Episcopacy by Divine Right Asserted, Section 12 – Section 13
§. 12.
The fifth ground, That the Primitive Saints and Fathers neither would nor durst ſet up another forme of government different from that they received from the Apoſtles.
FIftly, we may not entertaine ſo irreverent an opinion of the Saints and Fathers of the Primitive Church, That they, who were the immediate Succeſſours of the Apoſtles, would, or durſt ſet up a forme of government, different from that which was fore-deſigned to them, and that either faulty, or ſelfe-deviſed. Certainly it muſt needs follow, either thoſe ſucceeding governours practiſed, maintained, and propagated that forme, which they immediately before received from the hands of the Apoſtles; or els they quite altered it, and eſtabliſhed a new: If the firſt, we have what we deſire; if the later, thoſe holy men were guilty of a preſumptuous Innovation; which were a crime to thinke. Charity thinks not evill: And what evill can be worſe, than to violate or tranſgreſſe Apoſtolicall Ordinances?
How highly doth the Apoſtle of the Gentiles praiſe the Corinthians,foreign. 1 Cor. 11.2. foreign. That they kept all his orders, and obſerved his Traditions; and would he have leſſe deeply blamed thoſe, that ſhould have wilfully broken them! Vultis veniam in virga, Will ye that I ſhall come to you with a rod, ſaith the ſame Apoſtle; All the Chriſtian world knew how ſacred the Authority of thoſe great Delegates of our Saviour was; how infallible their Determinations, how undoubted their inſpirations. Withall, it muſt be granted, that the firſt Ages were the pureſt, as the water that firſt riſes from the ſpring is clearer than that, which by a long decurſion hath mixed it ſelfe with the ſoyle of the Channell; Can it therefore enter into any wiſe and honeſt heart, that thoſe prime Saints, even in the greateſt purity of the Church, would wilfully varie from the holy Inſtitutions of the bleſſed Apoſtles? And as the fickle Iſraelites did, (ſo ſoone as Moſes his back was turned) worſhip Idols of their owne invention? Surely he muſt be ſtrongly uncharitable that ſhall thinke ſo, ſtrangely impudent that dares maintaine it, and wickedly credulous that can believe it.
Quae defectio in Eccleſia quidem ipſa Apoſtolorum aetati proximâ adeò coepit, ut argumento certo illius univerſa praxis eſſe nequeat. Pa…k. Polit. Eccleſ. l. 2. c. 8.But the defection began in the Church, preſently after the Apoſtles; yea in their time; A point eagerly urged by the faction: It is no truſting therefore to the univerſall practice of the Succeſſors. Our owne Authours are frequently alledged for the earlineſſe of this Apoſtaſie; Whitakers, Reynolds, Field, Mornay; what need it, when the Apoſtle himſelfe tels us, the myſtery of iniquity began then to worke: yea, and as it is ſaid, your Moderator lately told you, Saint Paul himſelfe by appointing Biſhops, was himſelf a worker in it. The myſtery of iniquity? What is that, but the plots of that Antichriſt? Yea but you ordinarily ſpeak of him, as I thought, but as one: The Romane vice-god; Now I perceive it is a miſtake; there was the Antichriſt at Hieruſalem; the Antichriſt of Antioch; of Alexandria; ſhortly in every Church, one. But let them ſay now, Doe they repute the Biſhop of Rome to bee the Antichriſt or not? If they doe; let them ſhew us what it is that makes him ſo, which all good Biſhops do not as mainly oppoſe? What hand hath the Patri… rch of Conſtantinople, or Alexandria, or the Abaſſine Biſhops in his tranſcendent ſupremacy and uſurpation? Theſe diſclaime him, theſe reſiſt him? Did the Epiſcopacie of theſe and all other Chriſtian Churches give any aid to the advancement of that uſurpers infallibility, or univerſall ſupremacie? Did, or do the Chriſtian Biſhops of all other Churches give him their ſhoulder to hoyſe him up above all that is called God? If they helpe him up, who offers to pull him down? Shortly then; if the myſtery of iniquity did then work for Rome, yet not for the Grecian, Syrian, Aſian Churches: No, no, it was not any point of the defection, this, but rather of the perfection of the Church; But here we are choaked with the examples of ſome Churches, which ſoone after their plantation, ſwerved from their former purity; Of Iſrael it is ſaid: Rehoboam left the Law of the Lord, 2 Chron. 12.1.and all Iſrael with him; Of the Galathians; I marvell that you are ſo ſoon turned away from Chriſt; Galat. 1.6.and ſeverall errours are reckoned up of ſucceeding Churches and men. It is no ſuch ſtrange matter therefore, that the Chriſtian Church ſhould in ſome ſort faile after the deceaſe of the Apoſtles: How little reaſon, and great uncharitableneſſe is there in this Argument? If there were ſome errours, ſhall we ſuſpect all truths? And if ſome particular Churches failed in ſome opinions, ſhall we therefore miſ-doubt the practice of the univerſall? Parker grants, that in the times of the Apoſtles, the Church was in her (foreign) the height of her health; even then, were there not quarrels, were there not foule miſ-opinions in the Churches of Corinth, Galatia, Theſſalonica, Coloſſae? If theſe particular failings did not hinder the ſoundneſſe in doctrine, and foreign in government of the univerſall Chriſtian Church, what reaſon have we to caſt this aſperſion upon the ſubſequent? It is true, as Phyſitians obſerve, that in ſeven yeares the body changes; and in thirty there is (as Keckerman obſerves not ill) a remarkable alteration in every ſtate; Neither is the Church priviledged from mutability: but as a man changes his complexion, but ſtill holds his viſage; and as the State changes its Officers, but ſtill retaines the lawes and formes of Adminiſtration; ſo the Church may perhaps alter ſome Cuſtomes, and either mend or impaire in manners, and yet ſtill continue the rules, and formes of her government; neither have we reaſon to thinke otherwiſe of thoſe which ſucceeded the Apoſtolike: And if ſome men therein declined towards errour or hereſie, God forbid the Church ſhould ſuffer, as guilty of their lapſes: But as for the maine lawes of Church-Diſcipline, if the ſucceding Governours ſhould have ſo foulely forgotten themſelves after the deceaſe of the two great Apoſtles of the Gentiles, and the Circumciſion; yet Saint Iohn lived a faire age after, no leſſe than ſixty eight yeares after our Saviour, and had leiſure enough to controll their exorbitances, had they been ſuch, neither would he have indured any ſuch palpable and prejudiciall innovation in the Church of God. Briefly then, if it ſhall appeare, that theſe holy men, who were immediate Succeſſours in the Apoſtolike chaires, continued and maintained an imparity and ſuperiority of the Epiſcopall function, we have evicted, what we plead for.
§ 13.
The ſixth ground: That if the next ſucceſſors would have innovated the forme of government, yet they could not in ſo ſhort ſpace have diffuſed it through the whole Chriſtian world.
BVt ſixtly, if the ſucceeding Church-Governours, would, or durſt have owned ſo much preſumption, as to alter or innovate the forme of government left by the Apoſtles, yet they could not poſſibly in ſo ſhort a ſpace have diffuſed their new uniforme platforme of Adminiſtration through the whole Chriſtian world. For, who knowes not, that univerſality of power and juriſdiction died with the Apoſtles; they onelyonly could claime the whole world for their Dioeceſſe; neither could they leave any heires behinde them of their Apoſtleſhip; the ſucceeding Adminiſtrators of the ſeverall Churches were fixed to their owne Charges, having neither power to command in another mans diviſion, nor ſuch eminence of authority, as that their example ſhould be a rule to their neighbours. How then can any living man conceive it poſſible, if there had not been an uniforme order ſetled by the Apoſtles, that all the world ſhould ſo ſuddenly meet in one forme of policie, not differing ſo much as in the circumſtances of government? That which Parker thinks to ſpeak for his advantage (neque uno impetu diſciplina ſtatim mutata est, Polit. Eccleſ. l. 2. c. 8.ſed gradatim & paulatim; that the diſcipline was not changed at once, but by little and little, as by inſenſible degrees) makes ſtrongly againſt him, and irrefragably for us; for here were no lingring declinations towards that government, which we plead for, but a preſent and full eſtabliſhment of it in the very next ſucceeding hands; which could not have been but by a ſupereminent and univerſall command. If we doe but caſt our eyes upon thoſe Churches which now dividing themſelves from the common rule of Adminiſtration, affect to ſtand upon their own bottome; do we not ſee our Countrimen of Amsterdam varying from thoſe of Leiden concerning their government; and in the New-Engliſh Colonie thoſe of the Boſton-leaders from the Weſterne Plantation? When we ſee drops of water ſpilt upon dry ſand, running conſtantly into one and the ſame ſtreame, we may then hope to ſee men and Churches, not overſwayed otherwiſe with one univerſall command, running every where into a perfect uniformity of government, eſpecially in a matter of ſuch nature and conſequence, as ſubordination and ſubjection is. It was the ſingular and miraculous bleſſing of the Goſpell in the hands of the firſt Propagators of it;Pſal. 19.3, 4. that, There was no ſpeech nor language where their voice was not heard; Their line, of a ſudden, went out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. The Sun, which rejoyceth as a ſtrong man to run a race, could ſcarce out-goe them; but as for their followers, the very next to them, they muſt be content to hold their own, a much ſlower pace, and by leiſure to reach their journeyes end; If therefore it ſhall be made to appeare, that preſently after the deceaſe of the Apoſtles, one uniforme order of Epiſcopall government, ſo qualified as we have ſpoken, was without variation, or contradiction received in all the Churches of the whole Chriſtian world, it muſt neceſſarily be granted, that Epiſcopacie is of no other than Apoſtolicall Conſtitution.