SECTION LI.

But they were ever Clergymen, for there never were any Lay-Elders in any Church-office heard of in

the Church.

sacerdotum debet esse ista collatio, sicut factum est sub Constantino, augustæ memoriæ principe." So that both "matters of faith and of ecclesiastical order are to be handled in the church, and that by bishops," and that "sub imperatore," by permission and authority of the prince: for so it was in Nice, under Constantine. Thus far St. Ambrose.

St. Athanasius reports, that Hosius, bishop of Corduba, president in the Nicene council, said it was the abomination of desolation that a layman shall be judge "in ecclesiasticis judiciis," "in church causes.' ." And Leontius calls church affairs, "res alienas à laicis," "things of another court, of a distinct cognizance from the laity." To these add the council of Venice, for it is very considerable in this question: "Clerico, nisi ex permissu episcopi sui, servorum suorum sæcularia judicia adire non liceat. Sed si fortasse episcopi sui judicium cœperit habere suspectum, aut ipsi de proprietate aliquâ adversus ipsum episcopum fuerit nata contentio, aliorum episcoporum audientiam, non sæcularium potestatum debebit ambire. Aliter, à communione habeatur alienus :" "Clergymen, without delegation from their bishop, may not hear the causes of their servants, but the bishop, unless the bishop be appealed from; then other bishops must hear the cause, but no lay judges by any means." h

66

FOR although antiquity approves of episcopal delegations of their power to their vicars, yet these vicars and delegates must be priests, at least. Melitius was a bishop, and yet the chancellor of Hierocles, patriarch of Alexandria; so were Herculanus and Caldonius to St. Cyprian. But they never delegated to any layman any part of their episcopal power precisely. Of their lay power, or the cognizance of secular causes of the people, I find one delegation made to some gentleman of the laity, by Sylvanus, bishop of Troas: a when his clerks grew covetous, he cured their itch of gold by trusting men of another profession, so to shame them into justice and contempt of money. "Si quis autem episcopus posthâc ecclesiasticam rem laicali procuratione administrandam elegerit, non solùm à Christo de rebus pauperum judicatur reus, sed etiam et concilio manebit obnoxius:" "If any bishop shall hereafter concredit any church affairs to lay administration, he shall be responsible to Christ, and in danger of the council." But the thing was of more ancient constitution; for in that epistle which goes under the These sanctions of holy church it pleased the name of St. Clement, which is most certainly very emperor to ratify by an imperial edict, for so Jusancient, whoever was the author of it, it is decreed, tinian commanded, that in causes ecclesiastical, "Si qui ex fatribus negotia habent inter se, apud secular judges should have no interest: "Sed sanccognitores sæculi non judicentur, sed apud presby- tissimus episcopus secundum sacras regulas causæ teros ecclesiæ, quicquid illud est, dirimatur:" "If finem imponat :" The bishop according to the christian people have causes of difference and judi- sacred canons must be the sole judge of church cial contestation, let it be ended before the priests." | matters." i I end this with the decretal of St. For so St. Clement expounds "presbyteros" in the Gregory, one of the four doctors of the church: same epistle, reckoning it as a part of the sacred "Cavendum est à fraternitate vestrâ, ne sæcularibus hierarchy. To this or some parallel constitution viris, atque non sub regulâ nostrâ degentibus, res St. Jerome relates, saying, that "priests from the ecclesiasticæ committantur :" "Heed must be beginning were appointed judges of causes." He taken, that matters ecclesiastical be not any ways expounds his meaning to be of such priests as were concredited to secular persons." k But of this I also bishops; and they were judges" ab initio," have twice spoken already.-(Sect 36. and Sect. 41.) "from the beginning," saith St. Jerome. So that the saying of the father may no way prejudge the bishop's authority, but it excludes the assistance of laymen from their consistories. "Presbyter" and 'episcopus" were instead of one word to St. Jerome, but they are always clergy with him and all men else. But for the main question, St. Ambrose did represent it to Valentinian, the emperor, with confidence and humility," In causâ fidei, ecclesiastici alicujus ordinis eum judicare debere, qui nec munere impar sit, nec jure dissimilis." The whole epistle is admirable to this purpose; "Sacerdotes de sacerdotibus judicare," "that clergymen only must judge of clergy causes;" and this St. Ambrose there calls "judicium episcopale," "the bishop's judicature." "Si tractandum est, tractare in ecclesiâ didici, quod majores fecerunt mei. Si conferendum de fide,

The thing is so evident, that it is next to impudence to say, that, in antiquity, laymen were parties and assessors in the consistory of the church. It was against their faith, it was against their practice; and those few pigmy objections out of Tertullian,' St. Ambrose,m and St. Austin," using the word "seniores," or elders, sometimes for priests, as being the Latin for the Greek πрɛσbúтɛρоι, sometimes for a secular magistrate or alderman, (for I think St. Austin did so in his third book against Cresconius,) are but like sophisms to prove that two and two are not four; for to pretend such slight, airy imaginations, against the constant, known, open catholic practice and doctrine of the church, and history of all ages, is as if a man should go to fight an imperial army with a single bulrush. They are not worth further considering.

:

But this is that in this question of lay elders, | Latin tongue, being a Greek born, and yet a godly the modern Arians and Acephali do wholly mistake bishop; and St. Austin, his presbyter, preached for their own advantages: for whatsoever they object, | him. out of antiquity, for the white and watery colours of lay-elders, is either a very misprision of their allegations, or else clearly abused in the use of them. For now-a-days they are only used to exclude and drive forth episcopacy; but then they misallege antiquity; for the men with whose heifers they would fain plough in this question, were themselves bishops for the most part, and he that was not, would fain have been; it is known so of Tertullian; and, therefore, most certainly, if they had spoken of lay-judges in church-matters, (which they never dreamed of,) yet meant them not so as to exclude episcopacy, and if not, then the pretended allegations can do no service in the present question.

I am only to clear this pretence from a place of Scripture totally misunderstood, and then it cannot have any colour from any avoɛvт a, either Divine or human, but that lay-judges of causes ecclesiastical, as they are unheard of in antiquity, so they are neither named in Scripture, nor receive from thence any instructions for their deportment in their imaginary office; and, therefore, may be remanded to the place from whence they came, even the lake of Gehenna, and so to the place of the nearest denomination. The objection is from St. Paul, oi kaλws προεστῶτες πρεσβύτεροι, &c. "Let the elders that rule well, be accounted worthy of double honour, especially they that labour in the word and doctrine:""especially they,"-therefore, all elders do not so. Here are two sorts of elders, preaching ministers, and elders not preachers. Therefore layelders, and yet all are governors.

The same case might occur in the apostles' times. For then was a concourse of all nations to the christian synaxes, especially in all great imperial cities and metropolitans, as Rome, Antioch, Jerusalem, Cæsarea, and the like. Now all could not speak with tongues, neither could all prophesy; they were particular gifts, given severally, to several men, appointed to minister in church offices. Some prophesied, some interpreted; and, therefore, it is an ignorant fancy to think that he must needs be a laic, whosoever, in the ages apostolical, was not a preacher.

2. None of the fathers ever expounded this place of lay-elders, so that we have a traditive interpretation of it in prejudice to the pretence of our new office.

3. The word presbyter is never used, in the New Testament, for a lay-man, if a church-officer be intended. If it be said, it is used so here, that is the question, and must not be brought to prove itself.

4. The presbyter that is here spoken of, must be maintained by ecclesiastical revenue, for so St. Paul expounds "honour" in the next verse. "Presbyters that rule well, must be honoured," &c. "For it is written, thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn." But now the patrons of this new devise are not so greedy of their lay-bishops as to be at charges with them, they will rather let them stand alone on their own rotten legs, and so perish, than fix him upon this place with their hands in their purses. But it had been most fitting for them to have kept him, being he is of their own begetting.

"in

5. This place speaks not of divers persons, but divers parts of the pastoral office, πрotoraσbαι, and KоTiğv έv dóyw' "To rule and to labour in the word." Just as if the expression had been materiâ politicâ." All good counsellors of state are worthy of double honour, especially them that, disregarding their own private, aim at the public good. This implies not two sorts of counsellors, but two parts of a counsellor's worth and quality. Judges that do righteousness are worthy of double honour, especially if they right the cause of orphans and widows; and yet there are no righteous judges that refuse to do both.

But why, therefore, lay-elders? Why may there not be divers church-officers, and yet but one or two of them the preacher? "Christ sent me not to baрtize, but to preach," saith St. Paul; and yet the commission of "baptizate" was as large as " prædicate," and why, then, might not another say, "Christ sent me not to preach, but to baptize ?" that is, in St. Paul's sense, not so much to do one as to do the other, and if he left the ordinary ministration of baptism, and betook himself to the ordinary office of preaching, then, to be sure, some minister must be the ordinary baptizer, and so not the preacher for if he might be both ordinarily, why was not St. Paul both? For though their power 6. All ministers of holy church did not preach, was common to all of the same order, yet the exe- at least not frequently. The seven that were ini cution and dispensation of the ministries was ac- τῶν χήρων τεταγμένοι, “ set over the widows,” were cording to several gifts, and that of prophecy or presbyters, but yet they were forced to leave the preaching was not dispensed to all in so consider- constant ministration of the word to attend that able a measure, but that some of them might be employment, as I showed formerly ;P and thus it was destined to the ordinary execution of other offices, in descent too, for ὁ πρεσβύτερος ἐν ̓Αλεξανδρείᾳ, οὐ and yet because the gift of prophecy was the great-πρоσoμλε, said Socrates; 9 "A presbyter does not est, so also was the office; and, therefore, the sense of the words is this, "That all presbyters must be honoured, but especially they that prophesy, doing that office with an ordinary execution and ministry." So no lay-elders yet. Add to this, that it is also plain, that all the clergy did not preach. Valerius, bishop of Hippo, could not well skill in the • 1 Tim. v. 17.

preach in Alexandria, the bishop only did it." And
then the allegation is easily understood. For “la-
bouring in the word" does not signify only making
homilies or exhortations to the people, but whether
it be by word, or writing, or travelling from place to
place, still, the greater the sedulity of the person is,
and difficulty of the labour, the greater increment
P Sect. 48.
q Lib. v. c. 22.

of honour is to be given him.

66

So that here are no | they may,) then this may be comprehended within the other, and only be a vital part, and of peculiar excellency. And, indeed, so it is, according to the exposition of St. Chrysostom and Primasius: TouTó ἐστι τὸ καλῶς προεστάναι μηδενὸς φείδεσθαι τῆς τῶν προβάτων κηδεμονίας ἕνεκεν· “ They rule well, that spare nothing for the care of the flock." So that this is the general charge, and preaching is the particular. For the work, in general, they are to receive double honour, but this of preaching, as then preaching was, had a particular excellency, and a plastic power to form men into christianity, espe| cially it being then attested with miracles.

lay-elders; for all the presbyters St. Paul speaks of, are to be honoured, but especially those who take extraordinary pains in propagating the gospel. For though all preach, (suppose that,) yet all do not κοπιαν, take such great pains in it as is intimated in | κοπιῶντες. For KоTιav is "to take bodily labour and travel, usque ad lassitudinem,'' so Budæus renders it. And so, it is likely, St. Paul here means. Honour the good presbyters, but especially them that travel for disseminating the gospel. And the word is often so used in Scripture. St. Paul, ἀλλὰ περισσότερον πάντων ἐκοπίασα· “I have travelled in the word more than they all." Not that St. Paul preached more than all the apostles, for, most certainly, they made it their business as well as he. But he travelled further and more than they all, for the spreading it. And thus it is said of the good women that travelled with the apostles, for supply of the necessities of their diet and household offices, "they laboured much in the Lord." KomiṬy is the word for them too. So it is said of Persis, of Mary, of Tryphæna, of Tryphosa. And since those women were кowσai év Kupių, that travelled with the apostolical men and evangelists, the men also travelled too, and preached, and, therefore, were KOTLOVTES ÉV λóyw, that is, "travellers in the word." We ought, therefore, to receive such," saith St. John, intimating a particular reception of them, as being towards us of a peculiar merit. So that the sense of St. Paul may be this also, all the rulers of the church, that is, all bishops, apostles, and apostolic men, are to be honoured, but especially them, who, besides the former ruling, are also "travellers in the word," or evangelists.

7. We are furnished with answer enough to infatuate this pretence for lay-elders, from the common draught of the new discipline. For they have some that preach only, and some that rule and preach too, and yet neither of them the lay-elders, viz. their pastors and doctors.

8. Since it is pretended by themselves, in the question of episcopacy, that " presbyter" and "episcopus" is all one, and this very thing confidently obtruded, in defiance of episcopacy, why may not "presbyteri," in this place, signify "bishops?" And then either this must be lay-bishops, as well as lay-presbyters, or else this place is to none of their purposes.

But the new office of a lay-elder, I confess, I cannot comprehend in any reasonable proportion, his person, his quality, his office, his authority, his subordination, his commission, hath made so many divisions and new emergent questions; and they none of them all, asserted, either by Scripture or antiquity, that if I had a mind to leave the way of God, and of the catholic church, and run in pursuit of this meteor, I might quickly be amused; but should find nothing certain, but a certainty of being misguided. Therefore, if not for conscience' sake, yet for prudence, "bonum est esse hîc," it is good to remain in the fold of Christ, under the guard and supravision of those shepherds Christ hath appointed, and which his sheep have always followed.

For I consider this one thing to be enough to determine the question. "My sheep," saith our blessed Saviour, "hear my voice; if a stranger or a thief come, him they will not hear." Clearly thus. That Christ's sheep hear not the voice of a stranger, nor will they follow him, and, therefore, those shepherds whom the church hath followed in all ages, are no strangers, but shepherds or pastors of Christ's appointing, or else Christ hath had no sheep; for if he hath, then bishops are the shepherds, for them they have ever followed. I end with that golden rule of Vincentius Lirinensis: "Magnoperè curandum est ut id teneamus, quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab omnibus creditum est. Hoc est enim verè, proprièque catholicum." For, certainly, the catholic belief of the church against Arius, Eunomius, Macedonius, Apollinaris, and, the worst of heretics, the Cataphrygians, was never more truly received "of all and always, and every where," than is the government of the church by bishops. "Annunciare ergo christianis catholicis, præter id quod 9. If both these offices of ruling and preaching acceperunt, nunquam licuit, nunquam licet, nunmay be conjunct in one person, then there is no quam licebit:" "It never was, is, nor ever shall be, necessity of distinguishing the officers by the several lawful to teach christian people any new thing than employments, since one man may do both. But if what they have received" from a primitive fountain, these offices cannot be conjunct, then no bishops and is descended in the stream of catholic unintermust preach, nor no preachers be of the consistory, rupted succession." (take which government you list,) for if they be, then the officer being united in one person, the inference of the distinct officer, the lay-elder, is impertinent. For the meaning of St. Paul would be nothing but this:-All church-rulers must be honoured, especially for their preaching.-For if the offices may be united in one person, (as it is evident • 1 Epist. c. 33.

r Rom, xvi.

I only add, that the church hath insinuated it to be the duty of all good catholic christians to pray for bishops, and as the case now stands, for episcopacy itself: for there was never any church-liturgy but said litanies for their king, and for their bishop.

“Αγιος ὁ Θεός.

Cap. 3. adv. Hæreses.

u

Cap. 14.

AN APOLOGY

FOR

AUTHORIZED AND SET FORMS OF LITURGY,

AGAINST

THE PRETENCE OF THE SPIRIT.

1. FOR EXTEMPORE PRAYER,

AND

2. FORMS OF PRIVATE COMPOSITION.

TO HIS MOST SACRED MAJESTY.

Ir is now two years, since part of these ensuing papers, like the public issue of the people, imperfect and undressed, were exposed, without a parent to protect them, or any hand to nourish them. But since your most sacred Majesty was pleased graciously to look upon them, they are grown into a tract, and have an ambition (like the gourd of Jonas) to dwell in the eye of the sun, from whence they received life and increment. And although because some violence hath been done to the profession of the doctrine of this treatise, it may seem to be "verbum in tempore non suo," and like the offering cypress to a conqueror, or palms to a broken army; yet I hope I shall the less need an apology, because it is certain, he does really disserve no just and noble interest, that serves that of the Spirit, anh religion. And because the sufferings of a king and a confessor are the great demonstration to all the world, that truth is as dear to your Majesty, as the jewels of your diadem, and that your conscience is tender as a pricked eye; I shall pretend this only to alleviate the inconvenience of an unseasonable address, that I present your Majesty with a humble persecuted truth, of the same constitution with that condition whereby you are become most dear to God, as having upon you the characterism of the sons of God, bearing in your sacred person the marks of the Lord Jesus, who is your elder Brother, the King of sufferings, and the Prince of the catholic church. But I consider that kings, and their great councils, and rulers ecclesiastical, have a special obligation for the defence of liturgies; because they having the greatest offices, have the greatest needs of auxiliaries from heaven, which are best procured by the public spirit, the spirit of government and supplication. And since the first, the best, and most solemn liturgies and set forms of prayer, were made by the best and greatest princes, by Moses, by David, and the son of David; your Majesty may be pleased to observe such a proportion of circumstances in my laying this "Apology for Liturgy" at your feet, that possibly I may the easier obtain a pardon for my great boldness; which if I shall hope for, in all other contingencies I shall represent myself a person indifferent whether I live or die, so I may by either, serve God, and God's church, and God's vicegerent, in the capacity of,

Great Sir,

Your Majesty's most humble,

And most obedient subject and servant,
JER. TAYLOR.

THE

AUTHOR'S PREFACE

ΤΟ

THE APOLOGY

FOR

AUTHORIZED AND SET FORMS OF LITURGY.