Five disputations of church-government and worship

1. And first we are most certain that the holyest Pastors of the Church, had so much Pride and Ambition, ¹that might possibly make them guilty of such a mistake as tended to the increase of their own power and rule. ²We find even the twelve Apostles contending in Christs own presence for the Primacy, till he is put sharply to rebuke them, and tell them the Necessity of humility, and teach them better the state of his Kingdom. Paul met with many that contended against him for a preeminence, and put him upon all those defences of the dignity of his Apostleship which we find him using. Peter found it necessary to warn the Pastors ⟨p. 64⟩that they should not Lord it over Gods Heritage. And John did meet with a Lording Diotrephes, that loved to have the preeminence. While they lay under the Cross, the Bishops were aspiring, and usurping authority over one another; or else Victor of Rome had not presumed to Excommunicate the Asian Bishops for not conforming to his opinion: What abundance of unworthy contentions did the Bishops of the first ages fill the Churches with? and much about superiority, who should be greatest; what should be the privileges of their several Seas; &c. Their pride no doubt was a great cause of their contention; and those contentions necessitated the interposition of Emperors to reconcile them that could not agree of themselves. If the Emperors called a Council to that end, even the Council it self would fall to pieces, and make all worse, if the Magistrate did not moderate them. Had not Constantine burnt the Nicene Schedules, and done much to maintain an Union among them, the success of that Council might have been such as would have been no great encouragement to succeeding ages to seek for more. What bitter quarrels are there between the most eminent of all the Fathers and Bishops of the Church? between Chrysostom and Epiphanius; Chrysostom and Theophilus Alexandrinus; Hierom and John of Jerusalem; Jerome and Ruffinus; besides his quarrels with Chrysostom and Augustine. I open not the concealed nakedness of the Saints; but mention those public doleful tragedies which made the Church an amazement to it self, and a scorn to the Heathens that lived about them; witness the well known censure of Ammianus Marcellinus: when so many people shall be murdered at once in contention for a Bishopric as were at the choice of Damasus;