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A45214 A defence of the humble remonstrance, against the frivolous and false exceptions of Smectymnvvs wherein the right of leiturgie and episcopacie is clearly vindicated from the vaine cavils, and challenges of the answerers / by the author of the said humble remonstrance ; seconded (in way of appendance) with the judgement of the famous divine of the Palatinate, D. Abrahamvs Scvltetvs, late professor of divinitie in the University of Heidelberg, concerning the divine right of episcopacie, and the no-right of layeldership ; faithfully translated out of his Latine. Hall, Joseph, 1574-1656.; Scultetus, Abraham, 1566-1624. Determination of the question, concerning the divine right of episcopacie. 1641 (1641) Wing H378; ESTC R9524 72,886 191

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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 ● maintenance annexed they would not hid themselves and jeopard their eares rathe● then mancipate themselves to the charge o● souls Whether there bee no other apparen● causes to be given for the increase of Poper● and superstition in the Kingdome beside● 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 f●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 cōfirmed 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
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