hated the Bishop and this as the Historian calls it his usurped power This president of the Alexandrian Bishop the Bishop of Rome did soone follow Et Romanus Episcopatus non aliter quam Alexandrinus quasi EXTRA SACERDOTII FINES egressus ad secularem principatum erat jam delapsus The Bishop of Rome as well as the Bishop of Alexandria breaking the limits of the Priestly function did degenerate into a secular Principalitie which purchased no lesse envie to him then that to the other And though these two Bishops went at first abreast in this point yet in a short time the Roman had outstripped the Alexandrian in that power till the Church degenerating more and more that Roman Priest advanced his power not onely above all the Bishops but all the Monarchs in the Christian Orbe Yet notwithstanding he that shall look into the Ancients shall finde first that the best of them held that they were not to be molested with the handling of worldly affaires Cyprian Epist. 66.1 Singuli divino Sacerdotio honorati non nisi altari sacrificiis deservire precibus atque orationibus vacare debent Molestiis secularibus non sunt obligandi qui divinis rebus spiritualibus occupantur Secondly that they complained of them as of heavy burthens Aug. calles it Angaria yea Austin himselfe in his 81. Epistle Complaines that worldly businesse hindered his praying and so pressed him that vix respirare potuit and Gregory the great non sine dolore in secularibus versabatur praefat in Dial. Thirdly Cyprian construed it as one great cause of persecutions raised against the Church de lapsis Sect. 4. Fourthly it was much cryed downe as unlawfull by the holy Fathers many Canons forbidding it and that under paine of being removed from their places Can. Apost Can. 6. Can. 81. hee that did presume to administer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Roman command or Administration of Military affaires or civill place as Zonaras there he should be deposed Can. Apo. Can. 83. hiring of ground medling with worldly affaires is to be laid asid by them Otherwise they are threatned to be liable to Ecclesiasticall censures Conc. Cal. Cano. 3. Conc. Carth. Can. 16. We will ad this for a conclusion in this point it is observed by Athanasius Sulpitius Severus and other Ecclesiasticall Historians that the Arians were very expedite in worldly affaires which experience they gained by their constant following and attendance upon the Emperours Court and what troubles they occasioned to the Church thereby is notoriously knowne to any that have seene the Histories of their times And in this our Bishops have approved themselves more like to the Arian Bishops then the purer Bishops of purer times but how ever cleare it is that our Bishops and the Bishops of former times are Two Two in election to their office Two in the discharge of their office Two in their Ordination Iurisdiction processes Censures Administrations and the difference betweene our Bishops and those of former times is greater then between the great Bishop of Rome and them SECT XIII BUt it seemes our Remonstrant soared above those times even as high as the Apostles dayes for so hee saith If our Bishops challenge any other spirituall 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 do 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 worke of an Evangelist if Timothy had beene but a Presbyter or Bishop Paul had here put him upon imployment Vltra Sphara 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 bee 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 Gospell and so wee doe not affirme Timothy and Titus to bee Evangelists or else for such as taught the Gospell 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 wee consider what was the Difference betweene the Evangelists and Bishopsâ— Bishops or Presbyters were tyed to the particular care and tuiâ—ion 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 appoyntment they were sent from place to place as the necessity of the Churches did require As appeares first in Timothy â— whom S. Paul besought to abide at Ephesus 1 Tim. 1.3 which had been a needlesse importunity if Timothy had had the Episcopall that is the Pastorall charge of Ephesus committed to him by the Apostles for then hee might have laid as dreadfull a Charge upon him to abide at Ephesus as he doth to Preach the Gospell But so far was Paul from setling Timothy in Cathedrâ in Ephesus that he rather continually sends him up and downe upon all Church services for we â—inde 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 confirme the Thessalonians in the faith as appeares 1 Thes. 3.1.2 from whence returning to Paul to Athens againe the Apostle Paul before hee left Athens and went to Corinth sent him Silas into Macedonia who returned to him againe to Corinth Act. 18.5 afterwards they travelled to Ephesus from whence we read Paul sent Timothy and Erastus into Macedonia Act. 19 22. whither Paul went after them from whence they divers other Brethren journied into Asia Acts 20.4 All which Brethren Paul calles as it is probable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the messengers of the Churches 2 Cor. 8.23 And being thus accompanied with Timothy and the rest of the Brethren he comes to Miletum and calls the Elders of the Church of Ephesus thither to him of which Church had Timothy beene Bishop the Apostle in stead of giving the Elders a charge to feede the flock of Christ would have given that charge to Timothy and not to them And secondly the Apostle would not so have forgotten himselfe 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
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 Pâ—ritan for daring to call him by that name we doubt not but this Râ—monstrant knowes there are But if he will against the light of his own Conscience bear up a known errour out of private repects wee will not say these papers but his own conscience shall owne 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 carefull peaceable painefull conscionable mannaging of their Charges to the great glory of God and the comfort of his faithful people Which in not seeming to urge hee 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 wee honour but the most are so farre 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 doe whiles themselves attend the Court doth abundantly witnesse their care in it The many and loud cryes of the intolerable oppressions and tyrannies of their Court-proceedings witnesse their peaceablenesse their unjust sees exactions commutations witnesse their conscionablenesse in mannaging 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 here ill how deservedly saith this Remonstrant God knows and doe 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 heare 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 bee a fault in the impetuous and undistinguishing Vulgar so to involve all as to make Innocency it selfe a sinne what is it in a Man able to distinguish by the same implication to shrowd sinne under Innocencie the sinne of many under the Innocencie 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 hee confesse them to be the shame and misery of our Church yet is hee 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 different Cause alleadged if not to suffer those Crimes which himself calls hatefull to passe unpunished yet not to bring them to that 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 lest by that meanes the Christian faith should be derided among the Heathens did suppresse their mutuall accusations many of which might be but upon surmises and that not in a Court of Iustice but in an Ecclesiasticall Synode shall this bee urged before the highest Court of Iustice upon earth to the patronizing of Notorious scandalls and hatefull enormities that are already proved by evidence of cleare witnesse But oh forbid it to tell it in Gath c. What the sinne alas that is done already Doe wee not know the drunkennesse 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 Ministry Parliaments Soveraigne Religion God but by causing the punishment to ring as farre as the sinne hath done that our adversaries that have triumphed in their sinne may be confounded at their punishments Doe 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 Beliall being connived at become Nationall sinnes But for this one fact of Constantine wee humbly crave your Honours leave to present to your wisedome three Texts of Scripture Ezek. 44.12 13. Because they ministred unto them before their Idolls 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 mee to doe 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 Ierem. 48.10 Cursed be hee 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 Honours 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 poore 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 and held them in bondage to their 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 certaine 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 Râ—monstrance he stiles himselfe a Dutifull sonne 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 wee should now demand of them what they meane by the Church of England this Author seemes
to be thunder-stricken at this Question and cals 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 Simplicitie as he truly saith never heard nor thought of any more Churches of England then one and what then shal become of his Diocesan Churches and Diocesan Bishops And what shall wee 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 England Scotland and Ireland all one Church when they are happily united under one gracious Monarch into one Kingdome Wee reade in Scripture of the Churches of Iudea and the Churches of Galatia and why not the Churches of England not that we denie the Consociation 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 this Author in his simplicity affirmes of which the very rehearsall is a refutation SECT XVIII THere are yet two things with which this Remonstrance shuts up it selfe which must not be past without our Obeliskes First he scoffes at the Antiprelaticall Church and the Antiprelaticall Divisions â— for our parts we acknowledge no Antiprelaticall Church But there are a company of men in the Kingdome of no meane ranke or quality for Piety Nobility Learning that stand up to beare witnesse against the Hierarchie as it now stands their usurpations over Gods Church and Ministers their cruell using of Gods people by their tyrannicall Governement this we acknowledge and if hee call these the Antiprelaticall Church we doubt not but your Honours wil consider that there are many Thousands in this Kingdome and those pious and worthy persons that thus doe and upon most just cause It was a speech of Erasinus of Luther Vt quisque vir est optimus ita illius Scriptis minimè offendi The better any man was the lesse offence he tooke at Luthers writings but we may say the contrary of the Prelates Vt quisque vir est optimus ita 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 tantum quia Antiprelaticus But he upbraides us with our Divisions and Subdivisions and so doe 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 froÌ„ 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 doe these any wayes derogate from the truth and worth of Christian Religion But as for the Divisions of the Antiprelaticall party so odiously exaggerated by this Remonstrant Let us assure your Honours they have beene much fomented by the Prelates whose practâ—se hath beene according to that rule of Machiavill Divide Impera and they have made these divisions and afterwards complained of that which their Tyranny and Policie hath made It is no wonder considering the pathes our Prelates have trod that there are Divisions in the Nation The wonder is our Divisions are no more no greater and wee 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 tempestas rather then they would hinder that sweet Conâ—ordance and conspiration of minde unto a Governement that shall be every way agreeable to the rule of Gods word and proâ—itable for the edification and flourishing of the Church A second thing wee 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 their 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 mulâ—i 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 multiplyed Quere's What are the bounds of this Church what the distinction of the professours and Religion what grounds of faith what new Creed doe they hold different from their Neighbours what Scriptures what Baptisme what meanes of Salvation other then the rest yet if hee pleased hee might have silenced his owne Queres but if hee will needs put us to the answer wee 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 find the limits of this Prelaticall Church extend as farre as from the high and lofty Promontory of Archbishops to the Terra 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 approaches 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
foreseene the influence of works into Iustification falling from grace c. If what Scripture we answer the Apocrypha and unwritten Traditions If what Baptisme a Baptisme of absolute Necessity unto salvation and yet insufficient unto salvation as not sealing grace to the taking away of sinne after Baptisme If what Eucharist an Eucharist that must be administred upon an Altar or a Table set Altar-wise rayled in an Eucharist in which there is such a presence of Christ though Modum nesciunt as makes the place of its Administration the throne of God the place of the Residence of the Almighty and impresseth such a holinesse upon it as makes it not onely 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 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 goe 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 doe we because of this dissension feare the censure of uncharitablenesse from any but uncharitable men But it is no unusuall thing with the Prelats 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 doe justly recriminate and charge that Schisme upon the Papists which they object to us So may we upon the Prelats And if Austin may be Judge the Prelats are more Schismaticks then we Quicunque saith he invident bonis ut quaerant occasiones excludendieos aut degradandi vel crimina sua sic defondâ—re 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 wee have to complaine of Episcopacie as it now stands wee humbly crave leave to propound these Quaeries Quaeries about Episcopacie VVHether it be tolerable in a Christian Church that Lord Bishops should be held to be Iure Divino And yet the Lords day by the same 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 a generall word signifying a day of rest which is common as well to the Christian Sabbath as to the Jewish Sabbath and was also used by the Ancients Russinus in Psal. 47. Origen Hom. 23. in Num. Gregory Nazian Whether that assertion No Bishop No King and no Ceremonie no Bishop be not very prejudiciall to Kingly Authoritie For it seemes to imply that the Civill power depends upon the Spirituall and is supported by Ceremonies and Bishops Whether seeing it hath beene proved that Bishops as they are now asserted are a meere humane Ordinance it may not by the same Authoritie be abrogated by which it was first established especially considering the long experience of the hurt they have done to Church and State Whether the advancing of Episcopacie into Ius Divinum doth not make it a thing simply unlawfull to submit to that Government Because that many consciencious men that have hitherto conformed to Ceremonies and Episcopacie have done it upon this ground as supposing that Authoritie did not make them matters of worship but of Order and Decencie c. And thus they satisfied their consciences in answering those Texts Colos. 2.20 21 22. Math. 15.9 But now since Episcopacy comes to be challenged as a Divine Ordinance how shall wee be responsable to those Texts And is it not as it is now asserted become an Idoll and like the Brazen Serpent to be ground to powder Whether there be any difference in the point of Episcopacie between Ius Divinum and Ius Apostolicum Because we finde some claiming their standing by Ius Divinum others by Ius Apostolicum But wee conceive that Ius Apostolicum properly taken is all one with Ius Divinum For Ius Apostolicum is such a Ius which is founded upon the Acts and Epistles of the Apostles written by them so as to be a perpetuall Rule for the succeeding Administration of the Church as this Author saith pag. 20. And this Ius is Ius Divinum as well as Apostolicum But if by Ius Apostolicum they meane improperly as some doe such things which are not recorded in the writings of the Apostles but introduced the Apostles being living they cannot be rightly said to be jure Apostolico nor such things which the Apostles did intend the Churches should be bound unto Neither is Episcopacie as it imports a superioritie of power over a Presbyter no not in this sense jure Apostolico as hath beene already proved and might further be manifested by divers Testimonies if need did require We will only instance in Cassander a man famous for his immoderate moderation in controverted Points of Religion who in his Consultat Articul 14. hath this saying An Episcopatus inter ordines Ecclesiasticos ponendus sit inter Theologos Canonistas non convenit Convenit autem inter omnes in Apostolorum aetate Presbyterum Episcopum nullum discrimen fuisse c. Whether the distinction of Beza betweene Episcopus Divinus Humanus Diabolicus be not worthy your Honours consideration By the Divine Bishop he meanes the Bishop as he is taken in Scripture which is one and the same with a Presbyter By the humane Bishop he meanes the Bishop chosen by the Presbyters to be President over them and to rule with them by fixed Lawes and Canons By the Diabolicall Bishop he meanes a Bishop with sole power of Ordination and Jurisdiction Lording it over Gods heritage and governing by his owne will and authority Which puts us in minde of the Painter that Limmed two pictures to the same proportion and figure The one hee reserved in secret the other he exposed to common view And as the phansie
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 eares rather then they would bee made Bishops wheras now Bishops cut off the eares of those that speak against their Bishopricks How it comes to passe that in England there is such increase of Popery superstâ—tion Arminianisme and profanenesse more then in other reformed Churches Doth not the root of these disorders proceed from the Bishops anâ— their adherents being forced to hold correspondence with Rome to uphold their greatnesse and their Courts and Canons wherein they symbolize with Rome And whether it bee 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 seperates from Antichrist maintaine 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 wee are separated and to separation from the other reformed Churches unto which wee are united Whether it bee fit that the name Bishop which in Scripture is common to the Presbyters with the Bishops and not onely in in Scripture but also in Antiquitie for some hundreds of yeeres should still bee appropriated to Bishops and ingrossed by them and not rather to bee made common to all Presbyters and the rather because First we finde by wofull experience that the great Equivocation that lyeth in the name Bishop hath beene and is at this day a great prop pillar to uphold Lordly Prelacy for this is the great Goliah the master-peece and indeed the onely argument with which they thinke to silence all opposers To wit the antiquity of Episcopacie that it hath continued in the Church of Christ for 1500 yeeres c which argument is cited by this Remonstrant ad nauseam usque usque Now it is evident that this argument is a Paralogisme depending upon the Equivocation of the name Bishop For Bishops in the Apostles time were the same with Presbyters in name and office and so for a good while after And when afterwards they came to bee distinguished The Bishops of the primitive times differed as much from ours now as Rome ancient from Rome at this day as hath beene sufficiently declared in this Booke And the best way to confute this argument is by bringing in a Community of the Name Bishop to a Presbyter as well as to a Bishop Secondly because wee finde that the late Innovators which have so much disturbed the peace purity of our Church did first begin with the alteration of words and by changing the word Table into the word Altar and the word Minister into the word Priest and the word Sacrament into the word Sacrifice have endevoured to bring in the Popish Masse And the Apostle exhorts us 2 Tim. 1.13 To hold fast the forme of sound words and 1 Tim 6.20 to avoid the prophane novelties of words Upon which text we will onely mention what the Rhemists have commented which wee conceive to be worthy consideration Nam instruunt nos non solum docentes sed etiam errantes The Church of God hath alwayes been as diligent to resist novelties of words as her adversaries are busie to invent them for which cause shee will not have us communicate with them nor follow their fashions and phrase newly invented though in the nature of the words sometimes there bee no harme Let us keepe our forefathers words and wee shall easily keepe our old and true faith that wee had of the first Christians let them say Amendment Abstinence the Lords Supper the Communion Table Elders Ministers Superintendent Congregation so be it praise yee the Lord Morning Prayer Evening Prayer and the rest as they will Let us avoide those novelties of words according to the Apostles prescript and keepe the ole termes Penance Fast Priests Church Bishop Masse Matâ—in Evensong the B. Sacrament Altar Oblation Host Sacrifice Halleluja Amen Lent Palme-Sunday Christmasse and the words will bring us to the faith of our first Apostles and condemne these new Apostates new faith and phrase Whether having proved that God never set such a government in his Church as our Episcopall Government is wee may lawfully any longer be subject unto it bee present at their Courts obey their injunctions and especially bee instruments in publishing and executing their Excommunications and Absolutions And thus we have given as wee hope a sufficient answer and as briefe as the matter would permit to The Remonstrant With whom though we agree not in opinion touching Episcopacie and Liturgie yet we fully consent with him to pray unto Almighty God Who is great in power and infinite in wisdome to powre downe upon the whole Honourabe Assembly the Spirit of wisdome and understanding the spirit of Councell and might the spirit of knowledge and of the feare of the Lord. That you may be able to discerne betwixt things that differ separate betweene the precious and the vile purely purge away our drosse and take away all our tinne root out every plant that is not of our heavenly Fathers planting That so you may raise up the foundations of many generations and be called The Repairers of breaches and Restorers of paths to dwell in Even so Amen FINIS A POSTSCRIPT THough we might have added much light and beauty to our Discourse by inserting variety of Histories upon severall occasions given us in the Remonstrance the answer whereof wee have undertaken especially where it speaks of the bounty and gracious Munificence of Religious Princes toward the Bishops yet unwilling to break the thread of our discourse and its connexion with the Remonstrance by so large a digression as the whole series of History producible to our purpose would extend unto Wee have chosen rather to subjoyne by way of appendix an historicall Narration of those bitter fruits Pride Rebellion Treason Vnthankefulnes c. which have issued from Episcopacy while it hath stood under the continued influences of Soveraigne goodnesse Which Narration would fill a volume but we wil bound our selves unto the Stories of this Kingdome and that revolution of time which hath passed over us since the erection of the Sea of Canterbury And because in most things the beginning is observed to be a presage of that which followes let their Founder Austin the Monk come first to be considered Whom wee may justly account to have beene such to the English as the Arrian Bishops were of old to the Goths and the Jesuits now among the Indians who of Pagans have made but Arrians and Papists His ignorance in the Gospell which he preached is seene in his idle