The unbishoping of Timothy and Titus. Or A briefe elaborate discourse, prooving Timothy to be no bishop (much lesse any sole, or diocæsan bishop) of Ephesus, nor Titus of Crete and that the power of ordination, or imposition of hands, belongs jure divino to presbyters, as well as to bishops, and not to bishops onely. Wherein all objections and pretences to the contrary are fully answered; and the pretended superiority of bishops over other ministers and presbyters jure divino, (now much contended for) utterly subverted in a most perspicuous maner. By a wellwisher to Gods truth and people. Prynne, William, 1600-1669. 1636 Approx. 430 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 121 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2006-06 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A68614 STC 20476.5 ESTC S114342 99849568 99849568 14723 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A68614) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 14723) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1475-1640 ; 1528:19, 1823:21) The unbishoping of Timothy and Titus. Or A briefe elaborate discourse, prooving Timothy to be no bishop (much lesse any sole, or diocæsan bishop) of Ephesus, nor Titus of Crete and that the power of ordination, or imposition of hands, belongs jure divino to presbyters, as well as to bishops, and not to bishops onely. Wherein all objections and pretences to the contrary are fully answered; and the pretended superiority of bishops over other ministers and presbyters jure divino, (now much contended for) utterly subverted in a most perspicuous maner. By a wellwisher to Gods truth and people. Prynne, William, 1600-1669. 165 [i.e. 173], [5] p. Printed by J.F. Stam], [Amsterdam : In the yeare M.DC.XXXVI. [1636] Dedication signed: A.B.C., i.e. William Prynne. Printer's name from STC. A later state of STC 20476, with V3-X4 cancelled by X-Y⁴ Z² [2A]¹. The new leaves were possibly printed in London (STC). P. 173 misnumbered 165. Identified as STC 20476 on UMI microfilm reel 1528. Reproductions of the originals in the Union Theological Seminary (New York, N.Y.). Library and Harvard University. Library. Appears at reel 1528 (Union Theological Seminary (New York, N.Y. ). Library copy) and at reel 1823 (Harvard University. Library copy). Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. 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Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Titus, -- Saint. Timothy, -- Saint. Church of England -- Bishops -- Early works to 1800. Church of England -- Government -- Early works to 1800. Church of England. -- Controversial literature -- Puritan authors -- Early works to 1800. 2005-12 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2006-01 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2006-03 Jonathan Blaney Sampled and proofread 2006-03 Jonathan Blaney Text and markup reviewed and edited 2006-04 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion THE VNBISHOPING OF TIMOTHY AND TITVS . OR A briefe elaborate Discourse , prooving Timothy to be no Bishop ( much lesse any sole , or Diocaesan Bishop ) of Ephesus , nor Titus of Crete ; and that the power of ordination , or imposition of hands , belongs Iure Divino to Presbyters , as well as to Bishops , and not to Bishops onely . Wherein all Objections and Pretences to the contrary are fully answered ; and the pretended superiority of Bishops over other Ministers and Presbyters Iure Divino , ( now much contended for ) utterly subverted in a most perspicuous maner . By a Wellwisher to Gods truth and people . Matthew . 15. 13. Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted , shall be rooted out . Chrysostom . Opus imperfectum in Matth. Hom. 35. Quicunque desideraverit Primatum in terra , inveniet in Coelo confusionem ; ut jam in ter servos Christi , non sit de Primatu certamen . In the Yeare M.DC.XXXVI To the Reader . CHristian Reader , what that Oracle of wisedome hath registred ; Proverb . 13. 10. Onely by pride cometh contention ; was never more really verified in any one particular , then in the Prelates : whose ambitious windy tumor , and overswelling pride , as in al former ages , so in this , hath a filled the whole Christian world with warres , with civill dissensions ; and the Church it selfe , with endlesse schismes , controversies , contentions , which else would never had existence . The pretended primacy of the great Pontificall Bishop of Rome , what tumults , battles , warres , treasons , rebellions , murders , martyrdomes , hath it ingendred on the one hand ; what disputes , bookes of controversie , and paper-battles , on the other ? What innumerable Schismes , Treatises ( which the endoubted parity of Ministers and Bishops Iure Divino had prevented ) have the Prelates pretended superiority by divine institution , over Presbyters and their fellow-Ministers , produced in all ages , Churches , especially in our owne , ( which from the first glimmerings of the Gospell in Iohn Wiclifes dayes till now , hath beene more or lesse disquieted with this unhappy controversie ? ) which being raked up in the ashes for a space , by reason of our Bishops waiving of their divine right , ( which not onely Archbishop b Anselme , c Richardus Armachanus , and d Bishop Peacocke of old , but likewise e Bishop Tonstall , Bishop Stokesly , f Bishop Hooper , g Bishop Iewell , h Bishop Alley , i Bishop Pilkington , yea k Archbishop Whitgift himselfe , and l Bishop Bridges , to omitt all others , have since them publikely disclaimed ; confessing Bishops and Presbyters , lure Divino to be allone , equall , and the same ; and the Statutes of 37. H. 8. c. 17. 1. Ed. 6. c. 2. 1. & 2. Mariaec . 8. & 1. Eliz ab . c. 1. for ever judicially in full Parliament resolved against ; ) yet our present ambitious Prelates studying to surmount their predecessors , not onely in worldly pompe and power , derived from their indulgent Soveraigne , but likewise in spirituall Iurisdiction , claimed from God himselfe , ( though they have neither time nor care to preach , pray , or doe him any Episcopall service , being wholly taken up with secular offices and affaires , and ‡ unable to serve God for serving his incompacible enemies , Mamōn , and the world , ) have lately blowne abroade the coales , and resuscitated the violent flames of this contention afresh , by a new ambitious claime of all their Episcopall Soveraignity and Iurisdiction , Iure Divino , even in the High Commission Court it selfe , in the late censure of Doctor Bastwicke , for a Booke written onely against the Pope and Italian Bishops , without any reflection upon them , as all men then conceived , and therefore wondred at , till their magnifying of the Church of m Rome as a true Church in that Censure of his , and some late licensed Pamphlets , their Antichristian and Papall proceedings against Gods truth , Ministers , Ordinances , and the late authorizing of Doctor Pocklingtons n Sunday no Sabbath , by the Archbishop of Canterburies owne Chaplaine , Master Bray ; which expressly avers , that our Arch-bishops and Bishops can and doe lineally derive their Pedigree and Succession from Peter and the Popes of Rome ; hath since in structed the ignorant people , that Popes Italian and English Bishops , are in truth * all members of the same body , whelpesof the same litter , branches of the same tree , and our present Prelates the Pope of Romes owne lineally discended sonnes , so as they could not but be sensible of , and highly offended , if not actually lashed , wounded with their fathers scourge ; Flagellum Pontificis & Episcoporum Latialium , being a whip for them , as well as for the Italian Prelates . Now because in that late Censure of theirs , they all founded the divine right of their Episcopall Superintendency and Dominion over their Fellow-Pres byters , onely on the examples of Timothy and Titus , ( whom they then new consecrated Diocaesan Bishops over Ephesus and Crete 1608. yearely after their decease , though Christ and Paul himselfe had never done it in their life times : ) and on a supposed divine Monopoly of conferring Orders and imposing hands , appropriated by God himselfe to Diocaesan Bishops , distinct in Iurisdiction , power and degree from Ministers and Presbyters ; I have therefore here for the future quie●●●ing of this much agitated controversie , confined my discourse within the lists of such questions , ( not formerly fully debated by any in the English tongue , that I have met with ) by the discussion whereof I have ( I suppose ) so shaken these rotten pillars , and undermined these o sandy foundations of their high-towring , over-swelling Hierarchy , as that I have left them no divine prop or groundworke to support it longer ; so as it must now certainly ( for any stay is left it in Scripture ) come tumbling downe headlong to the very ground , ( and me thinkes I heare the fall of it allready sounding in my eares ) unlesse with speed they wholly quit these false foundations , and bottom their Prelacy and Iurisdiction onely on his Majesties Princely favour , ( not Gods or Christs divine institution ) which because they have so lately judicially disclaimed in open Court , and even at this present execute all Acts of Episcopall Iurisdiction by their owne inherent power , without any speciall Commission from his Majesty under his greate Seale , keeping their Courts , visitations , and making out all their citations , proces , excommunications , probate of wils , Letters of administration &c. in their owne names and under their owne Seales , as if they were absolute Popes and Monarches , contrary to the Statutes of 25. H. 8. c. 19. 26. H. 8. c. 1. 37. H. 8. c. 17. 1. Ed. 6. c. 2. 1. Eliz. c. 1. 8. Eliz. c. 1. their Oath of Supremacy , and their High-Commission it selfe , which might teach them another lesson ( as that it confines them to doe all things by his Majesties speciall Commission , in his name and under his Seale , when they are all there joyned together , much more therefore when they are divided in their severall Dioces ; ) and because they have * blotted out Caesars Image and superscription , his Armes and royall Title out of their Courts , proces and all ecclesiasticall proceedings , and inserted onely their owne in leive thereof , that so they may appeare to all the world to be no longer his but theirs , and hee ( if hee should chance to chalenge and resume them as his owne ) might not henceforth owne or claime them to be his ; they have litle reason now to attempt , and his Majesty farre lesse to suffer , and so having neither God nor the King , divine nor humaine Right to support them , they must ( as the proverbe is , between two stooles the arse goes to the ground ) now at last in the middest of their usurped greatnes , fall flat upon the ground , and this their fall , q proove very great , because they now of late , are growen so , * not being content with the office of a Bishop , but they must be also Kings , temporall Lords and cheife state officers , against Christs expresse commaund and Gods owne Law , to sway both Church and state at pleasure so they may ingrosse ‡ into their sacred hands the sole rule and government of the world , having great possessions ; and being great Lords also as they are Prelates , and yet doing nothing therefore at all in point of preaching , fecding , and instructing the people committed to their spirituall charge , but onely playing the part of a Bishop , as a Christmas game-player doth of a King and as a Poppet , which springeth up and downe , and cryeth Peepe , Peepe , and goeth his way , as * Doctor Barnes writes wittily of the Bishops of his age . Which swelling greatnesse 〈◊〉 ambition of theirs as it will make their downefall the greater , so the speedier , being a sure prognosticke of their approaching ruine , as the greatnesse of any unnaturall swelling in the body is of its present ensuing rupture . u Pride ever going before destruction , and a lofty spirit before a fall , and they usually dogging them at the heeles ; because * God himselfe resisteth the proud , but then most of all when they are at the highest ; according to that of the Psalmist , ‡ Thou puttest away all the wicked of the earth like drosse , which assoone as ever it hath gotten up to the top of the pot , and elevated it selfe above the 〈◊〉 mettle , is then scummed off and cast away . Towards which their desired speedy downfall , if these my unworthy labours shall through Gods blessing on , and thy prayers for them , contribute any assistance , for the ease , releife or comfort of Gods poore people , * who are every where most wrongfully , without , yea ‡ against all Law and reason oppressed , and cast out of their benefices , freeholds , possessions , imprisoned , fined , excommunicated , silenced , suspended , vilified , crushed , and troden under feet by their intolerable tyrannie , might and unbounded extravagant power , I shall neither repent me of the penning , nor thou thy selfe of the reading of it , wherefore here humbly prostrating it to thy impartiall Censure , and commending it to the blessing of that omnipotent God , who to shew the infinitenes of his wisedome and power , doth oft times z choose the foolish things of the world to confound the wise , the weake things of the world to confound the things that are mighty , and base things of the world , and things that are despised , yea and things that are not , to bring to nought things that are , that no flesh should glory in his presence . I shall take my leave of thee till some further occasion . Farewell , and pray for me . To the Right Reverend Fathers in God William Lord Archbishop of Canterbury : And Richard Lord Archbishop of Yorkes , Primates and Metropolitanes of all England . MY Lords , I have sundry times heard both of you joyntly and severally protesting even in open Court , not onely in the * High-Commission , ( but in Dr. Laytons and two other cases since ) Starchamber too , ( whether seriously or vauntingly onely let the event determine ; ) That if you could not proove your Episcopall Iurisdiction and function which you now claime and exercise over other Ministers , and your selves as you are Bishops to be superior in power , dignity and degree to other Ministers Iure Divino ( a doctrine which a Patricke Adamson Archbishop of S. Andrewes in Scotland , publikely recanted in the Synod of Fiffe Anno 1591. as directly repugnant to , and having no foundation at all in the word of God ; ) you would forthwith cast away your Rochets of your backes , lay downe your Bishoprickes at his Majesties feet , and not continue Bishops on ehower longer . What your Lordships have so oft averred and publikely promised before many witnesses , ( I hope bonâ fide , because judicially in full Court upon goodadvise , not rashly on some sodaine fitt of choler , ) I shall make bold , to challenge you to make good without more delay ; either by giving a solid satisfactorie speedy answere to this short Treatise ( consisting onely of 2. Questions , which you may devide between you , and so speedily reply to , if your great b secular occasions , not your praying and c frequent preaching , which are onely truly Epicopall , though you deeme them overmeane imployment for Arch-bishops interrupt you not : ) which manifests all that Jus Divinum which hitherto both or either your Lordships have pretended for your Episcopalities to be but a meere absurd ridiculous faction , having not the least shadow of Scripture to support it ; or in case you either cannot or faile to give such an Answer to it in convenient time ; by pulling off your Rochets and resingning up your Archbishoprikes ( which without all question are but a meere humaine , and no divine Institution , as I have evidenced : ) into his Majesties hands , d from whom you dare not deny you onely and wholly received them , with all your Episcopall Jurisdiction and Authority thereunto annexed , whereby you difference your selves from , or advance your selves above your Fellow-Ministers as their supreme Lords , unlesse you will split your selves against the hard rocke of a Praemunire , and the Statutes of : 26. H. 8. c. 1. 31. H. 8. c. 9. 10. 37. H. c. 17. 1. Ed. 6. c. 2. 1. Eliz. c. 1. 5. Eliz. c. 1. 8. Eliz. c. 1. which Acts as they will informe your Lordships , notwithstanding all your former vaunts and brags of divine right , That the Archbishops , Bishops , Arch-deacons and other Ecclesiasticall persons of this Realme , HAVE NO MANER OF IVRISDICTION ECCLESIASTICALL , BVT BY , VNDER AND FROM THE KINGS ROYALL MAJESTY ; to whom by holy Scripture ALL AVTHORITY AND POWER IS WHOLY GIVEN , to heare and determine all maner causes Ecclesiasticall , and to correct vice and sinne whatsoever , and to all such persons as his † Majesty shall appoint thereunto : That all authority and Iurisdiction spirituall and temporall is derived and deducted from the Kings Majesty , as supreme head of the Church and Realme of England , and so justly acknowledged by the Cleargy thereof : That all Courts Ecclesiasticall within the Realme were then ( and now ought to be though they are not ) kept by no other power or authority either forraigne or within the Realme , but by the authority of his most excellent Majesty onely ; and that by vertue of some speciall commission or letters Patents under his Majesties great Seale , and in his name and right alone : That all power of Visitation of the Ecclesiasticall State and Persons ( much more then of our Vniversities exempt from Archiepiscopall & Episcopall Iurisdiction ) is united and annexed as a royall prerogative to the Kings Imperiall Crowne , and to be executed by none but by Patent under him : And that all your Citations , processe , Excommunications , Probates of Wils , Commissions of Administration &c. ought to be made onely in his Majesties name , and sealed with his seale ( as they were in King Henry the 8. and King Edwards dayes , witnesse the Bishops Registers , Proces and Probates of wils in their two raignes , and now are in your High-Commission ) that so both the Courts and processe migth be ‡ knowen to be his Majesties by leaving his Image , stile and superscription ingraven on them , and to be derived unto you , not by any divine right , but by his Princely grace alone , who hath as absolute an Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction , as any of his royall progenitors enjoyed , both by the Lawes of God and a of the Realme : So they will inforce your Lordships to acknowledge , ( unlesse you will renounce your Alegiance to your most gracious Soveraigne , whose meere grace hath advanced you to what you now are , ) that all your Episcopall Iurisdiction , whereby you are distinguished from , or elevated above any ordinary Presbyters and Ministers , is not from any divine Charter or Commission from Christ , but * onely in , by , from , and under his Majesty ; and so not Jure Divino , as you have thus frequently craked and boasted to the world ; so as you must either now forthwith renounce your Bishoprikes according to your Protestations , or else be guilty of breach of promise ; unlesse you can proove you enjoy them onely by a divine right , and yet onely in , by , from , and under his Majesty , which is a contradiction . If your Lords to maintaine your divine pretended Episcopall Iurisdiction shall flie to b Doctor John Pocklington for ayd ( who by † one of your Domesticke Chaplaines approbation ) hath verily published in print , That you by Gods mercy to our Church , are able lineally to set downe your Succession in your Episcopall dignity , from S. Peters Chaire at Rome , to S. Gregory , and from him , from our first Archbishop S. Augustine ( though we had many d Archbishops before his comming ) our English Apostle ( so the Papists would have him stiled ; though * Bishop f lewel , Fox , and g others , renounce him ) downeward to his Giver that now sits in his chaire , Primate and Metropolitane of all England . I shall then desire your Lordships and this Doctor to proove . First , that S. Peter was a Bishop by divine Institution . Secondly , that he was Bishop of Rome ? of which this Doctor is so impatient , that he breakes out unto h these passionate words well worthy your Episcopall Censure : Whereby † their vanity may appeare , that upon idle ghesses against all antiquity , makes fooles beleeve , that S. Peter w as k never at Rome ; mking the Succession of Bishops and truth of the Latine Churches , as questionable as the Centurists orders . Thirdly , Wheter Peter was sole Bishop of Rome , or rather Paul also Bishop as well as hee at the same time , and that by divine institution ? whence it will follow , that there ought to be ‡ how Bishops of Rome and so of Canterbury , at the same time , not one alone , as two severall persons at least to constitute one Bishop ? Fourthly , Whether it will follow from Peters being Bishop of Rome Iure Divino , that the Arch-bishops of Canterbury and Yorke most necessarily be Archbishops Iure divino ? Fifthly , Whether if this Doctrine be true , this Proposition can be denied ; that your Lordships being lineally descended from the Church and Popes of Rome , are both the true and genuine sonnes and members of these two ghostly Parents ? If you deny this inference , then you must renounce this divine Title to your Prelacies ; if you subscribe unto it ( as I presume you dare not , then all his Majesties loyall subjects ( who have in their m oath of allegiance and supremacy , renounced all forraigne Iurisdiction with the Bishops and Church of Rome , abandoned by * severall Acts of Parliament , ) must renounce both you , and this your Episcopall Iurisdiction to , thus claimed : which since you can no wayes substantially proove to be Iure Divino , I hope you will now lay downe your Bishopriches , according to provise , or else be though●never worthy faith or credit more in future time . Neither may the seeming strangnes of the thing it selfe , deterre you from it , this being no new thing for Bishops to resigne and give over their Bishoprikes . For not to mention , that famous * Gregory Nazianzen , that great Patriarke of Constantinople , or p Hi●rax , † Iohn of Antioch , with sundry others in the primitive Church , who either out of conscience or for quietnes sake , voluntarily renounced or repudiated their Bishoprikes betaking themselves to a more retired private life , wherein they might serve God better . Nor yet to recite the History of * Ammonius , who when the Cleargy and people elected him for their Bishop , and urged him to take a Bishopricke upon him , fled away secretly , and cut off his right eare , that the deformity of his body might be a Canonicall impediment , to his election , and , being yet deemed meet ▪ to be a Bishop by Timothius the Patriarke , though his Nose and eares had beene both cut off by reason of his learning and vertues ; and the people drawning him against his will to accept that office , hee replyed that hee would likewise cut off his tounge to , which pleased them unlesse they would specdily let him goe . Nor yet to remember † Euagrius the Philosopher , who when he was constrained to accept a Bishopricke by Theophilus Alexandrinus , renounced his Ministery rather then hee would accept it , such a dangerous and ill office did hee then repute it , and many good men else , who as Nicephorus records , refused aunciently to accept thereof , though nothing so dangerous and pernicious an office , then as now . Or Nicephorus * Blemmides , who being elected Patriarch of Constantinople absolutely refused to accept it upon any termes ▪ Or u Werinbaldus unanimously elected Bishop of Spier who could by no meanes be induced to embrace it : Or * Theophil●us Archdeacon of Adaina , who being chosen Bishop of that See , refused to receive it , and being forced both by the Ministers and people to take it against his will , relinquished it shortly after though in an idle manner . I find it recorded of ‡ Arsenius , Germanus , Paulus Cyprius , Iosephus , Becus , Gregorius Cyprius , Athanasius , Iohn , Ioannes Glicis , Antonius Studites , Cosmas , and Theodosius , all Patriarkes of Constantinople ▪ as likewise of * Gildenutus Bishop of Malden , Vlfranius Bishop of Shetne , Arnulphus , Bishop of Mets , Addo-Bishop of Lyons , Victerbus Bishop of Ratisbon , Herigerus Bishop of Meniz , Michael Bishop of Ephesus , Adelberus Bishop of Wirtenburg . Michael Opites , Patriarch of Athens , Desiderius , Bishop of Flaunders , Bruno the third , Bishop of Colen ; Vlrious the second Bishop of Constance , Walther Bishop of Augusta , Gerhardus Bishof Herbipolis , Vlricus Bishop of Rhesia , Brincingus Bishop of Hildeshem , Conrade the second Bishop of Lubecke . Adam Bishop of Morini in Flaunders , Christianus the second Bishop of Marcte , Sebotho Bishop of Augusta , Everhardus Bishop of Reformes , Vlricus Bishop of Saltsburg , Conradus Bishop of Hildesheim , Conradus Bishop of Halberstat , Ludolphus Bishop of the same See , Gunterus Bishop of Magdeburge ? Iosia Odolpleus , Archbishop of Vpsal 〈…〉 in S 〈…〉 hland , with sundry other Patriarkes , Archbishops and Bishops , many of them by reason of age or sicknesse , others out of discontent , others out of a desire of peace , quietnesse , and case from unnecessary cares , and troubles , others of them meerly out of conscience of the unlawfulnesse , danger , hurt , and sinnes accompanying the very office of Bishops as then it is , and yet is used ▪ ) have voluntarily renounced , revived , relinquished , their Patriarkships , Archbishoprikes , and Bishoprikes , and betooke themselves to a more retired , religious , quiet , private , godly life , wherein they might serve God better and showe those manifold occasions of evill and temptations unto which their Episcopall function would expresse them both a hazard of their Soules . If these many forraigne examples , will no wayes moove your Lordships as seeming over strange , we have many pregnant Domestique presidents of like nature , which may perswade you , to make good your promise and induce you to an imitation of them . For I find that * Robert Gemetiensis , S. Edmund , Boniface , and Robert Kalwarby Archbishops of Canterbury ; Richard Beaueyes , and William de sancta Maria Bishops of London , Iohn Bokingham , and Philip Ripingdon , Bishops of Lincolne , Richard Peche , and Roger de Weseham Bishops of Coventre , and Lichfeild , Herman Bishop of Sherborne , Shaxton Bishop of Sabisbury , William Warmest , Iohn Voysy , and Miles Coverdale ( who being deprived in Queene Maries time , cared not to returne to his Bishoprike in Queene Elizabeths , setling himselfe in London and there leading a private life as an ordinary Minister ) Bishops of Exeter , Iohn Carpenter and Master Hugh Latimer , Bishops of Worcester ( the later of whom ‡ skipped for joy when hee had cast off his Rochet , for that hee was eased of so heavy a burthen , and blessed God that he had given him grace to make himselfe a Quondam Bishop ; ) Ralfe de Maydestan Bishop of Hereford . Putta , Quickhelmus , and Haymo Bishops of Rochester , ( the first of them becoming a Schoolemaster , spent the residue of his dayes in that kinde of life , and could never abide to heare of returning to his Bishoprike ; ) Dubricius Bishop of Carleon , Sulghein Bishop of S. Davids , Iohn Hunden , Bishop of Landaffe , Caducanus Bishop of Bangor , Elguensis Bishop of S. Assaph , Colman , S. Cuthbert , Egelrit and Nicholas de Farnham Bishops of Lindesfarne and Durham , ( the later of whom first of all twise refused and then at last resigned his Bishoprike out of conscience ) Paulinus de Leedes ( who peremptorily refused out of conscience to accept the Bishoprike of Carlile though thereunto elected , and earnestly intreated by King Henry the second to accept the place , who offer● him 300. Markes yearly revenue for the increase of his living there , as did Sylvester de Everdon for a time to , ) Walter Malclerke Bishop of Carlile ; Cedda , Coena aliàs Albert Athelwold , Thurstan , William Wickwane Archbishops of Yorke , who all voluntarily , ( most out of conscience , some out of choller , others for their ease , some for their age , others for other causes , best knowen to themselves ) resigned both these their Archbishops and Bishoprikes , being so many domesticke presidents to your Lordships ( who have long since given over the maine part of your Episcopall function preaching , ) now to doe the like , according to your joint and severall Promises , in case you cannot proove your Archiepiscopall and Episcopall lurisdictions lure divino , and give a satisfactory Answer to these few papers , which I presume you can never doe ; since not onely t Hieron , u Ambrose , x Chrysostom , y Augustine , z Sedulius , Remigius , Primasius , Theodoret , Haymo , Beda , Rabanus Maurus , Theophilact , a Isidor Hispalensis , b Alcuminus , c Oecumenius , d Gratian , the Councells of Carthag● 4. Con● . 22. to 26. of Aquisgran c. 8. 10. 11. e Iuo Camotensis , f Peter Lombard , g Bruno and h other ancient , but even Anselme Archbishop of Canterbury , Richard Archbishop of Ardmagh , all the Archbishops , Bishops and Cleargy of England in 37. H. 8. in their Institution of a Christen man chapter of Orders subscribed with all their names , Stokesly Bishop of London , Tonstall Bishop of Durham , Reginald Peacocke Bishop of Chichester , Bishop Hooper , Bishop Latimer , Bishop Iewel , Bishop Alley , but even . Arch-bishop Whitgift himselfe and Bishop Bridges , to omit Wickliffe , Swinderby , Walter Brute , S. Iohn Oldcastle , Master Iohn Lambert , Master Iohn Bradford , and other our Martyrs , Master Thomas Beacon , Master Iohn Fox , Master Alexander Novell , Doctor Whitaker , Doctor Humfry , Doctor Willet , Doctor Agray , Doctor Taylor , Doctor Ames , Doctor Raynolds , Doctor Fulke , and others in * their authorized writings printed here in England cum privilegio , and publike allowance , with the forecited statutes of our Realme , and all the Bishops Patents in the Raigne of King Edward the 6. in expresse termes , conclude your Archiepiscopall , and Episcopall Iurisdiction to , over other Ministers , to be a meere humaine invention long after the Apostles time , to prevent , ( or rather as the event hath ever since prooved , to engender , foment , & occasion ) all schismes factions , errors and disorders in the Church ; when as k Christ himselfe and l his Apostles since , ordained a Parity , an equality both among his Apostles and Ministers , and ever instituted many Bishops , elders over every particular Church , but never any one Bishop or Minister over many , as the best meanes to preserve unity and roote out sinnes , occasioned onely by the pride , ambitious couvetousnesse , power , and Tyranny of domineering Prelates . Thus craving pardon for my boldnesse in pressing your Lordships , like two honest plaine dealing men , to make good your words , that so we may once againe become fellow-brethren , and walke hand in hand together like equals without that infinite Lordly distance , which is now between us . I take my leave and rest Your Lordships faithfull Monitor A. B. C. A briefe Exhortation to the Archbishops and Bishops of England in respect of the present Pestilence . MY LORDS , ( for so you stile a your selves , and will be intiteled by all men , notwithstanding the b Lords owne inhibition to the contrary , ) the Prophet Isay . c. 26. 9. hath informed me ; that when Gods Judgements are on the earth , the inhabitants of the world will learne righteousnes : and who knowes , whither your Lordships , ( as properly inhabitants , if not servants and louers to , of the world , as any of what ever profession , though you c should not be so ) may not now in this time of Pestilence , when Gods Iudgements are everywhere so rife among us , learne righteousnesse as well as others , ( if you thinke not your selves to wise to learne , to old to be instructed , ) if any man will but take the paines to teach you . Hearken therefore , I beseech you , as you tender , either the preservation of your lives in this time of mortality , or the salvation of your soules in the great day of Iudgement ; or the lives and soules of his Majesties Subjects , committed to your pastorall charge , to a short lecture , ( no wayes overburthen some to your memories , ) which I shall here read unto you for your good , if you please either so to interpret it , or come with a sincere conscience for to heare it . It may be that in regard of your sacred Episcopall Order , you conceit your selves altogether plague-free , and as wholly exempt from divine , as you now strive to be from temporall Iurisdiction ; ( which makes you neither to dread the plague , which hath seised upon * sundry Kings and laid them in the dust , ) nor as yet any way to endeavour by fasting and prayer , to prevent either it , or that famine likely to accompanie it . But to instruct you , how you are still but men , ( and so exposed to all those mortall sicknesses which continually assault the crazy fortresses of our d earthly Tabernacles , Non obstante , your Rochets , Miters , Crosiers , and all other your Episcopall harnesse , ) give me leave in a word or two to acquaint you ; That † Pelagius the second ( though a Pope and Bishop of Rome ) notwithstanding his Pontificall Robes , Exorcismes , Pompe and Charmes , was both seised upon and devoured of this impartiall disease , Anno Dom. 591. as Platina , Onuphrius , Anastatius Stella , Fasciculus Temporum , Balaeus , Luitprandius , Vitelius , and others testify in his life : which Plague ( as e Petrus Blesensis Archideacon of Bath , records , ) was sent by God as a just Judgement upon the Romans and Italians , for giving themselves to drinking , feasting , DAVNCING , sports and Pastimes , even on Easter day , and other following Holy-dayes , after their participation of the blessed Sacrament of Christs body and blood , ( many of them being cons●med and dying of the plague in the very midst of their sports , mirth , ales ord pos●●mes , ) and on this Pope himselfe for not restraining them from this prophanes . A president which should make your Lordships feare and tremble , this present Plague beginning here on Easterweeke last , as that Plague then did ; no doubt for the selfesame prophanation of Gods owne day and Sacraments , with those abuses , sports , sinnes , pastimes for which they then were plagued ; which your Lordships , have not onely , not restrained , but countenanced , patronized , and propagated all you could , this Pope going not so farre , Cantinus Bishop of Avernium , Cato his Successor in the same See , Rupertus Bishop of Triers , Hermannus Bishop of Verd●num , Rainold Bishop of Colen , Conrade Bishop of Augusta , Walricus Bishop of Spiers , Ruggerus Bishop of Herbipolis and Sigsridus of the same , Eberhardus Bishop of Ratisbon , Gerion Bishop of Halberstat ; all died of the plague . * In the great Plague that happened in the Emperor Frederike Barbarossa his armie in Italy , many Germane Prelates and some German Princes which came with him died of the Pestilence ; neither their consecration , nor their function being any antidote against this disease . In the great f Councell of Basil . Anno 1431. ( to name no more forraigne examples ) Lodovicus Patriarke of Aquilcia , the Bishops of Ebron , Lubecke , Constance , and others , died of the Plague ; Aencas Silvius himselfe ( afterwards Pope ) being there stricken with this disease , where of bee lay three dayes together at the point of death , all men despairing of his life , but yet by Gods helpe escaped . If any of your Lordships should thinke these forraigne Presidents proove not , that any English Prelates are obnoxious to the selfe-same disease ; to rectify this mistake , I shall present you with some domesticke examples , worthy your most serious consideration . g Ann. Dom. 664 ▪ on the 26. day of October . Ceadda the second Bishop of London , with all the Monkes of his new erected Monasterie at Lestinghen , were taken away with the Plague . The very next yeare following h Anno 665. Tuda the fourth Bishop of Durham died of the Pestilence . i Anno 1258. Fulco Basset the 45. Bishop of London , was smitten to death with the same fatall disease . k Michael Northbrooke his Successor the 57. Bishop of London Anno 1361. perished of the Plague ; and the same yeare , Reginald Brian Bishop of S. Davids , being translated to Ely , deceased of the Plague before his translation could be perfected . And to cite no * more in so plaine a case . l Anno 1500. Thomas Langhton Bishop of Winchester , then Archbishop of Canterbury elect but not enstalled , and Thomas Rotheram Archbishop of Yorke , were both in the selfe same yeare swept away together with this pestilentiall disease . These severall Presidents , to omit all others , may be a good Memento and Monition to your Lordships ( being Bishops and Archbishops ) to put you in minde , both of your mortality in generall ( which most feare you seldome seriously consider off , being so over-much taken up with * secular imployments , not compatible with your spirituall functions , ) & that you though Bishops are subject to this disease , this stroke of God as well as others , as these your Predecessors : & therfore should now at length , after so many weekes delay , endeavour to appease Gods wrath and cease this plague begun among us , ( which every day spreads it selfe more and more ) by publike fasting ; prayer , preaching and humiliation the remedy , not onely m prescribed in Scripture by God himselfe , but likewise by the whole Church and State of England in the two last great plagues both in 1. Iacobi , and in the first yeare of our present Soveraignes raigne , as the severall Bookes of common prayer and order of fasting , then published by these noble Princes speciall commaund , yet testifie on record : both of these bookes joyntly confessing and bewayling , that among other sinnes occasioning these two dreadfull man-eating Pests , this was not the least ; That the † SABBATH DAY , was not kept holy , but prophaned ; and therfore no wonder that these plagues breake in upon us . And may not your Lordships and the whole Kingdome justly feare , that this very Sinne of Sabbath-breaking , and prophaning Gods owne sacred day by sports , WAKES , MAYGAMES , DAVNCING , drunkennesse , chambering , wantonnesse , idlenesse , travelling , unnecessary labor and the like , which drew on these two former plagues upon us , hath been one maine cause of this present Pest , which beginnes thus freshly to destroy us ? It being most apparant to our shame , ( and I feare to all our smart ) that the Lords-day Sabbath , ( for so our owne ‡ Homilies ten times stiled it before the Troubles of Frankfort , Anno 15●4 . when * Doctor Pocklington , or Doctor Boundes Booke Anno 1595. when q Doctor Heylynfables ; that the Lords day was first anabaptized a Sabbath day and Christned with this name by some Jewish Godfather , to overthrowe the Liturgie and discipline of the Church of England , who yet gave it this Title long before these ignorant Doctors dreame , both in her Homilies and approoved writers workes , ) hath of late beene more generally , publikely , audaciously prophaned in most places of the Realme by the fore named Pastimes , abuses and disorders , then beforethose two sweeping plagues , not onely in point of practise , which is ill ; but even in point of Doctrine , which is worse ; many late authorized † Histories , Treatises and Discourses of the Sabbath ; not fearing publikely to maintaine the Lawfullnesse of dauncing , morrises , maygames , dedication Feastes , pastimes , sports and ordinary labor even in Gods owne day , as the Doctrine of the Church of England ; when as acute Master Iohn Sprint , in his proposition for the Christian Sabbath day , printed by license London , 1607. p. 4. ( newly reprinted ) and learned Doctor John White in his ‡ way to the true Church , 5. times printed by Authority ( yea sett forth and defended by Doctor Francis White now Bishop of Ely , ) expresly brand it , not onely as a Popish and Heathenish practise ▪ but likewise as a point of Popish religion , which directly tends to the maintenance of open sinne and liberty of life , and expresly allowes most palpable wickednesse , directly tending to the desolation of publike government and private honesty ; being that which hath made the Papists the most notorious Sabbath-breakers that live , * Zanchius , and † Musculus also branding this very Doctrine of liberty they now teach and the practise of 〈◊〉 , as Popish and all the Bishops , Cleargy , King , Lords , Commons , and Parliament of England in King Henry the S. his raigne , condemning it in * two severall bookes , as meerly Iewish ; to checke the dotage of those Novell Doctors who defi 〈…〉 the strict sanctification of the Lords day by abstinence from dauncing , sports , and pastimes , Iudaizing ; when as that they plead for , is truly such . This grosse prophanation therefore of the Lords day both in Doctrine and practise , y aggravated with the late suspending , silencing , excōmunicating , pursevaning , vexing , persecuting , depriving , croushing of many learned , painfull , godly conscionable Ministers , both against all the Rules of Canon Law , Common Law , Statute Law , conscience , reason , piety , charity , justice , and the Presidents of all former ages , meerly for refusing out of conscience upon their Episcopall Mandates , to have any hand or finger in acting , in proclaiming any thing which might animate their people to this pestiferous sinne , ( punished within these three yeares with many memorable ‡ particular judgements of God , immediately executed from heaven ; ) hath no doubt so farre provoked our most gracious God , that now he can hold z off his hands no longer from smiting us , with his dreadfull Iudgements , which some of us have allready felt , and most of us now feare : who questionlesse will never take off his Pests and Iudgements from us , till your Lordships shall take off your most unjust Suspensions and censures from those who have thus suffered in his quarrell , and all of us repented of this our crying sinne of prophaning Gods owne sacred day , both in point of Doctrine and practise : An abhomination never more rife in any then this our present age , by reason of your Lordships patronizing propagating and defending of it , in such a publike , shameles , violent maner , as no former age can ever paralell , to Gods dishonor , your owne eternall infamie , and the fitting of your selves , and this whole Kingdome for those publike judgements , ( not onely of a late extraordinary cold winter , and two successive drie summers , which threaten a famine of bread to recompence that a Famine of Gods word that you have lately caused , to omitt all other miseries which we suffer , ) but likewise of that plague which is now dispersed : In the pulling downe whereof , as your Lordships have had , nodoubt , a deeper hand then others , so you have great cause to feare , you shall feele the irresistable mortiferous stroke thereof , as much , or more then others . The Plague , you well know , is Gods owne Arrow Psal . 91. 5. who ordaineth his arrowes against the Persecutors . Psal . 7. 13. And are not some at least of your Lordships such . It is Gods owne hand , 2. Sam. 24. 14. 15. Ier. 21. 6. Now Gods hand shall finde out all his Enemies , his right hand shall finde out those that hate him , Psal . 21. 8. And are not many of your Lordships in that number ? It is , Gods owne brandished sword . Psal . 8. 6. And whom doth God wound and slay therewith but the † head of his Enemies , and the hayry scalpe of those who goe on still in their trespasses ? And are not to many of your Lordships such ; who even now in the very midst of Gods Iudgements ; proceed on still in your malicious , violent , implacable hatred , enemities and persecutions against Gods faithfull Ministers , Saints , and the very power of holinesse ; in your Lordly Pompe , ambition , avarice , pride , envy , arrogance , cruelty , oppression , injustice , luxury , secularity , suppression of preaching , prayer , fasting , Communion of Saints , and what ever savours of piety ; and in profaning of Gods owne sacred day , both in your doctrine & practise ; which is seldome worse solemnized , or more prophaned as ‡ Master Bucer long since observed , Quam in ipsis Episcoporum aulis , then in Bishops owne Pallaces , where neither Lord , nor Chaplaine , nor servant , make any great conscience of prophaning it sundrie wayes , to give the better example of piety and holinesse unto others . How then ( being heavy laden with these many sinnes , and having the prayers , the cries , the clamours , the teares , the sighes and groanes of all Gods people against you , if not of the whole Kingdome to , the dayly imprecations of many distressed Ministers , people , whom you have most injuriously and inhumanely handled without any lawfull cause , ) can you but feare Gods vengeance and expect his plagues , to sweepe such Clods of sinne and mischiefe , such Pests and Prodigies as you are , cleane away ? d Be wise now therefore O yee Kings , ( for such are you now become by giving absolute Lawes , and prescribing what Ceremonies , Articles , Rites , Oathes and Novelties you please , even in your owne names and rights alone , unto his Majesties people , and executing all Lordly , Kingly Soveraignity and Dominion over * mens bodies , and estates as well as soules , contrary to your Saviours expresse Inhibition . Math. 20. 25. 26. ) be learned O yee Iudges of the earth : ( for such are you now in many temporall Courts , and would be gladly such in more , in steed of being preaching Bishops in our Pulpits and Pastors of mens soules : Serve the Lord in feare ( for that is in truth your duty , not to be Lords your selves , or reverenced and served with feare as Lords are wont to be : ) and rejoyce unto him ( not with Organes , Choristers , Pipes , and Daunces , but ) with trembling kisse the sonne ( whom you have hitherto buffeted ‡ persecuted in his faithfull Ministers and Servants ) least he be angry , and ye perish in the way , even now when his wrath is kinded but a litle , and his plagues but newly kinded ; least if ye refuse to turne from all your former sinnes and wickednesses , hee begin at last to bruise you with this his rod of Iron , and dash you in peeces like a Potters vessell , and there be * none to deliver you from this his raging fury . Remember I beseech you that of the Prophet Nahum g God is jealous , and the Lord revengeth , the Lord revengeth , and is furious ; the Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries , and he reserveth wrath for his enemies . And though he hath a long time h suffred you with much patience ( as he doth other vessels of wrath fitted to destruction , ) to spoyle , oppresse and deale treacherously with his people ; yet consider now , that the times are drawing neare wherein you may be recompenced with the like usage ; as the Prophet Isai threatens . † Wo to thee that spoylest and thou that wast not spoyled , and dealest treacherouslly and they dealt not treacherously with thee : when thou shalt cease to spoyle , thou shalt be spoyled , and when thou shalt make an end to deale treacherously , they shall deale treacherously with thee . Wherefore my Lords k breake of your sinnes and sinnfull proceedings by sincere and timely repentance , and of Lyons , Beares , ‡ Wolves , Thieves , and Robbers , ( which many Bishops have degenerated into ) become * Lambes and Shepheards to Gods people ; and now at last , m as the Elect of God , holy and beloved , put on bowels of mercies , kindnesse , humblenesse of minde , meeknesse , long suffering , forbearing and forgiving all those against whom you have any quarrell , even as Christ forgave you so also doe ye . And above all things , put on Charity , which is the bond of perfectnesse , and lett the peace of God rule in your hearts , to which you are also called in one body ; and let the word of God dwell richly in you , in all wisedome &c. And if you will divert this Pest either from your selves or others ; then presently † beginne to turne to the Lord with all your hearts , with fasting , weeping , and with mourning , sanctify a fast call a solemne assembly gather the Elders , &c. ( and not by proxy but in proper person , if ever you will either be reputed the Preists or Ministers of the Lord , ) weepe betweene Porch and the Altar , and say Spare thy people O Lord &c. give not thine heritage to reproach . Alas for the day of the Lord is at hand , and as a destruction from the Allmighty shall it come , and who shall escape it ? And that your fast may be acceptable , beware that it be not * a fast for strife and debate , to smite with the fist of wickednesse , or to make your voyce to be heard on high , bewareleast it be only a hanging downe of your heads , like a bulrish and aff licting of your soules onely for a day . But let it be that true fast , which God hath chosen , to loose the bands of wickednesse , to let the oppressed goe free , to undoe the heavy burthens ( which you have lately layd on Ministers and people ) and to breake of every yoake , ( wherewith you like Lordly † Barons have clogged the Consciences ( yea and bodies ) of Gods servants , and brought them into a miserable bondage and captivity under you , as if they were your vassals , not Brethren : ) to breake your bread to the hungry , to bring the poore that are cast out , ( yea the poore Ministers and Christians you have most unchristianly cast out of their livings , houses and Gods house it selfe , throwne into your nasty prisons , where they must still be detained , when others are set free ) to your houses , ( yea to their owne houses , livings and Gods house againe , ) to cloath the naked , to draw out your soule to the hungry , to satisfie the afflicted soule ; to turne away your feet from the Sabbath from doing your pleasure on Gods holy day to call the Sabbath a delight , the holy of the Lord honourable , to honor God alone therein , not doing your owne wayes , not finding your owne pleasure , nor speaking your owne words . If thus you now fast and doe , peradventure you may be spared in this day of the Lords great wrath , and God will make our health to spring forth speedily . But if you forbeare to doe it , and proceed on as you have done , be sure p that God will visit you for these things , and that his soule shall be avenged on such a Nation as you are . He will no doubt q bring evill upon you , and you shall not be able to escape , in this yeare both of yours and his visitation : in which as you have most strangly visited others , thrusting many of Gods best and painefullest Ministers from their Ministery in sundry places , upon meere new fancies and Articles of your owne , against Law and justice ; so God the supreame Visitor , will in his justice visit you , in one kinde or other , with his most righteous judgments , & cut you off with his plagues , as he hath done your forecited predecessors . This you have cause to feare , and seriously to expect , unlesse you forthwith become New-Creatures : Loe I have in few words admonished you ; If you amend , there may be hope of mercy , if you continue , what ye are , contemne alla dmonitions , † striving still as you have done , against God , his truth and people , you shall be ashamed , confounded and perish , you shall become as nothing and as a thing of nought , For God hath spoken it and he s will make it good . t The transgressors shall be destroyed together , the end of the wicked shall be cut off . For yet a little while , and the wicked shall not be , thou shalt diligently consider their place , and it shall not be found . u Consider what I have written , and the Lord give you understanding in all things . Farewell . Whether Timothy were ever a Diocaesan Bishop , or first , or sole Bishop of Ephesus ? QVESTION . I. IF the multitude , or common received opinion might take place , or our Prelates be the Iudges of this Controversy , they would presently conclude affirmatively without dispute ; that Timothy was a Diocaesan Bishop ; yea , the first and sole Bishop of the Ephesians . But if the Scripture , or verity may be umpire , it will evidently appeare , first , that Timothy was no Bishop ( I meane no such Bishop as Iure divino or humano , is different from an ordinary Presbyter in dignity and degree ) much lesse Bishop , or first or sole Bishop of Ephesus , as is generally conceived ; which I shall clearly evidence by these ensuing Scriptures and reasons . That Timothy was no Bishop in this sence , is apparant . 1. First , because S. Paul and Luke , who were best acquainted with him , and make frequent mention of him , never stile him a Bishop , neither is hee termed a Bishop in any text of Scripture . S. Paul in his Epistles to him , cals him , his owne Sonne in the faith : 1. Tim. 1. 2. A good MINISTER ( not a Bishop ) of Jesus ▪ Christ ▪ 1. Tim. 4. 6. His dearly beloved Sonne . 2. Tim. 1. 2. A good Soldier of Jesus Christ. 2. Tim. 2 ▪ 3. A 〈…〉 in that needed not to be ashamed ▪ rightly dividing the word of God , 2. Tim. 2. 11 ▪ In his other Epistles , hee tearmes him ▪ 1. Thes . 3. 2. Rom. 16. 21. His Brother and beloved Sonne . 1. Cor. 4. 17. 2. Cor. 1. 19. Col. 1. 1. A workeman of the Lord , 1. Cor. 16 , 10. A servant of Jesus Christ , Phil. 1 , 1. but never a Bishop . S. Luke termes him Paules Companion , Minister , attendant , and fellow-worker onely , Acts 16 , 1 , 2 , 3 , c. 17 , 14 , 15 , c. 18 , 5 , c. 19 , 22 , c. 20 , 4. never so much as intimating him to be a Bishop . The Scripture therefore never phrasing him a Bishop , nor giving him that Title , among all his other Epithites ; is an infallible argument , that he was in truth no Bishop , but rather an Euangelist , as hee is expresly stiled , 2. Tim. 4 , 5. Doe the worke of an Euangelist . 2. Secondly , Because he was S. Paules Associate , Copartner , Brother and fellow-helper in his Apostolicall function , whence he often stiles him , his Brother , his fellow-worker ; and conjoynes him with him in the Prologue ▪ the inscription of most of his Epistles , which are written in both their names , witnes ▪ 2. Cor. 1 , 1 , c. 4 , 17. 2. Cor. 1 , 1 , 19. Col. 1 , 1 , 1. Thes . 1 , 1 , c. 3 , 2. 2. Thes . 1 , 1. Phil. 1 , 1 , c. 2 , 19. Rom. 16 , 21. Heb. 13 , 23. Timothy therefore being a Copartner with S. Paul in his Apostle-ship , or Apostolicall function , superior in degree to the Episcopall office , ( as is apparant by Ephes . 4. 11. 1. Cor. 12. 18. and the generall consent of all men , ) it is not probable that hee would devest himselfe of his Apostolicall Iurisdiction , to become an inferior Bishop , or relinquish a Superior to take up an inferior degree . Who ever saw of late any Archbishop or Bishop to deny himselfe of his Archiepiscopall or Episcopall preeminency , to be made a poore Country Vicar or Curate ? And can we then conjecture , that Timothy would relinquish his Apostleship for an Ephesian Bishop-pricke ; or else , hold it by way of Commendam with his Apostleship ? ( Commendams being not of such antiquity , and a meere late Popish innovation ) or descend from an a Evangelist-ship to a Bishop-ricke ? 3. Thirdly , because Timothy was ever either accompanying S. Paul in his Travels or bonds , as his fellow-helper , minister , and assistant ; or else , sent by him from one Church to another , as his Messenger , Delegate , or College , to establish comfort , and instruct them ; being never long resident in any one fixed place , or Church , as all Bishops were . b We read Acts 16 , 1 , usque 12. That Timothy came first of all to Paul when hee was at Derbe and Listra ; Paul then taking him to goe forth with him ; and that they went both together through the Churches of Phrygia , Galatia , Asia , Mysia , and at last came to Philippy where hee abode with Paul ; and from thence wrote the first Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians , as the * Postscript manifests . In which Epistle hee writes thus unto them : 1 , Cor. 16 , 10. Now if Timotheus come , see that hee may be with you without feare ; for he worketh the worke of the Lord as I also doe . And c. 4 , 17. For this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus , who is my beloved Sonne and faithfull in the Lord , who shall bring you into remembrance of my wayes which be in Christ , as I teach everywhere in every Church . By which it is apparant , that Timothy was sent by Paul from Philippi to Corinth ( after this Epistle ) to instruct them ; Where he continuing a while , repaired againe to Paul to Philippi ; and there joynes with Paul in the second Epistle to the Corinthians , written in both their names ; 2. Cor. 1. 1. informing them in the 19. verse : That the Sonne of God Jesus Christ , who was preached among them by us , even by me , Sylvanus and Timotheus , was not yea and nay , but in him was yea . By which it is evident , that Timothy had before this second Epistle written , preached Iesus Christ among the Corinthians by Pauls appointment . After which , Paul remooving from Philippy , Timothy accompanied him to Thessalonica and B 〈…〉 a , where hee abode , till Paul came to Athens ; from whence hee sent a commaund to Timothy to Berea , to come to him with all speed to Athens , where hee stayed for him : Acts. 17 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16. Which he did accordingly : joyning with Paul in the first and second Epistle to the Thessalonians , written from Athens , in both their names . 1. Thess . 1. 1. 2. Thes . 1. 1. yea whiles Paul stayed at Athens , hee sent Timothy from thence to the Thessalonians , to establish and comfort them concerning their faith ; that they should not be mooved by their afflictions , where he continuing for a space , came from them againe to Paul to Athens , bringing him good tidings of their faith and charity : 1. Thes . 3 , 1. to 7. After this , hee remooveth with Paul to Corinth , from thence being sent into Macedonia hee came againe to Paul unto Corinth . Acts. 18 , 5 , from whence Paul writing his Epistle to the Romans , remembers the salutation of Timotheus his Worke-fellow to the Romans , among others : Rom. 16 , 11. After this Paul remooving to Ephesus , sent Timotheus & Erastus ( two of them who there ministred unto him ) into Macedonia ; himselfe staying in Asia for a season ▪ Acts. 19 , 20. From whence Paul afterwards passed into Macedonia & Grece , & then returning into Asia , Timotheus & others accompanied him ; and going before taried for him at Troas , Acts 20 , 4 , 5. Whether Paul sent for the Elders and Bishops of the Church of Ephesus , giving them a strict and severe charge , to take heed to themselves , and to all the flocke over which the holy Ghost had made them Bishops , to feed the Church of God which he had purchased with his owne blood : v. 17. 28. &c. A taske fitter for Timothy to enjoyne them , had he beene their Diocaesan , then Paul ; and a charge more meet for Timothy to receive , then they ; had he then beene Bishop of the See of Ephesus : who being so neare Ephesus , should have accompanied these Elders of his Church to Ephesus , when Paul dismissed them , rather then have left his flocke at randome after so strict a charge to feed them . But yet though the Elders went backe to their Cures from Miletus , Timothy did not so , for from thence hee accompanied Paul to Jerusalem , Acts. 21 , 15 , 16 , 17. and from thence to Rome . For the Epistle to the Colossians written from Rome , is penned in both their names , Col. 1 , 1. and the Epistle to the Hebrewees , as the Postscript testifieth ▪ was written to the Hebrewes from Italy , by Timothy ; where Timothy was for a while imprisoned , and then set at liberty , Heb. 13. 23. After which Paul writes his Epistle to the Philipptans from Rome , where hee was in bondes ; at which time Timothy was present with him joyning in this Epistle : Philip. 1. 1. informing the Philippians , that hee trusted to send Timotheus shortly unto them , that hee also might be of good comfort , when he should know their estate , Philip ▪ 2 , 19. whether Timothy being sent by him , as is most probable , Paul wrote his second Epistle to him , at his second appearing before Nero , charging him to doe his diligence to come shortly to him before winter , 2. Tim. 4 , 9 , 21. he being then not at Ephesus , but at Troas or Philippi ; as is apparant by 2. Tim. 4 , 12 , 13. and Philip. 2 , 19. Timothy therefore thus ever accompanying Paul in his Travels and Bondes , and traveling from one Church to another by his appointment and mission , never keeping any fixed residence in any one place , much lesse at Ephesus , could not be Bishop or Presbyter of any particular Church ; the Apostles instituting no non-resident Bishops or Elders , but such onely as were to reside with those flockes , over which the Holy Ghost had made them Bishops , or Overseers , to watch over and feed them with the bread of life , and to goe in and out before them both in life and doctrine . 14. Acts. 23 , c. 20 , 28 , 29 , c. 21 , 17 , 18. 1. Pet. 5 , 1 , 2 , 3. Col. 4 , 17. Rom. 12 , 6 , 7 , 8. 1 , Tim. 5 , 17. 2 , Tim. 4. 3. Tit. 1 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8. Iohn . 10 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 14 , 16 , 27 , 28. Ezeck . 34 , 2. to 25. Ier. 23 , 3 , 4. c. 3 , 15. Isay . 56 , 10 , 11 , c. 40 , 11. Zech. 11 , 17. 4. Fourthly , Because Paul , who best knew Timothies condition , expresly termes him , A Minister of God ( not a Bishop ) 1. Thes . 3 , 2. informing him , that if he did put the Brethren in minde of these things he enjoynes him , he should shew himselfe a good Minister ( not a Bishop ) of Iesus Christ , 1 , Tim. 4 ▪ 6. Therefore certainly he was no Bishop , but a Minister , when this Epistle was written to him , unlesse it be granted , that every Minister is a Bishop , as S. Paul doth phrase them . Acts. 20 , 28. Tit. 1 , 5 , 7. Which the Opposites dare not grant , though an undoubted truth : Phil. 1 , 1. 1 , Tim. 3 , 1 , 2 , 3. 5. Because when Paul wrote his first Epistle to Timothy , hee was then very young in yeares , 1. Tim. 4 , 12. and but * newly entred into the Ministery : whence hee charged him , to give attendance to reading , to exhortation , to doctrine , to meditate upon these things , and to give himselfe wholy to them , that his profiting might appeare unto all men . 1. Tim. 4 , 13 , 15. Instructing him in that Epistle , how and what to preach , and how to demeane himselfe in his Ministry , into which hee was then but freshly entred , as most Expositors on this Epistle accord ; and the 1. Tim. 1 , 3. compared with Acts. 16 , 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 9 , 10. c. 18 , 19 , 20 , 21. c. 20. 1. to 13. clearly demonstrate . Timothy therefore being but young in yeares , and newly entred into the Ministry , when this first Epistle was written to him , was questionles not instituted sole Bishop of Ephefus , by Paul ; who in his very Epistle to him 1. Tim. 3 , 6. among other qualifications of a Bishop enumerates this , That he must not be a Novice ( as Timothy then was ) least being lifted up with pride , he should fall into the condemnation of the Devill : and so should have contradicted his owne instructions to Timothy , that a Bishop must be no Novice , in creating him a Bishop ; ( which questionles he would not doe ) being but then a Novice . 6. Becaufe Paul in the 1. Tim. 5 , 1. chargeth Timothy , Not to rebuke an Elder , but to intreat him as a Father . If Timothy then were not to reproove them as a Father over them , but to intreat Elders , as his Fathers , he was certainly no Lord Bishop or Superintendent over Elders , but they rather Superiours unto him , being to entreat them onely as spirituall Fathers ; whereas Lord Bishops and their Chauncellours too , in our dayes , esteeme the very best and gravest Ministers under them , not as Fathers , but as underlings , vicars , and Curates to them ; not entreating them as Fathers , but rating , reviling , and domineering over them as if they were their Curs and vasalls , and they their Lords and Maisters . 7. Because Timothy was to account those Elders that ruled well , especially those who laboured in the word and Doctrine , worthy of double honor . 1 , Tim. 5 , 17. Hee therefore being to render double honor to those Elders that ruled well and laboured in the word and doctrine ; and not to receive double honor from them ; could be no Bishop , Father , or Lord paramount over them . Mal. 1 , 6. Math. 15 , 4. Rom. 13 , 7. 1 , Tim. 6 , 1. Honor ever coming for the most part , from the inferior to the superior . 8. Because Paul exhorts Timothy , not to neglect the gift that was in him , which was given him by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery , 1 , Tim. 4 , 14. Now that gift which was given him by the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery , was not his Episcopall function , ( unlesse the opposites grant , that he was consecrated Bishop of Ephesus by the Presbyters of Ephesus : ) but his Ministeriall onely : being therefore exhorted to exercise his Ministeriall function onely , and to shew himselfe a good Minister of Iesus Christ , 1 , Tim. 4 , 6 , 14 , not to exercise any Episcopall authority ; he was questionlesse then no Bishop , but a Minister when this Epistle was compi●ed . 9. Because though Timothy , in the Postscript of the second Epistle to him , be falsely stiled , the first Bishop of the Ephesians , as I shall hereafter manifest , yet in the body and Postscript of the first Epistle , hee is named Timothy onely , without any mention of his Ephesian Bishopricke ; hee was therefore no Bishop either of Ephesus or any other place , when Paul sent his first Epistle to him ; for otherwise hee would have beene stiled , the first Bishop of Ephesus in the Postscript of the first Epistle , as well as of the second , as is probable . 10. It would not stand with the Pompe and State of Bishop , ( especially in our dayes ) to be commaunded and posted up and downe , from place to place , in such maner as Timothy was by Paul , 1 , Cor. 4 , 7. Acts. 17 , 14 , 15. 1 , Thess . 1 , 3 , 1 , to 7. Acts. 19 , 22 , Phil. 3 , 19. 2 , Tim. 4 , 9 , 21 , muchlesse , to Minister , to Paul , as Timothy did , Acts. 19 , 22 , but least of all , to carry Paules Cloake , his Bookes , and Parchments after him , which Timothy is enjoyned to bring from Troas to Rome , 2 , Tim. 4 , 13. An office which our proud Prelates would scorne to execute , though Paul himselfe should commaund them , as being incompatible with their Episcopall dignity : Timothy therefore being so much at Pauls beck , as to be his Messenger , his Minister , his cloake carrier , and booke-bearer ( even when some say hee was the great Monarchicall Prelate of all Ephesus and Asia ) was certainly no Bishop , at leastwise no such Lordly Bishop as those of this age are . 2. Secondly . As all these severall reasons evidence Timothy to be no Bishop , so in the next place , I shall manifest him to be no Bishop at all of Ephesus , at leastwise not the first , or sole Diocaesan Bishop of that Citty , and so by consequence , no Bishop at all , if not of Ephesus ; since no other Bishopricke is assigned to him . The infallible verity whereof I shall thus demonstrate . 1. First , there is not one syllable in Scripture ( wherein the Titles and actions of Timothy are frequently mentioned ) which either directly , or by way of necessary consequence , imply Timothy , to be either a Bishop , or Bishop of Ephesus ; which Paul in his Epistles to Ephesus , and Timothy , and S. Luke in the Acts , would never have pretermitted , had Timothy beene a Bishop of that famous Citty . 2. The Scripture makes no mention of Timothies being at Ephesus ; or of his preaching there , save onely that Paul besought ( not commanded or ordered ) him to abide still to Ephesus , whiles hee went into Macedonia , that he might charge some that they teach no other Doctrine ; neither give heed to fables , and endlesse genealogies , which Minister questions rather then edefying , 1 , Tim. 1 , 3 , 4 , and to give attendance to reading , to exhortation , to doctrine , till hee came thither himselfe , which was but a short time after , 1 , Tim. 4 , 13 , 14 , 15. Paul therefore not instituting Timothy any Diocaesan Bishop of Ephesus , but onely beseeching ( which was voluntary not commanding ) him , to abide there ( * till his owne returne from Macedonia , ) both to instruct the people , and to further himselfe in his owne Studies ; not to reside there during life ; it is an unanswerable argument , that he did not constitute him Bishop of Ephesus , 〈◊〉 some vainely hence inferre : See 1 , Tim. 3 , 14 , 15. 3. When Timothy was thus desired to abide at Ephesus by Paul , hee was ‡ but newly entred into the Ministery , as appeares by the 1 , Tim. 1 , 3 , c. 3 , 15 , compared with Acts. 16 , 1 , 3 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , and by the 1 , Tim. 4 , 6 , 10 , 12 , 13 , 14. Now it is not probable , that Paul would constitute Timothy a Diocaesan Bishop of all Ephesus , yea the very first Bishop of that famous See , being but a youth , so soone as hee had ordained him to be a Minister : and before hee knew how to behave himselfe , in the house and Church of God , which then hee did not , 1 , Tim. 3 , 15. 4. Assoone as Paul returned againe from Macedonia to Ephesus , hee sent Timothy into Achaja , himselfe staying at Ephesus in Asia for a season , Acts. 19 , 22 , to 40 , and from thence returned into Macedonia ; and through it into Asia , accompanied with Timotheus , and others : Acts. 20 , 1 , to 7 , after which wee never read that Timothy writ , came or returned to Ephesus . Now if Timothy had beene Bishop of Ephesus , it is not probable that Paul upon his returne from Macedonia , would have sent him from Ephesus into Macedonia , to Corinth , Philippi , & other Churches there , as he did Acts 19 , 22 , c. 20 , 4 , 5. 1 Cor. 14. 17 , 2 Cor. 1 , 19. Phil. 2 , 19. 1 , Thes . 3 , 1 , 2 6 , or that Timothy would have gone from his owne Episcopall See , into another Bishops Dioces , and never returned to his owne Cure of Ephesus , ( which for ought we read hee never did after his first departure thence ) contrary to Pauls owne direction to the Bishops of Ephesus , Acts. 20 , 28. 5. Wee read , that Paul sent Timothy into Macedonia , Acts. 19 , 22. to preach the Ghospell to the Church of God there ; that he sent him to the Church of Corinth to bring them in remembrance of his wayes which were in Christ , as hee t 〈…〉 ught every-where , in every Church , and to worke the worke of the Lord , 1 , Cor. 4 , 17 , c. 16 , 10 , and that hee accordingly preached Iesus Christ the Sonne of God among them , 2 , Cor. 1 , 19. That hee likewise sent him to the Church of Thessalonica , to establish and comfort● them , concerning their faith , 1 , Thess . 3 , 1 , 2 , 3 , 4. and after that to Philippi from Rome , that hee might know the Sate of the Philippians , hee having no man like minded , who would so naturally care for their state as Timothy . Phil. 2 , 19 , 20. But wee never read that Paul sent him to Ephesus either to comfort , exhort , confirme , instruct them , or to know their State after his first departure thence ; which he would questionlesse have done , had hee beene their Bishop , rather then thus have imployed him to other Churches . Timothy therefore was rather Bishop of these Cities and Churches then of Ephesus . 6. As Timothy was sent by Paul to the Churches of corinth , Philippi , and Thessalonica , so hee joynes with Paul in his Epistles written to those Churches , directed to them in both their names : witnesse 2 , Cor. 1 , 1 , Phil. 1 , 1. 1 , Thes . 1 , 1 , 2 , Thes . 1 , 1 , in which Epistles Paul makes frequent of Timothy : witnesse 1 , Cor. 4 , 17 , c. 16 , 10. Phil. 2 , 19. 1 , Thes . 3 , 2 , 6. Moreover hee joynes with Paul in writings to the Colossians : Col. 1 , 1 , and Paul in his Epistle to the Romans , c. 16 , 21 , remembers his salutation by name to the Church and Saints of Rome , and in his Epistle to the Hebrewes written by Timothy as his Scribe , hee makes mention of his delivery out of prison by name , Hebr. 13 , 23. * But in the Epistle to the Ephesians , written from Rome , long after Timothy was supposed to be made Bishop of Ephesus ; Timothy neither joynes with Paul in the inditement or salutation , neither doth Paul so much as once name or mention him throughout that Epistle , as he doth in all the other Epistles to the Churches whether hee sent him , and in every of his Epistles else to any Church , except in his Epistle to the Galathians . Timothy therefore doubtlesse was not Bishop of Ephesus at this season ; else he would have vouchsafed to have joyned with Paul in his Epistle to the Ephesians , as well as in his Epistles to other Churches ; or Paul being his speciall Friend and applauder , would have made some honorable mention and commendation of him to the Church of Ephesus , ( his owne peculiar Dioces as some affirme , ) as he doth in his Epistles to most other Churches , where he was never Bishop . An unanswerable argument in my opinion , that Timothy was never Bishop of Ephesus , since there is no newes at all either from , or of , or to , or concerning him in Pauls Epistle to the Ephesians , of which hee is surmised , to be the first , sole and genuine Bishop . 7. If Timothy were Bishop of Ephesus when Paul writ his first Epistle to him why then did Paul himselfe excommunicate Hymenus and Philetus , and deliver them unto Satan , and not write to Timothy to excommunicate these Heretickes , and play the Bishop in his owne Dioces , 〈◊〉 , Tim. 1 , 20. yea why did Paul himselfe , no Timothy , lay hands upon the Disciples , there ordained after such time as he was Bishop there , Acts. 19 , 1 , 6 , 7 ? Was it because Timothy was a negligent , or impotent Bishop , unwilling or unable to excommunicate Heretickes , or ordaine Ministers ? or in truth , because he was no Bishop then and there ? Not the first of these , since Timothy was neither negligent , nor impotent in his function : therefore the latter , he being then , no Bishop , nor yet exercising his Episcopall Jurisdiction there . 8. Had Timothy beene Bishop of Ephesus , when Paul wrot his first Epistle to him , no doubt Paul when hee sent for the Elders of the Church of Ephesus , to Miletus to take his finall fare well of them , and made a solemne speech unto them , charging them , To take heed unto themselves and to the flock over the , which the Holy Ghost had made them Bishops , to feed the Church of God , which he had purchased with his owne blood , and Acts. 20 , 17 , to 38 , would have made some speciall mention of Timothy , and directed his speech more particularly to him by name ; as being the Prime Bishop of that Church , to whom this charge did principally appertaine . But Paul in that speech of his , makes no particular mention at all of Timothy , neither directed hee any part of his speech to him , he being none of the Elders of Ephesus sent for to Miletus , or any of that number whom the Holy-Ghost had made Bishops of that flock and Church : hee coming along with Paul out of Macedonia into Asia to Troas and Miletus , Acts. 20 , 3 , 4 , 5 , &c. and so none of the number of Elders sent for and called from Ephesus to Miletus , to whom this speech of Paul was applyed . Therefore questionles hee was not then Bishop , muchlesse sole Bishop of Ephesus , as some groundlesly affirme , against this unanswerable text . 9. Paul himselfe , as hee sent Timothy to Philippi , Troas , and other Churches , to instruct , confirme , comfort , and inquire of their estates ; so hee expresly writes to Timothy , 2 , Tim. 4 , 12 , that he had sent Tychicus unto Ephesus , for the selfesame purpose . Which Tychicus as hee did write the Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians from Rome , so Paul in that very Epistle of his to the Ephesians , c. 6 , v. 21 , 22 , acquaintes them ; That Tychicus a beloved brother and faithfull Minister in the Lord , should make knowne to them all things : whom ( saith he ) I have sent unto you for the same purpose , that ye might know our affaires , and that he might comfort your hearts . So that if there were any particular Diocesan Bishop of Ephesus instituted by Paul , this Tychicus ( whom Dorotheus makes one of the 70. Disciples and Bishop of Chalcedon in Bithinia ) was more like to be the man , then Timothy , as these two Scriptures evidence . 10. Paul himselfe makes mention of Elders in the Church of Ephesus RVLINGWELL , and laboring in the word and doctrine , and so worthy of double Honor , 1 , Tim. 5 , 17. Which Elders hee expresly stiles , Bishops of Ephesus , Acts. 20 , 27 , 28. These therefore being instituted Bishops of Ephesus even by the Holy Ghost himselfe , and ruling , feeding , and taking the care , the oversight of that Church by his appointment , questionlesse Timothy at the selfesame season would not be Bishop there . 3. Thirdly , As Timothy was neither a Bishop , nor Bishop of Ephesus ; so muchlesse was hee the first , or sole Bishop there , as the Postscript of the second Epistle to him in some late Coppies , tearmes him . Not the first Bishop of Ephesus : For , as that Church was first planted by S. Paul , who continued therefore a season : Acts. 18 , 19 , 20 , c. 19 , 1 , to 41 , c. 20 , 17 , to 38. 1 , Cor. 15 , 32 , c. 16 , 8. 2 , Tim. 1 , 18 , and after that for two yeares and three moneths space together , disputing dayly in the Schoole of one Tyrannus , so that all they who where in Asia heard the Gospell , Acts. 19 , 8 , 9 , 10 , during which time of Paules residence there ( in all 3. Yeares , Acts. 20 , 31 , ) there needed no Bishop to governe and sway the Church , neither is it probable that any Diocesan Bishop was there constituted : So the two first that Paul left behinde him at Ephesus at his first comming thither , to instruct that Church were Priscilla and Aquila , Acts. 18 , 18 , 19 , during whose abode there , while Paul went from thence to Antioch , and over all the Countrie of Galatia and Phrygia , in order strengthning all the Disciples ; a certaine Iew , named Apollos , borne at Alexandria , an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures came to Ephesus ; Who being instructed in the way of the Lord , and servent in the spirit , spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord ; and began to speake boldly in the Lord : whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard , they tooke him unto them , and expounded to him the way of God more perfectly : Acts. 18 , 22 , to 27. So that Aquila whom Paul left first at Ephesus before Timothy , and Apollos who thus preached there , may with greater reason be stiled , the first Bishops of Ephesus , then Timothy ; whom Paul intreated to stay there onely at his last going into Macedonia : Acts. 20 , 1 as † most accord . Besides , we read , that Paul at his second comming to Ephesus , before Timothy was constituted Bishop thereof , finding certaine Disciples there , al out 12. in number , who were onely baptised into the baptisme of Iohn , and had not received the Holy Ghost since they beleived , baptized them in the name of the Lord Iesus , and when hee had laid his hands upon them , the Holy Ghost came on them , and they spake with tongues , and prophecied : Acts. 19 , 1. to 18. Which 12. abiding at Ephesus , as is most probable , by Acts. 20 , 17 , 28 , 29 , to rule and instruct the Lords flocke in that Citty ; may more properly be termed , the first Bishops of the Ephesians , then Timothy , who as hee was not the first , so muchlesse was hee the sole Bishop of that See ; as is infallibly evident by Acts. 20. 4 , 5 , 15 , 17 , 18 , 28 , 29. Where wee read , that Paul returning through Macedonia in to Asia , to goe to Ierusalem , to the Feast of Pentecost , there accompanied him , Gajus ef Derbe , and Timotheus ; with others : ( where Timothy reckoned to be of Derbe , not Ephesus ) All these going before to Troas accompanied Paul to Miletus ; who from thence sent to Ephesus , and called to him the Elders of that Church to Miletus . And when they were come thither , hee said unto them . Yee know from the first day that I came into Asia , after what maner I have beene with you at all seasons &c. Take heed therefore unto yourselves , and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made YOV BISHOPS ( so the Greeke , yea the Latine and ancient English Translations truly render it ) to feed the Church of Christ , which hee hath purchased with his owne blood . &c. from whence it is apparant . First , That the Church of Ephesus at that time , had not one but many Bishops , and that by the very institution of the Holy Ghost : Therefore Timothy could not be sole Bishop there , by Pauls institution , in opposition to the holy Ghost . Secondly , That these Bishops knew from the first day that Paul came into Asia , after what maner he had been with them at all seasons : and therefore , in all likelyhood , were appointed Bishops of Ephesus at the very first planting of that Church , before Timothy was setled Bishop : so that he was not the first Bishop there ; but these rather , before , or as soone as he . Thirdly , That Timothy was then neither Elder , nor Bishop of that Church at this time when Paul tooke his farewell of it ; hee comming with Paul out of Macedonia to Miletus , and being none of the Elders and Bishops sent for , from Ephesus , to whom alone Paul directed his speech : who had hee then beene sole or prime Bishop of that See , Paul would not have stiled the Elders which he sent for , Bishops of that flocke , at leastwise hee would have made some speciall mention of Timothy in this speech of his , and given him some speciall instructions for the instructing and governing of that Church : Or at least have honored Timothy so farre , as to have made him give this Episcopall charge . and instruction to the Elders and Bishops of his owne proper Church and Dioces , or to have enjoyned them in speciall maner to reverence , honor and yeild him all Canonicall obedience as their supreame Diocaesan . All which Paul utterly neglects , or forgets to doe ; or particularly to charge Timothy to take heed to or feed this flocke , hee being ofta Nonresident from it , as I have prooved . Yea , making such hast to be at Hierusalem by the feast of Pentecost , v. 16. that hee could not spare time to goe to Ephesus , hee needed not to haue sent for the Elders of Ephesus to Miletus to give them these instructions , since Timothy their Bishop was then present with him , to whom hee might and would no doubt have imparted them , without further trouble , hath hee then in truth beene Bishop of that Church . But this sending for these Elders in his hast , and stiling them Bishops of that flocke , &c. without any mention at all of Timothy , who was none of the Elders sent for to Ephesus , is an infallible evidence , that hee was neither Bishop , nor first or sole Bishop of that Citty . Adde wee to this , that when Paul exhorted Timothy to abide at Ephesus , there were then in that Citty Elders , who did both rule well , and labor in the word and doctrine , and so were worthy double honor , 〈◊〉 , Tim. 5 , 1 , 17 , 19. Now these very Elders , as Paul himselfe affirmes , were made BISHOPS of the Church of Ephesus by the Holy Ghost , Acts. 20 , 17 , 28. Therefore Timothy could not be the first , the sole Bishop of the Ephesians as the false Postscript of the second Epistle to him , stiles him . Moreover ; it was the Apostles maner in those times to place ‡ many Bishops and Elders in every Church , not to constitute one Monarchicall Bishop over many : witnesse Acts. 11 , 30 ▪ c. 14 , 23 , c. 15 , 2 , 4 , 6 , 22 , 13 , c. 16 , 4 , c. 20 , 17 , 28. c. 21 , 18 , c. 22 , 5. Phil. 1 , 1. 1 , Tim. 5 , 17. 1 , Pet. 5 , 1 , 2 , 3 , Tit. 1 , 5 , 7 , Iam. 5 , 14. Hebr , 13 , 17. Acts. 13 , 1 , 2. 1. Cor. 14 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32. 1. Thes . 5 , 12 , 15 , Rom. 16 , 3 , 9 , 12. Col. 1 , 7 , c. 4 , 9 , 12 , 17. which testify , that there were many Bishops and Elders both at Ierusalem , Corinth , Philippi , Rome , Thessalonica , Colosse , Ephesus , yea in all other Churches , in Crete and elsewhere , at one time , by which the Church of God was taught and joyntly governed , as by a common Councell of Bishops and Elders , as g Iraeneus , h Ignatius , i Ambrose , k Hierome , and l other ancients testifie . Hence m Epiphanius & Eusebius testify , that Paul and Peter were joynt Bishops of Rome at the same time ; & n Tertullian writing of the Church-governors in his age , saith ; Praesident nobis probati Seniores , &c. that approoved Elders ( not one Diocaesan Bishop ) were Presidents over every severall Christian Congregation ; and in his booke de Corona Militis , hee affirmes the same ▪ Since therefore the Apostles themselves ordained many Elders and Bishops in every Citty and in Ephesus too , it is neither possible , nor probable , that Timothy alone should be constituted sole Bishop of Ephesus . Finally it is recorded by ‡ Iraeneus , p Eusebius , q Nicephorus r Metraphrastes , s Hierome , t Chytraeus , u Baronius , * and many others quoted to my hand by Gersonius Bucerus : Dissertatio De Gubernatione Ecclesiae p. 520. to 526. That S. Iohn the beloved Apostle after the Councell held at Hierusalem Acts. 15. resorted to Ephesus residing , governing , and instructing that Church which Paul had planted , after Pauls departure thence , with the Churches in Asia thereunto adjoyning , even till Trajanes dayes ; and that though he were banished thence by Domitian for a season , yet after his exile hee returned thither againe , writing an Epistle to that Church during the time of his banishment , Revel . 2. 1. which hee names before all the other Churches of Asia . If S. Iohn then kept his residence at Ephesus , and ruled that Church by his Apostolicall power , even till Trajanes dayes ; how could Timothy be sole Bishop and Superintendent there ? there being no need of a Bishop , where an Apostle was present and resident to governe , by whose divine superior authority and presence all Episcopall Iurisdiction was suspended . To close up this particular point ; * Bucolcerus , x Fasciculus Temporum , the y Centuary writers , and z some others record that Timothy survived S. Iohn , living till about the yeare of Christ 108. and was then martyred in the third persecution under Trajan , or under Nero , or Domitian . If this were true , and that Timothy continued Bishop of Ephesus till his death , as the Patriotes of our Prelates affirme , then by their owne doctrine , it will necessarily follow , that Timothy was the Angel of the Church of Ephesus ( which they interpret to be the Bishop of that Sea ) to whom S. Iohn writes . Rev. 2. 1. 5. charging him that hee had left his first love ; and therefore admonished him , to remember whence hee was fallen , to repent , and doe the first workes &c. But it is not credible , nor probable , that Timothy a man so pious , so laborious , so vigilant , and so much applauded by Paulin most of his Epistles , should be this backsliding Angell of the Church of Ephesus , ( which the contents of our authorized Bibles , to omit all b other Commentators , ) of the last translation , affirme , to bee the Ministers ( not the Bishop ) of that Church , as some Apostatizing Prelates glosse it , ) therefore from thence , and all other the premises , I may now safely conclude , that Timothy was not a Bishop , nor yet the first , sole , Diocesan Bishop of Ephesus , as our Prelates groundlesly affirme ; whose allegations to the contrary I shall next propose and refell , that so the truth may be more perspicuous . Object . 〈◊〉 . The first allegation to proove Timothy a Bishop , when Paul writ the first Epistle to him , is the Postscript of the second Epistle , which runns thus ; the second Epistle unto Timothius , ordained the first Bishop of the Church of the Ephesians , was written from Rome , when Paul was brought before Nero the second time . Hence c Bishop White and others , conclude Timothy to be a Bishop . Answer . To which I answer ; First , that this Postscript is no Scripture , ( & all others as in ‡ M. Perkins workes is prooved at large ) no part of the Epistle , no Appendix of S. Paules , but a private observation , annexed to it , by some Scribe or other after the Epistle written without any divine inspiration ; as the words themselves demonstrate ; The SECOND Epistle unto Timotheus ordained the first Bishop of the Church of the Ephesians , was written from Rome , when Paul was brought before Nero the second time . Where observe ; First , that this Postscript is written not in the name of Paul , but of some third person as the whole frame of it Demonstrates . Secondly , that this Postscript is no direction given by Paul to Timothy as the words ( the second Epistle unto Timotheus , ordained the first Bishop of the Church of the Ephesians , was written &c. ) evidence , but a direction of some Notary or * Commentator to the Reader , who here speakes both of Paul and Timothy in the third person . Thirdly , The words WAS WRITTEN &c. in the preter imperfect tense , shewes this postscript to be a meere addition of some Scribe or Expositer , some good space after the Epistle written ; not of Paul himselfe , at the time when he writt it ; all the Postscripts of his other Epistles , appearing manifestly not to bee his , by the same reason . Fourthly , It is here called , the second Epistle unto Timotheus , in relation to the first ; and the first Epistle to him , written many yeares before it , is likewise stiled , in the Postsript of it , The first to Timothy with reference to the second . As therefore the Postscript of the first Epistle was certainly added by some Notary after the second Epistle written , since it is called the first in relation to it : so no doubt the Postscript of the second Epistle was annexed to it after the first Epistle , and it was transcribed and bound up together , by the same party that added the Postscript to the first ; the Postscript stiling them thus the 1. and 2. in regard of their mutuall relation one to the other ; after they were both conjoyned , and the New Testament and Paules Epistles , digested into that order and method , wherein now they are placed , both in manuscripts and printed Coppies . Fifthly , It is very unlikely , that Paul would make such a Postscript as this . For as these words ( was written from Rome , when Paul was brought before Nero the 2. time ) sound not of Paules language but some others ; so the second Epistle unto Timotheus ordained the first Bishop of the Church of the Ephesians , savour not of his inditing ; who never in any of his Epistles to him or others stiles him a Bishop , much lesse ordained the first Bishop of the Church of the Ephesians , neither would he have made such a description of Timothy as this , to Timothy himselfe . Sixtly , None of the other Apostles have any Postscripts added to any of their Epistles ; it is likely therefore that Paul guided by the same Spirit , added none to all , or any of his , but that they * were added by some other , who either transscribed and collected his Epistles together , or commented on them ; as were the severall Titles both before and over his severall Epistles , and the contents before each Chapter , both in manuscripts , and printed Copyes . Seaventhly , It is apparant , that the Postscripts of many , of Paules Epistles are forged and false , as * M. Perkins workes prooves them ; and that the Postscript of the first Epistle was written not onely after the second penned , but likewise three hundred yeares after Christ or more . For it runns thus . The first to Timothy was written from Laodicea , which is the cheifest City of Phrygia Pacatiana . For Phrygia was not surnamed Pacatiana ( as † divers affirme by any Historians and Geographers , ) till at least three hundred yeares after Christ ; from one Pacatius , a Generall , as is conceived , who subdued it . Since therefore it was not so stiled till 〈◊〉 h●undred yeares after Christ , this Postscript must needs be added after that time ; and so in all likelyhood the Postscript of the second Epistle too , being both made by the same author , at the same time ; and the first , first both in time and order , as is most probable , neither would Paul doubtlesse make such a Postscript to tell Timothy that Laodicea , was the cheifest Citty of Phrygia Pacatiana , it being so neere to Ephesus , and as well knowne to Timothy as to Paul. Who as * the Rhemists and Baronius confesse was never at Laodicea , which they proove by Gal. 2. 1. and so this Postscript is but a meere false . Eightly , This Postscript is directly contrary to the very preface and body of the Epistle , written no doubt by Paul ; which as it expresly styles Timothy an Euangelist , not a Bishop ; exhorting him to make full proofe of his Ministery ; not of his Bishopricke . c. 4. v , 5. So Paul therein , and in the first Epistle , ever termes him , his dearly beloved Sonne . 2. Tim. 1. 2. c. 2. 1. 1. Tim. 1. 2. 18. A man of God : 1. Tim. 6. 11. 2. Tim. 3. 17. not a Bishop : and in the 2. Tim. 4. 12. but a little above the Postscript , Paul writes expresly to him , that hee had sent Tychicus to Ephesus to know their affaires , comfort their hearts , and make knowne to them all things . Hee being a beloved brother and faithfull Minister in the Lord Ephes . 6. 21. 22. and neither Timothy his Curate and underling , muchlesse his Successor at Ephesus , as is probable . Ninthly , This Postscript is directly contradictory to many fore-alleadged Scriptures , which proove Timothy to be no Bishop , muchlesse the first or sole Bishop of the Church of the Ephesians ; therefore not to be beleeved . See Acts. 20. 28. Tenthly , The Postscript itselfe , but especially the clause of it , ( ordained the first Bishop of the Ephesians ) whereon this objection is grounded , is but a late addition , not extant in any of the Fathers workes who have commented on this Epistle , ( except Occumenius , who lived 1050. yeares after Christ ; the first in whom this clause of the Postscript is found ) nor in the most ancient best , Greeke , Latine , Arabick , English , or other Copyes and Translations , whither manuscript , or printed ; therefore to be rejected , as counterfeit coyne . Eleventhly , d Eusebius , writes , that Timothy WAS REPORTED TO BE ( not that he verily was ) the first Bishop of Ephesus , therefore this Postscript either was not in being in his age , or else it had no more credit then a bare report , not sufficient to resolve that Timothy was undoubtedly and of a truth Bishop of Ephesus : The first who makes mention of any of these Postscripts is Theodoret 430. yeares after Christ , who perchance then added them to Paules Epistles ; but in his Postscripts this clause ( ordained the the first Bishop of the Ephesians , With that of Titus , ordained the first Bishop of the Church of the Cretians ) cannot be found . Secondly , admit this Postscript true , and authenticall , that Timothy was Bishop of Ephesus when this second Epistle was written , being but a e little before Paules death , yet this is no good proofe . that hee was Bishop of Ephesus , when the first Epistle was penned , being some 10. or 12. yeares before , as most conjecture ; for if it be a good argument ; that Timothy was Bishop of Ephesus , when the second Epistle was written to him , because the Postscript of it onely stiles him so : it is as good or a better argument for me to say ; that Timothy was no Bishop of Ephesus , when the first Epistle was directd to him , because neither the body nor Postscript of that Epistle ; nor any other Scripture whatsoever , stiles him , either a Bishop , or Bishop of Ephesus , though hee * was resident at Ephesus , when the first Epistle was written to him ; ‡ but not when the second was sent him ; and so should much more have beene stiled a Bishop , in the first Epistle and Postscript , then in the second . Now all the Prelates and Papists arguments , by which they would proove Timothy a Bishop , are drawen from his first Epistle , not his second , the Postscript therefore of his second Epistle is no argument to proove , that he was a Bishop when the first Epistle was written : for why then should not the Postscript of the first Epistle stile him a Bishop as wel as the second ? yea , rather then the second ? since the first hath much matter in it , both concerning the offices and qualities of a Bishop , the second very little , or nothing , save onely of f diligent and constant preaching in season and out of season ; which belongs indifferently to all Bishops and Ministers , and is so farre from being proper and peculiar to Bishops in these dayes , that it is hardly common to or with any of them ; Rare to most of them , and altogether improper to some of them , who g like the dunsticall Bishop of Dunkleden , thinke it no part of their Episcopall office , and that they were never so much as ordained to preach , but rather to sit mute and domineere like Lords , and that preaching belongs onely to Curats , and inferior Ministers , not to Lordly Prelates , who seldome climbe now into a Pulpit above once a yeare , whereas Chrysostome , Augustine , Ambrose , Cyrill , Hooper and other Bishops anciently preached once at least every day . Obj. 2. The second allegation is this ; that Paul describes to Timothy the office , qualities , carriage , and duties of a Bishop , instructing him how to demeane himselfe in that office , 1. Tim. 3 , 4. and 5. Therefore hee was a Bisshop . Answ . 1. To this I answer : first , that Paul by a Bishop in this Epistle meanes no Diocaesan Bishop in dignity and degree above a Preshyter , but onely such a Bishop as was equall , the same , and no wayes different from an Elder ; as all the h Fathers and most moderne Expositors on this and other texts accord . Such a Bishop I acknowledge Timothy to be , and so this instruction to him implyes ; but that hee was a Diocaesan Bishop , superior in dignity to a Presbyter , this text and argument cannot evince . Secondly , Admit it meant of a Diocaesan Bishop , yet it followes not thence , that Timothy was such a one : this Epistle being written rather to instruct others then Timothy , who was so well tutered before , both by his grand mother , Lois and Paul , 1. Tim. 6. 12. 20. c. 4. 6. 14. 16. 2. Tim. 1. 5. 6. 13. 14. c. 2. 2. c. 3. 10. 14. 15. rather , for a patterne of the qualification and duety of Ministers ; to direct the Church in all future ages , then to informe Timothy at that time : whence in both these Epistles there are some predictions of the Apostacy and degeneracy of the last times ; more necessary for i others then Timothy to know , 1. Tim. 5. 24. 25. c. 6. 15. c. 4. 1. to 7. 2. Tim. 3. 1. to 10. Thirdly , there is in the same chapter instructions given , concerning Deacons , Widdowes , and others ; yet Timothy was neither Deacon nor Widdow ; which being necessary for the Church of God , and for Timothy also to know , as hee was an Euangelist , a fellow-helper and assistant of Paul in his Ministeriall and Apostolicall function , and as his delegate to order and regulate the Church accordingly , argue him to be no more a Bishop , as is surmised ; then that every Minister and Christian for k whose instruction and direction this Epistle was written as well as for Timothies are Bishops ; or then any Archbishops , or Bishops instructions to their Archdeacons , Vicars Generalls , Chauncellers or Officials for Ecclesiasticall affaires , or Visitations , argue them to be Archbishops or Bishops . Fourthly , We read of divers bookes , concerning the office and regiment of Kings , of Magistrates , and Captaines dedicated to young Princes , and others who were neither Kings , Magistrates , nor Captaines ; of diverse tractates concerning Bishops , inscribed to such who were no Bishops ; yet the dedicating of such Treatises to them , did neither constitute or necessarily imply them to be Kings , Magistrates , Captaines , Bishops . Why then should this Epistle to Timothy , wherein are some things concerning the office , qualities , and duties of a Bishop , proove him convincingly to be such a one . Obj. 3. The third evidence to proove Timothy a Bishop , is taken from the 1. Tim. 5. 22. Where hee is enjoyned , to lay hands suddenly on no man ; that is , to ordaine no man suddenly , a Minister . Therefore certainly , hee was a Bishop , because none but Bishops have power to ordaine Ministers . Answ . 1. I answer first , that the laying on of hands hath divers significations in Scripture . Sometimes , it is taken for an apprehension of another , as a Mal factor to punish , or bring him to judgement for his offences , Exod. 24. 11. Esther 8. 7. Gen. 37. 22. Exod. 6. 13. Nehem. 13. 1. Luke . 21. 22. in which sence it may be well taken here , as the proceeding verses evidence . Sometimes it is used for reconciliation of persons at variance , Iob. 9. 33. Sometimes for benediction or blessing of another , Matth. 9. 15. Sometimes for curing and healing , Mark. 5. 23. Math. 19. 18. Mark. 6. 5. Luke . 4. 40. Sometimes for confirmation , as many affirme , Acts , 8. 17. 18. 19. Sometimes for ordination , as Acts. 6 , 6 cap. 8 , 17. 11. cap. 13. 3. 1. Timoth. 4. 14. 2. Timoth. 1. 6. Acts. 19. 6. In which of these sences it is here meant is ‡ not certainely resolved , and so no inference can be infallibly raised thence . Secondly , Admit it is meant of ordination ▪ as most conceive it ; yet that prooves not Timothy to be a Bishop , since not onely Apostles , Euangelists , and the Apostles fellow-helpers had power of ordination , as they were such , Act. 1 , 22 , 25 , 26. c. 6 , 6 , c. 8 , 17 , 18 , c. 13 , 1 , 2 , 3. c. 14 ▪ 23 , c. 19 , 6. Tit. 1 , 5. 2 , Tim. 1. 6. but even Presbyters themselves : Acts. 9 , 17. c. 13 , 1 , 2 , 3. c. 14 , 23 ▪ 1. Tim. 4 , 14. and Timothy might exercise this power in all or either of these respects , not as a Bishop ; which for ought appeares hee never was ; neither read wee in Scripture that ordination belongs of right to Bishops , as Bishops ; muchlesse , that it is appropriated unto them . Obj. 4. The fourth objection to proove Timothy a Bishop ▪ is this ; that hee is commaunded to rebuke such as sinned openly before all men , that others might feare , 1 , Tim. 5 , 20. Therefore hee was a Bishop . Answ . 1. I answere , that the argument is an inconsequent . First , Because hee might doe this as an Euangelist , or as Paules associate or substitute , by vertue of his Apostolicall authority , not of his owne Episcopall Iurisdiction , as Bishops Officials , Chauncellors and Vicars Generall , rebuke , correct and visit others , not in their owne names , or by their owne authorities , but their Lords . Secondly , Hee might doe this as a Minister , every Minister having power sufficient in the publike Ministery of the word , openly to rebuke all sinnes and sinners , Isay . 5 , 8. 1 , 2. Tim. 4 , 2 , 3. Tit. 1 , 13 , c. 2 , 15. Marke . 6 , 18 , 19 , 20. 2 , Sam. 12 , 7. Thirdly , Hee might doe this as a private Christian ; every Christian being enjoyned in any case to rebuke his neighbour , and not to suffer sinne upon him : Levit. 19. 17. Prov. 9 , 8. Eccles . 9 , 5. and so is every Magistrate to doe , Nehem. 13. 11. to 31. Psal . 141. 5. This therefore is no argument of any Episcopall Jurisdiction ; the rather , because this rebuke was to be publikely in the Church before all , not in a private Chamber or Consistory Court , ( as all Expositors accord ) in which our Bishops pronounce their Censures . Obj. 5. The fift argument to proove Timothy a Bishop , is the 1 Tim. 5 , 19. Against an Elder receive not an accusation , but before two or three witnesses . Hee had power to receive an accusation against Ministers , that so hee might correct them ; therefore hee was a Bishop . Answ . 1. I answer first , that this is a meere Non sequitur . For 1. Hee might have this power , to receive such accusations as an Euangelist , and Paules Coadjutor . Secondly , As Paules Delegate or Officiall ; as our Bishops Officialls , Vicars and Chauncellors now exercise Episcopall Iurisdiction under them ; as their substitutes onely , not by any inherent Episcopall dignity or authority in themselves . Thirdly , Hee might doe it by the appointement and mutuall consent of the people , who had power in all cases of difference , to constitute any man a Iudge , though no Bishop , 1. Cor. 6 , 1 , to 7. Fourthly , Hee might doe it onely as an Elder ; Elders having power to rule well , 1. Tim. 5. 17. and so by consequence , to receive accusations , and to correct delinquents by reproofes or Ecclesiasticall Censures , with the consequent of the Congregation , 1 , Cor. 5 , 4 , 5. 11 , 12 , c. 6 , 1 , to 7. Gal. 6 , 1. 2. Thessal . 3. 14 , 15. Fifthly , I had almost added , that hee might have done it as an Ecclesiasticall Commissioner , but that I considered ▪ that hee was , not so much as to receive an accusation , against an Elder but under two or three witnesses at least , first examined ; and our Ecclesiasticall Commissioners and Bishops are so farre from this divine Apostolicall precept , by which they would proove Timothy , and themselves to be Bishops Iure divino , that they will pursevante , silence , suspend , imprison Ministers and Elders and put them to selfe accusing one ex officio ▪ oathes and upon every jealosie , suspition , and private accusation of any drunkard , rascall or without two or three witnesses or accusers , first examined against them , and brought face to face . A direct proofe , that neither they nor their proceedings are Iure divino . Answ . 2. Secondly , I answer , that by Elder in this text , ( as many conceive ) is not meant a Presbyter , or Minister , but an ancient man , as it is taken in the first verse of the chapter : so as it prooves not , that Timothy had any Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction over the Elders that were Ministers of Ephesus , who ruled that Church , v. 17. and ●w 〈…〉 Bishops of it , Acts. 20 ▪ 28. Where Paul enjoynes them , to take heed to themselves ; as having no Superintendent paramount them ; not giving Timothy any charge to take heed to them . Thirdly , Admit these Elders were Ministers , yet Timothy had no judiciary p●wer over them , to suspend or correct them : since v. 〈◊〉 . hee is expresly enjoyned , not to rebuke an Elder , but intreat him as a Father : which is farre from giving him any such Episcopall Iurisdiction over them as our Bishops now exercise and usurpe ; using godly Ministers and ra●ing them , rather like dogs and scullions , then Elders . Fourthly , The words are not ; that hee should not excommunicate , suspend , convent or censure an Elder , but that hee should not receive an accusation against him , but before two or three witnesses . Now to condemne or censure , is one thing , to receive an accusation , another . The first not but a Iudge or cheife officer can doe ; the second , every register , clerke , informer , or under officer ; Yea , every private Christian is capable to receive an accusation , and every ordinary Minister too , against another superior to him in age , estate , or place , either privately to admonish him , that is accused , of his fault , or to reproove him for it ; or to counsell him how to repent and redresse it ; or to comfort him if hee be dejected with it , or to informe against him to the Magistrate , or whole Congregation , or to pray to God for his amendement . Math. 18. 15. 16. 17. Levit. 19. 7. Gal. 6. 1. 2. Thess . 3. 14. 15. 1. Tim. 5. 20. 24. Tit. 1. 10. to 14. 2. Iohan. 10. 11. Iud. 22. 23. which well expound this text . Fifthly , The true meaninge of this text is this , that Timothy and other Christians of what quality soever , especially Ministers , should not lightly receive or beleeve any ill report , cheifly of an Elder or Minister , without sufficient testimony of the truth thereof by two of three able witnesses ; as will plainely appeare by paralelling it with Psal . 15. 3. Numb . 35. 30. Deut. 17. 6. c. 19. 15. Hebr. 10. 28. and with Math. 18. 15. 16. 17. where our Saviour saith thus : Moreover , if thy brother shall trespas against thee , goe and tell him his fault betweene him and thee alone : if hee shall heare thee , thou hast gained thy brother : But if hee will not heare thee , then take with thee two or three more , that in the mouth of two or three witnesses , every word may be established ; and if hee shall neglect to heare them , tell it to the Church , and if hee neglect to heare the Church , let him be unto thee as an beathen man and publican . A perfect Commentary on this text of Paul , and a direct censure of our Bishops ex officio , oathes , and proceedings by the parties owne selfe-accusing oath , and answere without or before witnesses produced . 6. This text ( admitt it gives power to Timothy to take accusations against an Elder before two or three witnesses ; ) yet it excludes not the other Elders of Ephesus from having like power with him ; it gives him not any sole power to heare and determine complaints without the other Elders assistance or consent , but together with them , Math. 18 , 19. 1 , Tim. 5 , 17. Acts. 20 , 28. Hence the fourth Councell of Carthage , Can. 23. and after it Gratian. Caus . 15. Quaest . 7. Cap. Nullus , Decree , That a Bishop should heare no mans cause without the presence of his Clerkes ; and that the sentence of the Bishop should be void , unlesse it were confirmed with the presence of the Clergy : yea , Gratian in that place prooves out of the Councels of Hispalis , Agatha the first , Carthage the second and fourth . Gregory , ( whose words and Canons hee recites at large ) that a Minister , Presbyter , or Deacon cannot be punished , or deprived by the Bishop alone , but by a Synode or Councell , and that the Bishop cannot heare or determine the causes of Cleargymen alone , without associating the Elders , of the Church , or other adjoyning Bishops , with him ; for which cause † many ancient Councels denied , that there should be two Councels kept , in each Province every yeare , to heare and determine all Ecclesiasticall causes and controversies . This text therefore prooves nothing for Timothies Ecclesiasticall or Episcopall Jurisdiction , being written rather for the Churches , and Ministers future , then Timothies present instruction , as n Gersonius Bucerus rightly observes . Finally learned o Doctor Whitaker hath long since assoyled this objection in these words : That Timothy is commaunded not rashly to admit an accusation against an Elder , this prooves not that Timothy had power or dominion over Elders . For according to the Apostles minde , to receive an accusation , is to bring a crime to the Church , to bring the guilty person into Iudgement , openly to reproove , which not onely Superiors may doe , but also aequals and inferiors . In the Roman Republike Knights did judge not onely the people , but also the Senators , and Patricij . And certainly it seemes not that Timothy had such a Consistory or Court , as was afterwards appointed to Bishops in the Church . What this authority was , may be understood by that which followes ; Those that sinne rebuke before all , which aequals also may doe . Thus Bishops heretofore , if any Elder or Bishop had an ill report , referred it to the Ecclesiasticall Senate or Synod , and condemned him , if hee seemed worthy by a publike judgement , that is , they did either suspend , excommunicate or remoove him . The Bishop condemned nocent Elders and Deacons , not with his owne authority alone , but with the judgement of the Church and Clergy . Those who where thus condemned , might lawfully appeale to the Metropolitan ; but hee could not presently alone determine , what seemed good to him , but permitted the Synod to give sentence , and what the Synod decreed was ratified . The same answer Martyn Bucer , De vi & usu . S. Ministerij , Doctor Andrew Willet Synopsis Papismi . Cont. 5. Gen. Quest . 3. part . 3. in the Appendix , and Gersonius Bucerus De Gubernat . Ecclesiae * pag. 300. to 398. ( where this objection is most fully cleared by Councels , Fathers , and other authors testimonies ) give unto this place : so that it makes no proofe at all , that Timothy was a Bishop . So as from all these premises I may safely conclude , that Timothy was neither a Bishop , nor Bishop of Ephesus , nor first , nor sole Bishop of that See , as many overconfidently , and erroniously affirme . Obj. 6. If any in the sixt place object , that ‡ diverse of the ancient Fathers , as Dionysius Areopagita , Hierome , Ambrose , Dorothew , Theodoret , Chrysostome , Epiphanius , Eusebius , Gregorie the great , Policrates , Occumenius , Primasius , Isidor Hispalensis , Beda , Anselme , Rabanus ▪ Maurus , with many moderne writers affirme Timothy to be Bishop and first Bishop of the Ephesians , therefore hee was so . Answ . 1. I answer first , that as some of these Fathers are spurious , and not to be credited , so many of their testimonies are ambiguous , if not contradictory . p Eusebius writes , that Timothy IS REPORTED to be the first Bishop of Ephesus , and Titus of the Churches of Creta : which is rather a deniall then an affirmation that hee was Bishop there in truth . * Theodoret , and Beda affirme him , to be Bishop of all Asia , not of Ephesus onely , and so an Archbishop rather then a Bishop . Their Testimonies therefore being so discrepant and dubious , are of no validity . Secondly , ‡ Many of the Fathers affirme Peter to have beene Bishop of Rome , and to have continued Bishop there for divers yeares , yet q Marsilius Patavinus , r Carolus Molinaeus , with sundry s other late Protestant writers , both forraigne and domestique , affirme , and substantially proove by Scripture and reasons ; that Peter was never at Rome , nor yet Bishop thereof . As therefore their bare authorities are no sufficient argument , to proove Peter Bishop of Rome , so neither are they sufficient to evince Timothy Bishop of Ephesus . Thirdly , These Fathers affirme not Timothy to be sole Bishop of Ephesus , or to be Diocaesan Bishop , or such a Bishop as is superior to a Presbyter in Jurisdiction or degree ; the thing which ought to be prooved ; and if they affirmed any such thing , yet seeing the fore-alleadged Scriptures contradict it in a most apparant maner , they are not to be credited against the Scriptures testimony . Fourthly , The Fathers terme him Bishop of Ephesus ; not because hee was any sole Diocaesan domineering Bishopthere , as the objections pretend ; but because hee was left by Paul to teach and instruct them for a space , till hee returned from Macedonia , and to order that Church together with the other Bishops and Elders thereof ; and being one of the eminentest Pastors of that Church , next after Paul , who planted it , the Fathers terme him , the Bishop of Ephesus , in that sence onely as they stiled Peter , Bishop of Rome and Antioch , Iames Bishop of Ierusalem , Marke Bishop of Alexandria , and the like ; ( * not that they were Bishops properly so called , or such as ours are now , but onely in a large and generall appellation , because they first preached the Gospell to such Churches ) to no other purpose , but to proove a perpetuall succession of Presbyters , and doctrine in those particular Churches , from the Apostles time till theirs , naming the eminentest Minister , for parts and gifts in each Church , the Bishop of that Church ; all which appeares , by t Irenaeus , u Tertullian , and x others ; who call them Bishops onely for this purpose , to derive a Succession of Ministers , and doctrine from the Apostles . Hee that would receive a larger answer to this objection , let him read Gersonius Bucerus , de Gubernatione Ecclesiae , p. 518. to 524. 436. to 441. 498. usque 500. 538. 539. which will give him ample satisfaction . Obj. 7. If any finally object , that Paul desired Timothy to abide still at Ephesus when hee went into Macedonia : 1 , Tim. 1. 3. and that the Greeke verbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a constant residence , or abiding in one place . Therefore Timothy was Bishop of Ephesus : which if it be a solid Argument , prooves many of our Court Nonresident Prelates and Ministers , to be no Bishops ( because they reside and abide , not muchlesse preach and keepe hospitality on their Bishoprickes , ) rather then Timothy to be Diocaesan Bishop of Ephesus . Answ . 1. To this I answer , first , that the argument is a grosse inconsequent . For Timothy might abide thus at Ephesus as an Euangelist , as an Elder , as Paules assistant , or substitute onely ; as an ordinary Minister , not as a Bishop ; his abiding therefore at Ephesus is insufficient to constitute him a Diocaesan Bishop of that Sec. Secondly , Paul and Titus ordained Elders in every Church to abide and continue , with their flockes : Acts. 14 , 23. Tit. 1 , 5 , 7. yet the Opposites deny these Elders to be Diocaesan Bishops . Thirdly , Every ordinary Minister is to reside and abide upon his Cure , Rom. 12 , 7 , 8. 1 , Cor. 7 , 20. Ier. 23 , 1 , 5. If this argument therefore where solid , every Minister should be a Diocaesan Bishop . Fourthly , Paul left * Aquila and Priscilla at Ephesus to abide there ; Will it therefore follow , that they where Diocaesan Bishops of the Ephesians ? If not , then the argument is invalid . Answ . 2. Secondly , I answer , That Timothy was to abide at Ephesus onely for a season , till Paules returne out of Macedonia and no longer , 1 , Tim. 3. 14 , 15 , c. 4 , 13 , 14. after which hee went with Paul from Macedonia into Asia to Troas , Acts. 20. 4 , 5. and from thence to Italy , Philippi , and Rome , Heb. 13 , 23. Phil. 1 , 1 , c. 2. 19. Col. 1 , 1. 2 , Tim. 4. 9 , 13. hee being never resident at Ephesus , ( for ought appeares in Scripture or authentique story , ) after Paules returne out of Macedonia . His abode therefore at Ephesus being but for so short a time , and hee so great a Nonresident from it afterward , cannot possibly argue him to be a Diocaesan Bishop of that Church . Answ . 3. Thirdly , Greeke word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to abide , is oft applyed in Scripture to a short abode , for a day or two , or some little space , as well as to a perpetuall fixed residence ; as Math. 15 , 32. Marke 8. 2. So it is in the objected text ; where it is put only in opposition to Paules journey into Macedonia ; in respect whereof Timothy continuing at Ephesus till his returne , might be truely said , to abide there , though after his returne hee remooved thence to other Churches ; as Gersonius Bucerus , De Gubernatione Ecclesiae . p , 502. to 518 , observes . Answ . 4. Fourthly , Paul did not injoyne , but beseech Timothy to abide at Ephesus : therefore his residence there was but arbitrary at his owne pleasure , not coactive , not injoyned by vertue of any Episcopall office ; this Text therefore cannot proove Timothy to be Bishop of Ephesus , no more then his stay at Corinth , and other places whether Paul sent him , proove him to be Bishop of those Churches . Answ . 5. Finally , Admit Timothy to be both the first and sole Bishop of Ephesus , which is false ; yet this makes nothing for , but against our Hierarchicall and Diocaesan Bishops : for Ephesus was but one City , one Parish , one Church , one flocke and Congregation ; as is evident by Acts. 20. 17 , 28 , 29 , c. 18 , 24 , 25 , 26 , c. 19 , 1. to 18 , Ephes . 1 , 1 , c. 4 , 4 , 16 , c. 6 , 21 , 22 , 23. 1 , Tim. 1 , 3 , c. 5 , 17 to 23. Rev. 1 , 20 , c. 2. 1. So that the argument from this example is but this ; Timothy was onely Bishop of one City , Parish , Church , Flock and Congregation , not of many : Therefore all Bishops ought to be so too , as well as hee . Obj. If any object , that the City of Ephesus was a Dioces ; for it had many Elders , therefore many Parishes , and severall Congregations ? Acts. 20 , 17 , 28. 1 , Tim. 5. 17. Answ . 1. I answer , that the argument followes not ; For first , in the Apostles times , and in the primitive Church , every particular Church and Congregation had * many Elders , Ministers , and Dea●ons in it , who did joyntly teach , and instruct it , and likewise governe and order it by their common Counsell and consent ; as is evident by Acts 1. 14. to 26. c. 2. 1. to 47. c. 3. 1. c. 4. 3. 8. 9. 20. 21. 23 , 31. to 37. c. 5. 18. to 33. 42. c. 6. 1. to 9. c. 11. 29. 30. c. 14. 23. c. 15. 2. to 23. 25 , 32. c. 20. 17. to 30. c. 21. 18. Phil. 1. 1. 1. Tim. 5. 4. to 14. c. 5. 17 , Tit. 1. 5. 7. Jam. 5. 14. 1. Cor. 14. 23. to 33. Ignatius Epist . 5. 6 , 8. 9. 10. 11. 13. 14. Policarpus Epist. ad Philippenses , Irenaeus contra Haeres . l. 3. c. 2. l. 4. c. 43 , 44. Tertull. Adversus Gentes , Apolog. c. 39. Hieronymus , Sedulius , Chrysostomus , Primasius , Remigius , Haymo , Kabanus Maurus , Oecumenius , Theophylact , Anselmus , Petrus Lombardus , and sundry others , in their Commentaries , and expositions upon Philip. 1. 1. 1. Tit. 5. Acts. 15. and 20. 17. 28. The fourth Councell of Carthage , Can. 22. 23. 24. 25. The Councell of A 〈…〉 en , under Ludovicus Pius , Can. 8. 10. 11. The 12. Councell of Toledo , Can. 4. and all writers generally accord . Secondly , wee at this day , have many Prebends , Canons , and Ministers in every Cathedrall and Collegiate Church , yea in every Colledge in our Vniversities , and elsewhere ; yet but one Church and Congregation . Thirdly , We have in many other Churches in the Country where the Parishes are large , and there are divers Chappels of ease , many Curates and Ministers ; yet but one Church , one Parish ; not a Dioces ; neither is the cheife Minister either a Bishop or Diocaesan , though hee have diverse Curates and Ministers under him , to assist him in his Ministery : yea in many places where there is but one Church , no such Chappels of ease , and the Parish great , we have severall Ministers , Lecturers , and Curates , in some 4 , or 5 , in most 2 , or 3 , yet no Dioces , no Bishopricke . Neither is this a Novelty , but an ancient constitution , not onely instituded by the Apostles , and continued ever since , but likewise enjoyned by the * Councell of Oxford under Stephan Langhton Archbishop of Canterbury in the yeare of our Lord , 12 22. which decreed ; that in all Parish Churches , where the Parish is great , there should be 2 , or 3 , Presbyters at the least , according to the greatnes of the Parish , and the value of the Benefice ; least that one onely Minister being sicke , or otherwise debilitated , Ecclesiasticall Benefits ( which God forbid ) should be either withdrawne , or denied to the Parishioners that were sicke , or willing to be present at divine offices . The multitude or plurality therfore of the Elders in the Church of Ephesus , is no argument at all to proove , that is was a Dioces ; or that Timothy was a Diocaesan Bishop , because hee had Ministers and Curates under him ; for then our Deacons , Archdeacons , and Pluralists , who have many livings , Chappels , ( and so many Curates and Ministers ) under them , should be Diocaesan Bishops too by this reason . Secondly , I answer , that admit there were divers Churches and Congregations in Ephesus , which is very improbable , the greatest part of the Citizens being Idolaters , and the Citty itselfe a worshipper of the great Goddesse Diana , and of the Image which fell downe from Jupiter , Acts. 19 21. to 41. yet it can not be prooved , that Timothy was cheife Bishop and Superintendent over all these Churches , but onely of one of them : as every Minister and Bishop of England is a Minister and Bishop of the Church of England , but not a Minister and Bishop in and over all the Curches of England , but in and over his owne Parish Church , and Dioces onely . For Paul himselfe ( who planted that Church , and * resided in it for three yeares space , during which time it is like there was no Diocaesan Bishop of it but himselfe ) expresly cals the Elders of the Church of Ephesus , Bishops and Overseers of that Church , and that by the Holy Ghostes owne institution ; and thereupon exhorts them , to take heed to all the flocke ; and to feed and rule that Church of God , which hee had purchased with his owne blood , Acts. 20. 28. 1. Tim. 5. 17. Since therefore every one of these Elders by the Holy Ghostes institution , and Paules resolution was no other , but a Bishop over his owne flocke , ( if severall , ) both to instruct and rule it ; it is certaine , that Timothy ( if hee were a Bishop of Ephesus and there were many Churches there , ) was onely Bishop of one of them , not of all ; and so no Diocaesan Bishop , as our Prelates and their flatterers vainely pretend . Timothy therefore being neither a Bishop , nor first , sole , or any Bishop of Ephesus , or of any other place , or if a Bishop , no Diocaesan Bishop , but of one Church and congregation onely , as these premises evidence , all our Prelates inferences drawne from his example to proove their Episcopall Authority and Jurisdiction Iure Divino , ( which for the most part hang upon his Episcopall rochet onely ) fall quite to ground , and their Episcopall Authority together with it . I now proceed to the next Question ( wherein I shall likewise discusse , whether the power of ordination belongs onely to Bishops , not to Presbyters ? And whether this Paradoxe of the Prelates be true , that ordainers are greater in Iurisdiction and degree then those that are ordained ? ) to wit ; Whether Titus were ever Bishop , or Archbishop of Crete ? What ever the common bruite and Error of these or former times conceive , under correction , I perswade my selfe , that Titus was no Bishop nor Archbishop of Crete : and that for these ensuing reasons . First , because the Scripture never stiles him a Bishop ; nor S. Paul , who often stiles him , his partner and fellow-helper concerning the Corinthians , ( not Cretians ; ) the Messenger of the Churches , ( not Bishop ) and the glory of Christ , 2 , Cor. 8 , 23 , 6 , 16. his Sonne , Titus 1 , 6 , his brother , 2. Cor. 7. 6 , 13 , 14. never Bishop , as some would make him . Secondly , Because his cheifest imployment was to the Church of Corinth , after that hee had been left by Paul in Creet , as Paules partner and fellow-helper in that Church , 2. Cor. 2. 13. c. 7. 6. 13. c. 8. 6. 16. 23. c. 12 , 18. Thirdly , Because hee was Paules companion , attendant , partner , fellow-helper , Messenger , fixed to no setled place of residence , as Bishops were , 2. Cor. 2. 13. c. 7. 6. 13. c. 8. 6. 16. 23. c. 12. 18. Gal. 2 , 1. 3. 2. Tim. 4. 10. sent by him from Rome , long after his being in Crete , into Dalmatia , 2. Tim. 4. 10. Fourthly , Because Paul writes expresly to him , Tit. 1. 5. not that hee ordained him Archbishop or Bishop of Crete , but that hee left him in Creet ( for a season ) for this cause , that hee should sett in order , the things that were wanting , and ordaine Elders , in every Citty , as hee had appointed him : Therefore was hee there onely as Paules Vicar generall , Commissary or substitute , to order those things , in such sort , as hee had appointed him , which Paul could not dispatch , whiles hee was residing , not as the Archbishop or Lord Bishop of Creet , to order all things there , by his owne Episcopall Jurisdiction and authority as hee listed himselfe . Fifthly , Hee expresly charged him , to come to him diligently , to Nicopolis when hee should sent Arthemas or Tychicus to him , for there hee intended to winter , Tit. 3. 12. By which it is evident , that his stay in Creet by Paules appointement , was very short , not above halfe a yeare , if so much ; after which wee never read hee returned thither , though we finde , hee was sent to Corinth , and Dalmatia , that hee went up to Hierusalem with Paul , and came to him during his imprisonment at Rome , Gal. 2. 1. 3. 2. Cor. 2. 13. c. 7. 13. 14. c. 8. 6 , 16. 23. c. 12. 8. 2. Tim. 4. 10. His short abode therefore in Creet , without returning thither , prooves him to be no Bishop . Sixtly , Paul chargeth him , to bring Zenas the Lawyer and and Apollos diligently on their way , that nothing might be wanting to them , Tit. 3. 13. Now it is very unlikely , that an Arch-bishop or Bishop of Creete , wherein were * 90. walled Cities , would stoope so low , as to waite thus upon Lawyer , as Zenas , or a Disciple , as Apollos was , unlesse hee were far more Humble then any Archbishops or Prelates in these our times ; who are commonly so insolently proud , as to disdaine all familiar conversations with Lawyers , or Ministers . Seaventhly , Paul left Titus Bishop of no one Citty in Creete , and hee expresly enjoynes him , to ordaine ( not one but many ) Elders ( in the plurall number ) in every Citty of Creete , Tit. 1. 5. 7. where there were no lesse then 90. walled Citties in Homerus time ; which Elders were no other but Bishops , and so tearmed by him v. 7. ( For a BISHOP must be blamelesse , &c. ) as Hierom. Chrysostome , Ambrose , Theodoret , Sedulius , Primasius , Remigius , Beda , Raubanus Maurus , Bruno , Theophilact , Oecumenius , Anselme , Lyra , Hugo Cardinalis , Aquinas , with other moderne Commentators on this text accord . If then Paul gives expresse directions to Titus , to ordaine many Elders and Bishops in every Citty of Creete , constituting him a Bishop in none of them , that we read of , ( an apparant argument , that hee was no Bishop there , because hee had there no Bishops See at all , and was no sole Bishop of any one Citty : ) it is not probable that hee constituted him sole Archbishop or Bishop of all Creet , ( which had ‡ anciently no lesse then 4. Archbishops and 21. Bishops in it , ) it being the Apostles practise to place many Bishops and Elders in one Church , but never one Bishop or Archbishop over many Churches , Phil. 1. 1. Acts. 20. 28. Hence * Athanasius , Chrysostome , Oecumenius and Theophilact on Titus 1. 5. 7. write thus : Here hee will have Bishops to be understood for Presbyters or Ministers , as we have elsewhere often said , neither verily would hee have the charge of the whole Iland to be permitted , or granted to one man , but that every one should have his owne proper cure & charge , allotted him : for hee knew that the labour & paines would be the lighter and that the people would be governed with greater diligence , if that the Doctor or teacher should not be distracted with the government of many Churches , but should onely give himselfe to the government of one , and study to compose and adorne it with his maners . So also Peter Lombard , * Alphonsus de Castro , * Doctor Barnes , and others on , and from this text , determine . Eightly , All generally ‡ accord , that Archbishops , yea Metropolitanes BISHOPS themselves are not of divine or Apo stolicall , but Papall and humane Constitution ; witnesse Pope Nicolas apud Gratianum Distinct . 22. c. 1. Omnes sive Patriarchae cujuslibet apicem , sive Metropolis primatus , aut Episcopatuum Cathedras , vel Ecclesiarum sive cujuscunque ordinis dignitatem * INSTITVIT ROMANA ECCLESIA . Which Pope Anacletus in his 3. Epist. c. 3. doth likewise averre , and Pope Lucinus and Clement , in Gratian , Distinct . 80. affirme as much ; informing us , that Archbishops and Primates are the Successors , of the Hathenish Arch-Flamens , and to be placed onely in those Citties where the Arch-Flamens had their Sees : with which Peter Lombard accords , lib. 4. Distinct. 24. Hence our a Historians record of King Lucius , the first Christian Prince of this our Realme , that hee instituted 3. Archbishoprickes , and 25. Bishop-rickes and Bishops , in stead of the 3. Arch-Flamens , and 25. Flamens , changing their Sees into Bishoprickes , and Archbishop-rickes ; by which it is evident , that Archbishops , Patriarkes , and Metropolitans ( instituted onely at first by ‡ severall Councells and Princes ) are no divine or Apostolicall , but onely a humane institution ; This all the Archbishops , Bishops and Clergy of England in their institution of a Christian man , dedicated to King Henry the 8. fol. 59. 60. resolve in these tearmes . IT IS OVT OF ALL DOVBT , that there is no mention made neither in Scripture , neither in the writings of any authenticall Doctor or Auctor of the Church being within the time of the Apostles , that Christ did ever make or institute any distinction or difference to be in the preeminence of power , order or Jurisdiction betweene the Apostles themselves , or between the Bishops themselves , but that they WERE ALL EQVALL IN POWER , AVTHORITY AND IVRISDICTION ; And that there is now and since the time of the Apostles any such diversity or difference among the Bishops , IT WAS DEVISED BY THE ANCIENT FATHERS , of the primitive Church , for the conservation of good order , and unity of the Catholike Church ; and that , either by the consent and authority , or else at least BY THE PERMISSION AND SVFFRANCE OF THE PRINCES AND CIVILL POWERS for the time ruling . For the sayd Fathers , considering the great and infinite multitude of Christian men so largely increased through the world , and taking examples of the old Testament , thought it expedient to make an order of Degrees , to be among Bishops , and spirituall governours of the Church , and so ordained some to be Patriarkes , some to be Metropolitans , some to be Archbishops , some to be Bishops ; and to them did limit severally ( not onely ) their certaine Diocesse and Provinces , wherein they should exercise their power and not exceed the same , but also certaine bounds and limits of their Jurisdiction and power ; &c. The same is averred by learned Bishop Hooper , in his Exposition upon the 23. Psalme fol. 40. who sayth , that Archbishops were first ordained in Constantines time , yea , * Archbishop Whitgift himselfe confesseth as much , that Archbishops are neither of divine , or Apostolicall , but humane institution , since the Apostles times . And * Patricke Adamson Archbishop of S. Andrewes in Scotland , in his publike recantation , in the Synode of Fiffe in Scotland Anno 1591. professed sincerely , ( ex animo ) that Bishops and Ministers by Gods word were all equall and the very same ; That the Hierarchy and superiority of Bishops over other Ministers , NVLLO NITITVR VERBI DEI FVNDAMENTO , had no foundation at all in the word of God ; but was a meere humane Institution long after the Apostles times , from whence the Antichristian Papacis of the Bishop of Rome hath both its rise and progresse ; and that for 500. yeares last past , it hath beene the cheifest instrument of persecuting and suppressing the truth and Saints of God in all Countries and Kingdomes , as all Histories manifest . Thus this Archbishop in his Palinody , disclaiming not onely Archbishops but ever Diocaesan Bishops to be of divine , but onely of humane institution long after the Apostles , giving over his Archbishopricke thereupon , and living a poore dejected life . This being then granted on all hands , it is cleare , that Titus could not be Bishop of all Creete ; for then hee should be an Archbishop , having divers Bishops under him , those Elders which hee placed in every Citty of Creete being no other but Bishops , Tit. 1. 7. as all acknowledge , and Arch-bishops were not instituted till after the Apostles and Titus dayes ; For these reasons I conceive , that Titus was not Bishop of Creete , having no Episcopall or Archiepiscopall See there appointed to him ; which learned d Gersonius Bucerus hath at large manifested , to such who will take paines to peruse him . Obj. 1. If any object 1. that the Postscript of the Epistle to Titus , stiles him , Titus ordained the first Bishop of the Church of the Cretians : Ergo hee was Bishop or Archbishop of Creete . Answ . 1. I answer 1. that as this and all other Postscripts , are * no part of the Scripture , or Epistles , as † Mr. Perkins workes proove at large , but an addition of some private person since , as is evident by the words themselves in the preterimperfect tense and third person . IT WAS WRITTEN TO TITVS , &c. therefore no convincing authority : so this clause ( ordained the first Bishop of the Church of the Cretians ) is no part of the Postscript , but a late appendix to it , not found in any of the Coppies of this Epistle which the Fathers follow , in their Commentaries , in few or no ancient Greeke , Latine or English Coppies and Translations of this Epistle , in few or no Testaments or late Commentators : And had Titus been Bishop of Creete , it is like Paul would have given him this Title in the Epistle , ( where hee stiles him , Titus his owne Sonne after the Common faith . c. 1. v. 4. ) as well as in the Postscript ; ( which in truth is none of his , but some others , Perchance Oecumenius his addition , the first that mentions it , 1050. yeares after Christi ) since hee speakes of Bishops by name in that Epistle , Tit. 1. 7. But of this , see more in the answere to the Postscript of Timothy . Secondly , I answer , that this Postscript is directly false ; for it saith , that this Epistle was written from Nicopolls of Macedonia . Now it is cleare by the 12. verse of the third chapter of this very Epistle , that Paul was not at Nicopolis when hee writ it , but at some other place ; for hee writes thus to Titus , when I shall send Artemas unto thee or Tychicus , be diligent ●ocome unto me to Nicopolis , for THERE ( not here ) I have intended to winter . Now had Paul then been at Nicopolis , hee would have written thus , for here ( not there ) I have intended to winter ; there being ever spoken of a place from which we are absent , here only of a place present . The Postscrip● therfore being false as * Mr. Perkins workes hence conclude , can be no part of Canonicall scripture , nor Epistle , none of Paules penning , but a meere ignorant Appendix of some scribe or comentator of after times , and so no solid proofe to manifest Titus Bishop or Archbishop of Creete , not at Nicopolis when this Epistle was written . Obj. 2. If they secondly object ; that Paul left Titus in Creete to set in order the things that were wanting , Tit. 1. 5. Ergo hee was a Bishop . Answ . 2. I answere , that this is a meere inconsequent ; and I may argue in the like nature ; Our Archbishops and Bishops ( especially those who turne Courtiers , Counsellers of State , and Nonresidents , ) leave ‡ their Archdeacons , Chauncellers , Commissaries , Vicars generall , and Officialls , to visit , order , correct their Dioces , and to set in order those Ceremonies , Altars , Images , and Church ornaments , which were well wanting ( now too much abounding ) in them ; Ergo Archdeacons , Chauncellers , Vicars generall , and Officials , are Archbishops and Bishops of those Dioces : The King sends his Indges , Commissioners and under Officers to some Counties or Citties , to sett Causes , Counties , people , Armes , Forts , Citties in good order , and to see defects in these supplied . Ergo Iudges , Commissioners and Officers are Kings : Churchwardens ought by the Canons of 1571. and 1603. to sett in order , and provide such bookes , ornaments , and necessaries as are wanting in Parish Churches , and see them well repaired : Ergo Churchwardens are Bishops : For Titus was here left , to sett in order the things that were wanting , AS PAVL HAD APPOINTED HIM ; and no other wise , Tit. 1. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. hee did all by his direction and authority , not his owne . There is nothing therefore in this , of ordering things that were wanting in the Church of Creete , which savours of Episcopall Iurisdiction . And I may better argue hence , Titus did nothing at all in Creet but by Paules speciall appointment and Cōmission ; Ergo hee was no Bishop ; or if a Bishop : Ergo Bishops should order nothing in their Bishoprikes , nor keepe any visitations , but by speciall direction & Commission from the Apostles , * King , or State , authorizing them ; Then the Objectors conclude ; Ergo , hee was a Bishop ; and Bishops , Archbishops , ( yea Archdeacons too without any speciall commission from the Apostles , King and State ) may make and institute what orders , constitutions , Articles , and Ceremonies they please , as now they doe in their illegall Courts and visitations , kept in their owne names , without any Patent from the King Obj. 3. If any object in the third place , That Titus was lest to ordaine Elders in every Citty in Creete ; Tit. 1. 5. Ergo , hee was a Bishop : because none have power to ordaine Elders , but Bishops ; since none ordained Elders in Creete but Titus , who was a Bishop . Answ . 3. I answer first , that this is as bad a consequence as the former , and a meere circular argumentation : For first they will needs proove , Titus a Bishop , because hee ordained Elders ; and none but Bishops can ordaine Elders ; and then next they proove , that none but Bishops can ordaine ; because Titus foresooth was a Bishop , and hee onely did ordaine Elders in Creete . A meere Circle , and Petitio Principij : yet this is the Logicke of our great Rabbi Prelates . Secondly , I answer , that this proposition whereon they ground themselves and their Prelacy , that none have any right Ture divino to ordaine Elders or Ministers , but Bishops ; and that quatenus Bishops too , ( which they must adde , or else their argument is unsound , ) is a notorious falsehood , and meere sandy foundation ; For first , not to remember how Moses a Civill Magistrate , consecrated Aaron and his sonnes by Gods owne appointement , Levit. 8. 5. to 32. Exod. 29. 9. 35. First , The Apostles themselves were ordained Apostles and consecrated Ministers by Christ himselfe , Matth. 28. 19. 20. Marke 16. 15. 16. Iohn . 20. 22. 23. 24. Acts. 1. 4. 5. Rom. 1. 5. 2. Cor. 3. 6. To whom the power of ordination principally appertaines , Ephes . 4. 11. 12. 1. Cor. 12. 28. Acts. 20. 28. 1. Pet. 1. 4. Secondly , The Apostles and Euangelists ordained Elders in every Church , Acts. 14. 23. c. 19. 1. 6. 7. c. 7. 6. yet they were properly no Bishops as e all learned men acknowledge . Thirdly , The Disciples ( inferior to the Apostles and Euangelists as the objectors teach ) ordained Ministers and Elders too , though they were no such Bishops as the objectors mean. Acts. 14. 1. 2. 3. c. 9. 10. to 22. Fourthly , ‡ Presbyters and ordinary Ministers ordainea Elders and Ministers , yea Timothy himselfe was made a Minister by the imposition of the handes of the Presbytery , 1. Tim. 4. 14. Thus did they in the primitive Church ; this doe they still in our owne Church , as the booke of ordination it selfe confirmed by * two Acts of Parliament , the 35. Canon , and experience witnesse ; this doe they in all the reformed Churches now , which should have no lawfull Ministers , and so no true Church , if the power of ordination were Jure divino appropriated onely to Bishops , and not common with them unto other Ministers . Fiftly , Patriarkes , Metropolitanes , Archbishops and Chorall Bishops ( neither of which are properly Bishops in the objectors sence ) ordaine Ministers : If then all these have ordained Elders and Ministers , though no Bishops , by sufficient divine Authority , ( as the objectors cannot deny of the 4. first , and dare not contradict it in the last , ) then it is most false ; that the power of ordination Jure divino belongs onely to Bishops , as Bishops in the objectors sence ; for then none of those 5. being not properly such Bishops , could lawfully have ordained Ministers or Presbyters , as they did and doe . Thirdly , There is no one syllable in the Scripture to proove , that the power of ordination belongs onely to Bishops quatenus Bishops ; neither is there any one example to warrant it . We read of Apostles , Euangelists , Disciples , Presbyters , that layd hands on others to ordaine them Ministers ; but of Bishops , ( I mean distinct from Presbyters , ) we read not a word to this purpose , how then can this be true , that the power of ordination belongs onely to Bishops quatenus Bishops , Jure divino ? Fourthly , We read not a word to this purpose in Scripture of any Bishops distinct from , or superior , in order , degree and dignity to Presbyters ; if therefore such Bishops themselves be not Jure divino , the power of ordination cannot belong to them Jure divino , the rather because we read of no man whom the Scripture cals a Bishop ordaining Ministers . Admit there were such Bishops Jure divino ; yet that the power of ordination belongs to them Jure Divino quatenus such Bishops , is most false , but onely quatenus they are Ministers : For it appertained to the Apostles , to the Euangelists , to Disciples and Presbyters Iure divino , though no such Bishops ; and the objectors will acknowledge , that it belongs to Popes , Patriarkes , Metropolitans and Archbishops , though they neither were nor are properly such Bishops , and are no divine , but meere humane institutions ; therefore it must appertaine unto them onely , as they are Ministers , ( in which respect they all accord , and are not differenced one from another ; ) not quatenus Bishops ; for then the Apostles , Euangelists , Disciples , Presbyters , Popes , Patriarkes , Metropolitanes , and Arch-bishops , being not properly such Bishops , could not lawfully ordaine . The power therefore of ordination belonging to the Apostles , Euangelists , Disciples , Presbyters and others as well as to Bishops , not to Bishops onely , or to them as Bishops , but as Ministers , ( it being a g meere Ministeriall act , inferior to preaching , administring the Sacrament and baptizing , as all acknowledge ) it can be no good evidence to proove Titus a Bishop . Now because this power of ordination which our Prelates would Monopolize unto themselves , is the maine pillar whereon they now suspend their Episcopall Jurisdiction over ther Ministers , I shall produce some humane authorities , to proove the right , the power of ordination and imposition of hands to be by Gods Law common to Presbyters as well as to Bishops ; I shall beginne with Councells . The 4. h Councell of Carthage , Can. 3. about the yeare of our Lord 418. prescribes this forme of ordination of Ministers , When a Minister is ordained , the Bishop blessing him , and holding his hand upon his head , all the Presbyters or Ministers likewise that are present , shall lay their hands upon his head by the Bishops hand . This Canon is incorporated by Gratian , into the body of the Canon Law , and hath been practised and put in ure in all ages since , till now ; The very Glosse on * Gratian , yea and k the Rhemists too , assuring us , that when a Preist is ordained , all the Preists standing by , doe lay their hands upon him ; neither is there any other forme of ordaining Ministers , prescribed in the Canon Law or Councels , but this alone , which all Churches have observed , and yet retaine . Since therefore no Bishop may or ought of himselfe alone to ordaine Ministers , without the assent and concurrence of the Clergy , people and others there present , as l Gratian , m Illyricus , and n Gersome Bucerus , proove at large ; and since all Ministers present ought joyne with the Bishop in the imposition of hands , in all ordinations of Ministers , and haue ever usually done it in all ages and Churches ; how this Prerogative of ordination should be peculiar to Bishops ( who may not doe it without Ministers concurrrence , no more then Ministers without theirs , ) I cannot yet conjecture . True it is , that the o Councell of Ancyra , about the yeare of our Lord 308. Can. 3. ordained ; That Chorall Bishops should not ordaine Presbyters or Deacons ; nor yet Presbyters of the Citty in another Parish ; but when the Bishop should permit them by his Letters ; And the ‡ Councell of Antioch under Pope Iulius , Canon . 10. decrees ; that Chorall Bishops should not ordaine Ministers and Deacons without the Bishops privity . From whence I observe . First , That before these Councells restrained the power of Chorall Bishops and Presbyters , that they did and might lawfully ordaine Ministers and Deacons without the Bishops privity or assent . Secondly , That by his assent and licence both the one and the other , without the Bishops presence , might lawfully ordaine Ministers and Deacons . These Councels therefore plainly resolve , that there is an inhaerent right and power of ordination in Presbyters and Chorall Bishops , as they are Ministers , and that with the Bishops consent , and license they may lawfully execute it , and conferre Orders , therefore the right and power of ordination is not invested onely in Bishops , as they are Bishops , for then none else could ordaine but they alone . The forged Constitutions of the Apostles , fathered on Pope * Clement , prescribe ; That Presbyters and Deacons , may not ordaine other Preists and Deacons , but Bishops onely . And the † Councell of Hispalis or Spaw , about the yeare 6 , 7. Canon . 5. 7. out of Pope Leo , Epist. 86. decrees ; that Presbyters and Chorall Bishops , which are all one , should not presume to ordaine Preistes or Deacons , or to consecrate Altars or Churches ; For in holy writ , by Gods Commaund , ‡ Moses onely erected the Altar in the Tabernacle of the Lord , hee onely annointed it , because hee was the High Preist , of God , as it is written ; * Moses and Aaron among his Preists . Therefore , that which was commaunded onely to the cheife Preists to doe , of whom Moses and Aaron were a Type , Presbyters who carry the figure of the sonnes of Aaron , may not presume to enchroach upon . For although they have in most things a common dispensation of Mysteries with Bishops , yet they must know that some things are notwithstanding prohibited them by the authority of the old Law , some things BY NEW ECCLESIASTICALL RVLES ( or CANONS ) as the CONSECRATION OF PRESBYTERS , DEACONS , and virgins ; as also the Constitution , benediction , or unction of the Altar . Verily it is not lawfull for them to consecrate Churches or Altars , not to give the Holy Ghost the comforter by imposition of hands to the faithfull who are to be baptized , or to those , who are converted from heresie , nor to made Chrisme , nor to signe the fore-head of those that are baptized with Chrisme , ‡ nor yet publikely to reconcile any penitent person in the Masse , nor to send formed Epistles to any . All these things are unlawfull to Presbyters or Chorall Bishops , because they have not Pontificatus apicem , the highest degree of the High Preist-hood , which by the AVTHORITY OF THE CANONS , is commaunded to be due onely to Bishops , that by this the distinction of the Degrees , and the Hight of the dignity of the High Preist , might be demonstrated . Neither shall it be lawfull for the Presbyters to enter into the Baptistery before the Bishops presence , not to baptize or signe an infant , the Bishop being present , nor to reconcile penitents without the Bishops commaund , nor to consecrate the Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ hee being present , nor in his presence to teach , or blesse , or salute the people , no nor yet to exhort them , all which things are knowne to be prohibited by the * See Apostolicke . These two last authorities are the cheife that the Papists , Jesuites , and our Prelates insist on , to Proove , that the power of ordination belongs onely to Bishops not to Presbyters . But to remove these twoo obstacles : consider . First , that there is not a word in either of these two Constitutions , that the power of ordination , belongs onely to Bishops by divine right and institution ; or that Presbyters by Gods Law have no power to ordaine Ministers and Deacons , the thing onely in question . Secondly , That the Councell expresly resolves , that the power and right of ordination is prohibited Presbyters , and appropriated onely to Bishops , not by any Law of God , or ancient Constitutions of the Apostles , or those who immediately succeeded them , but onely by some Ecclesiasticall Canons and Constitutions then newly made , and by the authority onely of the See of Rome ; which cannot deprive Ministers of that power of ordination , which the Scripture and God himselfe hath given them . Thirdly , That before these late Canons , and Constitutions , Presbyters might lawfully ordaine Ministers , and Deacons . Fourthly , That the cheife reason why the power of ordination was taken from Ministers , and thus monopolized to Bishops , ( even by their owne Constitutions , wherein they have ever favoured themselves , ) was onely to advance the power , authority , dignity , ambition and pride of the Pope and Prelates , and to distinguish them in degree and order from ordinary Ministers , which of right are , and otherwise would be their equalls , both in Jurisdiction , power and degree . Fiftly , That they bring not one syllable out of the new Testament to proove that the power of ordination belongs onely to Bishops , not to Ministers which they would have certainly done , had there beene any text to warrant it ; but that all they alleadge is out of the old Testament ; to wit , that Moses onely consecrated the Tabernacle and the Altar ; Ergo none but Bishops must consecrate Ministers , Altars , Churches . A learned argument ; ergo none but Kings , and temporall Magistrates , no not Bishops themselves , may doe it , had beene a better consequent . For Moses was no Preist , muchlesse a Bishop ; the High Preist , ( which was x Aarons office , not his , there being but y one High Preist , at once and hee a z type of our High Preist Christ ) but a civill Magigistrate ; yet God commaund him a to consecrate Aaron with his Sonnes , the Tabernacle and Altar ; and after him , b King Salomon ( not the High Preist ) consecrated the Temple , Altar , Court , and all the furniture of the Temple and Altar : So that if these examples proove any thing , it is , but this : That the power of ordination , of consecrating Bishops , Ministers , Churches , Altars , &c. appertaines not to Archbishops , Bishops , Popes , Preistes , Ministers , but to the cheife temporall Magistrates . But admit that Moses were a Preist , and an High Preist , and that the power of consecrating Preistes , Temples , Altars appertained to him in that regard ; yet this is no argument to proove , that the right and power of ordination should belong to Bishops onely ; and that for these three reasons . First , because the Aaronicall Preisthood was c utterly extinct and abolished by Christ , as meerely typicall and ceremoniall ; and so al ●he appurtenances thereunto belonging . Secondly , Because the High Preist was no Emblem , type or resemblance of Bishops , which are many , changeable , mortall , but * onely of Christ our true High Preist , who is but one , and remaines an High Preist forever without succession or change . So that this allusion prooves the power of ordaining Ministers to belong originally to none but d Christ , our e High Preist , cheife Shepheard , and f Bishop of our soules , as the g Scripture expresly resolves ; and ministerially , secondarily , to h every Minister of Christ , as his Embassador , instrument , and Vicegerent . Thirdly , Because the office and power of the High Preists and Bishops are different , distinct , yea incompatible one with the other , and the maner of ordination , of Ministers , and Deacons under the Law , different from that under the Gospell , as the † Scriptures , and * all Authors joyntly witnes : the one of them therefore can be no solid , or convincing argument to make good the authority Iurisdiction or practise of other . So that this Councell and Constitution , makes nothing at all against the divine right and Title of Presbyters to ordaine , or for the Bishops sole Monopoly of imposition of hands , by any divine charter from Christ or the Holy Ghost . Finally , Neither of these Councells or Constitutions simply debarre Ministers from the imposition of hands on others together with the Bishop , which they k ever practised , and were authorized to doe , both by God himselfe , and the fourth Councell of Carthage , Can. 3. But from laying on hands and ordaining Ministers of themselves alone without the Bishop , who cannot ordaine , or lay hands on any Ministers by vertue of these constitutions without them . Since therfore the Bishop of himselfe alone cannot impose hands on any Minister without their assistance or consent , nor they without the Bishops , it is apparant , that the right of ordination is not wholly and originally vested in the Bishop , by any divine or humane right ; but in both . The † Councell of Aquisgran or Aken , under Ludovicus Pius An. 816. c. 8. out of Isidor . Hispalensis De Ecclesiasticis Officiis l. 2. c. 7. determines thus : The dispensation of the Mysteries of God are committed to Presbyters as they are to Bishops , for they are over the Church of Christ , and are consorts with Bishops in the confection of the body and blood of Christ , and likewise also in the instruction of the people , and in the office of preaching ; and onely the ordination and Consecration of Clerkes is reserved to the High Preist or Bishop , because of his authority , lest the discipline of the Church , challenged or exercised by many , should dissolve , concord and engender scandals ; For Paul the Apostle cals Elders and Preists by the name of Bishops , Tit. 1. 5. 7. Acts. 20. 28. Phil. 1. 1. 1. Tim. 3. D. Rabanus Maurus De Instit . Clericorum , l. 1. c. 6. writes thus ; That Presbyters allthough they be Preistes , yet they have not attained the top or Highest degree of Preisthood , because they cannot signe the fore-head with Chrisme , nor give the Holy Ghost ; neither can they ordaine Clerkes in sacred orders , which is reserved to Bishops for unity and concords sake . The Epistle de 7. Gradibus Ecclesiae in the neinth Tome of Ieromes workes , avers in expresse tearmes ; that the ordination of Clerkes and consecration of Virgins was reserved onely to the High-Preist or Bishop for his greater honor . And Tertullian de Baptismo c. 17. writes , that the High Preist , who is the Bishop , hath the right of giving Baptisme , after him Presbyters and Deacons , yet not without the Bishops authority , for the honor of the Church ; By all which it is evident , that Bishops have not the sole executive power of ordination by any divine right or institution ( of which there is not one syllable , either in these or other Councels or Fathers ) but onely by Canons and humane Constitutions , made by Bishops themselves , to advance their owne honor , power and dignity ; yet notwithstanding the right of ordination remaines still in Ministers ; and belongs to Bishops , onely as they are Ministers by divine right , not as they are Bishops ; as is evident by the m 9. Chapter of the same Councell of Aken , taken out of Isidor . De Eccles . Officiis l. 2. c. 6. where writing of Bishops ordination by imposition of hands , and the originall thereof , they use this expression , ( which n H. Rabanus Maurus , likewise hath : ) But that Bishops are ordained by imposition of handes , A PRAECESSORIBVS DEI SACERDOTIBVS , by the Preistes of God their predecessors , is an ancient constitution . For the holy * Patriarke Isaac laying his handes upon the head of Iacob , blessed him , and ‡ Iacob in like maner gave a benediction to his sonnes : &c. Where the Councell and Fathers both affirme ; that even Bishops themselves are ordained by Priestes or Presbyters ( not Bishops ) their predecessors , therefore the right and power of ordaining Ministers ( and Bishops too ) belongs to Presbyters as well as Bishops , and to Bishops , onely as Presbyters , not Bishops ; and so can no wayes advance them in Iurisdiction , order or degree above Ministers . The Popish q Councell of Trent Sessio 23. De Sacramento ordinis c. 4. determines that Bishops are superior to Presbyters , and that they can conferre the Sacrament of Confirmation , ordaine Ministers of the Church , and doe many other things , which those inferior order have no power to doe . And Can. 7. De Sacramento Ordinis : If any shall say , that Bishops are not superior to Preistes , or that they have not the power of ordination , or confirmation , or that this power , which they have , is common to them with Presbyters ; or that the orders conferred by them without the consent or calling of the secular power are voyd , let him be Anathema : Loe here this Councell appropriates the power of ordination onely to Bishops , by denying it to be common to them with Ministers , and in this regard , makes Bishops superior in degree to Ministers ; yet not by any divine right or institution , ( of which there is not one word ; ) but onely by humane and Canonicall ; ( as the r History of the Councell of Trent , and s Chemnitius well observe : ) For in the same t Session de Reformatione , Can. 7. 8. it enjoynes ; that according to the ancient Canons , when Ministers or Deacons are to be ordained ; that the Bishop calling to him the Preistes and other prudent men skilfull of the divine Law , and exercised in Ecclesiasticall constitutions , should diligently enquire and examine before them the stocke , person , age , institution , maners , doctrine , and faith of those that were to be ordained ; and that those orders , should be publikely conferred and celebrated in the Cathedrall Church ; the Canons of the Church being called to , and present at it ; or if in any other place , or Church of the Diocesse , Praesenti Clero Loci , the Clergy of the place being present . u Pope Anacletus , and the x Canon Law , having long before that time ordained ; That Preists and Deacons should be ordained by their owne Bishop ; Ita ut Cives & Alij SACERDOTES assensum praebent ; So as the Citizens and other Preistes assented thereunto ; which they usually did , and ought to doe , as Gratian with y others proove at large . So that though this Councell , and the other Canons and Constitutions debarre Presbyters and Ministers from the act and exercise of ordination , ( which yet they ever use , and practise as assistants to the Bishops , who can ordaine none but by their assent , since they ought to joyne with them in the imposition of hands , ) yet they deprive them not of their inherent right , nor yet of the exercise of it as assistants to the Bishop , which they have ever used . I passe now from these Councels and Constitutions to the Fathers , who jumpe in judgment with them . It is true that z S. Hierome , a Epiphanius , * Isidor Hispalensis , c Ambrose , d Augustine , e Leo , and ‡ others affirme , that Bishops onely in their time did use to ordaine Ministers and Deacons ; and that Presbyters might doe all things that Bishops did , except the conferring of Orders , and some other trifling toyes , as consecrating of Altars , Churches , virgins , Chrisme , &c. not warranted by Gods word ; yet none of them determine , that the right and power of ordination belongs onely to Bishops , by divine institution and appointment ; that Presbyters have no right at all , by the word of God to conferre Orders ; or that they might not doe it in any case ; but they expresly averre the contrary : For as they did joyne with the Bishop in the imposition of hands , as appeares by the third Canon of the fourth Councell of Carthage , forecited ; so in S. Ambrose his time , in Egypt , if the Bishop were absent , the Presbyters use to consigne and conferre Orders ; as this g Father testifieth : and h S. Augustine records , That in Alexandria , and throughout all Aegypt , if the Bishop were wanting , the Presbyter did consecrate and give orders . Hence Aërius ( as i Epiphanius reports his words ) reasoned in this maner : What is a Bishop to a Presbyter ? one differs nothing from the other ; it is one order ( saith hee ) one honor , and one dignity . Imponit manus Episcopus ; * ITA ETIAM PRESBYTER : The Bishop imposeth his hands , or ordaines Ministers ; so likewise doth the Presbyter ; The Bishop baptizeth , so also doth the Presbyter ; The Bishop sitts in a throne ; so also doth the Presbyter . And hee alleadged , that the Apostle saith to a Bishop : k Neglect not the gift that is in thee , which thou hast received by the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery : Epiphanius there denieth not directly , that Presbyters then did use to ordaine ; but demaunds , how it is possible for a Presbyter to ordaine , not having imposition of hands in the election of Ministers , or to say that hee is equall with a Bishop . A false and miserable shift : since all * Histories , Fathers , Authors , Councels testifie , that in that age , Presbyters had alwayes their voyces in the Elelection , yea their hands in the ordination of Ministers and Deacons . S. Hierome in his Commentary on Zeph. c. 2. Tom. 5. p. 218. D. writes exprefly : SACERDOTES . and that Preists and Presbyters who give baptisme , and imprecate the Lords advent , to the Eucharist , make also the oyle of Chrisme , MANVS IMPONVNT , impose hands , instruct the catechumeny , LEVIT AS ET ALIOS CONSTITVVNT SACERDOTES ; ordaine Levites , and other Preists : Therefore Presbyters in S. Hieronymus time ordained Ministers , Deacons , and layd on hands as well as Bishops . Yea * Anastatius , in the life of Pope Pelagius the first , recordes ; that this Pope An. Christi 555. for want of three Bishops to ordaine him ; was ordained Pope , by John Bishop of Perusia and Bonus Bishop of Florence , and Andreas Presbyter de Hostia , and Andrew Elder or Minister of Hostia , which Luitprandius de Vitis Pontificum p. 84. and Albo Floriacensis in his life , p. 140. likewise testifie : Loe here a Presbyter or ordinary Minister ordaining not onely another Elder , but a Bishop , yea a Pope ; and supplying the place of a Bishop ‡ the generall Councell of Nice . Can. 4. the first Councell of Arelat . Can. 21. the second Councell of Carthage , Can. 12. the third Councell of Carthage , Can. ●9 . the Councell of Aphricke , Can. 16. the Councell of Rhegium , An. 472 , the Councell of Arausica , Can. 21. the Councell of Chalcedon , Act. 13. p. 187. with sundry Popes Decrees , ordaining , that no man shall be consecrated a Bishop , but by three Bishops at least and that a consecration made onely by two Bishops shall be voyd ; and so this Pope no lawfully ordained Pope , rules this Presbyter supplyed the place of a Bishop , in his consecration and his Ordination good and valid by the Law of God , though invalid and a meere nullity by the Canons * An. 1390. about Wicklifs time there arose in England certaine bold Clerkes , who affirmed ; that it was lawfull for them to make new Presbyters and Clerkes , and conferre orders . , like Bishops : teaching likewise , that they were endued with the same power in Ecclesiasticall affaires as Bishops were , whereupon they layd hands on many , and ordained divers Ministers : who affirmed likewise , that they had equall and the selfesame Ecclesiasticall power with Bishops : which was the constant Doctrine of Wicklife and the Waldensis which Doctrine of theirs was true , but their practise discommended , yet the Ministers thus ordained by them , their ordination held lawfull by Gods Law ; yea and their ordination of others in those times in darknesse and persecution , when no Wickilvists , Lollards or other orthodox professors of the Gospel could be admitted into orders by the Bishops of that age , unlesse they would subscribe to their Popish assertions , as some of our Prelates now will admit none to receive orders , unlesse they will first , subscribe to such private positions and Ceremonies , as are directly contrary to the established Doctrine , and discipline of the Church of England ; by meanes whereof many godly men are kept from the Ministery . And though m Chrysostome , Primasius , Theodoret , Ambrose , Rabanus Maurus , Oecumenius , Theophilact , Haymo , with some others , interpret that of the 1. Tim. 4. 14. By the Laying on of the hands of che Presbytery ; to be meant either of Paul himselfe , or of the Senate of the Apostles , or of such who had Apostolicall authority , or of Bishops , and not of the bare Presbyters ; because ( say they ) Presbyters , ( to wit according to the practise of their , though not of former times ) could not ordaine a Bishop , but onely Apostles , or Bishops ; yet none of them so much as once asffirme , that they cannot by the Law of God ordaine Deacons & ordinary Ministers ; or that they ought by Gods Law and divine institution to be ordained onely by Bishops : yea n Theophilact on that text writes thus : Behold a wonderfull thing , See how much the imposition SACERDOTALIVM MANVVM , of Sacerdotall or Preists hands can doe ; A cleare demonstration , that Preists as well as Bishops , and Bishops onely as they are Preists not Bishops , have power of laying on hands . And o Theodoret , thus glosseth the text , here hee cals those the Presbytery who had attained Apostolicall grace ; For , saith hee , divine Scripture hath called those who were honored in Israell , Elders . The Fathers therefore confessing , that Presbyters and Elders might and did in some cases and places ordaine , and consecrate Ministers without the Bishop , and likewise joyne with the Bishop , ( in all places ) in the imposition of hands ; grant that the right of ordination and imposing hands , belongeth to them by the word of God , as well as to Bishops ; the rather , because this is the constant doctrine of the p Fathers , that Bishops and Presbyters , by Gods Law and institution , are both one and the same , and so continued till long after the Apostles times ; Therefore their power of ordination , the same with theirs . Neither doe the Papists dissent from this : q Aquinas writes ; That the imposition of hands belongs onely to those who are the Ministers of Christ : which was double , one which was made by Deacons , the other by Ministers ; and because hee adds not the third by Bishops ; hee plainly intimates , that the ordination made by Ministers and Bishops , is one and the same , and that Bishops ordaine onely as Bishops , not as Ministers . r Ca●etan on that text saith , That Paul relates , that the imposition of hands S ACERDOTALIS OFFICII , is a part of the Sacerdotall or Preists office , ( not the Bishops ) and Faber in 1. Tim. 4. 14. writes , that Presbyters did use to lay their hands on the heads of those who were to be ordained , purged , or made compleate Ministers , powring forth holy prayers . I know indeed that s Aquinas and other Schoolemen hold , that it belongs onely to Bishops to conferre holy orders ; yet hee and * Durandus grant , that this is not by vertue of any divine right , orinstitution , but onely by humane Constitutions and Canons , by reason of the more excellent power and Jurisdiction that the Bishop hath over and above Ministers , and for order sake ; yea they both affirme ; that Presbyters doe , and ought to joyne with the Bishop in the imposition of hands in the ordination of Ministers . The Rhemists in their annotations on the 1. Tim. 4. 14. confesse ; that when a Preist is ordained , the rest of the Preists and Elders present , doe together with the Bishop , even at this day among them , ( and have anciently used heretofore ) to lay hands on those that are to be ordained ; citing the fourth Councell of Carthage : Can. 3. for proofe thereof . And the u Canonists , with some x Schoolemen , grant , that Preists and Ministers by the Popes dispensation and License , may without a Bishops concurrents , ordaine Deacons and Ministers ; but a meere Layman , or one that is no Minister , cannot doe it . A cleare proofe , that the imposition of hands appertained to Presbyters as well as Bishops , and that the power of ordination rests more in the Ministers person , then in the Popes grant or License ; else why might not a Lay man as well as a Minister , grant Orders by vertue of the Popes License , or why should Ministers joyne with Bishops in the imposition of hands ? But to passe from these to the reformed Churches beyond the Seas . We know that most of them have no Bishops ; that all their Ministers and Deacons are ordained by the Common election of the people and Magistrates , and imposition of the Senate or Colledge of Ministers hands ; yet none of our Prelates have beene so impudently shamelesse , as to deny their ordination and Ministers to be lawfull , or their practise to be dissonant from the Scriptures , or them to be true Churches . What their writers have determined concerning the power of ordination , incident to Ministers as well as Bishops , and to Bishops onely as Ministers , and servants to the Church , not Lords , these ensuing passages will declare : y Ioannes Lukawitz in his Confession of the ●aborites against Rokenzana , c. 13. of the Sacrament of order , writes thus : They confesse , that the conferring of Orders onely by Bishops , and that they have more effectuall authority of his nature then other Ministers , is not from any faith or authority of the Scriptures , Sed ex consuetudine habetur Ecclesiae , but from the Custome of the Church . This being the constant doctrine of the z Waldenses and Toborites , that the power of giving orders , and imposing handes , belonged to Presbyters as well as Bishops ; and that Bishops and Ministers by Gods Law where both one ; and no Bishop greater then any Presbyter in honor , or Iurisdiction . a Melanchton writes , That if Bishops and Ordinaries are enemies of the Church , or will not give orders , yet the Churches retaine their right ; For wheresoever there is a Church , there is a right of administring the Gospell ; wherefore there is a necessity that the Church should retaine the right of calling , electing and ordaining Ministers . And this right is a guift given to the Church , which no humane authority can take from the Church ; as Paul witnesseth in the fourth of the Ephesians , where hee saith , When hee ascended upon High , hee gave guifts unto men ; and hee reckons Doctors and Pastors among the proper guifts of the Church , and adds , that such are given for the Worke of the Ministery , for the edifying of the body of Christ , where therefore there is a true Church , there must needs be a right of Electing and ordaining Ministers . One thing hath made a difference of Bishops and Pastors , to wit , ordination , because it is instituted that one Bishop might ordaine in many Churches ; but seeing that by Gods Law there are not divers degrees of a Bishop and Pastor , it is evident , that an ordination made by a Pastorin his Church , is ratified by Gods Law. Marsilius Patavinus in his Defensoris Pacis , pars 2. 〈◊〉 . 15. 17. affirmes : that the power of ordaining Ministers belongs not to Preists and Bishops , but to the Magistrates and people , where hee is to be a Minister . That every Preist by divine authority , may conferre all Sacraments , and give orders , as well as any Bishop : and that every Preists hath power to ordaine and promote any beleever that is willing to the Preisthood , hee preparing him Ministerially , but God simply and immediately impressing the Sacerdotall power or character ; the originall property of ordaining Ministers being onely in Christ , the head of the Church . ‡ Hyperius thus seconds him : The imposition of hands in the election of a Bishop , or Deacon to approove the person to the multitude or people , was made by THE ELDERS , in whom this authority rested , whence it is here added , with the laying on of hands by the authority of the Preisthood , or as it is more significantly and plainely expressed in the Greeke , with the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery , which signifieth the whole Congregation of Elders . And they agreed , that hee who was elected by the Consent of many , should be commended and approoved as a fitt person , by this externall signe . Which is thus backed by * Hemingius . The imposition of the hands of the Presbytery , is the right of ordination , which the SENATE ( or Eldership ) of the Church , or other Ministers of the Gospell did administer . † Pezelius thus jumpes in Iudgement with them : Heretofore the authority of ordination was granted to Bishops at least by a humane institution , yet so that the suffrages of the Church might not be excluded from the Election of Ministers , and that the other Presbyters should be present at the examination , and lay their hands together on him , that was to be ordained : For so Gratian Can. Presbyter . Distinct. 23. when a Presbyter is ordained , the Bishop blessing him , and holding his hand upon his head , all the Presbyters likewese that are present , shall hold their hands upon his head close to the Bishops hands : which tended to this purpose , that the Presbyters , likewise might retaine the right , of conscerating , or ordaining to themselves , and that so they might manifest , that what ever the Bishop should doe , that hee did it not in his owne name alone , but in the name of all . † Musculu● Harpes on the same string thus . It must plainely be confessed , that the Ministers of Christ heretofore were elected , the people being present and consenting , and they were ordained and confirmed OF THE ELDERS , by the laying on of hands . This forme of electing Ministers is Apostolicall and lawfull ; which hee there prooves at large : The Noble * Mornay , Lord of Tlessis , sings the same tune in these wordes : These things being thus prooved , we adde , that the right of laying on of hands , and ordaining Ministers , is in the power of the Presbyters . And this verily concerning the Apostles dayes is more apparent , then that it can be so much as doubted of : For saith Paul to Timothy , Neglect not the gift that is in thee by the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery , that is , of the Presbyters or Elders . Moreover Timothy himselfe ordained Elders , and since a Bishop and a Presbyter are names of one and the same function ; if the Bishops challenge this right to themselves from the Scriptures , the Presbyters also may doe the same : but if they deny it to Presbyters , in this very thing they a●rogate this right to themselves , And verily this was a good forme of argument in the Church in Ancient times . ‡ Hee can baptise , hee can consecrate and administer the Sacrament of the Lords body , ( which are the greater an more honourable Actions , because Sacraments of undoubted truth , of Highest note and use , ) Therefore hee may lay on hands . ( which is lesse ; ) Now in ordaining Elders , the Bishop laying his hands on the head of those that were to be ordained , the rest of the Elders likewise did lay on their hands , as appeares out of many places of the Decrees . The † Centurie writers informe us , That in the Apostles time , the Apostles did not assume to themselves the power of electing and ordaining Elders and Deacons , but they had the suffrage and consent of the whole Church ; and that they , and the other Ministers of the Church with them , did ordaine and lay hands on them ; which they proove by Acts. 6. and 13. and 14. and 19. and 1. Tim. 4. 14. And in the 2. and third Century following , c. 6. they affirme , that Bishops and Ministers were thus elected and ordained , the Elders as well as the Bishops laying their hands on them . The * Confession of Saxonie c. 12. resolves expresly ; that it belongs to the Ministers of the word to ordaine Ministers lawfully elected and called . The † Synod of Petrocomia , Artic. 6. ( in Poland ) decreed : That no Patron should receive or admit any Minister to teach in his Church , unlesse hee were lawfully ordained and sent by the Superintendents , and the Elders , and had a good and certaine testimoniall from them ; and the Synod of Wlodislania Artic. 8. and 12. determines thus : The ordination and mission of Ministers into certaine places to worke in the Lords vineyard , is committed to the Superintendents , and to the Ministers and Elders their Colleagues ; ( not to Bishops : ) Georgius Major in his Enar , in Philip. 1. 1. writes thus : That there is no difference betweene a Bishop and a Presbyter , Paul witnesseth in the 1. Tim. 4. 14. where hee saith : Neglect not the grace that is in thee &c. by the laying on the hands of the Presbytery ; that is , of the Order or Colleadge of the Presbyters , by which it is shewed , that Timothy was called and ordained to his Episcopall function by the Presbyters . Therefore at that time PRESBYTERS HAD THE RIGHT OF ORDINATION , as well as Bishops , neither was there any difference betweene them . To these I might adde , Master John Calvin , Piscator , Marlorat , and most other Protestant Commentators on the 1. Tim. 4. 14. Zanchius Destatu peccati & Legal . in quartum Praeceptum , Chemnitius Loc. Com. pars 3. De Eccles . c. 4. and Examen Concilij Tridentini pars 2. De Sacram. Ordinis , pag. 224. 225. &c. ( where hee prooves at large , ) that the election and vocation of Ministers belongs to the whole Church , to the people as well as the Clergy ; that the imposition of hands belongs to Presbyters as well as Bishops . Wherefore the Apostle s●ith , 1. Tim. 4. 14. that Timothy had a grace and a guift by the imposition of hands , neither saith hee onely of my hands , but hee addes also of the Presbytery , that there should be thought no difference , whether any one were ordained either by the Apostles , or by the Elders . ) A●tonius Sadeel , Respons . ad Repetita Turriani Sophism . pars 2. Locus 12. Beza de diversis Ministrorum Gradibus . Iunius Contr. 5. l. c. 3. n. 3. Chamierus Paustratia Cathol . Tom. 2. de Oecum . Pontif. c. 6. with sundry ‡ other writers of the reformed Churches , who averre and proove against the Papists , and Iesuites ; that the power of election and ordination of Ministers by the word of God , belonges to the whole Church and Congregation , and the imposition of hands to Ministers , Elders , and Presbyters as well as to Bishops , and to Bishops onely , as they are Ministers . But hee that hath handeled and prooved this most largely and fully of all others , is Gersonius Bucerus de Gubernatione Ecclesiae ( being an answer to Bishop Downhams Sermon of Bishops ) p. 261. 262. 283. 287. 292. 294. 299. 310. 318. to 367. 464. 465. 493. 498. 499. 524. 618. where this point is so learnedly and substantially prooved by Scripture , reason , and Authors of all sorts , that none , which read these passages of his , can ever hereafter call this into question more . Having runne thus long abroade , I now in the last place returne to our owne Church and writers . The Booke of ordination of Ministers , ratified by two severall Acts of Parliament , namely 3. Ed. 6. c. 12. and 8. Eliz. c. 1. and subscribed to by all our Prelates and Ministers , † by vertue of the 36. Canon as containing nothing in it contrary to the word of God , expresly orders , that when Ministers are ordained ; ALL THE MINISTERS PRESENT AT THE ORDINATION SHALL LAY THEIR HANDS TOGETHER WITH THE BISHOP ON THOSE THAT ARE TO BE ORDAINED : And the 35. Can. made in Convocation by the Bishops and Clergy An. 1603. prescribes , that the Bishop before hee admit any person to holy Orders , shall diligently examine him in the presence of those Ministers that shall ASSIST HIM AT THE IMPOSITION OF HANDS . And if the said Bishop have any lawfull impediment , hee shall cause the sayd Ministers carefully to examine every such person so to be ordered . Provided that they who shall assist the Bishop in examining AND LAYING ON OF HANDS , shall be of his Cathedrall Church , if they may be conveniently had , or other sufficient preachers of the same Diocesse , to the number of three at the least . And according to this Booke of Ordination and Canon , when ever any Ministers are ordained , all the Ministers there present joyne with and assist the Bishop in layng on of hands , on every one that is ordained . So that both by the established Doctrine and practise of the Church of England , the power of laying on hands , and right of ordination , is common to every of our Ministers , as well as to our Bishops ; who as they cannot ordaine or lay hands on any without the Bishop , so the Bishop can ordaine or lay hands on no Ministers without them ; so that the power and right of ordination rests equally in them both . With what face or shadowe then of truth our Prelates now can or dare to Monopolize this priviledge to themselves alone , against this Booke of Ordination , their owne Canons , subscriptions , yea their owne and their Predecessors common practise to the contrary ( which perchance their overgreat imployments in temporall businesses & secular state affaires , have caused them wholly to forgett , at least not to consider : ) let the indifferent judge . But to passe from them to some of our learned writers : Alcuvinus De Divinis Officiis c. 37. writes ; that Bishops , Presbyters , and Deacons were anciently , and in his time too , * elected by the Clergy and people , and that they were present at their Ordination and consenting to it . That the Bishops consecration in his dayes used in the Church of Rome , wherein two Bishops held the Gospell or New Testament over the head of the Bishop consecrated , and a third uttered the blessing , after which the other Bishops present layde their hands on his head , was but a Novelty , not found in the old or new Testament , nor in the Roman tradition . And then he● prooves out of Hieroms Epistle to Evagrius , and his Commentary on the first to Titus , that the ancient consecration of Bishops , was nothing else but their election and inthronization by the Elders , who chose out one of their company for a Bishop , and placed him in a higher seat then the rest , and called him a Bishop , without further Ceremony ; just as an Army makes a Generall , or as if the Deacons should choose one from among them and call him an Archdeacon , having no other consecration but such as the other Deacons had , being advaunced above others onely by the Election of his fellow-brethren , without other solemnity . By which it is plaine , that in the primitive Church , Presbyters did not onely ordaine Presbyters and Deacons , before there were any Bishops elected and instituted ; but likewise , that after Bishops were instituted , they ordained and consecrated Bishops ( as well as Elders and Deacons , ) and that the sole ordination and consecration of Bishops in the Primitive and purest times , was nothing but the Presbyters bare election and inthronization of them without more solemnity ; So that the other Rites and Ceremonies now used , are but Novelties . Anselme Archbishop of Canterbury on the 1. Tim. 4. 14. expounds these words , with the laying on of hands of the Presbytery in this maner , Hee cals that the laying on of hands which was made in his ordination ; which imposition of hands was in the Presbytery , because that by this imposition of hands , hee received an Eldership , that is , a Bishopricke . For a Bishop is oftentimes called a Presbyter by the Apostle , and a Presbyter a Bishop . ( which in his Commentary on the third Chapter , on Phil. 1. 1. Tit. 1. 5. 7. hee prooves to be but one and the same in the Apostles time and in the Primitive Church . ) So that by his resolution the imposition of hands and power of ordaining Elders and Bishops , belongs to Presbyters as well as to Bishops . Our English Apostle m John Wickliffe , and his Coaetanean n Richard Fitzralphe , otherwise called Richardus Armachanus Arch-bishop and Primate of Ardmagh in Ireland ; if we beleeve either their owne writings , or o Thomas Walden , who recites their opinions , arguments , and takes a great deale of paines ( though in vaine ) to refute them : affirmed and taught : First , that in the defect of Bishops , any one that was but a meere Preist , was sufficient to administer any Sacrament or Sacramentals whatsoever either found in Scripture , or added since . Secondly , That one who was but a meere Preist might ordaine another , and that hee , who was ordained onely by a simple Preist , ought not to doubt of his Presbytership , or to be ordained againe , so as hee rightly performed his clericall office , because the ordination comes from God , who supplies all defects . Thirdly , That meere Preists may ordaine Preists , Deacons and Bishops too ; even as the inferior Preists among the Jewes did ordaine and consecrate the High Preist , as Bishops consecrate Archbishops , and the Cardinals the Pope . Fourthly , That the power of order is equall , and the same in Bishops and Preists , and that by their very ordination they have power given them by Christ to administer all Sacraments alike ; therefore to conferre orders and confirme children , which is the lesse , as well as to baptise , administer the Sacrament of the Lords Supper and preach the Gospell , which is the greater . Fiftly , That Christ sitting in heaven hath given the power of consecrating and ordaining Preists and Deacons , of Confirmation , and all other things , which Bishops now challenge to themselves , to just Presbyters ; and that these things were but of late times , even above 300. yeares after Christ , reserved and appropriated to Bishops onely by their owne Canons and Constitutions , to increase their Caesarian Pompe and pride . And * Waldensis himselfe ( who undertakes to refute these propositions ) saith expresly : That no man hitherto ●ath denied , that God in an urgent case of necessity gave the power of ordination to any one that is but a meere Preist , to wit , in the want or defect of Bishops . All the Archbishops , Bishops , Archdeacons and Clergy of England in their Booke , intituled The institution of a Christian man , subscribed with all their hands , and dedicated to King Henry the 8. An. 1537. Chapter of Orders , and King Henry the 8. himselfe in his Booke stiled , A necessary ●rudition for any Christian man , set out by authority of the Statute , of 32. H. 8. c. 26. approoved by the Lords Spirituall and Temporall , and Netherhowse of Parliament , prefaced with the Kings owne Royall Epistle , and published by his speciall commaund in the yeare 1543. in the chapter of Orders ; expresly resolve , that ●reists and Bishops by Gods Law are one and the same , and that the power of ordination and excommunication belongs equally to them both . Learned Martin Bucer in his Booke of recalling and bringing into use againe the lawfull ordination of Ministers , and of the office of Pastors , in his Scripta Anglicana , written here in England , p. 254. 255. 259. 291. 292. 293. and on Math. 16. layes downe these Conclusions . First , That the power of ordination rests principally and originally in Christ himselfe Prince of Pastors . Secondly , That this power is secondarily and derivately in the whole Church , whose consent is requisite in the election and ordination of Ministers . Thirdly , That the actuall power of Ordination and imposition of hands belongs as well to Presbyters as to Bishops , that they ought to joyne with the Bishop in the laying on hands ; and that Timothy was ordained by the Presbyters . Fourthly , That Bishops and Ministers have the power of imposition of hands in them onely instrumentally not originally as servants to the whole Congregation . Fif●ly ; That the examination and ordination of Ministers ought to be made publikely in the Church where they are elected to be Ministers , before all the Congregation , All which he prooves by sundry Scriptures and Histories . Peter Martyr his coaetaman , ( Regius professor in the ●niversity of Oxford , in the dayes of King Edward the 6. ) in his Commentary upon the 2. Kings . 2. 23. and in his Common places , printed at London , Cum Privilegio , An. 1576. Class . 4. Loc. 1. Sect. 23. p. 849. writes thus : The Papists cannot object grievous sinnes against the Ministers of the Gospell , but they oppose onely some slight , that I say not ridiculous thinge : they say that our Pastors have no imposition of hands , and thence they indeavour to conclude , that they are not to be reputed just Governours of the Church ; and that the Congregations which are taught and governed by them , are no true Churches , but Conven●●cles of rev●lters . And this they say , as if the imposition of hands were so necessary , that without it there can be no ministry in the Church ; when notwithstanding Moses consecrated Aaron his Brother and his Children , offering divers kindes of Sacrifices , on which no man formerly had layd on hands . Lik●w●se Iohn the Baptist brought in a new right of Baptisme , and administred it to the Iewes , when as yet no hands had beene layd upon him , and hee himselfe had beene baptised of no man. Paul also called by Christ in his journey , did not presently goe to the Apostles that they might lay hands upon him , but hee taught in Arabia for 3. yeares space , and ministred to the Churches , before that hee went up to the Apostles his Antecessors , as himselfe witnesseth in his Epistle to the Galathians . We reject not the imposition of hands , but retaine it in many Churches ; which if we receive not from their Bishops , we are not to be blamed for it , for they would not conf●rre it on us , unlesse wee would depart from sound Doctrine , and likewise bind our selves by O●th to the Roman Antichrist . In which words hee resolves : First , That the imposition of hands is no such essentiall part of a Ministers ordination , but that it may be omitted ; and that those who are elected and lawfully called to the Ministery by the suffrage of the whole Church and people , are Ministers lawfully called and ordained without this Ceremony . Secondly , That the imposition of hands belongs to Ministers , as well as Bishops ; and that those who are ordained Ministers in the reformed Churches , where they have no Bishops , onely by the laying on of hands of other Ministers , are lawfully ordained . Thirdly , That this position , that the power of ordination belongs onely to Bishops , that those are no true Ministers who are ordained without a Bishop , is but a vaine ridiculous Popish Cavill . Our Prelates therefore should be ashamed to ground both their owne , and Titus his Episcopall Hierarchie upon it : Learned * Doctor Whitaker , writing against Bellarmine , saith ; that this text of the 1. Tim. 4. 14. makes very much against the adversaries ; For from this place wee understand , that Tim●thy , receiveth imposition of hands from the Elders , who at that time governed the Church by a common Councell ; and against † Duraeus , hee argues thus ; Luther , Zwinglius , Oecolampadius , Bucer and others were Presbyters ; and Presbyters by Gods Law are the same with Bishops ; therefore they might lawfully ordaine other Pres●yters ; Doctor Fulke in his Confutation of the Rhem●sh Testament : Annot. on Tit. 1. Sect. 2. and Doctor Willet in his Synopsis Papismi , the 5. generall Controversie quaest . 3. part . 2. write thus , Although in the Scripture a Bishop and an Elder is of one order and authority in preaching the word , &c. yet in government by ancient use of speech , hee is onely called a Bishop , which is in the Scripture called cheife in governement , to whom the ordination or consecration by imposition of hands was allwayes principally committed . Not that imposition of hands belongeth onely to him , for the rest of the Elders that were present at ordination did lay on their hands , or else the Bishop did lay on his hands in the name of the rest . We differ from the Papists in this ; They affirme ; that not principally and cheifly , but solely and wholly the right of consecrating and giving Orders appertaineth unto Bishops . But concerning the power of giving Orders we say ; that though it were cheifly in the Apostles , yet the Pastors and Elders together with them layd on their hands , Acts. 13. 3. 4. and as S. Paul speaketh of his laying on of hands , 2. Tim. 1. 6. so hee maketh mention of imposition of hands by the Eldership , 1. Tim. 4. 14. And the Rhemists on that place mislike not the practise of their Church , that their Preists doe lay on their hands together with the Bishop upon his head that is to be ordained . What else doth this signifie , but that they have some interest in ordaining together with the Bishop ? The 4. Councell of Carthage Can. 3. Decrees thus : Let all the Preists that are present , hold their hands next to the Bishops hand , upon the head of him that is to be ordained . Againe Can. 14. of the same Councell : The Bishop must not give orders , but in the presence and assembly of the Clergy . By this then it is manifest , that imposition of hands doth not wholly and soly belong to the Bishops , seeing the rest of the Elders were wont to lay on their hands likewise , or the Bishop in the name of the rest . So that the Elders were not excluded . Doctor Feild in his 5. Booke of the Church , c. 27. is of the same opinion ; where hee prooves out of Durandus and other Papists , that the power of consecration and order is not greater in Bishops then in any other Ministers ; that the power of ordination was reserved to Bishops , not by any divine , but humane Constitutions onely , rather for to honor the Bishops preistly place , then for that it might not be done by any other , and for the avoyding of confusion and schisme in the Church : Concluding , that in cases of necessity ; as when Bishops are extinguished by death ; or fallen into haeresie , or obstinately refuse to ordaine men to preach the Word and Gospell of Christ sincerely , and the like , then Ministers onely may ordaine other Ministers , without any Bishops assistance . And Master Cartwright in his Confutation of the Rhem●sh Testament , on the 1. Tim. 1. 14. Sect. 18. and on Tit. 1. Sect. 2. pr●oves , both by the Rhemists owne practise and Confession , by the 4. Councell of Carthage , cited by them , and the History of Eradius his ordination , who succeeded Augustine , to which sixe Elders , as well as two Bishops were called , and by the text of Timothy itselfe , that the imposition of hands belongs to Elders as well as Bishops , which hee manifests to be one and the same by divine institution . Finally , acute and learned Doctor Ames in his Bellarminus Enervatus Tom. 2. l. 3. c. 2. of the vocation and ordination of Ministers , Sect. 4. &c. De Ordinatione , Concludes thus against Bellarmine , who affirmes , that the ordination , vocation , and election of Bishops and other Ministers of the Church belongeth onely to Bishops . First , That it cannot belong Iure Divino to Popish Bishops , superior to Presbyters in degree , because they themselves are onely , vel juris , vel injuriae humanae , of humane right , or rather injurie , not of divine institution . Secondly , That the very act of ordination belongs to divine Bishops , that is , to Presbyters , in a Church well ordered . Thirdly , That as to the right force and vertue which it hath in constituting the Minister of the Church , it alwayes appertaines to the whole Church ; as the celebration of Matrimony receives all its force and vertue from the consent of the parties married . Fourthly , That in corrupted and collapsed State of the Church , the Ministery and Order failing ; the very act of ordination , so farre forth as it is necessary to the constitution of a Minister , may in such a case be lawfully executed by the people . Fiftly , That the Act of ordination is attributed to Presbyters , 1. Tim. 4. 14. And that the Apostles themselves did not ordaine ordinary Ministers ▪ but by the concurrence and consent of the people , Acts. 14. 23. Sixtly , That in the primitive Church , which was governed by the common Counsell of the Presbyters , before there were any Bishops , the very first Bishops were not ordained by Bishops , which then were not , but by Ministers . Seaventhly , That all the Councels , Degrees and Testimonies of Fathers objected to the contrary ; proove nothing else , but that the Act and Right of Ordination partly by Custome , and partly by humane Decrees , was given to the cheife Presbyter or Bishop after the Apostles time , not belonging to them by any divine right . Eightly , That the imposition of hands is not absolutely necessary to the essence of a Pastor , no more then a Coronation to the essence of a King , or the celebration of a mariage , to the essence of a mariage . Ninthly , That the power of Ordination , according to the Schoolemen and Canonists , is not an Act of Iurisdiction , but of simple office , which Presbyters may performe without any Commaund or Iurisdiction . Tenthly , That the Papists themselves teach , that baptisme conferred by any Christian , though a lay man or woman ; is good by reason of the necessity of it , that a simple Presbyter by the common consent of the Popish Doctors , may administer the Sacrament of Confirmation , or conferre any of the greater Orders , and that all the Pontificians teach with unanimous consent , that a Bishop once consecrated , although hee be a Simoniack , Heretick , excommunicate person or the like , may yet firmely ordaine others . Therefore a fortiori Godly Presbyters , or the people and Church of Christ , may lawfully conferre orders without the helpe or concurrence of a Bishop . Which authority of his ought not to be slighted as Schismaticall or Erronious , it being consonant to the Doctrine both of our owne and other Protestant writers , Churches ; and this booke of his printed by Authority , in the university of Oxford , no longer since , then Anno 1629. It is evident then by this whole cloud of witnesses ( to omit others ) that the power and right of ordination and imposition of hands , ( which sayth * Gratian , is nothing else but a prayer over a man ; and as ‡ Aquinas writes , signifieth onely the conferring of grace , which is given by Christ ; and not that Ministers , ( not Bishops , who are here but Ministers ) give this grace , ; and so as proper for Ministers as Bishops both by divine and humane right and practise ) belongs to Presbyters and ordinary Ministers as well as Bishops ; therefore Bishops cannot be paramount Presbyters and ordinary Ministers in order and Iurisdiction , in this regard ; neither will this power of ordination proove Timothy or Titus Bishops , as they now vainely surmise . Hence therefore I retort the objection in this maner against the opposites . That power or authority which is common by divine right and institution to Ministers and Presbyters as well as Bishops , can neither proove Timothy or Titus to be Bishops , or Bishops to be superior to Presbyters or Ministers in Jurisdiction , order , dignity or degree , Iure divino or humano . But the power of authority of ordaining Presbyters , Ministers , and Deacons , is such ; as the premises undeniably evidence . Therefore it can neither proove Timothy or Titus to be Bishops , nor Bishops to be superior to Presbyters , or Ministers in Iurisdiction , order , dignity or degree , Iure divino or humano . Sixtly , S. Paul , in the 1. Tim. 3. and Titus 1. 6. &c. makes a particular enumeration and recitall both of the qualifications , and offices of a Bishop ; But among all these , hee speakes not a word concerning the power of act of ordination ; neither doth hee make it a part of a Bishops qualification or duty to be apt and able discreetly to conferre orders , as hee doth particularly require , hee * should be apt to teach : How therefore this should be a cheife property , or principall quality of a Bishop , I cannot yet conjecture , since the Scripture makes it none , but rather a property , an act of the Presbytery , 1. Tim. 4. 14. Acts. 13. 3. 4. I shall desire Bishops therefore , to produce some divine Charter or other for this pretended Monopoli●e of ordination , which they would ingrosse unto themselves alone ( perchance to make the more advantage by it , it ‡ being a sweet and pleasant gaine as some handle it now , ) before they lay any further Title thereunto , even as they are Diocaesan Bishops . Seaventhly , I must informe our Bishops for their learning , that An. 31. H. 8. in the Patent Rolls part . 4. King Henry the 8. granted a Patent to all the Archbishops , and Bishops of England , to endble them to consecrate Churches , Chapples , and Churchyards , by vertue of his speciall Patents and Commissions under his great Seale first obtained ; without which they could not doe it , and that all the Bishops in King Edward the 6. time , had speciall clauses in their Letters Patents , authorizing them to ordaine and constitute Ministers and Deacons , as Bishop Ponets , Bishop Scoryes , Bishop Coverdales , Patents 5. Edw. 6. pars 1. & 2. with others in his Raigne , testifie at large . Neither doe or can our Archbishops or Bps ▪ at this day consecrate any Bishop or Arch-bishop , unlesse they have the Kings owne * Letters Patents , authorizing and commaunding them to doe it , as the Patents directed to them uponevery Bishops consecration and experience witnesse . It seemes therefore that their power to consecrate Churches , Chapples , Churchyards , Ministers , and Bishops , belongs not to them as they are Bishops , and that it is meerly humane not divine , since they claime and execute it onely by vertue of the Kings Letters Patents ; therefore it cannot advance them above Pres byters , by any divine right . Eightly , All accord , that in cases of necessity , when or where Bishops are wanting , or when there are none but Simontacall or Hereticall Bishops , who refuse to ordaine such as are Orthodoxe , or will not subscribe to their heresies , there Presbyters and ordinary Ministers may lawfully conferre orders , confirme , and doe other Acts , which Bishops usually ingrosse to themselves ; so Ambrose , Augustine , Richardus Armachanus , Wicliffe , Thomas Waldensis , Feild , Ames , with others in their forequoted places , and generally all divines resolve without dispute . Yea that learned Morney Lord of Plessis , in his Booke De Ecclesia . c. 11. * Amesius , with sundry others affirme , that the people alone in case of necessity where there are no Bishops nor Ministers , may lawfully elect and ordaine Ministers , as well as baptise and preach ( both which ‡ Papists , and * Protestants affirme , that Laymen may lawfully doe in cases of necessity ) the right of ordination and election of Ministers being originally in the whole Church and people , Ministerially onely in Bishops and Ministers as servants to the Congregation , and the imposition of hands no essentiall , but a ceremoniall part of ordination , which may be sufficiently made without it , as Angelus de Clavasio , Peter Martyr , and others , both Papists and Protestants , affirme . But when Paul left Titus in Crete , ‡ to set in order the things that were wanting , and to ordaine Elders in every City , there where present no other Bishops or Elders to ordaine Ministers , ( as is likely ) but Titus onely ; for we read of none else but Titus then in Cree●e , ( which was then but newly converted to the faith ; ) and hee is enjoyned , to ordaine Elders in every City ; which prooves there were none there before , for what need then of any , yea of many others to be newly ordained , and that in every City ? Titus his example of ordination therefore in this exigent and necessity in a Church then newly planted , is no argument to proove him a Diocaesan Bishop ; since other ordinary Ministers might ordaine in such a case , as all acknowledge , yea and the people too , without either Minister or Bishop to assist them . Ninthly , I answer , that it is most evident , that Titus did not ordaine Elders in every City , by vertue of any Episcopall inherent Iurisdiction of his owne , but as Paules Substitute , who appointed him to doe it , and prescribed him what maner of persons hee should ordaine : Tit. 1. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. This therefore cannot proove Titus to be a Bishop ; or that the sole right of ordination is appropriated unto Bishops , as Bishops , but rather the contrary . Lastly , Admit , that the power of ordaining Pres byters belonged only to Bishops Iure Divino ; yet is no good consequent ; Ergo , they are superior to Presbyters in order and degree Iure Divino ; since the conferring of orders , ( an * act of service , of Ministry onely , not of Authority , and no more then an externall complement or Ceremony ) is farre ‡ inferior to the authority of preaching , baptising , consecrating , and administring the Sacrament , which every Minister may doe as well as a Bishop . The Bishops and Ministers in the primitive Church had * many of them the gift of tongues , of prophecy , of healing and working miracles , which some Bishops , then and all now want ; yet these extraordinary endowments made them not superior in Iurisdiction , order , or degree to those Bishops who then wanted those gifts , or to ours now , who take farre more state upon them , then those Bishops did . d Many Bishops there are and have beene that could not , at least would not preach , though Bellarmine himselfe , yea the * Councell of Trent , and f all men acknowledge , that it is the cheifest , and most honourable part of their Episcopall function , as making them Christs Ambassadors : Are they then inferior in order , dignity , power , and degree to Bishops , yea to Ministers , Vicars , and poore Curates who are both able and willing to preach ? That which makes any man superior in order Iurisdiction , or dignity to his equall , must be an authority superior to that which his equall hath , not the accession of any inferior dignity or power . The making of an Earle , a Knight , or Country-Iustice , addes nothing to his former honour in point of superiority or precedency . If a Bishop be presented to an ordinary benefice , prebendary or Deanery , ( as * some are and have beene by way of Commendam . ) it accumulates nought to his Episcopall authority being inferior to the power of the Keyes , preaching and administring the Sacraments , which every enjoyes Iure divino , as absolutely as any Archbishop or Bishop , can no wayes advaunce Bishops in Iurisdiction or degree above Pres byters and ordinary Ministers , no more then the Bishop of Durham his being a † Count Palatine , with his large temporall jurisdiction , farre exceeding that of all our Archbishops and Bishops , advaunceth him in order or degree above them all . So that this grand objection to proove Titus a Bishop ; yea a Bishop superior in Jurisdiction , order , and degree to Ministers ; is both false and idle . Obj. 4. If any object , that it is a received maxime in the Schooles , ‡ that hee which ordaines is greater then hee who is ordained ; and that the Apostle saith , that the lesser is blessed of the greater : Therefore Titus , and so likewise Bishops , who ordaine Ministers in point of Jurisdiction , order , dignity and degree . Answ . 1. I answer ; First , that this objection takes that for granted which I formerly refuted and evidenced to be a falsehood ; to wit , that the power of ordination belongs onely to Bishops , not to Presbyters ; and so is build on a false sandy foundation . Secondly , I answer ; that this proposition , hee that ordaineth or consecrateth Ministers is greater in Iurisdiction , power , order , or degree , then the parties consecrated and ordained ; is a notorious dotage and untruth , broached at first by * Epiphanius , to confute Aërius his orthodox opinion , of the parity of Bishops and Presbyters ; and since that taken up at second hand by ‡ Bellarmine , and other Iesuites , the * Councell of Trent , ‡ Bishop Downham , with other Patriots of the Popes and Prelates Monarchy ; and last of all ( like Coleworts twice sodde ) usurped by all our Prelates in their high Commission at Lambeth in their Censure of Doctor Bastwicke , who laid the whole weight and burthen of their Episcopall superiority and precedency over other Ministers , upon this rotten counterfeit Pillar , unable any wayes to support it , as these ensuing demonstrations will evidence at large bejond all contradiction . For first of all we know , o that Cardinals and Bishops at this day , ( as the people and Clergy , yea the Emperor heretofore ) doe elect and consecrate the Pope ; yet they are not greater in order , dignity , power or Iurisdiction then the Pope , but inferior , and hee farre superior to them in all these . We p read , that Metropolitanes , Patriarkes , Primates and Archbishops are created , consecrated and installed by ordinary Bishops , as the * Arch-bishops of Canterburry and Yorke , have oftentimes beene by the Bishops of London , Rochester , Winchester , Salisbury , and the like : yet are they not greater in dignity , power , authority , place , or order then they , but subordinate and subject to them whom they thus ordaine , in every of these . We know by dayly experience that one Bishop consecrates and ordaines another , and hee a second , and that second a third ; yet all of them are of equall power , and Iurisdiction , not different or distinct in order or degree ; and sometimes the last of the three in respect of his Bishopricke , takes precedency of the rest , that ordained him , as the ‡ Bishops of London , Durham , and Winchester doe here with us , and other Bishops the like in forraigne parts . So some * Ministers joyne with the Bishop in the ordination and laying of hands on others , yet one of them is not superior in Iurisdiction , order , or degree to the other ; Now were this our Prelates objected Paradoxe true ; the Cardinals should be greater in order , power , and degree , then the Popes , the Bishops , then Patriarkes , Metropolitanes , Primates , and Archbishops ; one Bishop , one Minister then another ; yea there should be so many different degrees , among Bishops and Ministers , as there are successive subordinate ordinations ; which is both false and absurd . S. Hierom in his Epistle to Evagrius and on Titus , 1. with Alcuvinus , De Divinis Officiis c. 37. affirme , that in the primitive Church Bishops were both Elected and consecrated by Presbyters ; and the Scripture is expresse , that both Paul and Timothy were ordained by the Presbytery : Acts 13. 3. 4. 1. Tim. 4. 14. If the Bishops reason then be orthodoxe ; it followes inevitably , that in the Apostles times , and the primitive Church Pres byters were superior in Iurisdiction , order and Degree to Bishops , yea to Paul and Timothy , the one an Apostle , the other an Euangelist ; and not Bishops , Lords paramount over them , as they now pretend ; and then farewell their Hierarchy which they so much contend for . The Archbishop of Canterbury ( who stood much upon this argument at Doctor Bastwicks Censure ) both crowned our Soveraigne Lord King Charles , and baptised his sonne Prince Charles ; will hee therefore conclude , that hee is greater in power , authority , place , and Iurisdiction then they ? The * Archbishops of Canterbury , have usually crowned and baptized the Kings of England , and the Archbishops of Rheemes the Kings of France ; will they therefore inferre , Ergo they are greater in power , dignity , and authority then they ; as the † Popes argue , that they are greater then the Emperors , because the Bishops of Rome have usually crowned the Emperors ? Are the Princes Electors in Germany greater then the Emperors ; or of Poland , Bohemia , and Sweden greater then their Kings ; because they elect and create them Emperors and Kings ? Are the Lord Major of London and Yorke , or the Major of other Citties inferior to the Commons ; or the Lord Chauncellors of our Vniversities of Oxford and Cambridge , lesse honorable , potent , and inferior to the Doctors , Procters , and Masters of Arts ; or the heades or Masters of the Colleadges and Halls in them , subordinate , or lesse worshipfull or eminent then the fellowes , because they are elected , constituted and created by them , to be such ? Are the Knights , Citizens and Burgesses of the Parliament , not so good as those freeholders , Cittizens and Burgesses who elect them ? or the Masters of Companies inferior to those that choose them . If not , as all must grant , how is this maxime true ; that hee who constitutes , ordaines , or consecrates another , is greater then the parties constituted , ordained , or consecrated , and that in Iurisdiction , place , order , and degree ? Our Popish Preists are not afraid to proclaime * that in their consecration of the Sacrament , they create their very Creator , and make no lesse then Christ himselfe : are they therefore greater and higher in order and degree then Christ , the † great and onely High Preist , the * Cheife Shepheard , and Bishop of our Soules , whose ‡ Vicar and Substitute the Pope himselfe doth but claime to be ? Certainly if this their Popish proposition be true , they must needs be one order and degree Higher , in point of Preisthood , then Christ himselfe ; who must then lose his titles of High Preist and cheife Shepheard , because every Masse-Preist will be paramount him ; in that hee not onely consecrates , but creates him too . We read in * Scripture , that Kings , Preists and Prophets were usually annointed and consecrated to be such with oyle ; was therefore the oyle that consecrated them , greater or better then they ? Are the font and water , better then the children baptized in or with them ? The Diadems better then Kings , because they crowne them ? or the very hands of Bishops and Ministers , worthier then Ministers ordained by them ? If not , then are not Bishops greater then the Ministers which they ordaine or consecrate , since both are but instruments , Servants not prime originall agents , Lords , or Supreme absolute actors in these severall consecrations and actions . If we cast our eyes either upon nature or policy , we finde this proposition of our Prelates a meere ●alsehood . In nature we ●ee , that a man begets a man ; an horse an horse ; an asse an asse ; a dogge a dogge &c. equall one to the other in nature , quality , species , and degree ; the sonne being as much a man as the Father , the colt as much an horse as the steed that begott him . In Civill or Politique Constitutions , wee see the like ; In our Vniversities , Doctors and Professors of Divinity , Phisicke , Law , Musicke , create other Doctors of the same Professions , equall to themselves , and as much Doctors in these arts as they ; one Doctor in each of these , being as much and no more a Doctor then another , save onely in point of time or antiquity , but not in respect of the profession or degree of Doctorship it selfe ; yea * every Minister made by any Bishop , is as much as truly and fully a Minister as the Bishop , as all Protestants and Papists doe acknowledge ; therefore the same in specie with , and equall to a Bishop : Our Bishops pretend themselves Spirituall Fathers , and they call the Ministers ordained by them , Sonnes ; So ‡ Epiphanius long since argues against Aërius : As therefore in naturall generations , a man begets a man , a beast a beast ; and in Civill respects ; a Gentleman begets a Gentleman ; a peasant a peasant &c. but not a man a beast ; a beast a man , a Gentleman a peasant , nor a peasant a Gentleman ; So Bishops when they engender naturall children , beget them as men , not Bishops , and their children are as much men as themselves ; when they spiritually ordaine or engender Ministers , they doe it onely as they are Ministers not Bishops , and those they thus beget and ordaine , are as much Ministers as themselves ; when they beget and consecrate Bishops , they doe it as they are Bishops , and those thus begot and consecrated are as much Bishops as themselves . Since therefore they ordaine Ministers onely as they are Ministers , not as Bishops ; as is cleare ( else it were an unnaturall an incongruous , yea a monstrous generation , to beget one of a different kinde , order , quality and degree from themselves , and as much as if a man should beget a beast , an horse , or an Asse , ) and since every Minister is as much as compleatly a Minister every way as the Bishop , and Ministers who ordaine him ; how this proposition can be true ; that the ordainer is higher in Jurisdiction , or different Iure divino in order or degree from the ordained , I cannot yet perceive , neither can our Prelates ever make it good . We know there are now divers Ministers living , who not only baptized , but likewise ordained some of our Bishops to be Ministers , and layd hands upon them with the Bishop at the time of their ordination ; yea every of our Bishops , and Archbishops were first ordained Ministers by Ministers before they were made Bishops or Arcbishops . And the first Bishops that were ordained in the Church paramount Ministers , were ordained Bishops by Ministers , as Hierom writes in his Epistle to Evagrius , and all since acknowlege out of him . Are these Ministers therefore in point of order , honor , jurisdiction , dignity and degree , greater then our Archbishops or Bishops ? If so , then the controversie is at end ; and the truth most apparant ; that our Ministers are greater and higher in degree then our Bishops and Arch-bishops , not our Bishops and Archbishops higher greater then they , as they vainely contend . If not , then the Prelates maxime , on which they ground their Hierarchie , is most false , in that sence in which they urge it ; and so will yeild no supportation to their Hierarchie . Thirdly , I answer , that this Proposition of theirs is warranted by no Scripture , nor backed with any convincing reason drawen from Scripture ; therefore it prooves nothing either for Titus his Episcopall authority ; or for Bishops superiority above other Ministers , by any divine right , or institution : As for that text of Hebr. 7. 7. ( And without all contradiction the lesser is blessed of the greater ; ) it is nothing to the putpose . First , Because it it not spoken concerning ordination , or of one Ministers ordaining or blessing another , but onely of Melchizedechs blessing of Abraham , and Ministers blessing of the people , as the words and ‡ all Commentators joyntly testifie . Secondly , Because it is not meant of Ministers , who blesse others onely Ministerially , instrumentally , by way of duty and service , as Bishops ordaine Ministers ; not inherent originall authority , for then Ministers should be better and greater then God , whom they blesse and praise , but of Christ himselfe ; who by Melchisedech , his type , blessed Abraham by his owne inherent authority and power ; as the onely * true High-Preist , and ‡ ch●ife Shepheard of our soules . If therefore our Prelates take their maxime in this sence , hee that ordaines Ministers , to wit , originally by his owne inherent primitive authority and power , is greater then those who are ordained in Jurisdiction , power , and degree ; then the proposition thus interpreted , is true and warranted by this text ; but yet they gaine no advantage by it , because no Bishops , do or can ordaine Ministers thus , but * onely God and Christ alone , whose Ministers and Servants both the ordainers and ordained are . But if th●●meane , that they who ordaine Ministers onely instrumentally and Ministerially as servants to Christ , his Church and the whole Congregation , ( in whom the originall and primitive right of ordination is onely vested ) are greater in Iurisdiction , order and degree , then those who are ordained , as they doe and must doe ; then the proposition is most false and not justified by this Scripture , as the premised instances manifest . Fourthly , Admit this proposition true ; that those who are to ordaine others are greater in power and authority then the parties to be ordained , before their ordination fully executed , because they have an office , a calling of Ministery which the others want ; in which sense the proposition may be true , yet it is not true ; that the ordainers are greater in power , office and authority then the parties actually ordained after the ordination past and finished ; because the very end of ordination , is to conferre the selfe-fame office of Ministery on the parties ordained ; which the ordainers themselves have in as large and ample manner as they enjoye it ; and the parties once ordained , are thereby made as compleate , 〈◊〉 absolute Ministers every way , in respect of their orders and office , as any of those who ordained them : though they were not so when they came to be ordained . This appeares by the examples of ‡ Mathias and Paul ; before they were called and ordained to be Apostles , they were inferior to the other Apostles ; but being once called and ordained Apostles , they became equall with the other Apostles in Apostolicall power , dignity , and degree . So that from all these premises I may conclude , that this maxime of our Prelates , whereon they build their Episcopall Hierarchie , in that sence they take it , is most false ; and neither prooves Titus to be a Diocaesan Bishop , nor yet Bishops to be superior to other Ministers in dignity , power , order , or degree , by divine right and institution as they pretend they are . Finally , Admit the proposition true , yet it prooves but this ; that Bishops are superior to those Ministers onely which themselves ordaine , ( so that if they ordaine none they are superior to none ; not to those ordained by others , which may be their equals notwithstanding this allegation , seing they were not ordained by them ; this proposition extending onely to the act , not to the power of ordination . If any extend it further , in this sort ; that they who have power to ordaine Ministers are greater in order , Iurisdiction , degree and dignity , then those who want this power ; then it will follow , that Bishops suspended from ordaining others ( either for advauncing unworthy Ministers , without due examination , or making Ministers without a title , as many now doe , for which the * Canons prescribe , they shall be suspended from giving Orders for two yeares space ) are inferior in order and degree to Bishops , who may execute this power and ordaine ; and so one Bishop shall be superior in order and degree to another Bishop ; which none ever yet affirmed ; yea all our Bishops being prohibited and disabled by their owne ‡ Canons to ordaine Ministers or Deacons at any time , but onely at the 4. solemne times appointed , and that in the presence of the Deane , Archdea●on or two Prebends at the least , or of 4. other grave Persons , being Masters of Art at least , and allowed for publike Preachers : it will hereupon follow , that Bishops onely at these 4. times of the yeare , are greater in dignity and degree then Ministers , because they may then ordaine , but not at other seasons , when they have no power or authority to conferre orders upon any being restrained by the Canon . All which being layd together , discovers the weakennes , the absurdity of this our Prelates Theory , on which they build both their owne , & Titus his hierarchy , which now fall quite to ruine with this their sandy foundation , which I have here 〈◊〉 ever dissipated & subverted , if I mistake not . Obj. 5. If any finally object ; that the Fathers stile Titus , the first Bishop of Crete , and Timothy of Ephesus , therefore they were Diocaesan Bishops , and superior in Jurisdiction and degree to other Ministers , and so by consequence are other Diocaesan Bishops as well as they . Answ . 1. I answer : First , that neither S. Paul nor S. Luke , who lived in their times , and knew them farre better then any Fathers or writers since , ever so much as once terme or stile them Bishops ; much lesse , the first or sole Diocaesan Bishops of Crete , or Ephesus ; which no doubt they would have done , had they beene in truth Diocaesan Bishops there ; and the name , the office of a Bishop so honorable and sublime , above that of Ministers , even Iure Divino , as our Prelates and their flatterers now pretend . Their testimonies therefore ( who stile them onely ‡ Ministers or Euangelists , never Bishops ) is to be preferred before all Fathers and writers , ( who stile them Bishops ) being neither acquainted with their persons or functions , nor living in their age . Secondly , No Father ever stiles them , or either of them a Diocaesan or sole Bishop of Crete or Ephesus , ( the thing which ought to be prooved , ) but Bishops onely , as they stiled other Ministers , the name , the office of Bishops and Presbyters being but one and the same , and promiscuously used in the Apostles times ; all Presbyters being then called Bishops , and all Bishops Presbyters ; as is evident by Acts. 14. 23. c. 20. 17. 28. Phil. 1. 1. 1. Pet. 5. 1. 2. 3. Tit. 1. 5. 7. 1. Tim. 3. 1. 2. 3. 2. Iohn . 1. 3. Iohn . 1. Philemon . 9. with all ancient , all moderne Commentators on these texts . Whence the Translators of our last authorized English Bible , affixe these Contents to Titus , 1. 6. to 10. ( which treates of the quality of Bishops ) How they that are to be chosen MINISTERS ought to be qualified ▪ And the Booke of ordination of Ministers ( confirmed by two * severall Acts of Parliament ) prescribes the 1. Tim. c. 3. Acts 20. and Titus 〈◊〉 . to be read both at the ordination of Ministers , and Consecration of Bishops : and so intimates , yea interpretes , that Bishops and Ministers in the Scriptures language , are both one , in name , and office , and were so reputed in the Primitive Church . Thirdly , The Fathers use the word , Elders and Bishops , promiscuously ; calling Elders Bishops , and Bishops Elders ; Hence Papias the Auditor of S. John , and companion of Polycarpus , writes thus in the Preface of his bookes ; * It shall not seeme grievous untome , if that I compile in writing , and commit to memory , the things which I learned of the Elders . If any came in place which was a follower of the Apostles , forthwith demaunded the words of the Elders : what Andrew , what Peter , what Philip , what Thomas , or Iames , or John , or Mathew , or any other of the Lords Disciples ; what Ariston , and the Elder John , Disciples of the Lord , had sayd . Here hee stiles , not onely Bishops , but even Apostles Elders . Polycarpus , his companion and Coaetanian , writes thus in his Epistle to the Philippians , ‡ Be ye subject to Presbyters and Deacons as to God : let the Presbyters be simple and mercifull in all things . Now those whom hee here stiles Presby●ers , S. Paul expresly termes Bishops , Philip. 1. 1. Justine Martyr in his second Apology , used neither the name Bishop nor Elder , but termes the Minister onely , Hee who is sett over the Brithren , Hee who holds the first place , in reference to the Deacon , who held the second place , not to any Elders of an inferior order to him . And least any one should dreame that Iustine Martyr here speakes of a Bishop , Tertullian , who lived neere about that time , or within few yeares , in his * Apology writes thus ; Praesident nobis probati quique Seniores , &c. Approoved Elders ( not Bishops ) are sett over us , having obtained this honor , not with any price , but by a good testimony . Whence it is evident , that in his age , every Christian Congregation had divers Elders , ( not one Diocaesan Bishop ) over it to feede and rule it , according to the practise of the Apostles times , Acts. 14. 23. c. 20. 17. 28 c. 21. 18. Philip. 1. 1. 1. Tim. 5. 17. Tit. 1. 5. Iames , 5. 14. 1. Pet. 5. 1. 2. Hence learned * Apollinarius , cals the Bishops and Elders of the Church of Ancyra in Galatia , Presbyters . And ‡ Clemens Alexandrinus , relating the Story of the young man delivered by S. Iohn to a Bishop , to traine up in the feare of God , twice together cals him , interchaingably , both a Bishop and an Elder ; as Meridith Hamner ( a Bishop ) Englisheth it . So * Ireneus , one of the ancientest of all the Fathers , stiles Polycarpus Bishop of Smyrna . That holy and Apostolike Elder , yea hee termes the Bishops of Rome themselves Elders , o They ( saith hee ) that were Elders before Soter , of the Church which now thou governest , I meane Anacletus , Pius , Hyginus , Thelesphorus , and Xystus , neither did so observe it themselves , neither left they any such commaundement unto posterity . And the same Father Adversus Haereses . l. 3. c. 2. & l. 4. c. 43. 44. oftentimes * stiles Bishops Elders ; and Elders Bishops ; making Presbyters equall to Bishops in all respects , and Successors to the Apostles as well , as much as they . So Dionysius Alexandrinus , in his Epistle to Xystus , Bishop of Rome , about the yeare of Christ , 240. writes thus : There was a certaine Brother , reputed to be of our Church , and Faith , very aged , & priusquam ego etiam creatus Episcopus , and created a BISHOP before , I was , and as I thinke , before blessed Heraclas was made a Bishop . Where hee expresly termes this party , who was but a Minister or Presbyter onely in that Church , A BISHOP , and saith , hee was created a Bishop : when hee was but ordained a Minister . And that famous Gregory Nazianzen ( three hundred and seventy yeares after Christ , ) in his 9. 13. 15. 21. and 28. Orations , p. 262. 357. 368. 479. as Elias Cretensis , in his Commentary on those places testifieth , useth the words Bishops and Presbyter , reciprocally ; stiling Bishops Presbyters , and Presbyters Bishops ; making them all one by divine institution , and different onely by humane invention , which difference hee heartily wisheth , were abolished ; himselfe p voluntarily resigning his Bishopricke of Constantinople , to be take himselfe to a more private and retired life . The Fathers therefore thus promiscuously using the name Bishop and Presbyter , stiling Bishops Presbyters ; and Presbyters Bishops , and making both of them one and the same by divine institution , their stiling of Timothy and Titus , Bishops of Ephesus and Crete , is no argument or proofe at all , that they were Diocaesan , or sole Bishops of those places ; or that they had , or any Bishops now have , by divine institution , any Episcopall Iurisdiction and preeminence over other Presbyters or Ministers , or were superior to them , in order , dignity or degree . Fourthly , The Greeke word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which we English , a Bishop , signifies properly nothing else , but an Overseer , Survayor , Superintendent , or Administrator , and is oft times applyed both by Greeke Authors , and the Septuagint Greeke Translators to secular offices * Hence . † Homer , stiles Hector ; the Bishop of the City : In the Verses of Solon in Demostenes , Pallas is called the Bishop of Athens : Plutarch in the life of Numa , stiles Venus the Bishop over the dead , and hee there makes mention of a Bishop of the Vestall Virgins . Suidas records , that in the Athenian Republike ; those who are sent to the Cityes under their Jurisdiction , to oversee the affaires of their Companions ; were called Bishops . Cicero in his seaventh Booke to Atticus , writes thus , Pompey will have mee to be the Bishop of all Compagnia and the Maritine Coastes , to whom the choise and summe of the businesse may be referred . And in the Pandects , the Clerkes of the Markets are called Bishops . The Septuagint Numb . 13. read the Bishops of the Army ; ‡ 4. Kings 11. they read ; the Bishops who are over the Army , and the Bishops over the howse of the Lord. Where Watchmen , Guardians , and Overseers , are called Bishops , 2. Chron. 34. The Overlookers of the Workemen , are stiled Bishops ; Iudges 9. Zebul is called Abimeleches Bishop , in the Greeke ; which we now English , his Officer : So Num. 4. 16. The office of Eliazar , in the Tabernacle of the Lord , and the function of Judas , Psalm . 109. 8. is tormed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a Bishopricke , by the Septuagint ; and so expresly stiled by the Holy Ghost himselfe , and Englished by us , Acts. 1. 20. His Bishopricke let another take , yea , Constantine the greate ( as ‡ Eusebius records in his life ) inviting some Bishops to a Feast , called himselfe a Bishop in their presence , uttering these words , You sayth hee , are Bishops within the Church , but I am constituted of God a Bishop without the Church . Our New Translators , Acts. 20. 28. render the Greeke word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( the title which hee gives to the Elders of the Church of Ephesus ) Overseers : Luke . 19. 44. The time of Gods visitation and overthrow of Ierusalem , is termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 &c. Luke . 1. 6. 7. 8. c. 7. 16. Heb. 2. 6. The Greeke word which we translate , hath visited us , is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Whence the day of Gods gracious visitation of his people to convert them to him in mercy , is called by the Holy Ghost , 1. Pet. 2. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The day of visitation ; yea our very visiting of sick persons , prisoners , Orphanes and Widdowes , is termed by Christ and the holy Ghost himselfe ( though a meere act of charity , humility , and Christian duty , * not of Jurisdiction and Lordly Prelacy , ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Math. 25. 36. 43. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : Iam. 1. 27. to visit or to play the Bishops part and duty ; which the meanest Christian , yea women ( though uncapeable , of sacred orders ) may doe and ought to performe , as well as any others . So intermedling with other mens affaires or couetting of any other mens offices of what condition soever , is termed by the Apostle , 1. Pet. 4. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the playing as it were the Bishop in another mans Dioces . Yea every Ministers feeding and taking the oversight of his proper flock , is stiled , the doing of a Bishops office : and those Presbyters who doe thus , are not onely said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 1. Pet. 5. 21. that is , men executing the office and duty of a Bishop ; but likewise stiled , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; that is , true and proper Bishops : a name given onely to Presbyters ( and none but they in holy Scripture : Acts. 20. 28. Phil. 1. 1. Titus . 1. 7. and to Christ himselfe , who is stiled , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Bishop of our Soules , 1. Pet. 2. 25. but not to any Apostle , Euangelist , Diocaesan , or other Prelate ; none such being particularly termed , a Bishop , ●hroughout the whole New Testament : The Fathers make Bishops and Overseers all one , deriving the very name of a Bishop , from a Greeke verbe , which signifieth to overlooke , watch , ward , or take care off . Hence ‡ Augustine writes thus ; Hee did keepe , hee was carefull , hee did watch , as much as hee could , over those , over whom hee was set . And Bishops doe thus . For therefore an higher place is set for Bishops , that they may superintend , and as it were keepe the people . For that which in Greeke is called a Bishop , that in Latine is interpreted a Superintendent , because hee overseeth , because hee seeth from above . For like as an higher place is made for the vineyard keeper , to keepe the vineyard , so an higher place also is made for the Bishops . And a perilous account is to be rendred of this high place , unlesse we stand therein with such an heart , that we may be under your feete in humility , and pray for you , that hee who knowes your mindes , hee may keepe you ; because wee can see you entring and going out , but yet we are so farre from seeing what you thinke in your heartes , that we cannot so much as see what you doe in your howses . How therefore doe we keepe you like men , as much as we can , as much as we have received . We keepe you out of the office of dispensation , but we will be kept together with you : we are as Pastours to you , but under that Pastor ( Christ , ) we are sheep together with you : we are as teachers to you out of this place , but under that one Master wee are Schollers with you in this Schoole . If we will be kept by him who was humbled for us , and is exalted to keepe us , let us be humble . * Those set themselves before Christ , who will be high here , where hee was humble ; Let them therefore be humble here , if they will be exalted there , where hee is exalted . In another place hee writes thus ; * For this cause the Apostle saith , Hee that desires a Bishopricke , desires a good worke . Hee would expound what a Bishopricke is : it is a name of labour not of honor . For it is a Greeke word , and derived from hence , that hee who is made an Overseer , overseeth those , over whom hee is set , namely by taking care of them . For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is over , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is intention , overseeing or care : therefore if we will render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Latine , we may say it is to play the Superintendent ; that hee may understand , that hee is not a Bishop , who delights to be over others , but not to profit them . On which words Ludovicus Vives thus Comments ; The name of a Bishop is derived either from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which signifieth to consider , or from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which signifieth the same and to visit . Whence S●idas saith , there were some sent from the Athenians to the Cities under them , who should looke into their affaires : and these were called Bishops , that is , as it were Overseers , or Visitors , and Observers . In Holy Scriptures , a Bishop is commonly called , a Watchman , as in Ezekiel . 3. 17. c. 33. 2. 6. 7. and in Hosea . 5. 1. The Lord complaineth that the Bishops were made a snare on Mizpah ( or in the watch tower , ) and a net spread upon Tabor ; as if hee had spoken of the † Bishops of this age , who lay snares in their Bishoprickes and large nets to catch many , but not with thinne holes or threades , least the gift should swim thorough : yea now it is so provided by the diligence and wits of certaine men , that without evasion of this Law , a Bishopricke may not onely be lawfully desired , but likewise bought and sold . S. Chrysostome in his 10. Hom. upon the 1. Tim. S. Hierom in his Epistle to Evagrius , Beda on the 1. Pet. 2. 25. Anselme on Phil. 1. 1. Aquinas secunda secundae : Qu. 184. Art. 6. Petrus de Palude . de Potest . Coll. Apostol . Art. 1. ( all cited by Bishop Iewell in the Defense of the Apologie of the Church of England , part . 6. c. 2. Divis . 1. p. 523. ) and S. Bernard also , de Consideratione ad Eugenium , l. 2. & 3. joyntly resolve ; that a Bishop is nothing else , but a Superintendent , Watchman , or Overseer , and that hee is called a Bishop from hence , that hee overseeth , survaieth , or watcheth over others , with which all other ancient and moderne writers , whether forraigne or domestique , Papists or Protestants accord . Heare onely Doctor Iohn Ponet Bishop of Winchester , in his Apology against Doctor Martin , in defence of Preists mariage , c. 4. 5. p. 44. 52. 53. 54. who as hee there expresly reckons up Popes , Cardinals , BISHOPS , Preists , Monkes , Canons , Friers , &c. to be the Orders of Antichrist ; * taxing them likewise severely and comparing them with the Eustathian heretickes for refusing to weare usuall garments , and putting upon them garments of strange fashions , to vary from the common sort of people in apparell : So hee thus determines of the name Bishop and Superintendent : And further whereas it pleaseth Martin not onely in this place , but also hereafter to est at the name of Superintendent , hee sheweth himselfe bent to condemne all things that be good , though in so doing ●ee cannot avoyd his open shame . Who knoweth not that the name Bishop hath so beene abused , that when it was spoken , the people understood nothing else , but a great Lord , that went in a white Rochet , with a wide shaven Crowne , and that carrieth an oyle boxe with him , where hee used once in 7. yeare riding about to confirme children , &c. Now to bring the people f●●m this abuse , what better meanes can be d●v●s●d then to teach the people their error by another word out of the Scriptures of the same signification : which thing by the terme superintendent would in time have beene well brought to posse . For the ordinary paines of such as were called superintendents , should have taught the people to understand the duty of their Bishop , which you Papists would faine have hidden from them . And the word Superintendent being a very Latine word made English by use , should in time have taught the people by the very Etymology and proper signification , what things was meant , when they heard that name which by this terme Bishop , could not so well be done , by reason that Bishops in the time of Popery were Overseers in name , but not indeed . So that their doings could not teach the people their names , neither what they should looke for at their Bishops hands . For the name Bishop , spoken amongst the unlearned , signified to them nothing lesse then a preacher of Gods word , because there was not , nor is any thing more rare in any order of Ecclesiasticall persons , then to see a Bishop preach , whereof the doings of the Popish Bishops of England can this day witnesse ; but the name superintendent should make him ashamed of his negligence , and afraid of his idlenes , knowing that S. Paul doth call upon him to attend to himselfe and to his whole flock , of the which sentence our Bishops marke the first pecce right well , ( that is , to take heed to themselves , but they be so deafe , they cannot hearken to the second ) that is , to looke to their flock . I deny not , but that the name Bishop may be well taken , but because the evilnes of the abuse hath marrid the goodnesse of the word , it cannot be denied , but that it was not amisse to joyne for a time another word with it in his place , wherby to restore that abused word to his right signification , And the name superintendent is such a name , that the Papists themselves ( saving such as lack both learning and wit , ) cannot finde fault withall . For Peresius the Spaniard and an Archpapist , ( out of whom Martin hath stolen a great part of his Booke ) speaking of a Bishop , saith : Primum Episcopi munus nomen ipsum prae se fert , quod est spperintendere , Episcopus enim Superintendens interpreta 〈…〉 visitans aut supervidens , &c. That is to say : The cheife office of a Bishop by interpretation , signifieth a Superintendent , a Visitor , or an Overseer . Why did not Martin as well steale this peece out of Peresius , as hee did steale all the common places that hee hath for the proofe of the Canons , of the Apostles , and of Traditions in his second and third Chapters ? Martin in the 88. leafe is not ashamed in his Booke to divide the significations of the termes , ( Bishop and Superintendent , ) as though the one were not signified by the other . But it may be that Martin as the rest of the Popish Sect would not have the name of ( Superintendent ) or Minister used , least that name which did put the people in remembrance of sacrificing and bludsapping , should be forgotten . Since therefore this Title B●shop , is thus promiscuously used , both in prophane and Christian writers , and in the Scripture it selfe , for any Officer , Overseer , Survayer , Superintendent , Watchman , Guardian , Pastor , or Keeper , as well temporall and civill , as Ecclesiasticall , and all these their offices stiled in Greeke , a Bishopricke : since every Pastor , Watchman , Presbyter , Minister , Rector , and Curate , who takes care of , watcheth , feedeth , overlooketh , instructeth , or keepeth the flock and people committed to his charge , is even in the Scriptures Language called a Bishop , and said , to act , to doe the office of a Bishop : since those who out of charity , love , or freindship goe to visit others , who are either sicke , poore , Fatherlesse , or otherwise distressed , and God himselfe when hee comes , to punish or shew mercy unto others , are in the Greeke and Scripture phrase , said , to visit and play the Bishops ; as appeareth by the forecited Scriptures , and by Acts. 15. 36. Where Paul said to Barnabas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which we translate , Let us goe againe and visit our Brethren , in every City , where we have preached the word of the Lord , and see how they doe . From which text the * Rhemists would make Bishops , ordinary visitation , to be Jure Divino ; but this was no Lordly Episcopall visitation such as our Bishops now keepe , for we read of no visitation Articles , oathes , fees or presentmens in it ; neither were Paul and Barnabas Bishops , but it was a meere visitation of love , as one freind visits another , not of Jurisdiction , as the last words : And see how they doe , together with the Councell of Laodicea , Can. 57. expound it , and verse 14. Symon hath declared how God 〈◊〉 at the first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did visit the Gentiles , to take out of them a people for his name . And Acts. 7. 23. When Moses was full 40. yeares old , it came into his heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to visit his brethren , the children of Israell ; and since these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ( that is ) to visit , oversee , or play the Bishop , ‡ imply no Lordship ; Soveraingty , Dominion , Jurisdiction , or Lordly Episcopall authority in them , ( at least no such as our Bishops now claime and exercise : ) but rather an Act of humility , charity , Service , and inferiority to the persons visited , as is evident by Mathew 25. 3. 6. 43. Acts. 7. 23. c. 15. 36. Iam. 1. 27. Heb. 2. 6. 1. Pet. 5. 2. 3. 5. It hence unanswerably followes , that Bishops Episcopall Lordly visitations , are not Iure Divino , and that other Ministers are as much Visitors , and may visit as well as they , that every Presbyter , Minister , Curate who doth faithfully discharge his duty , * is as much , as truly , as properly a Bishop , both in the Scriptures language and in Gods account , as any Diocaesan Bishop or Prelate whatsoever ; That those Bishops who merge themselves in pleasures , idlenesse , or secular affaires , and doe not diligently , faithfully , intirely give themselves to preach Gods word , instruct and teach the people , visit the Fatherlesse , imprisoned , sicke , poore , widdowes , and flockes committed to them ; ( which few of our Prelates now deine to doe ) are * in truth , in Gods , in Christs account , and in the Scriptures language , no Bishops at all , what ever they pretend ; that the word Bishop , is ‡ not a title of Dominion , Soveraingty , Jurisdiction , Glory , Power , Preheminency , Pompe , State , Authority , and Commaund , ( as our Bishops , who now presume to monopolize it to themselves alone , though common 〈…〉 God 's word and ancient writers to every Minister , pretend , ) but of humility , office , service , labor , care , circumspection , watchfulnesse , meeknesse , tender-heartednesse , charity , familiarity , and brotherly kindnes , ( which most Prelates have now quite shaken off . ) The Fathers stiling therefore of Timothy , Bishop of Ephesus , or Titus Bishop of Crete , or Bishops , will neither proove them to be Diocaesan ; or sole Bishops of those Churches , or that they had a superiority or Iurisdiction as they were Bishops over all other Ministers or Presbyters in those Churches ; or that Archbishops or Bishops are Iure Divino superior to , or different in order or degree from Presbyters , who have the selfesame Commission or authority , given them by Christ , as they ; and so have equall authority with them , and are as much Bishops every way by Gods Law , as they ; even as every High Commissioner of the Quorum , is as much an High Commissioner as the Archbishop of Canterbury or Yorke , and hath as much authority as an High Commissioner , as they ; since they have all the selfesame Commission , which gives no greater power to one of them then the other , but the same to both . Indeed had Christ given a different Commission to his Apostles and the seaventy Disciples , or to Timothy and Titus , then to other Elders and Bishops of the Churches of Ephesus and Crete , or to Bishops , then hee hath given to Presbyters and Ministers , there might have beene some ground to have prooved the 12. Apostles , Timothy , Tytus , and Bishops , greater in Iurisdiction , power , authority , and degree then the 70. Disciples , Presbyters , and other Ministers , by divine institution . But since it is apparant by * the Scriptures , that the 12. Apostles and 70. Disciples ( what ever ‡ some men have rashly determined to the contrary ) had but one and the selfe-same commission given unto them by Christ ; that Timothy , Titus , Archbishops , Bishops , and other Prelates have no other , no larger Patent , Commission or authority granted unto them by Christ , then Presbyters and ordinary Ministers , ( as the booke of Ordination manifests : where the same words are used , the same commission given from God , to Ministers at the ordination of every Minister , as there is to Bishops at the consecration of any Archbishop or Bishop ) since they are all joyned together in one and the selfesame divine Charter , and all claime by one and the selfesame grant , ( as is evident : by Math. 28. 19. 20. Marke . 6. 15 , 16. Iohn . 20. 22. 23. Acts. 1. 8. c. 10. 47. c. 20. 17. 28. Col. 4. 17. 1. Tim. 3. 1. to 7. c. 4. 12. 13. c. 5. 17. 18. 20. 21. 22. c. 6. 11. 12. 17. 18. 19. 20. 2. Tim. 2. 14. 15. 16. c. 4. 1. to 16. Tit. 1. 5. to 14. c. 2. 1. to . 15. c. 3. 1. 2. 8. 9. 10. 1. Pet. 5. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 2. Pet. 1. 12. 13. 1. Cor. 1. 12. 13. 17. c. 3. 4. 5. to 11. 21. 22. c. 4. 1. 6. 7. 17. c. 9. 16. 17. c. 13. 29. 30. 31. 32. Ephes . 4. 11. 12. with other Scriptures ) it is most apparant , and undeniable , that by Gods word and institution , they are all equall , both in point of office , power , Iurisdiction , and authority , not one of them greater , higher or superior then the other , having the selfe-same divine ordination , commission , office , and charge . Finally , * Eusebius records onely , that Timothy IS REPORTED to be the First Bishop of Ephesus , and Titus of the Churches in Crete : So that all the Fathers Authorities , ( who follow Eusebius , ) are grounded onely upon this bare report , not upon any certainty ; therfore not to be granted or relyed on . The rather , ‡ because there have beene anciently in Crete no lesse then 4. Archbishops , and 21. Bishops , Suff●●aganes : now it is very improbable that Paul would institute Titus Archbishop or Superintendent generall of all Crete , it being so large a circuit , having so many Archbishops and Bishops Sees within it , and hee so little resident in , so often absent from it , as I have manifested in the premises . From all which I presume , I may safely conclude this second question against the common received Errour , that Titus was never Bishop or Archbishop of Crete , what ever our Prelates and their favourites have written to the contrary : And so Timothy being neither a Diocaesan Bishop of Ephesus , nor Titus of Creet , the pretended Hierarchy of our Prelates Iure divino , built onely upon the * sandy foundation of these two supposed Bishops Bishoprickes , must needs now fall to ruine ; and they being now lifted up so High aboue their fellow Brethren , their fall must certainly proove very great . They have long since , ( many of them ) forsaken God , the teaching of his word , the chiefe part ‡ of their spirituall functions , banded themselues against his truth , Ministers , people , and the preaching of his Gospel , which they suppresse and put downe in all places ; yea such is their desperate impiety , that whereas in all former times of Plages and Pestilence , ( yea in * 1. Iacobi and Caroli ) there hath beene by publike authority a speciall day of fasting , prayer , preaching , and humiliation appointed every weeke ( especially in infected places ) to divert Gods heavy judgements , as the chiefe antidote against all Plages and judgements , prescribed by God himselfe , yet now they are growen such open fighters against God , Religion , the spirituall , the temporall good and safety of the people , that to prevent the plague , ( as they pretend , but in truth to increase it more , and to suppresse preaching , piety and religion ) they begin to put downe all weekeday Lectures , and Lords day sermons in the afternoone , ( as if Gods publike ordinances and service , the best remedie against , were a meanes to increase and spread , not stay the plague ) yea they debarre † Ministers from using any prayers at all after their sermons , or any other prayer before them , then what the 55. Canon prescribes , in which there is not a word of prayer against the plague , drought , famine , sword or pestilence . By meanes whereof , inhibiting Ministers thus to reproove the people for their sinnes , which provoke Gods wrath and judgements at this present , & so to bring them to repentance for them f by their preaching ; or to pray against the plague and other judgements of God , which now lie hard upon the Kingdome , which these sinnes have occasioned ; and hindring that publike weekely fasting , preaching & prayer , which God by his judgements * now calls for at our hands ; they have made not onely the Kingdome , but themselves especially , ripe for ruine . And being now for these their atheisticall godles practises , their enmity to God , his truth , his faithfull Ministers and people , their Lordlines , tyranny , pride , oppression , wordlines , prophanes , and irreligion fallen under the very g execration of God himselfe , and h the curses of his people , who day and night crie for vengeance against them , as Gods sworne and most professed open enemies ; and having no divine foundation , prop , or pillar now left , where with to support their tottering thrones and Miters , needs mu●● they shortly , like that ‡ High Preist Ely , fall from their high-towring seates backward , and so breake their neckes , to the ioy of all Gods people , whom they now by their persecutions and innovations so much oppresse ; Even so let all thine enemies perish , O Lord ; but let them that love thee , be as the sunne , when it goeth forth in his might . A POST-SCRIPT . OUR famous * Martyr Iohn Purvey , in King Henry the fourth his raigne , delivered this Position , touching the preaching of the Gospel ; That whosoever receiveth or taketh upon him the office of a Preist , or of a Bishop , and dischargeth not the same by the example of his godly conversation and faithfull preaching of the Gospel , is a theife , excommunicated of God and of holy Church . And further , that if the Curates preach not the word of God , they shal be damned , and if they know not how to preach , they ought to resigne their livings , ( as ‡ Pope Celestine the fifth , * Adelbartus the second , Bishop of Prague , Daniel the 6. and Firthstane the 23. Bishop of Winchester , John the 5. and Thurstan the 28. Archbishop of Yorke , Thomas Spofford the 56. Bishop of Hareford , besides sundry others before-cited , resigned their Bishoprickes . ) So that those Prelates , which preach not the Gospell of Christ ( although they could excuse themselves from the doing of any other euill ) are dead in themselves , are Antichrists and Satans , transfigured into Angels of light , night theives , manquellers by daylight , and betrayers of Christ his people . What then shall wee thinke or judge of many of our present Lordly swaying English Prelates , some of which never preached since they were made Bishops ; others , not once in a dozen yeares ; others , but once in a yeare or two , & that not in their Diocesse to their people ( where many of them never yet preached , ) but at Court ; few of them above once a quarter , or once a moneth at most ? Where as ‡ S. Ambrose , e S. Augustine , f S. Chrysostome , g Cyrill of Ierusalem , with h other Bishops heretofore , and i Bishop Hooper , and k Bishop Ridley in King Edward the 6. dayes , preached once or twice every day of the weeke without faile or intermission . Yea what shall wee say of those Bishops , who now everywhere put downe Lectures and preaching , both on weekedayes and Lordsdayes , to suspending , silencing , excommunicating , imprisoning , depriving the most powerfull , painfull , faithfull Godly Ministers in all their Diocesse ; for no offence either in life or doctrine , for no violation of any Ceremonies by Law established , but meerely for not subscribing to their late Popish innovations , illegall injunctions and commaunds , warranted by no Law of God or man , the sole pretended cause , yet in truth out of their desperate hatred to the sincere , frequent , powerfull preaching and Preachers of Gods word ( which seemes to condemne their idle , secular , Lordly , vitious lives and practises , ) to the progresse , power , and growth of our Religion , and salvation of the peoples soules ? Nay , what shall we iudge of that proud insolent Regulus and imperious Prelate Mathew Wren , Bishop of Norwich , who hath not onely put down many famous worthy preachers , and all Lectures throughout his Diocesse , both on the weekedayes , Lordsday Evenings ‡ , yea and in the morning too in many places , and silenced divers Ministers of cheifest note , for not conforming to his strang●novell Magisteriall innovations and late visitation Articles , printed and published ( like an absolute Monarch , King and Pope ) in his owne name , & by his owne authority alone , in affront of his Majesties * Lawes and ‡ Declarations , for which hee hath incurred a Praemunire ; but likewise very freshly since his late coming to Ipswitch ( where he hath silenced 7 Preachers , and hath no Sermon at all oft times on the Lordsday in his owne Parish Church , ) commaunded the Sexton of one Mr. Scots Church in Ipswitch ( a reverend ancient conformable o Minister , whom hee hath suspended vpon no lawfull occasion ) to blott out this sacred Sentence of Scripture ( most proper for that Church and place it stonds in ) painted on this Church-wall over against the Pulpit , ( which Scripture I wonder any Bishop or Minister can thinke off , and yet forbeare to preach or put downe preaching . ) p For necessity is layd upon me , yea , Woe is me if I preach not the Gospell ? An insolency , an impiety , that no age can parallell . Certainly he that would command this Scripture thus to be rased out of the Church-wall , would as gladly obliterate and rend it out of the Church-Bible too , and have neither preaching , preachers ( and I feare neither reading nor readers ) of the Gospell , nor yet the Gospell it selfe in being , were it in his power utterly to suppresse them ; as this Prelate hath made a large beginning and progresse for this purpose . This notable late fact of his , makes me the lesse to wonder , at the most insolent exploict of Henry Dade ( the Archbishop of Canterburies Surrogate for Ipswitch ) who about September last past solemnely excommunicated the Churchwardens of S. Maries of the Tower in that Towne , in the Archbishops name ( I hope without his privity ) for not blotting out upon his commaund this Sentence of Scripture written on that Churches-wall over the place where hee keepes his spitefull ( I should say spirituall ) Court , ( which Scripture is recorded by two Prophets and three Euangelists , and most proper for the Church by our Saviours owne resolution . ) q It is written , my house shall be called an house of prayer to all people , but yee have made it a denne of theives . Which excommunication hee is so farre fro disavowing or being ashamed off , that hee not onely refuseth to absolve the Churchwardens , but also hath most audaciously pleaded it in barre of an information brought against him by Ferdinando Adams , one of the Church-wardens in the Court of Starre-Chamber ; for which presumption alone were hee guilty of , and there charged with no other crimes ( as hee is with other foule ones , against his ‡ Maiesty and the whole State , & severall extortions on the subiects ) that Court most iustly may , and I presume will deeply fine and censure him , for daring to grant out and plead such an impious execrable excommunication in any Court of Iustice , to the very shame and obloquie of our Religion , Church , State , and insufferable scandall of that great Arch-Prelate , in whose name and colour of authority it is granted ; who should doe well ( for his owne justification to the world ) to hang up such a Surrogate for a president to all others , and such a Suffragan Bishop too , who beare such spleen to these holy parcells of Scripture , as to rase them out of the Church it selfe , though set vp by the expresse command of the Homilies , of repairing and keeping cleane Churches , and of the Right ▪ vse of the Church ( which recite and prescribe these latter text , as most proper for it ) the Canons 1571. p. 19. & 1603. Canon 82. And here I cannot but stand amazed at these proceedings . For the Surrogate will not endure the Church , neither to be or called an house of prayer : but his Courthouse causing this Scripture to be actually dashed out of the Church ; and the other will not suffer it to be or reputed an house of preaching ; neither of them will admit these two textes of Scripture , to appeare therein , ( no not on the bare wall where they are no hinderance ) which intimate and declare it to be both an house of prayer and preaching too . And if the Church must now be neither an Oratory , nor an Auditory , neither an house of prayer , nor preaching , though our p Homilies and q Postillers define it to be both , I know not what they will make of it , but ( what they begin to make their Church-houses in many places ) a direct denne of theives , as our Saviour termes it , or else an house of r piping , minstressie , dauncing and revelling : they having made the Lordsday sacred Sabbath , such a day already ; justifying both in their visitation Articles and printed Bookes ; That dancing , piping , Morrisses , Wakes , Ales , Sports and Bacchanals , are meet exercises for this holy day , and so no place fitter for them then the Church ; appointed principally for the s dueties and publike exercises of the Sabbath day ; to the strict entire sanctification whereof by religious dueties our Prelates are such enemies , that they not onely silence , suspend and excommunicate such godly Ministers , who out of conscience dare not joyne with them in encouraging their people to prophane it , and punish those for Conventiclers , who after divine prayer and Sermons ended , meet together to repeat their Ministers Sermon , read chapters , sing Psalmes , conferre or pray together , as they are taught by * S. Chrysostomes and † Bishop Iewels doctrine ; but one of them ( D. Peirce the now Bishop of Bath and Wels by name , ) enioyned the Church-wardens of Batcombe ( in Mr. Barnards Parish in Somersetshire ) vnder paine of excommunication , to expunge this Scripture ( anciently painted on their Church-wall ) quite out of the Church ( Isa . 58. 13. If thou turne away thy foote from the Sabbath from doing thy pleasure on my holy way , and call the Sabbath a delight the holy of the Lord , honorable and shalt honour him , not doing thine owne wayes , not finding thine owne pleasure , not speaking thine owne words . Then shalt thou delight thy selfe in the Lord , &c. stiling it , a * Iewish place of Scripture , not fit to stand or be suffred in the Church : ( and by the same reason not sufferable in the Bible , for the correcting whereof our Prelates may doe well to joyne with the b Papists in making an Index ex purgatorius , as they intend and giue out publikely they intend to doe on all ancient English Writers ) which Scripture the Church-wardens refusing to blot out , the Bishop like an Heroïcall Prelate , r●de thither 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a plaisterer to see it wiped out himselfe ; such hideous Monsters of impiety , blasphemy and irreligion , ( that I say not Atheisme ) are this last generation of our holy domineering Prelates growen ; who must now for ever cease to affirme or boast their Episcopall Supremacy , Authority and Iurisdiction to be Jure divino , since by vertue thereof they thus presumptuously take upon them ( a straine beyond the Papists ) to blot Jus divinum , the very Law of God and Gospell too , out of the house of God it selfe . And can wee then wonder at those immoderate droughts , those watry seasons , those devouring spredding Pests and c Plagues , with other publike and personall judgements of God , which wee have lately felt and suffred , and are like to tast of in a sharper maner , when such monstrous impieties as these , thus plublikely breake forth , without either shame or reprehension in those who stile themselves the Pillars ( being in truth the Caterpillars ) and holy Fathers ( in verity the unholy step fathers ) of our Church , from whom d prophanesse is gone out and spread over all the Land ? Certainly if wee consider onely the lives and practises of our Bishops ( that I speake not of any others ) how they now openly fight against God , his Word , his Ministers , Ordinances , worship , people , grace , holines , yea morall vertue , honesty , civility , and that with both hands , both swords at once ; wee may rather wonder that the Lord himselfe doth not visiblie descend * from heaven , and raine downe fire and brimstone on us , as hee once did on Sodome and Gomorrah , and then tumble vs all headlong into hell , yea our Archbishops , Bishops and Prelates specially , may justly feare hee will strike them all quite dead with Plague , as hee did Pope Lucius the second ( who died of the pestilence , ) * Pope Caelestine the second ( swept away with the same disease , both within the compasse of two yeares , ) a Wichardus Arch-bishop of Canterbury elect , ( who going with great presents from King Oswy unto the Pope to Rome , to fetch thence his pall and conse 〈…〉 ion , hee and most of his company there perished with the Pest , ) * Thomas Bradwardin , Archbishop of Canterbury An. 1348. The Bishop of Marselles and all his Chapter An. 1348. b Daniel the 13 Bishop of Prague Anno 1116. The Bishope of Par 〈…〉 , Rhegium and Millain , Anno 1085. with many other Archbishops and Bishops forecited , heretofore ; that they might no longer be an insufferable Plague and burthen to the earth , or provocation and greivance even to heaven it selfe ; or else deale with them in that exemplary way of Iustice , as hee did with * Thomas Arundle ( Archbishop successively both of Yorke and Canterbury ) one of their predecessors , a greivous persecutor of Gods people , and great silencer and suspender of his Ministers ; who occupying both his tongue , his braines and Episcop●ll power ( as too many of his successors have done since ) to stop the mouthes and tye vp the tongues of Gods Ministers , and hinder the preaching & course of Gods word , was by Gods just judgmēt , so stricken in his tongue ( with which hee had oft staundered the poore Ministers , & Saints of God , as seditious factions people , rebels & Conventiclers to K. Henry the fourth , ( as some of his Rochet doe now to his Maiesty ) that it swelled so bigge he could , neither swallow nor speake for some dayes before his death , much like after the example of the rich glutton , and so hee was starved , choked and killed by this strange tumor of his tongue . This ( say all the marginall writers ) was thought of many to come upon him by the iust hand of God , for that hee so bound and much stopped the word of the Lord , that it might not be peached in his dayes . Our Prelates now have farre greater cause then hee had then , to feare Gods Iudgements in this , or a more grievous nature , and that in these regards . First , Because they have his Example , with ‡ many other like Presidents of divine revenge upon persecuting , truth-suppressing Prelates , to wante and terrifie them , which this Prelate never heard of : and so are more inexcusable then hee . Secondly , Because his silencing of the Preachers and hindring the preaching of the Gospell , proceeded rather from error , ignorance of the truth , and misguided zeale ; then malice or hatred against the Gospell , Ministers , and professors of it ; But our Bishops proceedings in this kinde , proceeds from direct and willfull malice and emnity against the truth , Gospell , Ministers , and Saints of God , against inward conviction and the testimony of their owne consciences staring them in the face ; the very * sinne against the holy Ghost himselfe , or next degree thereto , into which they are dangerously fallen . Thirdly , Because hee persecuted , silenced , or suspended none that professed the same truth , faith and doctrine ; which hee and the Church of England then embraced ; but onely those whom hee and the Church of England then deemed both heretickes and Schismatickes . But our Prelates now silence , suspend , excommunicate , deprive , imprison , persecute those , who professe and maintaine the established doctrine and discipline of the Church of England , which themselves pretend to defend and strive for ; those who are members , yea pillars of our owne Orthodoxe Church and neither seperate from it in point of doctrine nor discipline , being likewise altogether spotles , innocent , undefiled in their lives , even because they preach , and defend Gods truth , and the Doctrines , the Articles of the Church of England against Papists , Arminians , and superstitious Romanizing Novellers : ( A thing so strange , that the like was never heard or read off in any age , Church , State , but ours onely ; yea a thing so detestable , as not found among the Savage ‡ b 〈…〉 ite beasts , as Tygers , Lyons , Wolves , Beares , who ever hold together and prey not one upon the other . Par●it cognatis maculis similis fera , being as old as true , and therefore most monstrous , most detestable in our Christian Church , and Prelates , who must needs expect the extremity of Gods Judgements to light upon them for it . Fourthly , Because hee put downe preaching , and silenced Gods Ministers in times of health and prosperity onely ; but our Prelates even now in this time of sicknesse and mortality , when God in speciall maner cals upon them , * To crie aloude and spare not , to lift up their voyces like a trumpet , and shew the people their transgression , and the howse of Jacob their sinnes : yea which is the hight and upshot of all impiety , they take advantage of this present pestilence and mortality , to put downe all Lectures and preaching , when as all former ages have set them up , together with prayer and fasting to , as a ‡ speciall anti 〈…〉 and preservative * against the Plague , which they now pretend to be a meanes to spread it . An impiety that heaven and earth may well stand am●azed at , and future ages will hardly credit ; yea the very capitall sinne of which the Iewes were guilty , f who both killed the Lord Jesus , and their owne Prophets , and persecuted and chased out , ( as the margin renders it ) the Lords Ministers , forbidding them to preach to the Gentiles that they might be saved , to fill up their sinnes alway ; for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost : A text which should smite through the loynes and hearts of all persecuting Prelates and silencers of Gods Ministers , who prohibit and put downe preaching , the cheife and most principall office , whereunto Preists or Bishops be called by the auehority of the Gospel , as all the Bishops and whole Clergy of England have resolved in the * Institution of a Christian man , dedicated by them to King Henry the 8. and subscribed with all their names , as the very Councell of Trent it selfe hath deemed in these words : * Praedicationis munus Episcoporum praecipuum est ; as the Church of England herselfe in the Homily of the right use of the Church , p. 3. 4. 5. and before them all our ‡ Saviour Christ himselfe his Prophets and Apostles have past all dispute concluded . I shall therefore desire these dumbe silencing and silent Prelates , ( who would have all other Ministers as lasie mute and silent as themselves , favouring all dumbe dogs that neither will not , nor cannot preach , and persecuting none but the most painefull Preachers , a thing well worthy noting , discovering their emnity to be directly against preaching and the Gospell ; ( to remember that of Master * Tyndall our godly Martyr , That B●shops who persecute their owne office of preaching ( for and by which they hold their 〈◊〉 Bishoprickes ) are not worthy of it , nor sufferable in it : and that Bishops or Preists that preach not , or that preach ought save Gods word , are none of Christs nor of his anointing ( therefore not Jure divino ) but Servants of the Beast , whose marke they beare ; whose word they preach , whose Law they maintaine , cleane against Gods Law : and therefore both Ministers and people must and will henceforth call and deeme them such . As for * those Ministers most unjustly silenced , suspended and excommunicated by them , who now basely sit downe silent under their Suspensions , when as they should goe 〈◊〉 couragiously in their Ministery in despite of them , I shall desire them onely to consider . First , the q example and answer of the Apostles themselves , who when they were commaunded by the High Preists , Elders and whole Councell of the Jewes ( who had as much or more power over them then any Bishops have over Ministers at this day ) not to speake at all or teach in the name of Jesus , gave this answer ; Wee ought to obey God rather then men ; whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto God more then unto you , judge yee ? for we cannot but speake the things which we have seene and heard : and though they were thrice expresly inhibited from preaching , yea imprisoned and beaten for violating these prohibitions , yet they dayly in the Temple IN EVERI HOWSE ▪ ( which now forsooth must be a Conventicle , I am sure an Apostolicall one ) they ceased not to preach and teach Jesus Christ , filling Jerusalem and every place with their doctrine , the very Angel of God himselfe commaunding them to doe it . If then the whole Senate of the High Preists and Elders , their terrible Prohibitions and Suspen●ions , yea their imprisonments and stripes could neither keepe nor de●erre the Apostles from preaching ; why should our Bishops threats , suspentions , 〈◊〉 most unjust illegall Censures ( warranted by no Statute , Law ot Commission from his Majesty ) hinder our Ministers from their duty ? Secondly , The example of our owne godly † Martyrs , who both their Doctrine and example taught and professed , That Ministers ought not to give over preaching for any unjust suspension , excommunication , inhibition , Censure or persecution whatsoever , either of the Pope himselfe or of any other Prelate , going on boldly to preach the Gospell , maugre all inhibitions , menaces , imprisonments and penalties to the contrary , though fire and death it selfe . Whereupon they never would give over their preaching upon any Prelates inhibition , no not in their prisons , where Master Bradford and others preached twice every day . And shall our eminentest Ministers now in the Sunne shine of the Gospell under a most gratious Prince , be more pusillanimous , base and cowardly then these godly Martyrs were even in times of darknesse under Popish Princes , Prelates and Tyrants , when it was death to professe and preach the truth , which now ( God be thanked ) it neither is , nor can be ? God forbid . Thirdly , That position of our Godly Martyr , Master John Wicklife ( excellently defended and notably proved by Iohn Hus at large in the Schoole of Prague , as all may read at leisure in * Master Fox : ) That they which lea 〈…〉 off preaching and hearing of the word of God for feare of any excommunication , threatning , persecution , or imprisonment , threatned , or inflicted by the Pope , or any other whatsoever , are already excommunicate by God himselfe , and in the day of Iudgement shall be accounted the betrayers of Christ ; which is so well prooued and defended by Hus , that all Godly Ministers and people must subscribe thereto . And who of all our late suspended Ministers , would be either accounted here , or adjudged hereafter , a man excommunicated of God , and a betrayer of Christ , yea of the very Word of God , of Religion it selfe , and of the soules committed to his Cure , who are slaine for lacke of spirituall food , whiles they out of a slavish feare , of I know not what or whom , sitt mute and silent , and become so many laughing stockes to our Prelates , who would be terrified , daunted and repulsed by their Godly courage . * Fourthly , That Popish Preists and Iesuites dare say Masse , and preach in a maner publikely , though a thing unlawfull and expressely prohibited both by the Lawes of God and the Realme , and no lesse then ‡ high treason , for which capitall punishments are prescribed . If these Miscreants and generation of vipers then have so much courage , for their false and trayterly religion , that they will not be silenced , nor scared from preaching , neither by Lawes , nor capitall punishments ; how much lesse then should zealous faithfull Ministers of the Gospell , contrary to Gods Lawes and the Realmes , give over their Ministrie and preaching , upon the bare illegall suspension or excommunication of a Lordly Bishop , warranted by no Law nor Statute of the Realme , nor any Patent or Commission from the King , and so no colour for any to obey or submit thereto ? Fiftly , What a great blow and wound they have given to religion , what great discouragement and ill example to their people and fellow Ministers ; what losse and prejudice to their flockes , what encouragement to Iesuites , Seminaries , Papists and domineering Prelates , who gett heart & head by their faintheartednes yeelding , silence and submission , encroaching every day further on their liberties , consciences and Religion , so that they have brought themselves and others into a meere vassalage to the Bishops unruly lusts and pleasures ; all which their opposition and contemning of these their suspen●ions and excommunications , beeing * meere nullities in Law ( for want of a Commission from his Maiesty a lawfull ground , a due maner of proceeding , and his Maiesties stile and seale ) had prevented , and may yet chance to remedie . Sixtly , That a * necessity is layd upon them , euen by God and Christ himselfe , to preach the Gospell , and to be instant in season and out of season , and a temporall and eternall woe denounced against them , if they forbeare or give over to doe it upon any unjust inhibition whatsoever , which can neither nullify , controll nor dispense with the commaunds of God. How then can they avoyd or shunne this woe , if the frowne or unjust suspension of a prophane unpreaching domineering Prelate , may restraine them from this duety , or dispense with this most serious taske imposed on them * from heaven it selfe . Seaventhly , That solemne charge that was given them in the name and behalfe of Christ himselfe , yea of the whole Realme and Church of England , and that solemne promise they made before God and the Congregation , when they were first made Ministers ; to wit , * that as they would answer it before Christs tribunall at the great day of judgement , they should and would teach , premonish , feed and provide for the Lords flocke , for whom hee shed his blood , AND NEVER THEIR LABOVR CARE AND DILIGENCE HEREIN , untill they had done all that lyeth in them , according to their bounden duety , to bring all such as were or should be committed to their charge , unto that agreement of faith and knowledge of God , and to that ripenes and perfectnes of age in Christ ( which none of them hath yet done ) that there should be no place left among them , neither of errour in Religion , or for viciousnes of life ; and that for the same cause they should and would forsake , and sett aside ( as much as in them lyeth ) all worldly cares and studies , and give themselves WHOLLY to this thing , and draw all their cares and studies this way and to this end , and that they should and would preach , and be faithfull dispensers of Gods Word in their Congregations ; which charge being layd upon them by the Bishop at their ordination in the name of Christ , by the whole * Church and State of England , and the Booke of Ordination ( confirmed by three severall Acts of Parliament , the 8 Canon , and their owne subscriptions to it ; ) and they particularly promising in a most solemne maner , to performe it to the ●ttermost of their power . How any Bishop can by Law suspend them from preaching as long as they continue Ministers , and are not actually degraded or deprived of their livings , for some just or lawfull cause , warranted by an expresse Act of Parliament ; or how any godly Minister in point of Law or Conscience , can give over his preaching or Ministry upon any unjust suspen●ion , inhibition , excommunication or commaund of any Bishop , Visitor , or Ordinary ( who cannot countermaund this charge or Booke of Ordination , ratified by 3 Acts of Parliaments ) I cannot conjecture . Finally ; That if Ministers will thus suffer , every Bishop at his pleasure , without any speciall Commission from his Maiesty , vnder the great Seale of England , or any just cause in point of Law , upon every humor , fancy , or new minted Article of his owne ( which by the Statute of 25. H. 8. c. 19. and the 13. Canons resolution , yea and his Maiesties too , in his Declaration before the 39. Articles , hee hath no power to make ) to suspend , excommunicate , and put them downe from preaching , then it will be in the Bishops power to suppresse and alter Religion at their pleasure , without his Maiesties or a Parliaments assent , and so all shall hang vpon their wills , who have no power at all , either by the Lawes of God or the * Realme , to institute any new rites , Ceremonies , Articles , Canons or Injunctions , or to alter or innovate any thing in Religion , much lesse to suspend or silence Ministers ? Wherefore in case our Prelates presently revoke not these their anti-christian , illegall suspen●ions , inhibitions , injunctions , or other Censures , to hinder Ministers from preaching , I hope every Godly Minister , who hath any care ; either of his owne soule , liberty , people , any love at all to God or Religion , any zeale or courage for the truth , or desire of the good , either of Church or State , taking these considerations into his thoughts , and finding the Bishops Jurisdiction and proceedings to have no lawfull warrant , either from the Lawes of God or man , will readily protest both against their usurped authority and proceedings , as meere nullities and vanities , and proceed to preach , pray , and doe his duetie , as the Apostles and * Martyrs did of old , without any feare or discouragement ; that so Gods judgements , Plagues and punishments , which the Prelates late practises , with the Ministers silence and cowardize , and all our sinnes have drawen downe upon us , may be asswaged and remooved , and wee may ever retaine the Ordinances and Word of God among vs , in purity , power , sincerity and plenty , both to our present and future happines . I shall close all with this Syllogisme . That calling , authoritie and jurisdiction , which obliterates , persecutes , suppresseth , oppugneth the very Law , Gospell and word of God , with the frequent powerfull preaching , preachers and professors thereof is doubtles , not of divine right or institution , but Anti-christian and Diabolicall , 1. Thess . 2. 14. 15. 16. Rom. 2. 13. 10. Iohn 8. 39. to 48. 1. Tim. 3. 1. to 7. Tit. 1. 5. to 10. But this doth the calling , authority and jurisdiction of Lord Archbishops and Bishops , as the premises , and all stories witnes , especially our Booke of Martyrs . Therefore it is doubtles not of divine right or institution , but Anti-christian and Diabolicall . If the Minor be not sufficiently evidenced by the Premises , by the silencing of many Ministers , suppressing of so many Lectures throughout the Realme , give me leave to instance but in two fresh examples more . The first , in Doctor Peirce , Bishop of Bath and Wels ; who in his Visitation in the midst of August last expresly prohibited all Ministers in his Diocesse to preach on the Lords day afternoone ; threatning some Ministers to suspend them both from their office & Benefice , if they durst presume to preach any more on the Lords day afternoone ; without alleadging any Law or Canon , ( which there is none ) or any danger of bringing or spreading the plague , ( which there is not feared , ) but onely out of his malice to preaching ; and to deprive poore people of the sprituall food of their soules : to affront the Sta●utes of 5. and 6. E. 6. c. 1. 3. and 1. Eli. c. 2. which require OFTEN PREACHING AND HEARING of the Gospell , upon every Sunday and Holy day , and prescribe preaching twice a day , as well , as much , as Common-prayer , coupling them together in the same words to oppugne the Homily of the right use of the Church , p. 3. 4. 5. which prescribes and enforceth , the dayly and continuall preaching of Gods word , and specially on the Sabbath-dayes , from our Saviours and his Apostles owne Precepts and Examples ; to make all Ministers perjured , who at the time of their Ordination make a solemne promise and covenant before God , diligently and painefully to instruct their people , & never to give over preaching , &c. ( as the Booke of Ordination , and the Church and State of England , both in and by it injoyne them , ) and to spite S. Paul● himselse : who as by the space of three yeares together , hee ceased not to warne every one Night and Day ( therefore hee preached Evenings as well as mornings ) publikely & from howse to howse . Acts. 20. 20. 31. So hee chargeth Timothy , and in him all Ministers , To preach the word instantly in season , out of season ( that is , on Lords dayes , and weekedayes ; Morning , and Evening , yea and at Midnight to if need be ; in times of prosperity and adversity ; of health and pestilence , when preaching is most seasonable to raise men from their sinnes ; ) 2. Tim. 4. 2. which Apostle were hee in this Bishops and some other of his Brethrens Diocesse , they would schoole him roundly for such good doctrine , and stop his mouth , to prevent the great mischeife of often preaching , yea , 〈◊〉 our Saviour Christ himselfe , and his Apostles , were now among our Prelates and should * preach DAYLY in our temples , as they did in the Temple of Ierusalem and Jewish Synagogues , I feare me they should be all silenced , suspended , and laid by the heeles for their paines , by our Rare-preaching Lordly Prelates , since they thus use our painefullest Ministers even for frequent preaching ; If I should demaund of them by what Law of God , or the Realme ? by what Canon of the Church , or by what speciall commission from his Majesty , under his greate Seale ? ( without which their Lordships ‡ cannot by Law suspend or silence any Minister , nor keepe any Visitation without the danger of a Praemunire which they have all incurred ; ) I feare me they would be as mu●● , as any Minister they have put to silence : And till they can shew such Law , Canon , and speciall Commission ( which not one of them can doe ) hee is not worthy the name of a faithfull Minister , that will sit downe silent altogether , as too many doe , to their eternall infamy or slack downe their former frequency and diligence in preaching , upon the proudest Prelates bare Mandate , especially in these dayes of Pestilence and Mortality . The second instance is , the suppressing of Master John Rogers Lecture of Dedham in Essex about the same time , continued so many yeares together with so good successe that he hath converted more soules to God , and brought more to heaven , then all the Lord Archbishops and Bishops Sermons from Queene Maries dayes till now ; many of which though they have lived long , cannot I presume name so much as one Soule they have truly converted , either by their life or doctrine , though they have murthered and starved thousands . The Pretence of suspending this our Lecturer is , the great good will the Bishops beare to the Townesmen and Puritans ( so they tearme them ) of Dedham , over whom they are * jealous with a godly jealosie , to wit , least the continuance of this Lecture should draw the Plague to the Towne . But is this thinke you the true cause ? If so , why then let me propound but 6. or 7. questions to our Prelates who are so carefull of mens bodies , that they are altogether carelesse of their Soules . First , Hath not the Lecture beene the greatest blessing that ever this Towne enjoyed ? the cheife meanes that hath enriched it , and ever since its erection wa●ded of the Pestilence from it , yea in the last great Visitation when there was more danger ? If so , as all the Towne and Country will averre , why should it be pestiferous or infectious now ? Secondly , Where did ever their Lordships read , that powerfull preaching was a meanes to attract or draw the pestilence to any Towne or Parish ? or the suppressing of preaching and Lectures an Antidote or Preservative against it ? What Divine , Physitian , Philosopher , or Historian , yea what Epicure or Atheist ever taught such Doctrine till our present new Doctors and Lord Prelates ? Thirdly , Whether the reading of Common prayer and Homilies be not as apt to bring and increase the Plague , as preaching and Lectures , and the one as pestiferous as the other ? If not : then why doe they put downe and prohibit publike fasting and prayer , as infectious in this pestilence , used as a preservative , medicine and cheife cure in all others as well as preaching ? yea how can they proove , that one of these is more apt to attract and diffuse the Plague then the other ? If so then ; why doe they not put downe Common prayer and Homilies in all places infected , or in danger of infection , as well as preaching , ( the one being as pestiferous , as pestilentiall as the other , ) and so make us all true Atheists or Infidels , giving God no publike worship at all ? Fourthly , Whether the putting downe of Lectures and preaching hath beene a meanes to stay , keep off , or spread the Plague , or rather to increase and attract it ? Religion teacheth us that were there is * most sinne and wickednesse abounding , least knowledge and service of God , there is most danger of the plague , and 〈◊〉 experience prooves it true for the most part , it ever raging more in the disorderly suburbs of London , where they have usually least and worst preaching , more then in the City , where is better governement , life and preaching . Powerfull preaching therefore being the cheife * meanes to turne men from their sinnes and evill lives , and winne them unto God , and the suppression of it a meanes to continue and harden men in their evill wayes ; it must necessary follow , that frequent powerfull preaching , is an antidote and cure against it ; and the suppression of it , the high way and meanes to bring it . If reason be not sufficient , let late experience instruct us thus much . The Lectures of Christ Church , S. Martins and others in London , were put downe by the Bishops this Pestilence , to prevent the bringing of it into these Parishes : the very selfesame weeke God sends it unto them , and now it spreads among them much : But in S. Antholines Parish and some others , where the Lectures yet continue , ( in the first every morning ) no Pestilence ( blessed be God ) hath hitherto beene heard off : The Lecture of Black friers on Wednesdayes , at S. Cathrines in the same day , with some other have beene suppressed to prevent the Plagues increase , after its invasion of these Parishes , to the intollerable greife both of Minister and people : yet the plague in those parishes hath since every weeke increased and spread further . At Westminster upon the first comming of the Plague , they gave over all preaching even forenoone and after-noone on the Lords day , thinking by this remedie to cease it ; ( a president hardly paralleld in any age ; ) but what followed thereupon , the Bils since have beene doubled and trebled , and more have there died every day since , then did in a whole weeke before . This therefore is but a Preposterous remedy , and a vaine pretence to beguile little children , and fooles with all . Fifthly , What place is there neere to Dedham from which that lecture should draw the infection ? were it in all or some of the neighbouring Parishes , there might be some colour for such a pretext , and yet not sufficient to put downe the Lecture , since men of those Parishes might be prohibited onely from it , and all else have accesse unto it : But since it is not so neare that Town ( God be blessed for it ) as that there is any such feare of infection , this pretext can be but a meere cloake of wickednes to countenance a worse designe . Sixtly ; Whether they hold not great Banquetting , Maskes , Dauncing , Playes and Enterludes , as pestiferous and infectious , as Preaching and Lectures : and the famous Vniversity of Oxfords health and immunity from the Pestilence , as much to be respected as the poore Towne of Dedhams ? If any scruple be made of the former part of this Question , his Majesties and their owne Booke of Common prayer for the Fast the last great pestilence 1. Caroli , ( which † prohibits all Playes , Maskes , revellings , Dauncing , Pastimes and Banqueting , as causes of the plagues , both beginning , spredding and continuance , and the proper ▪ sinnes of our Nation , which have made us a Proverbe and By-word to all other neighbour-Countries , ) compared with Isay . 5 , 12. 13. c. 22. 12. 13. 14. &c. 32. 13. 14 Amos 6. 1. to 12. Exod. 32. 19. to 35. 1. Cor. 10. 5. 6. 7. ●am . 5. 1. 5. 6. Revel . 18. 7. 8. and many presidents cited in a late Tract against Stageplayes and enterludes , will put it out of doubt . Of the latter part of this Quaere there can be no question , unlesse the Bishops be very unnaturall , to love a stranger better then their own Foster-mother , and weavers , Clothiers , more then Schollers . If then excessive Feasting , Masking , Enterludes , Dauncing and Epicureanpomp , the * very workes of the ●lesh , ( and therefore most unseemely of all others for those who terme themselves spirituall men , yea workes that shut men out of heaven , and therefore not fit for those who professe they have the keyes to let men into heaven ) bee more pestiferous and apt to bring the Pestilence , then Preaching ; and Oxford to be preferred before Dedham ; what is the reason that our great Lordly Prelates in these dangerous times of mortality ( when as they should be all in sable , fasting , praying , weeping and mourning with the people of their Diocesse , and refreshing their starved bodies with that prodigall expence they have there cast away ) have ( to the great ill example of all other people , & grieving of the soules of all who are sensible of the Plagues we now grone under ) beene so lately setting up and practising the one , at Oxford , to draw the Pestilence thither ; and putting down the other at Dedham , to keep the Pest from thence ? When as sundry Councels in all ages , have strictly inhibited Bishops and Ministers , neither to be Exhibiters , setters out , or spectators , but diligent suppressors , yea censurers of the one ( especially in mournfull times of Plague & Mortality which summon all men , but a Gods Ministers above others , to weeping , sackecloath and baldnes , to turne their laughter into heavines , and their joy into mourning , ) and instant both by preaching and Ecclesiasticall Censures , to draw all men from them ; but furtherers and setters up of preaching , yea of preaching twice a day , ( and that principally in times of humiliation ) which they now suppresse . Alast is the piety & zeale of those Lordly Pontificians , who will needs claime all their Episcopalities by a divine right , degenerated to this Epicurian resolution ; b let us eate and drink , let us Maske and Play , let us feast and keep Revell-route , for to morrow wee shall die ? Are these the sermons , the good instructions they preach to King , Queene , Nobles , Ministers , Schollers , People in these pestilentiall times ? Must they be feasting , banquetting , laughing , masking , playing , piping , dauncing , when all others are weeping , fasting , mourning , at leastwise gladly would be so , and that in publike ( as they have reason ) were it not for them ? certainly if S. Bernard were now alive , and saw such Prelates , he would be so farre from thinking them Gods Bishops , that he would undoubtedly define them to be the Devils , yea and stile them d Devils too , and murtherers of mens soules . Who having now taken the highest degree at the Vniversity , that ever the Schooles of Bacchus , Venus , or Epicurus can afford them , may be rather deemed their professed Chaplains , then Christian Bishops . Yet mistake me not , as if I thought it unlawfull for a Prelate or Vniversity , to entertaine their Prince ; farre be it from me or any other to harbour such a thought : But to doe it now at such a time , in such a Pontificall , Epicurian maner , with most prophane and impious Enterludes in contempt and derision of all purity , piety and religion , is the onely thing , which not I alone , but the whole Kingdome generally crie shame on ; banquetting , masking , feasting , Revelling , being altogether unsuitable , if not unlawfull to a Christian , a Prelate , a Vniversity , in a time of such generall weeping and mourning , when * most hearts ( but stony ones ) are sad , and many poore mens faces gather blacknes , even for very hunger , with which too many perish ; whose lives this prodigality would have preserved . Seaventhly , If the Bishops have so much fatherly care to keep off the plague from our Precissians , and Puritans of Dedham ( so they tearme us ) as to put downe our Lecture , ( yea Sermons on the very-solemne Fast-day , where there is any infection , as if the sick needed least spirituall phisick and instruction ) to keep us from the Plague , what is the reason they have so little care of those of our Religion and profession , whom they have mewed up in severall prisons in London ? Why have the Priests and Iesuites in the Gatehouse and elsewhere ( though * Traytors to his Maiestie and the Realme , and some of them condemned men , ) with all other prisoners there , liberty granted them to goe abroad this time of Pestilence , and yet D. Bastwicke , convicted and censured onely for shewing himselfe a true subject to his Soveraigne , in defending his Majesties Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction , against the Popes and your encrochements , ( with other of your High-commission Prisoners , ) no leave at all to retire himself into the fresh ayre for his safety ; It being now , as it seemes , a great deale better to be an open Traytor to his Majesty , or the State , then a meere opposite onely to these our Lordly Prelats , even in their intollerable usurpations both upon his Majesties Royall Prerogatives , and his subjects liberties ? Why have you given speciall command , that Mr. Brewer , committed * close prisoner by you to the Kings bench , for the same cause , should there be detained still , and not remoove with the other prisoners , when as he had obtained licence to goe into Oxfordshire with his fellow prisoners , that so the plague , which environs both those prisons , might sweep away both these Prisoners and ease you of them ? Why doe you still detaine others of your commitment in these and other prisons , of purpose to murther them as much as in you lieth with the pest , when all else that are willing , are set free and walke abroad into the Country for their health ? Why detaine you D. Layton in the Fleet , and Mr. Prinne in the Tower , notwithstanding some Nobles mediation for the enlargment of the one , and the Queenes most gracious intercessions for the other , whose Princely clemency and pitty , to those of a different religion , is an everlasting foyle to your unchristian mercies and barbarous inhumanity , to those of your owne faith and profession . Is this your Episcopall pitty , mercy , grace , and goodnes ; that when all men else can find favour and reliefe , yet those whom you unjustly persecute , restraine or malice without cause , must finde none at all , no not though King or Queene desire it ? What , is your Pontificall malice now swollen greater then their Royall grace and goodnes ? Never therefore dissemble more with the world and us , that you have put downe our Dedham , or other Lectures , out of any love to us , or care of our , or their safety , as you pretend , to keep the pestilence from us , or them ; but confesse you have done it out of the malice of your hearts , against preaching , if not to bring the plague and pestilence ( as much as in you lies ) even upon our soules and bodies , as you endeavour to do upon these * poore prisoners thus detained by you , which these times of plague and fasting call upon you to set free . But take heed least whiles you se●ke to put downe preaching and fasting , by such ungodly meanes and pretences , to keepe off the plague from us and others , you draw it not downe , both on us and your selves . I have already informed you of many Bishops , who have perished of this disease , I could acquaint you yet with more , as * The Bishops of Colen , Spire , Ratisbon , Prague , Verden and Leodium all swept away in An. 1169 : 〈◊〉 Hildewardus Bishop of Hildesheim , An. 996. with many others ; let their examples be your warnings ; and if you will proove your calling to be of God , then henceforth learne to preach , not to suppresse his word ; to be * mercifull as he is mercifull ; else all will henceforth conclude , that you are of your i father the devill , for his workes you doe : He was a murtherer from the beginning of mens soules and bodies , and so are you . Now if your Holinesses or any other deeme this censure of mine over-ha●sh , one that was once of your owne Rochet , and after that a Martyr , k ( Bishop Latimer ) will assure you ; that it was the very devill himselfe , not God , that set up the State of unpreaching Prelacy , and that it is he alone who stirs these Prelates up to persecute and suppresse the preaching of the Gospell under the Title of Heresie , and schisme , and ill Magistrates to doe the like under the Title of sedition ; and our learned l Thomas Becon , as he affirmes and proves at large , that the first and Principall point of a Bishop and spirituall Ministers office , is to teach and preach the word of God ; so he resolves , that such a Bishop as either doth not , or cannot preach , is a Nicholas Bishop and an Idoll , and indeed no better then a painted Bishop on a wall : yea , he is as the m Prophet saith , a dumbe dogge , and as our Saviour Christ saith n unsavourie salt , ●worth nothing but to be cast out , and to be troden under foot of men . Woe be to those Rulers that set such Idols and white-daubed walls over the Flocke of Christ , whom he hath purchased with his precious blood . Horrible and great is their damnation . Our Saviour Christ saith to his Disciples o As my Father sent me , so send I you . Now who knoweth not , that Christ was sent of his Father to preach the Gospell , as we may see in p divers places of the holy Scripture . It therefore followeth , that such as are sent of Christ are sent to preach the Gospell . If they preach not ( the case of many of our Lord Prelates ) it is an evident token , that Christ sent them not , BVT ANTICHIST and THE DEVILL . Thus and much more Becon , who tells these unpreaching Prelates in plaine termes ; that nothing abideth them but everlasting damnation . What then will become of our great Lord Pre●ates , who will neither preach to the people themselves , nor suffer others who are willing , to doe it ; stoping up our preachers mouthes with their illegall , unchristian , anti-christian suspenions and excommunications , yea , expresly prohibiting all preaching in these dolefull mortiferous times of Plague and pestilence , and that on the very Fasting-dayes , for feare it should infect mens soules and bodies ? when as the whole * Councell of Paris under Lewes and Lotharius , Anno 829. l. 1 , 2 , 5. decreed the quite contrary , in these very remarkable termes . Statuimus pari voto , parique consensu , ut unusquisque nostrum dictis & exemplis , plebes parochiae suae attentius ad meli●ra incitare studeat , easque ut se a malis cohibeant , & ad Dominum ex totocorde convertant , solicite admoneant , Deumque quem peccando sibi iratum fecerunt , digna paenitentiae satisfactione & eleemosinarum largitione , sibi placabilem facere satagant &c. Cum itaque Praedicatores SINE CESSATIONE POPVLODEI PRAEDICARE NECESSE SIT , juxta illud Esaiae * Clam ▪ NEECSSES , quasi tuba exalt a vocem tuam , & annuncia popul●●eo , scelera ●orum , & domui Iacob peccata corum : TVM MAXIME ID FACERE NECESSE EST , QVANDO IRAM DOMINI CONTRA POPVLVM DEI , meritis exigentibus , GRASSARI PERSEPXERINT , juxta illud quod Dominus per Ezechielem Prophetamloquitur . Ezech. 3. 17. 18. 19. &c. 33. 7 , 8. 9. 10 , &c. At which our silent and silencing Prelates and old doting Shelford Priest , may well blush for shame , especially if they peruse the 23 , 24 , 25. 28 , 29. and 31. Chapters of the same Councell following . And good reason , for the very Romish Prelates in the q Concell of Trent , as lewd as they were , had so much ingenuity as to decree . That the preaching of Gods word was the principall part of a Bishops Office , belonging especially unto them , and that it ought to be exercised as frequently as might be , for the salvation of the people ; and thereupon enjoyned all Bishops in proper person , or in case of inevitable occasions , by their sufficient substitutes , and all Ministers in every Parish , to preach every Lords-day and Holy-day at the least ; and in the time of Fasts , ( as of Lent , Advent , and the like ) QVOTIDIE , VEL SALTEM TRI●VS IN HEBDOMADE DIEBVS , to preach every day , or at least three dayes every weeke , and at other times also as often as oportunity would permit , and to Catechise the people besides . If this Popish Councell then prescribes all Bishops and Ministers whatsoever , thus constantly and dayly to preach Gods word , ( especially on Lords-dayes , Holy-dayes and Fasting-dayes ) without intermission ; our Lordly , lasie , Loytering Prelates , who will neither thus preach themselves , and prohibit others to preach thus frequently and daily on these seasons , or in any infected Cities on our Solemne Fasting-dayes ; are certainely not onely farre worse then these Trent Prelates , but even as bad or worse then the very Devill himselfe ( as Bishop Latimer proves at large in his Sermon of the Plough , which I would wish them seriously to peruse : ) yea , they are meere Rebels , Traytors and enemies to God , his Church , Religion and the peoples soules . And can they then be ever true , loyall or faithfull to their Prince ? No verily . Not to mention all the r conspiracies , Rebellions and Treasons of our owne or forraigne Prelates against their Soveraignes in all ages , enough to fill a volume as large as Baronius his Annals ; I shall instance onely in three late examples . Anno 1536. Christian the 3. King of Denmarke , ( our King Charles his great grand-father by the mothers side ) imprisoned all the seaven Bishops of Denmarke , for their severall Treasons , Rebellions conspiracies , and insurrections against him , the Kingdome and Christian Religion , and for usurping regall authoritie , with s the rule of the Kingdome to themselves alone , and publishing Edicts in their owne names as the Senate of that Realm ( as our Prelates do now in their visitations & Consistories ) against the Ministers and Professors of the Reformed Religion . All which this King caused to be drawne up into a Remonstrance , which lasted three houres reading , and on the 10. of August Anno 1537. ( two dayes before his Coronation , ) he caused a scaffold and Throne to be erected in the most publicke place of Hafnia the Metropolis of Denmarke ; where he sitting with all his Nobles and Senators in State ; caused this remonstrance of these Prelates detestable Treasons , Conspiracies , Rebellions , and disloyall usurpations on the Crowne , to be read publikely before them and all the people , declaring , that for them he had imprisoned the Bishops , and demanding the Nobles and people , whether they desired that these trayterly Prelates should any more sway the Common weale of the Kingdome , or be restored to their former dignity and power ? Whereupon they all cryed out , No , and that they would be no longer molested with this . Antichristian trayterly generation of Vipers . Which ended , a publike Decree or Act of State was made by their unanimous consents , that these Bishops should be removed , and that the politicall office and power of Bishops should be thenceforth wholy abolished out of the Realme , which was forthwith put in execution ; the Bishops removed , their temporalities and revenues confiscated to the King and seven Superintendents , being but ordinarie Ministers , ordained in their steed . And thus was Denmark freed from trayterly Prelates by our Kings great grand-father , after it had been long oppressed by them t Anno Domini 1571. Iohn Hamilton Archbishop of Saint Andrewes in Scotland , was apprehended , arraigned , condemned and hanged at Sterling , by Mathew Steward then Viceroy during King Iames his minority , for two notorious suocessive Treasons : the first , for conspiring and having a chiefe hand in the Murther of Henry Steward King of Scots , father to our late King James of famous memory , and grand-father to our present Soveraigne King Charles . Anno 1565. & for causing Iames Earle of Murra , Viceroy of Scotland during King Iames his infancy , to be traiterously murthered likewise Anno 1567. For which Treasons , not long after all , Lord Bishops were thrust out of Scotland , by King Iames and the whole Parlements consent , ( though since restored ) as Traytors to their Princes , contrary to Christs institution , as the chiefe suppressors of the preaching of the Gospell in all Countries . u Gustavus Ericus that famous King of Sweden , banished , deprived , hanged up and beheaded some of his Archbishops and Bishops for their many execrable Treasons against himselfe , and the whole Realme , and refused to be crowned , before he and the whole State of Sweden had by publike Act of Parleament , ( though with much opposition of the Prelates ) stripped the Prelates of Sweden of their excessive temporalities , revenues , wealth , and all temporall * Offices and Jurisdiction , which made them oft times to rebell against their Princes , Kings and Magistrates , to stirre up many seditions and to molest that Realme with almost continuall and dayly warres and schismes , for about an hundred yeares then last past , and had and did make them slow bellies , and unpreaching Prelates , serviceable neither to God nor man either in words or deeds , serving rather to intice them to riot , pride , idlenes , and seditions , then to true piety , and having no Title in the word of God to warrant them . Since which the Prelates in Sweden , ever rebellious and seditious to their Princes before , have beene more dutifull to their Soveraignes , and entermedled onely with their spirituall functions ▪ which they altogether neglected while they were Lords . These three late examples of his Majesties royall Progenitors , ( to omit * others ) as they may instruct all Princes how false that idle Paradox of the Prelates is , No Bishop , no King , the contrary being an experimentall truth , and how little trust and fidelity there is in Lordly Prelates ( who have ever beene treacherous to their Soveraignes when and where they have born greatest sway . ) So they may move his Majesty to follow y Father Latymers councell to King Edward the 6 , to unlord all our Lordly Bishops , and remove them from all their temporall offices and imployments , that so they may follow their spirituall Plough-tayle , ( which they will scorne to doe , as long as they are Lords , it being an unseemely and dishonourable thing for Lords to goe to plough ; ) and no longer silence their fellow Brethren , oppresse , molest and vex his faithfull Subjects , and roote out all powerfull frequent Preaching and Preachers of Gods word , as now they doe : From which kind of Lordly Prelates with their Antichristian Romish practises and Innovations now on foote , Good Lord deliver us ; since they have neither Gods nor the Kings Law to authorize them , or support that usurped Papall tyrannicall Iurisdiction which now they exercise , under which the whole Kingdome groanes and languisheth , desiring to be unburthened of it , as an intollerable yoake of bondage , which it can no longer beare , as now it is aggrevated I shall therefore close up all , with the Canon of the Councell of Paris under Lewes and Lotharius , An. 829. z l. 1. c. 23. worthy our domineering proud Prelates most serious rumination . Quia sunt plérique qui non paternū affectū circa gregem sibi comissum sed quendam exercere videntur Dominatum eumque non ut Dominicum , sed flatibus vertosae arrogantiae inflati , ut suum proprium tractare non verentur . Quantum a paternitatis officijs aberrent ▪ subter collecta documenta declarant . Dominus in Evangelio . Si diligis me , pasce oves meas : ME AS inquit , non TV AS . Item , qui major est vestrum , erit minister vester : Et non post multa . Non ita erit , inquit , inter vos . Sed qui voluerit inter vos major fieri erit vester servus . Petrus , Neque dominantes in clero sed forma facti gregis ex animo . Solomon , Principem te constituerunt ? nolli extolli , sed esto in eis , quasi unus ex ipsis . Fulgentius in libro de veritate praedestinationis et gratiae ; Non ideò , inquit , se solùm quilibet episcopus vas misericordiae putet in gloria praeparatum , quia pontificali * militia fungitur , sed si progrege sibi redito solicitus SEMPER invigilet , et PRAEDICET VERBO , instet opportunè , impertunè , arguat , obsecret , increpet in omni patientia et doctrina . Nec sibi dominatum superbus usurpare contendat , sed Apostolicis informatus eloquijs et exemplis , servum se cunctis exhibeat , neque sedis illius altitudine , collatum sibi gaudeat temporale fastigium , sed humili corde fidelibus Praebeat bonae conversations exemplum . Quicunque igitur sacris officijs servituri , sub quolibet ordine applicantur , dignum est , ut illius dicantur , cujus servitio mancipantur , Quia ergò temeritate , immò PRAESVMPTVOSAVANITATE quilibet praelatorum dicere praesumit ; Illa congregatio mea est , aut Ille praesbyter vel Clericus meus est , cum NONSITILLIVS SED ILLIVS CVI DICATVS EST ? Proinde quia is inolitus sesus ecclesiasticae non concordat regulae , corrigatur NECESSE EST. Christian Reader , this passage should have been inserted p. 123. l. 27. after mistake not . I shall close up this , concerning the power and right of Ordination , with these ensuing Authorities and memorable examples . Anno Dom. 1389. the Lollards , Wiclifs-disciples ( as a Walsingham records ) winning very many to their Sect , grow so audacious ; that their Presbiters like Bishops , created and ordayned new Presbiters ; affirming , that every Priest had received as much power to binde and loose , and to minister other Ecclesiasticall things , as the Pope himselfe giveth or could give . This power of Ordination they exercised in the Diocesse of Salisbury : And those who were ordayned by them , thinking all things to be lawfull to them , presumed to celebrate Masses , and feared not to handle Divine things , and administer the Sacraments . This wickednes ( writes he ) was discovered by a certaine man Ordayned a Minister by them , to the Bishop of Salisbury at his Mannor of Sunnyng : By which it is apparent , that the Lollards and Wiclenists , ( the Prctestants of that age ) beleeved , that the power of Ordination belonged as much to Presbiters by Gods Law , as to Bishops ; that one of them might as well , as lawfully ordayne Ministers as the other ; and * that as they might lawfully preach the Gospell without the Bishops licence ( first prescribed by the forged Statute , of 2. H 5. c. 15. made onely by the Bishops without the commons consent ; to suppresse the preaching of the Gospell , ) so likewise ordayne Ministers without it ; and that Ministers ordayned onely by Presbyters without a Bishops privity or assistance , were lawfull Ministers , and might lawfully with a good conscience discharge all Ministeriall Offices ; This being not onely their received Doctrine , but their practise too . I find moreover that b Janruay 20. 1542. Nicholas Amsdorffius , a noble and learned unmaried man , was ordayned Bishop of Newbury , by Martin Luther , Doctor Nicholas Medler pastor of Newbury , George Spalatine of Aldenburge and Wolffgaugus Steinius of Lucopeira , joyning with him in the imposition of hands ; Which Ordination Lu●her afterwards publikely maintained to be lawfull in a printed Treatise . Loe here wee have Presbiters not onely ordayning a Presbiter , but a Bishop . If therefore the Prelates Paradox be true ; That hee that ordayens , is greater in Jursdiction and degree , then he that is ordayned . It will hence inevitably follow , that these Presbiters ( and those who ordayned the first Bishops , ) were greater in Iurisdiction , degree and order then Bishops ; And then farewell their pretended Hierarchie : c Anno Dom. 1537. Christian the 3 , King of Denmarke , removed and suppressed by a publique Edict , all the Bishops of his Kingdome for their intollerable Treasons and rebellions ; abolishing their Lordly Bishopricks , as contrary to our Saviours institution , the meanes that made them idle , proud , ambicious unpreaching Prelates , and sedicious treacherous Rebells to their Princes ; and instead of the 7. Bishops of Denmarke , he instituted 7. Superintendents , to exercise the Office of Bishops , give Orders to others , and execute all ecclesiasticall affayres ; which 7. Superintendents August 26. 1537. received their Ordination from John Bugenbagius a Protestant Minister , in the Cathedrall of Hafnia , in the presence of the King , and Senate of Denmarke . Loe here all Bishops casheired , as false rebellious Ttaytors to their Soveraigne , ( as they have d ever beene in all States and ages , there having beene more notorious Traytors , Rebells , and Conspirators of Bishops , then of all other rankes of men in the world , as I am able to make good , ) as contrary to Divine institution , ( and so not Jure Divins , as they now boast ; ) and Superintendents ordayned by a meere Presbiter in their steed , to conferre Orders unto others in all the Danish Churches . In e the beginning of reformation in Germany and other places , Luther and other Ministers , usually ordayned Deacons and Ministers , and set out Bookes of the manner of Ordination , without any Bishops assistance ; Which power of Ordination and imposition of hands , hath ever since beene practised by Ministers in all reformed Churches , which have abandoned Bishops , ( Such as ours are , and make themselves ) as contrary to GODS Word . Patrick Adamson Archbishop of Saint Andrewes in Scotland , in f his Recantation publiquely made in the Synode of Fiffe , Aprill 8. 1591. confesseth , That the office of a Diocesan Bishop , Omni authoritate verbi Dei destituitur , et solopolitico hominum commento fundatur ; is destitute of all authority from Gods Word , and onely founded in the politick figment of men ; out of which the Primacy of the Pope or Antichrist hath sprung , and that it is worthily to be condemned , because the assembly of the Presbitery , penes quem est Iurisdictio et Inspectio , tum in Visitationibus , tum in Ordinationibus , which hath the Jurisdiction and inspection , both in Visitations and in Ordinations , will performe all these things with greater authority , piety and zeale , then any Bishop whatsoever ; Whosecare is for the most partintent , not upon God , or his function , but the World , which he especially serves . A fatall blow to our Prelates Hierarchie ; For if Lord Bishops be not Jure Divino , and have no foundation in the Word of GOD , then the power of Ordination belōgs not to them Iure Divino , as they are Lord Bishops , neither can , do , or ought they to conferre Orders as they are Bishops , but onely as they are Ministers . And if so ( as is most certaine ) then this power of Ordination belongs not at all to Bishops as they are Bishops , but onely as they are Ministers ; and every Minister as hee is a Minister , hath as much divine right and authority to give Orders as any Bishop whatsoever ; ( the true reason Why anciently among the Papists , as * Durandus confesseth , & now too ; as the Rhemists witnesse ; and g even in our owne English Church among us at this day , Ministers ought to joyne with the Bishop in the imposition of hands ; Neither can our Bishops ordayne any one a Minister , unlesse Three or Foure Ministers at least joyne with him in the Ordination and laying on of hands . This being an apparent truth , I shall hence , from the Bishops owne principles , prove Presbiters Superior and greater then Bishops in jurisdiction , dignity , and degree . Those ( say they ) to whom the power of Ordination belongs by divine right , are greater in jurisdiction dignity and degree , then those who have not this power ; and the Ordayner , is higher , superior in all these , then the Ordayned . But the power of Ordination belongs Iure Divine onely to Presbyters , as Presbyters , not to Lord Bishops , and to Lord Bishops themselves , not as Bishops but Presbyters ; and Bishops when they ordayne in a lawfull manner , doe it onely as Presbiters , not as Bishops ; Therefore Presbiters are superiour to Bishops in jurisdiction , order and degree ; and Bishops themselves , farre greater in all these as they are Presbiters ( an office of Divine invention , ) then as they are Lordly Prelates , or Diocesan Bishops , ( a meere humane institution . ) Thus are our great Lord Bishops ( who * vaunt of the weakenes of Puritan principles , Whereas their Episcopall are farre more feeble and absurd , ) wounded to death with their owne weapons , and all their domineering swelling authority , overthrowne by that very principle foundation , on which they have presumed to erect it ; the ancient proverb being here truly verified , Vis consilij expers moleruit sua . I shall cloze up this with the words of acute h Antonius Sadeel , Who after a large proof of Bishops and Presbiters to be both one and the same by Divine institution , Windes up all in this manner : We conclude therefore , seeing that superior Episcopall dignity is to be avowched onely by humane institution , tantum esse humani Iuris , that it is onely of humane right : On the contrary , Since it is evident by the expresse testimonies of Scripture , that in the Apostles times , Bishops were the same with Presbiters . Iure Divino potestatem ordinandi non minus Presbiteris quam Episcopis convenire ; that by Gods law , and Divine right , the power of Ordination belongs as much to Presbiters as to Bishops . Page 51. l. 17. betweene same , and since ; this should have beene inscribed . So i Alexander & Narcissus were both Bishops of Ierusalem at the same time ; Paulinus and Miletus both Bishops of Antioch together : Theodosius and Agapetus were both Bishops of Synada at the k same season . m Valerius and Augustine were both joynt Bishops of Hippotogether , by the unanimous consent of the Clergie and people ; and when as Augustine , was loath to be joyned a Bishop with Valerius , alleaging it to be contrary to the Custome of the Church , to have two Bishops in one City ; they repyled , Non hoc esse inusitatum , that this was no unusuallthing , confirming this both by example of the African , and other forraigne Churches ; Whereupon hee was satisfied . In the n Church of Rome , wee know , there have beene sometimes two , sometimes three , and once foure Popes and Bishops at one time , Some adhering to the one , some to the other ; but all of them conferring Orders , making Cardinalls , and exercising Papall jurisdiction . In the o Churches of Constantinople , Alexandria , Jerusalem , Antioch , and Affricke , during the Arrian Macedonian , Novatian heresies and Schisme of the Donatists , there were successively two or three Bishops together in them , and other Cities ; the one orthodox , the other hereticall and schismaticall ; Yea , the first Councell of Nice Canon , 7. admitts the Novation Bishops which conformed themselves to the Church and renounced their Errors , to enjoy the title and dignity of a Bishop , and to be associated with the Orthodox Bishops , if they thought fit ; And p St. Augustine would have the Donatists Bishops ( where there was a Donatist Bishop and a Catholicke , ) if the Donatists returned unto the unity of the Church , that they should be received into the fellowship of the Bishops office , with the Catholicke Bishops ; if the people would suffer it ; Poterit quippe unusquisque nostrum honoris sibi socio copulato vicissim sedere eminentius , &c. utroque alterum cum honore mutuo praeveniente . Nec novum aliquid est , &c. As he there defines : Therefore this was then reputed no novaltie . Platina q records of Rhotaris , King of the Lombards , who declined to the Arians , that in all the Cities of his Kingdome , hee permitted there should bee two Bishops of equall power , the one a Catholicke , the other an Arian ; and that hee placed two such Bishops in every City . r Danaeus proves out of Epiphanius , that anciently in most Cities there were two or three Bishops . Nicephorus writes ; That the Scythians neere Ister , have many and great Cities , all of them subject to one Bishop ; But among other people , wee know , there are Bishops not onely in every City , but also in every Village ; especially among the Arabians in Phrygia , and in Cyprus among the Novatians and Montanists ; Yea , no longer since then the t Councell of Later an under Innocent the 3d. there were divers Bishops in one Citie and Diocesse , where there were divers Nations of divers languages and customes : Which though his Councell disallowes where there is no necessity ; Yet it approves and Permitt where there is a necessity . Nay , u those Canons , Constitutions , and Decretalls , which prohibit , that there should be many Bishops in one City , or that there should be Bishops in Castles , Villages , or small Townes and Parishes , least the dignity of Bishops should become common and contemptible ; Manifest , that before these Canons and Constitutions , there were many Bishops in one City and Diocesse ; and a Bishop in every little Castle , Towne and Countrey Village : And to come nearer home , the Statute of 26. H. 8. c. 14. ordayneth , that there shal be many suffragan Bishops exercising Episcopall jurisdiction in one and the same Diocesse of England ; with the Statutes of 31. H. 8. c 9. 33. H. 8. c. 31. 34. H. 8. c. 1. which erected divers new Bishopricks in England , and divided one Diocesse into many , both intimate and prove as much . Why then there may not now bee divers Bishops in one City , one Church , aswell as there was in the Apostles time , in the primitive Church , and formes ages , or as well as there are now divers Archbishops and Bishops in one Kingdome ; divers Ministers in one Cathedrall and Parish Church , I cannot yet conceive ; unlesse Bishops will now make themselves such absolute Lordly Monarks and Kings , as cannot admit of any x equalls or corrivalls with them , and bee more ambicious , proud , vayneglorious , covetous , unsociable , then the Bishops in the Apostles and Primitive times , whose successors they pretend themselves to bee in words , though they disclay me them utterly in their manners , lordlines , pomp , and supercilious deportment , which they will not lay downe for the peace and unity of the Church of Christ . I shall conclude this with that notable speech of Saint y Augustine , and those other almost 300. Bishops who were content to lay down their Bishopriks for the peace and unity of the Church ; Et non perdere , sed Deo tutius comendare . An vero Redemptor noster de caelis inhumana membra descendit , ut membra eius esse●●us , et nos ne ipsa eius membra crudeli divisione lanientur , de Cathedris descendere formidamus ? Episcopi propter Christianos populos ordinamur . Quod ergo Christianis populis ad Christianam pacem prodest , hoc de nostro Episcopatu faciamus . Quod sum , propter te , sum , si tibi prodest ; non sum , si tibi obest . Si Servi utiles sumus , cur Domnini aeternis lucris pro nostris temporalibus sublimitatibus invidemus ? Episcopalis dignitas fructuosior nobis erit , si gregem Christi deposita magis collegerit , quam retenta disperserit . Fratres mei , si Dominum cogitamus , locus ille altior specula vinitoris est , non fastigium superbientis . Sicum nolo retinere Episcopatum meum dispergo gregem Christi , quomodo est damnum gregis honor Pastoris ? Nam qua fronte in futuro seculo promissum a Christo sperabimus honorem , si Christianam in hoc seculo noster honor impedit unitatem ? To which I shall adde , as a Corollary , a like Speech of that holy devout man , S. Bernard , z Who as he constantly refused ( out of conscience ) the Bishopricks both of Genoa and Millaine , though earnestly urged to accept of them ; so hee brake forth into these admirable speeches upon that occasion , ( Homil. 1. De Laudibus Mariae Virginis : p. 18. ) Worthy all Lordly Prelats most serious contemplation . Erubesce superbe cinis , Deus se humiliat , tu te exaltas ? Deusse hominibus subdit , tu dominari gestiens , tuo te praeponis authori Vtinam tale me quid cogitantem Deus , uti suum olim Apostolum , increpare dignetur : Vade post me Satana ; Non sapis quae Dei sunt : Quotiens hominibus praeesse desidero , totiens Deum meum praeire contendo , et tunc quae verè Dei sunt non sapio . Enough to cause all our Lordly Prelates , ( have they any grace in their hearts ) to cast off their Rochets , and lay downe their Bishopricks , their Lordly jurisdiction , which have bred so many schismes , controversies , warres , and tumults in the Christian World , and rent the unity of Christs Church in sunder ; in all acts . Which thing if they now refuse to doe , I shall conclude of them , as Hermagandus did of the Greeke Bishop , who was like to starve him a Sanctissimus est vester Pontifex quatenus ADVERSO DEO fieri licet . Literis sacris enim pingitur Deus est charitas , cujus istum Episcopum omnino expertem esse , nostro periculo sensimus . FINIS . And : Melvini Musae , p. 22. 23. 30. 31. PAstores fidos omnes nos Dounamus aequat Praesulibus , laudi dum labor urget opus . Idem mox septem stellarum arcana revelans , Angelico hos unos tollit in astra gradu . Nos animas viles quibus una est perdia , pernox Cura gregis , vulgi in faece relinquit humi . Christe ducum Lecti pecoris cordate Magister , Coge gregem , numerum non habet ille suum . Si stella est sacri gregis Angelus , Angelus , Anglus Presul , et hic gemino splendet in imperio ; Quaerere nunc restat quae stella sit Angelus , Anglus Praesul , ut is gemino splendet in imperio ? An quae stella haerens caelo scintillat ab alto ? Subtus an orbe alio qui vagus erro meat ? Portentum an terris metuendus crine cometes ? Stella an ab axe in humum tracta Draconis ope ? Et quam in ter ternotenet Angelus , ordine sedem , Aetheris ? aut Terrae ? aut Aequoris ? haud Erebi . Nam regnandi illi haud veniat tam dira cupido , Vt Papa Cerbereum tollas in astra caput . Praesul Regalis . Praesule Papano quod nos damnamus in omni , Quodque in Romano Pontifice est vitium , Praesule Regali , quid non damnamus in omni ? Quae virtus nostri est maxima Pontificis ? Curia pro Cura gregis , aut Iucuria : Cura Cui non ulla gregis , Curio an egregius ? Aureus antiquo florebat Episcopus aevo , Tum cum sacrae essent lignea vasa domus ; Ligneus hoc nostro frondescit Episcopus aevo , Cum sacram exornant aurea vasa domum Porticibus Regem Antistes cur excipit amplis Fruge mensa fuit , dum casa parva fuit . Substruit insanas cur celsa ad Sydera moles , Moribus it praeceps Tartara ad ima rudens , A plebe et Clero fiebat Aepiscopus olim . Illum nunc Mammon , Regia et Aula facit . Hospitio in parvo olim haerebat Episcopus aedi : Arcem excelsam habitat nunc procul aede sacra . In commune olim cum Clero cuncta gerebat . Nunc sine Praesbyteris omnia solus agit . Canonicae quondam Scripturae interpres agebat . Nunc pro jure sacro regia jussa docet . Fratrum jure patri contentus Episcopus olim . Nunc Regnum in fratros imperiosus obit . Tum tenui stipem vitam ultro tolerabat egenam : Nunc beat illum amplis copia divitijs : Nunc opibus dives , pictai vestis et auri . Olim divitiae in moribus atque animo . In grege pascendo totus sudaverat olim ; Nunc mundi incumbet rebus et imperio . Olim Acalutho ibat , seu Tros comitatus Achatem ; Nunc septus magno Papa satellitio . Tunc capite obstipo , et spectanti lumine terram : Nunc stupet elatis astra supercilijs . Tunc vulgaris ei corpus velabat amictus : Nunc picturatae syrmata laxa togae . Et tunicae manicas , et habent ridimicula mitrae , Carbaseosque levis ventilat aura sinus . Pileus in quadrum tereti de vertice surgit , Et bis cocta humilem purpura verrit humum . Ni caudam suspensam ulnis gerat unus et alter Vulpinam . O gerulis sarcina quanta tribus ! I siodor Pel●siota Epist . l. 3. Epist . 223. Illud fortasse ignorare videmini , lenitatis ac mansuetudinis dignitatem , in tyrannidem transijsse . Olim enim salutis ovium causa mortem oppetiebant ; nunc autem Pastores mortem ovibus inferunt , non corpora jugulantes , ( levius enim hoc inalum esset ) verum animis offensionem afferentes . Tum jejunijs corpus castigabant , nunc autem ut luxu et delicijs ex●ltent , efficiunt . Tum bona sua egentibus destribuebant , nunc autem pauperum bona in rem suam vertunt . Tum virtutem colebant , nunc virtutis cultores proscribunt et eliminant . Ne Savi Magna Sacerdos . Courteous Reader , before thou peruse this Treatise , shall desire thee to correct these Errors and Omissions of the Printer , because many of them corrupt & pervert the sence ▪ & so require thy Correction before thy Perusall ; both to free the Author from causeles Censure , and thy selfe from needlesse Error . Other literall obvious scapes of lesse moment , thou maist amend as thou meetest with them . In the matter , p. 6. l. 5. for 1608 yearely , read ▪ almost 1600 yeares . l. 12. quickning , quieting . p. 7. l. 8. as , in . l ▪ 27. also l. 29. of , that : p. 8. l 9. of , and , l. 21. poore , pure ▪ p. 10. l. 11. in Starchamber . p. 11. l. 16. faction , fiction ▪ p. 19. l. 12. Egelrie . l. 13. offred : l. 22. Maleclerke . p. 20. l. 8. Alcunivus . Carthage : Concil , Can. l. 10. Aquisgran : Carnotensis . p 21. l. 9. sinnes . scismes . p. 24. l. 13. Cautinus . l. 15. Verdunum . p. 25. l. 9. Durham : p. 26. l. 31. An. 1554. p. 28. l. 1. of it : l. 5. defile , define . p. 36 ▪ l. 32. deny ▪ denude . p. 43. l. 12. and , as : p. 44 l. 10. thought , taught : l. 15. comfort . p. 45. l. 18. not : p. 46. l. 20. would , could : l. 26. therefore , there for ▪ p. 49. l 7. Timothie is . p. 55. l. 3. two , three . l. 13. falsenes , false forgerie ▪ p. 61. l. 25. consequent , consent . p. 62. l. 6. purseivant p. 7. blot out one : and , and that . l. 8. jealosie : l. 26. rating . p. 64. l. 21. denied . decreed . p. 70. l. 12. ca , in l. 14. Aken : p. 74. l. 5 a Lawyer p. 75. l. 5 and Bishops : p. 78. l. 31. Postscript . p. 79 l. 1. no , nor : l. 4. not . r. since Paul was not . l. 13. these , those . p. 85. l. 16. 5 ly : p. 83. l. 6. other . p. 87. l. 11. or the ▪ p. 93. l. 32 r. who supplied the place of a Bishop , in his consecration to be a Bishop Iure divine , and &c. p 95. l. 1. were ; to be . l. 13 ▪ and their ▪ p. 95 l. 26. r. as Ministers not as Bishops . p 96. l. 12. concurrence l. 32. Taborites p. 100. l. 23. ●etricw p. 111. l. 5 Decrees . p. 112. l 23. & 113. l. 3. of , or . l. 11. Monopolie p. 117. l. 27. in , do : p. 122. l. 11. they p. 123 l. 36. for ever . p. 133. l. 6. interpretatur p. 134. l. 18. blot out hath . p. 135. l. 11. commonly , common by . p. 137. l. 11. banded ▪ p. 144. l. 20. predecessors . p. 145 l. 1. starved : l. 5. preached . l. 12. want , warne . p. 147. l. 14. fast , fat . l. 23. un , on . p. 148. l. 1. and in l. 8. deferre , deterre . l. 13. both by . l. 21. what , where . l. 22. here ▪ twtch : p. 150. l. 21. never cease . p. 151. l. 23 : 13. 12 : p. 154 , l. 5. of , if . l. 17. much , mute . p. 155. l. 9. warded . p. 156. l ▪ 2 the , our . In the Margin : p. 5. l. 34 ▪ page : p. 8. l. 12. Bccon : p. 11. l 27 deslire . p. 32. l. 7. animam , annum . p. 58. l. 6 , when , where : p. 62. l. 4. Meluini . p. 64 ▪ l. 17. Meldense : p ▪ 70. l. 2. Aton ▪ p. 93. l. 2. Catalogo . p. 103. l. 14. lib. 7. p. 113. l. 8. Seva . p. 130. l. 4. Tim. 5. p. 149. l. 17. p. c. l. 25. 13. 12 : p. 152. l. 5. favorers , fainthearted . Kind Reader , ere thou peruse this Treatise , be pleased to correct those Errors in the last page ; with these therein omitted . p. 14. l. 4. forverily : read , freshly . l. 12 ▪ Giver , Grace : p. 15. l. 6. how , two : l. 8. as , or l. 12 : most , must : l. 17. gemmie , genuine . l. 29. provise ; promise . p. 16. l. 5. Hidrax , Hicrax : l. 30. elected p. 17. Studies , l. 11. Shetne , Sennes . l. 20. Maucte . Mentz : l. 21. Augusta : Reformes . Rheemes : l. 22. Salisbury Saltzburg . l. 25. Visalis in Southland ▪ Vpsal in Suethland . p. 18. l. 5. revived , resigned : l. 9. shows , shunne . l. 11. expresse , expose , both 〈◊〉 , to the hazard . l. 18. Kylwarby , l. 25. Warwest . p. 115. l. 9. it is : p. 116. l 4. So the power of Ordination being inferiour : l. 5. every . Minister . l. 19 are superiour to them in point . p. 143. l. 13. rode thither ; made his chaplaine ride thither p. 162. l. 11. c. 5 : l. 20. necessis . p. 166. l. 29. Quia , Qua. l. 33. sesus , usus . p. 167. l. 17. Wiclevists . l. 32. 33 : Newbury , Naoburge . p. 173. l. 6. nolo , volo : l. 27. acts , ages : l. 31. pingitur , proditur . p 175. l. 7. pari : l. 8. fratres . In the Margin . p. 13. l. 18 19. by Characters any Charter : l. 34 : any , out p. 14. l. 7. Godwins : l. 25. 26. people to standing : Replie to Harding . p. 15. l. 2. Eccles : hist : l. 5. Socr. l. 12 Rome . p. 163. l. 2. Vitis p. 164. l. 5. Scoticarum . p. 171. l. 5. Theodoricus : l. 8. Schismate : p. 172. l. 9. r. Caesarue , Pompeinsue . Page 1. 6. l. 10. This should have been inserted . Nor yet to recite the examples of Clement , the 1 of Rome , Pope Cornelius , Ambrose , Augustine , Athanasius , Gregory Nazianzen his father , Pope Gregory the first , Alexander Patriarch of Jerusalem , Anatolius Bishop of Laodicea , Eustathius Bishop of Antioch , Antiochus , Theophilus Alexandrinus , Dioscorus , Chrysanthus , S. Martin Bishop of Towers , S. Nicholas , Paulinus of Nola , Eusebius Pamphilus , Flaiuanus of Antioch , or Marchus , who in ancient times were all inforced to accept of their Bishopricks full sore against their wills and judgements , by the overpressing importunity of other Bishops , Princes , Ministers and people . ( With others quoted to my hands by a Claudius Espencaeus : ) Or , b Eucherius Bishop of Lions , or Otto Bishop of Bamburge , enforced in the same manner to be Bishops , full sore against their liking ; as was c Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury . Nor yet to mention d Ephaaem Syrus , Nilammon , or S. Bernard , who all constantly refused divers great and wealthy Bishopricks , not onely offered , but urged on them , with much importunity ; or e Adrian , who refused the Archbishoprick of Canterbury , though called to it , and urged to accept it : or Bassianus elected Bishop of the Vangensi , f whom furious Memnon whipped before the Altar for 3. houres space , till he bedewed the Altar and new Testament with his blood , because he refused to accept that Episcopall charge and office . Or g Brune Seguinas , who rejected a Bishoprik offred to him , saying , A Bishoprick ▪ must be altogether forsaken of that man that would not be set at Christs left hand ; ( answerable whereunto is that h of Pope Marcellus the 2 : who smiting his hand upon the Table , used these words : I do not see how those that possesse this high place can besaved . Or i John Bugenhagius ▪ who of late times repudiated the Bishoprick of Camine in Pomerland , to which he was freely chosen . k Pope Celestine the 5 : l Athanasius Bishop of the Pareni , Eustathius Bishop of Pamphilia , Rusticus Bishop of Narbon , Remaclus Bishop of Virech , Otgerus Bishop of Spire , Lambert Bishop of Florence , Lutulphus Bishop of Callens , Hugh Bishop of Towres , Burchardus Bishop of Wertzburge , Michael Ephesinus Bishop of Antioch , Desiderius Bishop of the Morini , Geoffry Bishop of Sylvanecta ▪ Conrade Bishop of Batavia , Albertus Magnus Bishop of Ratisbon , of ancient times abroade , m Simon Langham Archbishop of Canterbu y , Winifred Bishop of Coventry , Robert Sherborne Bishop of Chichester , Geoffry Bishop of S. Asaph , with sundry others at home ; n Lewes ab Eperstem , Bartholmew Suavenius and John Fredericke Bishops of Camene in Pomerland , Isaurus Archbishop of Riga , Baldaser Bishop of Suerin , Ericus , John Duke of Saxonie , and Otto Bishops of Heldesheim , Hugh the 47. Bishop of Constans ▪ Fridericke a Weda and Salentine Archbishops of Colen , Augustus Bishop of Mersburge , Jodocus , a Reke Bishop of Derbat , Francis , Henry and Iulius Bishops of Minda , Theodosius a Rheden Bishop of Lubecke , Christopher Bishop of Raceburge , Christopher Bishop of Breme , of later times beyond the Seas , with divers others o here and else where cited , have all successively resigned , and voluntarily relinquished their Bishopricks and Episcopall dignities out of conscience , age , discontent ; or otherpious considerations of the great danger and unlawfulnesse of this antichristian Lordly function , which p all or most holy men have ever declined ▪ or unwillingly accepted of , though our Lord Prelats now post and hunt after Bishopricks , and would rather die then part with them , or the least title of that Lordly Jurisdiction , which they now most antichristianly usurpe , contrary to the Lawes of God and the Realme . Giving over preaching , their chiefest spirituall imployment , contrary to their sole mne vow and covenant made unto God and the people at their q Ordination , to become great secular Lords , and mannage temporall affaires not compatible with their calling . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A68614-e220 a See Theodoricus à Niem , Zabarel , & Ioannis Marius De Schismate . Master Tyndals obedience of a Christian man ; and practise of Popish Prelates . Doctor Iohn White his Defence of the way , c. 6. the fifth part of the Homily against Disobedience & willfull rebellion . Fox Acts and Monuments throughout . Catalog . Testium Veritatis . b Com. in Phil 1. 1. in Tit. 1. 5. 7. in 1. Tim 3. & 4. c De Quest. Armenorum . l. 11. c. 1. to 8. d Balaeus Cent. 8. c. 19. e Fox Acts Monuments p. 9 ▪ 2. 973. f On the 8 Commandement . g Defence of the Apologie . part . 2. c. 3. Divis . 1. 5. p. 85. 99. 100. 101. &c. 9. Divis . 1 p. 196. 202. h Poore mans Library , part . 1. f. 95. 96. i Exposit . on Aggius , vers . 1. & 2. k Against Cartwright . p. 389. l Of the Princes Supremacy . p. 359. ‡ Maith . 6. 24. Lu. 16. 13. 1. Iohn . 2. 15. 16. m See Chownaeus Collect ▪ Theolog. and Shelford his 5. Treatises . n Pag. 2. 43. 44. * See Henry Stalbridge his Exhortatory Epistle . William Wraghton his Hunting of the Romish Fox . Rodericke Mors his Complaint . c. 23. Master Tyndals his obedience of a Christian man , and Practise of Popish Prelates . Fox Acts and Monuments pa● 414. 514. 516. 518. Master Whethenhall his Discourse of the Corruptions now in Question with others . o Matth. 7. 26. 27. * See Sir Iohn Dauis his Irish Reports . f. 97. 98 ▪ an excellent passage to this purpose . q Math. 7. 27. * Doctor Barnes , Articles . Artic. 8. p. 211. Master Tyndals Practise of Popish Prelates p. 342 343. &c. and Obedience of a Christian man. ‡ 37. H. 8. c. 17. * What the Keyes of the Church be . p. 266. u Prov. 16. 18. * 1. Pet. 5. 5. ‡ Psa . 119. 119. * See Thomas Be●● on his supplication , Vol. 3. of his Workes in folio f. 21. to . 25. A most excellent passage to this purpose suitable to our times . ‡ Magna Charta . c. 29. The Petition of Right . 3. Caroli . and other Statutes in Ractall Accusation . z 1. Cor. 1. 27. 28. 29. Notes for div A68614-e970 * In Master Thomas Brewers , Doctor Bastweekes , and sundry other cases . a An. Melvini Patricij Adamsoni Palinodia , printed An. 1630. b See Master Tyndals Obedience of a Christian man. The holy Practise of Popish Prelates . c 1. Tim. 3. 2. 3. 2 , Tim. 4. 1. to . 5 Tit 1. & 2. 1 Pet. 〈◊〉 . 2. 3. d 31. H S. c 9 37. H. 8 c. 17. 1. E 6. c. 〈◊〉 . & all the Bishops Patents for their consecration and Cong . † Not Arch-bishops or Bishops ; who can make no Chancellours , Vicar generals Commissaries or Officials unlesse the King by his speciall Patent give them power so to doe in expresse words , as these Statutes evidence and the Bishops Patents in Edward the 6. Raigne . ‡ Matth. 22. 20. 21. Sir Iohn Davis his Irish Reports . p. 97. 98. a 26. H. 8. c. 1. 37. H. 8. c. 17. 1. E. 6. c. 2. 1. Eliz. c. 1. 5. Eliz. c. 1. 8. Eliz. c. 1. * In case they have 〈…〉 Character or Commission under his Majesties Seale which all of them now want , and so are meere usurpers on his Majesties Crowne and Ecclesiasticall Prerogative in keeping Confistories , Visitations , and Exercising Episcopall Iurisdiction in their owne names , with Patent or Commission from the King. b Sunday no Sabath . p. 〈◊〉 & 44. † W. Bray . d See Antiquit . Eccles . Brit. Bodwines Conversion . of Brittanie with others , who write of King ●ucius and Speedes History . Booke . 6. c. 9. p. 73. to 82. * Defence of the Apolog. part . 5. c. 1. Divis . 1. Artic. 1. Divis . 24. f Acts and monum . f. 2. p. 9● . to 120. g Sped . Hist. l. 6. c. 9. h Page . 43. † See Quest. 1. Object . 6. Answer 2. and most of our learned writers , who have affirmed , that Peter was never at Rome much lesse Bishop there , upon such grounds as this Doctor cannot answere k Epiphanius Contr. Haereses . l. 1. Haer. 27. col . 88. 89. Eusebius Eccles . Hist. l. 3. c. 21. Irenaeus . l. 3. c. 3. 4. 5. write that both of them were Bishops of Rome at once , and not Peter the sole Bishop , and Eusebius writes Paul in the first place before Peter . ‡ See Euseb . s : 3. c. 10. 11. or So●r . Schol. Eccl. Hist. l. 7. c. 3 m 28. H. 8. c. 10. 1. Eliz. c. 1. * See Rastall Tit. Rome . * Oratio ad 〈◊〉 50. Episcopus , in his life before his workes . Socrates Eccles Hist . l. 5. c 7. p Isidor . Pe'usiotae Epist l. 3. Epist . 223. † Nicephorus Eccles . Hist. l. 10. c 11. * Socr. Scholast l. 4. c. 18. in the Greeke 23. Niceph. Eccles . Hist. l. 11. c. 37. Petrus Blesensis Epist . 23. † Socrates Eccl. Hist . l. 4. c. 18. Niceph. l. 11. c. 37. * Nicephori Gregorae Hist . Rom. l. 3. c. 1. 2. f. 9. Cent. Magd. 13. Col. 982. u Cent. Magd. 10. Col. 599. * Cent. Magd. 6. Col. 644. ‡ Niceph. Greg. Hist . Rom. l. 4. 2. 1. f. 11. 13 ▪ 14. l. 5. fol. 16. l. 6. f. 20. 21. 22. 24. l. 7. f. 29. l. 8 f. 31. Cent. Magd. 8. Col. 669. 672. Cent. 11. Col. 516. 518. Cent. 12. Col. 1384. Cent. 13. Col. 932. 983. * Vincentius Spec. Hist. l. 24. c. 25. Cent. Magd. 7. Col. 502. 507. 508. Cent. 8. Col. 763. 786. Cent. 10. Col. 586. Cent. 11. Col. 515. 576. Cent. 12. Col. 1387. 1458. 1468. 1484. 1486. 1491. 1519. 1530. 1544. Cent. 13. Col. 1042. 1052. 1057. 1062. 1078. 1092. 1093. 1094. 1102. 1146. * Godwine Catalogue of Bishops London . 1615. p. 70. 113. 118. 120. 188. 192. 219. 305. 306. 313. 318. 323. 336. 353. 397. 413. 414. 437. 438 446. 447. 456. 477. 487. 504. 508. 532. 536. 543. 559. 565. 567. 581. 596. 629. 631. 632. 635. 636. 654. 655. 675. 676. ‡ Fox Acts and Monuments p. 1578. His 2. 3. and 4. Sermons before King Edward . t Epist. 2. 83. 85. in Tit. 1. Phil. 1. & 1. Tim. 3. u In Eph. 4. & 1. Tim. 3. x Rom. 1. in Phil. Hom. 11. in 1. Tim 3. Hom. 2. in Tit. 1. y Ep. 19. 83. 85. Quaest. ex utroque impert . 100. 101. z In Phil. 1. 1. Tit. 1. 5. 7. 1. Tim. c. 3. & 4. Acts. 15. & 20. 17. 28. a Ori. l. 7. c. 12. l. 8. c. 5. De Ecclesiast . Officiis . l. 2. c. 7. b De divinis officiis l. 2. c 35. 36. c In Acts. 15. & 20. 1. Tim 3. Phil. 1. 1. Tit. 1. 5. 7 d Distinct . 80. 93. Causa . 2. Qu. 7. e Decretal . pars 5. c. 58. 59. 72. 107. 143. 144. f Sent. l. 4. Distinct. 24. g In Phil. 1. Tit. 1. & 1. Tim. 3. h Amalarius Fortunatus de Eccles . officiis , l. 2. c. 13. Basilius Magnus , in c. 3. Isayae . Nizianzen . Orat. 9. 13. 15. 21. 28. * Quoted by Gersonius Bucerus , the Petition to Queen Elizabeth , Master Parker , & Doctor Bastweeks Bookes . k Matth. 20 , 20 , to 29 , Marc. 10 , 35 , to 48 , Lu. 22. 23 , to 28. l 1. Pet. 5 , 1 , to 6 , Acts. 14 , 23 , c. 20 , 17 , 28 , Phil. l , 1 , Tit. 1 , 5 , 7. 1. Tim. 3 , &c. c. 5 , 17 , c. 4. 14 , Iam. 5 , 14 ▪ m See Bp. Iewels Defence of the Apologie . part . 2 , c. 3 , Divis . 5 , an excellent place for this purpose . Notes for div A68614-e2270 a Bishop Whites Title to his Treatise of the Sabbath-day . b Math. 23 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , c. 20 , 25 , 26 , Iam. 3 , 1 , 1 , Pet. 5 , 3 , c 1 , Iohn . 2 , 15 , 16 , 17 , Iohn . 17. 14 , 15 , 16 , Math. 6. 24. 2 , Tim. 4 , 10. * Theodosius the second an Emperour and sundry Kings , as Kinredus , Offa , ( whom Platina in the life of Pope Constantinus records , to have both died of the Plague at Rome ) with many other died of the Plague . d 2 Cor. 5 , 1 , † Mathew Westminster . An. 591 , p. 231. e Sermo 20. in ●etania Majori . * Cent. Magd. 6. Col. 7 , 31 , Ibid. 137 , Cent. 10. Col. 575. Cent. 12. Col. 1454. Ibid. 1466. Ibid. 1488. Ibid. 1489. Cent. 12 , 1492. and 1493. Col. 1512. Col. 1533. * Grimstons Imperiall History p. 490. f Fox Acts and Monuments p. 632. g Godwins Catalogue of English Bishops p. 183. h Godwin . Ibid. p. 629. i Godwin . Ibid. p. 195. k Godwin . Ibid. p. 198. 444. * See Grafton . p. 123 ▪ l Godwin . Ibid. p. 164. 244. 617. Antiquit. Eccles . Brit. p. 345. * Nemo potest duobus Dominis servire , Deo & Mammonae . Si te curiae , & maximè scaccarij labyrinthis immerseris ▪ magna spiritualis exercitij dispendia patieris . Quid tibi ad Fiscales redditus , ut , vel horula brevi curam posthabeas animarum ? Nunquid Christus te ad Telonium elegit ? Matthaeus semel inde sum●tus , denuò ad ipsum non rediit : Non sis ergo in turba corum qui secularia spritualibus anteponunt , glutientes Ca●●elum , culicem liquantes . &c. Petrus Blesensis De Instit . Episc . Tractatus . m Num. 6. 25. 6. Ioel. 1. 14. 15. 16. c. 2. 12. 13. 14. Isay 22. 12. 13. 14. Zeph. 2. 1. 2. † So the Booke of 1. Iacobi . stiles it . ‡ Of the time and place of prayer , and against disobedience and willfull Rebellion part . 3. * Sunday no Sabbath p. 6. 20. 21. q Hist . of the Sabbath part . 2. c. 8. † Bishop White , Doctor Heylyn , Doctor Pocklington , Dostor Primrose , Christopher Dow , Edmund Reeve and others . ‡ Sest . 38. n. 1. p. 111. Digres . 46. Sect. 43. n. 6. p. 165. 166. * In quartum Praeceptum . † In Ioan. c. 7. * Institution of a Christian man , and a Necessary Erudition &c. Exposition on the fourth Commandement . y 2. Chron. 36. 15. 16. 17. 1. Thes . 2. 14 , 15 , 16. ‡ See A Divine Tragedy lately acted . z Ier. 20. 9. a Amos. 8. 11. ‡ Ps . 68. 21. Deut. 32. 41. ‡ In Ps . 92. d Ps 2. 9. 10. 11. 12. * Animabus Prelatus es , non corporib . nihil Prelato commune est cum Pilato . Petrus . Blesensis . Tract . de Institut . Episcopi , Ioanni Wigormensi Episc . dicatus . ‡ Acts 9. 4. 5. * Psal . 7. 1. g Nahum . 1. 2. h Rom. 9. 22. ‡ Isay . 33. 1. Vae●●is qui praesident , hominibus , nisi eis praesideat Deus . Petrus Blesensis . de Instit. Episcopi Tractat. k Dan. 4. 27. ‡ Acts 20. 29 Frequens est inter Episcopos aliquem invenire , qui primum suae promotionis animam dedicet sanctitati ; cumque in sua novitatesit factus agnus , inveteratus aliquot dierum , fit rapacissimus Lupus . Petrus Blesensis De Instit . Episcop . Tractatus . * Isay . 11. 6. 7. m Col. 3. 12. 13. 14. 15. ‡ Ioel. 2. 12. 13. 14. 15. 14. 15. 16. * Isay . 58. 4. 〈◊〉 14. ‡ Quidan Episcopi Regum munificcntias & ele●mosinas antiquorum , abusive Baronias & Regalia●ocant Et in occasionem turpissimae servitutis & seipsos Barones appellāt vereor ne de illis queruletur Dominus , & dicet . Ipsi regnaverunt & non ex me . Principes exstiterunt & ego non cognovi Scias te assumpsisse Pastoris officium non Baronis . Certe Ioseph in Aegypto Patrem suum & fratres instruxit , ut dicerent Pharaoni , viri Pastores sumus : Maluit eos profiteri Pastoris officium , quam Principis aut Baronis . p Ier. 5. 9. q Ier. 11. 11. 23. Petrus Blesensis Tractat. De Instit . Episeopi . † Isay . 41. 11. 12. s Numb . 23. 19. t Psal . 37. 10. 38. u 2. Tim. 2. 7. Notes for div A68614-e3860 That Timothy was no Bishop . a See Gersonius Bucerus De Gubernatione Ecclesiae : p. 512. 513. usque 518. b See Cent. Magd l. 2. c. 10. Col. 625. 626. * If Postscripts be of Credit as the Bishops make them . † If Timotheus were then Bishop of Ephesus , why did Paul thus send him from his Cure , and Bishops See ? * See 1. Tim. 3. 14. 15. That Timothy was not Bishop of Ephesus . * 1. Tim. 3. 14. c. 4. 13. Gersonius , Bucerus , De Gubernatione Ecclesiae . p. 502. usque 507. † Vide Chytraeum On a mast . in Timotheum , & Gersonium Bucerum : Dissertat . De Guber . Ecclesiae . p. 506. 507. * Note well . That Timothy was neither the sole , nor the first-Bishop of Ephesus . † Bucerus De Gubernat . ●ccles p. 506 usque 510. Cent. Magdeb. 1. l. 2. c. 10. Col. 626. ‡ See Gersonius Bucerus , De Guber . Eccles . p. 302 , 303 , 304. g Contra haeres . l. 4. c. 43 44. and l. 3. c. 2. h Epist. 5. 6. 7. 8. i Com. in Phil. l. 1. 1. Tit. 1. 5. 7. k In Ephes . 4. l Sedulius in Tit. 1. 5. m Contra Haereses l. 1. Haeres . 27. col . 88. 89. Eccles . Hist . l. 3. c. 31. n Apologia contra Gentes c. 39. ‡ Advers . Haer. l. 3. c. 3 p Eccl. Hist . l. 3 , c. 23 , q Eccl. Hist . l. 2. 42. 44. 46. r In Lipom. De vitis Sanct. l. 1. de Iohanne . s Catal. Script . Eccl. Iohannes . t Onomast . in Ioan. u Annal. Tom. 1. * August . Epist . 86. * Chronol . Isag . x De Timatheo . y Cent. 1. l 2. c. 10. col . 626. z Niceph l. 3. c. 71. Vincentius Spec. Hist . l. 38. c. 10. b Beda in Apoc . 1. and 2. Aretas in Apocal . 2. & 3. Ambros . Ausbert in Apoc. l. 2. & Primasius in Apoc. 2. Brightman . Gersonius Bucerus De Guber . Eccl. p. 205. 393 408. 419. 422. 433. usque 466. 472. 484. 485 , c Preface to the Treatise of the Sabbath . Bishop Downham in his consecration sermon . ‡ Comment . on Gal. 6. p. 497. 498. 499. * Perchance Theodoret. the first in whom I finde any Postscripts . 430. yeares after Christ. * See Master Perkins comment . on Gal. 6. p. 497. 498. 499. when this is largely prooved . * Comment . on Gal. 6. p. 497. 498. 499. † See Tripart . Hist . l. 11. c. 3. Theodoret. Eccl. Hist. l. 4. c. 7. the Title of the Chapter . Socrates . Eccles . Hist . l. 7. c. 3. Nicephorus . Eccl. hist . l. 14. c. 11. ( the first who stile it Pacatiana ) and those who have lately commēted on , and written against this Postscript . Surius Conc. Can. 1. p. 453. Tom. 2. 2. p. 11. 12. 221. 438. 461. 479. 480. 483. 488 413. 499. 503. 505. 520. 553. 580. 589. 599. 601. Carolin Sigonius de occidentali Imperio . l. 3. p. 90. * Master Perkins Commentar . on Gal. 6. p. 497. 499. 499. d Eccles . Hist . l. 3. c. 4. as Meredith Hammer an English Bishop , Englished it , in his English translation of Eusebius . e 2. Tim. 4. 6. 7. 8. 9. with all Expositors on this Epistle and the Postscript of it if of any force or truth * 1. Tim. 1. 3. 4. ‡ 2. Tim. 4. 12. Ephes . 6. 21. 22. f 2. Tim. 4. 1. 2. g Fox Acts & Monuments pag. 1153. Nicolaus De Clemangijs de corrupto Eccl. Statu c. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. Bishop Latymers Sermon of the plough . See the Rhemists in their Preface to this Episile . h Hierom , Ambrose , Chrysostome , Sedulius , Primasius , Theodoret , Theophylact , Remigius , Rabanus , Maurus , Anselmus , Occumenius , Alenfis , Lombard , Bruno with all late Expositors on 1. Tim. 3. Phil. 1. 1. Tit. 1. 5. 7. Acts. 20. 17. 28. and Master Cartwright , in his Answer to the Rhemists Preface . i Non solum Timotheum sed & omnem per hoc admonet Episcopum : Oecumenius in 1. Tim. 5. 1. k 2. Tim. 3. 16. 1. Tim. 6. 1. to 21. ‡ Div 〈…〉 Basilius it a interpretatus est , quasi nihil hujus capitis ad ordinationem pertineat . Occumenius , in 1. Tim. 5. 22. † Conference at Hampton Court. p. 89. 90. Me●ini Celsae Commissionis Anatomia . Fullers argument . 1607 The Petition of Greivances 7. Iacobi . m Chrysost . Theodoret. Theophilact . Oecumenius , and other on this text . The Brethren of London in King Henry the 8. his dayes in their Letter to Thomas Philips ▪ Fox Acts and Monumens . p. 951. † Concilium Antiochenū , Can 20. Gratian. Distinct. 18. Conc. Aphricanum , Can. 18. Chalcedonense . Can. 19. Nicaenū . Can. 5. Toletanum , 3. Can. 18. Synodus Francica , Anno. 742. Conc. Meldense , Can. 32. with many more . n Dissertatio de Guber . Ecclesiae p. 506. 507. 508. o Controv. 4. Quest . 1 c. 2. Sect. 16. * Vide pag. 490. usque 524. ‡ See Gersonius Bucerus p. 518. 519. p Eccles . hist . l. 3. c. 4. as Meredith Hamner , a Bishop Englisheth it . * In 1. Tim. 3. ‡ See Doctor Raynolds conference , with Hart. p. 213. q Defensor Pacis , pars . 2. c. 16. Vlricus Velenus , Petrus non venisse Romam , neque illicpassus est . r Senatus Consulius Franciae contra abusus Paparum . 162. to 172. s Doctor Raynolds conference with Hart. c. 6. Divis . 3. p. 210. to 218. Balaeus in Act. Rom. Pontif. l. 1. Praefation . Christopher Carlile his S. Peters life and Peregrination , prooving that Peter was never at Rome . R. Bernard his fabulous foundation of the Popedome . * Fox Acts and Monuments p. 1465. Gersonius Bucerus De Gubernat . Eccl. p. 432. usque 500. 519. 520. to 540. t Advers . Haereses . l. 3. c. 2. 3. l. 4. c. 43. 44. 45. u De Praescriptionibus advers . Haereticos . x Eusebius Eccles . Hist . l. 5. c. 12. 22 Fox Acts & Monuments p. 1465. * Acts. 18. 18. 19. Timothy no Diocaesan Bishop of Ephesus . * See Gersonius Bucerus Dissertatio De Gubern . Eccl. p. 213. 246. 282. 302. 303. 304. 307. 308. 416. 417. 461. accordingly . * Ioannes de At 〈…〉 , Constit . provin . fol. 122. Lynd. provin Constit . l : 3. Tit. De Parochiis . fol. 134. * Acts. 19. 10. c. 20. 31 Quaestion . 2. * Homer . Odys . 19. ‡ Mercators Atlas in English London . 1635. p. 812. * Quoted by Doctor Barnes in his Workes . p. 210. See Gersonius Bucerus de Guberaat . Ecclesiae . p. 520 , 621 * Adversus Haereses . Tit. Episcopus . * p. 210. ‡ See Gersonius Bucerus , p. 233. 261. 398. usque 402. 556. Th. Cartwright 2. Reply to Whitgift , p. 404. to 616. * See Anacleti Epist . 3. c. 3. Surius Concil . Tom. 1. p. 165. a Galfridus Monumitensis . histor . l. 5. c. 19. Ponticus Verunnius Brit. hist . l. 4. p. 106. Polichron . l. 4. c. 16. f. 163. Antiquit. Eccles . Brit. p. 7. with sundry others . ‡ Surius Concil . Tom. 1. p. 140. 163. 165. 342. 505 : 392. Tom. 2. p. 1046. Tom. 3. p. 547. Socrates Eccles . Hist . l. 5. 6. 8. Euagirus Eccl. Hist. l. 2. c. 18. * In his Re-ply to Tho. Cartwright . See Cartwright his second Reply against Whitgift Tract . 8. fol. 414. to 616. * An , Mesuini Petri Adamsoni Palinodia printed An. 1620. d De Gubernat . Eccl. p. 233. to 238. 299. to 390. 394. 395. 396. 397. 490. to 423 580. 581. * David Dickson his short explanation on the Epistle to the Hebrewes . p. 332. 333. † Master Perkins his Commentary on Gal. 6. p. 496. 497 498. 499. * Commentary on Gal. 6. Vol 2. p. 499. ‡ Bishop Latimers fourth Sermon of the plough , Fox Acts & Monuments , p. 119. 120. * So the Statutes of 25. H. 8 c. 29. 37. H. 8. c. 17. 27. H. 8. c. 15. 1. E. 6. c. 2. 1 Eliz c. 1. 2. 8. Eliz. c. 1. 25. H. 8. c. 21. 31. H. 8. c. 9. 14. 32. H. 8. 15. 16. 2. H. 5. c. 1. 14. Eliz. c. 5. expresly resolve . That the power of ordination of Ministers belongs not onely to Bishops . e Fox Acts & Monuments . p. 1465. ‡ Acts. 13. 1. 2. 3. * 3. Ed. 6. c. 32. 8. Elizab . c. 1. g Gersonius Bucerus , p. 33. 158. to 162. 262. 499. 500. 517. 518. 540. 622. 623. 318. to 367. h Surius Tom. 1. p. 513. * Distinct . 23. k Notes on the 1. Tim. 4. 14. l Distinct . 23. 24. 25. m Appendix ad Catal. Testium Veritatis . n Dissertat . deGubernat . Eccles . p. 318. to 367. 464. 465. 493. 498. 499. 524. See Canon . 35. o Surius , Tom. 1. p. 296. ‡ Surius Ibid. p. 403. 404 * Constit . Apost . l. 3. c. 10. 11. 20. † Surius Tom. 2. p. 719. Tom. 1. p. 800. ‡ Exod. 40. * Psal . 98. ‡ See Concil . Carthag . 2. An. 428. c. 3. 4. Gratian . Causa . 20. quest . 6. Concil . Carthag . 3. c. 36. Gratian. Caus 16. quest . 6. * Leo Epist. 86. x Exod. 28. 1. to 43. c. 29. 5. to 45. c. 30. 7. 10. 30. Heb. 5. 4. 5. c. 7. 11. y Numb . 25. 35. z Heb. 4. 14. 15. c. 5. 1. to 11. c. 6. 20. c. 7. 20. to 28. c 8. 1. to 7. c. 9. 1. to 28. c. 10. 11 to 23. a Exod. 29. 1. to 39. c. 30. 25 , to 31 c. 40. 1. to 34. b 1. King 8. 2. Cron. c. 6. 8. c Heb. 7. & 8. & 9. & 10. * Augustin . Serm. 99. de tempore . Whitekar . Contr. 4. qu. 1. c. 2. Willet . Symopsis Papismi . Cont. 5. q. 3. d Heb. 9. 14. 15. c. 5. 1. to 11. c. 6. 20. c. 7. & 8. & 9. & 10. e Heb. 6. 20. f Heb. 13. 20. 1. Pet. 5. 4. g 1. Pet. 2. 25. h Math. 18. 1. &c. c. 28. 19. Mark. 16. 15 Iohn . 15. 16. 4. Ephes . 8. 11. 12. 13. 1. Tim 4. 14. Acts. 13. 1. 2. 3. † Exod. c. 29 & 30. & 40. compared with Acts 6. 1. to 8. c. 14. 23. c. 13. 1. 2. 3. Tit. 1. 5. 1. Tim. 4. 14. c. 5. 12. * Gersonius Bucerus de Gubernat . Eccles . p. 264. 265. 269. 291. 269. 308. 309. 446. 501. 502. k Acts. 13. 3. 1. Tim. 4. 14. The Rhemists with all late Commentators , Ibidem , and some ancient too . † Surius Tom. 3 p. 299. m Surius Ib. p. 300. n De Instit . Clericorum . l. 1. c. 4. * Gen. 27. & 28. ‡ Gen. 48. q Surius Tom. 4. p. 965. r Lib. 7. s Examen Concil . Tridentini , pars 2. De Sacramento Ord. t Ibid. p. 968. u Epist . 2. c. 2. apud Surium . Tom. 1. p. 161. recited by Gratian. Distinct . 67. x Gratian. Distinct. 61. 62. 63. 64. &c. y Illyr . Catalogus Testium veritatis An. 1562. Appendix , p. 23. to 56. vera demonstratio , quod Electio Praesulum & Episcoporum non ad Ecclesiasticos solum sed & ad Laicos , vocant , pertineat , quodque hi hoc jure Electionisinde usque à Christi temporibus annis : 1500. usisunt . z Epist . ad Evagrium . & in Tit. 1. a Cont. haeres l. 3. haer . 75. c In Ephes . 4. & 1 Tim 414 d Quaestiones ex utroque Testamento mixtim . quaest 101. e Epist . 86. b De Ecclesiasticis Officiis , l. 2. c. 7. f Aquinas Supplementum Quaest. 38. Artic. 1. g Ambros . in Ephes . 4. h Quaestiones ex utroque Testamento mixtim . quaest . 101. i C●nt . Haeres . l. 3. Tom. 1. Haer. 75. * See Cent. Magd. 3. De Ritibus circa vocationem & ordinationē Col. 135. k 1. Tim. 4. 14. * Appendix Catalogo Testium veritatis p. 23. to 56. Gersonius Bucerus De Gubernat . Eccl. p. 25. 130. 131. 318. usque 334. 346. usque 354. 360. 361. 362. 363. 364. 414. 609. * De Vitis Pontificum p. 53. ‡ See Surius Concil . Can. 1. p. 188. 161. 163. 341. 369. 376. 406. 502. 506. 574. Tom. 2 p. 187. 656. Tom. 1. p. 699. 718 467. Tom. 2 p. 264. 267 268. 272. 638. 731. * Antiquit. Eccl. Brit. p. 302. m In 1. Tim. 4. 14. n In 1. Tim. 4. 14. o In 1. Tim. 4. 14. p Ambrose in Ephes . 4. & 1. Tim. 3. Hierome , Sedulius , Theodoret , Primasius , Rabanus Maurus , Remigius , Oecumenius , Theophilactus , Alselmus , Beda , Bruno &c. in Phil. 1. 1. 1. Tim. 3. Tit. 1. 5. 7. Acts. 20 17 28. q In 1. Tim. 4. 14. Lect. 3. r In 1. Tim. 4. 14. s Supplementum Quaest . 38. Arti. 1. * In 4. Sent. Dist . 24. quaest , 5. 6. u Summa Angelica Ordo Sect. 13. and Innocentius there cited . x Filiuc . Icsuita De Casibus Consc . pars 1. Tract . 9. c. 5. y Lydij Waldensia p. 23. z Fox Acts & Monuments p. 210. Catal . Testium Veritatis tit . Waldenses p. 445. a Argument . & Respons . pars 7. De potestat . Episc . Arg. 2 ‡ In 1. Tim. 4. 14. * In 1. Tim. 4. 14. † Argum. & Resp . par● 7. De Ordin . Minist . in Argum. 1. † Loci Com-De Ministr . Verbi Dei. * De Ecclesi● Cap. 11. ‡ Magist . Sentent . l. 4 c. 25. † Cent. 1. l. 2 c. 6. Ritus vocationis & Ordinationis Col. 502. * Harmon . Confess . pars 2. † See Gersonius Bucerus DeGubern . Eccl. p. 618. ‡ Presbytery & Episcopi sunt Iure divino pares , id est , administrant idem officium , eodem modo , & eadem auctoritate , Vnde Presbyteri impositionis manuum in pastoribus ordinandis jus habent . 1. Tim. 4. 14. Can. Presbyter . Distinct . 23. Sir Amandus Polanus Syntagm . Theol. l. 7. c. 11. † Canons 1603. 36. 37. * See Bishop Iewols Re-ply to Harding . Artic. 4. Divis . 25. Eusebius Eccles . Hist. l. 3. c. 11. l. 6. c. 29. l. 3. l. 7. c. 3. Socr. Eccles . Hist . l. 2. c. 6. l. 5. c. 7. 8. 9. 15. 〈◊〉 . 7. p 3. 12. 26. 28. 29. 34. 35. 36. 45. l. 4. c. 6. Euagrius Eccles . Hist . l. 2. c. 8. 11. l. 3. c. 11. 12. l. 4. c. 6. 3● . Gratian Distinct . 63. 79. Appendix ad Catalogum Test. Veritatis . m Wicklif . De 4. Sectis Novellis . c. 6. De Papa . c. 11. n Richardus Armachanus . Ad Quaest . Armenorum . l. 11. c. 1. to 8. o Waldnsis Cont. Wicl . Tome 3. c. 60 61 62. 63. & Tom. 1. l 2. Artic. 3. c. 57. * Tom. 3. c. 36. Sect. 1. * Controv. 2. qu. est . 5. c. 5. † Contra Duraeum l. 9. Sect. 55. * Manus impositio quid est aliud quàm oratio super ▪ hominem ? Caus . 1. qu. 1. c. Manus . Ambr . in 1. Tim. 4. ‡ In 1. Tim. 4. Lect. 3. See Gersonius Bucerus De Gubern . Eccl. p. 337. * 1. Tim. 3. 2. ‡ Lindewoods Constit . Provinc . l. 3. de Censibus . cap. Sena f. 160. 161. * See Wests Presidents : Warranti Sect. 574. * Bellarminus Ener . Tom. 2. l. 3. c. 2. ‡ Summa Angelica , Baptismus 5. Sect. 12. Concil . Carthag 4. Can. 39. 99. Gratian. Distinct . 23. cap. Mulier . * Fox Acts & Monuments 1610. p. 465. 485. 501. 599. 1015. 1016. 1795. 1796. ‡ Tit. 1. 5. * Amesuis , Bellarminus Enervatus Tom. 2. l. 3. c. 2. & others forequoted . ‡ See Gersonius Bucerus de Gubernat . Eccles . p. 33. 158. to 162. 261. 262. 499. 500. 517. * 1. Cor. 12. 9. 10. Acts 10. 46. d Marsilius Patavinus Defene . Pacis pars 2. c. 20. 24. Fox Acts and Monum . p. 1153. Bishop Latymers Serm. of the plough . Nicolaus de Clemangiis de corrupto Eccles . statu . c. 14. 15. 16. Avent . Annal. Bojorum . l. 6. Proaemio . * De Cleric . c. 4. f Thomas Bec on s Catechisme . f. 499. 500 The Institution of a Christian man : Ch. of orders ; Gersonius Bucerus De Gub. Eccles . p. 33. 158. usque 162. 261. 162. 499. 500. 517. 518. 540. 622. 623. * See Godwins catalogue of Bishops . p. 70. 72. 1114. 123. 143. 164. 185. 214. 220. 247. 249. 275. 345. 382. 422. 436. 448. 484. 501. 502. 568. 569. 570. 571. 572. 620. 621. 622. 630. † Godwins Catalogue of Bishops . p. 644. 657 660 Brooke County Palatine 14. 15. 16. 18. 19. 24. ‡ Bellarmin . De Clericis l. 3. quest . 2. * Contra haereses l. 3. Tom. 1. Haer. 75. Col. 759. 760. ‡ De Clericis . l. 3. Quaest . 2. * Sessio 23. De Sacramento Ordinis cap. 3. & Canon . 7. ‡ His Sermon Aprill 17. An. 1608. in this defence of the honorable Function of Bishops ; and his defence of that Sermon since . o Gratian Distinct . 79. 63. p Gratian Distinct . 79. 63. * See Antiquitates Ecclesiae Brit. Godwins Catalogue of the Archbishops of Canterbury and Yorke , Malmesbury De Gestis Pontificum Angliae , with Mason his Consecration of Bishops ; and the booke of consecration of Bps. ‡ 31. H. 8. c. 10. * The booke of Ordination of Ministers : & Can. 35. * See Antiquitates Eccles . Brit , & Godwins ●atalogue of Bishops . † Marsilius Patavinus Def●nsoris Pac 〈…〉 : pars . 2. c. 25. * Discip . Sermo . 111. Bishop ●ewels Reply to Harding . Artic. 22. Div. 10. p. 452. 453 † Hebr ▪ 4. 14 ▪ 15. c. 8. 1. c. 9. 11. c. 10. 21. ‡ Hebr. 13. 20. 1. Pet. 2. 25 c. 5. 4. Iohn . 10. 1. &c. * Concil . Constantien . Sessio 24. Bellarm. De Pontifice R●mano . ‡ Exod. 29. & 35. L 〈…〉 . 4. 3. 16. 1. Sam. 10. 1. c. 26 6. 11. Ps . 92. 10. 1. Kings 1. 39. c. 19. 15. 16. * Bishop Iewell ▪ Reply to Harding . Article 4. Divis . 5. 6. 18. Richa●dus Armachanu● De Quaest . Armenorum l. 11. c. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. ‡ Contr. haer . l. 3. haer . 75. ‡ Anselmu● , Haymo , Rabanus , Primasius , Calvin , Deering , and David Dickson on this text . * Heb. 4. 14. 15. c 8. 1. c. 9. 11. c. 10. 21. ‡ Heb. 13. 20. 1. Pet. 5. 4. * Ephes . 4. 10. 11. 1. Cor. 12. 28. Math. 9. 37. 38. ‡ Acts. 1. 25 26. Gal. 2. 8. 9 , 11. 14 1. Cor. 12. 28. 29. 2. Cor. 11. 5 * Canon . 33. 35. An. 1603. ‡ Canon . 31. ‡ 1. Tim. 4. 6. 2. Tim. 4. 5. 1. Thes . 3. 2. * 3. Ed. 6. c. 12. 8. Eliz. c. 1. * Eusebius Eccles Hist . l. 3. c. 39. p. 55. ‡ Bibliotheca . Patrum . Tom. 1. p. 96. * Apolog. c. 39. Tom. 1. p. 692. 693. 694. * Eusebius Eccles . Hist . l. 5. c. 16. ‡ Eusebius Eccles Hist . l. 5. c. 23. * Eusebius Eccles . Hist . l. 5. c. 20. o Ibid. e. 26. * Eusebius Eccles Hist . l. 7. c. 8. p See his life before his workes . * Aretius . Theolog Problemata . Locus 62. De Officiis Eccl. Sex. 9. p. 184. 186 Chenmitius Examen Concilij Tridentini pars , 2. De Sacramento Ordinis . c. 4. p. 223. 224. ‡ Iliad . 1. 10 * De Vita Constantini . l. 4. c. 24. * So is the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used by Basil . Epist . 52. not to ride in visitation like a Lordly Prelate , but to consider of the miserable state of the Church & to be carefull for it , as Bishop Iewell witnesseth in his Defence of the Apology of the Church of England , part . 2. c. 3. Divis 5. p. 107. ‡ Enarratio : in Psal . 126. Tom. 8. pars . 2. p. 726. 727. * Let our great Prelates marke this well . * De Civitate Dei. l. 19. c. 19. Tom. pars 2. p. 516. † Note this . * fol. 116. Act. 20. * See Fulke and Cartwright . Ibid. m. ‡ Bishop Iewel . Defence of the Apology . part 2. c. 3. Divis . 5. p. 107. * Marsilius Patavinus Defens . Pacis pars . 2. c. 15. 16. Richardus Armachanus . Resp . ad Quaest . Armenorum l. 11. c. 1. to 8. Fox Acts and Monum . p. 1009. 1116. 1465. * Bishop Iewell . Defence of the Apol. part . 2. c. 3. Divis . 7. part . 111. Thomas Beacon his Catechism . Vol. 1. f. 499. 500. Chrysost . Opus Imperf . in Matth. Hom. 3. & 43. Ambros . de Dign . Sacerd . c. 4. ‡ August . De Civ . Dei l. 19. c. 19. Hier. Ambr. Sedul . Primas . Haymo , Rab. Maur. Chrysostom . Theodoret. Theophylact. Oecumenius , Anselmus , Beda , in 1. Tim. 3. 1. 2. Bernard . De Consid . ad Eugen. 2. & 3. * Math. 10. 1. to 16. Marke . 6. 7. to 12. Luke . 9. 1. to 6. compared with Luke . 10. 1. to 21. ‡ Clemens . Epist . apud Surium . Tom. 1. p. 141. and others , who have since followed this forgery of his . * L. 3. c. 4. Eccl. Hist. ‡ See Mercator Atlas Minor. p. 812. * Math. 7. 26. 27. ‡ The Instit . of a Christian man. Ch. os Orders , and Thomas Beacons Catech. f. 499. 500 * See the Fastbookes then printed . ‡ Ioel. 2. 14 to 20. 4. 2. 1. to 28. Isay . 22. 12. 13. 14. 2 Chron. 6. to 24. to 40. c. 7. 13. 14. 15 Zeph. 2. 1. 2. 3. Ionah . 3. 5 : to 10. Ezech. 9. 4. Mal. 3. 16. 17. Ezra . 9. & 10. † See Bishop Wrens Injunctions for Norwich , and his Visition Artiles , and yet this Can. bindes them not strictly to any forme as the Words , Or to this Effect ; declare , f Ier. 7. 16. c. 11. 14. c. 14. 11. c. 29. 7. c. 37 3. 4. c. 42. 2. 4. 20. Ioel. 2. 17. * Isay . 22. 12. 13. g Ps . 119. 21. Iudg. 5. 23. Mal. 2. 2. c. 3. 9. 1. Cor. 16. 22. h Luke . 18. to 3. Rev. 6. 9. 10. Psal . 28. 4. 5. ‡ 1. Sam. 4. 18. Notes for div A68614-e19710 * Fox Acts & Monuments London . 1610. p. 502. ‡ Platina , Onuphrius , Bale Stella , Volateranus Celestin . 5 & Bonifac. 8. * Georgius . Pontan . Bohemiae . piae . l. 3. p. 36. Godwin . Catalog . of Bps. p. 212. 216 460. 564. 585. Mathew . Westminst . An. 932. p. 361. Newbrigens . l. 1. c. 14. ‡ De Sacram. l. 3. c. 1. l. 5. c. 1. e Tract . 9. 16. 20. 21. 25. 27. 29. 35. 37. in Ioan. f Hom. 5. 6. 8. 9. 10. 13. 28. in Genes . g Catech. Orat. 7. & 14. & Catech. Mystag . 14. h Socr. Eccl. Hist. l. 7. c. 2. i Fox Acts. & Monum . p. 1366. k Fox Acts & Monuments . p. 15. 59. See p. 1115. 1153. 1457. 1579. 1696. ‡ See his Visitation Articles and injunctions for Norwich . † Before the 39. Articles , & of the Dissolution of the last Parliament . p. 20. 21. 22. 42. 43. * Magna Charta . c. 29 25. Hen. 8. c. 19. 21. 27 H. 8. c. 15. 37. H. 8. c. 17. 1. Ed. 6. c. 2. 1. Eliz c. 12 5. Eliz. c. 1. 12. Eliz. c. 13. 8. Eliz. c. 1. o Inconformity therefore it not● the thing the Bishops ayme at , but the suppression of the Gosple . p 1. Cor. 9. 16. q Isay . 56. 7. Ier. 7. 11. Math. 21. 13. Marke . 11. 17. Luke . 19. 46. See Dr. Boyes Postill . on the first Sunday after the Epiphany p. 132 and on the 10. Sunday after Trinity . p. 446. 447. ‡ To wit , for affirming , That his Majesty and the Lords of the Councell would be heartily glad , if all those that went over to New-England . were drowned in the bottom of the Sea. A most trayterly , & seditious , speech , as of his Majesty & the State delighted in the destruction of his faithfull subjects whom hee is bound by Oath and duty to protect and preserve . p Of the right use of the Church of the time and place of prayer q Dr. Boyes Postill on the 10. Sunday after Trinity . p. 448. r Hom. of the repairing & keeping cleane of Churches p. 80 of the time & place of prayer . p. 131. s Hom. of the right use of the Church of repairing Churches , & of the time & place of prayer * Hom. 1. 2. 3. 5. & 10. 29. in Gen. Hom. 5. in Math. † Defence of the Apology part . 5. c. 3. Divis . 4. p. 449. 450 * O Blasphemy ▪ b See Doctor Iames his Treatise of the corruption of the Scriptures &c. by the Prelates of Rome . part . 2. 3. 4. c See the Homilies of the Right use of the Church of the time and place of prayer , of keeping cleane of Churches . d Ier. 23. 13 14. 15. * Gen. 18. & 19. See 2. Chron. 36. 15. 16. 17. * Fasciculus Temporum . 1144. Cent. Magd. 12. Col 1407. stella . a Antiq. Eccl. Brit. p. 13. Godw. p. 53. * Fox Acts & Monuments p. 364. b Alberti Argentinensis Chron. An. 1348. p. 147. * Georgius Pont. Bohemiae piae . l. 3. p. 34. * Behold Constantiensis ad Herman . Appendix An. 1085. p. 357. * Thomas Gascoine in Dictionario Theologico . Fox Acts & Monuments p. 541. Antiquitates Eccl. Brit. Bale and Godwin in his life , with our Chroniclers . ‡ Fox Acts and Monum . p 1902. to 1906. and Dr. Beards Theatre of Gods Iudgements . l. 1. passim . * Hebr. 6. 4. 5. 6. 7. c. 10. 26. 27. 28. 29. 2. Tim. 3. 2. 3. 4. 5. 2. Pet. 3. 3. 4. 5. ‡ At jam serpentum major concordia : quando Leoni Fortior ●ripuit pr●dam 〈◊〉 ? quo nemore unqnam expiravit Aper , majo●●s den●ibus Apri ? Iudica Tygris agit rabida cum Trigride pacem ; saevis inter s 〈…〉 convenit ursis . Iuvenal . p. 141. * Isay . 58. 1. ‡ Ezech. 9. 4 〈◊〉 . Chron. 6. 28. 29. c. 7. 13. 14. Ioel. 2. & 2. Zeph. 2. 1. 2 3. See the Bookes sor the Fast , in 1. Iacobi & Caroli . * 1. Thess . 2. 15. 16. * The Sacrament of Orders f53 . 54 ‡ Sess 〈…〉 24. Decretum de Reformatione c. 4. * Math. 28. 19. 20. Mark 16. 15. 16. 1. Cor. 1. 17 Isay . 61. 1. Math. 24. 14. Luke . 4. 18. Acts. 10. 42 c. 5. 42. c. 610. 1. Cor. 9. 15. 16. 2. Tim. 4. 2. * Obedience of a Christian man p. 114. 134. q Acts. c. 4. & 5. throughout . † 5. R. 2. c. 5. 2. H. 4. c. 15. 2. H. 5. c. 7. Fox Acts & Monuments London . 1610. p. 415. 416 417. 418. 428. 434. 435. 438. 552. 563. 567. 588. 598. 800. 911. 1280. 1281. 1336. 1457. 1690. * Acts & Monuments p. 415. 416 417. 418. * See the Prayer on the 5. of November lately altered , in the last impression 1635. and Doctor Iohn White his defence of the Way , p. 6. ‡ See Rastall Tit. Rome . Recusant 〈◊〉 , Iesuites , Preists . * 25. H. 8. c. 19. 37. H. 8. c. 17. 1. Edw. 6. c. 2. 1. Eliz. c. 1. Canons . 1603. Can. 1. 13. * 1. Cor. 9. 16. 2. Tim. 4. 2. 3. 4. * Marke 16. 15. 1. Cor. 9. 15. 16. 2. Tim. 4. 1. 2. 3. 4. * See the Booke of Ordination of Ministers . * 3. & 4 Ed ▪ 6 c 12. 5. & 6. Ed 6. c. 1. 8. Eliz. c. 1. * See. 25. H. 8 c. 19. 1. Eliz. c. 1. 2. 13. Eliz. c. 12. Can. 1603. Can. 1. 13. * Who had never beene Martyrs had ●hey beene such 〈◊〉 cowards as most Ministers are now . * Luke . 19. 47. Acts. 2. 46. c. 3. 4. & 5. The Homily of the right use of the Church p. 3. 4. ‡ 25. H. 8. c. 19. 37. H. 8 c. 17. 31. H. 8. c. 10. 1. E. 6. c. 2. 1. Eliz. c. 2. 5. Eliz. c. 1. 8. Eliz. c 1. and the Patents to Coverdale and story . 5. E. 6. pars . 1. * 2. Cor. 11. 2. ‡ Levit. 26. 25. Deutr. 28. 20. 21. 60. 61. 1. King. 7. 3 37. 38. 2. Chron. 7. 13. 15. 78. 50. Ps . 126. 21. 29. Ier : 14. 12. 11. 12. c. 21. 6. 9. c. 29. 17. 18 c. 32. 24 36 c. 38. 2. c. 42. 17. 22 c. 44. 13. c. 34. 17. Ezech. 5. 12 c. 6. 12. c. 7. 15 c. 12. 16 c. 33. 27. c. 38. 24. Amos 4. 100 * Acts. 26. 18. c. 37. 38. † The Exhortation , and Orders at the end . * Gal. 5. 21. a Conc Laodice num Can. 54. Carthag . 3. Can. 11. Agathense . Can. 39. Constantinop . 6. Can. 24. 5. 〈◊〉 . 62. Nicenum . 2. Can. 22. Turonense . 3. Can. 7. with sundry others Bochellus . l. 6. Decr. Eccles . Gal. Tit. 18. 19. l. 4. Tit. 1. 7. l. 8. Tit. 10. b Isay . 22. 12. 13. Joel . 2. 16. 17. Jam. 4. 9. Iay 22. 13. d Sic facit Iesus hodie , multos sibi eligens Diabolos Episcopos , Sermo in Concil . Rhemensi & ad Clerum . * Joel . 1. & 2. * 27. Eliz. c. 1. 2. * Though their Commission give them no power to close imprison any man , yet now their common practise is to do 〈◊〉 . * Isay 59. 6 , 7. * H. Mutius Germaniae Chron. l. 18. p. 152 , 153. * Saxoniae Chron. Cent. Magd. 10. Col. 622. Lu. 6. 36. i Joh. 8. 44. k Sermon 4. before King Edward . l His Catechisme , vol. 1. fol. 500. m Isay 56. 10. n Math. 5. 13. o Io● . 20. 21 p Isay 61. 1. Mar. 1. 38. Luke 4. 18. 19 31. 43 , 44. * Surius . Tom. 3. p. 464. * Isay 58. q Sessio . 24. Decretum de Reformatione . c. 4. r See Balaeus de Ritis Pontificum . Fox Acts & Monuments , Mr. Tyndals Practise of Popish ●rclates , Dr. Barnes his supplication to King Henry the 8. Godwins Catalogue of Bishops . s Chytraeus Chron. Saxoniae l. 14 p 407. 421 l. 15 p. 433. 434. t Chytreus Chron. Saxoniae l. 2● . p 64● . Bucanon Rerum Scotararum . l. 18. & 18. Paltricij Adamsoni ●a linodia & Melvini Celsae Commissioni● Anatomia . u Chytr●us Chron. Saxoniae l. 6. p. 49. l. 7. p. 219. 220. l. 9. p. 259. 261. 262. 263. 270. 275. l. 10 p. 297 309. 311. 340. 341. 342. l. 12 p. 358. 359 l. 13. p. 388. * Qui sacris Of ficijs ob meritorum praerogativam sunt applicati , dedecus et valde periculosum est , terrenis actionibus , t●●p 〈…〉 〈◊〉 lacris 〈…〉 cari Concil ▪ Paris . Anno 829 l. 1. c. 28. S 〈…〉 Tom. 3. p. 376. * See Mr. 〈…〉 yndals Practise of Popish Prelats , Dr. Barnes his Supplication to Henry the 8. Henry Stalbridge his exhortatorie Epistle ▪ Antiqui Ecclesiae Brit. et Godwins Catalogue . y Sermon on of the Plough & 2. 4. 5. 6. before King Edward . z Surius Tom. 3. p. 374. Iohan. 21. Math. 20. 1. Pet. 5. Eccles . 32. * Mitra . Tim. 4. a Hist . Angliae An. 1389. p. 374. * This was the Doctrine & practise of all our Mayrtyrs Fox Acts & Mounments . 1610. p 483. 485. 500. 502. 521. 541. 552. 553. 556. 568. 588. 590. 592 598. 599. 602. 604. 639. 806. 874. 883. 884. 911. 931. 950. 956. 1001. 1006. 1006 1015. 1016. 1099. 1156. 1868. 1889. g Chytraeus Saxonia . l. 15. p 456. c Chytraeus ibid p. 434. d See Centur. Mage . 4 , 5 , 6 , 7. 8 , 9 , 10 , 11. 12. 13. c. 7. 8. 10. Antiquit Ecclesiae Brit. and Godwins Catalogue of Bishops . e Chytroeus Chro. Saxonia , l. 14. 15. 16. 17. f Patricij Adamsoni Palin●dia . p. 49. 55. * Rationalis divinorum . l. 2. de Sacerdote Rubrica . g See the booke of Ordination . and Canon . 35. * See Bishop White his Epistle Dedicatory to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury , before his Treatise of the Sabath . h Respons . ad Turriani Sophismata pars 2. loc . 18. i Eusebius Echist . l. 6. c. 8. 10. in the Greeke . 7. and 9. in the English . k Socrates Eccles . hist . l 5. c. 5. 1 Socrates l. 7. c. 3. m Possidonius in vita Augustini c. 8. Cent. Magd. 4. Col. 679. 680. n Platina B●l● us Luithpraudius , Albo de vitis Pontificum Theodorius a Niem . Zabarel & Marius de Scisamte . o Eusebius , Socrates , Nice● borns ; Tirpartita historia , passim , Cent. Mag. 4 , 5 , 6 , 7. c. 10. Augustinus contra Donatum . p De Gestis cum Emerito Donatist . Tom. 7. pars : 1. p. 781. 782 : See Mr Carwrights answer to the Rhemish Testament on Phil. 1. pag. 499. q In vita Joannis 4 & Martini 7. r In Augustinum de haeresibus . har . 53. Ecclesiast hist . l. 11 c. 34. p. 758. t Concil . lat . cap. 9. Surius Tom. 3. p. 740. u Surius Tom. 1 〈◊〉 . 220. 222. 226 , 343. 459. 165 414. 467. 799. Tom. 3. 740. 537. x Nec quenquam jam serre potest Caesurica priorem , Pompriusve parem . Lucan l. 1. y De Gestis cum Emerita Donatist : Episc . lib. Tom. 7. pars 1. p. 782. 783. z See his life before his Workes , and Es● ncaeus . Digres . in 1. Tim. l. 3. c. 6. p. 330. a Aventinus Annal. Boirum . l. 4. p. 202. Notes for div A68614-e25490 a Digres . lib 3. in 1 Tim. c. 4. 5. 6. 7. b Cent. Magd. 3. Col. 1335. Cent. 10. Col. 1542 : see Cent. 13. Col. 1098. c Fox Acts & Monuments , p 1703. d Espenceus Digress in 1. Tim. l. 3. c. 4. 5 6. 7. e Godwins Caralo . p. 51. f Centur. Magd. 3. Col. 1043. g Cent. 10. c. 10. in his life . h Onuphrius and others in his life . i Chytraeus Chron Saxo niae . l. 1. p. 10. k Platina , Onuphrius , B 〈…〉 lc , Opmerus , S●ella , Volaterranus , Aventinus and others in his life . l C●ntur . Magd. 5. col . 998 1035. 1056. Cent. 7 col . 496. Cent 8. col . 807. cent . 10 col . 598. cent . 11. col . 515. 546. 547. cent . 12. col . 1447. 1458. cent . 13 col . 1039. 1067 1072. m Godwins Catalogue , p. 143. 211. 216. 314. 460. 473. 545 564. n Chytraeus . Chron. Saxoniae . Lip. 1593. p. 10. 19. 44 62. 63. 65. 176. 278. 320 352. 391 456 461. 467. 471 492. 497. 519 520. 532. 545 554. 557. 635 689. 704. 813 819. 927. 928. 930 935. o Page 17. 18. 19. 139. p Espencaeus Digress . in Tim. l. 3. c. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8 q See the Booke of Ordination .