Faith there therefore he commandeth Timothy to stay at Ephesus Titus at Crete not as Evangelists but as governors of the Churches And indeed the Epistles written to either of them doe evince the same for in these he doth not prescribe the manner of gathering together a Church which was the duty of an Evangelist but the manner of governing a Church being already gathered together which is the duty of a Bishop and all the precepts in those Epistles are so conformable hereunto as that they are not refer'd in especiall to Timothy and Titus but in general to all Bishops and therefore in no wise they suit with the temporary power of Evangelists Besides that Timothy and Titus had Episcopall jurisdiction not onely Eusebius Chrysostome Theodoret Ambrosius Hierome Epiphanius Oecumenius Primasius Theophylact but also the most ancient writers of any that write the History of the new Testament whose writings are now lost do sufficiently declare Eusebius without doubt appealing unto those in his third book of Ecclesiasticall History and 4. chapter Timothy saith hee in Histories is written to bee the first which was made Bishop of the Church of Ephesus as Titus was the first that was made Bishop of the Church of Crete But if John the Apostle and not any antient Disciple of the Apostles bee the authour of the Revelation hee suggests unto us those seven new Examples of Apostolicall Bishops For all the most learned Interpreters interpret the seven Angels of the Churches to be the seven Bishops of the Churches neither can they doe otherwise unlesse they should offer violence to the text What should I speake of James not the Apostles but the Brother of our Saviour the Sonne in law of the Mother of our Lord who by the Apostles was ordained Bishop of Hierusalem as Eusebius in his 2d. book of Ecclesiasticall History 1 chap. out of the 6. of the Hypotyposes of Clement Hierome concerning Ecclesiasticall writers out of the 1. of the Comments of Egesippus relate Ambrose upon the 1. chap. unto the Galatians Chrysostome in his 23 Homily upon the 15 of the Acts Augustine in his 2d. book and 37 chap. against Cresconius Epiphanius in his 65 Heresie The 6. Synod in Tullo and 32 Canon all assenting thereunto For indeed this is that James that had his first residence at Jerusalem as an ordinary Bishop whom Paul in his first and last coming to Hierusalem found in the City almost all the Apostles preaching in other places Gal. 1.19 and that concluded those things which were decreed in the assembly of the Apostles Act. 21. For hee was with Chrysostome Bishop of the Church of Hierusalem from whom when certaine came Peter would not eate with the Gentiles Galat. 2.12 From examples I passe to authorities which Ignatius confirmes by his own authority Whose axiomes are these The Bishop is he which is superiour in all chiefty and power The Presbytery is a holy company of counsellours and assessours to the Bishop The deacons are the imitators of angelicall vertues which shew forth their pure and unblameable ministry He which doth not obey these is without God impure and contemnes Christ and derogates from his order and constitution in his Epistle to the Trallians In an other place I exhort that ye study to doe all things with concord The Bishop being president in the place of God The Presbyters in place of the Apostolick Senate the Deacons as those to whom was committed the Ministry of Jesus Christ in his Epistle to the Magnesians And againe Let the Presbyters be subject to the Bishop the Deacons to the Presbyters the people to the Presbyters and Deacons in his Epistle to those of Tarsus But Ignatius was the Disciple of the Apostles from whence then had he this Hierarchie but from the Apostles Let us now heare Epiphanius in his 75. Heresie The Apostles could not presently appoint all things Presbyters and Deacons were necessary for by these two Ecclesiasticall affaires might bee dispatch Where there was not found any fâ—t for the Episeopacie that place remained without a Bishop but where there was need and there were any fit for Episcopacy they were made Bishops All things were not compleat from the beginning but in tract of time all things were provided which were required for the perfection of those things which were necessary the Church by this means receiving the fulnesse of dispensation But Eusebius comes neerer to the matter more strongly handles the cause who in his third booke of Ecclesiasticall History and 22 chapter as also in his Chronicle affirmeth that Erodius was ordained the 1. Bishop of Antioch in the yeere of our Lord. 45. in the 3. yeere of Claudius the Emperor at which time many of the Apostles were alive Now Hierome writeth to Evagrius that at Alexandria from Mark the Evangelist unto Heraclius and Dionisius the Bishop the Presbyters called one chosen out of themselvs and placed in a higher degree the Bishop But Marke dyed as Eusebius and Bucholcerus testifie in the yeere of our Lord 64. Peter Paul and John the Apostles being then alive therefore it is cleere that Episcopacie was instituted in the time of the Apostles and good Hierome suffered some frailty when he wrote that Bishops were greater then Presbyters rather by the custome of the Church then the truth of the Lords disposing unlesse perhaps by the custome of the Church hee understands the custome of the Apostles and by the truth of the Lords disposing hee understands the apointment of Christ yet not so hee satisfies the truth of History For it appears out of the 1.2 and 3. Chapters of the Revelation that the forme of governing the Church by Angels or Bishops was not only ratified and established in the time of the Apostles but it was coÌ„firmed by the very Son of God And Ignatius called that form the order of Christ And when Hierome writes that it was decreed in the whole World that one chosen out of the Presbyters should bee placed over the rest And when I have demonstrated that in the life-time of the Apostles Bishops were superior to Presbyters in Ordination and that each Church had one placed over it doe wee not without cause demand where when and by whom Episcopacie was ordained Episcopacie therefore is of divine right Which how the Prelates of the Church of Rome for almost 300. yeers did adorne with the truth of Doctrine innocency of life constancy in afflictions and suffering Death it selfe for the honour of Christ and on the other side how in succeding times first by their ambition next by their excessive pragmaticall covetousnesse scraping up to themselves the goods of this world then by their heresie last of all by their tyranny they corrupted it that the Roman Hierarchy at this day hath nothing else left but a vizard of the Apostolicall Ecclesiasticall Hierarchy and the lively image of the whore of Babylon our Histories both antient and moderne doe abundantly testifie Wherefore all Bishops are
dint of their censures The like answer serves for their objected Homilies Surely were they enjoyned to all by lawfull authority and made so familiar to the eares of every congregation as the Liturgie is some few could not forbeare them without offence whiles withall they should be allowed the helps of preaching As in this case it is done the use of the set Liturgie being seconded by prayers conceived But the project is singular That if any Ministers should prove insufficient to discharge the duty of Prayer in a conceived way it may be imposed upon him as a punishment to use set formes and no other Never Confessor injoyned such a penance Never Law-maker imposed such a mulct Certainly it were a more just and needfull motion that many who take upon them to preach with so small abuse of Gods sacred Word might as in way of correction be injoyned onely to reade Homilies But who sees not in this overture an utter cassation of that Liturgie which is pretended to be left free For if the freedome of a sole conceived prayer shall depend upon the supposed sufficiency of the Minister shew me the man amongst five hundred of the forward Artizans that Will confesse or think himselfe insufficient for the act or unfurnished with the gifts of Prayer Away then with the Book whiles it may be supplied with a more profitable non-sense Surely where God hath bestowed gifts it is fit they should be imployed and improved to the best advantage of his people But where there is nothing but an empty over-weening and proud ignorance there is great reason for a just restraint SECT III. THus their cavils concerning the Liturgie are vanished we descend to the longer quarrell of Episcopacie Where it is their ill hap to stumble again at the entring into these Lists beginning their answer pardon good Reader with a manifest leasing whiles they dare say that whatsoever hath been either spoken or written by any either learned Divines or well reformed Churches is taxed by me as no other then the unjust clamours of weak or factious persons Certainly had I done so I had been no lesse worthy to be spit upon for my saucy uncharitablenesse then they are now for their uncharitable falshood After my complaints of the many railing invectives and scandalous Libels published of late I came now to bemoane my self to that high Court of Justice in these words As for that forme of Episcopall government which hath hitherto obtained in the Church of God I confesse I am confounded in my selfe to heare with what unjust clamours it is cried down abroad by either weak or factious persons Abroad I say in relation to both Houses lest any malicious person should have traduced my words as reflecting upon any free speech made in either of them against some of that calling alluding to that impious licentiousnesse of our frequent Libellers both in the City and Countrey which shamefully revile Episcopacy as wicked and Antichristian Now come these brotherly slanderers sure the termes can be no better and would needs Wier-draw my words as farre as France Germany or Geneva it self and cry out of my Arrogancy as condemning all Divines all Churches which the God of heaven knowes never came within the verge of my thoughts Yea if I could have been so abominably presumptuous as to inlarge my abroad to other Nations yet I beseech you readers see how well this follows Episcopall Government is with unjust clamours cryed down abroad by either weake or factious persons therefore whosoever speaks or writes against Episcopacy is either weake or factious Brethren if you have any remainders of modesty or truth left in you cry God mercy for this egregious and palpable calumnie Of the same straine is their witty descant upon my confoundednesse I made use of the phrase as that which is taken up by the most elegant Greek and Latine Authors to expresse extreame sorrow these deep Philologers as not seeming to know other sense take it of a confoundednesse through distraction sure the man is not in his rightwits 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And how so trow we Heare how he raves He talks of all peaceable and right affected sons of the Church and craves an admittance in all their names whereas all could not take notice of his book doubtlesse a deep phrensie Brethren I am still and shall ever be thus selfe-confounded as confidently to say that he is no peaceable and right affected Son of the Church of England that doth not both hate Libels and wish well to Liturgy and Episcopacy both which summe up my humble Remonstrance But this flip they confesse is small that other is worthy of a large Dos of Ellebore that I say Episcopall govermnent that is government by Diocesan Bishops derives it selfe from the Apostles times this they say they cannot but rank amongst my notorious speake out Masters I would not have that word stick in your teeth or in your throat And why is this truth so notorious Because there were no Diocesans of above an hundred yeares after Christ Now Readers I beseech you cast back your eies upon those Lines of mine and see whether I make any mention at all of Diocesans but onely of the sacred government by Episcopacy Wanton wits must have leave to play with their owne stern Brethren what needs this importunity Even selfe-confounded men doe not alwaies speake false What the joynt-confession of all reformed Divines is concerning the derivation of Episcopacy from the Apostolique times I have elsewhere shewed from some in the name of all and shall doe again in the due place to what purpose were this unseasonable anticipation Indeed no true Divine did ever hold otherwise The question never was Whether Bishops were derived from the Apostles But what kinde of Bishops they were For us if we not deduce ours from them in respect of all the essentialls of our calling let the shame be ours Whereas I say the government hath continued without any interruption they aske jeeringly What at Rome and tell me of some places of the world as Scotland for example wherein this government was never known for many years together Brethren what means this whether simplicity or scorne Could yee imagine me to meane that every place through the whole world hath had a continued Line of Bishops ever since the Apostles sure you cannot so wrong your own judgements Alas we could tell you of China Iapan Peru Brasil New-England Virginia and a thousand others that never had any Bishops to this day Yet it is never the lesse safe to say that the form of Government by Bishops in the Christian world derives it selfe without interruption from the Apostles times for as much as there hath been no time or age since them wherein there hath not been this forme of Episcopall Government continued You tell me that In ancient times the Scots were instructed by Priests and Monks and were without Bishops two hundred and ninety years I acknowledge the words
authoritie and yet authoritie experience reason are worthy to sway with us in all matters of question and withall Hee that said I am the way said that the old way was the good way and if Custome without Truth as that Father said well be nothing but a gray-hair'd Error or as Sir Francis Bacon wittily Antiquitie without Truth is a Cipher without a Figure yet where Custom Antiquitie are backed with Truth there they are Figures multiplied with many Ciphers As for the time wherein their learned Ancients affirme The Church not to have beene governed by Bishops but by Presbyters and for the difference pretended to be betwixt the Primitive Bishops and ours wee shall meet with it in such due time and place as shall be justly occasioned What needs this frivolous waste of unseasonable words wherewith unlesse these men desired to swell up this their windy bulke why doe they tell us yet againe of that already answered and groundlesse exception against both their owne eyes and conscience where I say that this government hath continued in this Iland ever since the plantation of the Gospel without contradiction when as they cannot name any man in this Nation that ever contradicted Episcopacie till this present age or that ever contradicted this truth that Episcopacy hath so long continued in this Iland which is the only drift of my words For alas could I be so simple as not to know that this age hath bred opposition enough to the present government could I doubt whether these very men oppose it Yet let the boldest forehead of them all denie that it hath continued thus long in this our Iland or say that any till this age contradicted it so as that my assertion is just their exception false and vain As for that supplie of accessory strength which I did not beg but raise evince from the light of nature and rules of just policie for the continuance of those things which long use and many laws have firmly established as necessary and beneficiall it will stand long enough against the battery of their Paper-pellets If some statute Laws which seemed once necessary and beneficiall proving afterwards in processe of time noxious and burthensome have been justly and wisely repealed Let them tell mee whether the fundamentall Lawes of the Kingdome upon any mans abuse may be subject to alteration or whether rather their Wisdomes would not think fit to determine that the Laws must stand and the abuses be removed such is the cause we have now in hand and if we shall goe lesse I speak not against an impossibility but an easinesse of change the question being so stated which their guiltinesse would willingly over-look that things indifferent or good having been by continuance and generall approbation well rooted in Church and State may not upon light grounds be pulled up SECT V. I Justly fetch the pedegree of our holy calling from no lesse then Apostolicall and in that right Divine institution and prove it from the clear practise of their immediate successors and justly triumph in that confidence They tell me of one scruple yet remaining It is well if there be no more And what may that be That in Originall authority of Scripture Bishops and Presbyters went originally for the same Alas brethren what needed this to be a scruple in your thoughts or your words when it is in expresse termes granted by us That there was at first a plain Identity in their denomination here is one page and that not without some labour of proofs idly lost It is true that the Remonstrant undertakes to shew a cleare and received distinction of Bishops Presbyters and Deacons out of the undeniable writings of those holy men which lived in the times of the Apostles and after them with an evident specification of their severall duties And what say my Answerers to this Yet say they Let us tell him that we never finde in Scripture these three Orders Bishops Presbyters Deacons Brethren ye might have spared to tell me that which I had told you before I speak of the monuments of immediate succession to the Apostolique times Ye of the writings of the Apostles themselves How then doe you either answer or oppose my assertion Although I must also tell you that though in the Apostolique Epistles there be no nominall distinction of the titles yet there is a reall distinction and specification of the duties as we shall see in due place That ye may seem not to say nothing and may make your Readers beleeve you are not quite forsaken of Antiquity ye call Hierome Chrysostome Theophylact Irenaeus and Cyprian to the Book And what evidence will they give for you That the names of Bishops and Presbyters were not at first distinguished but used 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a promiscuous sense and that some succeeding Bishops of Rome were styled Presbyters This is all but that your trifling may appeare to all the World Name but any one of our Writers who have hitherto stood up in the cause of Episcopacie that hath not granted and proclaimed this which you contend for Although withall let me tel you that you could not have brought a stronger argument against your selves for hence the world shall see how little force can be drawne from the name to the thing since the mentioned Anicetus Pius Hyginus Telesphorus Bishops of Rome are so famously known to have been in an height of elevation above Presbyters And since Cyprian who is styled by his Presbyters Frater is never found to style his Presbyters Bishops And being an holy Bishop himselfe in many Epistles stifly maintaines the eminence of his superiority And is some-whiles honored with the title of Beatissimus Papa Cyprianus which I suppose was never given to a meere Presbyter But what do I here follow them who confesse themselves out of the way At last acknowledging that their adversaries confesse that which they would needs spend time to prove let the names passe All the question is of the distinction of their offices which they wil follow as tediously as loosly And first they would faine know what we make the distinct office of a Bishop wherein they fall somewhat unhappily upon the very words of that branded Aerius Is it say they to edifie the Church by Word Sacraments Is it to ordaine others to that worked Is it to rule to governe by admonition and by other censures any or all of these belong unto the Presbytery Compare now the words of Aerius as they are related by Epiphanius whom that Father brings in speaking thus concerning Episcopacy and Presbytery There is one order of both one honor one dignity the Bishop imposeth hands so doth the Presbyter the Bishop doth administer Gods worship or service so doth the Presbyter the Bishop sitteth on the throne so doth also the Presbyter See reader and acknowledge the very phrases of that man whom holy antiquity censured even in this point both for a frantick man and an
have not yet attained the cognizance of their Purification Baptisme the other of those which are now come on so farre as to professe the Christian Religion in this latter ranke are appointed some which do inquire into the lives and manners of those that come that they may be a meanes to keepe off such Candidates of Religion as doe carry themselves amisse from their Assemblies And the rest that are like themselves they may gladly receive In which passage it is most evident that Origen speakes of those which are newly admitted into the Church who by reason of their late knowledge and acquaintance with those which they left behinde them in Pagan superstition might bee fit Monitours to knowe and notifie the condition of such Candidates as did offer to come into the Church Now these trusty Answerers would make the World believe that this is spoken of some Sage Elders that were to governe the Church and to deceive the Reader unfaithfully turne the words Nonnulli Praepositi sunt as if they were some ruling Elders indeed Whereas the word signifies and intends onely a designation of such Novices as were well approved to an Office of Monitorship concerning those which would professe to bee Converts And now to return your owne words wee would gladly knowe whether these were not as it were Lay Elders As for those other testimonies which you have drawne hither out of Augustine Optatus and the Letters of Fortis and Purpurius out of Baronius I could if neede were double your files in this kinde might that doe you any service I could tell you out of the acts of the Purgation of Foelix and Caecilianus of Episcopi Presbyteri Diaconi Seniores out of the Synodal Epistle of the Cabarsussitan councell as mentioned by Saint Augustine in his Enarration upon the Psalmes Necesse nos fuerat Primiani causam Seniorum literis ejusdem Ecclesiae postulantibus audire atque discutere which is a more pregnant place then any you have brought and could reckon You up yet more out of the Code of the African Canons Can. 91. Out of Gregory Turonensis who speaking of the Bishop of Marselles brings him in to say Nihil per me feci c. I did nothing of my selfe but that which was commaunded me à Dominis nostris Senioribus Out of Gregory the great in his Epistles more then once I could weary you with supply of such authorities But Brethren I shal sadly tel you that you do herein nothing but abuse your Reader with a colourable pretence For all those places you alleage are nothing at all to the purpose in hand VVho can make question but that Carthage and Hippo and other African Cities had old and grave men in them VVho can doubt that they had Magistrates and men in authority Such as we stil are wont out of the ancient appellation to style Aldermen Who can doubt that they did in all great occasions of the Church take the advise and assistance of these prime men But wil it hence follow that in the sense you contend for they had a Setled Lay Presbytery Was their Church ere the more according to your construction governed by Pastors Elders Deacons That these forecited were such as we have intimated is most evident in the Affrican Canons Can 100 they are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the old men And in the 91 Canon we find as a Commentary upon this point Debere unumquemque nostrum in civitate sua convenire Donatistarum Praepositos aut adjungere sibi vicinum Collegam ut pariter eos in singulis quibusque Civitatibus per Magistratus vel Seniores locorum conveniant That is That every one of us should in our own Cities meet with the chiefe Governours of the Donatists and take with him some neighbour as his Colleague or Assistant that they together may give them a meeting by the Magistrates or Elders of the places But you will say there were those which were called Seniores Ecclesiastici ecclesiasticall Elders also True there were such Iustellus confesses so much and learned Isaacus Causabonus whose manuscript notes I have seene and his worthy Sonne Mericus Causabonus in his notes upon Optatus yield no lesse but these they do truly say were but as our Church-wardens men that were trusted with the utensils stock and outward affairs of the Church or as I may more fully compare them our vestry-men who are commonly and of old designed under the name of the eight men or twelve men in every great parish as I am sure it is in the Western parts to order the businesses of Seats and rates and such like externall occasions now that those places which you have cited intend no other Elders then these you shall he convinced out of your own testimonies The place which you bring out of Saint Austen cōtra Cresconium Grāmaticum runs thus Omnes vos c. All you Bishops Presbyters Deacons and Elders do know c. where you see plainly that the Elders which hee means are below Deacons and so you shall find them wheresoever they are mentioned now those that you contend for are by your own claime in a Key above them Optatus whom you cite is cleer against your sense whiles he makes only quatuor genera capitum only four sorts of mē in the Church Bishops Presbyters Deacons the faithful Laity And in his first book against Parmenian Quid commemorē Laicos c. he reckons up meer Laicks Ministers Deacons Presbyteros secundo sacerdotio constitutos Presbyters in the second degree of Priesthood principes omnium Episcopos and the chiefe of all Bishops Shortly brethren that there were in the Church of old ruling Elders which were in a rank above Deacōs and had together with the pastors a setled power of governmēt in the Church it is an opinion no lesse new then unjustifiable I do here solemnly professe that if any one such instance can be brought I wil renoūce Episcopacie for ever Do not thē against the light of your own knowledge set a face on proofs of those things which never were but give glory to God in yielding to so undoubted and cleer a truth SECT XVI XVII.XVIII THe rest that remaines is but mere Declamation not worthy of any answere but contempt and silence It is most true that the religious Bishops of all times have strongly upheld the truth of God against Satan and his Antichrist What can you say to this You tell mee of some irreligious ones that have as strongly upheld Satan and his Antichrist against the truth of GOD What is this to the calling can not I tell you of some wicked and irreligious Presbyters shall the function it selfe therefore suffer You tel us What an unpreaching Bishop once said of a Preacher I challeng you to shew any unpreaching Bishop in the Church of England this day it is your slander this not their just Epithete the scandalls of our inferiour Ministers I professe I
songs and prayers which were ever used before their sacrifices For before every of their severall sacrifices they had their severall songs still used in those times of peace all which accurately written were transmitted to the subsequent generations from the time of Moses the Legat unto this day by the ministery of the high Priest This Book did that high Priest embezell wherein was contained their Genealogies to the dayes of Phineas together with an historicall enarration of the yeares of their generation and life Then which book there is no history besides the Bookes of Moses found more ancient Thus that ancient Record That there were such forms in the Jewish Church we doubt not but that they should be deduced to the use of the Church Evangelicall to save the labour of their devotions is but a poore and groundlesse requisition Those formes which we have under the names of St. Iames who was as Egesippus tells us the first Bishop and Leiturgus of Hierusalem of Basil and Chrysostome though they have some intersertions which are plainly spurious yet the substance of them cannot be taxed for other then holy and ancient And the implication of the ancient Councell of Ancyra is worthy of observation which forbids those Presbyters that had once sacrificed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to offer or to preach or to serve in the holy Liturgies or administrations Howsoever I perswade my selfe every ingenuous reader finds reason and authority enough in this undeniable practise of antiquity to out-face an upstart conceit of some giddie heads that condemne all formes of prayer be they never so holy because such Now what should a man doe with such sullen and crabbed pieces as these If he crosse them in plaine termes he is false If he comply with them in good words he Rhetoricates What have I professed concerning conceived prayers but that which I ever allowed ever practised both in private and publike God is a free Spirit and so should ours be in powring out our voluntary devotions upon all occasions Nothing hinders but that this liberty and a publique Liturgie should be good friends and may goe hand in hand together and whosoever would forcibly sever them let them beare their owne blame I perceive this is it which these techy men quarrell and dislike that I make the applause of conceived prayer but a vantage-ground to lift up the publique forme of our sacred Church-Liturgy the higher which they are indeed loth should stand upon even termes yea above ground professedly wrangling first at the Originall then the confirmation of it For the first I had said our Liturgy was selected out of ancient modells including in a parenthesis not Roman but Christian and thereby signifying as any ingenuous reader would construe it that our said Liturgie had no relation either to the place or religion of Rome but only to the Christian and holy matter of those godly prayers Now these charitable men fly out into high termes and beseech your Honours to consider How ye may trust these men who sometimes speaking and writing of the Roman Church proclaime it a true Church of Christ and yet here Roman and Christian stand in opposition Ignorantly or maliciously when any man may see here is not an opposition meant but a different modification As when the Prophet sayes I am a worme and no man Or the Apostle It is no more I but sin Or I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me Neither is any phrase more common in our usuall speech In what sense we hold the Roman a true Church is so cleared by the unanimous Suffrages of unquestionable Divines that this iron is too hot for their fingers Being then thus qualified our Liturgie needs not be either ashamed of its originall published in King Edwards proclamation or blankt with their unjust aggravation The composers of it we still glory to say were holy Martyrs and Confessors of the blessed Reformation of Religion and if any rude hand have dared to cast a foul aspersion on any of them he is none of the Tribe I plead for I leave him to the reward of his owne merits Thus composed and thus confirmed by the recommendation of foure most religious Princes and our owne Parliamentary Acts they dare not absolutely discharge it but they doe as they may nibble at it in a double exception The one of the over-rigorous pressing of it to the justling out of Preaching and conceived Prayer which was never intended either by the Law-makers or moderate Governours of the Church The other that neither our owne Lawes nor K. James his proclamation are so unalterable as the Lawes of the Medes Persians Which bold flout how well it becomes their gravity and pretended obedience we leave at either Bar. After an over-comprehensive recapitulation of their exploits in this mighty Section they descend to two main Quaere's whereof the first is Whether it be not fit to consider of the alteration of the present Liturgie Intimating herein not an alteration in some few expressions excepted against but a totall alteration in the very frame of it as their reasons import Yes doubtlesse Sirs ye may consider of it it is none of the Lawes of the Medes and Persians What if the weak judgement of K. Iames upon some pretended reasons decreed all forbearance of any farther change What if that silly and ignorant Martyr D r Taylor could magnifie it to B. Gardner and others as complete What if great Elogies and Apologies have been cast away upon it by learned men since that time What if Innovations in Religion be cryed out of as not to be indured yet consider of the alteration Neither need ye to doubt but that this will be considered by wiser heads then your own and whatsoever shall be found in the manner of the expressions sit to be changed will doubtlesse be altered accordingly but the maine fabrick of it which your reasons drive at my hope is we shall never see to undergo an alteration Yet still do you consider of this your projected alteration whiles I consider shortly of the great reasons of your consideration First it symboliseth much with the Popish Masse Surely neither as Masse nor as Popish If an holy Prayer be found in a Roman Portuise shall I hate it for the place If I find gold in the Channell shall I throw it away because it was ill laid If the Devills confessed Christ the Son of God shall I disclaime that truth because it passed through a damned mouth Why should we not rather allow those good prayers which symbolize with all Christian piety then reject those which dwel amongst some superstitious neighbours It was composed you say into this frame on purpose to bring Papists to our Churches Well had it been so the project had been charitable and gracious What can be more thank-worthy then to reclaime erring soules But it failed in the successe Pardon me brethren if it had done so it was neither the fault of
the matter or of the men but it did not Sir Edward Coke can tell you that till the eleventh year of Qu. Elizabeth all came to Church Those times knew no Recusant then At last the Jesuitish Casuists finding their great disadvantage by the inoffensive use of our Liturgie determined it utterly unlawfull to joyne in Church-service with Heretiques Hence came this alienation hence this distraction that we have not won more it is not the fault of our publique devotion why do you not impute it to the want or weaknesse in preaching rather But that our Liturgy hath lost any to the Popish part it is not more paradoxe then sclander Those stumbling blocks which you say our Liturgie laies before the feet of many are by many removed and amongst the rest by a blind man whose eie-lesse head directed how to avoid those blocks which these quick-sights will needs see how to stumble at But if there be found ought that may indanger a scandall it is under carefull hands to remove it It is Idoliz'd they say in England they meane at Amsterdam some Separists have made it such never any just Protestant Others say rather that too many doe injuriously make an Idoll of preaching shall we therefore consider of abandoning it and if some one have passed an hyperbolicall praise of it must it therefore be marred in mending Multitudes of people they say distast it more shame for those that have so mistaught them would God too much multitude did not through ill teaching distast the truth of wholsome doctrine and abhorre Communion with the true Church of Christ shall we to humour them abandon both There is a vast difference they say betweene it and the Liturgies of all other reformed Churches A difference wherein not in the essentiall points but in some accidents and outward formalities Whose fault is that ours was before theirs why did not they conforme to us rather then we come back to them I may boldly say ours was and is the more noble Church and therefore more fit to lead then to follow But indeede since our Languages and Regions are different what neede is there our Liturgies should be one and why should we be more tyed to their formes then those of all other Christians Grecians Armenians Cophs Abassine Arabian Egyptian all which differ in no lesse from each other then we from them Consider now brethren whether these reasons of a change be worthy of any consideration The second Quaere is so weak that I wonder it could fall from the pens of wise men Whether the first reformer of religion did ever intend the use of a Liturgie further then to be an helpe in the want and to the weaknesse of the Minister Brethren can ye thinke that our Reformers had any other intentions then all other the founders of Liturgies through the whole Christian yea and Jewish Church the least part of whose care was the help of the Ministers weaknesse and their main drift the helpe of the peoples devotion that they knowing before-hand the matter that should be sued for and the words wherewith it should be clothed might be the more prepared to joyn their hearts to the Ministers tongue and be so much more intent upon their devotion as they had lesse need to be distracted with the doubtfull expectation of the matter or words to be delivered It is no lesse boldly then untruly said that all other Churches reformed though they use Liturgies doe not bind their Ministers to the use of them Binding is an ambiguous word I am sure both the French and Dutch Churches in both which I have been present require their prescribed formes to be used both in Baptisme and in Celebration of the Lords Supper and in solemnization of Matrimony And in what rank will they place the Lutheran Churches And if the Reformed Churches use this liberty what a poore handfull are they to that world of Christian Churches abroad which do both use and injoyn their Liturgie in that first forme we have seen urged in the Melevitane Councell The Rubrick in King Edwards booke is mis-construed which only out of respect to the peoples ease and their more willing addiction to the hearing of Sermons which were then so much more long as they were more rare gave that liberty to Ministers in the use of the Liturgie which divers Ordinaries at this day upon my certain knowledge have often yeelded unto That Rubrick imports no more then our practise neither of them disparages our Liturgie The Homilies are left free they say to be read or not by preaching Ministers why not then the Liturgie And if it can be thought no lesse then sacriledge to rob the people of the Ministers gift in preaching and to tie him to Homilies it can be no lesse to deprive them of their gift in Prayer Did we utterly abridge all Ministers of the publique use of any conceived Prayer on what occasion soever the argument might hold force against us but that being yeelded our Liturgie is untouched Neither were it a lesser sacriledge to rob the people of a set forme by the liberty of a free expression And how doth this argument more strike us then all the Churches of the Christian world whose preaching is out of their conception whiles their Liturgie is injoyned It is a false ground that the imposing of the Book ties godly men from exercising their gift in Prayer An enjoyned Liturgie may well stand with the freedome of a Prayer conceived The Desk is no hinderance to the Pulpit He is wanting to his duty that slackneth either service Much lesse can this be any reason to keep men from their presence at our Church-service that a Liturgie is imposed Tell me Is this Liturgie good or evill If it be evill it is unlawfull to be used If good it is not unlawfull to be imposed And were the imposition amisse what is that to the people It is imposed upon the Minister that whether act or passion rests in him the people are no more concerned in it then if a Minister should tye himselfe to the use of a Prayer of his owne making as I have knowne some of the most famous Divines of this Kingdome constantly do If then there be no way left to recover the people to a stinted Prayer but by leaving it free to use or not to use Oâ— miserably mis-led people whom nothing belike can reclaime after such doctrine instilled but a professed confusion Well may they object to themselves in this way divisions and disturbances following upon a perfect deformity and sooner may they object then avoid them But why more here they say then in other Reformed Churches The difference is evident Our Churches have never been but used to a setled Liturgie which the eares and hearts of our people look for Theirs perhaps began without it Yet so as I doubt not but if any man should now refuse to conforme to their estabilished formes hee should soon feele the
hereticke Brethren God speed you well with your Question As for the first which is edifying the Church by Word and Sacraments we make no difference your distance may we both hold it our worke and make it so and if any one have beene slack herein the fault is personall we neither defend nor excuse it The maine quarrell you grant to be in the second which is the power of Ordination impropriated as you enviously and untruly speake to our selves This you say was in former times in the hands of the Presbyters and undertake to prove it from 1 Tim. 4.14 Neglect not the gift which was given thee by Prophesie and by laying on the hands of Presbytery a place that hath received answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which I wonder ye can so presse when Calvin himselfe as you well know in his learned Institutions even in his last and ripest judgement construes it quite otherwise taking it of the office and not of the men however elsewhere otherwise wherein he also followes the judgement of Ierome Primasius Anselme Haymo Liranus Erasmus and others as our learned Bishop Downam hath largely shewed To countenance this sense of yours you tel us you find 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so taken in Scripture and cite Luc. 22.66 and Act. 22.5 Wherein you do meerly delude the reader you find indeed the Elders of the people so called but the Elders of the Church never to make good your own construction therefore you must maintaine that Lay-men did and must lay on hands in Ordination which Calvin himself utterly abominates Neither need we to give any other satisfaction to the point thē that which we have from S. Paul himselfe 1 Tim. 3.6 Stirre up the gift of God which is in thee by the imposition of my hands mine not others I aske then Was Timothy ordained more then once once surely S. Pauls hands were laid upon him when therefore the Presbyters Yes you say this was a joynt act of both else the Harmony of Scripture is not maintained Pardon me Brethren if I think Mr. Calvin was more skilled in the harmony of Scripture then our selves yet in his eare it sounded well that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should be the Office to which Timothy was ordained by Paul and not a company of men that ordained him Yet give me leave to marvell how you can have the boldnesse to say This power is communicated to Presbyters when you know that not onely other Antiquity but even Hierome himself and that Councell of Aquisgrane which you cite doe still except Ordination which yet we doe not so appropriate as to lay our hands alone upon the head of any Presbyter The third part of our office consists in Ruling which though our Bishops you say assumed to themselves you will discover to have bin committed to and exercised by Presbyteriall hands For evidence whereof you cite Heb. 13.17 Obey them that have the Rule over you for they watch for your souls Brethren what an injurious imputation is this Do we not give you the title of Rectores Ecclesiarum Doe we not in your institution commit to you regimen animarum Why will ye therefore bear your Readers in hand that we herein rob you of your right It is true that here is a just distinction to be made betwixt the government of soules in severall Congregations and the government of the Church consisting of many Congregations that task is yours this is the Bishops wherein their rule yet is not Lordly but brotherly or paternall your argument reacheth not home to this and yet you strain that place of 1 Thes 5.12 beyond the due breadth whiles you tenter it out to either a paritie or communitie of censure Injoy now what you have so victoriously purchased but give me leave to summe up my reckonings also Since then how ever the name was at first promiscuously used yet the Office of Bishops and Presbyters differed even by Apostolike Institution and the Acts pertaining thereto of Ordination and power of ordinary government and censures were in that very first age of the Church manifestly differenced therefore Bishops and Presbyters were not one SECT VI. THE practise of the Apostles is so farre from contradicting their rules which your brotherly charity would fasten upon my assertion as that it is a most cleare proof and illustration of it Their practise is irrefragable in the charge which they gave to Timothy and Titus as we shall prove in due place Now if to this we shall adde the unquestionable glosse of the more cleare practise of their immediate successors I know not what more light can be desired for the manifestation of this truth Whereto ye boldly answer If this gloss corrupt not the text we shall admit it implying therein too presumptuously that the universall practise of the whole Primitive Church succeeding the Apostles may prove a Burdeaux-glosse to marre the Text. Brethren goe you your owne way let me erre with such guides But ye are disposed to be liberall somewhat ye will grant us besides that which we grant you It is agreed that the name of Bishops and Presbyters were at first promiscuously used It is yeelded by you That in process of time some one was honoured with the name of Bishop and the rest were called Presbyters But what I beseech you was this process of time Here lies your either error or fraud We doe justly and confidently defend that this time had no processe at all it was in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the living Apostles which we shall plainly make good in the sequell It is also yeelded that this was not nomen inane but seconded with some kind of imparity What then is the difference All the question you say is of divine right and Apostolicall institution of this imparity Let me beseech the Reader to consider seriously of the state of this difference in the mistaking whereof I have not a little unjustly suffered And to remember how I have expressed it in my Remonstrance fetching the pedegree of Episcopacy from Apostolicall and therefore in that right Divine institution And interpreting my self not to understand by divine right any expresse Law of God requiring it upon the absolute necessity of the being of a Church but an institution of Apostles inspired by the holy Ghost warranting it where it is and requiring it where it may be had Now whether it may be thus Apostolicall or a meerly humane and Ecclesiasticall invention is the question in hand On your part you say stand Ierome and Ambrose Two stiffe champions indeed And surely I must needs confesse this is the onely countenance of your cause which yet hath been blanked more then once Ierome tels us you say right down in Tit. 1. Idē est ergo Presbyter c. Out of whose testimony you in summe collect That A Presbyter and a Bishop were originally one That the imparity was grounded upon Ecclesiasticall custome That before this priority the Church was governed by
the common Councell of Presbyters and that Bishops ought still so to govern And lastly that The occasion of this imparity was the division which through the Devils instinct fell among Christians You look now that I should tell you that the Book is of uncertain credit or that Ierome was a Presbyter and not without some touch of envie to that higher dignity he missed or that wiser men then your selves have censured him in this point for Aerianisme I plead none of these but whiles you expect that I should answer to Ierome I shall set Ierome to answer for himselfe For the first I cannot but put you in mind that the same Father citing the words of the Bishop of Jerusalem That there is no difference betwixt a Bishop and a Presbyter passeth a Satis imperitè upon it but let it be so At first he sayes Bishops and Presbyters had but one title So say we too But when began the distinction Ye need not learne it of Saravia he himselfe tels you When divisions began And when that When they began to say I am Pauls I am Apollo's I am Cephas which was I think well and high in the Apostles time But this you would cleanly put of as spoken by Ierome in the Apostles phrase not of the time of the Apostle This is but a generall intimation of contentions arisen though later in the Church Excuse me Brethren this shift will not serve your turne Then belike there should have been no distinct Bishops till after-ages upon this ground that till then there were no divisions Or if so why should the remedie be so late after the disease Or how comes he elsewhere to name Bishops made by the Apostles and to confesse that before his time there had been many successions Besides he instanceth in the peculiar mis-challenging of Baptisme which only S. Paul specifieth in his owne time And Clemens seconds him in his Epistle to the Corinthians in taxing the continuance of those distractions so as by Ieroms own confession Episcopacy was ordained early within the Apostles times But then say you It was not of Apostolicall intention but of Diabolicall occasion Weakly and absurdly As if the occasion might not be devilish and the institution divine As if the best Lawes did not rise from the worst manners Were not the quarrels betwixt the Grecians and Hebrews for the maintenance of their widows an evill occurrence yet from the occasion thereof was raised the Ordination of Deacons in the Church Yea but Ierome saith This was rather by the custome of the Church then by the truth of the Lords disposition True it was by the Custome of the Church but that Church was Apostolicall not by the Lords disposition immediately for Christ gave no expresse rule for it but mediately it was from Christ as from his inspired Apostles Let Ierome himselfe interpret himselfe who tels us expresly in his Epistle to Euagrius this superiority of Bishops above Presbyters is by Apostolicall tradition which is as much as we affirme And whiles he saith toto orbe decretum est that in the time of those first divisions it was decreed all the world over that Bishops should be set up I would faine know by what power besides Apostolicall such a Decree could be so soon and so universally enacted But Ierome saith The Presbyters governed the Church by their common Counsell So they did doubtlesse altogether till Episcopacy was setled who dares deny it Yea but he saith They ought to doe still So say we also and so in some cases we do Church-government is Aristocraticall Neither is any Bishop so absolute as not to be subject to the judgement of a Synode Yea in many matters it is determined by our Laws that hee must take the advise and assistance of his Ecclesiasticall Presbytery So then S. Ierome is in his judgement no back friend of ours but in his History he is our Patron With what forehead can they perswade their Reader the Originall of Episcopacie was not in Ieroms opinion so early when they cannot but confesse that the same Father hath in flat termes told us that Iames was Bishop of Jerusalem Timothy of Ephesus Titus of Crete that ever since the time of Mark the Euangelist who died five or sixe yeares before Peter and Paul and almost forty years before S. Iohn at Alexandria till the dayes of Heraclas and Dionysius the Presbyters have alwayes chosen one to be their Bishop As for those poore negative arguments which follow palpably begging the question they are scarce worthie of a passe were it not that by them they goe about to confute their own Author affirming That upon occasion of divisions Episcopacie was constituted but he stands so close to his owne grounds as that contrary to their mis-allegation of D r Whitakers he plainly tels them Episcopacie is so proper a remedy for this evill that unlesse the Bishop have a peerlesse power there will be as many Schismes as Priests the wofull experience whereof we finde in the miserable varieties of Separatisme at this day Goe on Brethren since you are so resolved to strike that friend whom you bring in to speak for you teach your advocate S. Ierome how unlikely it is that the Apostles should give way as he professes they did to such a remedie as might prove both ineffectuall and dangerous and that their holinesse should make a stirrup for Antichrist We lookt for Ambrose to come in next and behold you bring in a foisted Commenter a man by the convictions of Whitakers Spalatensis Cocus Rivetus Bellarmine Possevine Maldonate as hath beene elsewhere shewed of not a suspected onely but a crackt credit If it mattered much what he said I could out of his testimonie picke more advantage then you prejudice to my cause But if you will heare the true Ambrose speake he tells you There is one thing which God requireth of a Bishop another of a Presbyter another of a Deacon As for the persons who brought in this imparitie you tell us out of the same Authors The Presbyters themselves brought it in Witnesse Ierome ad Euagrium The Presbyters of Alexandria did call him their Bishop whom they had chosen from among themselves and placed in an higher degree But brethren what meanes this faithlesse and halved citation Had you said all the place would have answered for it selfe the words are Nam Alexandriae à Marco Evangelista c. For at Alexandria ever since Mark the Evangelist untill the times of Heraclas and Dionysius Bishops the Presbyters have alwayes called one chosen out of themselves and placed in an higher degree Bishop as if an army should chuse their Generall Why did you avoid the name of Mark the Evangelist but that your hearts told you that he dying many yeares within the time of the Apostles this election and appellation and distinction of degrees of Bishops and Presbyters must needs have been in the life time of the Apostles and not without their
but you shall give me leave to take you tripping in your own Tale from Cilicia you say Paul passed to Creet where he left Titus for a while to set in order things that remain this for a while you put into a different Character as if it were part of the Text and guiltily translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things that remaine whereas ours turne it in a more full expression of an Episcopall power things that are wanting or left undone but this is not the matter you do yet again repeat the for a while urging the short time that Titus could bee left at Creet and yet in your own marginall computation there is no lesse distance of time betwixt this placing in Creet and sending for him to his next remove unto Nicopolis thā betwixt the year 46 51. the space of five years which was a large gap of time in that unsetled condition and manifold distractive occasions of the Church If afterwards hee were by Apostolicall command called away to tend the more concerning services of the Church this could no whit have impeacht the truth of his Episcopacy but the truth is he was ordained by St. Paul after all those journeys mentioned in the Acts and as Baronius with great consent of Antiquity computes it a year after Timothy so as you may well put up your conclusion as rather begged than inforced and cast it upon the Readers courtesie to beleeve you against al antiquity that Titus was an Evangelist and no Bishop where as these two may well agree together he was an Evangelist when he travelled abroad he was a bishop afterwards when hee stayed and setled at home You object to your selfe the authority of some Fathers that have called Timothy and Titus Bishops Some name if you can that Father that hath called them otherwise away with these envious diminutions when yea have a cloud of witnesses of much antiquity which averre Timothy and Titus to have both lived and dyed Bishops the one of Ephesus of Creet the other yea but so some Fathers have called them Arch-bishops and Patriarchs too What of that therein they have then acknowledged them bishops paramount and if Titus were Bishop of Creet which was of old 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the hundred-cityed Island and Timothy of Ephesus the Metropolis of Asia the multitude of the territories under them whiles it inlargeth their charge doth detract nothing from the use of their office Secondly you tell us from learned D. Raynolds that the Fathers when they called any Apostle Bishop they meant it in a generall sort aad signification because they did attend that church for a time and supply that roome in preaching the Gospell which Bishops did after not intending it as it is commonly taken for the over-seer of a particular Church and Pastor of a severall flocke but what is this to Timothy and Titus you say the same may be said of them but the Doctor gave you no leave so to apply it neither do we Although to say truth all this discourse of yours is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 needlesse and extravagant whether Timothy or Titus were Evangelists or no sure we are that heere they stand for persons charged with those Offices and cares which are delivered to the ordinary Church governours in all succeeding generations And we do most justly take them as we finde them and with our first confidence maintain that we challenge no other spirituall power then was delegated unto them and unto the Angels of the Asian Churches you meane to confute us by questions and those so poore and frivolous as are not worth answer fastning that upon some particular abuse which wee disclaime from our calling as if under this claime wee were bound to justifie every act of a Bishop To answer you in your own kind when or where did our bishops challenge power to ordaine alone to govern alone when though you ignorantly turne an Elder in age to an Elder in Office did our Bishops challenge power to passe a rough and unbeseeming rebuke upon an Elder Where did our Bishops give Commission to Chancellors Commissaries Officials to rayle upon Presbyters or to accuse them without just grounds and without legall proceedings As for your last question I must tell you it is no better raised then upon an ignorant negative Did the Apostle say reject none but an Heretick Did he not wish would to God they were cut off that trouble you Is it not certainly proved true that some Scismaticke may be worse then some Hereticke which I speak not so as to traduce any of our unconforming brethren whose consciences are unsetled in the point of this mean difference as guilty of that hatefull crime but to convince the absurdity of our questionists after whose ill raised cavills thus fully answered we have no cause to feare upon their suggestions to bee disclaimed as usurpers From Timothy and Titus you descend to the Angels of the seven Asian Churches which no subtilty at all but the common interest of their condition hath twisted together in our defence In the generality whereof I must premonish my Reader that this Piece of the task fell unhappily upon some dull and tedious hand that cared not how oft sod Coleworts he dished out to his credulous guests I shall what I may prevent their surfet Your shift is that the Angel is here taken collectively not individually A conceit which if your selves certainly no other wise man can ever believe for if the interest be common and equally appertayning to all why should one be singled out above the rest If you will yeeld the person to be such as had more than others a right in the administration of all it is that we seeke for Surely it did in some sort concerne all that was spoken to him because he had the charge of al but the direction is individuall as Beza himselfe takes it as if a Letter be indorsed from the Lords of the Counsaile to the Bishop of Durham or Salisbury concerning some affaires of the whole Clergy of their Diocesse can we say that the name Bishop is there no other then a collective because the businesse may import many verily I do not believe that the Authors of this sence can believe it themselves To your invincible proofes In the Epistle to Thyatira you say it is written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I say to you and to the rest where by you must as you imagine be signified the Governours by the rest the people but what if the better Copyes read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I say to you the rest in Thyatira without the copulative as is confessed by your good friends where then is your doughty Argument Here are no divisions of parties but the Pastor and Flock And truly thus it is and my own eyes have seen it in that noble Manuscript written by the hand of Tecla as is probably supposed some 1300. years agoe as Cyrill the late renowned Patriarch of Constantinople
shall consider that Saint Paul was in perpetuall journying from place to place And therfore though now at that instant at Nicopolis yet how soone occasions might call him away and how long hee knew not Therefore it was most fit that he should pitch upon a certaine place whither Titus should direct his way toward him Notwithstanding your ghesse therefore since holy Athanasius plainely tells us that S. Paul wrote this Epistle from Nicopolis and is therein followed by Oecumenius and Theophylact and in that famous ancient Manuscript sent by the late Patriarch of Constantinople I finde it plainly dated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It must needes follow that either this Subscription was before Athanasius and Teclaes time or else that they went upon some other good ground of their assertion Lastly it may well goe for a reason of your owne making that the Post-script stiles Titus Bishop of the Church of the Cretians whereas it would be said of the Churches of the Cretians for the Christian Churches of any Nation are called by Luke and Paul Churches and not Church Who would not yeelde you this truth that the Christian Churches are called Churches What can they bee called else when they are mentioned in their severall diversities but when they are upon some intire Relation conjoyned united as these of Creet under one Government they may well bee called not the Churches but the Church That flash of Wit might well have beene forborne wherein you make an envious Comparison Betwixt the Authority of these Subscriptions and Episcopall authority of urging Subscription to their Ceremonies And why theirs I beseech you Have you beene urged to subscribe to any other Ceremonies than have been established by the Lawes of this Realme Church Was it Episcopall power that enacted them Had you beene but as obedient these Ceremonies had beene equally yours Now out of pure Love you impose that upon us which you repined that the Lawes should impose upon you Goe on thus Charitably prosper Because you wanted Worke from the Remonstrance you will cut out some for your selves An Objection of your owne must be answered That is From the inequalitie that was betweene the Twelve Apostles and the seaventy Disciples And wel may you shape and fashion your owne Answere unto your owne Objection It cannot bee prooved you say that the Twelve had any Superiority over the Seaventy eyther of Ordination or Jurisdiction What have you forgotten brethren that the Apostles ordained the Decons Acts 6.6 by Praier and imposition of hands That the Apostle Paul laid his hands on Timothy Have you forgotten how by vertue of his Apostleshippe hee charges Commands Controllers Censures What is if this bee not Ordination and Jurisdiction But say you suppose it were so yet a superiority and inferiority betweene Officers of different kindes will not prove a superiority and inferiority betweene Officers of the same kinde Deeply argued Surely hence you may inferre that one Bishop is not superiour to another nor one Presbyter above another but that a Bishop should not bee superiour to a Presbyter were an uncouth consequence If the twelve Apostles therefore were superiours to the 70. Disciples and Bishops as your owne Jerome tells you succeed those Apostles and Presbyters come in the roome of the seventy where is that identity or samenesse of kind which you pretend All Antiquity hath acknowledged 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 three severall rankes in the Church-Hierarchy and if you have a minde to jumble them together take away the difference betwixt Presbyters and Deacons as well as that betwixt Bishops and Presbyters Jam sumus ergo pares And now wee appeale to the same Barre how farre you have beene from disproving the Divine right or Apostolicall institution of Episcopacy and whether your relyance upon Hieromes Authority in this poynt hath beene grounded upon any other reason but your owne weak presumption Yet still like as I have heard some beaten Cocks you dare crow and tell your Reader that though Scriptures faile us yet wee support our selves by the indulgence and munificence of religious Princes surely if GOD should have withdrawne himselfe in vaine should wee make flesh our armes Our calling we challenge from God some accessory Titles Dignities Maintenance we thankfully professe to have received from the bountie of Royall Benefactors What of this Herein you say the Author acknowledgeth a difference betweene our Bishops and the Bishops of old Yes verily so hee gladly doth with all humble thankefulnesse to God and good Princes make your best of this concession Suddainly you fall faire and professe your well-pleasednesse with the liberall maintenance of the Church although somewhat yet sticks with you When the Ministery came to have agros domos locationes vehicula as you say from Chrysostome then Religio peperit divitias Religion brought forth riches and the Daughter devoured the Mother and a voice was heard from heaven Hodie venenum and then You tell us of woodden Priests and golden challices But Brethren take no care for this danger our last age hath begun to take sufficient order for the redresse of this Evill and if in time You shall see Wooden Chalices and Wooden Priests thanke your selves However you grant there is not an incompossibility betwixt large Revenues and an humble Sociablenesse yet You say it is rare and tell us That the rich Provision of Bishops hath ushered in both neglect of their Ministery and Pompous attendance and insultation over their Brethren And You instance in the pride of Paulus Samosatenus and shut up with the grave complaint of Sulpitius Severus It is not to be denied Brethren that some such ill use hath beene made by some of their abundance but surely in this ablative age the fault is rare and hardly instanceable both the Wings and train of many of ours have beene so Clipped that there is no great feare of flying high But if it bee so the fault is fixed to the person who with more grace might otherwise improve the blessing Cast your eyes upon others even your owne great Patrons and tell mee if you doe not espie the same ill use of large meanes and flattering prosperity yet you desire not to abridge their store but to rectifie the imployment of it Learne to be so charitable to your spirituall superiors And now at last you give a vale to your Remonstrants Arguments and shut up with a bold recollection concerning which let mee say thus much Truely Brethren had you as good a faculty in strewing as you have in gathering there were no dealing with you but it is your ill hap to tell the reader in your recapitulation of great feates that you have done in your former discourse when as he must needs professe that he sees no such matter I appeal to his judicious eies whether in all this tedious passage you have proved any thing but your owne bold ignorance and absurd inconsequences SECT XIV MY satisfaction to objections comes next to