Chap. X. The HISTORY of the PuRITANs. 34.~ mofl: antient fathers, and the mofl: confiderable writers in the romijh K. Charles I. church ; to which they add the fuffrage of the firfl: reformers in king ~ Henry the eighth's reign. The Erudition if a Chriflian Man, printed 1 643· fays expre!ly, that the fcripture mentions but two orders, i. e. bijbops or priejls, and deacons. They conclude with obferving, that the modern epifcopacy is very different fi·om that which began to obtain in the {econd and third ages of the church, infomuch that the prefent hierarchy_, being an human injlitutio11, might be abolifhed, and the other remam. After three days his majefiy, with the affiftance of his learned divines, oao,b. 6. replied to the foregoing paper, and acknowledges, " that the words bi- Kzng sfecond b . c . r • h d . paper. "jhop and pres >yter are fometJmes conJOunded 1t1 JCnpture; e a mJts, Rei. Carol, " that prelbyters are epijcopi gregis, bi{hops of the flock ; but that bijhops p. 26o. " are epifcopi gregis & pajiorum within their feveral precinCts, i. 1:. bi- " {hops of the flock and of the paltors too; and that foon after, commqn " ufage appropriated bijhop to the eccleiJalticl l governor, leaving presby - " ter to fig nify the ordinary mini iter or priefi, as appears from the an- " tient fathers and councils. He admits the calling of the apofi:les and " their gifts to be extraordinary, but adds, that their million to govenz " and teach was ordinary and perpetual; that the bifhops fucceeded " them in the former, and prelbyters in the latter function. . " His majefiy fiill intifis, that 'Timothy and Titus were bifhops, as ap– " pears from antiquity, and by a catalogue of twenty-feven bifhops of " Ephefus lineally defcending from Timothy, as is avouched by Dr. Rey– " nolds againfi Hart, and therefore the difiinB:ion between an evangelijl " and a bifhop is without foundation, the work of an evangelift being no " more than diligmce i11 preaching the word, notwit~jianding all impedi– " mmts, according to the apofile, 2 Tim. ii. 4, 5· His majelty obferves, " that the parliament divines had faid nothing to prove, that the angels of •' the churches were not perfonce Jingulares, and fuch as bad a prelacy " over pafiors, i. e. bijhops, but that they dealt only in generals, and " feemed unwilling to fpeak their opinions about them." . His majdl:y affirms, " that bijhops are the fucceffors of the apoltles in " all things not extraordinary, fuch as teachi11g and governi11g; and the " reafons why they are not mentioned as adijii11Cl order in the n~:w teflll– " mmt, are 1. Becaufe the apofiles referved to themfelves the govern-. " ment of tbofe churches where they appointed prelbyters, and fo 'tis pro– " bable the Philippians had no bifhop when Paul writ to them; 2. Be– " caufe in the epifr!es to Timothy and 'Iitus, the perfons to whom he writ '' being themfelves bi!hops, there was no need to write about the qualifi– " cations of any other officers than thofe they wanted, which were pref– « .byters and deacons only." NoL. II. . y y Hit
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