Adeo Argumenta ab absurdo petita ineptos habent exitus said Lactantius truly Now for my History and my proceedings in it that must next be known my business being to make good the matter of Fact that is to say that in all Ages of the Church there hath been an imparity of Ministers that the chief of these Ministers was called the Bishop that this Bishop had the Government of all Presbyters and other Christian people within his Circuit and finally that the powers of Jurisdiction and Ordination were vested in him In which particulars if the Affirmative be maintain'd by sufficient evidence it will be very difficult if not impossible to prove the Negative And for the better making good of the Affirmative I have called in the ancient Writers the holy Fathers of the Church to testifie unto the truth of what is here said either as writing on those Texts of Scripture in which the Institution and Authority the Church in their several times in the Administration and Government whereof they had most of them some special interess Their Testimonies and Authorities I have fully pondered and alledged as fully not misreporting any of them in their words or meaning according to the best of my understanding as knowing well and having seen experience of it that such false shifts are like hot waters which howsoever they may serve for a present pang do in the end destroy the stomach And for those holy and renowned Authors thus by me produced I desire no more but that we yieldas much Authority unto them in Expounding Scripture as we would do to any of the Modern writers on the like occasion and that we would not give less credit to their Affirmations speaking of things that hapned in their own times and were within the compass of their observation than we would do to any honest Country Yeoman speaking his knowledg at the Bar between man and man And finally that in relating such orrurrences of Holy Church as hapned in the times before them we think them worthy of as much belief as we would give to Livy Tacitus or Suetonius reporting the Affairs of Rome from the Records Monuments and Discourses of the former times This is the least we can afford those Reverened Persons whether we find them acting in publick Councils or speaking in their own private and particular Writings and if I gain but this I have gained my purpose I hope to meet with no such Readers as Peter Abeilard of whom Saint Bernard tells us that he used to say Omnes Patres sic ego autem non sic though all the Fathers hold one way he would hold the contrary To such if any such there be I shall give no other answer at this time but what Dr. Saravia gave to Beza in this very case viz. Qui omnem Patribus adimit Authoritatem nullam sibi relinquit that is to say He which takes all Authority from the ancient Fathers will in fine leave none unto himself I should proceed next to the Canonical Ordination of Priests and Deacons the Stewards which the Lord hath set over his Houshold the ordinary Dispensers of Mysteries of Eternal life which like the Angels ascending and de scending upon Jacobs Ladder offer the People Prayers to God and signifie Gods good pleasure and commands to the rest of the People Offices not to be invaded or usurp'd by any who are not lawfully Ordained that is to say who are not inwardly prompted and inclined unto it by the Holy Spirit outwardly set apart and consecrated to Gods publick service by Prayer and imposition of Hands A point so clear as to the Designation of some persons unto sacred Offices that it hath been universally received in all times and Nations The sanctifying of the Tribe of Levi for the service of the Tabernacle amongst the Jews the instituting of so many Colledges of Priests for the service of their several Gods by the ancient Gentiles Acts 13. v. 2. the Separating of Paul and Barnabas to the work of the Ministery in the first dawnings of the Gospel sufficiently evidence this truth And no less clear it is as to the Laying on of Hands in that Sacred action retained since the Apostles times in all Christian Churches at the least deservedly so called And this the Presbyterian-Calvinists saw well enough who though profest Adversaries to all the old Orders of the Church do notwithstanding admit none amongst them to the Ministration of the Word and Sacraments but by the Laying on of the Hands of their Presbyteries But if it be objected that there is no such thing required by the Ordinance of approbation of publick Ministers bearing date March 20. 1653. I answer that that Ordinance relateth not to Ordination but to Approbation and Admission it being supposed that no Man is presented to any Benefice with cure of souls or unto any publick Lecture and being so presented craves to have Admission thereunto who is not first lawfully Ordained That Ordinance was made for no other end but to great Admission to such fit persons as were nominated and presented to them and thereby to supply the place of Institution and Induction which had been formerly required by the Laws of the Land And therefore the said Ordinance declares very well that in such Approbations and Admissions there is nothing sacred no setting apart of any Person to a particular Office in the Ministery that being the sole and proper work of Ordination but only by such trial and approbation to take care that places destitute may be supplyed with able and faithful Preachers throughout the Nation The Question is not then about Ordination or about Laying on of Hands in which all agree but what it is which makes the Ordination lawful whose Hands they are which make it to be held Canonical The Genevians and the rest of Calvins Discipline challenge this power to their Presbyteries a mungrel company not heard of till these latter times consisting of two Lay-elders for each preaching Minister The Lutherans with better reason appropriate it to their Superintendents which in their Churches execute the place of Bishops But all Antiquity Councils Fathers the general usage of the Churches of the East and West with those also of the Aethiopian or Habassine Empire carry it clearly for the Bishop who hath alone the power to Ordain and Consecrate and by the imposition of Hands to set apart some Men to the publick Ministery though he call in some Presbyters as Assistants to him Saint Jerom no great friend to Bishops doth acknowledg this Quid facit Episcopus excepta Ordinatione quod Presbyter non faciat What doth a Bishop saith the Father but what a Presbyter may do also except Ordination And to the disquisition of these Canonical Ordinations I shall next proceed as hath been promised in the Title But I have said so much to that Point in the Course of the History as Part 1. Cap. 2. Num. 11 12. Cap. 4. Num. 2,3 Cap. 5.
unconquered patience suffer And if it does appear by this Disquisition that the Episcopal Government continued from the Apostles times till the time of Constantine not interrupted by the fury of those Persecutions which made such havock amongst men of that Sacred Order there will be little question made of it for the time succeeding in which both the Order and the Men were raised unto the highest pitch of Estimation But finding one objection of a later date not to be satisfied in and by the practice of those elder times I think it not amiss to make answer to it here before we part The matter to be prov'd and in the proof whereof they do so much glory is That there is one Congregation at the least in the Christian World in which the Government of Bishops hath met with Contradiction contrary unto that which had been positively affirmed in the Humble Remonstrance And this they prove from the Bishops own Darling HEYLYN who told them in his Geography pag. 55. That the people of Biscay in Spain admit no Bishops to come amongst them and that when Ferdinand the Catholick came in progress accompanied among others with the Bishop of Pampelone the people rose up in Arms drove back the Bishop and gathering up all the dust which they thought he had trod on flung it into the Sea All this the Darling writes indeed they say true in that But can any rational Man infer from hence that the People of Biscay do abominate the Episcopal Government or that it is not there received without contradiction They may conclude as strongly I am sure more logically that the Dean and Prebends of Westminster are enemies to Episcopal Government or at the least receive it not without contradiction because they suffer neither Archbishop nor Bishop to exercise any jurisdiction within that City and the Liberties of it nor to hold any Convocation within that Church but upon special leave obtained and under a solemn protestation not to infringe thereby their antient priviledges For the truth is that the Biscains being a poor and indigent Nation and finding the Episcopal Visitations very chargeable to them procured a priviledge in times past that their Bishops should not come in person to visit their Churches for which consult the general History of Spain fol. 919. And being withal a rugged and untractable people tenaciously addicted to their antient customs and kept continually in mind of some wrongs and injuries which had been offered by their Prelats in the times foregoing they might be easily excited to that act of outrage against the Bishop of Pampelone and yet without any the least contradiction receive there as indeed they do the Episcopal Government But to proceed I could not but perceive by this scornful attribute under what prejudice I lay amongst those of that Party and therefore that any thing of mine in Answer to them would not be lookt upon with equal and impartial eyes The door of Truth is never so close barr'd as when Prejudice and Prepossession have blockt up the entrance In which respect having finished the discourse which I had in hand I thought not fit to let it pass under my own name but published it under that of Theophilus Churchman not without many honest Precedents in that kind before A name which might both serve to conceal my Person and express my Relations and whereunto I hoped to create no reproach or obloquy by my slack performances But contrary to what I hoped the Author of the Pamphlet called The Observator observed finding perhaps who walked under that Disguise must needs take him to task setting upon him first with a petulant scorn after his usual way of throwing dirt on all he meets with as not knowing by what name to call him whether Goodman Worshipful Right Worshipful Honourable Right Honourable or Right Reverend Churchman Which said he chargeth it upon him that there is nothing in his Book but what is stoln from Archbishop Whitgift Bishop Bilson Bishop Hall and others fol. 37. and reckoning up some others who have written in defence of Episcopacy he acknowledges them all but Churchman to be good men and true and consequently Churchman neither true nor good Therefore that no man else may suffer by my imperfections I have thought good to lay aside my former Vizor to shew my self in my own likeness and to cry out with him in Virgil Me me adsum qui feci in me convertite ferrum Let him and all the Enemies of Episcopacy make their blows at me and if I cannot stand my ground against all their Batteries and justifie my self from the crime of falshood in all the particulars of that History I shall with gladness follow their Triumphant Chariot like a conquered Captive It will add something to the Pageant that the bold Champion of the Bishops as he elsewhere scoffs it hath his place therein At this time passing over his reproachful taunts I am to clear my self of the Felony which is charged upon me for stealing all things in that Book from Archbishop Whitgift Bishop Bilson Bishop Hall and others this is Novum crimen ante haec tempora inauditum a Felony not heard of in the Common Law to which the Gentleman pretends such a special knowledge The citing of the Authors for every passage absolves me clearly from that crime And I would fain know of him being so perfect an Historian how a man writing the Affairs of the former times which come not within the compass of Autopsie or ocular inspection as we know who saith can possibly attain to the knowledge of them but by canvassing all sorts of Authors which either lived in or near those times or otherwise held Correspondence and Intelligence with them It is not for all men though it be for some to challenge such a soveraign or praetorian power of coining as well the matter as the words of their Histories that whatsoever they let fall their negligences and ignorances their mistakes and passions shall forthwith be received for Oracular truths We poor men who pretend unto no such priviledge and write of things done long agoe in the dark ages and obscure twilights of the Church must help our selves by the light of Letters and thankfully make use of all hands which hold forth that Candle without fear of holding up our own If this be stealing neither the Magdeburgians nor Baronius nor Torniellus Salianus Parker Harpsfield Fox nor any of our late Compilers of Ecclesiastical or Civil History can be acquitted from the Crime Let us all be discharged or condemned together guilty or not guilty all or none there 's no question of it But I have gone too far on this Gentlemans Errant And therefore for the credit of those Witnesses which I have produc'd what is desired of the Reader in relation to them with other things preparatory to the following History I must refer the Reader to the General Preface that being informed in all particulars which concern the
those times did build their studies and having built their studies on a wrong foundation did publickly maintain some point or other of his Doctrines which gave least offence and out of which no dangerous consequence could be drawn as they thought and hoped to the dishonour of God the disgrace of Religion the scandal of the Church or subversion of godliness amongst which if judicious Mr. Hooker be named for one as for one I find him to be named yet is he named only for maintaining one of the five points that namely of the not total or final falling away of Gods Elect as Dr. Overald also did in the Schools of Cambridge though neither of them can be challenged for maintaining any other point of Calvins Doctrine touching the absolute decree of Reprobation Election unto life without reference to faith in Christ the unresistible workings of Grace the want of freedom in the will to concur therewith and the determining of all mens actions unto good or evil without leaving any power in men to do the contrary And therefore secondly Mr. Hookers discourse of Justification as it now comes into our hands might either be altered in some points after his decease by him that had the publishing of it or might be written by him as an essay of his younger years before he had consulted the Book of Homilies and perused every clause in the publick Liturgy as he after did or had so carefully examined every Text of Scripture upon which he lays the weight of his judgment in it as might encourage him to have it printed when he was alive Of any men who publickly opposed the Calvinian tenents in this University till after the beginning of King James his Reign I must confess that I have hitherto found no good assurance though some there were who spared not to declare their dislike thereof and secretly trained up their Scholars in other principles An argument whereof may be that when Dr. Baroe dyed in London which was about three or four years after he had left his place in Cambridge his Funeral was attended by most of the Divines then living in and about the City Dr. Bancroft then Bishop of London giving order in it which plainly shews that there were many of both Universities which openly favoured Baroes Doctrines and did as openly dislike those of the Calvinians though we find but few presented to us by their names Amongst which few I first reckon Dr. John Buckridge President of St. Johns Colledge and Tutor to Archbishop Laud who carried his Anti-Calvinian doctrines with him to the See of Rochester and publickly maintained them at a conference in York House Ann. 1626. And secondly Dr. John Houson one of the Canons of Christ Church and Vice-Chancellor of the University Ann. 1602. so known an enemy to Calvin his opinions that he incurred a suspension by Dr. Robert Abbots then Vice Chancellor And afterwards being Bishop of Oxon subscribed the letter amongst others to the Duke of Buckingham in favour of Mountague and his Book called Appello Cesarem as before was said And though we find but these two named for Anti-Calvinist in the five controverted points yet might there be many houses perhaps some hundreds who held the same opinions with them though they discovered not themselves or break out in any open opposition 1 King 19 18. 1 King 19 1◠as they did at Cambridge God had 7000. Servants in the Realm of Israel who had not bowed the knee to Baal though we find the name of none but the Prophet Eliah the residue keeping themselves so close for fear of danger that the Prophet himself complained to God that he alone was left to serve him A parallel case to which may be that the Christians during the power and prevalency of the Arian Hereticks St. Jerome giving us the names of no more than three who had stood up stoutly in defence of the Nicene council and the points of Doctrine there established viz. 1. St. Athanasius Patriark of Alexandria in Egypt St. Hillary Bishop of Poictious in France and St. Eusebius Bishop of Vevelli in Italy of which thus the Father Siquidem Arianis victis triumphatorem Athanasium suum Egyptus excepit Hillarium è prelio revertentem galliarum ecclesia complexa est ad reditum Eusebii sui lugubres vestes Italia mutavit that is to say upon the overthrow of the Arians Egypt received her Athanasius now returned in triumph the Church of France embraced her Hillary coming home with victory from the battel and on the return of Eusebius Italy changed her mourning garments By which it is most clear even to vulgar eyes that not these Bishops only did defend the truth but that it was preserved by many others as well of the Clergy as of the People in their several Countreys who otherwise never had received them with such joy and triumph if a great part of them had not been of the same opinions though no more of them occur by name in the records of that age But then again If none but the three Bishops had stood unto the truth in the points disputed at that time between the Orthodox Christians and the Arian Hereticks yet had that been sufficient to preserve the Church from falling universally from the faith of Christ or deviating from the truth in those particulars Deut. 17.6 Mat. 18 19. the word of truth being established as say both Law and Gospel if there be only two or three witnesses to attest unto it two or three members of the Church may keep possession of a truth in all the rest and thereby save the whole from errour even as a King invaded by a foreign Enemy doth keep possession of his Realm by some principal fortress the standing out whereof may in time regain all the rest which I return for answer to another objection touching the paucity of those Authors whom we have produced in maintenance of the Anti Calvinian or old English doctrines since the resetling of the Church under Queen Elizabeth for though they be but few in number and make but a very thin appearance Apparent rari nautes in gurgite vasto in the Poets language yet serve they for a good assurance that the Church still kept possession of her primitive truths not utterly lost though much endangered by such contrary Doctrines as had of late been thrust upon her there was a time when few or none of the Orthodox Bishops durst openly appear in favour of St. Athanasius but only Liberius Pope of Rome Theod. Hist Eccles lib. 2. cap. 15. who thereupon is thus upbraided by Constantius the Arian Emperour Quota pars tu es orbis terrarum qui solus c. How great a part saith he art thou of the whole world that thou alone shouldst shew thy self in defence of that wicked man and thereby overthrow the peace of the Universe To which Liberius made this answer non diminuitur solitudine mea verbum dei nam olim
in this case before that of Anastasius or the Pontifical or Platina or any whosoever of the later days Now of this Evaristus it is said by Damasus in the Pontifical In vita Evarist and from him by Platina titulos in urbe Romae Presbyteris divisisse that he did first assign the Presbyters in Rome their particular charges which also is affirmed by Rob. Barnes De vitis Pont. Rom. in Evaristo Hooker Eccles Polit. l. 5. n. 80. one of the great Agents in our Reformation which words of the Historians being short and dark we will expound in the expressions of judicious Hooker thus as followeth For more convenient discharge of Ecclesiastical duties as the body of People must needs be severed by divers Precincts so were the Clergy likewise accordingly distributed Whereas therefore Religion did first take place in Cities and in that respect was a cause why the name of Pagans which properly signifieth Country-people came to be used in common speech for the same that Infidels and Vnbelievers were it followed thereupon that all such Cities had their Ecclesiastical Colleges consisting of Presbyters and Deacons whom first the Apostles or their Delegates the Evangelists did both ordain and govern Such were the Colleges of Hierusalem Antioch Ephesus Rome Corinth and the rest where the Apostles are known to have planted our Faith and Religion Now because Religion and the Cure of souls was their general charge in common over all that were near about them neither had any one Presbyter his several Cure apart till Evaristus Bishop in the See of Rome about the year 112. began to assign Precincts unto every Church or Title which the Christians held and to appoint unto each Presbyter a certain compass whereof himself should take charge alone the commodiousness of which invention caused all parts of Christendom to follow it So he And he saith well that Evaristus first began it but it was shortly after followed by Higinus also who added more divisions to the former number if I do understand my Author rightly Platina in vit Higini As for the following of this pattern by other Churches 't is most true indeed that this invention of his was after followed in the Churches of Antioch and Alexandria whereof see Socrates Hist Eccles l. 5.3 for that of Antioch and for the other Epiphanius who reckoneth nominâ—â—im those several Churches which were before the time of Constantine in that famous City And doubtless in all other Cities as the number of Christians did increase so were the like divisions made and several Presbyters appointed for those divisions though we have no such pregnant evidence thereof as for those before But then we must observe withal that such divisions were not in the Country till a long time after as we shall let you see in due place and time As for those Colleges of Presbyters and Deacons whereof Hooker speaketh founded by the Apostles and Evangelists in all the Cities wherein they planted the Gospel of Christ and by them conjoyned into one Church under and with the Bishop It was a very excellent and useful institution Bilson perpet Covernm ca. 14. as the times then were For first it did exceedingly promote the conversion of the world to Christ our Saviour it being a work too great for one or two to undertake in a populous City and would require more time to effect the same than such a weighty business could afford The Harvest being great it was most expedient that the Labourers should also be many that so the truth of Christ might disperse it self not only throughout their Cities but even unto those Country Towns and Villages which bordered near them A second use was to continue those whom they had converted in the Faith of Christ instructing and incouraging the Faithful from house to house and from man to man to stand fast to the Doctrine which they had received and not to shrink under the bloody storms of persecution which were then so frequent A work that of necessity required many hands the more because the faithful in those dangerous times had not their publick places of Assembly or if they had durst not frequent the same as in times of peace and so the labour must be great and the persons many in Preaching teaching and exhorting in their private houses or in those secret places where they met by stealth for the receiving of the Sacrament A third use was that from these Presbyteries or Colleges of Presbyters and Deacons as from a sacred spring or fountain there might be a continual supply of fit and able men by whom as well the Cities themselves might be continually furnished for their own occasions and also that from thence the smaller Towns and Villages within the circuit of those Cities which for the slenderness of their estate and paucity of believers could not maintain a Presbyter at their proper charge might be provided of industrious teachers for their spiritual necessities For in these times whereof we speak and a long time after the Villages and Country Towns as they were converted to the Faith and did desire a Minister of the Word and Sacraments to reside amongst them so they repaired unto the Bishop of the City within whose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or bounds they were of him desiring a fit man for that business which course continued in the Church for a long time after until Churches were endowed with Tithes and Glebe and Mansion houses which drew the Patronage or Presentation as we call it into hands of such their Founders and liberal Benefactors to the same The last but not the least was the advising and assisting of the Bishop of the Church or City in all doubts and dangers as well in making Rules and Ordinances for the better government of the place as for the censuring and correcting of such faulty persons whether of the Clergy or Laity as were thought fit to be convented for an example to the rest Ignatius in Ep. ad Trallian In which regard Ignatius calleth the Presbytery or College of Presbyters and not the Priesthood Sacerdotium as it is rendred by Vedelius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an holy Corporation Counsellors and Assessors to the Bishop A perfect Image of the which we have remaining in our Deans and Chapters of Cathedral Churches though not so frequently consulted with in the Churches business as I could heartily desire they were and as our Canons now in force in some sort require The mention which I made so lately of Ignatius leads me on to him who yielded up his pious soul by Martyrdom to the hands of God in the City of Rome whilst Euaristus was there Bishop And in him I shall only touch upon those Epistles which I find mentioned in Eusebius and which Vedelius doth confess and defend to boot Euseb Hist Eccles l. In Apolog. pro Ignatio to be truly his But by the way I must first tell you that Vedelius in this
Church teacheth men to pray to Almighty God not to take his holy Spirit from us And in another place that he suffer us not at our last hour for any pains of death to fall from him which certainly she had never done were it not possible for a man so far to grieve and vex the Holy Spirit of God and so far to despair of his gracious mercy as to occasion him at the last to deprive us both of the one and the other Next for the Homilies as they commend unto Gods People a probable and stedfast hope of their salvation in Christ Jesus so they allow no such infallibility of persisting in grace as to secure them from a total and final falling In reference to the first they tell us in the second part of the Sermon against the fear of death That none of those their causes of the fear of death that is to say the sorrow of repenting from our worldly pleasures the terrible apprehension of the pangs of death and the more terrible apprehension of the pains of Hell do make any trouble to good men Hom. p. 67. because they stay themselves by true faith perfect charity and sure hope of the endless joy and bliss everlasting All therefore have great cause to be full of joy that he joyned to Christ with true Faith stedfast hope and perfect charity and not to fear death nor everlasting damnation The like we find not long after where it speaks of those Who being truly penitent for their offences depart hence in perfect charity and in sure trust that God is merciful to them forgiving them their sins for the merits of Jesus Christ the only natural Son In the third part of which Sermon it is thus concluded He that conceiveth all these things and believeth them assuredly Ibid. p. 68. as they ought to be believed even from the bottom of his heart being established in God in his true faith having a quiet Conscience in Christ a firm hope and assured trust in Gods mercy through the merits of Jesus Christ to obtain this rest quietness and everlasting joy shall not only be without fear of godly death when it cometh but greatly desire in his heart as St. Paul did to be rid from all these occasions of evil and live ever to Gods pleasure in perfect obedience of his Will with Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour to whose gracious presence c By all which passages it is clear and evident that the Church teacheth us to entertain a probable and stedfast hope of our salvation in Christ Jesus but whether it teacheth also such an infallibility of persisting in grace such a certainty of perseverance as to exclude all possibility of a total or a sinal falling we are next to see And see it we may without the help of Spectacles or any of the Optical instruments if we go no farther than the title of two of those Homilies the first whereof is thus inscribed viz. A Sermon shewing how dangerous a thing it is to fall from God And it had been ridiculous if not somewhat worse to write a Sermon de non ente to terrifie the people with the danger of that misfortune which they were well enough assured they should never suffer Out of which Homilies the Appellant makes no use but of these words only Whereas God hath shewed unto all them that truly do believe his Gospel his face of mercy in Christ Jesus which doth so enlighten their hearts that they be transformed into his Image be made partakers of the Heavenly light and of his holy Spirit Hom. p. 54. be fashioned to him in all goodness requisite to the Child of God So if they do afterwards neglect the same if they be unthankful unto him if they order not their lives according unto his Doctrine and Example and to the setting forth of his glory he will take from them his holy Word his Kingdom whereby be should reign in them because they bring not forth fruit which he looked for besides which there are mony other passages to this effect where it is said that as by pride and sin we fall from God Ibid. p 50. so shall God and all goodness go from us that sometimes men go from God by lack of faith and mistrusting of God and somâ—tâ—â—te by neglecting his Commandments concerning their Neighbours And after some examples given in these several cases it followeth that by these examples of holy Scripture we may know that as we forsake God Id. p 54. so shall he forsake us And what a miserable estate doth consequently and necessarily follow thereupon a man may easily consider by the horrible threatnings of God c. And finally having not only laid before us the said horrible threatnings but the recital also of those gentle courses by which he doth endeavour to gain us to him it concludeth thus viz. that if these will not serve but still remain disobedient to his Word and Will not knowing him or loving him not fearing him nor putting our whole trust and confidence in him and on the other side to our Neighbours behaving our selves uncharitably by disdain envy malice or by committing murder robbery adultery gluttony deceit lying swearing or other like detestable works and ungodly behaviour then he threatneth us by terrible comminations swearing in great anger that whosoever doth these works shall never enter into his rest which is the Kingdom of Heaven CHAP. XIV The Plain Song of the second Homily touching the falling from God and the Descants made upon it 1. More from some other Homilies touching the possibility of falling from the grace received 2. The second Homily or Sermon touching falling from God laid down verbatim 3. The sorry shifts of Mr. Yates to elude the true meaning of the Homily plainly discovered and confuted 4. An Answer unto his Objection touching the passage cited from the former Homily in Mr. Mountagues Appeal 5. The Judgment of Mr. Ridley Archdeacon of Canterbury in the points of Election and Redemption 6. As also touching the Reasons why the Word was not preached unto the Gentiles till the coming of Christ the influences of of grace the co-workings of man and the possibility of falling from the truth of Christ NOR doth the Church declare this only in the former Homily where the poin is purposely maintained but in some others also obiter and upon the by whert it discourseth principally on some other subject Hom. of good works p. 32. for in the second part of the Sermon of good Works we shall find St. Chrysostom speaking thus viz. The Thief thawas hanged when Christ suffered did believe only and the most merciful God justified himt And because no man shall say again that he wanted time to do good works for else he could have done them truth it is and I will not contend herein but this I will surely affirm that faith only saved him If he had lived and not regarded Faith and
that not only he did not revenge the ungracious acts that had been committed therein but also sent down his only Son from Heaven unto Earth and delivered him to suffer death yea even the most shamesful death of the Crost to the intent that what man soever would believe in him were he Jew Grecian or never so barbarous should not perish but obtain eternal life through the faith of the Gospel For albeit that in time to come the Father should judge the universal World by his Son at his lâ—st coming yet at this time which is appointed for mercy God hath not sent his Son to condemnn the World for the wicked deeds thereof but by his death to give free salvation to the world through saith And lest any body perishing wilfully should have whereby to exercise his own malice there is given to all folks an easie entry to salvation For satisfaction of the faults committed before is not required Neither yet observation of the Law nor circumcision only he that believeth in him shall not be condemned for asmuch as he hath embraced that thing by which eternal salvation is given to all folk be they never so much burdened with sins so that the same person after he hath professed the Gospel do abstain from the evil deeds of his former life and labour to go forward to perfect holiness according to the doctrine of him whose name he hath professed But whosoever condemning so great charity of God towards him and putting from himself the salvation that was freely offered doth not believe the Gospel he hath no need to be judged of any body for as much as he doth openly condemn himself and rejecting the thing whereby he might obtain everlasting life maketh himself guilty of eternal pain By which passages and the rest that follow on this Text of Scripture we may have a plain view of the judgment of this learned man in the Points disputed as to the designation of eternal life to all that do believe in Christ the universality of Redemption by his death and passion the general offer of the benefit and effect thereof to all sorts of people the freedom of mans will in co-operating with the grace of God or in rejecting and refusing it when it is so offered and relapsing from the same when it is received All which we find in many other passages of those Paraphrases as occasion is presented to him But more particularly it appears first that he groundeth our Election to eternal life on the eternaland divine prescience of Almighty God telling us in his Explication of the 25. Chap. of Sain Matthews Gospel Ibid. fol. 96. that the inheritance o the heavenly Kingdom was prepared by the providenceand determination of God the fore-knower of all things before the World was made Secondly of Vniversal Redemption in his gloss on the first Chap. of Saint John Ibid. fol. 414. he telleth us thus This Lamb saith he is so far from being subject to an kind of sin that he alone is able to take away all the sins of the whole World He is so well beloved of God that he only may turn his wrath into mercy He is also so gentle and so desirous of mans salvation that he is ready to suffer pains for the sins of all men and to take upon him our evils because he would bestow upon us his good things Thirdly of the manner of the working of Gods grace he speaks as plainly in his Explication of the sixth Chap. of the same Evangelist where he telleth us that of a truth whosoever cometh unto Christ shall obtaineternal life that by faith must men come to him and that faith cometh not at all adventures Ibid. fol. 443. but is had by the inspiration of God the Father who like as he draweth to him mens minds by his Son in such wife that through the operation of both jointly together men come to them both the Father not giving this so great gift but to them that be willing and desirous to have it so that who with a ready will and godly diligence deserves to be drawn of the Father he shall obtain everlasting life by the Son No violent drawing in these words but such as may be capable of resistance on the part of man as appears by his descant on that plain Song of our Saviour in Matt. 23. in which he makes him speaking in this manner unto those of Hierusalem viz. Nothing is let pass on my behalf whereby thou mightest be saved but contrariwise thou hast done what thou canst to bring destruction upon thy self Ibid. fol. 90. and to exclude salvation from thee But to whom Freewill is once given he cannot be saved against his will Your will ought to be agreeable to my Will But behold as miserable calamity c. More plainly thus in the like descant on the same words in Saint Lukes Gospel viz. How many a time and oft have I assaved to gather thy children together and to join them to my self none otherwise than the Hen gathereth her chickens under her wings that they may not miscarry But thy stubbornness hath gone beyond my goodness and as though thou hadst even vowed and devoted thy self to utter ruin so dost thou refuse all things whereby thou mightest be recovered and made whole And finally as to the possibility of falling from the faith of Christ he thus declares himself in the Exposition of our Saviours Parable touching the Sower and the seed viz. There is another sort of men which greedily hear the word of the Gospel Ibid. fol. â— and set it deep enough in their mind and keep it long but their minds being intangled and choaked with troublesom cares of this World and especially of Riches as it were with certain thick thorns they cannot freely follow that he loveth because they will not suffer these Thorns which cleave together and be entangled one with another among themselves to be cut away the fruit of the seed which is sown doth utterly perish Which being so either we must conclude the doctrine of this Church in the book of articles to be the same with that which is contained in the Paraphrases of this learned man or else condemn the godly Bishops of this Church and the religious Princes above mentioned of a great imprudence in recommending them to the diligent and careful reading both of Priest and People Historia Quinqu-Articularis OR A DECLARATION Of the Judgment of the WESTERN-CHVRCHES And more particularly of the CHURCH of ENGLAND In the Five Controverted Points PART III. Containing the first Breakin gs out of the Predestinarians in the Church of England and the pursuance of those Quarrels from the Reign of K. EDWARD the sixth to the death of K. JAMES CHAP. XVI Of the first breakin gs out of the Predestinarians and their Proceedings in the same 1. The Predestinarians called at first by the name of Gospellers 2. Campneys a professed enemy to the Predestinarians but neither
continual Prevalency of a busie faction And I have carried it on no further because at this time Bishop Laud to whom the raising and promoting of the Arminian doctrines as they call them is of late ascribed was hardly able to promote and preserve himself opprest with a hard hand by Archbishop Abbot secretly traduced unto the King for the unfortunate business of Early of Devonshire attaining with great difficulty to the poor Bishoprick of St. Davids after ten years service and yet but green in favour with the Duke of Buckingham What happened afterwards towards the countenancing of these Doctrines by the appearing of King Charles in the behalf of Mountague the Letter of the three Bishops to the Duke in defence of the man and his Opinion his questioning and impeachment by the House of Commons and his preferment by the King to the See of Chichester are all of them beyond the bounds which I have prescribed unto my self in this Narration Nor shall I now take notice of his Majesties Proclamation of the 14. of June Anno 1626. For establishing the peace and quiet of the Church of England by which he interdicted all such preaching and printing as might create any fresh disturbance to the Church of England or for his smart Answer to that part of the Remonstrance of the House of Commons Anno 1628. which concerned the danger like to fall on this Church and Kingdom by the growth of Arminianism or of the Declaration prefixed before the book of Articles in the same year also for silencing the said Disputes or finally of his Majesties Instructions bearing date Decemb. 30. 1629. for causing the Contents of the Declaration to be put in execution and punctually observed for the time to come By means whereof and many fair encouragements from many of our Prelates and other great men of the Realm the Anti-Calvinist party became considerable both for power and number A POSTSCRIPT TO THE READER Concerning some particulars in a scurrilous Pamphlet intituled A Review of the Certamen Epistolare c. PRimâ dicta mihi summâ dicenda camaenâ with thee good Reader I began and with thee I must end I gave thee notice in the Preface of a scurrilous Libel the Author whereof had disgorged his foul stomach on me and seemed to glory in the shame But whether this Author be a Cerberus with three heads or a Smectymnuus with fire or but a single Shimei only for it is differently reported is all one to me who am as little troubled with the noise of Billings-gate as the cry of an Oyster-wife It is my confidence that none of the dirt which he most shamefully confesseth himself to have thrown in my face will be found upon it P. 175. notwithstanding that necesse est ut aliquid haereat may be sometimes true Omitting therefore the consideration of his many Obscenities which every where are intermingled for the flowers of his Rhetorick I cannot but do my self so much justice as to satisfie the Reader in the truth of some things which otherwise may be believed to my disadvantage I am content to suffer under as much obloquie as any foul-mouth'd Presbyterian can spit upon me but I am not willing to be thought a slanderer a profane person or ungrateful for the sinallest favours all which the Author of that scurrilous Pamphlet hath imposed upon me In the first place it is much laboured to make me guilty of ingratitude and disaffection to Magd. Coll. of which I had the honour to be once a member P. 22. and do retain so high an estimation of it that whensoever I shall write or speak any thing to the reproach of that foundation let my tongue cleave unto the roof of my mouth and my right hand forget its cunning But I am able to distinguish between the duty I own to the House it self and that which every member of it is to challenge from me quid civitati quid civibus debeam in the Orators Criticism And therefore I would not have the Libeller or his Partners think that his or their taking Sanctuary under the name of Magdalen Colledge shall so far priviledge them in their actings either against the Church in general or my own particular but that I shall as boldly venture to attacque them there without fear of sacriledge as Joab was smitten by Benaiah at the horns of the Altar But the best is that I am made to have some ground for my disaffection though there be no less falshood in the fundamentals than the superstructure And a fine tale is told of some endeavours by me used for bringing one of my own brood into that foundation the failing of which hopes must of necessity occasion such an undervaluing of that Colledge as to change it from a nest of Sparrows to a nest of Cucknes P. 22. But the truth is that the party for whom I was a suitor was so far from being one of my own brood as not to be within the compass of my Relations so much a stranger to my blood that he was no otherwise endeared unto me than by the extraordinary opinion which I had of his parts and industry And therefore I commended him no further unto Dr. Goodwin than that it was not my desire to have him chosen if any abler Scholar should appear for the place And it was well for the young man that I sped no better Periisset nisi periisset as we know who said For within less than two years after he was elected into the Society of Merton Colledge to their great honour be it spoken upon no other commendation than his own abilities In the next place I am made a slanderer for saying that the new Sabbath speculations of Dr. bound and his adherents had been embraced more passionately of late than any one Article of Religion here by Law established How so Because saith he or they 't is no matter which it is well known that they do more passionately embrace the great truths of Christs Divinity and the Divine Authority of Scripture c. than any opinion about the Sabbath What may be meant by the c. it is hard to say perhaps the Presbyterian Discipline or the Calvinian Doctrines of Predestination the two dear Helena's of the Sects as sacred and inviolable in their estimation as any of their new opinions about the Sabbath But whether the great truths of Christs Divinity the Divine Authority of Scripture or any Article of Religion here by Law established be embraced by them with the like passion as their new Saint Sabbath may be discerned by that impunity which is indulged by them to all Anabaptists Familists Ranters Quakers and all other Sectaries by whom the great Truths of Christs Divinity and the Divine Authority of holy Scripture and almost all the Articles of the Christian Faith have been called in question And yet we cannot choose but know with what severity they proceeded when they were in power against all persons whatsoever
held on the 25th of June 1622. were severally condemned to be erroneous scandalous and destructive of Monarchical Government Upon which Sentence or determination the King gave order that as many of those books as could be gotten should solemnly and publickly be burnt in each of the Universities and St. Pauls Church-yard which was done accordingly An accident much complained of by the Puriten party for a long time after who looked upon it as the funeral pile of their Hopes and Projects till by degrees they got fresh courage carrying on their designs more secretly by consequence more dangerously than before they did The terrible effects whereof we have seen and felt in our late Civil Wars and present confusions But it is time to close this point and come to a conclusion of the whole discourse there be no other Objections that I know of but what are easily reduced unto those before or not worth the answering 15. Thus have we taken a brief survey of those insinuations grounds or principles call them what you will which Calvin hath laid down in his book of Institutions for the incouragement of the Subjects to rebellious courses and putting them in Arms against their Sovereign either in case of Tyranny Licentiousness or Mal-administration of what sort soever by which the Subject may pretend that they are oppressed either in point of Liberty or in point of Property And we have shewn upon what false and weak foundations he hath raised his building how much he hath mistaken or abused his Authors but how much more he hath betrayed and abused his Readers For we have clearly proved and directly manifested out of the best Records and Monuments of the former times that the Ephori were not instituted in the State of Sparta to oppose the Kings nor the Tribunes in the State of Rome to oppose the Consuls nor the Demarchi in the Common-wealth of Athens to oppose the Senate or if they were that this could no way serve to advance his purpose of setting up such popular Officers in the Kingdoms of Christendom those Officers being only found in Aristocraties or Democraties but never heard or dreamt of in a Monarchical Government And we have shewn both who they are which constitute the three Estates in all Christian Kingdoms and that there is no Christian Kingdom in which the three Estates convened in Parliament or by what other name soever they do call them have any authority either to regulate the person of the Sovereign Prince or restrain his power in case he be a Sovereign Prince and not meerly titular and conditional and that it is not to be found in Holy Scripture that they are or were ordained by God to be the Patrons and Protectors of the common people and therefore chargeable with no less a crime than a most perfidious dissimulation should they connive at Kings when they play the Tyrants or wantonly abuse that power which the Lord hath given them to the oppression of their Subjects In which last points touching the designation of the three Estates and the authority pretended to be vested in them I have carried a more particular eye on this Kingdom of England where those pernicious Principles and insinuations which our Author gives us have been too readily imbraced and too eagerly pursued by those of his party and opinion If herein I have done any service to supream Authority my Countrey and some misguided Zealots of it I shall have reason to rejoyce in my undertaking If not posterity shall not say that Calvins memory was so sacred with me and his name so venerable as rather to suffer such a Stumbling-block to be laid in the Subjects way without being censured and removed than either his authority should be brought in question or any of his Dictates to a legal tryal Having been purchased by the Lord at so dear a price we are to be no longer the Servants of men or to have the truth of God with respect of persons I have God to be my Father and the Church my Mother and therefore have not only pleaded the cause of Kings and Supream Magistrates who are the Deputies of God but added somewhat in behalf of the Church of England whose rights and priviledges I have pleaded to my best abilities The issue and success I refer to him by whom Kings do Reign and who appointed Kings and other Supream Magistrates to be nursing Fathers to his Church that as they do receive authority and power from the hands of God so they may use the same in the protection and defence of the Church of God and God even their own God will give them his Blessing and save them from the striving of unruly people whose mouth speaketh proud words and their right hand is a right hand of iniquity FINIS De Jure Paritatis Episcoporum OR A BRIEF DISCOURSE ASSERTING THE Bishops Right of Peerage WHICH EITHER By Law or Ancient Custom DOTH Belong unto them WRITTEN By the Learned and Reverend PETER HEYLYN D. D. In the Year 1640. When it was Voted in the Lords House That no Bishop should be of the Committee for the preparatory Examination of the EARL of STRAFFORD He being dead yet speaketh Heb. xi 4. LONDON Printed by M. Clark for C. Harper 1681. A PREFACE ALthough there are Books enough writ to vindicate the Honours and Priviledges of Bishops yet to those that are fore-stalled with prejudice and passion all that can be said or done will be little enough to make them wise unto sobriety to prevail with them not to contradict the conviction of their mind with absurd and fond reasonings but that Truth may conquer their prepossessions and may find so easie an access and welcome unto their practical judgments that they may profess their faith and subjection to that order which by a misguided zeal they once endeavoured to destroy Many are the methods that have been and are still used to rase up the foundation of Episcopacy and to make the Name of Bishop to be had no more in remembrance For first some strike at the Order and Function it self And yet St. Paul reckons it among his faithful sayings 1 Tim. 3.1 that the Office of a Bishop is a good work And the order continued perpetually in the Church without any interruption of time or decrees of Councils to the contrary for the space of many Centuries after the Ascension of Christ and the Martyrdom of the Apostles For they ordained Bishops and approved them Before St. John died Rome had a succession of no less than four viz. Linus Anacletus Clemens and Evaristus Jerusalem had James the just and Simeon the Son of Cleophas Antioch had Euodius and Ignatius and St. Mark Anianus Abilius and Cerdo successively fill'd the See of Alexandria All these lived in St. Johns days and their order obeyed by Christians and blessed by God throughout the whole world for the Conversion of Jews and Gentiles for the perfecting of the Saints and the edifying of
of all the brethren Where clearly there is nothing ascribed unto the Presbyters as in the way of reconciliation but only in the way of intercession as unto other of the brethren the main work being still reserved unto the Bishop I know indeed Tertullian is alledged by some as if there were a Government of the Church at that time in use in the which neither the Bishop nor the Presbyters did bear the greatest stroke but a Society of Lay-Elders or if we may admit such a Monster both in sense and Grammar a Lay-Presbytery The place or passage commonly alledged to make good the same is that in his Apologetick for the Christian Churches where having shewed the manner of the Christian meetings in their Congregations for Prayer and hearing of Gods Word he addeth Id. in Apol. c. 39. that there are also Exhortations Chastisements and Divine censures Judgment being executed with great advice Then followeth Praesident probati quique seniores honorem istum non pretio sed testimonio adepti the Presidents of our meetings are approved Seniors or Elders call them which you will who have obtained this honour not by money but by good Report So he And those whom he calls Seniores Elders they will needs have to be such Elders as they dream of men of the Laity taken in to day and put out to morrow A thing which better might become the Conventicles of the Heretick and Sectary than the Church of Christ And as it seems amongst the Hereticks and Sectaries such a course there was hodie Presbyter qui cras Laicus that he which was to day an Elder was on the next day to revert to his occupation Id. de Praescr haeret l. 41. this day an Elder in the Consistory the next a Botcher on the stall The Christian Church had no such custom what ever might be found amongst the Marcionites if then it be demanded who these Seniors were which are here said to have presided in their Congregations I answer that they were the Bishops those at whose hands de manu Praesidentium the people used in those times to receive the Sacrament Lay-men they could not be though called simply Elders because they did administer the blessed Eucharist and simply Presbyters they were not and they could not be because it is there said that they did preside and had the Power of Censure and Correction which are the works and badges of Authority It then remains they were the Bishops the Presidents or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Church of Christ such as we find described before by Justin Martyr and are affimed by Beza to be such as Timothy whom we have proved to be a Bishop And this appears to me yet further by the words themselves in which we find that those who did attain that honour got it by good Report and not by Money And this may very well be might the Gentiles say had it been spoken of the Presbyters for who would give money for so poor an Office wherein there was but little to be gotten more than ones labour for his pains or at the best some bare allowance from the sportula and that too on the Bishops curtesie When we can hear you say the like of Bishops through whose hands the money went who had the keeping and disposing of the common Treasury and might enrich themselves by the spoyl therof you then say somewhat to the purpose Till then it makes but little to the praise of your integrity and candour that such poor men whose places were not worth the haviing should pay nothing for them This makes it evident to me that the Elders mentioned here were not simply Presbyters but such whose places were esteemed to be both of Means and Credit and therefore doubtless they were Bishops that did so preside Nor is it any prejudice to the truth thereof that they are called Seniores in the plural number Tertullian speaking not in the behalf of a particular Church or City wherein could be one Bishop only but pleading in the behalf of the Universal wherein there were as many Presidents or Bishops or Presiding Elders call them which you will as there were Cities gained to the Faith of Christ Now if we please to take a view of the extent of Christianity according as it stood in the present Century we cannot better do it than by a place and passage of Tertullian who very fully hath described the same in his Apologetick presented to the Magistrates of the Roman Empire in the last year thereof or the next year after as is affirmed both by Pamelius and Baronius out of ancient Writers Pamol in vita Tertul. Bar. in Annal. For having shewn that Christians were not to avenge themselves upon their Persecuters or to take Arms for the repelling of those injuries which were offered to them he doth thus proceed Tertullian in Apologet. c. 37. Si enim hostes exertos c. For should we shew our selves saith he to be open enemies unto the State should we want either strength or numbers Behold what mischief is done daily to you by the Moors Marcomannians and those of Parthia Masters of a few Countreys only whereas the Christians are diffused over all the World you count us Aliens or strangers to you vestra omnia implevimus yet we have filled all places that are yours Cities Isles Castles Burrowes your places of Assembly Camps Tribes Palaces the very Senate and the Market-place with our numerous Troops Only your Temples are your own c. Nay should we only go away from you and retire into some remote corner of the World and carry all our Families with us Suffudisset utique dominationem vestram tot qualiumcunque amissio civium the loss of so many of your people how ill soever you conceive of them would be so shrewd a weakening unto your Dominions that you would tremble at that strange desertion and be astonished at the solitude and silence of your emptied Cities quite destitute of men to be commanded there being more Enemies than Citizens remaining in them Whereas now God be thanked you have the fewer Enemies amongst you in that you have so many Christians Pene omnes cives Christianos habendo most of your People being of that Religion Which as it shews the great extent of Christianity in Tertullians time so doth it shew a like extent also of Episcopacy there being no place where Christianity had been received wherein Episcopacy was not planted also Which lest it might be taken for a bold assertion without ground or Truth I shall crave leave to step a little out of this present Century and borrow a testimony from Saint Cyprian who is next to follow and if he may be credited will affirm no less Cyprian E. 52. For by him we are told of a certain truth per omnes Provincias per urbes singulas ordinatos esse Episcopos that in all Provinces and in every City Bishops had long
since been ordained reverend for their Age for their Faith sincere tried in Affliction and proscribed in time of persecution Nor doth he speak this of his own time only which was somewhat after but as a matter of some standing cum jam pridem per omnes provincias that so it had been long ago and therefore must needs be so doubtless in this present Age being not long before his own And this extent of Christianity I do observe the rather in this place and time because that in the Age which followeth the multitudes of Christians being so increased we may perhaps behold a new face of things the times becoming quicker and more full of action Parishes or Parochial Churches set out in Country-Villages and Towns and several Presbyters allotted to them with an addition also both of trust and power unto the Presbyters themselves in the Cure of Souls committed to them by their Bishops with many other things which concern this business And therefore here we will conclude this present Century proceeding forward to the next in the name of God CHAP. IV. Of the authority in the government of the Church of Carthage enjoyed and exercised by Saint Cyprian and other Bishops of the same 1. Of the foundation and preheminences of the Church of Carthage 2. Of Agrippinus and Donatus two of St. Cyprian's Predecessors 3. The troublesom condition of that Church at Cyprian's first being Bishop there 4. Necessitated him to permit some things to the discretion of his Presbyters and consent of the People 5. Of the authority ascribed by Cyprian to the People in the Election of their Bishop 6. What Power the people had de facto in the said Elections 7. How far the testimony of the People was required in the Ordination of their Presbyters 8. The power of Excommunication reserved by St. Cyprian to the Bishop only 9. No reconciliation of a Penitent allowed by Cyprian without the Bishops leave and licence 10. The Bishop's power as well in the encouragement as in the punishment and censure of his Clergy 11. The memorable case of Geminius Faustinus one of the Presbyters of Carthage 12. The Bishop's Power in regulating and declaring Martyrs 13. The Divine Right and eminent authority of Bishops fully asserted by St. Cyprian SAint Hierom tells us of S. Cyprian Hieron de Scriâ—tor Eccl. in Tertulâ—d that he esteemed so highly of Tertulian's writings that he never suffered any day to pass over his head without reading somewhat in the same and that he did oft use to say when he demanded for his works Da mihi magistrum reach me my Tutor or Praeceptor So that considering the good opinion which S. Cyprian had harboured of the man for his Wit and Learrning and the nearness of the time in which they lived being both also members of the same Church the one a Presbyter the other Bishop of the Church of Carthage We will pass on unto S. Cyprian and to those monuments of Piety and Learning which he left behind him And this we shall the rather do because there is no Author of the Primitive times out of whose works we have such ample treasures of Ecclesiastical Antiquities as we have in his none who can give us better light for the discovery of the truth in the present search than that blessed Martyr But first before we come to the man himself we will a little look upon his charge on the Church of Carthage as well before as at his coming to be Bishop of it the knowledge of the which will give special light to our following business And first for the foundation of the Church of Carthage Cited by Baronius in Annal Eccl. Anno 51. if Metaphrastes may be credited it was the action of Saint Peter who leaving Rome at such time as the Jews were banished thence by the Decree of Claudius Caesar in Africam navigasse Carthaginensem erexisse Ecclesiam is by him said to sail to Africa and there to found the Church of Carthage leaving behind him Crescens one of his Disciples to be the Bishop of the same But whether this be so or not it is out of question that the Church of Carthage was not only of great Antiquity but that it also was of great power and credit as being the Metropolitan Church of Africk the Bishop of the same being the Primate of all Africa properly so called together with Numidia and both the Mauritanias as well Caesariensis as Sitisensis So witnesseth S. Cyprian himself Latius fusa est nostra Provincia Cypri Ep. 45. habet enim Numidiam Mauritanias duas sibi cohaerentes as his own words are And this appeareth also by the subscription of the Bishops to the Council of Carthage convented ex Provincia Africa Concil Tom. 1. p. 149. Edit Binil Numidia Mauritania as is most clear on the record For whereas antiently the Roman Empire was divided into fourteen Diocesses reckoning the Prefecture of the City of Rome for one every Diocess being subdivided into several Provinces as was said before the Diocess of Africa was not of the meanest containing in it six large Provinces Notitia Provinciarum and reaching from the greater Syrtis Eastward where it confined upon the Patriarchat of Alexandria to Mauritania Tingitana on the West which did belong unto the Diocess of Spain Now Carthage standing in that Province which was called Zeugitana or Proconsularis and being the Seat or Residence of the Vicarius or Lieutenant General of the Roman Empire for that Diocess The Bishop of it was not only the Metropolitan of his own Province but the Primate also in regard of the other sive which were Tripolitana Byzacena Numidia and the two Mauritanias before remembred Nor was he only the supream Bishop in regard of them but also absolute and independent in regard of others as being neither subject or subordinate to the Patriarchs of Alexandria though the prime City of all Africa nor to the Popes of Rome the Queen and Empress of the world Concil Carthaginiens 6. against whose machinations and attempts the Church of Carthage for a long time did maintain her liberty Such being the Authority and power of the Church of Carthage we must next look upon the Bishops of the same who though they had not got the name of Patriarchs as those of Antioch Rome and Alexandria now had and they of Constantinople and Hierusalem shall be found to have in the times succeeding yet had they all manner of Patriarchal jurisdiction Of these the first I meet withal was Agrippinus who flourished in the beginning of this Century bonae memoriae vir a man of blessed memory as S. Cyprian Cyprian Epist 71. Vincent Lerinen adv haeres cap. 9. Aug. de Bap. lib. 2. cap. 7 8. Cypr. Epi. 71. Venerabilis memoriae of venerable memory as Vincentius Lerinensis calls him S. Austin also mentioneth him in one of his discourses against the Donatists as a Predecessor of S. Cyprians