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only Whitakers, Spalato, Cocus, Rivetus, and others; but even some of the great Pontifician authors, as we shall see upon another occasion more fully. Secondly, Ambrose himself tells another tale, in his genuine writings: "There is one thing," saith he*, "that God requires of a Bishop; another, of a Presbyter; another, of a Deacon." And, again, "As Bishops do ordain Presbyters, and consecrate Deacons; so the Archbishop ordaineth the Bishop." Do you not think this man likely to speak for the new government? Thirdly, if he had said as they make him, they must give him leave to interpret himself. The Bishop is Primus Sacerdos, that is, saith he, Princeps Sacerdotum.

SECT. 21.

The Practice of the Waldenses and Albigenses, in Allowance of Epis copal Government.

SHORTLY, then, all times, all histories, all authors, all places are for us.

Yea, which is most remarkable, even those factions, which divided themselves from the Church, as the Arians, Novatians, Donatists, yet still held themselves to the government of their Bishops. It was their question, whether this or that man should be their Bishop: it was never questioned, whether they should have any Bishops at all.

Yea, in these latter times, the very Waldenses and Albigenses, when, in some things, they justly flew off from the Romish Superstition; yet still would have a Bishop of their own. It was one of the articles, that was objected against themt: the Supremacy of the Pope, usurping above all Churches, is by them denied: neither that any degree is to be received in the Church, but only Priests, Deacons, and Bishops. And Æneas Sylvius, in his Bohemian History, reporting the tenets of the Waldenses, hath thus ‡, Romanum Pontificem &c. That "the Bishop of Rome is but equal to other Bishops;" that," among Priests, there is no difference;" that, "not dignity, but merit of life, makes one Presbyter better than another."

Those of Merindol and Cabrieres (a people, which, about two hundred years ago, came out of the country of Piedmont, to inhabit in the waste parts of Provence) being there planted, and bearing of the Gospel preached in Germany and Switzerland, sent, in the year 1530, George Maurellus and Petrus Latomus, to confer with the learned men of those parts. They met with Oecolampadius, Bucer, Capito. Maurellus, escaping home alone, told his

1216.

Ambros. de Dignitate Sacerd. c. 3, 5.

Fox. p. 209. de Dogmat. Waldens.

Artic. Wald. Anno 1170, and

compatriots how much they had erred; and how their old Ministers, whom they called their Barbes, that is their uncles, had misled them.

But, before this, their 'complices, the good Christians who were termed Albigenses, did set up to themselves a Bishop of their own, one Bartolomæus, remaining about the coasts of Croatia and Dalmatia; of whom the Cardinal Portinensis, the Pope's Legate, writes thus to the Archbishop of Rouen, about the year 1146: Etenim de Carcasoná oriundus &c: "For one Bartolomæus, the Bishop of the Heretics, born in Carcasona, taking upon him the deputation of that Anti-pope, yielded unto him a wicked and abominable reverence, and gave him a place of residence in the town of Porlos, and removed himself to the parts of Thoulouse. This Bartolomæus, in the tenor of his letters, which run every where in the first style of his salutation, entitles himself on this manner, Bartolomæus, the servant of the servants of God, to N. the salutations of the holy faith.' This man, amongst all his other enormities, makes Bishops; and takes upon him perfidiously, to govern and order the Churches." Thus, that Cardinal.

And those Angragnians, who are commonly said, for some hundred of years, to have cast off all relation to the Church of Rome; yet, in their Confession of Faith and Answers exhibited to the president, appointed commissioner for their examination, confessed and acknowledged, upon mention made of ancient Councils, that the Councils had made divers notable decrees concerning the election of Bishops and Ministers of the Church, concerning Ecclesiastical Discipline, as well of the Clergy as the people. These Christians were far from that peevish humour, wherewith divers mis-zealots are now-a-days transported. What speak I of these ? The very late Christians, who, within the ken of memory, came into this kingdom for protection, had the noble Johannes à Lasco for their Bishop +.

Thus it was, with all Christian men and assemblies, all the world over; till, within the age of some who might be yet living, the waters of the Cantons, and the Lake of Lemanus, began to be troubled.

And now, when the gross errors of doctrine came to be both discovered by one side and impetuously defended by the other, and the impugners cruelly persecuted to bonds and death, those, who could not enjoy the freedom of the true religion under their Popish Bishops, thought themselves driven to set up Church-Governors and Pastors of their own: and, these once established, now must, belike, be defended. They might not be under those, they had: they could not have those, they should: they rested under those, they could get. And hence is all this distraction.

*Epist. Legati Papæ Card. Portinens. vide Fox. Acts &c.
+ Hadrian Sarav. Præfat. ad tractat. de Gradibus Minister.

SECT. 22.

The Government by Bishops both Universal and Unalterable. We have seen the grounds of Church-Government laid by our Saviour himself in imparity. We have seen it so built up by Apos tolic hands. We have seen the practice of the ancient and subsequent Church, laying on the roof to make a perfect fabric.

Yet, what is all this, if the charge be not Universal and Perpetual? Yield it to be so Ancient as the Apostles themselves; yet, if it be arbitrary, whether for time or place, what have we gained?

Surely, as God is but one, and ever himself; so would he have his Church. There may be threescore queens, and fourscore concubines, and virgins without number; but his Dove, his undefiled, is but one: and, though she may go in several dresses and trimmings; yet, still and ever, the stuff is the same. Plainly, though there may be varieties of circumstantial fashions in particular Churches; yet the substance of the government is, and must be ever, the same.

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That ordinary power, which the Apostles had, they traduced to their successors; as bequeathed by our Saviour, in his last farewell to them, unto the end of the world. For, we may not think, as one said well, that the Apostles carried their commission with them up to heaven. They knew it was given them, for a perpetuity of succession. He, that said, Go, teach all nations and baptize, added, Behold, I am with you to the end of the world. He could not mean it of their persons, which stayed not long upon earth after him: he meant it of their evangelical successors.

So was he with them, as he was with his domestics, their predecessors, not in the immediateness and extraordinary way of calling; not in the admirable measure and kinds of their xapíopala, or gifts; not in the infallibleness of their judgment, nor in the universality of their charge: but in the effectual execution of those offices, which should be perpetuated to his Church, for the salvation of mankind. Such were the preaching of the Gospel, and the administration of the Sacraments; the ordaining Church-officers; the ordering of Church-affairs; the infliction of censures; and, in short, the Power of the Keys, which, we justly say, were not tied to St. Peter's girdle, but were communicated to all his fellows, and to all his and their successors for ever: by virtue whereof, all true Pastors can open and shut heaven gates above; much more, the Church doors here upon earth.

And all these acts are of such necessity, that, without them, the Church could not at all subsist; at least, not long and in any tolerable condition. The power of these acts, as it was, by our Saviour's commission, originally in the Apostles; being by them conveyed to the Church, and not by the Church conveyed to them: so it succeeded, accordingly, in and to their successors, and was incorporated into their office. "We, that are Priests, receive the Keys

in Peter," saith St. Ambrose. Veniat ad Antistites, saith St. Augus tin; "Let them come to the Bishops, by whom the Keys are ministered in the Church." As Beza said truly of the promise of the Holy Ghost*, that it was given for the good of the whole Church, yet not unto the whole Church; but peculiarly unto the Apostles, to give to others at least: so must it be said of this power. And so, indeed, by Calvin's own determination †, none, but Pastors, might lay hands on the ordained; and none, but they, were capa ble to wield the great censures of the Church.

Shortly, then, was this power left by the Apostles, or was it not left?

If it were left, (as we could else have no Church), was it left with all, or with some? With all, it cannot: the multitude cannot be thought fit for these affairs. If with some, then whether with one in a city or territory, or with more. If with more, why is the charge then imposed upon one? one Timothy, in Ephesus: one Titus, in Crete: one Angel, in Thyatira: one other, in Philadelphia, Laodicea, and the rest: and why are those single persons challengeable for the neglect? And, if this power and this charge were, by the very hands of the Apostles, entailed upon these eminent persons, which should by due Ordination therein succeed them, and from them lineally descend upon us, I wonder what human power dare presume to cut it off. Neither do I less marvel at the opinions of those Divines, which, holding Episcopacy thus to stand Jure Apostolico, in the first institution; yet hold it may be changed in the sequel. For me, I have learned to yield this honour to these inspired men, that I dare not but think these their ordinances, which they intended to succession, immutable.

Some kinds of ceremonious prescriptions fell from them, which were meant to be only local and temporary. Those, we have no reason to think ourselves obliged to: but those, which they left for the administration of God's Church, it shall be high presumption in any to alter. Because the Apostles did but meet together, divers times, on the first day of the week; and St. Paul ordered that day for the laying aside their collections; and that is only called the Lord's Day by the Apostle; how strongly are the vehement opposites of Episcopacy wont to maintain that day, in succession to the Jewish Sabbath; and that, in all points unalterable, by any human authority! Surely, had they but the tenth part of that piea from the Apostles, for this their Judaical-Evangelical Sabbath, which we have for our Episcopacy, they would make us feel the dint of this argument; and would, in the rigorous observation of it, out-do the

Jews.

But you are now ready to choke me with some Apostolical Ordinances, which were even of themselves reversed:-be it so. Then you tell me of the first form of their government of the

Beza de Grad. Minist. c. 5.

+ Calv. Instit. 1. iv. 3. Hoc postremò habendum est, non universam multitudinem manus imposuisse suis ministris, sed solos Pastores.

Church, which, say you, was by an equality: from which, if, as we plead, they afterwards ascended to this imparity, which we now contend for, why is it not as safe, say you, for us to take up that their first form, as this latter?

Admitting all this, our answer is the readier. We like well to make those holy men of God our choosers. They thought fit to alter to this; and, therefore, we think fit to hold to it. They tried both; and left this to be continued.

The truth is, the Church of God, at the very first, was only in framing; and not, all of a sudden, framed. In framing thereof, as the equality among themselves, by the fulness of grace which they all had, conduced to that work; so, all that while, for the better promoting of the same work, they themselves maintained their own superiority and power over other Presbyters.

So, then, the change being made by the Apostles themselves, and not by other; they being infallibly guided by the Spirit of God, though they changed, we may not.

Nay, because they changed, we may not. The Holy Ghost led them unto it; and therefore we, unless we will oppose the ordinance of the Holy Ghost, must not detrect to continue it.

Otherwise, why may I not urge the same argument in the instanced Sabbath? The Apostles had duly kept the seventh day, according to the Law: they after fell to the observation of the first day. What, shall any man now infer, why not the Jewish Seventh, which was first kept; rather than the Evangelical First, which was last taken up?

However, then, as it is usually upbraided to us out of our reverend Whitgift, there may be some appendances and formalities of government, alterable by the wisdom and discretion of the Church; yet, for the main substance, it is now utterly indispensable, and must so continue to the world's end. Indispensable by any voiuntary act what inevitable necessity may do, in such a case, we now dispute not*: necessity hath dispensed with some, immediately Divine Laws. Where, then, that may be justly pleaded, we shall not be wanting, both in our pity and in our prayers.

*Nisi coegerit dura necessitas, cui nulla lex est posita. Hadr. Sarav. Resp. ad Bez. de Gradib, &c.

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