trapitum, quod apud Ecclesias Apostolorum fuerit sacrosanctum: "That shall clearly appear to be delivered by the Apostles, which shall have been religiously observed in the Churches of the Apostles." What evasion is there of so evident a truth?" Me seems,' saith Parker, "that Tertullian understands only those Churches, which were in the very time of the Apostles; not the subsequent : for he saith not, Quod est, but Quod fuerit; and thus it may be held true." But this is to mock himself, and those that trust him; and not to answer all the Father's testimony. The question must be, what, in Tertullian's time, should be held to have been Apostolic; and therefore he saith, constabit; not, constitit: now, if he shall speak to Parker's sense, he shall say, "That, which was religiously kept in the Churches, planted by the Apostles, and in their own time, is to be held Apostolic." What is the reader ever the wiser, since it were equally hard to know, what their Churches then did, and what they themselves ordained to be done; were it not for the continued tradition and practice, descending from them to the succeeding ages? so as either they must trust the Churches then present for the deduction of such truth, or else nothing would be proved Apostolic. Neither is there any thing more familiar with the Fathers, than to term those the Churches of the Apostles, even for some hundreds of years after their decease, wherein they, after some residence, had established a government for future succession; which had aeνTÍAV ATоSONINйs diadoxйs, as Synesius speaketh: as it were too easy to instance in a thousand particularities. Yea, that it may appear how Parker shuffles here, against his own knowledge, there is a flat mention of the Churches after the time of St. John, the longest liver of all that holy train, which he calls Joannis alumnas Ecclesiast. So as this of Parker's is a miserable shift, and not

an answer.

The other, is that famous place of St. Augustin against the Donatists, agitated by every pen: Quod universa &c: "That, which is held by the Universal Church, and not ordained by any Council, but hath been always retained in the Church, is most truly believed to be delivered by no other than Apostolical authority:" which Parker sticks not to profess the Achillæan argument of the Hierarchists.

Neither have they any cause to disclaim it: the authority of the man is great; but the power of his reason, more. For, that, which obtaineth universally, must either have some force in itself to command acceptation, or else must be imposed by some over-ruling authority and what can that be, but either of the great princes (as they are anciently called) of the Church, the Holy Apostles; or of some General Councils, as may authoritatively diffuse it through all the world? If then no Councils have decreed the observation of an ordinance, whence should an universal, not reception only, but retention proceed, save from Apostolic hands? No cause can work Tert. 1. iv. contr. Marc. c. 5.

* Ubi suprà.

beyond his own sphere: private power cannot exceed its own

compass.

Let not any adversary think to elude this testimony, with the upbraiding to it the patronage of the Popish opinion concerning traditions. We have learned to hate their vanities, and yet to maintain our own truths, without all fear of the patrocination of Popery. We deny not some Traditions (however the word, for want of distinguishing, is, from their abuse, grown into an ill name) must have their place and use: and, in vain should learned Chamier, Fulk, Whitakers, Perkins, Willet, and other controversers labour in the rules of discerning true Apostolical Traditions from false and counterfeit, if all were such; and if those, which are certainly true, were not worthy of high honour and respect. And what and how far our entertainment of Traditions is and should be, I refer my reader to that sound and judicious discourse of our now most Reverend Metropolitan against his Jesuit A. C.

Onwards, therefore, I must observe, that, whereas Chamier doth justly defend *, that the evidence of these kind of Traditions from the universal receipt of the Church, doth not breed a plerophory of assent, he doth not herein touch upon us: since his opposition is only concerning points of faith; our defence is concerning matter of fact: neither do we hold it needful there should be so full a sway of assent to the testimony of the Church's practice herein, as there ever ought to be to the direct sentence of the Sacred Scripture. Will none but a divine faith serve the turn in these cases, which Parker himself professes to be far from importing salvation? Is it not enough, that I do as verily believe, upon these human proofs, what was done by the Apostles for the plantation and settlement of the Church, as I do believe there was a Rome before Christ's Incarnation; or that a Julius Cæsar was emperor or dictator there, or Tully an orator and consul, or Cato a wise senator, or Catiline a traitor? Certainly, thus much belief will serve for our purpose. Whoso requires more, besides the grounds of the Apostolic Ordinances recorded in Scripture, thus seconded, may take that counsel, which boys construe the lapwing to give for her nest.

Two things are answered hereto, by Parker and his clients.

The one, that the rule of St. Augustin avails us nothing, since that the original of Episcopacy is designed as from Decree, by St. Jerome; as from Councils, by St. Ambrose: but what that Decree was or could be besides Apostolical, or what those Councils were, he were wise that could tell: he, and all his abettors, I am sure, cannot. But of this, in the sequel.

The other, after some misapplied testimonies of our own authors who drive only at matter of faith, that he can make instance in divers things, which were both universally and perpetually received, no Council decreeing them, and yet far from an Apostolic Ordination.

Sibrandus Lubbertus helps him to his first instance, borrowed

*Cham, Panstrat, de Traditionibus.

from St. Augustin; a fixed day for the celebration of Easter. And what of that? How holds his argument in this? for, that this or that day should be universally set, and perpetually kept for that solemn feast, who, that ever heard of the state of the primitive time, can affirm; since those famous quarrels, and contrary pretences of their several derivations of right from the two prime Apostles, are still in every man's eye? but, that an Easter was agreed to be solemnly kept by the Primitive Church universally, those very contentions betwixt Polycarpus and Annicetus do sufficiently declare; and Parker himself confesseth †. Thus it was kept, and withal decreed by no Council; "yet not," saith he, "by any Apostolical Institution." How doth that appear? Nihil illi de festis &c: "They," i. e. the Apostles, "never delivered ought concerning Feast-Days, nor yet of Easter:" why but this is the very question. Parker denies it: and must we take his word for proof; whereas we have the Apostle's direct dográgwuev, Let us keep the feast? And, afterwards, there is a plain deduction of it from and through the times succeeding: as is fully and excellently set forth by our incomparably-learned, the late Bishop of Winchester; to whose accurate discourse of this subject ‡, I may well refer my reader.

His second instance, is the Apostles' Creed; which our authors justly place within the first three hundred years after Christ: used and received by the whole Church, and not enacted by any Councils; yet not, in respect of the form it, delivered by the Apostles. A doughty argument, and fit for the great controller of times and antagonist of government! We speak of the matter of the Creed; he talks of the form of it: we, of things; he, of words. And, just so, Tilenus, his friend, instances in axiegels and naйgos, found in Ignatius. But do these men suppose St. Augustin meant to send us to seek for all common expressions of language to the Apostles? Let them tell us: Is there any thing in the substance of that Creed, which we cannot fetch from the Apostles? are not all the several clauses, as he cites them from St. Augustin, per Divinas Scripturas sparse, indè collectæ, et in unum redacta; "scattered here and there in the Scriptures, penned by the Apostles, gathered up and reduced into this sum?" As for the syntax of words and sentences, who of us ever said they were, or needed to be, fathered upon those great Legates of the Son of God? Our cause is no whit the poorer, if we grant there were some universal terms derived by tradition to the following ages, whereof the original authors are not known. This will not come within the compass of his (quiddam) vox est, præterea nihil.

His third instance, is in the Observation of Lent: for which, indeed, there is so great plea of Antiquity, that himself cannot deny

* Euseb. l. v. Hist. c. 24.

† Quanquam, enim, in ipso die differentia erat, in hoc tamen omnes Ecclesiæ conspirarunt, Diem Paschatis observandum aliquem esse. Ibid. Polit. Eccles. B. Andrews's Serm, of the Resur. Serm. 13.

it to be acknowledged even by old Ignatius, a man contemporary to some of the Apostles: and, as overcome by the evidence of all histories, grants it to be apparent, that the whole Church constantly ever observed some kind of Fast before their Easter *; no less than Theophilus Alexandrinus, Lex abstinendi: "The law of fasting in Lent hath been always observed in the Church." And what need we more? "And yet," saith Parker, " for all that, Lent was not delivered by Apostolic Authority: Et in eo lapsi sunt Patres; therein the Fathers are mistaken." Magisterially spoken! and we must believe him, rather than St. Jerome, who plainly tells us, it is secundum Traditionem Apostolorum," according to the Tradition of the Apostles." The specialties, indeed, of this Fast admitted, of old, very great variety: in the season; in the number of days; in the limitation, subject, and manner of abstinence; as Socrates hath well expressed t: but, for a quoddam jejunium, "some kind of fast," I see no reason, why the man, that can be so liberal as to grant it always observed by the Universal Church, should be so strait-laced as to deny it derivable from the Tradition of the Holy Apostles: and when he can as well prove it not Apostolic, as we can prove it universal, we shall give him the bucklers.

To what purpose do I trace him in the rest? the ancient rites of the Eucharist, and of Baptism urged out of Baronius; of gestures in prayer; of the observation of solemn Feasts and Embers? Let one word serve for all: it will be a harder work for him to prove their universality and perpetuity, than to disprove their original. Let it be made good, that the whole Church of Christ always received them, we shall not be niggardly in yielding them this honour of their pedigree, deducible from an Apostolical recommendation.

In the mean time, every (not ungracious) son of this Spiritual Mother will learn to kiss the footsteps of the Universal Church of Christ; as knowing the dear and infallible respects betwixt him and this blessed spouse of his, as to whom he hath engaged his everlasting presence and assistance; Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the world: and will resolve to spit in the face of those seducers, who go about to alienate their affections from her, and to draw them into the causeless suspicions of her chaste fidelity to her Lord and Saviour.

To shut up this point, therefore: if we can show that the universal practice of the Church, immediately after the Apostles, and ever since, hath been to govern by Bishops, superior to Presbyters in their order and jurisdiction, our cause is won.

*Polit. Eccles. ubi suprà.

† Socrat. l. v. c. 2. ὡς περὶ τετᾶ τὸ ἑκάσου γνώμη, &c. ἐπέτρεψαν οἱ ἀπόςολοι,

SECT. 5.

THE FIFTH GROUND:

The Primitive Saints and Fathers neither would nor durst set up another Form of Government, different from that they received of the Apostles.

FIFTHLY, we may not entertain so irreverent an opinion of the Saints and Fathers of the Primitive Church, that they, who were the immediate Successors of the Apostles, would or durst set up a form of government, different from that which was fore-designed to them; and that, either faulty or self-devised.

Certainly, it must needs follow, either those succeeding governors practised, maintained, and propagated that form, which they immediately before received from the hands of the Apostles; or else they quite altered it, and established a new.

If the first, we have what we desire: if the latter, those holy men were guilty of a presumptuous innovation; which were a crime to think. Charity thinks not evil: and what evil can be worse, than to violate or transgress Apostolical Ordinances?

How highly doth the Apostle of the Gentiles praise the Corinthians, That they kept all his orders, and observed his traditions *! and would he have less deeply blamed those, that should have wilfully broken them? Vultis veniam in virgá? Will ye that I shall come to you with a rod? saith the same Apostle. All the Christian World knew how sacred the authority of those great delegates of our Saviour was; how infallible their determinations; how undoubted their inspirations. Withal, it must be granted, that the first ages were the purest as the water, that first rises from the spring, is clearer than that, which, by a long decursion, hath mixed itself with the soil of the channel. Can it, therefore, enter into any wise and honest heart, that those prime Saints, even in the greatest purity of the Church, would wilfully vary from the holy institutions of the blessed Apostles; and, as the fickle Israelites did so soon as Moses's back was turned, worship idols of their own invention? Surely, he must be strongly uncharitable, that shall think so; strangely impudent, that dares maintain it; and wickedly credulous, that can believe it.

But the defection began in the Church, presently after the Apostles; yea, in their time +: (a point, eagerly urged by the faction :) it is no trusting, therefore, to the universal practice of the succes

sors:

Our own authors are frequently alleged, for the earliness of this

* πάντα με. 1 Cor. xi. 2. παραδόσεις.

Que defectio in Ecclesiá quidem ipsú Apostolorum ætati_proximá adeò cœpit, ut argumento certo illius universa praxis esse nequeat. Park. Polit. Eccles. 1. ii. c. 8.