Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	apostle_n	bishop_n	presbyter_n	3,386	5	10.4987	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56127	The antipathie of the English lordly prelacie, both to regall monarchy, and civill unity: or, An historicall collection of the severall execrable treasons, conspiracies, rebellions, seditions, state-schismes, contumacies, oppressions, & anti-monarchicall practices, of our English, Brittish, French, Scottish, & Irish lordly prelates, against our kings, kingdomes, laws, liberties; and of the severall warres, and civill dissentions occasioned by them in, or against our realm, in former and latter ages Together with the judgement of our owne ancient writers, & most judicious authors, touching the pretended divine jurisdiction, the calling, lordlinesse, temporalities, wealth, secular imployments, trayterous practises, unprofitablenesse, and mischievousnesse of lordly prelates, both to King, state, Church; with an answer to the chiefe objections made for the divinity, or continuance of their lordly function. The first part. By William Prynne, late (and now againe) an utter-barester of Lincolnes Inne.	Prynne, William, 1600-1669.	1641 (1641)	Wing P3891A; Wing P3891_vol1; Wing P4074_vol2_CANCELLED; ESTC R18576	670,992	826

of conscience he who hath learned nothing is made the teacher of others and like sounding brasse and a ●inkling Cymball usurpes the office of Preaching when as he is an unprofitable ●tock and a dumbe Idoll This is it which Ecclesiastes deploringly complaines of I have seene saith he an evill under the Sunne a foole placed in high dignity and wise men sitting in low places An illiterate Bishop is a dumbe preacher It is a Prelates duty to instruct the people under him to render a people acceptable to God by opening the mystery of the Scriptures But at this day such as the people are such is the Priest as hi● darknes is so also is light Blush O Sidon at the Sea a Prela●e may blush and grieve to rule over people not to profit them to have taken upon him the office of a Teacher and to be mute in instructing the people It is the word of the lamenting Prophet My people is become a lost flock their Pastors have seduced them they are dumb● dogges not able to barke● They ought to drive the Wolves from the flocks but they themselves are wolves to their owne taking care neither of their owne nor theirs salvation they preci●itate the●selves with their flocks into the pit of eternall death Thus and much more he Not to mention Grostheads booke de Ignavia Praelatorum Or Halredus de Praelatorum moribus Nigellus Wireker de Abusu rerum Ecclesiae Gualther Mapes his Complaint against the Pr●l●tes Ad mal●s Pastores ad ●mpios Praelatos● Robert Baston de sacerdotum Luxuriis or ●ohn Purvey de obliquo cleri statu all declaiming against the Lordlinesse pompe pride wealth and v●●es of Prelates the most of which bookes the Prelates have suppressed their titles onely being left upon record Nor yet to mention the passages of Robert Holkot our famous Clerke In lib. Sapientiae lect 77.163 and lect 1. in Proverbia Solomonis to like purpose Richardus Armachanus Archbishop of Armagh flourishi●g in the beginning of Wicklif● time about the yeare of Christ 1350. De Questionibus Armenorum l. 11. ● 1. determines thus That neither the Dominion nor Ministry of temporall things belongs to Ecclesiasticall dignity but rather deminishes i● For the Lord prohibited the Dominion of temporall things to his Apostles and Disciples saying Possesse neither gold nor moneys in your purses Mat. 10.19 If thou wilt be perfect go● and sell all thou hast give to the poore Now it cannot bee of Ecclesiasticall dignity which the Head of the Church hath prohibited to his members or at least would not have them to po●sess●● Whence it appeares that the dominion or possession of temporall things doth in no wise essentially appertaine to Ecclesiasticall dignity but rather diminisheth it In the second Chapter he averres that these states and degrees of Patri●rch Archbishop Bishop c. were invented onely out of the devotion of men not instituted by Christ and his Apostles That no Prelate of the Church how great soever hath any greater degree of the power of order then a simple Priest In the fourth Chapter hee proves that the power of confirmation and imposition of hands that the Holy Ghost may be given thereby appertains to the jurisdiction of th● Presbytery Which he manifesteth by Acts 7. 14. 1 Tim. 4. and by the practice of the Primitive Church after the Apostles time In the fourth and fifth Chapters he demonstrates That Priests are called Bishops by the Apostle Phil. 1.1 1 Tim. 3. Titus 1. and Acts 20.28 Et quod ordine succedant Apostolis and that they succeed the Apostles in order In the sixth Chapter he proves That all Priests and Bishops are equall as to the power of Order And in the fourth Chapter he punctually determines That there is no distinction found in the Evangelicall or Apostolicall Scriptures betweene Bishops and simple Priests called Presbyters Whence it follow●s Quod in omnibus est una potestas aequalis ex ordin● that in all of them there is one and equall power by reason of Order And that for ought he can find the Apostle Paul doth not in any of his Epistles distinguish between the Order of Presbyters that is of Apostles and Bishops That every one who hath the cure of others is a Bishop Which the name of a Bishop importeth and manifesteth For a Bishop is nothing else but a superintendent or watchman From whence it is evident● that besides the power of Order hee hath nothing but a Cure Our famous English Apostle John VVicklife as Master Fox oft stiles him delivers the selfesame doctrine of the Identity of Presbyters and Bishops Dialogorum l. 4. c. 14. De Sacramento ordinis f. 124 125. Some men saith he multiply the character in Orders But I consider whether their foundation or fruit be in the Scripture But one thing I confidently averre That in the Primitive Church and in Pauls time two Orders sufficed The Presbyter and the Deacon Likewise I say that in Pauls time a Presbyter and Bishop suit idem was the same This appeares by the first of Timothy chap 3. and T●tus chap. 1. And herein that profound Divine Hierome justifies the same as appeares Distinct. 74. Cap. Olim. For then was not invented that distinction of Pope and Cardinalls Patriarchs and Archbishops Bishops Archdeacons Officials and Deanes with other Officers and private Religions of which there is neither number nor Order Concerning the contentions about these things that every one of these is an Order and that in the reception thereof the grace of God and a character is imprinted with other difficulties which ours babble about it seeme● good to me to be silent because they neither establish nor prove what they affirme But out of the faith of Scripture it seeme●h to me to suffice if there be Presbyters and Deacons keeping the sta●e and office which Christ hath imposed on them Because it seemes certaine that Caesarian Pride invented these other degrees and Orders For if they had been necessary to the Church Christ and his Apostles had not been silent in the expression of them and description of their office as those blaspheme who magnifie the Popes Laws above Christ. But a Catholicke ought to receive the office of these Clergy-men out of the Scriptures authority out of the Epistles to Timothy and Titus Neither ought he under paine of sinne to admit these new Caesarian inventions Thomas Waldensis Wickliffes professed Antagonist Tom. 1. l. 3. Artic. 3. c. 29.30.31 32. Tom. 2. c. 117 118. and Tom. 3. c. 60.61 62 63. brings in Wickliff● proving by many arguments That Bishops and Presbyters are all one and the same by divine institution and Gods Law That the Ordination of Presbyters belongs not onely to Bishops sed etiam ad simplic●m Sacerdotem But even to a meere Priest as well as to them That one ordained a Minister by a meere Priest alone ought not to doubt of his Priesthood or to seeke

his owne prayers unto God and private reading of those sundry confessions that were offered him c. Pag. 543. he thus proceeds Had you beene in the Primitive Church of Christ you would have gallantly disdained these other examples of Christian Kings and Countries converted and instructed by Merchants somtimes by women most times by the single perswasion of one man without all legall meanes or judiciall proceeding● the poore soules of very zeale imbracing the Word of life when it was first offered them and neglecting your number of voyces consent of Priest● and competent Courts as frivilous exc●ptions against God and dangerous lets to their Salvation● Frumentius a Christian Child taken prisoner in India the farther and brought at length by Gods good Providence to beare some sway in the Realme in the non-age of the King carefully sought for such as were Christians among the Roman Merchants and gave them most free power to have assemblies in every place yeelding them whatsoever was requisite and exhorting them in sundry places to use the Christian prayers And within short time he built a Church and brought it to passe that some of the Indians were instructed in the faith and joyned with them The King of Iberia neere Pontus when he saw his wi●e restored to health by the prayers of a Christian Captive and himselfe delivered out of the suddaine danger that he was in onely by thinking and calling on Christ whom the Captive woman named so often to his wife sent for the woman and desired to learne the manner of her Religion and promised after that never to worship any other God but Christ The Captive woman taught him as much as a woman might and admonished him to build a Church and described the forme how it must be done whereupon the King calling the people of the whole Nation together told what had befallen the Queene and him and taught them the faith and became as it were the Apostle of this Nation though he were not yet baptized The examples of England France and other Countries are innumerable where Kings and Common wealths at the preaching of one man have submitted themselves to the faith of Christ without Councels or any Synodall or judiciall proceedings And therefore each Prince and people without these meanes have lawfull power to serve God and Christ his Sonne notwithstanding twenty Bishops as in our case or if you will twenty thousand Bishops should take exceptions to the Gospell of truth which is nothing else but to waxe mad against God by pretence of humane reason and order By all which it is evident that Parliaments may not onely be held and determine Secular matters but likewise Ecclesiasticall and Religious without the presence of Bishops which is no wayes necessary if expedient Touching the parity of Bishops Presbyters by Divine institution their difference only by custom he determins thus The title and authorithy of Arch-Bishops and Patriarkes was not ordained by the Commandment of Christ or his Apostles but the Bishops long after when the Church began to be troubled with dissentions were content to lincke themselves together and in every Province to suffer one whom they preferred for the worthines of his City and called their Metropolitane that is Bishop of the chiefe or mother City to have this prerogative in all doubts of Doctrine and Discipline to assemble the rest of his brethren or consult them absent by Letters and see that observed which the most part of them determined Before there began Schismes in Religion the Churches saith S. Hierome were governed by the Common Councill of the Seniors And therefore let the Bishops understand that they be greater than Ministers or Elders rather by custome than by any truth of the Lords appointment and that they ought to governe the Church in Common and in his Epistle to Evagrius having fully proved by the Scriptures that the Apostles called themselves but Presbyters Elders or Seniors he addeth That after their times one was chosen in every Church and preferred before the rest to have the dignity of a Bishop this was provided for a remedie against Schismes lest every man drawing some unto him should rent the Church of Christ in peeces For what doth a Bishop except ordering of others which an Elder may not doe And lest you should thinke he speaketh not as well of the chiefe as of the meaner Bishops he compareth three of the greatest Patriarkes with three of the poorest Bishops he could name A Bishop of what place soever he be either of Rome or of Eugubium or of Constantinople or of Rhegium or of Alexandria or of Tajus hath the same merit and the same function or Priesthood abundance of riches or basenesse of po●erty doth not make a Bishop higher or lower for they all be successours to the Apostles So that the Bishop of Rome by Commission from Christ and succession from the Apostles is no higher than the meanest Bishop in world The Superiority which he and others had as Metropolitanes in their owne Provinces came by custome as the great Councell of Nice witnesseth not by Christs institution Let the old use continue in Egypt Lybia and Pentapolis that the Bishop of Alexandria be chiefe over all those places for so much as the Bishop of Rome hath the like custome Likewise at Antioch and in other Provinces let the Churches keepe theer Prerogatives The generall Councell of Ephesus confesseth the same It seemeth good to this sacred and Oecumenicall Synod to conserve to every Province their right priviledges whole and untouched which they have had of old according to the custome that now long hath prevailed Next their authority was subject not onely to the discretion and moderation of their brethren assembled in Councell but also to the Lawes and Edicts of Christian Princes to be granted extended limited and ordered as they say cause For example the first Councell of Constantinople advanced the Bishop of that City to be the next Patriarch to the Bishop of Rome which before he was not And the Councell of Chalcedon made him equall in Ecclesiasticall honours with the Bishop of Rome and assigned him a larger Province than before he had So Iustinian gave to the City in Africa that he called after his owne name the See of an Archbishop Touching Bishops secular Jurisdiction imprisonment and temporall affaires he writes thus Bishops be no governours of Countries Princes be that is Bishops beare not the sword to reward and revenge Princes doe Bishops have no power to command and punish Princes have This appeareth by the Words of our Saviour expressely forbidding his Apostles to be Rulers of Nations and leaving it to Princes The Kings of Nations rule over their people and they that be great ones exercise authority with you it shall not be so that is you shall neither beare rule nor exercise authority over

onely are called Bishops in very deede and by right which doe take and beare the charge of the people in the Administration of Gods Word in caring for the poore ●locke in the Administration of the Sacraments as are now in our dayes the Christian Cu●ates or Parish Priests if they might be suffered for those Mi●red Horsemen And that this belongeth to the Office of a Bishop the very Word it selfe doth very well declare for this Word Episcopu●● is derived of two Gre●ke words Epi and Scopin which signifie to give attendance to Oversee to give diligence to play the Keeper or watchmen over the people in like manner as watchmen doe keepe watch upon the walls of a Citie or as Shepheards doe keepe watch upon their sheepe And Episcopos in Greeke doth properly signifie in English an Overseer and in the Hebrew it signifieth a Visi●our that is to say one which visiteth men at their owne house and doth diligently enquire and search the condition of them and the state of their life being readily and indifferently to helpe and comfort all men So Christ saith in the nineteenth Chapter of Matthew Because thou hast not knowne the time of thy visitation That which is there called time of Visitation we call the time of thy Bishopricke But ou● Papisticall Bishops have found and devised a certaine new proofe and declaration of that Episcopall Office seemely for such as they are that is to set themselves a high in a chaire guilded clad in purple with Cushions of cloath of ●issue under their buttockes and their el●owes having abundance and plenty of all manner of delights and pleasures as much as any King can have and in the meane season to offer and set forth the men belonging to their governance to be pilled tormented and slaine of their officials to whom they make their flockes subjects men for the most part wicked ungodly and which doe thinke that there is no God which then may also with their Commandements at their owne pleasure by compulsion cause to appeare at those ●heir holy Consistories persons that dwell very farre off not without dammage and hurt both in goods and in their soules and may exercise and use all manner of extreame tyranny upon them For as much then as now it is evident open of these three places of the Apostle that those Bishops which are so far away from ministration of Gods Word and be negligent about their duety are not onely no true Bishops but rather the people of malediction before God as the men which have setled their minds against the Statutes and Ordinances of God to extinct the gospell and doe exalt themselves to destroy soules It is every Christian mans duty by all lawfull a●d honest meanes that he may to procure that their tyrannous and sinfull traditions may once be utterly contemned and come to confusion It belongeth I say to every Christian mans duty manfully and with great confidence and boldnesse where charity will suffer without offending the weake to endeavour himselfe to doe all things which are contrary to their traditions none otherwise than he would doe against the Devill himselfe And also to treade under the feete and utterly despise the obedience of them by which they desire to have their owne traditions greatly regarded and observed the Word of God neglected and nothing set by even as they would tread under their feete the very Devill himselfe All we therefore if it be so that we have pitty of so many soules which doe perish for ever if we be earnestly moved and stirred with the Word of God owe pray ma●ke this passage well with our uttermost diligence to goe about and with very great contentation and strayning of our selves to labour about this that there may againe according to the institution of the Apostle very Bishops and Shepheards be constituted every where in Cities which be men pure and vertuous and well learned in holy Scripture and in spirituall things which have chaste wives and children obedient as the Apostle saith in the feare of the Lord. Wherefore seeing that the Bishops and Pastours every where in the Cities which are now adayes have hitherto rather obeyed the Devill than God banded themselves against the Scripture to this wicked vow of living single or sole if there be any point of Christian breast or minde in us we ought to give diligence and bestow labours for a reformation of the same to be had by the King our onely supreame head of the Church in whom onely the reformation lyeth so that once such a reformation had the poore captive soules may boldly to contempt of the Devill and his Papisticall ●●aditions revoke those vowes as being through errour made with the Devill and with the very gates of hell and that they may according to the Word of God wed wives or rather to be willing according to the institution of S. Paul to be good married men in the sight of God then for the pleasure of those bauds the Romanists to be Adulterers and whore-keepers Fo● the very time it selfe doth now in so great revelation of the Gospell require that once at the last the holy ordination of the Spirit of God which can●not be but very good should be restored and set up against those prophane and abominable traditions of men Loe this is my decree against those proud puffed Bulls of the Devill and of the Devillish Romanists and their factors Neither doe they heare and obey me but they heare and obey God and the Spirit of God whosoever doe heare and obey this And therefore I can also in very deede promise both everlasting life and also the favour of God to all those whatsoever they be that doe in faith observe and keepe it And because this shall not bee judged the ordination of Paul alone for it is reported that the Deane and Canons of a certaine Cathedrall Church did say after a blasphemous manner and fashion openly to a Preacher whom they did expulse for the Gospell sake What of Paul what of Paul The Pope hath received more power of Christ than ever Paul did and for the pleasure of those so swee●e and gentle men and excellently devillish Priests let us see what Peter and what Christ himselfe did say concerning this matter In the fifth Chapter of ●he first Epistle of Peter it is thus written The Priests that are among you I beseech which am also my selfe a Priest and a record of the afflictions of Christ and also a partaker of the glory which shall be shewed feede as much as lyeth in you to doe the flocke of Christ taking the charge and oversight of them not by compulsion but willingly not for the desire of filthy lucre but of a good favourable and loving mind neither as men exercising dominion in their inheritances but that you may be your selves ensamples to the flocke and when the head shepheard shall appeare you shall receive an incorruptible

day f. 284. But it is a thing to be lamented that the Prelates and other spirituall persons will not attend upon their Offices they will not be amongst their flockes but rather will run hither and thither here and there where they are not called and in the meane season leave them at adventure of whom they take their living yea and furthermore some will rather be Clerkes of Kitchins or take other offices upon them besides that which they have already but with what conscience these same doe so I cannot tell I feare they shall not be able to make answe●e at the last day for their follies as concerning that matter for this office is such a heavie and mighty office that it requireth a whole man yea and let every Curate or Parson keepe his Cure to w●ich God hath appointed him and let him doe the ●est that he can yet I tell you he cannot chuse but the Devill will have some for he sleepeth not he goeth about day night to seek whom he may devoure Therfor● it is neede for every Godly Minister to abide by his sheepe seeing that the Wolfe is so neere and to keepe them and wit●stand the Wolfe Indeed there be some ministers here in England which doe no good at al and therefore it were better for them to leave their benefices and give roome unto others Finally in his Sermon Preached before the Convocation Iune 9. in the 28. of Henry 8. he thus speaketh to the Clergie of England and Lordly Prelates touching the utilitie of their Councels and assemblies for the Churches good The end of your Convocation shall shew what ye have done the fruite that shall come of your consultation shal shew what generation ye be of For what have ye done hitherto I pray you these 7. yeares more What have ye engendred What have yee brought ●orth What fruite is come of your long and great assembly what one thing that the people of England hath beene the better of an haire Or you your selves either accepted before God or better discharged toward the people committed unto your cure Or that the people is better learned and taught now then they were in time past to whether of these ought we to attribute it to your industry or to the providence of God and the foreseeing of the Kings Grace Ought we to thanke you or the Kings highnesse whether stirred other first you the King that ye might preach or he you by his Letters that ye should preach oftner Is it unknowne thinke you how both ye and your Curates were in manner by violence enforced to let bookes to be made not by you but by prophane and lay persons to let them I say be sold abroad and read for the instruction of the people I am bold with you but I speake Latine and not English to the Clergie no● to the Laity I speake to you being pre●ent and not behind your backes God is my witnesse I speake whatsoever is spoken of the good will that I beare you God is my witnesse which knoweth my heart and compelle●h me to say that I say Now I pray you in God his name what did you so great Fathers so many so long a season so oft assembled together what went you about what would ye have brought to passe two things taken away the one that ye which I heard burned a dead man the other that ye which I le●t went about to burne one being alive Him because he did I cannot tell how in his Testament withstand your profit in other points as I have heard a very good man reported to ●e of an honest life while he lived full of good workes both good to the Clergie and also to the Laity this other which truely never hurt any of you ye would have ●aked in the Coales because he would not subs●ribe to cer●aine Articles that tooke away the Supremacie of the King Take away these two Noble Acts and there is nothing else left that ye went about that I know saving that I now remember that somewhat ye attempted against Erasmus albeit as yet nothing is come to light Ye have oft sit in consultation but what have ye done ye have had many things in deliberation but what one put forth whereby either Christ is more glorified or else Christs people made more holy I appeale to your owne conscience How chanceth this How came this thus Because there were no Children of light no Children of God among you which setting the world at nought would studie to illustrate the glory of God and thereby shew themselves Children of light So this godly Martyr who hath sundry such like passage in his Sermons In the Conference Anno. 1555. betweene our Religious Martyr Iohn Bradford and Doctor Harpesfield Arch Deacon of London Master Bradford complaines that the Pillars of the Church were persecuters of the Church and tells him you shall no●●●nde in all the Scripture this your essentiall part of succession of Bishops whereupon Harpesfield sayd Tell me were not the Apostles Bishops To which Bradford replyed No except you will make a new definition of a Bishop that is give him no certaine place Harpesfield Indeede the Apostles Office was not the Bishops office for it was universall but yet Christ instituted Bishops in his Church as Paul saith he hath given Pastors Prophets c. So that I trow it be proved by the Scriptures the succession of Bishops to be an essentiall point Brad. The Ministry of Gods Word and Ministers be an essentiall point But to translate this to the Bishops and their succession is a plaine subtilty And therefore that it may be plaine I will aske you a question Tell me WHETHER THAT THE SCRIPTVRE KNEW ANY DIFFERENCE BETWEENE BISHOPS AND MINISTERS which ye called Priests Harps No. So that by the joynt confession of Papists and Protestants in Queene Maries time Bishops and Ministers by the Scripture are both one Brad. Well then goe on forwards and let us see what ye shall get now by the succession of Bishops that is of Ministers which can be understood of such Bishops as minister not but Lord it Lord Bishops than are none of Christs institution nor of the Apostles succession Master Fox his Acts and Monuments of our Martyrs Lond. 1610. p. 1796. I finde this Dialogue betweene Dr. Iohn Baker Collins his Chaplaine and Edmund Allin a Martyr Baker I heard say that you spake against Priests and Bishops Allin I speake for them for now they have so much living and especially Bishops Arch-deacons and Deanes that they neither can nor will teach Gods Word If they had a hundred pounds a peece then would they apply their study now they cannot for other affaires Collins who will then set his children to schoole Allin Where there is now one set to schoole for that end there would be 40. because that one Bishops living divided into 30. or 40 parts would finde so many as well learned men

read him your owne Canons will tell ye what he saith Idem est ergo Presbyter qui Episcopus antequam Diaboli studia c. An Elder or Priest therefore is the same that a Bishop and before that the studies of the Devill were made in Religion and that the people sayd I hold of Paul I of Apollo I of Cephas the Churches were governed by the Common Councell of the Elders but after that every one did account those to be his and not to be Christs whom hee had baptized in all the world it was decreed that one of the Elders being chosen should be placed above the rest to whom all the care or charge of the Churches should belong and the seede of Schismes be taken away And a little after Sicut ergo Presbyteri as therefore the Elders know that they by the custome of the Church are subject to him that is set over them so let the Bishops know that they more by custome than by the truth of the Lords dispensation are greater than the Elders This was the judgement of the ancient Fathers and yet were they no Arians nor Aerians therefore Yea Pe●er Lombard the master of the sentences citing also Isidorus to witnesse saith Apud veteres idem Episcopi Presbyteri fuerunt Among the the Ancient Fathers Bishops and Elders were all one And againe alleadging the Apostle S. Paul he saith Qualis autem c. But what manner an El●er ought to be chosen the Apostle writing to Timothy declareth where by the name of Bishop he signifieth an Elder and a non after Cumque omnes and when all of them he meaneth his false seven orders are spirituall and holy yet the Canons account onely two Orders to be excelling holy that is to say Deaconship and Eldership Because the primitive Church is read to have these alone and we have the Apostles Commandement of these alone for the Apostles in every City ordained Bishop and Elders Neither the Master onely writeth thus but almost all your Schoolemen yea though they be themselves of the contrary opinion yet they write this was the ancient opinion And so Durandus though he make a difference betweene the power of Jurisdiction and the power of order yet he sheweth that both the Scripture and S. Hierome maketh no difference but onely the custome and institution of the Church The Apostle saith he writing to the Philippians cap. 1. saith with the Bishops and the Deacons by them understanding the Elders sith in one City as in Philippos many Bishops oug●t not to be Againe Act. 2. he saith Looke to your selves and to all the flocke in which the Holy ●host hath placed you to be Bishops And he spoke unto them of the onely City of Ephesus But this appeareth more expressely to Titus the 1. Where he saith For this cause I have left thee at Crete that thou shouldst correct those things that want and ordaine Elders throughout the Cities even as I have appointed to thee if any be blamelesse the husband of one wife And straight he setteth under it a Bishop must me blamelesse and whom before he named an Elder hee calleth now a Bishop and in the 4. of the 1. to Timothy Despise not saith he the grace of God which is given to thee through the imposition of the hands of an Elder that is to say of a Bishop S. Paul called himselfe an Elder when he was the Bishop that ordained him Thus farre and more at large Durandus concluding at length Sic Ergo Thus therefore saith S. Hierome that a Bishop and an Elder olim fuerunt synonyma c. were in the old time diverse names betokening one thing indifferently and also of one administration because the Churches were ruled by the Commune Counsell of the Priests But for the remedy of a Schisme lest each one d●awing the Church after him should breake her it was ordained that one should be above the rest Et quoad nomen c. And so farre forth as stretcheth to the name that he onely should be called Bishop and that so farre as stretcheth to the administration of some Sacraments Sacramentals they should be reserved to him by the custome and constitution of the Church And this would Hierome expressely 93. Dist. cap. legimus in Esa super Epistolam ad Tit. recitatur Dist. 93. cap. Olim Presbyteri c. Consuetudo aut institutio Ecclesiae potest dare Iurisdictionem sed non potestatem ordinis aut consecrationis quare c. He therefore that counteth this erronious or perrilous let him impute this to Hierome out of whose saying in the fore alleadged Chapter Legimus in Esa the foresayd authorities are taken Where also he putteth an example That is of a Bishop in respect of Priests as of an Arch-Deacon in respect of Deacons unlesse the Deacons chuse one among themselves whom they call Arch-deacon c. In the end Durandus reconciling Hierome saith and the authorities alleadged by Hierome withstand it not because according to the name and the truth of the thing every Bishop is an Elder and on the other part so farre as stretcheth to the name every Elder having cure may be called a Bishop as Super-attendent on other although the consecration of a Bishop or the chiefe Priest be larger than of a simple Priest or Elder but peradventure in the Primitive Church they made not such force in the difference of names as they do now And therefore they called a Bishop every ●ne that had a cure Thus writeth Durandus of the ancient Fathers opinions And will you count him or them Aerian● too And this also doth your Institution in Colonie Councell confesse Non est tamen putandum Wee must not for all this t●inke that hee ordained Bishops another order from Priests for in the primitive Church Bishops and Priests were all one The which the Epistles of Peter and Paul the Apostles Saint Hierome also and almost all the ancient Ecclesiasticall Writers do witnesse And chiefly that place of the first Epistle of Saint Peter the fift Chapter is evident to declare this For when Peter had said the Elders that are among you I also an Elder with you beseech which am also a witnesse of the passions of Christ and partaker of the Glory to come that shall be revealed He joyned under it feed or guide the flocke of Christ that is among you and oversee it not by compulsion but willingly according to God wherein it is spoken more expressly in the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Super-attendent from whence also the name of Bishop is drawne Wherefore Priesthood is esteemed the highest order in the Church In the meane time no body is ignorant that this order is distinguished againe by a certaine order of offices and dignities Thus do your Scholemen and Divines wi●nesse First that in the substance order or character as they terme it there is no difference betweene a Priest and a

Wickliffe and his Scholars afterwards Husse and Hussites last of all Luther Calvin Brentius Bullinger Musculus and other who might be rec●koned particularly in great number sith as here with us both Bishops and the Queenes pro●essors of Divinity in our Universities and other learned men doe consent therein so in ●orraigne Nations all whom I have read treating of this matter and many more no doubt whom I have not read The si●ting examining of the Trent Councell hath beene undertaken by onely two which I have seene the one a Divine the other a Lawyer Kemnisius and Gentilletus they both condemne the contrary doctrine thereunto as a Trent errour the one by Scriptures and Fathers the others by the Canon Law But what doe I further speake of severall persons It is the common judgement of the reformed Churches of Helvetia Savoy France Scotland Germany Hungary Po●on the Low Countries and our owne witnesse the Harmony of Confessions Wherefore si●h Doctor Bancroft I assure my selfe will not say that all these have approved that as sound and Christian Doctrine which by the generall consent of the whole Church in a most flourishing time was condemned for Heresie I hope he will acknowledge that he was overseene in that he avouched the Superiority which Bishops have among us over the Clergie to be of Gods owne Ordinance Thus Doctor Rainold● of whom you may reade more to this purpose in his Conference with Hart Aug. 1584. London 1609. p. 12● 123.185.218.4●1.540.541 I could recite many more of our owne writers and records to the same effect but because I have published A Catalogue of them and of such Testimonies in all ages as plainely evidence Bishops and Presbyters to be both one and the same in Iurisdiction O●●●ce Dignity Order and Degree by Divine Law and Institution and their Disparity to be a meere humane Ordinance long after the Apostles times c. and because I have at large manifested this tr●th in my Vnbishoping of Timothy and Titus and in my Breviate of the Prelates intolerable Vsurpations both upon the Kings Prerogative Royall and the Subjects Liberties I shall for brevity sake referre you to them and proceede to answere some principall Objections in defence and maintenance of Episcopacy and then cast Anchor CHAP. IX Comprising an Answer to the Principall Objections alleadged by the Prelates in defence of the Divine pretended Institution and for the continuance of their Episcopacy in our Church HAving thus given you a taste what our owne Authors ancient and Mode●ne Protestants and Papists Martyrs and Prelates have formerly written touching the pretended Divine Jurisdiction the Treasons Conspiracies Seditions Antimonarchicall practises Lordlinesse secular imployments courtship and great Temporall possessions of our prelates I shall onely Answere two A●guments or rather bare Allegation● now principally insisted on for the maintenance of Episcopall Superiority by a Divine right with three more Objections for the continuance of Episcopacy still in our Church and so conclude The first Allegation for Episcopacies Divine institution is taken ●rom the Angel of the Church of Ephesus whom B●shop Hall Bishop Vsher and others will ne●d●s have ●o be a Bishop Superiour in Authority and Jurisdiction to other Ministers because he writes onely in the singular number to the Angel not to the Angels of that Church which say ●hey implies a Sup●riority of one speciall Minister in that Church to whom this Epistle is principally directed over the other Presbyters not once mentioned in this Epistle To which I answere First that ●his word Angel is but a metaphoricall Title proper onely to the heavenly Spirits in strictnesse of speech and in a large sense as it signifies a Messenger or Servant it may as aptly deno●e a Minister or Presbyter as a Bishop The Ti●le therefore of it selfe as it is used by S. Iohn makes nothing ●or Episcopacy since ordinary Presbyters are in Scripture sometimes stiled Angels but Bishops distinct ●rom Presbyters are never so named there Secondly our Bishops themselves if not the whole Church of England with our late famous King Iames in the Contents annexed by them to the Bibles of the last Translation now onely used permitted in our Churches in expresse Termes expound the Angels of ●he 7. Churches to be the Ministers of them the Contents of the second Chap. of the Revelation running thus What is commanded to be written to the ANGELS that is The Ministers of the Churches of Ephesus Smyrna Pergamus Thiatyra c. had these Angels beene such as you now call Bishops you would have rendred the Contents thus What is written to the Angels that is to the Bishops of Ephesus c. But since you expound Angels thus to be the Ministers of these Churches who in vulgar appellation and acception are distinct from Bishops and as you hold inferiour to them you must now either renounce your owne and our Churches exposition or your Episcopacy For if the Angels of these Churches be the most eminent persons and rulers in them as you argue and these as the Contents testifie be not Bishops but Minister● it followes infallibly that Ordinary Ministers and Presbyters are superiour to Bishops not Bishops to them And that these Angels were the Ministers of these Chur●hes is evident by the expresse resolution of our owne learned Iames Pilkington late Bishop of Durham in his Exposition upon the Prophet Aggeus cap. 1. v. 13. London 1562. where he writes thus That more worshipfull names are given to the Preaching Minister than to any sort of men This name Angell is given to the Preachers for the heavenly comfort that they bring to man from God whose Messengers they be In the Revel of S. Iohn he writes to the 7. Angels ● to the 7. Ministers not Bishops of the 7. Congregations or Churches in Asia By this Bishops resolution then and by Pope Gregory the firsts too these seven Angels are seven Preaching Ministers not Lordly Non-Preaching Prelates And Master Fox in his Meditations on Apoc. c. 2 p. 27.28 concurres with them averri●g That by the seven Angels is meant either the Ministers of the seven Churches or the Churches themselves which exposition is as ancient as Aretas Primasius and Ambrosius Ansbertus who in their Commentaries on Apocalypsis write thus Septem stellae Angeli sunt septem Ecclesiarum Nec putandum est quod hoc loco Angeli singuli singulis deputentur hominibus quod incongrue ab aliquibus aestimatur sed potius Angeli Eccles. hic intelligendi sunt rectores populi qui singulis Ecclesiis praesidentes verbum vitae cunctis annunciant Nam Angeli nomen nuncius interpretatum dicitur Et Angelo Ecclesiae Ephesi scribe Darivo hic casu Angelo posuit non genitivo Ac si diceret Scribe Angelo huic Ecclesiae ut non tam Angelum Ecclesiam separatim videatur dixisse quam quis Angelus exponere

though I thinke untrue then it is cleare that this Angel of Ephesus who lost his first love was famous and zealous Timothy not dead when this Epistle was written as Pererius and Alcazar both Jesuites with Lyra Ribera P. Halloix and others confesse And who dare be so presumptuous as to thinke Timothy a man so eminent famous zealous and so much applauded in Scripture would prove an Apostate or backeslider and lose his first love Either therefore you must deny Timothy or this Angell to be the Bishop of this Church Ninthly grant this Angell to be a Bishop yet it was onely such a Bishop as was all one and the same with Presbyters and of which there were many in one Church no● one over many Churches according to the holy Ghosts and the Apostles owne institution as appeares by Act. 20.17.28 Phil. 1.1 Tit. 1.5.7 compared with the 1 Pet. 5.2.3 Iam. 5.14 Act. 14.23 1 Tim. 5.17 which maketh nothing for but directly against that Episcopacy you contend for Tenthly and finally grant him such a Bishop as you would make him yet at the best he was an Apostate who had fallen from and lost his first love by being made a Lord Bp And it will be but little credit for our Prelates to found their Hierarchy upon an Apostate And if I conjecture not amisse this may bee one probable reason why so many Ministers prove turne-coates and Apostates losing their first love and zeale to God when they are made Lord Bishops because they have an Apostate Angel both for their foundation and imitation Happy man be their dole let them make the best of this Apostate I will not hinder but rather pitty them in this folly The second Allegation for the divine right of Episcopacy is that Timothy and Titus were Bishops such as our Lordly Prelates now are the one of Ephesus the other of Crete which Bishop White and others endevour to prove especially by the Post-script of the second Epistle to Timothy The second Epistle unto Timotheus ordained the first Bishop of the Church of the Ephesians was written from Rome when Paul was brought before Nero the second time And by this Postscript to the Epistle to Titus It was wri●ten to Titus ordained the first Bishop of the Church of the Cretians f●om Nicopolis of Macedonia which Post-scripts they say are very ancient if not Canonicall and irrefragable I shall not here enter into a large discourse to prove Timothy neither a Bishop● nor first nor sole nor any Bishop at all of Ephesus who as some say preached the Gospell in our Island of Britaine whiles our Prelates would crea●e him the Apost●ate Angel residing in the Church of Ephesus to whom Christ writ an Epistle by S. Iohn Rev. 2.1.2 or to disprove Titus to be Lord Bishop or rather Lord Arch-bishop of Crete which had an hundred Cities in it in Homers dayes and no lesse than 4. Arch-bishops and 21. Bishops in former times since I have sufficiently manifested this long since in The Vnbishopping of Timothy and Titus not hitherto answered And indeede were there no other Arguments but two First that though Paul in his Epistles mentions Timothy and Titus more frequently than any other persons yet we never finde him so much as once stiling them Bishops no not in the Epistles to them Secondly that Paul doth never write to them in the Ordinary stile of our Lordly Prelates which it seemes he was not then acquainted with and so not with their Office viz. To the Right Reverend Father in God Timothy Lord Bishop of Ephesus To the Most Reverend Father in God Titus Lord Arch-bishop of Crete his Grace Primate and Metropolitan of all that Island which doubtlesse he would have done had they beene such Bishops as ours are and this stile had beene due or fitting for them but onely To Timothy my owne sonne or dearely beloved sonne in the faith To Titus mine owne sonne after ●he common ●aith c. these were sufficient to satisfie any indifferent man that neither of them was a Bishop or Arch-bishop of these places or at least that they were no such Lordly Prelates as ours now are who may well be ashamed of these pompous swelling Titles which no Apostle nor Apostolicall Bishop ever usurped But the onely thing I shall here insist on shall be to take away ●he grounds of this false Allegation to wit the pretended Authority and Antiquity of these two Post-scripts wi●h which the world hath beene much abused For their Authority It is confessed by all First that they are no part of the Text or Canonicall Scripture Secondly that they are not of infallible truth many of them being dubious others directly false as Baronius the Rhemists Estius Mr. Beza Mr. Perkins and sundry others prove Thirdly that they were not added to the Epistles Paul b● himself when he writ the Epistles as some have dreamed but by some third pe●son since as the whole frame of the words running on●ly in the third person imports For their Antiquity when and by whom they were first added will be the sole question To cleare this doubt I shall have recourse to the Post-script of the first Epistle to Timothy which runnes thus The first to Timothy was written from Laodicea which is the chiefe City of Phrygia Pacatiana This Post-script of the first Epistle no doubt was written either before or at the same time when the Post-script of the Second Epistle was penned and that must needes be after Phrygia was commonly stiled Pacatiana since it is thus named in this Post-script Now we shall not finde Phrygia so stiled in any Authors till about 340. yeares after Christ in the reigne of Constantine the great at which time it begun to be called Pacatiana and that as some conjecture from Pacatianus who as the Code of Theodosius M. Cambden and Speede affirme was Vicegerent of Brittaine some 330. yeares a●ter Christ. Who it was who first annexed these Post-scripts to Pauls Epistles onely ●or the other Apostles Epistles have none will be the greatest question For resolution whereof I take it somewhat cleare that Theodoret was the man who flourished about the y●are of our Lord .430 For I finde these Post-scripts added to his Commentarie upon Pauls Epistles and in no other Commentator before nor in any after him till Oecumenius his Ape and transcriber who lived about the yeare 1050. Theodoret then being the first in whom Post-scripts are extant and Oecumenius his follower the next it is probable that he was the first Author of them And that which puts it out of doubt is this that Theodoret in his Preface to his Commentaries on Pauls Epistles is the first who doth modestly undertake with scriptum esse existimo onely to shew both the time when and the place from whence Paul writ his severall Epistles which Preface fully accords with the Post-scripts placed not after the text it selfe but after the end of his

this too much both to be Traytors to your King and also to faine God to be displeased with your King for punishing of Treason Finally to make him a Saint and also that God had done miracles to the defending of his Treason How is it possible to invent a more pestilent Doctrine than this is Here is Gods Ruler despised and hereby is open Treason maintained Thinke you that God will shew miracles to fortifie these things But no doubt the Proverbe is true Such lippes such Lettuce such Saints such miracles Fifthly in persisting most peremptorily in Treasons Rebellions contests and Conspiracies against their Princes without yeelding or intermission till they had obtained their demaunds and desires of them insteed of craving pardon of them all which the premises evidence to the full in Anselme Becket Langton Stafford and others Sixthly in enforcing their Soveraignes against whom they conspired rebelled and practised divers horrid Treasons and Contumacies to submit nay seeke to them for pardon and to undergoe such sharpe censures such ●orbid infamous harsh punishments covenants and conditions as are inconsistent with Monarchy honour Soveraignty as in the case of Henry the se●cond King Iohn and others In these sixe respects our Lordly Bishops have transcended all other Traytors Rebels Conspirators and Seditious persons whatsoever as also in Censuring Loyalty for Heresie true Subjects to their Princes for Heretickes and Canonizing High Treason Rebellion against Emperours Kings Princes for Orthodox faith notorious Traytors and Rebels for good Christians and true beleevers as appeares in the Case of Hildebrand and his Hellish crew of Bishops who branded Henry the Emperour and those who sided with him for Heretickes and their Loyalty for Heresie in the Case of Henry the second and King Iohn in their difference with Anselme Becket and Langhton In imitation of whom our present Prelates now slander those who oppugne a●d withstand their encroachments upon the Kings prerogative Royall with odious termes of Puritans Novellers Seditious persons Schismatickes Rebels and brand Loyalty and true allegiance to the King with the termes of Faction Schisme Sedition Novelty and Rebellion You have seene now a large Anatomy of our Lordly Prelates desperate Treasons Conspiracies Rebellions Contumacies Warres disloyall oppressive practises in all ages against our Kings Kingdomes Lawes Liberties which duly pondered we may easily conclude there is little cause any longer to tolerate them in our Church or State but great ground eternally to extirpate them out of both It is storyed of the people of Biscany in Spaine That they have such a naturall enmity against Bishops that they will admit no Bishops to come among them and that when Fe●dinand the Catholicke came in Progresse into Biscany accompanyed with the Bishop of Pampilone the people rose up in Armes drove backe the Bishop out of their Coast and gathering up all the dust they thought he or his Mule had trod on threw it into the Sea with curses and imprecations I dare not say that our people should rise up in Armes like these Biscaners and drive out our Bishops God forbid any such Tumultuous or Seditious practise but this I dare confidently averre that his Majestie and our High Court of Parliament have farre greater reason to drive and extirpate them out of our Realme and Church even with curses and execrations and to subvert their Sees in an orderly just and legall way than these Biscaners had to repulse this Bishop who entered thus into their Country onely to accompany Ferdinand in his progresse not to play the Lord Bishop among them I shall close up all with the words of Musculus a Learned forraigne Protestant Divine who after he had largely proved by Scriptures and Fathers That Bishops and Presbyters by Divine right are both one and of equall authority and that the difference betweene them was onely a humane institution to prevent Schismes concludes thus Whether o● no this Counsell hath profited the Church of God whereby such Bishops who should be greater than Presbyters were introduced rather our of Custome that I may use the words of Hierome than out of the truth of the Lords institution is better declared in after ages than when this custome was first brought in to which we owe all that insolency opulency and tyranny of Princely and Lordly Bishops imo omnem corruptionem Ecclesiarum Christi yea all the corruption of the Churches of Christ which if Hierome should now perceive without doubt he would acknowledge this not to be the Counsell of the Holy-Ghost to take away Schismes as was pretended but of the Devill himselfe to waste and destroy the ancient Offices of feeding the Lords ●locke by which it comes to passe that the Church hath not true Pastors Doctors Elders and Bi●hops but Idle bellies and magnificent Princes under the vizors of these names who not onely neglect to feede the people of the Lord in proper person with wholesome and Apostolicall doctrine but also by most wicked violence take speciall care that no man else may doe it This verily was done by the Counsell of Satan that the Church in stead of Bishops should have powerfull Lords and P●inces elected for the greatest part out of the Order of the Nobles and Princes of the world as they are in Germany who under-propped with their owne and their kindreds power may domineer over the flocke of Christ at their pleas●re And with the complaint of the Emperour Lewis the fourth and the German Princes against the Italian and German Lordly Prelates which I may justly accomodate to ours Flamines isti Babyloniae soli regnare cupiunt ferre parem n●n possunt non desistent donec omnia pedibus suis conculcaverint atque in Templo Dei s●deant ext●llanturque supra omne id quod colitur Sub Pontificis titulo pastoris pelle lupum saevissimum nisi caeci sumus sentimus Cum nostri servi sint ipsi dominari contra jus gentium adversus leges auspicia Oracula divina Dominos sibi servire volunt Caesarem Italia Roma Christum terris exclusere illi coelum quidem permittunt inferos atque terras sibi asseruere Bernard Epist. 158. Quid spirituali gladio quid censurae Ecclesiasticae quid Christianae legi Disciplinae quid denique divino timori relinquitur si metu potentiae secularis nullus mu●ire jam audeat contra insolentiam Praelatorum FINIS Kind Reader I shall desire thee to recti●ie these Presse-Errours which in my absence in the Country hapned in many Copies in some Pages of the first and Second Part besides those forementioned after the Table of Chapters In the first Part. PAge 8. l. 6. departing p. 10. l. 5. their this p. 11. l. 28. largely lately● p. 16. l. 1. del● as p. 24. l. 2. we ●e p. 25. l. 3. marred l 29. Kings p. 53. l. 40. dele th● p. 62. l. 13. and the p. 63. l. 30. still stile p● 64. l. 16. be he p 70. l. 3. his

of the foresaid temporalities without any charge to the Realm● whereunto the King the Lords and th● Commons are to be invited For otherwise there seemeth to hang over our heads a great and marvellous alteration of this Relme unlesse the same be put in execution And if the secular Priests and fained religious which be Simoniacks and Hereticks which faine themselves to say Masse and yet say none at all according to the Canons which to their purpose they bring and alledge 1. q. 3. Audivimus Cap. Pudenda Cap. Schisma by which Chapter such Priests and religious doe not make the Sacrament of the Altar that then all Christians especially all the founders of such Abbies and endowers of Bishopricks Priories and Chaunte●ies ought to amend this fault and treason committed against their Predecessors by taking from them such secular dominions which are the maintenance of all their sinnes And also that Christian Lords and Princes are bound to take away from the Clergy such secular Dominion as nous●eth and nourisheth them in Here●ies and ought to reduce them unto the simple and poore life of Christ Jesus and his Apostles And further that all Christian Princes if they will amend the malediction and blasphemy of the name of God ought to take away their temporalities from that shaven generation which most of all doth nourish them in such malediction And so in like wise the fat tithes from Churches appropriate to rich Monks and other religious fained by manifest lying and other unlawfull meanes likewise ought to debarre their gold to the proud Priest of Rome which doth poyson all Christendome with Simony and Heresie Further that it is a great abhomination that Bishops Monks and other Prelates be so great Lords in this World whereas Christ with his Apostles and Disciples never tooke upon them secular dominion neither did they appropriate unto them Churches as these men doe but lead a poore life and gave a good testimony of their Priesthood And therefore all Christians ought to the uttermost of their power and strength to sweare that they will reduce such shavelings to the humility and poverty of Christ and his Apostles and whosoever doth not thus consenteth to their Heresie Also that these two Chapters of the immunity of Churches are to be condemned that is Cap. Non minus Cap. Adversus Because they doe decree that temporall Lords may neither require tallages nor tenths by any ecclesiasticall persons He writes much more to the same effect The noble Martyr Sir Iohn Old Castle Lord Cobham professed That the will of God is That Priests being secluded from all worldlinesse should conforme themselves utterly to the examples of Christ and his Apostles be evermore occupied in Preaching and teaching the Scriptures purely and giving wholesome examples of good living to others being more modest loving gentle and lowly in spirit then any other sorts of people Where doe ye finde said hee to the Prelates in all Gods Law that ye should thus sit in judgement of any Christian man or yet give sentence of any other man unto death as ye doe her● dayly No ground have ye in all the Scriptures so Lordly to take it upon you but in Annas and Caiphas which sate thus upon Christ and upon his Apostles after his ascension Of them onely hav● y● taken it to judge Christs members as ye doe and neither of Peter nor Iohn Since the venom● of Iu●as was shed into the Church Yee never followed Christ nor yet stood in the perfection of Gods Law ●y venome I meane your possessions and Lordships For then cryed an Angell in the ayre as your owne Chronicles mention Woe woe woe This day is venome shed into the Church of God Before that time all the Bishops of Rome were Martyrs in a manner and since that time we reade of very few But indeed one hath put downe another one hath cursed another ●n● hath poysoned another one hath slaine another and done much more mischiefe besides as all Chronicles tell And let all men consider this well that Christ was meeke and mercifull the Pope and his Prelates is proud and a Tyrant Christ was poore and forgave the Pope is rich and a malicious manslayer as his dayly acts do prove him Rome is the very nest of Antichrist and out of that nest cometh all the Disciples of him of whom Archbishops Bishop● Prelates Priests and Monks be the body members and these pild Friers the tayle Though Priests and De●cons for preaching Gods word ministring the Sacraments with provision for the poore be grounded on Gods Law yet have these Sects no manner of ground thereof Hee that followeth Peter most nighest in pure living is next unto him in succession But your Lordly Order esteemed not greatly the behaviour of poore Peter what ever ye prate of him Pierce Plowman an anci●nt ●nglish Poet writes to the same effect If Knighthood and kinduite and commons by conscience Together love lelly leeveth it well ye Bishops The Lordship of Lands for ever ●all ye lese And live as Levitici as our Lord ye teacheth Deut. 8. Numb 5. per primitias Decimas c. And the Author of the same Treatise in his Plowmans complaint of the abuses of the World writes thus against the Lordlinesse and wealth of B●shops and Priests Lord thou saydst Kings of the Heathen men be Lords ●ver their subjects ●nd they that usen their power be clepen well doers But Lord thou saydst it should not bee so among thy servants but he that were most should be as a servant And Lord thy Priests in the old Law had no Lordship among their brethren but houses and pastures for their beasts but Lord our Priests now have great Lordships ●nd put their brethr●n in greater thraldome than Lewdmen that be Lords Thus in meeknesse forsaken The deed sh●weth well of th●se Masters that they desiren more maistery for their owne worship then for profit of the p●ople For wh●n they be Masters they n● pre●che● not so often as they did before And gif they preachen commonly it is before rich men there as they mowen beare worship and also profit of their preaching But b●fore poore men they preachen but seldome when they b● Masters and so by their workes we may seene that they are but false glossers O Lord deliver the sheepe out of the ward of these Shepheards and these hired men that stond●n more to keep their riches that they robben of thy sheep than they stonden in keeping of thy sheep And Lord geve our King and his Lords heart to defenden thy true shepheards and sheep from out of the Wolves mouthes and grace to know thee that art the true Christ the Sonne of the heavenly Father from the Antichrist that is the Son of perdition c. Sir Geoffry Chaucer our renowned Poet writ●s much the same effect The Emperour ga●e the Poet sometime So high Lordship him about That at last the sely Kyme

this purpose and not for the other have you received the keyes of the kingdome of Heaven why then doe you invade other mens bounds or borders The rest I will passe over for brevities cause The seventh Article Falsly and against the Honour State and reverence of the sacred Majesty of the King of Scots hee hath said holden and affirmed that our most noble King of Scots defender of the Christian faith would appropriate unto himselfe all the possessions lands and rents of the Church given and granted by his predecessors and also by himselfe and convert them unto his owne private use And for this end and purpose as hee hath many times written unto him so hath he with his whole endeavour perswaded our said noble Lord and King thereunto It is no marvell though these mad dogs doe so barke against mee whom they thinke to have counselled the Kings Majesty I would to God I had also throughly perswaded him that hee should take away from these unjust sacrilegious possessors the riches wherewith all they are fatted and ●ngreased like Swine For this is the nature of dogs if any man goe about to take away the bone out of their mouth by and by to snatch at him and teare him with their teeth It is out of all controversie unto such as have any wit at all that such men were very childish that is to say ignorant of all learning and judgement which did so fat and feed with their possessions these belly beasts For who would not judge it more then childish to bestow the Kings victuals or meate upon the bellies of the prophets of Baal and Iesabel But all they which at this present doe endowe such filthy sinks I will not call them dens of thieves with such revenues they doe follow the steps of Iesabel for what other thing doe they when as daily they are bleating and lowing before their Images burning of Incense and fall flat downe before their Altars but that which in times past the prophets of Baal did when as they transported the worship of God unto an Idoll Wherefore if Daniel and Elias were spotted with heresie when they would have destroyed the Priests of Baal I grant that I also must bee an Heretique But for so much as then hee did nothing but which was commanded him of the Lord that was able to kill the prophet which had allured the people to follow strange gods he could not truly and justly be accused of heresie so neither can my adversaries spot mee therewithall except peradventure they will condemne me that whereas Elias dealt more rigorously with the prophets of Baal for he cast them into the brooke Kidron I required or desired no more but that the riches which was wickedly bestowed upon them and their possessions might be taken from them The ninth Article He hath openly holden said and affirmed preached and taught that the Lawes of the Church that is to say the sacred Canons approved and allowed by the holy Catholique and Apostolique Church are of no force strength or effect alleadging therefore and affirming that they are made and intended contrary to the Law of God God forbid that I should say that those things which are approved by the holy Catholike Church should be of no effect or value For well I know that the holy Apostolique Church hath never been allowed ordained or taught any thing which shee hath not learned of the Lord the Apostles are witnesses therof Peter and Paul whereof the one of them dared not freely utter or speake of any of those things which Christ hath not wrought by himselfe for the obedience of the Gentiles The other exhorteth That if any man speake he should speake the praises of God but I condemne those lawes which the Bishops of Rome have made according to their owne will and mind and say that they are spirituall pertaining unto the salvation of the soule and necessarie unto everlasting life for so much as the writings of the Apostles doe evidently declare that there was no authority knowne amongst them to make or ordaine any ordinances or lawes Furthermore the Scriptures doe manife●tly shew the same how oftentimes even by the Lords owne mouth this foresaid authority is taken from the Ministers of the Church so that no excuse for them remaineth but that they be plaine rebels against the Word of God how many soever doe presume or take upon them to appoint or set any new lawes upon the people of God Which thing is more manifest and evident than the light it selfe in many places of the Scripture For in the three and twentieth chapter of Ioshua it is written You shall observe and doe all that is written in the Law of Moses neither shall you swarve from that either to the right hand or to the left hand But that which is written in the ●welfth chapter of Deuteronomy ought to move them somewhat the more What soever I command saith the Lord that shall you observe and doe thereunto you shall adde nothing neither shall you take any thing from it c. This point hee there excellently prosecutes at large where yo● may read more at your leisure M. William Tyndall our famous Martyr in his obedience of a Christian man Printed C●m Privilegio at London 1573. p. 98. writes thus of Bishops and their practises God promised David a Kingdome● and immediately stirred up King Saul against him to persecute him to hunt him as men do Hares with Greyhounds and to ferret him out of every hole and that for the space of many yeares to tame him to meere his lusts to make him feele other mens diseases to make him mercifull to make him understand that hee was made King to minister and to serve his brethren and that he should not thinke that his Subjects were made to minister unto his Lusts and that it were lawfull for him to take away from them life and goods at hi● pleasure Oh that our Kings were so nurtured nowadayes which our holy Bishops teach of a farre other manner saying your Grace shall take your pleasure yea take what pleasure you list spare nothing wee shall dispense with you wee have power wee are Gods Vicars and let us alone with the Realme wee shall take paine for them and see that nothing be well your Grace shall but defend the faith onely After which he proceeded thus Kings were ordained then as I before said and the sword put in their hands to take vengeance of evill doers that others might feare and were not ordeined to fight one against another or to rise against the Emperour to defend the false authority of the Pope that very Antichrist Bishops they onely can minister the temporall sword their office the preaching of Gods Word laid apart which they will neither do nor suffer any man to do but slay with the temporall sword which they have gotten out of the hand of all Princes them that would The preaching of

overseer or Superintendent whose office was in the Primitive Church purely to instruct the multitude in the wayes of God and to see that they were not beastly ignorant in the holy Scripture as the most part of them are now adayes Presbyter is as much to say as a Senior or Elder whose office was also in godly Doctrine and examples of living to guide the Christian Congregation and to suffer no manner of superstition of Jew nor Gentile to raigne among them And these two offices were alone in those dayes and commonly executed of one severall person They which were thus appointed to these spirituall offices did nothing else but preach and teach the Gospell having assistants unto them inferiour officers called Deacons Act. 6. 1 Cor. 1. Rom. 3. No godly man can despise these offices neither yet condemne those that truly execute them not onely are they worthy to have a competent living 1 Cor. 9. but also double honour after the doctrine of Saint Paul 1 Tim. 5. But from inordinate excesse of riches ought they of all men to be sequestred considering that the most wicked nature of Mammon is alwayes to corrupt yea the very Elect if God were not the more mercifull Matth. 6. which might be an admonition to our Lordly Bishops when they be in their worldly pompe that they are not Gods servants beleeved they his sayings as they do nothing lesse Master Fish●● in his Supplication of Beggers thus complaines to King Henry the Eight of the inconveniency of the Prelates greatnesse and sway both to himselfe and his subjects worthy his Majesties most serious consideration Oh the grievous shipw●acke of the Common-wealth which in ancient time before the comming of these ravenous wolves were so prosperous c. What remedy Make Lawes against them I am in doubt whether yee be able Are they not stronger in your owne Parliament house than your selfe what a number of Bishops Abbots and Priors are Lords of your Parliament Are not all the learned men of your Realme in see with them to speake in the Parliament house for them against your Crowne dignity and Common-wealth of your Realme a few of your owne learned Counsell onely excepted What Law can be made against them that they may be availeable Who is hee though hee be grieved never so sore that for the murther of his ancester ravishment of his wife of his daughter robbery trespasse maihme debt or any other offence dare lay it to their charge by way of Action and if hee doe then is he by and by by their wilinesse accused of heresie yea they will so handle him ere hee passe that except he will beare a faggot at their pleasure he shall be excommunicated and then be all his Actions dashed So captive are your Lawes unto them that no man whom they list to excommunicate may be admitted to sue any action in any of your Courts If any man in your Sessions dare be so hardy to indite a Priest of any such crime hee hath ere the yeare goe about such a yoake of heresie layd in his necke that it mak●th him wish he had not done it Your Grace may see what a worke there is in London how the B●shop rageth for indi●ing certaine Curates of extortion and incontinency the last yeare in the Ward-mote Quest. Had not Richard Hunne Commenced action of Premunire against a Priest hee had yet beene alive● and no hereticke a● all but an honest man And ●his is by reason that the chiefe instrument of your Law yea the chiefe of your Counsell and hee which hath your sword in his hand to whom also all the other instruments are obedient is alwaies a spirituall man which hath ever such an inordinate love unto his owne kingdome that hee will maintaine that though all the temporall Kingdomes and Common-wealths of the world should therefore utterly be undone After which he s●●wes the intolerable exacti●ns of the Prelates on the people and how much wealth and money they extort from their post●rity You have heard now the opinion of our Martyrs Prelates and godly Writers touching Episcopacie Lordly Prelates their trayterly practises T●mporalties and perniciousnesse to our Church and State both before and in K. Henry the eighth his raigne in the very in●ancie of reformation many then desiring and earnestly writing for their utter exterpation as most pernicious instruments of mischiefe both to King Church and Kingdome I shall now proceed to give you some briefe account what hath beene ●hough of these particulars by our Writers and Martyrs in King Edward the sixth Queene Maries and Queene Elizabeths subsequent raignes Learned Martyn Bucer Professor of Divinity in the University o● Cambridge in King Edward the sixth his raigne● in his booke De Regno Christi dedicated to this King and Devi usu sancti Ministerii determines thus of Lordly Prelates and their temporall offices First I doubt not Most noble King that your Majesty discernes that this reformation of Christs Kingdome which wee require yea which the salvation o● us all requires Ab Episcopis nullo modo expectandum is by no meanes to be exspected from the Bishops since there are so few among them even in this Kings raigne when they were best which is worthy noting which do clearly know the power of this Kingdome and the proper offices thereof yea most of them by all meanes they may and dare do either oppugne it deferre or hinder it and thereupon hee adviseth the King not to make use of Doctors Bishops who had the greatest Titles and largest revenues in this reformation but of other godly Ministers and Lay-men wherein the knowledge and zeale of God did most abound to choose them for his Counsellours in this great worke who b● knew the power of Christ Kingdome and desired with all their hearts that it might prevaile and raign first in themselves then in all others And because writes he it is the duty of Bishop to govern the Churches not by their owne sole pleasure but with ●he counsell of Presbiters and Ministry of Deacons there will be a nececessity as al the offices of Churches are now dissipated and perverted to adjoyne to every one of the Bishops though never so approved a councell of Presbyters and ministry of Deacons who also ought to be most holily examined and tryed whether they have received of the Lord both ability and will to be assistant to their Bishop in the administration and procuration of the Churches the Presbyters in councell and assistance the Deacons in observance and ministration c. But now there are some of the Bishops whose service your sacred Majesty useth in the administration of the Kingdome But sith nothing in this world is commended to the care of men by the most high which ought more solicitously religiously to be looked to and managed then the procuration of religion that is of the eternall salvation o● the elect of God summum

by foolish men If Aerius was an Hereticke in this thing he had Ierome a companion of his Heresie and not onely him but also many other Ancient Fathers both Greeke and Latine as Medina confesseth Alphonsus de Castro saith that the Church was sarre enough off from the minde of Hierome and a certaine man hath written in the Margin that Ieromes opinion is to be dissembled not to be urged Pighius writes that Ierome is involved in such difficulties out of which he could not winde himselfe and that he fell into perplexed absurdities no wayes cohearing and fighting among themselves It is no wonder if they speake evill of us who thus petulantly insult over Ierome Marianus Victorius endeavours to excuse Ierome and writes that he speakes not of Bishops and Presbyters but o● Bishops onely and that verily all these are equall and that many did ill interpret Hierome otherwise But Ierome most manifestly compares Presbyters with Bishops and that Marianus had most easily seene unlesse he had beene miserably blinde yet at length by the opinion of Marianus all Bishops are equall Turrianus otherwise and more acutely answers Hieronymum non dicere Presbyterum idem sed eundem esse cum Episcopo What knots doth this Jesui●e here seeke in a Rush If a Presbyter be the same that a Bishop is and the Bishop the same that a Presbyter is what at last good Jesuite canst thou thinke to be between a Presbyter and a Bishop Thus verily our adversaries yea Bpp finde not how they may defend themselves from this sentence of Hierome and truely all of them sticke in the same mire albei● some of them are more foulely plunged than others The matter now returnes to Bellarmine as to the Triary he most confidently pronounceth that Ierome differeth as much from Aerius as a Catholick from an Hereticke I most firmely averre the contrary that their opinions concer●ing this thing can by no meanes be disjoyned nor distinguished Aerius thought that a Presbyter differed not ●rom a Bishop by Divine right and authority Hierome contends this very thing and defends it by the same testimonies of Scriptures as Aerius doth Now quam inepte pueriliter how foolishly and childishly Epiphanius answereth to those testimonies all may perceive For he saith that the Apostle was wont to write thus because that at that time there were not any Presbyters in many C●urches by reason of the paucity of Presbyters I admire so great a Theologue who tooke upon him to refute all Heretickes saw not how shamefully he was mistaken For what was the●● at that time greater plenty of Bishops than of Presbyters that whereas there were many Bishops in one City yet there were no presbyters there The notable absurdi●y of this an●were Bellarmine himselfe acknowledged And yet this is that Epiphanius who first of all proscribed Aerius as an Hereticke absque Synodi aut Ecclesiae judicio without the judgement of a Synod or of the Church But what saith Bellarmine he propoundeth a double difference betweene Aerius and Hierom. The first is that Ierom writes everywhere That a Bishop is greater than a Presbyter as to the power of Order I answere that it is most false Hierome never writ so neither doth he by any meanes acknowledg a Bishop to be greater than a Pre●byter unlesse it be by custome which he distinguisheth from divine disposition And if there were so great a difference wherefore doth Ierome that he may revok Deacons to modesty reduce them into order affirme that Presbyters are Bishops Whence doth he admonish that this contention taken up against Presbyters belongs to B ps themselves seeing Presbyters by the first institution of this order and Ministry are B ps Now if there were the greatest difference between these in the power of order had not Ierome bin very sottish in his argument Now whereas he saith What doth a B p except ordination which a Presbyter may not do He speaks of the custome of those times that not even the when by the custome of the Church a Bishop was greater then a Presbyter could a Bishop doe more then a Presbyter in any thing except in ordination yea elsewhere Hierom himselfe attributes ordination to Presbyters And indeed so he doth for in Zoph 1. 2. Tom. 5. pag. 218. D. he writes thus Sacerdotes c That Priests who baptize and consecrate the Lords Supper which is the greater MANVS IMPONVNT LEVITAS ET ALIOS CONSTITVVNT SACERDOTES lay on hands ordaine Levites and other Priests which is in truth but the lesse The second is that although Ierome doth not acknowledge any difference jure divino betweene the jurisdiction of a Bishop and Presbyter yet he grants that this was lawfully introduced by the Apostles and that necessarily to avoyd Schismes I answere first that Bellarmin hath resolved out of the opinion of Ierome that there is no difference in the Jurisdiction of a Bishop and Presbyter whence it is manifest what Ierome thought of the Jurisdiction and Primacy of the Pope For seeing the Primacy of the Pope consists in Jurisdiction Ierome thinks that Iure Divino the Jurisdiction of a Bishop is not greater than that of a Presbyter it followes from Ieromes opinion that the Papacy and Prelacy Divino mullo ju●● nitatur rests upon no divine Law Secondly ●●llarmine fights with himselfe and makes Ierome to speake contradictions For if Ierome thought that jurisdiction of a Bishop not to be Iuris Divini how the● was that difference introduced by the Apostles or how could Ierome prove out of the Apostles writings that there was not any difference betweene them Certainely that which the Apostles instituted and introduced hath the force of divine right Finally this profound Doctor in his ad●0 ●0 Rationem Campiani p. 51. concludes thus of Aerius●is ●is opinion And ●ruely if to condemne prayers for the dead● Et Episcopo Presbyteros aequare sit h●●reticum NIHIL CATHOLICVM ESSE POTEST and ●o equall Presbyters to a Bishop he Hereti●all nothing can be Catholike Thus this great Doctor William Whitaker with whom his Coaetaneans Doctor Willet in his Synopsi● Papismi Controversie Generall 5. part 2. in the Appendix p. 272. to 284. in the last Edition and Master William Perkins in his Reformed Catholicke Cont. 18. c. 21. concurre I wonder therefore with what impudency and shamelesse brow Bishop Hall and others dare condemne the defenders of the identity and Parity of Presbyters and Bishops by Divine right for Aerian Heretickes Schismatickes Novillers and oppugners of the received Doctrine of the Church of England when as the learnedest Prelates Martyrs and writers of our Church as appeares by the premises have pro●essedly justified this opinon as Apostolicall Orthodox Ancient and Catholike warranted by the unanimous consent both of Scriptures and Fathers ●s will further appear● by the next Authority with which I shall conclude And that is our incomparably learned Doctor Iohn Rainolds once professor of Divinity