no record is found in Divine writings 6. Whether Master Beza have not heard soundly of his distinction of the three kinds of Episcopacy in the full and learned answer of Soravia Yes and Soravia and others that have borrowed from him have heard as foundly of their defences of Episcopacy both by domesticke and forreine Divines who have sufficiently declared how well our story of the Painter suits with your Discipline but iâ— that please you not we can â—it you with an other of the Painter mentioned in Plutarch who having drawne a cocke very unskilfully and rudely could not indure any cocke to stand within view for feare of discovering the deformity of his picture So our Bishops having drawne a forme and line of government which they propose to the world as divine will not indure the true divine government to come in view for feare of discovering the irregularity of theirs 7. Whether it were not fit that we also should speake as the ancient Fathers did Sir by your leave it is safe to speake in the language the Scripture speakes but you should have done well to have spoken to the reason upon which our Quere was grounded and what further reasons we then had and still have to make this Quere may appeare by what wee have sayd before in vindicating Timothy and Titus from such like objections 8. Whether Presbyters can without sinne arrogate unto themselves the exercise of the power of publike Church-government c. to say nothing what honour here you give to your deare Sister-Churches Our answer is Yes they may take the exercise of that power without sinne though not without danger if your High-Commission were standing For our Saviour Christ when he gave to Peter the promise of the keyes made in one undistinguishable act a donation of the power both of preaching and governing and therefore if Presbyters may without sin publickly exercise the one by vertue of that donation they may by the same charter as warrantably exercise the other The last branch of your quere Whether any Father or Doctor till this age held that Presbyters were successors to the Apostles c. We wonder that any man who hath but the repute of learning shouldâ— make such a quere And for the answer we refer you to what we have said before in this booke 9. Whether ever any Bishops assumed to themselves power temporall to be Barons c. Our answer is You shew better writts for your temporalties then you have done yet for your spiritualties And our quaere was directed to shew the spirituall power of Bishops to be of more dangerous consequence then their temporall to which purpose we produced five reasons which wee perswade our selves you scarcely read over for in the third there is a fault in the printing which had you seene your charity would scarce have let passe without an observation which remaining unanswered wee conclude as before it concernes all those that have spirituall eyes to endeavour to abrogate their spirituall usurpationsâ— as well as their temporall As for the latter part of this Quere it is a begging of the whole dispute Et eadem facilitate rejicitur quâ affirmatur 10. Whether the answerers have not just cause to be ashamed of patronizing a noted hereticke Aerius c. To this we answer That if Aerius was accounted an heretique for denying Bishops to be all one with Presbyters by divine right we are not ashamed to patronize him till you have answered our allegations for his defence which are brought in this quere and in divers places in this Booke But you could not be so ignorant but to know how Bellarmine and divers others doe say That Aerius was accounted an hereticke not for denying the inequality of Bishops and Presbyters by Scripture but by the Canons of the Church But wee wonder how we escaped the brand of the heresie of the Audiani who by the same Epiphanius are called heretiques though men of a blamelesse conversation because they did not without just cause freely and boldly reprove the vices of the Bishops of their daies 11. Whether the great apostacy of the Church of Rome doe or did consist in the maintaining the order of government set by the Apostles themselves c. Sure no wee never sayd nor thought it But that a great part of the Apostacy of the Church of Rome consisted in swarving from the discipline of Christ and hiâ— Apostles as well as from the doctrine and setting up and maintaining a new Hierarchicall forme which cannot enter into our hearts to thinke the Apostles did ever set up and which the most part of the Churches in the Christian World that are professedly opposite unto the Church of Rome doe oppose as much as they doe Rome it selfe though you beare the Reader in hand they all maintaine it no lesse constantly then Rome it selfe doth which no man but he that hath captivated reason modesty to his cause and will would have so confidently and untruly spoken Once againe let us aske you whether by this bould speech all the reformed Churches of Christ be not now shut out of the number of Churches 12. Whether if Episcopacy be through the mâ—nificence of good Princes honoured with a title of dignity c. it to be ever the more declined Since the time that Episcopacy has bin honored with dignity and revenues the office hath not bin declined but the Bishops themselves haue bin declining Yet our Quere was not whether this were a ground of declining the place but rather of desiring the place As for our crying up the Presbytery because wee hope to carry some sway in it We acknowledge our selves unworthy to beare any part in it but we heartily desire that Christ may rule and wee shall most willingly subject our selves to his government 13. Whether there bee no other apparent causes to be given for the encrease of popery and superstition in the Kingdome besides Episcopacy which hath strongly laboured to oppose it c. We deny not but there may have bin other causes but none so apparant as Episcopacy But whereas in a parenthesis which you might well have left out without any detriment either to your sense or the truth you say that Episcopacy hath strongly laboured to oppose popery we answer Quid verba audimus cum facta videmus you aske againe whether the multitude of Sects you should have added which the tyranny of Bishops hath made And professed â—lovenlinesse in Gods service have not bin guilty of the encrease of prophanenesse We answer againe not so much as the forbidding of preaching and Catechising as the countenancing of sports on the Lords day as the scandalous lives of too too many episcopall men and the libertinisme of the Bishops houses and Courts 14. Your 14. Quere consists of a Paradox and a Solâ—cisme A Paradox in saying That all Churches throughout the whole Christian world have ever observed and doe constantly and uniformely obserue and maintaine Episcopall
20. of Acts Presbyters and Bishops to be all one Doe we prove the Bishops described in Timothy and Titus to be one and the same in name and office with a Presbyter Doe we prove that their Churches were all governed Communi Consilio Presbyterorum All shall be granted us and yet the Divine right of Episcopacy be still held up by this sleight by telling us that before the Apostles left the earth they made over their authority to some prime men Demand where this is extant The Angels of the seven Churches are pleaded presently And partly because we have no other Scripture of latter inspiration and edition whereby to prove the contrary Another inducement is because the writers neere the Apostles times make frequent mention of a Bishop and as they would have us beleeve some waies distinguished from a Presbyter Some of them mentioning the very men that were the Angels of these Churches as Polycarpus of Smyrna Ignatius who is said to have beene martyred within twelve yeeres after the Revelation was written wrote letters to the severall Churches wherein he mentioneth their Bishops distinct from their Presbyters Now saith the author of Episcopacy by divine right the Apostles immediate successors could best tell what they next before them did Who can better tell a mans pace then he that followes him close at heeles And this hath so plausibâ—e a shew that all are condemned as blind or wilfull who will either doubt that Episcopacy was of Apostolicall institution or thinke that the Church of Christ should in so short a time deviate from the institution of the Apostles But now how insufficient a ground this is for the raising up of so mighty a Fabricke as Episcopacy by Divine right or Apostolicall institution wee desire the Reader to judge by that that followes First the thing they lay as their foundation is a meere metaphoricall word and such as is ordinarily applied to Presbyters in common Secondly the Penman of those seven Epistles did never in them nor in any of his other writings so much as use the name of Bishop he names Presbyters frequently especially in this booke yea where he would set out the office of those that are neerest to the throne of Christ in his Church Revel 4. And whereas in Saint Iohns daies some new expressions were used in the Christian Church which were not in Scripture As the Christian Sabbath began to be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Christ himselfe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now both these are found in the writings of S. Iohn and it is strange to us that the Apostle should mention a new phrase and not mention a new office erected in the Church as you would make us beleeve Neither thirdly in any of his writings the least intimation of superiority of one Presbyter over another save onely where he names Diotrephes as one ambitiously affecting such a Primacy Nor is there any one word in these Epistles whence an Episcopall authority may be collected So that did not the testimonies that lived soone after make the argument plausible it would appeare ridiculous But alas the suffrage of all the writers in the world is infinitely unable to command an Act of Divine faith without which divine right cannot be apprehended Suppose we were as verily perswaded that Ignatius wrote the Epistles which goe under his name which yet we have just cause to doubt of as knowing that many learned men reject a great part of them and some all as we can be perswaded that Tully wrote his All this can perswade no further that the Apostles ordained and appointed Bishops as their successors but onely by a humane faith but neither is that so The most immediate and unquestionable successors of the Apostles give cleare evidence to the contrary It is granted on all sides that there is no peece of antiquity that deserves more esteeme then the Epistle of Clement lately brought to light by the industry and labour of that learned Gentleman Master Patricke Young And in that Epistle Bishops and Presbyters are all one as appeares by what followes The occasion of that Epistle seemes to be a new sedition raysed by the Corinthians against their Presbyters page 57. 58. not as Bishop Hall saies the continuation of the schismes amongst them in the Apostles daies Clemens to remove their present sedition tels them how God hath alwaies appointed severall orders in his Church which must not be confounded first telling them how it was in the Jewish Church then for the times of the Gospell tels them that Christ sent his Apostles through Countries and Cities in which they constituted the first fruits or the chiefe of them unto Bishops and Deacons for them who should beleeve afterward p. 54. 55. Those whom hee calls there Bishops afterwards throughout the Epistle he cals Presbyters pa. 58 62 69. All which places doe evidently convince that in Clement his judgement the Apostle appointed but two officers that is Bishops and Deacons to bring men to beleeve Because when he had reckoned up three orders appointed by God among the Jewes High-priests Priests and Levites comming to recite orders appointed by the Apostles under the Gospell hee doth mention onely Bishops and Deacons and those Bishops which at first he opposeth to Deacons ever after he cals Presbyters And here we cannot but wonder at the strange boldnesse of the author of Epis. by divine right who hath endevoured to wire-draw this Author so much magnified by him to maintaine his Prelaticall Episcopacy and that both by foysting in the word withall into this translation which is not in the Text that the Reader might be seduced to beleeve that the offices of Episcopacy and Presbytery were two different offices And also by willingly misunderstanding Clement his phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he would have us understand Episcopacy as distinct from Presbyterie whereas the whole series of the Epistle evidently proves that the word Episcopus Presbyter are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And so also by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hee would have us to understand that the contention then in Corinth was only about the name whereas it appeares by the Epistle it selfe that the controversie was not about the name but dignity of Episcopacy for it was about the deposition of their godly Presbyters p. 57 58. And the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is thus interpreted by Beza Eph. 1. 21. Phil. 2. 9. Heb. 1. 4. and Mead in Apoc. 11. p. 156. In which places 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendred by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By all this we see that the most genuine and neerest successor of the Apostles knew no such difference Lastly it is worth our observation that the same writers who as they say testifie that these 7. Angels were in a superiour degree to Presbyters do likewise affirm
A VINDICATION OF THE ANSWER TO THE HUMBLE REMONSTRANCE FROM THE UNJUST IMPUTATION OF FRIVOLOUSNESSE AND FALSHOOD Wherein The cause of LITURGY and EPISCOPACY is further debated By the same SMECTYMNUUS LONDON Printed for Iohn Rothwell at the Fountaine and Beare in Cheapside TO THE MOST HONORABLE LORDS AND THE KNIGHTS CITIZENS AND BVRGESSES OF THE HONORABLE HOVSE OF COMMONS IT was the expectation that the whole Kingdome had of your high worth and faithfull resolutions to reforme what was amisse both in Church and State which gave us the confidence to present unto you our former treatise And now your reall performance and noble Actions tending to the publicke peace and good have added much more chearefulnesse in our second addresse towards you the rather for that the cause in question betweene us and the Remonstrant about Episcopacy and Liturgie is a great part of that worke to which God hath directed your present consultations Seeing therefore it belongs to you next under God and his Majestie to dispose and order these things Wee leave our endeavours at your feete beseeching you to consider not onely how we have vindicated our selves from the accusations of our adversarie but more especially what may bee gathered out of it for the advancement of the reformation now happily begunne among us The Lord of life and glory bee a Sunne and shield unto you TO THE READER Good Reader THE Booke which we here undertake to answer is so full fraught with bitter invectives false aspertions hyperbolicall confidence selfe contradictions and such like extravagancies as that we have thought fit to lay them all before thee in one full view by way of preface rather then to interrupt our following discourse by observing them as they lie scattered in the booke it selfe Suffer us therefore to give thee notice of these few particulars First wee are deepely charged and accused not onely to the ordinarie Reader but even to the Kings Majestie himself of misallegations misinterpretations mistranslations and false quotations and that in such an high nature as that the Authour calles God to witnesse before whom he is shortly to give an account that hee never saw any Author that would dare to professe Christian sincerity so fowle to overlash And this is not once or twice but often repeated with great asseveration exclamations Which when we first reade being conscious of our innocency and fidelity we could not but stand amazed and wonder to see our selves so unexpectedly and wee hope undeservedly transformed into men or rather monsters of men so transcedently perfidious and so supersuperlatively unfaithfull and wicked And indeede if to be accused to a fault bee a sufficient argument to make us guilty wee must needes bee for ever branded with such an high measure of ignominy as that it is not a whole sea of water that will serve to wash off the filth of such accusations But wee doubt not but that the ingenuous peruser of this booke will finde that as it was the glory of one of the Cato's that hee was thirty times accused and yet never sound guiltie so it will be our honour and credit when hee shall see that all this clamour and noyse is but a bearing of false witnesse against his brethren Si accusasse sat est quis erit innocens It was the the wicked counsell of Matchiavell Calumniare fortiter aliquid adhoerebit This counsell the Papists have made use of in answering of Protestant writers and the Bishops themselves in their answers to some of the unconforming Ministers bookes And we have good reason to thinke that the Authour of this Defence hath trod in the same steps For after all his generall exclamations and accusations there are but foure places in which hee undertakes to prove us false The first is for halfe citing of Hieroms testimonie The second is for abusing Nazianzene The third is for misinterpreting Origen about Lay Elders The fourth is for foysting in Cyprian True it is hee tells us of want of fidelity in citing the Counsell of Antioch and Ancyra of misalledging of Whitakers of misenglishing Tertullian and of guilty translating of Iustin Martyr But hee doth not so much as endeavour to make good what he tells us and therefore we cannot but beleeve that hee used more Machiavelisme then honestly in such aspersions As for Authors which hee himselfe hath both misalledged and misinterpreted wee doe not onely say it but the Reader shall finde it demonstratively proved in the ensuring treatise Secondly if to be railed upon reviled slighted and scorned bee sufficient to bring men into discredit then certainely we must be esteemed as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the dung of scouring and filth of the world For never man since Mountagues Appeale wrote with more scorne and contempt Wee are caâ—led Vaine frivolous Cavillers insolent spightfull riotous proud false unjust triflers factious Brotherly slanderers sullen and crabbed peices Lyars egregious and palpable calumniators wilfully shutting our eyes against the truth such as the Readers may be ashamed off witlesse malicious uncharitable envious frivolous wasters of unseasonable words swelling up a windy bulke with groundlesse exceptions against our eyes and conscience tedious and loose disputers Patronizers of branded Heretiques impotent weake and absurd men grossely ignorant such as fowly over-reach men of weake judgement and strong malice commonly spightfull and seldome witty violent and subtile machinators against and disturbers of Gods ordinances some whole sections meere declamations worthy of nothing but of contempt and silence ill bred sons of the Church spitting in the face of our Mother fomentors of unjust dislikes against lawfull goverment making wickedly false suggestions wanting witt and grace to understand the true meaning of the Jus Divinum of Episcopacy worthy to be punished for their presumption disobedience men that make no conscience by what meanes wee uphold a side and winne a Proselyte These are the flowers with which his defence is garnished and the titles with which he honours those whom hee calles his Brethren Wee will make no other Apologie for our selves but what Austin did in the same kind who when hee was told that his railing adversarie was to hard for him hee said it was and easie thing that way to conquer Austin but the Reader should perceive it was Clamore not veritate by loud crying not by truth And what Hierom saith against Helvidius Arbitror te veritate convictum a maledicta converti It is a signe of a man not able to stand before the truth when hee betakes himselfe to reproachfull language Thirdly if multitude of daring protestations and bold asseverations be sufficient proofes of arguments propounded and if confident slightings and scornefull denyalls bee sufficient answers to us and our arguments never any man hath better defended Episcopacie or more strongly confuted those that oppose it In his very first page hee begges the question and affirmes his cause to bee Gods cause Gods truth and if his opposers were as many
But this place is in Vtopia and wee shall finde it paulò post finem for wee finde it no where in this book but we hope in due place faithfully to performe the contrary to what hee hath deludingly promised and also to shew how these words of his doe contradict what himselfe saith in other places of his book The testimonies brought out of antiquities to shew that the names of Bishops and Presbyters were used 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hee calls trifling and challengeth us to name any one of his Writers that hath stood up in the cause of Episcopacy that hath not granted and proclaimed this which we contend for Wee answer first the better is our cause when our adversaries are forced to grant us thus much Secondly the Authours we alleage doe as well hold the offices of Bishops and Presbyters to be used in Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well as the names Thirdly though we cannot name the man yet hee who names himselfe the humble Remonstrant in the 96 page of his Defence doth impropriate the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 20. to Bishops in an imparity distinct from meere Presbyters saying If they were indeed Bishops and not mere Presbyters as the word it selfe imports c. And wee thinke you should know the name of this man We mentioned Anicetus Pius Higinus Telesphorus under the denomination of Presbyters You Answer we could not have brought a stronger argument against our selves Why They are called Presbyters as well as Bishops Ergo the names are used indifferently Doth it not fully prove as much as we intended But they are famously known say you to have been in a height of elevation above Presbyters It is yet to be proved they were so yet how ever no such elevation as did advance them into an order above Presbyterie For Irenaeus speaking of the Successors to the Apostles saith Cum Prebyterio ordine sermonem sanum conversationem sine offensâ praestant ad informationem correctionem reliquorum And our Remonstrant granting an identitie of names and yet thinking to maintain a distinction of offices out of Irenaeus comes neerer to the sence of the Popish Commentator Feuardentius then of the orthodox Father Irenaeus To Cyprian whom the Presbyters called frater Hee replyes that though the Presbyters were so familiar with him as to call him brother yet he did never so condiscend to them as to call them Bishops but stifly maintains the eminencie of his superiority and is sometimes honour â—dutth the stâ—le of Beatissimus Papa To all which wee answer first that as the Presbyters call Cyprian brother so he cals them Brethren Colleagues Fellow-Presbyters c. And Augustine a Bishop writing to Hierom a Presbyter disdains not to write in this style Domino dilectissimo in Christi vesceribus honorando sancto fratri Compresbytero Hieronymo So to Praesidius Domino beatissimo merito venerando fratri Consacerdoti Praesidio Yet was Praesidius but a Deacon as Hierome saith For Cyprians maintaining his Superiority stifly wee are sure he never maintained it so stifly as this Remonstrant and our Bishops doe for he as we fully shewed in our Answer never maintained any sole superiour power but disclaimed it wholly yet this is the thing our Bishops contend for as you may read Episcopacie by Divine Right part 2 pag. 16. As for the glorious Title of Beatissimus Papa Cyprianus we tell you in that age it was a title common to Presbyters as well as Bishops as appeares ex Bibliotheca Patrum Primum singulos habent Papas sic enim vocant Presbyteros vel Curiones in singulis Parochiis cum uno Diacono It is therefore but a meere false supposition of the Remonstrant that the title Papa was never given to a meer Presbyter And we hope the name Papa is as great and Rome will say as incommunicable as the Remonstrant would make the name Episcopus out of Cyprian In the next Paragraph the Remonstrant leaving the indentity of names addresseth himself to the great question about the distinction of the Offices of Bishops and Presbyters And here we demanded and now demand againe What these men that maintaine the office of a Bishop distinct from a Presbyter make the Bishops proper office Is it to edifie the Church by Word and Sacraments c. Here saith the Remonstrant They fall somewhat unhappily upon the very words of the branded Heretike Aerius Good Reader compare the expressions and see whether they be the very words but had we faln upon the very words how can that man that hath said so often the Liturgie is never the worse because the words of it are taken out of the Roman Portuise trâ—duce either our persons or cause for falling unhappily upon the words of Aerius But it seems he is very willing to take all advantages to involve us in the crime of Heresie For in this and severall other passages hee chargeth us with being the Disciples of that frantick Heretike Aerius which makes us almost suspect that great deserving Champion of Episcopacy Franciscus à Sancta Clara had a hand in this Remonstrance who hath driven the Divine right of Episcopacie so high as to charge all with heresie that deny it But how ever the Remonstrant should have done well to have given better satisfaction to our tenth Quere concerning Aerius and taken away what wee spake before hee cry out against him as a stigmatized Heretike But if hee scorn to answer us we would intreat him to lend Bellarmine a lift in answering the famous Doctor Whitakers Who sayes I answer Aerius was not accounted by all for an heretike Epiphanius indeed and Augustine following him reckon him among the heretikes but if he held nothing besides those things he was not an heretike for the Scriptures and Fathers themselves confirme all these and Theodoret in his booke of the Fables of the Jews doth not ranke him among heretikes nor the Ecclesiastical history but rather Eustathius that did oppose him c. If your greatnesse will not stoop to answer a single Doctor we will subjoyn a second Learned Doctour Willet Contr. Gen. 5. Quaest. 3. and a third Chemnitius in Exam. Concil Trid. parte 4. de Orig. Iejunii and a fourth Springlius de hodiernis haeresibus part 1. l. 3. c. 2. which have spoken as fully in the justification of Aerius his opinion as ever your answerers did But what saith the Remonstrant to this Aerian question Brethren God speed you with your question Sir if you speak this cordially and seriously wee are glad of your ingenuity that though you have called us Heretikes yet our heresie is not so damnable but you dare bestow an Ave upon us But if you speak this scoffingly as we are verify affraid you do then we beseech you in the feare of God consider how you will answer this taking of Gods Name in vain before that great
answer is as easily blowne away as the wind blowes away chaffe It is true every Church hath his Angell mentioned but whether Angell individually or Angell collectively that is still the question and therefore for ought you say though there were but seven Churches there might be seven and seven times seven Angels in those Churches But you intimate that Christ saith the 7. starres though he doth not say the seven Angels Now here give us leave to put our Remonstrant in mind of the imagined Syneedoche For we justly conceive that these words The seven Starres are the Angels are figurative and that there are two figures in them a metaphor in the word Starre and Angell and a Synecdoche in the word seven For we doe not thinke that the seven Starres signifie seven individuall Angels for then indeed the reader might have justly smiled at our curious speculation but we thinke them to be taken collectively Thus Revil 8. 2. Iohn saw seven Angels which stood before God by which seven Angels Doctor Reynolds doth not understand seven individuall Angels but by a Synecdoche all the Angels For there are no seven particular Angels that doe stand before God but all doe so Dan. 7. The words of Doctor Reynolds are these Quare cum commune sit omnibus electis Angelis Dei stare coram throno videtur nomine septem Angelorum significari universos Angelos Dei Item Ita numero septenario saepe significari omnes numeruni saltem infinitum numero finito docent septem columnae Pro. 9. septem pastores Math. 5. septem oculi Zach. 3. sed imprimis in istis mysteriis Apocalypseos septem Candelabra septem lampades septem phyaelae septem plagae And now let the Reader judge whether this argument be so ridiculous as the mocking Remonstrant would make it But that you may see how dull the answerer himselfe is whilst he accuseth others of dulnesse let us a little consider what pittifull shifts he useth in his answer to our last reason Our last argument is Though but one Angell be mentioned in the forefront yet it is evident the Epistles themselves are dedicated to all the Angels and Ministers in every Church and to the Churches themselves and if unto the whole Church much more unto the Presbyters of that Church To this you answer 1. By granting the argument which is to grant the cause as will appeare to any judicious Reader For the reason doth not onely say that the whole Church is concerned in the Epistles and spoken unto in them but that they are dedicated to all the Ministers as well as one to all the Churches as well as to the Angels as appeares Reuel 1. 11. send it to the seven Churches and also by the Epiphonema of every Epistle he that hath an eare to heare let him heare what the Spirit saith to the Churches not onely concerning the Churches but to the Churches But then you argue secondly if every Epistle be written to all the Churches then we must say that every of these seven Angels must be the whole company of all the seven Churches which were a foule nonsence But you must understand that though every Epistle be written to all the Churches yet not eodem modo As for example the Epistle to Ephesus was written primariò proprie formaliter to the Church of Ephesus but to the other Churches onely reflèxive per modum exempli And therefore we returne your nonsence upon your selfe For we doe not confound the Angels and the Churches we know there is a distinction betweene the Starres and the Candlestickes but we affirme that the Epistles are written to the Churches as well as to the Angels and to all the Angels as well as to any one Thirdly you say we might have saved the labour both of Ausbertus and the rest of our Authours and our owne But surely unlesse you meant to yeeld the cause you would never say so For we proved out of Ausbertus that according to his judgement by Angell is meant the whole Church And out of Perkins Brightman Fulke Fox Austin Gregory Primasius Hamo Beda Richard Thomas c. That the word Angell is to be taken not individually but collectively And further we shewed that in these seven Epistles where one person is singled out and spoken unto in particular either by way of praise or dispraise that such places are not to be understood of one individuall person but of the whole company of the Ministers in all things equall with that our Angell which are proved by such reasons which because you knew not how to answer you say we might have saved our labour and in that indeed we should have saved your credit but have done the cause much prejudice Lastly you say satis Magisterialiter for you prove it not That there are such particularities both of commendations and exceptions in the body of the severall Epistles as cannot but have relation to those severall overseers to whom they were indorsed as you have elsewhere specified But whom you are and where this is specified you refuse to tell us Onely you put us to answer Had all the Presbyters of Ephesus lost their first love Had each of them tried the false Apostles Had all those of Sardis a name to live and were dead Were all the Laodicean Ministers of one temper You say no doubt it was otherwise But this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We say No doubt that not onely the Presbyters of Ephesus Sardis Laodicea but that the whole Church had lost their first love and were become lukewarme and had a name to live and were dead wee say all that is genera singulorum not singula generum and this wee prove Because the punishment threatned by Christ is threatned not onely against that one Angell but against all the Church Reuel 2. 5. I will remove thy Candlesticke Revel 2. 16. 24. Now we have no warrant in the word of God to thinke that God would remove his Gospell from a Church because one Angell in that Church hath lost his first love when all the other and the whole Church also are â—ervent and zealous in their love to Christ. Or that God would spue out a whole Church out of his mouth for the lukewarmenesse of one man when the Church it selfe and all the other Ministers are zealous This is the reason that makes us beleeve that though one Angell be sometimes spoken unto in particular yet it must necessarily be understood in a collective sence not in an individuall sence which we hinted in our answer But the Remonstrant comes with his Index expurgatorius and answereth us onely with a Deleatur And thus he serves us also in the following reasons why Christ did not write To the Angels in the plurall number but To the Angell in the singular And this he doth throughout the whole booke passing by unanswered those things which are most materiall Vas vitreum lambens pultem non attingens
which the Remonstrant directly doth not deny onely bids us lay our hands upon our hearts and consider whether our fomenting of so unjust and deep dislikes of lawfull government have not been too much guilty of those wofull breaches Sir wee have considered it and can before the great heart-searching God plead not guilty The dislike of present Church government which its own exorbitancy hath caused we have not fomented but have smothered our thoughts and griefs even untill this present wherein the gracious hand of God hath inclined the heart of our gracious Soveraigne to call a Parliament that hee and they might together consult of the pressures and grievances of his people and conclude their removall And now we cannot wee dare not hold our peace but declare our judgments that if it shall seem good to our dread Sovereigne and this Honourable Parliament upon the many complaints brought in against Bishops and their Hierarchicall government to remove the Hierarchie This Act of State may appeare to all to be farre from sinne this not being a government appointed by Christ nor stamped with a Ius Divinum though some will make that their protection As One that loves the peace of the Church which wee you say are willing to trouble You aske after the Bounders c. Are you one that loves the peace of the Church Wee pray of what Church Sure that Church that is called Prelaticall and no other Where of we give you the boundaries and characters which it seems please you not The bounders we shewed from your late Canons which say you are too narrow let them see to that that first made them It is apparent that the Canons made by Archbishops Bishops Deanes and Archdeacons in their Convocation were never consented to much lesse confirmed by Parliament and yet those are called the Canons and Constitutions of the Church of England And therfore sure though wee doe not exclude Bishops Deanes c. from being members of the Church yet They have excluded all the rest of the Nation For distinction wee brought bowing to the East to Altars c. Now these say you are not fit distinctions whereon to ground different Churches Yes Sir if it be true that some have held that the outward Formes of worship and ceremonies attending it are the characters whereby one Church is differenced from another but especially when such as will not practise these shall be disclaimed by such as doe them as none of the sonnes of the Church When men shall be forced to subscribe to the practice of these things or else they shall not bee admitted either into Livings or Cures as in the instanced particulars wee have knowne it then they make a difference of Churches And who are the authours of such differences but such as thus urge them Next wee brought their Creed and instanced in Episcopacie by divine right Hee replies Did ever man make this an Article of Faith Judge you by what Bishop Hall saith in his Episcopacie by Divine right part 2. pag. 47. I am so confident of the Divine institution of the Majority of Bishops above Presbyters that I dare boldly say there are weighty points of faith that have not so strong ground in Scripture Is this to make it an article of Faith or no And if not an Article of Faith yet we are sure it is made an Article of the Church For whereas by the orders of the Church of England a man upon the admission to his ministry is to be examined upon no other Articles then the Articles of Religion established in the Church of ENGLAND we have knowne more then one whose first question hath been what doe you thinke of Episcopaice We added absolute blind obedience to all commands of the Bishop Ordinaries you bid us blush But alas Sir we are not such strangers in England nor your selfe neither we believe as not to know but that this hath been the common doctrine and almost the sole Doctrine preached by prelaticall men these many yeeres together And the blinder the better This we have heard nor is it your limitation of the Oath of canonicall obedience in Omnibus licitis honestis will help you when some in stead of that have put in In omnibus editis edendis We added Election upon faith foreseen The Remonstrant cries What nothing but grosse untruthes Is this the Doctrine of the Bishops of England have they not strongly confuted it Yes sure some few have we know it And doth not the Remonstrant know that these few have been had in suspicion as no true friends of the Church much lesse sonnes of the Church more puritanicall then prelaticall And we would none of them had said They have beene labouring these twelve yeeres to get off the name of Puritan and yet tt will not doe and because of this have beene printed Tantum non in Episcopatu Puritani And the same Authour in an other booke after that Dico iterum iterumque dicam Tantam non in Episcopatu Puritani As for the Scriptures of Prelaticall men we mentioned Apocripha and unwritten traditions meaning that that generation lay as much weight almost upon traditions and Apocrypha as upon a genuine text and are more observant many of them of a custome and tradition then of the command of God For Sacraments we instanced a Baptisme of absolute necessity an Eucharist that must be administred upon an Altar What are these say you to the Church of England Nothing but to the Prelaticall Church they are Call them if you will Popish fooles and addleheads that maintaine these opinions yet we know the number of them is not small that have declined into these popish waies we acknowledge also that these are men if not that chiesly support the Prelacy yet such as have beene chiefely suppoted and countenanced by it We acknowledge there are many men learned and orthodox that have in their judgments approved of Episcopall government but what little incouragement these have had from the Prelates especially if laborious in their ministery or any way opposing the Prelaticall innovation in respect of the incouragements of those popish fooles and addle-heads as the Remonstrant cals them a man may see with halfe an eye You demanded what Christ the Prelaticall Church had Our answer is a Christ that hath given the same power of obsolution to a Priest that himsefe hath which answer you say is neere to blasphemy truely an opinion so neere to blasphemy can hardly be delivered in a language much distant from it but this you say is a slanderous fiction no Christian Divine ever held Priests power of absolution was any other then ministeriall If we know the man bring him forth that hee may be stoned Truely sir we knew the man that said the Priests power in absolution was more then Ministeriall it was judiciary but he is past stoning hee is dead and we know another said as much but he sung Agags song
government When as you know all your deare sisters of whom you professe a tender care doe disclaime it Of a Bull and solâ—cisme in saying That all Christian Churches doe constantly and uniformely observe it And yet confessing that there are lesse noble Churches that conforme not unto it 15. In your next Quere you contradict your selfe and the truth as a selfe confounded man For here you say That the name of Bishop hath bin for this 1600 yeares appropriated in a plaine contradistinction to the governours of the Church But page 48 where we bring Irenâ—us calling Anicetus Pius Hyginus c. Bishops of Rome Presbyters And others also using the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You cry out with a loud voyce Is this al that your trifling may appeare to all the World Name but any one of our writers who have hitherto stood up in the cause of Episcopacy that have not granted and proclaimed this which you contend for In the latter end of this quere you thinke to stop our mouthes with Balaams wages and demand Whether if we will allow you to be Bishops all will not be well Wee are scripture Bishops without your allowance As for to be Hierarchicall Bishops since God will not allow it we care not for your allowance But what Patent or Monopoly have you among all the multitude of late Projectors obtained that without your allowance a Presbyter may not be admitted into a Bishoprick 16. To your last Quere we answer That if God had set your episcopall government in his Church wee know it could not bee lawfull for us to deny subjection unto it But we have proved the contrary in this discourse Neither have the Lawes of this land so firmely established it but that it may be repealed by the same Lawes and suffer a just period for its matchlesse pride and insufferable oppressions Which for the present we perceive is out of feare a little abaâ—ed and that makes you aske Whether it were not most lawfull and just to punish our presumption and disobedience c. Time was when the High commission and other Episcopall Courts would have made both our eares more then tingle for such a question without enquiring either the lawfulnesse and justice of it Thus we have answered his 16. Queries but before we end our booke we cannot but take notice of what the Remonstrant addes in the concluâ—ion For there he tells us That he hopes he hath given a sufficient answer to our bold and unjust demands And yet notwithstanding he doth not vouchsafe to give any answer at all but only propounds new questions insteed of answers which if the Reader will conceive a sufficient way of answering we doubt not but we shall quickly give satisfaction to all that ever hath bin written for Episcopall government either by Bishop Bilson Bishop Downham Bishop Hall or any other whatsoever To all the Postscripts Wee will not create trouble to the Reader by a reiterated justification of our sincerity though it be againe prodigiously wounded Here is much cry and little wooll Hee cannot deny what in our Postscript we have proved to be the practises of Prelates ever since Austins erection of the See of Canterbury onely first hee salsely tells us that wee have borrowed a great part of it out of Sions plea. But if that Author hath collected any of the same Stories which yet wee know not out of the Chronicles why should we be thought to have borrowed them from him whom wee durst not for feare of the Prelates keepe in our studies rather then from the Chronicles themselves Secondly he answers That they were popish Bishops limmes of that body whose head we abjure c. But Sr you know that in Henry the eights time when this head abjured the Body of popery still remained This Body of popery comprehended in six Articles was called a whâ—p of six strings And you with all your Rhetoricke will hardly perswade the people but that they have bin lashed for these many yeares with a whip of six and twenty strings Have not most of these denied this Head to be Antichrist And that if wise men had the handling of it we might be reconciled unto it Hath not one of their abettors written that the Religion of the Church of Rome is not onely a possible but a safe way to Heaven What then will it availe to say that our Bishops and they have different heads Thirdly he answers That a charitable man might have made a longer Catalogue of the good fruites of our Episcopacy and reckons up a multitude of their good deeds many whereof â—hould â—ee wipe our eyes never so much wee feare wee should not see and the rest which are in any kind visible will not if weighed in a just ballancâ— beare any proportion to all those unnaturall fruits mentioned in our Postscrips In his close he tells us That the Bishops foote hath bin in our booke which is quite spoiled by his just confutation We confesse truly the Bishops â—o 〈◊〉 hath left much dirt behinde it but could many hundredâ— of godly Ministers have as easily got the Greene Wax and Red Wax of the Bishops out of their mouthes with which they have bin a long time stopped As we have wiped away the dirt that hath bin throwne upon our booke The Church of England had never made so many sad complaints and presented so many dolefull petitions unto the high and supreme Court of Justice 2. His second Postscript is an advertisement to the Reader for the vindication of the credit of the person of Doctor Hall and his Episcopacy by divine right from the censure which Doctor Voetius is reported to have passed upon them both True it is there was tendred to us a justification of what that angry Pamphlet as he calls it had published to the world But because wee found that it would deeply reflect upon the credit of Doctor Hall and that in a language more disgracefull then that was before said wee refused to insert it Our businesse is with a namelesse Remonstrant not with the undervaluation of any mans person in particular If hee please to call for it he may have it His third Postscript brings in the judgement of Scultetus to â—make the World believe that his new opinion of Episcopacy by divine right is not destitute of Patrons in the reformed Churches But what is one Scultetus to the many hundred learned men amongst them of a contrary judgement We might here retort upon our Remonstrant that he saith concerning the moderator of Geneva page 138. You tell me of the moderator of Geneva as if all the Church of God were included in those strait walls We could have translated Voetius his Theses for the justification of lay Elders both out of Scripture and antiquity But for brevity sake wee will content our selves with what that learned Rivet spake when these two Treatises of Scultetus were shewed to him by a great Prelate amongst us and his judgement