he calls the house, receives petitions or complaints, proposes the businesses, asks and gathers the suffrages, dismisses the sessions; and, the action once ended, takes his former station, forgetting his late superiority.

This is the thing challenged by the Patrons of Discipline, who do not willingly hear of an Upper House, consisting of the Peers of the Church, whose grave authority gives life to the motions of that Lower Body. They can be content, there should be a Prime Presbyter; and that this Presbyter shall be called Bishop; and that Bishop shall moderate, for the time, the public affairs of the Church, but without all innate and fixed superiority, without all (though never so moderate) jurisdiction.

Calvin, in this case, shall speak for all who, writing of the state of the Clergy in the Primitive Times, hath thus, Quibus, ergo, docendi munus &c: "Those, therefore, which had the charge of teaching enjoined unto them, they named Presbyters. These Presbyters, out of their number in every city, chose one, to whom ' they especially gave the title of Bishop; lest, from equality, as it commonly falls out, discords should arise. Neither was the Bishop so superior to the rest in honour and dignity, as that he had any rule over his colleagues: but, the same office and part which the Consul had in the Senate, to report of business to be done, to ask the votes, advising, admonishing, exhorting, to go before the rest, to rule the whole action by his authority, and to execute that, which by the common counsel was decreed; the same office did the Bishop sustain, in the Assembly of the Presbyters." Thus he. And to the same purpose Beza, in his Treatise of the Degrees of the Ministry; Moulin, Chamier, others.

So as we easily see, how our Bishop differs from Calvin's; namely, in a settled imparity, and a perpetuity of jurisdiction. Give me, therefore, such a Pastor, as shall be ordained a Perpetual Moderator in Church Affairs, in a fixed imparity; exercising spiritual jurisdiction, out of his own peculiarly demandated authority; this is the Bishop, whom we contend for, and whom they oppose.

I do well see, therefore, how we may make a shorter cut of this controversy, than hath formerly been made by others; whose large discourses, upon the importune angariation of others, have been learnedly spent, upon the names and titles of a Bishop and Presbyter; upon the extent of their first charge, whether Parochial or Diocesan; and upon the difference and priority of those limitations since the only thing, that displeaseth in Episcopacy, is their majority above Presbyters, which it is pretended should be only a Priority of Order not a Superiority of Degree; and their power of jurisdiction over Presbyters. For, yield these, by a due Ordination, to a Prime Pastor, for a constant continuance, you make him a Bishop deny these to a Bishop, you make him no other than a plain Presbyter.

Our only labour, therefore, must be, to make good these two

Calv, Instit. 1. iv. c. 4.

points; and to evince, that Imparity in the Governors of the Church, and the power of Episcopal Jurisdiction, is not of any less than Apostolical and Divine Institution: to which task we now address ourselves, Euv dè Oeds &c.

SECT. 2.

Church Government begun by our Saviour in a manifest Imparity.

WE begin with our undertaken issues: and shall shew, that this Imparity of Government, and Episcopal Jurisdiction, was founded by Christ and erected by his Apostles, both by their practice and recommendation.

Who sees not, then, a manifest imparity in our Saviour's own choice, in e first gathering of his Church? wherein his Apostles were above his other Disciples; the Twelve, above the Seventy : above them, in privileges, and especially in the immediateness of their calling; above them, in their Master's respects; above them, in gifts, and in the power of their dispensation; above them, in commission; above them, in miraculous operations.

Even those Seventy were Ministers of the Gospel; but those Twelve were, even as it were, the Patriarchs of the Church, noted still by an article of eminence oi dadena, the Twelve. Others were labourers in the work these were master-builders; as St. Paul to his Corinths. Others might heal by their touch; these, by their very shadow. Others had the Holy Ghost: these gave it. Philip was an Evangelist: he preached: he wrought miracles: he converted and baptized the Samaritans: yet, till Peter and John came down and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they received not the Holy Ghost; Acts viii. 14, 15. And, how plain is it, that such honourable regard was given to the Twelve, that, when one room fell void by the treason of Judas, it must, by the direction of the Spirit of God, be made up by an election out of the Seventy *! Had it not been a higher preferment to have been an Apostle, wherefore was that scrutiny and choice?

What do I urge this point? He never read Scripture, that can doubt of it. Wherefore did the Chosen Vessel stand so highly upon the challenge of his Apostleship, if he had not known it to be a singular honour? And how punctually doth he marshal up, as some divine herald, the due ranks of Ecclesiastical Offices! First, Apostles; secondly, Prophets; thirdly, Teachers; then, those that do miracles; after that, the gifts of healing; helps in governing; diversity of tongues; 1 Cor. xii. 28.

But, perhaps, you will not be so illiberal, as to deny the Apostles a precedency of honour in the Church: how can you, and be a Christian?

* Hier. de Script. Eccles.

But you stick at their Jurisdiction. Here was nothing but equality :

True, an equality among themselves: Pari consortu præditi, et honoris et potestatis, as Cyprian truly but a superiority of power in them all, and in each of them, over the rest of the members of Christ's Church.

Verily I say unto you, saith our Saviour, ye, that have followed me in the Regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye shall also sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel; Matth. xix. 28. év Ty Tayyεvecía, in the Regeneration: that is, as Cameron very well interprets it*, in the Renovation of the Church: for, under the state of the Gospel, the Church was as new born and made anew, according to that of St. Paul; All things are become new; alluding to the Prophet Isaiah, who, to this sense, Behold, saith he, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind; Isa. Ixv. 17. And Beza himself, though he make a difference in the pointing, and thereby in the construction; yet grants, that, according to his second sense, the preaching of the Gospel by Christ and his messengers is meant by this Regeneration: Quia tum, veluti de integro, conditus est mundus; "Because then the world was, as it were, made anew :" so as, then was the time, when the Son of Man began to be exalted to the throne of his glory, both in earth and in heaven: and then, should the Twelve, that had forsaken all for him, enjoy all in him then should they sit on twelve thrones, and judge the twelve tribes of Israel.

What are the Twelve Tribes of Israel, but the Whole Church of God? For, whereof did the first Christian Church consist, but of converted Jews? And whither did our Saviour bend all his allusions, but to them? They had their twelve Princes of the tribes of their fathers, heads of the thousands of Israel; Num. i. 16. They had their Seventy Elders, to bear the burden of the people; Num. xi. 16, 17.

The Son of God affects to imitate his former Polity; and therefore chooses his Twelve Apostles and Seventy Disciples, to gather and sway his Evangelical Church.

The Twelve Tribes then, are the Church: the Twelve Apostles must be their Judges and Governors: their sitting, shews authority their sitting on thrones, eminence of power: their sitting on twelve thrones, equality of their rule: their sitting to judge, power and exercise of jurisdiction: their sitting to judge the Twelve Tribes of Israel, the universality of their power and jurisdiction. And what judgment could this be, but Ecclesiastical and Spiritual; for civil rule they challenged not? And what thrones, but Apostolical; and, by their derivation, Episcopal?

Who knows not how ordinary that style is, ἐπισκόπε θρόνος ? We find it even in Ærius himself t. And if the Apostle's seat was his throne, and the Bishops succeeded the Apostles in those seats, who

* Camer. in locum. + Epiphan. Hæres. 75.

can deny them this power of spiritual judicature and jurisdiction?

To the same purpose is that of St. Augustin; who, upon the words of St. John, I saw seats, and some sitting on them, and judgment was given, hath thus *, Non hoc putandum de Ultimo Judicio &c: "We may not think this spoken of the Last Judgment; but the seats of the Prelates or Presidents by whom the Church is governed, and the governors themselves, are to be understood; and the judgment, that is given, cannot be any better way taken, than for that which is said, Whatsoever ye bind on earth, shall be bound in

heaven."

SECT. 3.

The Execution of this Apostolical Power, after our Saviour's Ascent into Heaven.

THE power is clear, will you see the Execution of it?

Look upon St. Paul, the posthumous and supernumerary, but no less glorious Apostle. See with what majesty he becomes his new erected throne: one while, deeply charging and commanding † ; another while, controuling and censuring one while, giving laws and ordinances $; another while, urging for their observance || : one while, ordaining Church-Governors; another while, adjuring them to do their duties **: one while, threatening punishment tt; another while, inflicting it. And, if these be not acts of jurisdiction, what can be such? which since they were done by the Apostle, from the instinct of God's Spirit wherewith he was inspired, and out of the warrant of his high vocation, most manifest it is, that the Apostles of Christ had a supereminent power in God's Church. And if any person whosoever, though an Evangelist or Prophet, should have dared to make himself equal to an Apostle, he had been hissed out, yea rather thunder-struck by deep censure, for an arrogant and saucy usurper.

Now, if our Blessed Saviour thought it fit to found his Church in an evident imparity, what reason should we have to imagine he did not intend so to continue it? It had been equally easy for him, had he so thought meet, to have made all his followers equally great: none, better than a Disciple; none, meaner than an Apostle. But now, since it hath pleased him to raise up some to the honour of Apostles; no less above the Seventy, than the Seventy were above the multitude; only enjoining them, that the highest in place should be the lowest in mind and humility of service; what doth he, but herein teach us, that he meant to set this course for the ensuing Government of his Church?

§ 1 Cor. xi. 2.

† 2 Thess. iii. 6.
2 Tim. i. 6.
tt 2 Cor. xiii. 2. 1 Cor. iv. 21.

* Aug. de Civit. Dei. I. i. c. 20. 1 Cor. xvi. 1. 21. vi. 13. 2 Tim. iv. 1. i. 20.

1 Cor. v. 4-7. ** 1 Tim. v. ++ 1 Tim.

Neither is it possible for any man to be so absurd, as to think that the Apostles, who were, by their Heavenly Master, infeoffed in this known pre-eminence, should, after the ascent of their Saviour, descend from their acknowledged superiority, and make themselves but equal to the Presbyters they ordained. No: they still and ever, as knowing they were qualified for that purpose by the more special graces of the Holy Ghost, kept their holy state, and maintained the honour of their places.

What was the fault of Diotrephes, but that, being a Church-Governor, he proudly stood out against St. John; not acknowledging the transcendant power of his Apostolical Jurisdiction? whom the provoked Apostle threats to correct accordingly: so as those, that lay Diotrephes in our dish, do little consider that they buffet none but themselves, who symbolize with him in opposing Episcopal, that is, as all Antiquity was wont to construe it, Apostolical Go

vernment.

But you are ready to say, "This was during their own time: they were persons extraordinary; and their calling and superiority died with them :”—

Thus our Tileno-mastix, in terms*. The only question is, whether, of the ordinary Presbyters, which were singly set over several Churches, they advanced one in degree above his brethren. We shall err, then, if we distinguish not.

These great Ambassadors of Christ sustained more persons than one. They comprehended in themselves the whole Hierarchy: they were Christians, Presbyters, Bishops, Apostles. So it was, they were Apostles immediately called, miraculously gifted, infallibly guided, universally charged. Thus, they had not, they could not have, any successors.

They were, withal, Church-Governors, appointed by Christ to order and settle the affairs of his Spiritual Kingdom: and, therein, (besides the preaching of the Gospel and baptizing, common to them, with other Ministers) to ordain a succession of the meet Administrators of his Church. Thus they were, would be, must be succeeded: neither could the Church otherwise have subsisted. No Christian can deny this, all binding upon a necessity of Apostolical succession, though differing in the quality and degree of their

successors.

SECT. 4.

The Derivation of this Power and Majority, from the Apostles to the succeeding Bishops.

Now, therefore, that we have seen what ground our Saviour laid for a superiority in them, let us see how they, by his divine inspiration, erected it in others, who should follow them.

*Paracl. l. i. c. 4.