The Diocesans Trial, Part 2 · Argument 9
The ninth Argument.
Those who have beene ever held of a higher order then Presbyters, they are before Presbyters in preheminence, and majority of rule. But bishops have beene held in a higher order by all antiquity. Ergo. The assumption is manifest: In the Councell of Nice, Ancyra, Sardica, Antioch, Ministers are distinguished into three orders. Ignatius, Clemens in his Epistle to Iames, Dionys. Arcop…g. de Coolest. Hierom. cap. 5. Tertull. de fug… in persecutione, & de Baptismo. Ignatius doth often testifie it. No wonder, when the Scripture it selfe doth call one of these a step to another, 1 Timoth. 3.13. Cyprian. Lib. 4. Ep. 2. Counc. Ephes. Cap. 1.2.6. Yea the Councell of Chalcedon counteth it sacriledge, to reduce a Bishop to the degree of a Presbyter. This Hierome himselfe confirmeth, saying: That from Marke to Heracl…s and Dionysius, the Presbyters did see a bishop over them in higher degree.
Answer.
The Proposition is not true in regard of majority of rule. For no Apostle had such power over the meanest Deacon in any of the Churches. But to the Assumption we answer by distinction.
An order is reputed higher, either because intrinsecally it hath a higher vertue, or because it hath a higher degree of dignity and honour. Now wee deny that ever antiquity did take the bishop above his Presbyters to be in a higher order then a Presbyter, further then a higher order doth signifie an order of higher dignity and honor, foreign or foreign, as the Councell of Sardica speaketh. Which is further proved: because the fathers did not hold a bishop to differ from a Presbyter, as Presbyter from a Deacon. For these differ genere proximo; Noverint Diaconi se ad ministerium non ad sacerdotum voca…i. But a bishop differeth from a Presbyter, as from one who hath the power of Priesthood no lesse then himselfe, and therefore the difference betwixt th…se, must be circumstantially, not so essentiall as betwixt the other. Thus bishops and Archbishops are divers ord…rs of bishops, not that one exceedeth the other, as a power of higher vertue, but of higher dignity then then the other. More plainely; There may be a fourefold difference in gradu. 1. in potestate graaus. 2. in Exercito. 3. in Dignitate. 4. in amplitudi…e Iurisdictionis. The first difference is not betweene a bishop and a Presbyter, according to the common tenent of antiquity, or the Schoole, but only is maintained by such as hold the Character of a Priest and Bishop inwardly, diverse one from the other. For as a bishop differeth not in power and degree from an Archbishop, because nothing an Archbishop can doe, as confirming, consecrating B…shops, &c. but a bishop can doe also. So neither doth a Presbyter from a bishop. Object. But the Priest cannot ordaine a Presbyter, and confirme as the b…shop doth, and therefore differeth Potestate gradus. To this I answer, that these authours meane not th…s difference in power (de fundamentali & rem ta potestate, sed ampliata, immediata, & jam actu hor um effictuam productiva) as if Presbyters had not a remote and fundamentall power to doe those things: but that they have not, before they be ordained bishops, their power so enlarged, as to produce th…se effects actually. As a boy hath a generative faculty wh…le he is a child, which he hath when he is a man, but yet it is not in a child free from all impediment, that it can actually beget the like. But this is too much to grant. For the power sacramentall in the Priest, is an actuall power which hee is able to performe and execute, nothing defective in regard of them, further then they be with-held from the exercise of it. For that cause which standeth in compleat actuality to greater & more noble effects, hath an inferior & lesser of the same kind under it also, unlesse the application of the matter be intercepted. Thus a Presbyter he hath a sacramentall power standing in full actuality to higher sacramentall actions, & therfore cannot but have these inferior of confirmation and orders in h…s power, further then they are excepted & kept from being applied to him. And therefore power sacramentall cannot be in a Presbyter, as the generative faculty is in a child, for this is inchoate onelyonly, and imperfect, such as cannot produce that effect. The power of the Priest is compleat. Secondly, I say, these are no sacramentall actions. Thirdly, were they, yet as much may be said to prove an Archbishop a distinct order from a bishop, as to prove a Presbyter and bishop differing in order. For it is proper to him out of power to generate a bishop, other bishops laying on hands, no otherwise then Presbyters are said to doe, where they joine with their bishops. If that rule stand not major ad minori, nor yet equalie ab equall, I marvel how bishops can beget bishops equall, yea superior to them, as in consecrating the Lord Archbishop, & yet a Presbyter may not ordaine a Presbyter. It doth not stand with their Episcopall majority, that the rule (every one may give that which he hath) should hold here in the exercise of their power. Those who are in one order may differ jure divino or humans. Aaron differed from the Priests not in power sacramentall, for they might all offer incense, and make intercession. But the solemne intercession in the holy of holies God did except and appropriate to the high Priest the type of Christ. Priests would have reached to this power of intercession in the holy place, or any act of like kinde: but that God did not permit that this should come under them, or they intermeddle in it. Thus by humane law the bishop is greater in exercise then the Priest. For …hough God hath not excepted any thing from the one free to the other, yet commonly confi…mation, ordination, absolution by imposi…g hands in receiving Penitents, consecrating Churches and Virines, have beene referred to the b…shop for the honor of Priesthood, rather then any necessi…y of law, as Ierom speaketh. Finally, in dignity, those may differ many waies, who in degree are equall, which is granted by our adversaries in this cause. Yea, they say in amplitude of jurisdiction, as in which it is apparant an Archbishop exceedeth a…other. But were it manifest that God did give bishops Pastorall power through their Diocesse, and an Archbishop through his Province, though but when hee visiteth, this would make one differ in order from the other; as in this regard Evangelists deffered from ordinary Pastors. But that jurisdiction is in one more then another, is not established, nor hath apparency in any Scripture.
To the proofes thereof I answer briefly: the one may be a step to the other, while they differ in degrees of dignities, though essentially they are but one and the same order. In this regard it may be sacriledge to reduce one, from the greater to the lesser, if he have not deserved it. As for that of Ierom it is most plaine, hee did meane no further order, but onelyonly in respect of some dignities wherewith they invested their bishop, or first Prebyter, as that they did mount him up in a higher seat, the rest sitting lower about him, and gave him this preheminence to sit first as a Consull in the Senate, and moderate the carriage of things amongst them: this Celfiori gradu, being nothing but his honourable foreign, not importing sole authority. For by a Canon of Councell of Laodicea, wee finde that the bishop h…d this priviledge to sit first, though Presbyters did together with him enter, and sit as Judges of equall commission. For though Deacons stood, Presbyters did alwaies sit incircuitu Episcopi.