Hier. ad
Evagr.

So the Synod of Carthage, with St. Cyprian k.

So alfo St. Chryfoftom faith, that the Sheep of Chrift were committed by him to Peter, and to thofe after him, that is, in his meaning, to all bishops.

10. Such, and no other power, St. Peter might devolve on any bishop ordained by him in any church which he did constitute or infpect; as in that of Antioch, of Alexandria, of Babylon, of Rome.

The like did the other Apostles communicate, who had the fame power with St. Peter in founding and fettling churches; whofe fucceffors of this kind were equal to those of the fame kind, whom St. Peter did conftitute; enjoying in their feveral precincts an equal part of the apoftolical power, as St. Cyprian often doth affert.

II. It is in confequence obfervable, that in those churches, whereof the Apostles themselves were never accounted bishops, yet the bishops are called fucceffors of the Apostles; which cannot otherwise be understood, than according to the sense which we have proposed; that is, because they fucceeded those who were constituted by the Apostles; according to thofe fayings of Irenæus and Tertullian; m We can number those who were inftituted biShops by the Apostles and their fucceffors; and, n All the churches do fhew thofe, whom, being by the Apofiles conftituted in the epifcopal office, they have as continuers of the apoftolical feed.

So, although St. Peter was never reckoned Bishop of

* Manifefta eft fententia Domini noftri Jesu Chrifti Apoftolos fuos mittentis, et ipfis folis poteftatem a patre fibi datam permittentis quibus nos fucceffimus, eadem poteftate Ecclefiam Domini gubernantes.

The mind and meaning of our Lord Jefus Chrift is manifeft in fending his Apoftles, and allowing the power given him of the Father to them alone, whofe fucceffors we are, governing the Church of God by the fame power.

1 Τὰ πρόβατα -ἃ τῷ Πέτρῳ καὶ τοῖς μετ' ἐκεῖνον ἐνεχείρισε. " Chryf. de Sa

cerd. 1.

m Habemus annumerare eos, qui ab Apoftolis inftituti funt epifcopi, et fucceffores eorum ufque ad nos—. Iren, iii. 3.

n Proinde utique et cæteræ exhibent, quos ab Apoftolis in epifcopatum conftitutos apoftolici feminis traduces habent. Tert, de Præfcr. 32.

Alexandria, yet because it is reported that he placed St. Mark there, the bishop of Alexandria is faid to fucceed the Apostles".

And because St. John did abide at Ephefus, infpecting that Church, and appointing bishops there, the bishops of that see did refer their origin to him P.

So many bishops did claim from St. Paul.

So St. Cyprian and Firmilian do affert themselves fucceffors of the Apostles, who yet perhaps never were at Carthage or Cæfarea.

So the church of Conftantinople is often in the Acts of the Sixth General Council, called this great apoftolic church, being such churches as those of whom Tertullian faith, that although they do not produce any of the Apofiles or apoftolical men for their author, yet confpiring in the fame faith, are no lefs, for the confanguinity of doctrine, reputed apoftolical.

Yea hence St. Jerome doth affert a parity of merit and Hier. ad dignity facerdotal to all bishops; because, faith he, all of Evagr. them are fucceffors to the Apoftles; having all a like power by their ordination conferred on them.

12. Whereas our adversaries do pretend, that indeed Bell. iv. the other Apostles had an extraordinary charge as legates 25, &c. of Chrift, which had no fucceffion, but was extinct in their perfons; but that St. Peter had a peculiar charge, as ordinary paftor of the whole Church, which furviveth:

Τέταρτος ἀπὸ τῶν ἀποστόλων τὴν τῶν αὐτόθι λειτουργίαν κληροῦται Πρίμος. Euf. Hift. iv. 1.

Primus is the fourth from the Apoftles who was the bishop of that place, or obtained the miniftry there.

P Ὅπου μὲν ἐπισκόπους καταστήσων, ὅπου δὲ ὅλας ἐκκλησίας ἁρμόσων, &c. Clem. Alex. apud Eufeb. iii. 23.

Ordo epifcoporum ad originem recenfus in Joannem ftabit autorem. Tert. in Marc. iv. 5. Tert. de Præfcr. xxxii.

9 Unitatem a Domino et per Apoftolos nobis fuccefforibus traditam. Cypr. Ep. 42.

Adverfarii noftri qui Apoftolis fucceffimus. Firmil. in Cypr. Ep. 75.

ab illis ecclefiis, quæ licet nullum ex Apoftolis, vel apoftolicis auctorem fuum proferant, ut multo pofteriores, quæ denique quotidie instituun tur, tamen in eadem fide confpirantes, non minus apoftolicæ deputantur, pro confanguinitate doctrinæ. Tert, de Præfcr. 32.

To this it is enough to rejoin, that it is a mere figment, devifed for a fhift, and affirmed precariously; having no ground either in holy Scripture or in ancient tradition; there being no fuch diftinction in the facred or ecclefiaftical writings; no mention occurring there of any office which he did affume, or which was attributed to him, distinct from that extraordinary one of an Apostle; and all the pastoral charge imaginable being ascribed by the ancients to all the Apoftles in regard to the whole Church, as hath been sufficiently declared.

13. In fine, if any fuch conveyance of power (of power fo great, fo momentous, fo mightily concerning the perpetual state of the Church, and of each person therein) had been made, it had been (for general direction and fatisfaction, for voiding all doubt and debate about it, for ftifling thefe pretended herefies and fchifms) very requifite that it should have been expreffed in fome authentic record, that a particular law fhould have been extant concerning it, that all posterity should be warned to yield the fubmiffion grounded thereon.

Indeed a matter of fo great confequence to the being and welfare of the Church could scarce have fcaped from being clearly mentioned fomewhere or other in Scripture, wherein fo much is spoken touching ecclesiastical difcipline; it could fcarce have avoided the pen of the firft Fathers, (Clemens, Ignatius, the Apoftolical Canons and Constitutions, Tertullian, &c.) who also so much treat concerning the function and authority of Chriftian go

vernors.

Nothing can be more ftrange, than that in the Statutebook of the New Jerufalem, and in all the original monuments concerning it there fhould be fuch a dead filence concerning the fucceffion of its chief magistrate.

Wherefore, no fuch thing appearing, we may reafonably conclude no fuch thing to have been, and that our adverfaries' affertion of it is wholly arbitrary, imaginary, and groundless.

14. I might add, as a very convincing argument, that if fuch a fucceffion had been defigned, and known in old

times, it is morally impoffible that none of the Fathers, (Origen, Chryfoftom, Auguftine, Cyril, Jerome, Theodoret, &c.) in their expofition of the places alleged by the Romanists for the primacy of St. Peter, fhould declare that primacy to have been derived and fettled on St. Peter's fucceffor: a point of that moment, if they had been aware of it, they could not but have touched, as a most useful application, and direction for duty.

SUPPOSITION III.

They affirm, That St. Peter was Bishop of Rome. CONCERNING which affertion we fay, that it may with great reafon be denied, and that it cannot anywise be affured; as will appear by the following confiderations.

28.

Eph. iv. 11.

1. St. Peter's being Bishop of Rome would confound the offices which God made diftinct; for God did appoint 1 Cor. xii. first apoftles, then prophets, then paftors and teachers; wherefore St. Peter, after he was an Apostle, could not well become a bishop; it would be fuch an irregularity, as if a bishop fhould be made a deacon.

2. The offices of an apoftle and of a bishop are not in their nature well confiftent; for the apostleship is an extraordinary office, charged with inftruction, and government of the whole world, and calling for an answerable care; (the Apostles being rulers, as St. Chryfoftom faith, ordained by God; rulers not taking feveral nations and cities, but all of them in common intrufted with the whole world ;) but episcopacy is an ordinary ftanding charge, affixed to one place, and requiring a special attendance there; bishops being paftors, who, as St. Chryfoftom faith, s do fit, and are employed in one place. Now he that hath fuch a general care, can hardly discharge such a particular office; and he that is fixed to fo particular attendance, can hardly

r

· Αρχοντές εἰσιν ὑπὸ τῷ Θεῷ χειροτονηθέντες οἱ ̓Απόςολοι ἄρχοντες ἐκ ἔθνη καὶ πόλεις διαφόρους λαμβάνοντες, ἀλλὰ πάντες κοινῇ τὴν οἰκουμένην ἐμπιστευθέντες. Chryf. tom. viii. p. 115.

5 Οἱ καθήμενοι καὶ περὶ ἕνα τόπον ἠσχολημένοι. Chryf. in Eph. iv. 11.

look well after so general a charge: either of those offices alone would fuffice to take up a whole man; as those tell us who have confidered the burden incumbent on the meanest of them; the which we may fee described in St. Chryfoftom's difcourfes concerning the priesthood.

Baronius faith of St. Peter, that it was his office, not to stay in one place, but as much as it was poffible for one man to travel over the whole world, and to bring those who did not yet believe to the faith, but thoroughly to establish believers if fo, how could he be Bishop of Rome, which was an office inconfiftent with fuch vagrancy?

3. It would not have befeemed St. Peter, the prime Apostle, to affume the charge of a particular bishop; it had been a degradation of himself, and a disparagement to the apoftolical majefty, for him to take upon him the bishoprick of Rome; as if the King fhould become Mayor of London; as if the Bishop of London fhould be Vicar of Pancras.

4. Wherefore it is not likely that St. Peter, being sensible of that fuperior charge belonging to him, which did exact a more extensive care, would vouchsafe to undertake an inferior charge.

We cannot conceive, that St. Peter did affect the name of a bishop, as now men do, allured by the baits of wealth and power, which then were none: if he did affect the title, why did he not in either of his Epistles, (one of which, as they would perfuade us, was written from Rome,) inscribe himself Bishop of Rome?

Especially confidering, that being an Apostle, he did not need any particular authority, that involving all power, and enabling him in any particular place to execute all kinds of ecclefiaftical adminiftrations: there was no reason that an Apostle (or universal bishop) should become a particular bishop.

5. Alfo St. Peter's general charge of converting and infpecting the Jews, difperfed over the world, (his apofile

t Non erat ejus officii in uno loco confiftere, fed quantum homini licuiffet univerfum peragrare orbem, et nondum credentes ad fidem perducere, credentes vero in fide penitus ftabilire. Baron. ann. Iviii. §. 51.