As for Bishops they can not come in place of Apostles or prophets, for as much as they were when the Apostles, Euangelists & prophets were, & are one of those ministeries, which S. Paule mentioneth in the. 4. to the Ephesians, being the same that is the pastor.
I tolde you before, that ye part of the Apostles office which consisted in gouernment, is now remaining in Archbishops and Bishops, as to visite Churches, to reforme dis∣orders, to suppresse contentions and such like: which also they practised in the Apo∣stles time, in such places as were committed vnto them by the Apostles, as it is eui∣dent in Timothie and Titus.
That Bishops do succeede the Apostles in this function of gouernment it may ap∣peare* 1.1 by sundry learned writers Cyprian Lib. 3. Epist. 9. writeth thus. But Deacons must remember that the Lord hath chosen Apostles, that is to say Bishops and chief gouernours, but the Apostles after the Ascention of the Lord into heauen did appoint vnto themselues Deacons, Ministers, of their Bishopricke, and of the Churche. And Ambrose in. 4. ad Ephe.* 1.2 saith, Apostoli Episcopi sunt: Apostles are Byshops. Zuinglius also in his Ecclesiastes saith that the Apostles when they left of goyng from place to place, and remayned in one Churche, were no more called Apostles but Byshops, as Iames at Ierusalem, and Iohn at Ephesus. Wherby it may appeare that it séemeth straunge neither to the olde wryters, nor to to the new, to say that Byshops succéede the Apostles and come in place of the〈1 line〉〈1 line〉.