electus superponeretur caeteris Rev. 2. 3. 1. It is Unus it is One not many that the care of the Church might especially belong to one Christ directs his message to the Angel individually of such or such a Church 2. He must be Electus of whom Hierome saith not of that more anon but I dare say considering the time of which Hierome speaks it was not without the consent of the Apostles if not by them 3. Note out of whom he was to be elected it was de Presbyteris and I shall prove unto you after that they were no Lay-men 4. Ut superponerentur caeteris He was to be super over the rest whether Clergy or Laity and that not onely in preheminence honour and dignity but in power of jurisdiction also for otherwise how could the end be obtained here aimed at how could Schisme be restrained and removed Thus far you see what makes for me and now I shall clear up what seemingly makes against me in this testimony 1. The fiâ—st words seeme against me For Hierome saith Idem est Presbyter quod Episcopus But he can meane no more than that the Bishop is sometimes called a Presbyter The Names then may be common that 's true but not the Office Now the Office consists in Ordination and Jurisdiction as I shall by and by make appear That Presbyter and Episcopus was Idem ordinatione and consequenly in Office Jerome could not meane except he should contradict himself Hieron ad Evagium Ordination he reserves to a Bishop and debarres a Presbyter from it Quid facit Episcopus quod Presbyter non faciat exceptâ ordinatione Mark the mood is potential He may not do it He may not meddle with Ordination for that sure belongs to the Bishop in his own judgment In this power then the Identity lies not 2. He must then meane in Jurisdiction and that this is his meaning is apparent by those words Communi Presbyterorum consilio Ecclesiae gubernabantur which your side catch at too as making for the present Ruling Presbytery as indeed at the first sight they may but throughly lookt into nothing at all I will shew you where the mistake lies First in the word Presbytery for yours apply it to the whole Presbytery Lay and Clergy whereas Hierom as is manifest speaks onely of the Ecclesiastique for it is of the Presbytery that was before or when those Schismes reigned Secondly he saith gubernabantur in imperfecto and when was that in the Apostles dayes for then in a Church that had a Presbytery without a Bishop put case at Corinth or had a Presbytery with a Bishop over them as at Jerusalem Antioch Alexandria Ephesus it is most true Communi Presbyterorum consilio gubernabantur the Presbyters were admitted in partem sâ—llicitudinis It cannot be denied that the Apostles ordaining these Presbyters had power in themselves and might have governed durante vita alone retaining the power when then they gave any power to others it was deligated for I hope they lost none of their power in giving Orders Whence it will follow that the Presbyters when admitted in some acts of Jurisdiction with the Apostles cannot challenge a right of governing affixed to their Order qua Presbyteri because they did assist in subordination and dependencie That the Apostles assumed these Presbyters in acts deliberative and consiliary to assist first at Jerusalem Acts 15. was a meer voluntary act from which example that it was derived to other Churches will not be denied and hence the last clause of Jeromes words will be most clear Noverint episcopi se magis consuetudine Ecclesiae quam Dominicae dispositionis veritate Presbyteris esse majores in communi debere Ecclesiam regere For by the Commission Sicut misit me Pater given to the Apostles and in them to their successors onely they could not challenge it It may well proceeding from the voluntary act of the Apostles be called an Apostolical Tradition and Ordinance but in strict termes Dominica it was not nor Dominicae dispositionis veritas according to Jerome 2. But if this sense of Jeromes words like you not I shall yet offer you another At first as I said the Presbyters by delegation from the Apostles with common advice and equal care guided the Church under the Apostles but after Bishops were appointed the whole care by little and little was derived to one and so at last by custome Presbyters were utterly excluded from all advice and counsel and Bishops onely intermedled with the regiment of the Church This indeed grew onely by continuance of time and not by any Ordinance of Christ or his Apostles this Jerome dislik'd and to that purpose he fixes his Noverint Episcopi c. And that this is likeliest to be Jeromes meaning in that place his following words shew Imitantes Moysen qui cum haberet in potestate solus praesse populo Israel 70. elegit cum quibus populum judicaret The Bishops then ought to do as Moses did What to have Governours equal No but when they might rule alone to joyne with them others in the fellowship of their power and honour as Moses did Moses did not abrogate his superiority above others but took seventy Elders into part of his charge So Jerome would have them And thus much the King was content to grant and restore as you may read in his book cap. 17. about the middle I saith he am not against the managing of this precedencie and authority in one man by the joynt councel and consent of many Presbyters I have offered to restore it c. You see of what Presbyters I am content the prescribed Ministery shall consist and what Presbytrry I shall allow you 2. Or Teaching and Ruling Elders HEre again your words are dark For if by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Elders you meane those in Orders I shall readily admit them to the Church ministry whether Teaching or Ruling But if you intend under these words to introduce into the Ministry either to teach or rule men that are not of the Clergy so you know we speak and so I must speak for distinction sake for else I cannot be understood in this question I absolutely deny it For there was never any Lay-man ex Officio admitted to teach ordinarily in Scripture called and sent he must be before he did undertake to preach So the Apostle intimates Rom. 10.15 How shall they preach except they be sent If any be gifted I shall allow him ex debito charitatis privately and charitably to make use of his talent to exhort to reprove to admonish but publikely to divide the Word of God and to teach I may not admit him For as a man must have inward endowments gifts and sufficiencie so he must have an outward calling before I shall call him a Teacher in the Church of God And I hear you are not against me in this 2. But about a Ruling Elder I fear you and I shall
was the Cathedral Churches generation which did presume to alter and elevate the places and appellations of the Teacher Pastour Ruler and Deacon unto those unscripture-like titles of Lord-Bishop Dean Chancellor Surrogate Arch-Deacon who ventur'd to usurp the power of excommunication against the Members and Ministers of many Congregations in their Synods and Councils contrary to what was practic'd in that Orthodoxe pattern Acts 15.24 which is laid down and left as well for the imitation as information of after-ages whose work it was by Scripture-proofs to confute soul subverting positions and to confirme Christian doctrines without using any manner of authority to censure any mans person being that that is the expresse priviledge of the Presbyterial Church 1 Cor. 5.4 5. 2 Thes 3.15 The babe-age of which usurpation is made mention of as newly appearing in the world by what was exercised by Alexander of Alexandria against Eusebius of Nicomedia as well as against Arius in the reigne of Constantius and Constance the sonnes of Constantine the Emperour as it is to be seen in Socrat. Schol. Lib. 1. c. 3. compared with the 32 cap. lib. 2. and Evagr. lib. 1. cap. 6. Reply That I may return you a full answer I must take asunder into propositions what you here deliver You say 1. The Combinational Churches corruption was the Cathedral Churches generation 2. The corruption was by changing the places and appellations of Teachers c. into the titles of Lord Bishop Dean Chancellour Arch-Deacon 3. That they ventured to usurp the power of excommunication in their Synods and Councils 4. That this was contrary to the Orthodox pattern Acts 15. 5. Authority to censure any mans person is the expresse priviledge of the Presbyterial Church 1 Cor. 5.4 5. 2 Thes 3.15 6. Alexander ab Alexandria began this against Arrius and Eusebius of Nicomedia so that it was an usurpation and a new age in the Church 1. Proposition That the Combinational Churches corruption was the Cathedral Churches generation IT is a rule in Philosophy Non entis non sunt accidentia that corruptio is mutatio entis ab esse ad non esse tale That which is corrupted then must have an entity for else it can never be corrupted Now your Combinational Church in the time you speak of was a non en◠there was no such thing and then it could not be corrupted nor any other Church rise from that corruption Which shall further appear if we shall distinguish of the terme Cathedral which I hinted at first for as among Logical notions there be termini primi and à primo orti so also it is in this the word Cathedral being taken in a primitive and in a derivative sense If you take it in the prime sense it denotes unto us those places or chief Cities where the Apostles for some time or Apostolical men by their appointment took up their residence for conversion of the people and reglement of the Church hence it is that we so often read of in the fathers Cathedra Jacobi which was at Jerusalem Cathedra Petri which was for seven years at Antioch after at Alexandria and last of all Cathedra Apostolorum Petri Pauli at Rome In those Churches where they staid for any long time and preach'd and planted Religion which were commonly the Metropolis of that Province or Country as Ephesus Corinth Philippi at their departure they left a Bishop with a Presbytery to govern and thence these Churches were call'd Ecclesiae Cathedrales This is the prime importance of the word But after as Christianity was extended and Bishops were seated and erected in divers Diocesses they began to build Churches in which at first the Bishop and the Presbyters did reside who were to over-see the Diocesse and because of their residence in this place the Church in imitation of the Apostles Chairs was call'd the Cathedral Church Neither was this Cathedral so new Euseb l. 2. c. 17. as most men suppose For I shall not stick to call the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Egypt mentioned by Eusebius out of Philo the Jew a Cathedral it will seem so to any man that shall advisedly read that Chapter for he writes of their government of them to whom the Ecclesiastical Liturgies are committed Of their Deaconships of the presidency of Bishops placed above all To which that of Palladius will give much light for he saith Palladius in Histor Lausiaca that in this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there were eight Presbyters and that so long as the chief over them liv'd none of the rest might 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Here the Scriptures were read prayers continued Hymnes and Canticles in every kind of Meeter sung to God penances transacted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon the old Sabbath and every Lords day I cannot conceive but this might be a Cathedral even in this last sense I shall instance in another which was old Euseb l. 3. c. 23. even in Saint John's time the Apostle He commended the young man to the chief of all the Bishops can any man think he was lesse than a Metropolitane the man prov'd deboist ran from the Church and became a thief At his return John demanded of the Bishop his charge the Bishop sobbing and sighing said he is dead dead to God for he is become wicked and pernicious and to be short a Thief for he keeps this Mountain over against this Church together with his associates 't is more then probable this was a Material Church for how else could the hill be over against it and presently it is said that the Apostle hastened out of the Church Now I judge it to be Cathedral because he that was the chief of the Bishops had his residence in it Let it be also considered what Eusebius writes in his tenth book Euseb l. 10. c. 2. cap. 2. that in the beginning of Constantines reign that the Temples were again from the foundations erected to an unmeasurable height and received greater beauty than ever they enjoy'd before their destruction They were then before and were but now again erected And we of all other have least reason to doubt of this since Joseph of Arimathea erected a Church at Glastenbury as the best of our Historians record Gildas Spilman Cambden and Spilman hath in picture given us the extent and fashion and materials of it After divers other Cathedral Churches were erected in this Island by King Lucius if there be any truth in our Records at Landaff at London at Chester c. as you may read in Ephraim Pagetts Christianography part 3. page 1 c. Now take the Cathedral in which of these acceptions you please your assertion cannot have any truth in it Not in the first for then you make the Apostles the authours of this corruption since they were the erectors of these Cathedrals not in the last because they were erected after the Apostolical patterne The plain truth is that the corruption of
Truth would ever have owned it been once stiled by it And so you see that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. When he left the servile and subservient names of Prebend Surrogate Vicar General to inferiour Officers his underlings THese names or titles I never heard the Arch-Bishop or Metropolitane had therefore I know not how he could leave them Under him perhaps these were but for the Prebend he was no Officer The Bishop and his Colledge of Presbyters first lived together and were maintained out of a common stock or treasury of the Church the Bishop allotted to every one his salary monthly which in Tertullian is called stipes in Cyprian sportula Tertull. Apol. c. 39. 42. and it was an honourable stipend or portion as appears by the words of Cyprian when he would have Clemens and Aurelius who were Confessors admitted into the Colledge of Presbyters that they might be honoured with this stipend Sciatis nos honorem Presbyteris illis jam d signasse Cypr. Ep. 34. Edit Pammel 27. 36. ut iisdem sportutis cum Presbyteris honorentur and in another Epistle he calls these menstrae divisiones agreeing with his Master Tertullian who saith these stipes were given menstruâ die Thus it was at first but afterward when Cathedral Churches were built these Presbyters were called Prebends and their salary Praebenda Spalatens lib. 2. cap. 9. Sect. 6. not that they had a separate part or portion of that Church revenue to themselves as afterwards it was thought fit sed quod cuique ex communi illius Ecclesiae reditu alimenta praebebantur Now this was the Original of Prebends neither was he any more a Church Officer then as a Presbyter which if you take in the old sense you have no reason to carp at 2. As for the Surrogate I do not finde that ever any Arch-Bishop had such an Officer I suppose that you should aime at Conc. Ancyr Can. 13. Neoces 13. Antioch 10. Conc. Sardic cap. 6 Laodic cap. 56. Socrat. Schol. lib. 5. cap. 21. Possidon in vita Aug. Aug. Ep. 110. Naucler Vol. 2. Generat p. 667. is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Rural Bishops who were brought into the Church to supply the Bishops place in absence or sicknesse who because they abused their power were disliked and timely abrogated Or if not these yet the suffragan Bishops or Coadjutors for such then were as it appears in the Church Records Agelius the Novatian Bishop being ready to dye first imposed hands on Sisimius to succeed him but upon the request of the people made choice of Marcian then of Sisimius the story is worth your reading in Socrates Austin was also made the Suffragan to Valerius in Hippo and afterward Austin himself took for his Coadjutor Eradius Thus you may see a Coadjutor was allowed but such a one as should be onely a Presbyter while the Bishop lived and therefore long after the time of Augustine when Zachary Bishop of Rome associated another Bishop as a Coadjutor to Boniface the Bishop of Mentz he confessed it to be a thing forbidden by the Canons and worthy reprehension but that upon his importunity of special favour he had yielded so much unto him that he might have such a Coadjutor whom with the advice of his brethren he might appoint to succeed him when he should dye Now if you do aime at these there could be no great errour in the institution if the Bishop either when he was in remotis agendis as the Lawyers speak or disabled by infirmity or age he made choice of some worthy person to be his Coadjutor no otherwise then the High Priests among the Jewes did of their Saganim For I read not of any expresse text of holy writ that could or did warrant them to do it 3. Thirdly the last name that doth displease is the Vicar General but neither was he properly any Church Officer A Judge he was in the arch-Arch-Bishops Court for such matters as were reserved by Princes to the Christian judicature to visit for the Metropolitane the whole Province and and so came into the place of them whom the Laodicean Council calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Caranza translates the word Visitatores but Meursius Circitatores Lustratores quorum munus esset circumire per omnes universae regionis Ecclesias Laodic Conc. Can. 57. Meursii Lexico mixobarb Balsam in Can. 57. Conc. Laodiceni inquirere de illarum statu And of these Balsamâ—â— upon the Canon of the Laodicean Council hath these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Commission to this purpose I finde given by Henry the eighth to Thomas Cromwel after Earle of Essex that great instrument of expulsion of the Popes power out of England by which authority he visited all the Abbies and Monasteries of the Land and finding in them foul enormities opened them in Parliament the next year in which he sate with the title of Vicegerent or Custos spiritualitatum this power was not much unlike a Vicar General And were it safe to utter my thoughts I should not stick to put you in minde of those who have lately done the same work under other names For what else I pray were the Propagators of the Gospel what else the Commissioners for scandalous and ignorant Ministers what else the Committee men under whom I am sure the Clergy felt a sharp visitation yea and sharper then that of the Custos spiritualitatum for then the ejected had a competency of maintenance allowed them for their lives which by these is not done Lastly if I should call your Approvers Vicar Generals too I should not much erre for have they not the care of all the Churches Modesty retains me or else I could say that some of your Pastours of Congregational Churches have been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and been Informers or Agents to the prejudice of many an honest and laborious Minister But you say these Officers were Underlings how otherwise could it be if they were Officers for Officers must be under they were subservient so they must be also for indicitur ministratio whosoever will be great among you Mat. 20.26 let him be your Minister To be under was humility to be subservient their duty but if among them any were servile so slavish as to be at the Arch-Bishops or Metropolitans beck and to drudge for his ends this was basenesse and if you note the men they shall not be defended but condemned by me as well as you But while I go along with you in the pursuit of these I finde my self in some danger for I finde a Pest-house nigh in which plaguey people are used to be put and to this those you mention are sent for their pride and profanesse and I wish that all who are infected with the same Leprosie were placed there with them for then 't is possible we might meet with Corah Dathan and Abiram there as well as Moses
Ecclesiastique Numb 11.16 Nay Godw. ant l. 5. c. 1. it is distinguished from it for in the Civil Consistory the Judges were called Elders in the spiritual priests Matth. 21.23 26.3 The chief Priests and Elders of the people are named as two distinct Consistories though Vossius Doctor Hammon Downham and Weames admit not this distinction 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the New Testament sometimes but rarely is taken in the same sense as in the Old But most commonly it is attributed to an Order of Ecclesiastiques whether in a higher or a lower Order and degree 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is by the maintainers of the Congregational and Consistorial Church taken for a mixed company of Lay men and Ecclesiasticks to whose government they suppose the power of the Keys is committed and this they call the Presbyterial Church and if I am not deceived of this you speak in this place But against this I affirme that there never was any such Presbyterial Church before Calvin and to that purpose I here propose and hope to make good these Propositions against any opponent 1. That there must be government in the Church 2. That Christ instituted this government and Governours for it 3. That this government must be perpetual 4. That the Apostles were those Governours for the time and for perpetuity their Successors appointed by them 5. That their Successors were Bishops in Name and Office 6. That for the execution of this Office Christ gave to the Apostles the Keys and they to their Successors onely 7. That this power consisted in Ordination and Jurisdiction and therefore that they onely could ordaine and juridically proceed 8. That at first the Apostles and after the Bishops did both without a Presbytery 9. Yet that by the Apostles a Presbytery was instituted in some Churches who were Ecclesiastiques onely 10. That yet none of these Presbyters were Bishops but assistants onely being distinct from them 11. That this Presbytery without the Bishop could not use the Keys 12. That no Lay-man was of the Apostolical Presbytery nor no Lay-man after for 1500. years 13. That at first the people elected not any Church-Officer All these Propositions will require much time to be made good I shall now therefore omit the demonstration of them and go on to you fourth and fifth Proposition where I shall use some of them Proposition 4. Viz. That this prescribed Ministery must consist of Presbyters or Teaching and Ruling Elders THe subject of this Proposition is the prescribed Ministery and it hath two Attributes 1. The Presbyters 2. Teaching and Ruling Elders and both must be distinctly considered 1. The prescribed Ministery consists of Presbyters If by Presbyters you mean Presbyters in the second acception as it comprehends those of an higher and those of a subordinate degree this part of your proposition is most true and it shall be granted you But if you exclude the Bishop properly so called I absolutely deny it For the Apostles were Bishops Matthias elected 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 1.20 There you have the Name and accordingly the Fathers of the Church called them Apostolos i. e. Episcopos Dominus Elegit Cyprian Epist 9. lib. 3. Cyprian They had the power of the Keys promised Matth. 16.19 Matth. 18.18 and actually estated on them John 20.23 In these texts you have the power which lay in jurisdiction and ordination In that was the office The Apostles were then in Name and Office Bishops This is performed in the second part I will give you a breviate of what I could say at large for the first Government of the Church I finde onely in Scripture mention of three Church-Officers Bishops Presbyters Deacons 1. The highest function which was Episcopal the Apostles reserved to themselves for some time and that for three reasons At first there were but few convicted Acts 14.27 1 Cor. 16. whence their labour was imployed in turning the first Key in opening the dore of faith that great and effectual dore and all the helps they could make either by Prophets Evangelists Coadjutors Pastors Doctors Planters Waterers to this purpose was little enough But none of these qua tales were Bishops 2. After the conversion of Jews and Gentiles yet in many Churches they yet setled not a Bishop first because a Presbyter fit for a Bishops office is not so easily found it is Saint Pauls rule that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epiphan a Novice one newly come to the faith be not made a Bishop Secondly because while the Apostles remained in or near any place they reserved the power 1 Tim. 3.6 there being no need of Bishops The Apostles for that time supplying the wants of those Churches either with their presence letters or messengers as the cause required 3. And yet there is a third reason The Apostles suffered the Churches to make a trial what equality of many Governours would do but when they found the fruits thereof to be dissension and that every one would be master parity and plurality breeding dissension and confusion they committed the Church to one I shall set you down this in Hieromes words Hieron Com. in Epist ad Titum even in those very words which are produced against Bishops Idem est Presbyter quod Episcopus autequam diaboli instinctu studia in religione fierent diceretur in populis Ego sum Pauli ego Apollo ego Cephae communi Presbyterorum consilio Ecclesiae gubernabantur Post quam vero unusquisque eos quos baptizabat suos putabat esse non Christi in toâ—o orbe decretum est ut unus de Presbyteris electus superponeretur cateris ut Schismatum semina tollerentur Haec diximus ostendimâ—s eosdem fuisse Presbyteros Episcopos ut Episcopi noverint se magis consuetudine quam Dominicae dispositionis veritate Presbyteris esse majores in communi debere Ecclesiâ—m rege e. I have recited these words of Hierome at full because in them there be many thâ—ngs clearly for me and some other passages seemingly against me to which I will give light Note here then first the cause of the Bishops creation 1. The causa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or occasion was factions and Schismes and the end that Schismes might be taken away so his words are cum diceretur ego Pauli c. ut schismata tollerentur Secondly The time when the Bishop was ordained old enough for it was in the Apostles dayes for then it was said ego Pauli ego Cephae c. 1 Cor. 1. a sufficient authority I suppose for the Bishops institution it must needs be granted Apostolical if it began then Thirdly this institution was Decretum and pray say who then could decree except the Apostles or durst decree without them Fourthly that this Decree was generally assented to for Decretum est toto orbe it must be then Apostolical and Oecumenical Fifthly now consider the words of the Decree ut unus de Presbyteris
Witnesse 2. Or else the name of an Apostle is more largely extended for an instructed Witnesse and sent by the Apostles Phil. 2.25 who yet had that honorary name so Epaphroditus is called the Apostle of the Philippians Judas and Silas are so term'd Titus and others 2 Cor. 8.23 and James the brother of our Lord is call'd an Apostle Gal. 1.19 He was not Jacobus Alphei nor Jacobus Zebedei and therefore none of the twelve and 1 Cor. 15. this James is named as distinct from the twelve for there it is written that Christ appeared to the twelve then to five hundred brethren at once after to James In the first sense no man ever did ever could choose an Apostle for they had an immediate vocation and immediate mission In the last sense there is not a syllable in the Scripture of their Election by the people Perhaps for so it is recorded by Dorotheus that they were of the seventy but when they were advanc'd and authoriz'd to be Apostles that is Bishops in the latter sense the Apostles only elected them and imposed hands on them 3. Hitherto we hear not a word of any Election by the Professing Members to the work of the Ministry let us then come to the third way which was by voices and let us consider whether we can finde it that way It is most true that the Election of the seven Deacons was referr'd to the multitude and to this purpose your text is rightly cited Acts 6.5 But this proves not what you would inferre from it for by this choice the Deacons received not the charge of the Word and Sacraments but a care to see the Saints provided for and the collections and contributions faithfully and uprightly employ'd Hieron ad Evagrium Epiphan 4. Conc. Carth. cap. 4. they were only mensarum viduarum Ministri 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 consecrated to a service not to a priest-hood And among you for ought I know the Deacons have no other office than the care of the poor And then I pray what can this place make for the Election of the Presbyters and Ruling Elders by the people Are these no more but Deacons Officers of Tables and Widows That the people should Elect these there was great reason for they were to be Stewards and Dispensers of their Charity and therefore to stay the murmure that might arise of partiality in them and suspicion of any unjust dealing they advised the multitude to choose their own Almoners The Churches treasure was laid at the Apostles feet to be distributed as every one had need they left it Acts. 2. Acts 4. in all likelihood in the hands of converted Jewes to be distributed these regarded the Widows that were Jewes more than the Hellenists this caused the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the murmure To cease this the Apostle bespeaks the multitude to consider Acts 6.1 Ver. 3. Ver. 5. Ver. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of fit men for that service They did so and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they chose out seven and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they presented or set out these before the Apostles that 's all It was but a presentation so that it seems as yet it was in the Apostles power to admit or refuse even these But they accepted of their presentation and with prayer laid their hands on them for the Office which was at the highest a dispensation of money and no cure of souls No hurt then can be done to our tenet by this Election since as they who urge it confesse they were not in orders and therefore what hath this example to do for the Professours Election of Presbyters or Ruling Elders Yea but you 'll say the other text you cite Acts 14.23 Acts 14.23 will strike it dead but upon a serious view nothing lesse For thus we reade there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Ordaining them Elders in every Church This word is a participle and must agree with somewhat and if you look before it was Paul and Barnabas the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies not to Elect but to Ordain of which more by and by The Ordainers were Apostles Paul and Barnabas the Ordain'd Presbyters here is not so much as a syllable of the people no mention of any act of theirs This then is so plain a perverting of the text that I hope no wise man will ever more object it The truth is the Apostles imposed hands to make Pastours and Prophets in the Churches as they travelled popular Elections they made none For your other texts I shall consider apart because they are not directly to this purpose Thus I hope I have made it appear that there is not any firm ground I had almost said any colour for Election of Presbyters or Ruling Elders by the Professing Members of the Church in the Scriptures Yea but did not then the People choose their Pastour in the primitive ages of the Church To gratifie you I confesse they did but this was after the Apostles dayes and then Scripture must not be urged for it It was not a priviledge that belongs to them of right but out of convenience and was deriv'd from the rules of Christian equity and society Hence it came to passe that the people when their desires were accomplished did quietly receive willingly maintain diligently hear and heartily love their Pastours And could the people have tempered their grief when their desires were cross'd their interest in Electing their Pastour had been better regarded and longer continued But experience of their Schismes Factions Tumults Uproars Murders if they might not have their wills caused both Ancient fathers and Councils to mislike that the people should bear the sway in these Elections and forced Christian Princes if not wholly to exclude them yet greatly to abridge them I could if I pleased give you in a long list of examples of both kinds both of whom when where and how long the custome of their Election continued and by whom and upon what occasions abridg'd But I spare you This in a word when they did Elect it was not by any Scripture-right and at most it was no more than a presentation and it lay in the power of those in Authority to refuse the presented which was sometimes done And the emergent mischiefs took it away which it never could have done had it been a command of God Now that it is possible that such mischiefs may arise and frequently do arise from popular Elections I appeal to your conscience who have been an eye-Witnesse of it in New-England One thing I shall adde more that you I mean your Combinational Churches in Old-England should of all other presse upon us popular Elections makes me wonder since 't is your practice to eject Pastours approved by their people and by the approvers from above to settle other over their Congregations Tell me I pray what vote hath the people in any of these If this be not to break your rule and
and from hence it was borrowed and brought into the Church that the chief of the Capitulum should be called Decan which I think is arch-Arch-Presbyter 3. I come now to your other two dislik'd Appellations Chancellours and Surrogates That the Bishop was at first the chief Judge in his Church I have before proved and then no dought he might appoint his subordinate Officials This being a confessed rule in the Law that when any cause is committed to any man he is also conceived to receive full authority in all matters belonging to that cause When the Emperours became Christian they judged it equal and pious to reserve some causes to be tried in the Christian Court in which they constituted the Bishop to be the Judge These causes were properly called Ecclesiastical such as were Blasphemy Apostacy Heresies Schismes Orders Admissions institution of Clerks Cooks Reports fol. 8. Rites of Matrimony Probates of Wills Divorces and such like To give audience to these the Bishop otherwise imployed could not alway be present and yet there was no reason that for his absence justice should not take its course And in some of these had he been present great skill in Civil Lawes is requisite that they be ended aright This gave occasion to the Bishop to appoint his Chancellour and Surrogate A Chancellour who had his name à Cancellis within which he was to sit a man brought up in the Civil Lawes and therefore fit to decide such causes that did depend upon those Lawes who being at first a meere Lay-man and therefore having no power of Exommunication therefore the Bishop thought fit to adjoyne a Surrogate to him that in case that high censure were to be passed this man being in Orders and therefore invested with power actu primo and by Commission with the Bishops power actu secundo sub Episcopo rogatus being demanded and an Officer under the Bishop Actu primo might pronounce the Sentence This was the original of their names and power Now prudential necessity first instituted them and prudence where Episcopal power is of force continues them If a Superiour shall be pleased to revoke some of these causes which were by him made of Ecclesiastical cognizance and cause the litigants to take their trial at Common or Civil Law Vide the book of Order of Excommunication in Scotl. Hist of Scot Amon 2. pag. 46. then in the Church I confesse there will be no use of the Chancellour And if the rest shall be tried by the Bishop and his Presbytery as they were at first neither will there need much a Surrogate But now if that rule of the Presbytery should prove to be true who do challenge cognisance of all causes whatsoever which are sins directly or by reduction then they have power if not to nullifie yet to give liberty to play all Courts and Judicatories besides their own and must bring in thither Sollicitours Atturneys Counsellours Procters c. which will be as un-Scripture-like names as Chancellours and Surrogates Cinod de off Eccl. Joannes Epis Citri in respon ad cabasil Naz. Testam 4. The fourth Appellation that offends you is the Arch-Deacon who was a very ancient officer in the Church and of great esteeme in the Greek Church Neither was he chosen to that place by the Patriarch but came to it by seniority the name then gave him no power but onely this prerogative to be chief of the Deacons of the Church as if you would say of the eldest standing In the Church of England he was more than a Deacon for he was a Presbyter and his office was to be present at all ordinations to enquire into the life the manners the abilities and sufficiency of him who was to be ordained and either to reject him if he saw occasion or to present him to the Bishop to be ordained to induct into any Benefice that man who was instituted by the Bishop to have the care of the houses of God were kept decent and in good repair lastly to take account of all who had to do with the poors money And this last was it which gave him the name of the chief Deacon Ambr. lib. 1. de off c. 41. Prudentius for when the charity of the Church was great and ample gifts were bestowed to the relief of the poorer Christians the Church stock was ample as appears by Lawrence the Martyr who was Deacon to Sixtus Bishop of Rome martyred under Valerian This being committed to the Deacons care that no fraud might be committed as it hapned too oft in money-matters the Church thought fit to set one of the Deacons over the rest who might call them to account as ours were to do the Church-wardens and Overseers of the poor to whom they gave the name of the Arch-Deacon Now speak impartially what harme was in all this What that may offend you Deacon cannot and Arch should not since you know it signifies no more but chief or prime as in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Patriarch And that you may carry some affection or at least not a loathing to it I pray call to memory that a worthy Martyr of our Church John Philpot adjudged to the fire and burnt in Queen Maryes dayes Fox Martyrol An. 1553. primo Mariae resigned up his soul in the flames being then Arch-Deacon of Winchester And that with him Master Cheiny and Master Elmour that refused to subscribe to the doctrine of Transubstantiation in the Convocation-house were both Arch-Deacons 5. But now I return back again to that Appellation Lord-Bishop at which so many have stumbled and been scandalized that others before you have done it I have reason to attribute to envie an evil eye but in you I shal onely impute it to inconsideration Gen. 24. 1 Kings 18. 2 Kings 2. 2 Kings 4. 2 Kings 8. For you are mighty in the Scriptures and therefore might have known that the Hebrew Adoni or the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Latine Dominus which in the Spanish is Don in the French Sciur in English Sir is onely a name of civility courtesie respect reverence By this Rebecca calls Abrahams servant Drink my Lord. By this Obadiah the Prophet Art thou my Lord Elijah By this the children of the Prophets the inhabitants of Hiericho the Sunamite and Hazael the Prophet Elisha By this Mary the Gardner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord or Sir if thou have taken him hence with this civil respect the Greeks accost Philip John 20.15 John 12.21 1 Pet. 3.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sir we would see Jesus In all which places the word imports onely a courteous and respectful compellation And St. Peter commends the woman that shall with this name endear her husband proposing the example of Sarah that obeyed Abraham and call'd him Lord. To a Bishop double honour respect reverence is due for he is comprised under the name of father in the Commandment and whom we
5. That these Presbyters teaching and ruling Elders must be of the professing members own voluntary Election and regular Ordination 6. That their Office-extent reacheth from Christs ascension to the Creations dissolution This is granted in a right sense 7. And for all this you bring your proofs out of the Scripture Acts 6.5 Acts 14.23 c. This is the Analysis of the whole and I descend to examine it by the parts and shall open the Scriptures as I conceive they referre to the proposition Proposition 1. That the Church of the last and longest constitution was a Presbyterial or Combinational Church THat the Church you meane viz. the Church of Christ is to be last is easily granted but whether to be the longest or no is more than you or I or any man else can tell But to let this passe Hic opus est Oedipo for I conceive not well the sense of your proposition because you phrase it Presbyterial or Combinational since these two by the contending parties are made Disparata and then must really differ I know not therefore what to make of this Or whether it be here a Divisive or an Explanative particle If you make it Divisive then it seemes not to agree with your following words for you know that those of the Presbyterial Church though they will allow your professing members liberty to elect yet they stoutly and with open mouth decry their power to Ordaine and you allow the Church you speak of to do both If you make Or Expositive then it can but onely declare the sense of the former word Presbyterial and will be farre from your intent which is if I mistake not that all the professing members of a Church be combined in a Church Covenant which you know the Presbyterial Church will never admit For although Presbyters can be content to be in their own sense Covenanters yet they abominate to be in a Church-Combination and again though the Church combiners will joyne in a Church Covenant yet they will not yield to be Presbyterial Covenanters These Disparata then are not hansomely coupled in this place neither can I guesse at any other intent you have in it except it be to Umpire betwixt the two parties by finding out a Church that should be both Presbyterial and Combinational which hitherto the heat of zeale would never suffer the learnedest of both sides to do For the Presbyterians condemne your Combination by a Church Covenant as a Chimera a fancy a novelty a meere humane invention contrary to Christs Ordinance and destructive of all Church power And the Combiners on the other side judge as harshly of the Presbyterian Elderships in the whole reformed Churches as of the Prelacy nay and worse too if Bastwicks words be true which he hath in the Postscript of his second part page 6. viz. The Presbyterial government not suiting with the humour of the Independents they abhorre it and all such as endeavour to establish it and wish rather that the old trumpery were brought in again and professe they had rather have the government of Prelates That which follows I forbear that I offend not Thus Bastwick which if true 't is not possible that a Presbyterial and a Combinational Church should be all one as you seeme to make it And therefore you must forgo one of the termes and make it onely Presbyterial or onely Combinational if you will speak intelligibly in this question But I shall make the best sense I can of your words and in order speak to them both And first of the Presbyterial Church which you call also Combinational upon what ground I know not for I meet with neither of these Epithets fixed to the Church of Christ in the Scriptures nor in any antiquity The first of these is new and and the second naught for I never read of a Combination in a good sense Why can we not speak as good Christians have done before us and call it the Christian Catholick and Apostolical Church but must please our fancies with these new termes of Presbyterial or Combinational Act. 20.28 c. Col. 1.24 and 13. Act. 11.26 Ephes 2.20 I often read in the Scriptures of the Church of God and that this Church is the Body of Christ the kingdom of Christ to whom because it was united by faith it was called Christian And that this Church was built upon the foundation of the Prophets Apostles Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone Whence it was called Apostolike And again that this Church is Totum integrale Ames medulla lib. 1. c. 31. Sect 19. of which the parts quae totum integrant are all several and particular Churches diffused in all Nations in all places at all times whence it was called Catholick But of a Presbyterial or Combinational Church I hear not Good Sir consider how harsh it sounds to stile Christs Church the Presbyters Church and the number of the Professors that are united by faith to Christ to be combined in I know not what But now I shall take into consideration these termes severally and first I will begin with the last 1. A Combinational Church The first Author whom I meet with it is Amesius and he defines it to be Parochialis vel unius congregationis cujus membra inter se Combinantur lib. 1. c. 39. Sect 22. cap. 2. Sect. 4. there 's your word ordinarie conveniant in uno loco ad publicum religionis exercitium This your Synod at Cambridge in New England chose rather to call Congregational for the word Independent they like not though I see no cause of dislike if the particular Congregations must not depend one of another but remaine in full liberty as Ames delivers in the same chapter Sect. 20. 26 27. And thus you there define this Congregational Church to be a company of Saints by calling united into one body by a holy Covenant for the publick worship of God But I pray you tell me what needs this combination by a second Covenant would not the first in Baptisme have served if heeded and kept to have done all this and it seemed it did by the very text your Synod produces to prove it Acts 2.42 For the Penitents and beleevers pricked to the heart by Peters sermon gladly received the word and were baptized and continued stedfastly in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayer c. where we read of their Baptisme and continuance in Church-fellowship and in the duty of that fellowship but that this is done by a combination a confederation or holy Covenant a Vow other than that made in their Baptisme we read not 2. And indeed it needs not for what is it that Professors can binde themselves unto by Covenant when they are admitted into the Congregation that they have not in their Baptisme bound themselves to before Whether you shall consider the Mystery the Form or the end 1. In Baptisme for the
Mystery there is an Indument and a stripping Rom. 13.14 Gal. 3.27 which the ancient Church reduced to two words Credo Abrenuncio In the first there is the putting on of the Lord Jesus Christ For as many as are baptized have put on Christ First as Lord acknowledging no other Master whose voice to hear whose doctrine to rely upon but onely his Secondly as Jesus assuring themselves that there is no other Name given under heaven whereby they may be saved Thirdly As Christ as well their anointed King submitting themselves to his will giving their names in to fight under his banner and swearing themselves his subjects As also their anointed Priest resting in his one sacrifice as the onely sufficient in his sole intercession as the onely powerful Secondly In the Abrenuncio or stripping part they renounce and forsake the Devil Gal. 5.20 and all his works the pompes and vanities of the wicked world the sinful lusts of the flesh among which are all Heresies and Schismes 2. For the forme it is by our Saviour appointed in the name of the three persons of the indivisible Trinity and so it is performed neither of Cephas the sirnamed Rock nor of Paul a great Apostle Mat. 28.19 1 Cor. 1.13 The reason wherof you may read in my exposition of the Church Catechisme page 172 173. 3. For the end they which are baptized are thereby made the sonnes of God by Adoption and Grace invested with an inheritance everlasting Gal. 3.26 Rev. 1.5 Mal. 1.11 Rom. 12.1 Col. 3.5 made Priests to God to offer and slay To offer that mundâ—m oblationem pure offering or living sacrifice holy acceptable to God which is their reasonable service viz. the cleane and unbloody sacrifice of prayers and thanksgiving and then to slay themselves mortifying their affections and lusts Yea but men may be minded of all this by a new Covenant and upon a second engagement made more watchful to keep their first vow Be it so for this also the Church had provided without this separating combination when she ordained that all baptized children when they could say their Catechism should be brought to the Bishop to be Confirmed which order were it in use and restored to its original purity the wrangle about the formality of a Church Covenant and collecting of members might be quieted and composed There being in Confirmation the substance of what is so much and so hotly contended for and that farre better grounded and bottomed than any new device can be as I shew you in my Catechisme page 6. Thirdly This Elogy you give to your Combinational Church that it is their opinion and practice quietly and cordially to subject their earthy erring and unruly wit to the heavenly infallible and uncontrolable will of Christ That so it should be I confesse and desire but how it is we see and feele ever since the Combination But what now is this but an opinion and onely commendable I thought it had been necessary de fide that it must be so and could not be otherwise For Opino is eutis vel non eâ—tis You shall have it in Amesius words Assensus ille qui praebetur veritati contingenti propter rationem pracipuè probabilem ab intellectu apprehensam Medulla 1. Thes de fidei divina unitate opinio vocatur The truth must be contingent and probable onely of which a man retaines an opinion it may be it may not be if no other reason can be produced for it but a Topical But that all men must subject their earthy will to the heavenly Will of Christ is so certain that it cannot be denyed by any good Christian Hereafter let it passe then for necessary and let it be a principle of faith which is more than opinion 2. But you go on and say This hath been the commendable practice of your Combinational Church But here you must give me leave to think for if I would say what I know I should fetch blood and perhaps pay for it too Your Combination was for the worship of God and that cultus naturalis institutus Amesius so divides it the principles of the first are faith hope charity the acts hearing of the Word and Prayer under which is an Oath Of the last Gods prescribed Will or his Word This is the Rule but what 's become of the practice I will not meddle with your faith which yet you know in many of your Combinational Churches is not sound nor in the Socinians nor Antimonians nor in the Brownists Familists nor the Anabaptists nor the Quakers nor the Singers These you le say are not of you but are gone out from you yet you cannot deny that these are Combinational Churches The practice then of all the Combinational Churches is not commendable in Gods worship in this respect Your hope may be great but I fear it may be presumption when the foundation of faith upon which it should be built is so uncertain and tottering As for the charity of your party in general I finde it dying rather â—uite dead charity teacheth a man to love his neighbour as himself charity to be just and to do to all men as he would all men do to him Amongst your Combinational Churches what 's become of this charity this justice Religiously observant a man may find divers of you of three of the Commandments of the first Table but of the third your practice shews you make little accompt and as for the second Table he who shall lay to heart your actions must needs conceive that you esteeme it but for a cypher I will no farther rake into this wound I wish you had not given me occaâ— on to do it when you affirmed that it was the commendable practice of your Combinational Church to subject their earthy erring and unruly will quietly and cordially to the heavenly infallible and uncontrolable will of Christ to which I finde their practice so contrary I pray presse me not for instances for I am resolved not to give theâ— you but if you are desirous to be satisfied of the opinions and practice of the Combinational Church I aime at be pleased to reade a book written by Robert Baily a Scot entitled A Disswasive from the Errours of the times Printed in London 1645. and published by Authority Where he makes a large Narrative of the opinions and practices of your Churches in New-England and whether he sayes true or no you can best judge because you were upon the place If true all is not gold that glisters 2 A Presbyterial Church THis is your other Epithet and I suppose you mean by it a Church to be governed by Presbyters The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is equivocal and therefore till it be distinguished nothing can be concluded from it 1. Presbyter in the Old Testament properly belongs to the Elders of the people either in a common notion or as members of the Sanhedrim not any body or persons peculiarly
differ for in your Presbyterial Churches you admit into that number those who are not of the Clergy Many of your Presbyters being meer Lay men Of the Texts you hope to prove it I shall consider anon And here about these Ruling Elders I shall deliver my mind 1. Negatively 2. Positively 1. Negatively That Ruling Elders in the Church were never Laicks Presbyters we read of and Presbyteries in the Apostolical writings but none Lay. This negative will be proved as all other negatives are that is by the contrary affirmative These Ruling Elders were alwayes of the Clergy and consequently no Laicks for you know dâ—ae contrariae propositiones non possunt simul esse verae I shall therefore shew you what I have to say of Ruling Elders 2. Positively The Keys Christ gave to his Apostles and they to their Successours and with them so much power as was ordinarily of permanence and perpetuity in the Church which power consisted in four particulars the Dispensation of the Word the Admâ—nistration of the Sacraments Imposition of hands and guiding of the Keys With the three fiâ—st I hear not that Ruling Elders of the Laity undertake to meddle and if they shall lay claim to the last they must shew when and where any such donation was made over unto them otherwise I shall call it an usurpation The contrary is clear in the promise Tibi dabo claves and in the performance sicut misit me pater sic mitto vos quorum peccata remiseritis c. Let it be shewed that any Laick here had any Key any power made over unto him or that the Apostles ever made any designation of it to a Lay hand and you shall for me carry the cause Well then to whom did they assigne it That is clear to me in the Scriptures to the Bishops that they ordain'd I shall instance onely in two Timothy and Titus the one at Ephesus the other at Crete ordained by Saint Paul though if you would believe Anciâ—nt Records I could name you many more James the brother of our Lord Bishop of Jerusalem Mark at Alexandria Clemens at Rome Euodius at Aâ—tioch Polycarp at Smyrna Dionysius at Athens Caius at Theâ—olonica Archippus at Colossi Epaphroditus at Philippi Antipas at â—ergamus Crescens in Galatia Sosipater at Iconium Erastus in Macedon Silas at Corinth with others all which if there be any credit to be given to Oâ—d Râ—cords were set by the Apostles themselves to be the Ruling Elders of the Church But perhaps you 'll say these were chief in their own Churches respectively but they had their Presbyteries and Presbyters to govern with them Well be it so for in some it is evident it was so Yet it lies upon you to prove that those Presbyters were Lay-Elders for otherwise I shall presume to the contrary because I finde it othâ—rwise in the Churches of Ephesus and Crete where Timothy and Titus were Bâ—shops and in all the Churches where I read of a Presbytery That it was thus at Ephesus is beyond all exception For Timothy was there ordained by the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery 1 Tim. 4.14 I hope you will not say that Tâ—mothy was made the chief Pastour there by the imposition of any Lay-hands No man ever yet so interpreted that text as for the fathers they expound it of the Colledge of Presbyters which they say was of Prelates Heb. 7.7 Calv. Instit lib. 4. c. 6. 2 Tim. 1.6 because minor non ordinat majorem Calvin of the Office and that it was given by the laying on of Saint Pauls hands and he is resolve that Saint Paul alone did it because of that Exhortation Stir up the grace of God which is in thee by the laying on of my hands Take it in which sense you please here 's no place left at Ephesus for a Lay-Presbytery No nor yet in Crete for to that end was Titus left there to ordain Elders in every City and in the following words the Apostle tells what manner of persons they must be Tit. 1.5.7 who were to be ordain'd and what their office to be Bishops for a Bishop must be blamelesse these Elders then at Crete must be Bishops not then of the Laity And if you shall consider what these Elders were to do at Crete and Ephesus you will easily conceive that many of them fell not within a Lay-mans capacity If any man did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 preach any other doctrine then that was sound the Ephesian Elder must prohibere 1 Tim. 1.4 2 Tim. 2.16 Tit. 1.9 if preach prophanely or babblingly he must cohibere restrain him At Crete the ordained Elder must have ability 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to convince the gain-sayers and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with force of Argument Tit. 1.10.13 For particulars if any preach otherwise than becomes him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his mouth must be stopped they must be reproved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taken up short Tit. 2.15 with all authority Say in good sooth whether you conceive these to be the Works of a Lay-man I wish all Clergy-men were ad haec idonci But I fear few are Lastly the rod power of excommunication was in the hand of Saint Pauls Elders which I shall never yield to be in your Lay Elders But were the Word of God in this point indifferent which for ought I see is yet very resolute against them the general consent of all antiquity that never to your sense expounded Saint Pauls words nor never mention d one lay-Lay-Presbyter to govern the Church is to me a strong rampire against all these new devices And here did I list I could presse you down with a whole load of fathers and Councils but I spare you for I fear you would cast them off with some scorn The Catalogue you shall have if you desire it For my part I shall close up this point with the words of a wise learned man Bilson's preface to the Government of the Church I like not to raise up that Discipline from the dead which hath lien so long if it ever liv'd in silence by your own confession which no father ever witnessed no Council ever favour'd no Church ever followed since the Apostles times till this our age I can be forward in things that be good but not so foolish as to think that the Church of Christ never knew what belong'd to the government of her self till now of late and that the Sonne of God hath been spoiled of half of his Kingdome as you use to speak by his own servants and citizens for these one thousand five hundred years without remorse or remembrance of any man that ever so great a wrong was offered him You must shew me your Lay-Presbytery in some Ancient Writer or else I shall avouch plainly your Consistory as you presse it is a Novelty And yet I shall adde one thing more by way of Apology for I would not be a stumbling block
that it is very probable that they were ordain'd at this meeting at Miletum except you judge that Saint John the Apostle setled them in those Churches before his banishment to Patmos for in those Churches they had the power when he wrote the Revelation Howbeâ—t it will serve my turn well enough if they were onely Pastours with a Presbytery for this will prove the government then of the Church to be Aristocratical 4. If we come to Rome there we finde Paul an Apostle and as all Church Records assure us Peter Bishop there needed none where they lived Rom. 16. Presbyters there were then many Junius Clemens Cleâ—us Andronicus Urbane Tripheus Perses Of these Cletus and Clemens were Bishops after the Apostles Martytdome and their Succesours so apparent that I need not recite them Euseb lib. 2. cap. 24. Hieron ad Evagr. Origen Ambrose 5. What should I speak that Mark was Bishop of Alexandria who died six years before Peter in whose Church there was a Presbytery of Titus appointed Bishop by Saint Paul and left to ordain in the Island Presbyters and to have jurisdiction Of Dionysius the Areopagite the first Bishop of Athens Of Archippus at Colosse Of Onesimus at Philippi Of Gaius at Thessalonica The Records were infinite that I could produce in this kinde You see I have not instanced in any but such who were Bishops viventibus videntibus approbantibus Apostolis that so the truth may be apparent I shall not therefore doubt to affirme that the government of the Apostolical Churches was by Bishops as such who had the chief power and that it was Aristocratical Neither can all the Arguments of the Presbyterians any whit enervate this for you see I grant and prove a Presbytery in these two onely lies the difference betwixt them and us First that they would have a Presbytery established by the Apostles without a Bishop which I shall never grant and I know they can never prove Secondly that the power of this Presbytery without a Bishop should be the most supreme in the Church and that to it without a Bishop the Keyes were delivered For this is it which I affirme that originally the whole power was in the Apostles and by them exercised where they setled no Bishop But to him where they fixed a Bishop they committed their power yet so that so long as they liv'd it was but in subordination and dependency on them for out of question they might have govern'd alone when therefore they gave any power to others it was onely delegated and they lost not any of their own in giving orders What therefore Bishops were to the Apostles that must needs all Presbyters ordain'd by the Bishops be to them voluntarily assumed they were in partem sollicitudinis reginimis and had their power by delegation to assist in acts deliberative and consiliary But by vertue of their order they had no jurisdiction in causes criminal For in the Scripture there is not any commission extant to meer Presbyters there is no institution of any power of Regiment in the Presbytery no constitution Apostolical that meer Presbyters should alone or without Bishops govern no example in Scripture of any censure inflicted by any meer Presbyters no specification of any power they had so to do But the contrary to this may well be collected because to Churches where Colledges of Presbyters were resident Bishops were sent by Apostolical ordination as Titus to Crete Timothy to Ephesus the seven Angels to the seven Churches with power of ordination excommunication and taking cognizance of causes and persons even of Presbyters themselves as is apparent in th Epistles to Timothy and Titus and in the Revelation And a more evident example cannot be given then in the Churches of Corinth and Thessalonica in both which were Presbyteries but as then no constituted Bishop In one of which was an incestuous person in the other disorderly persons why did not these Presbyters then cast them out It was for want of coercive power the Apostle as yet kept that power in his own hand and therefore adviseth the Thessalonians that if any man obey not his words 2 Thes 3.14 15 that they signifie that man by an Epistle to him they in the mean time should forbear his company and admonish but not count him as an enemy that is eject him by Church censure that they should leave to him in whose hand as yet the power was But at Corinth upon signification he gives order to the Presbytery to execute his sentence For I verily absent in body but present in spirit that is by my Apostolical power 1 Cor. 5.3 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 have already judged or determined the judgment you see was his the decretory sentence his as though I were present conce ning him that hath done this deed In the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ when you are gathered together and my spirit that is my power with you with the power of our Lord Jesus â—hrist that is which power the Lo d Jesus Christ hath committed unto me that then you prono nce my sentence and deliver such a one to Satan This shewes clearly where the power was setled in the Apostle first In them secondly In him it was primative from him to them it was derivative All was to be done by his spirit And that this was so viz. that the Presbyters power was not absolute but dependent not prime but delegate there be two testimonies the one in Ignatius the other in Cyprian which seems to me to evince it Ignatius writes to his Church of Antiochia being then in prison in Rome and he gives his Presbyters there this advice that they rule the flock of Christ Ignat. ad Antioch untill God should declare who should be their Pastour His words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Presbyters were to feed or rule the flock 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 untill God should shew and designe him qui principatum habiturus sit as Varlonius renders it who to be their chief Pastour Their government there was to last till then but when God had once designed him Cyprian Ep. 21. their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was at an end The other testimony is that in Cyprian in the case of Candida Numeria and Etecusa women that were accused to have fallen in the persecution and offered incense to Idols Of these the Presbyters in the exile of Cyprian the Bishop took the cognizance and were ready to passe a sentence upon them Cyprian interposeth and upon it causa audita perceperunt propositi eas tantisper sic esse to remain in the state they were Donec Episcopus constituatur untill the Bishop should be appointed Here again we see the verdict suspended till there were a Bishop intimating that the prime power of jurisdiction and censure was in him and that without him it might not be lawfully laid on Nor do I see what can be answered to these two fathers Hitherto
more eminent degree Will you then ask me what are Metropolitans Primates Patriarchs I readily answer gradus in Episcopatu all set in the chief places of the Army for the safe guard of the whole and for the better advantage to fight against the enemy Yea but who set them there Prudence and 't is nere the more to be disliked for that it was prudentially done for I must tell you that prudence is to bear a great sway in Church-Discipline The substance it may not alter neither hath it but in the circumstantials it hath a power and if Saints Pauls rule be observed 1 Cor. 14.40 Let all things be done decently and in order all 's well What more decent among Church-governours then that some be superiours some subordinate how can order be better observed then making the Church like an Army Even among the twelve were there not chief Apostles They were all equal Apostolatu all equal in power yet some priority and precedency might be among them For Peter James and John are call'd Pâ—llars Gal. 2. Chrysost in loc Victor Antioch in Mar. cap. 9. Hieron ad Evagr Cyprian de simplicitate Praelatorum hi tres tanquam Coriphaei prÃmas inter Apostolos obtinebant Thus is it with their Successours the Bishops they are all pares potestate in the power he at Eugubium is as great as he at Rome he at Tanais equal with him of Alexandria for he is ejusdem meriti ejusdem sacerdotii that rule of Cyprian being undoubtedly true Episcopatus unus est cujus a singulis in solidum pars tenetur But yet for all this one Bishop may be set in a higher degree then another and one set over another and I shall make little doubt to make m words good out of the Scriptures for what was Titus and Timothy were they not more than ordinary Bishops Titus had the charge over the whole Isle of Crete Miraeus lib. 4. de Notitia Episc pag. 181. Chrysost Hâ—m 1. in Titum in which there were seven Bishops besides This was Pauls companion saith Chrysostome that was approved otherwise Paul would not have committed unto him all whole Island and the trial and judgment of so many Bishops To Timothy if we beleeve Theodoret and other Ancients was committed all Asia the lesse in which were questionlesse instituted by the Apostles many Bishops Of the last example there may be some scruple of the first there can be no doubt to any one that lists not to be contentious but the Ancient evident and constant course in the Primitive Church to admit of these degrees in Episcopacy and to have Primates and Metropolitanes for the calling and guiding of Synods in every Province is to me a pregnant proof that this order was either delivered or allowed by the Apostles and their Scholars oâ— found so needful in the first government of the Church that the whole Christian world till some of late fell from it ever since received and continued the same If you suppose it came from Rome you are much mistaken for it bore sway in all the Eastern Churches before the Romane Bishop was of any great note power or reputation or at least had any more precedency then any of the Eastern Patriarchs Socrates relates that the first Councel of Constantinople 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ordain'd Patriarchs Socrat. lib. 5.8 may be the title was then given to those who were onely call'd Primates or Metropolitans before and bounds set to their jurisdictions which any man will judge that considerately reads that place in Socrates The truth is this The name of Patriarch I finde taken in a double sense largely or strictly Largely for a Primate of any Province that was under the chief Patriarch and so there are manâ— at this day Brexwoods enquiry of Religion and Languages as the Abannah the Patriarch of the Aethiopians or the Primate of Mosco who is the Patriarch of all Christians under the Muscovites Empire The Primates of Sic and Sebasha who are the Patriarchs of the Armenians The Primate of the Jacobites who hath his Patriarchal Church in the Monastery of Saphran near the City Merdin in Mesopotamiâ— The Primate of the Maronites who resides in Mount Libanuâ— The Patriarch of the Nestorians who hath his residence in Muzal or Mosal I could give in a list of many more of this kinde as well in Europe as in the Eastern Churches by which it appears that in a large sense the Prime Bishops set over one or more Provinces may be called Patriarchs Spalat lib. 3. c. 10. Sect. 43.44 And it is the judgment of a learned but unhappy man that were there more of this kinde erected in Europe who should have no dependence on Rome that it would be a ready way to restore peace and unity to the distracted Church and to shut out the confusion we groan under All which are under one or other of those Patriarchs of the Church as their jurisdictions were limited in the fiâ—st erection for that is the strict acception of the word 2. And three they were onely at first The fiâ—st at Rome the second at Alexandria the third at Antioch the first had the power in Europe and in the West the second in Africa and in the South the third in Asia and over the East Neither were their seats there placed as Baronius would perswade us because that the Apostles founded those Churches for were this reason good we should have more Patriarchates than these three there being more Churches planted by the Apostles than these neither were all the Churches they founded Patriarchates Hegesipp de excid Urb. Hieros lib. 3. c. 5. not Corinth not Ephesius not Philippi Smyrna the reason then is that which Hegesippus the younger hath given because these three Cities were the three Metropolies of the Empire and so the Church in the institution for the seats of their Patriarchs followed the secular power of the Roman Empire The dignity of the Cities gave them the dignity and priority of their Seas And it should seeme the erection of these three was very ancient in that when the Alexandrian Patriarch began to incroach upon his neighbours Concil Nic. can 6. the Nicene Council made this Decree Mos antiquus perduret in Aegypto Lybia Pentapoli ut Alexandrinus Episcopus horum omnium habeat potestatem quoniam quidem Episcopo Romano parilis mos est similitèr autem apud Antiochiam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Canon it seemes even then 't was an old custome and the Council of Antioch in the like case though it names not the Churches Concil Antioch c. 9. yet provides to secure the rights 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 secundum antiquam consuetudinem à patribus nostris constitutam And again upon the unjust claime of the Patriarchs of Antioch over the Bishops of Cyprus the Ephesine Council decreed ut singulis provinciis pura inviolata manerent quae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
the Combinational was not in the erection of either because the combinational never was before either What was it precedent to Saint James his Cathedra in Jerusalem I marvail when it should begin His was then set up before the Apostles departed to preach to the whole world and under him it is not possible to conceive the Church could be Combinational Acts 1. 2. Acts 4.41 Acts 4.4 Acts 5.14 Acts 6.1 for upon necessity in that Church at that time there must be more than one Congregation for from 120. to 3120. to these were added 5000. which makes 8120. and yet more multitudes of men and women were added and still the number of disciples were multiplied And out of doubt the increase staid not here God adding to the Church dayly such as should be saved That so many thousands should meet together in any house to performe their Christian duties was impossible they must be divided into several Congregations Had these been Combinational then Saint James had been by the Apostles made Bishop of Jerusalem to little purpose for he could nor must not have taken the over-sight but of one of them the rest had been out of his jurisdiction which I suppose no wise man will ever think since the Apostles no question had the same charity and would have the same care of the rest as of that one and then would have set up as many chaires as there had been Congregations But of such we hear not of this one we do which is a sufficient evidence to me that all the Christians of that City at least if not of all Palestine were under his jurisdiction and subject to his Cathedra Out of which it will necessarily follow That the Cathedral Church was the prime institution not the Combinational and that therefore the Combinational Churches corruption was not the Cathedrals generation but rather the contrary which we have lived to see that the Combinationals generation is the Cathedrals corruption And what I have said in particular of the Church of Jerusalem is as true of all other Churches the Apostles planted and in others planted by their patterne Antioch Corinth Atheus Rome c. for the same reason holds in all these Cities where the multitudes of beleevers grew so numerous one Congregation could not hold them I aske now had the Apostles put case Peter or Paul there present had they jurisdiction over them all or had they not If they had then the Combination and Independency of Churches is at an end in the Primitive Church If they had not I wonder they should stay for divers years in one place having no more to do than to supervise one single Congregation besides that then there must be as many as there were Pastours in those Churches of equal power in their several Churches with the Apostles which he that can beleeve may digest any thing Ephesus was a great City Rev. 2.3 and had in it those who took upon them to say they were Apostles the Angel be it Bishop or Colledge of Presbyters is commended for trying them and finding them lyers if they were not of his own Congregation what had the Angel to do to try them if your Tenet be true he deserves no commendation at all but rather reproof for being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But that they were is more than ever you can prove I am apt to beleeve that if it had been so the Epistle had not been directed to the Angel of the Church of Ephesus but to the Angel of such or such a Congregation in Ephesus Verse 24. And the like may be said of the Churches of Pergamos and Thyatyra Verse 18. the last being reproved for suffering the woman Jezabel calling her self a Prophetesse to teach and seduce For if the Angel had not power over all the Congregations of that City say that this Jezabel had taught in another Combinational Church which is very possible and not in his the answer had been easie Jezabel is out of my reach out of my jurisdiction and therefore you have nothing against me for her misdemeanour This that I have said destroyes clearly the subject of your Proposition the Combinational Church and that being gone what you affirme of it will fall of it self I shall therefore hereafter desire you to lay your foundation deeper before you go about to build or to speak more properly to destroy any thing upon such a groundlesse supposition which you and I have reason to suspect were it onely but for this that all the Churches of the Christian world East West North South for these 1600 years and more have been of another constitution Were it Rome alone I should suspect but when all are otherwise none Combinational no not those who scarce ever heard of Rome and all Cathedral I cannot be perswaded that the love of Christ hath been so cold to his Catholique Church to suffer this Cathedral corruption as you call it so long so universally to over-spread her face It seemes to me contrary to his promise behold I am with you to the end of the world And so I end what I had to say to this Proposition I now come to the next in which you tell us what this corruption was viz. Proposition 2. A presumption to alter and to elevate the places and appellations of the Teacher Pastour Ruler and Deacon into those unscripture-like Titles of lord-Lord-bishop Deane Chancellour Arch-deacon TO this I in the first place shall returne you the words of Zanchy Quid quod in Ecclesis etiam Protestantium non desunt reipsa Episcopi Archiepiscopi Zanchy append de fide Aphorism 11. quos mutatis bonis Gracis nominibus in male Latina convertimus vocant superintendentes generales superintendentes Sed ubi etiam neque illa vetera bona Graeca neque haec nova malè Latina nomina obtinent ibi tamen solent esse aliqui primarii penes quos est authoritas De nominibus ergo fuerit controversia verum eum de rebus convenit quid de nominibus altercamur This first 2. Next to your Distribution I say that perhaps by Teachers and Pastors you may intend two sorts of Ministers in the Church for so I know some distinguish that Pastours in Saint Paul were such as had not onely the office to preach the Word and administer the Sacraments but had also the Church and care of souls committed to them Teachers those who laboured in the Doctrine but received no charge of Sacraments or souls Some make the Teachers to be publike professors of Divinity and Governours of Ecclesiastical Schooles but Pastours to be the Ministers of particular Congregations which I will not deny but it may be true but I shall remember you that four of the Fathers Jerome Austin Chrysostome Theodoret were unacquainted with the nicetie for they thought the Apostle express'd what belong'd to the Pastoral office under two names that the Pastour was to be Doctour to remember he must
must honour in heart and deed why not in words shall the lips neglect whom the heart regards especially when the tongue is the interpreter of the minde within And what do we more when we call a Bishop Lord 't is but respect honour reverence that we then tender unto him And if Rebeccah signified to a servant if Obadiah and Hazael to a Prophet if Mary to a Gardner if Hellenists to Philip if an obedient wife to a Mechanick a hard-handed Artisan may attest her reverential regard by this word Lord authorized in Scripture why should the same word be called an unscripture-like compellation when affix'd before the name of those who are by their place and office to be the lights of the Christian world and really endued with power for the regiment of the Catholick Church Had they yet assumed this name and fastned it upon themselves there had been some exception to be laid against it For 't is but reason he who exalts himself should be abased but they were others and those no mean ones that thought them worthy of this honourable title To omit other Kingdomes the Princes of this Nation who were the fountains of honour thought it fit that no Lawes should passe for the government of the Nation to which they gave not their vote and for that end call'd them to their Parliaments by the same Writ that they call'd other Lords And I am certain before some mens heat had corrupted good manners it was the guise of Christendome not to speak of Bishops fine praefatione honoris in particular this honour I shall give you an instance or two The inscription of a letter to Julius Bishop of Rome from some of his brethren Sozomen lib. 3. cap. 23. Nazianz. ad Greg. Nyssen Theodoret. lib. 5. c. 9. is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let no man speak untruths of me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Gregory Nazianzene And the Synodical book of the Council of Constantinople is inscribed Dominis Reverendissimis ac piissimis fratribus ac Collegis Damaso Ambrosio c. and they were Bishops I spare more testimonies these may suffice that the title Lord-Bishop was not new nor invented in this Land Yet that those who were honoured among us might bear this title without any derogation to Scripture even by Scripture testimonies I have said enough I am not ignorant that there be two places of Scripture produced as if they were a prohibition to this title Luke 22.25 1. Pet. 5.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But he that shall considerately weigh both places will never be able to inferre any such conclusion For let it be thought on what was the occasion of our Saviours words Zebedees wife comes and petitions for her sonnes that one might sit at the right another on the left hand in his Kingdome which out of a Jewish opinion they then thought must be earthly and temporal At this ambition of the two brethren the Disciples murmured they thought they had deserved as well as mother Zebedees children and knew no reason why they should be preferr'd before them To still this contention our Saviour tells them that this his Kingdome was not to be like that of the world in that the Kings of the Nations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dominantur so Junius so Beza translates it do domineere rule and govern with a high hand in potentia gladii or as it is in Saint Matthew Mat. 20.25 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do pro arbitrio exercise dominion and exercise authority over them but with you it shall not be so You no such Lords as they are use no such domineering power as they do A power you are to have but not like theirs your's is to be spiritual their 's temporal their power they use with pride rigour sometimes tyranny and against the good of their subjects for it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the genitive case and the Scholiast upon Nazianzene observes Scholiast Nazianz in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in any compound Verb with a genitive case signifies against But your power must not be so used vos non sic It must be with mildnesse meeknesse humility he who is to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among you let him be your servant It is not the word it is the ambitious seeking of a temporal principality as an affix of the Apostolate that Christ interdicted his Disciples Bern. lib. 10. de Consider Forma Apostolica haec est Dominatio interdicitur indicitur Ministratio Dominatio is forbid is therefore the word Dominus were this so a temporal Lord must go without his title of honour as well as the Lord-Bishop for the dominion they use may possibly be more rigorous arbitrary Lordly tyrannical than ever was that of the Bishop Well however they use it who can help it with them it must not be so though they have and may be allow'd in civility to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet they never were allowed to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tyrannous rigorous Lords Saint Peters words are clear against that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Apostle would not that any superiour should lord it over or against Gods inheritance That service that humility that meeknesse which our Saviour prescribes his Apostles is against that and who so shall make use of the text to any other purpose goes about to finde in it that which our blessed Saviour never intended he may as soon fetch gold out of a pibble One thing yet doth amaze me that those men should be so much startled at a civil title who yet make use of the power even in the most rigid construction They who first prest it against Bishops were the Anabaptists of Germany nothing was so frequently in their mouths as the Kings of the Nations but these at length had Consuls and Kings of their own erection among themselves To them succeeded the Presbyterian consistory and so eager they are for this government that they call their Discipline the Kingdome of Christ the Tabernacle which God hath appointed and where this Ecclesiastical Synod is not erected Browne in a Treatise against one Barrow they say that Gods Ordinance is not performed the office of Christ as he is King is not acknowledged and in this Kingdome who were like to bear most sway are they not the Ruling Elders This Brown not I calls a Lordly Discipline and saith that instead of some Lord-Bishops in name we should have a thousand Lordly Tyrants indeed which now do disdain the name for saith he if you could but once get up the names of Elders and Presbyters what mischief cruelty and pride would not stream from that name with much more to that purpose At last we feel into whose hands the power is come and this I may be bold to say that the loyns of the Lord-Bishops were not so heavy as have been the little fingers of
consist of heterogeneous parts and so doth yours which if it should marre the constitution of a Church it must needs marre yours as well as others For I hope you will not say that all yours are Saints more than by calling and so are all Christians even those at Corinth and all 1 Cor. 16.2 Cap. 1.12 13. cap. 5.1 cap. 6.15 cap. 11.21 cap. 15.35 cap. 8.12 13. among whom yet were schismatical and contentious persons envying and strife incest and incest tolerated going to Law with their brethren Harlotry coming to the Lords Table drunk a denying of a fundamental point of saith the resurrection little charity to the weak brother Now then if Corinth were a Presbyterial Church certainly in the Primitive constitution it was not composed of living stones onely c. To conclude to the constitution of a Church there can be but two things required the materiale and the formale the matter are a people gathered and united called by the Word to live in a divine policy under Christ their head The forme that unites them to him is as you say rightly faith and charity That they be truly and indeed united to him requisite it is that their faith be lively working by love But that they be united to the body the visible Church which is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is no more nor can be no more expected but that they make outwardly a profession of faith and fraternal love For whether either be true unfeigned and sincere or no we can never know and should we stay till those were manifest unto us it would be long enough before we should constitute our's or you your Church pray take this better into your consideration Now I proceed to that wh ch you more aime at viz. 2. That the rise of the rottening of the Church was its falling from a pure poor Presbyterial Church into an impure unpolished Parochial Church TO which I have this to say First that if this position be true then Amesius was mistaken Ames Med. l. 1. cap. 39. Sect. 22. who makes a Combinational Church all one with a Parochial He tells us there of a Church instituted by God and saith that it was not National Provincial nor Diocesan but Parochialis vel unius Congregationis cujus membra inter se combinantur ordinarie couveniunt in eodem loco ad publicum Religionis exercitium If you shall say that this kind of Parochial Church differs from ours at this day because it is combined in Covenant which ours is not I grant it but adde that such a Combination is not necessary For I know no other Covenant requisite but that in Baptisme to make a man a member of any Church as I formerly proved unto you Neither can you give any one instance of any such Covenant before your time was taken by any Parochial Church in Amesius sense Secondly I shall here again put you in minde of that I intimated at first about this word Parochia and give you farther light in it For Parochia hath a double acception eirher as it was at first Selden of tyths cap. 6. Sect. 3. or as it is used in our dayes At first the word Parochia denoted a whole Bishoprick which is but a greater Parish and signified no other than a Diocesse That in these there were Towns and Villages cannot be denyed for the proof of this we need but run over the names of Cities Towns c. of Judea mentioned in the Old and New Testament and all plantations will teach us that in processe of time it comes to be thus at first in greater Cities then in these Religion was planted Among these it cannot be well conceived that the whole hamlet was at once converted but it must be done by little and little till at last the whole Township received the faith Together then they met for the service of God and as the Jewes in their several Towns had to that purpose their Synagogues so Christians began to think of convenient places where they might meet to this purpose as you in New-England they built them Churches and so from meeting in private houses they met in these Where yet they entered not into a Combination to be an absolute and Independent Congregation but did depend on the chief Church where the Bishop was resident and this is evident by what I shall now say The Pastours of these Parishes were such as the Bishop appointed under him to have care of souls in them and those are they Conc. Neoces cap. 58. Conc. Antioch cap. 87. 89. whom the Old Greek Councils call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And in the Churches where they kept their cure the offerings of devout Christians were received All that was received in the Bishoprick was as a common treasury to be thus dispensed one part of it was allowed the maintenance of the Ministry another to the relief of the poor sick and strangers a third Conc. Antioch cap. 103 104. to the reparation of Churches the fourth part to the Bishop Thus it was many years before the Council of Nice that the Bishops Parochia extended far and that the whole was under his jurisdiction and consequently had not absolute power within themselves 2. But when the word Parish in that sense it is now used began it is not so easie to avouch yet for it we have these Records Damasus in pontific Euseb l. 2. c. 17. Epiphan Haeres 69. Euseb l. 6. c. 43. Evaristus who lived in Trajans time and succeeded Clemens divided Rome into seven Parishes assigning to every one a Presbyter And it may be easily collected out of Eusebius that it was thus at Alexandria and Epiphanius names many which bore these titles Theonae Serapionis Pierii Persiae Diseae Mendidii Amriani Baucalis c. For indeed necessity required it when the Christians grew to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Cornelius called the Christians and did implâ—re omnia Tertull. Apol. cap. 37. Then they were forced to divide Congregations and assigne several Presbyters to their cures yet in subordination to their Bishops as is evident in all Records of the Church This being so how is it possible that the rottening of the pure poor Presbyterial Church should be the rise of the Parochial when the Parochial in the first sense was the first Church that ever was in the world as I have before manifested In which sense it is that Cyril calls Saint James Cyril Catechis 16. primum hujus Parochiae meaning Jerusal Episcopum and in that signification it is very obvious to be read in the old Councils of both tongues as Filesacus hath observed you then argue ex non concessis For in the first sense the Parochial had the precedency and was older than your new device Your Combinational might corrupt and rotten it but that could never corrupt and rotten that which was not If you take it
true in your sense yet one example will make no rule again a servant she might be and yet not such as you intend for if you will admit of Ignatius description of those servants and he was near the Apostles age and could best describe them I dare say you will not acknowledge your Deaconesses to be such his words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat. Ep. ad Antioch But to yield to you all you can ask Aretius gives you a reason why they may be spared You advise that these places be compared with 1 Tim. 3.1 I suppose it should be the 11. And then Expositours will tell you that Saint Paul speaks not all of Deaconesses but of the wives of Deacons and other Church men enjoyning that they be grave Matrons no Slaunderers but sober faithful in all things Your last place Tit. 1.5 6. makes clearly against you for if Titus were left in Crete to ordain then the Combinational Church was not to elect and ordain Pastours Teachers c. Here I can finde no Canon for that Logicians observe that those arguments have little force in them that mutatis mutandis may be returned for they are but like Tennis balls that are banded from hand to hand and serve onely for sport Will you have but patience then while I return your discourse The first rise of rottening the Church being it's falling from a poor pure Apostolical Church which in its primitive constitution was made up of living stones c. was at that time when ceasing to elect and ordain Bishops Presbyters Evangelists Teachers Catechizers in conformity to the heavenly Canon 1 Tim. 3.1 2 3 4. Titus 1.5 6. Ephes 4.11 2 Tim. 4.5 Gal. 6.6 it was well content to admit accept of Approvers Ruling Elders Lecturers Itinerants by which wisdome of the flesh being no better then enmity against God in this last age of the world long after the Apostles dayes Christs spiritual house and growing as well as spiritual Temple was turned and transformed into a carnal and dead Congregation an Apostatizing Combinational Church No question the argument thus returned will displease and yet there is as much strength in this as in the other This may make us both wary how we make use of such Cothurni reasons that as buskins may be drawn on either leg That which in the last place you alledge is 4. The very beginning and breeding of which Parochial Church is seen to have been in the time of Polycarp and Irenaeus WHat 's this I read a Parish Church of that antiquity Parsons Vicars Wardens Over-seers of the poor then What these while Saint John might be for ought we know yet alive For Polycarp you confesse was his Disciple and in it you say true for thus Irenaeus witnesseth Polycarpus non solum ab Apostolis edoctus Iren. lib. 3. c. 3. conversatus cum multis ex eis qui Dominum nostrum viderunt sed etiam ab Apostolis in Asia in eâ quae est Smyrnis Ecclesia constitutus Episcopus This is greater antiquity for a Parish Church in that sense you intend then I or any body else could ever finde before That which deceived you as I am apt to beleeve is the translation by Hanmer who renders the words of the Epistle of the Church of Smyrna unto the Parishes throughout Pontus Euseb l. 4. c. 15. not understanding that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Greek word is often taken and most usually in the eldest of the Greek Writers for regiones suburbicariae the neighbouring habitations before there was any distinction of Parishes Ephesus Smyrna Pergamus Laodicea were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in respect of secular jurisdiction so also in Ecclesiastical regiment when then the Smyrneans directed their letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they meant no other then those Churches which were under the Smyrnean jurisdiction But admit it were true in your sense what have you gained by it nay rather what have you not lost for to say your Combinational Church should fail in the Apostles or his Disciples time by the setting up of the Parochial will give such encouragement to the adverse party that they will not doubt to say That was well done which was then done especially when they cannot finde for sixteen hundred years any man that opened his mouth against it And the self-same answer will serve to your other instance of Irenaeus Of these two worthies you affirme that one of them was an Elder of the Church of Smyrna the other Pastour of Lyons And I pray why could you not as well have called them by other names I am sure your Authour Eusebius doth For of the last thus he saith Euseb l. 5. c. 5. that when Pothinus of the age of ninety years had ended his life Irenaeus succeeded him in the Bishoprick He was a Bishop then but if you take Pastour in that sense as it is almost taken in Church Records we agree But yet I must remember you that Lyons was a great City and somewhat more than a Parish as you mean As for Polycarp your Authour tells you that he was President of the Church of Smyrna and so Irenaeus calls him Episcopus ab Apostolis constitutus and under that title Ignatius writes to him Ignat. Epist ad Polycarp and in all probability he is that Angel of the Church of Smyrna to whom that Epistle was written Rev. 2. He was then capable of a higher title then of an ordinary Elder he had indeed in his Church many Elders even a whole Presbytery and therefore Ignatius gives this direction to those of Smyrna 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Idem Epist ad Smyrn In this elegant gradation you see he makes a distinction of Laicks Deacons Presbyters and a Bishop and therefore Polycarp was more than a common Presbyter to whom he perswades all the Presbyters to be in subjection And which is yet more which makes clearly against your Combinational Churches for you grant there were Parishes at Smyrna in the close of his Epistle to Polycarp he perswades them to continue in the unity of God and the Bishop his words are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In which unity had we remained we had not lived to see the Church so rent and overcome with so many Heresies as we behold and lament at this day I come to your third degree of corruption SECT V. The words of the Letter The third degree of the Presbyterial Churches degeneracy was its climbing up to the stile of a Provincial Church whose Pastour was not afrai'd nor asham'd to assume the name and office of an Arch-Bishop and Metropolitane leaving the servile and subservient titles of Prebende Surrogate and Vicar-general as termes good enough to the inferiour Officers his underlings Of which proud and prophane Pest-house that Austin who was sent from Gregory the last of the good Bishops and the first of the bad Popes of Rome is reputed and recorded to have
and Aaron For is pride and prophanesse only in Prelates I shall speak a bold word and I know I can make it good that I can shew you many more arch-Arch-Bishops and Metropolitans exemplar for humility and piety then you can exemplifie as notorious for pride and profanesse The birth of it in this land you intimate in these following words 4. Of which proud and profane Pest-house that Austin who was sent from Gregory the last of the good Bishops end the first of the bad Popes of Rome is reputed to be the father and founder in this our Land c. 1. OF Gregory I know what you bring is so common that it is in every mans mouth for as it is in M. Fox in the place you cite that of the number of all the first Bishops before him in the Primitive Church he was the basest and of all them that came after him he was the best Upon what ground the first part of this sentence was spoken I know not let them give accompt that said it For this is certain that he was a learned and pious father of the Church as his works testifie and the strongest battery out of the fathers we can make against the Popes claim and usurpation to his universal supremacy is fetch 't from him For he calls the title of universal supremacy by these appellations 1. Typum superbiae 2. Nomen novum 3. Vocabulum temerarium stultum 4. Superbum pempaticum 5. Jewel Cont. Hardingum Act. 4. Sect. 4. Perversum 6. Superstitiosum Profanum 7. Scelestum 8. Nomen erroris 9. Nomen singularitatis 10. Nomen vanitatis 11. Nomen hypocriseos 12. Nomen blasphemiae as Bishop Jewel hath taught me out of his Epistles Some men may perhaps esteem meanly of him for giving countenance to some then growing superstitions in the Romane Church but the commendation given him by two who lived near the same time is great The first is Isidore Arch-Bishop of Syvil who writes thus presently upon his death Gregorius Papa Romanae sedis Apostolicae Praesul Isidore de viris illustrib cap. 17 compunctione timoris Dei plenus humilitate summus tantóque per gratiam Spiritus sancti scientiae lumine praeditus ut non modo illi praesentium temporum quisquam sed in praeteritis quidem par fuit unquam Hildef de viris illustrib This is the testimony of Isidore which Hildefonsus Arch-Bishop of Toledo having cited not long after adds these words Ita virtutum omnium claruit perfectione ut exclusis omnium virorum comparationibus nihil illi simile demonstret antiquitas Vicit enim sanctitate Antonium eloquentia Cyprianum sepicutta Augustinum And though no question these praises of Gregory were hyperbolical yet they justifie the latter part of Mr. Foxes words that of all the Popes which came after him he was the best He that shall read his life in Paulus Diaconus will have just reason to have a charitable opinion of him that I say not his own writings yet extant proclaime him in the gate Before I come to his Legate Austin the Monk Juel Artic. 3. Sect. 24. necessary it is that I premise somewhat That Christianity was early planted in this our Island is evident by the testimonies of Tertullian Origen Chrysostome Theodoret which you may read in Juel Patric Junius Annot. in Ep. Clementis Dorotheus in Synopsi That Paul and Peter came hither and preached there are some Records some say Simo◠Zelotes some speak of Aristobulus but that which is generally received and for which there is good evidence is that Joseph of Arimathea sailing out of France with his son Joseph and ten others travailed through Britaine and preach'd the Gospel there Vide Ephraim Pagit part 3. pag. 1. 2 c. Baron Annal. Anno 35. to which purpose serves that testimony of Gildas Tempore ut scimus summo Tiberii Caesaris radios suos huic insulae primus indulget Christus and Cardinal Baronius sets down the year of Josephs comming hither out of an Ancient Manuscript of the Vatican viz. the nineteenth of Tiberius reigne and the 35 of our Lord. Some testimonies also there are for the improvement of it in the next Century but the light broke forth clearest under King Lucius about the year 180. who consulted Eleutherus the Bishop of Rome and from him received advice 'T is the honour of our Nation to have had the first Christian King of the world he was instructed in the faith by Elvan and Meduni Lib. Til. Bal. Script Britanniae Cent. 1. pag. 17. Bishop Godwin Dr. Pitsae and with these he sent his own Embassadours Fugatius and Damian qui quibusdam ritibus ac solenni Episcoporum dispositione eandem formarent Ecclesiam And he erected three Arch-Bishopricks one at London and record we have of the particular Bishops that governed in that Sea A second at York A third at Caerleon upon Vsk in which Dubritius and Saint David were Arch-Bishops wirh others too long to name For four hundred years then and more that is from the conversion of King Lucius to Austins coming this was the state and government of the British Church but in the latter times much eclipsed by the incursion of the Scots and Picts and the tenth persecution under Dioclesian but more by the invasion and cruelty of the Saxons Beda lib. 3. cap. 6.21 22 24. c. when they were forced to retire and their Pastours with them into Wales and Cornwal The greater part of the Land being now again become Idolatrous and Heathenish this gave occasion unto Gregory to send Austin the Monk for their conversion which he effected in some part but the greatest part may not be attributed unto him since it is well known that Aidan converted the North parts Finan the East Saxons and the Mercians whose Coadjutors were Ceadda Colman c. These professed no subjection to the Church of Rome and deserve to be partakers of as much honour from our British Nation as Austin Him I shall easily grant you upon the credit of the Records to have been a proud undiscreet and cruel bloody Prelate Bale Fol. 35. Cent. 1. Bed lib. 2.2 but never that he was the father and founder of this proud and profane Pest-house as you called it in this Land I mean the government of the Church by Arch-Bishops and Bishops For it is evident that in King Lucius time they were instituted And before Augustins arrival Anno 522. at the Coronation of Arthur there was a great meeting of Lords Galfrid Monum lib 9. cap. 12. 13. Bale fol. 28. Princes and Bishops at Caerleon and that of the three Arch-Bishops of Britaine at that time Dulritius Archipraesul Primas Arch-Bishop of Caerleon did the Office of the Church that day being the feast of Pentecost This Arch-Bishops seat was afterward by his Successor Saint David translated to Saint Davids which so continued till the Norman Conquest Bale Cent. 1. fol.
specialissima whereas it is Locale genus such are other collective words exercitus Keckerm syst in fin c. de gen respubl which kind of genus being but Analogum must have under it species Analogas not such as are true as it is in true Entities but such as have an Analogy with them and fall into a Logical consideration under that similitude Say then that this word Church is totum universale then it must have partes subjectivas under it and so it hath for Ecclesia Britanica Belgica Genevensis Germanica Scotica c. are as it were so many Species where you may finde so many National Churches that do equally participate of the nature of the Genus and under them so many Individuums as there be particular Congregations in any of these Nations Neither doth Amesius Ames Loc. citato Sect. 18. who affirmes the Church to be a Species specialissima give any teason for it but that nullas habet species propriè dictas which is illogical for I told you that it was Genus analogum and will any Logician expect species propriè dictas it is sufficient for such a genus to have species impropriè dictas by comparison and resemblance onely to a true Genus and such the Church hath as I have proved and therefore there may be a National Church Thirdly that which is capable of the definition of the Church may be called a Church But a National Church is capable of the definition of a Church therefore there may be a National Church The major is out of question and needs no proof The minor I make good by setting down and applying the definition of the Church to it Amesius Ames lib. 1. cap. 31. 7. Junius de Ecclesia c. 2. Trelcat lib. 2. cap. de Ecclesia Ecclesia est caetus hominum vocatorum But his definition though it would serve my turn is a little too short Iunius hath more fully expressed it Ecclesia est caetus eorum quos Deus evocat è natura modulo naturali ipsorum per gratiam in dignitatem filiorum Dei ad ipsius gloriam Trelcatius gives us three definitions one after another First to the Church in common which is Ecclesia est caetus eorum quos Deus gratuita vocatione ad gratiae suae gloriae communionem evocat Matth. 11.29 And secondly that belongs to the visible Church Ecclesia visibilis est caetus eorum quos Deus externa vocatione seu praeditatione verbi Sacramentorum administratione evocat ad cultum gloriae suae Mat. 28.17 A third which belongs to the invisible Church which is Ecclesia invisibilis est caetus praedestinatorum qui vocatione efficaci salutari ex statu corruptionis in dignitatem adoptionis filiorum Dei evocantur Christo tanquam capiti adunâ—ntur non ad cultum tantum sed ad fructum gloriae Luke 1.33 All which definitions especially those of Junius and Trelcatius are full and artificial for Ecclesia is by all put in the predicament of relation and all relations are defined mentione subjecti relati correlati fundamenti Keck syst Log. cap. de Definit quod supplet locum causae efficientis Termini vel finis And in these last we meet with all these The relatum is vocans the correlatum is evocati the subject or materiale Men or more largely those who who have a capacity è natura modulo naturali ipsorum to be called which takes in Angels also The Formale or foundation of this Relation is that gracious call that God gives and the end is that they being adopted for his children may communicate in his worship grace and glory Now what one word is there in any one or all these definitions which are not as well applicable to a National Church Deut. 5.22 Exod. 16.1 as a Combinational Is this caetus kahal an Assembly a Gnedah a Congregation that is much more Doth this consist of men There are more in that Have those in this a Call a gracious call given them by God so have the other Are they adopted and brought into the state of sonnes so are they too I have nourished and brought up children Are these called to worship God to be partakers of grace and glory Isa 1.2 â— Cor. 6.18 So are all Nations whom the Lord our God doth call They then who partake fully of the nature and essence of a Church and to whom all the causes that constitute a Church may be attributed of whom the efficient matter forme end are verified without question are a Church but such is the National as I have declared I pray therefore let it have the name I know your exception lies against the formal cause for that gracious call of God will not satisfie you which hath contented all other judicious Divines before you But you assigne another viz. a Church-Covenant fancying that none can be truly members of Christs Church but who have combined and joyned themselves together in this League of Church-fellowship This say you is the chief essential part of a Church and the true formality of it Amesius teacheth us truly that Ecclesia is à Deo instituta If so let it be shewn where God instituted his Church under this condition produce the precept bring forth the command for it or else you shall never perswade me that this Institution is from God Nay I shall yet descend lower Demonstrate to me the practice of it or the patterne for it either in the Apostles age or any age after it till you arose and you shall carry the cause I know that the wisest among you is not able to shew me one example for it in all antiquity We cannot therefore choose but set upon it the character of Ionah's gourd that is filia noctis a daughter of a nights growth it sprung up so lately The farthest the pedegree can reach is either to the Montanists Novatians or Donatists those children of Separation and yet when all 's done it doth but resemble them neither since I read not that they and their parties were ever bandied together by a solemne Covenant They could think themselves a Church and indeed the sole Church without this formality They had their Bishops under whose jurisdiction all the several Congregations of their profession were And therefore I shall again repeat my words that no pattern for this in any age can be found and I adde to it no not among Hereticks and Schismaticks Secondly we shall give a poor accompt of former Churches and Christians if this Covenant-invention should be of such concernment to Christianity when it is not easie nor as I beleeve possible to finde a Church anciently so bound Farther yet this seems to me altogether uselesse and superfluous and that in two respects First it seems uselesse to them who are so bound for these new small bodies are so loosly tyed together by these sorry wit hs of mans invention that they quickly upon humour anger
pastore eodem And they note that what we read the Masters of the Assemblies is in the Hebrew Domini Collectionum First I must tell you that in this Text I read nere a word of the Elders Pulpit and therefore cannot conceive that it is here eminently expressed no nor yet necessarily implied neither in that Domini Collectionum may have another sense then you thought of do but read the Prologue to the book of Ecclesiasticus and you may see what it meaneth The Grandfather to Jesus the Son of Syrach was a man of great diligence wisdom among the Hebrews who did not only gather the grave and short sentences of wise men that had been before him but himself also uttered some of his own full of much understanding and wisdome they that gathered these might well be called Domini Collectionum and Junius not to be blamed when he reads Verba sapientum lectissima For every Scribe instructed to the Kingdome of heaven is like unto a man that is an Housholder Matth. 13.52 Isocrat ad Demon which brings forth out of his Treasury things new and old Isocrates likens such a man to the Bee which lights upon every flower and gathers honey or wax from all so saith he it behoves every man who desires instruction to leave unattempted no Authours but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there you have the word from all places to collect together profitable Rules Maxims Apothegms Parables Proverbs Sentences Arguments c. For when all 's done all will be too little to amend the pravity and obliquity of our nature Now where there is this choice made by the wise Hieron in loc then their words will be both stimuli clavi Goades they will be in the side of every slothful man to quicken and prick him forward to any duty pungunt verba non palpant they do not flatter and bring asleep but they rouze and move every resty soul And because that men that are up are of a flitting nature and apt to fall back being too like a deceitful bow Psal 78.57 whose string being drawn up if not well fastned is apt to slip the nock and relapse therefore their words also are like to nails that being driven in deep fasten and hold together what is joyned by them This then I take to be the true meaning of Solomon in this place that when by the Masters of the Collections there is a good choice made then words are of excellent use both against slothfulnesse and recidivation they will goad a Scholar up that he be not dull in and fasten him to that he fall not back from any duty And to that end they were delivered for they be but tradita given or committed to them and given they were by one and the same Shepherd Junius in loc Ambros that is by Christ whose word alone hath been heard in the Church in all ages For that saying of Ambrose is most true Veritas à quocuuque dicitur à Spiritu sancto est profecta He must have Linceus eyes that can finde any countenance in this Text for Lay-Elders or for their Pulpit What is it not possible that no men besides themselves should be Masters of Assemblies none Masters of Collections no wise mens words be goads and nails besides theirs alone shall no men be entrusted by this one Shepherd and the Holy Ghost but they alone this I hope they will not arrogate to themselves and if there may be a partition made as there must be except they will assume to themselves the Monopoly of all wise words I see no necessity either by implication or eminent expression that your Ruling Elders should be the Masters of the Assemblies that the Preacher means And I am sure he could not for in his dayes there were no such heard of And so not finding their Commission in the Old Testament by your direction I will enquire for them and their Pulpit in the New And the first place you send me to is in the first Epistle to Timothy cap. 4. ver 14. Neglect not the gift that is in thee which was given thee by Prophesie with the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery This place I conceive you intended not at all for proof of the Elders Pulpit because no Cart-ropes will be strong enough to hale it that way Only that by it they should have a Commission to transact all the concernments of the City of God and in particular to ordain Church-Officers For I know by the Consistorian Divines it is drawn that way though very violently This is the sole place in Scripture where the Presbytery is named and it seems somewhat strange to me that you should ground and build your foundation of your Lay-Eldership on a place that hath so many sound and sufficient answers as this hath That there was a Presbytery in the Apostolical times I have formerly proved but that it consisted of Lay-Elders it lies upon you to make good before you can derive their Commission from this place Secondly Jerome Primasius Ambrose and Calvin tell us that by Presbytery the function is meant and not the Colledge and then the place will stand you in no stead and that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used for Presbyter I could shew you if I list by more than ten testimonies of the Greek Fathers and Councels Thirdly Chrysostome Theodoret Oecumenius Theophilact inform us that Paul by the Presbytery meant the Bishops for a meer Presbyter might not impose hands on a Bishop Neque enim fas erat aut licebat Ambros in loc Calv. institut 4. cap. 3. ut inferior ordinaret majoreme nemo enim tribuit quod non accepit Fourthly Saint Paul himself testifyeth that he laid hands on Timothy which Calvin strongly presseth Lastly granted it must be that Timothy was an Evangelist which function the Presbytery of no particular Church could give him by your tenets This place then being set aside I finde not any other that can carry so much as a colour for the Commission you speak of and that from this they can claim no power I have partly made good here and more fully before and therefore I say the lesse of it One thing only I shall adde that the Latine Fathers expound it abstractly viz. to signifie the Office of Priest-hood that is neglect not the grace of the Presbyterate that is in thee by the imposition of hands and this Erasmus helps by making Presbyterii to depend upon gratiam in regimine reading it thus noli negligere gratiam Presbyterii quae data est per manuum impositionem and such trajections are no new things in Scripture To those places you cite out of the Revelation I have answered before and shewed that they concern not at all your Elders and therefore I shall not need to say any more to them The words of the Letter TO summe up in short the whole summe and substance of what I would shew Untill
labour in doctrine as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which often signifies to rule And then your third word Rulers will come under that notion also and so Teachers Pastours and Rulers will not denote three distinct sorts of Church Officers which I have some reason to think you aime at but one and the same man qualified both to teach and to rule At Geneva Calvin and Beza were made both Pastours and Readers of Divinity being men so able to discharge both and yet no man did say that they did not content themselves with their pastoral votation or alledge against them He that teacheth on teaching or he that exhorteth on exhortation For as I have often told you and have proved Lay-Ruling Elders except you mean Arbitratours there were never any in the Primitive Church The last word you use is Deacon Hieron ad Evagrium Epiph. lib. 1. Tom. 1. de adventu Christi in carnem And under that name are properly comprehended those who by the first institution were onely mensarum viduarum Ministri who if we beleeve Epiphanius were chose out of the seventy of which two of them did preach Stephen and Philip they were more than Deacons they were Evangelists and so Philip is stiled But he that shall heedfully consider Saint Pauls precepts and the conditions required by him in those that should be Deacons would easily collect that their Office was not onely a charge to look to the poor but that they were to attend the sacred services and Assemblies and even to be a step to the Ministry of the word I shall therefore willingly admit of the distinction that there were in the Primitive Church two sorts of Deacons One of the first institution who were to have a care of the poor and of a second kinde deputed by the Church who were to attend on the Church give unto eve y one present of the sanctified bread and wine to command the people silence attention Concil Ancyr Can. 2. Cypr. lib. 3. Epist 9 â—ust Apol. 2. Ignat. ad Heronem and devotion all which may be collected out of the Council of Ancyra Cyprian Justin Martyr and Ignatius who mentions his own Deac Heron at Antioch and Stephen to be the Deacon to Saint James at Jerusalem Thus much it was necessary to premise before we joyn'd issue now you charge us with presumption in removing the Landmarks that we have altered the places and appellations by bringing in of new names unscripture-like titles So belike it is not lawful to use any titles of honour or command but such as are used in Scripture The Jewes then belike offended when they used these unscripture-like titles of Reschignim Tsadikim Chasidim and so after the captivity they divided the people The Reschagnim were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wicked the Tsadikim their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their just men the Chasidim their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their good and holy men And yet Saint Paul serves himself of this distinction for questionlesse he alludes to it Rom. 5.6 7. amplifying the great love of Christ dying for us Scarcely for a righteous man will one dye yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to dye the gradation is this Some peradventure would dye for one of the Chasidim the good men scarcely for one of the Tsadikim for the just or righteous men But for Reschagnim or ungodly none would dye In this then appeared the love of Christ that when we were Reschagnim ungodly sinners Christ dyed for us A man is a Ruler of an Army and he shall not call some Majors some Colonells some Centurions Pentacurions Decurions c. because these are unscripture-like titles Nomen is rei notamen invented it was to denote the thing neither do I know which way it is possible to understand and distinguish but by names vox being rei conceptuum signum and therefore must necessarily be admitted if we will not confound our selves in the understanding of things But now to the names you mention Lord-Bishop Dean Chancellour Surrogate Arch-Deacon The end of two of these I finde in Scripture Bishop and Deacon but you 'll say the syllables Lord and Arch are unscripture-like I must confesse that I finde not Lord before Bishop in the Scripture nor Arch before Deacon but this will not prove that we have altered the places and appellations for what place have we altered either of Bishops or Deacons by calling one Lord-Bishop or the other Arch-Deacon Still the place and office is the same for the Lord-Bishop hath no other power than he had at first which is potestas clavium nor the Arch-Deacon any more than he had to be oculus Episcopi and see that all be well administred that concerns the poor and service of the Church To be offended with a title is to pick straws especially when the substance is observed For how have we alter'd the places when we have yet in our Church Bishops who are Pastours Teachers and besides these publick Professours of Divinity Doctours Catechizers whom Saint Paul saith Saint Ambrose meant by Teachers such as were in the Churches of Alexandria Clemens Pantonus Origen Hicroclas As for those other three appellations Dean Chancellour Surrogate no Scripture can be brought for them nor needs it it being lawful no question to give fit names to things though no text can be produced otherwise your parties were to seek who call him who is to preside in a Synod by the name of a Proloquutor and those that govern in your Combinational Churches Lay-Elders and are not these unscripture-like for I finde no such titles in the Scriptures As for the name of Deane it is ancient and it signifies no more than that Presbyter who was the chief in any Collegiate Church and was to have a care that the Statutes of the Church were observed being like the the Principal Warden or President of a College and you may as well be offended with any of these Appellations as with this with which yet it is evident many of your party are well pleased for they enjoy it and the honour and profits notwithstanding the names are not found in Scripture And should any man lay this objection against any of them I dare say he would answer him with a smile I am confident he would who being a prime man among you at this day enjoyeth a Deanery and doubtlesse hugs himself applaudÃt sibi ipsi domi Aha I am warme I have been at the fire That you like the name nere the worse it was fetcht from the Militia The Romane souldiers were when drawn to their winter quarters to lodge by companies and so many as lodged together being commonly ten were called Contubernales the chief over them was called Decenus or decurio Hadrian Junius being praeses manipuli dexinier en guerre Gall or the Corporal from the Italian word Caporale or Spanish Corporal We in Enlglish Corporal