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equals enjoyed, was by right of conftitution, not by free will of condescending. And yet thus far Irenæus makes against them, as in that very place to call Polycarpus an apoftolical prefbyter. But what fidelity his relations had in general, we cannot fooner learn than by Eufebius, who, near the end of his third book, fpeaking of Papias, a very ancient writer, one that had heard St. John, and was known to many that had feen and been acquainted with others of the apoftles; but being of a fhallow wit, and not understanding thofe traditions which he received, filled his writings with many new doctrines, and fabulous conceits: he tells us there, that "divers ecclefiaftical men, and Irenæus among the reft, while they looked at his antiquity, became infected with his errours." Now, if Ire næus was so rash as to take unexamined opinions from an author of fo fmall capacity, when he was a man, we should be more rash ourselves to rely upon those observations which he made when he was a boy. And this may be a fufficient reason to us why we need no longer muse at the fpreading of many idle traditions fo foon after the apostles, while fuch as this Papias had the throwing them about, and the inconfiderate zeal of the next age, that heeded more the person than the doctrine, had the gathering them up. Wherever a man, who had been any way conversant with the apostles, was to be found, thither flew all the inqui fitive ears, although the exercife of right inftructing was changed into the curiofity of impertinent fabling: where the mind was to be edified with folid doctrine, there the fancy was foothed with folemn ftories: with lefs fervency was ftudied what St. Paul or St. John had written, than was liftened to one that could fay, Here he taught, here he stood, this was his ftature; and thus he went habited; and, O happy this house that harboured him, and that cold ftone whereon he refted, this village wherein he wrought. fuch a miracle, and that pavement bedewed with the warm effufion of his laft blood, that fprouted up into eternal rofes to crown his martyrdom, Thus, while all their thoughts were poured out upon circumftances, and the gazing after fuch men as had fat at table with the apoftles (many of which Chrift hath profeffed, yea, though they had caft out devils in his name, he will not know at the last

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day), by this means they loft their time, and truanted in the fundamental grounds of faving knowledge, as was seen fhortly by their writings. Laftly, for Irenæus, we have cause to think him lefs judicious in his reports from hand to hand of what the apoftles did, when we find him fo negligent in keeping the faith which they wrote, as to say in his third book against herefies, that "the obedience of Mary was the caufe of falvation to herself and all mankind;" and in his fifth book, that "as Eve was feduced to fly God, fo the virgin Mary was perfuaded to obey God, that the virgin Mary might be made the advocate of the virgin Eve." Thus if Irenæus, for his nearness to the apostles, must be the patron of epifcopacy to us, it is no marvel though he be the patron of idolatry to the papist, for the fame caufe. To the epiftle of those brethren of Smyrna, that write the martyrdom of Polycarpus, and ftyle him an apoftolical and prophetical doctor, and bifhop of the church of Smyrna, I could be content to give fome credit for the great honour and affection which I fee those brethren bear him; and not undeservedly, if it be true, which they there fay, that he was a prophet, and had a voice from Heaven to comfort him at his death, which they could hear, but the reft could not for the noife and tumult that was in the place; and befides, if his body were fo precious to the chriftians, that he was never wont to pull off his fhoes for one or other that still ftrove to have the office, that they might come in to touch his feet; yet a light fcruple or two I would gladly be refolved in if Polycarpus (who, as they fay, was a prophet that never failed in what he foretold) had declared to his friends, that he knew, by vifion, he fhould die no other death than burning, how it came to pafs that the fire, when it came to proof, would not do his work, but starting off like a full fail from the maft, did but reflect a golden light upon his unviolated limbs, exhaling such a fweet odour, as if all the incense of Arabia had been burning; infomuch that when the billmen faw that the fire was overawed, and could not do the deed, one of them fteps to him and ftabs him with a fword, at which wound fuch abundance of blood gufhed forth as quenched the fire. By all this 1elation it appears not how the fire was

guilty of his death, and then how can his prophecy be fulfilled? Next, how the ftanders-by could be fo foon weary of fuch a glorious fight, and fuch a fragrant smell, as to haften the executioner to put out the fire with the martyr's blood; unlefs perhaps they thought, as in all perfumes, that the fmoak would be more odorous than the flame: yet these good brethren fay he was bishop of Smyrna. No man queftions it, if bishop and prefbyter were anciently all one, and how does it appear by any thing in this teftimony that they were not? If among his other high titles of prophetical, apoftolical, and moft admired of thofe times, he be alfo ftyled bishop of the church of Smyrna in a kind of speech, which the rhetoricians call xarx, for his excellence fake, as being the moft famous of all the Smyrnian prefbyters; it cannot be proved neither from this nor that other place of Irenæus, that he was therefore in diftinct and monarchical order above the other prefbyters; it is more probable, that if the whole prefbytery had been as renowned as he, they would have termed every one of them feverally bishop of Smyrna. Hence it is, that we read fometimes of two bishops in one place; and had all the prefbyters there been of like worth, we might perhaps have read of twenty.

Tertullian accofts us next, (for Polycrates hath had his answer) whose teftimony, fiate but the question right, is of no more force to deduce epifcopacy, than the two former. He says, that the church of Smyrna had Polycarpus placed there by John, and the church of Rome, Clement ordained by Peter; and fo the rest of the churches did show what bishops they had received by the appointment of the apoftles. None of this will be contradicted, for we have it out of the fcripture that bishops or prefbyters, which were the fame, were left by the apoftles in every church, and they might perhaps give some special charge to Clement, or Polycarpus, or Linus, and put fome special truft in them for the experience they had of their faith and conftancy; it remains yet to be evinced out of this and the like places, which will never be, that the word bishop is otherwife taken, than in the language of St. Paul and The Acts, for an order above prefbyters. We F 4

We grant them bishops, we grant them worthy men, we grant them placed in feveral churches by the apoftles; we grant that Irenæus and Tertullian affirm this, but that they were placed in a fuperior order above the prefbytery, fhow from all these words why we should grant. It is not enough to say the apoftle left this man bishop in Rome, and that other in Ephefus, but to fhow when they altered their own decree fet down by St. Paul, and made all the prefbyters underlings to one bishop. But fuppofe Tertullian had made an imparity where none was originally, fhould he move us, that goes about to prove an imparity between God the Father, and God the Son, as these words import in his book against Praxeas?" The Father is the whole fubftance, but the Son a derivation, and portion of the whole, as he himself profeffes, because the Father is greater than me." Believe him now for a faithful relater of tradition, whom you fee fuch an unfaithful expounder of the fcripture: befides, in his time, all allowable tradition was now loft. For this fame author, whom you bring to teftify the ordination of Clement to the bishopric of Rome by Peter, teftifies alfo, in the beginning of his treatise concerning chastity, that the bishop of Rome did then use to fend forth his edicts by the name of Pontifex Maximus, and Epifcopus Epifcoporum, chief prieft, and bishop of bifhops: for fhame then do not urge that authority to keep up a bishop, that will neceffarily engage you to fet up a pope. As little can your advantage be from Hegefippus, an hiftorian of the fame time, not extant, but cited by Eufebius: his words are, that "in every city all things fo ftood in his time as the law, and the prophets, and our Lord, did preach." If they flood fo, then stood not bishops above prefbyters; for what our Lord and his difciples taught, God be thanked, we have no need to go learn of him: and you may as well hope to perfuade us out of the fame author, that James the brother of our Lord was a Nazarite, and that to him only it was lawful to enter into the holy of holies; that his food was not upon any thing that had life, fish or flesh; that he ufed no woollen garments, but only linen, and fo as he trifles on.

If therefore the tradition of the church were now grown

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fo ridiculous, and difconfenting from the doctrine of the apoftles, even in those points which were of least moment to men's particular ends, how well may we be affured it was much more degenerated in point of epifcopacy and precedency, things which could afford fuch plaufible pre tences, fuch commodious traverses for ambition and avarice to lurk behind?

As for those Britain bishops which you cite, take heed what you do; for our Britain bithops, lefs ancient than thefe, were remarkable for nothing more than their poverty, as Sulpitius Severus and Beda can remember you of examples good store.

Laftly, (for the fabulous Metaphraftes is not worth an anfwer,) that authority of Clemens Alexandrinus is not to be found in all his works; and wherever it be extant, it is in controversy, whether it be Clement's or no; or if it were, it fays only that Saint John in fome places conftituted bishops: queftionlefs he did, but where does Clemens fay he fet them above prefbyters? No man will gainfay the conftitution of bishops: but the raifing them to a fuperior and diftinct order above prefbyters, feeing the golpel makes them one and the fame thing, a thousand fuch allegations as these will not give prelatical epifcopacy one chapel of eafe above a parish church. And thus much for this cloud I cannot fay rather than petty fog of witneffes, with which epifcopal men would caft a mift before us, to deduce their exalted epifcopacy from apoftolic times. Now, although, as all men well know, it be the wonted fhift of errour, and fond opinion, when they find themselves outlawed by the Bible, and forfaken of found reason, to betake them with all speed to their old startinghole of tradition, and that wild and overgrown covert of antiquity, thinking to farm there at large room, and fine good ftabling, yet thus much their own deified antiquity betrays them to inform us, that tradition hath had very feldom or never the gift of perfuafion; as that which church hiftories report of thofe eaft and western pafchalifts, formerly fpoken of, will declare.

Who

would have thought that Polycarpus on the one fide could have erred in what he faw St. John do, or Anicetus bishop of Rome on the other fide, in what he or fome of

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