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
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
avoweth your goodly proof therefore is in the suds But to meete with you in your own kinde if you will goe upon divers Readings what will you say to that vers 20 where the Angel of Thyatira is encharged Thou sufferest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thy wife Iezebell for so it is in very good Copies to teach and seduce yea so it is in that memorable Copy of Tecla forementioned which is to be seene in the Princes Library under the custody of the industrious and learned Mr· Patrick Young as my owne eyes can witnesse and thus St. Cyprian reads it of olde What shall wee thinke shee was wife to the whole company or to one Bishop alone I leave you to blush for the shame this very proofe alone casts upon your opinion Secondly you tell us it is usuall with the Holy Ghost even in this very booke to expresse a company under one singular person as the Beast is the Civill state the Whore and the false Prophet the Ecclesiasticall state of Rome But what if it be thus in visions or emblematicall representations must it needs be so in plaine narrations where it is limited by just Praedicates or because it is so in one phrase of speech must it bee so in all Why doe you not as well say where the Lambe is named or the Lion of Juda this is a collective of many not an individuall subject The seven Angels you say that blew the seven trumpets and poured out the seven phialls are not to bee taken literally but synecdochically perhaps so but then the synecdoche lyes in the seven and not in the Angels so I grant you the word Angel is here metaphoricall but you are no whit nearer to your imagined synecdoche The very name Angell you say is sufficient proofe that it is not meant of one person alone as being a common name to all Gods Ministers and Messengers As if he did not well know this that directed these Epistles and if hee had so meant it had it not been as easie to have mentioned more as one Had he said the Angels of the Church of Ephesus or Thyatira the cause had been cleare now hee sayes the Angell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the denoted person must be singular for surely you cannot say that all the Presbyters at Ephesus were one Angel The same reason holds for the Stars had he said to the Star of Ephesus I suppose no body would have construed it of many but of one eminent person Now he speaks of so many Stars as Angels to wit seven in those seven Churches Your fourth Argument from the Text it selfe is no better then ridiculous poorely drawn from what it doth not say Lo hee saith the 7. Candlesticks which thou sawest are the 7. Churches but he doth not say the 7. Stars are the 7. Angels of the seven Churches but the Angels of the 7. Churches Forbear if you can Readers to smile at this curious subtilty because the seven is not twice repeated in mentioning the Angels there is a deep mystery in the omission what Cabalisme have we here Had he said the seven Stars are the seven Angels of the seven churches now all had been sure but he saith not so but onely thus the seven Stars are the Angels of the seven Churches It is plaine that every Church hath his Angell mentioned and there being seven Churches how many Angels I beseech you are there now because he doth not say expressely in termes seven Angels of the seven Churches we are foyled in our proofe judge Reader what to expect of so deep speculations Lastly it is evident you say though but one Angell be mentioned in the front yet the Epistles themselves be dedicated to all the Angels and Ministers and to the Churches themselves who ever doubted it the foot of every Epistle runs what the spirit saith unto the Churches not to one Church but to all seven If therfore you argue that the name Angel is collective say also that every of these seaven Angels is the whole company of all the seaven Churches which were a foule non-sence you might have saved the labour both of Ausbertus and the rest of your Authors and your own we never thought otherwise but that the whole Church is spoken to but so as that the Governour or Bishop is singled out as one that hath the maine stroke in ordering the affairs thereof and is therefore either praised or challenged according to his carriage therein although also there are such particularities both of commendations and exceptions in the body of the severall Epistles as cannot but have relation to those severall Over-seers to whom they were endorsed as I have else where specified Had all the Presbyters of Ephesus lost their first love had each of them tryed the false Apostles Had all those of Sardis a name to live and were dead Were all the Laodicean Ministers of one temper these taxations were no doubt of individuall persons but such as in whom the whole Churches were interessed As for those conjecturall reasons which you frame to your selves why the whole company of Presbyters should be written to under the singular name of an Angel if yee please your selves with them it is well from me they have no cause to expect an answer they neither can draw my assent nor merit my confutation Take heed of yeelding that which ye cannot but yield to be granted by D. Raynolds Mr. Beza Doctor Fulke Pareus and others that the Angel is here taken individually but still if you be wise hold your own that our cause is no whit advanced nor yours impaired by this yieldance Let him have been an Angell yet what makes this for a Diocesan Bishop much every way For if the Church of Ephesus for example had many Ministers or Presbyters in it to instruct the people in their severall charges as it is manifest they had and yet but one prime Over-seer which is singled out by the Spirit of God and stiled by a title of eminence the Angel of that Church it must needs follow that in St. Johns time there was an acknowledged superiority in the government of the Church if there were many Angels in each and yet but one that was the Angel who can make doubt of an inequality It is but a pittifull shift that you make in pleading that these Angels if Bishops yet were not Diocesan Bishops for that Parishes were not divided into Diocesses I had thought Dioceses should have been divided into Parishes rather in S. Iohns dayes for by the same reason I may as well argue that they were not Parochial Bishops neither since that then no Parishes were as yet distinguished As if you had resolved to speak nothing but Bulls and Soloecismes you tell me that the seven Stars are said to be fixed in their seven Candlesticks whereas those Stars are said to bee in the right hand of the Son of God But say you still not one Star was over divers Candlesticks
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
In the meane time God blesse all good men from such charity and our sacred Monarchy from such friends The forme of the Episcopall Government of the Church hath contrarily been ever one and the same without any considerable variation and if it have anywhere invaded the Civil administration and yoked Monarchy it is the insolence of the persons not the fault of the Calling And if William Rufus a Prince noted for grosly irreligious oppressed by tyrannicall Popish Prelates did let fall this cholerick word that he would have the Jews confute them and that rather then faile England should turne Jewish on this condition Is this an argument for any Christian to use for the confuting of godly and loyall Protestant Bishops which are ready to be censured rather for too great observance of Soveraignty Let any but a Jew judge whether this be a fit instance for a Christian Any thing serves against Episcopacie The testimony of a Pope whom these men honour highly Pius 4. is also brought in as irrefragable against the Divine right of Bishops And what sayes Antichrist He tels the Spanish Ambassador that his Master suing for the Councels declaration of this truth knew not what he demanded for Bishops so declared would be exempted frō his Regall power and as independent as the Pope himselfe Tell me brethren Do ye like or beleeve this assertion because a Pope said it Or can ye blame him who would have all Episcopall Jurisdiction derived meerly from himselfe to be unwilling that their right should be yeelded to have the same grounds which he pretends for his owne And if there might be this danger in those Kingdomes where the Clergy challengeth an exemption from the power of all Secularity why is this enviously upbraided to those of ours who doe gladly professe notwithstanding the Apostolicall that is Divine right of their calling to hold their places and exercise of their Jurisdiction wholly from His Majesty Not lesse spitefull nor more true is your observation of the comparison made betweene the indeavours of alteration in our neighbour Church by our Episcopall faction and that which is now justly desired by the humble Petitioners to the honourable House It is a foule sclander to charge the name of Episcopacy with a faction for the fact imputed to some few Fie brethren are ye Presbyters of the Church of England and dare challenge Episcopacie of faction Had you spoken but such a word in the time of holy Cyprian whom you frequently cite as a patterne of good discipline what had become of you Neither is the wrong lesse to make application of that which was most justly charged upon the practises and combinations of libelling Separatists to humble and peaceable Petitioners the one railing down-right upon an established and holy Government whom I deservedly censured the other modestly suing for a reformation of the abuses of Government Surely whiles the worst are thus patronized by our indulgent answerers it is an hard question Whether the Libellers themselves or these their mis-zealous Advocates are more justly to be branded for Incendiaries SECT II. AFter this overflowing of your gall you descend to the two maine subjects of this quarrell Liturgy and Episcopacy I had truly said that our Liturgy hath been hither to esteemed sacred reverently used by holy Martyrs frequented by devout Protestants as that which hath been confirmed by Edicts of religious Princes and our owne Parliamentary Acts. And hath it so say you Whence then proceed so many Additions and Alterations that have changed the face and fabrick thereof Additions and Alterations What in the present Liturgie where or what tell me I beseech you brethren are they visible or are they not If not how come ye to see them if so why cannot we perhaps somewhere in stead of Priest there is Minister perhaps Absolution is interpreted by a Remission perhaps in private baptisme there is mention of a lawfull Minister perhaps in stead of Purification of women there is Thanksgiving And can ye know the Book when ye see it again after these Alterations these Additions Is it not now with this mis-altered Liturgie as with the disguised Dames mentioned of old by D. Hall whom you name I dare say for honors sake so mis-shapen by their monstrous fashions that their redivived Grandsires could not now know them Can ye but blush at this envious and groundlesse suggestion And why should not I speake of Martyrs as the Authors and users of this holy Liturgie why should not we glory in their name and Authority sleight you them as you please we blesse God for such Patrons of our good cause What a poore returne is this Whiles I tell you what our holy Martyrs did You tell me what one of our Bishops said As if we were bound to make good every word that falls from the mouth of every Bishop Even of the best man we may say as the Psalmist doth of Moses effutiit labiis he spake unadvisedly with his lips As for the words themselves If a Bishop have said that our Liturgy hath been so wisely and charitably framed as that the Devotion of it yeeldeth no cause of offence to a very Popes eare as onely aiming at an uncontroversory Piety I see not what hainous fault can herein be imputed to the speech or the Author Would you think it requisite that we should chide and quarrell when we speak to the God of Peace It is no little advantage therefore both to our cause and Piety that our Liturgie is taught to speak severall Languages both for use and example and thereby our Church hath gained much justification and honour As for that sharp censure of learned M r Calvins Tolerabiles ineptiae how ever it might well have been forborne by him In alienâ republicâ and by you to presse it upon our owne we honor the name of that noble instrument of Gods glory in his Church yet withall we fear not to say without any disparagement to his worth That our Liturgie both in the frame and survay of it passed the judgement of no lesse reverend heads then his owne Neither would you think it could become any of our greatest Divines to meddle with the wafers or Lords-day markets of his charge let every Church take care of their own affaires As for that unparalleld discourse of mine concerning the Antiquity of Liturgies Vnparalleld you say because no man that you have seene ever drew the line of Liturgie so high as I have done I must tell you that perhaps there may bee some things in the world that may have escaped your not-omniscient eies and perhaps this may bee one I cannot help your wonder but I shall justifie my own Assertion In the meane while ye doe almost yeeld the question ere you argue it If by Liturgie you say this Remonstrant understand an Order observed in Church assemblies of praying reading and expounding the Scriptures administration of Sacraments c. Such a Liturgie wee know and acknowledge both Iews
authoritie and yet authoritie experience reason are worthy to sway with us in all matters of question and withall Hee that said I am the way said that the old way was the good way and if Custome without Truth as that Father said well be nothing but a gray-hair'd Error or as Sir Francis Bacon wittily Antiquitie without Truth is a Cipher without a Figure yet where Custom Antiquitie are backed with Truth there they are Figures multiplied with many Ciphers As for the time wherein their learned Ancients affirme The Church not to have beene governed by Bishops but by Presbyters and for the difference pretended to be betwixt the Primitive Bishops and ours wee shall meet with it in such due time and place as shall be justly occasioned What needs this frivolous waste of unseasonable words wherewith unlesse these men desired to swell up this their windy bulke why doe they tell us yet againe of that already answered and groundlesse exception against both their owne eyes and conscience where I say that this government hath continued in this Iland ever since the plantation of the Gospel without contradiction when as they cannot name any man in this Nation that ever contradicted Episcopacie till this present age or that ever contradicted this truth that Episcopacy hath so long continued in this Iland which is the only drift of my words For alas could I be so simple as not to know that this age hath bred opposition enough to the present government could I doubt whether these very men oppose it Yet let the boldest forehead of them all denie that it hath continued thus long in this our Iland or say that any till this age contradicted it so as that my assertion is just their exception false and vain As for that supplie of accessory strength which I did not beg but raise evince from the light of nature and rules of just policie for the continuance of those things which long use and many laws have firmly established as necessary and beneficiall it will stand long enough against the battery of their Paper-pellets If some statute Laws which seemed once necessary and beneficiall proving afterwards in processe of time noxious and burthensome have been justly and wisely repealed Let them tell mee whether the fundamentall Lawes of the Kingdome upon any mans abuse may be subject to alteration or whether rather their Wisdomes would not think fit to determine that the Laws must stand and the abuses be removed such is the cause we have now in hand and if we shall goe lesse I speak not against an impossibility but an easinesse of change the question being so stated which their guiltinesse would willingly over-look that things indifferent or good having been by continuance and generall approbation well rooted in Church and State may not upon light grounds be pulled up SECT V. I Justly fetch the pedegree of our holy calling from no lesse then Apostolicall and in that right Divine institution and prove it from the clear practise of their immediate successors and justly triumph in that confidence They tell me of one scruple yet remaining It is well if there be no more And what may that be That in Originall authority of Scripture Bishops and Presbyters went originally for the same Alas brethren what needed this to be a scruple in your thoughts or your words when it is in expresse termes granted by us That there was at first a plain Identity in their denomination here is one page and that not without some labour of proofs idly lost It is true that the Remonstrant undertakes to shew a cleare and received distinction of Bishops Presbyters and Deacons out of the undeniable writings of those holy men which lived in the times of the Apostles and after them with an evident specification of their severall duties And what say my Answerers to this Yet say they Let us tell him that we never finde in Scripture these three Orders Bishops Presbyters Deacons Brethren ye might have spared to tell me that which I had told you before I speak of the monuments of immediate succession to the Apostolique times Ye of the writings of the Apostles themselves How then doe you either answer or oppose my assertion Although I must also tell you that though in the Apostolique Epistles there be no nominall distinction of the titles yet there is a reall distinction and specification of the duties as we shall see in due place That ye may seem not to say nothing and may make your Readers beleeve you are not quite forsaken of Antiquity ye call Hierome Chrysostome Theophylact Irenaeus and Cyprian to the Book And what evidence will they give for you That the names of Bishops and Presbyters were not at first distinguished but used 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a promiscuous sense and that some succeeding Bishops of Rome were styled Presbyters This is all but 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 Episcopacie that hath not granted and proclaimed this which you contend for Although withall let me tel you that you could not have brought a stronger argument against your selves for hence the world shall see how little force can be drawne from the name to the thing since the mentioned Anicetus Pius Hyginus Telesphorus Bishops of Rome are so famously known to have been in an height of elevation above Presbyters And since Cyprian who is styled by his Presbyters Frater is never found to style his Presbyters Bishops And being an holy Bishop himselfe in many Epistles stifly maintaines the eminence of his superiority And is some-whiles honored with the title of Beatissimus Papa Cyprianus which I suppose was never given to a meere Presbyter But what do I here follow them who confesse themselves out of the way At last acknowledging that their adversaries confesse that which they would needs spend time to prove let the names passe All the question is of the distinction of their offices which they wil follow as tediously as loosly And first they would faine know what we make the distinct office of a Bishop wherein they fall somewhat unhappily upon the very words of that branded Aerius Is it say they to edifie the Church by Word Sacraments Is it to ordaine others to that worked Is it to rule to governe by admonition and by other censures any or all of these belong unto the Presbytery Compare now the words of Aerius as they are related by Epiphanius whom that Father brings in speaking thus concerning Episcopacy and Presbytery There is one order of both one honor one dignity the Bishop imposeth hands so doth the Presbyter the Bishop doth administer Gods worship or service so doth the Presbyter the Bishop sitteth on the throne so doth also the Presbyter See reader and acknowledge the very phrases of that man whom holy antiquity censured even in this point both for a frantick man and an
knowledge and approbation The Presbyters then chose their Bishops who doubts it But upon whose order and Institution save that which S. Paul to the Superintendents met at Miletus Acts 20. Spiritus sanctus vos constituit Episcopos I marvell Brethren with what face you can make Ierome say that the Presbyters themselves were the Authors of this imparity when as himself hath plainly ascribed this to Gods own work when reading that Esay 60.17 I will make thy Officers peace according to the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I will give thy Princes in peace and thy Bishops in righteousnesse he applies this to the Governours of the Evangelicall Church and the blessed Martyr and Bishop S. Cyprian to the same purpose The Deacons saith he must remember that the Lord himselfe chose Apostles that is Bishops but Deacons were chosen by the Apostles themselves And when ye cannot but know that the Apostles themselves were the immediate actors in this businesse if at least ye will beleeve the Histories and Fathers of the Church Irenaeus tels you plainly that the Apostles Peter and Paul delivered the Episcopacy of that Church to Linus and that Polycarpus was by the Apostles made Bishop in Asia of the Church of Smyrna and Tertullian particularly that Polycarpus was there placed by S. Iohn And S. Chrysostome clearly sayes that Ignatius was not onely trained up with the Apostles but that he received his Bishoprick from them and emphatically that the hands of the blessed Apostles touched his holy head And lastly the true Ambrose to the shameing of that Counterfeit whom you bring forth under that name tels you that Paul saw Iames at Ierusalem because he was made Bishop of that place by the Apostles your slip may talk of a Councell wherein this was done but this is as false as himselfe It is well known there never was any such Councell in the Christian world since the first generall Synod was the Nicene And Ieroms toto orbe Decretum as we have shewed could import no other then an Apostolicall act As for S. Augustine Is it not a just wonder Reader that these men dare cite him for their opinion upon occasion of a modest word concerning the honourable title of Episcopacy when as they cannot but know and grant that he hath blazoned Aerius for an heretick meerly for holding the same Tenet which they defend Lastly if Gregory Nazianzen in a pathetick manner have wished the abolition of Episcopacie as he never did what more dislike had he shown to it then he did to Synods when he said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that he never knew good come of them But reader it will be worth the while to inquire into the fidelity of these mens allegations Doe but consult the place of Nazianzen thou shalt â—â—nd that he speaks not particularly of Episcopacie but of all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or precedencie and of all quarrelsome challenges of place all tyrannicall carriage of one man towards another wishing that there were no standing upon points of precedency but every man might be respected according to his vertue and adding at last Nunc autem dextrum hoc et sinistrum et medium latus c. But now saith he the right hand and the left and the middle place and the higher and lower degree and going before and going cheeke by jole what a world of troubles have they brought upon us Thus he See then Reader what a testimony here is for the utter abolition of Episcopacy from a man who was so interessed in the calling that he was wont to be styled by his adversaries 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Bishop of three Sees By this judge reader of the rest So then after all the clamours and colourable pretences of these men this imparity and jurisdiction was conveyed from the Apostles hands and deduced in an uninterrupted Line through all following ages to this present day How can this be say they unlesse our Bishops will draw the Line of their pedegree through the lines of Antichrist and joyne issue and mingle blood with Rome For shame Brethren eate this word What are there no Bishops but at Rome Is the whole Church all the world over Antichristian even those which are no lesse angry at Rome then your selves Hath not Episcopall imparitie continued in them all this while Is there no distinction to be had betwixt the calling and the abuse If the Antichristian Church have had Bishops so it hath had Churches Scriptures Baptisme Learning Creeds Because we have all these with them will ye say we deduce them from the loines of Antichrist Away with this impotent spight and uncharitablenesse and learne to be more modest true in your assertions and lesse confident in your appeals SECT VII LEt me balk your idle words the question is of the difference betwixt our present Bishops and the ancient this you will spread forth in three particulars The first is the manner of Election to these places of eminence which was of old ordered by the privity consent and approbation of the people which you eagerly seeke to prove out of Cyprian neither can it be denied that he is full and punctuall in this point Holy Athanasius seconds it And the old rule was Electio clericorum consensus Principis petitio plebis that a Bishop came in by the suite of the people the Election of the Clergy the consent of the Prince Ye might well have in this case spared the fetching in of the good Emperour Constantine doubtlesse this was the manner of old what variations followed afterward in these proceedings our learned Dr. Field hath well showed but sure this interest of the people continued so long even in the Roman Church that Platina can tell us Gregory the seventh was elected by Cardinalls Clerks Acoluthites Subdeacons Priests Abbots Bishops Clergie and Laitie The inconveniences that were found in those tumultuarie elections and the seditious issue of them which Nazianzen and Eusebius have laid before us in some particulars were I suppose the cause why they were in a sort laid downe But an imitation of this practise we have still continuing in our Church wherein upon the vacancy of every See there is a Conge-d'eslire that is a leave to elect sent down from the King to the Presbyters viz. the Deane and Chapter of that Church for an ensuing election of their Bishop and if this were yet more free we should not like it the lesse But in the meane time Brethren how are you quite beside the Cushion Where the objection was That the Apostles Bishops and ours were two in respect of managing their function And my defence is that our Bishops challenge not any other Spirituall power then the Apostles delegated to Timothy and Titus you now tell us of the different manner of our Elections What is this ad Rhombum we speake of their actions and exercise of power you talke of others actions to them
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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
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
be scanned Objections which would to God they were onely of my own framing In the first That Episcopacy is no prejudice of Soveraigntie I justly prove for that there is a compatiblenesse in this case of Gods act and the Kings It is God that makes the Bishop the King that gives the Bishoprick what can you say to this You tell us you have already proved that God never made a bishop as hee stands in superiority over Presbyters so you told us and that is enough we were hard hearted if wee would not believe you When as wee have made good by undeniable proofes that besides the grounds which our Saviour laid of this imparity the blessed Apostles by inspiration from God made this difference in a personall ordaining of some above the rest and giving expresse charge of Ordination and Iurisdiction to those select persons in Church government the Bishops have ever since succeeded Tell us not therefore that if wee disclaim the influence of Soveraignty into our Creation and assert that the King doth not make us Bishops wee must have no beeing at all For that the Reader may see you stop your owne mouth answer me I beseech you Where or when ever did the King create a Bishop name the man and take the cause It pleases his Majestie to give his Congedelier for a Bishops Election to his See to signifie his Royall assent thereunto upon which the Bishop is solemnly ordained by the imposition of the hands of the Metropolitan and other his Brethren and these doe as from God invest him in his holy Calling which he exercises in that place which is designed and given by his Majestie What can be more plaine then this truth As for that unworthy censure which you passe upon the just comparison of Kings in order to Bishops and Patrons in order to their Clerks it shall be acknowledged well deserved if you shall be able to make good the disparity When hee shall prove you say that the Patron gives Ministeriall power to his Clerke as the King gives Episcopall power to the Bishop it may bee of some conducement to his cause Shortly brethren the same day that you shall shew mee that the King ordained a bishop the same day will I shew you that a Patron ordained a Presbyter The Patron gives the benefice to the one The King gives the bishopricke to the other neither of them do give the Office or Calling to either Goe you therefore with your Frier Simon to your Cell and consult with your Covent for more reason and wit then you shew in this and the next scornfull Paragraph wherein whiles you flout at my modest concession with an unbeseeming frump you are content silently to balke that my second answer which you know was too hot or too heavie for your satisfaction In the second the Imputation pretended to bee cast by this Tenet upon al the reformed Churches which want this governement I indevoured so to satisfie that I might justly decline the envy which is intended to be thereby raised against us For which cause I professed that wee doe love and honour those our sister Churches as the dear spouse of Christ and give zealous testimonies of my well wishing to them Your uncharitablenesse offers to choake me with those scandalous censures and disgracefull terms which some of ours have let fall upon those Churches and their eminent professors which I confesse it is more easie to be sorry for then on some hands to excuse The errour of a few may not bee imputed to all My just defence is that no such consequent can be drawne from our opinion for as much as the Divine or Apostolicall right which wee hold goes not so high as if there were an expresse command that upon an absolute necessity there must bee either Episcopacy or no Church but so far only that it both may and ought to be How fain would you heere finde mee in a contradiction Whiles I one-where reckon Episcopacy amongst matters essential to the Church another where deny it to be of the essence thereof Wherein you willingly hide your eys that you may not see the distinction that I make expresly betwixt the Being Well-beeing of a Church Affirming that those Churches to whom this power and faculty is denied lose nothing of the true essence of a Church though they misse something of their glory and perfection No Brethren it is enough for some of your friends to hold their Discipline altogether essentiall to the very being of a Church We dare not be so zealous The question which you aske concerning the reason of the different intertainment given in our Church to priests converted to us from Rome and to Ministers who in Qu. Maries dayes had received Imposition of hands in Reformed Churches abroad is meerely personall neither can challenge my decision Onely I give you these two answers that what fault soever may bee in the easie admittance of those who have received Romish Orders the sticking at the admission of our brethren returning from Reformed Churches was not in case of Ordination but of Institution they had beene acknowledged Ministers of Christ without any other hands layed upon them but according to the Lawes of our Land they were not perhaps capable of institution to a benefice unlesse they were so qualified as the Statutes of this Realme doe require And secondly I know those more then one that by vertue onely of that Ordination which they have brought with them from other Reformed Churches have enjoyed Spirituall Promotions and Livings without any exception against the lawfulnesse of their calling The confident affirmation which you alleage of the learned bishop of Norwich is no rule to us I leave him to his owne defence You think I have too much work on my hand to give satisfaction for myselfe in these two main Questions which arise from my book What high points shall wee now expect trow wee First whether that Office which by divine right hath sole power of Ordination and ruling all other Officers of the Church which hee sayth Episcopacy hath belong not to the being but onely to the glorie and perfection of a Church Can wee tell what these men would have Have they a minde to goe beyond us in asserting that necessity and essentiall use of Episcopacy which we dare not avow Do they not care to lose their cause so they may crosse an Adversary For your Question you stil talke of sole Ordination and sole jurisdiction you may if you please keepe that paire of soles for your next shooes VVee contend not for such an height of Propriety neither do we practise it they are so ours that they should not bee without us as we have formerly shewed That therefore there should bee a power of lawfull Ordination and government in every setled Church it is no lesse then necessary but that in what case soever of extremity and irresistible necessitie this should be only done by Episcopall hands we never meant
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
could not but bleed to see but withall desired to have had them lesse publique your charity accuseth mee of excusing them and blaming my humble motion of Constantines example professe to desire the blazoning of them to the World Whether of us shall give a better account of our charity to the God of peace I appeale to that great Tribunall In your next Section like ill-bred sonns you spit in the face of your mother A Mother too good for such sonnes The Church of England and tell us of Papists that dazle the eyes of poore people with the glorious name of the holy Mother the Church If they bee too fond of their Mother I am sure your Mother hath little cause to be fond of you Who can and dare compare her to those Aethiopian strumpets which were common to all commers For your whole undutifull carriage towards her take heed of the Ravens of the valley As if wee were no lesse strangers then you enemies to the Church of England you tell the World that wee know not who she is and that we wonder when wee are askt the question and run descant upon the two Archbishops Bishops Convocation Even what your luxuriant wit shall please and at last you make up your mouth with a merry jest telling your Reader that the Remonstrant out of his simplicity never heard nor thought of any more Churches of England then one Ridiculum caput Sit you merry Brethren but truly after all your sport still my simplicity tells mee there is but one Church of England There are many Churches in England but many Churches of England were never till now heard of You had need fetch it as farre as the Heptarchie And to shew how far you are from the objected simplicity yee tell us in the shutting up that England Scotland and Ireland are all one Church Nullum magnum ingenium sine mixtura dementiae But now take heed of Obelisks You professe you for your parts do acknowledge no Antiprelaticall Church I am glad to heare it nor I neither but I beseech you if you make and condemne a Prelaticall Church of England what shall bee the other part of the Contradistinction The Remonstrant tels you of further divisions and subdivisions which upon this ground you must necessarily make of the Church your deepe wisdomes take this as of his upbrading of the divisions in the Church in meer matter of Opinion and fly out into the censures of the Prelaticall party as the cause thereof and would have them say Mitte nos in Mare non erit tempestas The truth is the severalties of Sects and their separate Congregations about this Citie are many and lamentable I doe not upbraid but bewaile them The God of Heaven be Iudge where the fault rests and if it bee his holy will finde some speedy redresse but in the mean time one casts it upon faction another upon ungrounded rigour wheresoever it bee Woe bee to those by whom the offence commeth Lay you your hands on your hearts onwards and consider well Whether your fomenting of so unjust and deep dislikes of lawfull government have not been too much guilty of these wofull breaches As one that love that peace of the Church which you are willing to trouble I perswading an unity ask what bounders you set what distinction of Professors you make what grounds of Faith what new Creed what different Scriptures Baptisme means of salvation are held by that part which you mis-call the Prelaticall Church You answer according to your wonted Charity and Truth What bounds Those you say of the sixth Canon from the high and lofty Promontory of Archbishops to the Terra incognita of an c. Witty again Alas brethren if this bee all the Lists are too narrow Here are but four ranks of Dignities and few in each put if that inclusive c. reach far yet what will you make of all this Doe you exclude Bishops Deans Archdeacons c. from being members of the Church of England sure you dare not bee so shamefully unjust If therefore that they have an interest in the Prelacy cannot exclude them for their interest in the Church What becomes of your bounders This is fit work for your Obelisk What distinction you say worshiping to the East bowing to the Altar prostituting perhaps you meane prostrating themselvs in their approches into Churches and are these fit distinctions brethren whereupon to ground different churches if they difference men doe they difference Christians What new Creed you say Episcopacie by divine right is the first article of their Creed For shame brethren did ever man make this an article of faith who will thinke you worthy to have any faith given you in the rest of your assertions you adde absolute and blind obedience to all the commandements of Bishops Blush yet again Bretheren blush to affirme this when you well know that the words of the oath of Canonicall obedience run only In omnibus licitis honestis mandatis in all lawfull and honest commands You adde Election upon faith foreseene What nothing but grosse untruths Is this the doctrine of the Bishops of England have they not strongly confuted it in Papists in Arminians have they not cry'd it downe to the pit of Hell What means this wickedly false suggestion judge Reader if here bee not work for Obelisks What Scripture you say Apocrypha and Traditions unwritten Mark I beseech you unwritten Traditions are Scriptures first then Apocrypha and why I pray you is it more our Apocrypha then yours Are all our Bibles Prelaticall too Shortly all those Churches and houses and persons that have the Apocrypha in their Bibles belong to the Church Prelaticall what have wee lost by the match What Baptisme What Eucharist You tell us of the absolute necessity which some Popish fooles have ascribed to the one and of an Altar and table set Altarwise in the other What are these to the Church of England doth the errour of every addle head or the sight or posture of a Boord make a different Church What Christ You answere near to a blasphemy A Christ who hath given the same power of absolution to a Priest that himselfe hath This can be nothing but a slanderous fiction No Christian Divine ever held that a Priests power of absolution was any other then ministeriall Christs Soveraign and absolute If you know the man bring him forth that he may be stoned What Heaven you say such as is receptive of Drunkards Swearers Adulterers Brethren take heed of an Hel whiles you fain such an Heaven and feare lest your uncharitableness will no lesse bar you out of the true Heaven above then you bar Prelaticall sinners from their accesse thereinto but if you had rather goe on still in your owne way separate your selves from us that professe wee are one with you Charge upon us those doctrines and opinions which wee hate no whit lesse then your selves fasten upon the Church of England those
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