not considered what God hath done unto us in the fiercnesse of his wrath Mic. 2.3 Lam. 2.17 Dan. 19.14.12 Psal 79.1.2 3 4. We do acknowledge that Gods Word hath taken hold of us that the Lord hath devised a device against us and hath done that which he devised that he hath watched upon the evil and brought it upon us for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem O God the people are come into thine inheritance thy holy Temple have they defiled and made Jerusalem an heap of stones the dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat to the foules of the aire and the flesh of thy Saints unto the beasts of the earth their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem and there was no man to bury them we are become a reproach to our neighbours a scorne and derision to them that are round about us Gods sinking the gates his destroying the walls his slighting the strong holds of Zion his polluting the Kingdome his swallowing the Palaces his cutting off the horne of Israel Gods hating our Feasts his abominating our Sabbaths his loathing our Solemnities Isa 1. Gods forgetting his footstoole his abhorring his Sanctuary his suffering men to break down all the carved work thereof with axes and hammers Psal 74.6 Lam. 2.6 are all evidences to me that in the indignation of his anger he hath despised the King and the Priest Neither are we so carnal nor carelesse neither but to consider why this is done Justly justly we suffer For the Lord our God is righteous in all his works
c. or as it is in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that may be about the same thing It puts me to stand what you can collect from hence that may serve your turn Gather you may that the whole Church at that time was small or so many as could conveniently meet together in one place or that they met about one and the same service but that there was a precept here given that those which met together must be combined in a Church Covenant is a collection out of your own brain Before your Combination was heard of the Church met together in Synods Provincial National Oecumenical men met together in one place to serve God and therefore the meeting together in one place will never be inconsistent with Scripture precepts But in case these two places should prove infirme you have thought upon your Optiones your seconds to undertake the Combate 3. Seconded and aggravated by its notorious inconformity to the Scripture patterns SEconds commonly are men more skilful at their weapons then the prime Combatants and so then should these Scriptures be of more evidence to prove what you intend that the National corporation is inconsistent with these Scripture and no way conformable to the Scripture patterns which are as you alledge Ephes 2.19 22. Philip. 2.15 Revel 5.9 Where the Combinational Church is called not a whole Nation but a holy City a growing Temple spiritual House or a sinne-enlightning and soul-saving Church gathered built framed culled and called out of and from a carnal and crooked Nation which was both dark and darknesse it self witnesse what is written Ephes 5.8 These places of Scripture I have reviewed and I do not finde one syllable of the Combinational Church in any of them Alchymists who professe themselves skilful to extract gold out of a pibble may perhaps light upon some such thing but this passeth my art There was a man who was wont to stand upon a Key at Athens and every ship that approached the Harbour he judged to be his own The like you do by Scripture and every Text where you can but meet with the name of Christs Church presently you conceit it makes for your Combinational had not your head runne this way you would never have alledged these In that Chapter to the Ephesians 't is the Apostles purpose to shew that the partition betwixt Jew and Gentile was by Christ taken down He was laid in the foundation for the cornerstone and both Nations built and united in him unto one Church so that both by him in one Spirit had accesse to the Father The Gentiles were no more strangers and Forreiners but fellow Citizens with the Saints and of the Houshold of God built upon the foundation Jesus Christ being the corner stone in whom the whole building fitly framed together growes into a holy Temple The end was as you cite Philip. 2.15 That they should be blamelesse and harmlesse and the sonnes of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse Nation among whom ye shine as lights in the world And these were they Rev. 5.9 who were redeemed by Christs blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and Nation But what could not all this be effected but within your Combination No fellow-Citizens of the Saints none blamelesse and harmlesse and sons of God none redeemed by Christs blood but those within your Church Covenant What Arrogance is this what Papisme what Doâ—â—isme all other are notorious Inconformists without the lists of Christs Church by your rule a carnal a crooked Nation darknesse it self and how then can they ever hope for salvation Fye fye give over this peevish singularity and since Christ hath redeemed by his blood some out of every kindred tongue people Nation let those whom he hath so freely and dearly bought be fellow Citizens with the Saints whether they be of your Combinational Church or not The consequence is very sad which may be drawn out of your own words and if I have forced them beyond your intention I am not altogether too blame in it since it may move you hereafter to look that words which may be construed to an uncharitable sense fall not from you But yet that I may be more particular in my answer The Apostle here describes to us the Catholick Church and not any particular in the judgment of all interpreters under the similitudes of a City a Temple a House a City which is governed by the same Laws under one King a Temple consecrated to the same God and sanctified by the same Spirit a house in which the domesticks are all under one and the same father of the family The Citizens of this City the Worshippers in this Temple the children servants and attendants in this house and family are both Jews and Gentiles The time was when it was not so for the Gentiles were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aliens and strangers no free denizons of this City but now they are enfranchized and made fellow-Citizens of the Saints they were not a people but now are admitted for his people but now admitted into his Temple with his people to offer praise and prayers unto him nay which is yet more are themselves living stones of this Temple they were afar off but now are come so near that he acknowledges them for sonnes and houshold servants This City is so ample this Temple so spatious this house so great that it takes in both the Saints triumphing in heaven and that part also of this Corporation yet Militant on Earth of what Nation soever This being the full scope of the Apostle here I wonder that you should put such a restraint upon his words as to limit them to your Combinations 't is overmuch boldnesse in any part to usurp and appropriate that to it self which belongs to the whole A holy City this is called you say not a Nation true 't is so here yet in Saint Peter 1 Pet. 2.9 this holy City is a holy Nation which shews there is no strength in your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that the same Church which is a City in one Apostle is a Nation in the other and then out of the one I shall as easily prove a National Church as you out of the other shall prove a Combinational A City it was and who were the Citizens Jews and Gentiles that is evident in the chapter now say if you can without blushing that such a multitude of all kindreds languages nations people could combine and meet together in one place which is one of the ingredients of your Combination if Amesius says true Farther yet had it been only of the Ephesians that St. Paul had spoken this had been no convincing argument that he spoke of a Combinational Church For that the Ephesians were a people and Ephesus the Metropolis of that people which did impart her priviledges to all those in Asia the lesse who were under her jurisdiction A City at that
authority that our Traditions are Apostolical we observe them in obedience to the Command Honour thy father and mother who have authority in indifferent things And therefore your imputation is rash for we reject no Commandment of God by receiving the commands of men Besides you know we never maintain'd these as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Doctrins which was the Pharisees superstition but only as Rites and Ceremonies not placing Religion but the decency of Religion in them That other place in the Colossians you understand not it is a difficult place I shall labour to give some light to it Good Ant. lib. 1. c. 12. Some conceive the Apostle in this chapter intends the Essens who were a strict Sect among the Jewes and in many passages the Apostle seems directly to point at them vers 16. Let no man condemn you in meat and drink Let no man bear rule over you through humblenesse of mind and worshipping of Angels why 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vers 18. why are you subject to such Ordinances ver 20. The Apostle useth the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Essens applyed to note their Ordinances Aphorisms Constitutions In the 21. vers he gives an instance of some touch not taste not handle not Now the Junior company of Essens might not touch their Seniours and in their diet their taste was limited to bread salt water and hysop which Ordinances they undertook 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Philo a love of wisdome but the Apostle concludes that the observation of this had only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a shew of wisdome this their doctrine was as Philo saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a kind of Philosophy receiv'd from their Fathers by tradition and therefore St. Paul bids Christians beware of it Beware least any man spoile you through Philosophy Some other refer these words to some Philosophers who mingled their saecular Philosophy with the Religion of the Jewes deliver'd at that time many false dictates Estius in loc of God of Angels of the Son of God of the eternity of the World of purgation of souls which were partly receiv'd from the Platonicks partly invented out of their own brains Of which kind was Simon Magus from whom descended the Sect of the Gnosticks Touching this Philosophy and these Traditions the Apostle gives his caveat Beware least c. Zanchy Aretius Daven in loc Others without reflecting upon either Essens or Gnosticks more simply expound the words as a Caveat given against all Sophistical Philosophy Pharisaical traditions and all Mosaical Ceremonial Rites Philosophy the Apostle here condemns not as all note upon the place but as it had vanity and deceitfulnesse added to it for a man may condemn the sophistry and knavery of any art that likes the art well enough The Traditions of men he utterly dislikes such as were accompanied with superstition and folly as were those of the Pharisees disliked by our Saviour mentioned before And so also the Mosaical ceremonies which may well be call'd Elementa mundi as they are Gal. 4.3 and also vers 9. weak and beggarly rudiments Elements such as A. B. C. for children to begin with but now by Christ being utterly abolish'd Now if any man say Touch not that man he is unclean taste not that meat it is forbidden handle not that cup it is defiled beleeve him not Tertul. Here then the Apostle gives us a Caveat against three sorts of men or rather against their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their doctrins the Philosophers the Pharisees the Jews The Philosophers were Patriarchae haereticorum and he means the Gnosticks vain and deceitful arguments they bring beware you be not spoil'd by them The Pharisees are a sort of superstitious hypocrites they have Traditions taken up by themselves which Moses never deliver'd beware of them The Jews walk not after Christ their dictates are that you yet are bound to keep Moses Law hearken not unto them when they say unto you Touch not taste not handle not subject not your selves to their Ordinances after the commandments and doctrines of men c. This is the true intent scope and sense of St. Pauls words as the wise and judicious Interpreters have taught me And that therefore the word Traditions that you here catch at is but a shadow in laying hold of it to serve your turn you put upon the unlearned a vain parologism a dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter the Pharisaical Traditions are forbidden therefore all Traditions the doctrines of those men therefore all other doctrines that the Church shall teach for which there is not a manifest and expresse text in particular For let the Question then be proposed whether it can be proved from these places that all Traditions and external Rites brought into the Church by men ought to be exploded ejected condemn'd And I answer No partly for that these texts aim at another matter partly because there must be power granted to the Governours of the Church to institute rites for order and decency the Apostle himself being the Authour of it Let all things be done decently and in order 1 Cor. 14.40 Heb. 13.17 and partly because we are bound to obey them in all things that are honest Austin hath left us a good rule about Rites and Ceremonies which were it observed Austin ad Januarium Epist 118. cap. 22. would settle much unity and peace in the Church In his nulla melior disciplina prudenti Christiano quam ut eo modo agat quo agit Ecclesia ad quamcunque devenerit quod enim nec contra fidem nec contra bonos more 's injungitar indifferenter est habendum But here three Cautions are to be observed 1. That no man prescribe external Rites with that mind to hope for justification by them or remission of sinne For this is Jewish 2. That these adiaphorous rites be not impos'd as if they laid alike obligation upon the conscience with the Laws of God so that a damnable guilt should be incurr'd upon the breach of them although it happen without contempt of those who are in authority and command or without the scandal of others 3. Heed must be taken that they be significative Dr. Ham. tract of superstition à . Sect. 35. ad 43. few wholesome significant that they be not empty Few that they impose no yoke upon the Disciples necks and wholesome that they edifie In obeying and observing such Ceremonies impos'd upon me by a lawful power I shall never fear to be damned for rejecting the Commandments of God and observing the doctrines of men nor to incur that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with our Saviour out of the Prophet Isaiah in the Chapter cited by you fastens upon those Pharisaical hypocrites Mark 7.5 This people honoureth me with their lips but their heart is far from me SECT 6. The words of the Letter Of divers other things jeerd at by the Epistler IF there were nothing amisse
whole Gospel In a word the condition required of us is faith hope charity self-denial repentance a careful and industrious husbanding of Gods grace daily prayer for daily encrease and attending diligently to the means of grace To strengthen the faith of Abraham and his seed in the assurance of what was promised and for a memorial of what was to be performed it pleased God to have a seal set in his flesh and in the flesh of his seed for that time which was circumcision To this seal all the males of the Jews had a right and this seal was cut into them yea and as many Proselytes also who were content to become proselytae foederis Proselytes of the Covenant The other whom they call'd the Proselytes of their gates they entred them into the Covenant and bound them to the observation of the seven Commandments of Noah by a kinde of purification by water and the blood of oblation in the same kinde as they admitted their women The Covenant is the self-same under the Gospel that then God made with Abraham on the same conditions of the same extent only it hath another seal theirs was circumcision and ours baptisme the cutting of the flesh gave entrance to them the washing by water gives an entrance and admission to us And about this the question is whether it be to be with-held from the children of any who bear the name of Christians And it is observable how this question fiâ—st grew and what progresse it had At first some good-minded men set it on foot being occasioned by the children of professed Pahists living among them whom they conceived to be Idolatrous and consequently out of Covenant this caused Farel to write to Calvin about it Calvin Ep. 149. whose answer to him is this but not sound Where both the parents are Popish we think it an absurd thing for us to baptize them which are not members of our body and sith Papists children are such we see not how it should be lawful for us to administer Baptisme unto them But sounder by much is that answer of the Ecclesiastical Colledge of Geneva unto Knox who scrupled at the same and grew more rigid and wrote to them that he held it not only unlawful to baptize the children of Idolaters but even Bastards Ep. 283. and excommunicate persons till reconciled to the Church To whom they returned this sentence that wheresoever the profession of Christianity hath not utterly perished and been extinct Ep. 285. infants are beguiled of their right if the common seal be denied them which conclusion as I will by and by prove is sound But I go on for the mistake staid not here for when it came to Mr. Cartwright Anvil he beat it broader for he asserted that none might receive the Sacrament of Baptisme but they whose Parents at least the one of them are by the soundnesse of their Religion and by their vertuous demeanours known to be men of God Hook lib. 5. pag. 155. and by this rule the children of those they called Hereticks Misbelievers and Profane livers also came to be excluded Next the Brownist took it up and conveyed it over to you of the Combinational Church both imparting Baptisme to very few infants Burtons vindication pag. 62. viz. to those alone whose immediate Parents are members of their Congregation Out of you arise the Anabaptists and they peremptorily deny the Baptisme of all infants born to the members of the Combination or to any other till they are able to give an accompt of their faith and enter into a Church Covenant for themselves At last the Shaker comes upon the Stage and gives out of his Cup of trembling a vomit to all Ordinances these are outward Rites Baptisme the Eucharist needlesse seals to any old or young since he and his company are inwardly sealed by the Spirit This was the stratageme of that old Serpent for had he presented this bewitching position to the world at fiâ—st in the last ugly shape it now appears he knew that all men would have with honour heard it therefore he insinuated it and caused it to be taken down by certain gulps steps and degrees that the potion might be swallowed and the poyson not at all perceived Now this errour that I call it no worse in some hath been nourished in that they have not fully weighed the purport of this distinction of the mystical and visible body of Christ This is but one and we usually call it the Church which contains in it two sorts of people either outward Professours or true inward believers These last belong to the mystical body of Christ which therefore is called mystical because the mystery of their conjunction is altogether removed from sense in these their love is sound and sincere and comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned and they no doubt do and shall obtain whatsoever was made over by the second Covenant Those outward professours who either before Christs coming or since his appearing in the flesh have been called by the name of Christians we call the visible body because being Jews or Gentiles they are incorporated into one body have but one Lord whose servants they professe themselves to be have one faith which they all acknowledge one Baptisme by which they are all initiated For although we know the Christian Faith and allow it we are then but entring entred we are not into this visible Church till our admittance by the dore of Baptisme and who they are that enter that way is very well known even to the eye whence we usually call these the visible Church which is not so to be understood as if those of the invisible Church were not visible Christians also For both moleties whether mystical or visible as touching their profession are the object of the eye easie it is for any man to say this man is a Christian that man a Heathen But this distinction ariseth from the sincerity or unsincerity of the professours because we are never able to see and discern who they are that sincerely professe the Truth therefore we call these invisible but because we are easily able to judge of the men who enter by Baptisme therefore the whole is called a visible Church In whomsoever therefore is found the profession of one Lord one Faith one Baptisme those the Church doth acknowledge for her children and all those none of hers in whom they are not found as Jews Turks Heathens c. Others for their external profession are Christians and are of the visible Church of Christ And among these there are some who professe the Truth but not wholly and entirely and these are Hereticks some that professe the whole saving Truth but not in unity and these are Schismaticks some that professe the whole saving Truth in unity but not in sincerity and sanctity and these are hypocrites and profane persons others that professe the whole saving Truth in unity
and Pastour and your reason you here give and your practice also confirms me in it For your Teacher you say must dispense the word of knowledge and information to the judgment and the Pastour the word of wisdome and exhortation to the will and affections Pray tell me what should hinder that one and the same man may not teach and inform the judgment and make wise to salvation exhort and move the will and affections in the same houre Were it otherwise you your self preach by a wrong method who explain and apply who raise a Doctrine out of your Text by which you inform the understanding and then labour to apply it and make it useful to the will and affections of your Auditors Tye up your Teacher to these strict terms and he shall only study positive Divinity and your Pastour no Art more than Rhetorick especially that part that concerns 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for he must be his master in that before he shall work kindly upon the will and move the affections of men Ille movet dictis animos pectora mulcet Besides were these two Offices so necessary the Teacher should never stretch himself beyond his tether but stint and end when he hath given forth and proved his Doctrine and then your Pastour should enter take his Cue and begin upon what is taught But why do I trouble my self in battering this Trivial since among you it is not strictly observed for I dare say it let a Scrutiny be truly taken and it will be found that not in one among ten of your Combinational Churches a man shall meet with these two distinct Officers your Teacher and Pastour As for us we dislike them not and where conveniently they might be had and maintenance for them they were in use witnesse the Professours of Divinity in our Universities and the Publique Lectures and Readers in our Cathedrals but to binde every Parochial Church to this or else it must be defective in an integral part is more than ever you will be able to prove yea or any man else Next you insist upon your Ruler And whoever yet denied that Rulers were necessary in the Church yea and for that end though not the sole you name But none will content you except they be of your own election and ordination none except the Lay-Elders this also must be proved by you For you know we had and assigned others and upon better grounds then you will be ever able to disprove Your last Officers were Deacons and Widows whom you make to be Receivers of the weekly Contributions and dispensers of it to three uses In the Primitive Church such I grant you there were as is evident out of the Texts you alledge that to the last use they imployed the collected mony But that any of it was imployed to the two first uses either for the maintenance of the Table of the Lord or for the Tables of the Church Elders I put you to prove again And for this last I am perswaded it was not these being likely if ever there had been any as now among you of the richer and abler sort and therefore no reason their Tables should be furnished out of the poor mans box But if you will take Elders for the true Presbyters of the Church such who were to labour in the Word and Doctrine I shall easily grant you that they had their maintenance till there was other provision made for them out of these Collections and Contributions though not from the Deacons but the Bishops appointment These Deacons and Widows are not in our Church now and thereupon infer it wants of its integral parts No such matter for these Officers were but Temporary taken up according to exigence of those times for the necessity being over the Office was at end When once Christian Princes and charitable men provided by wholsome Laws away of relief for the poor and assigned Officers to that purpose where Hospitals Alms-houses Nosecomia c. were erected and endowed to that end there was no farther use of these Officers neither is the Church defective in an integral part though now it want them as I before shewed out of Aretius You have then taken a long day for obtaining mercy and settlement of peace to the Church if neither of these may be enjoyed untill it be reformed and refined in the essential and integral parts according to your fancy For what can she not have her Officers but of your appointment no Rulers except your Lay-Elders no Members but such visible Converts as you will be pleased to admit Lastly be bound to her duty by no Oath but by your explicite Covenant upon this you insist this you labour to prove to the purpose and as if you intended to convince any opponent you here heap Text upon Text out of Old and New Testament which I shall now consider how far they make to your purpose The first is out of Jerem. 50.5 They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward saying Come and let us joyne our selves to the Lord in a perpetual Covenant that shall not be forgotten Saint Peter teacheth us that unstable souls wrest the Scriptures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a speech borrowed from those who put a man upon a rack which causeth the man to speak what he never meant And this is the fault of too too many who strain the Scriptures to a wrong sense Whereas they should first consult the Scriptures and make them the ground of their conclusions they first harbour a strong conceit of the conclusion and then seek out Scriptures to confirme it And this for the most part befalls not yours alone but all other wanderers from the Truth they blot their books and margents with variety of quotations out of Gods Word as if by the inspection only of their Copy this way they purposed to affright the unlearned Reader or Hearer into their opinion who being astonished with the fearful noise of the Chapter and Verse as the Frogs were upon the fall of the Log into the plash of water might presently stoop into a veneration of what is taught Here I meet with seven places alledged for your explicite Covenant but I adjure you as you will answer it at the great day whether you are fully perswaded in your soul and conscience that either the Prophets or Apostles had an eye to it when they wrote those words and what assurance you can give us that this must be the sense and no other For if you have not a certainty of faith in this behalf you do very ill to produce these Texts presse them upon tender consciences and to maintain a Rent a Schisme a Separation in the Church of Christ That which makes me and should you suspect your sense of these places is that having consulted with the best and wisest Expositours I have upon them I finde not one syllable that sounds to that you intend and collect from thence What Masters are
in the last for Parishes as they after were restrained and are constituted at this day you must shew that your Church had the priority of them which you are never able to do else you cannot say that they corrupted it And indeed your allegation that follows is so weak that any man who reads and considers it will suspect that you have little to say for your cause 3. At that time this was when ceasing to elect and ordain either a Teacher a Pastour a Ruler a Deacon or Deaconesse or Widow in conformity to the heavenly Canon Rom. 12.7 15.4 16.1 compared with 1 Tim. 3.1 Titus 1.5.6 it was well content with a Parson a Vicar a Warden an Over-seer of the Poor and a Midwife THE time of this corruption you point out and set it to be when it ceased to elect and ordain a Teacher c. Here again you commit the same errour supposing I am bound to trust and beleeve you on your bare word Ceasing to do any thing presupposeth that there was a time when one might or did do it Now it behoveth you to shew the time when Parishes in general for particulars will make no rule and few very few are to be given did ever elect their Pastour I am sure to ordain him in antiquity you can produce not one example 'T is not possible since the Records of the Church are open and he that runnes may read them that at first the Teacher and Pastour sent to any Church was sent and there placed by the Bishop The instances are so many and the practice of the Church so universal that it were lost labour to produce them yet here I shall ask you onely one question if this were a corruption I wonder why by your pure Presbyterial Church it is retained why are men now elected approved sent and setled to be Parsons and Vicars in Parish Churches who you know are neither elected nor ordained by that Church over whom they are set Remove this beam out of your own eye before you see the mote in you brothers Well but what was the errour this that the Parish contented it self with a Parson and Vicar for a Pastour Teacher and Ruler as if the Parson and Vicar might not be all these might not feed teach and rule his flock what should hinder him for call him by what name you please his office and duty is the same and a Parson and Vicar is bound as much to feed teach and guide his flock as is your Pastour Teacher and Ruler and must answer the neglect of it as well as they this is to seek a knot in a rush Be pleased to translate Parson by a Latine word and you shall alwayes finde it rendred by Pastor or Rector Ecclesiae and how then is the man or his name changed and if the Latines may content themselves to be under the Pastor or Rector I see no reason but the English may as well be content with their Parson He because in case of necessary absence disability of body age or other casualties which may be when the Parish was of a very large extent assumed unto him a helper who because he was vices ejus supplere was called Vicarius this was the original of Vicars and that you look not so strangely at the name in the old Law the High Priest had his Sagan Casaubon Exerc 13. Num. 9. who in case of the High Priests pollution performed his office such was Zephaniah 2 Reg. 25.18 and nAnas unto Caiaphas the Chorepiscopi were of the same kind to the Bishops of old And the Protosincelli to the Patriarchs of Constantinople And in this there was no hurt that came in from Rome when by appropriations of the revenues of the Church to Abbies Monasteries Selden of tyths cap. 12. Sect. 1. c. perpetual Vicarages were erected But this was so late that no injury could be done to the Combinational Church by it since that was corrupted and gone when Parishes were erected many hundred years before and then there were none of these Vicars in rerum natura I see not then to what purpose this name is here inserted except to make up the tale and the same may be said of the Parson also for it is no ancient name A Deacon we retain though in another employment and probably in the very office that Timothy puts Vide sis Aretii loc Commun loc 66. de Diaconis and indeed instead of those that served Tables we have Wardens and Over-seers of the poor which at first was but a meer secular but charitable employment as was a Deaconesse and putting honest men into such an employment though under another name is no corruption of any Churches constitution for it marrs not the matter nor form of it How your Mid-wife comes in I must professe I am to seek for I never heard any man more look upon her as an officious and useful hand-maid of the Church then upon the Mid-wives of Egypt About these two last the Deacon and Deaconesse Aret. in Tim. 1.3 Aretius in his Commentary upon 1 Tim. 3. hath a very good observation that these were very necessary in the first planting of the Church and before there were Christian Magistrates but after that Kings became nursing fathers and nursing mothers to the people of God they took a care that the poor Christians should be relieved in another way than by the Church-stock There were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 erected in Hospitals Almes-houses c. they were provided for then they made Lawes for a common-stock to be collected in every Parish for that purpose and appointed by Statutes Over-seers of the poor and other Officers We saith he therefore have not in our Churches such Deacons and Deaconesses as they had neither is it requisite we should have because the duty is so wisely ordered by the political Magistrate To this purpose that grave and wise Expositour But this you say should be done in conformity to the heavenly Canon and many texts you cite for it but I can finde no Canon at all in any of them for what you aime at Rom. 12.7 I read he that hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let him wait upon it But I have told you it is of gifts the Apostle there speaks not of functions 2 Cor. 4.1 6.3 Rom. 11.13 or if of functions the words is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the doctrine of the Gospel is adorned with this title and the Ministers in what degree soever called passim Diaconi Col. 1.7 4.17 1.23.25 1 Cor. 3.5 2 Cor. 3.6 The next citation Rom. 15.4 passeth my reach for I see not how it can be drawn to say any thing to this purpose therefore I passe it by You urge Rom. 16.1 and that indeed speaks of Phaebe as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a servant of the Church of Cenchrea Be it so that una hirundo non facit ver were it