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
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
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
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
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