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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
word_n	bishop_n	office_n	presbyter_n	2,819	5	10.5738	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A81336	A collection of speeches made by Sir Edward Dering Knight and Baronet, in matter of religion. Some formerly printed, and divers more now added: all of them revised, for the vindication of his name, from weake and wilfull calumnie: and by the same Sir Edward Dering now subjected to publike view and censure, upon the urgent importunity of many, both gentlemen and divines.	Dering, Edward, Sir, 1598-1644.	1642 (1642)	Wing D1104; Thomason E197_1; ESTC R212668	73,941	173

be in the nature of an old primitive constant Presbytery among us Thirdly and lastly because all meetings of many must be disorderly and the rule of many cannot be without confusion unlesse there be one to guid and to direct the rest I shall desire that in every shire over every Presbytery we may establish one President A President I say more to satisfie others then my selfe The name of Bishop disturbs not me let him be a Bishop or an Over-seer or a President or a Moderator or a Super-intendent or a Ruling-elder call him what you will so as you provide me one in every shire over every Presbytery to guid and to direct the rest The different sence to be easily observed and I hope not past our strength to be reconciled in this House concerning our present Church-government is two-fold One is for Ruine thereof the other for Reforming both are neerer together in heart I perswade my selfe then we are yet aware of The neerer the better and more easie composure both of our owne selves here and of the Churches peace throughout the Land abroad God send that we may find the way to peace If the right forme of primitive Episcopacy were truly stated forth unto us it would questionlesse take and lead our judgements along therewith This Bishop was not so much a Lord as a Father over his charge ruling with love and tender bowels whosoever did institute this Episcopacy sure I am this Bishop hath and ever had a precedency before and a presidency over others of his owne order He was one man chosen out among the rest and by the rest put into a severall degree not into a distinct superiour Order above the rest {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} ad Episcopandum to oversee the rest and this onely in matters spirituall nothing at all in affaires temporall or secular imployments If this Bishop were not of Apostolicall institution yet it is undeniable that he was of Apostolicall permission For of and in the Apostolicall times all stories all Fathers all ages have a greed that such Bishops there were His rule indeed was with consent of his Senate his Presbytery Direction was his Coercion was still their owne He had {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} yea and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} both the first place of sitting and the chiefest part of power I say the chiefest part I doe not say the greatest part of power The power it was more eminent in him but it was virtually residing and domesticant in the plurality of his Assessors These Assessors were the Presbyters the Elders of the Church of whom holy Ignatius a Father so primitive that he was Disciple to Saint John the Apostle and by some thought to be that very child whilst he was a child whom our blessed Saviour tooke and set before his disciples whereof you read in three of the Evangelists This Ignatius I say in his Epistle to the Trallians doth call these Elders {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The Counsellors and coassessors of the Bishop Here was in this age and yet this father died a Bishop and a martyr before the last Apostle went to Heaven here was a fellowship yet such a fellowship as destroyed not presidency and in another Epistle that to the Magnesians you have such a presidency as doth admit also of a fellowship The words are {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The Bishop being President the very name and office there as in the place of God and the Presbyters as a Senate of Apostles I forbeare to dilate upon this Episcopacy But I will be bold Ponere ab oculos to set him before your eyes I will give him you even by way of demonstration M. Hide your selfe are now in this great Committee M. Speaker is in the house The Bishop of our Congregation You are in your selves but fellow-members of the same house with us returned hither as we also are to sit on these benches with us untill by our election and by common suffrage you are Incathedrated then you have and it is fit and necessary that you should have a precedency before us and a Presidency over us Notwithstanding this you are not diversified into a severall distinct order from us you must not swell with that conceit you are still the same member of the same house you were though raised to a painfull and a carefull degree among us and above us This Bishop had as your selfe have here potestatem directivam but not Correctivam Correction in our house doth dwell in the Generall Vote You know the power you have is limitted and circumscribed by them who gave it you are no Dictator to prescribe us our Lawes but must gather our Votes and then your pronouncing doth fixe our not your own single Orders Neither you here nor Mr. Speaker in the House can Degrade any one of us from these Seates nor can you silence us in the due libertie of our Speech Truly Sir as yet advised I do heartily wish we had in every Shire of England a Bishop such and so regulated for Church-government within that Spheare as Mr. Speaker is bounded in and limitted by the rules and cancels of this House That were indeed a well tempered and a blessed Reformation whereby our times might be approximant and conformant to the Apostolicall and pure primitive Church But this I feare is magis optandum quàm sperandum yet it being the cause of God who can then despaire This happinesse I meane living under Episcopall Presidency not under a domineering Prelacy this is too high above our reach yet strong prayers and hearty endeavours may pull the blessing down upon us In the mean time wo is our Churches portion for our Bishop President is lost and grown a stranger to us and in his roome is crept in and stept up a Lordly Prelate made proud with pomp and ease who neglecting the best part of his office in Gods Vineyard instead of supporting the weake and binding up the broken forrageth the Vines and drives away other labourers The Vines indeed have both Grapes and Leaves and Religious acts both substance and circumstance but the Gardener is much too blame who gives more charge to the workmen of the leaves then of the fruit This rough enforcement of late to that which is not the better part is an Episcopacy that turnes all our melody into a Threnody This makes many poore pious Christian soules to sing the songs of Sion in a strange Land This Bishop will have no Assessors or if any so formally admitted and so awed as good have none no Senate no Consultation no Presbytery or common Suffrage but elates himselfe up into usurped titles and incompatible power and sublimes ti selfe by assuming a soleship both in Orders and in Censures Religion and reason and Primitive example are all loud against this Episcopacy This too elate subliming of one can not stand

to inherit Glory in the Kingdome of Grace I feare that there are some Bishops do not know how sublime a vertue Christian humility is how full of Honour Every {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} must be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} b Let the greatest be as the youngest that is the way to be a right Elder he must be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} c as he that serveth that is the way to be ministred unto He must be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} d a servant that he may be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a prime or chiefe He must be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} e a Minister that he may be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a great one These antitheses our Saviour hath placed in the text upon the former occasion From hence may well be argued as a Corollary to these undoubted premisses that no Minister of the Gospell can lawfully assume hold or exercise that power which by the Lord of the Gospell is inhibited to his Ministers But our Saviour Jesus Christ Lord and onely head of his Church hath inhibited all temporall Lordship Magistracy and Dominion unto his servants in the lot of his Clergy Therefore no Minister of this Gospell may hold or exercise temporall Lordship or Dominion These words {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} c. It shall not be so among you doe so streighten the Bishops Miters that they sit uneasie on their heads to soften and as it were to line them for their ease the Bishops that are and would be all the papall and some of the Protestant doe quilt a gentler sence into these words then can beare analogy with the text They search the originall and pretend to finde another sence in our Saviours sentence The Text saies that the Lords of the Gentiles are called gracious Lords and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} not tyrants but benefactors a title fit for the best Princes And yet this Text say they forbids not unto Clergy men the use and exercise of worldly titles power offices dignities Cōmands dominion Lordships c. but the abuse of them domineering tyrannizing with them not exercising and holding This they pretend to make firme out of the Greeke word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which they would have taken in the worst sence of exorbitant power even for Tyrannizing So then they would teach us that Lord it they may and Lord it they may not Lord it they may with all pompe state power Lord it they may not with pride vanity and oppression But I shall easily prove this interpretation to be inconstant with the scope and analogy of the Context Will they frame their argument from the verbe {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to be a Lord or to rule or from the preposition {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} added and united thereunto neither will serve And if the pompe of our Prelates cannot avoyd the power of this text they are downe for ever Let me therefore scan it to the full First {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to be a Lord or to have rule or Lordship is never properly taken in that ill sence which they would here create as having unjust and oppressive power It is derived from the usuall and most frequent title of our Lord and Saviour whom the holy Scripture so often saluteth {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Lord Here is no shadow for Tyranny The true sence of {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} is authoritatem habens one that hath authority being derived from {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} authority which is known to be approved and ordained by God himselfe from whom all lawfull authority is derived Marke how well this word is sensed through all Authours Demosthenes calleth the heads and chiefe of the City {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} A law in force and principall authority is called by Aeschines {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Galen calleth the chiefe and principall members of a mans body {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} yet one member doth not tyrannize over another Aristotle hath a {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} propria virtus that is a vertue properly or principally so called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} is one that is Lord or master of himselfe not one that domineers over himselfe {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} b The Lords day {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The Lords Supper c Saint Paul saith that d The law hath dominion over a man so long as he liveth he doth not meane that the Law is a Tyrant yet the word is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} e Christ both died and rose and revived that he might e be Lord both of the living and the dead {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} From {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Lord commeth {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Lordship foure times mentioned by the holy Apostles but never taxed as a power tending to Tyranny but to be obeyed in them who duly are therewith invested as may be seen Eph. 1. 21. Coloss. 1. 16. 2 Pet. 2. 10. and Jude 8. Clearely then in {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} there is no print of usurpation or of oppressive and tyrannicall power If there be we are then well warned to beware of our Bishops who not onely owne the title {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} but expressely plead for it as the f Bishop of Exeter in his late Episcopacy Secondly {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the very word used by Saint Matthew and Saint Marke in these before alledged Texts whereby our Saviour forbiddeth his Apostles to exercise Dominion or Lordship is a compounded word of two {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} That is to rule as one that hath authority I may render it to be or to behave ones selfe {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} juxta Secundum according as one that hath authority This preposition in words compounded hath sometimes a signification of his owne sometimes none at all as in {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} c. clearely it hath no speciall signification in this {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} much lesse a force so exegeticall as to draw the lawfull power of {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} into the exorbitancy of a Tyranny That it hath no force here is by this apparent for that the speech of our Saviour recorded by the holy Ghost in S. Matthew and S. Marke by {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and by {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} are rendered by the same spirit in Saint

to universall by all the BB. and by a command of theirs Certainly Sir Idolatry in the practice of it is a very visible sin and the command of the Bishops was either legible or audible Who hath read this command who hath heard this command who hath seen this all-commanded Idolatry and can assigne wherein it is Some superstition in doctrines and in practices by some Bishops this is not the question But the odious apostacy of Idolatry Give me leave to say No man in this House can charge and prove all the Bishops no nor halfe of them I dare say not any three among them perhaps and truly I think so not one among them all to have issued forth any one command for Idolatry If any man can let him speak and convince me I love to be reformed In the mean time I desire to offer you some particulars in bar and by way of opposall to this charge The learned pious and painfull B. of Durham hath fought in front against Roman superstition and Idolatry The B. of Lincolne was the first of note that gave check unto our Papall misleaders and Altarian innovators He stood in gap of that inundation and was a sufferer for us The B. of Exeter however mistaken in the Divinity of Episcopacy hath ever had the repute both of a good man and a good Bishop He hath not only held and maintained his station but advanced also and made good impression upon the Idolaters of Rome M. Speaker This hath been a very accusative age yet have I not heard any superstition much lesse Idolatry charged much lesse proved upon the severall Bishops of London Winchester Chester Carlile Chichester Parcite paucorum crimen diffundere in omnes Not for love unto the persons of these Bishops but for honour to our Religion although the times of late have been somewhat darkened yet let not us make the day blacker in report then it is in truth In the last place I observe a promise in generall words that Learning shall be rather advanced then discouraged Sed quid verba audio cum facta videam Great rewards do beget great endeavours and certainly Sir when the great Bason and Ewer are taken out of the Lottery you shall have few adventurers for small Plate and Spoons onely If any man could cut the Moon out all into little Stars although we might still have the same Moon or as much in small pieces yet we shall want both light and influence To hold out the Golden ball of Honour and of profit is both policy and honesty and will be operative upon the best natures and the most pious minds But M. Speaker if I observe aright learning I mean Religious learning in this Remonstrance is for one halfe thereof utterly unthought on And because I heare often speech of one halfe but seldome mention of the other give me leave I beseech you in this Theam a little to enlarge my selfe if your Remonstrance once passe it will be too late I feare to enter this plea It is I dare say the unanimous wish the concurrent sence of this whole House to go such a-way as may best settle and secure an able learned and fully sufficient ministery among us This ability this sufficiency must be of two severall sorts It is one thing to be able to preach and to fill the Pulpit well it is another ability to confute the perverse adversaries of Truth and to stand in that breach The first of these gives you the wholsome food of sound Doctrine the other maintaines it for you and defends it from such Harpys as would devoure or else pollute it Both of these are supremely necessary for us and for our Religion Both are of divine institution The holy Apostle requireth both Both {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} First to preach That he be able with sound Doctrine to exhort and then {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and to convince the gainsayers For saith he there are many deceivers whose mouthes must be stopt Now Sir to my purpose these double abilities these severall sufficiencies may perhaps sometime meet together in one and the same man but seldome very seldom so seldome that you scarce can find a very few among thousands rightly qualified in both Nor is this so much the infelicity of our or any times as it is generally the incapacity of man who can not easily raise himselfe up to double excellencies Knowledge in Religion doth extend it self into so large so vast a Sphere that many for hast do cut crosse the diameter and find weight enough in halfe their worke very few do or can travell the whole circle round Some one in an age perhaps may be found who as Sir Francis Darke about the terrestriall Globe may have travelled the celestiall Orbe of Theologicall learning both for controversall and for instructive Divinity The incomparable Primate of Ireland deserves first to be named Bishop Morton whom I mentioned before is another reverend worthy and hath highly deserved of our Church in both capacities Jewel of pious memory another Bishop never to be forgotten Some few others I could name able and active both for Pulpet and the Pen But Sir these be Raraeaves there are very few of them The reason is evident For whilst one man doth chiefly intend the Pulpit exercises he is thereby disabled for Polemick discourses and whilst another indulgeth to himselfe the faculty of his Pen he thereby renders himselfe the weaker for the Pulpit Some men ayming at eminency in both have proved but mean proficients in either For it is a rule and a sure one Pluribus intentus minor est ad singula Now Sir such a way such a temper of Church-government and of Church-revenue I must wish as may best secure unto us both both for preaching to us at home and for convincing such as are abroad Let me be alway sure of some Champions in our Israel such as may be ready and able to fight the Lords battell against the Philistims of Rome the Socinians of the North the Arminians and Semi-Pelagians of the West and generally against hereticks and Atheists every where God encrease the number of his labourers within his Vineyard such as may plentifully and powerfully preach fayth and good life among us But never let us want some of these watchmen also about our Israel such as may from the everlasting hills so the Scriptures are called watch for us and descry the common enemy which way soever he shall approach Let us maintain both Pen and Pulpit Let no Ammonite perswade the Gileadite to foole out his right eye unlesse we be willing to make a league with destruction and to wink at ruine whilst it comes upon us Learning Sir it is invaluable the losse of learning it is not in one age recoverable You may have observed that there hath

different sense of the word Episcopacy Sir It will be maintained upon good ground that Episcopacy is of divine right it will be maintained upon grounds as good that Episcopacy is not of divine right The ambiguity lyes in the word Episcopacy and it must be put into a certainty or else we shall runne our selves into a certaine Labyrinth of words lose the matter Three sorts of Episcopacy I have observed no more pardon me if I use expressions which you have received before They were his they are mine and Beza taught us both who gives them thus 1 Episcopatus Divinus 2 Episcopatus Humanus 3 Episcopatus Satanicus Others in milder language do keepe the same sence So you may please to say there is 1 Episcopus Pastor 2 Episcopus Praeses 3 Episcopus Princeps The first of these we all do reverence it is the ordinance of God You may safely write a Noli me tangere upon that you have the holy text to warrant you Noli tangere Christos meos The second also in its degree I doe highly honour it is of right venerable antiquity And for my part if I can find such Episcopacy among us I shall willingly submit thereto though it should prove but the ordinance of man Kings are no more themselves Yet being once invested obedience is due unto them by Divine right You have another Text for this also Submit your selves to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake So then the first is the ordinance of God to be obeyed for God The second although the ordinance of man yet whilest it stands so ordained is to be obeyed for God also The third Episcopacy hath too much of the Principality This I detest this I abhorre This is originally and really Antichristian Away with this if you please both Root and Branch If you will give me leave and patience I will as briefly as I can touch them over and explain my selfe First Episcopus Pastor This I say is of divine right Every Spirituall Shepherd is to have a flock and every congregation must have a Pastor to oversee that flock This is originall and of no lesse then Divine institution I need not prove this Bishop If there be any doubt of this Episcopacy look S. Paul in the twentieth of the Acts there he gives this charge Take heed saith he to the flock over which the holy Ghost hath made you Bishops I know well that this text is by some Expositors construed of other Bishops But how ever here are Bishops by divine right And mark you the holy Ghost God for ever to be blessed he first made Bishops The Originall is plain {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} S. Peter speakes by the same spirit Feed the flock of God saith he which is among you taking the Bishoprick thereof Our english reading is the oversight thereof both the same Overseers and Bishops differ no more then a Greeke name and an English severall sounds but the same sense The originall is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} being Bishops thereof nothing can be more plaine Now Sir this Episcopacy we shall not we must not we dare not remove This is that Bishop of whom the most ancient Ignatius thus Episcopo subjecti estote velut Domino ipse enim vigilat pro animabus vestris Away then with their impertinent objection who say that there is a malady in the very name of Bishop that the name is odious you see the holy Ghost hath honoured this name and title with approbation Nay this name and title must never sinke into obloquy it being one of the attributes of our blessed Saviour He is the Bishop of our soules The second is Episcopus praeses If this be but Humanus Episcopatus for I doe not determine the point already warme betweene a reverend and worthy Bishop and his Anti-pent-agonists if it be not founded upon Divine institution yet certainly it stands on good grounds and pleads its own right by a good title and that either jure Apostolico or jure Ecclestastico or jure civili constitutivo or jure rationis convenientiae All or any of these do entitle it jure bono And that by so good so approved a right that Mr. Speaker I am bold to stand up and to forbid any man from this houre for 1600 yeares upward to name any one age nay any one yeare wherein this Episcopacy was out of date in the best part of Christendome By the word Bishop I do here understand a man of the Clergy eminent in honour and power by vertue of a superiour degree above other men both Ministers and people within a certaine circuit or territory allotted and subjected to his particular care and survey in matters spirituall and affaires Ecclesiasticall I will not trouble you to repeat the character of this Bishop I have formerly been bold with you in that kind He had a precedency He had a presidency He had a power potestatem directivam it cannot be denied I gave you an instance very accommodate to my sence Master Speaker your selfe are our Bishop we are your Presbyters It is true that we have made you our Bishop our Overseer our President and now it is as true that neither we without you nor you without us can establish any one order Not you without us we must be your Assistants So Ignatius of old The Presbyters are saith he {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as the Senate of God and the band of Apostles Nor we without you for so the same Ignatius give me leave to presse his venerable authority although Ignorance and Arrogance have of late decryed both him and all Antiquity They saith he who doe all things {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} without a Bishop to such men Christ will say Why doe you call me Lord Lord and doe not the workes I bid you Such men doe seeme to me {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} not to be of good conscience but to be counterfeiters and dissemblers Mark his judgement on such as would do all things without a Bishop Of this Bishop the Bishop President and I plead for no other it must be meant which I read in the same Ignatius I will not trouble you with any yonger or any weaker authority and I will hold my selfe within those Epistles that are indubiously his the words are these {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} It is necessary necessary he says that you do nothing without the Bishop Clearely then the Bishop President in the best and purest age was of the Quorum in all Ecclesiasticall affaires And for this last age Reverend Calvin Beza Bucer Zanchy Danaeus learned Chamier all admit none reject this kind of Episcopacy They who deny that ever any such Bishops were in the best the purest times I intreat some one of them if any such be here

to stand up and to shew me teach me how I may prove that ever there was an Alexander of Macedon or a Julius Caesar or a William the Conqueror in the world For Sir to me as playn as evident it is that Bishops President have been the constant permanent and perpetuall governors and moderators of the Church of God in all ages And this being matter of fact I do hope that historicall proofe will be sufficient adequate proofe in that which in its fact is matter of History But proofes herein are so manifold and so cleare that I borrow the free and true assertion of a worthy and a learned Gentleman It may be thought want of will rather then want of light which makes men deny the antiquity of Bishops in the Primitive times Therefore answer not me but answer Ignatius answer Clemens Tertullian and Irenaeus Nay answer the whole indisputed concurrence of the Asian the Europaean and the African Churches All ages All places All persons Answer I say all these or do as I do yeild to the sufficient evidence of a truth Deque fide certâ sit tibi certa fides But do not think to bring me into a dream of a new born or new to be born Church-government never known never seen in Christendome before this Age As for them who say that all Episcopacy is Antichristian Truly Sir they may if they please with as sound reason and with as much knowledge say that all Church-government is Antichristian and I doubt there are some abroad ripe for such a sence Sir Let us be wiser than to cosen our selves with words and through a mistaken Logomachy run our selves into a Church Anarchy If you talke with a Papist in point of Religion presently he is up with the word Catholike Catholike he tels you he is of the Catholike Roman Church This go's off Ore rotundo but require him to speak playn English The Vniversall Roman Church and then you may laugh him into silence Just so some cry away with Bishops no Bishops no not of any kind I desire one of that sence to stand up and tell me sadly would you have an Overseer in the Church or not Ancient S. Clement whom S. Paul calleth his Fellow-workman in his undoubted Epistle to the Corinthians doth foretell that a time should come when there would be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Contention about the very name of Bishop I think the time is now For my part I will not make that my contention But for the government by an Episcopall presidency shew me any thing more agreeable to the holy word Shew me any thing more honoured by the holy Martyrs of the first and the latter times Shew me any more rationall and prudentiall way of government and I yeild unto you Some against all Episcopacy do plead unto us the fresh example and late practice of our neighbour Churches But I beseech you Sir are not we herein as fit to give them our as to take their example I am ashamed to heare yesterdays example pressed as an argument by some and the all-seeing providence through all ages to the contrary turned aside by the same men as not worth an answer Or if an answer you get it is but this dead one wherein as in a mare mortuum they would drown all reply Oh say they the mystery of Iniquity began to work in the Apostles time Ergo what Therefore say they this Episcopacy is that mystery of iniquity And so they do desperately conclude with themselves that Christ did never support his Church with a good government till Farell and Frumentius did drive their Bishop out of Geneva or since then untill Presbytery begat independency But their Syllogisme is as true Logick and as Consequentiall as our Kentish Proverb that Tenterden Steeple is the cause of Goodwin sands Both Arguments are in one and the same mood and figure But I return and proceed I have not asserted this kind of Episcopacy as Divine yet I professe that it soares aloft Et caput inter nubila condit It hath been strongly received that Presbyters succeed to the seventy Disciples and Bishops to the Apostles S. Peter honours Episcopacy by entitling the holy Apostles thereunto for Matthias is chosen to take a Bishoprick the very word there which Judas lost by going to his owne place S. Paul tels you This is a faythfull saying {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} If any man desire a Bishopricke he desireth a good worke And this S. Paul writes not at large in an Epistle to the body of a whole Church as to Rome or Corinth but this is in directed unto Timothy then designed to be the particular Bishop that is the President and Overseer of Ephesus Two things are or may be here objected First that neither of these Texts nor any other can be found expresly mandatory requiring the Office of Episcopacy in the Church Next that the name of Bishop is in some places plainly given unto Presbyters I answer If you put me upon this that you will not yeild unto Episcopacy untill you have a Text expresly positive therein consider if by the same rule you do not let loose many other points as well as this Shew me an expresse for the Lords day to be weekly celebrated It will be hard to find divers Articles of our Creed in the holy Scripture terminis terminantibus What have you there for Paedo-baptisme What precept or example have you frō our Saviour that women shal receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper Why should women be baptised since the covenant to wch baptisme doth succeed Circumcision was a seale between God and men onely what have you there expresse why I may not beleeve the Trinity to be three Almighties as well as three persons but one Almighty But Sir the golden rule of Vincentius Lirinensis is an unfailing guide Quod ubique quod semper quod ab omnibus look what among Christians hath been every where at all times by all men universally received Atque id quidem verè est Catholicum and there you may rest secured So I say that for right sence of these Texts and for warrant of this Episcopacy the universall practice of the whole Church of God especially in the Apostles times and immediately succeeding the Apostles is a most undeniable cōmentary to cleare unto us that this kind of Episcopacy is and was of Apostolicall allowance if not of Apostolicall institution And thus in other points doth Tertullian argue against Marcion and S. Augustine against the Donatists The second exception is thus These Bishops may well be thought to be but Presbyters for say they the name of Bishop is given to Presbyters also in holy writ Ergo Episcopacy is not a severall degree from Presbytery Surely Sir if this argument be a sound one then Apostleship it selfe was not a severall order and degree from the 70. Disciples and from Presbyters and then it had been a