could not but bleed to see but withall desired to have had them lesse publique your charity accuseth mee of excusing them and blaming my humble motion of Constantines example professe to desire the blazoning of them to the World Whether of us shall give a better account of our charity to the God of peace I appeale to that great Tribunall In your next Section like ill-bred sonns you spit in the face of your mother A Mother too good for such sonnes The Church of England and tell us of Papists that dazle the eyes of poore people with the glorious name of the holy Mother the Church If they bee too fond of their Mother I am sure your Mother hath little cause to be fond of you Who can and dare compare her to those Aethiopian strumpets which were common to all commers For your whole undutifull carriage towards her take heed of the Ravens of the valley As if wee were no lesse strangers then you enemies to the Church of England you tell the World that wee know not who she is and that we wonder when wee are askt the question and run descant upon the two Archbishops Bishops Convocation Even what your luxuriant wit shall please and at last you make up your mouth with a merry jest telling your Reader that the Remonstrant out of his simplicity never heard nor thought of any more Churches of England then one Ridiculum caput Sit you merry Brethren but truly after all your sport still my simplicity tells mee there is but one Church of England There are many Churches in England but many Churches of England were never till now heard of You had need fetch it as farre as the Heptarchie And to shew how far you are from the objected simplicity yee tell us in the shutting up that England Scotland and Ireland are all one Church Nullum magnum ingenium sine mixtura dementiae But now take heed of Obelisks You professe you for your parts do acknowledge no Antiprelaticall Church I am glad to heare it nor I neither but I beseech you if you make and condemne a Prelaticall Church of England what shall bee the other part of the Contradistinction The Remonstrant tels you of further divisions and subdivisions which upon this ground you must necessarily make of the Church your deepe wisdomes take this as of his upbrading of the divisions in the Church in meer matter of Opinion and fly out into the censures of the Prelaticall party as the cause thereof and would have them say Mitte nos in Mare non erit tempestas The truth is the severalties of Sects and their separate Congregations about this Citie are many and lamentable I doe not upbraid but bewaile them The God of Heaven be Iudge where the fault rests and if it bee his holy will finde some speedy redresse but in the mean time one casts it upon faction another upon ungrounded rigour wheresoever it bee Woe bee to those by whom the offence commeth Lay you your hands on your hearts onwards and consider well Whether your fomenting of so unjust and deep dislikes of lawfull government have not been too much guilty of these wofull breaches As one that love that peace of the Church which you are willing to trouble I perswading an unity ask what bounders you set what distinction of Professors you make what grounds of Faith what new Creed what different Scriptures Baptisme means of salvation are held by that part which you mis-call the Prelaticall Church You answer according to your wonted Charity and Truth What bounds Those you say of the sixth Canon from the high and lofty Promontory of Archbishops to the Terra incognita of an c. Witty again Alas brethren if this bee all the Lists are too narrow Here are but four ranks of Dignities and few in each put if that inclusive c. reach far yet what will you make of all this Doe you exclude Bishops Deans Archdeacons c. from being members of the Church of England sure you dare not bee so shamefully unjust If therefore that they have an interest in the Prelacy cannot exclude them for their interest in the Church What becomes of your bounders This is fit work for your Obelisk What distinction you say worshiping to the East bowing to the Altar prostituting perhaps you meane prostrating themselvs in their approches into Churches and are these fit distinctions brethren whereupon to ground different churches if they difference men doe they difference Christians What new Creed you say Episcopacie by divine right is the first article of their Creed For shame brethren did ever man make this an article of faith who will thinke you worthy to have any faith given you in the rest of your assertions you adde absolute and blind obedience to all the commandements of Bishops Blush yet again Bretheren blush to affirme this when you well know that the words of the oath of Canonicall obedience run only In omnibus licitis honestis mandatis in all lawfull and honest commands You adde Election upon faith foreseene What nothing but grosse untruths Is this the doctrine of the Bishops of England have they not strongly confuted it in Papists in Arminians have they not cry'd it downe to the pit of Hell What means this wickedly false suggestion judge Reader if here bee not work for Obelisks What Scripture you say Apocrypha and Traditions unwritten Mark I beseech you unwritten Traditions are Scriptures first then Apocrypha and why I pray you is it more our Apocrypha then yours Are all our Bibles Prelaticall too Shortly all those Churches and houses and persons that have the Apocrypha in their Bibles belong to the Church Prelaticall what have wee lost by the match What Baptisme What Eucharist You tell us of the absolute necessity which some Popish fooles have ascribed to the one and of an Altar and table set Altarwise in the other What are these to the Church of England doth the errour of every addle head or the sight or posture of a Boord make a different Church What Christ You answere near to a blasphemy A Christ who hath given the same power of absolution to a Priest that himselfe hath This can be nothing but a slanderous fiction No Christian Divine ever held that a Priests power of absolution was any other then ministeriall Christs Soveraign and absolute If you know the man bring him forth that he may be stoned What Heaven you say such as is receptive of Drunkards Swearers Adulterers Brethren take heed of an Hel whiles you fain such an Heaven and feare lest your uncharitableness will no lesse bar you out of the true Heaven above then you bar Prelaticall sinners from their accesse thereinto but if you had rather goe on still in your owne way separate your selves from us that professe wee are one with you Charge upon us those doctrines and opinions which wee hate no whit lesse then your selves fasten upon the Church of England those
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
to affirme It is enough that regularly it should be their Act. Your second Question is There being in this mans thoughts the same jus Divinum for Bishops that there is for Pastors and Elders whether if those Reformed Churches wanted Pastors and Elders too they should want nothing of the essence of a Church but of the Perfection and Glory of it The answere is ready If those Reformed Churches wanting those whom you call pastors and Elders did yet injoy the government by Bishops Priests Deacons they should be so far from wanting ought of the essence of a Church that they should herein attain to much glory and perfection And so much for your deepe questions The presumptuous Remonstrant would seeme to know so much of the minde of those Churches that hee saith if they might have their option he doubts not but they would gladly embrace Episcopall government a foule imputation which your Zeale must needes wipe off for which purpose you bring the confessions of the French and Dutch Churches averring the truth and justifiablenesse of their owne government For which they have good reason neither shall you herein expect my contradiction nor yet my present labour of reconciling their governement and ours in the maine and materiall points of both This condition they are in and they doe well to defend it but they did not tell you they would not if oportunity were offered be content with a better I am deceived if their own publicke Constitutions be not still concluded with the power of a Change and I have elsewhere shewed out of Fregevillaeus that this Order of Government was in their Churches at first only provisionall and instanced in those testimonies of approbation which their learned Divines have freely given to our forme of Administration which I shal not now stand either to repeate or multiply Let it be enough for the present to say that upon my certain knowledg many eminent Divines of the Churches abroad have earnestly wished themselves in our condition and have applauded and magnified our Church as the most Famous Exemplary and glorious Church in the whole Christian World So as I wanted not good reason for that which you are pleased to stile presumptuous assertion But the reason of my Assertion is yet so more offensive that you Wonder how it could fall from my Pen That there is little difference in the governement of other Protestant Churches and our owne save in the perpetuity of their Moderatorship and the exclusion of Lay Elders A passage belike as you say of admirable absurdity But soft brethren I am afraid first least you speake of what you know not I speak not onely of the next Churches of Fraunce and the Netherland I speake of them in a generalitie as one that if this place would bear it could give a particular account of them all Neither can your cavills worke my repentance You tell me of the Moderatour in Geneva as if all the Church of God were included in those strait walls I could tell you of the superintendents of the Churches of Germany of the Prepositi in the Churches of Weteraw Hessia Anhalt of the Seniores in Transylvania Polonia Bohemia But what of the Moderator in Geneva Hee is not of a Superiour Order to his Brethren But let mee tell you when Master Calvin was Moderatour there as hee constantly was for many yeeres no Bishop in England swayed more then he did in that Church And even in the Low Countries how much the Deputati Synodi after they had beene frequently imployed in those services as for instance my ancient and truly reverend friend Mr. Bogermannus prevailed with what authority they carrie the affaires of the Church it is not hard to understand for those other circumstances which you are pleased to mention were the moderatorship perpetuall they would soon accordingly vary and if not so yet you may remember that I said not no difference at all but little whereof your well affectednes to our Government can make this use that then the Abrogation of Episcopacy will be wrought with the lesse difficulty and occasion the lesse disturbance The old word is welfare a friend in a corner still you are for the destructive none but the Babylonian note sounds well in your eare Downe with it downe with it even to the ground But the God of Heaven whose cause it is will we hope vindicate his owne ordinance so long perpetuated to his Church from all your violent and subtile machinations and prevent the utmost danger of your already sufficiently raised disturbance SECT XV. COncerning the Lay Presbitery I said and say still most justly that it never had footing in the Church of God till this present age These wits cry out in great sport See see how like the man lookes to Doctor Hall in his irrefragable Propositions Truely brethren as like him as yee are like your selves who are still scornfull and insolent but though yee be commonly spightful yet you are so seldome witty that we may well bear with you for once be he like whom hee will Dr. Hall will sufficiently defend both those Propositions and this Remonstrance against all your impotent cavils For this concerning the questioned Lay presbitery You make a faire flourish to little purpose You do wisely to omit those three knowne Texts which the world knows have beene so throughly canvased and eluded and that famous Text of an acknowledged counterfeit Ambrose so often exploded wee shall have now new stuffe from You but of as little worth Surely had the fore-going Patrons of your Lay-Eldership found that they could have received any colour of protection from these places of Antiquity alleaged by you they had not after the raking of all the channels of time forborn the utmost urging of these Your Testimonies in their favour and defence but they well saw how little reason there was to presse those unproving evidences which you will needs urge as convictive Your testimony from Origen cannot but shame you if yet you can blush you feared to cite the Chapter that in so long a book you might not be discovered But the scope of the place is clearly thus Origen is upon comparison of the Philosophers and Christians in their care of teaching Nam illi scil Philosophi propalam apud vulgus disserentes non sunt curiosi in descernendis auditoribus c. For the Philosophers saith hee in their publick discourses to the people are not curious in the differences of their Auditors but every one that lists comes and heares them at pleasure But the Christians doe what they may carefully pre-examine the mindes of those that desire to heare them and first they doe privately so to those which are bewitched with Paganisme before they bee received into the Congregation And when they seeme to have come on so farre as to be desirous to live honestly then doe they bring them in but in distinct degrees the one of those which are newly admitted but
desires to goe a Mid-way in this difference holding it too low to derive Episcopacy from a merely humane and Ecclesiasticall Ordinance holding it too high to deduce it from an immediate command from God and therefore pitching upon an Apostolicall institution rests there but because those Apostles were divinely inspired had the directiōs of Gods spirit for those things which they did for the common administration of the Church therefore and in that onely name is Episcopacie said to lay claime to a Divine right howsoever also it cannot be gainsaid that the grounds were formerly laid by our Saviour in a knowne imparity of his first agents Now surely this truth hath so little reason to distaste them that even learned Chamier himselfe can say Res ipsa coepit tempore Apostolorum vel potius ab ipsis profecta est And why should that seeme harsh in us which soundeth well in the mouthes of lesse-interessed Divines but because the very title of that book hath raised more dust then the treatise it selfe Bee pleased Readers to see that this very question is in the very same termes determined by that eminent light of the Palatinate Dr. Abrah Scultetus whose tract to this purpose I have thought fit to annex Peruse it and judge whether of those two writers have gone further in this determination And if you shall not meet with convincing reasons to bring you home to this opinion yet at least-wise find cause enough to retaine a charitable and favourable conceit of those who are as they think upon good grounds otherwise minded and whilest it is on all parts agreed by wise and unprejudiced Christians that the calling is thus ancient and sacred let it not violate the peace of the Church to scan the originall whether Ecclesiasticall Apostolicall or divine Shortly let all good men humbly submit to the Ordinance and heartily wish the Reformation of any abuses And so many as are of this mind Peace be upon them and the whole Israell of GOD. AMEN THE DETERMINATION of the question Concerning the Divine Right of EPISCOPACY By the famous and learn'd Divine Dr. Abrahamus Scultetus late Professour of divinity in the Vniversity of HEIDELBERG Faithfully translated out of his Observations upon the Epistles to Timothy and Titus LONDON Printed for NATHANIELL BVTTER 1641 The Question Whether Episcopacie be of Divine right That is whether the Apostles ordained this Government of the Church that not onely one should be placed over the people but over Presbyters and Deacons who should have the power of Imposition of Hands or Ordination and the direction of Ecclesiasticall Counsels THis was anciently denyed by Aerius as is related by Epiphanius in his 75 Heresie and by Iohn of Hierusalem as appears by Hierome in his Epistle to Pammachius And there are not wanting in these dayes many learned and pious men who although they acknowledge Aerius to have erred in that he should disallow of that manner of Ecclesiasticall government which had beene received by the whol World yet in this they agree with him that Episcopall government is not of Divine Right From whose opinion why I should sever my judgement I am moved by these strong reasons famous examples and evident authorities My judgement is this First in the Apostles Epistles the name of Bishop did never signifie any thing different from the office of a Presbyter For a Bishop Presbyter and an Apostle were common names as you may see Act. 20. Phil. 1. v. 1. Tit. 1. 1. Pet. v. 12. Act. 1.20 Next In the chiefe Apostolicall Church the Church was governed by the common advice of Presbyters and that for some yeers in the time of the preaching of the Apostles For first of all companies must bee gathered together before we can define any thing concerning their perpetuall government Then the Apostles as long as they were present or neere their Churches did not place any Bishop over them properly so called but only Presbyters reserving Episcopall authority to themselves alone Lastly after the Gospell was farre and neere propagated and that out of equality of Presbyters by the instinct of the Devill Schismes were made in Religion then the Apostles especially in the more remote places placed some over the Pastors or Presbyters which shortly after by the Disciples of the Apostles Ignatius and others were onely called bishops by this appellation they were distinguished from Presbyters Deacons Reasons moving me to this opinion First Hierome upon the 1. Chapter of the Epistle to Titus writeth that a Presbyter is the same with a Bishop and before that by the instinct of the Devill factions were made in Religion and it was said among the people I am of Paul I of Apollo but I of Cephas the Churches were governed by the common counsell of Presbyters afterwards it was decreed in the whol world that one chosen out of the Presbyters should be placed over the rest From whence I thus argue When it began to be said among the people I am of Paul I of Apollo but I of Cephas then one chosen out of the Presbyters was placed over the rest But whiles the Apostles lived it was so said among the people As the first Epistle to the Corinthians besides other of St. Pauls Epistles puts it out of doubt Therefore while the Apostles lived one chosen out of the Presbyters was placed over the rest Againe There can be no other terme assigned in which Bishops were first made then the time of the Apostles for all the prime successors of the Apostles were Bishops witnesse the successions of Bishops in the most famous Churches of Hierusalem Alexandria Antioch and Rome as it is in Eusebius therefore either the next successors of the Apostles changed the force of Ecclesiasticall government received from the Apostles according to their owne pleasure which is very unlikely or the Episcopall government came from the Apostles themselves Besides even then in the time of the Apostles there were many Presbyters but one Bishop even then in the time of the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hee that was placed over the rest which afterwards was called Bishop did impose hands or ordaine Ministers of the Word which Presbyters alone did not presume to doe Even then therefore the calling of Bishops was distinct from the Office of Presbyters If any desire the examples of Apostolicall Bishops the books of the antient are full of the Episcopal authority of Timothy and Titus either of which howsoever first performed the office of an Evangelist yet notwithstanding ceased to be an Evangelist after that Timothy was placed over the Church of Ephesus and Titus over the Church of Crete For Evangelists did only lay the foundations of faith in forraign places then did commend the rest of the care to certaine Pastors but they themselves went to other Countries and Nations as Eusebius writes in his third Booke of Ecclesiasticall History and 34. Chap. But Paul taught sometimes in Ephesus and Crete and laid the foundations of
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