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Befides which,it is manifeftly false in matters of Fact: for, it both appears in Hiftory, that each of thefe had a Succeffor endu'd with the fame Epifcopal Power, and in thefe Epistles alfo,that St.Paul defign❜d such a Succeffion: For, 1 Tim.6. 14. Where he charges him to keep this commandment without Spot, Unrebukeable, untill the appearing of our Lord Jefus Chrift, which was impoffible to be done without a continu'd line of Succeffion, he must be prefum'd to have intended, that he fhould have fuch Succeffors, and in order to it, to have given him power to Ordain them. We may add to this the Testimony of the Holy Ghoft; owning afterwards, and approving this in the Angels of the Seven Churches of Afia; who, by the Unanimous confent of the Fathers, were the Bishops of those Churches, as may plainly be gather'd from the Text itself. One of these we find theSpirit commending, for not bearing with those that were Evil, and for purging his Church of Hereticks and falfe Teachers that come without being Sent: Thou haft try'd them which fay they are Apostles and are not, and haft found them Liars. Thou hateft the Deeds of the Nicolaitans, whom I alfo hate. Of others the Spirit complains, that they suffer'd the Doctrine of the fame Nicolaitans, and the Doctrine of Balaam and Jezebel, Prophefying and Seducing in their Churches;

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and lays to their Charge the faults of the Clergy as well as the People; which had been an ungrounded and an unjuft Reprehenfion, if Authority had not been in them over both the Rod of Ecclefiaftical Difcipline, and the Power of cafting Seducers out of the Church. He, then, that hath an Ear let him hear what the Spirit fays to the Angels of the Churches, and learn to revere that Authority which the Son of God by his Teftimonial Letters, and which the Holy Ghost falutes with this Title of Honour,faying to St. John his Secretary, To the Angel of the Church of Ephefus, To the Angel of the Church of Smyrna, To the Angel of the Church of Pergamos, &c.

The Places in Scripture that prove this Power are so pregnant, that all that can be urg'd against the being of fuch an Office as that of Bishop, diftinct from a Presbyter in the New Teftament, is, that those twoNames are there often promiscuously us'd; which if it were granted, (for the late Learned Bishop of Chester, will by no means yield that it has been prov'd) yet from Community of Names to argue Identity of Office, is a very weak and fallacious way of Arguing; and which, if admitted, would prove as well, that the Offices of a Presbyter and a Deacon and an Apoftle were all One; for the Apostles themselves in their own Writings

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Writings are often ftyl'd * Presbyters and Deacons. Since we are fure we find fuch a diftinct Power as we contend for, expressly defcrib'd, we stand not so much upon the Name; when we are fecure of the thing, it is but trifling to cavil about Words. Tho', what is more ufual? what more commonly known? than that the fame Words may, in their firft and general fignification,take in feveral very different things, till they are,by a peculiar Appropriation, reftrain'd to fomewhat special in the Kind, and Then they be come in a manner New Words; and Things being always before Words, the Thing, which the restrain'd use of the Word fignifies, must have been before That Word was reftrain'd to such a fignification. The Office therefore of that Chief Ecclefiaftical Overfeer, which the word Bishop does import, was of Neceffity Sometime, and might have been a long time in Being, before that general Word was limited to fignify fo particularly: Which is a fufficient Answer to the lefs diftinct undetermin'd Ufe of this Name in Scripture, tho' we find it immediately after, by Ecclefiaftical ufage, Univerfally appropriated to the fignification it now bears, as by the most early Writers of the Church St. Clement, St. Ignatius, and the Apoftolical Canons plainly appears. Whatever Name therefore the Apoft les call'd it by, we are *Πρεσβύτεροι, Διάκονοι, fure

fure they exercis'd This Authority; and finding fo foon after them, nay in the life time of some of them, both the Name and Thing in Every One of the Churches which they founded, we have all the reason in the world to conclude, that it was by Their Inftitution. Which whofoever fhall go about to contradict, let them give any tolerable Account, how Epifcopal Government should so speedily and fo univerfally spread itself over the whole Chriftian World, as it is moft notorious that it did, that it was not accounted a Church that was not Subject to a Bishop. How is it poffible to conceive, that all the feveral Churches, difpers'd far and wide, and diftant from each Other fhould have confpir'd fo unanimoufly, and consented in One and the fame form' of Government, unless they deriv'd it from the fame Original, and receiv'd it at first together with the Faith itself from the Apoftles? St. Auftin tells us, There are but two ways poffible of accounting for fo general a Confent as this, in any matter that is not plainly commanded in Scripture, Namely, That they must have been either deriv'd from Apoftolical Authority, or been Decreed by fome General Council. But now, as the learned Editor of the Synodicon obferves, there is not one Law, not one Canon, not the leaft Footstep of one Decree

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Decree of any Council extant, or hinted at by any Father or ancient Ecclefiaftical Writer, by which this Government is either Inftituted or Confirm'd. It remains therefore, according to that known general Rule of the fame Father, Whatfoever the Univerfal Church holds, and has always held, if not Ordain'd by any Council, must be concluded to have been receiv'd from the Authority of the Apostles; that of the Government of the Church by Bishops, the leaft that can be faid is, that it is of Apoftolical Inftitution.

And this very fame Argument will as ftrongly prove the Second Thing we laid down, which is, that The Power of Ordi nation has ever been in their Hands.

For, that this Power of Ordaining did ever belong by peculiar Right to the Bishop, is (no less than Epifcopacy itself) conftantly prefuppos'd in the most Ancient Canons of the Church, as much Elder than They.

There is not one Canon to be found, which Confers that Power on Bishops, but many that prefcribe Rules and Measures to the Exercife of it. Thus, the Apoftolical Canons, as they are call'd, determine what Numbers of Bishops fhall be requir❜d to the conferring of each different Order, as Three to the Confecration of a Bishop, and One only to the Ordination of a Priest or a Deacon;

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