es, prophets, and evangelists, which were not
ordained to be ordinary and perpetual offices in the church, there are but
two ecclesiastical orders or degrees instituted by Christ in the New
Testament,(993) viz., elders and deacons. _Excellenter canones duos tantum
sacros ordines appellari censet, diaconatus scilicet et presbyteratus,
quia hos solos primitiva ecclesia legitur habuisse, et de his solis
preceptum apostoli habemus_, saith the Master of sentences.(994) As for
the order and decree of bishops superior to that of elders, that there is
no divine ordinance nor institution for it, it is not only holden by
Calvin, Beza, Bucer, Martyr, Sadeel, Luther, Chemnitius, Gerhard,
Balduine, the Magdeburgians, Musculus, Piscator, Hemmingius, Zanchius,
Polanus, Junius, Pareus, Fennerus, Danaeus, Morney, Whittakers, Willets,
Perkins, Cartwright, the Professors of Leyden, and the far greatest part
of writers in reformed churches, but also by Jerome, who, upon Tit. i.,
and in his epistle to Evagrius, speaketh so plainly, that the Archbishop
of Spalato is driven to say,(995) _Deserimus in hac parte Hieronymum,
neque ei in his dictis assentimus_; also by Ambrose on 1 Tim. iii.;
Augustine in his Book of Questions out of both Testaments, quest. 101;
Chrysostom on 1 Tim. iii.; Isidore, dist. 21, cap. 1; the Canon Law, dist.
93, cap. 24, and dist. 95, cap. 5; Lombard., lib. 4, dist. 24. And after
him, by many schoolmen, such as Aquinas, Alensis, Albertus, Bonaventura,
Richardus, and Dominicus Soto, all mentioned by the Archbishop of Spalato,
lib. 2, cap. 4, num. 25. Gerhard(996) citeth for the same judgment,
Anselmus, Sedulius, Primasius, Theophylactus, Oecumenius, the Council of
Basil, Arelatensis, J. Parisiensis, Erasmus, Medina, and Cassander, all
which authors have grounded that which they say upon Scripture; for beside
that Scripture maketh no difference of order and degree betwixt bishops
and elders, it showeth also that they are one and the same order. For in
Ephesus and Crete, they who were made elders were likewise made bishops,
Acts xx. 17, 28; Tit. i. 5, 7. And the Apostle, Phil. i. 1, divideth the
whole ministry in the church of Philippi into two orders, bishops and
deacons. Moreover, 1 Tim. iii., he giveth order only for bishops and
deacons, but saith nothing of a third order. Wherefore it is manifest,
that beside those two orders of elders and deacons, there is no other
ecclesiastical order which hath any divine institution,