are deputing where in most of the members of it there is no free choise of election but Bishops Deanes and Arch-deacons have right to sit by their place and office where those of the lower House are like so manie stockes that have no motion but as they are carried by the members of the sphere of the higher house Who ever shall reade Matthaeus Paris and Matthaeus Westmonasteriensis and view the disfigured face of the Church of England under Henry the second Iohn Henry the third Kings of England will acknowledge that the Pope had more power and jurisdiction in England in the persons of his Bishops and Abbots then in any other Kingdome and will not wonder if Bishops have hitherto kept possession though they hold no more of the Pope nor will he easily be perswaded that that governement is of Divine or Apostolicall institution which hath ever beene contrary to the constitutions of the ancient Church and to Imperiall lawes and repugnant to the proceedings of all Courts of Iustice and common equity and sence These ten grounds or reasons which are rockie for upholding this assertion that Episcopall English government is Antichristian are sandie under the superstructure of the Authour of the Remonstrance for who doubts but an Ecclesiasticall Governement that is such cannot bee pleaded to be unalterable and not to bee removed though it were never so ancient since there is no prescription against Christ and the Apostles institution and that the number of yeares cannot make a lye to bee a truth yea rather many things are worse by age and an old man hath no more the beeing of man then a young man and a common-wealth no more then a Church is nothing the better for to be of an ancienter standing But as it is vaine and out of the question to prove Episcopacie to bee of Divine right and to have continued so many hundred yeares and to call unjust and weake the clamours of those that cry downe Episcopacie likewise it is no lesse lost labour to goe about to perswade the Honorable House with such earnestnesse not to give way to the change of Episcopacy which hath its pedegree from the Apostles for I know none of them that cry downe such an Episcopacie or giveth his conscent to pull it up few or none of them beleeving that the Episcopall governement as it is established in England is derived from the Apostles who ever affirmes that Priests are by Divine right will not consequently evince Divine right in the function of the Romish Priests The like may I say of Episcopall governement of these times in reference to that in the times of the Primitive Church As the Remonstrancers superstructure is like to be tottering if it be grounded upon that supposition that English Episcopall governement is Apostolicall so will it bee like to fall having no better ground then he layes downe viz. That Episcopacy or the eminent superiority of Bishops above their fellow Presbyters in the power of ordination and jurisdiction is of Divine institution and that that spirituall power hath beene by Apostolicall authoritie delegated unto Timothy and Titus and to the Angells of the Church of Asia Touching Timothy it is a wonder that Saint Paul writing to the Ephesians doth not so much as once make mention of him far is he to enjoyne him to keepe residence in his Diocesse where it is like hee made no great residence being upon every occasion sent from place to place by the appointment of Saint Paul and it appeareth by Ireneus Nicephorus and Eusebius that John the Apostle immediately after the councell of the Apostles Act the 15 did governe the Church of Ephesus untill the dayes of Trajan the Emperour I might also wonder that S. Paul who had a cooperatour in most things he did or wrote would ordaine Elders in Ephesus when they had at hand their Diocesan Bishop appointed for that work neither by the Angels of the seven Asian Churches are meant seven severall Diocesan Bishops for the things spoken to a single Angel are said to him under that title in the name of all the flocke within the precinct of one particular Church or congregation Thus the Angels Genes 32. v. 1. who met Jacob are in the 46. chap. verse 16. included in one Angel And it is the exposition of Calvin Psal 43. v. 7. that by a single Angel pitching his campe for the defence of the faithfull more then one yea all the good Angels are understood I say more that it is verie likelie that by the Angel of one Church not onely the Elders of that one Church are understood but also the whole Church it selfe else it will follow that for the sinne of one Bishop or a few Ministers if they had not repented the whole congregation had deserved to be bereaved of the light of the Gospel and the words some of you in the 2. chap. verse 10. whether they insinuate the whole Church or the Pastors of the Church doe shew they cannot be understood of one single Angel or Minister In the next place the Author of the Remonstrance saith in derision of the French discipline that Lay-Elders till this age had never any footing in the Christian Church I will not stand reasoning what great neede there is of Laymen to bee sharers with the Pastors in the administration of the Churches discipline onely to make good that such Lay Presbyters are grounded upon Scripture it is cleare out of the words of the Acts chap. 15. verse 22. It pleaseth the Apostles the Elders with the whole Church By the whole Church either the whole company of Elders or the chiefe of the people if not the whole Christian congregation present at Jerusalem is understood The former cannot be else by an uncouth tautologie in one little verse the Elders were said to have met with Elders It followes then that by the whole Church others be meant besides Bishops and Elders It matters not much whether they bee called Lay-Presbyters or not as long as the thing intended is granted viz. that the Laicke congregation may meddle in Churches affaires and give councell and assistance to the Pastors and bee as well as they arbiters and censurers of errors and disorders For further proofe thereof in the 14 of the Acts verse 23. though the English version hath When they had ordained Elders the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beares as much as that Elders were ordained by the advise of the congregation Again in the 6. of the Acts the whole multitude of Disciples is said to have chosen the seven Deacons of whom Saint Steven was one That by the multitude of the Disciples others are meant then the company of the Elders it is manifest by the ninth of the Acts verse 39. where Tabitha a woman is called an ancient Disciple And by the eleventh chap. verse 26. where it is said that the Disciples were first called Christians in Antioch The appellations of Disciples and Christians being promiscuously
AN ANTI-REMONSTRANCE TO THE LATE HVMBLE REMONSTRANCE TO THE HIGH COVRT OF PARLIAMENT The second Edition enlarged Printed Anno 1641. AN ANTI-RENONSTRANCE TO THE LATE HVMBLE REMONSTRANCE to the High Court of Parliament THese few Leaves of Paper breake on through after the humble remonstrance with lesse noyle because of lesse bulke and not stuffed with the huskes of a bare pleasing speech but presented to your view with more substance then Rethorique and with more things then words and such as I hope will plucke off the vizard of dutifull Sonne from the Authour of the Remonstrance or make his Mother little beholding to him for his advise Yee are not ignorant of the great distractions oppositions and of the diversity of affections and feares of the people of the whole land about the event of the Churches reformation in hand for indeede some out of a zeale somewhat inconsiderate doe cry downe Episcopacy as Antichristian Others very moderate crave and wish earnestly Episcopacy were reformed and purged from the Romish and Tyrannicall governement that incumbers it and which since the last reformation in King Edward the sixth dayes no free Parliament yet was so happy as to redresse Againe a third kind of men carried by a contrary winde maintaine Episcopacy to bee by Divine right not so much as naming that apple of discord nor mentioning the maine thing which is so much stood upon which is not that Episcopacie is either of Divine right or not for if as the Author of the remonstrance acknowledgeth a Church may stand without Episcopacie it matters not much which of these two opinions is held but the maine point debated lyes in this assertion that Episcopall government as it is established in England is most disagreeable to Christ and the Apostles institution and to the rites and constitutions of the primitive Church and makes a part of the mysterie of iniquitie which the Roman Church for many hundred yeares in England hath had the greatest share in Likewise the favourers of the humble remonstrance traduce as libellers the opposers of that tenet of Episcopacie by Divine right and of the corruptions that attend Episcopacie as it is established in England These distractions and oppositions being such may it please the Honorable Court seriously to ponder that there is as great a latitude between having no Bishops at all and having them with the tendred limitations by those they call libellers as there is betweene retaining a limited power in Bishops and confirming the Bishops in the exorbitant authority and greatnesse of Government as it is established in England which Government God forbid it were retained being as it is conceived by the most learned pious and judicious of the land most Antichristian and attended with more evill then the quire abolishing of Episcopacie can prove hurtfull and of dangerous consequence and that for these reasons and grounds following I. Episcopall Government as it is established in England is a continuation of the height of power and jurisdiction which in the darkest times of Popery the Pope hath usurped by his Bishops and Abbots farre beyond the footing he ever tooke in France Spaine or Germany Therefore what the Authour of the remoÌ„strance alleadgeth of the ancientnesse of Episcopacie and of its continuance hitherto 1500. yeares is vaine and frivalous for the Roman Church upon the same ground or pleading of antitiquitie makes her heresies and abominations warantable II. The Bishops institution and inthronising is altogether repugnant and contrary to the lawes and customes of the Primitive Church and against the constitutions of the Prime Christian Emperours who ordained that the people joyntly with the inferiour Cleargie should present to the Emperour a catalogue of the most pious and learned men of the Diocesse and the man that the Emperour was to pitch upon be invested with the function of a Bishop for proofe thereof reade the constitutions of Charles the great Lewis the godly Gregory the great Gelasius and others III. The height and superiority of place that Bishops hold is one of the greatest reliques of the Popish tyranny in England which is most unfit in Ministers of the Gospel repugnant to the customes of other Nations to the distance yea rather nearenesse of Office and dignity that ought to be betweene Bishops and Ministers It is not heard but in England that Chancellors or Lord Keepers take place after Arch-Bishops while other Ministers are so farre inferiour and distant from them as a Prince from a poore tenant or a high sumptuous palace from a poore thatcht cottage IIII. The Bishops sole exercise of Iurisdiction is such as the like was never heard in any Court of justice and is repugnant to reason and naturall equity and cannot bee but an appendice derived from the sonne of perdition that arrogates to himselfe an unerring sole power The Kings Bench Common-pleas Exchequer are benches of a certaine number of Iudges The Chancellor of England hath an assistance of 12. Masters I would faine know when Christ said dic Ecclesiae if he understood that a Bishop should be a sole ludge within his Diocesse in deciding any litigious cause V. Also the exercising of any Iurisdiction by deputies which is the prerogative of Kings is a monstrous usurpation in the Bishops of England a strange bird hatcht in no court but theirs every judge in any other Court discharging his judiciall function in his own person 'T is no marvell if they that Preach by deputies observe the like practise in keeping of Courts VI. The Bishops jurisdiction entrenching upon the civill Magistrate or Iudge by their jus Pontificium or Canon law which the Pope left them for a legacie such are the causes testamentary and matrimoniall is an usurpation no lesse bad then the former and derogates from the holy power of Ecclesiasticall keyes which Bishops assumed in the prime pure times of the Church VII It were not so much to usurper jurisdiction if the 〈◊〉 lawes were but sound and their legall proceeding just But their High Commission the oath â—x officio the horrible abuse of excommunication the commutations of bodily penance into pecuniary their hinderances of prohibitions stopping the course of law their determining of tithes possessions of livings by a Quare imped it are as many pockie eye-sores which deface the holy calling of Bishops and make them though their first institution had beene of Divine right to be now lesse then of humane institution VIII Their not depending on any free Ecclesisticall assembly is as much or more then the Papists ascribe to the Pope who by many of them is thought inferiour to the councell censurable by it IX Their Visitations are apish and counterfet imitations of the ancient Synods which are degenerated into receits of Custome as paying for Licences Procurations Benevolences Synodalls and the like Nihil est quod curia Episcoporum non vendat c. X. Their Convocations or Synods are little better wher 's deputati sunt deputantes the deputies
used besides we see in the election of the Apostle Matthias not onely the Apostles but the whole congregation which was of 120. had vote and voice Good Lord shall one of few Bishops in our dayes vindicate more to themselves then the Apostles themselves did though the least of the Apostles were better gifted and endowed with more power then all the Bishops of the Christian World put together Now adayes the greatest part of the Church is counted no Church and it remaineth that mens soules should be pinned up within three or foure mens Lawne-sleeves But which is most strange those that quarrell so much about Lay-Elders see not or will not see that what they except against the reformed Churches out of England is even practised in England in the offices of Chancellors Commissaries Officials Registers Apparitors such like Grashoppers with that onely difference that these make a sale of holy things and rend in two the seamelesse coate of Christ they often drawing it one way and the Bishops another way But the Lay-Presbyters so much jeered at by the Remonstrancer both live in good amitie with the Pastors and discharge their places gratis I say more it was never heard in France or in the Low Countries that Lay-Elders did vindicate so much to themselves of the power of the Ecclesiasticall keys as the Bishops Chancellors have of late usurped in pronouncing sentence of excommunication and absolution without the knowledge and against the intent of the Bishop It is also a great wounding of the Kings authority to debarre Lay-men from medling in Churches affaires for who is it that doth not know that our dreadfull King is a Layman and that the Christian Magistrate cannot be kept from having a hand in the administration of the Church without implicitely wounding through their side the head of the Christian Magistrate To support more strongly the governement of the Church in England by Bishops hee bringeth the assent and testimonie of Spanhemius a learned Profession in Geneva I expected the testimonie of many more Divines To which I answer that Spanhemius and many more as Moulin Rivet Chamier had likewise in reverend esteeme Episcopacy in the Church of God and therefore had no reason to condemne Episcopacie or to fall out with the pious learned men that were invested with it such are those yet living Morton Davenant Hall Williams Potter and the incomparable Primate of Ireland who do not stretch their power to the extent of their high Jurisdiction as it is established in England which I make no question is avowed by all the orthodoxe Pastors out of England to be a branch of that kingdome of Antichrist that had taken so deepe root in England This man make Spanhemius more insensible then a stone had hee approved the uncharitablenesse and the bitter venim and foule aspersions that were cast upon the reformed French Churches and particularly upon Geneva by those Bishops and others who lately sate at the sterne of the Churches government The Archbishop Laude hath more then once called Calvin a rascall and the Geneuian lay Presbiters a new fangled devise of Calvin leaving to speake how he vilifies with base termes other Reverend French Divines in his Epistle to the King before the opuscula posthuma of Bishop Andrewes hee gives that report of Peter Moulin that hee is Theol gus non indoctus acutus satis A Diuine not vnlearned and reasonable acute Neither doth he spare his owne as Cranmer and Latimer calling them the Zelotes of Queene Maries daies Bishop Mountague in his Apparatus and else where calles the Geneuians by no other name then Jnnovators and traduceth them and their followers such as Scaliger Paraeus and Caluisius as a packe of Shismatickes and bramelesse rascalls The like dealing have they with Bishop Wren Pierce Manwaring Heylin Pocklington Cousin and the like what charitable encertainement judge ye may Genevâs Church finde among such men since one of the best Bishops of England is reported to have given that judgement of their discipline that it is fit onely for tradesmen and beggers In that the charitie of Spanhemius and others reformed Divines beyond the seas is to be commended that they have not reviled againe those that reviled them and following the example of God saying to Abraham hee would not destroy the whole citie for tens sake they have for the inchoate reformation sake in the Church of England and for the respect they beare to a little number of well deserving Bishops and others passed over the invectives and insolences of that great streame of corrupt men that went currant under the name of the English Church as they have heartily pittied their rage so have they forgiven them their uncharitablenesse Other men that have not been so much interessed in our Churches have not dissembled what they thought of our English Episcopall governement The words of Padre Paulo Sarpio venetian in his Epistle to James Leschasserius Counsellor at Paris in the yeare 1609. are wonderfull remarkable and the more because they are a prediction of what came to passe in England J am afraid in the behalfe of the English of that great power of Bishops though under a King J have it in suspicion when they shall meete with a King of that goodnesse as they will thinke it easie to work upon him or shall have an Archbishop of an high spirit the Royall authoritie shall be wounded and Bishops will aspire to an absolute domination Me thinkes I see a horse sadled in England and J guesse that the old rider shall get on his backe But all these things depend on the Divine Providence Next our Remonstrancer exhorteth with more modestie then reason the high Court not to publish the offences and scandalls of the inferiour Cleargie leaving off verie discreetly to speake off the monstruous enormities of which the superiour Cleargy is guilty Good Lord sir you will give leave to a man that hath beene unjustly gagg'd long at the first libertie given to cry out and complaine of the wrong he hath received or if some sinnes of their nature are crying would you have them kept under ashes that they may afterwards breake with fiercer violence or how can the maladie be cured till it be laid open and searcht to the bottome That the body of this Church is very crasie and sicke wee that are the members smart for it To beginne at the head our Remonstrancer saith it is no marvell if among 12 Apostles there bee one Judas but rather may wee expostulate to our great hearts greife that of 12 rulers of the Church there is hardly one that is right and sound And no wonder if an Antichristian Discipline as I proved afore brings up men whose inside doctrine and life is sutable to the outside The greatest part of Deanes Archdeacons and all those that are comprised under the c. of the oath are gone out of the way The fountaines of learning are poysoned with heresies and infected with Popery of late no other Doctrine but Popish Arminian was licensed to see light no bodie durst call the Pope Antichrist or the Romish Church the false Church and the writings of the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury of Bishop Mountagu the Sermons of Manwaring the bookes of Heylin Pocklington Cosin and the like are flat Popery And no wonder therefore if they maintaine stiffely that the English Church is not separated from the Roman that they both agree in the fundamentall points of Religion The power of Preaching hath beene of late reduced to outward gestures and bowings towards the East or Altar and the mysterie of inquirie which is the good worke in hand of Heylin had got already to a great progresse These being the great maladies of the Church farre be it from that high and just Court not to heare or to smother the grievances of the Churche and by a cruell kindnesse rather let a man be drowned then to take him by the haires for feare of hurting him FINIS