A treatise of episcopacy confuting by Scripture, reason, and the churches testimony that sort…

And I find that they are so far from proving that ever the Apostles appointed a distinct Office of Presbyters which had not the power of the Keys over the People, in foro interior & exteriore (as they call them) but had only power to Teach and Worship, under Bishops as a superior Office or Order, as that they prove not any such to have ever been under the Apostles themselves; and some of themselves do plainly deny it: Nor do they prove that long after the Presbyters were any more subject to the Bishops, than the Deacons are now to the Archdeacon, or the Bishops to the Archbishop, who are of the same Order. So that whoever else they speak to, they say nothing to me, and seem not to know where the Controversy lieth, viz. 1. Whether a Bishop of the lowest rank (being no Archbishop, or having no Bishops under him) over many Churches, (or Societies of Christians stated under their proper Pastors, or Presbyters, for ordinary personal Communion in all God's public Worship,) be of Divine, or Lawful Humane, Institution? 2. Whether an Order or Office of Presbyters that have not the power of the Keys even in foro exteriore, be of Divine, or Lawful Humane Institution? (whom for brevity I shall hereafter call half-Presbyters.) So that the Question is not, whether one Man was after sometime called peculiarly the Bishop, and in the same Church sate over Presbyters of the same Office, as Archpresbyters, or as Archdeacons over Deacons, or Archbishops over Bishops; Nor yet whether there were or should be a General sort of Bishops (or Archbishops) over the Bishops of particular Churches? But whether any stated Body of Worshipping Christians, as afore described (like our Parish Churches that have unum altar) should be without a Bishop of their own, or without a Pastor that hath the threefold power before described, of Leading the People in Doctrine Worship and Discipline, called the power of the Keys? And whether he be a true Presbyter or Minister of Christ that wants this power? And whether they that depose the Parish Ministers of this power, do not degrade the Presbyters, nullify the Churches under them, and depose the ancient sort of Episcopacy quantum in se? and set up another Humane sort of Churches called Diocesan, and of Archbishops turned into Bishops, infimi gradus, in their stead, together with a new Species of half-Presbyters?

And I find that they are so far from proving that ever the Apostles appointed a distinct Office of Presbyters which had not the power of the Keys over the People, in foro interiore & exteriore (as they call them) but had only power to Teach and Worship, under Bishops as a superior Office or Order, as that they prove not any such to have ever been under the Apostles themselves; and some of themselves do plainly deny it: Nor do they prove that long after the Presbyters were any more subject to the Bishops, than the Deacons are now to the Archdeacon, or the Bishops to the Archbishop, who are of the same Order. So that whoever else they speak to, they say nothing to me, and seem not to know where the Controversie lyeth, viz. 1. Whether a Bishop of the lowest rank (being no Archbishop, or having no Bishops under him) over many Churches, (or Societies of Christians stated under their proper Pastors, or Presbyters, for ordinary personal Communion in all God's publick Worship,) be of Divine, or Lawful Humane, Institution? 2. Whether an Order or Office of Presbyters that have not the power of the Keys even in foro exteriore, be of Divine, or Lawful Humane Institution? (whom for brevity I shall hereafter call half-Presbyters.) So that the Question is not, whether one Man was after sometime called peculiarly the Bishop, and in the same Church sate over Presbyters of the same Office, as Archpresbyters, or as Archdeacons over Deacons, or Archbishops over Bishops; Nor yet whether there were or should be a General sort of Bishops (or Archbishops) over the Bishops of particular Churches? But whether any stated Body of Worshiping Christians, as afore described (like our Parish Churches that have unum altare) should be without a Bishop of their own, or without a Pastor that hath the threefold power before described, of Leading the People in Doctrine Worship and Discipline, called the power of the Keys? And whether he be a true Presbyter or Minister of Christ that wants this power? And whether they that depose the Parish Ministers of this power, do not degrade the Presbyters, nullifie the Churches under them, and depose the ancient sort of Episcopacy quantum in se? and set up another Humane sort of Churches called Diocesan, and of Archbishops turned into Bishops, infimi gradus, in their stead, together with a new Species of halfPresbyters?