Five Disputations of Church Government, Argument 10
Argum. 10. THat Episcopacy which is contrary to the w…rd of God, or Apostolical Institution, according to their own interpretation, is not to be restored. But such is the late English Episcopacy: therefore, &c.
I prove the Minor (for the Major needeth none:) according to their own interpretation of Tit. 1.5. and other Texts; Every City should have a Bishop, (and if it may be, a Presbytery) (And so many Councils have determined, only when they grew greater, they except Cities that were too small: but so did not Paul) But the late Episcopacy of England is contrary to this: for one Bishop only is over many Cities. If therefore they will needs have Episcopacy, they should at least have had a Bishop in every City: and though we do not approve of confining them to Cities, yet this would be much better then as they were: for then 1. They would be nearer their charges, and within reach of them. 2. And they would have smaller charges, which they might be more capable of overseeing; for there would be ten or twenty Bishops …or one that be now. If they say that except Bath and Wells Coventry and Lic…fi…ld, or some few, they have but one City. I answer, its not so. For every Corporation or Burrough-Town is truly foreign; and therefore should have a Bishop Let them therefore either prove that a Market-Town, a Burrough, a Corporation, is not foreign, or else let every one of these Towns and Burroughs have a Bishop, to govern that Town with the Neighbouring Villages by the consent and help of the Presbyters of these Vil…ages, (according to their own grounds.) And if it were so, they would be no more then Classical Bishops at most.
Perhaps they'le say that, while we pretend to take down Bishops, we do but set up more, and would have many for one,Object. while we would have every Corporation or Parish to have a Bishop. To which I answer, its true:Answ. but then it is not the same sort of Bishops which we would exclude and which we would multiply: we would exclude those Bishops that would undertake two or three hundred mens work themselves, and will rule a whole Diocess alone (or by a Lay Chancellor) when every conscionable man that hath faithfully tryed it, doth feel the oversight of one Congregation to be so great a burden, that it makes him groan and groan again. We would exclude those Bishops that would exclude all others in a whole Diocess, that they may do the work alone, and so leave it undone, while they plead that it belongs to them to do it. If they will come into the Lords Harvest, and exclude from the work of Government, the Labourers of a whole County or two, we have reason to contradict them. But this is not to bring in more such Bishops as they that will shut out others, but to keep in the necessary labouring Bishops whom they would shut out. Nor do we shut out them themselves as Labourers or Rulers, but as the excluders of the Labourers or Rulers. If we have a Church to build that requireth necessarily two hundred workmen, and some Pillars in it to Erect, of many hundred tun weight, if one of the workmen would say, that it belongs to him to do it all himself, or at least when the materials are brought to the place prepared, to rear and order and place every stone and pillar in the building, I would no o…herwise exclude the vain pretender then by introducing necessary help that the work may be done; and I should think him a silly Civiller …hat would tell me, that while I exclude him, I do …ut multiply such as he; when his every fault consisted in an hinderance of that necessary multiplication.
Object. 2.I know that some will say, that we feign more work then is to be done▪ and we would have the sentence of Excommunication pass upon every light offence. I answer; that its a thing that we abhor:Answ. we would have none Excommunicated but for obstinacy in hainous sin; when they will not hear the Church after more private admonition. But there's much more of the work of Government to be done on men that are not Excommunicable, to bring them to Repentance, and open confession, for man…fe…a…ion of that Repentance to the satisfaction of the Church: but what need we plead how great the work is which every man may see before his eyes, and experience putteth beyond dispute?
Furthermore that the English Episcopacy is dissonant from all Scripture Episcopacy, I prove thus. The Scripture knoweth but two sorts of Episcopacy: the one General, unfixed as to any Church or Country or Nation; which was not called Episcopacy in the first times: the other …ixed Overseers of determinate Churches appropriated to their special charge: these were called Bishops in those times: whereas the former were, some called Apostles, from their immediate mission and ex…raordinar…. Priviledges; or Evangelists, or Fellow labourers and he…pers of the Apostles, or by the like titles signifying their unlimited indeterminate charge. But our English Bishops are neither of these: therefore not any of Scripture appointment but different from them. 1. They are not of the Apostolical Order of General Ministers: for 1. Their principal work was Preaching to convert, and congregate, and then order Churches but our Bishops seldom preached, for the most part. 2. They were not tyed to any particular Church more then other, save only as prudence directed them p…o tempore & re nat, for the succe…s of their work for the Church Un…ve…s…l▪ nor were they excluded or restrained from any part of the world as being another mans Diocess; save only as prudence might direct them for the common good, to distribute themselves pro tempore. This is apparen… 1. by Christs Commission, who sendeth them into all the world, only by certain advantages and particular calls, sitting Pe…er more for the Circumcision, and Paul for the Uncircumcision, when yet both Pet…r and Paul and all the rest, did preach and look to both Circumcision and Uncircumcision. 2. By the History of their peregrinations and labours, which shew that they were not so fixed, whatever some writers may ungroundedly affirm. Eus…bius (discrediting by fabulous mixtures the lighter sort of his Testimonies, and censured by some rejection by Gelasius and others) and some with him, do tell us of some such things, as some Apostles being fixed Bishops, but with no such proofs as should satisfie a man that weighs the contrary intimations of Scripture, and the discord of these reporters among themselves. Only it is certain, that nature it self would so restrain them that as they could be but in one place at once, so they could not be in perpetual motion: and prudence would keep them longest in those places where most work was to be done. And therefore Pauls three years abode at Ephesus and the neighbouring parts of Asia, did not make him the fixed Diocesan Bishop of Ephesus.
And what I say of the Apostles, I say also of many such Itinerant unfixed Ministers which were their helpers, as Silas, Apollo, Barnabas, Titus, Timothy, &c. For though Timothy be called by some An…ients the first Bishop of Ephesus, and Titus of Crete; yet it is apparent they were no such fixed Ministers, that undertook a Diocess durant… vita as their proper charge, which were then called B…shops; but they were …tinerant helpers of the Apostles in gathering, planting and first ordering of Churches. And therefore Titus was left in a whole Nation or large Island, to place Bishops or Elders in each City, and set things in order, and this but till Paul come, and not to be himself their fixed Bishop: and Timothy is proved by Scripture to have been unsetled and itinerant as a helper of Paul, after that he is by some supposed to be fixed at Ephesus. I will not needlesly actum agere: let any man that is unsatisfied of this, read impartially Mr. Prins unbishoping of Timothy and Titus, and note there the Itinerary of Timothy from Scripture Texts. If therefore our Bishops would have been of the Apostles and their General helpers race, they should have gone up and down to gather and plant Churches, and then go up and down to visit those which they have planted; or if they live where all are Enchurched already, they should go up and down to preach to the rud…r sort of them, and by the power of the word to subdue men further to Christ, an… to see that all Ministers where they come do their duty, reproving and admonishing those that neglect it, but not forbidding them to do it, as a thing belonging only to them. And by Spiritual weapons and authority should they have driven Ministers to this duty, and not by meer secular force (of which more anon.)
2. And as for the fixed Bishops of Apostolical Institution, our English Prelacy are not like them. For the fixed Bishops established by the Apostles were only Overseers of one particular Church: But the English Prelates were the Overseers of many particular Churches. Therefore the English Prelates were not the same with the old Bishops of the Apostles institution.
The course that the Prelates take to elude this argument is by giving us a false definition of a particular Church. That we may not therefore have any unprofitable strife about words, I shall signifie my own meaning. By a Particular Church I mean an Associated or combined company of Christians, for Communion in Publick Worship, and Furtherance of each other in the way to heaven, under the Guidance of Christs Church Officers, (one Elder or more;) such as are undivided, or Churches of the first order commonly called Ecclesiae Primae, as to existence, and which contain not divers Political Churches in them. A family I mean not: for thats not a Political Church, having no Pastor. An accidental company of Christians I mean not. For those are no Association, and so no Political Church: Nor do I mean a National, or Diocesane or Classical Church, or any the like; which are composed of many particular Churches of the first order, conjunct. It is not of Necessity that they alway or most usually meet in one Congregation: because its possible they may want a capacious convenient room, and its possible they may be under persecution, so that they may be forced to meet secretly in small companies; or there may be some aged weak people or children that cannot travail to the chief place of Meeting; and so may have some Chappels of ease, or smaller meeting. But still it must be a number neither so big, nor so small as to be uncapable of the ends of Association, which enter the definition; how ever weakn…ss, age or other accidents may hinder some members from that full usefullness as to the main end, whith other members have. So that they which are so many, or live at such a distance as to be uncapable of the ends, are not such a Church, nor are capable of so being: For the number will alter the species. In a word, it cannot, I think, be proved that in the Primitive times, there was any one fixed Bishop that Governed and Oversaw any more then one such particular political Church, as was not composed of divers lesser political Churches: nor that their Churches which any fixed Bishop oversaw were more then could hold Communion in Worship in one publick place, for so many of them as could ordinarily hear at once (for all the families cannot usually come at once:) they were not greater then some of our English Parishes are, nor usually the tenth part so great. I have been informed by the judicious inhabitants, that there are fourscore thousand in Giles Cripple-gate Parish in London: and about fifty thousand in Stepney, and fourty thousand in Sepulchres. There cannot any Church in Scripture be found that was greater, nor neer so great as one of these Parishes. No not the Church at Ierusalem it self of which so much is said: No not if you admit all the number of moveable Converts and Sojournours to have been of that particular Church, which yet cannot be proved to have been so. I know Bishop Downam doth with great indignation Dispute that Diocesses were be…ore Parishes, and that it was more then one Congregation that was contained in those Diocesses; We will not contend about the name Diocess and Parish, which by the Ancients were sometime used promiscuously for the same thing: But as to the thing signified by them, I say that what ever you call it, a Diocess, or a Parish, there were not near so many souls as in some English Parishes; nor take one with another, their Churches commonly were no more Numerous then our Parishes, nor so numerous. A Diocess then and a Parish were the same thing, and both the same as our particular Churches now are; that is, the Ecclesiae primae, or Soceities of Christians combined under Church-Rulers, for holy Communion in Worship and Discipline. And there were no otherwise many Congregations in one Church, then as our Chapples of ease, or a few meeting in a private house because of rainy weather, are many Congregations in one Parish. The foresaid Learned and Godly, (though angry) Bishop Downame, saith Def. li. 2. cap. 1. page 6. that [Indeed at the very first Conversion of Cities, the whole Number of the people converted, being some not much greater then the Number of the Presbyters placed among them, were able to make but a small Congregation.] Call that Church then a Diocess or a Parish, I care not, so we come near an agreement, about the proportion of Members that the definition be not overthrown, and the ends of it made impossible by the distance, number, and unacquaintedness of the members that cannot have any Church communion immediately one with another. If there be no communion, how is it a Church? Nay or if there be no such communion as consists in mutual assistance and conjunction in Worship, and holding familiarity also in our conversation (which the excommunicated are excluded from) And if a communion there be, it is either Immediate by the members themselves Assembled, or else but Mediately by their Officers or Delegates. If it be only by the latter Mediately, then it is not the Ecclesia prima, but orta: It is an association of several Political Churches: For that is the difference between the communion of a single particular Church, and many combined Churches, that as the first is a combination of persons and not of Churches, so the communion is held among the Members in common, whereas the other being a combination of Churches, the communion is maintained orderly by Officers and Delegates, joyning in Synods, and sent from the Congregations. If therefore it be an Immediate ordinary communion of members in Ecclesiastical affairs, viz. Worship and Discipline, that is the Particular Church that I intend, call it what you will else, and whether there may be any private meetings in it besides the main body, or not, as possibly through some accidents there may be; and yet at Sacrament and on the most solemne occasions, the same persons that were at Chappels or less meetings, may be with the chief Assembly.
But I shall proceed in the proof of this by the next Argument, which will serve for this and the main together.