the Church was governed Communi Presbyterorum Consilio by the Counsell of the presbyters in common and that even after this imparity it ought to be so governed Sciant Episcopi se Ecclesiam debere in communi regere Fifthly that the occasion of this Imparity and Superiority of Bishops above Elders was the divisions which through the Devils instinct fell among the Churches Post quam verò Diaboli instinctu Saravia would take advantage of this place to deduce this Imparity as high as from the Apostles times because even then they began to say I am of Paul and I of Apollos but sure S. Ierome was not so weake as this man would make him to speake Inconsistencies and when he propounds it to himselfe to prove that Bishops and Presbyters are in Scripture the same to let fall words that should confute his own proposition whereas therefore S. Ierome saith that after men began to say I am of Paul and I of Apollos c. it was decreed that one of the Presbyters should be set over the rest c. This is spoken indeed in the Apostles phrase but not of the Apostles times else to what purpose is that coacervation of texts that followes But suppose it should be granted to be of Apostolicall antiquity which yet we grant not having proved the contrary yet it appeares it was not of Apostolicall intention but of Diabolicall occasion And though the Divell by kindling Divisions in the Church did minister Occasion to the invention of the primacy or prelacy or one for the suppressing of Schisme yet there is just cause to thinke that the Spirit of God in his Apostles was never the author of this Invention First because we reade in the Apostles dayes there were Divisions Rom 16.7 and Schismes 1 Cor. 3.3 11.18 yet the Apostle was not directed by the holy Ghost to ordâ—ine Bishops for the taking away of those Divisions Neither in the rules hee prescribes for the healing of those breaches doth hee mention Bishops for that end Nor in the Directions given to Timothy and Titus for the Ordination of Bishops or Elders doth he mention this as one end of their Ordination or one peculiar duty of their office And though the Apostle saith O portet haereses inter vos esse ut qui probati sunt manifesti fiant inter vos yet the apostle no where saith Oportet Episcopos esse ut tollantur haereses quae mainifestae fiunt Secondly because as Doctor Whitaker saith the remedy devised hath proved worse then the disease which doth never happen to that remedy whereof the holy Ghost is the author Thirdly because the holy Ghost who could foresee what would ensue thereupon would never ordaine that for a remedy which would not onely be ineffectuall to the cutting off of evill but become a stirrup for Antichrist to get into his â—addle For if there be a necessity of setting up one Bishop over many presbyters for preventing schismes there is as great a necessity of setting up one Archbishop over many Bishops and one patriarch over many Archbishops and one pope over all unlesse men will imagine that there is a danger of schisme only among presbyters and not among Bishops and Archbishops which is contrary to reason truth History and our own Experience And lest our adversaries should appeale from Hierome as an incompetent Judge in this case because a Presbyter and so a party we wil therefore subjoyne the judgements of other ancient Fathers who were themselves bishops The Commentaries that goe under the name of Saint Ambrose upon Ephes. 4. mention another occasion of this Discrimination or priority and that was the increase and dilatation of the Church upon occasion whereof they did ordaine rectors or Governours and other officers in the Church yet this he grants that this did differ from the former orders of the Church and from apostolicall Writ And this Rectorship or Priority was devolved at first from one Elder to another by Succession when hee who was in the place was removed the next in order among the Elders Succeeded But this was afterwards changed and that unworthy men might not bee preferred it was made a matter of election and not a matter of Succession Thus much we finde concerning the occasion of this imparity enough to shew it is not of Divine Authority For the second thing the persons who brought in this Imparity the same Authours tells us the Presbyters themselves brought it in witnesse Hierome ad Evag. Alexandriae Presbyteri unum ex se electum in Excelsiori gradu collocatum Episcopum nominabant quomodo si exercitus Imperatorem faceret aut Diaconi de se Archidiaconum The Presbyters of Alexandria did call him their Bishop whom they had chosen from among themselves and placed in a higher degree as if an army should make an Emperour or the Deacons an Archdeacon Ambrose upon the fourth of the Ephesians tells us it was done by a Councell and although he neither name the Time nor place of the Councell yet ascribing it to a Councell hee grants it not to be Apostolicall this gave occasion to others to fixe it upon Custome as Hieronym in Tit. and August Epist. 19. secundùm honorum vocabula quae Ecclesiae usus obtinuit Episcopatus Presbyterio major est And had that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Prelacie had the Seale and confirmation of Divine or Apostolicall Authority Gregory Nazianzene would never in such a Patheticke manner have wished the Abolition of it as hee doth in his 28. Oration And now where is that acknowledgement and conveyance of Imparitie and Iurisdiction which saith this Remonstrant was derived from the Apostles hands and deduced in an uninterrupted line unto this day where is it we find no such Imparity delivered from Apostolicall hands nor acknowledged in Apostolicall writings yet had there beene such an acknowledgement and conveyance of imparity how this should have beene deduced to us in an uninterrupted Line wee know not unlesse our Bishops will draw the Line of their Pedigree through the loynes of Antichrist and joyne issue and mingle blood with Rome which it seemes they will rather doe then lose this plea for their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their tyrannicall prerogative as Nazianzen calls it Suffer us therefore humbly to appeale to your Honours whether this Remonstrant hath not given sentence against himselfe who is so confident of the Evidence of his cause that he doth not feare to say if there can be better Evidence under Heaven for any matter of fact then there is for his Episcopacy Let EPISCOPACY BEFOR EVER ABANDONED OVT OF THE CHVRCH OF GOD. SECT VII YEt it seemes himselfe in the height of his confidence was not without Jelousies of some thing might be spoken against his Cause therefore he seemes to heare what is spoken against it That the Apostles Bishops and ours are two there was no other then a Parochiall Pastor a Preaching Presbyter without
prayers but such as were approved of in a Synode which was not determined till the yeare 416. Conc. Milev 2. Can. 12. And had there been any Liturgies of Times of the first and most venerable antiquity producible the great admirers of them and inquirers after them would have presented them to the world ere this we know that Bishop Andrews in his zeale for Liturgies pursued the inquiry after the Iewish Liturgie so far that he thought he had found it and one there was which he sent to Cambridge to be translated but there it was soone discovered to have beene made long after the Iewes ceased to be the Church of God and so himselfe supprest it that it never saw the light under a translation We wonder therefore what this Remonstrant meant to affirme so confidently that part of the forme of prayer which was composed by our blessed Saviour was borrowed from the formes of prayer formerly used by Gods people An opinion we never met before indeed we have read that the Rabbines since the daies of our Saviour have borrowed some expressions from that Prayer and from other Evangelicall passages But we never read till now that the Lord Christ the wisdome of the Father borrowed from the wisdome of the Rabbines expressions to use in Prayer And as much we wonder by what Revelation or Tradition Scripture being silent in the thing he knew that Peter and Iohn when they went up to the Temple to pray their Prayer was not of a sudden and extemporary conception but of a Regular prescription Sure we are some as well read in Iewish antiquity as this Remonstrant shewes himselfe to be have told us that the houre of Prayer was the time when the Priest burnt Incense and the people were at their private prayers without as appeares Luke 1.9 where we reade that while Zachary the Priest went in to offer Incense all the people stood with out praying in the time of the Oblation Which Prayers were so far from being Prescript Formes or Liturgies that they were not vocall but mentall Prayers as Master Meade tels us in his exposition upon the eighth of the Revelations And what ever Peter and Iohn did this we know that when the Publican and the Pharisee went up to the Temple to pray as the Apostles did at the houre of prayer their prayer was not of Regular prescription but of a present Conception But if this Remonstrant be in the right concerning the Iewish Liturgies then the Evangelicall Church might better have improved her peace and happinesse then in composing Models of Invocation and Thanksgiving when there is one extant and ready to be produced that was constantly used by Gods people ever since Moses daies and put over to the times of the Gospel and confirmed by Apostolicall practise or else great is our losse who are so unhappily deprived of the best improvement the Church made of her peace and happinesse in the first 300. yeares for rejecting those Liturgies that are confest by the Learned to bee Spurious We challenge this Remonstrant to produce any one Liturgie that was the issue of those times And blessed Constantine was herein as unhappy as we who needed not have composed formes of prayer for his Guard to use upon the Lords day but might and would have taken them out of former Liturgies if there had been any And can ye with patience think that any ingenuous Christian should be so transported as upon such weak and unproved premises to build such a Confident conclusion as this Remonstrant doth and in that Conclusion forget the state of the controversie sliding from the question of a prescribed and imposed Liturgie to an arbitrary book of prayer In his Rhetoricall Encomium of conceived prayer wee shall more willingly bear a part with him then they whose cause he pleads for had that been in their hearts which is in this book to hate to be guilty of powring water upon the Spirit and gladly to adde oyle rather so many learned able Conscientious Preachers had not been molested and suspended for letting the constant flames of their fixed conceptions mount up from the altar of their zealous heart unto the throne of grace nor had there been so many advantages watched from some stops and seeming solecismes in some mens prayers to blaspheme the spirit of prayer which though now confest to be so far from being offensive that they are as pleasing Musick in the eares of the Almighty yet time hath been when they have â—ounded as meere Battologies nay no better then meere Blasphemies in the â—ares of some Bishops And if this conceived prayer be not to be opposed in another by any man that hath found the true operation of this grace in himselfe with that spirit then are those possest that have not only thus raged with their tongues against this way of prayer but by sealing up the mouthes of Ministers for praying thus in publike and imposing penances upon private Christians for praying thus in their Families and compelling them to abiure this practise have endeavoured with raging violence to banish this divine ordinance from our Churches and dwellings and profest in open Court it was fitter for Amsterdam than for our Churches But howsoever this applause of conceived prayer may seeme to be Cordiall yet he makes it but a vantage ground to lift up publike formes of sacred Church Liturgie as hee calls it the higher that they may have the greater honour that by the power of your authority they be reinforced which worke there would have beene no need to call your Honors to had not Episcopall zeale broke forth into such flames of indignation against conceived prayers that we have more just cause to implore the propitious aide of the same Authority to reestablish the Liberty of this then they to re-inforce the necessity of that Yet there are two specious Arguments which this Remonstrant brings to perswade this desired re-inforcement the Originall and Confirmation of our Liturgie For the first he tels your Honours it was selected out of ancient Models not ROMAN but CHRISTIAN contrived by the holy Martyrs and Confessors of the blessed reformation of Religion where we beseech your Honours to consider how we may trust these men who sometimes speaking and writing of the ROMAN Church proclaime it a true Church of CHRIST and yet here ROMAN and CHRISTIAN stand in opposition sometimes they tell men their Liturgie is wholly taken out of the Romane Missall only with some little alteration and here they would perswade your Honours there is nothing Romane in it But it is wholly selected out of pure Ancient Models as the Quintessence of them all Whereas alas the originall of it is published to the world in that Proclamation of Edward the sixt And though here they please to stile the Composers of it holy Martyrs and contrivers of the blessed Reformation yet there are of the Tribe for whom
againe we reade of Elder and Elders Presbyter and Seniors in one Church Both those passages are upon record in the publike acts which are more fully set downe by Baronius ao. 303. Num. 15.16 17. As also by Albaspineus in his Edition of Optatus in which Acts the Seniors are often mentioned In that famous relation of the purging of Cecilianus and Felix there is a copie of a Letter Fratribus filiis Clero Senioribus Fortis in Domino aeternam salutem Another Letter is mentioned a little before Clericis Senioribus Cirthensium in Domino aeternum Salutem These Seniors were interessed in affaires concerning the Church as being the men by whose advise they were managed The Letter of Purpurius to Silvanus saith adhibete conclâ—ricos seniores plebis Ecclesiasticos Viros inquirant quae sunt ista Dissensiones ut ea quae sunt secundum fidei Praecepta fiant Where wee see the joynt power of these Seniors with the Clergie in ordering Ecclesiasticall affaires that by their wisedome and care peace might be setled in the Church for which cause these Seniors are called Ecclesiasticall men and yet they are distinguished from Clergie men They are mentioned againe afterwards by Maximus saying Loquor Nomine SENIORVM Populi Christiani Greg. Mag. distinguisheth them also from the Clergie Tabellarium cum consensu SENIORVM Cleri memineris Ordinandum These Seniors had power to reprove offenders otherwise why should Augustine say Cum ob errorem aliquem à Senioribus arguuntur imputatur alicui cur ebrius fuerit cur res alienas pervaserit c. when they were by the Elders reproved for their errors and drunkennes is laid to a mans charge c. So that it was proper to the Seniors to have the cognizance of delinquents and to reprove them The same Augustine in Psalme 36. Necesse nos fuerat Primianicausam quem c. SenioruÌ„ literis ejusdem Ecclesiae postulantibus audire Being requested by letters from the Seniors of that Church it was needfull for me to heare the the cause of Primian c. So againe Optatus who mentioning a persecution that did for a while scatter the Church saith Erant Ecclesiae ex auro argento quà m plurima Ornamenta quae nec defodere terrae nec secum portare poterat quare fidelibus senioribus commendavit Albaspinâ—us that learned Antiquarie on that place acknowledges that Besides the Clergie there were certaine of the Elders of the people men of approved life that did tend the affaires of the Church of whom this place is to be understood By all these testimonies it is apparent first that in the ancient Church there were some called Seniors Secondly that these Seniors were not Clergie men Thirdly that they had a stroke in governing the Church and managing the affaires thereof Fourthly that Seniors were distinguished from the rest of the people Neither wouâ—d we desire to chuse any other Iudges in this whole controversie then whom himselfe constituted Forraine Divines taking the generall Suffrage and practise of the Churches and not of particular men As for the learned Spanhemius whom hee produceth though wee give him the deserved honour of a worthy man yet wee think it too much to speake of him as if the judgement of the whole Church of Geneva were incorporated into him as this Remonstrant doth And for Spanhemius himselfe we may truly say in the place cited he delivered a complement rather then his judgment which in Dedicatorie Epistles is not unusuall Wee know that reverend Calvin and learned Beza have said as much upon occasion in their Epistles and yet the Christian world knowes their Judgement was to the contrary Little reason therefore hath this Remonstrant to declaime against all such as speake against this Governement as unlawfull with the termes of Ignorant and spitefull Sectaries because they call the Governement unlawfull had they proceeded further to call it Antichristian which he charges upon them they had said no more then what our eares have heard some of their principall Agents their Legati à Latere speake publikely in their visitations That how ever the Church of England be as sound and Orthodox in her Doctrine as any Church in the world yet in our Discipline and Governement wee are the same with the Church of Rome which amounts to asmuch as to say the Governement is Antichristiâ—n unlesse they will say the Governement of Rome is not so nor the Pope Antichrist SECT XVI NOw our Remonstrant begins to leave his dispute for the Office and flowes into the large praâ—ses of the Persons and what is wanting in his Arguments for the Place thinks to make up in his Encomiasticks of the Persons that have possest that place in the Church of God and tels us that the Religious Bishops of all times are and have been they that have strongly upheld the truth of God against Satan and his Antichrist It is well he sets this crown only upon the heads of Religious Bishops as knowing that there are and have been some Irreligious ones that have as strongly upheld Satan and his Antichrist against the truth of God But the Religious Bishops are they that have all times upheld the truth What they and only they did never any uphold the truth but a Religious Bishop did never any Religious Minister or Professor preach or write or die to uphold the truth but a Religious Bishop if so then there is some perswasive strength in that hee saith and a credulous man might bee induced â—o thinke If Bishops goe downe truth will goe downe too But if wee can produce for one Bishop many others that gave beene valiant for the truth this Rhethoricall insinuation will contribute no great help to their establishment Nor indeed any at all unles he were able to make this good of our times as well as of all others which he assaies for saith he even amongst our own how many of the reverend learned Fathers of the Church now living have spent their spirits worne out their lives in the powerfull opposition of that man of sinne how many I sir wee would faine know how many that there are some that have stood up to beare witnesse against that Man of sin we acknowledge with all due respect to the Learning and worth of their Persons But that their Episcopall dignity hath added either any flame to their zeal or any Nerves to their ability we cannot believe nor can we thinke they would have done lesse in that cause though they had beene no Bishops But what if this be true of some Bishops in the Kingdome Is it true of all are there not some that have spent their spirits in the opposition of Christ as others have in the opposition of Antichrist are there none but Zealous Religious Prelates in the Kingdom are there none upon whom the guilt of that may meritoriously bee charged which others have convincingly and