firfi Volume of the Hory of the Puritans. 86 though it was according to king EDWARD'S ordinal. But before we difmifs this article, Mr. N. would beg leave to fubjoin one teflimony more, to Phew, that in thefe times the exercife of difcipline was not thought to be referved only to the bithop, and that is, the learned arch- WhopGiber, whole book, entituled the reduëlion of epifcopacy to the form of fynodical government, begins thus, " BY ORDER OF THE CHURCH OF " ENGLAND, all prefbyters are charged to adminifler the doftrine and " facraments, and the D I C I PL I NE of Chrift, as the lord hash com- " manded, and as this realm bath received the fame ; and that they might the better underftand what the lord hath commanded therein, " 0 the exhortation of St. Paul to the elders of the church at Ephefus is " read to them ; take heed toyour felves, and to all theflock among whom the holy ghofi has made you overfeers, to RULE the congregation of " God " Therefore, without difputrng about the meaning of thev*I2cdvav ¡o word ORDER, the reader may determine how far Mr. N. has made taken Matt. u. 6. Rev,. good his afTertion,that in the opinionofthe reformers, B I SHOPS andPRIESTS ü s, pnd were ved with the'[ame powers, and were only dferent names for one xix. s5. and the fame office. Let us now attend the triumphs of our author : 11 Nothing fare, but p. 63, &c. " the impofbility offupporting HIS SCHEME, and proving the parity of " prefbyters and bífhops any other way, could have put Mr. N. upon this " ° method of attempting it. He bad, indeed, undertaken a difficult tafk 't andmutt therefore have great allowances in the execution of it ; thefenfe " and prahlice of the whole chriftian churchforfifteen hundred years, in " a form ofchurch government,foearly, founiverfally, fi conftantly received, " were great obftacles. NO INSTANCES OF PRESBYTERS EXERCISE " ING THE DISTINGUISHING OFFÌCE OF A BISHOP. No example " ofa man's being a bi/hop one day [while a chairman or moderator] and a " meer prefbyter the next " One would think this gentleman had read over thefathers with a critical exaótnefs, that he ventures to pats a negative upon the praaice of the church for fifteen hundred years. How ignorant were our firft reformers of the fenfe and praétice ofthe firft ages of chriftianity ! And how deplorable is the condition of the foreign re- formed churches, which have no diocefan bithops! unhappy and illite- rate divines, to fix upon a form of church government unknown to all antiquity, and contrary to that which was fo early, fo univerfally, and fo con%tantly received, till the late reformation ! Have ye no Whops of a fuperior order to presbyeees ? Then it is to be feared, ye have no ordain- ed minfters, and confequently no facraments! for none but bithops may ordain, and none but the ordained clergy may adminifter the fa- craments. There is not a jingle in/lance in all antiquity, of apresbyter's Voi.. I. s; 5 S exercifng
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=