twelfth successor of Peter Polycrates who was 65 years in the Lord when he wrote his Epistle unto Victor Bishop of Rome concerning the time of the celebration of the PÃ sche which was about the year of our Lord 197 whereby it appeareth that he began to flourish about 50 years after the death of John the Apostle if not much sooner if he was come to years of discretion before his Baptism Polycrates I say who was so near the times of the Apostles saith that he was the eighth Bishop of Ephesus Now it is acknowledged by all that in the time of Victor a Bishop had the preheminence over the Presbyters in every Church and therefore it is consequent that Polycrates by the seven Bishops preceding him in Ephesus meaneth not single Presbyters but such Bishops as were in the Church at the time of his writing that Epistle to Victor If the principality of the Ecclesiastical regiment had been in the Colledge of Presbyters until the death of the Apostles and after their decease the principality of that government was committed to one and not before surely Polycrates Irenaeus and Hegesippus had egregiously prevaticated in attributing the principality of one to some part of the time of the Apostles which they living with thousands who must have seen and consented to that change made after the Apostles decease if any such had been then first made could not be ignorant of But that these holy men were not unfaithful in their relation doth evidently appear by this namely that all the Fathers none contradicting agree with them affirming Bishops having in an ordinary way a superiority over Presbyters to have been ordained in the times of the Apostles Concerning Arch-bishops Sect 6. omitting the guesses of some ancient Doctors concerning the Archiepiscopacy of Mark Timothy and Titus we may find some intimation of their being in the end of the second century partly by the act of Victor Bishop of Rome in his attempt to excommunicate the Churches of the East and partly by a passage in Tertullian where he saith the Bishop of Bishops hath made a decree c. but certain it is that before the year of our Lord 250 wherein Cyprian Bishop of Carthage flourished l. de pudicitia c. 1. Arch-bishops were ordained in the Church For Cyprian writeth that there were many years and a long age since many Bishops convening under Agryppinus Bishop of Carthage decreed Epist ad Jubâ—in ad Cornel. l. 4. Epist 8. c. and in one of his Epistles to Cornelius Bishop of Rome he saith that his adversaries boasted saying that twenty five Bishops of Numidia would come to Carthage who would make unto themselves a Bishop there Among these Arch-bishops who were such indeed but not yet in name that we can find in any approved auctor of that age were some more eminent then other each of which had some Arch-bishops subordinate to them which in following times were called primates for in a province was one chief City under which were divers mother Cities which had lesser Cities under them In these were the Bishops in the Mother-cities were the Metropolitans or Arch-bishops in the first the Primates priviledges made some variations Of Primates and Metropolitans the Council of Nice saith it is manifest that if any be ordained without the will and conscience of the Metropolitane Bishop this great and holy Council hath decreed he ought not to be a Bishop And in another Canon the ancient manner or custome doth last in Egypt Lybia and Pentapolis that the Bishop of Alexandria have the power of all these for the Bishop of Rome hath a like custome in like manner also at Antioch and other provinces let the due honour proper to every Church be preserved to it These Primates and Arch-bishops had no power in things proper to the cognizance of a Bishop in his own Diocess but onely in those things whereof the Canons of the Church had committed to them the hearing and Judgement or which were of concernment to many Diocesses And this is it which Cyprian meaneth where he saith Epist ad Quintium none of us Bishops doth constitute himself to be a Bishop of Bishops or doth compell this Colledge by tyrannical terror to the necessity of obeying seeing every Bishop hath according to his own liberty and free will that he may not be judged by another Adrian the Emperour Apud Vopisum in Saturnino who reigned from the year of our Lord 117 to the year 135 writeth in a certain Epistle horrible untruths against Christians as that there was never a Presbyter of the Christians which was not a Mathematician a Southsayer c. that the very Patriarch when he came to Egypt was by some compelled to adore Serapis by others to adore Christ that they which said themselves to be Bishops of Christ were devoted to Serapis It seems this Emperour had taken notice that Christians had Ecclesiastical officers whereof some were-called Presbyters some called Bishops and perhaps that the Bishop of Alexandria was over all Egypt c. and Bishops thereof and therefore calls him by the name of a like civil Magistrate Patriarch which was afterward used by Christians in a like sense but too much hath been said to shew that it was ordained in the times of the Apostles that the principal authority in every Church should be in one Presbyter advanced above and over the rest unto whom in a short time after the name of Bishop was made proper This truth is so clear and written as it were with capital or uncial letters in the writings of all the ancients that he that runneth may read it in them In the next place it should be considered whether that Ordinance constituting Episcopacy made in the Apostolical times was not in proper sense an Apostolical constitution Sect. 7. and if so whether therefore it be unalterable But that this matter may be better understood it is convenient first to speak of the Authority and Power given to the Bishop what it was and how ample in those times De baptisme c. 17. Tertullian gives us some information in this point when he saith that the chief Priest which is the Bishop hath the right or power of giving Baptism then the Presbyters and Deacons but not without the authority of the Bishop for the preservation of the honour of the Church which remaining safe peace is safe maintained For the understanding of this we must consider that where the exercise of the power of preaching baptising c. in such place and among such persons was not by some ordinance of the Church determined to this or that particular Presbyter there it pertained to the Bishop to do it and not to any other without his leave yea the very Ordinances and Canons could not be made without his consent and authority as their principal author under Christ In Epist ad Titum c. 1. For as Hierom saith the whole care of the Church
l. 4. c. ult Hierom affirmeth that many things which are by tradition observed in the Churches have usurped to themselves the authority of a Divine law as in baptism to immerge the head thrice and then to tast the concord of milk and honey Adversus Luciferianos to signifie infancy and on the Lords day and in all the Pentecost not to pray kneeling nor to fast Constantine the great exhorteth all to embrace the decree of the Nicene Council concerning the set time of the celebration of the Feast of Easter as a gift of God and a Commandement sent down from heaven Euseb de vita Constantini l. 3. c. 18. Edit Basil 1570. for whatsoever is decreed in the holy Councils of Bishops that ought to be ascribed to the divine will Hierom in another place saith let every one judge the precepts of the ancients to be Apostolical laws Hierom. Ep. 28. It is not to be doubted saith Leo Bishop of Rome but that every Christian observance is of divine erudition and that whatsoever is received by the Church into a custome of devotion Serm. 2. de jejun Pentecost proceeded from the Apostolick tradition and the Doctrine of the holy Spirit The Fathers use very frequently to affirm some institutions or rites to be divine or Apostolical because they seemed a greeable to and their lawfulness demonstrable by the old Testament the Gospels or Apostolick Epistles So the Lent Fast is by them said to be of Apostolical and Divine tradition because it seems an imitation of the Fast of Elias and of Christ and Monachism is affirmed to be Apostolick because it hath an appearance of being an imitation of John the Baptist Amalar. Alcuin Pontifical Damas c. yet many ancient writers make Pope Telesphorus who flourished Forty years after the decease of St. John the Apostle to be the author of the Quadragesimal Fast although indeed it had a much later beginning and affirm Paul and Anthony to be the Fathers of Monachism So that many institutes were counted Apostolick because some example or reason of the Scripture did seem to warrant them Whence Hierom and others intimate Hierom. in vita Pauli that Episcopacy was instituted in imitation of Aaron and his Sons or of the Apostles and 70 Disciples affirming Bishops to be successors of aaron and the Apostles and Presbyters the successors of the Sons of Aaron and of the 70 Disciples Fourthly it is a certain truth acknowledged by all the learned that the Apostles were authors as well of local and temporary or universal and temporary ordinances rites or ceremonies as of universal and perpetual for they were inspired by the Holy Ghost infallibly to discern both what the present condition although variable of some or all the Churches required and what upon reasons arising from unvariable grounds and circumstances was needful to be observed in all the Churches of Christ Polycarpus a hearer of the Apostles and by St. John made Bishop of Smyrna celebrated the Pasche in the fourteenth moon and so did the rest of Asia and some of the East observing it the same time with the Jews moved thereto by the countenance and example of St. John the Apostle but Anicetus Bishop of Rome who flourished in the life time of Polycarpus and generally the Churches of the West kept the Feast at another time and on the Lords day induced thereto as they affirmed by the tradition and example of St. Peter the Apostle We cannot with reason and charity think that either Polycarpus with the Asians and East or Anicetus with the Western Churches Apud Euseb Iren. could be ignorant of the time when Peter in the West or John in Asia observed that Feast Polycarpus being an eye witness of what the Apostle St. John did and Anicetus being a hearer of the hearers of Clemens who was contemporary with the Apostle St. Peter or that they would considerately speak and perseveringly maintain an untruth imputing a fact to either Apostle which he had not done especially seeing the untruth on either side might have been confuted by a thousand witnesses wherefore we must judge this to be an evident example of a variable apostolick institution I might instance in part of the Apostles decree in the 15 chapter of the Acts of the Apostles of things strangled and blood but least I move scruples in weak consciences which they cannot easily be rid of I will only commend to the consideration of the judicious the judgment of some ancient writers quoted in the margent August contra Faustum l. 32. c. 13. Et tractcti contra graecos in biblioth patr to 4. pag. 1308. et 1318.1319.1320 There be many rites which the Fathers held to be Apostolical which in the times of the same Fathers were in many places altered or neglected as the three immersions in baptisme the repairing of neighbour Bishops to the people where a Bishop was wanting there to ordain one in the presence of the people not to fast in the dayes of Pentecost and some other which prove that according to the judgment of those Fathers the Apostles guided by divine inspiration made some decrees alterable and which were upon just reasons accordingly changed or disused and therefore if it were proved that the Apostles by divine motion were the primary Auctors of Episcopacy and not the Church yet if it cannot appeare to be a constitution built upon perpetuall reason and in its nature independing upon variable circumstances it may possibly be changed by the Church Here it may be demanded by what members of it self did the universal Church abrogate the Presbyterian and institute Episcopal Government and what power was taken from the Presbyters by that abrogation For answer to these demands we must distingnish between the power given to ministers to doe some things as to preach baptize ordain Pastors excomunicate absolve c. and secondly the free exercise of those acts and thirdly the regulation of the exercise of them as to the persons about whom time when the place where the manner decency c. To the regulation belong 1. The making of laws concerning the due exercise of the power agreeable to the divine laws and secondly the superintendents of the execution and thirdly the executors of them As for the power it doth not appear that any of that was taken from the Presbyters or their Colledge by the institution of Episcopacy if they were deprived of any part of it can 13. that must be the ordaining of Presbyters but the Council of Ancyra seems to demonstrate that the power of ordaining Pastors did and doth remain in them which they did exercise by the leave Et Synod Antioch c. 16. vide Vasque in 3. p. Disp 143. c. 4. and in the place of the Bishop which Could not at his pleasure give them but supposed the power continuing in them The words of the Council be these according to the Greek Original and not their vulgar
due acknowledgement of their transcendent worth and especially of the most reverend Father in God Dr. James Usher late Arch-bishop of Armagh and Lord Primate of all Ireland who in an exact knowledge of all good learning in depth of judgment in the due stating and well cleering controversies of Religion and in sanctity of life was not much if at all inferior to any the best of Bishops since the Apostles dayes And lasty in an acceptable tast which I have had of the sweetness of your vertue in a particular favour for which I present my humble thanks to your Lordship May it please you right reverend father to take this small work into your honorable patronage and protection and pardoning my boldness in this attempt to take in good part the very humble and hearty tender of my best service to your Lordship God Almighty long continue your life and prosperous Estate and make you a happy instrument of much good to his Church Your Lordships in all Duty John Lloyd Praesb The PREFACE THis short treatise containeth the sum and substance of what the reverend Doctors of the Primitive Churches for the first four hundred years after the birth of our blessed Saviour have practised and written and thereby transmitted to our times concerning Episcopacy Presbytery Ecclesiastical Discipline Liturgy and Ceremonies omitting onely those which appear to be impertinent to the state and condition of the present times Every material point herein is proved out of authors received by all sides which caused the omission of the testimony of Ignatius c. and such authors against whom it cannot be reasonably presumed that they were deceived or erred in their relation of matters of fact and practise done or used in the times wherein they themselves or those with whom they conversed did live The authorities were not collected by the help of tables or received from second hands whence mistakes do easily and usually arise but were taken from the authors own work read and duely considered Because the Holy Scripture by reason of humane infirmities in all and perverseness in many is in many parts thereof-diversely understood it is very needful saith Vincentius Lirinensis that the line of Prophetical and Apostolical interpretation be directed according to the rule of Ecclesiastical and Catholick sense And also in the very Catholick Church great care must be had Adversus haeres c. 2. saith the same ancient author that we hold that which hath been believed every where alwayes and by all Which direction of this discreet Writer In ipsa item Catholica Ecclesia magnopre curandum est ut id teneamus quod ubique quod semper quod ab omnibus creditum est c. 3. rightly understood and applied is very good and is and hath been of singular use especially against Schismaticks and Hereticks For when the consent of the Catholick Church in her principal members in all the parts of the world and in all ages beginning in and proceeding from the Apostolicall times unto any other set or proposed age doth clearly appear to be in any Divine Doctrine Discipline Liturgie Rites or any Ecclesiasticall usage who can gainsay that unanimous judgment of all the Saints of God which is a far better interpreter of the word of God then any generall councell can be who dare refuse to embrace the sentence of that just and impartiall Iudge except in decrees about things in their nature and morally mutable which may by the good leave of that Judge be with honour layed aside when they become unprofitable or dissentaneous to the edification and peace of the Church The Ecclesiasticall institutions which want sufficient evidence to prove their approbation by the Church flourishing in the Apostles dayes and are found to have the generall approbation of the Churches between the times of the Apostles and about the year of our Lord 500 although they be of less esteem and regard then the institutions known to be received by the Apostolicall Church yet are they Venerable and worthy of very great regard partly because of the propinquity of those Churches to the time of the Apostles from whom some of them might be probably thought to be derived although a certaine proofe of their derivation appeared not to succeeding ages partly because of the eminent wisdome of the Fathers and exemplary sanctity of the Churches in those times in comparison of the Churches in the following Generations The Churches of this space of time that is between the Apostles decease and the year 500. wanted the extraordinary Apostolicall Spirit which so guided the Church planted by them in all publick resolutions that she would make no Ordinance without the Apostles approbation and having it she could not erre in her determinations All other Churches therefore might easily erre and they that upon good occasion given them would modesty affirm that they did erre in some constitutions and usages generally approved by them and also in some remote conclusions of the Divine Doctrine are not to be thought to disparage them seeing upon the matter they say no more then that they were men which wanted the guide of the holy Spirit to lead them infallibly to truth and goodness in all things of Ecclesiasticall concernment but that those Churches within the first 500 years erred in any publick constitutions or customes unto Idolatry or which is less unto apparent superstition is a thing improbable and incredible to them who rightly consider the publick doctrine and Ecclesiasticall Ordinances of those times and take due notice of the great prudence and holiness of many of the chief Governors and Pillars of those Churches Hereticks Idolaters and superstitious persons were in many of the Churches but that the Churches themselves in any part of that time became Haereticall Idolatrous or Superstitious is very untrue and unworthy the thought of a prudent and charitable man And here by the way concerning the Church of England if we compare her in her legall constitution with any other Church after the year of our Lord 180. it will be found that they who charge her with Antichristianisme Idolatry or Superstition in her constitution established by Law do by clear consequence pass the sentence of the same condemnation upon every of those Churches especially them of the 4th and 5th century the rashness and injustice of which censure is very worthy of a very severe censure The Apostle indeed saith that the mystery of iniquity began to work in his time 2 Thes 2.7 Revel 2.24 but did he meane thereby that the mysterious iniquity and depth of Satan began to work in the publick constitutions of the Catholick Church in his dayes and that they were parts of the constitutions no surely neither can any Christian be so simple or so injurious to the Ministery of the Apostles and the purity of that Church as to think that the Apostle had any such meaning The mystery of Iniquity was indeed in the Church in some dead branches in some
wicked livers and Haereticks but it was not of the Church it was no part of the constitution of the Church although it did labour to insinuate and work it self into it it may be granted as very probable that the mystery of iniquity in particular and those dead members and by them working upon the Churches might more vitiate the Churches of the second century then the Churches in the first century and the Churches in the third century more then the Churches of the second and so of the rest to the end of the fifth century but that in any part of that time it prevailed so far as to become a part of the Ecclesiasticall Doctrine Discipline Liturgy or Ceremonies universally received and used is rather a surmise of an excess of jealousy then an opinion grounded upon probable reasons it is so far from being an approved truth After the year 500. and the division of the Empire and establishment of the Kings 2 Thes 2.3 Revel 17.12 13.16 which were to give their power and strength to the Beast and which in due time were to burn the Whore of Babylon the Churches grew generally more and more corrupt the civill and Ecclesiasticall confusions attending the Warrs in the severall Provinces giving advantage to the mystery of Iniquity to mingle it self first with the Discipline and Ceremonies and after with the publick Doctrine whereby first superstition then Idolatry and lastly Heresies took place in the publick profession of the Churches so that in persons who knowingly swallowed the good and bad together the infection of the mystery of Iniquity hindred the operation of the good portion of the whole lump and working the effect of its poyson into their vital parts corrupted and destroyed them And therefore these latter Churches were not by the first reformers of our Church proposed for patterns as the former were which preserved the purity of Doctrine Discipline and Ceremonies without the addition of any thing causing Superstition much less Idolatry or Haeresy Our Church hath separated the Pretious from the Vile the good of Doctrine Discipline and Rites from the pestiferous and noxious additions and now if either the abuse of prosperity or the iniquity of the late times hath added any evil quality to any of our Ecclesiasticall things or made us incapable of good by some Rite or particle of the Discipline or Liturgy or if any defect appear to be in our former reformations and especially if any of these have happened in any Rite of adoration wherein is the greatest danger it is not to be doubted but that all these things will be carefully looked into and whether by omission explanation or otherwise the Discipline and Rites by the help and blessing of God shall be reformed according to the best patterns and as shall most conduce to the godly unity and peace of the Church and Kingdome What do I speak only of future Reformation seeing the deep Wisdome and the most sincere piety of his Sacred Majesty hath by the blessing of God upon his Royal indeavours found out the best temperament for the healing of the present distempers and by his gratious Declaration hath established a most happy Interim the fittest that could be devised for the preparing different apprehensions and affections unto an unity meet to entertain the best form of a Christian Church which the infirmities of these last dayes of the last time can well bear The Regicides of late had proceeded far in breaking down this our House of God Psal 74. 1 King 6.7 with their iron tooles their Axes and Hammers but as it is said of King Solomons Temple that there was neither Hammer nor Axe nor any toole of iron heard while it was in building so our blessed Solomon in reedifying this decayed house of God doth the work without all iron instruments without all unpleasing sounds it goeth on sensim sine sensu and it is and will be the glorious effect of his Majesties incomparable providence guided by the most gratious direction of God cunctando restituisse rem But some of them which will read this small tractate may therein observe some passages which suppose the Church of England without the benefit of any proceedings of his Majesty towards her restauration and may therefore be ready to censure the Author as he well deserved if he had not this just Apology namely That he can make it good by many witnesses of worthy persons of known integrity that this treatise was ready written five months agon at the least at which time the Author could only write of the state and condition of things as they were then and not as they would be in times to come If any object It had been better if ever to have published this at that time for which it seemes more convenient to which I say That the Conscience of mine own infirmities retarded and had almost hindred the publication thereof But partly my desire to contribute my poor mite towards the restauration of Gods House prevailed with me partly believing the truth of that saying of Clemens of Alexandria that the science of preaching is in a manner Angelical and whether it be exercised by the tongue or hand writing profiteth either way and knowing my self to be not far from the time when the strength of voyce may decrease I thought it not amiss to put it to the trial by this beginning whether I might hereafter with any hope of acceptance and profit attempt to recompence the defect which if I live may likely happen in my voyce with the labour and pains of preaching by the pen. Some may think that I have made no good choise in preferring the judgment of St. Hierome a Presbyter and not well affected as many think to Episcopacy before the opinion of Epiphanius a Bishop and the elder of the two Aerius maintained that neither the Apostles were nor the Churches could lawfully be the authors of the preferment of a Bishop above the Presbyters and therefore he departed from the Communion of the Catholick Church and became an Independent Presbyter of an independant Congregation First I must deny that Hierome was disaffected to good Bishops or to the Episcopal dignity His works do abundantly testify that he bad in singular honour both the one and the other only he often reproveth and that sharply the Ambition Covetuousness and other vices of many Bishops which not he only but others before him and in his time even Bishops themselves did performe with no less sharpness and severity See one among others Gregory who was created Bishop of Sasimis executed his function in Nazianzum and after was advanced to the Arch-Bishoprick of Constantinople this Arch-Bishop wisheth there were no prerogative of the Throne nor Prelacy which saith he had indeed in former times been desired of good and prudent men but which now to shunne is counted an act of singular prudence What is this wise and holy Arch-Bishop for the abrogation of Episcopacy root
ordmem contingit esse distinctionem dignitatum officiorum quae tamen novum gradum vel ordinem non constituunt ut Archipresbyter Episcopus Archiepiscopus Patriarcha pontifex summus qui ultra sacerdotium non addunt ordinem nec gradum novum sed solum dignitatem officium ita Episcopatus prout concernit ordinem sacer dotti benè potest dici ordo sed prout distinguitur contra sacerdotium dicitur dignitatem quandam vel officium Episeopi annexum non est propriè nomen ordinis nec no vus character imprimitur nec nova potestas datur sed potestas data ampliatur unde sicut non recipit alias claves sic nec alium ordinem hoc sensit magister Hugo de S. Victore Magister sententiarum Bonavent in 4. dist 24. q. 3. Et postea non ita propriè dicitur aliquis ordinari cum promovetur in Episcopum sicut cum promovetur in sacerdotem sed magis propriè dicitur consecrari postea non datur ibi nova potestas sed solùm potestas ligandi solvendi ampliatur Solis sacerdotibus datur in ordine sacerdotali potestas clavium scilicet quantum ad solvendum ligandum quasi mediatoribus inter Deum subditos Si objiciatur quod magis couvenit potestatem clavium dart Episcopo in consecratione Episcopi dicendum quod nequaquam quia Episcopus non dicitur novum ordinem nec in consecrationem Episcopi datur novus ordo sed tantum ampliatur potestas Alex. Halens to 4. de potest clavium q. 20. m. 8. a. Probatum est scilicet disp 140. c. 1. inquit Vasques quod Hieronymus nullam constituat differentiam jure Divino inter Episcopatum Presbyterium sed censeat jure tantum ecclesiastico discrimen fuisse introductum In 3. p. disp 142. c. 8. Ego sanè inquit Vasques suspicor vehementer S. Thomam existimasse consecrationem cum qua confertur potestas Episcopajis jure humano esse introductam In 3. p. disp 143. c. 2. and that in all Churches where fit men for that office were found they were ordained and set over the presbyters and that the Senate of presbyters did alone govern onely in some Churches where no man was found fit to be made a Bishop Hierom and some other taught Episcopes solae ordinatione superiores esse Presbyteris Chrysost in 1. Ep. ad Timoth. hom 11. Postea unus est gradus S. Hierom in 1. Ep. ad Tim. c. 3. that the Apostles left at the first the whole care of every Church where none of them or their Vicegerents or Evangelists resided unto the body of the presbyters of each Church which exercised all Ecclesiastical powers in common until the presbyters began to divide the flock and to make of one Church many Independent Congregations For the avoiding of which inconvenience the Churches unanimously agreed to commit the principal care of every Church unto one presbyter without whose consent the rest of the presbyters were not allowed to exercise any part of their Ecclesiastical function In Ep. ad Tit. c. 1. vide gloss dist 23. c. legimus and to that advanced presbyter some ministerial acts and also the name of Bishop were after some time appropriated Before Sidings in Religion saith Hierom were made by the instinct of the Devil and that it was said among the people El Amalarium de Eccles offic l. 2. c. 13. Et Steph. Eduens Episcopum de sacramento altaris c. 9. I am of Paul I of Apollos c. the Churches were governed by the Common Council of the Presbyters but after that every Presbyter thought those whom he baptised to be his and not Christs it was decreed in all the world that one chosen out of the Presbyters should be set over the rest unto whom all the care of the Church should appertain and so the seeds of Schismes should be taken away A little after he affirmeth that at the first the care of the Church was equally divided among many and yet a little further having cited out of 1. Epist to Tim. and the Epist to Titus and the Epist to the Philipp c. these saith he were said that we might shew that the ancient Presbyters were the same with Bishops but by little and little that the plants of dissention might be plucked up In quos delinquentes nonnunquam Episcoporum Presbyterorum censura desaevit Hier. ad Demetriad all the sollicitude was delated to one Therefore as the Presbyters know themselves by the custome of the Church to be subject to him who is set over them so let Bishops know themselves to be greater then Presbyters more by custome then by the truth of Divine dispotision and ought in common to rule the Church imitating Moses who when he might have alone ruled the people yet chose other with whom he would judge them The words of this ancient Father need no explication for they say plainly that every Church meaning wherein no extraordinary minister resided Apostle or his Vicegerent was at the first governed by the Colledge of Presbyters and that their dividing one Church into many Independent Congregations Quare in Ecclesia baptizatus nisi per manus Episcopi accipiat Spiritum Sanctum id factum reperimus ad honorem potius sacerdotii quā ad legis necessitatem Ecclesiae salus in summi sacerdotis dignitate ac veneratione consistit cui si non exors quaedam ab hominibus omnibus eminens detur potestas tot in Ecclesiis efficientur schismata quot sacerdotes Inde venit ut sine chrismate Episcopi jussione neque Presbyter neque Diaconus jus habeat baptizandi quod frequenter si tamen necessitas cogit scimus licere laicis Hier. contra Lucifer first that we can find in Corinth after in many other places put a necessity upon the Churches to provide a convenient remedy against so dangerous a disease which remedy was the committing of every Church to one chief minister to whom the rest were to be subordinate in the manner before specified Here observe 1. that according to St. Hierom every Bishop ought to rule the Church in common with the presbyters 2. that Hierom saith that the decree of making one chief in every Church was in all the world whereby he intimates this institution of Bishops to have its beginning after the planting of the Churches in most parts of the then known world 3. that he affirmeth that Paulatim by little and little or by degrees the care of every Church was committed to one which doth insinuate that the decree instituting a Bishop was not in a Synod of the Apostles or Churches but enacted in every Church first in some then in other and in a short time in all over all the world in such manner as a general custome is created and therefore he saith that the Presbyters are subject to the Bishop by the custome of the Church and the Bishop greater
propounding of the true doctrine in decision of controversies or of constitutions of expedient or necessary to aedification are acts of religion most proper to the Bishops and presbyters the first an act of the praedication of the gospel the other an act of ecclesiastical Government The embracing of the truth and ordinances seen to be profitable together with the confirming of them by his decree and sanction or addition where he seeth it needful of a reward or mulct is the part of a Christian Prince discerning upon due search the truth and the usefulnesse of the ordinances propounded unto him whose embracing is his act of subjection to Christ and confirmation and sanction an act of his Vicary authority To make laws bestowing civil gifts or priviledges on the Church and ordaining civil punishments for offences committed against Christian religion and Ecclesiastical Canons and constituting Courts for the cognizance of such causes and the execution of those Laws is the peculiar and proper work of a Christian King which he may well doe without the authority of Bishops and presbyters but which he may best doe with their grave advice and counsel In the unanimous Votes of the Kings Majesty the honourable Houses of Parliament and the venerable convocation all Powers and interests are fully satisfied whether in decision of controversies in religion Chrysost in 2. Cor. hom 18 c. Sect. 11. or making Ecclesiastical Canons or any the like Ecclesiastical matters because they are the conjunct Votes of all the concerned Before the civil Magistrate became Christian the Clergy and people according to their severall rights concurred personally in the elections of Bishops and Presbyters and this remained in use under many Christian Emperors and Kings untill for the avoyding of contention and schismes and many abuses which became familiar to popular elections in a corrupted state of the Church and for the encouragement of Princes Nobles and others to erect and endow Churches it seemed good to Kings in their Parliaments and with the convocation or Synod of the Bishops and Clergy to ordain that Kings should present to the Colledge of Presbyters meet persons to be chosen and made Bishops and meet Presbyters to the Bishop for such Churches as they had built and endowed and that all other persons should in like manner present to the Bishop a fit person for the Church which they had endowed Patrons did indeed in some places put in whom they pleased without the Bishops consent Vide Epist Alexandr 3. ad Episcopos Angliae and for some time of publick confusion this was very usually done in England but this custome was no law as some would have it because it was an unreasonable custome and destructive to the Church and therefore always contradicted in all Councils where occasion was given to mention it All humane laws have their mixture of some bad with many good And certain it is that our Ecclesiastical laws have many imperfections and their ambiguous halting between the papal Canon-law whence their interpretation hath been wont to be fetched and the laws of the Realm is not the least which hath been one of the principal occasions of some actings which made the Clergy much abhorred by many and brought infinite calamities upon the Civil and Ecclesiastical state The ancient pure Episcopal government is much changed and the beginning of its change was not of late dayes Sect. 12. for in the fourth Century the Bishops and Presbyters began to advance Arch-presbyters and Arch-deacons to some part of the exercise of the Ecclesiastical government Optat. advers Parmenian l. 1. The first Archdeacon we read of was Caecilianus who reproved Lucilla a rich and proud woman which being thereat vexed became afterward a zealous promotrix of the Schism of the Donatists The first Arch-presbyter Greg. Nazianz. in land Basil crat that I can remember to be mentioned by the ancients was Basile who being made Bishop offered that honour to his old friend Gregory after the Bishop of Nazianzum But these were at that time but in some Churches and acted onely in place of the Bishops and Presbyters and at their pleasure whereas their power in time increased and after some hundreds of years the Canons gave them an ordinary jurisdiction erected their Courts added new names of Ecclesiastical judges as Deans Chancellors Commissaries c. and filled them with numerous attendants which were mostly to live by the sins of the people If these had been Officers onely of the civil magistrate to execute the power which is proper to him over all persons and in all causes Ecclesiastical the Church could not in reason have been charged with their miscariages but because they exercised with the former acts of the power proper to Bishops and Presbyters and in which the civil magistrate had onely a superintendency over them all their misdoings were ascribed to the Bishops and the Clergy their Courts heard the causes of excommunication adjudg'd a person to excommunication and caused a Presbyter no judge in the cause to excommunicate the party whereas Christ by his Apostles made them judges in his place as well to hear the causes of the spiritual censures as to execute the same by the sentence of excommunication The spiritual censures are spiritual remedies and the Pastors of the Church are under Christ the Physicians how then can it be congruous to imploy one that is no Physician to search and take knowledge of the diseases of the Soul and leave orâ—y the application of the remedies to the Physicians in the hearing of the causes of spiritual censures pastoral acts are to be exercised as of teaching of redargution of sin and conviction which prepare the offendor for the due and profitable receiving of the spiritual Physick which acts are all wanting where a person that is no Pastor condemneth a sinner to be excommunicated by a Pastor There is another mischief that accompanies the mixture in one and the same person of the exercise of acts purely ministerial and acts proper to the civil magistrate in spiritual causes as it is in Arch-deacons and the like that is commutation of paenance as to take so much money a Cow a Horse and the like as it hath been used be it in pretence of giving it to the poor where suspension or excommunication was by the Apostolical ordinances to have been exercised If the power proper to the ministers the power proper to the magistrate were in distinct persons this too frequent abuse would be well avoyded For the sole spiritual power is not to medle with body or purse Cudgelling whipping imprisoning fining scandalous sinners were not at all in use before the times of Christian Emperours And as to the redemption of the wholesome severities which the paenitents were enjoyned willingly to exercise upon themselves it was not used until about the end of the fift Century I might mention other mischiefs as the intollerable abuse of excommunication for very small offences
our Lord God to which the people answered it is meet and right so to do and then the Priest went no saying it is very meet right c. Out of Authors now extant who flourished in the three first Centuties no more that I can remember concerning the divine service of the Church and the Ceremonies pertinent to our purpose is mentioned then what hath been already touched But the holy writers of the fourth Century and downward do affirm both that many other rites have been used in the three first Centuries whereof some were instituted by the Apostles as they write others by some Bishops of Rome and that many more were added in the fourth Century One reason why the Ceremonies increased in the fourth Century may be this because then the Church more flourished in prosperity then any time before and it might be thought convenient that the external glory of the Church should be proportioned to the glory of the Empite now made Christian The use of singing Psalmes and Hymnes in the Churches Epist 119. may as St. Augustine saith be defended out of Scripture seeing of this we have so profitable instructions examples and precepts of Christ and his Apostles But the manner of singing was various l. â— c. 8. hist Socrates relateth that Ignatius having in a vision seen Angels singing Hymnes Anthemewise unto the praise of the Holy Trinity delivered that manner of singing Psalmes unto his own Church in Antioch which was generally received thence by the Greek Churches and then by the Latines and West first by Ambrose in the fourth Century and after by the rest of the Western Bishops The Rubrick in our Common-prayer Book before Te Deum laudamus we praise thee O God hath these words that the people may the better hear in such places where they do sing there shall the Lessons be sung in a plain tune after the manner of distinct reading and likewise the Epistle and Gospel This Rubrick puts me in mind of a place in St. Augustine's Confessions l. 10. c. 33. where he saith that it was often told him that Athanasius Bishop of Alexandria made the reader of the Psalm to sound with so mean bending or turning of the Voyce that he might be nearer a pronouncer then a singer Epist 119. And in another place he saith when the Brethren are met in the Church when is it not time of singing holy songs unless it be the time of reading or preaching or of prayer c. By which words it seemeth that the Chapters Epistle and Gospel were not sung in those dayes And in truth any manner of singing them seemeth incongruous The Fathers use to reprove the abuses which were too often found in singing Psalms in the Churches especially that they were many times more pleased with the sweetness of the voyce then the divine matter or when onely a few of the Church did sing that they so sung that few understood what they sung In Epist ad Ephes c. 5. Let the servant of the Lord saith Hierome so sing that the words which he reads may more please then the voyce of him singing It is no perfect singing nor pleasing to God when mens hearts do not sing unto the Lord as well as their voyces I will not speak of singing with Organs in the Churches not that I think that God refuseth to be heartily praised in and with the use of them but because they were not brought into the Churches until much later times The Doxology Glory be to the Father to the Son and to the Holy Ghost for ever c. is by St. Basile proved to be used from the Apostles times both out of Clemens Rom. Irenaeus Orig. Gregor Thaumaturg Dionysius Rom. Dionysius Alex. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Basil de Sp. S. c. 29. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. and the Evening-candle light thanksgiving which had been used time out of mind of man wherein they said We praise the Father and the Son and the holy Spirit of God But this Doxology with the addition as it was in the beginning c. was first a Epist Hier. ad Damasum Conc. Vasens c. 7. ordained to be said in the Divine Service of the Church after the Psalms by Damasus Bishop of Rome about the year of our Lord 370. He first commanded b Greg. l. 7. Epist 63. inter Ep. Hier. Aug. de temp serm 151. de can observant praeposit 23. Gregor l. 7. Epist 63. Conc. Vasens c. 5. Radulfs Vigres de can observant praeposit 23. Alleluia to be used in the Roman Church following therein the Liturgie of the Hierosolymitane and Greek Churches Kyrie eleison and Christe eleison Lord have mercy and Christ have mercy often repeated were in imitation of some greek Liturgies received into the Romane Divine Service-book by the authority of Pope Sylvester about the year 330 saith Radulphus Tugr which many years after were omitted and at last restored by Gregory the great The collection of the Episties and Gospels for the whole year into the form like that in present use is attributed to Hierom and by Pope Damasus commanded to be read in the Churches The Symbole or Creed composed in the first Council of Constantinople was by the same Pope Damasus ordained to be said or sung after the Gospel Rupert l. 2. c. 21. Strab. c. 22. It was received into the â—ivine Service in Spain by the command of the third Synoâ— of Tolet. The reasons brought to prove the Apostles or the Nicene Creed to have been said in the Liturgies of the fourth Century or before are of small weight and therefore I omit them How Damasus can truely be said to have enjoyned the singing or saying of the Creed and yet that it was not sung at Rome until about the year 1014 is easily answered if we conceive his command to be directed unto all other Churches subject unto him Berno de offic myssae c. 1. Vide Conc. tolet 3. c. 2. excepting Rome for that special reason which Berno relates Bishops Presbyters and Deacons in the time of the celebration of the Lords Supper Hierom. l. 1. dial contra Pelag Chrysost in Matt. hom 83. Conc. Carthag 4. c. 41. Et vide respenss Leonis 3. ad missos caroli M. sub Conc. aquisgranens used the white garment which we call the Surplice whether it was in use before the fourth Century is not related by any approved author living in those times Prayers composed after the manner of our Litany are to be seen in the Liturgies of Chrysostome and Basile In their time * Chrys in Ep. ad Eph. hom 14 24. glory be to God on high c. and †Idem in Epist ad Coloss hom 3. holy holy holy Lord God of Sabboth were wont to be said in the Divine Service Chrysostome saith that the Bishop was wont often in the time of the publik worship of God to say to the people
to suspend their reception of the ancient Episcopacy but in very deed receiving in some hidden sort the substance of it secretly giving that Authority to the moderator of the Colledge of Presbyters which tantamounts the Authority of the ancient Bishops This was done by them in their Emergency out of the Gulfe of the Babylonish Idolatry and Haeresies when the state of persons and Circumstances would not permit them directly and manifestly to set up the ancient Episcopacy but covertly and cloathed with the apparel of Presbytery Because the appearing of it in its native cloathing seemed to threaten an extreme danger of returning again to Idolatrous Babylon Thus when two duties became inconsistent the keeping out of Idolatry and the open and manifest use of an Ordinance inferior to the maintenance of the purity of Gods worship they did as it was their duty so far forbear the open use of Episcopacy as seemed needfull that they might preserve the truth and sincerity of the worship of God I know many writers are of another mind but the intentions of Churches are better seen in the causes of their actions and the managing of them then in the letter of a Law or in the speculative opinions of private persons Some think the present condition of our Church to be almost the same with the state of those Churches when they first began their Reformation and therefore that we stand in need of the same cure under the habit of the Presbyterian Government Surely these are much deceived first in their opinion of our present state secondly in the sequele if our case were like theirs for when we were like them in departing from Babylon we were unlike them in many other respects and needed not the habit of Presbyters but fall to purge the ancient Episcopacy from as many of the foul excrescencies which the sins of men made to grow to it as the condition of that time would permit whereby our Church kept more uniformity with the primitive Churches and by the blessing of God upon our endevour obtained more measure of the Heavenly light and of the power of Godliness in peace and that for a longer time then any part of those Churches attained unto which were necessitated to shrowd themselves under another habit of Government This I say not any way to disparage any other Church of Christ whom I honour and pray for from my heart or to ascribe any thing to our own wisdome and providence but to honour and glorifie the grace of God for his great mercies to our Church and to defend her honour against the mistakes of some But now our condition is changed our sins have brought us to misery the light and glory of our Church is turned to darkness confusion and contempt from which notwithstanding our unworthiness Gods infinite mercy which hath most gratiously restored our Soveraign Lord the King unto his Kingdomes and Subjects will be pleased I trust to deliver us and to beautifie our Church with the primitive Apostolicall Episcopacy attended by his assessors and Senate the reverend grave wise learned and pious Colledg of Presbyters to govern the house of God after the best pattern of the primitive holy orders and discipline for the obtaining whereof God would have us assisted by His grace to contribute our endevours improved to the uttermost of Christian Wisdom and moderation to be crowned with his rich blessing And because this business is about things for the most part spirituall tending to the edification of Gods house it will no doubt please our gracious King and his great Councell not to proceed in this work without the advise and counsell of them whom Christ hath ordained under Himself Minister all builders of His House least the neglect of His Ordinance and Ministers cause the Lord to blast all other Counsells and endeavours how probable soever they may seem to be in the eye of the world Give unto Casar the things which are Caesars and let the Vicegerents of Christ enjoy the things belonging to them let all interests have their due part in this weighty work and then whatsoever Government be settled what form soever of Divine service what Rites soever and Ceremonies shall be established they will with all readiness and due submission be received and embraced by all the people and all the obedient Sons and Daughters of our dearest Mother the Church of England among whom if there shall be some whose judgments cannot acquiesce in some determinations of the higher powers they will wisely consider first that in the remote conclusions of Divine maximes all good men in this our infirmity will never agree and that nature teacheth us that in controversies the resolution of the major part must be obeyed without which debates would never be ended and St. Paul saith let the spirits of the Prophets be subject to the Prophets Secondly That God hath appointed the powers civil and Ecclesiasticall in his stead to determine Ecclesiasticall controversies and to make Ecclesiasticall Ordinances from whose judgment there is no appeal but only to God by prayer Thirdly That to preserve the peace of the Church and Charity the bond of perfectness is a duty to be preferred before the duty of publick teaching divulging or preaching many of those Divine Truths whose ignorance if not voluntary doth not exclude from Heaven when that teaching or publishing doth disturb the publick peace and consequently the keeping of the peace requireth abstinence in that case from such divulging or preaching And from these considerations good men will infer that it is good for them and that it is their duty both for the sake of Gods Authority for good order sake and for Charity and peace sake out of a Conscientious regard to the higher powers to acquiesce in their determinations and to desist from opposing their private opinion to the publick judgment and pursuing their private interest to the prejudice of publick peace and Charity For which Wisedome and moderation that they may be in all let all good men pray to the onely wise and most mercifull God the Author of Truth and peace An APENDIX THe manner of the Ordination of Bishops forgotten to be shewed by me in due place is declared by the fourth Councill of Carthage in these words Can. 2. When a Bishop is ordained lay and hold the book of the Evangelists upon his head and neck and one Bishop pronouncing the Benediction over him let the rest of the Bishops present touch his head with their hands The Church never accounted any to be capable of this Episcopall Ordination that was not first ordained a Presbyter the manner of whose Ordination was that the Bishop blessing him saying receive the Holy Ghost whosoever sins you shall remitt Concil earth Can 3. c. and laying his hand upon his head the Presbyters present lay their hands upon his head by the hand of the Bishop There was a (a) Tert. de praescript c. 41. Cyprian Epist ad
remission of sins Thus far Ambrose Whereby we see that the Holy Ghost gives unto Bishops and Presbyters the power of binding by excommunication and of loosing by absolution and that the Holy Ghost doth accompany their service to cure them that will not refuse to be healed Away then with the excommunication that hath not the Holy Spirit to warrant it nor the operation of the Holy Ghost to make it effectual to mans salvation Away with the lay excommunication that makes the Holy Ghost a servant to denounce it Away with Jeroboams Priests made of the lowest of the people which are not of the sons of Levi which have not received the Holy Ghost to make them able ministers of the new Testament not of the letter but of the Spirit It is the duty of the lay Christian magistrate to oversee facilitate and corroborate the due execution of the spiritual censure of excommunication performed by Bishops principally and Presbyters subordinately but if any ask whether he may not excommunicate either by himself or by a substitute although the answer is already given in the premises yet I say he may do so and if he have the gift may preach in publick and minister the holy Sacraments as lawfully as the 250 persons spoken of in the sixteenth chap. of Numbers took censer and offered incense 2 Chron. c. 27. and as lawfully as King Uzziah did the like And as to the curing of the Leprosy of the soul he may expect the like success as Naaman would have had as to the healing of the Leprosy of his body 2 King c. 5. if he had washed himself in any other river then Jordan wherein the Prophet commanded him to wash himself in order to his cleansing The Kings Proclamation prevaileth more with many to leave their scandalous vices and to live soberly then the Sermons of the best Bishops and Presbyters usually do with most men Will any therefore conclude that the Proclamation of the King is an effectual means for the infusion of Gods saving grace as well as the preaching of the Gospel by them that are lawfully called to that sacred work the Christian Magistrates power is versed about the externals of Christian virtues and reacheth onely accidentally and by Gods indulgence sometime to the souls of men and the life of virtues Whereas the ministerial power of the Gospel is primarily ordained to be a means alwayes effectual for the infusion of the soul and life of all saving Christian virtues if the operation of the Holy Ghost which doth constantly work with the ministery of the Gospel in all the offices thereof be not deliberately resisted Men are saved by means instituted and sanctified by the wisdome and power of God and not by means which onely the wisdome of man judgeth to be most probable to effect our eternal salvation We live by faith and not by sense The Independent congregations blame the reverend Bishops for some miscarriages about the heavy censure of excommunication and exclaim both against them and against Presbyters for being more zealous for ceremonies then for the due execution of our function in the maine offices thereof and for the power of godliness As for the abuse of excommunication the blame was to have been imputed unto others and not to the Bishops And to say the very truth in this matter of excommunication the Canons of our Church are defective and require amendment which perhaps some invincible hinderances would not permit to be done in times past As for the misplacing of the intention of our zeal First as being my self a Presbyter although one of the meanest I must answer for my self that although it may be no man will or can condemn me yet truely I cannot justifie my self before the judgment seat of Almighty God but must make my earnest supplication for mercy to my judge I fear least any soul miscarry or miscarried through my default that his blood should be required at my hands And therefore I tremble when I consider what account I am to give of my Stewardship And now having knowledge and experience of the most heavy weight of this sacred vocation and the great propensity of our nature strengthened by manifold temptations unto unfaithfulness therein if I were now to enter into it the conscience of my weakness and fear of miscarriage would cause me to decline it but being long since entred woe unto me if I preach not the Gospel and I will not be discouraged having the power and mercy of God in whom I trust to be my strength and comfort I desire all good men as charitably to censure us so to pray earnestly to God for us that the great afflictions which we have suffered may be sanctified to us that remembring the afflictions and miseries the Wormwood and the Gall our souls may be humbled in us and that the extraordinary deliverance and blessings may entirely ingage our hearts to serve the Lord with all diligence and faithfulness in the holy ministery and to feed the flock of God taking the oversight thereof not by constraint but willingly not for filthy Lucre a pestilence in the Church but of a ready mind neither being Lords over Gods Heritage so unbecoming the messengers of the Lamb of God who washed his Disciples feet but being examples to the flock of sobriety humility meekness Christian bounty to the poor c. it becomes not good men to censure us for using those Rites and Ceremonies which we are perswaded not to be prohibited by Gods Law and both they and we do surely know to be commanded to be used by mans Law duely made which is Gods ordinance to which we must be subject for conscience sake We pity the tender conscience which cannot without offence either obey or disobey that ordinance And where any of a good life is seen to have that tenderness without the malignity of pride and labour to propagate it and divide the Church the piety and discretion of the Bishop will use him gently instruct him pray for him waite patiently for his amendment and unlesse the example of the party is seen to corrupt the sound will hardly be drawn to go beyond a threatning because punishment to a man of that temper seems rather to be an addition of misery to him then wholesome Physick meet to cure him If any will attempt to be Authors of Combinations to extort by shew of multitudes and by tumults the alteration or abrogation of any part of the established laws Civil or Ecclesiastical they will thereby evidently manifest themselves to be but meer pretenders to a tender conscience and power of godliness for they that labour to extort a part if they prevaile must have the whole in their power And can they that attempt so great robbery love God and the power of Godliness By this cursed fruit we know these to be most vile Hypocrites Let no good people be deceived by their sheeps cloathing look upon this bitter fruit and you see