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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A75749	A remonstrance, against presbitery. Exhibited by divers of the nobilitie, gentrie, ministers and inhabitants of the county palatine. of Chester with the motives of that remonstrance. Together with a short survey of the Presbyterian discipline. Shewing the inconveniences of it; and the inconsistency thereof with the constitution of this state, being in its principles destructive to the laws and liberties of the people. With a briefe review of the institution, succession, iurisdiction of the ancient and venerable order of bishops. Found to bee instituted by the Apostles, continued ever since, grounded on the lawes of God, and most agreeable to the law of the land. / By Sir Thomas Aston baronet.	Aston, Thomas, Sir, 1600-1645.	1641 (1641)	Wing A4078; Thomason E163_1; Thomason E163_2; ESTC R212696	75,691	128

God prescribed unto and cruelly imposed upon us by them for as touching the Prelates themselves we conceive them to be the Popes Substitutes per accidens at the least if not by solemne covenanted allegiance as it may appeare by their Lording it over Gods heritage both Pastors and People and assuming the power of the Keyes onely to themselves contrary to Gods sacred word Therefore we humbly Petition you this honourable Assembly as you tender the glorie of God the Kings Prerogative the Subjects libertie the purity of Gods sacred Ordinances and the welfare of Posteritie or wish the downfall of Antichrist and his adherents to stirre up the zeale and strength wherewith the Lord hath endued you and courag●ously proceed unto your immortall praise against these his mightie enemies and secret underm●n●rs of the good estate of our Church and Common-wealth and utterly dissolve their Offices which give l●fe to the most superstitious practises in or about the worship of God And so together with the ruine of their Antichristian Offi●es and Government we also humbly pray may fall to the ground their impious Courts with all their dependant Officers even from the Chancellors to the Parators their corrupt Canons booke of Articles the English refined Masse-booke of Common Prayer with all their popish significant Ceremonies therein contained the strict imposing whereof hath driven out of this our English Nation many of our most godly and able Ministers and other his Majesties loyall Subjects able both for person and estate to have done good service to God our King and Countrie Secondly our Civill miseries are chiefely these First That the tenths of all our goods should bee taken from us by Parsons Impropriators and in some places by Recusants under a pretence of maintaining the Ministerie and yet notwithstanding wee forced in divers places to maintaine a Ministerie out of the rest of our estates if we will have any and to repaire our Churches which have beene of late very excessive and superstitious Secondly That Sutes in Law are so long unnecessarily detained in Civil Courts before judgement be had wherby divers persons have their estates utterly ruined and others much decayed Thirdly That the Oath in Courts Leet and Baron is usually administred without limitation and before the charge be given so that the Jurors cannot sweare in judgement as the Lord requires they should Fourthly That the Countie Court is kept upon the Munday and thereby we are put unto excessive charges in travelling thereto unlesse wee should labour upon the Lords day next before Fiftly that our Countrie is verie destitute of sufficient Schoolemasters for the educating of our Children and fitting them for the service of God our King and Common-weale Sixtly that there are such excessive fines by some Gentlemen imposed upon their Tenants as that thereby they are both disabled to maintaine their families whence ariseth so many poore people and to doe his Majestie service and pay him lawfull tribute Therefore that these our grievances both Ecclesiasticall and Civill may be redressed and that the contrarie privileges which Christ hath purchased and commanded us to stand unto may be obtained and established WEe most humbly beg that the revealed will of God contained in the Books of the Old and New Testaments and recorded for our practise in the dayes of the gospell may be that Rule which your Honors would be pleased to follow O what glory would it be unto our God our King and Nation what beauty unto our Church what honor unto this Noble Parliament and what confusion to the enemies of his Majesty and loyall Subjects if wee might see the morall Doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles made old Englands Canons then might our Ministers have liberty to preach Gods world and administer the Sacraments according to the mind of Christ and our Congregation power to execute Ecclesiasticall Censures within themselves Then might his Majesties Subjects meete together and pray for the King and Queene and their Posterity without punishment and false Calumniation O this would make our peace with God and good men this would gaine our friends and scatter our enemies This would make our Land impregnable and our Souldiers courageable This would unite our Kingdome in peace and cause us and our little ones to sleepe in safety This would cal backe the banished and release the Lords imprisoned this would advance our Mord●cais and hang our wicked Hamans This would replant our conscionable Ministers and supplant our Lordly Pr●lacy This would take away illegall exactions and bring our people to due subjection this would take away extorted Herriots excessive Fines and unlimited Boones for it would learn land-Lords more compassion and Tenants due submission yea this would make a sweete Harmony betwixt Rule and Obedience in all Relations Which that it may now happily be effected we earnestly implore the Lord of Heaven to bend your noble spirits to this great work of God which so sweetly ushereth al other comforts And so we shall ever pray c. The Positions annexed also to the Remonstrance Certaine Positions preached at St. Iohns Church in Chester by Mr. Samuel Eaton a Minister lately returned from new England upon Sunday being the third day of Ianuary 1640. in the afternoone FIrst That the names of Parsons and Vicars are Antichristian 2. The Pastors and Teachers of particular Congregations must be chosen by the people or else their entrance is not lawfull 3. That all things which are of Humane invention in the worship of God under which he seemed chiefly to comprehend the book of Common prayer and the rites and Ceremonies therein prescribed are unsavory and loathsome unto God 4. That Ecclesiasticall censures of admonition and Excommunication ought to be exercised by particular congregations within themselves 5. That the people should not suffer this power to bee wrested out of their hands and usurped by the Bishops 6. That the supreame power in Church matters next under Christ is in the Church meaning as he clearly explained himselfe particular Congregations for he denied all Nationall Provinciall and Diocesan Churches as well as Bishops and so expounded that text Math. 18. Go tell the Church c of particular Congregations or as we call them parochiall Churches 7. That all good people should pray earnestly unto God and not cease to petition the Parliament for the razing of the old foundation meaning as he plainly discovered himselfe the abolishing of Episcopall Government and the establishing of their new Presbyterian Discipline as also for the purging all filth and Ceremonies out of the house of God 8. That they that put not to their hand to helpe forward this worke may justly feare that curse pronounced against Meroz Iudges 5. Curse you Meroz because they come not to helpe the Lord against his mighty enemies there he expresly called the Bishops the mighty enemies of God and his Church Certayn other Positions preached by the same man at Knuttesford a great market Towne in the same County 9

of an imaginary good they many times covet their owne ruine These sugred baits of parity and libertie infus'd into vulgar apprehensions under the pretext of pietie and reformation are such popular poysons as will soon o're spread the body of the Common-wealth and corrupt or dissolve the Nerves Ligaments of Government conformity to Lawes if not early prevented by those precious Antidotes against Confusion Loyalty and Constancy SECT 5. A Discussion whether they seek to pull downe or advance the Clergie LEt us then ere wee imbrace the thoughts of such a totall subversion of the Fabrick of a Church and State examine whether such Reformers aime at our liberty or their owne advancement whether such bitternesse of Spirit proceed from zeale to truth or emulation of the order c What a Monopoly is this to take away the title wherein the office of all true Pastors is comprehended and to transferre it to one alone among many Christs Throne fol 43. Is it to clip the wings of the Clergie that they soare not too high that these men crie out against Episcopall jurisdiction or rather is it not to Imp out their broken Feathers that they may mount above the reach of all Lawes Is it to regulate any exorbitant power in them or rather is it not to make their power as indefinite This Monopoly is a mysterie of mischiefes view Prelat Church fol. 3. as their numbers are infinite Is it not really to pull downe 26. Bishops and set up 9324. potentiall Popes when in effect the Pastor of every parish Church must be such The consequences these men promise to themselves in their petition seconded by the writing of their fellow-laborers promise no lesse which are First to quit themselves from the circumscription of any Ecclesiasticall Authoritie either in discipline or doctrine d Their petition note 16. View of the Prelaticall Church fol. 16. They pray that the revealed will of God contained in the books of the old and new Testament may be the rule that wee should follow As if certainly this whole State and Church had all this while followed a wrong Guide e Their petition note 17. d That the morall doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles may bee old Englands Canons of which themselves must be Expositors as if all Canonicall obedience were a meere intrusion upon Gods word and had no foundation in Scripture Doe wee not know that Timothy and Titus were by Saint Paul set over the Churches of Ephesus and Crete and in the stile of both the Epistles by the interpretation of the Fathers appeare to have beene Bishops and to have Canonicall power committed to them f 1 Timoth. 1.3 To suppresse false doctrines g 2 Chap. 1.8 To direct time and place for prayer and supplications h 9. To prescribe formes of apparrell i 11. To impose silence upon women k 1 Timoth. 3.2 12. To institute Bishops and Deacons l 1 Timoth. 5.19 To receive accusations and to punish Elders m Ibid. 22. To ordaine Ministers n Titus 3.10 To admonish and reject obstinate Heretiques * 1 Timoth. 1.20 To excommunicate such as blaspheme And these things not transmitted to them as doctrines but as part of their jurisdiction o 1 Timoth. 4 11. These things command and teach and rebuke with all authoritie * Titus 2.15 And let no man despise thee So that here wee may see a foundation of Ecclesiasticall Government laid even by the Apostles themselves and to us enjoyned obedience And though in the infancie of the Gospell when q Matth. 8.20 Luke 9.58 The Son of man had not where to lay his head when his Disciples all past thorow the fire of Martyrdome and no free State scarce any whole Village had received the Gospell even Rome it selfe was for many ages after the seat of the Heathen Emperours r Fox his Martyrs fol. 39. under whose terrible persecutions the Church was scattered into corners and deserts where they could best hide themselves It could not then I say be expected that so exact a platforme of Discipline should be laid down to governe handfuls as was after necessarie to be extended to sway the converted Christian world Yet then did Paul see the necessity both of instituting rules of government putting the execution into the hands of some supreme power To which purpose as Erasmus observes ſ Eras tom 6. fol. 343. Timotheum Paulus in ministerium adoptarat probae indolis juvenem sacris literis eruditum Quoniam autem huic Ecclesiarum curam delegarat sicut Tito instituit eum in sunctione Episcopali Hee elected Timothy a hopefull young man and learned in holy writ into the ministerie and that hee might commit to him the care of the Churches instituted him as also Titus in the office of a Bishop And Saint Hierome t Hieronymus Dialogo adversus Luciferianos Ecclesiae satus in summi Sacerd●ti● dignitate pendet cuis●●on exors quaedam ob omnibus e●●inens detur potest as tot in Ecclesiis efficientur Schismata quot Sacerdotes gives the reason of the necessitie of such superintendencie in the Church for sayes he The safetie of the Church depends upon the dignitie of the chiefe Priest to whom if some extraordinarie power above the rest bee not given there would bee as many schismes in the Church as there are Pastors If then the Institution of Ecclesiasticall Government were Apostolicall the administration committed by Saint Paul himselfe to prime Presbyters or as all ancient Fathers agree to Bishops Let us next see whether such Ecclesiasticall Lawes have beene deduced downe to our fore-fathers in a continued current from the fountaine head the Apostles or are but as these charitable men stile them The Reliques of Romish Tyranny SECT 6. The Ecclesiasticall Lawes agreeable to Gods word I Have in the Epistle formerly set forth the first plantation of the Gospell in England in the time of Lucius u Fox his Martyrs fol. 34. Archbishop Vsher De primord Eccles fol. 54 59. about the yeare 169. when as Elutherius then Bishop of Rome shewes from what principles wee derive our Ecclesiasticall Lawes In his lettet to Lucius King of Britaine he writes thus Fox Martyrs fol. 108. Vsher De Britannicarum Ecclesiarum Primordiis fol 102. Yee require the Roman Lawes and the Emperors to be sent over to you The Roman Lawes and Emperours we may ever reprove but the Law of God we may not w Esutherii rescriptum ad Lucium Britanniae Regem Petistis a nobis Leges Romanas Caesaris vobis transmitti quibus in Regno Britanniae uti voluistis c. Habetis penes vos in regno utramque paginam ex illis Dei gratia per Consilium regni vestri sume legem per illam Dei patientia vestrum rege Britanniae regnum Yee have received of late through Gods mercie in the Realme of Britaine the

other spirit than Atheisticall Prelacy is misery fol. 4. Scare budges set up by the Devil The horned beasts of the Popedome A Bishop or no Bishop fol. 1. for the Popes substitutes per accidens at least if not by solemne covenanted allegeance They condemne them m Their Petition note 4. They are cruell Harpies against Religion Protest 27. Febr. 1639. f. 6. They are the make-bates the Achans of Israel L. Bishops no Bish fo 71. Prelacy is an open rebellion against Christ and his Kingdome fo 13. They steal Gods word from the people fo 20. for the mighty enemies and secret underminers of the Church and Common-wealth They judge them offices and n Their petition note 6. An Enemy to salvation and Antichristian We vow to forsake the Bishops in Baptisme because wee vow to forsake the devill and all his workes Engl. Compl. to Christ fol. 11. They are the seed of Antichrist Bishops no Bishops fol. 1. Bistwicks good Angell What is spoke of Antichrist is spoke of all Prelates Bishop no Bishop fol. 53. In worshiping the Name Jesus they are notorious Antichrists ib. fol. 64. Sions plea fo 11.281 government Antichristian leaving the Parliament onely to execute their doome upon them no more nor no more adoe but o Their petition note 5. To protest against the Hierarchy as Antichristian Good Counsell for the Church fol. 86. Prelacie to be wholly taken away Ans to Lond. petition 33. To be removed View of the prelaticall Church 38. utterly to dissolve their Offices together with ruine of their Antichristian offices and government their impious Courts p Their petition note 7. From their corrupt Courts Walkers Letany The Bishops impious government Chreda Angliae fol. 3. their dependent Officers even from the Chancellor to the Paritor q Some of the Articles agr●e not with Scripture Englands Compl. fol. 21. They except against the 20. Article Against Ordination of Bishops fol. 49. Against the third Article Christ on his Throne fol. 49. The booke of Articles r Their petition note 7. Liturgy framed out of the Breviarie Portuys and Masse-booke prelate Church fol. 27. A Masse of Errors Superstition and Idolatrie Remonst 27. Febr. 1639. fol. 15. Syons plea. 29. The service-Service-book raked out of 3. Romish Channells The English refined Masse-booke of Common Prayer with all the Popish significant Ceremonies therein contained Here is neither men nor discipline spared ſ Lord Bishops no Bishops Fol. 28. A treatise that the Church is Antichristian Church Ministe●y and worship in England all Antichristian 8 Propositions in print others tel us Prelates Discipline and Church of England are all concluded Antichristian therefore good Christians should separate themselves from such a Church And is this the language of our Country of our times only If so 't were some argument to convince our present Prelates to have stained the honour of their Coats as degenerate from their pious predecessors But O Tempora O mores is no new exclamation all ages all people condemn the present and still applaud the times past With what reverence do we call to mind those pretious days we yet stile the purity of Q. Elizabeths reign as if then the Church were all innocence had no spot in her infant whitenes but if we shall aswell look back and consider the spirit of the fathers of these Disciples in those days we shal then find 't is not the Churches purity 't is not the Pastors piety can stop the foule mouths of such traducers 't is envy and ambition barks thus in emulation of their Order not in zeale against their Doctrine or Discipline SECT 3. The Presbyterians censure of the Clergy in Queen Elizabeths time WEre the Clergy then more meeke and humble will you beleeve the Brethren of that time speaking of the Clergy in Generall They are wolves t Brethrent Supplie p. 4 ● Intollerable oppugners of Gods glory u Ibidem page 53. A crue of monstrous and ungodly wretches w Martins Epistle an Antichristian Swinish Rabble Were the Bishops then of purer lives or Doctrine The charitable Brethren stil'd them The most pestilent enemies of our State x Hay any p. 13. 14. Supplicat fol. 53. Vdals Dialogue The Ordinances of the Divell y Ibidem page 21. petty Popes petty Antichrists Jncarnate Divels cogging cozening Knaves Were they lesse rigid in their Censures They tell you z Hay any page 28. Martins protestat 27. page 12. 21. Arch bishop Grindall b●nisht in Qu. Maric● time They are Butchers and Horse-leeches these Dragons tyranny and blood-thirsty proceedings are inexcusable Is it onely our present Arch-bishop hath op'd the gap of Calumny They say Their then Arch-bishop of Canterbury was more ambitious then Wolsey a Dialogue from Throgmorton D 3. ibid G. 4. prouder then Stephen Gardner more bloody then Bonner Belzebub of Canterbury b Martin sen C 4. a monstrous Antichristian Pope c Epistle out of Scotland a most vile and cursed Tyrant Was the State more favourable to them they complaine d No enemy A. 3. The Magistracy and Ministery have walked hand in hand in the contempt of true Religion and unto both the word of the Lord is made a reproach Did the Parliament yet please them better e Admonition to the Parliament p. 3. All good consciences say they shall condemne that Court It shall be easier for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgement then for such a Court There shall not be a man of their Seed that shall prosper be a Parliament man or beare rule in England any more Nay the Queene her selfe scapes not their censure f Hay any pa. 5. Supplication to the Parliament p. 43. Do you thinke our Church governement to be good and lawfull because her Majesty and the State allow the same why * Ibidem p. 13. 15 23. the Lord doth not allow and approove of it her Majesty and the State doe maime and deforme the body of Christ Motion out of Scotland to the Lords p. 41. and so do bid God to battle and either her Majesty knoweth not what they desire or else shee is negligent of her Duty and unthankefull to God Who that reades these would envy our Ancestors or pray for the restoring of their dayes againe Had those times or persons no better testimony given of them certainly a stranger that should have come amongst these to seeke a Religion would enquire as the Moore did of the Spaniard what Religion they were of not out of desire to learne that but that he might choose the contrary as concluding the opposite to so extream bad must needs be good for doubtles no man would lay the foundation of his Faith where he neither findes in practise the principles of Christian Charity nor naturall Civility But let us examine better witnesses of those times whether were more guilty the accused or the accusers Beza a strict Reformer in his Epistle to some

that every member of the Church hath power to examine the manner of administring the Sacraments To restraine this liberty with them is the Yoake of ●ondage Christs Throne As also to enjoyne a decent forme of outward reverence to accompany the inward devotion of the heart in humbling the body as well as the soule at the reception of the pledge of our salvation in standing up in the profession of our Faith in the Creed or in celebrating the obsequies of such as dye in the Lord Revel 14.15 with thanks for their deliverance and with prayers for the surviving faithfull with the like though the Maxime be unanswerable Non servatur unitas in credendo nisi eadem adsit in colendo And though againe it be unquestioned by all Ancient uncontroverted by most of the late Writers and concluded in one of our Articles l Article 20. That the Church hath power to decree Rites and Ceremonies with which agree all the Reformed Churches m Rog. book of Art 100. Ne una Contradicente And that great light of Germany Melancthon holds them inseparable from the Church judging it a wicked thing n Melanct. par 2. fol. 22. Jmpium quoque est sentire omnes Ceremonias institut as esse ab impijs pontificibus fuerunt nonnulli prudentes sancti viri qui senserunt vulgi ita supinos demissos animos ut nunquam sint dignitatem amplitudinem religionis animadversuri nisi aliqua externa oculis exposita specie remorati detenti c. Habes autem praeclarum locum de Ceremoniarum usu Josuae 22. Ne vestri pueri c. Pro pueris infirmis istiusmodi sunt instituti ritus Ibidem to thinke that all Ceremonies were instituted by bad Bishops recommending to us an excellent place of the use of Ceremonies in Joshua That it may be a witnesse betweene us and you and our Generations after us That your Children may not say to our Children in time to come yee have no part in the Lord For children and the weake were such Ceremonies instituted And although we are required by the Holy Ghost To submit to every Ordinance for the Lords sake 1 Peter 2.13 whether it bee to the King as supreame or to Governours Yet these men teach us new Doctrine that such Ordinances as these though becomming Christian humility and piety derived from Antiquity imposed by Authority and obedience commanded by Holy precept are an o Christ on his Throne fol. 24. fol. 25.27 Syons Plea fol. 91. evacuation of Christs death and so an Apostacy from Christ and suit not with the libertie of the Gospell wherewith Christ hath made them free p Christs Throne fo 25. In which extravagancies such men runne into all the desperate Schismes that formerly rent the Church In their contempt of our Service Rites and Ceremonies being Brownists q Brownists write to have a Lyturgie or form of prayer is to have another Gospell Barrow refut pag. 244. In their false pretended libertie Familists r The Familists say they are a free people in Bondage to no creature H. N. Sperland c. 3. Sec. 6. C. 40. Sec. 7. In their neglect of due calling disdain of learning Anabaptists fanatici homines ſ Olim fanatici homines ut sibi applauderent in sua inscitia iactabant Davidis exemplo spernendas esse omnes Literas Sicut hodie Anabaptistae non alio praetextu se pro spiritualibus venditant nisi quod omnis Scientiae sunt expertes Calvin Comment on the Psalm f. 330. Ps 71.14 Brain-sick men in times past would take example from David to despise all learning as now our Anabaptists who onely hold themselves inspired with gifts because they are ignorant of all Literature These obey none of their pretended Patrons Beza sayes t Consequitur eum abuti Christianae libertatis beneficio qui vel suis Magistratibus vel praepositis suis sponte non paret in Domino Beza Epist ad peregrinarum Ecclesiarum fratres in Anglia he abuses Christian Liberty who submits not freely to the Magistrate And Melancthon holds u Melanct. in 13. Rom. 'T is a mortall sinne to violate the Edicts of the Magistrate w Quod neque contra fidem neque bonos more 's injungitur indifferenter esse habendum pro eorum inter quos vivitur Societate servandum est Augustin Epist 118. ad Ianuarium Cap. 2. St. Austin gives these men good Counsell x That which is neither against Faith nor good Manners is to bee held indifferent and observed for their society with whom you live Zanchie is a little sharper with them x Damnandi sunt Anabaptistae alii qui a veris Christi Ecclesiis se subdueunt Zanchy Tomes fo 692. These Anabaptists saies he and others that withdraw themselves from the Communion of the Church either for the pretended vices of the Minister or other excuses are to bee cut off from the Church But if none of these incline them to the peace of the Church Their pretended great Master Calvin a Calvin Epistola Dom. Protector Epistol fol. 88. hath a sharper Rod for such State-troublers Amplissime Domine audio esse Deo seditionum genera quae adversus regem ac regni statum caput extulerunt Alii enim Cerebrosi quidem videlicet sub Evangelii Nomine passim invectam vellent Alii verò in superstitionibus Antichristi ita obduruerunt ut earum revulsionem ferre non possint Ac merentur quidem tum hi tum illi gladio ultore coerceri quem tibi tradidit Dominus Cum non in regem tantum insurgunt sed in Deum ipsum qui Regem in Regiasede constituit te protectorem instituit tum personae tum etiam Regiae Majestatis SECT 8. They must be free from Civill Miseries BUt all this tends yet but to free their Consciences over which say they No man b Christ on his throne fol. 60. on earth hath power in matters of Religion If so 't were more tollerable But this large Conscience will have the body as free as the minde They must hold their Conventicles intimated by that their meeting c Petition Note 20. View of Prelaticall Church and divers others together to pray for the King and Queen without punishment or false Calumniation This is a gap to let out Law and take in liberty Thus may they infuse what Doctrine contrive what stratagems accumulate what multitudes they please not onely without punishment but without enquirie of the Lawes Nor is this all Freedome of their Consciences and persons is not enough but they must have their purses and estates as free too They tell us they have Civill miseries as well as Ecclesiasticall such as a Their Petition note 11. The payment of Tithes to Parsons or Impropriators which whether due Jure Divino I dispute not but by Civill Common and Statute Law wee know they are The