The Unbishoping of Timothy and Titus, Title page – To the reader
THE VNBISHOPING OF TIMOTHY AND TITVS.
OR A briefe elaborate Diſcourſe, prooving Timothy to be no Biſhop (much leſſe any ſole, or Diocaeſan Biſhop) of Epheſus, nor Titus of Crete; and that the power of ordination, or impoſition of hands, belongs Iure Divino to Preſbyters, as well as to Biſhops, and not to Biſhops onelyonly.
Wherein all Objections and Pretences to the contrary are fully anſwered; and the pretended ſuperiority of Biſhops over other Miniſters and Preſbyters Iure Divino, (now much contended for) utterly ſubverted in a moſt perſpicuous maner.
By a Wellwiſher to Gods truth and people.
Matthew. 15. 13. Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted, ſhall be rooted out.
Chryſoſtom. Opus imperfectum in Matth. Hom. 35. Quicunque deſideraverit Primatum in terra, inveniet in Coelo confuſionem; ut jam in ter ſervos Chriſti, non ſit de Primatu certamen.
In the Yeare M.DC.XXXVI
To the Reader.
CHriſtian Reader, what that Oracle of wiſedome hath regiſtred; Proverb. 13. 10. OnelyOnly by pride cometh contention; was never more really verified in any one particular, then in the Prelates: whoſe ambitious windy tumor, and overſwelling pride, as in al former ages, ſo in this, hath aSee Theodoricus à Niem, Zabarel, & Ioannis Marius De Schiſmate. Maſter Tyndals obedience of a Christian man; and practiſe of Popiſh Prelates. Doctor Iohn White his Defence of the way, c. 6. the fifth part of the Homily againſt Diſobedience & willfull rebellion. Fox Acts and Monuments throughout. Catalog. Teſtium Veritatis.filled the whole Christian world with warres, with civill diſsenſions; and the Church it ſelfe, with endleſſe ſchiſmes, controverſies, contentions, which elſe would never had exiſtence. The pretended primacy of the great Pontificall Biſhop of Rome, what tumults, battles, warres, treaſons, rebellions, murders, martyrdomes, hath it ingendred on the one hand; what diſputes, bookes of controverſie, and paper-battles, on the other? What innumerable Schiſmes, Treatiſes (which the endoubted parity of Miniſters and Biſhops Iure Divino had prevented) have the Prelates pretended ſuperiority by divine inſtitution, over Preſbyters and their fellow-Miniſters, produced in all ages, Churches, eſpecially in our owne, (which from the firſt glimmerings of the Goſpell in Iohn Wiclifes dayes till now, hath beene more or leſſe diſquieted with this unhappy controverſie?) which being raked up in the aſhes for a ſpace, by reaſon of our Biſhops waiving of their divine right, (which not onelyonly Archbiſhop bCom. in Phil 1. 1. in Tit. 1. 5. 7. in 1. Tim 3. & 4.Anſelme, cDe Quest. Armenorum. l. 11. c. 1. to 8.Richardus Armachanus, and dBalaeus Cent. 8. c. 19.Biſhop Peacocke of old, but likewiſe eFox Acts Monuments p. 9▪ 2. 973.Biſhop Tonſtall, Biſhop Stokeſly, fOn the 8 Commandement.Biſhop Hooper, gDefence of the Apologie. part. 2. c. 3. Diviſ. 1. 5. p. 85. 99. 100. 101. &c. 9. Diviſ. 1 p. 196. 202.Biſhop Iewell, hPoore mans Library, part. 1. f. 95. 96.Biſhop Alley, iExpoſit. on Aggius, verſ. 1. & 2.Biſhop Pilkington, yea kAgainſt Cartwright. p. 389.Archbiſhop Whitgift himſelfe, and lOf the Princes Supremacy. p. 359.Biſhop Bridges, to omitt all others, have ſince them publikely diſclaimed; confeſsing Biſhops and Preſbyters, lure Divino to be allone, equall, and the ſame; and the Statutes of 37. H. 8. c. 17. 1. Ed. 6. c. 2. 1. & 2. Mariaec. 8. & 1. Eliz ab. c. 1. for ever judicially in full Parliament reſolved against;) yet our preſent ambitious Prelates ſtudying to ſurmount their predeceſſors, not onelyonly in worldly pompe and power, derived from their indulgent Soveraigne, but likewiſe in ſpirituall Iuriſdiction, claimed from God himſelfe, (though they have neither time nor care to preach, pray, or doe him any Epiſcopall ſervice, being wholly taken up with ſecular offices and affaires, and ‡Maith. 6. 24. Lu. 16. 13. 1. Iohn. 2. 15. 16.unable to ſerve God for ſerving his incompacible enemies, Mamōn, and the world,) have lately blowne abroade the coales, and reſuſcitated the violent flames of this contention afreſh, by a new ambitious claime of all their Epiſcopall Soveraignity and Iuriſdiction, Iure Divino, even in the High Commiſsion Court it ſelfe, in the late cenſure of Doctor Baſtwicke, for a Booke written onelyonly against the Pope and Italian Biſhops, without any reflection upon them, as all men then conceived, and therefore wondred at, till their magnifying of the Church of mSee Chownaeus Collect▪ Theolog. and Shelford his 5. Treatiſes.Rome as a true Church in that Cenſure of his, and ſome late licenſed Pamphlets, their Antichriſtian and Papall proceedings againſt Gods truth, Miniſters, Ordinances, and the late authorizing of Doctor Pocklingtons nPag. 2. 43. 44.Sunday no Sabbath, by the Archbiſhop of Canterburies owne Chaplaine, Maſter Bray; which expreſsly avers, that our Arch-biſhops and Biſhops can and doe lineally derive their Pedigree and Succeſsion from Peter and the Popes of Rome; hath ſince in ſtructed the ignorant people, that Popes Italian and Engliſh Biſhops, are in truth *See Henry Stalbridge his Exhortatory Epiſtle. William Wraghton his Hunting of the Romiſh Fox. Rodericke Mors his Complaint. c. 23. Maſter Tyndals his obedience of a Christian man, and Practiſe of Popiſh Prelates. Fox Acts and Monuments pa… 414. 514. 516. 518. Master Whethenhall his Diſcourſe of the Corruptions now in Queſtion with others.all members of the ſame body, whelpesof the ſame litter, branches of the ſame tree, and our preſent Prelates the Pope of Romes owne lineally diſcended ſonnes, ſo as they could not but be ſenſible of, and highly offended, if not actually laſhed, wounded with their fathers ſcourge; Flagellum Pontificis & Epiſcoporum Latialium, being a whip for them, as well as for the Italian Prelates.
Now becauſe in that late Cenſure of theirs, they all founded the divine right of their Epiſcopall Superintendency and Dominion over their Fellow-Preſ byters, onelyonly on the examples of Timothy and Titus, (whom they then new conſecrated Diocaeſan Biſhops over Epheſus and Crete 1608. yearely after their deceaſe, though Chriſt and Paul himſelfe had never done it in their life times:) and on a ſuppoſed divine Monopoly of conferring Orders and impoſing hands, appropriated by God himſelfe to Diocaeſan Biſhops, diſtinct in Iuriſdiction, power and degree from Miniſters and Preſbyters; I have therefore here for the future quie…ing of this much agitated controverſie, confined my diſcourſe within the liſts of ſuch queſtions, (not formerly fully debated by any in the Engliſh tongue, that I have met with) by the diſcuſſion whereof I have (I ſuppoſe) ſo ſhaken theſe rotten pillars, and undermined theſe oMatth. 7. 26. 27.ſandy foundations of their high-towring, over-ſwelling Hierarchy, as that I have left them no divine prop or groundworke to ſupport it longer; ſo as it muſt now certainly (for any ſtay is left it in Scripture) come tumbling downe headlong to the very ground, (and me thinkes I heare the fall of it allready ſounding in my eares) unleſſe with ſpeed they wholly quit theſe falſe foundations, and bottom their Prelacy and Iuriſdiction onelyonly on his Majeſties Princely favour, (not Gods or Chriſts divine inſtitution) which becauſe they have ſo lately judicially diſclaimed in open Court, and even at this preſent execute all Acts of Epiſcopall Iuriſdiction by their owne inherent power, without any ſpeciall Commiſsion from his Majesty under his greate Seale, keeping their Courts, viſitations, and making out all their citations, proces, excommunications, probate of wils, Letters of administration &c. in their owne names and under their owne Seales, as if they were abſolute Popes and Monarches, contrary to the Statutes of 25. H. 8. c. 19. 26. H. 8. c. 1. 37. H. 8. c. 17. 1. Ed. 6. c. 2. 1. Eliz. c. 1. 8. Eliz. c. 1. their Oath of Supremacy, and their High-Commiſsion it ſelfe, which might teach them another leſſon (as that it confines them to doe all things by his Majeſties ſpeciall Commiſſion, in his name and under his Seale, when they are all there joyned together, much more therefore when they are divided in their ſeverall Dioces;) and becauſe they have *See Sir Iohn Dauis his Iriſh Reports. f. 97. 98▪ an excellent paſsage to this purpoſe. q Math. 7. 27.blotted out Caeſars Image and ſuperſcription, his Armes and royall Title out of their Courts, proces and all eccleſiasticall proceedings, and inſerted onelyonly their owne in leive thereof, that ſo they may appeare to all the world to be no longer his but theirs, and hee (if hee ſhould chance to chalenge and reſume them as his owne) might not henceforth owne or claime them to be his; they have litle reaſon now to attempt, and his Majeſty farre leſſe to ſuffer, and ſo having neither God nor the King, divine nor humaine Right to ſupport them, they muſt (as the proverbe is, between two ſtooles the arſe goes to the ground) now at laſt in the middeſt of their uſurped greatnes, fall flat upon the ground, and this their fall, q proove very great, becauſe they now of late, are growen ſo, *Doctor Barnes, Articles. Artic. 8. p. 211. Maſter Tyndals Practiſe of Popiſh Prelates p. 342 343. &c. and Obedience of a Christian man.not being content with the office of a Biſhop, but they must be alſo Kings, temporall Lords and cheife ſtate officers, against Christs expreſſe commaund and Gods owne Law, to ſway both Church and ſtate at pleaſure ſo they may ingroſſe ‡37. H. 8. c. 17.into their ſacred hands the ſole rule and government of the world, having great poſſeſsions; and being great Lords alſo as they are Prelates, and yet doing nothing therefore at all in point of preaching, fecding, and inſtructing the people committed to their ſpirituall charge, but onelyonly playing the part of a Biſhop, as a Chriſtmas game-player doth of a King and as a Poppet, which ſpringeth up and downe, and cryeth Peepe, Peepe, and goeth his way, as *What the Keyes of the Church be. p. 266. u Prov. 16. 18.Doctor Barnes writes wittily of the Biſhops of his age. Which ſwelling greatneſſe … ambition of theirs as it will make their downefall the greater, ſo the ſpeedier, being a ſure prognoſticke of their approaching ruine, as the greatneſſe of any unnaturall ſwelling in the body is of its preſent enſuing rupture. u Pride ever going before deſtruction, and a lofty ſpirit before a fall, and they uſually dogging them at the heeles; becauſe *1. Pet. 5. 5.God himſelfe reſisteth the proud, but then moſt of all when they are at the higheſt; according to that of the Pſalmiſt, ‡Pſa. 119. 119.Thou puttest away all the wicked of the earth like droſſe, which aſſoone as ever it hath gotten up to the top of the pot, and elevated it ſelfe above the … mettle, is then ſcummed off and caſt away.
Towards which their deſired ſpeedy downfall, if theſe my unworthy labours ſhall through Gods bleſſing on, and thy prayers for them, contribute any aſſiſtance, for the eaſe, releife or comfort of Gods poore people, *See Thomas Be… on his ſupplication, Vol. 3. of his Workes in folio f. 21. to. 25. A moſt excellent paſſage to this purpoſe ſuitable to our times.who are every where moſt wrongfully, without, yea ‡Magna Charta. c. 29. The Petition of Right. 3. Caroli. and other Statutes in Ractall Accusation.againſt all Law and reaſon oppreſſed, and caſt out of their benefices, freeholds, poſſeſsions, impriſoned, fined, excommunicated, ſilenced, ſuſpended, vilified, cruſhed, and troden under feet by their intolerable tyrannie, might and unbounded extravagant power, I ſhall neither repent me of the penning, nor thou thy ſelfe of the reading of it, wherefore here humbly proſtrating it to thy impartiall Cenſure, and commending it to the bleſſing of that omnipotent God, who to ſhew the infinitenes of his wiſedome and power, doth oft times z1. Cor. 1. 27. 28. 29.chooſe the fooliſh things of the world to confound the wiſe, the weake things of the world to confound the things that are mighty, and baſe things of the world, and things that are deſpiſed, yea and things that are not, to bring to nought things that are, that no fleſh ſhould glory in his preſence. I ſhall take my leave of thee till ſome further occaſion.
Farewell, and pray for me.