(1 ufing it before. And whobut the Separatifts do hold, that, the power of the Keys for the exercife of this Difcipline is in the Peoples hands ? Therefore moft certainly they had a Clergy, And if all this gonor for proof againft a bare Affirmationof the contrary, we canprove ¡lathing. 4. And i Cor. 4. 15. I fcarce think that Paul would have had occalìon to fay [Though you have ten thoufandinflruflers] if they had not had quali- fied Perfons enow toafford them one or two for Presbyters. Cap. z. proving no moreof any one Apoftles fixed;Epifcopacy,he corneal to their fecondáryBifhopsor Apoftles : And whereaswe judge, that Apo- ítles, and Evangelifts, and the Apoltles Aflìftants were unfixed Minifters, appropriating no Churchesor Dioceffes to themfeives in point of Power, but planting, fetling, and confirming Churches in an itinerant way, and diftributing their Provinces onely arbitrarily and changeably, and as the Spirit guided them at the prefent time of their work; and that Bithops and Elders were inchPaftors as thefe Church-gatherers fixed in a ftated relation toparticularChurches ; fo that anApoftle was a Bithopeminenter, but not formaliter; and that a Bithop, as fuch, was no Apoftle in the emi- nent fenfe, but was alto an itinerant Preacher limitedly, becaufe while he overfaw his Flock he was alto to endeavour theconverfionof others, as far as his opportunity allowed him : I fay, this being our judgment, this lear- nedDo&or fuppofeth Apoftles, as filch, to be Bifhops, and the fixed Bi- íhops, as fuck, to be fecond Apoftles. And I fo avoid contending about Names, evenwhere it is of fome importance to the Matter, that I will not wafte my time uponit till it be necelfary. In § a. he telleth us, that thefe fecond Apoftles Were made partakers of the fame yurifdiliion and Name with the firff andeither planted and ruled Churches, or ruled fuch as others hadplanted. We doubt not but the Apoftles had indefinite itinerant Affiftants, and definite fixed Bithops placed by them as aforefaid : But the indefinite and the definite muffnot be confounded. z.. And were not Luke, Mark,, Timothy, and other itinerant Evangelifts, as fuch, of the Clergy, and fuch Affiftants or fecondary Apoftles? Exclude them, and you can prove none but the fixed Bilhops : But if they were, whydid you before deny Evange- lifts, Differt. 3. cap. 6. the power of the Keys,and make themmeer convert- ing Preachers, below. Dot-tors and Paftors, and the fame with Deacons? whereasPaul, Ephef. 4. I s. doth place them before Paftors and Teachers. But avoiding the Controverfie de nomine, call them what you will, we be- lieve that thefe itinerant Affiftants of the Apoftles wereof that Onefacred Office commonly called the Priefthoodor Miniftry, though not yet fixed; and thattheaffigning them to particularChurches did not make themof a new Order, but onely give them a newobjeftand opportunity to exercife the Powerwhich they had before ; and that Philipand other Deacons were not Evangelifts meerly as Deacons (which term denoteth a fixed Office in one Church), but by a further Call : And that you never did prove, that ever the Scripture knew one Presbyter thathad not the power of theKeys, as Bithopshave ; yea, you confefs your felf the contrary. All therefore N z thai
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