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THeir next Plea is from Antiquity: but for us it may be enough to say from the Beginning it was not so. Thus Christ answer'd the Pharisees: thus the Christians answer'd the Heathens alledging the An∣tiquity of Gentilism. They can give few or no Proofs for their Propo∣sition from the first, and best part of the second Century: They pretend
indeed to the Epistles of Ignatius, which, to say the best, are in divers places spurious, carrying Self-contradictions, vain Boastings and Flat∣tery all along; but of this more afterward.
Other Catalogues and Memorials of the Bishops of the ancientest Times, were written long after, when Prelacy had got a higher a∣scendant, and the Mystery of Iniquity was more palpably working: therefore these Authors spoke according to, and in the Style of their own times, and not in the Style of the times wherein these Pastors liv∣ed. And here I say nothing, but what is vouch'd by Dr. Stilling fleeta 1.1. And, amongst many others, these his w••ords are most observable: for having taken notice that Eusebius makes it a most hard Matter to know who succeeded the Apostles in the Churches they planted, adds, say you so? is it so hard a Matter to find, out who succeeded the Apostles in the Churches planted by them, unless it be mention'd the Writings of Paul? What becomes then of our unquestionable Line of Succession of the Bishops of several Churches, and the large Diagrams made of the Apostolick Churches with every one's Name set down in his Order, as if the Writer had been Clarenceaulx to the Apostles themselves? Is it come to this at last that we having nothing certain but what we have in Scriptures? And must then the Tradition of the Church be our Rule to interpret Scriptures by? An excellent way to find out the Truth doubtless, to bend the Rule to the croocked stick, &c. Again it's certain that, for divers Centuries, Bishops were nothing like what they are now, either in ex∣ercising Civil Power, or Jurisdiction over other Pastors, or yet in the largeness of Dioceses; so that the Term Bishop in respect of the two is little better than an equivocal. It's certain also that the ancient Church wanted not her own Blemishes: which was well perceived by her Do∣ctors, who still look'd on the Word of God only as the Rule of Faith and Manners, on which they never founded the Episcopal Superiority. Hence this their Argument carries nothing of Cogency.
Iren. Part 2. Chap. 6.