mand then is, " But why then should this charge be particularly directed to Timothy, and not to more?" The Presbytery some construe to have laid hands on the Ordained: but, the Presbytery so constituted, as we shall hereafter declare; but a mere Presbyter or many Presbyters, as of his or their own power, never. An Apostle did so to Timothy himself; and Timothy, as being a Bishop, might do it: but who, or where ever any less than he? Neither doth the Apostle say, "Lend not thy hand to be laid on with others;" but appropriates it as his own act. Whereas then our Antitilenus tells us, the question is not, Whether this charge were given to Timothy, but, Whether to Timothy alone; methinks he might easily have answered himself. Doth St. Paul, in this act, join any with him? Were there not Elders good store at Ephesus before? Could they have ordained without him, what need was there of this charge to be laid on Timothy? Be there, then, what Elders soever, their hands, without a Timothy, will not serve: his, without theirs, might. To his own, if, at any time, he joined theirs; what else do all Bishops of England? This, concerning Timothy. We come next to Titus, and his charge from St. Paul, to set in order the things that were left yet undone in the large isle of Crete; or, as it is now called, Candia; a populous island, and stored with no less than a hundred cities, whence it had the name of έxalóμãoAs and to ordain Elders, or Presbyters, in every of those cities, as he had been appointed by the Apostle*. Lo, the whole Diocese of Crete is committed to his oversight; not some one Parish in it. And what must he do? Two things are enjoined him; to ordain Ministers, and to correct disorders: iva έidiopwon, "to correct," as Beza turns it not amiss; or, as Erasmus, pergas corrigere, with an intimation of his former service that way. Where, that the extent of the work may be noted, rà λeíTovla (as also, on in the Hebrew †) comprehends, both things amiss, and things wanting: so as the business of Titus was, as of a good Bishop, both to rectify and reform those things which were offensive; and, by new orders made, to supply those matters which were yet defective. As for the Ordination, it was not of some one Presbyter that wanted to make up the number: but it was universal, throughout that whole island; nara Tów, per civitates; or, as we, in every city; even through the whole hundred, and not one Presbyter in each; but, as the occasion might be, many in every one. The Diocese was large, the Clergy numerous. SECT. 6. Some Elusions of these Scriptures met with, and answered. THE elusion, which some, not mean opponents, have devised, that these acts were enjoined to Titus, as by way of society and part† Eccl. i. 15. Titus i. 5 nership with the Presbytery, so as that he should join with them in these duties of correction and Ordination, is so palpable and quite against the hair, that I cannot think the authors of it can believe themselves. Had the Apostle so meant, he could as easily have expressed it; and have directed his charge to more. Titus alone is singled out. Now, if it were in the power of every Presbyter to do those things without him, what needed this weight to have been laid on his shoulders alone? And, if the charge were, that he must urge and procure it to be done, by what authority? And, if he had authority, either without or above them, it is that we strive for. And now, I beseech you, what doth any Bishop of England challenge more, as essential to his place, than power of Ordination, and power of correction of disorders? Secondly, it is also the charge given to Titus, uile, to stop the mouths of those false teachers, who broach doctrines they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake; and to pass sharp censures upon them*. What can do this, but Episcopal authority? Thirdly, again, it is the charge upon Titus, A man, that is a heretic, after the first and second admonition, reject; Titus iii. 10. So, then, it is to Titus it belongs, to proceed against erroneous teachers, to judge of heresy, to give formal admonitions to the heretic, to cast him out of the Church upon his obstinacy. Can any man suppose it to be for a mere Presbyter, to make such a judicial process against heretics, or to eject them out of the Church? Would not they have returned it upon him, with scorn and derision? Or, what is spiritual jurisdiction, if power to do this be not? To sum up all, therefore, it is no other than our present Episcopal power, that, by the blessed Apostle, is committed to Timothy and Titus: and that, with so clear evidence, that, for my part, I do not more fully believe there were such men, than that they had such power, and these warrants to execute it. It is a poor shift of some, That Timothy and Titus were Evange lists: and, therefore, persons extraordinary; and not, in this behalf, capable of succession. For, whatever they were in their personal qualifications, yet here they stood for Bishops; and received, as Church-Governors, these charges, which were to be ordinary, and perpetual to all that should succeed in ecclesiastical administration. As for the title, how will it appear they were Evangelists? For Titus, there is no colour: for Timothy, it is true St. Paul charges him to do the work of an Evangelist: what of that? That might imply, as well that he was not indeed in that particular office; which yet St. Paul would have him supply howsoever t: and no doubt he did so so he did the work of the Lord, as St. Paul did; and yet not an Apostle. He, that jeers this answer, might know, that the implication of the word is as large for both. Who knows not the promiscuous use of these terms? As well may they say he was a Doctor, because he is bidden to teach; and yet these offices are * Tit. i. 11. ↑ Scot. & Tux. l. i. c. 5. challenged for distinct: or a Deacon, because he is charged with a dianovía. What is it to do the work of an Evangelist, but to preach the Evangelium pacis; the Gospel of peace? which he might, he must do, as a Bishop: and what propriety is there of these enjoined works to an Evangelist, as he was an Evangelist? What! can they shew it was his office, to ordain, or to censure? Nay, rather, how should those works which are constant and ordinary, and so consequently derivable to all successions to the end of the world, be imposed upon a mere extraordinary agent? Neither is there any opposition at all in these terms: they might be Evangelists, while they were in their journey; attending on the Apostles, and preaching abroad: they might be and were Bishops, when they were settled upon the charge of some territory or province. "But," saith our Tileno-mastix, "four years after St. Paul had given this charge of Episcopacy to Timothy, there was an equality of Presbyters at Ephesus: they were all convented; and no news of Timothy, as their Bishop"-Poorly: when the sun shines, what use is there of the stars? When St. Paul was present, his greater light extinguishes the less: what need any mention of Timothy? Or, why may not I take upon me to affirm as more likely, that St. Paul, who had associated Timothy with him, in six several Epistles, would also call him as his assessor, in this his last exhortation to his Presbyters? Neither can we be flouted out of that construction of the late learned Bishops, Barlow and Buckeride, of, In quo vos Spiritus Sanctus constituit Episcopos: that these Elders were. indeed Bishops; such, as whereof Timothy was one; such, as whereof St. Peter acknowledges himself a Compresbyter? for, if it be alleged, as it is, that this is against our own principles, who allow buț one Bishop in one city, and these were many; let me put the ob jector in mind, that though these Bishops were called together by St. Paul from Miletum to Ephesus, yet they were not all said to be Elders of Ephesus; but, from thence, monition went speediliest out to all places to call them. And so we hear St. Paul say, Ye all, amongst whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God: which plainly argues, they were not confined to the compass of one city or territory, but Overseers of several and far-dispersed charges. As St. Paul therefore to his Timothy, so St. Luke here uses the terms promiscuously; one being as yet in common use for both, though the offices were sensibly distinguished. upon And now, what shall we say to this? Tell me, ye that look these papers with censorious eyes; tell me, is all this, think you, no other than a formal presidence of an assembly, without any power or command? Is this to do but as a Consul in a Senate; to propound cases, to gather votes, to declare the judgment of the Presbytery or Synod; or, as Zanchy resembles it, ut Rector in Academia, "as a Rector in one of their Academies ;" or, rather, as St. Jerome, whom you challenge for your patron in this point, hath it †, tanquam Imperator in Exercitu," as a General in an Army," who hath power Hieron. Epist. ad E-agrium. * Acts xx. both to marshal all the troops, and to command the captains and colonels, and to execute martial law upon officers? If you have a mind to suffer your eyes to be willingly blinded with such improbable suggestions, falling from those, whom you think you have otherwise reason to honour; hug still your own palpable error; not without our pity, though without the power of redress: but, if you care for truth, and desire in the presence of God to embrace it for truth's own sake without respect of persons, ask your own hearts, whether these charges and services, laid by the Elect Vessel upon his Timothy and Titus, be any other than really Episcopal; and such, as manifestly carry in them, both Superiority and Jurisdiction. SECT. 7. The Testimony of St. John, in his Revelation, pressed. NEITHER can all the shifts in the world elude that pregnant vision and charge of the blessed Apostle St. John; in whose longer-lasting time, the government of the Church was fully settled, in this threefold imparity, of the Orders and Degrees: who, having had the special supervision of the whole Asian Church, was, by the Spirit of God, commanded to direct his vii Epistles to the Bishops of those seven famous Churches, by the name of so many Angels: To the Angel of the Church of Ephesus; To the Angel of the Church in Smyrna, &c. For, what can be more plain, than that, in every of these Churches, as for instance that of Ephesus, there were many Presbyters, yet but one Angel? If that one were not in place above the rest, and higher by the head than they, how comes he to be noted in the throng? Why was not the direction, "To all the Angels of the Church of Ephesus?" All were angels, in respect of their ministry one was the angel, in respect of his fixed superiority *. There were thousands of stars in this firmament of the Asian Churches there were but seven of the first magnitude. Who can endure such an evasion; That one is mentioned, many are meant? as if they had said; "To one; that is, to more :" "To one angel; that is, to more angels than one t." To what purpose is it to insist upon any propriety of speech, if we may take such liberty of construction?. as if, when the Prophet came to Jehu with a message, and expressly said, To thee, O captain, he should have turned it off to the rest, and have said, "To me, that is, not to me alone, but to all my fellows with me." But, to put this matter out of doubt, it is particularly known, who some of those Angels were. Holy Polycarpus was known to * Divinâ voce laudatur sub Angeli nomine Præpositus Ecclesiæ. Aug. Ep. 162. Non populum aggreditur; sed principem Cleri, utique Episcopum. Marlorat. be the Angel of the Church of Smyrna; whom Ignatius, the blessed martyr, mentions, as, by his Episcopacy, greater than his Clergy. Timothy had been, not long before, Bishop of Ephesus; yea, of the Asians now, Onesimus was; whose metropolis Ephesus was : wherein Ignatius acknowledges woλunaav, "a very great multitude" of Christians; so large, that, in the Emperor Leo's time, it had xxxvi Bishoprics under it: and so was Sardis, having under it xxiv*. And shall we think, that these great Dioceses were as some obscure Parishes, wherein were no variety of eminent persons? So as the Angel, that is noted here, must needs be of a large jurisdiction and great authority. But, if any man shall imagine these things spoken to the Angel, as to him under that title, in the name of all the rest, let him know, that this cannot be for that the charges and challenges there made are personal, and such as could not be communicated to all; for who can say, that all those of the Church of Ephesus were patient and laborious, that none of them fainted, that they all lost their first love, that all hated the work of the Nicolaitans +? Who can say, that all those of the Church of Smyrna were either poor or rich ? that none in the Church of Pergamos denied the faith §? Besides, here is a manifest distinction, betwixt the Pastor or Bishop, and those of his charge; and they are described by the severalties of their estates: as, when he had acknowledged the graces of Polycarpus, the Angel of Smyrna, and encouraged that blessed Martyr; by way of premonition to some of his Church, Behold, some of you the Devil shall cast into prison; and ye shall be tried, and endure tribulation ten days; and then addressing to him, Be thou faithful to the death, &c: Řev. ii. 10. And, in his Fourth Epistle, distinguishing the Angel or Bishop of Thyatira from the rest of his charge: But unto you, saith he, and the rest of Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and the depth of Satan, as they speak, I will put none other burden upon them: But that which ye have, hold fast till I come; Rev. ii. 24, 25. So that this conceit is no less wild than that other, which follows it, of my old acquaintance Brightman: who makes not only these. Angels, the types of those Churches; but those Churches of Asia, the types and histories of all the Christian Churches, which should be to the end of the world. Thus the bells say, what some hearers think. So clear is this truth, that the opposites have been forced to yield the Priority here intimated: but a Priority of Order only; not of power: a Priority of Presidency, for the time; not personal. Beza yields him, Tov ora; as he acknowledges Justin Martyr to call him, "President of the Presbytery:" Imò ne perpetuum. q. istud #poegwτos, munus esse necessariò opportuisse; but perhaps not perpetual. Wherein I bless myself, to see how prejudice can blind the * Jura Græc. pp. 88, 90. † Rev. ii. 2, 3, 4, 6. |