Argument for the temporarynefs of Officers in the first latitude Zanchys 2. of that term. But we cannot long take breath, for his fecond argument. challengeth an encounter or our yeilding, he advanceth to Evangelifts wards us: And he will maintain Evangelifts to be temporary, rary because Because they were ordained by the Apostles. Our defence is, that they were orApoftolical ordination may be confidered two wayes. were tempo dained by the Apoftles. Answered Firft paf 1. Paffively, or their own ordination by Christ. 2. Actively, or their ordination of others. We are bold to fay that neither of thofe made Apoftles, or any fively. other officers ordained by them to be temporary. But we will Secondly, confider either of them feverally; we begin with, actively. Firft paf and the fettle 1. Apoftolical paffive ordination, or their own ordination fively. Their by Chrift; I know this point ftrictly belongs to the tract con- ordination cerning Apoftles, but because I know not whether ever that by Christ work fhall fee the light, yea or not, our time being in the confidered, hand of God, and what ever we purpose, he alone difpofeth ment of their. of our actions. And because the temporarynefs, and vice-A- office proved poftolate of the Evangelifts cannot be fo conveniently, and by three afthroughly refuted, as by fearching into the nature, and infti- fertions. tution of the Apoftolick Office; we will for the evidencing of that truth lay down these three affertions. First, That Chrift is folely,and incommunicably his Churches Legiflator,and appoints all officers,and Ordinances appertaining to her, in her proper nature. This will lead us to the Foun tain head of all purely ecclefiaftical authority and power. Secondly, That Chrift ordained the Apoftolick Office. This will manifeft that the Apoftolical Office and authority, was derived and limited. Thirdly, That Chrift confirmed the Apoftolick Office, at, and after his afcenfion, as a standing Office to be continued with his Church. This will prove that the Apoftolate First,Chrift it felf, was not temporary. I begin with the first of these. was folely, and Firft, Chrift is folely, and incommunicably his Churches incommuniLegiflator, and appoints all Officers, and Ordinances apper- Churches Lecably his taining unto her,in her proper nature, or as fhe is his Body,he is giflator. her head. This is a truth evidenced by the light of all authority. Proved by Firft Prophetical. Ifa. 9. 6. Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son teftimony. is given,and the Government shall be upon his shoulder, &c. Ezech. 34. 23, And I will fet up one Shepheard over them, and he shall feed them, even my fervant David, he shall feed them: And he shall be their Shepheard. Secondly, Evangelical. Joh. 13. 13. Ye call me Mafier, and 13. 2 Firft pro phetical. Secondly Lord, Evangelical. Thirdly Apoftolical. Fourthly, Lord, and ye Jay well, for fo I am; Mat. 28. 18, 19, 20. And Thirdly, Apoftolical. Jam. 4. 12. there is one Lawgiver who is Fourthly, Paternal. The antient Fathers thofe leffer Stars in the Churches Firmament, meet in one conftellation with the stars of the first magnitude, or holy writers, and joyntly give their influence, to Chrifts fole Legiflatorfhip. It were easie for me to be copious in this Argument, but to reserve the cloud of witneffes to the tract of Apoftles, where I fhall evince this truth by a chain of teftimonies, reaching from the primitive times to St. Jeromes, and the next following Century: For the present I dare fay, need not multiply quotations in a matter fo plain and obvious, becaufe none moderately versed in their writing can with any forehead deny it, All of them acknowledging Chrift to be the fole Legislator, and affigning to Apoftles (who if any might claim a fhare therein) fucceffo into their own orders and office. However we will here infert three or four teftimonies, of a like number of very antient, and undoubted authors. Tertullian, prefcribing against HereHuc igitur ticks, and particularly lafhing Marcion faith, This is our predirigimus pre-feription, that if our Lord Jefus Chrift fent the Apostles to preach, fcriptionem other preachers whom he hath not fent are not to be received. Ireneus Chriftus mifit (who lived A. C. 180.) writing against fome heretical traditionApoftolos ad mongers, who boafted of their knowledge in a more fecret, pradicandum, and spiritual Theology, derived unto them from the Apoftles alios non effe hands; faith We can reckon them who were instituted Bishops by recipiendos prædicatores,quam quos inftituit Chriftus. Tertull. de prafcript. p. 76. Habemus annume rare eos, qui ab Apoftolis inftituti funt epifcopi, nam firecondita myfteria fciffent Apoftoli qua feorfim, latenter reliquis perfectos docebant, iis vel maxime iraderent, quibus etiam ecclefias committebant. Iren. adv. Her. lib. 3. ca. 3. dominus Jefus J 1 the C the Apostles, and were their fucceffors: Now had the Apofiles known any fecret mysteries, which privily, and apart from the rest, they taught unto perfect men; they would with the first have delivered them to thofe Bishops, unto whom they committed the Churches. S.Cyprian (who lived A. C. 250.) encouraging his Collegue Cornelius, the then Bishop of Rome, not to be moved at the clamor," or rage of hereticks, faith, Brother we ought principally, and earnestly to labour what in us lyes, to retain the Lords unity, delive red by the Apostles unto us their fucceffors. Finally, St. Augustin mus, & labowriting against Fauftus the Manichee, faith, Thou feeft how avai rare debemus lable the authority of the Catholick Church is in this matter, which, ut unita tem a upon the fure built feats of the Apostles, is upheld untill domino, & per this day, by a feries, and confent of Bishops fucceeding unto fuccefforibus Apoftolos nobis them. Hoc enim do maxime frater labora traditam, quantum poffumus obtinere curemus.Cypr. Epift. lib. 2. Epift. 10. Vide in hac re quid ecclefia catholica valeat Authoritas, que ab ipfis fundatiffimis fedibus Apoftolorum ufque ad bodiernum diem fuccedentium fibimet epifcoporum ferie, & confenfione firmatur. Aug. lib.i. con. Fauftum cap. 2. Fifthly, the School learneth us the fame leffon, fhe teacheth, Fifthly Scho That the Apostles could not conftitute another Church, nor deliver a-laftical. nother Faith, nor inftitute other Sacraments; for which elsewhere Apoftoli fhe affigneth this folid reafon; namely, Because it belongs to the non potuerè power of excellency, which is incommunicably Chrifts. conftituere aliam ecclefi am, nec tradere aliam fidem, nec inftituere alia Sacramenta. Tho. Aquin. 3. par. Sum quaff. 64. art. 2. ad 3. Lugduni. 1562. Quia pertinent ad poteftatem excellentia, que competit foli Chrifto. Tho. Aquin. 3. par. fummul.queft. 72. Art. 1, ad. 1. Sixthly Sixthly. Pontifician: Modern Papal Divines, although they perceive a huddle of officers, Jacred, and not facred (wherewith Pontifician. the Primitive Church was not acquainted,at least as fo many diftinct orders) to be crept into their Church, yet they endea vour might and main, to drive them from Chrifts precept, or example: Thus they bring the Door-keeper into the Church, Fab. Inupon Chrifts thrufting the Buyers, and Sellers forth of the carnat.feru Temple, Mat. 21. 12. The Reader, upon his taking the book, tract. de ordi-, tin.facerdotal. and reading in the Synagogue. Luk. 4. 17, 18. And fo of the reft. Let none take offence at the obfcurity of our cited Au-1634. thor, for the fame is delivered by Bellarmine: And comprehended in a Definition, and Canon of the Tridentine Council, which faith None but Chrift can inftitute a Sacrament, and anathematizeth gain-fayers. ne Rothoma De clericis. Si quis dixerit Sacra menta nove legis, ron fuisse omnia a Jesu Christo domino noftro inftituta, &c. Anathema fit. Concil. Trident. Seff. 7. Can. 1. Seventhly, Seventhly. Presbyterian. The Pope, fince his exorbitant UPresbyterian. furpation of all power, the fpiritual directly, the temporal indirectly (as Bellarmine truly phrafeth it) is as Herod upon the Throne tickled by the Jefuites among other blafphemous titles, with this of a fecondary Legiflatorfhip, fo Chrift firft,and he fecondly, may impofe Ordinances by virtue of their Legislative Legislatoris office. But Amefius ftrongly checks Cardinal Bellarmine for his proprium fit, fawcinefs, and unanswerably faith. A Legislator properly bath primarium the primary authority, neither will ecclefiaftical affairs admit of a habere poteHatem Secondary Law-giver, because the primary authority of King of the darius non da. Church, is communicated by Christ unto no man. tur legislator in rebus ecclefiafticis, quia primaria illa authoritas, nemini a Chrifto communicatur. Amef. Bellar, enerv. Tom. I. p. 237.1 Eph.2.20. ob No Scripture is really, and there is but one feemingly repugje&ted, And nant to Chrifts fole Legiflatorfhip: It is Ephef.2.20. And are are built upon built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ the foundation being the chief corner-ftone. &c. Answer I. A Reader newly entered into the controverfies betwixt us, and the papifts, will foon and easily reconcile this feeming difference: But for the fake of others. I answer, Firft, Reason faith Apoftles were not, neither could Apostles were they be (as Chrift is) a perfonal foundation; for whatever had not a perfonal been in that refpect built upon them, would have long fince funk and vanished with the confumption and corruption of their Bodies. foundation. 2. They were foundation. not an official Secondly, Scripture and Reafon joyntly fay, They were not an Official Foundation; i. e. the Apoftolick office was not the foundation of Church Government, because then there would not onely have been several foundations, Chrift and they while they lived, but a fucceffion of feveral foundations, from their times unto ours, and thenceforward fo long as the Church continues militant. But the foundation of the Church, and of her Miniftry is but one, and the Apoftles built upon it, I Cor.3.10. According to the grace of God given unto me, as a wife master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon, but let every one take heed how be buildeth thereupon: for other foundation can no man lay, then that which is laid, which is Jefus Chrift. 3. They were Thirdly, They were a Doctrinal foundation I explain my a Doctrinal meaning thus: The apoftles and prophets were doctrinally the Churches foundation, because they penn'd and publifhed the Scripture, which is the word and will of Chrift, who is the foundation. foun dere contra foundation: This is true of prophets, 1 Pet. 1. 10, 11. Of which falvation the prophets have enquired and fearched diligently, who prephecied of the grace that should come unto you, Jearching out what or what manner of time the Spirit of Chrift in them did fignifie, mben Nos non negahe teftified before-hand the fufferings of Chrift, and what should af- re, imo defen terwards follow. It is alfo as true of apoftles, John 14.26. But negantes, verthe Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father shall fend bum Dei miniin my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to ftratum per Ayour remembrance, whatsoever I have faid unto you. All proteftant poftolos & proDivines thus expound the apoftles to be a foundation; and Bel- Phetas, effe proximum larmine doth not much diffent from them: He faith, We deny fundamentum not, but are ready to defend against gain-fayers, That the word of God noftra fidei. difpenfed by the Apostles and Prophets, is the next foundation of our Bell. de verbo Faith. I adde it is fo, not as their word, but as the word of 10. responChrift, unto or by them: Befides, others not of the number deo ad hoc arof the twelve Apoftles were a foundation unto the Church in this gumentum. fenfe; as S. Paul, S. Luke, S. Mark, and the Author of the E- quod Jape, &e. piftle to the Hebrews, (if it were not S. Paul.) Suffice this in Lugduni 1610. confirmation of the firft Affertion. Dei.lib 3. cap. 2. Affertion. Chrift ordained the Apoftolick office while he 2. Affertion Christ ordains. was upon Earth. This is a Truth which we fuppofe needs no ed the Apoproof to any who have but read of Chrift, or of his Apoftles: ftles. Nor fhall we fo far queftion our Readers unacquaintedness with holy Writ, as to burden him with many Quotations in this matter. Confider that one Text, Luc. 6. 12, 13. And it came to pass in thofe days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God, and when it was day he called un-. to him his difciples, and of them he chose twelve, whom he named apostles. In this Text are obfervable, The Acts preparative to the Ordination of the Apoftles: which are two-fold, 1. More remote, He went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. 2. More nigh, He called his difciples unto him. This is the firft obferveable. Secondly, Their Ordination: which also hath two parts, 1. Their Election, He chofe out of them twelve, i. e. out of the reft of his difciples. These twelve were difciples before, and if while they were difciples, they did the works mentioned, John 4. 1,2. When therefore the Lord knew how that the pharifees had beard that Jefus made and baptized more difciples then John, though Jefus bimfelf baptized not, but his difciples; then the twelve apo ffles |