AN ANTI-REMONSTRANCE, TO THE LATE HUMBLE REMONSTRANCE TO THE HIGH COURT OF PARLIAMENT.  
The second Edition, enlarged.  
Printed Anno 1641.   

AN ANTI-RENONSTRANCE TO THE LATE HUMBLE REMONSTRANCE to the High Court of Parliament.  
THese few Leaves of Paper break on through, after the humble remonstrance, with less noyle, because of less bulk; and not stuffed with the husks of a bare pleasing speech, but presented to your view with more substance than Rhetoric, and with more things than words, and such as I hope will pluck off the vizard of dutiful Son from the Author of the Remonstrance, or make his Mother little beholding to him for his advice. Ye are not ignorant of the great distractions, oppositions, and of the diversity of affections and fears of the people of the whole land about the event of the Church's reformation in hand: for indeed some out of a zeal, somewhat inconsiderate do cry down Episcopacy as Antichristian. Others very moderate crave and wish earnestly, Episcopacy were reform and purged from the Romish and Tyrannical government that incumbers it, and which since the last reformation in King Edward the sixth days, no free Parliament yet was so happy as to redress: Again, a third kind of men carried by a contrary wind, maintain Episcopacy to be by Divine right, not so much as naming that apple of discord, nor mentioning the main thing which is so much stood upon, which is not that Episcopacy is either of Divine right or not, for if (as the Author of the remonstrance acknowledgeth,) a Church may stand without Episcopacy, it matters not much, which of these two opinions is held: but the main point debated lies in this assertion, that Episcopal government, as it is established in England is most disagreeable to Christ and the Apostles institution, and to the rites and constitutions of the primitive Church, and makes a part of the mystery of iniquity, which the Roman Church for many hundred years in England hath had the greatest share in. Likewise the favourers of the humble remonstrance traduce as libelers the opposers of that tenet of Episcopacy by Divine right, and of the corruptions that attend Episcopacy, as it is established in England. These distractions and oppositions being such; may it please the Honourable Court seriously to ponder that there is as great a latitude between having no Bishops at all, and having them with the tendered limitations by those they call libelers; as there is between retaining a limited power in Bishops, and confirming the Bishops in the exorbitant authority and greatness of Government as it is established in England: which Government God forbidden it were retained, being as it is conceived by the most learned, pious, and judicious of the land most Antichristian, and attended with more evil than the choir abolishing of Episcopacy can prove hurtful, and of dangerous consequence; and that for these reasons and grounds following.  
I. Episcopal Government as it is established in England, is a continuation of the height of power and jurisdiction, which in the darkest times of Popery the Pope hath usurped by his Bishops and Abbots fare beyond the footing, he ever took in France, Spain, or Germany. Therefore what the Author of the remonstrance allegeth of the ancientness of Episcopacy, and of its continuance hitherto 1500. years is vain and frivalous, for the Roman Church upon the same ground or pleading of antitiquitie makes her heresies and abominations warantable.  
II. The Bishop's institution and inthronising is altogether repugnant and contrary to the laws and customs of the Primitive Church, and against the constitutions of the Prime Christian Emperors, who ordained that the people jointly with the inferior Clergy should present to the Emperor a catalogue of the most pious and learned men of the Diocese, and the man that the Emperor was to pitch upon, be invested with the function of a Bishop: for proof thereof read the constitutions of Charles the great; Lewis the godly, Gregory the great, Gelasius and others.  
III. The height and superiority of place that Bishops hold, is one of the greatest relics of the Popish tyranny in England, which is most unfit in Ministers of the Gospel, repugnant to the customs of other Nations, & to the distance, yea rather nearness of Office and dignity, that aught to be between. Bishops and Ministers. It is not heard but in England that Chancellors or Lord Keepers take place after Arch-Bishops, while other Ministers are so fare inferior and distant from them, as a Prince from a poor tenant or a high sumptuous palace from a poor thatched cottage.  
FOUR The Bishops sole exercise of jurisdiction is such, as the like was never heard in any Court of justice, and is repugnant to reason and natural equity, and cannot be but an appendice derived from the son of perdition, that arrogates to himself an unerring sole power: The King's Bench, Common-pleas, & Exchequer, are benches of a certain number of judges; The Chancellor of England hath an assistance of 12. Masters. I would feign know when Christ said dic Ecclesiae, if he understood that a Bishop should be a sole Iudge within his Diocese in deciding any litigious cause.  
V Also the exercising of any jurisdiction by deputies, which is the prerogative of Kings, is a monstrous usurpation in the Bishops of England; a strange bird hatched in no court but theirs, every judge in any other Court discharging his judicial function in his own person. 'Tis no marvel if they that Preach by deputies observe the like practice in keeping of Courts.  
VI The Bishop's jurisdiction entrenching upon the civil Magistrate or judge by their jus Pontificium or Canon law, which the Pope left them for a legacy, such are the causes testamentary and matrimonial, is an usurpation no less bad than the former, and derogates from the holy power of Ecclesiastical keys, which Bishops assumed in the prime pure times of the Church.  
VII. It were not so much to usurpers' jurisdiction, if the 〈◊〉 laws were but sound, and their legal proceeding just: But their High Commission, the oath ●x officio, the horrible abuse of excommunication, the commutations of bodily penance into pecuniary, their hindrances of prohibitions, stopping the course of law, their determining of tithes & possessions of live by a Quare imped it, are as many pocky eyesores, which deface the holy calling of Bishops, and make them, though their first institution had been of Divine right, to be now less than of humane institution.  
VIII. Their not depending on any free Ecclesisticall assembly is as much or more than the Papists ascribe to the Pope, who by many of them is thought inferior to the council & censurable by it.  
IX. Their Visitations are apish and counterfeit imitations of the ancient Synods, which are degenerated into receipts of Custom, as paying for Licences, Procurations, Benevolences, synodals, and the like. Nihil est quod curia Episcoporum non vendat, etc.  
X. Their Convocations or Synods are little better; where deputati sunt deputantes, the deputies are deputing; where in most of the members of it, there is no free choice of election; but Bishops, Deans, and Arch-deacons have right to sit by their place and office: where those of the lower House are like so many stocks, that have no motion, but as they are carried by the members of the sphere of the higher house.  
Who ever shall read Matthaeus Paris and Matthaeus Westmonasteriensis; and view the disfigured face of the Church of England under Henry the second, john, & Henry the third, Kings of England, will acknowledge that the Pope had more power and jurisdiction in England in the persons of his Bishops and Abbots, then in any other Kingdom, and will not wonder, if Bishops have hitherto kept possession, though they hold no more of the Pope; nor will he easily be persuaded, that that government is of Divine or Apostolical institution, which hath ever been contrary to the constitutions of the ancient Church, and to Imperial laws, and repugnant to the proceed of all Courts of justice, and common equity and sense.  
These ten grounds or reasons which are rocky for upholding this assertion, that Episcopal English government is Antichristian: are sandy under the superstructure of the Author of the Remonstrance, for who doubts but an Ecclesiastical Government that is such, cannot be pleaded to be unalterable, and not to be removed, though it were never so ancient, since there is no prescription against Christ and the Apostles institution, and that the number of years cannot make a lie to be a truth; yea rather many things are worse by age, and an old man hath no more the being of man, than a young man; and a commonwealth no more than a Church is nothing the better for to be of an ancienter standing. But as it is vain and out of the question, to prove Episcopacy to be of Divine right, and to have continued so many hundred years, and to call unjust and weak the clamours of those that cry down Episcopacy; likewise it is no less lost labour to go about to persuade the Honourable House with such earnestness not to give way to the change of Episcopacy, which hath its pedigree from the Apostles: for I know none of them that cry down such an Episcopacy, or giveth his consent to pull it up, few or none of them believing that the Episcopal government as it is established in England is derived from the Apostles, who ever affirms, that Priests are by Divine right, will not consequently evince Divine right in the function of the Romish Priests: The like may I say of Episcopal government of these times, in reference to that in the times of the Primitive Church:  
As the Remonstrancers superstructure is like to be tottering, if it be grounded upon that supposition, that English Episcopal government is Apostolical, so will it be like to fall, having no better ground than he lays down, viz. That Episcopacy, or the eminent superiority of Bishops above their fellow Presbyters in the power of ordination and jurisdiction is of Divine institution, and that that spiritual power hath been by Apostolical authority delegated unto Timothy and Titus, and to the Angels of the Church of Asia; Touching Timothy, it is a wonder that Saint Paul writing to the Ephesians doth not so much as once make mention of him; far is he to enjoin him to keep residence in his Diocese, where it is like he made no great residence, being upon every occasion sent from place to place by the appointment of Saint Paul, and it appeareth by Ireneus, Nicephorus, and Eusebius, that John the Apostle immediately after the council of the Apostles, Act the 15 did govern the Church of Ephesus, until the days of Trajan the Emperor: I might also wonder that S. Paul, who had a cooperatour in most things he did or wrote, would ordain Elders in Ephesus, when they had at hand their Diocesan Bishop appointed for that work, neither by the Angels of the seven Asian Churches are meant seven several Diocesan Bishops; for the things spoken to a single Angel are said to him under that title, in the name of all the flock, within the precinct of one particular Church or congregation. Thus the Angels Genes. 32. v. 1. who met Jacob, are in the 46. chap. verse 16. included in one Angel. And it is the exposition of Calvin Psal. 43. v. 7. that by a single Angel pitching his camp for the defence of the faithful, more than one, yea all the good Angels are understood: I say more that it is very likely that by the Angel of one Church, not only the Elders of that one Church are understood, but also the whole Church itself; else it will follow that for the sin of one Bishop or a few Ministers, if they had not repent the whole congregation had deserved to be bereft of the light of the Gospel, and the words some of you, in the 2. chap. verse 10. whether they insinuate the whole Church, or the Pastors of the Church, do show, they cannot be understood of one single Angel or Minister.  
In the next place, the Author of the Remonstrance saith in derision of the French discipline, that Lay-Elders till this age had never any footing in the Christian Church, I will not stand reasoning what great need there is of Laymen to be sharers with the Pastors in the administration of the Church's discipline: only to make good, that such Lay Presbyters are grounded upon Scripture, it is clear out of the words of the Acts chap. 15. verse 22. It pleaseth the Apostles, the Elders, with the whole Church. By the whole Church either the whole company of Elders, or the chief of the people, if not the whole Christian congregation present at Jerusalem is understood. The former cannot be, else by an uncouth tautology in one little verse, the Elders were said to have met with Elders. It follows then, that by the whole Church others be meant besides Bishops and Elders; It matters not much whether they be called Lay-Presbyters or not, as long as the thing intended is granted, viz. that the Laicke congregation may meddle in Churches affairs, and give council and assistance to the Pastors and be as well as they arbiters and censurers of errors and disorders. For further proof thereof in the 14 of the Acts verse 23. though the English version hath, When they had ordained Elders, the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bears as much, as that Elders were ordained by the advice of the congregation. Again in the 6. of the Acts, the whole multitude of Disciples is said to have chosen the seven Deacons of whom Saint Steven was one. That by the multitude of the Disciples others are meant then the company of the Elders, it is manifest by the ninth of the Acts, verse 39 where Tabytha a woman is called an ancient Disciple: And by the eleventh chap. verse 26. where it is said that the Disciples were first called Christians in Antioch; The appellations of Disciples and Christians being promiscuously used; besides we see in the election of the Apostle Mathias, not only the Apostles, but the whole congregation which was of 120. had vote and voice. Good Lord shall one of few Bishops in our days vindicate more to themselves then the Apostles themselves did; though the least of the Apostles were better gifted, and endowed with more power, than all the Bishops of the Christian World put together. Now adays the greatest part of the Church is counted no Church, and it remaineth that men's souls should be pinned up within three or four men's Lawne-sleeves. But which is most strange, those that quarrel so much about Lay-Elders, see not or will not see, that what they except against the reformed Churches out of England, is even practised in England in the offices of Chancellors, Commissaries, Officials, Registers, Apparitors, & such like Grasshoppers, with that only difference, that these make a sale of holy things, and rend in two the seamelesse coat of Christ, they often drawing it one way, and the Bishops another way. But the Lay-Presbyters so much jeered at by the Remonstrancer both live in good amity with the Pastors, and discharge their places gratis. I say more, it was never heard in France or in the Low Countries, that Lay-Elders did vindicate so much to themselves of the power of the Ecclesiastical keys, as the Bishop's Chancellors have of late usurped in pronouncing sentence of excommunication and absolution without the knowledge, and against the intent of the Bishop. It is also a great wounding of the King's authority to debar Laymen from meddling in Churches affairs; for who is it that doth not know, that our dreadful King is a Layman, and that the Christian Magistrate cannot be kept from having a hand in the administration of the Church without implicitly wounding through their side, the head of the Christian Magistrate.  
To support more strongly the government of the Church in England by Bishops, he bringeth the assent and testimony of Spanhemius a learned Profession in Geneva. I expected the testimony of many more Divines. To which I answer, that Spanhemius and many more as Moulin, Rivet, Chamier, had likewise in reverend esteem Episcopacy in the Church of God, and therefore had no reason to condemn Episcopacy, or to fall out with the pious & learned men that were invested with it, such are those yet living Morton, Davenant, Hall, Williams, Potter, and the incomparable Primate of Ireland, who do not stretch their power to the extent of their high Jurisdiction as it is established in England, which I make no question is avowed by all the orthodox Pastors out of England to be a branch of that kingdom of Antichrist, that had taken so deep root in England: This man make Spanhemius more insensible than a stone, had he approved the uncharitableness and the bitter venom and foul aspersions that were cast upon the reformed French Churches and particularly upon Geneva by those Bishops, and others who lately sat at the stern of the Church's government. The Archbishop Laude hath more than once called Calvin a rascal, and the Genevian lay Presbyters, a new fangled devise of Calvin, leaving to speak how he vilifies with base terms, other Reverend French Divines; in his Epistle to the King before the opuscula posthuma of Bishop Andrew's, he gives that report of Peter Moulin that he is Theol gus non indoctus & acutus satis. A Divine not unlearned and reasonable acute. Neither doth he spare his own, as Cranmer, and Latimer, calling them the Zelotes of Queen Mary's days. Bishop Montague in his Apparatus and else where, calls the Genevians by no other name then Jnnovators, and traduceth them and their followers, such as Scaliger, Paraeus and Caluisius, as a pack of Shismatickes, and bramelesse rascals: The like dealing have they with Bishop Wren, Pierce, Manwaring, Heylin, Pocklington, Cousin, and the like; what charitable encertainement judge ye, may Geneuâs' Church find among such men, since one of the best Bishops of England is reported to have given that judgement of their discipline, that it is fit only for tradesmen and beggars: In that the charity of Spanhemius and others reform Divines beyond the seas is to be commended, that they have not reviled again those that reviled them, and following the example of God saying to Abraham, he would not destroy the whole city for ten sake; they have for the inchoate reformation sake in the Church of England, and for the respect they bear to a little number of well deserving Bishops and others, passed over the invectives and insolences of that great stream of corrupt men, that went currant under the name of the English Church, & as they have hearty pitied their rage, so have they forgiven them their uncharitableness. Other men that have not been so much interessed in our Churches, have not dissembled what they thought of our English Episcopal government. The words of Padre Paulo Sarpio venetian in his Epistle to James Leschasserius Counsellor at Paris in the year 1609. are wonderful remarkable, and the more, because they are a prediction of what came to pass in England; I am afraid in the behalf of the English of that great power of Bishops, though under a King, I have it in suspicion, when they shall meet with a King, of that goodness as they will think it easy to work upon him, or shall have an Archbishop of an high spirit, the Royal authority shall be wounded, and Bishops will aspire to an absolute domination: Me thinks I see a horse saddled in England, and I guess that the old rider shall get on his back: But all these things depend on the Divine Providence.  
Next our Remonstrancer exhorteth with more modesty than reason, the high Court not to publish the offences and scandals of the inferior Clergy, leaving off very discreetly to speak, off the monstruous enormities of which the superior Clergy is guilty. Good Lord sir, you will give leave to a man that hath been unjustly gagged long, at the first liberty given, to cry out and complain of the wrong he hath received: or if some sins of their nature are crying, would you have them kept under ashes, that they may afterwards break with fiercer violence: or how can the malady be cured till it be laid open and searched to the bottom; That the body of this Church is very crazy and sick, we that are the members smart for it. To begin at the head, our Remonstrancer saith: it is no marvel, if among 12 Apostles there be one Judas; but rather may we expostulate to our great hearts grief, that of 12 rulers of the Church there is hardly one that is right and sound: And no wonder if an Antichristian Discipline as I proved afore, brings up men, whose inside, doctrine and life is suitable to the outside. The greatest part of Deans, Archdeacon's, and all those that are comprised under the, etc. of the oath are gone out of the way: The fountains of learning are poisoned with heresies and infected with Popery: of late no other Doctrine but Popish & Arminian was licenced to see light, no body durst call the Pope Antichrist, or the Romish Church the false Church, and the writings of the Archbishop of Canterbury, of Bishop Mountagu, the Sermons of Manwaring, the books of Heylin, Pocklington, Cousin, and the like, are flat Popery. And no wonder therefore if they maintain stiffly that the English Church is not separated from the Roman, & that they both agree in the fundamental points of Religion. The power of Preaching hath been of late reduced to outward gestures and bowings towards the East or Altar, and the mystery of inquiry, which is the good work in hand of Heylin had got already to a great progress: These being the great maladies of the Church, fare be it from that high and just Court not to hear or to smother the grievances of the Church, and by a cruel kindness, rather let a man be drowned, then to take him by the hairs for fear of hurting him.  
FINIS.