Episcopacy by Divine Right Asserted, Part 2 · Section 19
§. 19.
Of the Suppreſsion of contrary records: and the ſole oppoſition of the heretick Aerius.
CLearly then, all times, all places, all hiſtories are for us; not one that ever mentioned the diſcipline and government pretended; It is a very poor and beggerly evaſion of Parker, and Anti-tilenus, that perhaps there were ſome, but they were ſuppreſſed; ſuppreſſed? now gramercy for that: By whom I hope, by the Hierarchy? what, when there was no oppoſition? No colour of offence? ſuppreſſed? what, not only their edition in this age of Preſſes but their very mention? Can they perſwade themſelves (others ſure they cannot) or if they can, I would fain ſee them that among ſo many holy Fathers, and faithfull recorders of all occurrences that befell the Church, whoſe worthy monuments are in our hands, there ſhould not be the leaſt touch, either of their diſlike of Epiſcopacy, if there had been any, or of their allowance of the diſcipline called for; not ſo much as the leaſt intimation of any City or region, that was, or wiſhed to be otherwire governed then by a Dioceſan Biſhop? As well may they tell us, there are people at this day on, and beyond the mountains of the moon, who do ſtill, and ever have governed themſelves by their platform, though who, and what they are, could not, cannot poſſibly be diſcovered.
Onwards then: It can be no great comfort or credit to the diſparagers of Epiſcopacy, that the only founder and abettor of their opinion (which we meet with in all the world of hiſtory, and record) is a branded heretick, Arius; branded, even for this very point, which they now maintain; And how could this be, if the conceit had been formerly currant? Or, why he ſingled from the reſt, if there had been others known to have been of the ſame minde? No man ever wrote of hereticks, who did not name him for one; Epiphanius, Auſten, Philaſter; And who can chooſe but bluſh to hear thoſe; who would go for Orthodox Chriſtians, now at the latter end of the day (after ſo many ages of exſibilation) to take upon them the defence of a noted heretick, againſt all the holy Fathers of the Church, yea, againſt the whole Church of God, whoſe judgment thoſe Fathers expreſſly declared. Hear then of your Patriarch, all ye oppoſers of Epiſcopacy; and then judge how you like him: All agree in the ſtory; Epiphanius is the fulleſt.foreign Epiph. haereſ. 75. Aerius ſaith he was a man frantick-headed, proud-minded; an Arrian altogether; He would fain have been a Biſhop; and when his ſchoole-fellow Euſtathius came to that honour, which he eagerly deſired, and miſſed of, he was ſo much the more netled with emulation; Euſtathius humor'd him by all means, he was ſtill the more peeviſh; at laſt, he brake forth into Oppoſition; and (ſaith that Father) his ſpeech favored rather of madneſſe then of ſober humanity. For he ſaid, what is a Biſhop better then a Presbyter? The one differs not at all from the other; There is but one order, one honour, one dignity of both; Doth the Biſhop impoſe hands? So doth the Presbyter; Doth the Biſhop adminiſter baptiſme? So doth the Presbyter; The Biſhop diſpenceth the ſervice of God, ſo doth the Presbyter; The Biſhop ſits in his Chair or Throne,Epiph. loco citato. ſo doth the Presbyter. Theſe are the opinions, among others, for which Aerius was hooted, not out of the Church only, but out of the Cities, towns and villages; which I grieve to ſee taken up in this doting, and laſt age of the world by thoſe, who ſhould be both godly and wiſe. He whom Epiphanius in the voyce of Gods Church ſtiles magnum mundo malum, a great miſchief to the world, is now applauded by thoſe, who pretend to holyneſſe, for a great patrone of Truth.