but those Priests, which diligently and painfully toil in God's harvest; in the Word and Doctrine? All the Elders, therefore, there intended, are exercised in the Word and Doctrine: but there are some, that do noτiav, labour more abundantly than the rest: these must be respected and encouraged accordingly. Neither is there any reason in the world, to induce an indifferent man to think, that this μádica noti@VTEC should imply a several and distinct office; but rather a more intense and serious labour in the same office: as might be shewn in a thousand instances.

Whereas, therefore, this is the only Scripture, that, in some foreprized ears, seems to sound towards a Lay-Presbytery, I must needs profess, for my part, if there were no other text in all the Book of God more pregnant for their disproof, I should think this alone a very sufficient warrant for their disclamation. And I do verily persuade myself, that those men, who, upon such weak, yea, such nogrounds, have taken upon them, being mere Laics, to manage these holy affairs of God, have a hard answer to make one day, before the tribunal of Almighty God, for this their presumptuous usurpa

tion.

Now, then, since this one litigious and unproving text is the only place in the whole New Testament, that can bear any pretence for the Lay-Presbytery (for, as for their Dic Ecclesie, and their xußevyras, they are so improbable, and have been so oft and thoroughly charmed, that they are not worth either urging or answer); and, on the contrary, so many manifest and pregnant testimonies of Scriptures have been and may be produced, wherein the Presbyters or Elders of the Church, are, by the Spirit of God, only meant for the spiritual guides of his people; I hope every ingenuous Christian will easily resolve, how much safer it is for him, to follow the clear light of many evident Scriptures, than the doubtful glimmering of one mistaken text.

SECT. 3.

Lay-Eldership a mere Stranger to all Antiquity; which acknow ledgeth no Presbyters, but Divines.

AND, as the Scriptures of God never meant to give countenance to a Lay-Presbytery, so neither did subsequent Antiquity.

I speak it upon good assurance; there was never any clause in any Father, Council, History, that did so much as intimate any such office in the Church of God, or the man that wielded it. The fautors of it would gladly snatch at every sentence in old records, where they meet with the name of a Presbyter; as if there the bells chimed to their thought: but, certainly, for fifteen hundred years, no man ever dreamed of such a device. If he did, let us know the man.

I am sure our Apostolical Clemens makes a contra-distinction of Laics and Presbyters *.

And Ignatius, the holy Martyr, yet more punctually, goes in these degrees + ; Οὐδέν ἄνευ τοῦ Ἐπισκόπου, μηδὲ Πρεσβύτερος, μηδὲ Διάκονος, μηδὲ Λαϊκός : “ Do nothing without your Bishop; neither Presbyter, nor Deacon, nor Laic ." This difference is so familiar with that Saint, as that we scarce miss it in any of his Epistles: insomuch as Vedelius himself, finding in the Epistle of this Martyr to the Ephesians §, Tò džiovóμaçov @peσßUTÉρiov, translates it, memorabile Sacerdotum vestrorum Collegium, "a College of Presbyters:" such the Bishops of those first times had; as we have still the Dean and Chapter, to consult withal, upon any occasion: but those Presbyters were no other than professed Divines; neither were ever otherwise construed.

If we look a little lower, who can but turn over any two leaves of the first tome of the Councils, and not fall upon some passage, that may settle his assurance this way?

Those ancient Canons, which carry the name of the Apostles, are exceedingly frequent in the distinction. They speak of the Bishop's or Presbyter's offering on the altar of God; which no Layman might do. They make an act against a Bishop's or Presbyter's rejection of his wife, under pretence of religion¶; which, in a Layman, was never questioned. They forbid a Bishop, Presbyter, or Deacon to meddle with any secular cares or employments**: a Laick person had no reason to be so restrained. Shortly, for we might here easily weary our reader, the Ninth of their Canons is punctual, which plainly reckons up the Bishop, Presbyter, Deacon, as en To nataλóyou to 'legariou, "of the Priestly list;" and, in the Fourteenth ++, "If any Presbyter or Deacon, öλws in τῷ καταλόγου τῶν Κληρικῶν; or whosoever else of the Clergy."

Dionysius, the mis-named Areopagite, hath iepάpxois and iɛpéas, for Bishops and Presbyters: and the holy Martyr Cyprian, Cum Episcopo Presbyteri Sacerdotali honore conjuncti; "The Presbyters joined with the Bishop in Priestly honour ‡‡."

What shall I need to urge, how often, in the Ancient Councils, they are styled by the name of iεges, "Priests?" and how, by those venerable Synods, they have the offices and employments of only Priests and Clergymen put upon them? Our two learned Bishops, D. Bilson, and D. Downame, have so cleared this point, that my labour herein would be but superfluous. I refer my reader to their unquestionable instances.

One thing let me add, not unworthy of observation. I shall de

* Clem. Epist. ad Corinth. suprà.

+ Ignat. Epist. ad Magn.

On this quotation from Ignatius, see p. 573. Note ¶ of this vol. EDITOR.
Ignat. Epist. ad Ephes. Can. Apost. Can. 3, 4, 5.

** Can. 7.

¶ Can. 6.

++ This occurs in the Fifteenth, according to the enumeration which our author follows. EDITOR.

7

Cypr. 1. iii. Ep. 1.

ire no other author to confute this opinion of the Lay-Presytery, than Erius himself; the only ancient enemy of Episcoacy. "What is a Bishop," saith he, "other than a Presbyter ? &c. There is but one order, one honour of both. Doth the Bishop impose hands? so doth the Presbyter. Doth the Bishop administer Baptism? so doth the Presbyter. The Bishop dispenseth God's service: so doth the Presbyter, &c." Thus he. Lo, there is but one professed enemy to Bishops, in all the history of the Church; and he, in the very act of his opposition to Episcopacy, mars the fashion of a Lay-Presbytery! He could not in terminis directly oppose it, indeed: how should he oppose that, which never was? But he attributes such acts and offices to a Presbyter, as never any Laic durst usurp: such, as never were, never could be ascribed to any, that was not consecrated to God, by a holy Ordination. Had this man, then, but dreamed of a Lay-Presbytery, either to supply or affront Episcopacy, it might have been some countenance, at least, to the age of this invention: but now, the device hath not so much patrocination (pardon an harsh word) as of an old stigmatic: yea, it is quashed by the sole and only Marprelate of the Ancient Church.

SECT. 4.

St. Ambrose's Testimony, urged commonly for Lay-Elders, fully

answered.

YET, let me eat my word betimes, while it is hot.

There is a holy and ancient Bishop, they say, that pleads for a Lay-Presbytery. And who should that be, but the godly and renowned Archbishop and Metropolitan of Milan, St. Ambrose? a man noted, as for singular sanctimony, so for the height of his spirit, and zeal of maintaining the right of his function.

And what will he say? Unde et Synagoga, et postea etiam Ecclesia, seniores habuit, &c: "Whereupon," saith he, "both the Synagogue, and afterwards the Church also, had certain elders or ancient men, without whose counsel nothing was done in the Church: which by what negligence it is now out of use, I know not; except perhaps it were by the sloth of the teachers, or rather by their pride, for that they would seem to be of some reckoning alone." Here is all.

And now, let me beseech my reader, to rouse up himself a little; and, with some more than ordinary attention, to listen to this evidence, on which alone, for any likely pretence of Antiquity, so great a cause wholly dependeth.

And, first, let him hear, that this is no Ambrose; but a counter

* Amb. in 1 Tim. v. 1.

RR

feit: even by the confession of the greatest favourers of the Lay. Presbytery; who, that they would thus easily turn off the chief, if not the only, countenance of their cause, it is to me a wonder but they well saw, if they had not done it, it would have been done for them. Possevine thinks he finds Pelagianism in this commentary upon the Epistles. Both Whitakers and Bellarmin † disclaim it for Ambrose's: the latter pitches it upon a heretic; even the sime, which was the author of the book of the Questions of the Old and New Testament; Hilary, the Deacon: and the former doth little other; while he cites and seems to allow the censors of Louvaine to this purpose. Maldonate casts it upon Remigius Lugdunensis, who lived anno 870, far from any authentic antiquity; and confidently says, no man, that ever read Ambrose's writings, can think these to be his.

It is then, first, no great matter what this witness saith: but, yet, let us hear him.

Unde Synagoga, saith he: "Whereupon the Synagogue, and after the Church also, had E'ders." And whereupon was this spoken, I beseech you? Let my reader but take the foregoing words with him, and see if he can forbear to smile at the conceit. The words run thus; upon occasion of St. Paul's charge, Rebuke not an Elder, but entreat him, as a father, &c. Propter honorificentiam ætatis, majorem natu cum mansuetudine ad bonum opus provocandum, &c: "For the honour of age, the elder in years is by meekness to be provoked to a good work, &c." Nam apud omnes ubique gentes, honorabilis est senectus: "For," saith he, "amongst all nations every where, old age is honourable:" and so infers, "Whereupon, both the Synagogue, and afterwards the Church, had certain elder or ancient men, without whose counsel nothing was done in the Church." Plainly the words are spoken of an elder in age, not any elder in office. And so St. Paul's words import too for it follows, the elder women as mothers; and I suppose no man will think St. Paul meant to ordain Elderesses in the Church. Thus, in the supposed Ambrose, all runs upon this strain: for there is honorificentia ætatis, "the honorificence of age;" majores natu; honorabilis senectus; no intimation of any office in the Church.

But, you will say, here is mention of the Elders, that the Synagogue had. True: but not as judges; but only as aged persons, whose experience might get them skill, and gravity procure them reverence. And such the Church had too; and made use of their counsel and therefore it follows, quorum sine consilio, "without whose counsel," nothing was done in the Church: he saith not, without whose authority. These, then, for ought this place implieth, were not incorporated in any Consistory; but, for their prudence, advised with, upon occasion: and what is this, to a fixed bench of Lay-Presbyters?

Or, if there were such a settled College of Presbyters, in ancient

*Park. Polit. Eccl. Justif. c. 8.

+ Bellar. Tom. 4. de Amiss. Grat, c. 5. and 1. iv. de Maldon, in Mat. xix.

use, as Ignatius implies; yet where are the Lay? They were certain ancient, experienced Divines; who, upon all difficult occasions, were ready to give their advice and aid to their Bishop.

How little the true Ambrose dreamed of any other, let him be consulted in his noble, humble, and yet stout Epistle, to the Emperor Valentinian*: where that worthy pattern of Prelates well shews, how ill it could be brooked, that persons, merely laic or secular, should have any hand in judging and ordering of matters spiritual.

Yea, for this very pretended Ambrose, how far he was from thinking of a Lay-Presbytery, let himself speak; who, in the very same chapter, upon those words Let the Elders, that rule well, be counted worthy of double honour, construes those Elders, for boni dispensatores, ac fideles. And, because you may think this may well enough fit Laic Presbyters, he adds, Evangelizantes regnum Dei, "those that preach the kingdom of God." And, again, Adversus Presbyterum &c against a Presbyter receive not an accusation, &c: "Because," saith he, Ordinis hujus sublimis est honor, "the honour of this Order is high: for they are the Vicars of Christ; and, therefore, an accusation of this person is not easily to be admitted: for it ought to seem incredible to us, that this man, who is God's Priest, should live criminously." Thus he. So as this Ambrose's Presbyters are no other, in his sense, than God's Priests and Christ's Vicars. If our Lay-Presbyters, then, have a mind to be or to be called Priests and Vicars, their Ambrose is for them: else, he is not worthy of his fee, for what he hath said.

If all Antiquity have yielded any other witness, worth the producing, how gladly should we hear him out, and return him a satisfactory answer: but, the truth is, never any man thought of such a project; and, therefore, if any author have let fall some favourable word, that might seem to bolster it, it must be against his will. Neither did any living man, before some burgesses of Geneva in our age took it upon them, ever claim or manage such an office, since Christ was upon the earth.

SECT. 5.

The utter Disagreement and Irresolution of the Pretenders to the New Discipline, concerning the particular State of their Desired Government.

ALL this considered, I cannot but wonder and grieve, to hear a man of such worth as Beza was, so transported, as to say, that this Presbytery, of their device, is the tribunal of Christ: a tribunal, erected above fifteen hundred years after his departure from us! an invisi

* Amb. 1. ii. Epist. 13.