He exhorteth Priests to feed their flockes, only for Gods sake and reward of heauen.
without al lordlines. 5. the laie to obey: al to be humble one towards another. 8. to be
constant in the Catho. faith, considering it is not man, but that lion the Diuel that
persecuteth them, 9. as he doth the whole Church also, & that God wil after a while make them
secure in heauen.
1.
⋮
The Epistle for S. Apollinarius. Iul. 23.
THE Seniours therfore that are among you. I beseech, myself a fellow-Senior with
them & a witnesse of the Passions of Christ, who am also partaker of that glorie which is to
be reuealed in time to come:
2. feed the flock of God which is among you
✟
ἐπισκοποῦντες.
prouiding not by constraint, but willingly
according to God:
✟
Desire of lucre, or to exercise holy functions for gaine, is a filthy fault in the Clergie,
and therfore much to be auoided.
neither for filthie lucre sake, but voluntarily:
3. neither as ouer-ruling the Clergie, but made examples of the flocke from the hart.
4. And when the Prince of pastours shal appeare, you shal receiue the incorruptible
crowne of glorie.
5. In like manner ye yong men be subiect to the Seniours. And doe ye al insinuate
humilitie one to another, because
*
Prou. 3.
Iac. 4.
God resisteth the proud, and to the humble he giueth grace.
⋮
The Epistle vpon the 3. Sunday after Pentecost.
6.
*
Iac. 4.
Be ye humbled thefore vnder the mightie hand of God, that he may exalt you in the
time of visitation:
7.
*
Psa, 54,
Mat. 6,25.
casting al your carefulnes vpon him, because he hath care of you.
8. Be sober and watch: because your aduersarie the Diuel as a roaring lion goeth about,
seeking whom he may deuoure.
9. Whom resist ye, strong in faith: knowing that the self-same affliction is made to
that your Fraternitie which is in the world.
10. But the God of al grace, which hath called vs vnto his eternal glorie in Christ
Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ, he wil perfit you hauing suffered a litle, and confirme, and stablish you.
11. To him be glorie and empire for euer and euer. Amen.
12. By Syluanus, a faithful Brother to you, as I thinke, I haue briefely written:
beseeching & testifying that this is the true grace of God, wherein you stand.
13. The Church saluteth you, that is in Babylon, coelect: and Marke my sonne.
14.
*
Ro. 16,16. 1 Cor. 16,20.
2 Cor. 13,1.
Salute one another in a holy kisse. Grace be to al you which are in Christ
Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ. Amen.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAP. V.
1. Seniours.) Senior in the vulgar translation is often Priest or Bishop.
See Act. 15.
Though the Latin, Senior, be not appropriated to holy Order by vse of speach, neither
in the Latin nor in our language: yet it is plaine that the Greek word Presbyter,
which the Apostle here vseth, is here also (as commonly in other places of the new Testament)
a word of Ecclesiastical office, and not of age, and is as much to say as Priest or
Bishop. For the Apostle himself being of that Order, speaketh (as by his words it is
plaine) to such as had charge of soules, saying, Feed the flock of God which is among
you. Because we follow the vulgar translation, we say Seniours, and Seniours:
whereas otherwise we might and should say according to the Greek, The Priests therfore I
beseech, my self a fellow Priest with them. So doth S. Hierom read (Presbyteros
compresbyter) and expound ep. 85. So translateth Erasmus, and Beza himself.
3. Ouerruling.) Not Superioritie but tyrannie and lordlines is forbidden in the
Clergie.
Not superiority, preeminence, soueraignty, or rule on the one side, nor
abedience, subiection, and inferiority on the other side, be forebidden in the Clergie: but
tyrannie, pride, and ambitious domination be forbidden; and humility, meeknes, moderation are
commended in Ecclesiastical Officers: The Greeke word here of rule or ouer-ruling, being
the same that our Sauiour vseth in the Ghospel of the tyrannical rule of secular Heathen
Princes, saying to his Apostles, that it shal not be so among them: according as here the
Prince of the Apostles teacheth his Brethren the Ecclesiastical Rulers.
κατακυϱιεύοντες.
Mat. 20 v. 25.
3. The Clergie.) Heret. translation.
Some of the English new translations turne it corruptly, Parishes: others heritages:
both, to auoid the most knowen, true, and common word in al Christian languages, to
wit, Clergie, a word, by vse of al antiquity, & agreably to the holy Scriptures, made proper
to the Spiritualty or Clergie, though in an other more vulgar acception it may agree to al
Christs chosen heritage, as wel of lay people as Priests. which the Protestants had rather
folow, because they will haue no difference betwene the laity & the Clergie. But the holy S.
Hierom ep. 2 to Nepotianus c. 5. where he interpreteth this word. Therfore (saith
he) Clericus, that is, a Clergie man, which serueth the Church of Christ, let him first
interprete his name, and the signification of the name being declared, let him endeuour to be
that which he is called. If κλῆϱος (Clerus) in Greeke, be called in Latin, Sors, therfore
are they called Clerici, that is, Clergie men, because they are of the lot of our
Lord, or because our Lord him self is the lot or portion of Clergie men &c.
which calling no doubt was taken out of the holy Scriptures, Numer. 18. and Deutero, 18.
where God is called the inheritance. lot, and portion of the Priests and Leuites: and now when
men be made of the Clergie, they say, Dominus pars haereditatis meae that is, Our Lord
is the portion of mine inheritance. but specially out of the new Testament, Act. 1, 17.
25. and 8, 21. where the lot or office of the Ecclesiastical ministerie is called by
this word κλῆϱος, Clerus. See in Venerable Bede the causes why this holy state
being seuered by name from the Laity, doth wear• also a crowne on their head for distinction.
Lib. 5. hist. Angl. c. 22.
κλῆϱονομία.
κλῆϱος
μεϱὶς.
4. Crowne of glorie.) The heauenly crowne of Doctours, and Preachers.
As life euerlasting shal be the reward of al the iust, so the
Preachers & Pastours that doe wel, for their doing shal haue that reward in a more excellent
degree, expressed here by these words, Crowne of glorie. according to the saying of
Daniel c. 12. They that sleep in the dust of the earth, shal awake, one sort to life
euerlasting, others to euerlasting rebuke. But such as be learned shal shine as the
brightnes of the firmament: and such as instruct many to iustice, shal be as starres, during
al eternitie.
31. That is in Babylon.) S. Peter writeth from Babylon, that is Rome.
Why Rome was called Babylon.
The Protestants shew themselues here (as in al places where any
controuersie is, or that maketh against them) to be most vnhonest and partial handlers of
God's word. The ancient Fathers, namely S. Hierom in Catalogo de Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis,
verbo Marcus: Eusebius li. 2. c. 14. hist. Oecumenius vpon this place, and many moe
agree, that Rome is meant by the word Babylon, here also, as in the 16: and 17. of the Apocalypse:
saying plainely, that S. Peter wrote this Epistle at Rome, which is called Babylon for the
resemblance it had to Babylon that great citie in Chaldea (where the Iewes were captiues)
for magnificence, Monarchie, resort and confusion of al peoples and tongues, and for that
it was before Christ and long after, the seat of al Ethnike superstition & Idolatrie, & the
slaughter-house of the Apostles & other Christian men, the Heathen Emperours then keeping
their cheefe residence there. See S. Leo Ser. 1. in nat. Petri & Pauli.
This being most plaine, and consonant to that which followeth of S. Marke whom al the
Ecclesiastical histories agree to haue been Peters scholer at Rome, and that he there wrote
is Ghospel: yet our Aduersaries fearing hereby the sequele of Peters or the Popes supremacle
at Rome, deny that euer he was there, or that this Epistle was written there, or that
Babylon doth here signifie Rome: but they say that Peter wrote this Epistle at Babylon in
Chaldea, though they neuer read either in Scriptures or other holy or profane historie,
that this Apostle was euer in that towne. But see their shameles partiality. Here Babylon
(say they) is not taken for Rome, because it would follow that Peter was at Rome &c. but
in the Apocalypse where al euil is spoken of Babylon, there they wil haue it signifie
nothing els but Rome, & the Romane Church also, not (as the Fathers interpret it) the
temporal state of the Heathen Empire there. So doe they follow in euery word no other thing
but the aduantage of their owne heresie. See the Annotation vpon the last of the Romanes v.
16. and vpon the 17. of the Apocalypse. v. 5.
The Protestants wrangle about the time of Peters being at Rome.
And as for their wrangling vpon the supputation of the time of his going thither, and the number
of yeares that he was there, & the diuersitie that seemeth to be in the Ecclesiastical Writers
concerning the same, read B. Fisher & others that substantially answer al such cauils. And if
such contentious reasoning might take place, we should hardly beleeue the principal things
recorded either in Ecclesiastical histories, or in the Scriptures themselues. Concerning the
time of Christs flying into AEgypt, of the comming of the Sages to adore him, yea of the yeares
of his age, & time of his death, al ancient Writers doe not agree.
Many things most true (euen in the Scriptures) are not agreed vpon concerning the time.
And concerning the day of his
last supper and institution of the Holy Sacrament, there is diuersitie of opinions. Shal we
therfore inferre that he neuer died, and that the other things neuer were? Can the Heretikes
accord al the histories that seeme euen in holy Scripture to haue contradiction? Can they tel
vs certainly, when Dauid first came to Saul and the like? Doubt they whether the world
was euer created, because the count of the yeares is diuers? Doe they not beleeue that Paradise
euer was, because no man knoweth where it is: and such other like things infinit to
rehearse? Which when they were done, were plaine and knowen things in the world: and now
for vs to cal them to an account after so many yeares, Ages, and worlds: is but
sophistication and plaine infidelitie. And this Sect of the Protestants standing only vpon
destruction, and negatiues, & dealing with our religion euen as Iulian, Porphyrie, and Lucian
did, it is an easie thing for them to bestow their time in picking of quarels.