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
Prelacie the unhappy instrument of pulling the young Duke of York out of Sanctuary into his cruel Uncles hands Things being setled in such a peace as after the bloody brawls was to the afflicted Realm howsoever acceptable though not such as might be wished Morton Bishop of Ely enticing the Duke of Buckingham to take the Crown which ruin'd him opened the veins of the poor subjects to bleed afresh The intolerable pride extortion bribery luxury of Wolsey Archbishop of York who can be ignorant of selling Dispensatitions by his power Legantine for all offences insulting over the Dukes and Peers of whom some he brought to destruction by bloody policie playing with State-affairs according to his humour or benefit causing Tournay got with the blood of many a good Souldier to be rendred at the French Kings secret request to him not without bribes with whom one while siding another while with the Emperour he sold the honour and peace of England at what rates he pleased and other crimes to be seen in the Articles against him Holinshed 912. and against all the Bishops in general 911 which when the Parliament sought to remedie being most excâ—ssive extortion in the Ecclesiastical Courts the Bishops cry out Sacriledge the Church goes to ruine as it did in Bohemia with the Schisme of the Hussites Ibid. After this though the Bishops ceased to be Papists for they preached against the Popes Supremacie to please the King yet they ceased not to oppugne the Gospel causing Tindals Translation to be burnt yea they agreed to the suppressing of Monasteries leaving their revenues to the King to make vvay for the six bloudy Articles which proceedings with all cruelty of inquisition are set down Holinsh. pag. 946. till they were repealed the second of Edward the Sixth stopping in the mean while the cause of Reformation well begun by the Lord Cromwel And this mischief was wrought by Steven Gardiner Bishop of Winchester The six Articles are set down in Speed pag. 792. The Archbishop of Saint Andrews his hindring of England and Scotlands Union for fear of Reformation Speed 794. As for the dayes of King Edward the Sixth we cannot but acknowledge to the glory of the rich mercy of God that there was a great Reformation of Religion made even to admiration And yet notwithstanding we do much dislike the humour of those that cry up those dayes as a compleat pattern of Reformation and that endevour to reduce our Religion to the first times of King Edward which we conceive were comparatively very imperfect there being foure impediments which did much hinder that blessed work The three Rebellions One in Henry the Eighths time by the Priests of Lincoln and Yorkeshire for that Reformation which Cromwel had made The other two in King Edwards dayes One in Cornwal the other in Yorkâ—shire The strife that arose suddenly amongst the Peers emulating one anothers honour Speed pag. 837. The violent opposition of the Popish Bishops which made Martin Bucer write to King Edward in his Book de Regno Christi lib. 2 cap. 1. and say Your Majesty doth see that this restoring again the Kingdom of Christ which we require yea which the salvation of us all requireth may in no wise be expected to come from the Bishops seeing there be so few among them which do understand the power and proper Offices of this Kingdom and very many of them by all means which possibly they can and dare either oppose themselves against it or defer and hinder The deficiency of zeal and courage even in those Bishops who afterwards proved Martyrs witness the sharp contention of Ridley against Hooper for the ceremonies And the importunate suit of Cranmer and Ridley for toleration of the Mass for the Kings sister which was rejected by the Kings not only reasons but tears whereby the young King shewed more zeal then his best Bishops 839. The inhumane butcheries blood-sheddings and cruelties of Gardiner Bonner and the rest of the Bishops in Queen Maries dayes are so fresh in every mans memory as that we conceive it a thing altogether unnecessary to make mention of them Onâ—ly we fear lest the guilt of the blood then shed should yet remain to be required at the hands of this Nation because it hath not publickly endeavoured to appease the wrath of God by a general and solemn humiliation for it What the practâ—ces of the Prelates have been ever since from the begininning of Queene Elizabeth to this present day would fill a volume like Ezekiels Roll with lamentation mourning and wo to record For it hath been their great designe to hinder all further Reformation to bring in doctrines of Popery Arminianisme and Libertinisme to maintain propagate and much encrease the burden of hâ—mane ceremonies to keep out and beat down the Preaching of the Word to silence the faithfull Preachers of it to oppose and persecute the most zealous professours and to turn all Religâ—on into a pompous out-side and to tread down the power of godliness Insomuch as it is come to an ordinary Proverb thaâ— when any thing is spoiled we use to say The Bishop's foot hath been in it And in this and much more which might be said fulfilling Bishop 〈◊〉 Prophecie who when he saw that in King Edwards reformation there was a reservation of Ceremonies and Hierarchy is credibly reported to have used these words Since they have begun to taste of our Broath it will not be long ere they will eat of our Beef FINIS * Videbat eninâ— passim laborari mole copiâ variorum in hoc genere commenâ—â—tiorum novis editionibus ancipitem reddi corum delectuÌ„ sed meliores etiam id est veteres illos et probatos Authores è studiosorum manibus excuti c Praefat. Scriptorum Theolog. Henric Alting * Quaedam noxia victoria paenè mihi semper in disputationibus proveniebat cum Christianis imperitis August contra Manich. cap. 19. * Mr. Stephen Marshall Mr. Edm. Calamy Dr. Th. Young Mr. Matthew Newcomen Dr. William Spurstowe * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 4.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pag. 23. Pag. â— Pag. 2. Pag. 3. Pag. 6. Pag. 2. Pag. 7. Untruths Remon pag. 8. Malmsbury lib. 4. Hist. Concil Trid. Pag. 9. Liturgie Pag. 10. a Ad hoc maâ—orum devoluta est Ecclesia Dei sponsa Christi ut haereticorum exempla Sectentur ad celebranda Sacramenta coelestia disciplinam Lux mutuetur de tenebris id faciant christiani quod Antichristi faciunt Cypr. Ep. 74. Pag. 13. Just. Mar. Apost 2. Tert. Ap. ad Gen. c. 39. Just. Mar. Apost 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Concil Laod. Can. 18. Conc. Carth. 3. Can. 23. Anno 397. Conc. Milev 2. Can. 12. An. 416. Pag. 10. Pag. 11. Pag. 18. Pag. 11. Euseb. de vit Con. li. 4. Cap. 18. Pag. 11. Pag. 12. Pag. 12. Pag. 13. D. Corbet M. Nevel Pag. 13. Pag. 13. Abbot against Church-forsakers Obâ— Ans.
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
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
in the Apostles times there were no Bishops distinct from Presbyters as we shall shew and if there had been Bishops yet they were no Diocesans for it was a hundred yeares after Christ or as most agree 260. before Parishes were distinguished and there must be a distinction of Parishes before there could be an union of them into Diocesses Secondly it is by the joynt confession of all reformed Divines granted that this sacred Government is derived from the Apostles What all reformed Divines was Calvin Beza Iunius c. of that minde Are the reformed Churches of France Scotland Netherlands of that Judgement we shall shew anon that there is no more truth in this Assertion then if he had said with Anaxagoras snow is black or with Copernicus tho Earth moves and the Heavens stand stil. Thirdly he saith this Government hath continued without any interruption What doth he meane at Rome for we reade in some places of the world this Government was never known for many yeares together as in Scotland we read that in Ancient times the Scots were instructed in the Christian faith by Priests and Monkes and were without Bishops 290. yeares yea to come to England we would desire to know of this Remonstrant whether God had a Church in England in Q. Maries dayes or no and if so who were then the Bishops of this Church for some there must be if it be true that this man saith this Government hath continued without any interruption unto this day and Bishops then we know not where to finde but in the line of Popish succession Fourthly he saith it hath thus continued without the contradiction of any one Congregation in the Christian world It seemes he hath forgotten what their own darling Heylin hath written of the people of Biscay in Spaine that they admit of no Bishops to come among them for when Ferdinand the Catholike came in progresse accompanied among others with the Bishop of Pampelone the people rose up in Armes drove back the Bishop and gathering up all the dust which they thought he had trode on flung it into the Sea Which story had it been recorded onely by him would have been of lighter Credit But we reade the same in the Spanish Chronicle who saith more then the Doctor for he tels us that the People threw that dust that the Bishop or his Mule had trode on into the Sea with Curses and Imprecations which certainly saith he was not done without some Mystery those people not being voide of Religion but superstitiously devout as the rest of the Spaniards are so that there is one Congregation in the Christian world in which this Government hath met with contradiction And are not the French Scottish and Belgick Churches worthy to be counted Christian Congregations and who knowes not that amongst these this Government hath met not onely with verbal but reall contradiction Yet he cannot leave his But within two pages is at it againe and tels us of an unquestionable clearenesse wherein it hath been from the Apostles derived to us how unquestionable when the many volumes written about it witnesse to the world and to his conscience it hath been as much questioned as any point almost in our Religion And that assertion of his that tels us that the people of God had a forme of prayer as ancient as Moses which was constantly practised to the Apostles dayes and by the Apostles c. though we have shewed how bold and false this assertion is yet we mention it here as deserving to be put into the Catalogue And that he may not seem Contra mentem ire but to be of the same minde still p. 18. he saith Episcopal Government hath continued in this Island ever since the first plantation of the Gospel without contradiction Had he taken a lesse space of time and said but since the resuscitation of the Gospel we can prove it to him and shall that since the reformation Episcopacy hath been more contradicted then ever the Papacy was before the extirpation of it Yet still the man runs on thinking to get credit to his untruths by their multiplications for pag. 21. he saith Certainly except all Histories all Authors faile us nothing can be more certaine then this truth Os Durum Nothing more certaine what is it not more certain that there is a God is it not more certain that Christ is God and man is it not more certain that Christ is the only Saviour of the world Nothing more certain must this thâ—n be an Article of our Creed the corner stone of our Religion must this be of necessity to Salvation Nothing more certain O that men should not onely forget themselves but God also and in their zeale for their own Honour utter words bordering upon Blasphemy Indignation will not suffer us to prosecute these falsities of his any further we will leave this displeasing service onely retorting the words of this Remonstrant upon himself Surely could he look with our eyes or any eyes that were not partial he would see cause to be throughly ashamed of these his grosse injurious miscarriages and should be forced to confesse that never good cause if cause be good had more reason to complaine of a sinful prosecution SECT IV. WE will now come with your Honours patience to weigh whether there be any more strength in his arguments then there is truth in his assertions His Plea for Episcopacy consists of two parts In the first he brings arguments for the supporting of it In the second he undertakes to answer the objections that may be made against it His first argument for it is couched in these words Were this Ordinance meerly Humane or Ecclesiastical if there câ—uld no more be said for it but that it is exceeding Ancient of more then 15. hundred years c. The strength of which argument lies in this that they have been in peaceable possession of this government fifteen hundered years and upwards and in this Island ever since the Gospel without contradiction In which words he speaks two things which deserve just câ—nsure First that the Hierarchical Government hath continued for fifteen hundred years therefore should not now be altered which may well be called as Hierom in another Case Argumentum Galeatum an Argument calculated for the Meridian of Episcopacy and may indifferently serve for all Religions in the World For thus the Jews might have pleaded against Christ the Antiquity of more then so many hundred years and thus the Heathens did plead against the Christian Religion which Iustin Martyr in his Apology answers And by this Argument the Pope sits as fast rivetted in his chayre at Rome as ours in theirs whose Plea for Antiquity runs parallel with theirs It is a good observation of Cyprian that Christ said Ego sum via veritas vita not Ego sum consuetudo and that Consuetudo sine veritate est vetustas erroris Christ is
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 fore-front yet it is evident that the Epistles themselves are dedicated to all the Angels and Ministers in every Church and to the Churches themselves And if to the whole Church much more to the Presbyters of that Church This is proved Revel 1.11 What thou seest write in a Book and send it to the seven Churches which are in Asia And also by the Epiphonema of every Epistle He that hath an care to hear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches Upon which words Ambrosius Ausbertus in his second book upon the Revelation saith thus Vnâ eademque locutione Angelos Ecclesias unum esse designat Nam cum in principio locutionum quae ad septem fiunt Angelos dicat Angelo illius Ecclesiae scribe in fine tamen earundem non dicit Qui habet aurem audiat quod spiritus dicat Angelo sed quid Ecclesiae dicat By one and the same phrase of speech he sheweth the Angels and the Churches to be one and the same For whereas in the beginning of his speech which he makes to the seven Churches he saith And write to the Angel of the Churches yet in the close of the same he doth not say He that hath an Eare let him heare what the Spirit saith to the Angel but what he saith to the Church And this is further proved by the whole argument of those Epistles wherein the admonitions threatnings commendations and reproofes are directed to all the Ministers of all the Churches Revel 2.10 The Devil shall cast some of you into prison c. Revel 2.16 I will fight against them with the sword of my mouth Revel 2.24 I will put upon you no other burthen c. I say unto you and the rest of Thyatira as many as have not this Doctrine and which have not known the depths of Satan c. And when it is said in the singular Number as it is often I know thy works and labour c. vers 2. and vers 4. Repent and do thy first works and vers 13. Thou hast not denyed my Faith c. and cap. 3.26 Because thou art neither hot nor cold c. All these and the like places are not to be understood as meant of one individual person but of the whole company of Ministers and also of the whole Church because that the punishment threatned is to the whole Church Revel 2.5 Repent and do thy first works or else I will come unto thee quickly and remove thy Candlestick out of his place Rev. 2.16 Repent or else I will come unto thee quickly and will fight against thee with the sword of my mouth Revel 2.24 I will not put upon you any other burthen Now we have no warrant in the Word to think that Christ would remove his Gospel from a Church for the sin of one Bishop when all the other Ministers and the Churches themselves are free from those sins And if God should take this course in what woeful miserable condition should the Church of England be which groaneth under so many corrupt Prelates By all this it appears that the word Angel is not to be taken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not properly but figuratively And this is the judgment of Master Perkins upon the second Chapter of the Revelation and of Master Brightman and of Doctor Fulke who in answer to the Rhemists in Apoc. 1.20 hath these words S. Iohn by the Angels of the Churches meaneth not all that should wear on their heads Myters and hold crosier staves in their hands like dead Idols but them that are the faithful messengers of Gods word and utter and declare the same Again they are called the Angels of the Churches because they be Gods messengers Master Fox likewise in his Meditation upon the Revelation pag. 7.9.17 is of this opinion and hath gathered to our hands the opinions of all Interpreters he could meet and saith that they all consent in this that under the person of an Angel the Pastors Ministers of the Churches were understood S. Austin in his 132. Epistle saith thus Sic enim in Apocalypsi legitur Angelus c. Quod si de Angelo superiorum colorum non de Praepositis Ecclesiarum vellet intelligi non consequenter diceret Habeo adversum te c. And so in his second Homily upon the Revelation if that book be his Quod autem dicit Angelo Thyatirae Habeo adversum te panca dicit Praepositis Ecclesiarum c This also Gregory the Great lib. 34. Moral in Iob. cap. 4. Saepe sacram scripturam praedicatores Ecclesiae pro eo quod patris gloriam annunciant angelorum nomine solere designare hinc esse quod Iohannes in Apocalypsi septem Ecclesiis scribens angelis Ecclesiarum loquitur id est Praedicatoribus populorum Master Box citeth Primasius Haymo Beda Richard Thomas and others to whom we refer you If it be here demanded as it is much by the Hierarchical side that if by Angel be meant the whole company of Presbyters why Christ did not say to the Angels in the plural number but to the Angel in the singular We answer that though this question may savor of a litle too much curiosity yet we will make bold to subjoyn three conjectural reasons of this phrase of speech First it is so used in this place because it is the common language of other Scriptures in types and visions to set down a certain number for an uncertain the singular number for the plural Thus the Ram Dan. 8.3 is interpred vers 20. to be the Kings of Media and Persia. And the enemies of Gods Church are set out by four horns And the deliverers by four Carpenters Zach. 1.18.20 And the wise and foolish Virgins are said to be five wise and five foolish And many such like And therefore as we answer the Papists when they demand why Christ if he meant figuratively when he saith this is my body did not speak in plain language this is the sign of my body We say that this phrase of speech is proper to all Sacraments So we also answer here this phrase of speech Angel for Angels is common to all types and visions Secondly Angel is put though more be meant that so it may hold proportion with the vision which Iohn saw Chap. 1.12.20 He saw seven golden Candlesticks and seven Stars And therefore to hold proportion the Epistles are directed to seven Angels and to seven Churches And this is called a mystery Revel 1.20 The Mystery of the seven Stars c. Now a mystery is a secret which comprehends more thâ—n is expressed and therefore though but one Angel be expressed yet the mystery implyes all the Angels of that Church Thirdly to signifie their unity in the Ministerial function and joynt commission to attend upon the feeding and governing of one Church with one common care as it were with one hand and heart And this iâ— more fitly declared
all the rest are no part of Canonical Scripture And therefore our former and ancienter English translations though they have these Postscripts yet they are put in a small character different from that of the Text. Although our Episcopal men of late in newer impressions have inlarged their Phylacteries in putting those Postscripts in the same full character with that of the Text that the simple might beleeve they are Canonical Scripture The Papists themselves Baronius Serrarius and the Rhemists confesse that there is much falsity in them The first Epistle to Timothy is thus subscribed the first to Timothy was written from Laodicea whoch is the chiefest City of Phrygia Pacatiana Here wee demand whether Paul when hee writ the first Epistle to Timothy was assured he should live to write a second which was written long after And if not How comes it to bee subscribed the first to Timothy which hath relation to a second Besides the Epistle is said to bee writ from Laodicea whereas Beza in his Annotations proves apparently that it was written from Macedonia to which Opinion Baronius and Serrarius subscribe It is added Which is the chiefest City of Phrygia Pacatiana But this Epithet is nowhere read in the Writers of those ages saith Beza Sed apud recentiores illoâ— qui Romani imperii jam inclinantis provincias descripserunt So that by this place it is evident that the subscription was added a long while after the writing of the Epistles by some men for the most part vel indoctis saith Beza vel certe non satis attentis Either by a Learned or negligent man The second Epistle is thus subscribed The second Epistle unto Timothy ordained the first Bishop of the Church of the Ephesians was written from Rome when Paul was brought before Nero the second time Now these words Ordained the first Bishop is wanting saith Beza in quibusdam vetustis codicibus in veteri vulgatâ editione apud Syrum interpreâ—â—m If Saint Paul had written this Postscript he would not have said To Timothy the first Bishop c. whereas it was not yet certain whether ever there should bee a second Neither would it bee said when Paul was brought c. But when I was the second time brought before Nero. The Syriack Interpreter reads it Here ends the second Epistle to Timothy written from Rome The Epistle to Titus is thus subscribed Written to Titus Ordained first Bishop of the Church of the Cretians from Nicopolis of Macedonia Here it is said that this Epistle was written from Nicopolis whereas it is cleare that Paul was not at Nicopolis when he wrote it Tit. 3.12 Be diligent to come to me at Nicopolis for I have determined there to winter Hee doth not say Here to winter but There Where note for the present he was not there And besides it is said that Titus was Ordained the first Bishop c. And who was the second or was there ever a second And also He is said to be Bishop not onely of a Diocess but of all Creet Was there ever such a second Bishop Adde lastly that it is said Bishop of the Church of the Cretians Whereas it would bee said of the Churches of the Cretians For the Christian Churches of any Nation are called Churches by Luke and Paul not Church Therefore Codex Claremontanus subscribes Here ends the Epistle to Titus and no more So the Syriack Finitur Epistola ad Titum quae scripta fuit è Nicopoli The old Vulgar Edition hath nothing of the Episcopacy of Titus By all this it appears that if the Bishops had no more authority to urge us to subscribe to their Ceremonies then they have authority for their Episcopal Dignity by these Subscriptions there would be no more subscription to Ceremonies in the Churches of England But some will say that there is one objection out of Scripture yet unanswered and that is from the inequality that was betweene the twelve Apostles and the seventy Disciples To which we answer First that it cannot be proved that the twelve Apostles had any superiority over the seventy either of Ordination or Jurisdiction or that there was any subordination of the seventy unto the twelve but suppose it was yet we answer Secondly that a superiority and inferiority betweene Officers of different kindes will not prove that there should be a superiority and inferiority between Officers of the same kinde No man will deny but that in Christs time there were Apostles Evangelists Prophets Pastors and Teachers and that the Apostles were superior to Evangelists and Pastors But it cannot be proved that one Apostle had any superiority over another Apostle or one Evangelist over an other And why then should one Presbyter be over another Hence it followeth that though we should grant a superiority between the twelve and the seventy yet this will not prove the question in hand Because the question is concerning Officers of the same kind and the instance is of Officers of different kinds amongst whom no man will deny but there may be a superiority and inferiority as there is amongst us between Presbyters and Deacons And now let your Honours judge considering the premisses how far this Episcopal government is from any Divine right or Apostolical Institution And how true that speech of Hierome is that a Bishop as it is a superiour Order to a Presbyter is an Humane presumption not a Divine Ordinance But though Scripture fails them yet the indulgence and Munificence of Religious Princes may support them and to this the Remonstrant makes his next recourse yet so as he acknowledgeth here Ingagements to Princes onely for their accessory dignities titles and Maintenance not at all for their stations and functions wherein yet the author plainly acknowledgeth a difference between our Bishops and the Bishops of old by such accessions For our parts we are so farre from envying the gracious Munificence of pious Princes in collating honourable maintenance upon the Ministers of Christ that we beleeve that even by Gods own Ordinance double Honour is due unto them And that by how much the Ministery of the Gospell is more honourable then that of the Law by so much the more ought all that embrace the Gospell to be carefull to provide that the Ministers of the Gospell might not onely live but maintain Hospitalitie according to the Rule of the Gospell And that worthy Gentleman spake as an Oracle that said That scandalous Maintenance is a great caues of a scandelous Ministery Yet we are not ignorant that when the Ministery came to have Agros dâ—mos lecationes vehicula â—ques laâ—ifâ—ndia as Chrysost Hom. 86 in Matth. That then Religio peperit divitias filia devoravit Matrem Religion brought forth riches and the Daughter devoured the Mother and then there was a voice of Angels heard from Heaven Hodie venenum in Ecclesiam Christi cecidit This day is poison shed into the Church of Christ. And then it was that Ierom complained
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
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