The Doctrine of the Saints' Perseverance

1 If there were in the times of Clement no Presbyters in the Churches, not in so great and flourishing a Church, as that of Corinth; and if all the places in the Scripture, where there is mention of Elders, do precisely intend Bishops, in a distinction from them who are only Deacons, and not Bishops also, as he asserts, when, by whom, by what Authority, were Elders, who are only so inferior to Bishops, peculiarly so termed, instituted and appointed in the Churches? And how it comes to pass that there is such express mention made of the Office of Deacons, and the continuance of it, none at all of Elders, who are acknowledged to be superior to them, and on whole shoulders in all their own Churches, lies the great weight and burden of all Ecclesiastical Administration. As we say of their Bishops, so shall we of any Presbyter, not instituted and appointed by the Authority of Jesus Christ in the Church, let them go to the place from whence they came.

1 If there were in the times of Clement no Presbyters in the Churches, not in so great and flourishing a Church, as that of Corinth; and if all the places in the Scripture, where there is mention of Elders, do precisely intend Bishops, in a distinction from them who are only Deacons, and not Bishops also, as he asserts, when, by whom, by what Authority, were Elders, who are only so inferior to Bishops, peculiarly so termed, instituted and appointed in the Churches? And how it comes to pass that there is such express mention made of the Office of Deacons, and the continuance of it, none at all of Elders, who are acknowledged to be superiour to them, and on whole shoulders in all their own Churches, lies the great weight and burden of all Ecclesiastical Administration. As we say of their Bishops, so shall we of any Presbyter, not instituted and oppointed by the Authority of Jesus Christ in the Church, let them go to the place from whence they came.

2 I desire the Doctor to inform me, in what sense he would have me to understand him: Disser. 2. cap. 29. 21, 22: where he disputes that those words of Hierom. Antequàm studia in Religione fierent, & diceretur in populis, Ego sum Pauli, ego Cephae, communi Presbyterorum consensu ecclesiae gubernabantur, are to be understood of the times of the Apostles, when the first Schism was in the Church of Corinth, when it seems that neither then, nor a good while after, there was any such thing as Presbyters in the Church of Corinth, nor in any other Church as we can hear of: As also to tell us whether all those Presbyters, were Bishops properly so called, distinct from Elders who are only so, out of whom one man is chosen to be a Bishop properly so called. To these enquiries I shall only add.