A Treatise of Episcopacy, Part 2 · Chapter 8
CHAP. VIII. That the Dioceſans cauſe the errour of the Separatiſts, who avoid our Churches as falſe in their Conſtitution; and would utterly diſable us to confute them.
WHen the Browniſts ſay that our Churches are no true Churches, they do not mean that they are not Societies of mens deviſing; but that they are not Societies of Gods Inſtituting. And this they prove upon the principles of the Dioceſans thus: If your Churches be of Gods Inſtitution (de ſpecie) it is either the Pariſh Churches, or the Dioceſane Churches that are ſo: But neither the Pariſh-Churches, nor the Dioceſane: Ergo.
1. That the Pariſh Churches are not ſuch, they prove becauſe by the Dioceſans own confeſſion, they are no Churches at all, except equivocally ſo called: It is one of their own principles, (and we grant it) that Epiſcopus & Plebs Conſtitute a Church, as a King and Subjects conſtitute a Kingdom, and as a Schoolmaſter and Scholars make a School: and as a Maſter and houſhold make a Family. And that ubi eſt Epiſcopus (as Cyprian ſaith) ibi eſt Eccleſia; which is nothing but Plebs paſtori adunata. And that a people without a Biſhop (truly ſo called) are but a Church equivocally, as Scholars without a Maſter are a School, or as a company of Chriſtians in a ſhip or houſe accidentally met, and praying together are a Church, &c. And as Dr. Field before cited, ſaith, None but a Biſhop hath a Church: all others are but his aſſiſtants, or as commonly called his Curates. Therefore when a Prelatiſt pleadeth that our Pariſh Churches are true Churches (either of Gods or mans inſtitution) they do forſake the principles of their party (as now maintained) or they contradict themſelves, or they play with equivocations and ambiguities.
II. And that a Dioceſane Church, which is one compoſed of the carcaſes of multitude of mortified Churches, is not jure divino, having ſaid ſo much to prove my ſelf, I will not ſtay to tell you how eaſily the Separatiſts may prove it. So that for my part as much as I have written and done againſt them, I profeſs I am not able to confute them on the Dioceſane grounds, but would be one of them if I had no better.
Queſt. How then muſt they be confuted?
Ans. Thus or not at all by me. A Presbyters office is not to be judged of by the Biſhops will or deſcription, but by God's the inſtitutor. As if the King deſcribe the Lord Mayors office in his Charter; If the Recorder or whoever giveth him his oath, and inſtalleth him, ſhall miſdeſcribe the office, and limit it, and ſay falſly you have no power to do this or that; This will not at all diminiſh his power, as long as it is the Charter that they profeſs to go by. He ſhall have the power which the King giveth, and not which the inveſting Miniſter deſcribeth. If a Parſon preſented to a Benefice, ſhall be told by the Biſhop at his inſtitution, the Tithes or Glebe are but half yours, this ſhall not diminiſh his Title to the whole. So when God hath deſcribed the Miniſters office, it ſhall be what God ſaith it is, and not what the Ordainer ſaith it is. And God maketh the Paſtors of each particular body of fixed Communicants, united as aforeſaid, to be really a Biſhop (or at leaſt the chief of these Paſtors, or the ſole Paſtor:) And therefore the Church to be truly and univocally a Church of Divine inſtitution: Though it were never ſo much granted that Archbiſhops were over them, as the Apoſtles were overthoſe Acts 14. 23.
And then when the Pariſh Churches are once proved true Churches, whether the Dioceſane be ſo or not, is nothing to our controverſie with the Separatiſts. But for my part I cannot confute the lawfulneſs of a Dioceſe as conſiſting of many particular Churches with their Biſhops, as I can a Dioceſe which hath put them all down.