The humble answer of the Divines attending the Honourable Commissioners of Parliament, at the…The humble answer of the Divines attending the Honorable Commissioners of Parliament, at the…

The tenure or ground upon which the claim is made is Apostolical, which with us is all one with Divine Institution. And this, as far as we have learned, hath not been anciently, openly, or generally avowed in this Church of England, either in time of Popery, or of the first Reformation; and whensoever the pretension hath been made, it was not without the contradiction of learned, and godly men. The abettors of the challenge, that they might resolve it at last into the Scripture, did choose the most plausible way of ascending by the scale of Succession; going up the River to find the Head: but when they came to Scriptures, & found it like the head of Nile (which cannot be found) they shrouded it under the name and countenance of the Angels of the Churches, and of Timothy and Titus. Those that would carry it higher, endeavoured to imp it into the Apostolical office, and so at last called it a Divine Institution, not in force of any express precept, but implicit practise of the Apostles; and so the Apostolical office (excepting the gifts, or enablements confessed only extraordinary) is brought down to be Episcopal, and the Episcopal raised up to be Apostolical. Whereupon it follows, that the highest Officers in the Church are put into a lower orb; an extraordinary office turned into an ordinary distinct office, confounded with that which in the Scripture is not found; a temporary, and an extinct office revived. And indeed if the definitions of both be rightly made, they are so incompatible to the same subject, that he that will take both must lose the one: aut Apostolus Episcopatum, aut Apostolatum Episcopus. For the Apostles, though they did not in many things ut aliud, yet they acted alio nomine & alio munere, then ⟨p. 7⟩Presbyters, or Bishops can do: and if they were indeed Bishops, and their government properly Episcopal in distinct sense, then it is not needful to go so far about to prove Episcopal government of Divine institution, because they practised it; but to assert expressly, that Christ instituted it immediately in them.

The tenure or ground upon which the claim is made is Apostolical, which with us is all one with Divine Institution. And this, as far as we have learned, hath not been anciently, openly, or generally avowed in this Church of England, either in time of Popery, or of the first Reformation; and whensoever the pretension hath been made, it was not without the contradiction of learned, and godly men. The abettors of the challenge, that they might resolve it at last into the Scripture, did chuse the most plausible way of ascending by the scale of Succession; going up the River to find the Head: but when they came to Scriptures, & found it like the head of Nile (which cannot be found) they shrowded it under the name and countenance of the Angels of the Churches, and of Timothy and Titus. Those that would carry it higher, endeavoured to impe it into the Apostolical office, and so at last called it a Divine Institution, not in force of any expresse precept, but implicite practise of the Apostles; and so the Apostolical office (excepting the gifts, or enablements confest only extraordinary) is brought down to be Episcopal, and the Episcopal raised up to be Apostolical. Whereupon it follows, that the highest Officers in the Church are put into a lower orb; an extraordinary office turn'd into an ordinary distinct office, confounded with that which in the Scripture is not found; a temporary, and an extinct office revived. And indeed if the definitions of both be rightly made, they are so incompatible to the same subject, that he that will take both must lose the one: aut Apostolus Episcopatum, aut Apostolatum Episcopus. For the Apostles, though they did not in many things ut aliud, yet they acted alio nomine & alio munere, then