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.
Num. 2 3 4 5 6 Part 2. Cap. 1. Num. 10 c. Cap. 4 Numb 7. Cap. 5. Num. 5 6. Cap. 6. Num. 5 7. besides many other passages here and there interserted to the same effect that I shall save my self the trouble of adding any thing further to those Observations And to them therefore I refer the Reader for his satisfaction At this time I shall say no more but that the Church had never stood so constantly to Episcopal Government were it not for the great and signal benefits which redound unto it by the same Of which there is none greater or of more necessary use to Christianity than the preserving of a perpetual succession of Preists and Deacons ordained in a Canonical way to be Ministers of holy things to the rest of the people that is to say to Preach the Word Administer the Sacraments and finally to perform all other Divine and Religious Offices which are required of them by the Church in their several places Thus have I laid before thee good Christian Reader the Method and Design of this following Work together with the Argument and Occasion of each several Piece contained in it Which as I have done with all Faith and Candor in the sincerity of my Heart and for the Testimony of a good Conscience laying it with all humble reverence at the feet of those who are in Authority so with respective duty and affection I submit the same unto the judgment of which Persuation or Condition soever thou art for whose instruction in the several Points herein declared it was chiesly studied And I shall heartily beseech all those who shall please to read it that if they meet with any thing therein which either is less fitly spoken or not clearly evidenced they would give me notice of it in such a charitable and Christian way as I may be the better for it and they not the worse Which favour if they please to do me they shall be welcome to me as an Angel of God sent to conduct me from the Lands of error into the open ways of truth And doing these Christian Offices unto one another we shall by Gods good leave and blessing not only hold the bond of external peace but also in due time be made partakers of the spirit of Vnity Which Blessing that the Lord would graciously bestow on his afflicted and distracted Church is no small part of our Devotions in the publick Liturgy where we are taught to pray unto Almighty God that he would please continually to inspire his universal Church with the spirit of Truth Vnity and Concord and grant that all they which do confess his holy Name may agree also in the truth of his holy Word and live in Vnity and godly Love Unto which Prayer he hath but little of a Christian which doth not heartily say Amen Lacies Court in Abingdon April 23. 1657. The Way of the REFORMATION OF THE Church of England DECLARED and JUSTIFIED c. THE INTRODUCTION Shewing the Occasion Method and Design of the whole discourse My dear Hierophilus YOUR company is always very pleasing to me but you are never better welcome han when you bring your doubts and scruples along with you for by that means you put me to the studying of some point or other whereby I benefit my self if not profit you And I remember at the time of your last being with me you seemed much scandalized for the Church of England telling me you were well assured that her Doctrine was most true and orthodox her Government conform to the Word of God and the best ages of the Church and that her publick Liturgie was an Extract of the Primitive Forms nothing in all the whole composure but what did tend to edification and Increase of piety But for all this you were unsatisfied as you said in the ways and means by which this Church proceeded in her Reformation alleding that you had heard it many times objected by some Partisans of the Church of Rome that our Religion was meer Parliamentarian not regulated by Synodical Meetings or the Authority of Councels as in elder times or as D. Harding said long since in his Answer unto B. Jewel That we had a Parliament Religion a Parliament Faith and a Parliament Gospel To which Scultinguis and some others after added that we had none but Parliament Bishops and a Parliament Clergy that you were apt enough to think that the Papists made not all this noise without some ground for it in regard you have observed some Parliaments in these latter days so mainly bent to catch at all occasions whereby no manifest their powers in Ecclesiastical matters especially in constituting the new Assembly of Divines and others And finally that you were heartily ashamed that being so often choaked with these Objections you neither knew how to traverse the â—ndictment nor plead Not guilty to the Bill Some other doubts you said you had relating to the King the Pope and the Protestant Churches either too little or too much look'd after in our Reformation but you were loth to trouble me with too much at once And thereupon you did intreat me to bethink my self of some fit Plaister for the sore which did oft afflict you religiously affirming that your desires proceeded not from curiosity or an itch of knowledge or out of any disaffection to the Power of Parliaments but meerly from an honest zeal to the Church of England whose credit and prosperity you did far prefer before your life or whatsoever in this world could be dear unto you Adding withal that if I would take this pains for your satisfaction and help you out of these perplexities which you were involved in I should not only do good service to the Church it self but to many a wavering member of it whom these objections had much staggered in their Resolutions In fine that you desired also to be informed how far the Parliaments had been interessed in these alterations of Religion which hapned in the Reigns of K. Hen. VIII K. Edw. VI. and Q. Elizabeth What ground there was for all this clamour of the Papists And whether the Houses or either of them have exercised of old any such Authority in matters of Ecclesiastical or Spiritual nature as some of late have ascribed unto them Which though it be a dangerous and invidious Subject as the times now are yet for your sake and for the truth's and for the honour of Parliaments which seem to suffer much in the Popish calumny I shall undertake it premising first that I intend not to say any thing to the point of Right whether or not the Parliament may lawfully meddle in such matters as concern Religion but shall apply my self wholly unto matters of Fact as they relate unto the Reformation here by law established And for my method in this business I shall first lay down by way of preamble the form of calling of the Convocation of the Clergy here in England that
charge to go teach all Nations Id. 28.19 And when he found them backward in pursuit thereof he quickned Peter by a Vision and called Paul as it were of purpose Act. 10.11 to bear his name before the Gentiles to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness unto light Act. 9.17 and from the power of Satan unto God So that although the Jews and Gentiles were not collected into one body in our Saviours time Act. 26.18 I mean the time in which he pleased to sojourn here upon the Earth yet being done by his Authority and by the conduct and direction of his blessed Spirit it can be said of none but him quod fecit utraque unum that he made both one bringing them both into one Church Ephes 2.14 and making both partakers of the same communion who were before at such a distance as was conceived to be irreconcilable Unto the constituting of which Church our Saviour brought not any thing of Rite or Ceremony determined nothing that we meet with in his holy Gospels touching the time or place of publick Worship the Form and manner of the same save that he gave a general intimation that Hierusalem should no longer be the place in which men should be bound to Worship Joh. 4.21 The pains he took were principally spent in points of Doctrin clearing the truths of holy Scripture from those false glosses and corrupt traditions which had been put upon it by the Scribes and Pharisees and setting forth a new and clearer body of Divinity than had been taught the people in the Law of Moses that the Father might be worshipped in succeeding times with a greater measure of the spirit and a more perfect knowledge of the truth Joh. 4.23 24. than he had been formerly As for the circumstances and out-parts of Worship he left them in the state he found them that is to say to the disposing of the Church in whose power it was to institute such Rites and Ceremonies as might apparently conduce to the increase of Piety and to the setting forth of Gods praise and glory Himself had given a personal and most exemplary obedience to the Church of Jewry conforming to such Rites and Ordinances wherein there was no deviation from the Law of God as had in former times been setled by the power thereof And therefore had no cause of his collecting a Church conducted in those points which pertain to godliness by such a visible co-operation of the Holy Ghost especially considering what a fair example of Conformity he should leave behind him Besides all people of the world both Jews and Gentiles were setled at that time in a full perswasion of the necessity of set times and determinate places for the assembling of themselves together in the acts of Worship and had their prescribed Forms both of Prayer and Praise their Rituals and established Ceremonies and therewith also an opinion that those things were to be eprformed by the Priest alone Which being agreed on in the general both people might be brought with more facility to fall on some particular conclusions to which they were inclined already by their common principles And so indeed it proved in a short event times places and set Forms for worship being unanimously and universally received amongst them within a very little while after our Lords departure The Jews already had their Synagogues their Proseuchas or Oratories as before was said How small a labour was it to the blessed Apostles and their successors in that work to turn those Synagogues of theirs into Christian Churches for Preaching of the Word of God and the administration of the Sacraments accordingly as they did win upon the Jews to embrace the Gospel Nor is this only a bare speculation it was done de facto it being recorded in a book ascribed unto Athanasius that on the converting of the Jews Inhabitants of Beritus to the faith of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athanas de passione imaginis Dom. nostri To. 2. gr l. p. 631. that the Bishop who had laboured in it converted the Synagogue of the Jews into a Christian Church and dedicated it to our Lord and Saviour And for the Temples of the Gentiles when once their superstitions were suppressed and the Gospel countenanced by Authority they were converted also to the self-same use Vid. Bed hist Eccles 1. as the Jewish Synagogues had been in other places Gods Servants being in the mean time contented with such safe retreats as their necessities inforced them to make use of in those fiery times or with such publick places of Assembly but mean and under the degree of envy as either upon sufferance or by special leave they were permitted to erect As soon if not more suddenly all parties also were agreed on the times of worship which was reduced with general and joynt consent unto the first day of the week the Lords day or the Sunday call it which you will wherein all members of the Congregation were to meet together for Gods publick Service A business wherein the Church proceeded with great care and wisdom setting apart one day in seven to hold the fairer quarter with the Jews who were so zealous of a Sabbath but altering the day it self and paring off those legal Ordinances which had made it burdensome the better to content the Gentiles Yet so that they had also their daily meetings as occasion served for celebration of the Sacrament of the blessed Eucharist in those fiery times Whereof as being instituted for the Christian Sacrifice and of the Evangelical Priesthood to attend the same we shall speak anon In the mean time the next thing here to be considered is the form and order wherein the Church did celebrate Gods publick Service in those purer times those Forms of Prayer and Invocation wherewith they did address themselves to the Lord their God That all Religious offices in the House of God should be performed in form and order 1 Cor. 14. is not only warranted but enjoyned by the Apostles Canon made for those of Corinth and consequently for all Churches else And that for the avoiding of Battologies and all effusions of raw and undigested prayers besides what hath been shewn before to have been generally in use both with Jew and Gentile in being bound and regulated by set Forms of Prayer We have a Form laid down by our Lord and Saviour both for our use and imitation And first that it was made for our imitation is generally agreed on even by those who otherwise approve not set Forms of Prayer Calv. in Harm Evangel Calvin doth so resolve it saying In hunc finem tradita est haec regula ad quam preces nostras exigere necesse est si legitimas censeri Deoque probari cupimus And in the words not long before Non jubet Christus suos conceptis verbis orare sed tantum ostendit quorsum vota omnia precesque referri
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I believe in one unbegotten and only true God Almighty Father of Christ maker of all things and in our Lord Jesus Christ his only begotten Son c. Next after followeth a set Form of prayer used by the Bishop in Consecrating of the Oyl or Chrism and sanctifying of the Water And finally this prayer to be said by them who were newly brought into the Church by Baptism Id. ibid. c. 47. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Almighty God Father of our Lord Jesus Christ give me a body undefiled a pure heart a watchful mind knowledge without error together with the presence of the holy Spirit that I may both attain and hold fast the truth without doubt or wavering through Christ our Lord with whom be glory unto thee in the Holy Ghost world without end Amen The sum of what is said before in these two last Authors Clemens I mean and Dionysius because the Writings attributed to them are by the Learned thought to be none of theirs we shall find presently confirmed in the words of those who lived shortly after and are of an unquestioned credit amongst all Divines both of the Protestant party and the Church of Rome In the mean time we will sit down and repose our selves concluding here so much of the present search as may be found in any of the Writings of the holy Apostles or such as claim the reputation of being Apostolical men the Scholars and Successors of the blessed spirits though now disclaimed for such by our choicer judgements And yet before I leave this Age I will see if any thing occur in St. Ignatius touching a Form of Common-prayer or Invocation used by the Christians of his time who being said to be that Child on whom our Saviour laid his hands saying Except ye receive the Kingdom of Heaven as a little Child c. But howsoever questionless the Apostles Scholar and Successor to S. Peter in the See of Antioch hath informed us thus in his Epistle to the Magnesians of which no scruple hath been raised amongst Learned men omnes ad orandum in idem loci convenite una sit communis precatio una mens una spes in charitate Ignat. Epist ad Magness c. By which it seemeth that as the Magnesians had a Church or meeting place to which they usually resorted as a House of Prayer of which more hereafter so they had also una Communis precatio one certain Form of Common-prayer in which they all concurred as if spirited by one soul and governed by one hope in charity and faith unblamable in the Lord Christ Jesus Which is as much as we could look for in those times and from a man whose writings are not many nor of any greatness his custom being to express himself as briefly as the nature of Epistles could invite him to That in this Age the day of worship was translated from the last day of the week to the first or to the Lords-day from the Sabbath will not here be doubted nor can it be much questioned amongst sober men but that the Chrisitans of these times did Celebrate the Feast of Easter together with that of Whitsontide as we call them now in honour of the Resurrection of their Lord and Saviour and of the coming down of the Holy Ghost according to the Annual Revolution of those great occasions That which hath most been doubted for this Time and Age is whether the Christians had their places of publique worship and whether those places of worship had the name of Churches both which I think may be concluded in the affirmative by convincing arguments And first it is affirmed for an old Tradition in the Church of Christ and proved so to be by Adricomius out of several Authors that the Coenaculum or upper Chamber in which the Apostles met together after Christs Ascension was by them used for a place of publick worship Luk. 22.12 this being said to be that Room in which our Saviour Instituted the blessed Sacrament of his Body and Blood the same in which the Apostles met for the choice of one in the place of Judas Act. 1.13 Act. 2.1 Act. 6.4 6. Act. 15.6 the same in which the Holy Ghost descended on them at the Feast of Pentecost the same in which they were Assembled to elect the seven And finally the same in which they held the first General Council for pacifying the disputes about Circumcision and other ceremonial parts of the Law of Moses This was called then by the name of Coenaculum Sion or the upper Chamber of Sion supposed by some to have been a part of the House of Simon the Leper but howsoever of some Disciple of rank and quality who willingly had devoted it to the use of the Church it being the custom of such men in those early days when they were not suffered to erect more magnificent Fabricks to dedicate some convenient part of their dwelling houses for the Assembling of Gods people and the acts of worship Thus find we in the Recognitions of Clemens that the House of Theophilus in the City of Antioch to whom S. Luke dedicated both his Gospel and Book of Acts was by him converted to a Church for the use of Christians and in the Acts of Pudens whom we find mentioned by S. Paul in the second to Timothy that he gave his House unto the Church for the same use also and such an House or such an upper Chamber rather so given and dedicated is that thought to be in which S. Paul preached at Troas and from a window whereof Eutychus fell down and was took up dead Act. 20.8 But to return again to the Coenaculum Sion before-mentioned certain it is that in relation to those duties of Religion which were there performed it was inclosed afterwards with a beautiful Church commonly called the Church of Sion and by S. Cyril a godly Bishop of Jerusalem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyril Hier. catech 16. the upper Church of the Apostles in which the Holy Ghost is there said by him to have fallen upon them begirt in following times with the Cels or Lodgings of religious persons in the form of a Monastery of which Bede thus In superiori montis Sion planicie Beda Tom 3. de locis sanctis monachorum cellulae Ecclesiam magnam circundant illic ut perhibent ab Apostolis fundatam eo quod ibi spiritum sanctum accepere in qua etiam locus coenae Domini venerabilis ostenditur That is to say in the uppermost plain of Mount Sion the Cels of Monks begirt a fair and spacious Church there founded as it is affirmed by the holy Apostles because in that place they had received the Holy Ghost and where they shew the place in which the Lord did institute his holy Supper Where by the way this Church is said to have been founded by the Apostles not that they built it from the ground but because being
Spirit found that there would be work enough elsewhere to choose one or other of their sacred number to be the Bishop of that Church and take charge thereof And this they did not now by lots but in the ordinary course and manner of election pitching on James the Son of Alpheus Gal. 1.19 who in regard of consanguinity is sometimes called in Scripture the Lords Brother and in regard of his exceeding piety and uprightness was surnamed the Just Which action I have placed here even in the cradle of the Church upon good Authority For first Eusebius tells us out of Clemens that this was done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eccles Hist l. 2. c. 1. after the Ascension of our Saviour Hierome more plainly statim post passionem Domini immediately upon his passion In Scrip. Eccles We may with good security conclude from both that it was done not long after Christs Ascension as soon almost as the Believers were increased to a considerable number And lastly Ignat. in ep ad Trall that Ignatius hath made S. Stephen to be the Deacon or subservient Minister to this James the Bishop of Hierusalem and then we must needs place it in some middle time between the Feast of Pentecost and the 26. of December when Saint Stephen was Martyred So early did the Lord take care to provide Bishops for his Church and set apart a special Pastor for his holy City 'T is true there is no manifest record hereof in holy Scripture but then withal it is as true that in the Scripture there are many pregnant circumstances whereon the truth hereof may well be grounded Gal. 1.18 19. Saint Paul some three years after his Conversion went up unto Hierusalem to see Peter but found no other of the Apostles there save only James the Lords Brother Ask Hierome who this James was whom S. Paul then saw and he will tell you that it was James the Bishop of Hierusalem Hier. in Gal. 1. Hic autem Jacobus Episcopus Hierosolymorum primus fuit cognomento Justus And then withal we have the reason why Paul should find him at Hierusalem more than the rest of the Apostles viz. because the rest of the Apostles were dispersed abroad according to the exigence of their occasions and James was there residing on his Pastoral or Episcopal charge Fourteen years after his Conversion Gal. 21.1 being the eleventh year after the former interview he went up into Hierusalem again with Barnabas and Titus and was together present with them at the first general Council held by the Apostles In which upon the agitation of the business there proposed the Canon and determination is drawn up positively and expresly in the words of James Act. 15.20 Do you desire the reason of it Peter and others being there Chrysostom on those words of Scripture Act. 15.13 Hom. 33. in Act. c. 15. v. 23. James answered saying doth express it thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this James was Bishop of Hierusalem And this no question was the reason why Paul reciting the names of those with whom especially he had conference at his being there puts James in the first place before Peter and John viz. Galat. 2.9 because that he was Bishop there as Estius hath noted on that Text. The Council being ended Paul returneth to Antioch and there by reason of some men that came from James Peter withdrew Vers 12 and separated himself eating no longer with the Gentiles Why takes the Apostle such especial notice that they came from James but because they were sent from him as from their Bishop about some business of the Church this James being then Bishop of Hierusalem Theoph. Oecum in Gal. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as both Theophylact and Oecumenius note upon the place Finally nine years after this being the 58. of Christs Nativity Paul makes his last journey to Hierusalem still he finds James there Act. 21.18 And the day following Paul went in with us unto James c. as the Text informs us Chrysost hom 46. in Act. Chrysostom notes upon the place that James there spoken of was the Lords Brother 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Bishop of Hierusalem So that for 20 years together we have apparent evidence in Scripture of James residing at Hierusalem and that as Bishop there as the Fathers say For that Saint James was Bishop of Hierusalem there is almost no ancient Writer but bears witness of it Ignatius who was made Bishop of Antiochia Ignat. ep ad Trallian within eight years after the Death and Martyrdom of this James in their account who place it latest makes Stephen to be the Deacon of this James as Clemens and Anacletus were to Peter which is an implication that James was Bishop of Hierusalem out of which City we do not find that Stephen ever travelled Egesippus who lived near the Apostles times Hieron in loc Euseb l. 4. c. 21. Apud Euseb hist l. 2. c. 1. Ibid. l. 7. c. 14. makes this James Bishop of Hierusalem as both Saint Hierom and Eusebius have told us from him Clemens of Alexandria not long after him doth confirm the same And out of him and other monuments of antiquity Eusebius doth assure us of him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he was the first that held the Episcopal throne or chair in the Church of Hierusalem Saint Cyril Catech. 4. cap. de cibis Catech. 14. Bishop of Hierusalem speaks of him as of his Predecessor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the first Bishop of that Diocess And Epiphanius for his greater credit makes him not only the first Bishop that ever was Haeres 29. n. 3. but Bishop of the Lords own Throne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epiph. adv haeres 78. n. 7. and that too by the Lords appointment S. Ambrose doth assign this reason why Paul going unto Hierusalem to see Peter Ambros in Gal. 1. De Scriptor Eccles should find James there quia illic constitutus erat Episcopus ab Apostolis because that by the rest of the Apostles he was made Bishop of that place Saint Hierom doth not only affirm as much as for his being Bishop of Hierusalem but also doth lay down the time of his Creation to be not long after our Redeemers passion as we saw before Saint Chrysostom Hom. ult in Ioh. besides what was alledged from him in the former Section tells in his Homilies on S. Johns Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Saint James had the Bishoprick of Hierusalem Where by the way I cannot but take notice of a lewd forgery or at the best a gross mistake of Baronius who to advance the Soveraignty of the Church of Rome An. 34. n. 291. will have this James to take the Bishoprick of Hierusalem from Saint Peters hands and cites this place of Chrysostom for proof thereof But surely Chrysostom saith no such matter for
besides the Church of Rome before remembred We find Epaphroditus not he that is commemorated by S. Paul In Annal. Eccles A. 60. Rom. Martyr Mart. 22. April 3. Jun. 4. Julii 12. Julii 12. Julii 23. Chrys serm 128. in his Epistle to the Philippians as Baronius witnesseth against himself à beato Petro Apostolo Episcopus illius Civitatis ordinatus made Bishop by S. Peter of Tarracina of old called Anxur Pancratius made by S. Peter Bishop of Tauromenium in the Isle of Sicily as the Greeks also do affirm in their Menologia Marcianus Bishop of Syracusa to whom the said Menologies do bear record also Hermagoras a Disciple of S. Mark the first Bishop of Aquileia now in the Signeurie of Venice Panlinus the first Bishop of Luques in Tuscanie Apollinaris created by S. Peter the first Bishop of Ravenna in praise of whom Chrysologus one of his Successors and an holy Father hath composed a Panegyrick Marcus ordained Bishop of Atina at S. Peters first coming into Italy Rom. Martyr Apr. 28. Novemb. 7. Sept. 1. Octob. 25. Jan. 27. Acts. Martyrol Rom. Decem. 29. And last of all Prosdocimus the first Bishop of Padua à Beato Petro ordinatus made Bishop thereof by S. Peter Next to pass over into France we find there Xystus the first Bishop of Rhemes and Fronto Bishop of Perigort Petragorricis ordained both by this Apostle As also Julianus the first Bishop of Mayne Cononiensium in the Latine of his Ordination And besides these we read that Trophimus once one of S. Pauls Disciples was by S. Peter made the first Bishop of Arles And this besides the Martyrologies and other Authors cited by Baronius in his Annotations appeareth by that memorable controversie in the time of Pope Leo before the Bishop of Vienna the chief City of Daulphine and him of Arles for the place and dignity of Metropolitan In prosecution of the which it is affirmed by the Suffragans Epist contr Provinc ad S. Leonem in fine lib. or Com-provincial Bishops of the Province of Arles Quod prima inter Gallias Arelatensis Civitas missum à Beatissimo Petro Apostolo Sauctum Trophimum habere meruit Sacerdotem that first of all the Cities of Gaul that of Arles did obtain the happiness to have Saint Trophimus for their Bishop for so Sacerdos must be read in that whole Epistle sent to them from the most blessed Apostle S. Peter to preach the Gospel For Spain we find this testimony once for all that Ctesiphon Torquatus Secundus Caecilius Judaletius Hesychius Rom. Martyr Maij 15. and Euphrasius Romae à Sanctis Apostolis Episcopi ordinati ad praedicandum verbum Dei in Hispanias directi Having been ordained Bishops at Rome by the Apostles viz. S. Peter and S. Paul were sent unto Spain to preach the Gospel and in most likelihood were Bishops of those Cities in which they suffered the names whereof occur in the Martyrologie If we pass further into Germany we may there see Eucherius one of S. Peters Disciples also by him employed to preach the Gospel to that Nation which having done with good effect in the City of Triers Primus ejusdem Civitatis Episcopus Decemb. 8. he was made the first Bishop of that City And unto this Methodius also doth attest Ap. Mar. Scotum in An. 72.74 as he is cited by Marianus Scotus who tells us that after he had held the Bishoprick 23 years Valerio Trevericae Ecclesiae culmen dereliquit he left the government of that Church unto Valerius who together with Maternus both being Disciples of Saint Peper did attend him thither and that Maternus after fifteen years did succeed Valerius continuing Bishop there 40 years together I should much wrong our part of Britain should I leave out that as if neglected by the Apostle concerning which we are informed by Metaphrastes whose credit hath been elsewhere vindicated that this Apostle coming into Britain Commem Petri Pauli ad diem 29 Junii and tarrying there a certain time and enlightning many with the word of grace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did constitute Churches and ordain Bishops Presbyters and Deacons in the same Which action as he placeth in the twelfth year of Nero being the 67. of our Redeemer so he professeth that he had his information out of some writings of Eusebius which have not come unto our hands but with a great deal more of that Authors works have perished in the ruins and wrack of time Nor is it strange that the Apostle should make so many of his Disciples Bishops before or shortly after they were sent abroad to gain the nations to the Faith Beda hist Eccl. l. 1. c. 27. that being the usual course in the like imployments as may appear by Austins being consecrated Bishop immediately after his first coming into England The reason was as I conceive it that if God prospered their endeavours with desired success they might be furnished with a power of ordaining Presbyters for their assistance in that service And so much for the Churches planted by Saint Peter and by his Disciples CHAP. IV. The Bishoping of Timothy and Titus and others of Saint Pauls Disciples 1. The Conversion of Paul and his ordaining to the place of an Apostle 2. The Presbyters created by Saint Paul Act. 14. of what sort they were 3. Whether the Presbyters or Presbytery did lay on hands with Paul in any of his Ordinations 4. The people had no voice in the Election of their Presbyters in these early times 5. Bishops not founded by S. Paul at first in the particular Churches by him planted and upon what reasons 6. The short time of the Churches of S. Pauls plantation continued without Bishops over them 7. Timothy made Bishop of Ephesus by S. Paul according to the general consent of Fathers 8. The time when Timothy was first made Bishop according to the Holy Scripture 9. Titus made Bishop of the Cretans and the truth verified herein by the ancient Writers 10. An Answer unto such Objections as have been made against the Subscription of the Epistle unto Titus 11. The Bishopping of Dionysius the Areopagite Aristarchus Gaius Epaphroditus Epaphras and Archippus 12. As also of Silus Sosthenes Sosipater Crescens and Aristobulus 13. The Office of a Bishop not incompatible with that of an Evangelist WE are now come unto S. Paul and to the Churches by him planted where we shall meet with clearer evidence from Scripture than before we had A man that did at first most eagerly afflict the poor Church of Christ as if it were the destiny not of David only but also of the Son of David to be persecuted by the hands of Saul Rhemist Testam Act. 15. But as the Rhemists well observe that the contention between Paul and Barnabas fell out unto the great increase of Christianity So did this persecution raised by Saul fall out unto the great improvement of the Gospel For by this means the Disciples being
the City Provinces As for the Church of Antiochia it spread its bounds and jurisdiction over those goodly Countries of the Roman Empire from the Mediterranean on the West unto the furthest border of that large dominion where it confined upon the Persian or the Parthian Kingdom together with Cilicia and Isauria in the lesser Asia But whether at this time it was so extended I am not able to determine Certain I am that in the very first beginning of this Age all Syria at the least was under the jurisdiction of this Bishop Ignatius in his said Epistle to those of Rome Ignat. ad Rom. stiling himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not a Bishop in Syria but the Bishop of Syria which sheweth that there being many Bishops in that large Province he had a power and superiority over all the rest Indeed the Bishops of Hierusalem were hedged within a narrower compass being both now and long time after subject unto the Metropolitan of Caesarea as appears plainly by the Nicene Canon though after they enlarged their border and gained the title of a Patriarch as we may see hereafter in convenient time Only I add that howsoever other of the greater Metropolitan Churches such as were absolute and independent as Carthage Cyprus Millain the Church of Britain Concil Ni. c. 7◠and the rest had and enjoyed all manner of Patriarchal rights which these three enjoyed yet only the three Bishops of Rome Antioch and Alexandria had in the Primitive times the names of Patriarches by reason of the greatness of the Cities themselves being the principal both for power and riches in the Roman Empire the one for Europe the other for Asia and the third for Africk This ground thus laid we will behold what use is made of this Episcopal succession by the ancient writers And first Saint Irenaeus a Bishop and a Martyr both derives an argument from hence to convince those Hereticks which broached strange Doctrines in the Church Iren. contr haer lib. 3. cap. 3. Habemus annumerari eos qui ab Apostolis instituti sunt Episcopi in Ecclesiis c. we are able to produce those men which were ordained Bishops by the Apostles in their several Churches and their successors till our times qui nihil tale docuerunt neque cognoverunt quale ab hiis deliratur who neither knew nor taught any such absurdities as these men dream of Which said in general he instanceth in the particular Churches of Rome Ephesus and Smyrna being all founded by the Apostles and all of them hac ordinatione successione by this Episcopal ordination and succession deriving from the Apostles the Preaching and tradition of Gods holy truth till those very times The like we find also in another place where speaking of those Presbyteri so he calleth the Bishops which claimed a succession from the Apostles He tells us this quod cum Episcopatus successione charisma veritatis certum secundum placitum Patris acceperunt that together with the Episcopal succession Ir. adv haeres l. 4. cap. 43. they had received a certain pledge of truth according to the good pleasure of the Father See to this purpose also cap. 63. where the same point is pressed most fully and indeed much unto the honour of this Episcopal succession Where because Irenaeus called Bishops in the former place by the name of Presbyters I would have no man gather Smectym p. 23. as some men have done that he doth use the name of Bishops and Presbyters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a promiscuous sense much less conclude that therefore Presbyters and Bishops were then the same For although Irenaeus doth here call the Bishops either by reason of their age or of that common Ordination which they once received by the name of Presbyters yet he doth no where call the Presbyters by the name of Bishops as he must needs have done if he did use the names 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a promiscuous sense as it is supposed And besides Irenaeus being at this time Bishop if not Archbishop of the Church of Lyons could not but know that he was otherwise advanced both in power and title as well in Dignity as Jurisdiction than when he was a Presbyter of that very Church under Pothinus his Predecessor in that See and therefore not the same man meerly which he was before But to let pass as well the observation as the inference certain I am that by this argument the holy Father did conceive himself to be armed sufficiently against the Hereticks of his time and so much he expresseth plainly saying that by this weapon he was able to confound all those qui quoquo modo vel per sui placentiam malam vel vanam gloriam vel per coecitatem malam sententiam praeter quam oportet Ire adv haeres l. 3. c. 3. colligunt Who any way either out of an evil self complacency or vain-glorious humour or blindness of the mind or a depraved understanding did raise such Doctrins as they ought not So much for blessed Irenaeus a man of peace as well in disposition and affection as he was in name Next let us look upon Tertullian who lived in the same time with Irenaeus beginning first to be of credit about the latter end of this second Century Baron ann eccl anno 196. Pamel in vita Tertull. as Baronius calculates it and being at the height of reputation an 210. as Pamelius noteth about which time Saint Irenaeus suffered Martyrdom And if we look upon him well we find him pressing the same point with greater efficacy than Irenaeus did before him For undertaking to convince the Hereticks of his time as well of falshood as of novelties and to make known the new upstartedness of their Assemblies which they called the Church he doth thus proceed Tertull. de praes adv haeres c. 32. Edant ergo origines ecclesiarum suarum evolvant ordinem Episcoporum suorum c. Let them saith he declare the original of their Churches let them unfold the course or order of their Bishops succeeding so to one another from the first beginning that their first Bishop whosoever he was had some of the Apostles or of the Apostolical men at least who did converse with the Apostles to be their founder and Predecessor For thus the Apostolical Churches do derive their Pedegree Thus doth the Church of Smyrna shew their Polycarpus placed there amongst them by Saint John and Rome her Clement Consecrated or Ordained by Peter even as all other Churches also do exhibit to us the names of those who being Ordained Bishops by the Apostles did sow the Apostolical seed in the field of God This was the challenge that he made And this he had not done assuredly had he not thought that the Episcopal succession in the Church of Christ had been an evident demonstration of the truth thereof which since the Hereticks could not shew in their Congregations or Assemblies it
the Doctor like the Palm-Tree Crescit sub pondere virtus the more he was press'd with those heavy loads did flourish and grow up in his Estate that through the blessing of God being neither the subject of any mans envy nor the object of their pitty he lived in good Credit and kept a noble House for I my self being often there can say I have seldom seen him sit down at his Table without Company for being nigh the University some out of a desire to be acquainted with him and others to visit their old Friend whom they knew rarely could be seen but at Meals made choice of that time to converse with him And likewise his good Neighbours at Abingdon whom he always made welcome and was ready to assist them in their Parish-business or upon any other occasion particularly in upholding upholding the Church of S. Nicholas which otherwise would have been pulled down on pretence of uniting it to S. Ellens but in truth to disable the sober Party of the Town who were Loyal People from enjoying their wonted Service and Worship of God in their own Parish Church of which they had a Reverend and Orthodox Man one Mr. Huish their Minister and in his absence the Doctor took care to get them supplied with able men from Oxford Great endeavors were on both sides the one Party to preserve the Church and the other to pull it down because it was thronged with Malignants who seduced others from their godly way as Religion always hath been the pretence of factious minds to draw on others to their Party Ubbr Emm. Hist Fris as one saith well Sua quisque arma sancta praedicat suam causam religiosam Deus pietas cultus divinus praetexuntur Every one proclaimeth their own quarrels to be be a Holy War the Cause Religion God Godliness and Divine worship must be pretended Several Journeys the Doctor took to London sparing neither his pains nor purse in so pious a Cause for the managing of which he employed divers Solicitors somtimes before Committees at other times before Olivers Council where it was carried dubiously and rather inclining to the other side at which the Presbyterian-Party made the Bells to be rung and Bonfires in the Town to express their joy triumphing in the ruin of a poor Church but the day was not so clearly their own as they imagined for the Church yet stood against all its Enemies God protecting his own House and his Servants that were zealous for it in a time when they could look for little favor from the Powers that then ruled who had not so much respect for Gods House as the Heathens had for their Idol Temples and for those that Vindicated them Justin lib. 8. as Justin saith on this occasion Diis proximus habetur per quem deorum majestas vindicata sit for which he praiseth Philip of Macedon calling him Vindicem Sacrilegii ultorem religionum c. During those troubles Mr. Huish Minister of the Church durst not go on in his Ministerial duties which the Doctor no sooner heard of but to animate and encourage him he writ a pious Letter a Copy of which I then transcribed which is as followeth and worth the inserting here SIR WE are much beholden to you for your chearful condescending unto our desires so far as to the Lords-days Service which though it be opus diei in die suo yet we cannot think our selves to be fully Masters of our Requests till you have yielded to bestow your pains on the other days also We hope in reasonable time to alter the condition of Mr. Blackwels pious gift that without hazarding the loss of his Donation which would be an irrecoverable blow to this poor Parish you may sue out your quietus est from that daily attendance unless you find some further motives and inducements to persuade you to it yet so to alter it that there shall be no greater wrong done to his intentions than to most part of the Founders in each Vniversity by changing Prayers for the souls first by them intended into a Commemoration of their bounties as was practised All dispositions of this kind must vary with those changes which befal the Church or else be alienated and estranged to other purposes I know it must needs be some discouagement to you to read to Walls or to pray in publick with so thin a Company as hardly will amount to a Congregation But withal I desire you to consider that magis minus all Logicians say do not change the species of things that quantities of themselves are of little efficacy if at all of any and that he who promised to be in the midst of two or three when they meet together in his Name hath clearly shewed that even the smallest Congregations shall not want his presence and why then should we think much to bestow our pains where he vouchsafeth his presence or think our labour ill bestowed if some few only do partake of the present benefit And yet no doubt the benefit extends to more than the parties present for you know well that the Priest or Minister is not only to pray with but for the people that he is not only to offer up the peoples Prayers to Almighty God but to offer up his own Prayers for them the benefit whereof may charitably be presumed to extend to as well as it was intended for the absent also And if a whole Nation may be represented in a Parliament of four hundred persons and they derive the blessings of Peace and Comfort upon all the Land why may we not conceive that God will look on three or four of this little Parish as the Representative of the whole and for their sakes extend his Grace and Blessings unto all the rest that he who would have saved that sinful City of Sodom had he found but ten righteous persons in it may not vouchsafe to bless a less sinful people upon the prayers of a like or less number of pious and religious persons When the High-Priest went into the Sanctum Sanctorum to make atonement for the sins of the people went he not thither by himself none of the people being suffered to enter into that place Do not we read that when Zacharias offered up Incense which figured the Prayers of the Saints within the Temple the people waited all that while in the outward Courts or find we any where that the Priest who offered up the daily sacrifice and this comes nearest to our case did ever intermit that Office by reason of the slackness and indevotion of the people in repairing to it But you will say there is a Lion in the way there is danger in it Assuredly I hope none at all or if any none that you would care for The Sword of the Committee had as sharp an edge and was managed with as strong a malice as any ordinance of later Date can empower men with Having so fortunately escaped the danger of
credit and yet so many Ordinances for setling the Presbyterian Government in order whereunto the Hierarchy of Bishops was to be abolished should be as short lived as Jonas's Goard Plautus in Pseudolo or the solstitial Herb in Plautus Quae repentino orta est repentino occidit blasted as soon as sprung up without acting any thing and finally why so many of the Clergy should still stand sequestred by Order from the Committees of both Houses of Parliament and yet the Orders of those Houses as to the recovering of their fifths should be void and null So that thy Judgment and Affection being so well bottomed thy Conscience cannot but bear thee witness that thou hast not suffered as a Malefactor a Violator of the Laws a contemner of Order or a Despiser of Dominion which will be a contentment to thee in thy greatest sorrows Lactant. lib. 1. cap. 1. above all expression Delectabit tamen se Conscientia quod est Animae pabulum incredibile jucunditate perfusum as Lactantius hath it If thou art otherwise persuaded and of a different judgment from me in the main Disputes yet I desire thee notwithstanding to peruse these papers and to peruse them with that Candor and Christian Charity which we ought to have about us in the agitation of all weighty Controversies I despair not but that thou maist here meet with something which may inform thy Understanding and rectifie the obliquity of those misconceptions which thou hast harboured heretofore against this Church the way and manner of proceeding in her Reformation her Government and Establish'd Orders in Gods publick service her Right and Title to that setled Maintenance which is reserved to those who officiate in her Te quoque in his Aliquid quod juvet esse potest in the Poets Language Ovid in Phaedra ad Hippolyt Howsoever I hope thou art not of those men who hate to be reformed or stop their ears like the deaf Adder in the Psalms that so they may not hear the voice of the Charmer but hast a malleable soul and capable of all impressions tending unto peace and truth And then I shall be confident of this favour from thee that if thou canst not find good reason to change thy judgment and alter thy opinion in the points disputed yet thou wilt hereafter think more charitably of those poor Men who cannot sail with every wind of new Opinion nor easily wean themselves from those persuasions which they have suckt in as it were with their Mothers milk If thou art strong and canst digest all meats which are set before thee condemn not those of weaker stomachs who have been used unto a Regular and strict kind of Diet. But if thou art not only of a different Opinion from me but differing in Condition also advanced perhaps unto some eminent degree of Trust and Power in the present Government I must address my self unto thee in another way I must then say to thee as did Tertullian once to the Roman Senators that since there is no means in the way of a personal Defence to vindicate the Church and clear her Children from all those Calumnies and imputations which are charged upon them Liceat veritati vel occulta via tacitarum literarum ad aures vestras pervenire Tertul. in Apologet cap. 2. I hope it may be lawful for the Truth to appear before you by the humble and modest way of a Declaration For what hath been the cause of our great Disturbances but the want of a right Understanding of those Grounds and Principles upon which the Church of England was first reformed or of those greater Animosities those Odia plus quam Vatiniana exprest towards such as are most cordially affected to her Rules and Tendries The Men themselves known generally to be both of Parts and Piety many of them possest of liberal Fortunes and all responsal to the Publick in all those capacities in which they may do service to it And can it rationally be conceived that either wilfulness or perversness or a vainglorious affectation of adhering to their old Mumpsimus as King Harry used to say in another case could make them run the hazzard of all which is dear unto them were there not some inward principle of Conscience and light of Understanding to incline them to it Or that they can suppose themselves to equally dealt with in being debard from serving God in that way of Worship and under those Forms of Administration which they find countenanced and commended to them by as good Authority as the Established Laws of the Land could give them and in the mean time that all sorts of Sects and Heresies destructive of all civil Magistracy and Humane Society should find not only a Connivence but Support and Countenance And if this cannot be conceived how canst thou answer it to thy self or to God and Man that they who live so peaceably and inoffensively in their several stations as not to be reproach'd with any disaffection to the present Government in word or deed should notwithstanding be mark'd out to continual Ruin because supposed to be of different Principles and Persuasions from some of those who have such powerful influences on the publick Counsels For thy sake therefore not for theirs only have I took this pains and drawn these several Tracts together that being perfectly instructed in the grounds of their affections and the right constitution of the Church their common Mother thou maist not only carry a more gentle hand towards those who have adher'd unto it but be more tenderly affected to the Church it self which hitherto hath met with so much contradiction from unquiet men And to say truth were there no other Arguments to prove the Church of England to be a true Catholick and Apostolick Church this were sufficient to evince it that it hath been always under persecution which the whole tenor of the Scriptures and the ancient Monuments of Christianity have given us as a mark or character of the Church of God No sooner had the Israelites freed themselves from the bondage of Egypt but they were presently pursued and forced through the Red Sea by the Host of Pharaoh nor had they sooner escaped that danger by Gods Almighty power but the Amalekites set upon them the Moabites set themselves against them and Balaam the son of Beor is hired to curse them hated by all the Nations amongst whom they lived derided for their Sabbath and Circumcision Recutitaque Sabbata palles as the Satyrist hath it and for their other Rites and Ceremonies in which they differed from the rest of their neighbouring Nations Their Laws are diverse from all people Hest 3.8 Tacit Hist lib. 5. saith Haman in the Book of Hester Novi illis Ritus coeterisque mortalibus contrarii as it is in Tacitus therefore to be exterminated as Enemies unto Civil Government and to all mankind Thus did it also fare with the Primitive Christians as soon as they had separated
their Authority and power in Spiritual matters from no other hands than those of Christ and his Apostles their Temporal honours and possessions from the bounty and affection only of our Kings and Princes their Ecclesiastical jurisdiction in causes Matrimonial Testamentary and the like for which no action lieth at the common Law from continual usage and prescription and ratified and continued unto them in the Magna Charta of this Realm and owe no more unto the Parliament than all sort of Subjects do besides whose Fortunes and Estates have been occasionally and collaterally confirmed in Parliament And as for the particular Statutes which are touched upon that of the 24 H. 8. doth only constitute and ordain a way by which they might be chose and consecrated without recourse to Tome for a confirmation which formerly had put the Prelates to great charge and trouble but for the form and manner of their Consecration the Statute leaves it to those Rites and Ceremonies wherewith before it was performed and therefore Sanders doth not stick to affirm that all the Bishops which were made in King Henries days were Lawfully and Canonically ordained and consecrated the Bishops of that time not only being acknowledged in Queen Maries days for lawful and Canonical Bishops but called on to assist at the Consecration of such other Bishops Cardinal Pool himself for one as were promoted in her Reign whereof see Masons Book de Minist Ang. l. c. Next for the Statute 1 E. 6. cap. 2. besides that it is satisfied in part by the former Answer as it relates to their Canonical Consecrations it was repealed in Terminis in the first of Queen Maries Reign and never stood in force nor practice to this day That of the Authorizing of the Book of Ordination in two several Parliaments of that King the one à parte ante and the other à parte post as before I told you might indeed seem somewhat to the purpose if any thing were wanting in it which had been used in the formula's of the Primitive times or if the Book had been composed in Parliament or by Parliament-men or otherwise received more Authority from them then that it might be lawfully used and exercised throughout the Kingdom But it is plain that none of these things were objected in Queen Maries days when the Papists stood most upon their points the Ordinal being not called in because it had too much of the Parliament but because it had too little of the Pope and relished too strongly of the Primitive piety And for the Statute of 8 of Q. Elizabeth which is chiefly stood on all that was done therein was no more than this and on this occasion A question had been made by captious and unquiet men and amongst the rest by Dr. Bonner sometimes Bishop of London whether the Bishops of those times were lawfully ordained or not the reason of the doubt being this which I marvel Mason did not see because the book of Ordination which was annulled and abrogated in the first of Queen Mary had not been yet restored and revived by any legal Act of Queen Elizabeths time which Cause being brought before the Parliament in the 8th year of her Reign the Parliament took notice first that their not restoring of that Book to the former power in terms significant and express was but Casus omissus and then declare that by the Statute 5 and 6 E. 6. it had been added to the Book of Common-prayer and Administration of the Sacraments as a member of it at least as an Appendant to it and therefore by the Statute 1 Eliz. c. 2. was restored again together with the said Book of Common-prayer intentionally at the least if not in Terminis But being the words in the said Statute were not clear enough to remove all doubts they therefore did revive now and did accordingly Enact That whatsoever had been done by virtue of that Ordination should be good in Law This is the total of the Statute and this shews rather in my judgment that the Bishops of the Queens first times had too little of the Parliament in them than that they were conceived to have had too much And so I come to your last Objection which concerns the Parliament whose entertaining all occasions to manisest their power in Ecclesiastical matters doth seem to you to make that groundless slander of the Papists the more fair and plausible 'T is true indeed that many Members of both Houses in these latter Times have been very ready to embrace all businesses which are offered to them out of a probable hope of drawing the managery of all Affairs as well Ecclesiastical as Civil into their own hands And some there are who being they cannot hope to have their sancies Authorized in a regular way do put them upon such designs as neither can consist with the nature of Parliaments nor the Authority of the King nor with the privileges of the Clergy nor to say truth with the esteem and reputation of the Church of Christ And this hath been a practice even as old as Wickliffe who in the time of K. R. 2. addressed his Petition to the Parliament as we read in Walsingham for the Reformation of the Clergy the rooting out of many false and erroneous Tenets and for establishing of his own Doctrines who though he had some Wheat had more Tears by odds in the Church of England And lest he might be thought to have gone a way as dangerous and unjustifiable as it was strange and new he laid it down for a position That the Parliament or Temporal Lords where by the way this ascribes no Authority or power at all to the House of Commons might lawfully examine and reform the Disorders and Corruptions of the Church and a discovery of the errors and corruptions of it devest her of all Tithes and Temporal endowments till she were reformed But for all this and more than this for all he was so strongly backed by the Duke of Lancaster neither his Petition nor his Position found any welcome in the Parliament further than that it made them cast many a longing eye on the Churches patrimony or produced any other effect towards the work of Reformation which he chiefly aimed at than that it hath since served for a precedent to Penry Pryn and such like troublesome and unquiet spirits to disturb the Church and set on foot those dreams and dotages which otherwise they durst not publish And to say truth as long as the Clergy were in power and had Authority in Convocation to do what they would in matters which concerned Religion those of the Parliament conceived it neither safe nor fitting to intermeddle in such business as concerned the Clergy for fear of being questioned for it at the Churches Bar. But when that Power was lessened though it were not lost by the submission of the Clergy to K. H. 8. and by the Act of the Supremacy which ensued upon it then did the Parliaments
and adjuncts of it which had been utterly abolished in Zuinglian Churches and much impaired in power and jurisdiction by the Lutherans also and keeping up a Liturgy or set form of worship according to the rites and usages of the primitive times which those of the Calvinian Congregations would not hearken to God certainly had so disposed it in his Heavenly wisdom that so this Church without respect unto the names and Dictates of particular Doctors might found its Reformation on the Prophets and Apostles only according to the Explications and Traditions of the ancient Fathers And being so founded in it self without respect to any of the differing parties might in succeeding Ages sit as Judge between them as being more inclinable by her constitution to mediate a peace amongst them than to espouse the quarrel of either side And though Spalato in the Book of his Retractations which he calls Consilium redeundi objects against us That besides the publick Articles and confession authorised by the Churches we had embraced some Lutheran and Calvinian Fancies multa Lutheri Calvini dogmata so his own words run yet this was but the error of particular men not to be charged upon the Church as maintaining either The Church is constant to her safe and her first conclusions though many private men take liberty to imbrace new Doctrines 4. That the Church did not innovate in translating the Scriptures and the publick Liturgie into vulgar tongues and of the consequents thereof in the Church of England The next thing faulted as you say in the Reformation is the committing so much heavenly treasure to such rotten vessels the trusting so much excellent Wine to such musty bottles I mean the versions of the Scriptures and the publick Liturgies into the usual Languages of the common people and the promiscuous liberty indulged them in it And this they charge not as an Innovation simply but as an Innovation of a dangerous consequence the sad effects whereof we now see so clearly A charge which doth alike concern all the Protestant and Reformed Churches so that I should have passed it over at the present time but that it is made ours more specially in the application the sad effects which the enemy doth so much insult in being said to be more visible in the Church of England than in other places This make it ours and therefore here to be considered as the former were First then they charge it on the Church as an Innovation it being affirmed by Bellarmine l. 2. De verbo Dei c. 15. whether with less truth or modesty it is hard to say Vniversam Ecclesiam semper his tantum linguis c. that in the Universal Church in all times foregoing the Scriptures were not commonly and publickly read in any other language but in the Hebrew Greek and Latine This is you see a two-edged sword and strikes not only against all Translations of the Scriptures into vulgar Languages for common use but against reading those Translations publickly as a part of Liturgy in which are many things as the Cardinal tells us quae secreta esse debent which are not fit to be made known to the common people This is the substance of the charge and herein we joyn issue in the usual Form with Absque hoc sans ceo no such matter really the constant current of Antiquity doth affirm the contrary by which it will appear most plainly that the Church did neither Innovate in the act of hers nor deviate therein from the Word of God or from the usage of the best and happiest times of the Church of Christ Not from the Word of God there 's no doubt of that which was committed unto writing that it might be read and read by all that were to be directed and guided by it The Scriptures of the Old Testament first writ in Hebrew the Vulgar Language of that people and read unto them publickly on the Sabbath days as appears clearly Act. 13.15 15.21 translated afterwards by the cost and care of Ptolemy Philadelphus King of Egypt into the Greek tongue the most known and sTudied Language of the Eastern World The New Testament first writ in Greek for the self-same reason but that S. Matthew's Gospel is affirmed by some Learned men to have been written in the Hebrew and written to this end and purpose that men might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing they might have life in his Name Joh. 20. vers ult But being that all the Faithful did not understand these Languages and that the light of holy Scripture might not be likened to a Candle hidden under a Bushel It was thought good by many godly men in the Primitive times to translate the same into the Languages of the Countreys in which they lived or of the which they had been Natives In which respect S. Chrysostom then banished into Armenia translated the New Testament and the Psalms of David into the Language of that people S. Hierom a Pannonian born translated the whole Bible into the Dalmatick tongue as Vulphilas Bishop of the Gothes did into the Gothick all which we find together without further search in the Bibliotheque of Sixtus Senensis a learned and ingenuous man but a Pontifician and so less partial in this cause The like done here in England by the care of Athelstan causing a Translation of it into the Saxon Tongue the like done by Methodius the Apostle General of the Sclaves translating it into the Sclavonian for the use of those Nations not to say any thing of the Syriack Aethiopick Arabick the Persian and Chaldaean Versions of which the times and Authors are not so well known And what I pray you is the vulgar or old Latine Edition of late times made Authentick by the Popes of Rome but a Translation of the Scriptures out of Greek and Hebrew for the instruction of the Roman and Italian Nations to whom the Latine at that time was the Vulgar Tongue And when that Tongue by reason of the breaking in of the barbarous Nations was worn out of knowledge I mean as to the common people did not God stir up James Arch-Bishop of Genoa when the times were darkest that is to say Anno 1290. or thereabouts to give some light to them by translating the whole Bible into the Italian the modern Language of that Countrey As he did Wiclef not long after to translate the same into the English of those times the Saxon Tongue not being then commonly understood a copy of whose Version in a fair Velom Manuscript I have now here by me by the gift of my noble Friend Charles Dymoke Hereditary Champion to the Kings of England So then it is no Innovation to translate the Scriptures and less to suffer these Translations to be promiscuously read by all sorts of people the Scripture being as well Milk for Babes as strong Meat for the man of more able judgment Why else doth the Apostle note it
point unto an end with some small alteration of my Authors words To him who doth consider the grievous and scandalous inconveniencies whereunto they make themselves daily subject when any blind and secret corner is made a fit place for Common-Prayer the manifold Confusions which they fall into which cry down all the difference of days and times the irksome Deformities whereby through endless and senseless Effusions of indigested Prayers they oftentimes disgrace in most unsufferable manner the worthiest part of Christian duty towards God who being subject herein to no certain order do pray both what they list and how they list to him I say which duly weigheth all these things the reason cannot be obscure why God so much respects in publick Prayer not only the solemnity of places where and the conveniency of the times when but also the precise appointment even with what words or sentences his Name should be called on amongst his people I have said little all this while of the Priest or Minister with whom Gods people are to joyn themselves in this publick action as with him that standeth and speaketh for them in the presence of God because I could not tell what place or Ministry to assign him in the discharge of this imployment unless we first premise a set form of Prayer as a point necessary to be granted For in effusion of extemporal Prayers I cannot see what greater priviledge belongs to him than any other of the People or why each member of the Congregation may not as well express his own conceptions in the House of God as he who calls himself the Minister For being that the ability if I may so call it of pouring out extemporary prayers doth come by gifts and not by study in which regard themselves entitle it most commonly the gift of Prayer Why may not other men pretend unto that gift as much as he or on opinion that they have it may not make use thereof in the Congregation Why may not any one so gifted or so opinionated of his gift say unto his Minister as Zedekiah did unto Micaiah in case he do not also strike him upon the cheek Mene ergo dimisit Spiritus Domini locutus est tibi 1 King 22 24. Which way went the Spirit of the Lord from me to speak unto thee Assuredly the gift of prayer is as much restrained in the People by hearkening only to those expressions which are delivered by their Minister as that of the Minister can be be he who he will by tying up his spirit to those forms which are prescribed by the Church This if it be a quenching of the Spirit as some please to make it is such a quenching of the Spirit as hath good ground from God himself who did not only prescribe unto his Priests those very words Numb 6.23 wherewith they were to bless the People as we shall see hereafter in due place and time Mat. 6.9 but did instruct both Priests and People both the Apostles and Disciples how they were to pray in what set form they might present their souls and desires unto him So little priviledge hath the Priest or Minister more than other People to speak his own thoughts in the Congregation by way of voluntary and extemporal prayers on the grounds they go on that on the same the meanest of the multitude may pretend the like and that as well in other parts of publick worship as in that of prayer which what a Chaos of devotion it would introduce I leave to every sober minded man to judge by that which followeth For if we look into the publick Service of Almighty God according as it standeth in all well-regulated Churches it doth consist of these three parts Prayer Praise and Preaching Taking the word Preaching here in the largest sense for publishing or making known the will of God by whatsoever means it be touching mans salvation The Church of England so conceives it when in the general Invitation she informs her Children that the chief reasons why they do assemble and meet together Dearly beloved Brethren c. are to set forth Gods most holy praise to hear his most holy Word and to ask those things which are requisite and necessary as well for the body as the soul The Brethren of the Separation as they call themselves do conceive so too though with some variation of the terms saying there be three kinds of spiritual worship Praying Prophesying and Singing of Psalms H. Smith in a Book entituled The differences of the Churches of the Separation 1606. cap. 18. Id. cap. 11. Id. cap. 10. They add with truth enough in the affirmation were there but any sense in the application that there is the same reason of helps in all the parts of spiritual worship as is to be admitted in any one during the time of performing the worship What then Observe I pray you the illation and the necessity thereof on the former grounds Therefore for so they do infer as in Prayer the Book is laid aside and that by the confession of the ancient Brethren of the separation so must it also be in Prophesying and in Singing of Psalms as we are perswaded What are they but perswaded of it and no more than so Yes sure they are more positive and affirm for certain Id. ibid. that as in Prayer the Spirit only is our help and there is no outward help given of God for that kind of worship so also in Prophesying and Singing And in another place more plainly therefore whether we Pray Prophesie or Sing it must be the Word or Scripture not out of the book but out of the heart Id. cap. 18. Add here these Quaeres raised on the former Thesis Id. in fine libri 1. Whether in a Psalm a man must be tyed to Metre Rhythm and Tune and whether voluntary be not as necessary in tune and words as in matter 2. Whether Metre Rhythm and Tune be not quenching the spirit 3. Whether a Psalm be only thanksgiving without Metre Rhythm and Tune yea or no. Put this together and then tell me truly whosoever thou art if when a great and populous Congregation should be met together every one of them in that part of worship which consists in Singing should first conceive his own matter deliver it in Prose or Metre as he list himself and in the same instant chant it out in what Tune soever that which comes first into his head Tell me I say if ever there were heard so black a Sanctus such a confused and horrid noise of tongues and voices if any howling or gnashing of the teeth whatever can be like unto it And yet it follows so directly on the former Principles that if we banish all set forms of Common-prayer which is but one part only of Gods publick worship we cannot but in justice and in reason both banish all studied and premeditated Sermons from the House of God and utterly
these two arguments First that he blessed Abraham And secondly that he Tithed him or received Tithes of him For though in our English translation it be only said that he received Tithes of Abraham which might imply that Abraham gave them as a gift or a Free-will-offering and that Melchisedech received them in no other sense Yet in the Greek it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in plain English is that he Tithed Abraham and took them of him as his due Heb. 7.6 If then our Saviour be a Priest after the order of Melchisedech as no doubt he is he must have power to Tithe the people as well as to Bless them or else he comes not home to the Type or figure Which power of Tithing of the people or receiving Tithes of them since he exerciseth not in person it seems to me to follow upon very good consequence that he hath devolved this part of his power on those whom he hath called and authorised for to bless the people Certain I am the Fathers of the Primitive times though they enjoyed not Tithes in specie by reason that the Church was then unsetled and as it were in motion to the land of rest in which condition those of Israel paid no Tithes to Levi yet they still kept their claim unto them as appears clearly out of Origen and some other Ancients And of this truth I think no question need be made amongst knowing men The only question will be this Whether the maintenance which they had till the Tithes were paid were not as chargeable to the people as the Tithes now are supposing that the Tithes were the Subjects own For my part I conceive it was the people of those pious times not thinking any thing too much to bestow on God for the incouragement of his Ministers and the reward of his Prophets They had not else sold off their Lands and Houses and brought the prices of the things which were sold and laid them at the Apostles feet as we know they did Acts 4.34 35. but that they meant that the Apostles should supply their own wants out of those oblations as well as the necessities of their poorer Brethren I trow the selling of all and trusting it to the dispensing of their Teachers was matter of more charge to such as had Lands and Houses than paying the tenth part of their House-rent or the Tithe of their Lands And when this custom was laid by as possibly it might end with the Apostles themselves the Offerings which succeeded in the place thereof and are required or injoyned by the Apostolical Canons were so great and manifold that there was nothing necessary to the life of man as Honey Milk Fowl Flesh Grapes Corn Oyl Frankincense Fruits of the season yea Strong drink and Sweet-meats which was not liberally offered on the Altars or Oblation-Tables Insomuch as the Author of the Book called the Holy Table name and thing c. according to his scornful manner saith of them that they were rather Pantaries Larders or Store-houses than so many Consecrated Altars And though he make those Canons but as so many Pot-guns yet as great Criticks as himself esteem otherwise of them as his Antagonist in that quarrel proves sufficiently And as for that particular Canon which requires these Offerings it is but an exemplification or particularizing of that which is more generally prescribed by S. Paul Gal. 6.6 where he enjoyneth him that is taught to communicate to him that teacheth him in omnibus bonis in all his goods as the Rhemists read it very rightly and not in all good things as our late translation Now this Injunction reacheth to all sorts of people to the poor as well as to the rich as it appears plainly by a passage in S. Cyprians works where he upbraids a wealthy Widow for coming empty-handed and without her Offering to the Altar of God and eating of that part of the Sacrifice which the poor had offered Locuples dives in dominicum sine sacrificio venis partem sacrificii quod pauper obtulit sumis Cyp. de piet Eleemos To the improvement of the maintenance of him that teacheth not only the rich men were to offer out of their abundance but the poor Woman also was to bring her Mite They had not else come home to S. Pauls commandment which reacheth unto all sorts of people without any exception to every one according to that measure of fortune which God hath given him Which clearly sheweth that though the payment of Tithes fall heavier upon Landed men than possibly it might do in the Primitive times before the Church was in a condition to demand her rights yet speaking generally of the people of a Church or Parish the charge was greater to them then than it hath been since the greatest numbers of the people being freed from Tithes because they have no Lands from whence Tithes are payable who could not be discharged from the communication of their goods and substance without a manifest neglect of S. Pauls Injunction More than this yet besides what was communicated in a private way for the encouragement and support of him that taught which we may well conceive to be no small matter The publick Offerings of the people were of so great confequence as did not only serve to maintain the Bishop according to his place and calling and to provide also for the Priests or Ministers which served under him but also to relieve the Poor and repair their Churches Beda in histor Eccles l. 1. And therefore certainly the faithful of those times were generally at more charge to maintain their Ministry than the Subject is with us in England the greatest part of which by far pay no Tithes at all to the Parish-Minister and no man any thing at all towards the maintenance of the Bishop as in former days Follow we our design through several Countries and we shall find the Clergy of most parts in Christendom either more plentifully endowed or else maintained with greater charge unto the Subject than the Clergy of the Church of England In France the Author of the Cabinet computes the Tithes and temporal Revenues of the Clergy besides provisions of all sorts to 80 millions of Crowns but his accompt is disallowed by all knowing men Bodin reporteth from the mouth of Monsieur d'Alemant one of the Presidents of Accompts in Paris that they amount to 12 millions and 300000 of their Livres which is 1230000 l. of our English money and he himself conceives that they possess seven parts of twelve of the whole Revenues of that Kingdom The book inscribed Comment d'Estat gives a lower estimate and reckoning that there are in France 200 millions of Arpens which is a measure somewhat bigger than our Acre assigneth 47 millions which is neer a fourth part of the whole to the Gallican Clergy But which of these soever it be we think fit to stand to it is resolved by them all that
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
of that Church his being Bishop there and suffering there an ignominious yet a glorious death for the sake of Christ are such noted Truths that it were labour lost to insist upon them Only I shall direct the Reader to such pregnant places in the most ancient and incorrupted Writers as may give satisfaction in those points to any one that will take pains to look upon them And first to look upon the Greeks he may find Papias and Clemens ancient Writers both alledged to this purpose by Eusebius Hist Eccles l. 2. c. 14. Caius Dionysius Bishops of Corinth both of good antiquity alledged in the same book cap. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eusebius speaking for himself not only in the 13. Chap. of the same book also but also in his Chronicon in which he notes the year of his first coming to that City to be the 44. after Christs Nativity See to this purpose also Saint Chrysostom in his Homily De Petro Paulo Saint Cyril of Alexandria in his Epistle to Pope Celestine Theodoret Sozomen and others Next for the Latins there is hardly any but saith somewhat in it whereof see Irenaeus l. 3. c. 3. Tertullian in his book de praescript adv haeret Lactant. lib. 4. cap. 21. Optatus lib. 2. contr Parmen Hierom in his Tract De Eccl. Scriptoribus Saint Austin in Epist 165. and other places not to descend to later Writers of the Latin Churches whose interest it may seem to be To close this point Saint Austin Aug. ep 169. whom I named last shall speak once for all who reckoning up the Bishops in the Church of Rome thus begins his Catalogue Si enim c. If the succession of the Bishops there be a thing considerable quanto certius verè salubriter ab ipso Petro numeramus how much more certainly and assuredly do we begin the same with Peter who bare the figure of the whole Church And then goes on Petro successit Linus Linus succeeded Peter Clemens him and so to Anastasius who then held the See Nor can it be replyed that Peter took the Church of Rome into his Apostolical care and had not the Episcopal charge thereof as some now suppose The Tables of succession make that clear enough Saint Peter the Apostle could have no successours but the Bishop might Linus or whosoever else succeeded nor did nor could pretend succession to the preheminences and miraculous priviledges which were required necessarily unto the making of an Apostle challenge an interest by succession in his Pastoral Office they both might and did The Writers of all ages since do afford them that Only the difference is amongst them who was the first that did succeed him in his Pastoral charge St. Austin gives it unto Linus as before we saw next Clemens Adv. haeres l. 3. c. 3. Haeres 26. Lib. 2. contr Parmen Hieron de Script Eccles in Clement Id. ibid. in Petro. and then Anacletus Irenaeus doth agree with Austin placing Linus first but placing Anacletus second and then Clemens third and so doth Epiphanius also Optatus reckoneth them as before in Austin Saint Hierom sometimes ranketh them as Irenaeus and Epiphanius did Linus Cletus Clemens and sometimes placeth Clemens first as Tertullian and plerique Latinorum most of the ancient Latin Writers had done before I know there is much pains taken to compose this difference amongst our Antiquaries those most especially of the Papal party But in my mind there cannot be a better course taken to effect the same than that which was observed before in the case of Antioch And to effect this composition Ignatius and some other Fathers give a ground as probable as that which was laid down before in the former business Iren. l. 3. c. 3. For first it is affirmed by Irenaeus that S. Paul had as great an interest in the foundation of the Church of Rome as Saint Peter had A duobus Apostolis Petro Paulo Romae fundatae constitutae Ecclesiae as his own words are The like saith Epiphanius in another language Ado. haeres 27. num 6. Ep. ad Tral making both of them Bishops of that Church Next it is said expresly by Ignatins who might well speak on certain knowledg living in those times that Anacletus for I conceive that Cletus and Anacletus were the same was Deacon to S. Peter and Linus Deacon to S. Paul who doth indeed make mention of him in his second Epistle unto Timothy This ground thus laid why may we not conceive as before in Antioch that in the first planting of the Church of Rome there were two several Churches or congregations that of the Circumcision being collected by Saint Peter that of the Gentiles first drawn together by Saint Paul each of them being Bishop or chief Pastor of their Congregations Secondly that when the two Apostles perceived the time of their sufferings to draw near Peter ordained Anacletus Bishop of the Churches of the Circumcision and that Paul did commit to Linus the government of the Churches of the Gentiles both whom they had employed before as Deputies and Substitutes to attend these charges whilst they themselves did travel to and fro as occasion was and the necessities of the Church required Thirdly and lastly that Linus being dead Clemens who had before been specially designed by Saint Peter to possess his place succeeded Bishop of the Churches of the Gentiles there who finally surviving Cletus or Anacletus call him which you will and the division between Jew and Gentile being worn away united the two Churches in his person as the sole Bishop of the whole And this I am the rather induced to think because that Epiphanius making up a Catalogue of the Popes of Rome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Epiph haer 27. first joyns together Peter and Paul next coupleth with the like conjunction Linus and Cletus and after brings in Clemens Euaristus Alexander c. in a line successively And yet the Tables of succession may well stand as they have done hitherto first Linus after Cletus and thirdly Clemens because that Linus dying first left Cletus in possession of the Pastoral charge and Cletus dying before Clemens left him the sole surviver of the three which possibly may be the reason why many of the Latins reckon Clemens for the first Bishop after Peter whom they conceive to be sole Bishop of that Church as indeed it was before there was a Church of Gentiles founded in that famous City For being formerly designed by Saint Peter to be his Successour and afterward enjoying the whole charge alone as Peter for a season did it might not seem improper to report him for the second Bishop that is the second of the whole And then again Clemens is placed by some next and immediately after Linus whose successor he was in the direct line as Bishop of the more famous Church viz. of the Gentiles and by some also after Cletus whom he succeeded at the
their hands for none but they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the present business the whole election of these Presbyters must be given to them But indeed it was neither so nor so Neither the Apostle nor the People had any hand in the elections of those times but the Spirit of God which evidently did design and mark out those men whom God intended to imploy in his holy Ministery The words of Paul to Timothy make this clear enough where it is said Neglect not the gift that is in thee which was given thee by Prophesie 1 Tim. 4.14 1 Tim. 1.18 c. and that there went some Prophesies before concerning Timothy the same Saint Paul hath told us in the first Chapter of that first Epistle Hom. 5. in 1. ad Tim. c. 1. Chrysostom notes upon these words that in those times 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Priests and Ministers of God were made by Prophesie that is saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Holy Ghost And this he proves by the selection of Paul and Barnabas to the work of God which was done by Prophesie and by the Spirit And finally glossing on those words Noli negligere gratiam c. he doth thus express it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God saith he did elect thee to this weighty charge he hath committed no small part of his Church unto thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no mortal man had any hand in that designation and therefore take thou beed that thou disgrace not nor dishonour so Divine a calling More might be said both from Theodoret and Oecumenius to confirm this Truth Theodor. Oecum in locum but that I think it is sufficiently confirmed already So then the Presbyters of these times being of Gods special choice his own designation and those upon the laying on of such holy hands furnished by the Spirit with such gifts and graces as might enable them sufficiently to discharge their calling The marvel is the less if in those early days at the first dawning as it were of Christianity we find so little speech of Bishops In the ordaining of these Presbyters as also of the like in other places the Apostles might and did no question communicate unto them such and so much Authority as might invest them with a power of government during the times of their own necessary absence from those several Churches So that however they were Presbyters in degree and order yet they both were and might be trusted with an Episcopal jurisdiction in their several Cities even as some Deans although but simply Presbyters are with us in England And of this rank I take it were the Presbyters in the Church of Ephesus Act. 20.28 whom the Apostle calleth by the name of Bishops that is to say Presbyters by their Order and Degree but Bishops in regard of their jurisdiction Such also those ordained by Saint Paul in the Church of Philippos Phil. 1.1 whom the Apostle mentioneth in the very entrance of his Epistle to that people Which as it may be some occasion why Bishops properly so called were not ordained by the Apostles in the first planting of some Churches so there are other reasons alledged for it and are briefly these For first although the Presbyters in those times were by the Holy Ghost endued with many excellent gifts and graces requisite to the Preaching of the Word yet the Apostles might not think fit to trust them with the chief government till they had fully seen and perfectly made tryal of their abilities and parts that way Epiphan adv haeres 75. n. 5. And this is that which Epiphanius meaneth in his dispute against Aerius saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that where there were no fit men to discharge that Office the place remained without a Bishop but where necessity required and that there wanted not fit men to supply the place there Bishops forthwith were appointed But that which I conceive to be the principal reason was this that the Apostle did reserve unto himself the chief Authority in all the Churches of his planting so long as he continued in or about those places And this he exercised either by personal Visitations mention whereof is made in the 14.21 and 15.36 of the Book of Acts or else by his rescripts and mandates as in his sentencing of the incestuous Corinthian although absent thence But when he was resolved to take a journey to Hierusalem Act. 19.21 and from thence to Rome not knowing when he should return to those Eastern parts and knowing well that multitude of governours do oft breed confusions and that equality of Ministers did oft end in factions he then resolved to give them Bishops to place a Chief in and above each several Presbytery over every City committing unto them that power aswell of Ordinations as inflicting censures which he had formerly reserved to himself alone This great Apostle as for some space of time he taught the Church without help of Presbyters so for another while he did rule the same without help of Bishops A time there was wherein there were no Bishops but the Apostles only to direct the Church and so there was a time wherein there were no Presbyters but they to instruct the same However it must be confessed that there was a time in which some Churches had no Bishops And this Hieron in Tit. c. 1. if any was the time that Saint Hierom speaks of Cum communi Presbyterorum consilio ecclesiae gubernabantur when as the Churches were governed by the common counsel of the Presbyters But sure it was so short a time that had not the good Father taken a distaste against Episcopacy by reason of some differences which he had with John the Bishop of Hierusalem he could not easily have observed it For whether Bishops were ordained Id. ad Evagrium In Schismatis remedium as he saith elsewhere for the preventing of those Schisms and factions which were then risen in the Church or that they were appointed by the Apostles to supply their absence when they withdrew themselves unto further Countreys This government of the Church in common by the Presbyters will prove of very short continuance For from the first planting of the Church in Corinth Baronius so computes it Annal. Hieron in Titâ—m c. 1. which was in Anno 53. unto the writing of his first Epistle to that Church and people in which he doth complain of the Schisms amongst them was but four whole years And yet it doth appear by that place in Hierom for ought can see that the divisions of the people in Religion some saying I am of Paul and I of Apollo and I of Cephas every one cleaving unto him by whom he had received Baptism were the occasion that it was decreed throughout the world as that Father saith Vt unus de Presbyteris electus superponeretur caeteris that one of the Presbyters should be set over the rest to whom
some Miracle or great hiatus in the story I leave to any man to be imagined Timothy and Titus being thus setled in their Episcopal Sees we must pass on to see if we can meet with any other of Saint Pauls Disciples or his assistants if you will that were entrusted with the like Authority And first we meet with Dionysius the Areopagite ordained by Saint Paul as is most likely the first Bishop of Athens but howsoever questionless ordained the first Bishop there Another Dionysius Bishop of Corinth Ap. Euseb Eccl. hist l. 4. c. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as also l. 3. c. 4. who in all probability was born whilst Saint John was living doth expresly say it viz. that Dionysius the Areopagite being converted to the Faith by the Apostle Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was first ordained Bishop of the Church of Athens The foresaid Dionysius the Corinthian doth also tell us Ap. Euseb l. c. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Publius succeeded the Areopagite after him Quadratus both which were Disciples of the Apostles the former of the two being conceived to be the same Acts 28.8 whose Father Paul cured so miraculously in the Isle of Malta Next for the Church of Thessalonica August 4. the Martyrologies inform us that Aristarchus one of Pauls Companions ab eodem Apostolo Thessalonicensium Episcopus ordinatus was by him ordained Bishop of the Thessalonians And after him succeeded Caius whom Saint Paul mentioned in his Epistle to the Romans Rom. 16.23 Comment in Epi. ad Rom. c. 16. by the name of Gaius the Host as he calls him of the whole Church Certain I am that Origen reports him to be Bishop here and that upon the known tradition of his Elders Fertur sane ex traditione majorum quod hic Gaius Episcopus fuerit Thessalonicensis Ecclesiae as his own words are So for the Church of the Philippians Saint Paul hath told us of Epaphroditus one whom he mentioneth oftentimes Phil. 2.29 in his Epistle to that people that he was not only his Brother and Companion in labour and his Fellow-souldier Vestrum autem Apostolum but he was also their Apostle Theodor. in 1. ad Tim. c. 3. Ask of Theodoret what Saint Paul there meaneth and he will tell you that he was their Bishop For in his Comment on the first to Timothy he gives this note Eos qui nunc vocantur Episcopi nominabant Apostolos that in those times in which Saint Paul writ that Epistle those who are now called Bishops were called Apostles And this he proves out of this passage of Saint Paul that so in this respect ita Philippensium Apostolus erat Epaphroditus Epaphroditus is called the Apostle of the Philippians Which clearly sheweth that in his opinion Epaphroditus was Bishop of the Philippians as Titus of the Cretans and Timothy of the Ephesians in whom he afterwards doth instance Beza indeed doth render the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Latin Legatus in which he hath been followed by the latter English who read it Messenger But Calvin doth not only keep himself to the old Translation Calvin in 〈◊〉 lip c. 2. though he take notice of the other but he prefers the old before it Sed prior sensus meliùs convenit as more agreeable unto the meaning of the place For the Colossians next we find the names of Epaphras and Archippus their two first Bishops in the Epistle to that Church And first for Epaphras it is conceived that he first preached the Faith of Christ to the Colossians And this Saint Paul doth seem to intimate in the first Chapter of the same Epistle saying Ver. 7. As ye also learned of Epaphras our dear fellow servant Certain it is that in the Martyrologies he is affirmed to be the Bishop of this Church ab eodem Apostolo ordinatus Julii 19. and that he was ordained Bishop by the hands of Paul But being after Prisoner with Saint Paul at Rome Archippus undertook the Episcopal charge Colos 4.17 whom Paul exhorteth to take heed unto the Ministery which he had received of the Lord and to fulfil it Most sure I am that Ambrose writing on those words doth make Archippus Bishop of Colossi by the name of their Praepositus Ambros in Colos 4. V. cap. 3. n. 5. or Governour of which see before adding withal that after Epaphras had seasoned them in the Truth of God hic accepit regendam eorum Ecclesiam Archippus took the Government of that Church upon him For other of Saint Pauls Disciples we find in Dorotheus if he may be credited that Silas Pauls most individual Companion Dorotheas in Synopsi was Bishop of the Church of Corinth the truth whereof shall be examined more at large in the second Century and that Sosipater mention of whom is made Acts 20 was ordained Bishop of Iconium wherein Hippolitus concurring with him doth make the matter the more probable Of Sosthenes of whom see Acts 18. 1 Cor. 1. the same two Authors do report that he was Bishop of Colophon one of the Cities of the lesser Asia But leaving these more Eastern Countreys let us look homeward towards the West And there we find that Crescens whom Saint Paul at his first coming unto Rome 2 Tim. 4. had sent into Galatia to confirm the Churches was after by him sent on the like occasion into Gaule or Gallia there to preach the Gospel for so I rather chuse to atone the business than correct the Text and read it Crescens in Galliam with Epiphanius Epiphan haeres 51. n. 11. For having with so good success been employed formerly in Galatia he might with better comfort undertake the service of Preaching Christ unto the Gaules whereof the Galatians were a branch or Colony Now that he did indeed Preach Christs Gospel there is affirmed positively both by Epiphanius and Theodoret two very eminent and ancient Writers Epiphan haeres 51. Theodor. in Epl. 2. ad Tim. Ado in Chron. and Ado Viennensis a Writer though of lesser standing yet of good repute affirmeth that he was put upon this employment quo tempore Paulus in Hispà nias pervenisse creditur at such time as it is conceived that the Apostle Paul went into Spain which was in Anno 61. as Baronius thinketh there being left and having planted a Church of Christ in the City of Vienna now in that Province which is called Daulphine he became the first Bishop of the same Primus ejusdem Civitatis Episcopus saith the Martyrologie Decemb. 29. In Chronico And to this Ado one of his successors also doth agree adding withal that after he had sat there some few years he returned back again into Galatia leaving one Zacharias to succeed him Finally not to leave out Britain it is recorded in the Greek Menologies that Aristobulus whom Saint Paul speaks of Rom. 16. being one of the Seventy and afterwards a follower of Saint Paul Menolog
and shewing what perfections were in them required then adds Quos Successores relinquebant sunm ipsorum locum magisterii tradentes whom they did leave to be their Successors delivering unto them their own place of government Cypr. Epist 42. vel l. 2. ep 10. S. Cyprian next writing to Cornelius then Bishop of Rome exhorts him to endeavour to preserve that unity Per Apostolos nobis Successoribus traditam which was commended by the Apostles unto them their Successors So in another place speaking of the commission which our Saviour gave to his Apostles he adds that it was also given to those Praepositi Id. Epist 69. vel l 4. ep 10. rulers and governours of the Church Qui Apostolis Vicaria ordinatione succedunt which by their ordination have been substituted as Successors to them And lest we should mistake his meaning in the word Prupositi Firmilianut anothe â—i shop of those times Firmil ep Cy. Epist 79. in an Epistle unto Cyprian useth instead thereof the word Episcopi not varying in the rest from those very words which Cyprian had used before Hieron ad Marcell adv Mont. Hierom although conceived by some to be an adversary of the Bishops doth affirm as much Where speaking of Montanus and his faction he shews this difference betwixt them and the Church of God viz. that they had cast the Bishop downwards made him to be the third in order Apud nos Apostolorum locum Episcopi tenent but in the Catholick-Church of Christ the Bishops held the place or room of the Apostles The like he saith in his Epistle to Euagrius Id. ad Euagr. where speaking of the parity of Bishops amongst themselves that the eminency of their Churches did make no difference in their authority he gives this reason of the same Omnes Apostolorum successores sunt because they were all Successors to the Apostles So also in his Comments on the Book of Psalms writing upon those words Id. in Psal 44. Instead of thy Fathers thou shalt have Children he tells us that at first the Apostles were the Fathers of the Church but they being gon Habes pro his Episcopos filios the Church had Bishops in their stead which though they were her Children as begotten by her Sunt tamen patres tui yet they were also Fathers to her in that she was directed and guided by them August in Psal 44. S. Austin on the same words hath the like conceit the Fathers of the Church saith he were the Lords Apostles Pro Apostolis filii nati sunt tibi constituti sunt Episcopi instead of those Fathers the Church hath Children Bishops that be ordained in her such whom she calleth Fathers though her self begat them constituit in Sedibus patrum and placed them in the seats or thrones of those holy Fathers August Epist 42. The like the same Saint Austin in another place to the same effect The root saith he of Christian Religion is by the seats of the Apostles Successiones Episcoporum and the succession of the Bishops dispersed and propagated over all the world Grego Magn. hom 26. And so S. Gregory discoursing of the power of binding and loosing committed by the Lord unto his Apostles applies it thus Horum nunc in Ecclesiâ locum Episcopi tenent that now the Bishops hold their places in the Church of Christ Not that the Bishops do succeed them in their personal graces their mighty power of working Miracles speaking with tongues giving the Holy Ghost and others such as these which were meerly temporary but in their Pastoral charge and government as the chief Rulers of the Church the ordinary Pastors of the Flock of Christ Now that the Bishops are the ordinary Pastors of the Church and so conceived to be by the ancient Fathers will be made evident by as good authority as the point before Ignatius Ignat. Epist ad Antioch who conversed with most of the Apostles writing unto the Antiochians requireth them to call to mind Euodius who was his Predecessor in the See of Antioch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tertull. de fuga in persecut their most blessed Pastor Tertullian discoursing on those words of Christ The hireling seeth the Woolf coming and fleeth but that the good Shepherd layeth down his life for the Sheep Joh. 10. inferreth thereupon Praepositos Ecclesiae in persecutione fugere non oportere that the Prelates or Governours of the Church are not to fly in persecution By which it is most clear not to dispute the truth of his assertion that Pastor Praepositus Ecclesiae do come both to one Cypr. de Aleatore S. Cyprian in his tract de Aleatore is more plain and positive Nam ut constaret nos i. e. Episcopos Pastores esse ovium Spiritualium c. that it might evidently appear saith he that we the Bishops are the Pastors of the Flock of Christ He said to Peter feed my Sheep And in another place for fear the former Book may prove none of his expostulating with Pupianus Id. Epist 69. who charged him as it seemeth for some defect in his administration he thus drives the point Behold saith he for these six years Nec fraternitas babuerit Episcopum neither the Brother-hood hath had a Bishop nor the People a Praepositus or Ruler nor the Flock a Pastor nor the Church a Governour nor Christ a Prelate nor God a Priest Where plainly Pastor and Episcopus and so all the rest are made to be the same one function More clearly in another place of the same Epistle where he defineth a Church to be Plebs sacerdoti adunata Pastori suo grex adhaerens that is to say a People joyned or united rather to their Priest a Flock adhering to their Pastor Where by Sacerdos as before and in other Authors of the first times he meaneth no other than a Bishop as doth appear by that which followeth Vnde scire debes Episcopum in Ecclesia c. From whom thou oughtest to understand saith he the Bishop to be in the Church and the Church to be also in the Bishop and that whoever is not with the Bishop is not in the Church Optatus saith the same in brief Opta de schismate lib. 1. by whom Pastor sine grege Episcopus sine populo a Bishop without a Church or People and a Pastor without a Flock are joyned together as Synonyma S. Austin speaking of two sorts of Over-seers in the fold of Christ some of them being Children and the others hirelings then adds Praepositi autem qui filii sunt Pastores sunt Augâ—st Traâ—â— 46. in Job the Rulers which are Children of the Church they are the Pastors And in another place not long since cited speaking of Episcopale judicium the condemnation that attends the Bishops sentence he presently subjoyns Pastoralis tamen necessitas Id de corrâ—pt grat c. 15. that yet the necessity
Eccles l. 4.21 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Five books he writ as both Eusebius and Saint Hierom tell us touching the Acts and Monuments of the Church of God this last affirming of the work that it contained many things ad utilitatem legentium pertinentia exceeding profitable to the Reader De scriptor Eccles though written in a plain and familiar stile Some fragments of his cited by Eusebius we have seen before the body of his Works being eaten by the teeth of Time and one we are to look on now being the remainder of a most accurate and full confession of his Faith Euseb ut supra which he left behind him There he relates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that in a Journey towards Rome he did confer with many Bishops and that he found amongst them all the same Form of Doctrine there being no City where he came no Episcopal succession wherein he found not all things so confirmed and setled as they were prescribed by the Word taught by the Prophets and Preached by our Lord and Saviour Particularly he tells us of the Church of Corinth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it continued constantly in the Orthodox Faith till the time that Primus was there Bishop with whom he had much conference as he sailed towards Rome staying with him many days at Corinth and being much delighted with his Conversation Of Rome he only doth inform us that he abode there till the time of Anicetus whose Deacon Eleutherus at that time was who not long after did succeed in his Pastors Chair Soter succeeding Anicetus Eleutherus succeeding Soter Where by the way De viris ill in Egesip I wonder how Saint Hierom came to place the coming of Egesippus unto Rome sub Aniceto when Anicetus was there Bishop considering that Egesippus tells us he was there before and that he there continued 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 until the time of Anicetus as before was said Discoursing of the Errours of the Jews his Countrey-men he sheweth that after James the Just was martyred in defence of Christs Truth and Gospel Simeon the son of Cleophas and Uncle to our Saviour was erected Bishop all the Disciples giving their voices unto him as being of their Masters kindred He addeth that Hierusalem whereof he speaketh was called for long time the Virgin Church as being undefiled with the filth of Heresies and that Thebulis was the first who broached strange Doctrine in the same the man being discontented as it seemed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because he was not made a Bishop So far the pieces of this Journal or Itinerary direct us in this present search as to discern how strong a bulwark the Episcopal succession hath been and been accounted also of Gods sacred Truths how strong a Pillar for support of that blessed building At the same time with Egesippus lived Dionysius the learned and renowned Bishop of the Church of Corinth Euseb Eccles hist l. 4. c. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De scriptor Ecc. successor to that Primus whom before we spoke of A man as both Eusebius and Saint Hierom say of such both industry and Eloquence ut non solum suae Civitatis Provinciae populos that he instructed not alone by his Epistles the people of his own City and Province but also those of other Churches One writ he saith Eusebius to the Lacedemonians at once confirming them in faith and love another unto the Athenians about the time that Publius their Bishop suffered Martyrdom exhorting them to live according to the prescript of Christs holy Gospel In that Epistle he makes mention of Quadratus also who succeeded Publius in that charge declaring also that Dionysius the Areopagite being converted by Saint Paul was made the first Bishop of that City Of which three Bishops of Athens Quadratus is much celebrated by Eusebius for an Apologie by him written Euseb l. 4. c. 3. and tendred unto Adrian the Emperour in the behalf of Christians being the first piece of that kind that was ever written in the World and written as it seems with such power and efficacy Id. ibid. c. 9. that shortly after Adrian desisted from his persecuting of the Church of God making a Law or Edict for their future safety But to go on with Dionysius A third he writ unto the Nicomedians opposing in the same the Heresies of Marcion a fourth unto the Gortynaeans in which he much commended their Bishop Philip in that the Church committed to his care and governance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had been made famous by so many tryals both for faith and constancy He writ unto the Church of Amastris also and the rest in Pontus speaking by name of Palma the Bishop there as also to the Church of Gnossus in the Isle of Crete in which he did persuade Pintus Bishop of the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to impose that grievous yoke of Chastity upon his brethren as a matter necessary but to consider rather the infirmity and weakness of them Finally there was extant in Eusebius's time another Epistle of this Dionysius to the Church of Rome wherein he magnifieth their abundant charity towards all the Brethren which were in want or persecution not only of their own but of other Cities highly commending Soter who was then their Bishop who did not only study to preserve them in so good a way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but also did encourage them to improve their bounties So much remains of Dionysius and his publick Acts by which we may perceive that though the Bishops of those times as since had their particular Sees and Cities yet did their care extend unto others also maintaining a continual intercourse betwixt one another not only for their mutual comfort in those dangerous times but also for the better government of the Church it self the Unity whereof was then best preserved by that correspondence which the Bishops in the name of their several Churches had with one another For other Bishops of those times not to say any thing of Melito or Polycarpus whom before we spake of nor of the Bishops of the four Patriarchal Sees which we shall have occasion to remember shortly those of most fame were Papias and Apollinarius Euseb Hist l. 3. c 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bishops successively of Hierapolis a City of Phrygia Pothinus Bishop of Lyons in France Id. l. 4. c. 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. l. 5. c. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. c. 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. c. 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. c. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theophilus Bishop of Caesarea Cassius Bishop of Tyre Clarius Bishop of Ptolomais all three in Palestine Publius Julius Bishop of Debelto a Colony in Thrace with many others of great eminency whereof consult Euseb Hist Eccles 5. c. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By this that hath been said of Dionysius and other Bishops
time contracted somewhat of that rust and rubbish wherewith the middle ages of the Church did so much abound Yet if mine own opinion were demanded in it though I agree unto the story both for the number of the Bishops and the Metropolitans I must needs think there was some other reason for it than the relation of the number of the Flamines and Archiflamines which is there pretended And that this was not done at once but in a longer tract of time than the Reign of Lucius as was in part affirmed before That Lucius did convert the Temples of the Idols into Christian Churches setled the revenues of the same upon the Churches by him founded I shall easily grant so far forth as the bounds of his dominions will give way unto it but being there were but 28 Cities in all that part of Britain which we now call England as both from Huntingdon and Beda was before delivered and that King Lucius was but a Tributary Prince of those Regions only which were inhabited by the Trinobantes and Cattieuchlani as I do verily conceive he was I believe rather that the number of the Bishops and Archbishops which our stories speak of related to the form of government as it was afterwards established in the Roman Empire Notitia Provinc in div cap. and not to any other cause whatever Now they which have delivered to us the state of the Roman Empire inform us this That for the easier government and administration of the same it was divided into fourteen Diocesses for so they called those greater portions into the which it was divided every Diocess being subdivided into several Provinces and every Province in the same conteining many several Cities And they which have delivered to us the estate of the Christian Church Notitia Prov. dignitat c. have informed us this that in each City of the Empire wherein the Romans had a Defensor Civitatis as they called that Magistrate the Christians when they gain'd that City to the holy faith did ordain a Bishop that over every Province in which the Romans had their Presidents they did place an Arch-bishop whose seat being commonly in the Metropolis of the Province gave him the name of Metropolitan and finally that in every Diocess in which the Romans had their Vicarius or Lieutenant-General the Christians also had their Primate and seated him in the same City also where the other was This ground thus layed it will appear upon examination that Britain in the time of the Roman Empire was a full Diocese of it self no way depending upon any other portion of that mighty State Ib. in Provinc Occident sup c. 3. as any way subordinate thereunto And being a Diocese in it self it was divided in those times into these three Provinces viz. Britannia prima Cambd. de divisione Britan. containing all the Countrys on the South of the River Thames and those inhabited by the Trinobantes Cattieuchlani and Iceni 2. Britannia secunda comprising all the Nations within the Severn and 3. Maxima Caesariensis which comprehended all the residue to the Northern border In the which Provinces there were no less than 28 Cities as before is said of which York was the chief in Maxima Caesariensis London the principal in Britannia prima Caer-Leon upon Vsk being the Metropolis in Britannia secunda And so we have a plain and apparent reason not only of the 28 Episcopal Sees erected anciently in the British Church but why three of them and three only should be Metropolitans For howsoever after this there were two other Provinces taken out of the former three viz. Valentia and Flavia Caesariensis which added to the former Id. ibid. made up five in all yet this being after the conclusion of the Nicene Council the Metropolitan dignity in the Church remained as before it did without division or abatement according to the Canon of that famous Synod Concil Nicen. Can. 6. And herewithal we have a pregnant and infallible Argument that Britain being in it self a whole and compleat Diocese of the Roman Empire no way subordinate unto the Praefect of the City of Rome but under the command of its own Vicarius or Lieutenant-General the British Church was also absolute and independent owing nor suit nor service as we use to say unto the Patriarch or Primate of the Church of Rome but only to its own peculiar and immediate Primate as it was elsewhere in the Churches of the other Dioceses of the Roman Empire This I conceive to be the true condition of the British Church and the most likely reason for the number of Bishops and Arch-bishops here established according to the truth of Story abstracted from those errours and mistakes which in the middle Ages of the Church have by the Monkish Writers of those times been made up with them But for the substance of the story as by them delivered which is the planting of the Church with Bishops in eminent places that appears evidently true by such remainders of antiquity as have escaped the tyranny and wrack of time For in the Council held at Arles in France Anno 314. Tom. 1. Concilior Gall. Ã Sirmundo edit we find three British Bishops at once subscribing viz. Eborius Bish of York Restitutus B. of London and Adelfus B. of Colchester there called Colonia Londinensium Gennadius also in his Tract de viris illustribus mentioneth one Fastidius by the name of Fastidius Britanniarum Episcopus Gennad in Catal amongst the famous Writers of old time placing him Anno 420 or thereabouts whom B. God win I cannot tell upon what reasons Godwin in Catal. Episc Londinens Cit. ap Armachan de Primor c. 5. Cambden in Brigant reckoneth amongst the Bishops of the See of London Particularly for the Bishops or Archbishops of the British Church we have a Catalogue of the Metropolitans of London collected or made up by Joceline a Monk of Fournest an ancient Monastery in the North being 14 in all which howsoever the validity thereof may perhaps be questioned by more curious Wits yet I shall lay down as I find it taking their names from him that little story which concerns them out of other Writers First then we have Theon or Theonus 2 Eluanus one of the two Ambassadours sent by King Lucius to the Pope 3 Cadar or Cadoeus 4 Obinus or Owinus 5 Conanus 6 Palladius 7 Stephanus 8 Iltutus 9 Theodwinus 10 Theodredus 11 Hilarius Geosr Monmouth hist Brit. Speed in descr Britan. 12 Guitelinus sent as Ambassadour to Aldrocnus King of Armorica or Little-Britain to crave his aid against the Scots and Picts who then plagued the Britains 13 Vodius or Vodinus slain by Hengist but some say by Vortiger at the first entrance of the Sateons into this Isle 14 And last of all Theonus who had been sometimes Bishop of Gloncester but was after translated hither and was the last Bishop of London of this line or Series Of
Tertul. lib. de jejuniis c. 13. That Bishops use to impose Fasts upon the people is not done of purpose for lucre or the Alms then given but out of a regard of the Churches welfare or the sollicitousness which they have thereof Wherein as he removes a cavil which as it seems was cast upon the Church about the calling of those Fasts so plainly he ascribes the calling of them to the Bishop only according unto whose appointment in unum omnes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 agitabant they met together for the humbling of themselves before God the Lord. So for disposing of the Churches Treasure for Menstrua quaque die modicam quisque stipem vel quam velit Id. in Apol. c. every month the people used to bring their Offerings as we call them now every man as he would and could that also appertained unto the Bishop Which as it was distributed most commonly amongst the Clergy for their present maintenance so was it in the Bishops power to bestow part thereof upon other uses as in relief of Widows and poor Virgins which appears plainly in that place and passage of Tertullian Tertul. de Virg. veland cap. 9. in his book de Virginibus velandis where speaking of a Virgin which contrary to the custom of the Church had been admitted into the rank of Widows he adds cui si quid refrigerii debuerat Episcopus that if the Bishop did intend to allow her any thing towards her relief and maintenance he might have done it without trespassing on the Churches discipline and setting up so strange a Monster as a Virgin-Widow And this is that which after was confirmed in the Council of Antioch Conc. Antioch Can. 25. where it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Bishop ought to have authority in the disposing of the things or goods that appertained unto the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that so he might dispose them unto such as stood in need in the fear of God Finally for the reconciling of a Penitent to the Church of God in the remitting of his sins Tertul. de pudicitia cap. 18. and bringing of him back to the fold again that in Tertullians time was a Peculiar of the Bishop also For speaking of Repentance after Faith received de poenitentia post fidem as he calls it he is content to give this efficacy thereunto though otherwise he held being then a Montanist that heinous Sinners after Grace received were not to be admitted to Repentance I say he is content to give this efficacy thereunto that for smaller sins it may obtain pardon or remission from the Bishop for greater and unpardonable from God alone But take his own words with you for the greater surety and his words are these viz. Salva illa poenitentiae specie post fidem quae aut levioribus delictis veniam ab Episcopo consequi potest aut majoribus irremissibilibus à Deo solo Pamel Annot. praedict lib. 159. In which Pamelius seems to wonder at his moderation as being of a better temper in this point than was Montanus into whose Sect he now was fallen who would have no man to make confession of his sins to any other than to God and seek for reconciliation from no hands but from his alone And in another place of the same book also Tertul. lib. de Pudicit cap. 1. although he seem to jeer and deride the usage he granteth that the Bishops of the Christian Church did usually remit even the greatest fins upon the performance of the Penance formerly enjoyned For thus he bringeth in the Bishop whom in the way of scorn he calleth Pontifex Maximus and Episcopus Episcoporum proclaiming as it were a general Pardon to such as had performed their Penance Ego moechiae fornicationis delicta poenitenti functis dimitto that he remitted to all such even the sins of Fornication and Adultery Which words of his declare not more his Errour than the Bishops Power in this particular What interest the Presbyters of the Church did either challenge or enjoy in this weighty business of reconciling Penitents to the Lord their God we shall see hereafter when as the same began to be in practice and was by them put in execution Mean time I take it for a manifest and undoubted Truth that properly originally and in chief it did belong unto the Bishop both to enjoyn Penance and admit the Penitent and not to the inferiour Presbyters but as they had authority by and under him Which lest I may be thought to affirm at random let us behold the manner of this Reconciliation as layed down by Sozomen Sozomen Eccl. hist l. 7. c. 16. not as relating to his own times but to the times whereof we speak 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. They stand saith he in an appointed place sorrowful and lamented and when the Eucharist is ended whereof they are not suffered to be partakers they cast themselves with grief and lamentation flat upon the ground 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Bishop then approaching towards him kneeleth also by him on the ground and all the multitude also do the like with great grief and ejulation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This done the Bishop riseth first and gently raiseth up the prostrate Penitent and having prayed for those that are thus in the state of Penance as much as he thinks fit and requisite they are dismissed for the present And being thus dismissed every man privately at home doth afflict himself either by fasting or by abstinence from Meats and Bathes for a certain time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as long as by the Bishop is enjoyned him Which time appointed being come and his Penance in this sort performed he is absolved from his sins sins 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and joyned again unto the residue of the Congregation And this saith he hath been the custom of the Western Church and especially of the Church of Rome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the very first beginning to this present time So that both in the City of Rome in which Tertullian sometimes lived and in the Western Church whereof he was a member being a Presbyter of Carthage and in the times in which he flourished for thus it was from the beginning the Bishop regularly had the power both of enjoyning Penance and reconciling of the Penitent as it still continueth Nor doth that passage in Tertullian any way cross the point delivered where speaking of the several acts of humiliation which were to be performed by the Penitent before he could be reconciled to the Church of God Tertul. lib. de Poenitent c. 9. he reckoneth these amongst the rest Presbyteris advolvi aris or caris Dei adgeniculari for whether of the two it is adbuc sub Judice omnibus fratribus legationes deprecationis suae injungere to cast themselves before the Presbyters to kneel before the Altars or the Saints of God to entreat the Prayers
Bishops there Assembled being sixteen in all Ib. ibid. as by S. Cyprian is recorded Which as it was the manner of Electing not only of the Bishops of Rome but of most Bishops else Leo. Epist 89. in the times we speak of so it continued long in use the voices of the Clergy in the point and substance the presence and approbation of the people for the form and ceremony electio Clericorum and testimonia populorum being joyned together by Pope Leo. Now the condition of the Church of Rome under this Cornelius besides the Schism raised in it by Novatianus of which more anon is to be seen most fully in a Letter of his to Fabius Patriarch of Antiochia Extat ap Ruseb hist l. 6. c. 35. p. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in which he certifieth him that besides the Bishop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who was but one in every Church and could not be more there were forty-six Presbyters seven Deacons and Sub-Deacons seven forty-two Acolythites Exorcists Readers Sextons Ostiarij fifty-two in all Widows and other poor People pressed with want and sickness fifteen hundred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All which saith he are maintained at the publick charge by the grace and bounty of the Lord. Out of which place and passage of my Author there are these several points to be considered in reference to our present business First the exceeding large revenue of the Church of Rome in these early days so great as to maintain the numbers before specified according to the rank and quality of each particular the distribution of the which did ordinarily and of common course belong unto the Bishop only or such to whom he pleased to entrust the same And secondly we may observe the singularity of succession wherein the Bishop differed from the other Clergy he being but one they many in their ranks and stations sometimes more sometimes fewer according to the greatness of the Church in which they served and the emergent necessities and occasions of it Here in the Church of Rome to one only Bishop we find a Clergy of inferior Ministers consisting of 154 persons which doubtless was exceedingly increased in the following times Hierom. in epist ad Evagr. Hierom complaining in his time Presbyteros turbam contemptibiles facere that the great number of them made them be the less regarded And last of all we may observe that though Cornelius mentioneth Acolythites Readers Sub-Deacons Exorcists and Sextons these are not to be reckoned as distinct Orders in the Church although now so accounted in the Church of Rome but only several services and imployments which were required in the same Concerning which take here the learned resolution of judicious Hooker Hooker Eccl. Polit. l. 5. n. 78. There is an error saith he which beguileth many who much intangle both themselves and others by not distinguishing Services Offices and Orders Ecclesiastical the first of which three and in part the second may be executed by the Laity whereas none have or can have the third but the Clergy Catechists Exorcists Readers Singers and the rest of like sort if the nature only of their labour and pains be considered may in that respect seem Clergy-men even as the Fathers for that cause term them usually Clerks as also in regard of the end whereunto they were trained up which was to be ordered or ordained when years and experience should make them able Notwithstanding in as much as they no way differed from others of the Laity longer than during that work of Service which at any time they might give over being thereunto but admitted not tied by irrevocable Ordination we find them always exactly severed from that body whereof those three before rehearsed Orders of Bishops Presbyters and Deacons only are the natural parts So the judicious Divine indeed as one truly calls him I add this further of Cornelius Holy Table having thus fallen upon the Orders in the state Ecclesiastick that he had passed through all inferior Offices per omnia Ecclesiastica officia promotus as Saint Cyprian hath it Cypr. Ep. 52. and exercised each several Ministery in the Church of God before he mounted to this height ad Sacerdotij sublime fastigium are the Fathers words which shewed that the estate of Bishops was as a different office so an higher dignity than any other in the Church Now as the speech of Heaven doth many times put us in mind of Hell so this relation of Cornelius an holy Bishop and a Martyr occasioneth me to speak of Novatianus in whom it is not easie to determine whether the Heretick or the Schismatick had the most predominancy Certain it is he proved in both respects one of the cunningest instruments of Satan for the disturbance of the Church who suffered most extreamly by him both in peace and truth the Schism or Heresie by him raised at this very time being both more suddain in the growth and permanent in the duration of it than ever had been set on foot before in the Church of Christ Now this Novatianus was a Presbyter of the Church of Rome and being much offended as well at the Election of Cornelius as that himself was pretermitted in the choice associates himself with one Novatus an African Bishop as near unto him in conditions as he was in name whom Cyprian omnium sacerdotum voce Cypr. Epist 49. by the consent and suffrages of all his Comprovincial Bishops had before condemned By them it was agreed that Novatianus should take upon himself the name and title of the Bishop of Rome And being there could be no shew nor colour for it did he not first receive Episcopal Consecration from some hands or other they sent unto the obscurest parts of Italy Euseb hist Eccl. lib. 6. c. 35. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as my Author hath it to find out three poor Countrey Bishops that had not been acquainted with the like affairs Who being come to Rome and circumvented by the Arts of these wicked men and partly also forced by their threats and menaces 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they Ordained him Bishop if at the least an Act so void and null from the beginning may be called an Ordination And this being done because they found that people naturally are inclined to imbrace new fancies especially where pretence of piety seems to bear a stroke they took upon them to be very strict in their conversation precise in their opinions and wonderfully devout in all their carriage raising withal this doctrine suitable thereto That such as fell in time of Persecution though they repented never so truly and did what ever was thought necessary to testifie their grief and sorrow for their great offence yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there was no hope of their salvation Id. ibid. no mercy to be looked for at the hands of God By means whereof they drew unto their side some Confessors as they called
day that now they will not be persuaded that it is a Dream For the awakening of the which and their reduction to more sound and sensible Counsels next to my duty to Gods Church and your Sacred Majesty have I applied my self to compose this Story wherein I doubt not but to shew them how much they have deceived both themselves and others in making the old Jewish Sabbath of equal age and observation with the Law of Nature and preaching their new Sabbath-Doctrines in the Church of Christ with which the Church hath no acquaintance wherein I doubt not but to shew them that by their obstinate resolution not to make Publication of your Majesties pleasure they tacitely condemn not only all the Fathers of the Primitive times the Learned Writers of all Ages many most godly Kings and Princes of the former days and not few Councils of chief note and of faith unquestionable but even all states of Men Nations and Churches at this present whom they most esteem This makes your Majesties interest so particular in this present History that were I not obliged unto your Majesty in any nearer bond than that of every common Subject it could not be devoted unto any other with so just propriety But being it is the work of your Majesties Servant and in part fashioned at those times which by your Majesties leave were borrowed from Attendance on your Sacred Person your Majesty hath also all the rights unto it of a Lord and Master Institut l. 1. tit 8. §. 1. So that according to that Maxim of the Civil Laws Quodcunque per servum acquiritur id domino acquirit suo your Majesty hath as absolute power to dispose thereof as of the Author who is Dread Soveraign Your Majesties most Obedient Subject and most faithful Servant PET. HEYLYN A PREFACE To them who being themselves mistaken have misguided others in these new Doctrines of the Sabbath NOT out of any humour or desire of being in action or that I love to have my hands in any of those publick quarrels wherewith our peace hath been disturbed but that Posterity might not say we have been wanting for our parts to your information and the direction of Gods People in the ways of truth have I adventured on this Story A Story which shall represent unto you the constant practice of Gods Church in the present business from the Creation to these days that so you may the better see how you are gone astray from the paths of Truth and tendries of Antiquity and from the present judgment of all Men and Churches The Arguments whereto you trust and upon seeming strength whereof you have been emboldned to press these Sabbatarian Doctrins upon the Consciences of poor people I purpose not to meddle with in this Discourse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They have been elsewhere throughly canvassed and all those seeming strengths beat down by which you were your selves misguided and by the which you have since wrought on the affections of unlearned men or such at least that judged not of them by their weight but by their numbers But where you give it out as in matter of fact how that the Sabbath was ordained by God in Paradise and kept accordingly by all the Patriarchs before Moses time or otherwise ingraft by Nature in the soul of man and so in use also amongst the Gentiles In that I have adventured to let men see that you are very much mistaken and tell us things directly contrary unto truth of Story Next where it is the ground-work of all your building that the Commandment of the Sabbath is Moral Natural and Perpetual as punctually to be observed as any other of the first or second Table I doubt not but it will appear by this following History that it was never so esteemed of by the Jews themselves no not when as the observation of the same was most severely pressed upon them by the Law and Prophets nor when the day was made most burdensome unto them by the Scribes and Pharisees Lastly whereas you make the Lords day to be an institution of our Saviour Christ confirmed by the continual usage of the holy Apostles and both by him and them imposed as a perpetual Ordinance on the Christian Church making your selves believe that so it was observed in the times before as you have taught us to observe it in these latter days I have made manifest to the world that there is no such matter to be found at all either in any writings of the Apostles or monument of true Antiquity or in the practice of the middle or the present Churches What said I of the present Churches So I said indeed and doubt not but it will appear so in this following Story The present Churches all of them both Greek and Latin together with the Protestants of what name soever being far different both in their Doctrine and their practice from these new conceptions And here I cannot chuse but note that whereas those who first did set on foot these Doctrines in all their other practices to subvert this Church did bear themselves continually on the Authority of Calvin and the example of those Churches which came most near unto the Plat-form of Geneva In these their Sabbath-speculations they had not only none to follow but they found Calvin and Geneva and those other Churches directly contrary unto them However in all other matters they cryed up Calvin and his Writings Hooker in his Preface making his Books the very Canon to which both Discipline and Doctrine was to be confirmed yet hic magister non tenetur here by his leave they would forsake him and leave him fairly to himself that they themselves might have the glory of a new invention For you my Brethren and beloved in our Lord and Saviour as I do willingly believe that you have entertain'd these Tenets upon mis-persuasion not out of any ill intentions to the Church your Mother and that it is an errour in your judgments only not of your affections So upon that belief have I spared no pains as much as in me is to remove that errour and rectifie what is amiss in your opinion I hope you are not of those men Quos non persuadebis etiamsi persuaseris who either hate to be reformed or have so far espoused a quarrel that neither truth nor reason can divorce them from it Nor would I gladly you should be of their resolutions Qui volunt id verum esse quod credunt nolunt id credere quod verum est who are more apt to think all true which themselves believe than be persuaded to believe such things as are true indeed In confidence whereof as I was first induced to compose this History so in continuance of those hopes I have presumed to address it to you to tender it to your perusal and to submit it to your censure That if you are not better furnished you may learn from hence that you have trusted
Hom. 131. Gualter more generally that the Christians first assembled on the Sabbath day as being then most famous and so most in use but when the Churches were augmented preximus à sabbato dies rebus sacris destinatus the next day after the Sabbath was designed to those holy uses If not before then certainly not so commanded by our Saviour Christ and if designed only then not enjoyned by the Apostles Apoc. 1.10 Yea Beza though herein he differ from his Master Calvin and makes the Lords day meetings to be Apostolicae verae divinae traditionis to be indeed of Apostolical and divine Tradition yet being a Tradition only although Apostolical it is no Commandment And more than that he tells us in another place that from St. Pauls preaching at Troas and from the Text. In Act. 20. 1 Corinth 16.2 non inepte colligi it may be gathered not unfitly that then the Christians were accustomed to meet that day the ceremony of the Jewish Sabbath beginning by degrees to vanish But sure the custom of the people makes no divine Traditions and such conclusions as not unfitly may be gathered from the Text are not Text it self Others there be who attribute the changing of the day to the Apostles not to their precept but their practice So Mercer Apostoli in Dominicum converterunt In Gen. the Apostles changed the Sabbath to the Lords day in Gen. 2. Paraeus attributes the same Apostolicae Ecclesiae unto the Apostolical Church or Church in the Apostles time quomodo autem facta sit haec mutatio in sacris liberis expressum non habemus but how by what authority such a change was made is not delivered in the Scripture In Thesib p. 733. And John Cuchlinus though he call it consuetudinem Apostolicam an Apostolical custom yet he is peremptory that the Apostles gave no such Commandment Apostolos praeceptum reliquisse constanter negamus So Simler calls it only consuetudinem tempore Apostolorum receptam a custom taken up in the Apostles time And so Hospinian De sestis Chr. p. 24. although saith he it be apparent that the Lords day was celebrated in the place of the Jewish Sabbath even in the times of the Apostles non invenitur tamen vel Apostolos vel alios lege aliqua praecepto observationem ejus instituisse yet find we not that either they or any other did institute the keeping of the same by any law or precept but left it free In 4. praecept Thus Zanchius nullibi legimus Apostolos c. We do not read saith he that the Apostles commanded any to observe this day We only read what they and others did upon it liberum ergo reliquerunt which is an argument that they left it to the Churches power To those add Vrsin in his Exposition of the fourth Commandment liberum Ecclesiae reliquit alios dies eligere In Catech. Palat. and that the Church made choice of this in honour of our Saviours Resurrection Aretius in his Common-places Christiani in Dominicum transtulerunt Gomarus and Ryvet in the Tracts before remembred Both which have also there determined that in the chusing of this day the Church did exercise as well her Wisdom as her Freedom her freedom being not obliged unto any day by the Law of God her wisdom ne majori mutatione Judaeos offenderet that by so small an alteration she might the less offend the Jews who were then considerable As for the Lutheran Divines it is affirmed by Doctor bound that for the most part they ascribe too much unto the liberty of the Church in appointing days for the assembly of the people which is plain confession But for particulars Brentius as Doctor Prideaux tells us calls it civilem institutionem a civil institution and no commandment of the Gospel which is no more indeed than what is elsewhere said by Calvin when he accounts no otherwise thereof than ut remedium retinendo ordini necessarium as a fit way to retain order in the Church And sure I am Chemnitius tells us that the Apostles did not impose the keeping of this day as necessary upon the consciences of Gods people by any Law or Precept whatsoever sed libera fuit observatio ordinis gratia but that for orders sake it had been voluntarily used amongst them of their own accord Thus have we proved that by the Doctrine of the Protestants of what side soever and those of greatest credit in the several Churches eighteen by name and all the Lutherans in general of the same opinion that the Lords day is of no other institution than the authority of the Church Which proved the last of the three Theses that still the Church hath power to change the day and to transfer it to some other will follow of it self on the former grounds the Protestant Doctors before remembred in saying that the Church did institute the Lords day as we see they do confessing tacitely that still the Church hath power to change it Nor do they tacitely confess it as if they were affraid to speak it out but some of them in plain terms affirm it as a certain Truth Zuinglius the first Reformer of the Switzers hath resolved it so in his Discourse against one Valentine Gentilis a new Arian Heretick Audi mi Valentine quibus modis rationibus sabbatum ceremoniale reddatur Tom. 1. p. 254. ◠Harken now Valentine by what ways and means the Sabbath may be made a ceremony if either we observe that day which the Jews once did or think the Lords day so affixed unto any time ut nefas sit illum in aliud tempus transferre that we conceive it an impiety it should be changed unto another on which as well as upon that we may not rest from labour and harken to the Word of God if perhaps such necessity should be this would indeed make it become a ceremony Nothing can be more plain than this Yet Calvin is as plain when he professeth that he regardeth not so much the Number of seven ut ejus servituti Ecclesias astringeret as to enthral the Church unto it Sure I am Doctor Prideaux reckoneth him as one of them who teach us that the Church hath power to change the day and to transfer it to some other and that John Barclaie makes report In orat de Sab. how once he had a Consultation de transferenda Dominica in feriam quintam of altering the Lords day unto the Thursday Bucer affirms as much as touching the Authority and so doth Bullinger and Brentius Vrsine and Chemnitius as Doctor Prideaux hath observed Of Bullinger Bucer Brentius I have nought to say because the places are not cited but take it as I think I may upon his credit But for Chemnitius he saith often that it is libera observatio a voluntary observation that it is an especial part of our Christian liberty not to be tied to Days and Times in matters which
the works thereof he should have lost his salvation again which words of Chrysostom passing for a part of the Homily declare sufficiently that by the Doctrine of the Church in King Edwards time not only Faith but Justification once had may be lost again To the same purpose in the second part of the Homily against Swearing it is plainly said Page 50. That whosoever forsaketh the Truth for love or displeasure of any man or for lucre and profit to himself doth forsake Christ and with Judas betray him And somewhat also to this purpose may be found in the third Sermon against the peril of Idolatry Page 58. page 130. and in the second part of that touching the time and place of Prayer though not so proper at the present because not made within the compass or the first Reformation in King Edwards Reign and keeping my self within the compass I think it not amiss to present unto the eye of the Reader the second part of the Sermon about â—alling from God and to present the same verbatim as it stands in the Book and afterwards to clear it from all such evasions and Objections which the sullenness rather than the subtilty of some men have found out against it Now the said second Sermon beginning with a recapitulation of that which had been taught in the first is this that followeth She Second Part of the Sermon of falling from God In the former part of this Homily you have learned how many manner of ways men fall from God some by Idolatry some for lack of Faith some by neglecting of their Neighbours Hom. of falling from God Part 1. fol. 55. some by not hearing of Gods Word some by the pleasure they take in the vanities of worldly things you have also learned in what misery that man is which is gone from God and how that God yet of his infinite goodness to call again man from that his misery useth first gentle admonitions by his Preachers after he layeth on terrible threatnings Now if this gentle monition and threatning together do not serve then God will shew his terrible countenance upon us he will pour intolerable plagues upon our heads and after he will take away from us all his aid and assistance wherewith before he did defend us from all such manner of calamity as the Evangelical Prophet Isaiah agreeing with Christ his Parable Isa 5. Mat. 21. doth teach us saying That God hath made a goodly Vineyard for his beloved Children he hedged it he walled it round about he planted it with chosen Vines and made a Turret in the midst thereof gathering also a Wine-press and when he looked that it would bring forth good grapes it brought forth wild grapes and after it followeth Now shall I shew you saith God what I will do with my Vineyard I will pluck down the hedges thereof that it may perish I will break down the walls that it may be trodden under foot I will let it lie waste it shall not be cut it shall not be digged but bryers and thorns shall overgrow it and I will command the clouds that they shall no more rain upon it By these threatnings we are monished and warned that if we which are the chosen Vineyard of God bring not forth good grapes that is to say good works that may be delectable and pleasant in his sight when he looketh for them when he sendeth his Messengers to call upon us for them but rather bring forth wild grapes that is to say sour works unsavoury and unfruitful then will he pluck away all defence and suffer grievous plagues of famine battel dearth and death to light upon us Finally if these serve not he will let us lie waste he will give us over he will turn away from us he will dig and delve no more about us he will let us alone and suffer us to bring forth even such fruit as we will to bring forth brambles bryers and thorns all naughtiness all vice and that so abundantly that they shall clean over-grow choak strangle and utterly destroy us But they that in this World live not after God but after their own carnal liberty perceive not this great wrath of God towards them that he doth let them alone even to themselves but they take this for a great benefit of God to have all their own liberty and so they live as if carnal liberty were the true liberty of the Gospel But God forbid good people that ever we should desire such liberty for although God suffer sometimes the wicked to have their pleasure in this world yet the end of ungodly living is at length endless destruction the murmuring Israelites had that they longed for they had Quails enough yea till they were weary of them but what was the end thereof their sweet meat had sour sawce even whil'st the meat was in their mouths the plague of God alighted upon them and suddenly they died So if we live ungodly and God suffereth us to follow our own wills to have our own delights and pleasures and correcteth us not with some plagues it is no doubt but he is almost utterly displeased with us and although it be long ere he strike yet many times when he striketh such persons he striketh them once for ever so that when he doth not strike us when he ceaseth to afflict us to punish or beat us and suffereth us to run headlong into all ungodliness and pleasures of this world that we delight in without punishment or adversity it is a dreadful token that he loveth us no longer that be careth no longer for us but hath given us over to our selves As long as a man doth prune his Vines doth dig at the root and lay fresh earth to them be hath a mind to them he perceiveth some token of fruitfulness that may be recovered in them but when he will bestow no more such cost and labour about them it is a sign that he thinks they will never be good And the Father as long as he loveth his Child he looketh angerly he correcteth him when he doth amiss but when that serveth not and upon that he ceaseth from correction of him and suffereth him to do what he list himself it is a sign he intendeth to disinherit him and cast him away for ever so surely nothing should pierce our hearts so sore and put us into such horrible fear as when we know in our conscience that we have grievously offended God and do so continue that yet he striketh not but quietly suffereth us in the naughtiness that we here delight in then especially it is time to cry and to cry again as David did Cast me not away from thy face Psalm 51. and take not thy holy Spirit from me hide not thy face from me lest I be like unto them that go down into hell The which lamentable prayers of his as they do certifie us what horrible danger they be in from whom God
Papist nor Pelagian 3. The common practices of the Calvinists to defame their Adversaries the name of Freewill-men to whom given why 4. The Doctrine of John Knox in restraining all mens actions either good or evil to the determinate Will and Counsel of God 5. The like affirmed by the Author of the Table of Predestination in whom and the Genevian Notes we find Christ to be excluded from being the foundation of mans Election and made to be an inferiour cause of salvation only 6. God made to be the Author of sin by the Author of a Pamphlet entituled against a Privy Papist and his secret Counsels called in for the proof thereof both by him and Knox with the mischiefs which ensued upon it 7. The Doctrine of Robert Crowly imputing all mens sins to Predestination his silly defences for the same made good by a distinction of John Verons and the weakness of that distinction shewed by Campneys 8. The Errours of the former Authors opposed by Campneys his book in answer to those Errours together with his Orthodoxy in the point of universalRedemption and what he builds upon the same 9. Hissolid Arguments against the imputing of all actions either good or evil to Predestination justified by a saying of Prosper of Aquitaine 10. The virulent prosecutions of Veron and Crowly according to the Genius of the sect of Calvin THUS we have seen the Doctrine of the Church of England in the Five Controverted Points according to the Principles and persuasions of the first Reformers And to say truth it was but time that they should come to some conclusion in the Points disputed there being some men who in the beginning of the Reign of King Enward the sixth busily stickled in the maintenance of Calvins Doctrins And thinking themselves to be more Evangelical than the rest of their Brethren they either took unto themselves or had given by others the name of Gospellers Of this they were informed by the reverend Prelate and right godly Martyr Bishop Hooper in the Preface to his Exposition of the Ten Commandments Our Gospellers saith he be better learned than the holy Ghost for they wickedly attribute the cause of Punishments and Adversity to Gods Providence which is the cause of no ill as he himself can do no ill and over every mischief that is done they say it is Gods Will. In which we have the men and their Doctrine too the name of Gospellers and the reason why that name was ascribed unto them It is observed by the judicious Author of the Book called Europae Speculum that Calvin was the first of these latter times who search'd into the Counsels the Eternal Counsels of Almighty God And as it seems he found there some other Gospel than that which had been written by the four Evangelists from whence his followers in these Doctrines had the name of Gospellers for by that name I find them frequently called by Campneys also in an Epistolary Discourse where he clears himself from the crimes of Popery and Pelagianism which some of these new Gospellers had charged upon him which had I found in none but him it might have been ascribed to heat or passion in the agitation of these Quarrels but finding it given to them also by Bishop Hooper a temperate and modest man I must needs look upon it as the name of the Sect by which they were distinguished from other men And now I am fallen upon this Campneys it will not be unnecessary to say something of him in regard of the great part he is to act on the stage of this business Protestant he was of the first Edition cordially affected to the Doctrine of the Church of England in the present points but of a sharp and eager spirit And being not well weaned from some points of Popery in the first dawning of the day of our Reformation he gave occasion unto some of those whom he had exasperated to inform against him that they prosecuted the complaint so far that he was forced to bear a faggot at St. Pauls Cross as the custom was in all such cases Miles Coverdale then or not long after Bishop of Exon preaching a Sermon at the same But whatsoever he was then in other Doctrinals he hath sufficiently purged himself from the crimes of Popery and Pelagianism wherewith he had been charged by those of the adverse Party Answer to a certain Letter p. 3. For whereas one William Samuel had either preached or written in Queen Maries times That a man might deserve God c. Campneys beholds it for a Doctrine so blasphemous and abominable that neither Papists nor Pelagians nor any other Heretick old or new hath ever-written or maintained a more filthy and execrable saying For it is the flat and manifest denying both of God the Father and of his Son Christ Jesus neither doth it require any confutation to him that doth but confess that there is a God And as for my self saith he I do not love my life so dearly as I hate this vile saying deadly He gives not long after to the Popish Pelagians the name of a filthy and detestable Sect. p. 5. mustereth up all the errours of Pelagius which had been publickly recanted in the Synod of Palestine and falling upon that which teacheth That the grace of God is given according unto our deserving he declares it to be vile and abominable contrary to the manifest mind and words of the Apostle p. 12. Finally Not to trouble my self with more particulars encountring with another of the Pelagian Heresies he passionately cries out O blasphemy intolerable O filthy puddle and sink most execrable full of stinking Errours full of damnable presumption like to the pride of Lucifer most abominable p. 15. This is enough to free this man from being either a Papist or Pelagian Heretick as his Enemies made him And for the other reproach which they laid upon him of being an Enemy to Gods Predestination I conceive it will not be regarded as a matter of moment considering the Disputes between them and the usual acts of the Calvinians to defame their Adversaries We shewed before how Bogerman Paraeus and the rest of the Calvinian Sect reproach'd the Remonstrants with Pelagianism in their publick Writings though as free from it as themselves We shewed before how Cross in the continuation of his Belgick History imposeth on them for some of their detestable Opinions that they made God to be the Author of sin and that he had created the infinitely greatest part of mankind to no other end but to burn them in Hell-fire for ever which horrid blasphemies they both abominated and confuted to their best abilities The like unworthy practices were used by Calvin and Beza against Sebastian Castel a man of no less learning but of far more modesty and moderation than either of them whom they never left persecuting and reviling till they had first cast him out of Geneva and afterwards brought him to his grave And this they
occasion to these controversies many appearing in defence of Perkins and his Opinions which afterwards involved the Sublapsarians in the self same quarrel Hal. in Holy State p. 50. Amongst our selves it was objected That his Doctrine referring all to an absolute decree ham-string'd all industry and cut off the sinews of mens endeavours towards salvation for ascribing all to the wind of Gods Spirit which bloweth where it listeth he leaveth nothing to the cares of mens diligence either to help or hinder to the attaining of happiness but rather opens a wide door to licentious security Absolv contr Tompsoni Diatrib But none of all our English was so sharp in their censures of him as Dr. Robert Abbot then Dr. of the Chair in Oxon and not long after Bishop of Sarum who in his book against Thompson though otherwise inclined too much to Calvins Doctrines gives this judgment of Mr. Perkinsius viz. Alioqui eruditus pius in discriptione Divinae Praedestinationis quam ille contra nostram contra veteris Ecclesiae fidem citra lapsum Adami absolute decretum constituit erravit errorem non levem cujus adortis quibusdam viris inita jamdudum suscepta defensio turbas ecclesiis non necessarias dedit quas etiamnum non sine scandalo periculo haerere videmus dum viam quisque quam ingressus est sibi ante tenendum judicat quam ductam sacrarum literarum authoritate lineam veritatis tanquam filum Ariadnaeum sibi ducem faciat that is to say Perkins though otherwise a godly and learned man in his description of Divine Predestination which contrary not only to the Doctrine of the primitive times but also unto that of the Church of England he builds upon an absolute decree of Almighty God without reference to the Fall of Adam ran himself into no small error The defence whereof being undertaken by some learned men hath given the Church some more than necessary troubles which still continued not without manifest scandal and danger to it whilst every one doth rather chuse to follow his own way therein than suffer himself to be guided in the Labyrinth by the line of truth as by the Clew of Ariadne drawn from the undeniable Authority of holy Scriptures And so I leave the man with this observation that he who in his writings had made the infinitly greatest part of all man-kind uncapable of Gods grace and mercy by an absolute and irrespective decree of Reprobation who in expounding the Commandments when he was Catechist of Christs Colledge in Cambridge did lay the Law so home in the ears of his Auditors that it made their hearts fall down Holy State p. 90. and yea their hair to stand almost upright and in his preaching use to pronounce the word Damned with so strong an Emphasis that it left an eccho in the ears of his hearers a long time after this man scarce lived out half his days being no more than forty-four years of age from the time of his death at the pangs conducing unto which he was noted to speak nothing so articulately as Mercy Mercy which I hope God did graciously vouchsafe to grant him in that woful Agony But to proceed this Doctrine finding many followers and Whitacres himself then Dr. of the Chair in Cambridge concurring in opinion with him it might have quickly over-spread the whole University had it not been in part prevented and in part suppressed by the care and diligence of Dr. Baroe and his Adherents who being a French man born of eminent piety and learning and not inclinable at all unto Calvins Doctrines had been made the Lady Margarets Professor for the University somewhat before the year 1574. For in that year he published his Lectures on the Prophet Jonah In one of which being the 29th in number he discourseth on these words of the Prophet viz. Baroe Fraelect 29. p. 216. Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be destroyed cap. 3. ver 4. where we find it thus Haec denunciatio non est quasi Proclamatio decreti divini absoluti sed quaedam patio praeponendae divinae voluntatis qua Deus eorum animos flectere voluit quare haec oratio etsi simplex absoluta videatur tacitam tamen habet conditionem nisi rescipiscant namque hanc in esse conditionem eventus comprobavit The denouncing of this Judgment saith that learned man is not to be beheld as the publication of one of Gods absolute Decrees but only as a form observed in making Gods Will known unto them by which he meant to put them to it and rouse their spirits to Repentance Therefore saith he although the Denunciation of the following Judgment seem to be simply positive and absolute yet hath it notwithstanding this Condition that is to say unless they do repent included in it for that such a Condition was included in it the event doth shew which said he leads us on to the denouncing of the like Judgment on the house of Abimelech which he had before in Dr. King Chap. 18. Num. 11. who herein either followed Baroe or at the least concurred in Opinion with him And in the next place he proceeds a little further than the case of the Ninevites Baroe Prael â—i 32. p. 217. touching upon the point of Election unto life Eternal by the most proper superstructure could be laid upon such a foundation Dei voluntas non erat ut perirent si rescipiscerent non vult enim mortem preccatoris sed ut convertatur Et rursus Dei erat voluntas ut perirent nisi rescipiscerent Haec enim duo unum sunt ut Dei voluntas est ut vitam habeamus si credamus Et Dei voluntas non est ut vitam habeamus nisi credamus aut si credentes perseveremus non autem si aliquandiu credentes non perseveremus that is to say It was not the Will of God that they should perish if they did repent For God desireth not the death of a sinner but rather that he be converted and live and yet it was his will that they should perish if they did not repent for these two are one as for Example It is the Will of God saith he that we should have eternal life if we believe and constantly persevere in the faith of Christ And it it is not the will of God that we should have eternal life if we do not believe or believing only for a time do not persevere therein to the end of our lives which point he further proves by the condition of the Message sent from God to Hezekiah by the Prophet Isaiah 2 Kings 20.1 as before was said in Dr. King For which together with the rest of his discourse upon that occasion concerning the consistency of these alterations with the immutability or unchangeableness of Almighty God I shall refer the Reader to the book it self So far that learned man had declared himself upon occasion of that Text and the case
to be affirmed by the Bishops of Rochester Oxon and St. Davids in a Letter to the Duke of Buchingham August 2. 1625. In which they signifie unto him that the said Articles being agreed upon and ready to be published it pleased Queen Elizabeth of famous memory upon notice given how little they agreed with the practice of piety and obedience to all Government to cause them to be suppressed and that they had so continued ever since till then of late some of them had received countenance at the Synod of Dort Next touching the effect produced by them in order to the end so proposed so far they were from appeasing the present Controversies and suppressing Baroe and his party that his disciples and Adherents became more united and the breach wider than before And though Dr. Baroe not long after deserted his place in the University yet neither was he deprived of his Professorship as some say not forced to leave it on a fear of being deprived as is said by others For that Professorship being chosen from two years to two years according to the Statutes of the Lady Margaret he kept the place till the expiring of his term and then gave off without so much as shewing himself a Suiter for it Which had he done it may be probable enough that he had carried it from any other Candidate or Competitor of what rank soever The Anti-Calvinian party being grown so strong as not to be easily overborn in a publick business by the opposite faction And this appears plainly by that which followed on the death of Dr. Whitacres who died within few days after his return from Lambeth with the nine Articles so much talk'd of Two Candidates appeared for the Professorship after his decease Wotton of Kings Collegd a professed Calvinian and one of those who wrote against Mountague's Appeal Anno 1626. Competitor with Overald of Trinity Colledg almost as far from the Calvinian doctrine in the main Platform of Predestination as Baroe Harsnet or Barret are conceived to be But when it came to the Vote of the University the place was carried for Overald by the Major part which as it plainly shews that though the doctrines of Calvin were so hotly stickled here by most of the Heads yet the greater part of the learned Body entertained them not so doth it make it also to be very improbable that Baroe should be put out of his place by those who had taken in Overald or not confirmed therein if he had desired And therefore we may rather think as before is said that he relinquished the place of his own accord in which he found his Doctrine crossed by the Lambeth Articles and afterwards his peace distracted dy several Informations brought against him by the adverse faction and thereupon a Letter of Complaint presented to the Lord Treasurer Burleigh subscribed by most of those who before had prosecuted Barret to his Recantation Which Letter giving very great light to the present business as well concerning Barret as Baroe though principally aimed at the last I think worthy of my pains and the Readers patience and therefore shall subscribe it as hereafter followeth A Copy of the Letter sent from some of the Heads in Cambridge to the Lord Burleigh Lord High Treasurer of England and Chancellor of the University RIGHT HONOURABLE our bounden duty remembred we are right sorry to have such occasion to trouble your Lordship but the peace of this University and Church which is dear unto us being brought into peril by the late reviving of new Opinions and troublesom Controversies amongst us hath urged us in regard of the places we here sustain not only to be careful for the suppressing the same to our power but also to give your Lordship further information hereof as our honourable Head and careful Chancellor About a year past amongst divers others who here attempted publickly to teach new and strange Opinions in Religion one Mr. Barret more boldly than the rest did preach divers Popish Errors in St. Maries to the just offence of many which he was enjoyned to retract but hath refused so to do in such sort as hath been prescribed with whose fact and Opinions your Lordship was made acquainted hy Dr. Some the Deputy Vice-Chancellour Hereby offence and division growing as after by Dr Baroes publick Lectures and determinations in the Schools contrary as his Auditors have informed to Dr. Whitacres and the sound received Truth ever since her Majesties Reign we sent up to London by common consent in November last Dr Tyndal and Dr. Whitacres men especially chosen for that purpose for conference with my Lord of Canterbury and other principal Divines there that the Controversies being examined and the truth by their consents confirmed the contrary Errours and contentions thereabouts might the rather cease By whose good travel with sound consent in Truth such advice and care was taken by certain Propositions containing certain substantial points of Religion taught and received in this University and Church during the time of her Majesties Reign and consented unto and published by the best approved Divines both at home and abroad for the maintaining of the same truth and peace of the Church as thereby we enjoyed here great and comfortable quiet until Dr. Baroe in January last in his Sermon Ad Clerum in St. Maries contrary to restraint and Commandment from the Vice-Chancellour and the Heads by renewing again these Opinions disturbed our peace whereby his Adherents and disciples were and are too much emboldned to maintain false doctrine to the corrupting and disturbing of this University and the Church if it be not in time effectually prevented For remedy whereof we have with joint consent and care upon complaint of divers Batchelors of Divinity proceeded in the examination of the cause according to our Statutes and usual manner of proceeding in such causes whereby it appeareth by sufficient Testimonies that Dr. Baroe hath offended in such things as his Articles had charged him withal There is also since the former another Complaint preferred against him by certain Batchelors in Divinity that he hath not only in the Sermon but also for the space of this fourteen or fifteen years taught in his Lectures preached in his Sermons determined in the Schools and printed in several books divers points of doctrine not only contrary to himself but also contrary to that which hath been taught and received ever since her Majesties Reign and agreeable to the Errors of Popery which we know your Lordship hath always disliked and hated so that we who for the space of many years past have yielded him sundry benefits and favours here in the University being a stranger and forborn him when he hath often heretofore busie and curious in aliena Republica broached new and strange questions in Religion now unless we should be careless of maintaining the truth of Relgiion established and of our duties in our places cannot being resolved and confirmed in the truth of 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
the good and gracious but even to cruel Princes and ungodly Tyrants 4. With Answer unto such Objections as are made against it 5. The Principles of Disobedience in the supposal of some popular Officers ordained of purpose te regulate the power of Kings 6. How much the practice of Calvin's followers doth differ from their Masters Doctrine in the point of Obedience 7. Severasl Articles and points of Doctrine wherein the Disciples of Calvin are departed from him 8. More of the differences in point of Doctrine betwixt the Master and his Scholars 9. The dangerous consequences which arise from his faulty Principles in the point or Article of Disobedience 10. The method and distribution of the following Work SOME Writers may be likened unto Jeremies Figs of which the Prophet saith that if they were good they were very good Jerem. 24.4 if evil very evil such as could not be eaten they were so evil Of such a tempera nd esteem was Origen amongst the Ancients of whom it was observed not without good cause that in his Expositions of the Book of God and other learned Tractates which he writ and published where he did well none could do it better and where he failed at all no man erred more grosly And of this sort and composition was Mr. Calvin of Geneva than whom there is not any Minister of the Reformed Churches beyond the Seas who hath more positively expresly laid down the Doctrine of Obedience unto Kings and Princes and the unlawfulness of Subjects taking Arms against their Soveraign nor opened a more dangerous gap to disobedience and rebellions in most States of Christendom In which it is most strange to see how prone we are such is the frailty and corruption of our sinful nature to refuse the good and choose the evil to take no notice of his words when it most concerns us when we are plainly told our duties both to God and man and on the other side to take his words for Oracles his Judgment for infallible all his Geese for Swans when he saith any thing which may be useful to our purposes or serve to the advancement of our lewd designs The credit and authority of the man was deservedly great amongst the people where he lived and in short time of such authority and esteem in the World abroad that his works were made the only Rule to which both Discipline and Doctrine was to be conformed and if a Controversie did arise either in points Dogmatical or a case of Conscience his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was sufficient to determine in it at least to silence the gainsayers And as it is observed in the works of Nature that corruptio optimi est pessima and that the sweetest meats make the sourest exrements so the opinion and esteem which some of the Reformed Churches and conceived of him which to say the truth was great and eminent and the ill use they made of some words and passages in his Writings which most unfortunately served to advance their purposes in his Writings which most unfortunately served to advance their purposes have been the sad occasion of those Wars and miseries which almost all the Western parts of Christendom have been so fatally involved in since the times he lived Which words and passage as they are cautelously laid down and compassed round with many fair expressions of affection to the Supream Powers that they might pass without discovery and be the sooner swallowed by unwary men so by his followers who are exceeding wise in their Generations have they been hidden and concealed with all art that may be For though they build their dangerous Doctrines upon his foundation and toss this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this ball of discord and dissension from one hand to another yet do they very cunningly conceal their Author and never use his name to confirm their Tenets And this they do upon this reason that if their Doctrine give offence unto Christian Princes and any of their Pamphlets be to feel the fire or otherwise come under any publick censure as not lonce since hapned to Paraeus the Patron of their Sect might escape untouched and his authority remain unquestioned to give new life unto their hopes at another time In which respects and withal seeing that the heads of this monstrous Hydra of sedition do grow the faster for the cutting and that the lopping off the Branches keeps the Trunk the fresher I shall pass by the petit Pamphleters of these times and strike directly at the head and without medling with the boughs or branches will lay my Ax immediately to the root of the Tree and bring the first Author of these factious and Antimonarchical Principles which have so long disturbed the peace of Christendom to a publick trial A dangerous and invidious undertaking I must needs confess but for my Countreys and the truths sake I will venture on it and in pursuance of the same will first lay down the doctrine of Obedience as by him delivered which I shall faithfully translate without gloss or descant and next compare his Doctrine with our present practice noting wherein his Scholars have forsaken their Master with application unto those who do most admire him and finally I shall discover and remove that Stumbling-block which he hath cunningly laid before us but hid so secretly that it can hardly be discerned at which so many a man hath stumbled both to the breaking of his own neck and his Neighbours too This is the race that I am to run the prize I aim at is no other than forasmuch as in me lieth to do good to all men to those especially who think themselves to be of the houshold of Faith And therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us on in Gods Name Subditorum erga suos Magistratus Officium primum est de eorum functione quà m honorificientissimè sentire Calvin Instit l. 4. c. 20. fect 22. c. the first duty of the Subjects towards their Magistrates is to think wondrous honourably of their place and function which they acknowledg to be a jurisdiction delegated by Almighty God and therefore are by consequence to respect and reverence them as the Ministers and Deputies of God For some there are who very dutifully do behave themselves towards their Magistrates and would have all men do the like because they think it most expedient for the Common-wealth and yet esteem no otherwise of them than of some necessary evils which they cannot want 1 Pet. 2.17 Prov. 24.21 But St Peter looks for more than this when he commandeth us to honour the King and so doth Solomon also where he requires us to fear God and the King For the first under the term of honouring comprehends a good esteem a fair opinion the other joyning God and the King together shews plainly that in the person of a King there is a Ray of sacred majesty And that of Paul is richly worth our observation Rom. 13.5 where