The Churche of the other syde ryseth against him, for that he maketh Christ lesse careful for hir, than he was for that vnder the law. For 〈◊〉〈◊〉 me in the whole volume of the testament, is there any kinde or degree of ministerie, wherof God is not the certaine and expresse author? Was there euer any man (I except Ieroboam and such prophane men) either so holie or so wyse, or of such great knowledge yt euer did so much as dreame of instituting of a newe ministerie? After the long wandring of the arke in the wildernesse, when it came to be placed in Ierusalem, tell me if any be∣sydes the Leuites and priests, the ordinarie ministers, and the prophetes whiche were unmediatly stirred vp of God, were found to haue ordeined any office or title which was not commaunded or whether there was at any tyme any thing added or enioyned to those offices of priesthobe, and Leuiteship, which was not by the lawe prescribed.
Surely here is nothing but vaine repetitions of that false principle, whervpon thys tantalogie and multiplication of wordes is buylded, that is, yt the institution of* 1.1 an Archbishop is the institution of a new ministerie, as though the apostle S. Paule whē he placed Timothie at Ephesus & Titus at Creta, did institute a new ministe∣rie, bicause he gaue thē authoritie & iurisdiction ouer ye rest, as it is afterward proued: or the Church whē it did apoynt one amōg the Bishops to gouern the rest in Scisma∣tis remedium, to remedie schismes, as Hierom sayth, & as it shall more at large hereaf∣ter be declared. Neyther can it therfore be sayde, that Christe doth shew him selfe lesse* 1.2 carefull for his church, than he did for that vnder the lawe: For his carefulnesse appeareth and consisteth in this that he hath nowe muche more playnly set down the doctrine of saluation in all pointes, than it was in the law, and hath also ordeyned that there shoulde be not only fit ministers to publish that doctrine, but offices also to gouerne the people in godlinesse. As for names and titles & other externall things variable according to diuers circumstances, he hath left them to the libertie of his Churche, as I haue before declared: which is one part of his singular goodnesse towardes the Churche, in that it is not so seruilely tyed to externall things, and to the letter as it was vnder the lawe.
And it is euidēt, that vnder the law, there were offices & titles in the church, which* 1.3 are not cōmaunded in the scripture, nor wherof we reade God to haue bene the expresse author. As Archisynagogus, Mar. 5. Scribae, or legis doctores, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, or magistratus seu duces templi. Luc. 22. vers. 52. and those seniores populi, and that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 whervpon you ground your seigniorie. For M. Caluin vpon the. 18. of Math. sayth, that this 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 was apoynted after the children of Israell returned from the captiuitie of Babylon.