undertakes it in this Age becomes rather the object of Pity than Envy it being truly said by the Emperour Dioclesian Difficillimum est rectè imperare how much more in this Iron Age in which that Wish is absolutely unnecessary Materiamque tuis tristem Virtutibus opta And as for any imputation of Malice if his heart deceive him not very much he would be much more ready to make Use 〈…〉 Paludamentum of Constantine the 〈…〉 make any iâ—vidious Detection And till the Reader can convince him that there cannot be Pax cum hominibus bellum cum vitiis in sensu composito he hopes Charity will dissever them in his behalf Yea as Seneca hath observed well Cato the Elder was no less useful to the State of Rome than Scipio Africanus because as this Noble Roman did defeat the Physical Enemies of his Countrey so that austere Censor did successfully Combat against the Moral Adversaries thereof That Apology which St. Hierom made for his Tartness is a sufficient Vindication of the Author For if a Stylus aculeatus be allowable against a Charge of Heresie it is no less lawful in the Cause of God For when the Honour of the Divine Majesty and the Interest of his Church are deeply concerned we ought to regard the Glory of the Supreme infinitely above that of any other Superiour For Amicus Socrates amicus Plato sed magis amica Veritas To which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the Truth and Interest of the Church all truly zealous Ecclesiasticks are animated by that notable Saying of Saint Augustine Qui veritatem occultat qui prodit Mendacium uterque reus est ille quia prodesse non vult hic quia nocere desiderat But though Tiberias none of the best of Emperours used to say In Civitate libera linguam mentemque liberam esse debere yet sure I am If these Gravamina which would amount to the number of German ones if they were subdivided and sold by Retail had been heard patiently in private they needed not have been told in Publick though there were never more Provocations for all men to speak than now when all the Mischiefs that other Ages did but imagine are now practised and when Oppression hath made a Wise man mad and in the mean time the dumb Asses are taught to forbid the Madness of the Prophets But there being too many in the world who as Aristippus said have their ears in their feet and they who are straight finding it very inconvenient to stoop so low therefore are necessitated to take other measures of Communication Desperata ejus Principis salus est as said a Wise man cujus aures ita formatae sunt ut aspera quae utilia nec quicquam nisi jucundum accipiant Nam Libertas Consilii est ejus vita essentia quâ ereptâ Consilium evanescit But perhaps it may be objected That it is fit that all Papers which are design'd for the Press should in prima instantia be presented unto those who Iure eminentiae are appointed Supervisors thereof I shall refer it to the Judgment of the Candid Reader if the Author had not good reason to conclude that he might spare his pains in making such an Address by the strange ensuing Narration told him not long ago by one who had designed something very useful as he supposed for the Church viz. An exact Method of studying the Primitive Fathers even to the Death of Gregory the Great whom he accounted the Last of those Worthies as one called Brutus and Cassius Vltimi Romanorum though Venerable Bede Holy Anselm and Devout Bernard have merited eternal Remembrance in the Church Which Method if prosecuted as he intended he humbly conceiv'd would be found more useful for all Unbyassed Readers than the Treatises of Baronius Sixtus Senensis Bellarmin Possevin Perron Lawney Sirmundus and Contius to that purpose or the Tractates of the Magdeburgenses with their Epitomator Osiander Scultetus Reinolds Cocus Rivet Blondel and Dallee the Popish Authors being generally too lax though the four last in order are either Nasutiores or much more ingenuous than the rest and the Reformed too strict on that Subject the former discovering too palpable a Design to buoy up a forlorn Cause by Supposititious Fathers and Spurious Books and the latter having too much of the Critick and Satyrist in them The Diagram of which great Design being presented by the Author to a Principal Member of that Order in order to the giving of his Judgment as to the propos'd Method And what he concluded to be either defective or redundant therein the Author was resolved to take in very good part thinking himself bound to reverence the Opinions of his Superiours But he did meet with no other Verdict or Complement save this astonishing Answer from such a Person That he had no Leisure to look after such Books he being distracted too much with other Imployments and that there were too many Books already in the World which hasty Censure he passed on that whereof he had never read one Line Which could not but appear very strange to any in his right Wits when he reflects upon the Disposition of the Country whereof it was spoken We find indeed in a late Satyrist who had the Spirit of his Calling as abundantly as any a Nation taxed as being Epidemical because they send forth many Examina of the Fruit of their Bodies into forreign Countries and divers Colonies to New Plantations but it is the first time I have heard them charged with the exuberant Spawn of the fruit of their Brains And though that Observation concerning Africa semper aliquid adfert novi may be also applyed to this Country yet it is not to be understood of the one or the other in reference to new Books but rather of renewed monstruous Productions both these Countries being in these latter Ages of the World sandy and barren as to intellectual Births But in fine he remitted the perusal of that Platform to another of his Order who was no less taken up with the Study of Modern Politicks than himself yea was become so much in Love with that Trade that he had put the intervall of many German Miles and Years betwixt himself and his proper Charge that he might practice the Principles of his beloved Art upon a fitter Scene whereby this ghostly Mountebank did emulate the Sagacity of a Sharleton as to the Conveniency of the Erection of his Stage all Quak-salvers who have the Spirit of their base Calling being sure to resort unto those places where there is most Money and the greatest Concourse of People The slighted Brother finding such Addresses to be in vain immediately call'd to mind the Answer which that cruel Duke de Alva gave to Henry the 4th of France who having demanded of him if he had observed that great Ecclipse of the Sun which had lately happened the Duke ingenuously reply'd That he had so much adoe upon Earth that he could not
perfidious XXX Canon of the Councel of Lateran with his Legate Pandolphus were now alive they would be found to talk of that inauspicious King of England named Iohn his constrained Resignation and it is no small wonder after so many Centuries of years to hear again in this Age any noise of that vain and illegal Pretence which all sober Persons imagined had been blown up long agoe by that Subterranean Powder-Plot but it seems they intend to give a Demonstration to the World that no Prescription of time can render a common Whore honest And if a grain-weight of Christian Ingenuity or Humanity can be found in that late prodigious Conspiracy against our Church and State let the Universality of that infernal Design with those base Appendages of diuturnal plotting vile Ingratitude Treachery and Cruelty be the sole Judges thereof And in fine it is my humble Judgment that till these Coals of Iuniper be quenched which have too long inflamed all the Vitals of the Christian Church I mean the Puritanical Papist and Jesuited Puritan our unchristian Animosities and Feuds many whereof are meer Logomachies and groundless shall never be throughly extinguished till the devouring Fire of Hell consume these lesser Flames Neither will I ever forget that notable Instance of this Concordantia Discordantiarum which that excellent Historian I. A. Thuan. affords unto us in his 56th Book where he tells us that the Daemagogues of Paris and Pulpiteers of Rochel centered in that point of treacherous inhumanity viz. to put to Death all Prisoners of War even after the publick Faith had been given unto them But Tractent fabrilia Fabri Therefore the Antisignani of the Arrians Macedonians Nestorians and Eutychians not to speak of many other Hereticks were not only conven'd before the respective General Councels which are accounted the most famous of them all but were also judicially convicted and Sentenc'd with the highest Censures of the Church before the Civil Magistrate took any other notice of them as Delinquents than to compell those erroneous Schismaticks to appear personally before the Ecclesiastical Court to which they had been legally summoned The Church in these Dayes laying down this as an inviolable Conclusion that they would not fail to do their own Duty and if the Civil Magistrate afterwards neglected his let him answer to God for it who punisheth Potentes potenter and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as saith Herodot in Chione and Seneca omne sub regno graviâ—ri regnum est And in that great Audit every man must stand and fall to his own Master The Brachium Seculare being indeed fit enough to restrain exorbitant Practices but it hath no direct Influence upon irregular Judgments and I fear it makes more Hypocrites than sincere Converts Fire and Faggot the beloved Argument of the Roman Church having a more natural Tendency to a preternatural Consumption than to a Spiritual Conversion Therefore the Arrians whose Courses were generally very violent and bloody are deservedly look'd upon as the genuine Parents of these Coercive Motives and disingenuous Arts which were judged very heterogeneal to the Nature and Constitution of the Church which as it transacts only in Spiritual Matters so it could inflict no other than Spiritual Censures and Chastisements But when the fiery Dominicans arose the Dream of Dominicus his Mother being a sad Prognostick of the Violence of that Order they might justly have been termed in this Regard Arriani Redivivi so merciless was that Persecution of the poor Waldenses to which they carried both Lanterns and Faggots Which bloody Method continues to this day in the Spanish Inquisition these violent Spirits being usually the cruel Lords of that infamous Judicatory whose inhumane Machins resemble the wild and Barbarous Fancies of Mezentius and Procrustes the unnatural Bellowings of Phalaris his Bull the Turkish Gaunching and Impaleing upon Stakes much rather than the harmless Engines of the Gospel And if a Pythagorean 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were possible I would imagine that there had been a transmigration of the Souls of these Dominicans into the Bodies of some late Presbyterians one egg or Fish not being found liker to another than is the Resemblance of some of these Incendiaries on which account one of their abortive Issue hath in one of his Pamphlets not unfitly termed their Covenant Taht great Instrument of Blood whereby he verifies that common Observation Omnis Apostata persequitur suum Ordinem But seeing the Dominicans were nothing else but the Emissaries of those Masters who pretend to be S. Peter's Successors and in their fierce Anger and cruel Rage have cut off more than the Ears of many who were much more innocent than that Servant of the high Priest Therefore I cannot forget to take notice in this Place of another great Abuse committed by some Popes For the Croysade which was at first design'd to rescue the Holy Sepulchre from the Possession of Infidels to which great Undertaking many Myriads of Christians were animated by the preaching and Miracles of S. Bernard was so perverted from that Primary pious Institution that it was employed to the utter Extirpation of many thousands of the simple and harmless Inhabitants of the Mountains of Languedoc and Provence Such is the Affectation of the Roman Bishops to wear the Livery of that Scarlet-coloured Beast But the bright Olybian Flames of the Primitive Church which were not Ignes comburentes sed lambentes hated with a perfect Hatred those Sanguinary Spirits as may appear from the Deportment of S. Martin of Tours who as Sulpitius Sev. reports refused to communicate with Ithasius and Idacius two Spanish Bishops because they did prosecute unto Death some of the Priscillianists and that before the Tyrant Maximus though it cannot be denyed but that they were detestable Hereticks even Manichaei Redivivi and consequently but half Christians So great was the Aversion of these truly Evangelical Spirits from Shedding of Blood even in the Cause of God Yea more than so so great was the Antipathy that S. Martin had conceived against such violent Courses that when he was informed the Tyrant had impower'd some Military Tribunes to go into Spain there to depopulate the Country pillage the goods of all those who would not conform he immediately went to that Emperour and freely told him That this pretended Zeal was not kindled by a Coal from the Altar of God but rather an infernal Fire bred in the Breasts of some furious Bishops and fomented by the Venome of that old Red Dragon the natural Feuel thereof the Event whereof could be no other than that of a furious Tempest or overflowing Inundation which bears down all before it and puts no Difference betwixt the Good and the Bad Old or Young Male or Female but sweeps away all promiscuously or like unto a number of ravenous Wolves let loose upon a Multitude of harmless and naked Animals which have not the Faculty to discriminate betwixt the mangy Sheep and those which are sound in
non potest fieri ut qui Deum cognovit magnificè verè â—is quae adversantur serâ—iat voluptatibus and that Description of a self-denyed man found in the third Book of Theophilus Antioch Ad Autolycum Qui omnes Affectiones Animae Perturbationes debellacit faciâ—â— Mundum â—espicere potest But they that are Christ's have crucifyed the Flesh with all the Affections and Lusts thereof and consequently they not only endeavour to subdue the Irascible Faculty that Furor brevis being most unsuitable in a Church-man and that which usually deforms his Countenance worse than that of Thersites unless that Passion be transformed by Grace into a well-ordered Zeal But this general Mortification is also extended to all the Appetites of the Concupiscible Faculty So that a Church-man who makes this his Study and Delight will never be ranked by the World with the most brutish of the Epicurean Sect Who did not eat that they might live but lived that they might eat such as Sardanapalus Apicius Lucullus Heliogabalus the Emperour Maximinus whose Gigantine Appetite was above the Proportion of his vast bulk and that Usurper Boâ—osus of whom it was said That he was born not to lead a Life but to lift a Pot But on the Contrary all just mâ—n wâ—ll be so ready to reckon them with the ancient Fabricii the Bruti and Caâ—ones who were so much renowned for Temperance Yea more than so they shall be reputed the true Disciples of that great Doctor of the Gentiles who 1 Cor. 9. 24 25. c. recommends Sâ—briety to all Ministers of the Gospel from his own Example and by an Argument drawn ab incommoâ—â— all which Inconveniences of 〈…〉 in Church-men are expressed at 〈◊〉 by Clemens Alex. In his Paedagogus Who 〈◊〉 us there that the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Bacchus will never thrive together and that he cannot be a Spiritual Minister of the Gospel who is a sensual Man and immersed in Voluptuousness and that Gluttony and Drukenness are brutish Vices in all sorts of People But odious in Great men very detestable in Women but most abominable in the Clergy who ought to be Paterns of Temperance Abstinence and Fasting to all the World It being a great point of Christian Prudence in a Church-man to habituate himself by abstaining now and then from things lawful that with the greater Facility he 〈…〉 to things unlawful 〈…〉 still trenching nigh to a Precipice may sometimes stumble and fall into it It is very observable what the Judgment of Am. Marcellinus though a Heathen man was concerning the Splendour and Luxury of the Roman Bishops which he liked not but said That there was another way for them to be truly happy si Magnitudine urbis despectâ ad imitationem quorundam Provincialium viverent quos lemulas eâ—â—ndi potandique parcissimè ut puros Numim Commendant I say not that Fasting is a formal part of God's Worship though we read in Scripture of one that served God with Fasting and Prayer But as it is said of the Knowledge of Languages that it is not properly Learning yet a good help thereunto so it may be deemed of Fasting that it is not properly the Worship of God but a good Adminicle thereunto For a grosse Belly makes not only a gross Understanding but also a stupid Devotion I wish this were well observed on the Day of the Consecration of Bishops For it is but too much noticed that though the ancient Ceremony of reading the 13 Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles be still in Use yet the Duty therein recommended which is Fasting not to speak of that Moral one of Prayer hath fallen into such a desuetude that in lieu thereof too sumptuous and excessive Feasting hath succeeded so that the Solemnity of such a Day doth rather resemble the Pagan Cerealia Floralia the Saturnalia and Bacchanalia than the ancient Agapae of the Christian Church of which Tertullian in his Apologetick tells us That they were so far from supping prodigally as if they meant to dye to morrow as Diogenes said of the People of Megara that what cost was laid out upon those Love-Feasts was not expended for Vain-glory and to nourish Parasites but upon the account of Piety and Religion and to refresh the Poor And that they fed sparingly at them as remembring they were to rise at night to worship God So that they appeared not so much to have Feasted at Supper as to have fed upon Discipline and Order Sure it were much more commendable and fitter too to vouchsafe these hundreds of Crowns misimployed that way by way of Charitable Largess on the Poor that the Consecrated Person may have many Supplicants at the Throne of Grace to pray for the health of his Soul and for the Divine Blessing on the future Exercise of his Office that as Charlemain used to say by these Hounds he may hunt after the Kingdom of Heaven We find indeed that St. Cyprian the three Asian Gregories Basil Chrysostom and Augustine did prepare themselves for that most eminent Ecclesiastical Degree by various Acts of Mortification as is evident from the respective Histories of their Lives but none of them 〈◊〉 in Apollo the night of their Consecration But as the Wise man hath told us There is a time for all things So that even Fasting it self may be sometimes unseasonable not only upon a Physical but also upon a Moral account which is never more untimely than upon the Lord's Day I shall not be so uncharitable to such Fasters as is the Author of that Epistle to the Philippians Fathered on St. Ignatius though none of his who says That they are no better than murderers of Christ who fast on that day yet one thing is most certain That the Antient Church prohibited Fasting both privately and publickly on the Lords Day I mean all Religious Fasts and never permitted them no not in the Time of Lent because that Day was the most ordinary and constant Festival of the Church It being a weekly Solemnity Instituted for the Resurrection of our Saviour And though these detestable Hereticks the Manicheans and Priscillianists made it their Practice in Opposition to the Catholick Church to Fast on Sunday yet even the Montanists who pretended much to that kind of Mortification abstained from fasting on the Lord's Day as is evident from Tertullian's Treatise De Iejuniis which he wrote after his unhappy Montanizing But this Fasting in our Church on the Lord's Day is a part of that old Presbyterian Leaven not yet half well purged out of this Land For when that Tyrannical Usurpation was culminating in the Cuspe of the tenth House such was their Meridian Line that they thought it their Glory though it was indeed their Shame to run counter to all the Practice of the Primitive Church therefore the Pilots of the Leman Lake steered such a Course as they might at last become perfect Antipodes thereunto For whereas the Primitive Church solemnized a
Generality of their Theologues and Canonists reduce them to Seven whereof Sacerdotium is the highest Order Which Opinion indeed makes Episcopatus to be but Gradus Sacerdotii and compriseth Cantores under the Lectores It is also the Judgment of some Moderns That after the Chor-Episcopi were exauctorated by the Primitive Church as useless and burdensome that Presbyters were termed Antistites in secundo Ordine which they collect from that Iambick of S. Gregorie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. i.e. The venerable Senate of Presbyters that preside over the People and possess the second Throne Deacons were indeed prohibited by the ancient Canons to sitdown before Presbyters without their Leave and Command But as for the Demeanour of Bishops in reference to their Presbyters it was a Canon renewed more than once Ne sedeat Episcopus stante Presbytero Yea more than so There be some not inconsiderable Antiquaries who are so far from thrusting Presbyters below the Hatches that they have elevated Deacons to the upper Deck of the Superiour Clergy imagining that only Sub-Deacons and these Orders below them are to be accounted the Inferiour Clergy which they would collect from Hierom. on Tit. and Aug. Epist. 162. But non sic fuit ab initio if we consult the 6th Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles where we may find that they are not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz Mensarii Eleemosynarii See Can. 16. Concilii Sexti Generalis Can. 4. Conâ—cilii quarti Carthag and S. Chrysostom's Comment on the 6th of the Acts. Yet it cannot be denied but that in the latter Centuries of the Primitive Church the Order of Deacons at Rome who were but seven in number according to the Primitive Institution and that of Presbyters very numerous began not only to equal themselves but also to look big upon the Presbyters and the Arch-Deacon assumed the Title of Cardinal Deacon which Superciliousness not only gave occasion to the framing of those Canons we have already hinted at against them but also to St. Hierom a Presbyter to take the Pen in his hand that he might vindicate his own Order from the Contempt of their Inferiours which he doth at length Epist. 85. ad Evagrium For let Blondel and Salmasius pretend what they please this Renowed Father had no quarrel with the Order of Episcopaly but was not a little irritated by the sawcy and arrogant behaviour of the Deacons and that they might learn to know and keep their distance and that Presbyters might look down upon them as the Church-Nethinims he screws up the Presbyteratus as nigh to Episcopacy as possibly he can And if I were not afraid to be accounted an impertinent Digressor it were easie to demonstrate from the Writings of this Father that he acknowledged the Power of Ordination Iurisdiction and Confirmation to belong most properly to Bishops And even in his Comment on Titus on which Blondel layes the greatest stress he hath this differencing Expression In quo differt Episcopus à Presbytero exceptâ Ordinatione Now as Exceptio firmat Regulam in non exceptis so the Exception is presumed as true as the Rule And his ad evit and a Schismata c. is by the greatest Antiquaries looked upon and not without good reason as such an Accident that did emerge in the Apostles days And how can it be conceived that a man of Hierom's Temper who was indeed very Pious and Learned but withal had much Keenness in his Spirit neither did his great Adversary Ruffinus belye him in this Character ut erat in quod intenderat vehemens that he would have taken it in good part that Augustine should call himself Major Hieronymo quà Episcopus if he had not believ'd the truth thereof Credat Iudaeus Apella non ego Not to mention his writing always respectfully to Pope Damasus as his Superiour in the Church So that one of the fifteen passages usually cited out of St. Hierom's Works to prove the Superiority of Bishops over Presbyters and that is his Dial. adv Luciferian doth preponderate more with me than Spalatensis lib. 2. c. 3. who saith That Hierom's Prejudice against Bishops cannot be excused Neither can I deny but that he was much irritated by the insolent Pride of Iohn Patriarch of Hierusalem I shall only take notice of that which indeed I account a Punctilio not worth the noticing though the Enemies of this Sacred Order we are pleading for lay no little weight upon it therefore I shall speak a little unto it and that is Hierom his asserting that in the Infancy of the Christian Church there was an Identity of Names and that Episcopus and Presbyter signified one and the self same thing For Answer I never judg'd it a real Controversie which is managed about Names He must be drenched very deep in the dregs of Malice saith Tertullian who raiseth deadly Quarrels about Words or Names if there be no real Controversie about Things Therefore I shall readily grant unto them that Bishops of old were called Presbyters or Elders and shall go a greater Length too than Ambrose in his Comment on the Ephesians if it be his who tells us that Omnis Episcopus est Presbyter sed non omnis Presbyter est Episcopus For I verily believe that in the Infancy of the Gospel Presbyters were also termed Bishops or Overseers and that the Appropriation of those Names to the different Orders or Degrees of the same Order was not made till a little after Yet I joyn not Issue with these who cite the 20th Chapter of the Acts verse 28. to this purpose They who are for the Genevian Platform will have those Elders to be nothing else but Presbyters and they hug this Text as their Palladium because as they fondly imagine it affords them an Achillaeum Argumentum against Episcopacy for here say they the very Name and Office is confounded with that of Presbyter Overseer in the Original being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But I must take the boldness to say that I lay more stress upon the sole Testimony of Irenaeus than on all the Commentaries which have been written on this Text since the year 1638 to 1600 or since 1536. when Calvin settled at Geneva till this present year of God For that Ancient and peaceable Father who carried Peace in his Breast as well as in his Name living withiâ— 180 years of the Birth of Christ He was the Disciple of Polycarp who was brought up at the feet of S. Iohn the Apostle and conversed with many Apostolick men and had an easie Tradition of the sence of this place This Irenaeus in his five Books against Heresies especially the Valentinian Gnosticks expresly teâ—ls us lib. 1. c. 14. that these Elders were Bishops of Asia He of Ephesus being their Metropolitan or Arch-bishop And lest any should imagine that it would have been a tedious Work and Attendance for the Apostle to call for all the Bishops of Asia we must
for he must needs be a Stranger to all Church-History who is altogether unacquainted with these ensuing Instances The first is of Maris Bishop of Chalcedon a blind Bishop yet he fought not Andabatarum more but boldly told the Emperour Iulian to his Face That he was glad the Almighty had bereav'd him of his Eyes that he might not see such a vile Apostate as he was Such was the Freedom of Spirit wherewith even an Arrian Bishop was endued in Behalf of the Christian Religion But the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of S. Basil a greater and much more Orthodox Bishop was so admirable in the Eyes of the Lieutenant of the Emperour Valens that this Heretical Servant told it as one of the greatest Wonders in the World unto his Arrian Master That there was no Threatening imaginable could deterr that Metropolitan of Cappadocâ—a from the Path of Truth and Vertue St. Chrysostom his Freedom of Spirit in reprehending the Vanities of the Empress Eudoxia was so great that some supposed it had too much of the Satyr in it and that his wonderful Eloquence would have run in a smoother Channel if a little Gall Vinegar and Vitreol had not sometimes troubled the Stream But he deserved from all and in a right Sence too to be term'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a kneeless Bishop he being inflexible to all the Petitions of Ignorant and Scandalous Ecclesiasticks who lived within the Priphery of his Patriarchate Neither could all the Hopes or Fears wherewith the greatest Secular Persons in the World accosted him divert that Resolute Prelate from that which he judged just and Good and a part of his Episcopal Charge Though we might subjoyn many other Examples to this Purpose yet I shall forbear for the reason above frequently express'd Yet we cannot balk in Silence the well-known Instance of that most worthy Prelate of Millan who repell'd for the space of eight Moneths that good Emperour Theodosius the Great from the Holy Eucharist that blessed Sacrament being frequently celebrated in the Western Churches at that time and that for his temerarious and cruel Sentence in the mattter of Thessalonica But whether the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of that great Bishop or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of that great Emperour were most admirable I shall not determine but shall shut up this Historical Account with that Resolute Answer which this couragious Prelate gave to Valentinian the second Emperour of the West who being instigated by his Mother an Arrian to give the Principal Church at Millan to those Hereticks did meet with this unexpected Repulse from S. Ambrose in the Porch of his Cathedral Non prodam Lupis gregem mihi commissam hic occide si lubet In which Expression his holy Boldness in Conjunction with a due Submission to superiour Powers affords new matter of Admiration Now in regard that this little Cento of History hath wasted more Paper than at first I imagin'd it should do we shall therefore add no more Authorities to this Article Article XVII Mat. 23. 6 7 8. c. Act. 21. 20. Rom. 12. 10. 2 Cor. 3. 5. 2 Pet. 3. 15. WHatever Bombast Epithets others give unto them Let all Bishops when they Converse and salute one another viva voce or by writing use no other Compellation than that of Brethren which is most consonant unto the Primitive Pattern all Christians then living as Brethren and denominating one another under that notion of Fraternity which word was much used in the Infancy of the Church and from it the Pagans also took occasion to traduce our Religion But none used it more than the Ministers of the Gospel whether Bishops or Presbyters it being as Baronius that great Annalist hath well observed the most usual Compellation of all Bishops among themselves where there was a parity of Age or no great disproportion But when any of the Order who had stepped in upon a decrepit old age called by the Latines Aetas Capularis and Silicernium did converse with one of the same Order much younger than himself he usually called him Son and vice versâ the younger termed the elder Father though none of them were so young but that fourty Winters at least had snowed upon their Heads yea very few Presbyters were Ordained in these Times of Persecution whose Pulse had not beaten twice twenty years To which if some late Criticks had well adverted they would have made Use of a better Argument to repudiate the pretended Areopagite as there want not some solid reasons to do the feat than his impertinency in calling Timothy Son at the Close of his Book Of Ecclesiastical Hierarchy though say they the said Timothy was equal to him if not his Superiour in Piety Doctrine and Authority both being Bishops of famous Churches and Ephesus where Timothy Govern'd rather a Mother-Church than Athens and that it was the General Custom of the Primitive Church for Bishops to call one another Brethren But this is a meer Fallacy à dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter For in respect of Age he might have called him Son though in many other things he had been his Superiour seeing we find more than a thousand years after that time when Christian Simplicity and Humility were much rarer in the World that Ioseph Patriarch of Constantinople flatly refused the Emperour thereof whose almost desperate Affairs in that Conjuncture required as great Complyance with the Latin Church as Conscience could possibly permit to prostitute himself to the Bishop of Rome by giving him the usual Adorations of the occidental Church at that time and plainly told him that if Eugenius the 4th by whose Influence the Councel of Florence was celebrated which was first assembled at Ferrara were a man much elder than himself he would call him Father if but of equal years he would term him Brother if much younger he would style him Son without the â—east mention of his pretended Title of Holiness And this was all the Compellation and Obeysance could be obtained from that peremptory Patriarch It were also desireable That all our Bishops took Place among themselves according to their Age excepting the Metropolitan or Primate who is constant Praeses of that Sacred Colledge and who usually in the Primitive Church was eminent above the rest not only in all laudible Qualifications but also in respect of Age. For in doing so they would not only imitate the Sons of that great Patriarch Iacob but they would shew themselves humbly obsequious to many ancient Canons which appoint the Precedency of Bishops among themselves to be at least conform to the Aera of their present Dignity of which we shall give an account at the end of this Article it being a most indecent Spectacle and that which in the City of Sparta would have appear'd a very ridiculous Pageantry to see a Reverend old man treading upon the Heels of one who might have been his Grand-child and yet of that same Order with himself But whether young