〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the power of those things which belong to the Church It were easie to surfet the readers eyes with the cleare testimonies of Fathers and Councells to this purpose Our learned Bishop Downam hath given a world of instances of the severall acts of jurisdiction appropriated to Bishops by antiquity exercised upon both Laicks and Clergy to him I remit my reader So as you may easily set antiquity together by the eares in this point if you please but surely the advantage will be so farre on our side that if you have not ten for one against you I will yeeld my cause There is great difference of times and in them of fashions In those persecuted times when the Church was backed with no Christian Magistrate it was no boot to bid the guides of the Church to combine their Councels and to give strength to their mutuall actions when a generall peace once blessed them and they had the concurrence both of soveraigne and subordinate authority with them they began so much to remit of this care of conjoyning their forces as they supposed to find lesse need of it From hence grew a devolution of all lesse weighty affairs to the weilding of single hands For my part I perswade my selfe that the more frequent communicating of all the important businesse of the Church whether censures or determinations with those grave assistents which in the eye of the Law are designed to this purpose were a thing not onely unprejudiciall to the honour of our function but very behovefull to the happy administration of the Church In the mean while see brethren how you have with Simon fished all night and caught nothing My word was that ours were the same with the Apostles Bishops in this that they challenge no other spirituall power then was by Apostolique authority delegated to Timothy and Titus You run out upon the following times of the Church and have with some wast quotations laboured to prove that In after ages Bishops called in Presbyters to the assistance of their jurisdiction which is as much to me as Baculus stat in angulo SECT X. YOur next Section runs yet wilder I speak of the no-difference of our Bishops from the first in the challenge of any spirituall power to themselves other then delegated to Timothy and Titus You tell mee of delegating their power to others What is this to the nature of the calling Doth any man claime this as essentiall to his Episcopacie Doth any man stand upon it as a piece of his spirituall power If this be granted to be an accidentall error of some particular man for it cannot be fastned upon all what difference doth it make in the substance of the function As if some monster suddenly presented it selfe to you you aske Was ever such a thing heard of in the best primitive times that men which never received imposition of hands should not only be received into assistance but be wholly intrusted with the power of spirituall jurisdiction Let me ask you again Was ever such a thing heard of either in the Primitive or following times that Lay-men should be so far admitted to the managing of spirituall jurisdiction as to lay their hands upon their Ministers in their Ordination Yet this is both done and challenged by too many of your good friends Why do you object that to us wherewith the Presbyterian part may be more justly choaked But herein Brethren you do foulely over-reach in that you charge our Bishops as in a generality with wholly-intrusting the power of spirituall jurisdiction to their Chancellors and Commissaries The assistance of those which are learned in the Law wee gladly use neither can well want in the necessary occasions of our judicature but that wee doe either wilfully or negligently devest our selves absolutely of that power and wholly put it into Laick hands it is a meere sclander For want of better proofs of the illegality of this course you bring a negative authority from Cyprian telling us what that holy Martyr did not That he did not send Complainants to his Chancellour or Commissarie It is very like he did not nor yet to the Bench of a Lay Presbyterie But if he did not commit the hearing of his Causes to a Lay-man we find that some others did Socrates can tell you of Silvanus the good Bishop of Troas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. perceiving that some of his Clergie did corruptly make gaine of Causes would no more appoint any of his Clergie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be a Judge but made choise of some faithfull man of the Laity to whom he committed that audience and was much honoured for it What Bishop Downam yeelds concerning the Ordinaries Vicars and Chancellors of former times till Ambrose's daies that they were onely Clergie-men you reject witn scorne and challenge any man to produce the names of any Clergie-man that was Vicar to Ambrose or Chancellour to Augustine c. What a poore brave is this I challenge you to produce the name of any Secretary or Actuary that Ambrose or Austin had because you cannot shall I conclude they had none such That instance of Sylvanus not long after Ambrose is evidence enough But the antiquity of Chancellors which were the same with Ecclesiecdici or Episcoporum ecdici is proveable enough if it were for this place and their necessary use beyond the power of your confutation But I had rather refer my reader to S. Thomas Ridley and others that have laboured in that argument and appeale to all mens judgement how soundly you have upon this ground proved that our Bishops and the former were two SECT XI HOw justly may I say Readers of these men as the King of Israel said of the King of Syria See I beseech you how they seeke a quarrell against me My just defence was that our Bishops are the same in substance and effect with those which were ordained by the Apostles they come now and tell me of an oath ex officio used in the high Commission and in our Consistories as if every particular manner of Proceeding in our Courts and judicatures must either be patterned by the Apostolike or els they are utterly unjustifiable why do they not as wel chalenge us that we give men the book to touch and kisse in taking an oath Why doe they not aske how wee can prove that those Apostolicall Bishops had Notaries Registers Advocates Consistories what frivolous and delusory exceptions are these to all wise men and how strangely savouring of a weak judgement and strong malice As for your cavil at the oth ex officio since you wil needs draw it in by head and shoulders how little soever it concernes us I returne you this answer That if any of our profession have in the pressing of it exceeded the lawfull bounds I excuse him not I defend him not let him bear away his own load but in these surely there is more to bee said for
Were it so pleasing to his Majesty and the State to decree it we should be well content to submit to this ancient forme of Election the forbearance whereof is neither our fault nor our prejudice so as you might well have bestowed this breath to a better purpose and rather conclude that notwithstanding this forme of different choice our Bishops and those of former times are not two SECT VIII WEE follow you into the execution of our Episcopall Office wherein you will show ours and the Apostles to be two so clearely that he who will not wilfully shut his eyes may see a latitude of differences and that in three points The first in sole jurisdiction which you say was a stranger yea a monster to former times and will make it good by the power of that which in all wise writers was wont to be contra-distinguished Ordination For this maine point let my Answerers know that the Ordination is the Bishops but the sole in their sense is their own neither did our Bishops ever challenge it as theirs alone without the Presbyters but as principally theirs with them so as if the power be in the Bishop the assistance is from them the practise in both so is it in the Bishops that ordinarily and regularly it may not be done without them and yet ordinately it may not be done without them by the Bishop which hath bin so constantly and carefully ever observed that I challenge them to shew any one instance in the Church of England to the contrary Say Brethren I beseech you after all this noyse what Bishop ever took upon him to ordain a Presbyter alone or without the concurrent imposition of many hands They no lesse then Cyprian can say Ego collegae Although I must tell you this was in the case of Aurelius made a Lector And in that other testimony which you cite out of his Epistle 58. he speaks onely of the fraternities consent and approbation not of their concurrence in their act this is small game with you Neither is it lesse the order of the Church of England then of the Councell of Carthage Cum ordinatur Presbyter c. When a Presbyter is ordained the Bishop blessing him and holding his hand upon his head all the Presbyters that are present shall likewise lay their hands upon his head with the hands of the Bishop With what conscience can ye alledge this as to choak us in our contrary practise when you know this is perpetually and unfailably done by us But now that the Readers may see how you shuffle shew us but one instance of a Presbyters regular and practised ordaining without a Bishop and carry the cause else you do but abuse the Reader with an ostentation of proving what was never denied But here by the way brethren you must give me leave to pull you by the sleeve and to tell you of two or three foul scapes which will trie whether you can blush First that you abuse Firmilianus in casting upon him an opinion of Presbyters ordaining which he never held He in his Epistle to Stephen Bishop of Rome speaking of the true Church in opposition to heresies describes it thus Vbi praesident majores natu qui baptizandi manum imponendi et ordinandi possident potestatem under this name expressing those Bishops who presiding in the Church possesse the power of Baptizing Confirming Ordaining you injuriously Wire-draw him to Presbyters and foist in Seniores et Praepositos which are farre from the clause and matter Be convinced with the more cleare words of the same Epistle Apostolis et Episcopis qui illis vicariâ Ordinatione successerunt Secondly that you bewray grosse ignorance in translating Ambroses Presbyteri consignant by Presbyters ordaining Who that ever knew what belonged to antiquity would have beene guilty of such a solecisme when every novice knowes that consigning signifies confirmation and not ordaining Thirdly you discover not too much skill in not distinguishing of the Chorepiscopi some whereof had both the nature and power of Episcopacy to all purposes and therefore might well by the Bishops licence in his owne charge impose hands others not And lesse fidelity in citing the Councell of Antioch can 10. and the 13. of the Councell of Ancyra if it were not out of our way to fetch them into tryall Lastly I cannot but tell you that you have meerly cast away all this labour and fought with your owne shadow for how ever it were not hard to prove that in the first times of the Church it was appropriated to the Bishop to Ordaine which you cannot but cōfesse out of Ierome and Chrysostom yet since we speaking of our owne time and Church doe both professe and practise an association of Presbyters with us in the act of Ordination whom have you all this while opposed It is enough that you have seemed to say somthing and have showne some little reading to no purpose SECT IX YEt still you will needs beat the ayre very furiously and fight pitifully with your selves Alas brethren why will ye take so much paines to goe wilfully out of your way and to mis-lead the reader with you Who ever challenged in that sense which you faine to your selves a sole Jurisdiction Why will you with some show of learning confute that which you yeeld us to confesse we confesse this sole cryed downe by store of Antiquity we doe willingly grant that Presbyters have and ought to have and exercise a jurisdiction within their owne charge in foro conscientiae we grant that in all the great affayres of the Church the Presbyters whether in Synodes or otherwise ought to be consulted with we grant that the Bishops had of old their Ecclesiasticall Councell of Presbyters with whose advise they were wont to manage the greatest matters and we still have so for to that purpose serve the Deanes and Chapters and the Lawes of our Church frequently make that use of them we grant that Presbyters have their votes in provinciall Synods But we justly say that the superiority of jurisdiction is so in the Bishop as that Presbyters neither did nor may exercise it without him and that the exercise of externall jurisdiction is derived from by under him to those which execute it within his Dioces Thus it is to Timothy that S. Paul gives the charge concerning the rebuke of an Elder or not receiving an accusation against him It is to Titus that S. Paul leaves the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 correction of his Cretians Thus the Canons of the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Thus the blessed Martyr Ignatius in his undoubted Epistle to those of Smyrna 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Let no man doe any thing in matters belonging to the Church without the Bishop Thus the Councell of Antioch orders that whatsoever belongs to the Church is to be governed managed and disposed by the judgement and authority of the Bishop who hath 〈◊〉
to affirme It is enough that regularly it should be their Act. Your second Question is There being in this mans thoughts the same jus Divinum for Bishops that there is for Pastors and Elders whether if those Reformed Churches wanted Pastors and Elders too they should want nothing of the essence of a Church but of the Perfection and Glory of it The answere is ready If those Reformed Churches wanting those whom you call pastors and Elders did yet injoy the government by Bishops Priests Deacons they should be so far from wanting ought of the essence of a Church that they should herein attain to much glory and perfection And so much for your deepe questions The presumptuous Remonstrant would seeme to know so much of the minde of those Churches that hee saith if they might have their option he doubts not but they would gladly embrace Episcopall government a foule imputation which your Zeale must needes wipe off for which purpose you bring the confessions of the French and Dutch Churches averring the truth and justifiablenesse of their owne government For which they have good reason neither shall you herein expect my contradiction nor yet my present labour of reconciling their governement and ours in the maine and materiall points of both This condition they are in and they doe well to defend it but they did not tell you they would not if oportunity were offered be content with a better I am deceived if their own publicke Constitutions be not still concluded with the power of a Change and I have elsewhere shewed out of Fregevillaeus that this Order of Government was in their Churches at first only provisionall and instanced in those testimonies of approbation which their learned Divines have freely given to our forme of Administration which I shal not now stand either to repeate or multiply Let it be enough for the present to say that upon my certain knowledg many eminent Divines of the Churches abroad have earnestly wished themselves in our condition and have applauded and magnified our Church as the most Famous Exemplary and glorious Church in the whole Christian World So as I wanted not good reason for that which you are pleased to stile presumptuous assertion But the reason of my Assertion is yet so more offensive that you Wonder how it could fall from my Pen That there is little difference in the governement of other Protestant Churches and our owne save in the perpetuity of their Moderatorship and the exclusion of Lay Elders A passage belike as you say of admirable absurdity But soft brethren I am afraid first least you speake of what you know not I speak not onely of the next Churches of Fraunce and the Netherland I speake of them in a generalitie as one that if this place would bear it could give a particular account of them all Neither can your cavills worke my repentance You tell me of the Moderatour in Geneva as if all the Church of God were included in those strait walls I could tell you of the superintendents of the Churches of Germany of the Prepositi in the Churches of Weteraw Hessia Anhalt of the Seniores in Transylvania Polonia Bohemia But what of the Moderator in Geneva Hee is not of a Superiour Order to his Brethren But let mee tell you when Master Calvin was Moderatour there as hee constantly was for many yeeres no Bishop in England swayed more then he did in that Church And even in the Low Countries how much the Deputati Synodi after they had beene frequently imployed in those services as for instance my ancient and truly reverend friend Mr. Bogermannus prevailed with what authority they carrie the affaires of the Church it is not hard to understand for those other circumstances which you are pleased to mention were the moderatorship perpetuall they would soon accordingly vary and if not so yet you may remember that I said not no difference at all but little whereof your well affectednes to our Government can make this use that then the Abrogation of Episcopacy will be wrought with the lesse difficulty and occasion the lesse disturbance The old word is welfare a friend in a corner still you are for the destructive none but the Babylonian note sounds well in your eare Downe with it downe with it even to the ground But the God of Heaven whose cause it is will we hope vindicate his owne ordinance so long perpetuated to his Church from all your violent and subtile machinations and prevent the utmost danger of your already sufficiently raised disturbance SECT XV. COncerning the Lay Presbitery I said and say still most justly that it never had footing in the Church of God till this present age These wits cry out in great sport See see how like the man lookes to Doctor Hall in his irrefragable Propositions Truely brethren as like him as yee are like your selves who are still scornfull and insolent but though yee be commonly spightful yet you are so seldome witty that we may well bear with you for once be he like whom hee will Dr. Hall will sufficiently defend both those Propositions and this Remonstrance against all your impotent cavils For this concerning the questioned Lay presbitery You make a faire flourish to little purpose You do wisely to omit those three knowne Texts which the world knows have beene so throughly canvased and eluded and that famous Text of an acknowledged counterfeit Ambrose so often exploded wee shall have now new stuffe from You but of as little worth Surely had the fore-going Patrons of your Lay-Eldership found that they could have received any colour of protection from these places of Antiquity alleaged by you they had not after the raking of all the channels of time forborn the utmost urging of these Your Testimonies in their favour and defence but they well saw how little reason there was to presse those unproving evidences which you will needs urge as convictive Your testimony from Origen cannot but shame you if yet you can blush you feared to cite the Chapter that in so long a book you might not be discovered But the scope of the place is clearly thus Origen is upon comparison of the Philosophers and Christians in their care of teaching Nam illi scil Philosophi propalam apud vulgus disserentes non sunt curiosi in descernendis auditoribus c. For the Philosophers saith hee in their publick discourses to the people are not curious in the differences of their Auditors but every one that lists comes and heares them at pleasure But the Christians doe what they may carefully pre-examine the mindes of those that desire to heare them and first they doe privately so to those which are bewitched with Paganisme before they bee received into the Congregation And when they seeme to have come on so farre as to be desirous to live honestly then doe they bring them in but in distinct degrees the one of those which are newly admitted but
desires to goe a Mid-way in this difference holding it too low to derive Episcopacy from a merely humane and Ecclesiasticall Ordinance holding it too high to deduce it from an immediate command from God and therefore pitching upon an Apostolicall institution rests there but because those Apostles were divinely inspired had the directiōs of Gods spirit for those things which they did for the common administration of the Church therefore and in that onely name is Episcopacie said to lay claime to a Divine right howsoever also it cannot be gainsaid that the grounds were formerly laid by our Saviour in a knowne imparity of his first agents Now surely this truth hath so little reason to distaste them that even learned Chamier himselfe can say Res ipsa coepit tempore Apostolorum vel potius ab ipsis profecta est And why should that seeme harsh in us which soundeth well in the mouthes of lesse-interessed Divines but because the very title of that book hath raised more dust then the treatise it selfe Bee pleased Readers to see that this very question is in the very same termes determined by that eminent light of the Palatinate Dr. Abrah Scultetus whose tract to this purpose I have thought fit to annex Peruse it and judge whether of those two writers have gone further in this determination And if you shall not meet with convincing reasons to bring you home to this opinion yet at least-wise find cause enough to retaine a charitable and favourable conceit of those who are as they think upon good grounds otherwise minded and whilest it is on all parts agreed by wise and unprejudiced Christians that the calling is thus ancient and sacred let it not violate the peace of the Church to scan the originall whether Ecclesiasticall Apostolicall or divine Shortly let all good men humbly submit to the Ordinance and heartily wish the Reformation of any abuses And so many as are of this mind Peace be upon them and the whole Israell of GOD. AMEN THE DETERMINATION of the question Concerning the Divine Right of EPISCOPACY By the famous and learn'd Divine Dr. Abrahamus Scultetus late Professour of divinity in the Vniversity of HEIDELBERG Faithfully translated out of his Observations upon the Epistles to Timothy and Titus LONDON Printed for NATHANIELL BVTTER 1641 The Question Whether Episcopacie be of Divine right That is whether the Apostles ordained this Government of the Church that not onely one should be placed over the people but over Presbyters and Deacons who should have the power of Imposition of Hands or Ordination and the direction of Ecclesiasticall Counsels THis was anciently denyed by Aerius as is related by Epiphanius in his 75 Heresie and by Iohn of Hierusalem as appears by Hierome in his Epistle to Pammachius And there are not wanting in these dayes many learned and pious men who although they acknowledge Aerius to have erred in that he should disallow of that manner of Ecclesiasticall government which had beene received by the whol World yet in this they agree with him that Episcopall government is not of Divine Right From whose opinion why I should sever my judgement I am moved by these strong reasons famous examples and evident authorities My judgement is this First in the Apostles Epistles the name of Bishop did never signifie any thing different from the office of a Presbyter For a Bishop Presbyter and an Apostle were common names as you may see Act. 20. Phil. 1. v. 1. Tit. 1. 1. Pet. v. 12. Act. 1.20 Next In the chiefe Apostolicall Church the Church was governed by the common advice of Presbyters and that for some yeers in the time of the preaching of the Apostles For first of all companies must bee gathered together before we can define any thing concerning their perpetuall government Then the Apostles as long as they were present or neere their Churches did not place any Bishop over them properly so called but only Presbyters reserving Episcopall authority to themselves alone Lastly after the Gospell was farre and neere propagated and that out of equality of Presbyters by the instinct of the Devill Schismes were made in Religion then the Apostles especially in the more remote places placed some over the Pastors or Presbyters which shortly after by the Disciples of the Apostles Ignatius and others were onely called bishops by this appellation they were distinguished from Presbyters Deacons Reasons moving me to this opinion First Hierome upon the 1. Chapter of the Epistle to Titus writeth that a Presbyter is the same with a Bishop and before that by the instinct of the Devill factions were made in Religion and it was said among the people I am of Paul I of Apollo but I of Cephas the Churches were governed by the common counsell of Presbyters afterwards it was decreed in the whol world that one chosen out of the Presbyters should be placed over the rest From whence I thus argue When it began to be said among the people I am of Paul I of Apollo but I of Cephas then one chosen out of the Presbyters was placed over the rest But whiles the Apostles lived it was so said among the people As the first Epistle to the Corinthians besides other of St. Pauls Epistles puts it out of doubt Therefore while the Apostles lived one chosen out of the Presbyters was placed over the rest Againe There can be no other terme assigned in which Bishops were first made then the time of the Apostles for all the prime successors of the Apostles were Bishops witnesse the successions of Bishops in the most famous Churches of Hierusalem Alexandria Antioch and Rome as it is in Eusebius therefore either the next successors of the Apostles changed the force of Ecclesiasticall government received from the Apostles according to their owne pleasure which is very unlikely or the Episcopall government came from the Apostles themselves Besides even then in the time of the Apostles there were many Presbyters but one Bishop even then in the time of the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hee that was placed over the rest which afterwards was called Bishop did impose hands or ordaine Ministers of the Word which Presbyters alone did not presume to doe Even then therefore the calling of Bishops was distinct from the Office of Presbyters If any desire the examples of Apostolicall Bishops the books of the antient are full of the Episcopal authority of Timothy and Titus either of which howsoever first performed the office of an Evangelist yet notwithstanding ceased to be an Evangelist after that Timothy was placed over the Church of Ephesus and Titus over the Church of Crete For Evangelists did only lay the foundations of faith in forraign places then did commend the rest of the care to certaine Pastors but they themselves went to other Countries and Nations as Eusebius writes in his third Booke of Ecclesiasticall History and 34. Chap. But Paul taught sometimes in Ephesus and Crete and laid the foundations of
Faith there therefore he commandeth Timothy to stay at Ephesus Titus at Crete not as Evangelists but as governors of the Churches And indeed the Epistles written to either of them doe evince the same for in these he doth not prescribe the manner of gathering together a Church which was the duty of an Evangelist but the manner of governing a Church being already gathered together which is the duty of a Bishop and all the precepts in those Epistles are so conformable hereunto as that they are not refer'd in especiall to Timothy and Titus but in general to all Bishops and therefore in no wise they suit with the temporary power of Evangelists Besides that Timothy and Titus had Episcopall jurisdiction not onely Eusebius Chrysostome Theodoret Ambrosius Hierome Epiphanius Oecumenius Primasius Theophylact but also the most ancient writers of any that write the History of the new Testament whose writings are now lost do sufficiently declare Eusebius without doubt appealing unto those in his third book of Ecclesiasticall History and 4. chapter Timothy saith hee in Histories is written to bee the first which was made Bishop of the Church of Ephesus as Titus was the first that was made Bishop of the Church of Crete But if John the Apostle and not any antient Disciple of the Apostles bee the authour of the Revelation hee suggests unto us those seven new Examples of Apostolicall Bishops For all the most learned Interpreters interpret the seven Angels of the Churches to be the seven Bishops of the Churches neither can they doe otherwise unlesse they should offer violence to the text What should I speake of James not the Apostles but the Brother of our Saviour the Sonne in law of the Mother of our Lord who by the Apostles was ordained Bishop of Hierusalem as Eusebius in his 2d. book of Ecclesiasticall History 1 chap. out of the 6. of the Hypotyposes of Clement Hierome concerning Ecclesiasticall writers out of the 1. of the Comments of Egesippus relate Ambrose upon the 1. chap. unto the Galatians Chrysostome in his 23 Homily upon the 15 of the Acts Augustine in his 2d. book and 37 chap. against Cresconius Epiphanius in his 65 Heresie The 6. Synod in Tullo and 32 Canon all assenting thereunto For indeed this is that James that had his first residence at Jerusalem as an ordinary Bishop whom Paul in his first and last coming to Hierusalem found in the City almost all the Apostles preaching in other places Gal. 1.19 and that concluded those things which were decreed in the assembly of the Apostles Act. 21. For hee was with Chrysostome Bishop of the Church of Hierusalem from whom when certaine came Peter would not eate with the Gentiles Galat. 2.12 From examples I passe to authorities which Ignatius confirmes by his own authority Whose axiomes are these The Bishop is he which is superiour in all chiefty and power The Presbytery is a holy company of counsellours and assessours to the Bishop The deacons are the imitators of angelicall vertues which shew forth their pure and unblameable ministry He which doth not obey these is without God impure and contemnes Christ and derogates from his order and constitution in his Epistle to the Trallians In an other place I exhort that ye study to doe all things with concord The Bishop being president in the place of God The Presbyters in place of the Apostolick Senate the Deacons as those to whom was committed the Ministry of Jesus Christ in his Epistle to the Magnesians And againe Let the Presbyters be subject to the Bishop the Deacons to the Presbyters the people to the Presbyters and Deacons in his Epistle to those of Tarsus But Ignatius was the Disciple of the Apostles from whence then had he this Hierarchie but from the Apostles Let us now heare Epiphanius in his 75. Heresie The Apostles could not presently appoint all things Presbyters and Deacons were necessary for by these two Ecclesiasticall affaires might bee dispatch Where there was not found any fâ—t for the Episeopacie that place remained without a Bishop but where there was need and there were any fit for Episcopacy they were made Bishops All things were not compleat from the beginning but in tract of time all things were provided which were required for the perfection of those things which were necessary the Church by this means receiving the fulnesse of dispensation But Eusebius comes neerer to the matter more strongly handles the cause who in his third booke of Ecclesiasticall History and 22 chapter as also in his Chronicle affirmeth that Erodius was ordained the 1. Bishop of Antioch in the yeere of our Lord. 45. in the 3. yeere of Claudius the Emperor at which time many of the Apostles were alive Now Hierome writeth to Evagrius that at Alexandria from Mark the Evangelist unto Heraclius and Dionisius the Bishop the Presbyters called one chosen out of themselvs and placed in a higher degree the Bishop But Marke dyed as Eusebius and Bucholcerus testifie in the yeere of our Lord 64. Peter Paul and John the Apostles being then alive therefore it is cleere that Episcopacie was instituted in the time of the Apostles and good Hierome suffered some frailty when he wrote that Bishops were greater then Presbyters rather by the custome of the Church then the truth of the Lords disposing unlesse perhaps by the custome of the Church hee understands the custome of the Apostles and by the truth of the Lords disposing hee understands the apointment of Christ yet not so hee satisfies the truth of History For it appears out of the 1.2 and 3. Chapters of the Revelation that the forme of governing the Church by Angels or Bishops was not only ratified and established in the time of the Apostles but it was coÌ„firmed by the very Son of God And Ignatius called that form the order of Christ And when Hierome writes that it was decreed in the whole World that one chosen out of the Presbyters should bee placed over the rest And when I have demonstrated that in the life-time of the Apostles Bishops were superior to Presbyters in Ordination and that each Church had one placed over it doe wee not without cause demand where when and by whom Episcopacie was ordained Episcopacie therefore is of divine right Which how the Prelates of the Church of Rome for almost 300. yeers did adorne with the truth of Doctrine innocency of life constancy in afflictions and suffering Death it selfe for the honour of Christ and on the other side how in succeding times first by their ambition next by their excessive pragmaticall covetousnesse scraping up to themselves the goods of this world then by their heresie last of all by their tyranny they corrupted it that the Roman Hierarchy at this day hath nothing else left but a vizard of the Apostolicall Ecclesiasticall Hierarchy and the lively image of the whore of Babylon our Histories both antient and moderne doe abundantly testifie Wherefore all Bishops are
it then you wil seem to take notice of You ask for any precedent of it in good antiquity I give a precedent as ancient as Moses Exod. â—2 10 11. and that other oath and real imprecation in the cause of jelousie Num. 5.19 But perhaps it wil fit you better that I instance in M. Calvins case who together with the Consistory of Elders appointed the said oath to be given to Camperell a Minister of Geneva and to the other parties accused of an offensive dancing in the house of widow Balthasar in which corporal oath three interrogatories being put to the deponents two of them are said to be concerning their purposes and intentions If yet you cal for other precedents I cal your eys home and wil you to look into our Courts of Kings Bench Common Pleas Exchequer Star-chamber wherein the defendant is ordinarily put to answer the bill and interrogatories upon oath As for that old Maxime of Nemo tenetur prodere seipsum you may if it please you object it as well to Moses to Calvin to our Courts it is easily thus satisfied that no man is bound at the suit of a party so to answer criminous Articles or such as are Propinqui actus as Lawyers interpret it But as Petrus de Ferrariis well determins it Proditus per famam tenetur seipsum ostendere purgare when a fame accuses him he may clear himselfe by an oath it is to be presupposed that a man is brought into question by some of those Lawfull meanes which open a way to a further inquiry and then as Aquinas well if there be a Semi-plena probatio or a strong fame or evident tokens an oath is seasonably imposed But sure the intention of the oath is quite mistaken for it is meant to acquit and justifie not to accuse neither is any man pressed to answer further then he is bound in law neither are the Compulsions simple and absolute but onely Causative as the learned Apologist hath fully declared If then a Dioclesian or Maximilian as you cal him shall enact that the adverse party shall not be required to exhibite such evidences as should create troubles to themselves it is no other then is every where practised in all Courts of Iudicature and may well stand with the oath ex officio as it is formerly limited Be advised therfore til you understand the case better to forbear to talke of the Lamp of nature in the night of Eth nicisme but know that the light of the law of God and rigt reason common practise give sufficient alowance to that which your misprision cavills at in those whom ye ought to acknowledge the Fathers of the Church You tell us of the custome of the Church proceedings in the time of Athanasius and the rule of Gratian as if we disallowed those just courses where there is a direct manifest accusation and evident proofes to bee had but what doth this hinder that in case of a justly grounded suspition and a complaint of a halfe-proved offence a man should manifest his innocence by oath That ye might seem to have seene the Canon-law you tell us that in some cases it allowes tryall without witnesses namely where the crime may be justly called notorious then deeply expound notorium by manifestum therein plainly contradicting your selves for if that be manifest which is lawfully known by confession or by probation or by the evidence of the thing what probation can there be besides confession and evidence without witnesses But this errour is as trifling as your accusation and after all this wast of words notwithstanding some personall abuses of Officers in undue processes of their Courts our Bishops and the former are not two SECT 12. YOur next Section hath more pompe of reading in it then the rest but to as little purpose I shall trouble you with neglecting it we cannot anger a gay man more then in passing by him unseene my ground was that our Bishops differ not in respect of any spirituall power from that which was delegated from Apostolike authority to Timothy Titus you spend your time in proving that they differ in their imployment in secular and state affaires but I aske is this difference or fault universall or not sure you cannot say they are all thus misimployed and if not why is this blame cast upon al why should the calling others innocence suffer My cause shall yeeld you your postulate herein and be no whit the worse it is true the ordinary managing of secular affaires is not proper for a Bishop Chrysostoms counsell Julians practise Constatines bounty Cyrâ—lls insolent pompe the Romane Bishops degenerating into a secular principality Cyprians grave limitation the just inhibitions of many Canons are of an undoubted truth and we could easily if need were ad many more to these and tell you of those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that must upon the Apostolike Canons be avoyded by sacred persons and the rigorous charge of Cyprian against Geminius victor for ordaining Geminius Faustinus a Presbyter but the Executor of his last will with many other the like instances but what are these to the work in hand Two exceptions must necessarily bee admitted the one of extraordinary ocsicaons and services as when a Prince or state having had good proofe of the abilities of an Ecclesiasticall person shall thinke fit as now it is done in this great Northerne negotiation to call for his Counsaile or to employ his present agency for a time in some main businesse that may import the publike good and safety of the Church or Common-wealth so St. Chrysostome once so St. Ambrose twice was imployed in Embassie from the Emperours The very trade of Tent-making did as much take up St. Paul for the time as a state-imployment might have done and how many have we knowne that have not unprofitably professed Physicke both for soule and body and done much good in both The other of a charitable interposition in matters of difference for peace and reconciliation and composing of the unkinde quarrels of dissenting neighbours wherewith St. Ambrose and St. Austine were so extreamly taken up that the latter makes no little complaint of the importunity of those continuall interpellations such as both his morning studies were distracted by them and the afternoon wholly spent in them and professeth he could not have the opportunity of opening his estate and heart to Bishop Ambrose by reason of that continuall audience of causes daily brought before that great Prelate surely if the charity of more of ours have not rendered them more guilty of secularity in this kind than the supposed ambition of others there will be no cause why our Bishops and the Bishops of former times should be two SECT 13. IT is true the Remonstrant soares above these after-times even as high as the Apostles As if you knew not this before when as all this while you have indeavoured to shew that the Apostles
but you shall give me leave to take you tripping in your own Tale from Cilicia you say Paul passed to Creet where he left Titus for a while to set in order things that remain this for a while you put into a different Character as if it were part of the Text and guiltily translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things that remaine whereas ours turne it in a more full expression of an Episcopall power things that are wanting or left undone but this is not the matter you do yet again repeat the for a while urging the short time that Titus could bee left at Creet and yet in your own marginall computation there is no lesse distance of time betwixt this placing in Creet and sending for him to his next remove unto Nicopolis thā betwixt the year 46 51. the space of five years which was a large gap of time in that unsetled condition and manifold distractive occasions of the Church If afterwards hee were by Apostolicall command called away to tend the more concerning services of the Church this could no whit have impeacht the truth of his Episcopacy but the truth is he was ordained by St. Paul after all those journeys mentioned in the Acts and as Baronius with great consent of Antiquity computes it a year after Timothy so as you may well put up your conclusion as rather begged than inforced and cast it upon the Readers courtesie to beleeve you against al antiquity that Titus was an Evangelist and no Bishop where as these two may well agree together he was an Evangelist when he travelled abroad he was a bishop afterwards when hee stayed and setled at home You object to your selfe the authority of some Fathers that have called Timothy and Titus Bishops Some name if you can that Father that hath called them otherwise away with these envious diminutions when yea have a cloud of witnesses of much antiquity which averre Timothy and Titus to have both lived and dyed Bishops the one of Ephesus of Creet the other yea but so some Fathers have called them Arch-bishops and Patriarchs too What of that therein they have then acknowledged them bishops paramount and if Titus were Bishop of Creet which was of old 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the hundred-cityed Island and Timothy of Ephesus the Metropolis of Asia the multitude of the territories under them whiles it inlargeth their charge doth detract nothing from the use of their office Secondly you tell us from learned D. Raynolds that the Fathers when they called any Apostle Bishop they meant it in a generall sort aad signification because they did attend that church for a time and supply that roome in preaching the Gospell which Bishops did after not intending it as it is commonly taken for the over-seer of a particular Church and Pastor of a severall flocke but what is this to Timothy and Titus you say the same may be said of them but the Doctor gave you no leave so to apply it neither do we Although to say truth all this discourse of yours is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 needlesse and extravagant whether Timothy or Titus were Evangelists or no sure we are that heere they stand for persons charged with those Offices and cares which are delivered to the ordinary Church governours in all succeeding generations And we do most justly take them as we finde them and with our first confidence maintain that we challenge no other spirituall power then was delegated unto them and unto the Angels of the Asian Churches you meane to confute us by questions and those so poore and frivolous as are not worth answer fastning that upon some particular abuse which wee disclaime from our calling as if under this claime wee were bound to justifie every act of a Bishop To answer you in your own kind when or where did our bishops challenge power to ordaine alone to govern alone when though you ignorantly turne an Elder in age to an Elder in Office did our Bishops challenge power to passe a rough and unbeseeming rebuke upon an Elder Where did our Bishops give Commission to Chancellors Commissaries Officials to rayle upon Presbyters or to accuse them without just grounds and without legall proceedings As for your last question I must tell you it is no better raised then upon an ignorant negative Did the Apostle say reject none but an Heretick Did he not wish would to God they were cut off that trouble you Is it not certainly proved true that some Scismaticke may be worse then some Hereticke which I speak not so as to traduce any of our unconforming brethren whose consciences are unsetled in the point of this mean difference as guilty of that hatefull crime but to convince the absurdity of our questionists after whose ill raised cavills thus fully answered we have no cause to feare upon their suggestions to bee disclaimed as usurpers From Timothy and Titus you descend to the Angels of the seven Asian Churches which no subtilty at all but the common interest of their condition hath twisted together in our defence In the generality whereof I must premonish my Reader that this Piece of the task fell unhappily upon some dull and tedious hand that cared not how oft sod Coleworts he dished out to his credulous guests I shall what I may prevent their surfet Your shift is that the Angel is here taken collectively not individually A conceit which if your selves certainly no other wise man can ever believe for if the interest be common and equally appertayning to all why should one be singled out above the rest If you will yeeld the person to be such as had more than others a right in the administration of all it is that we seeke for Surely it did in some sort concerne all that was spoken to him because he had the charge of al but the direction is individuall as Beza himselfe takes it as if a Letter be indorsed from the Lords of the Counsaile to the Bishop of Durham or Salisbury concerning some affaires of the whole Clergy of their Diocesse can we say that the name Bishop is there no other then a collective because the businesse may import many verily I do not believe that the Authors of this sence can believe it themselves To your invincible proofes In the Epistle to Thyatira you say it is written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I say to you and to the rest where by you must as you imagine be signified the Governours by the rest the people but what if the better Copyes read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I say to you the rest in Thyatira without the copulative as is confessed by your good friends where then is your doughty Argument Here are no divisions of parties but the Pastor and Flock And truly thus it is and my own eyes have seen it in that noble Manuscript written by the hand of Tecla as is probably supposed some 1300. years agoe as Cyrill the late renowned Patriarch of Constantinople
Truly no who ever said that one Angel was over all the seven Churches but that each of these famous Churches were under their own Star or Angel but those churches you say were not Diocesan How doth that appeare Because first Tindall and the old translation calls them seven congregations for answer who knows not that Tindall and the old Translation are still wont to translate the word church wheresoever they finde it by Congregation which some Papists have laid in our dish Learned Doctor Fulk hath well cleared our intentions herein from their censure Tindall himselfe professes to doe it out of this reason because the Popish Clergy had appropriated to themselves the name of the Church but however they rather made use of the Word yet not so as that hereby they intend onely to signifie Parishionall meetings So Ephesians 3. To the intent that now to the Rulers and Powers in heavenly places might bee knowne by the Congregation the manifold Wisedome of GOD Doe wee thinke this blessed Revelation confined to a Parish or common to the whole Church of God So 1. Corinthians 15. they turne I am not worthy to bee called an Apostle because I persecuted the Congregation of GOD Doe we thinke his cruelty was confined to a Parish So Matthew 6.16 Vpon this Rocke will I build my Congregation was this a Parish onely So Acts 11. Herod the King stretched out his hands to vexe certaine of the Congregation Was his malice onely Parochiall but secondly ye tell us that in Ephesus which was one of those Candlesticks there was but one flock Acts 20.28 Yea but can you tell us what kind of Flock it was whether Nationall or Provinciall or Diocesan Parochiall I am sure it could not be you have heard before that those Elders or Bishops were sent for from Ephesus But that they were all of Ephesus it cannot be proved when all of them then are bidden to take heede to the Flocke of Christ whereof they are made over-seers each is herein charged to look to his owne and all are in the next words required to feed the Church of GOD which he hath purchased with his owne blood So as your second argument is fully answered in the solution of the first and in the former passages of this Section The advantage that you take from Epiphanius affirming that divers Cities of that time might have two Bishops whereas Alexandria held close to one can availe you little when it shall bee well weighed first that your Tenet supposeth and requireth that every Presbyter should bee a Bishop and therefore if your cause speed there should be no fewer Bishops than parishes Secondly that the practise of the whole Church both before and after Epiphanius is by such cleare testimonies convinced to be contrary famous and irrefragable is that Canon of Nicen Councell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that in one City there might not bee two Bishops so before this Cornelius writing to the Bishop of Antioch objects it scornfully to Novatian that hee did not know 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that in a Catholike Church there ought to be but one Bishop And it is a knowne word of the Confessors of old in Cyprians time one GOD one Lord one Bishop Make much if you please of this conceit of yours that Epiphanius his Neighbour-hood might acquaint him well with the Condition of the Asian Churches But let mee adde that you shall approve your selves meere strangers to all the rules and practises of antiquity if you shall stand upon the generall plurality of Bishops in the same City or Dioces And last of all remember that Epiphanius reckons up Aerius as an Hereticke for holding Presbyters equall with Bishops Your third argument that there is nothing said in these seven Epistles that implyes a superiority is answered by the very Superscription of each Letter which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To the Angel and much more by the matter of the severall Epistles For what reason were it for an ordinary Presbyter to bee taxed for that which hee hath no power to redresse That the Angel of Pergamus should bee blamed for the having of those which hold the Doctrine of Balaam or the Nicolaitans when hee had no power to proceed against them or the Angel of the Church of Thyatira for suffering the Woman Jezabel if it must bee so read to teach and seduce when hee had no power of publick censure to restraine her But what need wee stand upon conjecturall answers to convince you in this plea as likewise in the supposed Decision of the kinde of superiority which you urge in the next paragraph when wee are able to shew both who the parties were to whom some of these Epistles were directed and to evince the high degree of their superiority Ignatius the Martyr besides Tertullian is witnesse for both who tells us that Onesimus was now the Angel or Bishop of Ephesus Polycarpus of Smyrna and as commenting upon this very subject oft ingeminates the duty of subjection owing to the Bishop and the divers degrees of those 3 several stations in the Church as we already instanced away then with those your unproving illustrations and unregardable testimonies which you as destitute of all Antiquity shut up the Scene withall And let the wise Reader judge whether the Remonstrant hath not from the evidence of Timothy and Titus and the Angels of the Asian Churches made good that just claime of this sacred Hierarchy against all your weak and frivolous pretentions From the Remonstrant least your discourse should not be tedious enough you fly upon some other Defenders of the Hierarchy and fall upon the two post-scripts of Saint Pauls Epistles to Timothy and Titus wherein Timothy Titus are stiled the first bishops of Ephesus and creet which I am no way engaged to defend You say they are not of canonical authority so say I too but I say they are of great antiquity so you must confesse also Faine would I see but any pretence of so much age against the matter of those Subscriptions the averred Episcopacy of Timothy and Titus cited by these confident antiquaries surely he were senceles that would imagine the Post-scripts as old as the Text or as authenticke but we may boldly say they are older then any Records of the gain-sayers Where these Subscriptions are not seconded by authority of the ancient Church there I leave them but where they are so wel backed there is no reason to forsake them The Exception therefore which you take at the Post-script of the Epistle to Titus is not more stale than unjust You say peremptorily it was not written from Nicopolis neither was Paul then there how appeares it Because hee sayes in the body of the Epistle come to mee to Nicopolis for I am determined there to winter Hee saith not Heere to Winter but there as speaking of a third place but how slight this ground is will bee easily apparent to any man that
shall consider that Saint Paul was in perpetuall journying from place to place And therfore though now at that instant at Nicopolis yet how soone occasions might call him away and how long hee knew not Therefore it was most fit that he should pitch upon a certaine place whither Titus should direct his way toward him Notwithstanding your ghesse therefore since holy Athanasius plainely tells us that S. Paul wrote this Epistle from Nicopolis and is therein followed by Oecumenius and Theophylact and in that famous ancient Manuscript sent by the late Patriarch of Constantinople I finde it plainly dated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It must needes follow that either this Subscription was before Athanasius and Teclaes time or else that they went upon some other good ground of their assertion Lastly it may well goe for a reason of your owne making that the Post-script stiles Titus Bishop of the Church of the Cretians whereas it would be said of the Churches of the Cretians for the Christian Churches of any Nation are called by Luke and Paul Churches and not Church Who would not yeelde you this truth that the Christian Churches are called Churches What can they bee called else when they are mentioned in their severall diversities but when they are upon some intire Relation conjoyned united as these of Creet under one Government they may well bee called not the Churches but the Church That flash of Wit might well have beene forborne wherein you make an envious Comparison Betwixt the Authority of these Subscriptions and Episcopall authority of urging Subscription to their Ceremonies And why theirs I beseech you Have you beene urged to subscribe to any other Ceremonies than have been established by the Lawes of this Realme Church Was it Episcopall power that enacted them Had you beene but as obedient these Ceremonies had beene equally yours Now out of pure Love you impose that upon us which you repined that the Lawes should impose upon you Goe on thus Charitably prosper Because you wanted Worke from the Remonstrance you will cut out some for your selves An Objection of your owne must be answered That is From the inequalitie that was betweene the Twelve Apostles and the seaventy Disciples And wel may you shape and fashion your owne Answere unto your owne Objection It cannot bee prooved you say that the Twelve had any Superiority over the Seaventy eyther of Ordination or Jurisdiction What have you forgotten brethren that the Apostles ordained the Decons Acts 6.6 by Praier and imposition of hands That the Apostle Paul laid his hands on Timothy Have you forgotten how by vertue of his Apostleshippe hee charges Commands Controllers Censures What is if this bee not Ordination and Jurisdiction But say you suppose it were so yet a superiority and inferiority betweene Officers of different kindes will not prove a superiority and inferiority betweene Officers of the same kinde Deeply argued Surely hence you may inferre that one Bishop is not superiour to another nor one Presbyter above another but that a Bishop should not bee superiour to a Presbyter were an uncouth consequence If the twelve Apostles therefore were superiours to the 70. Disciples and Bishops as your owne Jerome tells you succeed those Apostles and Presbyters come in the roome of the seventy where is that identity or samenesse of kind which you pretend All Antiquity hath acknowledged 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 three severall rankes in the Church-Hierarchy and if you have a minde to jumble them together take away the difference betwixt Presbyters and Deacons as well as that betwixt Bishops and Presbyters Jam sumus ergo pares And now wee appeale to the same Barre how farre you have beene from disproving the Divine right or Apostolicall institution of Episcopacy and whether your relyance upon Hieromes Authority in this poynt hath beene grounded upon any other reason but your owne weak presumption Yet still like as I have heard some beaten Cocks you dare crow and tell your Reader that though Scriptures faile us yet wee support our selves by the indulgence and munificence of religious Princes surely if GOD should have withdrawne himselfe in vaine should wee make flesh our armes Our calling we challenge from God some accessory Titles Dignities Maintenance we thankfully professe to have received from the bountie of Royall Benefactors What of this Herein you say the Author acknowledgeth a difference betweene our Bishops and the Bishops of old Yes verily so hee gladly doth with all humble thankefulnesse to God and good Princes make your best of this concession Suddainly you fall faire and professe your well-pleasednesse with the liberall maintenance of the Church although somewhat yet sticks with you When the Ministery came to have agros domos locationes vehicula as you say from Chrysostome then Religio peperit divitias Religion brought forth riches and the Daughter devoured the Mother and a voice was heard from heaven Hodie venenum and then You tell us of woodden Priests and golden challices But Brethren take no care for this danger our last age hath begun to take sufficient order for the redresse of this Evill and if in time You shall see Wooden Chalices and Wooden Priests thanke your selves However you grant there is not an incompossibility betwixt large Revenues and an humble Sociablenesse yet You say it is rare and tell us That the rich Provision of Bishops hath ushered in both neglect of their Ministery and Pompous attendance and insultation over their Brethren And You instance in the pride of Paulus Samosatenus and shut up with the grave complaint of Sulpitius Severus It is not to be denied Brethren that some such ill use hath beene made by some of their abundance but surely in this ablative age the fault is rare and hardly instanceable both the Wings and train of many of ours have beene so Clipped that there is no great feare of flying high But if it bee so the fault is fixed to the person who with more grace might otherwise improve the blessing Cast your eyes upon others even your owne great Patrons and tell mee if you doe not espie the same ill use of large meanes and flattering prosperity yet you desire not to abridge their store but to rectifie the imployment of it Learne to be so charitable to your spirituall superiors And now at last you give a vale to your Remonstrants Arguments and shut up with a bold recollection concerning which let mee say thus much Truely Brethren had you as good a faculty in strewing as you have in gathering there were no dealing with you but it is your ill hap to tell the reader in your recapitulation of great feates that you have done in your former discourse when as he must needs professe that he sees no such matter I appeal to his judicious eies whether in all this tedious passage you have proved any thing but your owne bold ignorance and absurd inconsequences SECT XIV MY satisfaction to objections comes next to
exoticall positions of unsound teachers which it selfe hath in terminis condemned and say as you are not ashamed to do We thank God we are none of you we forgive you and pray for your repentance Your Quaeres wherein I see you trust much are made up of nothing but spight and slander If I answere you with questions shorter then your own and more charitable you will excuse mee In answer then to your first I ask Who ever held the Lordships of Bishops to stand by divine right If no body whether hee that intimates it doth not falsifie and slander Why is it a greater fault in one of our Doctors to hold the Lords day to stand Iure bumano then it was in Master Calvin I aske whether it were any other then K. Iames himselfe of blessed memory that said No Bishop no King and if it were he whether that wise King did not meane to prejudice his own authoritie Whether since it hath beene proved that Bishops are of more then meerely humane Ordinance and have so long continued in the Christian Church to the great good of Church and State it be not most fit to establish them for ever and to avoid all dangerous motions of innovation Whether these answerers have the wit or grace to understand the true meaning of the Ius Divinum of Episcopacie or if they did whether they could possibly be so absurd as to raise so sensless and inconsequent inferences upon it Whether there bee any question at all in the fifth question since the Remonstrant himselfe hath so fully cleered this point professing to hold Episcopacie to bee of Apostolicall and in that right Divine Institution Whether Master Beza have not heard foundly of his distinction of the three kinds of Episcopacie in the full and learned answere of Saravia and whether hee might not have beene better advised then in that conceit of his to crosse all reverend antiquity and whether the Painter that drest up his Picture after the fancy of every passenger doe not more fitly resemble those that frame their discipline according to the humour of their people varying their projects every day then those which hold them constantly to the only ancient and Apostolicall forme Whether it were not fit that wee also should speake as the ancient Fathers did according to the language of their times and whether those Fathers could not better understand and interpret their owne meaning in the title of Episcopacie then these partiall and not over-judicious answerers and whether they have not cleerely explicated themselves in their writings to have spoken properly and plainly to the sense now enforced Whether Presbyters can with out sin arrogate unto themselves the exercise of the power of publique Church government where Bishops are set over them to rule and order the affaires both of them and the Church and whether our Saviour when he gave to Peter the promisse of the Keyes did therein intend to give it in respect of the power of publike jurisdiction to any other save the Apostles and their Successours the Bishops and whether ever any Father or Doctour of the Church till this present age held that Presbyters were the Successours to the Apostles and not to the seventy Disciples rather Whether ever any Bishops assumed to themselves power Temporall to bee Barons and to sit in Parliament as Iudges and in Court of Star-chamber c. or whether they bee not called by his Majesties writ and royall authority to these services and whether the spirituall power which they exercise in ordaining silencing c. bee any other then was by the Apostles delegated to the first Bishops of the Church constantly exercised by their holy successors in all ages especially by Cyprian Ambrose Augustine and the rest of that sacred order men which had as little to do with Antichrist as our answerers have with charity Whether the answerers have not just cause to be ashamed of patronizing a noted Heretick Aerius in that for which hee was censured of the ancient Saints and Fathers of the Church and whether the whole Church of Christ ever since his time till this age have not abandoned those very errours concerning the equality of Bishops and Presbyters which they now presume to maintain Whether the great Apostacy of the Church of Rome do or did consist in maintayning the order of government set by the Apostles themselves and whether all the Churches in the whole Christian World even those that are professedly opposite to the Church of Rome doe let in Antichrist by the doore of their Discipline since they all maintain Episcopacie no lesse constantly then Rome it selfe Whether if Episcopacie be through the munificence of good Princes honoured with a title of dignity and largnesse of revenues it ought to be ere the more declined and whether themselves if they did no hope to carry some sway in the Presbytery would be so eager in crying up that government and whether if there were not â— maintenance annexed they would not hid themselves and jeopard their eares ratheâ— then mancipate themselves to the charge oâ— souls Whether there bee no other apparenâ— causes to be given for the increase of Poperâ— and superstition in the Kingdome besideâ— Episcopacie which hath laboured strongly to oppose it and whether the multitudes of Sects and professed slovenlynesse in Gods service in too many have not bin guilty of the increase of profanesse amongst us Why should England one of the most famous Churches of Christendome seperate it selfe from that forme of government which all Churches through the whole Christian World have ever observed and do constantly and uniformely observe and maintain and why should not rather other less noble Churches conform to that universall government which all other Christians besides do gladly submit unto Why should the name of Bishops which hath beene for this 1600. yeers appropriated in a plain contradistinction to the governours of the Church come now to be communicated to Presbyters which never did all this while so much as pretend to it and if in ancient times they should have done it could not have escaped a most severe censure And shortly whether if wee will allow you to bee Bishops all will not bee well Whether since both God hath set such a government in his Church as Episcopacie and the Lawes of this Land have firmly established it it can bee lawfull for you to deny your subjection unto it and whether it were not most lawfull and just to punish your presumption and disobedience in framing so factious a question And thus I hope you have a sufficient answere to your bold and unjust demands and to those vain cavills which you have raised against the humble Remonstrance God give you Wisdome to see the Truth and Grace to follow it Amen To the Poscript THe best beauty that you could have added to your discourse brethren had been honesty and truth both in your allegations of Testimonies and inferences of argumentation In both which