36 / 504
A.
Preface to the
Reader.
long before
him
,
as
to
their lang-tage, and expreffion about Church order
and Officers
,
it
is
evident
that
there bath
been
ill-
favour'd tampering
wits
them
,
by them
who thought
ro
pre-
vaile
themfelves
of
his
Authority, for the afferting
of
that,which
never
came
into
his
mind.
M
I
intimated before,
I
have
not
infifted
on
any
of
thofe things, nor do on them
altogether,
w th the likethat
may
be
added ,
as
a
fufficient
foundation for the total rejection
of
thofe
E-
Fiflles which
go under
the
name
of
Ignatius.
There
is
in
lome
ofthem,a
fweet
&
gracious
fpi-
rit
of
Faith,
Love,Holinerszeale
for God;becomming
fo
excellent
,
&
holy
a
Wirnefs
ofChrift
as he
was
,evidently bleaching
and
working. Neither
is
there any
need
at
all,that
for
the de-
fence
of
our
Hypothefrs
concernieg
the non-
inflitution
of
any Church
officer
what ever,relating
to more Churches
in his
Office
,
or any other Church
,
then
a /ogleparticular
Congregation,
that
we
fhould
fo
reed
them. For although many paffages,ufually
infifted
on,and carefully
collected by
).
H:
for
the proof
of
fuch
an
Epifcopacy,to
have been
received by them
of
old
as
is
now contended for, are exceedingly remote from the
way,
and manner
of
the
Expreffions,
of
thofe things,
ufed-by
the Divine Writers
,
with them alto
that
followed after
,
both
before
as
bath
been
manifefled,and
Tome
while after
the da',es
oflgnatiw,asmight
be
further clear-
ly
evinced
,
and are
thrill}
into the
Pries
of
the difcourfewith
loch an
incoherent Imperti-
nencv,
as
proclaimes an Inrerpolarion,beìng fome
of
them alfo,very ridiculous,
&
fo
foolilhly
Hyperbolical,
that
they fall very
little lhort
ofBlafpbemies, yet
there are
Expreffions
in
all,
or
moll
of
them,
that
will
abundantly
manifeft.
that
He
who
was
their Authour(who
ever
he
was)never dreamt
of
any
fuch
fabrtck
of
Church-Order
as in
after
ages was infenfibly received.
Men
who
areful
of
their own apprehenfions.begotten
in
the
by fuch
reptefentations
of
things,
as
either their
deferable pretence
bath
exhibited to their
mind,or any after prejudicate prefumpri-
on bath
poffeífed them
with,are apt
upon the leaf[appearance
ofany
liknefs
unto that Church
they
fancy
to
imagine
that
they
lee
the
face
&all the
lineaments
thereof,when upon dueexami-
nation,it
will
be eafilÿ
difcovered,that there
is
not
indeed
the
leaf[ retemblance,between
what
they
find
in,and what they bring to
the
Authors,
in
and
of
whom they make their enquiry;
The
Pa pills having
hatched,
&
owned by
feveral
degrees,that monftrous
figment
ofTranfub-
flantiarion(to inftance.aniong
many in
that
Abomination)a
folly,deftruaive to
whatever
is
in
us,
as
being living
Creatures,
Men,
or
Chriffians, or what
ever
by
fenfe,
Reafon,
or Religion,
we are
futnifhed with ali,offeting
violence
to
us
in
what
we
heare,in
what
we
fee
with our
eyes;
andlookupan,
in
what ow
hands
do
handle
,
and
our
palau
raft , breaking in upon
our
un-
derflandi,g.c
with vagrant
flying formes
fenfe
fubfifting
Accidents,with
as
many
exprefs
con
-
tradidions
on fundiy accounts,as the nature
of
things
is
capable
of
Relation unto
,
attended
with
more grofs Idolatry then
that
of
the
poor
naked Indians
;
who
fall
down and worfhip
a
peice
of
red
Cloth,or
of
thofe who firfl adore their gods, and then
corred
them;do yet upon
the
difcovery
of
any Expreffions
among the
Ancients
,
which they now make uie of,quite
to
another
End
,
and purpofe,rhen
they did
who firft ventured upon them
,
having
minds filled
with their
own Abominations, do prefentic cry our
and
triumph
, as
if
theyhad found the
whole
fardrll
of
the mars
.
in
it's
perfea
drefs
,
and their
breados
ggodin
the
middeft
of
ir.
It
ia
no otherwife
in
the cafe
of
Epifcopay
r
men
of
thefe
latter Generations,from what
they law
in/fly/in,
being
,
and
that
ufefulnefs
of
it to all their
delires
and
interefls
,
having
entertained
thoughts
of
love
to
it, and delight
in it.
fearching
Astiquity,not to
inflrud
them
in
the
truth,
but
to eftablifh their prejudicate Opinion
received by Tradition from their Fathers,and
to
con
-
fulcthem with
whom
they
have to
do
,
what
ever Expreffions
they
find
,
or
can
heare
of,that
fail in,as to the found
of
words
wth
what
is
nowinffled upon inftanrly
they
cry
out
,
Vici-
mua to
-Pran
I
what
a
limple
generation
of
Presbyters , and
Independents
have we
that
are
ig-
norant
of
all Antiquity or do
not underfland what
they
read
and look upon. Hence
if
we
will
not
believe
that
in Ignatius his dayes
there
were many Parifh
Churches
with their
Jingle
Preifis,
in
fubordination to
a
Diocefan
Bilhep,either
immediatly,or by
the interpofed power
of
a
Chore-
Epi
¡opus
and
the like,and thole
Diocefans
againe
in
the
precincts
of
provinces laid
in
a
due
fubjedion to their
Metropolitans, who
took
care
ofthem,as
eley
of
their
Parith Priefls,
every individual Churchhaving no Officer but
a
Presbyter every
Diet-efan
Church, having
no
'Presbyter
,but
a Bithop,and
every
r 3fetropolitan
Church having
neither
Presbyter,
not
Bithop
properly related
unto
it,
as
fuch,butan
s4rch.Rithop,
we
are
worfe then Infidels
truly
i
can-
not
but wonder whether it
doth not
fometimes enter
into
thefe
men's
thoughts to apprehend,
how
contemnible
they
are in
their
proofes
,
for
the
fathering
of
Inch
an
Ecclefiaflical
diftti-
bution
of
Çovernours,
andGoverment,as indeniably lacquied
after the
civil
divilons,
and-con-
flitutions
of
the
times and places
wherein it
was
introduced
,upon
thofe holy perlons whole
fouies neveronce
entered into the
fecrets thereof.
Thus