the Kings will interdicts the Realm and the King forc't to suffer it till refusing to Crown Eustace the Kings Son because the Pope had so commanded he flies again Becket's pride and out-ragious treasons are too manifest resigning the Kings gift of his Archbishoprick to receive it of the Pope requiring the Custody of Rochester-castle and the Tower of London as belonging to his Seignorie Protects murthering Priests from Temporal Sword standing stifly for the Liberties and Dignities of Clerks but little to chastise their vices vvhich besides other erying sins vvere above a hundred murthers since Henry the Seconds crowning till that time to maintain vvhich most of the Bishops conspire till the terrour of the King made them shrink but Becket obdures denies that the King of Englands Courts have authority to judge him And thus was this noble King disquieted by an insolent Traitour in habit of a Bishop a great part of his Reigne the Land in uproar many Excommunicate and accursed France and England set to War and the King himself curbed and controlled and lastly disciplin'd by the Bishops and Monks first vvith a bare-foot penance that drevv blood from his feet and lastly with fourscore lashes on his anointed body vvith Rods. In the same Kings time it vvas that the Archbishop of York striving to sit above Canterbury squats him down on his lap vvhence vvith many a cuff he vvas throvvn dovvn Next the pride of W. Longchamp Bishop of Elie was notorious vvho vvould ride vvith a thousand horse and of a Governour in the Kings absence became a Tyrant for vvhich flying in Womans apparel he vvas taken To this succeeds contention betvveen Canterbury and York about carriage of their Crosses and Rome appeal'd to the Bishop of Durham buyes an Earldom No sooner another King but Hubert another Archbishop to vex him and lest that were not enough made Chancellour of England And besides him Ieffery of York who refusing to pay a Subsidy within his Precincts and therefore all his temporalities seaz'd excommunicates the Sheriff beats the Kings Officers and interdicts his whole Province Hubert outbraves the King in Christmass hous-keeping hinders King Iohn by his Legantine power from recovering Normandy After him Stephen Langton set up by the Pope in spite of the King who opposing such an affront falls under an interdict with his whole Land and at the suit of his Archbishop to the Pope is depos'd by Papal Sentence his Kingdom given to Philip the French King Langtons friend and lastly resignes and enfeuds his Crown to the Pope After this tragical Stephen the fray which Boniface the next Archbishop but one had with the Canons of Saint Bartholmews is as pleasant the tearing of Hoods and Cowles the miring of Copes the flying about of Wax Candles and Censors in the scuffle cannot be imagined without mirth as his oathswere loud in this bickering so his curses were as vehement in the contention with the Bishop of Winchester for a slight occasion But now the Bishops had turned their contesting into base and servile flatteries to advance themselves on the ruine of the subjects For Peter de Rupibus Bishop of Winchester persvvading the King to displace English Officers and substitute Poictivines and telling the Lords to their faces that there vvere no Peeres in England as in France but that the King might do what he would and by whom he would became a firebrand to the civill wars that followed In this time Peckam Archbishop of Can. in a Synod was tampering vvith the Kings liberties but being threatened desisted But his successor Winchelsey on occasion of Subsidies demanded of the Clergie made ansvver That having tvvo Lords one Spirituall the other Temporall he ought rather to obey the Spirituall governour the Pope but that he vvould send to the Pope to knovv his pleasure and so persisted even to beggerie The Bishop of Durham also cited by the King flies to Rome In the deposing of this King vvho more forvvard then the Bishop of Hereford vvitnesse his Sermon at Oxford My head my head aketh concluding that an aking and sick head of a King vvas to be taken off vvithout further Physick Iohn the Archbishop of Canterbury suspected to hinder the Kings glorious victories in Flanders and France by stopping the conveyance of monies committed to his charge conspiring therein vvith vvish â—he Pope But not long after vvas constituted that fatall praemunire vvhich vvas the first nipping of their courage to seek aide at Rome And next to that the wide wounds that Wickleffe made in their sides From which time they have been falling and thenceforth all the smoak that they could vomit was turned against the rising light of pure doctrine Yet could not their Pride misse occasion to set other mischief on foot For the Citizens of London rising to apprehend a riotous fervant of the Bishop of Salisbury then Lord Treasurer who with his fellowes stood on his guard in the Bishops house were by the Bishop who maintained the riot of his servant so complained of that the King therewith seized on their liberties and set a Governour over the Citie And who knowes not that Thomas Arundell Archbishop of Canterbury was a chief instrument and agent in deposing King Richard as his actions and Sermon well declares The like intended the Abbot of Westminster to Henry the fourth who for no other reason but because he suspected that the King did not favour the wealth of the Church drew into a most horrible conspiracie the Earles of Kent Rutland and Salisbury to kill the King in a turnament at Oxford who yet notwithstanding was a man that professed to leave the Church in better state then he found it For all this soone after is Richard Scroop Archbishop of York in the field against him the chiefe attractor of the rebellious party In these times Thomas Arundell a great persecutor of the Gospel preached by Wikclefs followers dies a fearfull death his tongue so swelling vvithin his mouth that he must of necessity starve His successor Chickeley nothing milder diverts the King that vvas looking too neerly into the superfluous revenues of the Church to a bloody warre All the famous conquests vvhich Henry the fifth had made in France vvere lost by a civil dissension in England vvhich sprung first from the haughty pride of Beaufort Bishop and Cardinall of Winchester and the Archbishop of York against the Protector Speed 674. In the civill warres the Archbishop sides with the Earle of Warwick and March in Kent Speed 682. Edward the Fourth Mountacute Archbishop of York one of the chiefe conspirators with Warwick against Edward the fourth and afterwards his Jaylor being by Warwicks treason committed to this Bishop In Edward the Fifths time the Archbishop of York was though perhaps unwittingly yet by a certain fate of
kinde of creatures they were and say Nature had forgot her self and brought forth a monster so if these holy Martyrs that once so reverently used the Liturgy should revive and look for their Letany stampt by Authority of Parliament they would be amazed and wondering say England had forgotten her self and brought forth c. Martyrs what doe we speak of Martyrs when we know Sir that one of your own Bishops said it in the hearing of many not so long since but you may well remember it That the Service of the Church of England was now so drest that if the Pope should come and see it he would claime it as his own but that it is in English It is little then to the advantage of your cause that you tell us it is translated into other languages and as little service have they done to the Church of England who have taught our Prayers to speak Latine again For if it be their Language chiefly that overthrows the Popes claime take away that and what hinders then but the Pope may say these are mine As for other Translations and the great applause it hath obtained from forraigne Divines which are the fumes this Remonstrant venditates what late dayes have produced we know not but the great lights of Former ages have been farre from this applauding we are sure judicious Calvin saith that in the Liturgy there are sundry Tolerabiles Ineptiae which we think is no very great applause To vindicate this Liturgy from scorne as he calls it at home or by your Honours aide to reinforce it upon the Nation is the work of his Remonstrance for the effecting whereof he falls into an unparallell'd discourse about the Antiquity of Liturgies we call it unparalleld because no man that we have seen ever drew the line of Liturgy so high as he hath done Concerning which if by Liturgy this Remonstrant understand an Order observed in Church assemblies of Praying reading and expounding the Scriptures Administring Sacraments c Such a Liturgy we know and doe acknowledge both Iews and Christians have used But if by Liturgy he understand prescribed and stinted formes of Administration Composed by some particular men in the Church and imposed upon all the rest as this he must understand or else all he saith is nothing we desire and expect that those formes which he saith are yet extant and ready to be produced might once appeare Liturgy of this former sort we finde in Iustine Martyr and Tertullian But that there were not such stinted Liturgies as this Remonstrant disputes for appeares by Tertullian in his Apol. Cap. 30. where he saith the Christians of those times did in their publike assemblies pray sinâ— monitore quia de pectore without any Prompter but their own hearts And that so it should be the same Father proves in his Treatise de Oratione Sunt quae petantar c. There are some things to be asked according to the occasions of every man the lawfull and ordinary prayer that is the Lords prayer being laid as a foundation It is lawfull to build upon that foundation other prayers according to every ones occasions And to the same purpose St. Austin in his 121. Ep. liberum est c. it is free to aske the same things that are desired in the Lords Prayer aliis atque aliis verbis sometimes one way and sometimes another And before this in that famous place of Iust. Mar. Apo. 2. He who instructed the peeple prayed according to his ability Nor was this liberty in prayer taken away and set and imposed formes introduced untill the time that the Arian and Pelagian Heresies did invade the Church and then because those Hereticks did convey and spread their poyson in their formes of Prayer and Hymnes the Church thought it convenient to restraine the liberty of making and using publique forms And first it ordained that none should pray pro Arbitrio sed semper eaedem preces that none should use liberty to vary in prayer but use alwaies the same forme Conc. Laod. Can. 18. yet this was a forme of his own composing as appears by another Canon wherein it was ordered thus None should use any forme unlesse he had first conferred Cum fratribus instructioribus with the more learned of his brethren Conc. Carth. 3â— Can. 23. and lastly that none should use set 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 enquirers after them would have presented them to the world ere this We know that Bishop Andrewes in his zeale for Liturgies pursued the enquiry after the Iewish Liturgy 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 soon discovered to have been made long after the Jewes ceased to be the Church of God and so himself supprest it that it never saw the light under a translation We wonder therefore what this Remonstrant meant to affirm 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 dayes of our Saviour have borrowed some expressions from that Prayer and from other Evangelical passages But we never read till now that the Lord Christ the wisdome of the Father borrowed from the Wisdome of the Rabines 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 himself 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 read 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 vocal but mental Prayers as Master Meade tells us in his exposition upon the eighth of the Revelations And whatever Peter and Iohn did this we know that when the Publican and the Pharisee went up to the Temple to pray as the Apostle 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 Jewish Liturgies then the Evangelical Church might better have improved her peace and happinesse then in composing Models of
Canon we have the unanimous vote of two hundred and fourteen Bishops declaring that the power of Ordination is in the hands of Presbyters as well as Bishops And whereas it may be objected that Hierome and Chrysostome affirming Bishops to differ from Presbyters in the power of Ordination seem to imply that that power is soly theirs Here wee desire it may be observed First that these Fathers put all the difference that lies betweene Bishops and Presbyters to be in point of Ordination Quid facit Episcopus quod non facit Presbyter exceptá Ordinatione And therefore Chrysostome himselfe confesseth that in his days there was litle or no difference between a Bishop and a Presbyter Inter Episcopum presbyterum interest fermè nihil c. Secondly That this difference is not so to he understood as if these Fathers did hold it to be by divine right as Bellarmin and our Episcopal men would make us beleeve but by a humane constitution And therefore they do not speak De jure but de facto Quid facit c. not quid debet facere And this Hierom confesseth So Leo prim ep 88. upon complaints of unlawful Ordinations writing to the Germane and French Bishops reckons up what things are reserved to the Bishops among which he set down Presbyterorum Diaconorum consecratio and then addes Quae omnia solis deberi summis Pontificibus Authoritate Canonam praecipitur So that for this power of Ordination they are more beholden to the Canon of the Church then to the Canon of Gods Word Thirdly we answer that this very humane difference was not in the Primitive Antiquity It was not so in Cyprians time as we even now shewed And when it did prevaile it was but a particular custome and sometimes usurpation of some Churches For it was otherwise appointed in the Councel of Carthage and in Egypt and other places as is declared in the former part of this Section and even in Chrysostomes time it was so little approved of that it was one great accusation against Chrysostome himselfe That he made Ordinations without the Presbytery and without the consent of his Clergy this is quoted by Bishop Downam lib. 1. cap. 8. pag. 176. SECT IX NOâ— had the Bishops of former times more right to the power of sole Iurisdiction then of sole Ordination And here we have Confitentem reum our very Adversaries confess the Votes of Antiquity are with us Cyprian professeth that he would do nothing without the Clergy nay he could do nothing without them nay he durst not take upon him alone to determine that which of right did belong to all and had he or any other done so the fourth Councel of Carthage condemns the Sentence of the Bishop as Irritanisi Clericorum sententiâ confirmetur Would ye know the particulars wherein the Bishops had no power of Judicature without their Presbyters First in judging and censuring Presbyters themselves and their Doctrine For this the Canon Law in Gratian is full and cleare Episcopus non potest Iudicare Presbyterum vel Diaconum sine Synodo Senioribus Thus Basill counselled and practised epist. 75. So Ambr. lib. 10. epist. 80. Cyril in epist. ad Iohannem Antiochen Thus Gregory ad Iohan. Panor mitan lib. 11. epist. 49. Secondly in judging of the conversation or crimes of any of the members of the Church Penes Presbyteros est Disciplina quae facit homines meliores That Discipline that workes emendation in men is in the power of the Elders And therefore when any was questioned in point of conversation he was brought saith Tertullian into the Congregation where were Exhortations Castigations and Divine censures And who had the chiefe stroke in these Censures he tells us after President probati quique seniores All the approved Elders sit as Presidents And those censures that passed by the whole Presbytery were more approved by the Church in ancient times then such as were passed by one man for we finde that when Syagrius and Ambrose passed Sentence in the same case the Church was unsatisfied in the Sentence of Syagrius because he past it sine alicujus fratris consilio without the counsel or consent of any of his Brethren But were pacified with the sentence of Saint Ambrose because saith he Hoc Iudicium Nostrum cum fratribus consacerdotibus participatum processerit Nor was there any kinde of censures that the Bishops did administer alone Admonitions were given by the Elders Augustine tells us the Elders did admonish such as were offenders to the same purpose speakes Origen contra Celsum Lib. 3. So excommunication though that being the dreadfullest thunder of the Church and as Tertullian calls it sumntum praejudicium futuri Iudicij the great fore-runner of the Judgement of God was never vibrated but by the hand of those that laboured in the Word and Doctrine yet was no one man in the Church invested with this power more then another Therefore saith Hierom Presbytero si peccavero licet me tradere satanae in interitum carnis If I sinne a Presbyter not a Bishop only may deliver me to Satan to the destruction c. where the Reader may please to take notice that Saint Hierom speakes not of one particular Presbyter but of the Order of Presbyters The same S. Hierom saith againe Sunt quos Ecclesia reprehendit quos interdum abijcit in quos non nunquam Episcoporum Clericorum censura desaevit There be some whom the Church reproves and some which she casts out against whom the censures of Bishops and Presbyters sharply proceed where we see the Censures whereby wicked men were cast out of the Church were not in the sole hands of the Bishops but likewise in the hands of Presbyters Syricius Bishop of Rome signifies to the Church of Millaine that Iovinianus Auxentius c. were cast out of the Church for ever and he sets down how they did it Omnium Nostrum tam Presbyterorum quam Diaconâ—rum quam totius etiam cleri sciscitata fuit sententia There was a concurrence of all Presbyters Deacons and the whole Clergy in that sentence of Excommunication The truth herein may be further evidenced by this because the whole Clergy as well as the Bishops imposed hands upon such as repenting were absolved Nec ad communicationem saith Cyprian venire quis possit nisi prius ab Episcopo Clero Manus illi fuerit imposita No man that hath been excommunicated might returne to Church-Communion before hands had been laid upon him by the Bishop and Clergy Also writing to his Clergy concerning lapsed Christians he tells them Exomologesi facta manu eis à vobis in poenitentiam impositâ c. that after confession and the laying on their hands they might be commended unto God so when certaine returning from their heresie were to be received into the Church at Rome in the time
words of truth and confidence yet how little truth there is in his great confidence the ensuing discourse shall discover His very words are confident enough and yet as false as confident wherein he Impropriates all honesty unto these his Papers and brands all others with the name of Libellers and yet himselfe sinnes deeply against the rule of honesty and lies naked to the scourge of his own censure First in setting a brand upon all writings that have lately issued from the presse as if they had forgotten to speak any other language then Libellous it seems himselfe had forgotten that some things had issued by authority of the King and Parliament Secondly in taxing implicitely all such as wil not own this Remonstrance for theirs as none of the peaceable and wel-affected Sons of the Church of England Thirdly in censuring the way of petitioning your Honours the ancient and ordinary free way of seeking redresse of our evils for a Tumultuary under-hand way Fourthly in condemning all such as are not fautors of this Episcopal Cause as none of his Majesties good Subjects engrossing that praise onely to his own party saying The eyes of us the good Subjects of this whole Realme are fixed upon your Successe c. Fifthly in Impropriating to the same party the praise of Orthodox pag. 6. as if to speak a word or think a thought against Episcopacy were no lesse Heresie then it was in former time to speak against the Popes supremacy or the monkes fat belly whereas whether the Episcopall part be the Orthodox peaceable wel-affected part and his Majesties only good Subjects we leave to your Honours to Judge upon the numerous informations that flow in unto you from the several parts of this Kingdome Nor can they decline your Judgement seeing now you are through Gods blessing happily met in a much longed for Parliament but whither so much longed for by him and his accomplices as by those against whom he whets his Style the prayers that have obtained this happy meeting and the praises that doe attend it will decide in that great day The Helena whose Champion this Remonstrant chiefely is is that Government which he calls Sacred viz. that Government by Arch-Bishops Bishops Deanes Archdeacons c. which saith he through the sides of some misliked persons some have endeavoured to wound Misliked Persons and why not offending persons why not guilty persons when this Honourable house hath found just cause to charge some of them with crimes of the highest nature Our zeale for your Honours makes us feare lest your assembly should suffer in this word as if your proceedings against such persons should be grounded upon compliance with such as doe mislike them rather then upon their own demerits or the Justice of this Court But whatever those Persons be the Government it self is Sacred which by the joynt confession of all reformed Divines derives it self from the times of the blessed Apostles without any interruption without contradiction of any one congregation in the world unto this present age This is but an Episcopall Bravado therefore we let it passe till we come to close and contend with him in the point where we shall demonstrate that in the compasse of three lines he hath packt up as many untruths as could be smoothly couched in so few words as any man of common understanding that lookes upon the face of the Government of almost all reformed Churches in the Christian world may at first view discover But before we come to this there are yet two things in this Preface which we count not unworthy observation The First is the comparison which he makes between the two Governments the Civil which with us is Monarchy and the sacred which with him is Episcopaey Of the first he saith if Antiquity may be the Rule as he pleades it for Episcopacy or if Scripture as he interprets Scripture it is VARIABLE and ARBITRARY but the other DIVINE and VNALTERABLE so that had men petitioned for the altering of Monarchicall Government they had in his Judgement been lesse culpable both by Scripture and Antiquity then in petitioning the alteration of the Hierarchicall Had he found but any such passage in any of his Lewd Libellers as his modesty is alwayes pleased to terme them certainly if we may borrow his own phrase the eares of the three Interessed Kingdomes yea all the neigbbour Churches and if we may say the whole Christian world and no small part beyond it had run with the loud cryes of no lesse then Treason Treason Truth is in his Antiquity we finde that this his uninterrupted sacred Government hath so farre invaded the Civil and so yoked Monarchy even in this Kingdome as Malmesbury reports That William Rufus oppressed by Bishops perswaded the Jewes to confute them promising thereupon to turne England to their Religion that he might be free of Bishops And this is so natural an effect of unalterable Episcopacy that Pius the fourth to the Spanish Embassador importuning him to permit Bishops to be declared by the Councel of Trent to be Iure Divino gave this answer That his King knew not what he did desire for if Bishops should be so declared they would be all exempted from his Power and as independent as the Pope himself The second thing observable is the comparison he makes between the late Alterations attempted in our Neighbour Church by his Episcopal faction and that Alteration that is now justly desired by the humble Petitioners to this Honourable House The one being attempted by strangers endeavoring violently to obtrude Innovations upon a setled Church and State The other humbly petitioned to the Heads and Princes of our State by Multitudes therein almost ruined by an Innovating Faction yet doth not this Remonstrant blush to say if these be branded so he calls the just censures of this Honourable House for Incendiaries how shall these Boutefeux escape c. thus cunningly indeavouring either to justifie the former by the practise of the latter or to render the latter more odious then the former The attempts of these men whom he would thus render odious he craves leave to present to your Honours in two things which are the subjects of this quarrel The Liturgy and Episcopacy and we humbly crave your Honours leave in both to answer SECT II. FIrst the Liturgy of the Church of England saith he hath been hitherto esteemed sacred reverently used by holy Martyrs daily frequented by devout Protestants as that which more then once hath been confirmed by the Edicts of religious Princes and your own Parliamentary Acts c. And hath it so whence then proceed these many Additions and Alterations that have so changed the face and fabrick of the Liturgy that as Dr. Hall spake once of the pride of England if our fore-fathers should revive and see their daughters walking in Cheapside with their fannes and farthingales c. they would wonder what
Invocation and Thanksgiving when there is one extant and ready to be produced that was constantly used by Gods people ever since Moses dayes and put over to the times of the Gospel and confirmed by Apostolical 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. years for rejecting those Liturgies that are confessed 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 wee who needed not have composed forms 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 conclusiâ—n as this Remonstrant doth and in that Conclusion forget the state of the controversie sliding from the question of a prescribed and imposed Liturgy to an arbitrary book of prayer In his Rhetorical Encomium of conceived prayer we 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 soloecismes 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 sounded as meer Battologies nay no better then meer Blasphemies in the eares 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 himself with that spirit then are those possest that have not onely 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 abjure 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 then for our Churches But howsoever this applause of conceived prayer may seem to be Cordial yet he makes it but a vantage ground to lift up publike formes of sacred Church Liturgy as he calls it the higher that they may have the greater honour that by the power of your authority they be reinforced which work there would have been no need to call your Honours to had not Episcopal zeal 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 re-establish 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 Original and Confirmation of our Liturgy 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 Liturgy is wholly taken out of the Romane Missal onely 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 original 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 he pleads not a few that have called them Traitors rather then Martyrs and Deformers rather then Reformers of our Religion His other Argument for the Liturgy is taken from that supply of strength it hath received from the recommendation of foure most Religious Princes and your own Parliamentary establishments and more especially from the Proclamation of King James of famous memory the validity of which plea your Honours are best able to judge and therefore we leave it at your Bar yet these two things we know first that this forme was never established to be so punctually observed so rigorously pressed to the casting out of all that scruple it or any thing in it as many of his Majesties Subjects now doe to the almost justling out of the preaching of the Word and Conceived Prayer altogether And secondly as sure we are that your Honours think neither your own Lawes nor the Proclamation of that most famous and ever admired Prince to be as unalterable as the Lawes of the Medes and Persians And now having briefly shewed that Liturgies are not of that antiquity that this Remonstrant pretends but that conceived prayer was in use in the Church of God before Liturgies and is justified from their own mouthes and not to be found fault with by any but a gracelesse man and having likewise shewed that our Liturgy was taken out of Models not onely Christian but Romane and had since the first compiling of it suffered alteration to the worse and though established by Law and confirmed by Proclamation was never intended to the justling out either of preaching or conceived prayer these things declared we humbly crave your Honours leave to propound these two Queries QUERE I. Whether it be not fit to consider of the alteration of the present Liturgy First because it symbolizeth so much with the Popish Masse as that the Pope himself was willing to have it used if he might but confirme it It was made and composed into this frame on purpose to bring the Papists to our Churches which we finde to be with so little successe as that it hath rather brought many of us to them then any of them to us and hath lost many of ours from us Because many things therein contained are stumbling blocks before the feet of many such as these the clogging it with Ceremonies and the often and impertinent reiterating of the Lords Prayer the ill translation of the Psalmes and other Scriptures the many phrases in the very prayers which are liable to just exception And whereas the Minister by the Scripture is the peoples mouth to God this
book prescribes Responsories to be said by the people some of which are unsutable to what the Minister pronounceth some of them seem to savour of Tautology some are made to be so essential to the prayer as that all which the Minister saith is no prayer without them as in the Letany Because it is so much Idolized as that it is accounted the only worship of God in England and is now made the upholder of a non-preaching Ministry and is cryed up to that height as that some are not ashamed to say that the wit of men and Angels cannot mend it and that it is a sufficient discharge of the Ministers duty to read this Book There are such multitudes of people that distaste this book that unlesse it be altered there is no hope of any mutual agreement between Gods Ministers and their people There is such a vast difference between it and the Liturgies of all other reformed Churches as that it keepes them at a distance from us and us from full Communion with them QUERE II. Whether the first reformers of Religion did ever intend the use of a Liturgy further then to be an help in the want or to the weaknesse of a Minister All other reformed Churches though they use Liturgies yet doe no binde their Ministers to the use of them A Rubrick in King Edwards book left it unto the discretion of the Minister what and how much to read when there was a Sermon The Homilies which are appointed to be read are left free either to be read or not by preaching Ministers and why not then theLiturgy especially considering that the ability to offer up the peoples wants to God in prayer is part of the Ministerial office as well as preaching And if it can be thought no lesse then sacriledge to rob the people of the Ministers gift in preaching and to tye them to Homilies it can be no lesse to deprive them of their gift in prayer The ground of the first binding of it upon all to use was not to tye godly men from exercising their gift in prayer but the old Popish Priests that by a seeming returne to our Religion did through indulgence retaine their places from returning to the old Masse That which makes many refuse to be present at our Church service is not onely the Liturgy it self but the imposing of it upon Ministers And we finde no way to recover our people to a stinted prayer but by leaving it free to use or not to use If it be objected that this will breed divisions and disturbances in Churches unlesse there be a uniformity and that there are many unable It hath not bred any disturbance in other reformed Churches Why should the free liberty of using or not using a Liturgy breed more confusion then the free liberty of reading or not reading Homilies especially when Ministers shall teach people not to condemne one another in things indifferent If there be a care taken in those that have the power to make Ministers to choose men gifted as well for prayer as preaching there cannot be conceived how any inconvenience should follow Or if afterwards it should appeare that any Minister should prove insufficient to discharge the duty of prayer in a conceived way it may be imposed on him as a punishment to use set forms and no other But why any Minister that hath the gift of prayer in an abundant measure as well as of preaching should be hindered from exercising his gift well because another useth it ill is a new Divinity never heard of in Gods Church till Bishop Wrens dayes who forbad all use of conceived prayer in the Church SECT III. WE come now with your Honours favour to the second point disputed in this Remonstrance Episcopacy it selfe against which whatsoever hath been either spoken or written by any either learned Divines or well-reformed Churches as his conscience knows there are of both that have writ against it is Taxed by him as no other then the unjust Clamors either of weak or factious persons Sure the man thinkes he hath obtained a Monopoly of learning and all Knowledge is lockt up in his bosome and not onely Knowledge but piety and peaceablenesse too for all that are not of his opinion must suffer either as weak or factious if he may be their Judge We know not what this Arrogancy might attempt to fasten upon your Honours should the bowels of your compassion be enlarged to weigh in the Ballance of your wisedomes the multitude of Humble petitions presented to you from several parts of this Kingdome that hath long groaned under the Iron and Insupportable yoake of this Episcopal Government which yet we doubt not but your Honours will please to take into your prudent and pious consideration Especially knowing it is their continual practise to loade with the odious names of Faction all that justly complaine of their unjust oppression In his addresse to his defence of Episcopacy he makes an unhappy confession that he is confounded in himselfe Your Honours may in this believe him for he that reades this remonstrance may easily observe so many falsities and contradictions though presented to publike view with a face of confident boldnesse as could not fall from the Pen of any but self-confounded man which though we doubt not but your Honours have descryed yet because they are hid from an errant and unobserving eye under the Embroyderies of a silken Language we Humbly crave your Honours leave to put them one by one upon the file that the world may see what credit is to be given to the bold assertions of this confident Remonstrant First in his second page he dubs his book the faithful messenger of all the peaceable and right affected sons of the Church of England which words besides that unchristian Theta which as we already observed they set upon all that are not of his party carry in the bowels of them a notorious falsity and contradiction to the phrase of the book for how could this book be the mâ—ssâ—nger of all his own party in England when it is not to be imagined that all could know of the coming forth of this book before it was published and how can that book crave admittance in all their names that speakes in the singular number and as in the person of one man almost tht whole book thorow But it may be some will say this is but a small slip well be it so but in the seventh page he layes it on in four lines asserting these four things First that Episcopall Government that very same Episcopal Government which some he saith seeke to wound that is Government by Diocesan Bishops derives it self from the Apostles times which though we shall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more fully confute anon yet we cannot here but rank it among his notorious for how could there be such Government of a Diocesse by a Bishop derived from the Apostles times when
Truth and not Custome and Custome withou Truth is a mouldy error and as Sir Francis Bacon saith Antiquity without Truth is a Cypher without a Figure Yet had this Remonstrant been as well versed in Antiquity as he would bear the world in hand he hath he might have found Learned Ancients affirming there was a Time when the Church was not governed by Bishops but by Presbyters And when by Bishops he might further have seen more affinity between our Bishops and the Pope of Rome then between the Primitive Bishops and them And that as King Iames of famous memory said of the Religion of England that it differed no more from Rome then Rome did from what it was at first may as truly be said of Bishops that we differ no more from them then they do from what Bishops were when first they were raised unto this eminency which difference we shall shew in our ensuing Discourse to be so great that as he said of Rome he did Roman in Roma quaerere he sought Rome in Rome so wee Episcopatum in Episcopatu may go seek for a Bishop among all our Bishops And whereas in his application of this Argument to the Bishops of this Nation he saith It hath continued in this Island ever since the first plantation of the Gospel without contradiction which is his Second in this Argument How false this is we have declared already and we all know and himselfe cannot but know that there is no one thing since the râ—formation that hath met with so much Contradiction as Episcopacy hath done witness the several Books written in the Reigns of our several Princes and the many Petitions exhibited to our several Parliaments and the many speeches made therein againg Episcopal Government many of which are yet extant As for that supply of Accessory strength which he begs to this Argument from the light of nature and the rules of just policy which saith he teacheth us not easily to give way to the change of those things which long use and many Laws have firmly established as Necessary and Beneficial it is evident that those things which to former Ages have seemed Necessary and Beneficial may to succeeding Generations prove not Necessary but Noxious not Beneficial but Burthensome And then the same light of nature and the same just policy that did at the first command the establishment of them may and will perswade their Abolishment if not either our Parliaments must never Repeale any of their former Acts which yet they have justly and wisely done or else in so doing must run Counter to the light of nature and the Rules of just policy which to think were an impiety to be punished by the Judge SECT V. THe Second Argument for the defence of Episcopal Government is from the Pedigree of this holy Calling which he derives from no less then an Apostolical and in that right divine institution and assayes to prove it from the practice of the Apostles and as he saith the clear practice of their Successors continued i' Christs Church to this very day And to this Argument he so much confides that he concludes it with this Triumphant Epiphonema What scruple can remain in any ingenuous heart And determins if any continue yet unsatisfied it is in despight of reason and all evidence of History and because he wilfully shuts his eyes with a purpose not to see the light Bona verba By your favour Sir we will tell you notwithstanding the supposed strength of your argumentation there is one scruple yet remaining and if you would know upon what ground it is this because we find in Scripture which by your own confession is Oâ—iginal Authority that Bishops and Presbyters were Originally the same though afterwards they came to be distinguished and in process of time Episcopacy did swallow up all the honor and power of the Presbytery as Pharaoh's lean Kine did the fat Their Identity is discernable first from the same names given unto both secondly from the same office designed unto both in Scripture As for the names are not the same names given unto both in Sacred Writ Let the fifth sixth and seventh verses of the first Chapter to Titus testifie in the fifth verse the Apostle shews that he left Titus in Creet to ordain Elders in every City in the sixth verse he gives a delineation of the persons that are capable of such Ordination and in the seventh the Reason why the person to be ordained must be so qualified for a Bishop c. Now if the Bishop and Elder be not here the same but names of distinct office and order the Apostles reason rendred in the seventh verse of his direction in the fifth and sixth verses is with reverence be it spoken inconsequential and his demand unjust If a Chancellor in one of the Universities should give order to his Vice-Chancellor to admit none to the degree of Batchelour in Arts but such as were able to preach or keep a Divinity Act For Batchelours in Divinity must be so what reason or equity were in this So if Paul leaving Titus as his Lecum tenens as it were in Creet for a season should give order to him not to admit any to be an Elder but one thus and thus qualified because a Bishop must be so had a Bishop been an Order or Calling distinct from or superior to a Presbyteâ— and not the same this had been no more rational or equal then the former therefore under the name of Bishop in the seventh verse the Apostle intends the Elder mentioned in the fifth verse Consonant to this is the Language of the same Apostle Acts. 20. v. 17.18 where such as in 17. verse he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Elders in the 18. he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in ordinary English Bishops though our Translation there we know not for what reason reads it Overseers not so rendring the word in any other Text. And though this Remonstrant undertakes to shew a clear and received distinction of Bishops Presbyters Deacons as three distinct subordinate Callings in Gods Church with an evident specification of the duty charge belonging to each of them or else let this claimed Hierarchy be for ever hooted out of the Church Yet let us tell him that we never find in Scripture these three Orders Bishops Presbyters and Deacons mentioned together but onely Bishops and Deacons as Phil. 1. and 1. Tim. Nor do we find in Scripture any Ordination to the office of a Bishop differing from the Ordination of an Elder Nor do we find in Scripture the specification of any Duty charged upon a Bishop that Elders are secluded from Nor any qualification required in a Bishop that is not requisite in every Presbyter some of whâ—ch if not all would be found were they not the same But if this Remonstrant think to help himselfe by taking Sanctuary in Antiquity though we would gladly rest in Scripture the Sanctuary of
the Lord yet we will follow him thither and there shew him that Hierome from the Scriptures proves more then once Presbyters and Bishops to be the same And Chrysostome in Philip. 1. Homil. 2. with his admirer Theophilact in Philip. 1. affirms that while the Apostles lived the names of Bishops and Presbyters were not distinguished and not onely while the Apostles lived but in after ages Doth not Irenaeus use the name of Bishops and Presbyters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a promiscuous sense Are not Anicetus Pius Hyginus Telesphorus Sixtus whom the Papists call Bishops and the Popes predecessors termed by Eusebius Presbyters Nor was it strange in the Primitive times to hear Bishops called Presbyters when Presbyters writing to their Bishop have called him Frater So Cyprian Epist. 26. in the beginning is stiled by his Presbyters Deacons and Confessors nor was that holy Martyr offended with that title nor they condemned of insolency that used it But what should we burthen your patience with more testimonies when the evidence of this truth hath shined with so strong a beam that even our Adversaries have stooped to it and confessed that their Names were the same in the Apostles time But yet say they the Offices were distinct Now here we would gladly know what these men make the distinct Office of a Bishop Is it to edifie the Church by Word and Sacrament is it to ordain others to that work is it to rule to govern by admonition and other censures if any of these if all these make up the proper worke of a Bishop we can prove from Scripture that all these belong unto the Presbytery which is no more then was granted by a Councel For the first Edifying of the Church by word and Sacraments though we feare they will some of them at least scarce own this as their proper worke for some have been cited into the High Commissision for saying it belongs to them yet Sir we are sure Scripture makes it a part a chiefe of the Episcopal office for so in the 1 Pet. 5.2 they are said to doe the work of a Bishop when they do feed the flock of God And this is such a work as we hope their Lordships will give the poor Presbyters leave to share with them in or if not we will tell them that the Apostle Peter in that forecited place and the Apostle Paul Acts. 20. binds this work upon our hands and Woe unto us if we preach not the Gospel But this branch of Episcopal and Presbyterial office we passe with brevity because in this there lies not so much controversie as in the next which they doe more wholly Impropriate to themselves the power of Ordination Which power that it was in former times in the hands of Presbyters appeares 1 Tim. 4.14 Neglect not the gift which was given thee by Prophesie and by the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery The gift here spoken of is the Ministerial gift the exercise whereof the Apostle exhorts Timothy not to neglect which saith he he had received not by the laying on of the hands of one single man whether Apostle or Bishop or Presbyter but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Presbytery that is the whole company of Presbyters for in that sense onely we finde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taken in Scripture as in Luke 22. vers 66. Act. 22. vers 5. which the Christian Church called the Ecclesiastical Senate as Ierom in Isay 3. Nos habemus in Ecclesia Senatum nostrum Coetum Presbyterorum an Apostolical Senate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignatius Epis ad Magnes and some times 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Concil Ancyr Can. 18. And though the Apostle in his second Epistle to Tim. 1.6 makes mention of the laying on of his hands yet to maintaine the Harmony of Scripture it must not be denied but there was imposition of hands by the Presbytery as wel as by himself and so it was a joynt act So that in this there is no more difference then in the former And if there be no difference between Presbyters in feeding or ordaining let us see if there be any in the third part of their office of Ruling which though our Bishops assume wholly to themselves yet we shall discover that it hath been committed to and exercised by Presbyteriall hands For who are they of whom the Scripture speakes Heb. 13.17 Obey them that have the Rule over you for they watch for your soules as they that must give an account c. Here all such as watch over the souls of Gods people are intituled to rule over them So that unlesse Bishops will say that they onâ—ly watch over the souls of Gods people and are only to give an account for them they cannot challenge to themselves the sole rule over them And if the Bishopâ— can give us good security that they will acquit us from giving up our account to God for the souls of his people we will quit our plea and resigne to them the sole rule over thâ—m So againe in the 1 Thessa. 5.12 Know them which labour amongst you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you In which words are contained these truthes First that in one Church for the Thessalonions were but one Church 1 Ca. there was not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not one chiefe Bishop or President but the Presidency was in many Secondly that this Presidency was of such as laboured in the word and Doctrine Thirdly that the Censures of the Church were managed not by one but by them all in Communi Them that admonish you Fourthly that there was among them a Parity for the Apostle bids know them in an indifferency not discriminating one from another yea such was the rule that Elders had that S. Peter thought it needful to make an exhortation to them to use their power with Moderation not Lording it over Gods Heritage 1 Pet. 5.3 By this time we have sufficiently proved from Scripture that Bishops and Presbyters are the same in name in Office in Edifying the Church in power of Ordination and Jurisdiction we sum up all that hath been spoken in one argument They which have the same Name the same Ordination to their Office the same qualification for their Office the same worke to feed the flock of God to ordaine pastors and Elders to Rule and Governe they are one and the same Office but such are Bishops and Presbyters Ergo. SECT VI. BUt the dint of all this Scripture the Remonstrant would elude by obtruding upon his reader a commentary as he calls it of the Apostles own practise which he would force to contradict their own rules to which he superadds the unquestionable glosse of the cleare practise of their immediate successors in this administration For the Apostles practice we have already discovered it from the Apostles own writings and for his Glosse he superadds if it corrupts
them SECT XIII But it seemes our Remonstrant soared above these times even as high as the Apostles dayes for so he saith If our Bishops challenge any other spiritual power then was by Apostolike Authority delegated to and required of Timothy and Titus and the Angels of the seven Asian Churches let them be DISCLAIMED as VSVRPERS And the truth is so they deserve to be if they doe but challenge the same power that the Apostle did delegate to Timothy and Titus for Timothy and Titus were Evangelists and so moved in a Sphere above Bishops or Presbyters For Timothy it is cleare from the letter of the Text 2 Tim. 4.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Doe the work of an Evangelist if Timothy had been but a Presbyter or Bishop Paul had here put him upon imployment Vltra Sphaeram Activitatis And to any man that will but understand and consider what the Office of an Evangelist was and wherein it differed from the Office of a Presbyter or Bishop it will be manifest that Timothy and Titus were Evangelists and no Bishops for the title of Evangelist is taken but two wayes either for such as wrote the Gospel and so we doe not affirme Timothy and Titus to be Evangelists or else for such as taught the Gospel and those were of two sorts either such as had ordinary places and ordinary gifts or such whose places and gifts were extraordinary and such Evangelists were Timothy and Titus and not Bishops as will appeare if we consider what was the Difference between the Evangelists and Bishops Bishops or Presbyters were tyed to the particular care and tuition of that flock over which God had made them Overseers Acts 20.28 But Evangelists were not tyed to reside in one particular place but did attend upon the Apostles by whose appointment they are sent from place to place as the necessity of the Churches did require As appeares first in Timothy whom Saint Paul besought to abide at Ephesus 1. Tim. 1.3 which had beene needlesse importunity if Timothy had the Episcopall that is the Pastorall charge of Ephesus committed to him by the Apostles for then he might have laid as dreadful a Charge upon him to abide at Ephesus as he doth to Preach the Gospel But so far was Paul from setling Timothy in Cathedrâ in Ephesus that he rather continually sends him up and down upon all Church-services for we finde Acts. 17.14 that when Paul fled from the tumults of Berea to Athens he left Silas and Timothy behinde him who afterwards comming to Paul to Athens Paul sends Timothy from Athens to Thessalonica to confirm the Thessalonians in the faith as appears 1 Thes. 3.1.2 from whence returning to Paul to Athens again the Apostle Paul before he left Athens and went to Corinth sent him and Silas into Macedonia who returned to him again to Corinth Act. 18.5 afterwards they travelled to Ephesus from whence we read Paul sent Timothy and Erastus into Macedonia Act. 19.22 wither Paul went after them and from whence they and divers other Breathren journied into Asia Acts 20.4 All which Breathren Paul calls as it is probable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the messengers of the Churches 2. Cor. 8.23 And being thus accompanied with Timothy and the rest of the Bretheren he comes to Miletum and calls the Elders of the Church of Ephesus thither to him of which Church had Timothy been Bishop the Apostle in stead of giving the Elders a charge to feed the flock of Christ would have given that charge to Timothy and not to them And secondly the Apostle would not so have forgotten himself as to call the Elders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before their Bishops face Thirdly It is to be conceived the Apostles would have given them some directions how to carry themselves towards their Bishop but not a word of this though Timothy were then in Pauls presence and in the presence of the Elders The cleare evidence of which Text demonstrates that Paul did not leave Timothy at this time as Bishop of Ephesus But it is rather evident that he took him along with him in his journey to Hierusalem and so to Rome for we find that those Epistles Paul wrote while he a prisoner bear either in their inscription or some other passage of them the name of Timothy as Pauls companion viz. The Epistle to the Philippians Câ—lossians Hebrewes Philemon which Epistles he wrote in bonds as the contexture which those two learned professors the one at Heydelburg the other at Saulmur make of Saint Pauls Epistles doth declare So that it appears that Timothy was no Bishop but a Minister an Evangelist a fellow labourer of the Apostles 1 Thes. 3.1 an Apostle a Messenger of the Church 2 Cor. 8.3 a Minister of God 1 Thes. 3.2 these titles the Holy Ghost gives him but never the title of a Bishop The like we finde in Scripture concerning Titus whom Paul as it is conceived by learned men did first assume into the fellowship of his Labors in the place of Iohn and made him his companion in his journy through Antioch to Hierusalem so we find Gal. 2.1 from thence returning to Antioch againe from thence he passed through Syria and Cilicia confirming the Churches and from Cilicia he passed to Creet where having Preached the Gospel and plainted Churches he left Titus there for a while to set in order things that remaine Yet it was but for a while he left him there for in his Epistle which he wrote to him not many yeares after he injoynes him to come to him to Nicopolis where he did intend to winter but changing that purpose sends for him to Ephesus where it seemes his Hyemal station was and from thence sends him before him to Corinth to enquire the state of the Corinthians His returne from thence Paul expects at Troas and because comming thither he found not his expectation there he was so grieved in his spirit 2 Cor. 2.12 that he passed presently from thence into Macedonia where Titus met him and in the midst of his afflictions joyed his spirits with the glad tydings of the powerful and gracious effects his first Epistle had among the Corinthians 2 Cor. 7 5 6 7. Paul having there collected the Liberalities of the Saints sends Titus againe to the Corinthians to prepare them for the same service of Ministring to the necessities of the Saints 2 Cor. 8.6 And makes him with some others the Conveyers of that second Epistle to the Corinthians All these journey es to and fro did Titus make at the designment of the Apostle even after he was left in Creet Nor doe we finde that after his first removal from Creet he did ever returne thither We read indeed 2 Tim. 4.10 he was with Paul at Rome and from thence returned not to Creet but into Dalmatia All which doth more then probably shew it never was the Intendment of the Apostle to
by the name of one Angel then of many We often finde the name of one Prophet or Priest to be put for the general body of the Ministery or whole multitude or Prophets or Priests in the Church of Israel or Iudah when the Spirit of God intendeth to reprove threaten or admonish them Thus it is Iere. 6.13.18.19 Isa. 3.2 Hos. 9.8 Ezek. 7.26 Hos. 4 6. Mal. 2.7 Neither should it seem strange that a multitude or company of Ministers should be understood under the name of one Angel seeing a multitude of Heavenly Angels imployed in one service for the good of Gods Saints is sometimes in the Scripture shut up under one Angel in the singular number as may be gathered from Gen. 14.7 2 Kings 19.35 Psal 34.7 compared with Psal. 91.11 Gen. 32.1 2. Kings 6.16 17. And also a multitude of Devils or evil Angels jointly labouring in any one work is set forth under the name of one evil or unclean spirit 1 Kings 22.21 22. Mark 1.23 24. Mark 5.2.9 Luke 4.33.34 Luk. 8.27.30 1 Pet. 5.8 Heb. 2.14 Ephes. 6.11.12 But now let us suppose which yet notwithstanding we will not grant that the word Angel is taken individually for one particular person as Doctor Reynolds seems to interpret it together with Master Beza yet neverthelessâ— there will nothing follow out of this acception that will any ways make for the upholding of a Diocesan Bishop with sole power of Ordination and Jurisdiction as a distinct Superior to Presbyters And this appears First because it never was yet proved nor ever will as we conceive that these Angels were Diocesan Bishops considering that Parishes were not divided into Diocesses in S. Iohns days And the seven Stars are said to be fixed in their seven Candlesticks or Churches not one Star over divers Candlesticks Neither can those Churches be thought to be Diocesan when not onely Tindal and the old translation calls them seven Congregations but we read also Acts 20. that at Ephesus which was one of those Candlesticks there was but one flock And secondly we further finde that in Ephesus one of those seven Churches there were many Presbyters which are all called Bishops Acts 20.28 and we finde no colour of any superintendency or superiority of one Bishop over another To them in general the Church is committed to be fed by them without any respect had to Timothy who stood at his Elbow and had been with him in Macedonia and was now waiting upon him to Jerusalem This is also confirmed by Epiphanius who writing of the Heresies of the Miletians saith that in ancient times this was peculiar to Alexandria that it had but one Bishop whereas other Cities had two And he being Bishop of Cypres might well be acquainted with the condition of the Churches of Asia which were so nigh unto him Thirdly there is nothing said in the seven Epistles that implyeth any superiority or majority of rule or power that these Angels had over the other Angels that were joyned with them in their Churches It is written indeed in commendation of the Angel of the Church of Ephesus that he could not beare them that were evil and that he had tryed them which say they were Apostles and are not and had found them lyers And it is spoken in dispraise of the Angel of Pergamus that he suffered them which hâ—ld the Doctrine of Balaam c. But these things are common duties requirable at the hands of all Ministers who have the charge of souls But suppose that there were some superiority and prehemenency insinuated by this individual Angel yet who knoweth not that there are diverse kinds of superiority to wit of Order of Dignity of Gifts and Parts or in degree of Ministery or in charge of power and jurisdiction And how will it be proved that this Angel if he had a superiority had any more then a superiority of Order or of Gifts and Parts Where it is said that this Angel was a superior degree or order of Ministery above Presbyters In which Epistle is it said that this Angel had sole power of Ordination and Jurisdiction And therefore as our learned Protestants prove against the Papists that where Christ directed his speech to Peter in particular and said I will give unto thee the Keys of the kingdom of Heaven c. That this particularization of Peter did not import any singular preheminence or majority of power to Peter more then to the other Apostles But that though the promise was made to Peter yet it was made to him in the name of all the rest and given to all as well as one And that therefore it was spoken to one person and not to all that so Christ might fore-signifie the unity of his Church as Cyprian Austin Hierome Optatus and others say So when Christ directs an Epistle to one Angel it doth not imply a superior power over his fellow-Angels but at most only a presidency for order sake And that which is written to him is written to the rest as well as to him And therefore written to one not to exclude the rest but to denote the unity that ought to be between the Ministers of the same Church in their common care and diligence to their flock And this is all that Doctor Reynolds saith as you may read in his conference with Hart cap. 4. divis 3. ad finem For it is evident that Doctor Reynolds was an utter enemy to the Ius Divinum of the Episcopal preheminency over Presbyters by his Letter to Sir Francis Knolls And learned Master Beza also saith something to the same purpose in his Annotations upon Revel 2.1 Angelo i. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quem nimirum oporuit imprimis de his rebus admoneri ac per eum caeteros collegas totamque adeo Ecclesiam Sed hinc statui Episcopalis ille gradus postea humanitus in Ecclesiam Dei invectus certe nec potest nec debet imo ne perpetuum quidem istud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 munus esse necessario oportuisse sicut exorta inde Tyrannis Oligarchica cujus apex est Antichristiana bestia certissima cum totius non Ecclesiae modo sed etiam orbis pernicie nunc tandem declarat If therefore our Remonstrant can produce no better evidence for his Hierarchy then Timothy and Titus and the Angels of the Asian Churches Let not this Remonstrant and his party cry out of wrong if this claimed Hierarchy be for ever booted out of the church seeing it is his owne Option And yet we cannot conceale one refuge more out of Scripture to which the Hierarchy betake themselves for shelter And that is the two Postscripts in the end of Pauls second Epistle to Timothy and of that to Titus where in the one Timothy is said to be the first Bishop of Ephesus and in the other Titus is said to be the first Bishop of the Church of the Cretians to both which places wee answer That these two Postscrips and so
â—f Geneva were incorporated into him as this Remonstrant doth And for Spanhemius himselfe we may truly say in the place cited he dilivered a complement rather then his judgement which in Dedicatorie Epistles is not unusuall We know that reverend Calvins 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 Government as unlawfull with the termes of Ignorance and spitefull Sectaries because they call the Government 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 Lâ—gatâ— Ã Latere speake publikely in their visitations That howeveâ— thâ— Chuâ—ch of â—ngland be as sound and Orthodox in her Doctrine as any Church in the World yet in our Discipline and Government we are the same with the Church of Rome which amounts to as much as to say the Government is Antichristian unless they will say the Government 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 praises 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 tells 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 uphâ—ld 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 onely they did never any uphold the truth but a Religious Bishop did never any Religious Minister or Professour preach or write or die to uphold the truth but a Religious Bishop if so then there is some perswasive strength in that he saith and a credulous man might be induced to think If Bishops go down truth will go down toâ— But if we can produce for one Bishop many others that have been valiant for the truth this Rhethoricall insinuation will contribute no great help to their establishment Nor indeed any at all unlesse 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 sin how many I Sir we would fain 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 think 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 and are there none bu Zealous Religious Prelates in the Kingdom are there none upon whom the guilt of that may meritoriously be charged which others have convincingly and meritoriously opposed And are there not some Bishops in the Kingdome that are so far from opposing the Man of sin that even this Remonstrant is in danger of suffering under the name of Puritan for daring to call him by that name we doubt not but this Remonstrant knowes there are But if he will against the light of his own Conscience beare up a known errour out of private respects we will not say these papers but his own Conscience shall one day be an evidence against him before the dreadfull Tribunall of the Almighty But there is yet a second thing that should endeare Episcopacie and that is the careful peaceable painfull conscionable mannaging of their Charges to the great glory of God and the comfort of his faithfull people Which in not seeming to urge he urgeth to the full and beyond This care conscience paines of our Bishops is exercised and evidenced either in their Preaching or in their Ruling for their Preaching it is true some few there are that Labour in the Word and Doctrine whose persons in that respect we Honour but the most are so far from Preaching that they rather discountenance discourage oppose blaspheme Preaching It was a Non-preaching Bishop that said of a Preaching Bishop He was a Preaching Coxcomb As for the discharge of their office of ruling their entrusting their Chancellors and other Officers with their visitations and Courts as ordinarily they do whiles themselves attend the Court doth abundantly witnesse their care in it The many and loud cries of the intolerable oppressions and tyrannies of their Court-proceedings witnesse their peaceablenesse their unjust fees exactions commutations witnesse their conscionablenesse in managing their Charges to the great glory of God and the comfort of his faithfull people And hence it is that so many at this day hear ill how deservedly saith this Remonstrant God knows and do not your Honours know and doth not this Remonstrant know and doth not all the Nation that will know any thing know how deservedly Some nay Most nay All the Bishops of this Nation hear ill were it but onely for the late Canons and Oath But why should the faults of some diffuse the blame to all Why by your owne argument that would extend the deserts of some to the patronage of All and if it be a fault in the impetuous and undistinguishing Vulgar so to involve all as to make Innocency it self a sin what is it in a Man able to distinguish by the same implication to shrowd sinne under Innocencie the sin of many under the Innocency of a few But have our Bishops indeed beene so carefull painfull conscionable in managing their Charges how is it then that there are such manifold scandalls of the inferiour Clergy presented to your Honours view which he cannot mention without a bleeding heart and yet could finde in his heart if he knew how to excuse them and though he confesse them to be the shame and misery of our Church yet is he not ashamed to plead their cause at your Honours BARRE Onuphrius-like that was the Advocate of every bad cause and to excite you by Constantines example in a differâ—nt Cause alledged if not to suffer those Crimes which himselfe calls hatefull to passe unpunished yet not to bring them to thaâ— open
and publique punishment they have deserved But what if pious Constantine in his tender care to prevent the Divisions that the emulation of the Bishops of that age enraged with a spirit of envie and faction were kindling in the Church leâ—t by that meanes the Christian Faith should be derided among the Heathens did suppresse their mutuall accusations many of whiâ—h might be but upon surmises and that â—ot in a Court of Iustice bâ—t in an Ecclesiasticall Synode shall this be urged before the highest Court of Iustice upon earth to the patronizing of Nâ—toriouâ— scandallâ— and hatefull enâ—rmities that are already proved by evidence of cleâ—â—e witnesse But â—o forbid it to tell it in Gaâ—h c. What the sin â—as that is done already Do we not know the drukennesse profanenesse superstition Popishnesse of the English Clergie rings at Rome already yes undoubtedly and there is no way to vindicate the Honour of our Nation Ministery Parliaments Sovereigne Religion God but by causing the punishment to ring as farre as the sin hath done that our adversaries that have triumphed in their sin may be confounded at their punishments Do not your Honours know that the plaistring or palliating of these rotten members will be a greater dishonour to the Nation and Church then their cutting off and that the personall acts of these sonnes of Belial being connived at become Nationall sins But for this one fact of Constantine we humbly crave your Honours leave to present to your wisdome three Texts of Scripture Ezek 44.12.13 Because they ministred unto them before their â—dolâ— and caused the house of Israel to fall into iniquity therefore have I lift up my hand unto them saith the Lord and they shall beare their iniquity And they shall not come neere unto me to do the Office of a Priest unto me nor to come neere unto any of mine holy things in the most holy place c. The second is Ierâ—m 48.10 Cursed be he that doth the work of the Lord negligently and the third is Iudges 6.31 He that will plead for Baal let him be put to death while it is yet morning We have no more to say in this whether it be best to walk after the President of Man or the Prescript of God your Hunours can easily judge SECT XVII BUt stay saith this Remonstrant and indeed he might well have stayed and spared the labour of his ensuing discourse about the Church of England the Prelaticall and the Antiprelaticall Church but these Episcopall Men deale as the Papists that dazle the eyes and astonish the senses of poor people with the glorious name of the Church the Church The holy Mother the Church This is the Gorgons head as Doctor White saith that hath inchanted them held them in bondage to theâ—r Errors All their speech is of the Church the Church no mention of the Scriptures of God the Father but all of the Mother the Church Much like as they write of certain Aethiopians that by reason they use no marriage but promiscuously company together the children only follow the Mother the Father and his name is in no request but the mother hath all the reputation So is it with the Author of this Remonstrance he stiles himself a Dutifull son of the Church And it hath beene a Custome of late times to cry up the holy Mother the Church of England to call for absolute obedience to holy Church full conformity to the orders of holy Church Neglecting in the meane time God the Father and the holy Scripture But if we should now demand of them what they meane by the Church of England this Author seemes to be thunder-stricken at this Question and calls the very Question a new Divinity where he deales like such as holding great revenues by unjust Titles will not suffer their Titles to be called in Question For it is apparent Ac si solaribus radiis descriptum esset to use Tertullians phrase that the word Church is an Equivocall word and hath as many severall acceptions as letters and that Dolus latet in universalibus And that by the Church of England first by some of these men is meant onely the Bishops or rather the two Archbishops or more properly the Archbishop of Canterbury Just as the Iesuited Papists resolve the Church and all the glorious Titles of it into the Pope so do these into the Archbishop or at fullest they understand it of the Bishops and their party met in Convocation as the more ingenuous of the Papists make the Pope and his Cardinals to be their Church thus excluding all the Christian people and Presbyters of the Kingdome as not worthy to be reckoned in the number of the Church And which is more strange this Author in his Simplicity as he truly saith never heard nor thought of any more Churches of England then one and what then shall become of his Diocesan Churches and Diocesan Bishops And what shall we think of England when it was an Heptarchy had it not then seven Churches when seven Kings Or if the Bounds of a Kingdome must constitute the Limits and Bounds of a Church why are not â—ngland Scotland and Ireland all one Church when they are happily united under one gracious Monarch into one Kingdom We read in Scripture of the Churches of Iudea and the Churches of Galatia and why not the Churches of England not that we denie the Consâ—ciatiâ—n or Combination of Churches into a Provinciall or Nationall Synod for the right ordering of them But that there should be no Church in England but a Nationall Church this is that which thâ—s â—mbâ—r â—o his simplicity affirmes of which the very rehearsall is a 〈◊〉 SECT XVIII THere are yet two things with which this Remonstrance shuts up it self which must not be past without our Obelisks First he scoffs at the Antiprelatical Church and the Antiprelatical Divisions for our parts we acknowledge no Antiprelatical Church But there are a company of men in the Kingdom of no mean rank or quality for Piety Nobility Learning that stand up to bear witness against the Hierarchie as it now stands their usurpations over Gods Church and Ministers their cruel using of Gods people by their tyrannical government this we acknowledge and if he call these the Antiprelatical Church we doubt not but your Honours will consider that there are many thousands in this Kingdom and those pious and worthy persons that thus do and upon most just cause It was a speech of Erasmus of Luther Vt quisque vir est optimus it is illius Scriptis minimè offendi The better any man was the less offence he took at Luthers Writings but we may say the contrary of the Prelates Ut quisque vir est optimus it à illorum factis magis offendi The better any man is the more he is offended at their dealings And all that can be objected against this party will be like that in Tertullian Bonus vir Cajus Sejus
sed malus tantùm quia Antiprelaticus But he upbraids us with our Divisions Subdivisions so do the Papists upbraid the Protestants with their Lutheranisme Calvinisme and Zuinglianisme And this is that the Heathens objected to the Christians their Fractures were so many they knew not which Religion to chuse if they should turn Christians And can it be expected that the Church in any age should be free from Divisions when the times of the Apostles were not free and the Apostle tells us It must needs be that there be divisions in Greg. Naz. dayes there were 600 Errours in the Church do these any wayes derogate from the truth and worth of Christian Religion But as for the Divisions of the Antiprelatical party so odiously exaggerated by this Remonstrant Let us assure your Honours they have been much fomented by the Prelates whose practice hath been according to that rule of Machiavil Divide Impera and they have made these divisions afterwards complain'd of that which their Tyranny and Policy hath made It is no wonder considering the paths our Prelates have trod that there are Divisions in the Nation The wonder is our divisions are no more no greater and we doubt not but if they were of that gracious spirit and so intirely affected to the peace of the Church as Greg Naz. was they would say as he did in the tumults of the people Mitte nos in mare non erit tempest as rather then they would hinder that sweet Concordance and conspiration of minde unto a Government that shall be every way agreeable to the rule of Gods Word and profitable for the edification and flourishing of the Church A second thing we cannot but take notice of is the pains this Author takes to advance his Prelaticall Church and forgetting what he had said in the beginning that this party was so numerous it could not be summed tells us now these severall thousands are punctually calculated But we doubt not but your Honours will consider that there may be multi homines pauci viri and that there are more against them then for them And whereas they pretend that they differ from us onely in a Ceremony or an Organ-pipe which however is no contemptible difference yet it will appeare that our differences are in point of a superiour Alloy Though this Remonstrant braves it in his multiplied Queries What are the bounds of this Church what the distinction of the prefessours and Religion what grounds of faith what new Creed do they hold differenc from their Neighbours what Scriptures what Baptisme what meanes of Salvation other then the rest yet if he pleased he might have silenced his owne Queries but if he will needs put us to the answer we will resolve them one by one First if he ask what are the bounds of this Church we answer him out of the sixt of their late founded Canons where we finde the limits of this Prelatical Church extend as farre as from the high lofty Promontory of Archbishops to the â—erra incognita of an c. If what Distinction of professors and Religion we answer their worshipping towards the East and bowing towards the Altar prostrating themselves in their approches into Churches placing all Religion in outward formalities are visible differences of these professours and their Religion If what new Creed they have or what grounds of Faith differing from their Neighbours we answer Episcopacy by divine right is the first Article of their Creed Absolute and blinde obedience to all the Commandements of the Church that is the Bishop and his Emissaries election upon faith foreseen the influence of works into Iustification â—alling from grace c. If what Scripture we answer the Apocrypha and unwritten Traditions If what Baptism a Baptism of absolute Necessity unto salvation and yet unsufficient unto salvation as not sealing grace to the taking away of sinne after Baptisme If what â—uâ—harist an Eucharist that must be administred upon an Altar or a Table set Altar-wise railed in an Eucharist in which there is such a presence of â—hrist though Modum nesciunt as makes the place of its Administration the throne of God the place of the Residence â—f the Almighty and impresseth such a holinesse upon it as makes it not only capable but worthy of Adoration If what Christ a Christ who hath given the same power of absolution to a Priest that himselfe hath If what Heaven a Heaven that hath a broad way leading thither and is receptive of Drunkards Swearers Adulterers c. such a heaven as we may say of it as the Indians said of the heaven of the Spaniards Unto that heaven which some of the Prelaticall Church living and dying in their scandalous sinnes and hatefull enormities go to let our soules never enter If what meanes of Salvation we answer confession of sinnes to a Priest as the most absolute undoubted necessary infallible meanes of Salvation Farre be it from us to say with this Remonstrant We do fully agree in all these and all other Doctrinall and practicall points of Religion and preach one and the same saving truths Nay we must rather say as that holy Martyr did We thank God we are none of you Nor do we because of this dissension feare the censure of uncharitableness from any but uncharitable men But it is no unusuall thing with the Prelates and their party to charge such as protest against their corrupt opinions and wayes with uncharitablenesse and Schisme as the Papists do the Protestants and as the protestants do justly recriminate and charge that Schisme upon the Papists which they object to us So may we upon the Prelates And if Austin may be judge the Prelates are more Schismaticks then we Quicunque saith he invident bonis ut quaerant occasiones excludendi eos aut degradandi vel crimina sua sic defendere parati sunt si objecta vel prodita fuerint ut etiam conventiculorum congregationes vel Ecclesiae perturbationes cogitent excitare jam schismatici sunt Whosoever envie those that are good and seeke occasions to exclude and degrade them and are so ready to defend their faults that rather then they will leave them they will devise how to raise up troubles in the Church and drive men into conventicles and corners they are the Schismaticks And that all the world may take notice what just cause we have to complain of Episcopacie as it now stands we humbly crave leave to propound these Queries Queries about Episcopacie WHether it be tolerable in a Christian Church that Lord Bishops should be held to be Iure Divino And yet the Lords day by the some men to be but Iure Humano And that the same persons should cry up Altars in stead of Communion-Tables and Priests in stead of Ministers and yet not Iudaize when they will not suffer the Lords Day to be called the Sabbath-day for feare of Iudaizing Whereas the word Sabbath is
deprive excommunicate c. their spiritual power be not as dangerous though both be dangerous and as much to be opposed as their temporal 1 Because the spiritual is over our consciences the temporal but over our purses 2 Because the spiritual have more influence into Gods Ordinances to defile them then the temporal 3 Because spiritual judgements and evils are greater than other 4 Because the Pope was Antichrist before he did assume any temporal power 5 Because the Spiritual is more inward and lesse discerned and therefore it concerns all those that have Spiritual eyes and desire to worshâ—y God in spirit and truth to consider and endeavour to 〈…〉 Spiritual usurpations as well as their Temporal Whether Aâ—rius be justly branded by Epiphanius and Austin for a Hereâ—â—cke as some report sor affirming Bishops and Presbyters to be of an equal power Wee say as some report for the truth is he is charged with heresie meerly and onely because he was an Arrian As for his opinian of the parity of a Presbyter with a Bishop this indeed is called by Austin proprium dogma Aerii the proper opinion of Aerius And by Epiphanius it is called Dogma suriosum stolidum a mad and foolish opinion but not an heresie neither by the one nor the other But let us suppose as is commonly thought that he was accounted an Heretick for this opinion yet notwithstanding that this was but the private opinion of Epiphanius and borrowed out of him by Austin and an opinion not to be allowed appeares First because the same Authors condemne Aerius as much for reprehending and censuring the mentioning of the dead in the publâ—que prayers and the performing of good works for the benefit of the dead And also for the reprehending stata jejunia and the keeping of the week before Easter as a solemne Fast which if worthy of condemnation would bring in most of the reformed Churches into the censure of Heresie Secondly because not onely Saint Hierome but Austin himself Sedulius Primasius Chrysostome Theodoret Oâ—cumenius Theophilact were of the same opinion with Aerius as Michael Medina observes in the Council of Trent and hath writen Lib. 1. de sacr hom origine and yet none of these deserving the name of Fools much lesse to be branded for Hereticks Thirdly because no Councell did ever condemne this for Heresie but on the contrary Concilium Aquisgranens sub Ludovico â—io Imp. 1. anno 816. hath approved it for true Divinity out of the Scriture That Bishops and Presbyters are equal bringing the same texts that Aerius doth and which Epiphanius indeed undertakes to answer but how slightly let any indifferent Reader judge Whether the great Apostasie of the Church of Rome hath not been in swerving from the Discipline of Christ as well as from the doctrine For so it seems by that text 2. Thess. 2.4 And also Revel 18.7 and divers others And if so then it much concernes all those that desire the purity of the Church to consider how neere the Discipline of the Church of England borders upon Antichrist lest while they endeavour to keep out Antichrist from entring by the door of doctrine they should suffer him secretly to creep in by the door of Discipline especially considering what is here said in this Booke That by their own confession the Discipline of the Church of England is the same with the Church of Rome Whether Episcopacie be not made a place of Dignity rather then Duty and desired onely for the great revenues of the place And whether if the largenesse of their revenues were taken away Bishops would not decline the great burthen and charge of soules necessarily annexed to their places as much as the ancient Bishops did who hid themselves that they might not be made Bishops and cut off their cares rather then they would be made Bishops whereas now Bishops cut off the eares of those that speak against their Bishopricks How it comes to pass that in England there is such increase of Popery Superstition Arminianism and prophaneness more then in other Reformed Churches Doth not the root of these Disorders proceed from the Bishops and their adherents being forced to hold correspondencie with Rome to uphold their greatness and their Courts and Canons wherein they symbolize with Rome And whether it be not to be feared that they will rather consent to the bringing in of Popery for the upholding of their dignities then part with their dignities for the upholding of Religion Why should England that is one of the chiefest Kingdomes in Europe that separates from Antichrist maintain and defend a Discipline different from all other Reformed Churches which stand in the like Separation And whether the continuance in this Discipline will not at last bring us to communion with Rome from which we are separated and to separation from the other Reformed Churches unto which we are united Whether it be fit that the name Bishop which in Scripture is common to the Presbyters with the Bishops and not only in Scripture but also in Antiquity for some hundreds of yeers should still be appropriated to Bishops and ingrossed by them and not rather to be made common to all Presbyters and the rather because First we finde by woful experience that the great Equivocatithat lieth in the name Bishop hath been and is at this day a great prop and pillar to uphold Lordly Prelacy for this is the great Goliah the master-piece and indeed the onely argument with which they think to silence all opposers to wit the Antiquity of Episcopacie that it hath continued in the Church of Christ for 1500 yeers c. which argument is cited by this Remonstrant ad nauseam usque usque Now it is evident thaâ— this â—râ—ument is a Paralogism depending upon the Equivocation of the 〈◊〉 â—â—shop For Bishops in the Apostles time were the sâ—me with Preâ—byters in name and office and so for a good whâ—le after Anâ— when afterwards they came to be distingâ—â—shed the â—iâ—hops of thâ—â—rimitive times differed as much from oâ—â—s now as Rome anciâ—nt â—rom Rome at this day as hath been suâ—fiâ—ieâ—â—ly declâ—â—ed in this Book And the best way to confute this â—rgumenâ— iâ—â—y hâ—nging in a Community of the name Bishop to a Presbyâ—er aâ— wâ—ll 〈…〉 a â—â—shop Secondly becauâ—â— we â—inâ—e 〈…〉 late Innovators which have so much disturbed 〈…〉 pâ—râ—ty of our Church did first begin wâ—â—h the alâ—â—ratio◠〈…〉 and by changing the word Table into the word Altar and the word Minister into the word Priest and the woâ—d Sacrâ—ment into the word â—acrifice have endeavoured to bring in the Popish Mass. And the Apostâ—e exhorts us 2 Tim. 1.13 Tâ— hold fast the form of sound words and 1 Tim. 6.20 To avoid the prophane novelties of words Upon which text we will only mention what the Rhemists have commented which we conceive to be worthy consideration Nam instruunt nos non solùm docentes sâ—d etiâ—m errantes The Church