332 The HISTORY of the PURITANS. Chap. VIL Queen " fame time. I grant that St..du in in his book of herefies, afcribes this EtTar g ./` gg ' " to Aerius for one ; that he faid there ou °HT to be no diffirence between t w, " a pried and a bJhop, becaufe this was to condemn the churches order, " and to make a fchifnl therein. But it is a quite different thing to fay, " that by the WORD OF GOD there is a dprence betwen them, and to "" fay that it is by the ORDER. AND CUSTOM OF THE CHURCH ; " which is all that St. Au/lìn maintains. When Harding the papift al- " leged thefe very witneffes, to prove the opinion of bithops and priefts " being of the fame order to be herefy ; our learned bishop yewsl cited " to the contrary, Chryfoßom, Jerom, flmbrofe, and St. Auflin himfelf, " and concluded his anfwer with thefe words, All thefe and other more " holy fathers, together with the apo/lle PAUL, for thusPaying ,by HARD- ING'S advice, muff be heldfor hereticks. Michael Medina, a man of " great account in the council of Trent, adds to the aforementioned tef- timonies, 2headorus, Primaries, Sedulius, TheophylaEl, with whom agree Oecumenius the Greek fcholiaft, Alnfelm archbishop of Canterbury, " Gregory, and Gratian ; and after them how many ? 'It being once in- " rolled in the canon law for catholick doctrine, and thereupon taught " by learned men. " Befides, all that have laboured in reforming the church for goo years " have taught, that all paflors, be they entitled bithops or priefts, have " equal authority and power by God's word; as firfl the Waldenfes, next " Marfalius Patavinus, then Wickl jf and his fcholars, afterwards Hale " and the Mutes ; and last,of all, Luther, Calvin, Brentia s, Ballinger, and Mufculus. Among ourfelves we have bi/hops, the queen'sprofef- " firs of divinity in our univerfities, and other learned men confenting " herein, as Bradford, Lambert, jewel, Pilkington, Humphreys, Falke, " &c. But what do I fpeak of particular perlons ? It is the common " judgment of the reformed churches of Helvetia, Savoy, France, Scot- " land, Germany, Hungary, Poland, the Low Countries, and our own. " I hope Dr. Bancroft will not fay, that all thefe have approved that " for found doctrine, which was condemned by the general confent of the " whole church for herefy, in a moil flourishing time; I hope he will " acknowledge that he was overfeen, when he avouched the fuperiority " which bishops have among us over the clergy, to be GOD'S OWN ORDI- " NANCE. " As for the doctor's Paying that St. Jerom, and Calvin from him, " ° confeffed that bithops have had the faid fuperiority ever fence the time " of Saint Mark the evangelist, I think him miftaken, becaufe neither " 7erom fays it, nor does Calvin feem to confefs it on his report; for ," bifhops among us may dofundry other things, befides ordainingand lay- ing on of hands, which inferior ministersor priests may nor; where- as
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