Vindication of the Dissertations Concerning Episcopacy, Chapter 3 · Section 4
Sect. IV.
Of Salmaſius's conceit that theſe Epiſtles were written at the time of Epiſcopacy firſt entring the Church.
THat which followes of the Juſtice of the Reverend Preſbyterian Divines cenſure of theſe Epiſtles, & of Salmaſius's his beliefe, that they were written by a Pſeudo-Ignatius, will not require any anſwer from me, who cannot be moved by the concluſion made by thoſe Divines, any farther than the Premiſſes here produced and anſwered, have appeared to have force in them, and who have more largely examined Salmaſius his exceptions heretofore, and was even now by them acknowledged ſo to have done, and nothing yet replied to my anſwers, and therefore muſt not for ever turne the ſame ſtone, begin the ſame task againe.
But for the conceit which is here cited from Salmaſius, which I confeſſe I conſidered not ſo much before, as to make any reply to it, viz. That theſe Epiſtles were written when Epiſcopacy, properly ſo called, came into the …hurch, and that proved from hence, becauſe in all his Epiſtles he ſpeakes highly in honour of Presbytery as well as of Epiſcopacy, that ſo the people, that had been accuſtomed to the Presbyterian Government, might the more willingly and eaſily receive this now Government by Epiſcopacy, and not be offended at the novelty of it. It is evident how eaſily this may be retorted, and the argument as firmely formed to conclude, that Presbyters were then newly come into the Church, and therefore to make the people inclinable to give them a willing Reception, without being offended at the novelty of them, he ſtill ſpeakes highly in honour of Epiſcopacy.
Such Arguments as theſe you will gueſſe from hence, how incompetent they are to conclude matters of fact, done ſo many hundred yeares agoe, (ſuch is the queſtion, whether Ignatius wrote theſe Epiſtles or no) It is much more probable that they wanted Arguments of any reall validity, who are faine to fly to ſuch Succors as theſe.
Yet one farther miſadventure there is, in forming or making uſe of this conceit, For what is ſaid in thoſe Epiſtles concerning the honour due to Presbyters or the Presbytery, is farre from looking favourably on the Presbyterian Government, for certainly as long as there is a Biſhop, properly ſo called, ſet over the Presbyters, as they know there is in all thoſe Epiſtles, and as long as the Presbyters are to do nothing without commiſſion from him (as they knew alſo (and even now quarrell'd at it) that by him they are required to doe) there is little ſhow of the Presbyterian modell diſcernible, no whit more, than there was in England long before they covenanted to caſt the Biſhops out of the Church, It being certaine that no community or equality of Presbyters taken into councell with the Biſhop, doth conſtitute the Government Presbyterian, as long as there be any Biſhops to have power over Presbyters; Elſe had the Convocation of Deanes, Archdoacons and Clerks, fourteen yeares agoe, been the platform of Presbyterian Government in England.
This is, I conceive, a full anſwer to every the moſt minute part or appearance of Argument here produced againſt theſe Epiſtles, and is all that was proper here to be ſaid concerning Ignatius, whoſe Epiſtles as long as they have any authority with us, let it be in the moſt Reformed, purified Edition, that ever was, or can be hoped for, there is evidence enough for the Apoſtolicall Inſtitution of Biſhops in the moderne notion of the word, And if after all this they muſt have no authority, for no other crime, but becauſe they are ſuch punctuall Aſſerters of this Doctrine; 'Tis to little purpoſe farther to examine or inquire, what Antiquity hath affirmed or practiſed in this matter.