concerning the election of Bishops and Ministers of the Church, concerning Ecclesiastical Discipline, as well of the Clergy as the people. These Christians were far from that peevish humour, wherewith divers mis-zealots are now-a-days transported. What speak I of these? The very late Christians, who, within the ken of memory, came into this kingdom for protection, had the noble Johannes à Lasco for their Bishop. Thus it was, with all Christian men and assemblies, all the world over; till, within the age of some who might be yet living, the waters of the Cantons, and the Lake of Lemanus, began to be troubled.

And now, when the gross errors of doctrine came to be both discovered by one side and impetuously defended by the other, and the impugners cruelly persecuted to bonds and death, those, who could not enjoy the freedom of the true religion under their Popish Bishops, thought themselves driven to set up Church-Governors and Pastors of their own: and, these once established, now must, belike, be defended. They might not be under those, they had: they could not have those, they should they rested under those, they could get. And hence is all this distraction.

SECT. 22.

The Government by Bishops both Universal and Unalterable.

WE have seen the grounds of Church-Government laid by our Saviour himself in imparity. We have seen it so built up by Apostolic hands. We have seen the practice of the ancient and subsequent Church, laying on the roof to make a perfect fabric.

Yet, what is all this, if the charge be not Universal and Perpetual? Yield it to be so Ancient as the Apostles themselves; yet, if it be arbitrary, whether for time or place, what have we gained?

Surely, as God is but one, and ever himself; so would he have his Church. There may be threescore queens, and fourscore concubines, and virgins without number; but his Dove, his undefiled, is but one: and, though she may go in several dresses and trimmings; yet, still and ever, the stuff is the same. Plainly, though there may be varieties of circumstantial fashions in particular Churches; yet the substance of the government is, and must be ever, the same.

That ordinary power, which the Apostles had, they traduced to their successors; as bequeathed by our Saviour, in his last farewell to them, unto the end of the world. For, we may not

d Hadrian Sarav. Præfat. ad tractat. de Gradibus Minister.

think, as one said well, that the Apostles carried their commission with them up to heaven. They knew it was given them, for a perpetuity of succession. He, that said, Go, teach all nations and baptize, added, Behold, I am with you to the end of the world. He could not mean it of their persons, which stayed not long upon earth after him: he meant it of their evangelical successors.

So was he with them, as he was with his domestics, their predecessors, not in the immediateness and extraordinary way of calling; not in the admirable measure and kinds of their Xapíopara, or gifts; not in the infallibleness of their judgment, nor in the universality of their charge: but in the effectual execution of those offices, which should be perpetuated to his Church, for the salvation of mankind. Such were the preaching of the Gospel, and the administration of the Sacraments; the ordaining Church-officers; the ordering of Church-affairs; the infliction of censures; and, in short, the Power of the Keys, which, we justly say, were not tied to St. Peter's girdle, but were communicated to all his fellows, and to all his and their successors for ever: by virtue whereof, all true Pastors can open and shut heaven gates above; much more, the Church doors here upon earth.

And all these acts are of such necessity, that, without them, the Church could not at all subsist; at least, not long and in any tolerable condition. The power of these acts, as it was, by our Saviour's commission, originally in the Apostles; being by them conveyed to the Church, and not by the Church conveyed to them: so it succeeded, accordingly, in and to their successors, and was incorporated into their office. "We, that are Priests, receive the Keys in Peter," saith St. Ambrose. Veniat ad Antistites, saith St. Augustin; "Let them come to the Bishops, by whom the Keys are ministered in the Church." As Beza said truly of the promise of the Holy Ghost, that it was given for the good of the whole Church, yet not unto the whole Church; but peculiarly unto the Apostles, to give to others at least: so must it be said of this power. And so, indeed, by Calvin's own determination, none, but Pastors, might lay hands on the ordained; and none, but they, were capable to wield the great censures of the Church.

Shortly, then, was this power left by the Apostles, or was it not left?

If it were left, (as we could else have no Church), was it left with all, or with some? With all, it cannot the multitude cannot be thought fit for these affairs. If with some, then whether

e Beza de Grad. Minist. c. 5.

f Calv. Instit. l. iv. 3. Hoc postremò habendum est, non universam multitudinem manus imposuisse suis ministris, sed solos Pastores.

with one in a city or territory, or with more. If with more, why is the charge then imposed upon one? one Timothy, in Ephesus: one Titus, in Crete: one Angel, in Thyatira: one other, in Philadelphia, Laodicea, and the rest: and why are those single persons challengeable for the neglect? And, if this power and this charge were, by the very hands of the Apostles, entailed upon these eminent persons, which should by due Ordination therein succeed them, and from them lineally descend upon us, I wonder what human power dare presume to cut it off. Neither do I less marvel at the opinions of those Divines, which, holding Episcopacy thus to stand Jure Apostolico, in the first institution; yet hold it may be changed in the sequel. For me, I have learned to yield this honour to these inspired men, that I dare not but think these their ordinances, which they intended to succession, immutable.

Some kinds of ceremonious prescriptions fell from them, which were meant to be only local and temporary. Those, we have no reason to think ourselves obliged to: but those, which they left for the administration of God's Church, it shall be high presumption in any to alter. Because the Apostles did but meet together, divers times, on the first day of the week; and St. Paul ordered that day for the laying aside their collections; and that is only called the Lord's Day by the Apostle; how strongly are the vehement opposites of Episcopacy wont to maintain that day, in succession to the Jewish Sabbath; and that, in all points unalterable, by any human authority! Surely, had they but the tenth part of that plea from the Apostles, for this their Judaical-Evangelical Sabbath, which we have for our Episcopacy, they would make us feel the dint of this argument; and would, in the rigorous observation of it, out-do the Jews.

But you are now ready to choke me with some Apostolical Ordinances, which were even of themselves reversed :—be it So. Then you tell me of the first form of their government of the Church, which, say you, was by an equality: from which, if, as we plead, they afterwards ascended to this imparity, which we now contend for, why is it not as safe, say you, for us to take up that their first form, as this latter?

Admitting all this, our answer is the readier. We like well to make those holy men of God our choosers. They thought fit to alter to this; and, therefore, we think fit to hold to it. They tried both; and left this to be continued.

The truth is, the Church of God, at the very first, was only in framing; and not, all of a sudden, framed. In framing thereof, as the equality among themselves, by the fulness of grace which they all had, conduced to that work; so, all, that while, for the better promoting of the same work, they themselves maintained their own superiority and power over other Presbyters.

So, then, the change being made by the Apostles themselves, and not by other; they being infallibly guided by the Spirit of God, though they changed, we may not.

Nay, because they changed, we may not. The Holy Ghost led them unto it; and therefore we, unless we will oppose the ordinance of the Holy Ghost, must not detrect to continue it.

Otherwise, why may I not urge the same argument in the instanced Sabbath? The Apostles had duly kept the seventh day, according to the Law: they after fell to the observation of the first day. What, shall any man now infer, why not the Jewish Seventh, which was first kept; rather than the Evangelical First, which was last taken up?

However, then, as it is usually upbraided to us out of our reverend Whitgift, there may be some appendances and formalities of government, alterable by the wisdom and discretion of the Church; yet, for the main substance, it is now utterly indispensable, and must so continue to the world's end. Indispensable by any voluntary act: what inevitable necessity may do, in such a case, we now dispute not: necessity hath dispensed with some, immediately Divine Laws. Where, then, that may be justly pleaded, we shall not be wanting, both in our pity and in our prayers.

8 Nisi coegerit dura necessitas, cui nulla lex est posita. Hadr. Sarav. Resp. ad Bez. de Gradib. &c.

THE THIRD PART.

ON LAY-ELDERS.

SECT. 1.

The Appellation of Lay-Elders, and the State of the Question concerning them.

THE question concerning the LAY-PRESBYTERY is not easily stated. The thing itself is so new, that we are not yet agreed of the name.

Presbyter, we know, in the Greek, as also Zachen, in the Hebrew (whence the use of it is borrowed), is a word importing age, and signifies a man elder in years: now, for that years should and do commonly bring knowledge and experience, and carry gravity and authority; therefore it is traduced from that natural sense, and used to signify a man of some eminence in place and government.

So we have, in the Old Testament, Elders of the House; Gen. 1. 7: Elders of the Congregation; Lev. iv. 15: Elders of the City; Deut. xix. 12: Elders of the Land; Gen. l. 7: Elders of the People; Matt. xxi. 23. And these, sometimes matched with the highest offices: so we have Elders and Judges; Deut. xxi. 2: Princes and Elders; Ezra x. 8: Priests and Elders; Lam. i. 19. And all these were titles of civil authority.

But, when we come to the days of the Gospel, under the New Testament; now we find the Elders of the Church; Acts xx. 17. Acts xi. 30. and xiv. 23: a name, which comprehended all those sacred persons, who were employed in the promulgation of the Gospel, as Calvin well observes, whether Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors, and Doctors; and, indeed, none but them: and, in vain shall we seek for any other Presbyters or Elders in the Acts or Epistles of the blessed Apostles, or in all following Antiquity.

What to make therefore of those Elders or Presbyters which are now in question, which, saith Travers, if you will speak properly, are only them that rule, he were wise that could tell. Merely civil, they would not be; for they take upon them ec