themselues the Seruants of the Church for him PP When their worthy brethren were banished imprisoned confined or detayned at Court that they might the more easily effectuate their purposes ANS Their worthy brethren I may truely say were banished imprisoned confined and detayned at Court sore against their wils who wish that good brethren then had beene and now were lesse addicted to singularitie of opinion and more inclined to the peace vnity of the Church And that they would put difference betwixt indifferent things in Discipline and doctrinall points and consider that in the one we must stand for veritie and in the other for expediencie which changeth with times places and occasions That the forme of gouernment meete for a Parochiall or Diocesian Church such as Geneua or Berne is not fit in all respects for the vniuersall or for a Nationall Church That at the beginning of the reformation sundrie circumstantiall Ceremonies were changed or abolished for Superstition which now tending to edification and preseruation of Gods worship from prophanenesse and to make conformitie and vnitie both with the Primitiue and reformed Churches may be lawfully and profitably receiued That antiquity in such things and vniuersall consent not repugnant to veritie is farre to be preferred to new and recent conceits and customes of priuate persons and Churches These things the Bishops would wish from their hearts had beene and were better pondered by brethren and that for such matters wilfull contradiction bitter contention and disobedience had not brought them vnder the censure of the Lawes and power of authoritie PP They haue broken the caueats made with their owne consent violated their promises and haue sought preheminence both in Church and Common-wealth with the ruine of others and renting of their mothers belly ANS Neither haue yee nor can yee alledge any promise made by them violated or caueat broken that hath nor beene abrogated by posterior Acts of lawfull Assemblies as beeing contrary to the lawfull power of their calling Neither haue they sought preheminence in Church nor Common-wealth but that which according to Lawes Ciuill and Ecclesiasticall belongs to their Function The restitution whereof if they had not craued they had beene Traytors both to the Church and Common-wealth against the which some brethren standing out too contentiously haue inuolued themselues in vnnecessary troubles and haue pressed with you to rent the belly of their Mother the peace and vnitie of the Church with Schisme PP We haue notwithstanding beene so silent hitherto that the World hath iudged our silence rather slumbring and slouthfulnesse then true patience ANS If you be the man who is pretended to bee the penner of this Pamphlet your silence hath not beene so great as is heere alledged for both by writing and word ye haue bin euer vttering your miscontentment with great acerbitie against the persons and function of your brethren and his Maiesties good and godly intentions wherein yee haue studied more to please the World then to procure the weale of the Church with the honour of God and obedience of your Prince PP They are not satisfied with the wrongs alreadie committed but doe still prouoke vs with new irritant occasions ANS Many men of your humour are crabbed without cause who being in the gall of bitternesse count right wrong and good to be euill and seeke occasions where none are offered to spue out their choler PP And specially by obtruding vpon vs superstitious Wil-worships and polluted inuentions of men ANS What was concluded in a lawfull Assembly was not obtruded and by Gods grace in the answere to your Pamphlet it shall bee manifest that the Assembly hath condemned all polluted inuentions of men and all superstitious Wil-worships and that your selfe is a very superstitious Dog matist of Wil-worship PP It behooueth vs therefore to set pen to paper and say somewhat for the surer stay and better information of Professors tenderly affected to the sinceritie of Religion least they bee deluded with the glorious name of a pretended and new Assembly or seduced with Temporizers swallowing vp all abominations or corruptions whatsoeuer ANS Let the Christian and gentle Reader consider what information good and sincere Professours may expect from such a poysonable pen that beginneth to fill vp the paper with such venemous words calling the lawfull meeting of the Church a pretended new Assembly his brethren of the Ministery Seducers Temporizers Swallowers vp of all abominations or corruptions whatsoeuer for whom wee answere Multi sint licet impotentis irae Pellem rodere qui velint caninam Nos hac à scabie tenemus vngnes PP The meanes of printing and publishing are to vs verie difficile ANS The Quarter-masters and Collectours of the voluntary Contributions through Fyiffe Lowthiane Edinburgh and other parts of the Land for setting forth of this worke say that you haue no cause to complaine And if in times comming your paines bee as well recompenced this trade of penning printing and publishing shall bee more gainfull then your stipend was for your Ministery PP We wish therefore euery good Christian to take in good part our meane trauels ANS Although your trauels had no other fault but that they were meane yet your cessation from better businesse cannot be excused but they being withall seditious and pernicious no good Christian will take them in good part PP And not impute to vs the want of good will but of meanes if they be not serued hereafter continually after this manner Wee shall bee readie God willing for our owne part as need shall require and opportunitie will serue to defend the cause wee maintayne against any of our Opposites their Answeres or Replyes whatsoeuer worthy of answere ANS I hope no man who readeth this Pamphlet will impute to you the want of good will to doe euill that is of a wicked will to furnish fewell to the fire of dissention in the Church And if by your Thrasonicall boasts and brags you can perswade these whom for want of sufficient knowledge and faith yee delude and seduce with subtile Sophismes and superstitious feares to furnish meanes that is money for penning and printing as they haue done profusely for setting forth this Rapsodie there is no doubt but Answeres shall come forth vpon Answeres Defences vpon Defences Replyes vpon Replyes vntill yee haue wearied the World with your vanities PP We haue seene of late some Pamphlets which haue rather exposed their Authors to laughter and contempt then deserued any serious confutation ANS It is the nature of enuifull arrogance by contemning and laughing at others to hunt her owne prayse Sed facilis cuiuis rigidi censura cachinui PP In the Epistle before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Maiestie protesteth vpon his honour that hee misliketh not generally all Preachers or others who like better of the single forme of policie in our Church then of the many Ceremonies in the Church of England and are perswaded that their Bishops smell of a Papall
Presbyters lest children should be ignorant of the spirituall superioritie of Bishops ouer them they should attend the receiuing of Confirmation by their hands so this was done for the honour of Prelacy as he speakes Now if any man will enuy this honour to Bishops it is a silly and poore enuy for it encreases their charge and burthen and if the conscience of their dutie make them not carefull of it in this profane and irreligious age the honor or credit it can bring them will neuer worke it Touching imposition of hands let Saint Augustine tell vs what it meanes Hee in his fift Booke De Baptismo contra Donatistas cap. 23. sayes Quid est manuum impositio nisi oratio super hominem that is to say What is imposition of hands but a prayer vpon the man that hands are laid vpon In all personall benedictions from the very beginning of the world it hath beene vsed Parents doe yet confer their blessing in this manner to their children and when spirituall blessings are giuen there can bee no offence to doe it with the like ceremonie But I heare that some cannot abide to heare the word of Confirmation the thing it selfe gladly they admit but they would haue examination or some the like word put for it Not onely the abuse but the very name of the thing abused so tender are the hearts of some men must be put away For this shortly I say that the Scriptures neuer taught vs to place Religion in wordes Saint Luke made no scruple speaking of a street in Athens to call it the street of Mars And the ship that Paul sayled in he names by Castor and Pollux though both these were the Idols of Pagans If names were to be stood vpon we should put our selues to great businesse it behoueth to change the names of our Moneths and Dayes which some haue pressed vnto but wise men know this to be folly Besides the word of Confirmation was vsed in the Church long before Popery was hatched as is manifest by Saint Cyprian Saint Augustine Tertullian Eusebius and others And thus much of Confirmation The Festiuities which are the next are impugned by this Argument amongst others That hereby wee conforme our selues to Papists in the keeping of holy dayes But had this Argument beene of any force would the reformed Churches haue agreed so vniformely in the obseruation of them All of them so farre as I know keepe holy the dayes of Christs Natiuitie Passion Resurrection and Ascension with the Descent of the holy Ghost The Churches of Bohemie Vngarie Polonia Denmarke Saxonie and high Germany The Heluetian Churches the Belgique and those of the low Countreyes The French English and Geneua it selfe in the beginning of reformation obserued them all The day of Natiuitie they yearely celebrate if I be rightly informed the rest are abrogated and by what occasion reade the 115. and 128. Epistles of Caluin where after he had shewed the occasion of their abolishment hee addes Ego neque suasor neque impulsor fui atque hoc testatum volo si mihi delata optio fuisset quod nunc constitutum est non fuisse pro sententia dicturum For the opinions of the rest of our Diuines in this particular Bucer Martyr Bullinger Zanchius Aretius Polanus Paraeus and Tilenus with all that I haue seene speake manifestly for it Tilenus his words in his Systema which came forth the last yeare are these Alios dies praeter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad peculiarium quorundam Dei beneficiorum Christi gestorum solennem anniuersariam in Ecclesia commemorationem celebrari nulla religio vetat modò prudons cautio accedat Ne videlicet vel vllius rei ereatae cultui consecrentur vel insitae diebus illis sanctitatis opinio foneatur vel denique ignauo otio foedifque voluptatibus hac occasione fenestra aperiatur I find in a Synod kept at Middleburgh Anno 1584 a Canon there made that all holy dayes should be abolished except the Lords day and the day of Christs Natiuitie and Ascension But if the Magistrates shall require moe to bee kept then the Ministers shall labour by preaching to turne the peoples idlenesse into godly exercises and businesse These be the wordes of that Canon which I haue cited aswell to shew you what that Church ascribes to Magistrates as because our case in this particular is verie like His Majestie as you know hath charged all his Subiects by Proclamation to abstaine from seruile labour in these times and it should become vs wel as that Act speaks to turn them from idlenes to godly exercises For to dispute of the lawfulnes of the prohibitiō neque huius fori nor will any Subiect that is in his right wits presume to doe it I doe not vrge the testimonies of the Fathers in this poynt because of them you who were at the last Assembly heard enough And they who eleuate the consent of antiquitie in this matter saying That the mysterie of iniquitie was then begun to worke will reuerence as I trust the iudgement of these reformed Writers who haue laboured to discouer that Mysterie and will thinke it no commendation to them to be dissenting from all the Churches that haue beene and are in the world Of the last Article which requires kneeling as the most reuerend gesture in partaking the holy Sacrament of the Communion I haue neede to say much seeing great stirres are made for this and as I esteeme without any cause The Apostle when he professes to deliuer vnto vs that which hee receyued of the Lord speakes not either of sitting or kneeling or standing by which it is cuident That situs vel positus corporis in coena as Zepperus speakes is not of the essence of the Sacrament but to be numbered amongst these circumstances which the Church may alter and change at their pleasure Where it is said that wee ought to conforme our selues to Christs action yee know it is answered That if so were it behoued vs to lye along about the Table to communicate with men and not with women And in the Euening after supper receiue this Sacrament which things were ridiculous to affirme Peter Martyr an excellent witnesse of Gods truth In classe secunda Locorum communium Cap. 4. speakes otherwise Nihil interest saith he si coenae Dominicae sacramentum stantes aut sedentes aut genibus flexis percipiamus modò institutum Domini conseruetur occasio superstitionibus praecidatur And in his Defence of the doctrine of the Eucharist aduersus Gardinerum answering the same argument which Bellarmine brings for reall presence Although in receyuing the Sacrament saith he we adore the Lord by kneeling we doe not thereby testifie the reall and corporall presence of Christ in the Sacrament for adoration the mind not being applied to the elements but to the things signified may lawfully bee vsed Peter Mouline in defence of his Maiesties Apologie against the Frier Copheteau where the Frier alledges
thing that is not written Therefore after the eating of the Paschall Supper that the Apostles sate still without altering their gesture vntil they had receiued the Sacrament is not to be beleeued and holden for an vndoubted truth in Goods worship But yee subioyne lin 20. eiusdem pag. PP This is so euident that neuer man doubted of it till this last yeare euen those who affirme but against the truth that they stood at the first seruice confesse that they sate at the second and at the celebration of the Sacrament So doth Master Iohn Mare and the Bishop of Chester c. ANS That this is not so euident as yee alledge is manifest by that which hath bin said But the cause that hath moued vs doubt since the last yeare is the Paradox which yee and your followers haue vndertaken to defend since the last yeare of which neuer Diuine either in the ancient or reformed Church dreamed of before namely that we should beleeue without doubting First that the Apostles receiued the Sacrament sitting Secondly that this gesture of theirs was exemplary Thirdly that it was instituted by our Sauiour to be obserued in all succeeding ages Since yee after this manner vrge sitting with an opinion of necessity and impose it vpon the consciences of the weake with such terrours and feares that it cannot be omitted without a manifest breach of the Institution we can doe no lesse then trie by the Scriptures whether it be so or not The testimony of M. Iohn Mare or of any morral man cannot tye our consciences to beleeue or practise any thing in Religion as an Article of Faith or a necessary point of Gods worship whereof there is not a cleare and vndoubted warrant in the Word of God And for the Bishop of Chester Now Bishop of Couentry and Lichfield hee declareth his opinion onely but astricts no man to beleeue it nor will he haue any man to build thereupon as yee doe that the Apostles sitting was exemplary against the which his arguments in the Treatise that yee cite are such as might haue stayed you or any other that reason could satisfie from taking a pen in hand to the contrary PP That sitting was instituted I proue it by two reasons first the gesture that Christ retained in passing from the conclusion of the Paschall Supper That hee did institute sitting hee retained Therefore he did institute sitting ANS This is a Demonstration whereupon the faith and obedience of the worthy Receiuers must be grounded touching the gesture they must vse at Communion yet the Libeller perceiuing that the proposition of this argument may be denyed and being denied that it must be proued by this generall Whatsoeuer Christ retained that he did institute and considering withall that Christ retained many things as the place the quality of the bread and circūstance of time which he dare not affirme to haue bin instituted hee makes exception of such things as were retained of necessity and could not conueniently bee changed And thereupon subioynes this saying PP pag. 36. lin vlt. But as for the gesture of sitting he might haue changed it in standing or kneeling without working any miracle if it had not been his minde that we should receiue the Sacrament of the Eucharisticall Supper with the same gesture that the Iewes receiued the Paschall ANS In this argument hee takes it for granted that the Disciples sate at the Sacrament which yet is in question and by Scripture shall neuer be decided And this is a Sophisticke deception called petitio principij Next the reason whereby hee prooues that sitting was instituted and not the other circumstances which were likewise retained is because Christ might haue changed it in standing or kneeling without working a miracle But this reason I hope will not be found demonstratiue for our Sauiour without working a miracle might haue changed the vpper chamber wherin he eat the Passeouer taken himselfe to some other roome Therefore by your argument his minde was that we should only celebrate the Sacrament in an vpper chamber Likewise our Sauiour without working of a miracle might easily haue called his Mother and other women to the Sacrament and so haue altered the sex and number of the Communicants therfore it was his mind by your reason that twelue men sitting at once at Table and no women should receiue the Sacrament Finally our Sauiour might haue celebrated the Sacrament without his vpper garment which he did put on after he had washed his Disciples feete before he celebrated the Sacrament Therefore Baronius the Cardinall concludes wel by your ground That it was his mind the Priest should put on his Masse-clothes which are his vpper garment before he celebrated the Sacrament But that all men may see the vanity of this argument I shall clearly proue by it that sitting was not instituted Christ yee say might easily haue changed the gesture which he vsed at the Paschall Supper without the working of a miracle in standing or kneeling if it had not been his minde that we should receiue the Sacrament of the Eucharisticall Supper with the same gesture that the Iewes receiued the Paschall Now I assume But the Iewes this night receiued the Paschall Supper not sitting right vp in chaires or fourmes as we do but lying on beds although that both the gestures might haue been and were vsed by them in other nights as is manifest by the testimonie which you cite your selfe out of SCALIGER De emendatione temporum lib. 6. Quòd in omnibus alijs noctibus tam edentes quà m bibentes vel sedemus vel discumbimus in hac autem omnes discumbimus That is to say Other nights eating or drinking we either sit at table or lye This night we all lye yee turne it we all suppe that is sit leaning Thus then I reason vpon the ground of your owne demonstration The gesture of lying vsed by our Sauiour at the Paschal Supper according to the custom of the Iewes might haue easily and commodiously been changed without working a miracle by turning about his face and body to the Table and setting of himselfe right vpon the beddes with his feete to the ground as our custome is to sitte at table Therefore according to your owne principle it was not Christs minde that we should sitte vpright at table as wee doe and all the Iewes in those dayes vsed to doe at other times but that wee should lye at table as the Iewes did at the Supper of the Passeouer Now let the judicious Reader consider if this be a sure ground whereupon to settle a certaine and infallible point of Gods worship But I conuert the argument Nothing vsed at the Paschall Supper and retained at the Sacrament that is not expressed in the words of the Institution was instituted But sitting vsed in the Paschall Supper retained as yee alledge at the Sacrament is a thing not expressed in the words of the Institution Therefore sitting vsed at the Paschall