AN APPEAL To the PARLIAMENT; OR Sions Plea against the prelacy.  
The sum whereof is delivered in a DECADE of POSITIONS.  
in the handling whereoff, the Lord Bishops, and their appurtenances are manifestly proved, both by divine and human laws, to be intruders vpon the privileges of Christ, of the King, and of the Common-weal: And therefore vpon good evidence given, she heartily desireth a Iudgement and execution.  Lament. 1.12. 
Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by; behold and see, &c.  LVC. 19.27. 
Those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me.  Origen. in Epist. ad Rom. 
Iudicandos se potius, quam judicaturos cogitent.  Senec. in Thyest, Act. 3. 
Nec abnuendum, si debt Imperium Deus.  
Printed the year& month wherein Rochell was lost.   


Neutri cedet.   woodcut of two swordsmen beside a giant candlestick 
Manet Ultio  
S●e lerata manus  
Manet insuperabile verbium   

Omnibus intentant nervis extinguere verbi  
Lampada; succurrat ni pia vestra manus:  
Prevailing prelates strive to quench our Light,  
Except your sacred power quash their might.   


August. in Ps. propert. 2.5.  Quoties hominibus praeesse desidero,  
Toties Deo meo praeire contendo.  
Dum licet, iniusto subtrache colla jugo.   

Spreta cado.   woodcut of man falling from tower 
quo r●ninis   

Sic spreta Elanguent humani cuncta cerebri;  
Vt stabilis fugiant foedera firma Dei:   

The tottering prelates, with their trumpry all,  
Shall moulder down, like Elder from the wall.   

Si ad divinae traditionis caput, 
Cyprian ad pomp.   
Et originem revertamur, cessat  
Omnis error humanus.    

TO The right Honourable& High Court of PARLIAMENT.  
Right honourable and High Senators  
SUch hath been the care and industry of that Panacaean or cure-all Court of Parliament, that to give instructions to it were to teach an Eagle to fly, or a Dolphin to swim, 
{αβγδ}.  yet such hath been the gracious disposition of the golden head,& loving affection of that silver body representative, that they have bent their ears to the grievances of the lowest members, especially if they were grieved with the grievances either of Church or commonwealth. That great Statesman Plato would have a Senate cheerfully and lovingly to entertain the motion of the meanest subject, for the good of the commonwealth. 
De legibus Dial. 6.  A wise general of a field despiseth not the advice of the meanest soldier in matters of greatest waight. The grecians used to lay their desperately diseased by the high wayside, that every passenger might deliver what he knew or heard to be good for such a disease, sin& judgement( the diseases of our state) are not hide but open to the eye of every passenger. As the great physician said of nature distempered, that it is all but one sickness▪ so our disframed,& distempered state, from head to foot is all but one sore. In this case she complaineth as though there were none to succour her. Is it nothing to all you that pass by? Behold& see my sorrows, &c. Not to mourn with and for our mother were unnatural,& all that we can do is to mourn for her( yea would to God we could do that as we should, o●… state-medicines are merely empyricall; but your Honours being the methodical physicians of our state can make a right use of them. Wee read that marvelous cures have been done by Empyricall medicines, especially in desperate cures. To your Honours we present one, not of our own invention, but of an ancient and sovereign Probatum est: such a one as never yet failed( as we conceive) it wanteth nothing, but giving out of the physitians hand. That golden apothegm of our gracious sovereign, that all is in action, is the very best theme for your meditation and ground, and motive for your heroic accomplishments. The Laconicke brevity of Kings speeches, 
{αβγδ}.  as Homer said of Menelaus is very acute and full of matter, and so they would have themselves understood. For a word is enough from the wise& to the wise: As God hath set you forth( right Honourable) for this great work of reformation; so your choice and place requireth you to bee men of activity, as the Spirit speaketh, that is inwardly and outwardly complete with prudence, prowesse, valour and diligence. Gen. 47.6. Exod. 18.21. If Pharaoh would have such herdsmen; what need standeth our Abimelech of such sheepheardes for the sheep of his people,& such shepherd you must bee indeed. Your honours grow that consultation, yea or humiliation can do no good without real( and in some things eradicating reformation) Ioshua did well to pray, but he must up& do. When Moses& Aaron are praying, Ioshua must be smiting of Amalecke. What danger the state is in by sin within us, iudgement vpon us, and over us, evil men among us, and the wrath of God against us, is better known to your honours then we can express. But we may be bold to say of religion,& state, as david said of himself, there is but a step between them& death. 
1 Sam. 20.3.  In this agony of death with tears& groans we cry to you right Honourable, save us, or wee perish. Let not the tall stature of the Anakims; nor the combination of the Edomites, nor the counsels of Ahitophells; nor the proud looks& big words of Amaziahs deter you, or detain you. Let not the overtopping growth of the sons of Zerviah seem too hard for you. 
Exo. 32.27  But let every man gird the sword of justice vpon this thigh, and do execution according to desert. fear not, have not I commanded you( saith our King) Be courageous& be valiant, yea the God of Israel hath bid you do it. Make way then for religion and righteousness, by removal of all ungodliness& unrighteousness, and God will be with you. Wee need not tell you of the roman Patriots, or the Athenian Kings; who were willinge to die that the glory of their nation might live. 
Gen. 43.14  jacob will sand his beloved son to egypt in case of necessity, and if he be robbed, let him be robbed. So Hester will interpose herself for her country, and if she perish she perisheth: 
Vt contem nendus &c Tul. Lib. 4. ad Heren.  As that man( saith the orator) is worthy all contempt that would rather save himself then the ship wherein he is, and all that are with him. So he is an unworthy man that prefereth his own particular safety to the saveinge of the common sea-coal: But there is no such danger: Let the righteous be as bold as lions and the wicked will fly when none persueth them. 
Prov. 28.1  Fenny-Bitters in their hollowe canes make a terrible noise to the amazement of those that are not acquainted with their spirits; but they dare not look valour in the face; nor hold up their head in the assembly of the just 'vice is ever a coward where virtue is in place: Only this we entreat your honours. that you would not be like Ephraim, 
Hos. 13.13  of whom the Lord complaineth as of an vnwise son; because he stayed too long in the place of the birth; that is, he was too long in resolveing without real performance. Bee you eyes, ears, and hands to our sovereign, as your place authorizeth;& he by you shall scatter the wicked,& bring the wheele over them: The fire of Gods wrath is already broken in vpon us, and if the fuel of sin, and especially our domineering national sin be not removed; the wrath of God will never cease till it hath consumed us from being a nation to himself. should not every one( unless he be a viper) bring some water to quench this fire: Behold right Honourable we bring one Buckett full taken out of the crystalline sea and silver streams of divine and human laws( as we conceive) a medicinable& quenching water. 
{αβγδ}.  Water unapplyed cannot quench the fire: Some waters increase the fire as oily, unctuous& pitchie waters. 
Plin. Lib. 2. 106.  An unproportionable mixture maketh the fire the fiercer. lastly, it is no time to fling water when all is consumed to ashes. Wee entreat leave therefore( right Honourable) to importune you again and again to ply the pure waters from the higher places; bar and abandon all the pitchie waters of the babylonish Lake, which are ignis fomentum, the very life and spirit of the fire. 
{αβγδ}.  There be many artificial fireflingers, whose fire is more ardent in the waters, consuming ships, bridges, and all vpon the waters. Take heed of these; and fling water enough: and let not that proverb of delay be verified in your honours, aquam infundere in cineres; to cast water vpon the ashes. Wee entreat your Honours, to represent to yourselves by imagination, that fire were kindled at home in your howses, you looking on( which fire could not but consume state, wives and children, if it were not quenched,& that betime) how would you bestir you? how much more should you hasten to save zion from being consumed: For Zions sake we cannot hold our peace, we cannot but complain as the children do to their Parents. Pharaohes servants are very homely with their king, to set Gods people free, when they were all like to perish. 
Exod. 30.7  Knowest thou not yet that egypt is destroyed? how much more may we your Honours servantes complain to you of our desperate condition, better known then thought on. Hence also your Honours may be pleased to observe how faithful and plain you should be with his royal majesty both in the discovery, and the remedy of the eminent and imminent destruction. What may be found amiss in this poor frame; either for manner or matter, we humbly crave pardon; as for freedom of speech( wherein we would not wronge any) we hope your Honours will impute it to the present danger: For who will not cry( if he can do no more) when his mother is like to be murdered before his eyes.   

The Epistle to the Reader.  
WEll affectioned Reader:  
If ever soundness of mind, and sincere uprightness of heart were to be manifested for the Lord; now is the time especially, because this is the adulterous, 
Marc. 8.38. & sinful generation, that the Spirit speaketh off; which is come to such a hight of impiety, iniquity, and profaneness, that by sin it stareth heaven in the face,& dasheth Gods people out of countenance, that they may be ashamed of the gospel: we do not read of greater persecution, higher indignity and indemnity done upon Gods people, in any nation professing the gospel, than in this our island; especially since the death of queen Elizabeth; witness, the silencing, fining, excommunicating, and casting out of the ministery; yea the pining of some of them, and sundry good people to death, whose blood we must know crieth yet for revenge; for precious in the sight of the Lord, is the death of his Saincts: yea in some measure we have already payed for it; for how much Britan-blood hath the Lord sold for no price, within this ten yeares? and what for all our pains, means and losses, but the highest dishonour that could be thought on? yea who knows yet what a deep Aceldama, or field of blood, our Land may be, if that blood be not expiated; but who is the main Impulsive cause of these evils of sin, and judgement? Even those men of bloods, the prelacy, as we have proved, whose dignity( as the late King hath it in the preface of his Basilicon) smelleth vildlie of Popelike pride; yea they are a main part of him; bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh. Against this hierarchy we do not commence, but renew our suite, for the recovery of the keys of Christ, and the veil of his spouse: In the prosecution whereof we entreat the help of all that love the Lord: First agree with God, by reforming at home; and then look upon them, as they are clearly convinced, to be enemies to God, and the State; and so hate them with a perfect hatred; be not ashamed of Christ and his Word; that is, of standing for the privileges of his kingdom, no, not among an adulterous& sinful generation; that is, when Christ enemies are in their ruff, left Christ be ashamed of you. As for their swelling pride, fear it not. There are more with us, then against us: yea it is enough, that the Lord of Hostes is against them.  
We may say truly of them, as an ancient said of the Prelates of his time: Omnibus terrori, amantur à nullo: they are a terror to all, and loved by none, except by such as stand too nigh them in a contiguitie of profit, popery, or profanes; these indeed cannot see; because they will not see.  
As for their traditions, whereby they support themselves, they are branches of the same root, condemned by the Word, Councils, Fathers; by all ancient, and modern, Orthodox writers: yea, and by the Positions of the Papists. But it is enough,( as D. Whittaker observeth): quod à Christo damnantur: 
Controv. 1. q. 6. p. 48.  that they are condemned by Christ. The matter is of no less weight then the kingdom of Christ; in the suppressing, or advancing whereof, standeth the ruin, or reviuing of our kingdoms: and therefore we commend it to your serious consideration: we have endeavoured to clear Christs title, and the truth of the Positions from the Word especially; as for other testimonies, let them have their own weight: by that entire word, as the Psalmist speaketh, and for it, we do contend, Ps. 19.8. For it hath in itself {αβγδ}, luke. 1.4. That infallible certainty, which is {αβγδ}, by divine inspiration, and onely of itself to be believed: Though in regard of our danger we have used freedom of speech, we neither hate their persons, nor envy their pomp, but we wish their con●●●sion, and safety of the State.  
If in stead of entertainment, or of a legal trial they turn again, to tear this treatise, and trouble the maintainers of it, let them take heed, for by this truth heer maintained, they shall one day be judged: if they should also go about, to incense the Kings majesty with a prejudicate opinion of this just APPEAL, we hope it shall pled for itself( our infirmities excused.) That in uprightness of conscience we could not do him better service: yea we are confident, if all that love the Lord( especially men of place) will do their part, we shall have our King, as an angel of God in this particular: though Rome must fall by the sword, yet the word must both instruct Princes, that babel can no otherwise be healed,& also in arm them for her ruin. We thought the volume should have been far lesser then it is; and therefore me made no chapters, nor Index; but considering the subject, it required both longer time, and a greater volume; An other edition may come forth in better order. Censure not a part, before ye have perused the whole, because divers parts of the same matter, have their divers places in several Positions. Part not with a good title, though it be encumbered. Labour hard, by prayer, and practise, that God may have his honour; the King his right; and the Enemies of both their defert; and the Lord will dwell among vs. It is not our intent in this treatise, to dispute at large every particular propounded and proved; for the subject would not suffer it; the volume would have been too large; and the truth of divers particulars, is already vendicated by whole volumes, from all gainsayers: But if any lift to be contentions in contradicting any point asserted, and proved, either directly, or by consequence; we shall be ready at all times by Gods assistance further to make it good.   

A DECADE OF GRIEVANCES; Presented and proved to the right Honourable and High Court of PARLIAMENT. Against The hierarchy, or government of the Lord bishops and their dependant Offices, by a multitude of such as are sensible of the ruin of religion, the sinking of the state, and of the plots and insultations of enemies against both.  
RIght Honourable and High Senators, you are not unacquainted, howe the affrighting and turmoiling troubles of the heart speak in the faces of all true hearted subjects, expressed often by their sighs and groans, 
Deut. 32.35.  and also vented by their pathetical complaints; the moving cause whereof is our calamity, partly already seized,& partly making hast( as it is further threatened) to seize upon us. But to our shane and confusion of faces, wee must confess, that of the provokinge cause of this calamity( namely sin) wee are nothing so sensible as wee should be; Or if wee complain of sin, yet wee find not out that Ashtaroth or main national sin, which is the Conjunct or immediate working cause of all the evil that is upon us. When a body politic is run all into one festered sore of sin& one benumbing bruise of iudgment, then the universal and painful distemper taketh away the discerning faculty of the Master sore that hath bread and fed all the rest, which indeed must either be sought out and removed, 
Rom. 1.18. ( as the principal cause) or it will never prove a cure. Though the wrath of God be revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness, yet for some one capital sin, especially the Lord departeth from a state, 
Hos. 4.17.5.12. & turneth it upside down. This might be instanced in Israell joining himself unto his idols, which made the Lord unto him as a moth, and unto the house of Iuda as rottenesse. This principal Israel understood, 
judge. 20.  when he fought again& again;& found out the cause why he fell before Benjamin. The same course took Ioshua in humbling himself, to find out Achan, and the excommunicate thing. He might have found out, and also removed many other sins, yet if he had not found out the thing of the curse, he might have mourned his heart out, before he had prevailed with the Lord against the enemy. Howe to find out our Achan, or golden wedge and babylonish garment, hoc opus, &c. For it is not obvious to every man. Yea this Spirit is neither found out nor cast out, but by fasting and prayer. Yet woeful experience, the common schoolmaster hath formerly discovered to the Chariotts and Horsemen of Israell,& now doth discover this very same to be the very chief cause of our calamity that wee pitch upon. Wee do not servile our own sins, nor others sins, for many sins, and many inditements are against us; but this is the Master sin( as wee conceive.) And that upon this ground, that the capital sin of a nation is not the highest sin, abounding in the highest measure,( against which there is any lawe established;) but that is the main& Master sin, which is established by a law. And this is that frameing of mischief by a lawe, that the Prophet speaketh of, called in an other place, the Commandement of man establishing sin: 
Ps. 94.20. Hos. 5.11.  Now give us leave( right Ho:) to demand, what sin is established by a law in this common weal, but the hierarchy& their acoutrements? And therefore we verily believe by the grievances following, offer to demonstrate that the hierarchy and their household stuff, is the capital sin and main cause why all this evil is come vpon vs.  


I.  
FIrst, may it please your Honours to take notice, that the calling of the hierarchy, their dependant Offices and Ceremonies, whereby they subsist are all unlawful and Antichristian.   

II.  
THe hierarchical government cannot consist in a nation with soundness of doctrine, sincerity of Gods worship, holiness of life, the glorious power of Christs government, nor with the prosperity and safety of the common wealth.   

III.  
THe present hierarchy are not ashamed, to bear the multitude in hand, that their calling is jure divino. But they dare not but confess, when they are put to it, that their calling is a part of the Kings prerogative. So that they put upon God what he abhorreth, and will hold of the King when they can do no other.   

IV.  
THey abuse many ways that power from the King, by changing, adding& taking away at their pleasure, to the grievous vexation of the subject, the dishonouring of his majesty, and the making of the laws of none effect.   

V.  
THe privileges of the laws and the hierarchical government cannot consist together.   

VI.  
THe loyalty of obedience to the Kings majesty& his laws, cannot possibly stand with the obedience to the hierarchy.   

VII.  
ALL the unparelelled changes, bloody troubles, devastations, desolations, persecutions of the truth, from forraines or domestics, since the year of our Lord 600. Arising in this kingdom; and all the good interrupted or hindered, hath had one or more of the hierarchy, as principal causes of them.   

VIII.  
ALL the fearful evils of sin& judgement, for the present reigning among us, and threatened against us,( to omit the black desolation of our sister Churches) wee conceive to be the birth of the womb and the nurslings of the breasts of the hierarchy.   

IX.  
IF the hierarchy be not removed, and the sceptre of Christs government, namely Discipline advanced to its place, there can be no healing of our sore, no taking up of our controversy with God. Yea our desolations, by his rarest judgments, are like to be the astonishment of all nations.   

X.  
lastly; right Honourable, if you strike at this roote of the hierarchy, removing that Asteroth or grand idol, and erect the purity of Christs ordinances, wee are confident that there shall be a ceasing from exorbitant sins, a removal of judgement, a recoverye of Gods favour, a repairing of the breaches of the church and common wealth, a redeeming of the Honour of the state, a dashing of Babells brats against the stones. Yea this shall remove the wicked from the Throne, strike a terror and astonishment to the hearts of all foreign and domestic foes. In a word, God will go forth with us, and smite our enemies. Yea a glorious prosperity shall rest upon Zion, King, state and commonwealth.  
THus having laid down a decade of evils, arising as so many corroding ulcers out of the body of the hierarchy, wee come to some proof of the particulars, as they lie in order; and that as punctually and briefly as wee can.    


1. Position proved.  
1. ANd first, to the first, namely, that the hierarchy, their dependant offices and ceremonies are Antichristian. For making way for the proof of this point wee are to consider with the learned both ancient& modern what state of government Christ hath appointed in his Church, and what kind of governours he hath chosen to govern the same. For the former they tell us from the word, that the Church in respect of her policy and outward government appointed her by Christ, is not a monarchy like unto the kingdoms and Dominions of temporal Princes, as that of the Assyrians, Persians, or the like, in and over which certain men as Princes have and exercise sovereign authority, but in regard of the choice of governours, 
Viret. Dial. 20. 21. Danae. Lubertus. Iunius. Chamierus. Sutcliv. Whittak.  by common consent it is a free commonalty, and in respect of the governours so chosen and governing according to Gods appointment it is an aristocracy, as Athens, Venice, or the like, as this is the judgement of the learned, so it is clear from the prescript of Christ. Mat. 18.17, and from the continued practise of the government of Christs Church, till( as the learned truly affirm) it came to bee oppressed with tyranny. As for the latter viz. the governours, they were& should be such Bishops as God ordained together with ruling Elders, which Bishops( as the Scripture proclaimeth,& the Orthodox learned believe) are no other than Ministers or teaching Elders witness 1 Tim. 3.1, 
In 1 Tim. 3 Tit. 1. Act. 20.  compared with Tit. 1.3, and 7. vers. which truth is not only maintained by the Orthodox ancient, as Augustin, Hierom:& Ambros: but also by Papists, as Hug-Cardinal-Anselm. Lumbard-Cusan johan: 
Lib. 4. Dist. 24.  Parisiens. and others, who hold this distinction to bee but jure positivo,& that it is not of Gods appointment, both Canon Law& civill Law do witness. 
Gratian Dist. 95. Duaren. de sacris Ecc. Minist. c. 7. Sect. 9.  Thence it was decreed and maintained by ancient councells from the Word. Act. 15, that all Ministers should have voices in council both deliverative& decisive Carthag. Can. 34, 35. alleging also Nice Calcedon and others. 
Gentilet. exam. council. Trident. P. 216.   
lastly, our learnedest of later times have given full evidence to the point, witness D. Raynolds in his letter to Sir Francis Knowls, wherein he proves sufficiently that God never made, nor doth the scripture witness any such distinction, but that Bishop and Minister were all one: taxing and disproving D. Banc. for holding the contrary. The very same truth was concluded by D. Holland, the Kings Professor in Oxford. At the act july the 9. 1608. Quod Episcopus non sit ordo distinctus à presbiteriatu, eoque superior jure divino. That a Bishop is no distinct order from a Minister, nor superior to him by divin institution. The self same did Cranmer& Latimer testify to H. the 8. It is true that some servile and shameless Papists to flatter the Pope, 
Bbs. Book.  as some amongst us to flatter prelates do aver the superiotie of Bishops, taxing the ancient that hold the contrary of heresy, 
De sacror. hom. orig. Lib. 1. c. 5.  with Aerius. Instant one Michael Medina cited by Bellarmin. But the whole current of divine& human testimonies are against them. Having laid this foundation to come punctuallie to the proof.  
It is sufficient proof, of the unlawfulness of their calling, 
Mat. 21.24.25.  that it is not, from above, as the warrant of both ordinances and ministry must be. Otherwise the Lord threateneth to destroy them. Mat. 15.13. Where by the plant not of Gods planting, may be understood all persons, callings& traditions not appointed and approved of by God( for so the ancient expound it.) The calling of Aaron, a type of Christ, is not onely thus approved Hebr. 5.4. But also Christ himself putteth his calling upon this point of trial; I come in my fathers name, and y● receive me not; If another shall come in his own name, him will ye receive. Which words, 
joh. 5.43. Aug. Ep. 80.  sundry of the Fathers apply to the coming of Antichrist, for he and his, came indeed in their own name.  
2. Where the Spirit recounteth by name, all the sorts of ministry, ordinary and extraordinary of his own appointment Eph. 4.11. there is not one word of such a Lording Ministry, which the Spirit would not have concealed, but undoubtedly set them out with al their titles and prerogatives, if there had been any such superior offices of his appointment and approving.  
Is it a like thing that God who appointed the Temple& Tabernacle, should be so punctual in every particular of his service under the law, and that he would conceal his more especial officers and their offices under the gospel? would he remember the bars of the Arcke and pass by the Fillers of his Church? would be appoint the least Pins of the house and forget the master builders? would he there mention the snuffers of the Lights, and here pass by the great Lights themselves? Or would he there remember the besoms and ashpans, and here not once mention bishops and Archbishopps this were {αβγδ}. To look to small things and overlook the great things. Is it true that a silly ignorant woman tells us in the gospel that when the Messia cometh he would tell us all things? 
jo. 4.25.   
And yet he speaketh never one word of his special offices, sure these can not agree.  
3. From the same place of the Ephes. it will appear that such Bishops and their dependences are superfluous. Therfore they should haue no place in Gods house. The consequent is clear because there is a necessary use of every thing that hath any use in Gods house.  

Ambros. ad verell.  Nihil tam necessarium quàm cognoscere quid sibi sit necessarium, There is nothing so necessary( saith a father) as to know what is necessary or of use. Now that there is no use of them it is cleared thus.  
Those officers without the which the Church of God is fully built up and brought to complete perfection of unity, are not of any use in Gods house.  
But without the function of Lord Bishops, Archbishops &c. the Church of God is fully built up and brought to complete perfection of unity, witness Ephe. 4, 11, 12, 13.  
Therefore L. Bishops, Archbishops &c. are of no use in Gods Church.  
The learned have used the same argument against the Pope, the Church of God being built up and perfited without him, therfore he should not bee.  
The argument is every way as good against these Bishops and every such Officer in Gods house, with out the which his house is complete, as against the Pope, for it cannot be said of those Bishops as our Lord said of the ass: 
Mat. 21.3.  The Lord hath need of them.  
The same argument holds against the Ceremonies, yea as a knob, a when, or any superfluous bonch of flesh, being no member doth not onely overburthen the body, but also disfigureth the feature, yea killeth the body at length except it be cut; so these Bishops be the knobs& wens and bunchie popish flesh which beareth down, deformeth& deadeth the body of the Church, that ther is no cure( as we conceive) but cutting off: If any object that there be necessary Officers in Gods house, as Deacons and Elders, which are not name in that forequoted place of the Ephesians, it may be easily answered, that the Apostle there only intends to make a perfect enumeration of such as labour in the word, for the perfecting of his Church.  
Further if men may ad ministries to those whom God hath appointed, then may they take away such ministries as God hath appointed, for both of these belong to one and the self-same authority.  
But men may not take away such ministries as God hath appointed. Therefore they must not add such as he hath not appointed.  
As we have hitherto proved in general the calling of the Bishops to be unlawful, so we come now to prove directly their calling and their dependencies to be Antichristian.  
These Governours are justly called Antichristian who are assistant to the Pope in his universal government.  
But Bishops, Archbishops, Chancelers, &c. are assistants to the Pope in his universal government.  
Therfore Bishops, Archbishops, Chancelers, &c. are justly called Antichristian.  

Def. p. 13.  The mayor Proposition is D. Downams, for the minor, let their practise speak. For after the same manner& by the same Ministers do they Lord it and tyramnize over Diocees and Provinces in his Majesties Dominions, as other Popish Prelates do in other dominions. By the same reason that one is over a diocese, an other over a Province, the third may be over all.  
2. They arrogate to themselves solie and wholly the ordination of Ministers.  
In these two D. Willet putteth a main difference betwixt Protestants& Papists. First( saith he) that their Bishops are over Ministers as Princes of the clergy. 2. They take the right of consecrating or giving of orders wholly and soly to themselves.  
Let all men speak if our Bishops do not this to an hair, 
Synop. cont. 43.  and are they not by consequent Antichristian Bishops? For the further proof of this point we could bring a full jury of judicious learned and godly witnesses.  
M. Wickliff a man well in seen the mystery of iniquity, 
Artic. 10.  reckoned Lord Bishops for one of the 12 Disciples of Antichrist.  
For the which Pighius writes a treatise against him, affirming this to be the main controversy betwixt the Waldenses, wickliff and him.  
The same doctrine was maintained by John hus& Hierom of prague.  
Luther called this Lordship, plain tyranny, 
Tom. 2. Pag. 322.  averring further that Diocesan Bishops were constituted by the very authority of satan.  
M. Bullinger calls the superiority of Bishops no better than tyranny, 
decade. 5. Sec. 47.  affirming truly that the Apostles themselves exercised no such tyranny. To this may be joined M. Hooper, M. Lambert, M. Branford, glorious martyrs. M. Bale in the Revel. speaking of the brood of Antichrist, counteth the Lord Bishops Antichristian usurpers, the Offices( saith he) of Diocesan Bishops are usurped offices, and not appointed by the Holy Ghost, nor once mentioned in the Scriptures.  
Now if any Patron of the prelacy Post of all these testimonies to the prelacy in the time of popery. 
In Re. c. 1. c. 17. 3.  1. Let them know that overlording prelacy, sitting in the Temple of God is Popish prelacy. 2. The whole current of forequoted testimonies striketh at all Diocesan provincial or ecumenical prelacy, as an usurped office, because not appointed by the Holy Ghost. The extent of the challenge must be as large as the reason of the challenge. If they bee not from the Holy Ghost they are usurped Offices. But for the further clearing of this, let M. gualther be heard, who taxing& disproving the usurped Offices of Lord Bishops in popery, he applieth it to ours, who though they glory in the name of the gospel, and would be counted reformers of the Church by thrusting out Popish Bishops& monks out of their usurped possessions, yet do they not restore the Churches due, taken tyrannouslie from her, but at their pleasure administer the same things, 
In Act. 1.  which in times past the monks and Bishops did. Cyprian holds the very title of an Archbishop or Superior Bishop, in whomsoever a presumptuous thing.  
lastly, the Papists bring in the maintainers of prelacy for a share, as supporters of their usurped primacy. 
joh. 21.17.  The Protestants( saith the Rhemists) otherwise denying the connivency of Peter; yet to uphold the Archbishops, they avouch it against the puritans. Hence appeareth the truth of that assertion, when the prelacy disputeth against the puritans, they use the Popish arguments, but when they dispute against the Pope, they use puritans arguments,& thus they use the truth as Moses used the rod, 
Exod. 4.3.  whilst it was a rod, Moses could hold it in his hand, but when it became a Serpent, he fled from it, so they can use the rod out of Sion the word of truth against the open adversary( though implicitlie they beat themselves therwith) but when the truth beginneth to sting, they cannot endure it,& were it not that the cunning Iesuite loves not to touch this string too much( tho now& thē he doth) least by believes reckoning upon this point true men should come to their goods. We are persuaded they should beat the prelates out of their trenches,& themselves out of the field, but they know that they both stand& fall upon the same ground, and a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand.  
They engross that name unto themselves which is due to all good Ministers; which as the learned observe is a perverting of the language of the Holy Ghost, 
call. in Ep. ad Tit. c. 1. v. 1.  yea a point of profane or heathenish boldness from this( saith Beza) began the devil to lay the foundation of tyranny in the Church of God. 
In Philip. 1 v. 7▪  In the forehead of this name began that mystery of iniquity to be engraven, namely, that unknown name PAPA; The various etymology whereof, wee will not now insist on.  
4. They lord it over Gods heritage with an intolerable tyranny directly condemned by that unchangeable Canon of our saviour Christ, 
1 Pet. 5.1.  The Kings of the gentiles exercise lordship over them &c. but ye shall not bee so: but let the greatest among you be as the least. 
Luk. 22.24 25.26. Mat. 20.25  In which words three things be condemned in ministers, superiority, lordly rule, and titles of Lordship.  
The Iesuites confess that that affencted superiority is condemned in the disciples. Yea the very thoughts( say they) of superiority.  
Now all these things forbidden by our saviour concur in making up that misshapen Monster of the hierarchy. This interdiction of superiority is renewed by the Apostle Peter( upon whom his Lord foreknew that that man of sin would build his forged and usurped superiority) neither as being Lords over Gods heritage &c. 
1 Pet. 5.3.  In which place the former ambitious or tyrannous Lordship is not onely forbidden( as the Prelates would have it) but all manner of superiority, as the scope of the spirit, context, and very words prove. In a word their evasions from the true meaning of these places are the very same with the forgeries of the Iesuites, wherein they cross both themselves and the truth. As for that power given by Christ to the Church they have nothing to do with it, 
Mat. 18.18  as is clear from the text and by the exposition of both ancient and modern writers: yea by some of their own, as Bellarm. applieth it to the Pope, so they to themselves but against all ground and reason.  

John. 6.  5. They will not with Christ put their calling upon trial of the word but by the contrary put the Anathema upon such as dare presume to call their calling into question. 
Canon. 8.   
6. They have the same, Titles, power, pre-eminence, offices and Courts that the papal prelacy had,( setting onely the supremacy of the pope aside) Ergo Antichristian: 
25. Ejusdem. cap. 15  witness that act of Henry 8. assigning them all whatsoever they had of the Pope( the supremacy reserved to himself) for which our prelates have given the name of Pope and Papissa to our Princes. 
Bancroft. Spotswod.  At vna via prohibitum, &c. That which is forbidden one way ought not to be admitted another way.  
7. And lastly they arrogate to themselves,( we may well say blasphemously) these titles which are onely proper to christ, 
Act. 1.4. Heb. 13.20 Act. 3.15.  namely the chief shepherd or Archbishop, great shepherd or Archleader? which titles the Apostles, durst not take unto themselves, Ergo Antichristian. As for their defence from Conterfait Clement, or Paganish Archflamins, it is stuff not worthy your Honours audience to conclude the proof of this position, 
John 1.20.25.26.  let John Baptist speak, where having denied himself, to the pharisees to be either Christ, Elias, or that Prophet, hath this reply, why Baptisest thou then? inferring that he must either confirm his calling, to be of God, or not to meddle with the ordinance, neither had the Argument been good if John Baptist might have been of some other function then of Gods appointment, and therefore he confirmeth his extraordinary calling from the word, Thus it is clear as the sun shines that their calling is Antichristian.  
For to the kingdom of Christ, it belongeth not, as we have shewed, to the civill kingdom it can not belong, for it will be counted ecclesiastical, to a strange Paganish or Machomitan government it cannot be referred, because it is begun and maintained among those that profess Christ,& under a colour of Christs government it must sit in the Temple of God, and since it is not of God, to what body or Regiment doth it belong but to that government, whereof the sun of perdition is the head? let us then as hath been said receive with the gospel such government as Christ hath appointed in his gospel, then have we fully and completely whatsoever belongeth to the kingdom of the gospel, without any L. Bishops& their Officers, which could not be true if the hierarchy belongeth to the kingdom of Christ. 
Pr●f. come. book. Mr. Cart. Rep. to D. Whit. Rep. to D. D by M. Banes. Dioce. trial Park. Polit. Buc and others.  As for the ceremonies as none can deny them; so themselves do grant them to be Popish, which it pleased them to retain upon as good grounds as themselves do stand. Finally, this Position is impregnably proved by the learned. I have been the more succinct in the proof of this evil, because the learned have been so large in it, yet it is the ground of all the rest, and enough to cashier them.  
As for their arguments objections& answers, they are the very same with the Papists,& are the same way dissolved; onely we will discover one snare, wherein they take a multitude of deluded people. What( say they) will you have no order in the Church; shall all be alike? Shall wee not have governours and some head-powers amongst Ministers to remove schism and to keep peace in the Church? And for this they press jerome his words; Let some head be ordained for removal of schism. For answer. 1. Shall man be wiser then God? or shall the way and device of foolish man bring more peace to Gods house then the way of the alwise God? 2. grant that this course would bring in a Laodicean peace to the Church( because the devil will be quiet when his Officers bear sway;) yet it is an execreable peace, and( as one saith) worse then many contentions that is without truth.  
3. If there be such necessity of one Lord Bishop over a diocese, and one Matropolitane over a whole Province, for the keeping of peace and unity in the Church or Churches of one nation; is there not the like necessity for keeping of peace and unity& avoiding of schism in the whole church, that there should be one Arch-B. over the Churches of christendom? 4. And lastly, to answer the point directly; we pled quod non sit verum: they make people believe a lie, that by this ecclesiastical monarchy of the Church, it is kept in order peace& unity; and that thereby Schism is avoided; the contrary whereof is true. For this hath been the main cause of discord and disunion of the Church, yea the fountain and wellspring of most horrible schism& damnable heresy, as is to be seen at large in the decretals, 
Decret.  and is witnessed by many of the learned worthies,& fully proved by too much woeful experience both of times past, and of our present condition. Wee will shut up the point with that pregnant and pertinent testimony of Musculus. If jerome( saith he) had seen as much as they that succeeded him, he would never have concluded that one amongst the ministry should have been above the rest, because it was not brought in by God to take away schism as was pretended, but brought in by satan to wast& to destroy the former ministry that fed the flock. With which wee may join that evidence of learned Whitakers; 
Loc. come. C. de Minist. verb.  episcopacy( saith he) was invented by men as a remedy against sin, which remedy many wise& holy men have judged to be worse then the disease itself, and so it hath proved by woeful experience. But of this particular more afterward.   

2. Position proved.  
SEcond Position, namely, that this Antichristian government cannot consist with soundness of Doctrine, &c. It is too too manifest from reason and experience; for,  
1. Can that government which is opposite to the gospel of Christ( as it hath been proved) endure the sound Doctrine of the gospel?  
No more then darkness, can endure light, or sore eyes can endure the sun. As a polished glass, and pure water, representeth the filth and deformity of the face; so the purity and power of the Word of God maketh the Monkish deformity of the Hierarchy so to reflect upon itself, that she will needs break the glass, and trouble the Water that representeth her, and therfore she loves to fish in troubled Waters. A reverend worthy( as any lived in our time) being demanded an argument, ab utili to confirm the government of Christ in his Church; made answer, that this our Nation under the government of Antichrist for some 53 yeares, had abounded with heresies and schisms, to the eating out of ●he heart of the word, where our neighbour nation, governed by the sceptre of Christ, for the space of 40& odd yeares, was clear of all schisms& heresies. Wee will deliver it in the Authors own words: 

Epigramma pro presbiterio contra Episcopatum.  

SCotos lustra decem rexit sacer ordo senatus,  
Absque nota haereseos, schismatis absque nota.  
Et delaeta ferae ex●ersit vestigia dirae,  
cvi nomen triplex senio dinumerat.  
Anglia praesulibus recta est septennia septem,  
Haeresibusque frequens, schismatibusque frequens,  
Atque impressa ferae servat vestigia dirae,  
cvi nomen triplex senio dinumerat.  
Et dubitamus adhuc sacrum auctorare senatum,  
Ex auctorato praesulis imperio.   

CHrists sacred sceptre fiftye yeares had swayed  
The Scotts, without rent schism or heresy;  
No relict there of that fowle beast displayed,  
Whose numeral name is with three sixes made:  
But England governed fifty yeares and three  
By Prelates, swarms with heresies and schisms;  
The great beasts relics hateful solecisms  
In Gods true worship by her are retaynd,  
The number of whose name,( as hath been said,)  
Three sixes make 666. is by them thus maintaynd,  
Why put wee not Imperious Prelates down,  
And set Christs sacred Senate in its room?     
2. As for laws and government, how can the government of an usurping enemy consist with the laws and government of a lawful,& native King.  
3. For holynes of life, nothing so odious nor so much persecuted, as that by the hierarchy, and that both by mockery,& real persecution. So that he that abstaineth from the common course of the world, maketh his life a prey, and he that walketh with God is too precise.  
4. By breaking the bar of Discipline, they s●t open the gate of impiety. As for their pretended Discipline, the remedy is worse than the disease, for by it the godly are vexed,& the wicked strengthened.  
5. And lastly, for the safety of state, how should the state be safe, where Christ is iustled out of his government, and his enemies reign in his stead? It is the true observation of a worthy Patriott ubi silent leges Christ● &c. Where the laws of Christ bear not sway, the laws of the Land can do no good. A kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. When Christ standeth at the door and knocketh, and Antichrist beareth sway within, the Lord will turn his rejoicing to do them good, unto a rejoicing to do them evil. May it please your Honours to take further notice that this government is against the safety of the state in these particulars.  
1. It supporteth the hopes, of the Pope of Rome for his re-entry, for so long as his Officers and household furniture remaineth, so long will he pled possession. And hence hath been the treasons, and overturning plots by the Popes against the royal persons of our Princes, and standing of our state for the space of 68 yeares.  
2. This strengtheneth the hands, and warmeth the hearts of the Papists amongst us, ready upon all occasions to take part with the Pope& his Ministers.  
3. This being the storehowse of superstitious trinketts, as Ceremonies, Fasts, Feasts, and such like; these be meate& drink to strengthen the Papists, and cordials to comfort them.  
4. The hierarchy do disgrace( to the Papists great joy) the sincere sort of people, which are the Walls of the Land. As for the Papists and hierarchy, they agree pretty well: for the former do council, and the latter executeth such designs against Gods people, witness Dolmans Watchword. The quodlibets, Spalato his second manifesto, Doct. Caryes apology, and the prelates practise.  
5. They nullify the laws which are the sovereign safeguard of the commonweal, as shall be farther manifested.  
6. And lastly, they beate the watchmen from the walls or veil them so upon the walls, that howe can the city be safe?  
IN the next place we come to prove the position by experience. And  
1. For vnsoundnes of doctrine, our ordinary practise proclaimeth it, witness our school commencements, sermons in Court, city, and country: abuseing the Word, and revileing his Majesties best subjects, also printed books by authority, and that from no small ones being the very streams of Popery, arminianism and such Pelagian stuff, with the particulars whereof( being so many and manifest) we need not trouble your Honours.  
2. As for the pollution of Gods worship, and profaneness of life, they cry to the very heavens, it is true that the door of the ordinances( not being close shut, but upon the hinges) Christ cometh in to many, but what is this to the universal profanenes, which is a pattern to all other nations, and the shane of our own, and although Christ stand yet at the door, when he hath sealed his own, he will be gone, as for the glory of Christs government there is none at all.  
To conclude the point, of safety by an instance from the contrary; be pleased to take notice of the Nether Lands, which could never have been rid of the Spanish tyranny, nor stood so long in prosperity safely, if they had not cashiered the Bishops, 
Method. Hisi.  as for Geneva let Bodine speak( no puritan sure) yet he commendeth them much, not for wealth, and greatness, but for virtue peace and godliness, which he ascribeth to the power of Discipline, whereunto they attained by abandoning Bishops; showing further the divine ●●rce of Discipline, in bridling the lusts and countermanding the vices of men, which all the laws and judgments of men were not able to effect. And so we come to the third point to be proved.   

3. Position proved.  
THey bear the Multitude in hand that they are jure divino, yet they are forced to confess that their calling is a part of the Kings prerogative.  
It is truly affirmed in that supplication Anno 1609. That the prelates have no warrant, either for the nature of their offices or quality of their proceedings from the Lord Iesus, neither was it maintained by any of their faction till they grew weary of holding in capite, and then they turned their tenor into Soccage quitting themselves of Knights-service. In this plea D. Downam shewed himself more rash than wife to appear. For he is not only cast over the bar by the book of God, by the jury of the learned, by the most judicious judges and laws of the Land: but also by the verdict of his fellow Bishops and his own confession. So that in scanning of this particular it shall evidently appear, that their calling is opposite to Gods truth, to our sovereign Lord the King, 
D. bridge. Defenc. of Eccl. government. Pag. 319. and 320. B. Whit. Def. in pref.& alibi.  they cross his wholesome laws, with foreign jurisdictions, and they are at contradictory opposition amongst themselves.  
1. For the first, they oppose the truth of God in affirming without shane or fear, that their calling is jure divino, when it is nothing less, since there is not one jot of all the word of God for it, as hath been proved) but as much against it as against any one thing, which the chiefest of them cannot choose but confess, and so in this, they have confessed the truth until of later times, yea their master piece and many arguments evinceth this, which they take from the continuation of their calling from 300. yeares after Christ, and not before which as they cannot prove, so the challenge proveth clearly that they are not of God: but opposite to his truth, yea a learned man, and a better B. thō any now, tells us plainly, that from the year 607. the Church began to be ruled by Bishops which government( saith he) was especially devised and invented by the monks. Bale scrip. Brit. Cent. 1. 37. which indeed is true; for till this age, every particular Church was governed by the Bishops Elders and Deacons of the same; witness the authors of the Cent. Mag. Cent. 6. 7. Col. 591.& although some before this were titular bishops, yet their superiority the Church would not bear, witness our English Synod an. 674. Synod Harford.  
2. They are opposite to the King and his laws, in affirming their calling to be jure divino, because by his Laws they are said to be a part of his prerogative, from whom all their power intensive and extensive is conveyed tot them( though this cannot warrant them) witness the petition to the queen, and judicious Beza in his Epist. to Grindoll Bishop of London, which is worthy the reading. But to the point the rescript of Edw. the 6. cited by Sanders runneth on this manner Edward. Dei gratia &c. To Thomas Arch-B. of Cant. &c. 
De schism. Anglic. lib. 2 pag. 227.  Since from the King all power and jurisdiction proceedeth &c. We give thee power within thy diocese, to give orders &c. by these presents to endure at our pleasure. So in the first year of the said Edward the sixth it is enacted, that they should exercise no jurisdiction in their diocese, nor sand out writs but in the Kings name, and under the Kings seal, which statute was abrogated in the first year of queen Mary, and re-established by Qu. Eliz.& in the first of King james. So that by the continued transgression of this law, your Honours know that they and their Offices, are all over head and ears in a Proemunire; of which a Bishop in Edward the sixth his time was convicted and submitted himself to the Kings mercy.  
3. They are divided amongst themselves in this particular point: 
Def. of his Sermon.  D. Downame not knowing how to shift the matter, pitched at last upon this, that it is jure Apostolico, 
Refut. p. 92.  but not juris divini. M. Francis Mason, in his great book upon this subject, 
Lib. 2. c. 7. p. 118. 119 820. &c. 12. ibid.  dedicated to the Arch-bishop, and published by authority, affirmeth plainly and peremptorily, that they derive their episcopal authority from the Pope. The same doth the supplicants aver to the King p. 9. Whence your Hons. may be pleased to observe, how this establisheth foreign power, 
Bilson de Gub. Eccl. cap. 15. page. 402.  contrary to that act of Parliament 1. Eliz. 1. Doctor Bilson B. of Winchester affirmeth otherwise, terming it plainly principis-praerogativam, the Kings prerogative. In the maintenance whereof his very heart sqandereth, 
page. 403.  If there be any fault saith he, let it be laid upon the Magistrate, and not upon the Bs. Where we may observe, what a cup of could comfort they afford Kings for maintaining of them.  
For further testimony of truth, we might city a cloud of learned witnesses both in the divine and human laws, as hus, Luther, wickliff, Zwinglius, Latimer, Cranmer, Reformatio legum Eccl. tit. de divin. office. D. Fulke& Whitaker in their answers to the Papists using the same arguments for the hierarchy.  
It is the scope of Sr. Ed. Cook in his report de jure Ecc. to prove that the function of the L. Bishops& their jurisdiction exercised is from the Kings prerogative, who may& doth grant to Lord Bishops that ecclesiastical power, 
Fol. 1.  which they now exercise and also may take it from them at his pleasure. The self same truth both by ancient and later prelates is avouched: witness the judgement of the clergy in the dayes of Hen. 8. expressed in a treatise entitled the institution of a Christian man. This was the judgement of the state in the time of K. Edward 6. and Elizab. 
Prefac. p. 2. page. 133.  To this also giveth witness Arch-Bishop Whitgift and B. Hooper, yea D. Downham himself could not deny it, being pressed by that statute of a Parliament held at carlisle 26. Edw. 1. Hence first the untruth of the said Doctors assertion may evidently appear. 
Pag. 95.  That episcopal government is perpetually necessary, not onely for the well-being, but also for the being of a visible Church. 2. It discovers their derogating from the King: their injury to his laws: and their tyranny against his subjects in committing men to prison for denying their authority to be immediately from God.  
To conclude; this very Question de jure divino was debated in the Trent. counsel, 
Pet. Suavis Histor. council. Trident. Lib. 7. page. 687. and 688.  where they were like to go together by the ears for it. Lanetius( general of the jesuits) held every particular Prelate jure Canonico to be merely from the Popes authority, by which he might remove them at his pleasure, in an other sense then M. Mason.  
The Bishop of Paris opposed this as a new devised trick, and broached by Cajetan for a cardinals hat, which to his shane the Sorbonists oppose, holding it as true in the Hypothesi, namely, if they be true Officers of Christs Church, they must be jure divino.  
To conclude the point, you see( right Honourable) how they would rest on many pillars, but their main Supporter is the Pope. If to this that hath been said, they answer that the sum of all these things hath been fully answered, we reply, if their imprisoning, persecuting and banishing of the Lords worthies had been of no more force than their answers, their cause had fallen long ago. Further, what answer hath M. Bucer, Bucanus, Parker the Damascen-Altar and others received?  
lastly, what Honour or rather disgrace have they gained by their answers and replies, let the works of B. Whitgift, B. Downham,& B. Morton, B. Lindsey,& B. Spotswood speak. To close up all, we desire in all modesty, that they will bring their callings and evidences to the standard of divine truth, and by comparing matter with matter, and reason with reason, let the truth carry it. And so much for proof of the third Position.   

4. Position proved.  
THeir manifold and manifest abusing of the Kings authority, by changing, adding, and taking away at their pleasure &c. Appeareth in these particulars.  
1. In the point of subscription urged. Canon. 36.37. It is to be seen what heavy things are pressed upon the Conscience of every one that entereth upon any ministerial function, namely That nothing contained in the public liturgy, the book of ordination, or the Articles of Religion in number. 39. Is contrary to the word of God. Yea that every thing contained in every one of the aforesaid Articles, is agreeable to the word of God. And this he must do, adding every expression that may avoid ambiguity. And in like manner they must subscribe to the two books of Homilies. Now what gross, absurd( if wee say not) blasphemous untruths all these 5 books are stuffed with, wee need not to demonstrate, since by a judicious and true inquiry they are made more then manifest. Especially the service book; which they cannot deny to be raled out of three romish channels; Namely the Briviary out of which the common prayers are taken, out of the ritual or book of Rites the Administration of the Sacraments, burial, matrimony, visitation of the sick are taken. And out of the mass book are the consecration of the Lords supper, Collects, Gospells and Epistles. As for the book of Ordination of Arch-bishops, Bishops, Ministers &c. it is out of the roman pontifical.  
Now from this prescript form of liturgy, the Minister must not go a jot, nor use any other in the appointed service: witness Canon. 38. which is not indeed according to the mind of the Prince, nor meaning of the Law. It is a wonder to see, what adding, changing, and taking away, is in that liturgy. To which English mass( for so his late majesty called it) it is not the intent of the law, that the Ministers should subscribe, witness that statute. 1. Eli. Cap. 2. binding them to use such prayers and order of administration of the Sacraments, as are contained in that book, authorized by Parliament in the 5. and 6. yeares of Edward. 6. with the alteration or addition of some lessons, and none other or otherwise. again the Law requireth no subscription, but barely to the Articles of Religion; which onely concern the confession of true Christian faith, and the doctrine of the Sacraments, witness the very words of the statute 13. Eli. Cap. 12. which Statute is not yet abrogated nor contradicted. So that to the matter of Ceremony and of Church government, subscription is not by the law required. Further it is well known to judicious men now living, that it was not her Maj. mind, nor the meaning of the law to press these things upon the consciences of her truly professing subjs; But the intent was only to bring Papists and Popishly affencted to a Church conformity, condescending to retain some Popish passages, till reformation might be more fully made. Vpon which grounds the Honourable Court of Parliament would never have any bound to it, seeing the things not only controverted, but also rejected by whole reformed Churches. But we see the prelates require subscription to all the aforesaid books; Yea least vexation enough should be wanting to Gods people they have hatched out of their own brains, An hundred& fifty laws, called the Canons, as we may think in apishe imitation of the psalms of David, whereunto though they exact not subscription, yet they tie men strictly, and afflict them grievously, both in purse& person for not obeying of them: which is a malapert countermanding of his Majesties laws, and a heinous oppression of his subjects, 
15. H. 8. Cap. 19.  witness that Statute of Henry the 8. forbidding any man to make or exercise laws or Church orders, repugnant to the laws of the realm. But many of those Canons and visitation Articles( to which they force men to swear) are repugnant to the laws. By this your Honours do see and very well know that the laws are made of none effect( and that to the best of his Majesties subjects) which may yet be further instanced by divers particulars.  
1. It was the desire of sundry Minds. to subscribe secundum foreman statuti, according to the form of the statute. 13. El. c. 12; But they were not admitted. 2. Of that good law of appeal from the Prelacy to the Chancery( enacted by Henry 8; 
25. H. 8. 1. Eliz.  or rather renewed and continued by all our professing Princes) the grieved and wronged subiects( through the daunting pride of the prelates) can have little or no benefit, witness 98. Canon. twharting the law of God, nature,& nations,& the law of the Land. 3. By virtue of the law no subject shal be put from his freehold, but by the verdict of 12 men: witness the great Charter of England, 
Mag. Char. Cap. 29.  which often and again hath been confirmed by divers other statutes as 42. Edward. 3. c. 3. and making voided by strong enforcements all such Statutes as might cross or contradict the same. But ministers are thrust from their benefice by the bare and peremptory command of the Bishops. The iniquity& cruelty of this their course was laid to heart by the States in Parliament Anno. 1610. who enacted against it in effect as followeth; where the Canons would charge body goods and Lands of the subject, that charge shall be of no force, except it were confirmed by act of Parliament. 4. Where by the law of the Land no free man should( but upon lawful proceeding and just ground) be imprisoned: the prelates against the laws and liberty of the State, and privilege of the Subject, erect prisons, and comitt men thereto at their pleasure, if they will not break the Laws. As for instance in taking of the oath ex officio, which is( as shall be shewed) against all laws of Heaven and Earth. This trick of imprisonment( as Choppinus saith) was taken up by Pope Eugenius the second, 
De sacr. Polit. lib. 2. Pag. 243.  Anno 824. And as one saith well, it came out of the tail of the Dragon. A punishment not beseeming a Minister of the gospel to impose.  
This tyranny rather then law had its first original in England( as the laws record, and learned of the land witness) from that statute 2, Henry 4. Cap. 15. whereby authority was given to the prelates and their Ordinaries to imprison and fine the subjects and to press the lawless oath upon them. This statute was procured by the prelates for suppressing of the professors of the gospel, witness the title in the record, petitio cleri contra haereticos, 
Ex Rotul. Parliamenti Anno 2. Henr. 4.  and was passed as is shewed without the consent of the commons, witness the record of the statute, yea our learned in discovering the iniquity and bloudthirsty cruelty of this law tell us, that it wanted not onely the consent of the commons, but they wonderfully repined at it. But as evil means must ever establish an evil purchase, the King was forced by their importunity to lay the necks of his best subjects under the feet of the bloody beast, of which more hereafter. But the state at length laying to heart the abundance of christian blood that had been  shed by this bloody law( for so it is called) and observing the judgement of God that had ensued on this bloodshed upon the State,( as afterward shall be made plain) with unanimous and full consent made void and revoked that statute of imprisoning and the oath ex officio, leaving not the least impression of any such power to the Ordinary, because it was against the Law of God, the Honour of the King, the law of the Land, the nature of ecclesiastic jurisdiction, and the right of the Subject.  
It is true that in the 1. and 2. of Philip and mary, a statute was framed according to that formerly revoked statute of Henry. 4. But first it doth aclowledge that the Church had no power of imprisoning but onely the power of the keys.  
2. They enacted this that by fiery and bloody courses they might supplant the Gospel, whereof the people being mindful and exceeding sensible in that Parliament of the 1. Elizabeth requested the state to repeal, and make void that statute of Henr. 4. concerning imprisoning, and the selfe-accusing oath, which the state did grant and established in express words before the annexing of the right of ecclesiastic jurisdiction to the crown, repealing, making utterly voided, and of none effect all and every branch, articles, clauses and sentences in the said statute, from the last day of that Parliament. So that we see the imprisoning, fineing, and pressing of the oath by the high Commission, hangeth not onely upon that bloody act for defence of Popery, repealed by the statute laws of the Land, but is also directly against that very act of Parliament or statute from which their commission is founded, as shall be more clearly demonstrated in an other place. But this sufficiently sheweth how egregiouslie they abuse the Kings authority, and wrong the subject notwithstanding of all this.  
It is a wonder that B. Whitgift will side with Pighius against Marcilius Patavinus( in fetching a ground from Peters killing of Ananias& Saphyra) for their imprisoning of men; might they not as well warrant the killing of them, for they kill many of them: For that act of Peters was not done( as the learned answer well) by an ordinary power, but by that extraordinary power, 
1. Cor. 12.4.28.  which the Apostle calleth {αβγδ}, and otherwhere a Rod, that is an extraordinary punitive power by the virtue of miracles.  
5. And lastly, they enforce the laws of the Land that are for the subject, against the very best subjects, namely, such as gather themselves together, to humble their souls for the sins of the times, for the safety of Sion, and the deliverance of the common weal. Against such it is most true, there is no Law. But these men will either have one or make one against them, namely, they must be charged with Conventicles, where as they are neither such people as are meant in the statute; nor doth that law intend to them any molestation; but rather preservation, as well as the preservation of the Prince and State from the dangerous conventions and riotous assemblies of plotting Papists. If the interpretation of the Law depend upon the mind of the lawgiver( as indeed it doth) with what faces can men turn the law against the innocent for the guilty? May not& do not the Papists meet& plot mischief against the Church and State, without the Tenth part of this molestation? Yes it is too too true, but it is no new thing for them, and the prelates to lap it up: Yet is it not a wonder, why they should hate and oppose so much that which is the preservation of the Church& State. Good reasons may be given why they do so: But of them afterward. To have the Doves thus beaten and the Ravens& Pye-Maggotts to prey upon the State, what blessing can it bring from God, what Honour to the King, what credite to the Laws, what high esteem to the Parliament, what comfort to the people? And so to the fifth grievance.   

5. Position proved.  
THe privileges of the Laws, and the hierarchical government cannot consist together.  

In 19. Hen. 6. Fol. 62.  The Laws of the Land( as hath been often said) are the inheritance of the subject.  
But these prelates practices, and forged or enforced Laws are {αβγδ} or quiter opposite to our Laws, as hath been formerly proved.  
How can the liberty of a loyal subject, and the unjust restraint of the same consist together? How can the disclaiming of sovereign power, and the embracing and obeying of it stand together? How can the subscription to the Articles of Religion( which onely concern the true Christian Faith and Doctrine of the Sacraments) and the subscription to books, containing many things contrary to the word of God( as a number of Popish Rites and mens devices) consist together? As unnatural heat consumeth the inbred or natural heat and radical moisture of the body; So the unnatural Laws of the prelates, eat up and consume the power of the laws of the Land. Yea their Laws are not onely worse then the Canon Laws( which are bad enough) but worse then the laws and constitutions of the very worst times of our Nation under the high command of Popery, which will appear by the comparing of the Canons of that counsel of Oxford holden by Stephen Langton Achb. of Cant. 280. yeares ago. There it was decreed, that none should be excommunicate where the fault is not apparent, Et non nisi Canonica monitione precedent, unless they be Canonically, that is thrice admonished. But the prelates and their Officers account none appearance at the first to be a pregnant contempt, 
Pag. 23.  witness the Oxford answer to the Petition: So that forthwith they excommunicate, yea some times they set a day of Appearance, and excommunicate the party before the day; And this we will avouch. There also it was decreed, ne presument judices esse& actores, That none should take upon them to be judges, actors, and accusers. But this they do, when the judge dealeth ex officio. We could instance in many other of the like nature, but a taste is enough: yea do they not exceed the height of Popery in this, that there, an appeal was allowed to every man, to that supreme court of the man of sin. But they oppose and hinder the just appeal of the Kings subjects to a higher court, without exception. And so much for this point.   

6. Position proved.  
WE have now to prove, that the loyalty of obedience to the Kings majesty and his Laws, cannot possibly stand with the obedience to the hierarchy.  
Can a man serve two Masters or obey two Lords of opposite commands? As the Heavens contain no suins but one; nor a Kingdom no Kings but one: So a people cannot obey any Laws, but such as are at one and unity with themselves. If the prelates practise, and Injunctions extort or enjoin one thing, and the laws of the Land, and the good of the King require another thing opposite to that, who can obey both? Yea who can obey the prelates, but he maketh himself a Transgressor to the King and the Laws; As for instance, it is straightly forbidden by the laws of the Land( especially by that oath of allegiance) whereunto all the Kings subjects are sworn; either implicitlie or explicitlie) That no foreign power, authority or jurisdiction( and more particularly of the Pope of Rome) shall be established, 
1. Eliz. 1. 1. jacobi R.  countenanced by word, countenance, preaching, privilege, or any other dead, under the pain of Proemunire. And if after conviction any person or persons thus again offend, then he or they shall inicurre the pains, forfeitures, judgments and executions, due to high treason. Now that they derive their authority from the Pope; carry themselves as Popelinges; have all the power( if not more then they had under the Pope;) exercise a full Popish power over subjects in their means, persons and consciences; and pled for the derivation of their Episcop. authority in print from the Pope; It is as clear as the light. As for the change of supremacy, it can not make a body that is nought in itself, and continuing the same to be good. As for their writings and Sermons against the Pope and his usurped power, it may be answered, quid verba audiam, cum facta videam? Their words cross their actions. Yea, it is to be feared, that the Popes supremacy, if it could be as gainful, would please many of their palates better then the Kings. Since then it is thus, it may invincibly be concluded, that a subject cannot both obey them and the Laws.  
Further it is enacted( as we haue shewed by act of Parliament) That all the Prelates writs for exercise of their jurisdiction should run( as hath been shewed) not in their own names and with their own seals, 
8. Edw. 6.  but in the Kings name and under the Kings seal. But they in their own names, and with their own seals sign city, attach, and imprison, laying the burden of their tyranny upon the King: if at any time they seem to be affencted with the miseries of the parties, whereof they are the only cause. It cannot stand with the clemency of a royal heart to vex or imprison his loyal subjects for serving of the same God whom he serveth, and for denying obedience to the very things that are contrary to Gods laws, the sovereign power of the King and laws of the land. As it is then against all law, reason and equity, that the subjects are thus vexed and wronged; so the serving of such writs and warrants by pursuivants, and the assistance by constables and others, is injury to the subject, violence to the laws, and an effront to the King. For the clearing whereof, Simsons Case is upon record, who was cleared by the law, because the Constable under the prelates warrant, was adjudged by law to be out of his place but of this more hereafter. And thus the point is cleared, that yielding obedience to such writs or warrants consisteth not with obedience to the King and his laws.  
It is further cleared by being flatly opposite to the Kings prerogative, 
25. Henr. 8.  that any Courts should bee kept or jurisdiction exercised in his realm but in the Kings name, and by an especial grant. Instance the Iudges Commissions of Oier and Terminer, and so of the rest: but the Bishops and their officers hold their Courts and exercise their jurisdictions not in the Kings name, nor by any special grant, but in their own name intruding upon his Majesties prerogative royal, enforcing Churchwardens and Sidemen to serve as instruments against the same.  
Further no subject can both obey the Kings laws: and the prelates Courts: because they judge, or exercise jurisdiction by deputies as chancellors Officials, Arcdeacons. This is first an entrenching upon the Kings prerogative: for none but the King can delegate or substitute a judge in his place especially if the place of judicature be of a high nature( as the prelates is, if it were right) but these prelates commit their counterfeit keys often to such Cerberean Porters: as shut the gates upon Christs friends, and entertain his foes.  
2. This deputation is against the nature of an office of confidence or trust( as the Lord Verulam speaks very learnedly to this point) as it is personally inherent, so it must be personally discharged,& not transported to an other, as he instanceth in the office of the Lord chancel. of England, or any other judge: who never made nor can make a deputy, except they have some special clause, contained in their original grant; and then also it is very doubtful( saith he) that this is so, it is clear from the statute of Henr. 8. 
26. Hen. 8. cap. 14.  by which it is provided that the Archbishop cannot take to himself a suffragan or assistant Bishop( much less can he deputy an inferior judge) but by the Kings especial grant. Now whether are not all that submit themselves to the judicature of such courts( kept by the prelates deputies) transgressors against the true nature of jurisdiction, observed in all other courts of the Land, and also against the Kings sole prerogative? Further whosoever giveth his body to the prelates imprisonment or yields his goods to their fineing( except it be upon irresistible violence) whereby he becomes a mere passive. 1. He nullifyeth many wholesome laws, 
Statut. Articul. cleri. c. 1. Fitz. Hanatur. brev. Fol. 51. 52. 15. Edw. 3. c. 6.  whereby it is decreed that ecclesiastical jurisdiction may not imprison or set any fines vpon the Kings subjects, exept it be vpon change of penance. Yea they loose not onely their own privilege, but they quit the inheritance of all their fellow-subjects, so far as in them lies, and keep still in force that cursed cruel statute, extorted from Henr. 4. against the people of God, which( as we have shewed) hath been again and again repealed, as unjust and intolerable. 
1. King. 21.  If Naboth would not yield his vineyard to his King, and that upon reasonable conditions, because, in so doing he should have broken a statute; or if the Kings subjects stood out in the matter of loan that they might obey the King in keeping of his laws entire,( for they made it appear to all that it was not want of love or unwillingness to part with their money:) how far should subjects be from obeying such commands as countermand the laws, establish an usurped jurisdiction, deprive the King of his loyal obedience,& the people of their right. As for the danger of resisting this usurped power there is none de jure, howsoever these men of usurpation make it their trade to afflict the Kings subjects de facto; but the laws which are the privilege of the subjects, the life of the Land, and true obedience to the King, should be more precious to a true hearted subject, then liberty or life itself; and what a man would do for the defence of his life, he should do in the defence of these. For the lawfulness of this defence, we produce both the Laws of the Land, and the counsel of the learned according to the Laws. For the former, if the laws enacted& so often confirmed, do inhibitt all summons, assaults, attaching of the body, imprisoning or fineing but by due course of the law of the Land, then all the prelates courses in the above-said particulars, may and must be resisted quoad posse( because they are not legal, but against the great Charter) but the former is true, therfore the latter. For further proof hereof, we commend unto your Honours to review these noble acts amongst many other decreed by that high Court of Parliament Anno 1610. For this very particular as followeth.  
1. Whereas the temporal sword was never in the prelates power till the 2. of Henr. 4. and then usurped by them without the consent of the commons( for say, they were truly ecclesiastical,) yet it is against the laws of God and of the Land, that they should meddle with civill jurisdiction, therefore is an act past against it, and the oath ex officio brought in at the same time.  
2. That statute 1. Elizab. c. 1. giving power to the Queen to constitute and make a Commission in causes ecclesiastical is found inconvenient, because abusing that power given to one or more they wrong the subject.  
3. Whereas by virtue of the statute power, onely ecclesiastical is granted; yet by Letters-Patents from the King, unsoundly grounded on the words of the statute, they fine, imprison &c. which is a great grief, and a wrong to the subject.  
4. Where upon deprivation by the ordinary jurisdiction an appeal lieth; the words of the commission exclude it. For here is no traverse, nor writ of error after judgement.  
5. They bind men not onely to appear from time to time, but also to perform what the Court shall appoint.  
6. Whereas the Canons would charge body, goods, and Lands of the subject, the house enacted against it, except it should be confirmed by act of Parliament.  
These evils and grievances were seriously pondered by that Honourable assembly, and provided against by the foresaid acts, but the Remora-Prelats& Logs of their laying, so blocked up the way, that the said acts could not pass: and rather then they would suffer the plague-soare of their oppressing pride to be burst by the maturating cataplasms of wholesome laws, they made a shift to break the King and state into pieces, as they did indeed, to the no small grief of all good subjects, to the vexation( yea almost killing) of the two witnesses, the indemnifying& dishonouring of the state; 
Rev. 11.7.  for since that time what hath prospered with us, or with those whom we have aided.  
These acts your Honours know to be law itself, though killed in the shell by the foot of pride, and therfore we humbly entreat justice upon these Legicidas or Law-killers.  
Now come we to the latter piece of evidence in the behalf of this lawful resistance, namely, the case avouched under the hand of learned counsel, as followeth in his own words: 
THe case is, whether the high commission of the North, have power to sand a pursuivant to arrest the body of any man, and how farreforth the sheriff or other of his Majesties Officers be bound to assist them, and whether each several Bishop having a several commission, may( calling to him 3. or more commissioners) execute the commission.  
This learning is not to be rubd upon too boldly, yet in my opinion the high commission hath not sufficient warrant to sand a pursuivant to arrest, because the statute of Magna Charta 5. 30. Nullus liber homo capiatur vel imprisonetur forbids( as I conceive) such arrests. It was Simsons case 42. Eliz. in which arrest the Constable in assisting the pursuivant was slain, and the offender had his clergy, whereas if the arrest had been worshipful, it had been murder vide 42. Ass. p. 5. and 24. Edw. 3. Commissions Br. 3. Where a commission was granted to divers to arrest the bodies of A. B. &c. who were slandered for felony; it was ruled to be against the law: and by the common law the body of any man was free from imprisonment but onely at the svit of the King.  
2. The sheriff is wise enough to inform himself what is fitt to do.  
3. I conceive if a commission be directed to 20. or 30. of them at the least, and they sue a duplicate or several commissions 3. of them cannot sit in one place and 3. in another by virtue of the commission, without adjourning the commission to time and place, as one commission and not to execute it as several commissions.  
I. C.   
You see how in clearing of this case the smell of a goat maketh this honest counsellor somewhat agueish, but such is his ingenuity,& truth is so strong that the case in our conceit is well cleared.  
To proceed the people also( being enforced to wait upon them) become accessary to their sin of disobedience. If that clause of the statute be objected, where the King granteth them authority in as ample manner as they had in the Popes time: it may be answered in the first place; that that proclaimeth to the world, their being to be Antichristian, and their power to be foreign; for they remain the same for matter and form, that they did before; supremacy onely changed. 2. Besides that general; nullum tempus occurrit Regi, it is a lawe case, that general words cannot carry away any part of the right of the crown: and such are these words, without any special warrant to lead them. 3. The grant is onely to rule over their inferior brethren( meaning the Ministrye.) Which rule( by the way) is directly against Gods statutes; howsoever with the laity( as they call them) by this statute they have nothing to do. It was truly averred by a Prime judge of the Land, that that, which binds all, should be assented to of all, or by the representative body of all, but what private men do the prelates call to their convocation house? or what voice or assistance have they to or in the consultations or Canons of the prelates?  
The prelacy, taking this to consideration, procured a statute 1. Edw. 6. enabling them( as they conceive) to keep their Courts& exercise jurisdiction; But first, that was to be done in the Kings name, and not in their own.  
Further, all such jurisdiction, is annexed to the crown 1. Eliz. 1. forbidding all exercise of spiritual power and jurisdiction, without a special warrant from the Crown, and all that do the contrary, are declared to be intruders.  
The last instance( though we might abound) is from the oaths urged by the prelates, especially that oath ex officio. By the law of the Land, they are forbidden to put any to their oath, 
Crompton. 182. Fitz. de natura brev. p. 141. Regist. Pag. 36. Rastal. Prob. 5.  except in cases matrimonial and testamentary, witness the learned and judicious lawyers of the Land.  
As to the oath ex officio, whereby both Ministers and people are vexed and ensnared, what can be said, that hath not been said against it? Heaven and Earth is against it; It is against the law of God; the law of the nature; the common law; the Canon law, counsels, and imperial statutes. Though the vileness of it, and the evils ensuing are sufficiently known to your Honours, and to all of understanding; yet we make bold( under favour) to detect the evils of it, for our own and others information.  
First then by that royal Law of God, 
jer. 4.2. job. 29.16.  it is quiter cashiered; thou shalt swear in judgement &c. that is, advisedly. And how should a man do that, when he knoweth not what he sweareth? neither can he swear in righteousness, because he is forced to betray others; which rather then an honest man should do( as a Father witnesseth) he should loose his life.  
Further, the matter is not of weight, nor of quality( for it should be criminal;) not of necessity( for it may be otherwise cleared;) nor maketh this oath the end of strife; and therefore it cannot be taken in judgement &c. A worthy gentleman being pressed with an oath against himself in an other case, made answer by a pretty dilemma; if the thing supposed to be done, be a sin, then must I not accuse myself; and if it be no sin there is no ground of an oath.  
2. It is against the law of nature registered in the Civill law, Nemo tenetur prodere seipsum; if a man must not betray another, much less himself.  
3. The Canon law from the civill law taketh so much light, as to see and commend the equity of the aforesaid maxim. witness Gratian the Cannonist in the oath of Sixtus the 4.  
4. As for the concourse of nations, they utterly abhor this oath and avoie it, onely such excepted, as live under the Beast, groaning under the burden of this bloody oath: neither do most of the Popish subject themselves to it, witness the State of Venice, and the rest of Italy and others. A blooddye oath the learned truly call it.  

Apud. Plin. Lib. 10. Epist. 98.  5. Without an accuser( saith Trajane) there is no place for an accusation: for that is an evil example( saith he) and not heard of in our age.  
9. How injurious it is to the laws of the land and liberty of the subjects, master Fuller hath fully discovered in the defence of his clients. The beginning of it amongst us, was from a statute of Hen. 4. for vexing and punishing of the Lollards so called being the true christians indeed, the urging whereof is by a Statute. of H. 8. justly marked in the forehead thus: An examination upon captious interrogatories &c. 
2. Henr. 4. cap. 15.   
Of the continuance of the oath, 
25. Hen. 8. Cap. 14.  the Lord Verulam late Chancellor of England did utterly dislike. It is contrary( saith he) to the laws of the Land, and custom of the kingdom, that any man should be forced to accuse himself, especially being urged without the grounds of accusation, declared in ipso causae initio, 
Lib. 4. Tit. 1. Leg. 3.  in the very entrance of the cause, according to the Canon; non est à quaestionibus inchoandum, they must not begin the plea with questions. This was the complaint of that holy Martyr M. Lambert, he grieved to see them call for a book upon his first appearance; as though a man should no sooner speak then swear. Further the aforesaid nobleman averreth, that by the laws of the Land, a man is not bound to accuse himself in cases of treason. Questions and torments( saith he) be put and inflicted upon some persons, rather for safeguard of the King or state, then discovery of the Crime▪ In the other capital cases, no oath is offered to the delinquent, nor yet permitted to him: As for criminal causes, not capital, or in cases of conscience and equity; depending in the star Chamber and Court of Chancery; there is an oath required, but how? by laying of a bill of complaint, wherein a legal accusation is framed against the party, beyond the which the plaintiff cannot go, nor the defendant shall be urged. But first to give an oath, and then to examine upon flying famed or secret witnesses, carrieth no show of the civill law; and is flatly repugnant to the common Law. And thus far that noble man. In a particular inquisition( saith Canitius) articles should be given to the defendant to be enquired of, 
In speciali inquisitione &c. Sum. jur. Canon. Lib. 4. Titul. 19.  and the names and evidences of the witnesses against him, permitting him to make reply for himself.  
7. The imperial statutes are clear against it; no man is bound to give evidence against himself. 
Cod. lib. 4.   

Consil. Bracha. Cens. 2. Canon. 8. Ambr. 1. Cor. cap. 5 John 8.  8. For counsels and Fathers, they are copious; Christ( saith a Father) dealt not so with Iudas; for, not being accused, he did not cast him out. And with that woman in the gospel, Christ did take a legal course; where are thine accusers? yea a Heathen judge, took this legal course with Paul; when thine accusers are come I will hear thee. 
Acts 23.  No example for it in scripture, but that of Caiphas, 
Math. 26.43.  adjuring Christ in the name of the living God: upon which Beza sheweth us how tyrannous and unjust such an adjuration is.  
From all this, it is more then manifest, that the taking of these oaths, and more particularly of this oath ex officio, cannot possibly stand with obedience to the Laws. Yea, though it be guilded and sugared with these daubing and deceiving terms, so far as it is agreeable to the law. For it is altogether( as hath been shewed) repugnant to the Law, to offer it, or to take it. It hath so often been cast over the bar of the common law, that we think they should now be ashamed to offer it.  
To conclude, we may answer being pressed with it, as the Miniesters of Affrick did in the like case; 
Victor. de persequ. Vandal.  numquid bruta irrationalia putetis nos &c. What do you think us to be savage and unreasonable Creatures, that we should swear to a paper, not knowing what it containeth? And so much for this point.   

7. Position proved.  
NOw we come to the 7. grievance, where we endeavour to prove, that of all the evils inflicted, and of all the good hindered, since Anno 600. one or more of the hierarchy have been a principal cause.  
The proof of this point must be by induction of particular instances, selected from the Histories of the kingdom; wherein we may be the breifer, because we know your Honours,( by your own industry and experience) to be better acquainted with your own Histories then we can make you.  
To begin with Austine, of whom the Papists boast, that he is the Father of our Religion, called by the Lovanists, our English Apostle. Of his Fatherhood or Religion we have little cause to boast, nam haeret lateri laethalis arundo; the splinters of his plantation, stick yet in our sides. He may be called indeed with Gregory his M. Pater Ceremoniarum the Father of Ceremonies; which being sown by him, like evil weeds they grow up with increase, and could never to this time be rooted up. Histories relate, how upon his arrival he erected his Masters Coulers, namely, the banner of the cross, and having seated himself, would needs put his Popish rites upon the Britainnes and Scotts( for at that time they were free from Romish Ceremonies:) But not prevailing with them,( though the business were backed with a legion of feigned miracles) he insinuates himself another way, by procuring a synod, wherein his Pope like pride, being offensive to all, was checked and rejected of all, by which( his choler being raised and inflamed with desire of revenge) he threatened them with the devouring sword of the Pagan, and he was as good as his word; 
Gulielm. Westmon.  nam accersit ad caedem Athelfridum; he called that Pagan King of Northumberland, to the bloody massacre of Gods Ministers, and poor harmless,& unarmed people. So it was not a prophesy as some would colour it, but a bloody project; sorting very well with Romes new foundation in England. 
Gervasius Tilbiensis de otijs imperialib.  Sanguine sanctorum, dorobornensis ecclesia primatiam obtinuit, the Church of Canterbury saith one obtained her primacy, by shedding of the blood of the Saincts, Rome is laid in blood,& must bath and swell in blood, till her own blood be given her to drink, yet for all this it may be said of him, with some restriction as it was said of his Master, he was the best of that band that succeeded him, save a very few, whose eyes God enlightened, and whose hearts God opened to see and hate the scarlett whore, of whom some did seal their hatred with their blood. This will evidently appear if we take but a view, as we mean to do, of his successors the very Firebrands of the State, what combinations with foreign powers, what vassalling of the State to foreign jurisdiction, what treasons, what tossing and banding of Kings and Crownes have they been Authors of? what civill combustions? what bloody brawls among themselves? what instigation of the subjects against their Princes? what alienation of Princes hearts from their subjects? what tyranny over Kings and people? what destruction of the State, what vexing, pininge and bloody bouchering of the Saints? what lets and impediments of all good in Church and common wealth hath grown and yet do grow from this bitter Roote? yea what of all these have not their rise from it? so that it is verified of them, which is said of the Egyptian Peach three the branches are worse then the roote. For neither was his pomp so gorgeous; his attendance so great, nor his furniture so glorious, neither his servants such roarers, his train so carried, nor his lettany so stuffed both for matter and manner with Popish devices, nor the ordinances of God so overlaide with the rubbish of Romish Ceremonies. So that verified is the proverb in an evil generation seldom cometh the better: yea our own times proclaim it that the last of the hierarchy be the worst. But to go on with our proof, wherein we must be brief to shun tediousness.  
Theodorus the seventh from Austin in nothing naturing his name, being gotten into the chair, began to play the Rex, or( as one saith) all his reakes over his brethren, placing and displacing at his pleasure, in despite of the King, such as were placed by the King; here Romes right hand begun to work against the Kings of England; By this Theodore was set a foot, the latin Service, Masses, Ceremonies, Lettenies, with all the rest of the Romish trash.  
Lambright, alias Ianbright, the 13. from Austin fell foul of treason against Offa the King, 
Lambert Pe●amb. Pag. 133.  upon which he translated the Sea of Canterbury, to Lichfeild, these be the pranks of the Prelates.  
In the times of the 7. Kings of the Saxons, which be but the beginnings of higher attempts: For when Egbert had made of all the foresaid kingdoms, one entire monarchy, the Lord stirred up the Danes a firey, barbarous and cruel nation( after some attempts) to seize upon the kingdom which they brought to such a slavery, as the like was never red off: and what was the cause why God gave them up to such a fearful judgement? the learned tell us for their idolatry, and superstition, hatched and increased by the swelling prelates, whence issued all manner of profaneness, yet in both these they came short of ours, to shut up this century: may your Honours be pleased to observe what a pickle this clergy had put the State into, by that oration of king Edgar whom Dunstane that notorious juggler and sorcerer by his lying dreams, and feigned miracles seduced mightily, to the hurt of him and his subjects.  
Now let us take a scantling of the last century of Prelacy, from William the conqueror to our times; wherein for further demonstration of our propounded grievance, we can show them to bee the fuel, fire, and bellows, of all our greatest evils.  
To begin with the Conquest. As the idolatry and Superstition( as hath been shewed) of their predecessors was the cause why God gave-up this nation to the Danish cruelty, so histories witness together with that vision, of king Edward a little before his death, how the idleness, avarice, dissolute life, and overlording of the clergy( whence proceeded all impiety, looseness, and iniquity of the laity) were the very cause why God gave the nation up to the intolerable tyranny of the Normans, whereby laws, liberties, houses of Nobility, and all states and conditions were either razed, or enslaved; and if a body may be known by the head, let the practise of Stigandus and the men of his Sea speak in the first place for all, who being exceeding rich, and extremely greedy invaded( as it is written) the Sea of canterbury by simony, being both B. of Winchester and Abbot of an other place: but from him to Langfrank that conquering Prelate, for as a learned antiquary saith wittily, and truly, He thought it all reason, that he should make a Conquest of the English clergy as his Master had made a conquest of the kingdom.  
His successor anselm, confirming that Doctrine of Devills, against Ministers marriage, affronted the King to his face, threatening to excommunicate him in his own quarrel, yea for all the Kings wit and valour, he made him seek all the corners of his saddle and iustled him from his right, for which feats of activity, the Pope honoured him highly, in giving him to sit at his right foot, with this Encomie, Includamus hunc in orb nostro, tanquam alterius orbis Papam; Let us enclose this man within our own sphere, as the Pope of an other World.  
What dissension, war, and bloodshed overflowed the Land in the time of King Stephen, who invaded the crown contrary to his oath, given to maud the Empresse daughter to King Henr. 1. and his own Cousin, all this was from the advice of William Corveil, Archbishop of Canterbury, being backed by the Pope, the Father of such Children, this stickeling Prelate contrary to his faith given to the said Empresse, stolen away the peoples hearts, from their Native sovereign, whence issued so much evil of sin and judgement, as perjury, rapine, bloodshed, oppression, as made the Land a Map of misery.  
Did not Thurstane Archb. work the King a great deal of mischief& trouble, getting the Pope to threaten the King with excommunication, if he were not admitted to the Sea of york upon his own terms. And so entered, maugre the Kings resolution.  
What a deal to do made that proud Popeling Beckett to King Henry the second, and all the state; His cause( as his own favourites affirm) being no better then patrociny of murtherers, and other vile malefactors of the clergy, whom he would not suffer( contrary to his own edict and oath) to be tried by the Laws of the Land, having committed( as it is recorded) in one year a 100. several murders upon the Kings subiects. To such as were arraigned of them, he took upon him to be asylum, or sanctuary, but as he brought himself unto diserved destruction( though the form of his execution is not to be approved) so his pride and rebellion was transubstantiated by the Pope,( who can make every thing of any thing) unto an Idolatrous and blasphemous saint-ship. This plagued the Land worse then all the rest, for as it is treason against a King to entertain his rebel under the name of an Honourable and lawful subject, so it is high treason against God, to make an idol of a traitor,( as Beckett was) whose name of blasphemy so resounded every where,( as one saith well) that the name of Christ was quiter forgotten.  
Come we now to William B. of Ely( the Popes Legate and Vicar, first chancellor of England, and then Viceroy in King Richards absence) what port he kept, what tyranny he exercised over all the Kings subiects, not forbearing the Kings own brethren, Histories make plain, in so much as one saith well, that the laity found him more then a King, and the clergy more then a Pope. As he devoured all where he came with his great pompous train( no fewer then a 1000. or 1600: horse) so he had undone the State, if he had not been taken off.  
Let Steven Langton take the next place, whom the Pope made choice of, ut virum strenuum( as one saith) such a one as would beard Kings, rob Churches, and keep the people in slavery, whose entrance being resisted by King John, both he and his realm were interdicted by the Pope, who enarmed the French King, with the pardon of all his sins, and the crown of England for his pains, if he would invade him in this straight.  
The rest of the Popes lymbes( like traytors as they were) sided with the French King; the nobility shrunk, and the commons wavered, not knowing what to do, whereupon the King( notwithstanding his Princely and magnanimous parts) was so mated with that miscreant and daunted, partly with the fear of foreign and domestic foes, and partly with the jealousy of his fainting adherents, that he was forced to vassal himself, and his Kingdom at the Popes foot, wherein though the King shewed his weakness, yet his heavy and many burdens pled hard for his excuse. And as we cannot red the story without much pitying that worthy,( though unhappy Prince) so we can not but abhor these treacherous prelates, and blame exceedingly the inconstancy and disloyalty of his subjects. Hence be pleased to observe( right Honourable) what an evil thing it is for subjects through their pusillanimity to leave their sovereign in the hands of wickedness, it maketh them often do what they neither would nor should.  
This instance of this abused and murdered King is the rather to be thought on, by reason of the French Kings resolution against the State, who unadvisedly brought him in, he resolved to destroy all the nobility and their houses that had taken part with him against their native sovereign, besides the other tyrannyes, which the French would have practised, so that we should take notice how that one brand out of the Popes Chimney had not onely set on fire, but had almost consumed the Kingdom to ashes, if the Lord had not by an extraordinary discovery from a French viscount on his death bed, delivered the Nation.  
To come to Henry the thirds time, wherein that bloody Bishop( for so the story calleth him) Peter of Winchester, set himself, with one Peter Rivalis, the Kings Minion, to plot the overthrow of the best deserveing states-men, yea of the King and state itself, instance his practise against the life and honour of that well deserveing worthy Hubert, earl of Kent, and Lord chief Iustice of England, the very sword and safeguard of his Prince,( as one calleth him) both against foreign and domestic foes, yet because he could not endure the pride& treachery of the prelates by false& forged criminations, they brought him under the Kings displeasure. By reason whereof he suffered many grievous things, and was often in danger of his life, but the good hand of God was with him in extraordinary deliverances. And at last( being rid out of the way into Wales) that the prelates might the more freely work, they and others their Confederates, put the King upon such evil courses, as had almost undone himself, and the State of the kingdom.  
Concerning the aforesaid Peter of Winchester, one Roger Bacon moved a pretty question to the King, What things do Sea-men most fear? storms and quickesands( said the King) or such like. No( saith Bacon) but Petrus de Rupibus, for they are the rocks indeed that make shipwreck of the state.  
Edward the first also and his government, wanted not his share of hard measure from the prelates, for( besides that universal obedience which Robert Winchelsey Archb. of Cant. yielded to the Popes Edict, against contribution to the King in his Warres) he stood out with the King upon his own terms of reconciliation, persuading absolute obedience to the Pope, and not to the King. Also after much intolerable tyranny exercised over the Kings people, and denying to call the King his Lord, in his letters, he plotted treason with sundry of the nobles, against the Kings person, intending to put him besides the crown, and to cast him in prison; whereof when he was accused from the Kings own mouth, and could not deny it, he fell on his face with tears, begging pardon from the King.  
In Edward the seconds time; the favourites had most of the domineering power in their hands, yet we red that the Bishop of Coventry was a great favourer and abetter of Gaveston.  
As for Edward the third having great warres in hand, and standing in need of aid, he called a Parliament at york, whereunto John Stratford Archbishop of canterbury, denied to come: neither would he suffer any of his Bishops, to make their appearance,& all for fear that he should not be suffered to erect his cross; by which Popish peevish trick and rebellious part, the King was frustrated of his ends, and the State thereby endangered. It is true that this Edward was indeed( as he was called) Malleus Romanorum. Yet in his latter dayes that proud Courtney made little account of him: and so disdainfully affronted his brother Duke of Lancaster, and the earl of Northumberland( who took the defence of John wickliff) that he enraged the mad people against the said noble men, so that they avenged themselves upon their houses and household-stuff.  
Thus your Honours may see in what account the branches of the blood Royal are with bloody& rebellious prelates. Who will neither spare them( if they maintain the gospel) nor spare that good commodity, which should save our souls.  
Richard the 2. was no better served by the saucy Bishop of Norweidge in levying souldiers at the charge of the subjects to fight the Popes battles( contrary to the Kings command) he was sent for by the King, but he refused to obey, affirming that going on& action were more necessary, than to go speak with the King, it might be to small purpose.  
To go on with Henry the 4. supported& put on by these men to disthrone his master a brave Prince, but much abused.  
They laid hold on the occasion the rather, because he harkened somewhat to wickliff and was not for Romes tooth. They first stirred up a rebellion in Ireland which the King went in person to suppress, but before his return they had stolen away the hearts of his subjects, and set them upon his subject, the earl of derby, neither weighing the glorious memory of the grandfather, nor the the unrepayable desert of the princely father; but thirsting for the blood of the saincts they advanced the said earl to the crown: that by this they might both rid the King out of the way, and have a King for ever obliged to patronise their bloody designs against Gods people. And this they did effect. For after the death of Richard they incited the King and prevailed with him to enact that bloody inquisition oath, which became the very shambles& butchering house of Gods people.  
Thus the supreme Magistrate( who should have been the breath of his people) was for the maintenance of an earthly crown, brought to bath in the blood of his best people.  
This he would never have done, were it not for pleasing of cruel arundel Archb. of Cant. and his crew, who vowed& swore that he would not leave one slip of Professors in this Land.  
As some of the same discent ( to their little Land) have said little less of the puritans( as they call them) th'aforesaid Arundel and his shavelings, the King feared more than God and his Word; And therefore it is an heavy yoke for Kings to be yoked with them. He saw no way in his carnal apprehension to make the crown stick to him and his, but by sacrificieng the blood of Gods people to the persecutors of the saints. But for all this his own makers thought to have marred him. For Richard Archbishop of york waged war against him, and thought to have taken both crown and life from him; but he mist of his purpose, and so left his head in pawn.  
From the time of Henr. the 4. the prelates( thus fleshed in the butchery of Gods people) went on to a greater height of tyranny, adding drunkenness to thirst.  
They prevailed with Henr. the 5. to make an unjust and mischievous statute under pretence of treason against the servants of the most High, whom they called heretics. That statute in regard of the frame may be called Monstrous, and bloody in respect of the end.  
The preface of the statute standeth onely upon treason: the body of the statute runneth all on heresy, 
2. Hen. 5. cap. 7.  who list to look the statute may at the first view discern the head or root discording with the body, and the branches of the body, opposing one an other( as ordinarily wicked decrees consist of nonsense and self-confusion) for so the wise God taketh the foolish in their own policy: To go no further; 
Anno 1603  witness our late nonsense Canons( to say no more of them.) But to the said statute a little further, the purport and end whereof, was to ensnare and calumniate the Professors of truth. For it is a common maxim amongst Romish forgers, to make the profession of the true Faith( which they call heresy) and treason to be convertible terms.  
That the Prelates were the prime movers, yea the instigaters and procurers of this statute, it is clear from the matter, manner, preface, and end of the said statute: for neither could they instance any such apparance of treason, nor did the King fear any such treason; but onely their hatred of Lolardy( as they called it) and fear of the truths prevailing was the ground of it; and the thing itself, a toad engendered in the Bishops brains: witness that clause in the body of the statute, At the instance& request of the ordinary &c. but what commodity or comfort had these two Kings from those suggested and enforced cruelties, by these fiery Bishops? surely the evil overcame the supposed good, for they by these sinister means, endeavouring to make the crown fast upon the heads of them and theirs, provoked the Lord in his blood-revenging-judgment, to take of their successors with Fishookes.  
As for themselves, it may well be said of them,( especially of henry the 4.) that the storms of their troubles, and fires of fears, were hotter and greater in life and death then the fires and fryings of the saincts wherein they were consumed to ashes. This may be a good caveat to all christian Princes, not to fasten their crownes, nor to fix their tents by the cords of the prelates counsels: for it is remarkable and observed by sundry, that never a King counseled nor State swayed by them, could stand or continue long in good temper or esteem.  
Astronomers observe and experience proves, that when Orion setteth with the sun, and the Hyades rise with him( though it be in the beginning of May) such nipping frosts, sharp hail, and tempestuous storms arise, that the season seems to be changed, and that because these stars be of a tempestuous nature, changing the air, and weakening the sweet& powerful Influence of the sun, which till he be rid of their opposition cannot manifest his vigour. just so the malignant and tempestuous power of the prelacy, doth so impede and intercept the sweet influence of a Princely temperature and disposition, that do what he can, all is like to be undone, till he leave Taurus or the house of the horned beast, which being forsaken, all distempers vanish& his gracious clemency moves sweetly in the geminy of the Church and common-wealth. Yea we can hardly number how many States and Kings,( besides our own nation) they have brought either very low, or to utter ruin.  
To go on then with Henr. 6. Left an infant, under the age of one year; upon whose harmless head God in his accustomary justice, laid the temporal judgement of the parents guilt. His very infancy, that Skarlett cardinal Bishop of Winchester, besprinkled with the blood of Christs Martyrs. Yea, the more blood they drunk, the more they thirsted, as appeareth by the hot and cruel persecution in that Henries reign. But somewhat lay in their way, namely that good Duke of gloucester, the Kings uncle, the very sword and shield of the King and State, whom they must of necessity have removed.  
The Bishop of Winchester intended to have murdered him in the city of London, but that not taking effect, a Parliament was called at Bury, where they aimed at his head, and so thy had it; but what was the cause? Surely nothing,( for all Sr. Thomas Moores Cogging) but onely this, he was a just man and a good Patriott, hating the prelates haughtiness, and deceiving villainies, loving the truth, and maintaining equity.  
Where first may it please your Honours to observe the mettle of the prelates, in fetching off so quickly& so easily, not the head of a Catelin or Scianus of a Spencer or Gaviston, but of a high and nigh Prince of the blood such an one, as well might be called Pater Patriae, the Father of the Country.  
Secondly, all men may hence observe that piety& honesty, hath been, is, and shallbe, matter enough for the Bishops to make the best fall, if they can find opportunity. But to the point this worthy 〈◇〉 being removed the Bishops went on with their fiery persecutions, till the Lord sent the spirit of division upon the nation, stirring up these bloody intestine wars betwixt the house of york& Lancaster, whereof the like hath scarce been heard in any nation.  
To omit the particulars( as how many Princes of the blood, Nobles, Knights, Gentlemen, fell in that quarrel) In one Battle at Ferry Brigges were slain( as men say) 30000. besides men of note. Thus the Lord in his justice made them instruments of his revenge one upon another, and who but the persecuting prelates brought all this evil upon the Land, namely the blood of Gods people, as the provoking cause; the butchering one of another; the ruin of the King, and his race, and the shaking of the state in pieces? That the prelates hands were far in this Kings miscarriage, and bloody broils ensuing, it is manifest by their never ceassing-desire, till the good Duke of gloucester( the Kings protector indeed) was cut of. For it is their genuine disposition, to endure no trusty friend to God, the King or the State.  
By this both King and State were open to those long enduring, and incomparable evils, tumultuous rebellions, raised by Cade& others.  
In which troubles one thing is remarkable, as the very finger of God, that notwithstanding this intestine bloodshed in great abundance, gave fitt opportunity to foreign invasion; yet that alwise and just God restrained all forraignes from parting of them, till they had fully wrought the Lords revenge, in slaughtering one another. Hence let a nation addicted to idolatry and other sins observe. That the Lord will make one of them devour an other, for a long time before he give them up to a foreign enemy. 
Zacha. 11.6  And such a course the Lord seemeth to keep with us. But to hasten with the point from the beginning of that bloody time, till the two houses of york& Lancaster were united, there was half an hour silence in Heaven. 
revel. 8.1.  That is some small peace in the Church, partly through the obscurity of Professors, and partly by the enemies working one upon an other. Notwithstanding the prelates were still doing as they found occasion, instance the murdering of peacock Bishop of Chichester( as it is recorded) after his recantation.  
Now to henry the 7. in whose time the Lord had no sooner given rest to the State, than they began to make war upon the Saints, making the King himself an instrument, to subvert the faith of a poor Priest, by his awful presence, and mandatorie persuasions, with whom the learnedst of their clergy could not prevail. immediately upon this they carried the miserable seduced man to the fire and burned him. Was not this a fearful evil against God and the State, against the soul of the King, against both the soul& body of the party seduced? Was not this King( for all his great parts) much vassalled in the Honour of his majesty, that he could not save( as we may think he promised) his supposed convert?  
With their fiery and bloody courses they went on, to the exceeding great trouble of the King and kingdom, as Histories discover at large. And howsoever that King heaped up much treasure, yet quickly after his death it melted as snow against the sun.  
We go on with Henr. 8. the former part, of whose time they made an Aceldama or field of blood.  
How he and all his subjects were abused and overrun by the prelates, as gardener, Bonner,& Woolsey, it is so obvious to every one, and so fully laid down in a bill of complaint, called the beggars petition, that it is not necessary to be insisted upon.  
There it is made plain, that they were too strong against the King in Parliament, that no good laws could pass against the wicked of the Land, nor no wicked law against the poor gospelers could be stopped.  
Winchester got the King to sit at the arraignment of holy Lambert, which he only did to humour these bloody beasts, and to serve his own ends.  
To be brief, they made him exceedingly to transgress, serving themselves with him, disturbing his peace, inward and outward, causing him undeservedlie to cut off his best friends, and trustiest servants, instance cronwell, because they served God and him, against the prelates pride and tyranny.  
As for queen Mary, who set all in a flamme, she had the few from them; that fed her distempered disposition against Gods people. What Honours and Possession, she lost, and how troublesone her State and burdensome her life was to her, it is more then evident.  
But what is all this to our Bishops may some say, these were Popish bishops? For answer:  
First, their doings have so far proved the point. 2. Ours be no other for order( as we have proved) then Popish Bishops. They are garments cut out of the very same cloth; a pair of shears( as we say) went but between them; Onely divers hands have cut them out. And to say that our Lord Bishops with all their essential and integral parts( whereof they consist) are not Popish Bs. is a contradiction in adiecto. They are installed after the same manner, created with the most of the same Ceremonies, they are trimed up in the same trappings, they have the like attendants, the like arms and observance, they usurp the same power and jurisdiction, and exercise the like tyranny over Ministers and people.  
But for further proof of the point concerning their particulars, be pleased( right Honourable) to take a view of their proceedings.  
To begin with Edward the sixth( a gracious plant, whereof our soil was unworthy) who like an other josias setting himself with all his strength about reformation, did abhor and forbid, that any mass should be permitted to his own sister. Further, he was desirous, not to leave a hoof of the Romish Beast in his kingdom, as he was taught by some of the sincerer sort.  
But as he wanted Instruments to effect this good, so he was mightily opposed in all his good designs, especially by the prelates, which caused him out of a godly zeal in the very anguish of his heart, to poure out his soul in tears.  
Their suggestion of false fears to the King, and the seeking of their own unlawful standing, brought forth that revived spawn of the beast, kneeling in receiving of the Sacrament, for the greater reverence thereto whereby the Papists had contentment.  
And certainly for this, and such like courses, the Lord took him away in wrath to this nation, that he might make the furnace of his indignation seven times hotter against it, whereby he opened the eyes of some good men, who with remorse of heart confessed that sin of theirs against God, against the King, against holy men( resisting rooms relics) and against themselves.  
To come at last to queen Elizabeth( of happy memory) who having settled her estate, and subverted the profession of Popery, came in th'end to listen to a full reformation, whereunto she was moved( as we are credibly informed) by the Lord Protector of Scotland, called the good Regent.  
As she honoured him very much and held his words and actions to be of great weight( whatsoever the sorrel Papists affirm to the contrary) so she gave good respect to these particulars, which he laid down to her for grounds:  
1. The unvaluable benefit of a faithful and free Ministry.  
2. The excellency of the purity of Gods ordinance, &c.  
3. The h●●our and happiness that would attend her Crown 〈◇〉 State, upon the establishment of Christs government.  
4. And lastly( though the least in esteem, yet of no small moment to the good of her state) she might employ the Prelates overfattening pastures to many good and profitable uses, leaving the ministry enough for their Honourable maintenance. As for their glorious and lordly pomp which was pretended much to honour a nation, it did not so indeed; for it justled out Gods honour which should be dearer to Princes then their crowns and lives. And grant that it were some compliment of true honour; yet the saving of one soul by the preaching of a powerful minister was of more worth then all the pomp& glory of the world.  
To this effect was his speech, which the queen pondered well. But when the Prelates understood what an office he was about, they murmured exceedingly, and in revenge of that motion, he had unjust aspersions cast upon him, and hath to this day by some of their train.  
At a Parliament holden anno 13. of her Majesties reign, some Prelates and others were sent from the Convocation house to exhibit to her a subsidy, according to the custom, her majesty spake very graciously concerning the good of Christs Church, affirming that she had heard of many things in the Church needful to be reformed, which if she could but come to understand, she would not give sleep to her eyes till she set vpon reformation, and would never give over till she had done it indeed; and if they, being the eyes, would not reveal the truth, let the blame and blood be upon them.  
But what was their answer to so worthy a motion? even such as suited with their own ends, seeking more than their own; and not that which is Christs: like false glasses they presented her majesty with an Omnia been. And thus they proved the bane of reformation frustrating the desires of a Prince worthy of so great a work.  
After that, in process of time, they caused a subtle insinuation of the disgrace of discipline to be suggested to the queen, affirming, if discipline were set on foot, that every sillie fellow, or sit John in a parish Church, might at his pleasure rail on the queen, and also excommunicate her. Which( by the Bishops leave) is a very calumny, as if the government of Christ should not both know and use Kings better, than the government of Antichrist. But envy never spake well. In the mean time they neglected no opportunity to persecute such godly ministers as would not conform, and from citing, vexing, suspending, and casting them out of their free-holds, they fell to pack with some atheistly Iudges; setting them so against the good men, that they did not onely scoff them, belie them and revile them, but also arraign them and condemn them. Which when the queen heard, it grieved her soul; for she was so far from having that high injury put upon Gods Ministers, that she signified her mind in Parliament to the contrary, namely that she would not have them vexed for non-conformity. What ever was mentioned in Parliament for the keeping of the first table, the prelates ever crossed it. witness that motion for the sanctifying of the Sabbath in the 37. Eliz. the passing whereof they hindered. So they set themselves against that course of Sabbath-keeping and reformation of abuses, undertaken by the magistracy of the city of London, till at length( to their blame be it spoken) partly through their own indisposition to the business, and partly through the violence of the prelates opposing; So high, necessary and acceptable a duty, was quiter given over. Since which time, we may observe that the Lord hath smitten us in city and country seven times more in all conditions and affairs, so that things have prospered worse then ever they did before.  
The like necessity was laid upon the city in the reign of Richard the second, to take the punishment of filthiness upon them,( being rather increased then kerbed or restrained by the clergies courses,) at which reformation they also grumbled.  
What shall we say of the attempts of some of them( whereof some are dead, and some were lately alive) against his late Majesties succession to this crown, upon conceived fears and jealousy of Church reformation; witness the invectives of some in Sermons,& other writings; the disgraceful speeches& affronting passages& opposing practices of others against his royal person. In so much that when they heard he was proclaimd K. of Engl. they tore their hair, being unable to resist, and without all hope of pardon. Yet the King( out of his gracious clemency with much ado, and after much importunate mediation) was content to pardon it. Yea we make bold under your Honours favour to put this quaere. Whether any of the prelates for the time being, did affect his succession? Let them speak in conscience.  
Come we further to consider the late Kings disposition at his first entry; for any thing we could perceive he was well affencted to the Anti-episcopall government( with which he was trained up from his cradle, and which by word and writ he had maintained) and promised to preserve at his coming out of Scotland. His good thoughts also to such reverend men as these men scornfully called Disciplinarians, were lively expressed in his Basilicon Doron. Yea can it stand with natural reason that a King should graciously pardon his professed foes; and not affect his dearest friends, by whom( as by secondary means) he was kept and preserved from his very infancy?  
But for all this so soon as they had him here, and had calmed the stormy fears of Prelat-splitting, against the rock of his displeasure, they began to show him all the glory of the World, and to forge false accusations against the Brethren, as though they had been the troublers of Israell, whereby( it might be) his mind was somewhat exasperated: Yet not so, nor with such intent that the Ministers should be oppressed as they were indeed without any judgement; witness his own course of reasoning, with the non-conforming Ministers, seconded with commandement given, to deal with them by reason and dispute, and not with rigour. But how the prelates obeied, let the evil and base usage, the suspending, silencing, thrusting out of their livings, so many hundred Ministers, bear witness to the world. It is worthy your Honours observation that in Anno 1604. and 1605. 400. Ministers were silenced suspended, or thrust out by virtue of those wicked Canons, which were not concluded by the convocation( for D. Rud opposed them by an oration) but they were the Popish after-byrth of B. Bancroft then B. of London; Hatched as it is verily thought in the brains of his ghuests the Seminaries. This was not unlike that practise of Trent, in pressing of the Interim upon the german Ministers and other Protestants, for refusal whereof thy were removed, and many were banished. 
Sleydam Comment.  Yet Harman B. of Colen would rather renounce his Bishops Sea, than be an Agent in it, who may stand up as a witness against our prelates. But what followed on this sylenceing of our Ministers even that masterpiece of Rome, the gunpowder plot brought to the very period of accomplishment. As God might in justice have punished the former evil with the latter( for our Kings and State have often smarted for the prelates plaguegy courses:) so if you will be pleased to look further into the conjunction of these evils, you may find them both to be poisonable fruits of the same three of death. Yea happily it may probably appear upon good inquiry, that he that was the main agent in the former had his finger in the later.  
1. For the better clearing whereof; may your Honours be pleased to inquire, whether Bishop Bancroft, retained not Watson the Priest for his own private plots; whom he suffered to divulge dangerous books against the State and right of the crown?  
2. Also whether the said Bishop had not intelligence with the Popes Nuncio in Venice and the Low Countries? And whether Blackwell the Arch-Priest before his apprehension was not by the said B. protected?  
3. What was the cause he posted on the filenceing of so many Ministers, to the number of 400.( as hath been shewed) immediately before the discovery of the gunpowder treason? After which discovery he wrote to the other Bishops, that they should not hold that course of silenceing many at once, but that they should be silenced by one and one. For it seems if that grand business of Hell had taken effect the blame should have been laid on the harmless host of Gods Ministers, as though it had been done by puritans in revenge.  
4. Let it be enquired whether one of the Popes special intelligencers, confessed to a seeming malcontent, that if the powder-plott had taken effect, B. Banc. should have been Pope,& Father Bluet, Cardinal of all England▪  
5. Whether B. Banc.& others his complices had not correspondency with the King of spain?  
6. It is not unworthy the inquiry what became of Bluet, after the discovery of the powder-treason? It's certain, that with B. Banckroft he was, but what became of him no body knows.  
7. Whether B. Banc. his intimate confederates, were not special maintainers of the prelacy, opposers of the gospel,& good Ministers of God, yea& no good friends to the State?  
8. And lastly, may your Honours be pleased to inquire, whether some of our present prelates, use not Iesuites in the habit of gallants, as their familiars? and whether( looking for a change) some of them aim not to be head, or at least to be as nigh the head as they can, that they may do their Mr. the more service?  
1. For evidence of this, let their Popish Positions& practices,& maintaining of them in others( of which we can give too many instances) speak in the first place.  
2 Their cruel persecution of the Ministers doth evidence the same.  
3. And lastly, their breathing out of threatenings against conscionable( tho comforming Ministers) and these they mean to make good( because they cannot endure the gospel) except the Lord make you to the same, a place of refuge& defence they mean to root it out. If they be left to the prelates mercy, the woeful event will show it to be no slander.  
For 1. as hath been shewed they cannot subsist with the continuance of a faithful ministry.  
2. They will provide for themselves in their kind.  
3. They can do the Pope no greater service, and the kingdom of Christ no greater injury than in this particular.  
If their places disposed them not for the Pope, they would never disarm the kingdom of the States best forces, and the Popes greatest adversaries. Its true that there be some prelates Rampant and some prelates Conchant, but your Honours know they be all the Popes prelates. They have divers kinds of teeth, but all their teeth bite. In a word, as hath been shewed, the members must do for the head, and in this they do but their kind. Therfore if you would save both them and us, alter the property from Lord Bishops to Ministers so shall you spoil the Pope; preserve the State, and you shall have the Honour through the world that they are your converts.  
But to go on a little further with this disease of the prelates evil, especially against the ministery.  
Besides the injurye done to souls, it would make an heart of ston to relent to hear related the insolences, scofferies, outrages, revileings and barbarous cruelties by them, and theirs put upon the faithful Ministers of God, and their poor families. Though many sufferers in this business be with God; yet there be some alive that can both relate, and witness the injuries done to themselves and others, by breaking into their houses; by draging themselves, Wives and Families to prison( and that without any warrant at all) the casting of them,& theirs out of doors, giving them scarce a rag of their own clothes to cover their childrens nakedness. We humbly entreat your Honours, not to pass by those crying injuries, which you will the rather observe and be sensible of, if you take a view of the fearful bypassed sequels of those evils.  
At his late Majesties entry, the Lord( fore-knowing how little should be done for him, and how much against him) sent an admonitory pursuing plague, for heat and continuance rarely matched, speaking to the eye of King and State, that there was some special plague to be removed; and what other and greater, and more worthy the care of a King and State, then Romish idols, in Gods worship, and Antichristian government? which evils increasing,( though the Lord removed the plague,) yet he hath smitten us seven times more, in bodies, states, and names, namely in the distemper of the Elements, in the change of seasons, in the languishing, groaneing and dying of the Creatures, under the burden of our sins.  
And above all temporal punishments, in taking away our Henry, that Paragon of Princes, who should have been, and would have been,( if our sins had not hindered) Malleus Episcoporum, which work no doubt with Romes ruin in England our Great Charles, will accomplish, if his army of Princes, namely you great senators act your part. Now to draw to an end of their bypassed mischiefs, let the subiects take notice, what high indignity they offered to his late majesty, by whose persuasions, when some ministers had conformed, they used the said ministers( onely for preaching the Gospel) seven times worse than before, notwithstanding the Kings command to the contrary. Not unlike for cruelty( for we parallel not all) to the burning of that priest persuaded by Henry the seventh, formerly spoken of.  
Since this grievance then, is made good by undeniable proofs, give us leave( right honourable) by way of duty, and by deserved retortion, to apology for ourselves from the aspersion of the Prelates and their children, in their venomous sermons, railings, and writings; we are( say they) seditious, tumultuous, factious, disobedient, rebellious, in a word the troublers of Israel: and they would gladly we were cut off, because we trouble them. But give us leave in homely phrase to set the saddle on the right horse, and to tell them, they and their fathers house, are the troublers of Israel. Let them never tell us of tirannizing over magistrates, by depriving them of their rights, by excommunication &c. Let them not object to us M. udall& M. Cartwright &c. as seditious fellowes, or traitors, if they had been such, our late King would never have written his letters to Queen Elizabeth on their behalf, as he verily did. Let them direct their speeches to the Bishops of London, Ely, Winchester, interdictors of the King, and the whole realm. anselm against Rufus; Beckett vexeing Henry the second; Langton casting away King and State; arundel, unkinging Richard the second; In plain terms, these men were the traytors, and yet no Presbyterian Brethren, but Lord Bishops, whose brethren and successors our prelates are.  
The Bishop of Hereford, preaching at Oxford on the text: Oh my head! Oh my head acheth!( as the vulgar latin hath it, 2. Kings 4.19.) applied it thus peremptorily against Ed. 2. That the Kings head must of necessity be taken of.  
He might better have collected, that that which made the head ache, should have been taken off, and then he had hit himself.  
And so much for the proof of this point, in the later part whereof we have been sparing of particular names in the passages of our proofs, because we love not to stigmatise any particular person,( dead or alive) since it is the evils of their callings, and not persons, which we oppose.   

8. Position proved.  
ALL the fearful evils of sin and judgement, for the present reigning amongst us, and threatened against us, &c. are from the Hierarchy, &c.  
evils( as they divide themselves) are evils of sin, or evils of judgement. Though all evils of sin be against God, ( for it is the transgression of the Law,) yet sin is either directly against God, or against man; against the first Table, or against the second.  
Now give us leave( right Honourable) for the proof of our point, to touch upon the particular branches of sins against particular precepts; which sha●● demonstrate, whether they flow not from the feas of bishops.  
The breaches of the first precept, we contrive into these heads, Ignorance, infidelity, Atheism, heresy, apostasy, internal idolatry, making a God of the Creature, hatred of God, inward and outward pride, a base Love, servile or slavish fear of the Creature, carnal security, stupid benumednes, Hypocrysy, despair,& impenitency, with others of this nature, opposite to the several graces,& duties of the first Commandement.  
All these overflowe, and are like to drown our Nation, neither have we time to enlarge each of these, but the height of each of them, crieth the very heavens. But whence are all these, and the growth of them, but from withhoulding the keys of Christs kingdom? by which they will neither enter themselves, nor suffer others to enter, 
Luk. 11.52. Math. 23.11.  doth not the palpaple ignorance of many Millions in this Land, arise from the want of means, and removal of Gods faithful Ministers, placing such over people, as are not worthy to be set with the Dogges of the flock, forbidding Gods messengers, to deliver his messsage. The fearefullnes of which sin appeareth by the witness of the Holy Ghost; they command the Prophets, saying prophesy not, 
Amos 2.12 Acts 4.18.& 5.28.  which the Lord accounteth a very pressure to himself in the verse following: behold I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves, which is a wearying of God with sin, and God is wearied with no sin more then with this. To this purpose be the other places in the margin. 
1 Thes. 2.16.   
This forbidding to preach the gospel, is said to be the very filling up of the sins of the Iewes.  
The horror of this sin of silenceing Ministers for not subscribing,& the fearful evils ensuing on it, is set forth in a speech of the Lower house of Parl. Ao. 1610. wherein they call it and that truly a crying sin provoking God, and most grievous to the subject. And therfore an act past the House, that they should not subscribe any otherwise then according to that statute of 13. of Elizab. for if otherwise they should be urged the law of the church( as they said) & commonweal should jar.  
So we may instance in all the other sins, as heresy, schism, instance Popery, anabaptism, Seperatisme, arminianism,& familism.  
Their uphoulding of Popish grounds, laws, rites& tyranny in the Churches of England, and over the Ministers and people, give the Papists more then hopes of returning to their possessions, with the overtopping authority of the Pope, whose horns keep possession for him, keeping Christ at the door, and pushing out the means, by which he should enter. For the same grounds and arguments that the former stand on, and use, are the very best arms, offensive& defensive, that the later have.  
Also the Anabaptists, seeing the gross abuse and forced interpretations of the scriptures, not onely delivered, but also pressed upon others, together with the unsound Doctrine and corruptions of Ministers, and the dumb Dogges, which be in many places, they reject the word& other ordinances, and fall upon their own fantastic revelations and damnable fooleries.  
They are also the Authors of the separatists schism, which hath both the rise,& increase from the prelacy, with whose superstitious corruptions the sincerer people at first denied to join; and so being driven from their Homes& Countries, into foreign parts, many of them took up strange and unsound conclusions, which to this day they hold of the Churches& best people thereof; and duties therein performed, which practise of their separation butteth full upon the unreasonable& unsound reasoning of the Bishops in this manner:  

B. Whit. Tract 2. Cap. 1. Divis. 2. Pag. 81.  If discipline be so necessary, and also unchangeable, it is lawful to separate from such Churches, as do not use it( say the prelates) but Discipline is unchangably necessary( say the separatists,) Ergo it is lawful to separate from such Churches as do not use it.  
Your Honours see clearly, how the B. mayor,& the separatists Minor make up an entire silogisme of Seperatisme.  
But in the mean time they both make a false conclusion, and therfore one of the premises must be false, not the minor,( for discipline is both necessary& unchangeable,) Ergo the mayor, which is a snare to the separatists of the Bishops own making. B. Whitgift wrote the quoted treatise, wherein he frameth the argument, before seperatisme was hatched. Et utinam, &c. would to God( saith a learned man) he had never broached it. For being a false ground, it made a great rent in the Churches; For want of an integral part of the whole; 
Sucliffe, Lows,& Bell.  or of some essential part in itself( though not of the whole) is no sufficient ground for separation. All the prelates proctors ply the Reformers( as they call them) with the aforesaid ensnaring Proposition, as it were with warm clothes. Yet we see they scalde their own hands, for they and Barrow( to whom they compare us) sort better together in the argument, then we& Barrow do; and therfore to charge men with separation, because they separate from the corruptions, is but to asperse with calumny.  
As for the foresaid argument, own it who will, whether separatists or Prelatists, it is no better, 
Institut. Lib. 4. Cap. 1.  yea the very same which Novatians and Donatists use in effect, against joining with our Churches, as M. Calvin plainly affirmeth.  
2. The separatists stumble at the pride, rapine, and tyranny of the Prelates, as also at the intolerable servilitie and slavery of ministers and people; at their ungodly courses, their illegal and cruel proceedings, by all which they are forced( for want of better take heed) upon the quicksands of separation: and that the rather, because the Prelates arguments against them are either popery or prison.  
To follow with arminianism or blanched Popery, Mountigue proclaimeth with open mouth: his entertianment, testifieth, and a great number of the Prelates themselves profess; who be the fathers and abetters of it. This more plainly appeareth, that in both the last Parliaments, it being earnestly opposed by the most of the lower house and many of the higher house, the prelacy rather did befreind it( at least under hand) then oppose it, which since hath manifested itself by the abundance of Patrons and pleaders for it.  
lastly, for the Familists, they observe the swelling pride, averice, sweareing, forswearing and simony of the prelates. Also how they practise and prosper; by which the Familists do conceive, that the strict walking in the ordinances is not required in the word.  
They turn all the scripture to allegories, and so they have once the spirit,& the perfection of love, they may do or not do all things, as the time enjoin or permit, and this is their own brood; wherewith some of their filthy tongues upbraid Gods people.  
We might say the like of profaneness& atheism, witness a Bishops cook, who said all the noblemens houses that ever he had formerly lived in, were rank puritans to his Masters house.  
For apostasy, we will say no more but this: how are Papists, Arminians,& all manner of Sectaries increased of late? Yea to our shane be it spoken: professors are grown from heat to lukewarmnes, and from that to key-coldnes.  
To shut up this particular, with a touch of that benumbing fear that runneth through the joyntes, and enervateth the spirits of men, whence is it, but from these Court-like prelates,& Prelats-Courts? 
Ps. 10.18. {αβγδ}  of whom we may say with the Psalmists, according to the original, They daunt with terror sorry man. Though more be said here( it may be) then the time& treatise can admit; yet less a great deal then the thing itself requireth.  
Now we come to the 2. Commandment both the parts whereof, namely, the affirmative and negative, the prelates especially, transgress, and cause to be transgressed: which shall appear especially, by taking a short view of the sins forbidden,& duties commanded, wherein to be brief, all external idolatry is here forbidden; all will worship, all rites& ceremonies of mans devising in Gods worship, and further every calling of Ministers or Elders that is not appointed& approved by God.  
To begin with the last first( because in the establishing of good and lawful officers consisteth the supreme and principal good of the Church) The calling of L. Bishops hath been sufficiently demonstrated to be Antichristian, and consequently condemned by this commandement.  

catalogue. Test. veritat. Beza.  The learned make mention of three sorts of Bishops, the first whereof they call a divine, or christian Bishop; because it hath its institution from God, being all one( as the ancient show, 
Hier. ad Evag. in jer. c. 22. &c.  at large, and themselves very well know) with a Minister or Elder. This ordinance of God and practise apostolical continued, as the foresaid authority observeth, for the space of 300. year and upward.  
After this followeth that human episcopacy( as they term it) wherein the pride of man began to vent itself in an affencted title of superiority, yet without any overlording power over their brethren and fellow-Ministers, as doth plainly appear by the places and carriages of the ancient Fathers, who looked not so loftily upon their fellow-brethren, as some of our pontifical Parsons do upon their neighbour Ministers; yea as great difference there is betwixt them and the present Lord Bishops, as is between a Venetian Duke and the great Duke of Muscovie, of which, the former hath but the bare title of superiority, and is guided and directed by the Senat, and the later doth what he will against all Law and reason. Had the Fathers( as hath been shewed from the learned) observed the ensuing evil of this ambitious title, they would have hated it. 
Catol. iest. verit.  This had the beginning, as the learned affirm from Silvester the first, who baptized( as they say) Constantine the Emperour.  
The last and worst is, that Antichristian or satanical prelacy,( for so they term it,) having it's rise from Bonifacius the 3. in Anno 607. the branches of this root are our Lord Bishops,( as hath been fully shewed,) who by their very callings make the prime and main breach in this commandment, and what blessing can men expect? or why should they entertain such Officers in a function of so high a nature, as countermandeth the commandment of God?  
In the next place we come to show how their devices in Gods worship are just such as their calling, namely, directly against the tenor of this said commandment; For that God( who will& should alone be worshipped) should by all reason only prescribe how he will be worshipped; whatsoever worship therefore is not of his prescription, is condemned under the name of Idolatry; and so it is indeed, 
In 1. Thes. 1.9.  as Zanchye& other tell us; Quod per Idolum, &c. By an idol in general( saith he) is meant; whatsoever in Religion, is brought in without the word of God; just with that of a physician in Luthers time, 
Paracel. tract. de Cer.  who( though he had but a glimmering) could see and say so much: quicquid praeter mandatum est, Idolum est; whatsoever is beside the word in Gods worship, is an idol; behold now( right Honourable) if it be so, how the prelates have overlade the worship of God with will-worship and Idolatrous rites.  
To begin with the Service-booke, whose Pedigree we have already drawn, it is not only faulty, but a book of faults, as we have partly shewed, and could more fully show if time would give us leave. But that is done abondantly by others. If there were no more but the Popish frame or form of it( as a learned man observed) that were enough to remove it; 
Mr. Broughton.  but both for matter& manner, it pleaseth the Papists so well, that he desireth no better if there were enough of it, witness the pacification of the devonshire Papists in the time of Edward the 6. when as they understood it was no other but the very mass book in English; witness also the assertion of D. carrier, a dangerous seducing Papist. 
Confiderat. Pag. 45. Sect. 8.9.  The common prayer-book( saith he) and the catechism contained in it, hold no point of Doctrine expressly contrary to antiquity; that is( as he explaineth himself) the Romish service; only it hath not enough in it. And for the Doctrine of predestination, Sacraments, grace, free will, and sin, &c. the new catechism, and Sermons of the paritant-preachers, run, wholly in these against the common prayerbook and catechism therein contained, &c. And thereupon he comforteth himself upon hope of supply of the rest. 
Motive Prefac. to the Answ.  To this effect speeketh bristol& Harding: If these things be right, why not the rest? say they.  
It shall not be amiss to mark one accurrence in Q. Elizabeths time, who being interdicted by the Popes Bull, secretary Walsingham, tried a trick of state policy to reverse the same. He caused two of the Popes intelligencers at the Popes appointment, to be brought( as it were in secret) into Engl. to whom he appointed a guide ( being a state-intelligencer) who should show them in Canterbury& London, service solemnly song& said with all their pomp& procession, which order, the Popish intelligencers seing,& so much admireing, they wondered that their Master would be so unadvised, as to interdict a Prince or State, whose service and Ceremonies so symbolized with his own. So returning to the Pope, they shewed him his over-sight, affirming that they saw no service, Ceremonies, or Church-orders in England, but they might very well have been performed in Rome, whereupon the Bull was presently called in.  
From the book of the Ceremonies, which are the burdens of the Church; the blemish of Gods ordinances, the scourge of good Preachers; the brood and hopes of popery; the rejoicing of the profane; the grievance of the good, and the very seed of dissension. Time will not suffer to ripp up the rotten Pedigree, the Authors, maintainers, evil ends& Pestiferous effects of them. Neither is it necessary here to demonstrate by way of dispute, the unlawfullnesse of them; since whole volumes are extant against them, and every particular of them, that can never be answered; It is enough( as we have shewed) that they are directly against the second Commandment, being in very deed The thresholds and posts of Idolaters, 
Ezech. 43.8  set up by the thresholds and posts of God.  
This is the main ground of all the enormities and deformities in Gods worship, that the most ministers do not or dare not teach, and the Prelates with the superstitiouslie profane people will not suffer to be taught the pandect of the second commandement in the full and due extent; every one knoweth that is acquainted with the frame of the second commandement, that it condemneth all superstition, and especially superstitious ceremonies in Gods worship, upon this ground, the learned both ancient and modern have condemned all ceremonies of mans invention in Gods worship both de jure& de facto, instance of the former from the oil and holy water, 
catalogue. Test. Lib. 2.  Oleum quò inunguuntur Episcopi& aqua lustralis cum fiant sine Dei mandato idolatrica& superstitiosa sunt, saith the learned, the oil wherewith the Bishops are anointed and the holy water, being things without the commandement of God, are idolatrous and superstitious: be not the ceremonies in our liturgy by the same rule and reason superstitious and idolatrous? Learned Beza commenting upon that place to the Corinthians ye are bought with a price be not the servants of men, 
1. cor. 7.23.  from the said commandement condemneth those that press superstitious rites upon the consciences of men: showing further from the second of the Coloss. vers. 20. That mans corrupt nature is too prove to loose their liberty, and to subject themselves to superstition, the very heathen tell us, quod superstition sit error insanu●, that superstition is a mad error, 
Seneca.  and so it is indeed, for neither sound reason, nor divine authority, can rule it: but for convincing of the iniquity of such superstitious rites. The said author produceth an argument from that forequoted place of the Colos. Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world why as though living in the world are ye subjecte to ordinances or traditions? Whence he reasoneth thus. Pugnat inquit Apostolus adversus superstitiosas traditions argumentando à comparatis. The Apostle contending against superstitious traditions frameth an argument à majori thus, Cessantibus ipsis ritibus quibus Deus ipse mundum erudivit, quaenam impudentia est humanas traditions inculcare?  
If those rites did cease by which God himself did instruct the world: it is an impudent part to press others in their place. But the former is true. Ergo the later. For the later part of the evidence, namely, de facto there is proof enough.  
In those purer times( saith that catalogue of witnesses) they appoynted not ceremonies, but were content with that pure& simplo form, namely, that God had appointed.  
Petrus Parisiensis in his work called Verbum abreviatum relateth, how one Arnulphus an ancient enemy to Antichrist resisted the Pope and his prelates in the lateran counsel, determining to make more new Ceremonies: potius veteres adimenda, nam onerant christianos &c. It were a better work( saith he) to take away those that are extant, because they overlade the people of God, to whom the onely word of Christ should be a rule, nam illud verum for that is verified( saith he) That they make the commandements of God of none effect by the traditions of men. We might bring a cloud of witnesses for this particular, but we will onely allege M. Bucer for a closer in his censure of the English liturgy. 
Pag. 458.  Consentaneum est ut in externis omnibus rebus ut in cultu ministrorum &c.  
It is fitt and convenient that in all outward things and actions of Gods worship as in ministerial garments, we should accommodate ourselves to the simplicity of Christs appointment& Apostles practise, imo testari debemus omnibus, nile nobis esse commune cum Romanensibus Antichristis. Yea we should witness to all men, that we will have no communion with the relics of the Romish Antichrist: but our teachers should teach, and we should hear, onely that which Christ hath commanded Math. 10.& John. 10.  
To proceed for further satisfaction, give us leave( right Honourable) to lay down those Bases or grounds of arguments, which we entreat your Honours to take into consideration, offering ourselves( with all modesty) to maintain the same against all gainsayer.  
1. The Ceremonies are will worship.  
2. They are fignificant and teaching Ceremonies of mans invention, stated in Gods worship.  
3. They are an addition to the word, flatly against the rule of the word.  
4. They are all mens inventions,& have been filthy Popish idols, impossible to be cleansed, but must be idols still in Gods worship.  
5. Being mans invention, they make a conformity between us& Idolaters in Gods worship.  
6. They are occasions of evil: appearances of evil. In a word: They are the very strange fire& garments, spotted with the flesh, by their own interpretation of these Scripture Phrases: 
Lev. 10.1. Iude. 23.  yea by the currant of all interpreters, they cannot, or do not deny, but that by these places are condemned all devices of men, stated in Gods worship.  
But because this tax may seem too general, may it please your Honours, to give us leave to deal with the grand ceremony of the cross, whose vileness being discovered, may make us like the worse of all branches of the same roote.  
In our proceeding for our better information, we will observe this method. 1. The place and esteem of the cross among us. 2. The ground of it. 3. The evil effects of it. And 4. the arguments against it.  
For the first of these, namely, the place and esteem. It may be said of us( in some sense) as Bellarmine saith of themselves: 
Lib. 1. de Eccl. cap. 13  Suaves odores etiam Cruci offerimus in Ecclesia, we offer too many sweet odours to it, in that it hath any place in worship with us. Now thath it hath a high place and Honourable name in the Lords ordinances, the daily use of it, the Canon for the use of it, and the testimony of our writers verify: 
Canen. 30.  The Canon calleth it an Honourable Badge. Mr. Hooker calleth it a sacred, or holy sign, attributing great virtue to it, affirming no means to be more powerful to preserve a man from deserved shane, 
De Polit. Lib. 5. cap. 65. Fol. 160.  & to stir up devotion, thē by this signing of the forehead with the sign of the cross. Yea, he citeth cyprian, that the cross doth purify the forehead. But what can speak more emphatically for it then the very words, used in baptism, which giveth it the virtue of a Sacrament.  

Crux crucis  The learned Mr. Parker, the Crucifyer of this cross, proveth it according the tenor of the words, not onely to be significative, but also effective. They make it a Sacrament in effect, 
Part. 1. Pa. 33. 91. 129. 160.  as the Papists make confirmation. By baptism they bring the infant into their Church; and by confirmation make it a soldier of the Church. So we do the same with baptism and the cross.  
Further by making it a sign to assure the baptized of the strengthening grace of the spirit against the assaults of satan, especially against shane in persecution, do they not make it a Sacrament?  
2. For the ground of it, though some with Valentinus have been so shameless as to city scripture for it,( as Esa. 49.22. jer. 4.6. Ezech. 9.4. Ephe. 1.13. Apoc. 7.3.) yet the really learned of them dare not. For the Popish Canons tell us so much, 
Gratian. Decret. Part. 1. Dist. 11. cap. 15.  Quae enim Scriptura salutifera crucis signaculo fideles docuit insigniri? What place of the saving word hath taught that the faithful should be signed with the sign of the cross? If they appeal to the Fathers( as the 30. Canon doth, enjoining the use of it, as they used it;) surely it is a wonder they blushy not, since they know very well that the Fathers have not been fowler in any one particular then in this. As for a taste. 
Epist. ad Demetr. Et ad Eustach.  Hierom will have a man to guard his forehead with the sign of the cross in all his passages. Neither wanteth he now sundry among us, 
De Sacram. Lib. 3. cap. 2. Tract. 118. in joh.  to defend this absurd opinion. So Ambrose calleth the sign of the cross the perfection of things. Austine holdeth nothing in either Sacrament to be rightly done without it. Mr. Perkins discourses largely of this. 
Problē. 184  The very truth is, it had its first beginning from Valentin the heretic, 
In Annot. in Luk 24. Lib. 1. c. 1.  as learned Fulke collected from Ireneus, and so Epiphanius.  
Further D. Fulke sheweth, how the devil did sow the seed of Idolatry by the cross in Valentinus; 
Motiv. 46. Argu. Brist. Pag. 124.  Montanus nursed it, and got it credit in civill and religious uses. But Tertullian was the first of the Orthodox, who writ any thing of it, 
De Coron. mill. c. 3. 4.  who was foully tainted with Montanisme. As for England; it had no cross at all till Austine the monk brought in his silver cross. 
Bed. in Hist. Lib. 1. c. 2.   
3. For the evil effects of it. 1. It maketh the most account more of it, then of baptism itself. 2. Some refuse to be witnesses, unless it be used. 3. Some have left the Ministry or Parish, where it hath not been used. 4. Some have been rebaptised, 
Park. 1 part. page. 94.  because they were baptized without it.  
Now we come to the Arguments against it, wherein we desire to be as brief as we can. And first from the ground spoken of.  
1. That which had no good beginning, nor ever any good use in Gods worship should not be appointed for a sign of grace.  
But the cross in baptism had no good beginning, nor ever any good use in Gods worship( as hath been shewed:)  
Ergo it should not be appointed for a sign of grace in Gods worship.  
As the Minor of this argument is onely controverted; So we desire the maintainers of the cross, to show us some good beginning or good use of it, if they can.  
2. Every sign or seal of an evidence, without the counsel of the Lord or Owner, and every military badge without the appointment of the grand Commander is counterfeit.  
But the sign of the cross in baptism, is such a sign or military badge.  
Ergo it is counterfeit.  
For the mayor: Reason cleareth it. Neither can that Distinction of a sign significative& exhibitive make any evasion. For 1. the Distinction hath no ground from the word. 2. They give the cross no small part of exhibition, witness the words. 3. We must not add a sign significative or explicative in Gods worship( take what terms they will:) for this is Gods prerogative. This Proposition is also proved very learnedly by D. Fulke:  
That many speak( saith he) of the sign of the cross, 
Rejoinder. Artic. 1. Pag. 144.  it is true; but they speak besides the book of God: And therefore their reasons are to be rejected. For men must not compare, or join the cross with the Kings stamp; for he appointed no such, whereby his servants might be known, but onely baptism. 
Nemo potest &c. de Sacr. Lib. 1. Cap. 21.  Yea Bellarmine acknowledgeth as much. No man( saith he) can bring in, or determine any thing in a Law or commonweal, but he that is the Author of the Law, and head of the commonweal; which he instanceth in the legal Ceremonies. But did God( the author of his own law, and appointer of his own worship) bring in, or determine this sign? No sure. Which serveth also for proof of the Minor; For they call it the sign of the cross in baptism; they make it a military badge; and lastly it wanteth Gods determination: and therfore as a counterfeit to be abandoned.  
The third Argument followeth.  
3. Every Image or similitude for a religious use is forbidden by the 2. Commandment.  
But the sign of the cross in baptism, is a similitude for religious use.  
Ergo, it is forbidden by the second Commandement.  
With this charged D. Morton is so puzzled, that he denieth any likeness or Image to be forbidden by the second Commandment, but an outward resemblance of the Godhead. Which divinity so learned, a man would never have vented, but that he was at a stand: For as the answer is against the Latitude of the Commandment, 
Bucer. Virel. Fulk Andrews. &c.  so it is against the current of the learned. Yea it establisheth a great part of Popish imagery. For sundry Papists hold it a foolish thing to make any images for representation of the Godhead. 
Durand. lib. 2. Dist. 9. Quest. 2.  But to the point. All superstitious rites or mens intentions are forbidden by the 2. Commandment. 
Catech. 9. 95. Inst. Lib. 2. C. 8. Sect. 17. De read. lib. 1. cap. 14.  witness ur sinus, Calvin. Zanch.  
4. That which is mans invention, and hath been an idol in Gods worship, must still be an idol in Gods worship, and therefore to be abolished.  
But the cross in baptism is mans invention, and hath been an idol in Gods worship.  
Ergo it must be an idol still in Gods worship, and by consequence to be abolished.  
We prove the mayor by induction.  
Every idol in Heathenish worship, was still an idol in the worship of God; 
2. King. 16. Ezech. 8.3.  As the Alter of Damascus. Was not the idol of Baal( called the idol of iealousy in Gods house) an idol still?  

& 43.8.  The Posts and thresholds of baal set up by Gods thresholds and Posts, were still the very same. The idols among Iacobs family should still have been idols in Gods worship, 
Gen. 35.2.  though it were true worship. And therfore jacob will have them utterly abolished. So groves were things very lawful( instance Abrahams Gen. 21.33) yet becoming Idolatrous( as 2. Kings 17.10. Ierem. 17.2. Esa. 57.5. Hosea 4.13.) they are forbidden Deut. 16.21. And so of all the rest Deut. 7.5. Yea, things appointed by God for a time, if they become idols, or polluted with Idolatrous worship, they must be done away. witness the brazen Serpent, 
2. King. 18. 4. Hosea 2.16.17  and the name Baali.  
Now let our opponents give an instance( besides the matter in hand) as the law of logic requireth, and we will quit them all the rest.  
As for the Minor, namely, that the cross is Mans invention, and hath been an idol, we think no Protestant will deny. witness their ascribing of Divine virtue to it; yea they adore it.  
The venerable sign of the cross( saith Swares) is worthy to be adored, 
Venerabile signum crucis in 3: parte Aquin. Tom. 1. Dist. 56. Sect. 3.  though in a transient matter or action; because the figure and signification is the same, though the matter be divers.  
Every figure or shape of the cross, whether permanent or transeunt, is to be adored( saith Vasques.) Yea this aereal cross, 
De Ador. Lib. 3. disp. 2. cap. 2. quaecunque crucis figura &c.  was the very mother of the material Crosses, to which they creep, offer incense, pray, adore, and so make it both mediator of intercession and redemption, contrary to their own coined distinction, as D. Reynolds well observeth from the words of their Breviary. 
De Lib. Apochr. Prolect, 241   
And so much for this Argument.  
The common answer to such Arguments as this, is from the 30. Canon; Papists( say they) abused it foully but we use it better?  
For answer. 1. This is not to answer, for we have proved, that it is not to be used at all. It is a common excuse of corrupt practise( saith one of their own) to use means abused by others in Gods worship, to a better end. Yea it is a resolution too plausible to worldly wisdom. 
D. jackson.   
2. For use, is there not in word as much attributed to it by us( if not more) as by the Papists? Are not, by the prelates, the proper Offices of baptism ascribed to the cross, 
Gen. 12.17 Exo. 12.13 luke. 22.19 August. de Doctr. Christian. Lib. 3. c. 15. Calvin. in Lev. 4. 22. Mart. in 1. K. in 8 Beza Epist. 8. Franc. Flanders.  as teaching and strengthening? which be chief parts of the nature of a Sacrament, as Scripture commenters, and the consent of Churches do testify.  
To conclude the Argument in a word: The prelates cross is the same specie, or in figure. It is the same also for the especial signification, namely, to be a sign of Christ, and the efficacy of his death. So that( as one saith) he retaineth entirely his old idols office. It made way( saith Beza) to that horrible sin of hyperdulia.  
The last Argument followeth well upon this, namely:  
It is the badge of the beast, which manifest 1. by the Papists challenging of it, to be the special mark and badge of their Idolatrous worship; witness Stapleton, 
Prompt. Catholic. Pag. 26. 27. De Sacra. Lib. 2. ca. 3. Part. 20. Epist. Apologet. Sec. 7. Pag. 54.  Bellarmine. An other calleth it the Character of their glory: The cross( saith one) is a notable sign whereby to know a catholic. How can we hold up hour heads( saith one) for shane of the beasts mark, which our ears hear by them thus extolled? or with what forehead? can we say that the cross is not the beasts mark? 2. That it is a mark of the beast, it is clear from these places of the Revelation Cap. 13.17.& 14.9. and v. 11.& 15.2. 
Park. pag. 136.   
And that first by the exposition of the learned, 
In Synops. de carat. Antich. Pag. 199. Prob. 31. in Revelat. 13▪  namely, D. Willett, M. Napier, Bullinger. Yea all our Orthodox writers confess that our Ceremonies are a part of the mark of the Beast, of which Ceremonies the cross is the special. As M. Fox, jo. de Vado.  
Dr. Abbot calls all the priests garments whereby they are distinguished from the rest of the Church a special part of the Character of the beast, 
Antichr. Demonstr. cap. 11. 26▪  and how much more the cross?  
2. As this is the exposition of the learned: so this truth may be from the places demonstrated thus, to omit other particulars.)  
That mark which is put upon men by the second Beast, and is the mark of the number of his name, and is put upon all who use traffic or trade, is the mark of the Beast.  
But the cross in baptism is put upon men by the second Beast, it is the mark of the number of his name, 
Rev. 13 18  and must be upon all that traffic or trade. Rev. 13.16, 17.  
Ergo the cross is the mark of the Beast.  
The argument is M. Napiers in effect; the last part of whose medium, namely, 
35 page.▪ ●  the universality of the cross, is well enough known to all that know any thing; that all, every where, at the beginning or ending of their meate, sleep, or affairs, cross themselves, Of which popish practise our English Arminius Mountigue very well approveth.  
The omitting of their crosses incurred no less censure then the curse: neither were they permitted without it to keep house, or exercise any trade. witness the Bull of Pope Martin. Dr. Willet speaketh expressly to the confirmation of this argument; The superstitious marks of the cross( saith he) arise out of the beasts Name( to wit) from the number of it thus expressed in the Greek original {αβγδ}. Of the same mind is Master Brightman, expounding the meaning of the beasts making all to receive the mark.  

Rev. 13.16  This mark( saith he) doth contain summarily all those ways, by which men are bound to obedience to the beast.  
Now wherein are they more slavishly bound then to the mark of the cross?  
3. Vpon the same ground( namely, that it is the badge of the beast,) the learned writ against it,( and the reformed Churches reject it; 
Tract. Theolog. vol. 2. page. 127. Loc. come. page. 169. De Redempt. page. 648. In rev. page. 56. against Sand. of Images, page. 602. ) witness Beza. Sigedimus. Zanchius. D. Fulke. Reynoldes. Alas than( saith one) what is our sin, who not onely receive the cross ourselves( one of Antichrists marks) but also put it and draw it as it were with pinsers upon others?  
4. Wee desire to know, what things in popery be the marks of the beast if these be not?  
Wee have been the larger upon this, because it is a main stumbling block to many, having in readiness particular treatises against the rest of the particulars, which shalbe at your honours service. For the present we will conclude with this, that a great Court officer amongst the hierarchy, hearing the vileness of the cross laid open and proved in dispute, confessed in plain terms, that it was a filthy idol, and he wished it condemned to hell from whence it came, But to proceed.  
Who giveth life and breath to this and the rest of the Ceremonies? who ushers them into Gods worship? who are the nursing Fathers and Mothers of them? who be their Chirurgious& physicians, with drugs, salves,& Potious, to daub, cure, and Palliate them, where they cannot make a cure? who do heal and cicatrise these festered wounds of the beast, but the prelates& their apprentices? who daub with this untempered mortar? who maketh war against the Saincts to keep the Dragons tail of a due length? The Bishops onely and their dependents. In so much that we have more then cause to renew the just complaint of that learned& well disposed K. Freder. of spain Ao. 1300. Episcopi caeremonias,& omne id quod ad vanam gloriam celebriter promovent, quantum vero ad Regimen animarum in salutem aeternam pestiferi sunt, &c. As for the Ceremonies( saith he) and such things as do serve to the advancing of the vainglory of the prelacy, the Bs. take solem care for the promoteing of these; but of the government of souls, and their eternal salvation, they are the very plagues, &c. In a word, as No ceremony, no Bishop, so No B. no ceremony. Yea they have brought us to an higher degree of idols, namely, the mass in public: which who would have thought? beside as many private Masses as the Papists will.  
The keeping in of that strange fire, hath made good Gods threatenings upon us, 
Hos. 8.11.  because Ephraim hath made many Altars to sin, Altars shall be unto him to sin, as if the Spirit should say: Since he will have idols, he shall not want enough of them.  
again, no man knoweth how far this leprosy may spread: for Papists servants make great brags, and offer money out to that day, when public Masses shall be done in their Masters chapels.  
Those idols in Gods worship beget and maintain other idols, as appeareth plainly from that place forequoted, and also from too much woeful experience. How do our monstrously metamorphosed women maintain the idol of their strange and abominable apparel, but from the Minister his antic attiring of himself in the cast apparel of the whore? Yea how do usurers, swearers, and others maintain their monstrous sins, but by pressing on the reprovers of them, those Ceremonies, which once being obeied, they make a mook of the word?  
Further, they do not onely do, and maintain these things, but also they press the practise of them upon the subjects, and that often maugre their consciences, and that by threatening, punishing of their purse& imprisonment. Moreover they force the Ministers and young Schollers to subscribe to the aforesaid 5. Books, two of which, scarce one amongst many have seen. The matter of their subscription, as hath been said before, is this, That nothing contained in the said Books, is contrary to the word of God. Whence it must follow, that Ceremonies and other things in question, must be warranted by the word. For as they cannot deny that whatsoever is beside the word, is against the word: so whatsoever( especially in Gods worship) is not contrary to the word, is warranted by the word. By which deduction the pressours of these things and subscribers to hem, put them upon the second Commandment, for by it, they must either stand or fall. Now thus to put upon God the thing, that he never commanded, nor ever came into his heart to command, as himself speaketh, 
jer. 7.31.  how high a sin it is, and how near to blasphemy, we leave it to be judged.  
Moreover, whereas all outward means of Gods worship by th'Affirmative of this commandment are established, and the due performance thereof required, the prelates persecute and thrust out the faithful Ministers, which be the Messengers of the Word, the ambassadors of God, the Breakers of the bread of life; and with idle and idol sheapheards( the slayers of the people) they fill up their places: how many such they thrust in and keep in, we cannot number.  
They are Fathers& Favourers of the soul-murthering sins of Non-residencie& plurality, condemned by all the Laws that can be name: Neither can these consist with the office of a Pastor.  
We will give but a touch, because we have a whole treatise against those sins, which your Honours may command.  
Never Papist so shameless, as to pled or writ for these sins( so far as we know) yet some among us are not ashamed to do both. But this is no better then to pled and writ for blood-guiltiness, and to warrant it by a law. The main non-residents be their Lords& Masters; by reason whereof they become Patrons, to impropriate patrons, whom they have taught to sin,& maintain sin by president.  
Another sin against the Ordinances, is the Iustlinge out of the reading of the word of God, to the number of 196 chapters, or there about, yea& some whole Books of Scripture: in place whereof 134. chapters of the Apocrypha are thrust in, as of more use, edification and esteem with them; witness, their making of Scripture, to give place to the Apocrypha, upon a special feast, though it fall on the Lords day. And this is done, or to be done by the calendar 20. several times in the year.  
Yet more sin against the Ordinances: to pass by their lenten superstitious fast, with the expectation of Popish Discipline in that particular, they keep out and hinder true fasting indeed, to the shane of this Nation,& the haling on of inevitable destruction upon our heads witness that of isaiah: In that day I called for weeping, &c. but behold, &c. Surely that iniquity shall not be purged from you till you die, saith the Lord of hosts: 
Isay. 22.13 14.  this speech may make our ears tingle and hearts tremble.  
If a Fast at length be appointed, the prelates will be sure to watch for spoiling of the pot with one Coloquintida or other of their own invention. wherefore we beseech your Honours, as you tender Gods Honour, and desire his presence to your proceedings, look to your Fasts, that death be not in the pot; that instead of pacifying of an angry God, ye provoke him not more. For it is not more natural for prelates to eat& drink, then from their hearts to hate a Fast indeed, to the Lord.  
many reasons we might give, but we desire this one to be thought on. If this duty were kept up, and set on foot upon all the right limbs,& duly plied modo& forma, upon every just motive, they know it would find them out to be nostri fundi calamitas, the very bane of our being: yea this would blow them up, and all our sins& enemies with them. In this their hatred and fear of the duty appeareth: If any gather themselves together( as the Lord commandeth) to stay( if it be possible) the coming forth of the decree, they are watched with Argus eyes, and dragged along by briareus his hands, as it were in despiteful opposition to God and his service, against the Laws of the Land, against the crown& dignity of the King, against the temporal and eternal good of the State.  
Yet this is not all, but if Gods people in their families upon the Lords day fall to chew the cud, by the repetition of a Sermon, helping some neighbours that have not such means; they are without regard of the day, Gods ordinance, or God himself, halled or hurried before a Prelate; some are kept in pursuivants hands, some bound over at no less cost then vjs. or a noble a piece, some having scarce so much more in the world, O tempora! O mores!  
To shut up the further prosecution of the breaches of this precept; Where is the key of Discipline?  
As Discipline, is the soul of war; the spirit of policy: so it is the sceptre of Christ, swaying his own house, according to his hearts desire.  
And as a body without a soul; a Camp or State without policy are either dead carcases, or bodies so benumbed, that they either do nothing, or that which is worse then nothing: so a Church without Discipline, is a Lethargicall, or Apoplecticall body, wanting that animal spirit, which should open and expel the drossy vapours of sin, and organise the said body.  
Discipline is the chief commander in the Camp-Royall of God. It driveth the nail into the temples of Rebellion itself. This is the onely best physician, for the purging out of peccant and pertinacious humours, the onely chirurgeon for wounds and festered sores; and an exquisite bone-setter for fractures or luxations. This is Christs own Key, that shutteth out enemies& entertaineth friends; In a word, it is the best guard& fort; muniment& munition; Notwithstanding of all this excellency, as the synagogue of Rome, and all the Limbs of that confused babel, like nothing worse then the Discipline of Christs camp, so the most of our nation may say with sorrow and grief in heart, as the Disciples said to Paul of the holy Ghost: 
Acts. 19.2.  We have not so much as heard whether there be a holy Ghost: so all this time we have scarcely heard whether there be any such thing as Discipline. And is not this gross affencted ignorance, yea a fearful judgement inflicted on us? For as sure as Christ hath a house, so sure he hath keys to that house, and that no more, no fewer, nor other, then he hath appointed.  
These, men may not chop, change, or counterfeit at their pleasure( except they will turn Picklocks. 
Mat. 16.19& 18.16. joh. 20.23.& 21.17. ) Christs keys are delivered in the word, namely, the power and use of the word and Discipline, guiding and guarding all other ordinances, the use and authority whereof, is also by practise manifested in the same. So that Discipline or Church-government is a main Key of the kingdom of Heaven. Can any man think that Christ would leave his house destitute of some form of governmt. ( being faithful in all his house as Moses) was? 
Heb. 3.2.  or that any better form of government could be devised by man?( for every change should be to the better) yet the prelates and their Champions bear the people in hand, that there is no certain, 
Hook. Bilson de gubern. Pag. 167. B. Whitg. Answ. to the abstract. pag. 58.  unchangeable, complete form of policy or government of Christs Church to be found in the Scriptures: which is flat against Scripture, practise, and reason, as hath been fully proved in a work unanswerable: for they may as well say, that Christ hath no house; as to affirm it to be changeable which cannot be to the better, therefore not at all. It is true the prelates( enemies to Christs government) speak contumeliously of discipline, calling it a fancy or novelty, a mere human device, and they would bear the world in hand that Calvin was the first author of it, as D. Downham, B. Bilson, Saravia;& B. King: but they do just in this, as the Papists do with our religion, who will haue Luther to be the author of it. In this the Prelates opinion and practise, is much like that of the Lacedemonians, defended by Plato, namely to haue no walls about their Cities, but the citizens valour: 
Lib. 7. de Opt. Rep.  but as their unsound opinion, and Plato his defence are refuted by Aristotle, as very presumptuous, dangerous and bloody to a common weal; so the want of the walls of discipline, layeth a Church open to all manner of mischief, and danger, both from foreign and domestic foes: but in this they differ from the Lacedemonians; they stood upon the worth and valour of these citizens; but the Prelates do not onely unmantle the walls, but also cashier the very best forces, as though they meant to destroy and raze the foundation of the city of God.  
The utility and necessity of discipline cannot enough be expressed. It is a special note of the Church, though not constituting a Church, yet flowing properly from the essence of a Church. It is most necessary for the external subsistence, or well being of the Church: It is also a very necessary means for the obtaining of the greatest good of the Church.  
They themselves confess that some form of government is necessary( as B. Whitgift, Bancroft, Bilson, Downham) for they hold it as Keckerman speaketh a Cyclopicall, or confused multitude {αβγδ}, where none govern and none obey. what government is then like to the government of Christ?  
This is the guard that keepeth out errors of doctrine, and corruptions of manners: this is the sithe that cutteth down sin, this maketh the tallest rebel in sin to stoop; this strengtheneth the hands and comforteth the hearts of Gods people; this maketh a sweet harmony and concinne order in the Church and common wealth, as appeareth by that common-weal of Geneva formerly instanced, admired by all nations that look vpon it with a single eye. By the contrary, where this is altogether wanting, or a bare empty cask or more show and shadow of it remaineth, there is nothing but the Chaos of confusion, or( to speak with the spirit) there is nothing but wretchedness, that is, Ignorance of our own misery, beggarlines, blindness& nakedness. 
Rev. 3.17.  But we will not know it, nay our Prelates will not haue us to know it: This golden sceptre they cannot endure, for it crosseth the Popes leaden sceptre, by which they rule all and domineer over all, we mean Antichristian discipline, which the greatest Champions of Rome both highly commend, 
Triplicat. Arti Whita. cap. 19. Hierarch. Anachrys. Lib. 2. page. 45.  and in it exceedingly insult over the Puritans( as they call them)& all the reformed Churches. witness Stapleton& Scultingius: This forty yeares( say they) the english Bishops have retained the Discipline of the catholics, maugre the Puritans hearts. What impiety, injustice and tyranny is this, to wast the vineyard of the Lord to silence, suspend, depose& imprison the keepers and dressers of the same? to break down the walls and the hedges of it? to rear up an Antichristian Fort in it, and to plant Popish Canons upon it?  
Is this to defend Sion? or is it not to mix the English Sea with fire, 
Revel. 3.2.  to consume Sion? Is this to make glad the hearts, and to strengthen the weak-knees of Gods people? Or is it not rather to fill the bosoms of the philistines with triumphant joy? and to fill with shane( so far as they can) the faces of all reformed Churches?  
By this all men may know, whose servants these Great Lords be.  
Before we shut up the discourse of the sinning against this commandment, it shall not be amiss to lay the finger upon an old sore of theirs, newly festered, namely, the barring the printing of all books from the press, which might enlighten the people with love of the truth of Christs government, and the purity of his ordinances, and might make them hate their Antichristian calling and impure devices in Gods worship.  
In this they deal with us, as the Rectors of the Iesuites do in their Societies, who straitly interdict both young and old the reading or having of Protestant Books, which made their convert Spalato to say, or rather to dissemble, that this was the prime and principal cause of his suspecting of the Popish religion. 
Consil. profess.   
The prelates do not onely oppose such Books, as oppose their tyranny and trumpery, interdicting and menacing people from the reading of them, but they also imprison, banish, yea and kill the Authors of them.  
If any thing by God his good hand pass the press, either at home or abroad, which crosseth their tenor, or speaketh home for the tenor of Christ, it must either go through purgatory, or through the fire, such is their expurgatory trial. Instance D. Whittakers work, otherwise published after his death than in his life. Also Mr. Sprints Cassander, Spalato his sum of his 9. book, concerning Ministers maintenance. Not to be tedious, be pleased to view Bucanus his institutions, translated into English, and printed in London Anno 1616. the year after that they were printed in Geneva, in this they make him speak,( not through the fault of the translator,) but by a coining and clipping authority, the things he never spake indeed.  
They invert the order, they take away both questions and answers, they turn affirmatives into negatives, and negatives into affirmatives, a number of instances we can give, but let a taste suffice. The question of the marriage of the innocent party divorsed, is quiter left out. De conjugo quest. 13.  
So a great part of the question of the orders of Ministers, quest. 25. Also the question of the sign of the cross in baptism, quest. de Baptis. quest. 19. and many others. What the leaving out of the most part of the answer to the question of Naboths denying Ahab his vineyard meaneth, 
Quest. 75.  we leave it to your Honours judgement: but now they are grown to a further height, for as they would never suffer the wall of discipline to be built, so now they are like to ruin the city of the word itself, by reserving of the presses, for the setting forth, and trimming up their own projects and arminianism, the very gatehouse of popery, but as for counterpleas or preservatives against such poisonable drugs, they will suffer none to pass, yea though there be no matter of controversy, yet it is controversy to them if it be the truth.  
And so much for this Commandment, against which we desire your Honours to observe, what a world of sins arise from the prelacy.  
As for the third Commandment; to pass by their own ordinary oaths( which they account but petty ones) and also the bloody oaths of their swaggering servants and the roaring speeches of their, Ioviall chaplains, being a wondrous evil president to all about them; how doth their profane carriage, the ruffian-like reveling behaviour of their chaplains( mocking of Ministers reproving swearing,& others sins) set an edge upon the sin of swearing, when swearers know how such reprovers shall be dealt with?  
again, how is the name of God profaned by that illegal extorted oath ex officio? by the battologies and tautologies, lenten curses, and adjurations of the service-booke and litany? besides the fearful roaring, racking, and torturing of the word in their Cathedrall Churches?  
To the 4. Commandment,( besides their exemplary profaning of the Lords day, by themselves and families) it is a lamentable case to hear& see how in their Commencements by school disputes, in their Sermons and Discourses, the morality of the Sabbath is brought in question, and to the great dishonour of God, and grief of his people, they maintain the Non-moralitie of it. And not onely so, but they oppose themselves to the reformation and keeping of it; witness their hand against the magistracy of the city of London in that business. And for that flying rook of toleration, for profaning of the Sabbath, the desire of the monstrously profane, and the procurement of some Prelate, concurred to the begetting of it, and bringing it to be authorized.  
Lastly, they take off the leaders of Gods families in the sanctifying of the Sabbath. And so much( as briefly as we could) for the sins of the first table, taking footing and butting upon the prelates.  
Now to come to the sins of the second Table: First, they sin with a high hand against the K. Majest.& that first in respect of his souls good; they speak evil to him of the truth of God, and of the servants of the truth, whereby a Kings heart may be let loose from the fear of his God,& given over to supine negligence, deluding pleasures,& an evil conceit of the precious truth,& of his best& lovingst friends& subjects. just according to that speech of the Prophet: They make the King glad with their wickedness, 
Hos. 7.3.  and the Princes with their lies. Of which place the foregoing words explain the meaning( according to the scope of the Spirit, and the current of Interpreters,) namely, by their corrupt lives& false suggestions, they corrupt the King, forestalling his judgement against the good, and goodness.  

Peccata Praelatorum. Steph. in locum.  Hence one well observeth, that the sins of prelates corrupting Princes, hindereth the good of the subjects. So that we force not the text.  
For the further proof of this, with what false suggestions did the prelates abuse their ingenuous& royal queen Elizabeth against the true Offices and Officers of the Court of Heaven upon Earth?  
How was the late King pressed as a cart under sheaves, to blanche and abandon the ordinances; to disgrace and discountenance his Chariots and Horsemen, in which lay more strength then in all his Counsels& forces? How was he pressed to the putting down of lectures.  
To give an instance of these evil Offices, we have heard that the King upon occasion given, enquired of the Venetian extraordinary ambassadors, what means the people in their territories and other Isles of italy had for their souls; They made answer to this effect, that their liturgy and book of homilies( proportioned in number to the Sabbaths of the year) were red in their Churches. Alas!( said the King) that is poor stuff. To the which a Prelate( being by) replied: That it should be better for his Majesties State, and the State of his kingdoms, if there were me Homilies, and less preaching: For there was more love( said he) among subjects themselves, more loyalty to their Prince, more prosperity to the State, when it was so, then since the time that nothing would serve but preaching. At which speech the King looked hard upon him, and said no more.  
If the learned Iudges, and learned counsellors at law, and all understanding Statesmen do hold and profess it a principle of State, that Suggestours& Instigatours of a King, to cut the wards of his own laws, are worthy of condign punishment in the highest degree; what are these men worthy that incite the King to neglect or reject the Commandments of his God? To that purpose another of them, as we are informed,  told the same King: That all the Church should never be at rest, till such two worthy Ministers( whose names we spare) were hanged up, one in the South, another in the North.  
Secondly, they are against the Honour of the King. For as it was a stain to the good Kings of Iuda( notwithstanding all their careful reformation and maintenance of true religion, 
1. King. 22 43. 2. Kin. 14.4 18.14.23.25. ) that they took not away the high places( instance Amazia& jehoshaphat) which high places Hezechia& Iosia removed, to the great Honour of their names; so these men wonderfully eclipse( if not deface) the Honour of our sovereign, not onely in stateing the altar of Damascus, that is their own or Popish Ceremonies, with the Altar of Gods ordinances, but in suffering Baal-peor, to show his face openly; which must of necessity make the wrath of God break in upon us.  

Prou. 25.2.  It is the Kings Honour,( saith Salomon) to search out a matter from the bottom( as the word signifieth) which is to be understood in things concerning Gods glory, his own Honour, and the good of the State: but they vail our sovereign in the first of these; which indeed should be the perspective to the rest, to bring them home in their due quantities; how then should his honour truly flourish?  
Thirdly, they transgress highly against his royal crown and dignity( as hath been shewed) in the maintenance of foreign jurisdiction.  
Fourthly, they are against his prerogative royal, not onely maintaining their calling to be jure divino, but also in keeping Courts in their own name.  
Fiftly, they weaken the strength of the Kings state: For as the hovering of the Israelites mindes after Sauls house, weakened the pillars of the house of David( though anointed and established by the Lord) so the hovering of our English Romanists, after Romes primacy, doth distracted& enervate dangerously the strength of his Majesties state. And who be the main poles of the tent of their hope, but the prelacy? encouraging them further by suppressing and disgracing Romes chiefest adversaries under the name of the Puritans. So that which is the weakening of his friends; is the strengthening of his foes. And that thus they do, let their Canons, Advertisements, visitation Articles, their open clamours and calumnies from pulpits( comparing them with jesuits,) and lastly, their daily proceeding against them in their Courts bear witness.  
sixthly, they devour the Kings wealth, for as the wealth of the subject, is the wealth of the King, so the impoverishing and spoiling of the subject, is the impoverishing and spoiling of the King. For exacting from the subject: let first a Quaere be made, whether they rak not out of the Ministers vijs& modis computatis computandis an 100000 per Annum.  
And as much more out of the peoples purses for visitation sees, pleas, and jangling matters, besides the great sums they raise for probates of wills; what a rabble of Officers, as chancellors, Commissaries, Archdeacons, and others, keep they for the emptying of the peoples purses, and filling of the land full of all manner of sin, as swearing, drunkenness, whoredom, pride, idleness, &c. witness their filthy and rotten speeches, in disgrace of Gods people, which we loath to name, as also their patronising of sin, and plagueing of professors in their Courts; what a numberless number of moths, drones, and caterpillars, they keep in their Cathedrall and Collegiate Churches, we are not able to express. Some have summed them up to the number of 22000. or there about, what a huge deal of means will so many Sharks devour.  
7. And lastly, they are against the safety of his Majesties person, maintaining the hopes of Popish traytors, who upon all occasions are ready to attempt, and commit treason against him and the State; witness the many plots and deep treasons, contrived against our Kings and State this 68. yeares; As they sin against the King, so they sin against all his subjects; As first against his Ministers, from whom and whose families( against the Laws of God and the land) they have taken both liveliehood and life; for some have finished their lives in prison; and some at this day being poor and aged, have much ado to get bread to eat, but worse then all this, they stop their ministry, which is dearer to them then life and liberty. How bitterly and basely have they abused them in their Courts and palaces; what numbers have they at several times silenced?  
It is extant in record that in anno 1604. about 2 Ministers were questioned, for not subscribing or no● comforming, of which number about 70. were deprived of their livings, about 113. not suffered to preach; and about 94. under admonition; All which cruelties are done upon them and theirs, for not subscribing to a book, whereunto to subscribe, is fl●● against the law, as hath been discovered.  
But in very dead their quarrel is against the preaching of the gospel; which cannot stand( as we have shewed) with the standing of the Hierarchy. For it is clear both against the statute, and the late Kings mind in his Conference at Hampton Court, that men once admitted, should be ejected or cast out for not-subscribing. Citing that of the Poet: Turpius ejecitur quam non admittitur hospes.  
2. They sin exceedingly against the good estate and sanctimony of the Kings household government, whereof the Ministers ordinarily are men of their moulding, looking more for preferment then caring for the souls; they feed them with some froathie stuff( as noble Prince henry well observed) whereby not only much looseness, but also perplexity( for want of means) assault them. For as profuse giving exhausteth the fountain; so except the fountain of princely liberality be ever sending some refreshing streams, to moisten the dryness of their hot liverd servants, they fall quickly either unto a consumption; or else into a dropsy of indirect courses, which cannot but reflect upon their King and Mr. Now since his majesty by reason of his main employments, cannot help them as he would( out of his own means) with some of the prelates needless& hurtful abundance, he may supply his servants wants, and do much good with the rest.  
But to go on, they sin also against all his Majesties subjects;  
And that first in tyrannising over their souls and bodies, in the courses of their unjust Courts. Which( as a noble man observeth) are opposite to all the Courts of the kingdom, by reason of the exercise of sole authority. The Bishop citeth alone, accuseth alone, censureth and excommunicateth alone; But( saith he) Kings and monarchs have their counsels. All temporal Courts have more wherein their authority doth rest; as the high Court of Parliament, Kings Bench, common Pleas, Chancery, star-chamber, and all the rest. And so it is in foreign kingdoms, witness the Parliaments in France: But the Prelate doth all himself, and that in matters of higher nature then the highest temporal affairs: which is a thing( saith he) past all example, and for which they can render no reason. That Popish tyranny indeed whereby they exalt themselves above all that is called God, is the very ground of it, and best reason they can render.  
Out of their presumption, they dare cross by their Courts, the highest Court of the kingdom; namely the Parliament; for which sawsy courses, our Kings have secluded them the Court of Parliament. Instance Edward the first, 
Anno 1295  who called a Parliament of his nobility and commons, secluding the clergy both from Parliament and protection.  
2. They sin against the subjects, in bereaving them of their faithful shepherds; in removing the Dogges that should keep,& the watchmen that should watch the flocks: so they are left a prey to the Wolves& Foxes, of which loss, implying danger; if the people were sensible, they would make more ado then Michah made for his Idolatrous Levite.  
But they are now as men forgotten, and their cause is so little in request, that all the Ministers all most give way, yet with bowing down between two burdens; what a pressure of servitude they put upon honest and faithful Ministers; their silent sorrows and abrupt complaints( for service put upon them fore against their hearts) do testify. As for such in the ministry as are their devoted servants; they rejoice in the flesh, by making the peoples burdens heavier.  
The prelates set some as the Egyptian taskmasters over the people, to see them do their work, wherein if the people fail, never so little, with the Taskemasters they are punished. Our Ministers are used as the Romans used the vestal Virgins; they are beaten if they keep not in the Romish holy fire.  
As for the peoples zeal, sincerity, holiness, and labour of love.  
The smoke out of the bottomless pit hath blasted them exceedingly: For as the strict keeping of the first table, bindeth on the dueties of the second table, so remissness or mixture in the first; maketh us loose in the dueties of the second. And if they yield not to all, or be somewhat more strict in life and dueties, what a hurrying to their Courts, what a poleing of their purses, and what a poudering with their execrations, do they keep against them? which according to the scriptures, Councells, and Fathers should onely be inflicted for criminal causes. As the Apostle speaketh concerning an heretic: 
Tit. 3.10.  After once or twice admonition, reject him: Ob Criminales tantum causas& valde graves; For great and weighty, 
council. Aug. cap. 23.  yea heinous offences( saith the counsel) they shall be only excommunicate.  
They abuse also egregiouslie the writ de excommunicato capiendo; which should run only upon criminal causes, as heresy, denying to come at church, incontinency, usury, simony, perjury, idolatry. But for any of those, they neither city nor censure Gods people( because they have no grounds) and therefore they are not liable to this writ. Yet what case Gods people are in, by reason of this unjust proceeding, it is not unknown to your honours.  
To make up the full cup of affliction; by warrants and commitments from the high commission, people be cast into a black melancholic Golgatha or filthy prison, erected in the middle of the city, against the liberty of the same. This is like the Lions den, out of which very few are delivered with their lives, except it be upon very ill terms; witness the yet Crying blood of two honest men, within or about these three yeares, and a third had his deadly wound, besides the death of others in the other prisons. Instance these two worthy and famous men, sacrificed to the prison of the gatehouse, together with sundry worthies of the Scottish nation, whose blood by their means was dried up, and drained out in the prison.  
This cruel course is absolutely against his Majesties laws, and the privilege of a subject: For the statute for the Prelates imprisoning and lawless oath, took place in the height of popery, as hath been shewed in the time of henry the 4. whereto the commons( as it is witnessed) never consented.  
For the further discovery of the evil of the prelates prisons, and their imprisoning, give us leave to commend to your view from the learned, the unhappy( yea hellish) beginning of it, when the mystery of iniquity was drawn to a head, then began the scarlet whore to put out the black flag of imprisonment against the people of God, that would not receive the Mark of the Beast; 
Catolog. test. very. page. 656.  witness the collections of the learned. Eugenius primus post vacationem Romanae sedis, &c. Eugenius the 1. after the vacancy of the Sea of Rome, for the space of 4. monthes, was made Pope, who not regarding ecclesiastical affairs, or the furtherance of the gospel, gave in charge about the year of our Lord 656, that Bishops should have their prisons bereaving( say they) the Magistrate of the Sword, not for the punishing of Idolaters, Adulterers, &c. of which there were great abundance, but to punish and pine heretics( as they called them) who would not hear and adore the throne of the Beast.  
gregory the first( saith the Author) hath left a written testimony, what the judgement of the ancient Canons is, of such Bishops as well have men to fear them for their prisons, their fatherhood should know( saith he) that they should be Pastores non percussores, feeders not strikers, nova predicatio qu●● verbecibus exigit fidem. It is a new kind of teaching, to make men believe with blows but Eugenius& his successors( saith the Author) scorned and contemned this divinity.  
Have not our prelates cunned their Fathers lecture pretty well? Yes sure, for who feel the smart of their prisons? not the Idolater or vile person, yea not the professed Athist, the canker freting Arminian, or state-betraying Iesuite, for with all of these they are hail fellow well met; But the grand transgressors the puritans shall be sure of the veriest dog-hole in all the Bishops den, though the Iesuites had wont to haue the rougher words, with these their prisons they so terrify Gods people, that they often say,& swear, and do they know not what. These are their Herculean arguments wherewith they conclude all in Bocardo, 
2. Henr. 4. Chap. 15. Fox.  that dare deny the dung of their Augean stable to be good gold for the altar of God: but the law is clear, we need not inform your Honours that none should be imprisoned, nisi per legal judicium parium, aut per legem terrae. That is, Vpon a judicious process, 
Magna Cart. c. 29. Edw. 4. c. 2. Edw. 3. c. 3.  by a legal trial, or by the law of the land. Neither doth that act, from whence they would ground their commission, give any power, but rather a restraint to their imprisoning and fyneing, for if it did, it should cross the law of the land: yea the power of the Commission, so expounded, 
Filz. nature. Br. p. 51. 52 Edw. 3.15. Cap. 6.  crosseth the statute itself, as by judicious lawyers hath been learnedly observed. Besides, there is a statute flatly against it.  
Further if they had such power, to what ●se serveth that writ de Excommunicato capiendo? So that it is more than evident, their fining and imprisoning, are altogether against the laws of the land, the tenor of the power by which they hold, and the course of their own proceedings.  
4. They sin highly against the Nobility& gentry, for besides their sinning against their souls, in keeping out a powerful ministry, they intrude vpon secular offices due to the nobility and gentry, and that against the law of God, the nature of callings, the Cannon law, and the law of nations.  
Hubert was Archb. of Cant. Lord chancellor of Eng. and Lord chief justice all at once. Instances there be too many, and that of our own times; contrary to the Act of the counsel at Oxford, holden by Steven Langton; ne clerici jurisdictiones exerceant seculares; that is: no clergy men should exercise any temporal function.  
Math. Parisiensis maketh mention of the Popes injunction here in England, to take the great seal from a Bishop, being Lord-keeper for the time.  
It is observed by one, that it never went well with that State, where the clergy hath born temporal Offices, or where they are counsellors of State.  
It is a disgraceful affront to the Nobility, judges& gentry, as though they were not worthy or fitt for the places. The like may be said of Ministers, being Iustices of peace.  
That this their temporal jurisdiction is opposite to the law of God, it is manifest from these words: The Kings of the gentiles exercise Lordship over them, &c. but ye shall not do so. Luke 22.25.26. Math. 20.25. by the which places the Prelacy is so confounded, that they fall in with the Rhemists, by wrangling to wrest the meaning of the Spirit. The places( say the prelates and Rhemists) forbid Tyrannous Lordship and Government, but not a just and upright government.  
In which cavil your Honours may justly wonder that men will be so shameless. For first we must consider, that our Saviour answereth his Disciples to their question, according to their desire. Now could they be so impudent, as to desire to play the Tyrants? No sure. It is Tyranny so to expound the place. But their desire was of a lawful pre-eminence in idoneo subjecto, in a subject capable of it, and tells them plainly, they must have no such Office.  
It is most true( as it is noted) that he barreth in his answer, all ambitious Prelacy, being the greatest tyranny: which the Disciples desired not, but further he denies to them all temporal pre-eminence lawful in it self, but not for them, as he cleareth by the instance of the Dominion of worldly rulers; and the more to dissuade them from it, he presseth his own example, Luke 22.27. And thus he answers the question. All Orthodox expositors both ancient and modern accord in this truth.  
Indicitur ministratio, interdicitur dominatio: Bernard, de Consid. Lib. 2. The Ministry commanded, but Dominion forbidden.  
We should be free( saith jerome) from secular affairs, that we may please Christ, It is not for a minister( saith Ambrose) to have two Offices. Father Latimer asketh the prelates if it were their offices to be Courting it, Sermon 5. to Edw. 6. In 1. Cor. 6.4. Non utrumque gladium Petro, saith Beza, he gave not both the swords to Peter or any other Apostle, In annot. 1. Cor. 6. Bellarmine the cardinal is expressly for this truth, commenting on our Saviours words Luke 12.14. who made me a judge, &c. Admonet Episcopum ut nec index litium, nec arbiter facultatum sit, he warneth a Bishop, neither to be judge in terrene controversies, nor a determiner of mens right, de Pontifi. Lib. 5. Cap. 10.  
To the same effect, upon the same place, Franciscus Turrianus speaketh prettily and pithily: Quid dicturi sunt Episcopi ad illud Christi, 
Lib. 8. constit. Apost. C. 46.  quis constituit me judicem? &c. When Bishops take secular power upon them, what will they answer to that of Christ, who made me a judge or devider amongst you. In doing so saith he: Seipsos ex summis minimos faciunt, they make themselves to become the least. Not unlike to that of the Corinth: 
1 Cor. 6.4.  set them to judge, who are least esteemed in the Church: Neither hence can it be collected as the Papist would force it, that the Spiritualty( as they call it) or the ministry is in place above the magistracy, but that onely the object of their calling is higher and therfore their taking upon them, a temporal judicature is an abasing of the ministry.  
To the same purpose, the foresaid Author applieth the Parable of the Trees, choosing a King: The trees went forth on a time to anoint a King over them, and they said unto the Olive-tree: reign thou over us, &c. In Episcopos plane convenit. It hitteth the Bishops right,( saith he) for they leave the sweet enlightening, forerunning word, and betake themselves to reign in the judgement Seats of secular affairs, and so they become not Olives, Fig-trees, and Vines, but very brambles for why as the Apostle; should they leave the word to serve at Tables, 
Acts 6.2.  and if( as the Spirit speaketh) no man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him, who hath chosen him to be a soldier: 
2 Tim. 2.4.  Ergo Episcopi qui lights, sieve res seculares, &c. A Bishop therfore that taketh upon him the judgement of secular things, sheweth plainly that he warreth not for God, and so he cannot please him.  
The Canon Law condemns expressly {αβγδ}. Secular cares in the Ministers. For this truth also counsels are current, ne officium habeant, &c. Let not any Ministers have the office of a secular governor, Consil. Tollet.  
As for the laws of nations: as the callings are of a distinct nature, so all nations have ordinarily had a care to keep them distinct.  
Fabius Maximus is commended for opposing the choosing of Aemilius Regulus to be consul, because he was a Quirinall Priest. But it is objected that good Princes do put that dignity upon them. 
Etfi pij: non pie fecerunt de pontiff. Lib. 5. e. 4. note. 12.13  Iunius answereth: Though they were good, they did not well.  
Secondly, the greatest Monarch cannot put things together that God hath distinguished.  
3. As good Princes out of good affection, without judgement( as the foresaid judicious man observes) put this authority upon them; so other good Princes for the Tyranny pride and oppression, 
Niceph. Lib. 14. cap. 39.  that thereupon ensued took it quiter away from them; upon the evil ground and sinful effects of civill jurisdiction in the Prelacy.  
Petrus Ferrariencis is bold to call the misplacers of this power Stultos Caesares, Foolish Emperours. 
Catolog. test. verit. page. 856.   
2. Some may further object the antiquity of this mixed government, or third State, as they call it. For answer. 1. custom aggravates sin. 2. This temporal dignity of theirs from our Kings to be Barons, and to have place in Parliament, 
Willett. Synop. contr. 5. Pag. 242. page. 216.  &c. is as the learned witnesseth, not much above 400. yeares standing.  
The author of the abstract, is of that mind that Henry the 2. was the first that put this dignity upon the prelates, to sit in Parliament, and the star Chamber, taking his ground from Math. Paris. Sicut caeteri Barones debent interest, 
Edit. Tiguri. anno 1589. page. 97.  &c. Bishops and Archbishops as they have their possessions, so shall they have their Baronnyes from the King, and sit in Courts of judgement, as other Barons, till it come to matter of life or member. There is no recital here of former grants, as apparently there would have been, if there had been any such.  
A certain writer of the ecclesiastical History shows sundry instances of Parliamentary Laws without either presence or consent of the prelates. 
Pag. 167. Et sequent,  Yea King Edward the first, as we have shewed, Excluso clero, as one saith( thrusting out the prelates) enacted laws with his Barons& Commons.  
In the reign of Philip de Vallois, the French King, it was enacted, that no Priest or ecclesiastical person should be deputed to assist at the Parliament, or where the affairs of State should be determined or treated.  
The reason is penned also. Because they should wait upon their spiritual functions. By all this( wherein we could have been much larger) your Honours may consider what wrong this Amphibian brood doth to the Office of the Ministry, what indignity to yourselves, what hurt to the Church, King,& State.  
The words of a glorious martyr, are like to be too truly verified of us: 
tindal in his treatise of obedience, of a Christian man, p. 152.  Woe to that kingdom where they are either of the counselor of the Parliament. Yea their counsel saith he, is as profitable to King or State, as the Fox to the goose, or the Wolves to the Sheep.  
2. Further, they possess too much of that whereof the Nobility hath too little; For nobility without means, is as Colours without arms, for which cause Henry the 5. determined in Parliament to have taken some part of the prelates means, and given to the nobility.  
But cunning arundel found a trick to turn him off, setting his martiall spirits upon the wars of France; whereunto the clergy contributed very largely, to keep their coats undivided.  
To draw to an end of ripping up this endless sinning, they sin more particularly against their Officers and Instruments, by whom they are served and upholden; as chancellors, Archdeacons, Officials, Churchwardens,& Parish-Clerks; of all those, or of any one of them, is there any ground from Gods word, or institution from Christ? yea are they not all the Chips of that old block Antichrist? Were it not a saucy part for any subject whomsoever, to thrust out the Officers of the Kings house, or State, established by the ancient laws of the land, without consulting with the King, or without any order from him? Yes sure, for common sense would condemn it; how much more impudent boldness is it, to thrust out the Officers of Gods house, appointed expressly in his word, and to foist in such as serve for nothing, but to maintain the kingdom of Antichrist, and to bring sin and Iudgment upon a nation?  
For further clearing of the evil condition of their Offices, give us leave to present you with a short view of the particulars.  
1. For chancellors, Archdeacons,& Officials, let us speak to them under the name of Officials; For they are all subordinate in evil offices to the prelates: If the Officials place and case be nought, so must the superior places and cases of such be, to whom, and which, they are deputed: now for the woeful condition of Officials, let them hear what Petrus Blecenses, a learned and devout man,( about the year 1150.) speaketh. In an Epistle to a certain official, whom he desired to pull( as a brand out of the fire.) He writeth thus: Exeas babylon,& ur Chaldeorum; Get thee out( saith he) out of babylon, or ur of the Chaldeans, meaning his place. Ministerium enim est damnatissimae villicationis; It is an Office( saith he) of a most damnable stewardship. Verbum non est à nomine officii, said à verbo officio; The word( saith he) is not from the noun Officium, or a place of some useful charge, but from Officio to hurt or offend. And hence he maketh such verses as the time would afford, yea they may well serve; for the place is worse then the verses.  
Nam genus est hominum, quod dicitur offici-perda  
Officio est verbum crudele nimis,& acerbum  
Dictio plena malis, hinc dicitur officialis.  
A kind of Inofficious men there be,  
Derived from a sharp and cruel stem  
Officio to hurt, so hence we see.  
The word Official is a wicked name.  
'vice Episcopi eves tondet, emungit& excoriat, sic Episcopi long a manubona aliena dirimunt, &c. Dissimulant peccata; Ergo relinque officiale officium Ministerium damnationis.  
Being Vice-Bishops( saith he) they sheer and squeeze, yea and pull the skin off the people. Give over therefore that official office, being a service rejected of God. Yea let all Bishops, 
In Policrate suo Lib. 5. cap. 16.  Archdeacons and Officials hear what johannes Sarisburiensis( of the same time) saith of them, and their places: Peccata populi commedunt& vestiuntur. They eat& are clothed with the sins of the people.  
As for chancellors they are the after-birth of the prelates Lordship, wherein they have overtopt all other Earls and Barons, for none but Kings, Princes and universities have their chancellors.  
Further for Churchwardens, they sin most against them, and cause them to sin most of any of the people, they make them the instruments of much sin. If they be wicked men thē it is their meat& drink, to ensnare a faithful Minister,& to afflict Gods people; but if they be good men, they must either shift their dwellings, to shun that unlawful and harmful office to the undoing( it may be) of their calling and family; or they mustly in prison; or which is worst of all, undergo the office with a reluctancy in conscience, being enslaved to Antichristian governours( howsoever they do no more hurt to Gods people.) We speak what we know; some of Gods people have felt heavy pangs of conscience for it upon their deathbeds. If the calling were of God, good men would hold it( being lawfully called) rather an honour, then a burden to their conscience, nam res bona neminem bonum scandaliz at, a good thing gives offence to no good men, but by the office they become in very dead the counterfeits of Gods Officers, and the Popes promoters. They swear and do, they know not what, yea they infringe the laws of the Land, being made instruments to afflict Gods people: By serving of foreign jurisdiction, they sin against the Kings Majesty. All these be more then manifest by their serving of the sinful courses of the Prelacy, in all which they are instruments and accessoryes.  
The greatness of their sin will appear by a view of the particulars wherein they ferve, being directly against the same laws, which the prelates transgress.  
Moreover, they sin against the Parish Clerks, who are the right eye of their spiteful Courts, for their office what are they?( be it with reverence spoken) a very crew of Holy water-dishclouts. There be( no doubt) honest men amongst them, and the more pity they should serve sin, but for the greater part, they are thorns in the eyes& pricks in the sides of Gods Ministers& good people: these be the Knights of the cross, the keepers of the Popes Wardrobe, the Lords of Misrule, and in a word, the great Maisters of the revels, as for Pursuivants and Summoners, they make them nothing, but the servants of sin.  
These prelates sin also against all the wicked of the Land, of whose wickedness and profaneness they are the very Tent& Tabernacle, and by opposing all good means, they strengthen the hands of the wicked.  
Lastly, they sin against themselves, their own souls& consciences especially.  
First, for worldly pomp and wealth, they enter upon an unlawful call.  
2. They cause others to sin.  
3. They bring the blood of many good men, and their families upon their heads.  
4. They hazard( if not loose) all comfort in time of their greatest need, when they come to give up their accounts?  
Some dying like nabal( their hearts being dead, before they are dead.) Some never casting about for any comfort; Some crying out, they have made a bad exchange.  
One in terror of conscience  told his wife, that he would not endure one of these pangs( which he had suffered for that woeful calling) for a world; And therfore charged her, not to reserve any thing of the revenue of the bishopric, but to give it to the poor. For if she put any of it into her stock, it would bring a curse upon it, and consume it.  
We could further relate what horrible plights they have put good men into, upon their death beds, by forcing them to conform, crying out that to save their means in their service, they had tipped their tongus, or bittē Gods people, for which they smarted. Others with in few dayes after their subscription, upon more serious conference with their own consciences, discovering their error have languished to the death. Humble supplicat. P. 41. Yea we doubt not( saith the same Author) that when it shall please the Lord to Honour his Churches with the free liberty of his ordinances, that the subscribers and conformers will then cry out with the Bishops of Asia: 
Evagr. hist. Lib. 3. c. 9.  Nos non nostra voluntate said necessitate aducti subscripsimus, non animo, said verbis tantum consensimus. We subscribed not willingly, but upon constraint, not with heart, but with hand, then that coined distinction will not hold, to subscribe against the mind, but not against the conscience.  
But so much may suffice to have said of our sins, whereof we have shewed at large, them to be the special cause.  
Now we come to our judgments, whereof we affirm also them to be the cause, according to that rule: whatsoever is the cause of a cause, is also the cause of the effect proceeding from that cause.  
Iudgments are either spiritual or temporal, spiritual, as departing of Gods presence, and that insensiblie, we not lamenting after him as we should.  
2. A breaking of the staff or power of the means: for all the plenty we enjoy, yet the right arm and right eye, that is the convincing& controleing power of the Vision is cut off.  
3. A decay of Graces.  
4. A benumbed, senseless and groundless security from the Spirit of Slumber, which is upon us.  
5. fearful cowardice, and hardness of heart, so that we cannot mourn.  
6. Self-love in every one seeking his own, and none that which is the Lord Iesus Christs.  
7. A withdrawing of the right hand of fellowship.  
And lastly, a bold contempt of Gods Iudgments.  
Whence are all these but from the prelates, keeping Christ at the door? They abandon him, and will not suffer him to dwell with us. They vassal us so at their pleasure, that God taketh no pleasure in us. They will have what they will, and we must give God no more then they will.  
The Ministers are in bonds, and the word in bonds, there are none to cut the cords of their Tyranny, and to set Christ at liberty. How should the men or means be powerful among us? How should we thrive in grace, when the enimyes of grace and Gods glory command us? How should we be enlarged in our hearts, when they keep us streight in our bowels towards Christ? How should we be stout in our own cause, when we dare not be seen in Christs cause? And how should we love God, and one another, when we hate not with a perfect hatred them that be his greatest enemies?  
Many more great and fearful spiritual judgments overflowing this Land, we might relate, if time would give us leave. As punishing sin with sin, which indeed is the greatest punishment that ever God inflicted on his people. Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, 
Ierem. 2.19  and thy turning back shall reprove the, know therefore and see, that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the Lord, and surely it must be so, because this sin of the hierarchy is the onely sin of the Land, maintained by a Law; whose authority is prest upon people, who either without conscience, or against conscience, embrace it; And therefore just it is with God to punish this high and capital sin, with others sins of a high nature.  
Now we come to temporal judgments, whereof( to our shane) we are more sensible then of the spiritual. And yet in very dead less sensible, then we should be. It is too true of us, that evil men understand not judgement. 
Prov. 28.5.  That is to say, in in the true nature of it, in the sting of it, and in the causes of it. The reason is well implyed in the same place, because we seek not the Lord in it. We attend not what he speaketh in judgement, and what he would have us to do by it. For if we sought the Lord,( as it is there) we should, understand. But to pass the scoffers of Gods judgments, even we who profess ourselves to be more sensible, make a deceiving sense our judge in this inquiry, if the smart be not on ourselves immediately; we understand not the judgement as we ought.  
Wise David was of another mould: All thy judgments( saith he) were before me. 
2. Sam. 22.23.   
It is an astonishment to think on our stupidity, the Lord may cry to the Heavens and Earth to hear, for we will not hear nor understand.  
The Earth shaketh and trembleth. The foundations of the Heavens move and shake above our heads, and all because of the wrath of the Lord.  
The very Heathen Centurion, and they that watched Christ, when they heard the cry, and saw the Earthquake, were terrified at the judgments of God, Math. 27.54.  
The Prophet Habakuck telleth us, when he heard the voice( namely of Gods judgments, 
Haba. 3.16 ) Rottenes entred into his bones, and he trembled in himself, that he might be safe in the day of the Lord. The mighty God hath spoken, yea and roared to the ear, and discovered to the eye, all the judgments written in his book.  
Yea all these have been or are in some measure upon us. Iudgments on our Persons, States, Names, Familyes, callings, and what not?  

Psal. 11.13 {αβγδ}  Are not the Foundations( as the Prophet speaketh) cast down? where the word signifieth: The grounds of Laws, ecclesiastical or temporal, of counsel of war, of State government, of making and managing war defensive or offensive, of trading and trafficking. In a word, the foundations of all our frames& attempts,( for all these the word carrieth) are shaken in pieces at home and abroad.  
It is true that this truth from the pulpitts and towers of State is daily discovered. But who in his place laboureth as he should to understand it and avert it? Now who be the great Enginieres in undermyning of our foundations? Directly the prelates, and our sins wrought out of the saltpetre& Sulphur of these fiery minerals, are the mynes and gunpowder to blow us all up. No tongue of man can express what hurt that blast from the Tower would have done, if God in mercy had not prevented it. Yet the blowing up of all the Towers and Castles in the Land, could not so shake and ruin the foundations of Church and State, as they have done. For the former, how great and fearful soever it were, could be but an evil of punishment, but the later is both an evil of sin and punishment, and therefore must be more hurtful. That had been immediately from his own hand; but they have partly brought us, and are like further to bring us into the hands of Gods Scorpion scourges: For if we have not Christ to reign over us, the rod of his wrath must rule us.  
But briefly to the proof of the Assertion, let us take a short survey of our particular judgments. whence are the strange Consuming sicknesses, and bodily inhabilities to perform and hold out in services? The Atrophies, or waxing less of the members; 
Lev. 26.16  The pineing away of our lives and spirits insensibly? But either from the keeping back of the food of the soul, or from their mixing it with the soule-killing poison of their own precepts and Ceremonies?  
Whence is the sickness of the head( of which we cry out so much: 
2. Kings 4.19.  Oh! my head! my head!) but from the malignant and contagious spirits of the rotten and naughty heart of the Prelacy. And from the noisome and corrupting vapours of such bad stomacks, as overcharge the head?  
How cometh the breath of our State to be infected, but by the tainting breath of Antichrist? So that we cannot run, yea nor walk with God freely, as we ought to do?  
How cometh the fruit of our bodies to prove so evil? but from the prelates vassalling of them( to our shane and sin be it spoken that are Parents) to the mark of the Beast, as cross and confirmation, &c. against which the Lord threatened fearful Iudgments in his book of the Revelation, Chap. 14.9.10.11. which places we desire might be well considered, and our proof thence against the cross: If the parents of Moyses would rather expose the infant to the immediate providence of God( without any mediate means, able to preserve life) and themselves to the hazard of Pharaohs wrath, then to admit or commit the least sin, in committing their Child to the wrath of a Tyrant( which was to the Child but a temporal danger) what should we not do, rather then to expose our Children to a spiritual danger.  
Further, if our Children prove Schollers, at the first entry to the university, they must be matriculated with an unlawful oath, 
Lev. 26.16. Deut. 28.33.  and be nusled in Popish practices, or no proceeding for them?  
Why do we sow, and the enemies reap?  
Why eat they what we labour for? but because that the prelates make the Land to labour of sin, and our labours in Gods service are so slight, so vain, superstitious and fruitless to God, and so pleasing to the man of sin, that it is just, our labours should be so fruitless to ourselves, and so profitable to our enemies.  
Why breaketh out the fearful wrath of God and plaguye sores among us, but because of Baal-Peor his ushering Ceremonies, and our gangrenes of Heresies? all having life and breath from the Prelacy.  
Why hath our earth been as Iron, and the heavens as brass, but from the brazen statutes, and brazen Serpents of the Prelacy?  
Why have strange fires( as from unknown causes) broken out, and consumed us? And waters overflowed us, but because of that strange fire in Gods worship among us, and the waters of Nilus, mixed with the pure wine of Gods ordinances, let in, and kept in by the Popish profane crew that depend upon them?  
Whence hath been the groaning of the brute and senseless creatures amongst us, under murreings and wastings, but from our sins, arising from the Beast?  
Why under abundance of fire& food, is there such extreme death and want of the one, and no proportionable price upon the other? but because the warming and actuating heat of Gods Ordinances( notwithstanding of the plenty) is so weakened and quenched, and the staff of that bread so broken, or bruised by the prelates, that we eat and are not fed, we have much fire, yet we are not warmed.  
Why be our attempts against our enemies so fruitless and ridiculous?  
Why is our peace, our war?& our war our shane?  
Why fall we, and fly we with such high dishonour before our enemies?  
Why are our formerly feared Seamen, and manly merchants taken by the Dogges of dunkirk, and used worse then Dogges,( which to think on, we think our English hearts should bleed with pity and indignation,) even from our Vassalage at home, to these enemies and adversaries of Christ?  

Ps. 109.6. Lam. 5.8. Deut. 28.43.  Why is the curse of Iudas made good upon us, namely, servants set over us? Sub dignitate Domiri minus turpis est conditio servi. It is the less shane to be servant to a worthy Master?  
Why are the strangers within us got up above us( as the spirit speaketh)( namely besides others) a sort of rude, Barbarous, needless, and useless souldiers( without Example in a free nation?) who commanded and devoured in mens houses, as if all were their own, abusing their families, reviling themselves, and now and then killing his Majesties subjects. Is not this a fearful and heavy Iudgment in a free State? and yet just it is with God, because we will not have Christ to reign over us, but we are content to march under Antichristian leaders, who have quartered our Colours with the Colours of Rome: The Lord therefore plagueth us with a sort of Romish jesuited Irish brats, whose insolent outrages, together with the hellish roaring carriage of those of our own nation was the very finger of God.  
Why are we become the tail of contempt, and scorn of nations, where we were once the head of Honour,& glory of the nations, but because the tail of the Dragon hath laid us so low?  
lastly, to finish the point: why doth the Lords soul so loathe us, 
Lev. 26.30.31.  that he will not smell the smell of our services ordinary or extraordinary, but because we burn incense to him of the prelates making, which is an abomination: as a linsie woolsie garment was not to be used, nor ploughing with an ox, and an ass, so the Lord cannot endure a mixture in his service.  
But some will object, the prelacy did bear sway, when none of these plagues or judgments overwhelmed us, but we had peace and plenty at home with success and triumph abroad. For answer:  
1. By way of concession, the very same objection in effect maketh that godless people to Paul in the Epistle to the Romans. 
Cap. 2.4.  For Pauls answer implieth by anticipation, or prevention so much, as if they should say thus: we have prospered, and do prosper. What tell you us of sin, or of Iudgment despisest thou( saith Paul) the riches of his goodness, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth to repentance. As if he should say, it is true, the bounty of God in all outward blessings, his patience in bearing with your sin, his longanimity in defferring to punish, is exceeding large and wonderful; For, by three emphatical words the Apostle expresseth this concession. 
{αβγδ}.   
But is this the best use you make of it? should it not rather work remorse in you?  

Dan. 11.36  To apply this, though we practised& prospered, as was said of Antachus, yet doth it argue that God is not displeased with us in this particular? No; No more then the Iewes prospering when they baked Cakes to the queen of Heaven. 
jer. 44.17.   
2. That old proverb is verified in them, nemo repent fit malus, nothing evil of itself comes to be monstrous evil but by degrees, so it is with them, satan at the first, laying of the foundation of his Antichristian kingdom, began to creep in by bare Antichristian titles of superiority, the evil whereof, nor the ensuing mischief, good men did not observe, yea satan watched a long time for his opportunity of setting on of this Hydraes head; For till the time of Pope Silvester, about the year 320. Rome itself was without any Lordship at all, upon which Lordship followed that blasphemous arianism, which afterward made all the Church of God to groan under it: with those Antichristian titles were joined seely promotions, which with the swelling pride of superiotie, brought the hierarchy to a full height, not only in Romes Dominions, but also here in Britannie, of which that foresaid monk Austine was the first beginner.  
This mystery of iniquity that the Apostle speaks off, had its beginning in Diotrephes, 
2 Thes. 2.7  called by the Spirit {αβγδ}, a love of primacy, 
3. joh. 9.  in whose person( saith Beza) the Apostle condemns avarice& ambitious superiority, the very worst plagues of the ministery, 
Avaritiam& ambitionem, &c.  this sprung up in L. Bishops& Archbishops and Patriarks, till that Monster the Pope was fully formed, who as he had his rise from those wicked Offices; so still he is upheld by them, and maintained in his kingdom of darkness.  
As for Cardinals, they are but a new invented toy after Romes quiter departure from Christ, maintaining rather the pomp of Antichrist then his power; the Pope and prelacy could not build Rome on the first day, but every one took his turn, as appears in gregory 1. and his predecessors.  
But Rome by his successors being made a babylon, and receptacle of Devills, made the hierarchy their servants, more vile and cruel,( if it were possible) then their Masters, witness their related practices in this nation.  
Now to apply this to the answer of the question. At the beginning of Reformation, our Bishops did not see the evil of the things. many of them were painful in labours, rich in works of mercy, and in the end some of these sealed their Repentance with their blood: yea further in the beginning, the Lord was content to bear with some beginnings of Reformation. In queen Elizabeths time; howsoever they beat the servants of Christ, and interrupted the course of the gospel by the Antichristian power, yet her majesty and the State would not bear, that they should be sticklinge with the State; that by packing with jesuits and Papists, they should countenance and maintain either old or new popery; that they should affront the nobility; and least of all, that ever they should see the grand idol of their maze established: But upon every Information made, she kerbed their tyranny, and rebuked their vileness; Also some well effected States-men of the nobility& others, were now and then knocking them over the shins, so that they could not exercise the full power of their head, but( as a learned man prophesied) so soon as the queen was removed by death, wickeder men, more infected with popery, would creep into their places, who being more lively members of the head then the former, would desire and endeavour more powerfully to be joined to the head, either by bringing the Church, over which they tyrannize, from the obedience of Christ, to the tyranny of Antichrist; or by murdering and pining to death, such as would not yield to their Slavish Ordinances; the truth of this predication speaks in their practices against the truth, and true professors; even just as they did in the time of K. Edward and Q. Mary, so now these look for their time, that if idolatry, come to be more public, they would adhere to their head, and bring both the Kings crown,& the crown of Christ in subjection to the Popes mitre; so that whosoever were King( the Lord preserve our King) he should be but Vice-roy, as it were to our jesuited Prelates.  
The reason is, the members will never hold themselves fully enlivened and activated, till they be joined to their head, nor their functions well discharged till they have done the very service, whereunto by their head they are appointed.  
If it be objected, that some of them be quiet harmless men: give them ease& bellie-timber, and they will do no hurt; yea some of them be of the better side, and stand with the State, and for the privilege of the subject, yea some of them suffer, as it is thought for the State.  
To the first of these, let johannes Sarisburiensis answer: Nocent saepius,& in eo daemons imitantur quod tunc prodesse putantur cum nocere desistunt, they hurt for the most part, but in this they gain the commendation of devills; they are thought to do good when they cease to do evil. In Polycrat. Lib. C. 24.  
Simia semper erit simia, a Monkey will ever be a Monkey. noisome Beasts, cruel men, and Offices of enmity to the offices of Christ, upon every occasion they are ready to express their disposition, though it be not always in actu exercito, in the actual extent.  
For the second, you know that maxim, aliud est esse& aliud apparere; It is one thing to seem, and another thing to be. If Sanballat& Tobiah put in for building of the wall, they will daub with intempered mortar, and it will prove a rotten piece of work: it were far better( as Nehemias saith) that they should have no portion in the business, they who can not endure the walls of Sion to be built up( but are as many ways opposite as ever Tobiah& Sanballat were to the re-edifying of jerusalem,) shall never do good to the walls of the common wealth: they who can not suffer Christ to have his right, will never help the subjects to their right.  
As for the suffering of some( as it may be thought) for choosing the better part, may it not rather be, because some would give more for the place, or because they might be more serviceable in the place in some Popish or Arminian policy?  
Non saevis semper inter se convenit vrsis, though Samsons Foxes be tied tail to tail, yet they jointly set on fire, and burn up the barley field.  
We speak not thus, as though we envied or would extenuate any good that might be in any of them( for we hearty wish, that they were both friends to Christ and to the state indeed,) but we intimate the truth of that sacred position: a man cannot gather grapes of thorns, and Figs of Thistles, of Thorns& Thistles indeed they might prove Cedars& palms, if they were transplanted, but so long as they remain in that cursed field, as a reverend man said well: the best proves but a bramble. In our later and worse times we see few or none but brambles planted in that field. If there be a man of mischief, a mad railer on the State, a maintainer of popery, and arminianism with some new frontispiece, affronting by his insolent carriage the great tribunal of the kingdom; this man shall be a Lord Bishop, and good enough too, for it is matter of lamentation,( howsoever many think otherwise,) that a good man should be spoyled by the place.  
henry the 8. most admired the life of that subject, who never was so low as to be a Constable, nor never so high as to be a Iustice of peace, so we may say that he is the happiest Church-man, caeteris paribus, that never was so low, as to be a Parish-Clerk, nor came never so high as to be a Lord Bishop.  
It is just with God that evil men should dwell in the Palaces of babel, partly that they may the more bewray their enmity against the kingdom of Christ;& partly that men may see, and hate the evil of their places; For when they see plainly nothing but thorns and thistles to grow in the ground, they will proclaim it openly to be a cursed ground.  
Let us not then deceive ourselves with that Popish and Foppish argument of thriving, but let us rather be humbled for so long despising of his mercy: nam tarditatem judicij gravitate supplicij compensat, he payeth home for all together when he punisheth.  
lastly, the more perspicuous discovery of a sin, joined with a long continuance of the same, bringeth the more heavier and fearful judgments in the end.  
And so much for this point, wherein we have not taken all this pains( presuming of your Honours patience) to charge all sin and judgement upon the Prelates, to discharge ourselves, as guiltless, but ingenuously we charge ourselves not only with our own sins, but to be also accessary to theirs, in obeying of them.  
We aclowledge that God hath a special controversy with his people, 
Hose. 4.2. ( which if it were taken up, he mould quickly dispatch his enemies.) But our point was to prove our sins and judgments to have their rise from the hierarchy, and them to be the capital sin: so in some measure we hope we have done: As for judgments threatened a little of them, in handling the next point.   

9. Position proved.  
IF the hierarchy be not removed, and the sceptre of Christs kingdom, namely his own Discipline, advanced to this place, there can be no healing of our sore, &c.  
If there were no more to prove this, but the former point well proved, it were enough; For if their calling& standing be the cause of all the evil of our sin& judgement( as hath been proved) then no removal of them, no removal of sin and judgement, but rather an increase of both. For it is the main national sin that keepeth up and maintaineth the controversy with God, and if that cease not, God cannot in Iustice cease from punishing, till he have made an end.  
The point then is made good from the former Position, which still must be our medium or mean, for the proof of this. Your Honours may be very acute and sedulous in taking up& redressing of state grievances, in repairing wrongs, in censuring misdemeanours, in preventing the plots of the enemies, in searching out, and punishing our domestic underminers, in providing forces against the enemy, for ourselves and our Allies, in taking course with the moths hornetts& Caterpillars of the state.  
All these are to be done, but the former is not to be left undone; For if all our own grievances could be remedied, and that which is Gods greatest grievance should not be done away, what good should be got by it? but making a way to a heavier judgement.  
For so God might go back to fetch a greater blow.  
It is holden dangerous of some Physitians to give physic when the sun is in any ruminant or horned sign, as they call it, instance Aries or Taurus: howsoever all the State-medicines can do no good, so long as the state movs in the horned sign of the Hierarchy: And the reason is, because the humour being moved& not removed rageth more fiercelie. As God hath not blessed any Parliamentary endeavours, because as we take it( under correction) they went not this way to work, so it is likely, he will not be with you now, if you go not this way to work; For God is more tender of his own Honour, then of all the States and Churches in the World. Yea he will abhor( as he saith) his own excellency, 
Amos. 6.8.  and hate his Palaces, if the thing displeasing to his majesty be not removed.  
If you strike not at this roote,( give us leave right Honourable to speak freely in Gods cause;) The Lord may answer your desires of peace, and endeavours of reformation, as jehu answered Ioram, asking him, if he came in peace, what peace( saith he) so long as the whoredoms of thy Mother jesabel, 
2. Kings 9.22.  and her witchcrafts be so many?  
So what peace can we look for, so long as the sons of the woman jesabel remain; Their Mothers name, they nature indeed, for they are the woe to the house,( as the word is commonly taken.) Or after a more proper signification, they are the Scatterers of Gods people: it may well be said of that Ambitious brood, as Euripides said of the lying, and vain-glorious Astrologians of his time, 
Traged. Iphigenia.  {αβγδ}, all that kind is an Ambitious evil of vain-glory.  
It is true, that with the most, namely, Atheists, Papists, Arminians, openly profane, Ignorants, and Protestants at large, this truth will hardly find acceptance, yea if grace, mercy, and peace, and all should forsake us, they will not believe it, because they are enemies to Christ and his kingdom, but all men of enlightened Iudgment, and impartial affection, both see this truth, and fear, foreseing the sequel.  
It is further true; that if all the Ministers in England would aver the truth of this, the Prelatts would thrust down every man from their places, and do them a worse turn if they could, because their kingdom lies upon it.  
Bishop Cooper maketh the abolishing of Lord Bishops the very overthrow of the Church. 
M.C. adm. pag. 28.29.  It is true indeed of the Romish Church: But shall the lie of wretched man make the truth of God of none effect( God forbid)?  
We know( right noble senators) that you believe this hierarchy to be the roote of all our evil, then it will necessary follow that it must be rooted out, or it will roote us out.  
It is remarkable what God spake by the mouth of that Honourable Protomartyr Mr. Rogers, that when the gospel should be re-established in England, if the kingdom of Antichrist were not utterly cashiered,& total reformation made in Gods worship, that our persecutions should be greater, and our trial hotter, then in the dayes when he and others suffered; he spake to this effect, and so it is like to fall out, except God prevent it; For if we remove not the Canaanits: It is just with God, that the Canaanits should remove us; That thrice noble Essex, who died in Ireland, on his deathbed foresaw, and proclaimed a fearful wo to England, because they turned all their Religion into policy.  
It is too true, for this hath been and is the Master piece of our worldly wisdom, as appeareth by our Acts: to make policy ride Religion, and to make Religion serve policy on foot.  
But this is just to set the ass upon Christ, and not Christ upon the ass.  
That counsel of Daniel to Nabuchadnezer may well here be applied: 
Dan. 4.27. {αβγδ}  break of thy sin with righteousness. For the words are so in the original, where we must understand especially, his bosom sins, pride, tyranny, and oppression, so this is the kingly sin, which must be broken of, or else no peace to be obtained.  
If jacob go up to bethel, 
Gen. 35.  to build an Altar for Gods worship, if he will be free from the fear of his enemies, he will first remove all the idols out of his house.  
So will Iosua have the people do, for he telleth them plainly, they could not serve that jealous God, nor prosper in any thing, except they put away their idols. Israel was in a woeful case through subjection to the Philistines, and want of Gods presence in the ark of his ordinances.  
In this case it is said, they lamented after the Lord; 
1. Sam. 7.  But Samuel  told them, that would not serve their turn, except they put not only away their idols, 
1. Sam. 7.23.  but also Ashtaroth, their beloved idol.  
Where by the way, it is to be wondered, that this people, given by God into the hands of the philistines, should have the enemies, special idol for their Minion idol.  
Now that it was the philistines special idol, it is clear, 1. Sam. 30.10. Where it is said, they put Sauls armor in the house of Ashteroth. What is to be said in this case? except the Lord smite the heart, no affliction giveth understanding.  
But to compare ourselves with them, is it no matter of wonder in us, who have lain so long under Romes slavery( in whose blood she hath gone so deep, who like the read Dragon standeth yet gaping under great hopes to devour the distressed man child the glorious gospel, who meaneth rather to massacre us, 
Revel. 12.5.  then to be at any more cost with burning of us)  
Is it no wonder we say, that we should retain their idols, and Masters of their Ceremonies? Let us then both for shane and fear, put away this Ashteroth of the hierarchy; It may very well be called Ashteroth Carnaim, a two horned idol, pushing both the Church& Common-wealth.  
What King or State found ever any good success, by toiling themselves with reforming of the Popes impiety and tyranny, till they made utter extirpation of his idolatry, and unlawful authority? So no reformation of the evils of the prelacy, but by a total or absolute removal of their unlawful authority; As we have great cause with Israell, to lament after the Lord ( for his glory is daseled,) and we desire to do it heartily. So this idol of the Hierarchy must be done away, or no discomfiting of the philistines.  
The Lord of Hostes, since your last meeting, hath made that great goliath to fall unexpectedly: And surely we may say( with reverence reserved to the Phrase) it is wonderful in our eyes; As the Sea is called Mors omnium undarum, so he was the death of all our springs: He was the Gamahu( as Paracelsians call it) in whom,& from whom, all our malignant stars have their strength and motion. He was our Shebna that the Spirit speaketh off; who was not onely Treasurer and Steward of the house, to take in all, and dispose of all, but he was the great Pandora: all Offices in him, all suits by him, and all the means to him and for him. Indeed the word translated Treasurer, is taken in the original by the learned, to signify one that nourisheth or cherisheth; whereby they would intimate that wicked mans entertaining of secret plotting with the Assyrians,& egyptians, to betray the Church and State? Intending in the mean time, to make a great hand for himself, and by the danger,& destruction of the State to provide, for himself, against all danger: It is manifest, that our Shebna went beyond him in this, for he made Rome of England, setting all things to sale, and sold the fee-simple of England to Rome, that he might have the tenant right.  
As in Athaliah were observed, Ambition of reigning, love of her idols, and desire of revenge; so the intolerable pride of that vnparalelled evil; did evidently demonstrate with other passages, that he aimed at the garland. As for his devotion to babel, and the bitter fruits thereof, together with his desire, to requited your Animadversions upon his life, your Honours and the whole State should have felt it, if he had not fallen.  
Sejanus was never so ungrateful, nor perfidious to his Master, as he was, nor never did the State that in dignity and indemnity, that he hath done to us, nor never trucked with forraignes, to betray so many states as he hath done. when one of the Ancients of Rome saw the governours grow careless of the public good, and following of their private gain, he said, Rome wanted nothing to vndooe it, but a chapman to buy it: What a dangerous case then were we in? who have Rome, the Emperour, spain, and Austria, yea and all the babylonish crew in France, Italy, and germany, as so many Cowpsmen, laying their pates& purses together, to make purchase of us; especially having such a Coopsmate, as he with so many jesuited Factors, and brokers, as would afford thē a rich pennyworth. For all his graving of his habitation for himself, in the top of a rock, the Lord hath brought him down, and covered him.  
Humanists relate how the Ancients had wont to hang a Wolves head upon the gates, to avoid and expel the enchantment, or be witching of their Cities from contagious vapours, stirred up by enchanters. The truth of the evil, or remedy, we will not argue, but surely, the sprinkling of the blood of the Wolf,( if we can follow the Lord in it,) may be a means to save our King, and us, from these fearful and imminent judgments, that he( for our sins) might have hastened, and halled upon us by his jesuited tricks; as Masses, murders, poisons, Treasons, venery,& Venifices.  
The Lord smote but in time, for surely some great Monster of that egyptian Nilus was come to the place of the birth; for God never taketh off such an high and Arch-enimie to his name, but upon the very pinnacle of some high exploit; Instance Shebna, Haman, Guise, Demain, Dancre, and Francis the 2. of France. we leave others to rak in his ashes, it is not our work: as his name rotteth, we wish his sin might die with him; But give us leave( right Honourable) to signify what we conceive; we fear the body of the Retort be too too sound, and the materials too too safe; the jesuits& their Cosin-Prelats, with all the Dukified crew, will make a shrewd shift to lure the alembic with some new head,& then the work is not marred, but hindered for a time.  
To our matter then in hand, the Bishops are the bottom of the business, and that bottom is our bane. They tell us indeed, that the high Commission hath no bottom; but as a counsellor answered, surely it had a bottom till they beat it out. There is no way( according to our Position) to make good the work begun, but to beat the bottom out of the Prelacy, and then Romes work, and Spaines Market is quiter undone. To speak( under correction) if Parliaments had taken them in( as Elisha said to the Elders)& handled them roundly, namely cashiered their places, and rid Gods Church of their tyranny, the wicked had never come to that height, nor it may be to such a desperate and unhappy end.  
It was often agitated in the counsel of spain, whether they should bend all their forces first against the Low Countries,& thē against England, or first against Engl.& thē against the L. Count. since they were not able to deal with both at once: It was carried and concluded that the later was the better,& that upon this ground; that if they would take the River, they must first make themselves Masters of the Sea that flows into the River; that is, if they would regain the Low Countries, they must first make these forces and means their own, that maintaineth and upholdeth the Low Countries.  
So to applyl( for we may borrow wit of our enemies) if you will deliver the King and State of corrupt, and corrupting men, such as be abusers of the Kings favour; profane Bellie-Gods; time-servers, enemies to the gospel, whether professed Papists, neutrals; or mungrils, yea if you mean to make Dagon fall in Court or Country; Or to clear the air of those croaking plaguy frogs,& undermining locusts, the jesuits; then strike neither at great nor small, but at the hierarchy; For it is the troubler of Israell, the Censer of all strange fire, the Fort of Gods enemies, the strength of sin, and the Megazin of all mischief.  
If you had by your representative power taken off that Hydra his head, it had been an heroic part, and worthy of so high a judicature; For so should the King have been delivered from the snare, and his state from an unsupportable burden; yea sundry evil events, both at home and abroad might have been prevented: but frequent experience maketh good this position, if Baruck stand upon terms with his Office, he looseth the Honour of the day: If you had removed this Evill-one from the throne( as your predecessors have done divers, though not so bad as he,) and suffered this bitter root of the hierarchy to stand, and pread; out of it, as out of a Gorgons head more monsters should arise, and the last should be the worst. He was their Creature at first, and became their Creator at last: that it must be so, so long as they subsist, take● pregnant instance, from the removal of his Predecessour-Idoll, whose sins yet cry to the Heavens, being managed out with the high hands of two pandering prelates. But as he was but a subcellanean, and a very page. in comparison of the man of the chair. So of his favoriteship there was quickly a nullity: And what a jollity were the most in, that he was cast over the bar, and we should have a new favourite? but as corruptio unius est generatio alterius, sic generatio unius est corruptio totius, as the corruption of one is the generation of an other; So out of the ashes of that former evil arose an other evil, that was like to consume us all to ashes.  
little knew we what the Lord meant us in it; He justly plagued us with one, whose little finger was heavier then all the others body: It may very well be applied to us that Cedrenus writeth of a religious Man, in the reign of Phocas the wicked Emperour, the Man did expostulate the matter with God, by way of complaint, why he would set such a wicked Tyrant over his Christian people; It is said that he was answered by a voice,( not seeing any thing,) alium deteriorem inveniri posse nullum, at hunc meruisse Constantinopolitanorum vitia; a worse then he was not to be found, and him they had, because by their sins they had deserved him; But let us know that if the fountain of these bitter waters be not shut up, the Lord hath a worse then he,( if worse may be) in store for us.  
let us suppose, that by the virtue of your power you had taken him off, because either he or the State must fall, and you and yours lay all at stake for it; yet if you smite not at the roote of this three, you and yours, and all we are like to perish for it.  
It may well befall us that befell henry the 3. of France, who having cut off the Duke of guise, who intended to Cloister the King, and to take the Crown to himself: His Mother asked him what was become of Ianvill, and whether or no he had made him sure? he answered that he was escaped and gone; then replied the Queen; your life is gone; so notwithstanding, if their Patrons fall, yet if their places subsist, they will be our ruin; and the rather for this, that ye letting them alone( he being removed) will proclaim to all the friends of God, that you seek onely your own safety, suffering the Lords Honour to ly in the dust.  
Without all controversy these be the horns that scatter Israell. But you( right Honourable) must, or should be the Carpenters, to saw off these horns, and to set up the horn of Discipline, the Lords own Ordinance.  
Since God himself hath begun the work, and hath chalked out the way by removal of him that letted; It were great dishonour for you, not to follow the Lord in his work: The Lord looketh, and is there none to help? He may justly wonder that there is none to uphold. 
Esa. 63.5.   
Two things we desire to commend to your Honours, worthy your observation, the former is this:  
When the Lord is compelled by the Magistrates neglect to take the matter of the execution of his enemies, into his own hand; in the midst of that mercy of easing him, and his people, of some of his adversaries, he setteth a copy of his judgement, if magistrates in their place follow not their copy, the very forbearance of the Lords enemies, thorough fear, or favour, or desire of ease, or hope of gain, becometh the bane of the forbearers, for the just God oft-times by some of those that they spare, and whom they should have plucked up, plucketh them or theirs up without any pity: for instances we need to go no further then the age wherein we live: Have not some of our nobility& gentry, yea some say, our late King perished by such, as they should not have spared, the Lord made this good in former times against his own people. The Lord telleth them in the 2. of the Iudges, that he would not break covenant with them, but they must also look to keep covenant with him in this very particular, that we have in hand, you shall make no league with the inhabitants of the Land; you shall throw down their Altars, but ye have not obeied, why have ye done this? Wherefore I also said: I will not drive them out from before you, but they shall be as thorns in your sides, 
V. 2.3.4.  and their Gods shall be a snare unto you.  
The gunpowder-plotters were comsumed by a fire of their own making, intimating to us, that we should have ferrited out, and fired out( namely by due course of law) the rest of that fiery crew, and all their strange fire; that we should have broken all their Altars& Images into chalk stones, that we should have plucked up root and branch; destroyed head, and tail; swept all away and made a clean house: but we did not, nor have not yet obeied, and will not the Lord say to us: why have ye done this? Yes, he hath us in question, and hath made good the threatening upon us; For now they are so far from being driven out, that they are like to drive us and ours out; yea they and their agents, the Arminians so gull our sides, and grieve our souls, that we know not how to bestow ourselves; yea we have all cause with that people forenamed to lift up our voice, and weep, till we can weep no more.  
Another instance may be taken from that deadly blow, given by Gods own hand, to Balaams Priest, and his Idolatrous auditory, in the Black-Friers of London; where he caused the ruins of an house, to cover and revenge that idolatry in blood, and rubbish, which polluted the Sabbath, outstared the Heavens holy dueties, yea affronted God himself, without controlment of any man; As this was the very extraordinary finger of God, laying his enemies in the dust: so it pointed out the duty of Ministers& magistrates, that they should have followed the blow, doing execution with the word, and with the sword: But as the execution of this Iudgment wrought nothing on the Papists, but freting, desire,& threatening of revenge on Gods people; with a peremptory resolution, to manage out idolatry with a higher hand; so it wrought nothing on us, but a gazing stupidity for the time; for what man of place hath conceived, what the Lord said to him in that execution; or hath followed home the Lord in his work, by putting to his hand, to shake any pillar of Popery? yea have not for the ruin of one howsefull many howsefulls( yea townfulls) risen up since that time? whom God in judgement may suffer to shake our Churches& houses, because we would not learn( when God was ready to guide our hand) to writ by a President.  
It is further worth the noting, that as the French allotted them an house to that dismal work, contrary to the Law of God& Nations,& was never called to an account for the dishonour done to God, the undoing of souls,& the loss of the Kings subjects; So the French hath plagued& pestered us since worse then before,& that both in our states& religion; For by that unequal match( which we lay not to heart as we should) they have set up Baalpeor in public amongst us, by the which especially, 
Psal. 106.29.  we provoking God to anger the plague of the Lord broke in upon us; which though it be removed, yet if we remove not that plague of the mass, the wrath of the Lord will never leave us, till it hath quiter consumed us.  
Let the last instance be from the Prelacy, being the main subject of our treatise. It is cleared that all our evils of sin and judgement are from them, and butte full upon them; and therefore the Lord hath met with many of thē in remarkable judgement, showing them& their places to be the gangrene of the Land; yet for all this, what man of note or place hath lent the Lord an hand, to the casting down of their strong holds? and notwithstanding that men now with half an eye can see, and say, that their standing( meaning their places) must be the ruin of the nation, yet the profane favour them, and the Professor feareth them; so that there is not a man of any place to come forth, and say; Come and see how zealous I will be for the kingdom of Christ, against those his enemies, that will not have him to reign over them; which is a shrewd evidence, if we get no better heart to the business, that they shall plague us and ours seven times more.  
To conclude the point, it is a great fault in men of place, both Ministers and magistrates, that they would have God to do all the hard work by himself, and they would come, and gather up the spoil: but they who will reign with God, even in the glory of any good work, must do for him, and suffer with him in the doing of the Work.  
The later main remarkable thing is this: That all the things that we have looked for, effected, and relied upon, hath proved to us as broken reeds.  
For the better clearing of this observation we will first give some instances of it, and then show the grounds, and lastly the use of it.  
To begin with our expectation and issue: after the death of Queen Elizabeth, all the good, had great hopes of a conformity of Church-government to the rule of Christ; a great many Ministers and people set themselves to maintain, and solicit the cause of Christ. But the subtle Tempter, namely the Hierarchy, did so wind itself, like the ivy about the vine, that they drained out all his spirit of reformation,( if he brought any with him,) yea they suggested to the eye of his apprehension, such a bewitching Phantasm of pleasure, profit, honour, applause, admiration, absolute government,& absolute liberty, to do what he list; to arise from the maintenance of an Honourable clergy; that he conceived them to be the bravest Ornaments, and fittest Instruments for King craft, that were in the world.  
Again, they filled his ears with forged reproaches of the government of Christ, taking opportunity, to strike upon that jarring string of his sometimes exasperated conceit.  
They further buzzed into his ears the danger of exasperating Papists, if he should comply with reformation.  
Lastly, they so plied his deluded disposition with evil Instruments, and mercenary men, that he must hear nothing, nor bear nothing, but the wild grapes of episcopal conformity; Whereupon they grew so insolent, that they added violence to their malice, abusing the King; in that( besides his pleasure and command) they took away the shepherds,& scattered the flocks, and so to our great grief we were disappointed of this point of our expectation.  
An other ground of our hope was that magnanimous henry( whom we do not name to minorate the parts of our present sovereign) whose heroic parts and Princely carriage, were not only a terror& admiration to forrains, but they were also both feared and envied by Papists,& prelates, whom he could never endure. But our sins, and our enemies malice, caused the Summer set upon our faire Rose before we were ware, and so that Anchor came home.  
A third thing we looked for, was the removal of the former favourite, which the Lord effected: But in stead of a Thistle he fitt us with a bramble, because we were no better worthy.  
A fourth thing that we much importuned God for, was the breaking of the Spanish match, and our Princes safe return from spain: God in mercy granted both, but we were so unthankful for both these in a right manner, and broke up our watching over him for a better helper, that God suffered him, to our heavy woe, to match with the Daughter of heath, though he mist an egyptian.  
5. When all things were so far out of frame, that we are become the prey of our enemies, the mockery of our friends, a shane to ourselves, and the fotestoole of a favourite: then nothing but a Parliament, Oh! a Parliament would mend all; But Parliament we had after Parliament, and what was amended? Your Honours can best tell who departed the house( at the prorogation) in so heavy a mood, as though ye had been lead captive by some conqueror of the state; For that overswaying evil( on whom all reformation trenched) carried all opposition with so strong a hand, that he& his( the basest of whom durst brave the Parliament) were thought too hard for the state: But him also hath God cut off, and what would we have more? Surely, we may look for good, but evil shall come out from the presence of the Lord, till we hit the right vein, as our services are like clouds, without rain, so the Lords favours will prove to us as the morning due.  
But what is the ground of all this failing of our Hopes? Even the suffering of this cursed ground of the hierarchy, to bring forth so many brambles:( under favour,) if ye had begun at this ground, your work in all reason had gone better with you. Therefore to the use, which is the last particular of this point: arise now, and do it: The right way to the work of reformation, is to begin with the sanctuary, as Ezechia& Iosia did: the inner Court of Christs Temple is first to be measured, before the outward Court of Policy. Give us leave to enforce the duty from some motives, besides the reasons, rising from the Positions, we will contrive the reasons as briefly as may be.  
The first reason may be taken from the evil, which you are to deal with; namely, such a burden as the Lord can not any longer bear, but you must either ease him of it, or he will ease the Land of such as are in place, and will do nothing for him. If any object that Bs. be not so evil; there be many good men amongst them: we answer,( as hath been said,) that we take not upon us to determine of their persons; for many are willing to deceive themselves with this sophism: he is a good man. Ergo a good Lord Bishop, as though goodness and Bishop being both in one subject were convertible terms, where it should rather follow, he is a Lord Bishop, Ergo no good man; because it is very hard to be a good man in a bad calling, instance in a player, or the like. But for their good we will say no more; but let their common practise speak in these two particulars; namely their hatred and cruelty against Gods Ministers and people, and their blasphemous scoffing at the Language of Canaan, or Scripture Phrase; as if a man shall name the Seal of his ministry; glorifying of God; sanctifying the Lords day; or walking with God, they will hoop and hout at a man, as though he were a Barbarian to them.  
2. The second reason is from your authority and place. 
Smith. de Reip. Angl.  Parliamentum habet in se potestatem totius Regni, imò capitis& corporis: The Parliament hath in it the power of the whole kingdom, yea both of the head and of the body: Then power must be put in use, or it looseth the power. You are the Elders of Israell; you are an army of Generals; that supreme Court, that may call any place, or person to an account, whether they be for the glory of God, the good of the King and State, or no; you are the Physitians of State; up and do your cure; In a word, it were happy for our King and us, if you knew your power practicallie. They are the device of man, contrary to Gods commandment, and man must remove them.  
3. A third reason is from that precious pledge, that they keep( as it were) incarcerated to their will( namely the Kings majesty,) for where they bear sway, there the King( as Woolsey wrote) is their King.  
We have shewed, how they have vexed Kings to the very death. But is not the King {αβγδ}, the Father of magistrates, and private men? Or to use Scripture Phrase, the breath of our Nostrils, or as the people said of David, worth 10000. of us.  
Consider then what a pity it is to all, and an indelible dishonour it will be to you, the state representative, that so ingenuous& tractable a King should be so monstrously abused by the bane of Princes, to the undoing of himself,& his subjects.  
It was truly said of a wise politician: 
Si capite plectatur. Erasm. de Instit. Princip.  If he forfeit his head,( saith he,) or be worthy of many punishments, that clippeth or corrupted the Kings coin, or poisoneth a common conduct; how much more punishment are they worthy, that corrupt a King with evil counsel, to the undoing of himself, and all under him. Austine in that treatise of the Correction of the Donatists, the chief enemies of the Church, hath a pretty observation, concerning absalon, not impertinent to our purpose. Si aliter non potuit Domus David pacem habere nisi absalon, &c. If the house of David could have no peace, but by the removal of absalon,( notwithstanding of Davids command, out of his state-indangering indulgency to the contrary:) so no peace, prosperity, nor standing to the Church, but by the removal of the prelacy, for the danger and enmity of the Donatists to the Church, were not of so high a nature as the danger& enmity from the prelates are. Then take away the dross from the Silver, 
Prov. 25.4.5.  and there shall come forth a vessel for the finer, take away the wicked from before the King and his Throne shall be established in his righteousness. But we mean to press this particular a little further, when we come to speak of the means.  
4. A fourth reason is, from Gods offering of himself, to guide you by the hand,( as we have shewed;) who by giving of the first blow hath in mercy removed the greatest nail in all their tent, and will not you follow home?  
5. The fift reason is from our not-profiting by any mercy, privative, or positive, that God hath afforded us: we do not thrive or gain by any thing, and where lies the fault? even in this, as we have shewed, in that we lay not the axe to the root of the right three: We do not undermine that which undermineth us: We fight not against that which fighteth against Christ. Therefore to use the word of the Psalmist, be wise at length great senators, and in the fear of the Lord break the bands of these that are like to break us in pieces. What good shall we get by removal of that pocks of the state, if the radicated humour in the evil liver of Rome be not followed with the power of eradicating Minerals. To move the humour, and not to remove it, is to double the strength of the disease. As we have already given some instances of this; so we fear from this very particular, the proof of woeful experience. The Lord hath broke the enemies alembic. Even no doubt when some spirit of mischief was come to the very helm, so that he hath marred the Devils labour, even when he was to be delivered of some monstrous mischief to the state. But( notwithstanding all this as hath been said) if we think the vessel to be quiter broke, and their oil& pains, and all lost, we deceive ourselves exceedingly; for the menstruous matter, and the body of the work remains in the bottom: if you give them leave thorough delay, but to lute on a new neck, they will show you a new Spirit, in an old work, and if you stand not up in the breach, for a furnace of brick, they will make one of marble, and for a neck of glass, they will make one of steel, so that the last wo will prove worse then the first, and the day of his death shall bring forth more bitterness then the day of his life: For know this for a certainty that Rome, spain, France,& Austria; the prelates, Arminians, and all the crackling Thorns,& fire-work men in the former work will set all they have, and themselves to upon a rest, rather then they will not make good the wicked work they have begun. Arise then in the name of God, and disperse them, or look for nothing but fearful desolation from them.  
6. The sixth reason is from the present evil condition, wherein we stand, and the danger whereunto we are liable.  
First for our state, as the physician said of nature, that it was but all one sickness, so our state indeed is but all one distemper; Or with the Prophet: There is nothing sound from the crown of the head, to the sole of the foot, the heart is sick,& the head is heavy; yea our consciences are more dominiered over within,& our state more plagued by forrains without, then any free nation professing the gospel in the world, and for our religion and worship of God, it is so overlaid with the rubbish of idolatry, and superstition that the sacrifice in a manner is mixed with tears, and groans; and if it be not remedied, they will raze the very foundations of Religion; For they have shooke them shrewdlie already by their Popish and Arminian tenants and practices. As for Iugdments, besides these already seized, if we return not, as the Lord threateneth by his Prophet: He will cut off head, 
Esa. 9.13.14.  and tail, branch, and rush in one day. Is it not time then to look to it?  
Can Christ endure in stead of the Sacrament of his body and blood, according to his own institution, a Popish Altar to be erected? Coaps, clothes,& Lights befiting the same, Wafers, wine mixed with water, and the Crucifix upon the Altar? with this rotten stuff, and stifling liturgy hath that corrupt crew pranct up their mass. Instance Polydamnaes twins, Iannes and jambres L.& N. the former of which have braved in these of late, as it were to affront the Parliament, yea and Christ himself.  
7. A seventh motive, to prevail with you, may be taken from your own particular; it is said in that forequoted place of Esai, that the Ancient and Honourable is that head, which the Lord will cut off. You are the Elders of Israell, the Ancient& Honourable, whom the Lord will cut off by them, if you cut not them off. We have shewed and proved how they have struck at root, and branch of the Ancients of England, and how they have caused many to fall. You and yours( if you be right) they aim at. How dishonourable& basely have they dealt with the nobility,& gentry, striking soms hats from their heads, threatening others, making some dance their attendance.  
The Iesuite needeth, neither the force of spain, nor Austria, nor italy, to the ruining of our Religion and State, the Arminianised, or right down Popish Prelate, the bellie-serving Machivell, the state-betraying Papist will make it ready meat for his mouth.  
From this self undermining course the wisest of the counsel of spain have prevailed with the rest, to take this for a principal; not to assail our nation, till by home-bred sedition and disorder of Church& State, it be ready to fall in their mouth,& so they may have it cheap enough. In the mean time your state& families shall be but a prey to the Prelacy, and to such as the Prelacy do support; For all the overturners of the kingdom turneth upon the hinges of the Prelacy, the storm may overblow the poorer shrubs, when we and our Cedar-like families may be blown up by the roots. Curia Romana non captat ovem sine laena:  
The Prelates will not prey on fleeslesse sheep. Remove then this deadly cup, or your portion of it one day may make you cry out: O! how bitter it is!  
8. The eight motive riseth from the general desire of all the well affencted; yea the merely civill longeth for their downfall: Sions Plea against them hath ever been maintained, since the beginning of reformation; witness both the doings& the sufferings of the Saints in that behalf, but now their tyranny,& treachery in betraying of the truth, to popery and arminianism, together with the profaneness of them and theirs, unvaileth more fully to men of all ranks,( as nobility, magistracy, ministery, gentry, and Cominaltie,) the iniquity of their place, and the ruin thence ensuing, which maketh them cry with one voice, down with the babel of Prelacy; For the which they may justly allege that reason, that the Philistine Princes alleged against David; that he should not go to battle with them, least he be( say they) an adversary to us, for wherewith should he reconcile himself unto his Master? should it not be with the heads of these men? 1. Sam. 29.4. So whatsoever ye attempt for the good of Policy, or religion, for the diverting of evil, for the relief of the afflicted Churches abroad, will be but as water spilled upon the ground, for all attempts have proved no better. In every good thing they will be your real adversaries, yea wherewith will they reconcile themselves to their master the Pope, but with the ruin of Religion and State, and more particularly it may be, with the heads or hearts of you and yours.  
9. The 9. and last motive, is from the excellency and weight of the work in hand, namely the advancing of the sceptre of the Kingdom of Christ Iesus, which is no other thing, but a restoring or establishing of the true Officers of Christ, the purity of his ordinances, and the power of his own Discipline.  
Of the excellency and necessity of Discipline we have spoken somewhat.  
Standeth it with equity or reason, that the Popes Law, which is the Popes own mouth, should speak or rule in Christs Church? And that it is so with us, the Hierarchy itself can not deny, for it is the very same Popish government, that is portrayed out in the Popes Canons, 
Degubern. cap. 14. pag. 539.  for the which our Prelacy standeth as stiff as any pontifical of them all, witness Bishop Bilson, Bishop Whitgift, and others. But this government( as all knew that are acquainted with it) 
Tract. 8. cap. 6. pag. 72.  is 

1. Corrupt.  
2. burdensome.  
3. Tyrannous.  
4. It spoileth the Church of her liberty.  
5. It hath condign censure and condemnation put upon it by Iuries of the learned, 
Instit. Lib. 4. c. 10  witness Luther, Calvine,& Morney.    

Ius Canon &c. Lib. de Confut. Quest. 2.  Let Doctor Whitaker speak for all: The Canon Law and Pontifician Decrees should have no place with us; For which mark his reason, because it is( saith he) Antichristian, and an enemy to all religion and piety.  
Hence it will follow that Christ must needs be angry with us, and speak to us in his hot wrath, and smite us also yet 7. times more, if the sceptre of Antichrist may be still suffered to justle out the sceptre of Christ Iesus. What is the breaking of the Lords bands, and casting his wards from us,( spoken off in the second psalm; 
V. 3.4.5. ) but the rejecting of his government, against which, how fearful a threatening there is denounced, the same place also doth witness.  
up then( right Honourable) and be strong in the Lord, 
1 Cor. 10.31.  and for the Land, since you see the danger. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. And how can we escape unless this evil be removed?  
We cannot but discover a deceitful: conceit that possesseth, and stealeth away the hearts of many Prefessours among us. It is true( say they) we have amongst us the evil of Bishops, the corruption of some idle Ceremonies, we would with all our hearts, they were away; we also want Discipline, which we earnestly desire. But when it cometh to an overwhelming judgement, we hope our close walking with God in piety, sanctity, and equity( will through Gods mercy) guard us against it, when your Reformed Churches may be led through fire and water, and laid desolate, because of the libertinism, and profane looseness of the best of their people, walking nothing worthy of the purity of Gods ordinances. We speak what we know, for we have often heard it.  
But for answer. 1. Good desires are good, if they be joined with good endeavours; otherwise they are vanishing vapours.  
2. For our close walking, if it be sheltered from confusion, it must respect all Gods Commandements, 
Psal. 119.6  and that both for Ceremony and substance: witness Zachary,& Elizabeth, 
{αβγδ}.  walking in all the Commandments and Ordinances of the Lord. So were they blameless. The two words in both tongues, do signify the substantial precepts and Ceremonies, which both must be of God; 
{αβγδ}  in both we must walk. This their practise, taketh away that unsound and groundless distinction, that we must walk in Gods precepts for the substance, and we may in mans precepts for the Ceremonies. As all the learned in theology do discover this distinction to be counterfeit: So it shall never hold plea for the removal of judgement.  
3. The Lord hath smitten them( indeed) for their unworthy walking, as some with that smoke again raised out of the bottomless pit. Instance, 
Apoc. 9.2.  our neighbour nation of Scotland. Some he casteth into a hot bath of blood, as the French. Other some he hath exposed to destruction and desolation or to slavish captivity in their own Land, As Bohemia, the Palatinate, the Austrians,& other germans, of whom me may say, 
jer. 2.14.  Is Israell a son? or is he a slave? why is he spoyled? or in another scripture phrase, were they greater sinners, 
Luk. 13.5.  because they suffered such things? I tell you nay, but except you repent, you shall all like wise perish; let us not then deceive ourselves; our one sin of spoiling God of his glory, and barring Christ from his Kingdom( if wee had no more predominante sins) will weigh down in the balance all their great and crying sins, for which they are punished; and it is to bee feared( wee pray God avert it) that when or judgement cometh into the balance, it shall weigh down the judgement of all the former nations: yea wee fear( as wee often hear it out of pulpits) as they have drunk the brim; so wee shall drink the bottom, onely the dregge shalbe left for the whore: whom he smiteth last he plagueth worst: Because their impenitency is of the greatest height against both mercy and judgement, precept, and example: woe to us, for such is our case, if wee amend not by removal of our evil upon these motives.  
When Gods own Israell returned not being smitten, he smote her seven times more; yea he threateneth her not onely with such plagues as are written in the book of God( which are abundantly enough) but also with every plague that is not written in the book of the Law; 
Deut. 28.6  that is such as they for the fearfullnesse of them could not conceit; and such as the Lord in his just judgement would not make them acquainted with.  
We have great cause to tremble at these speeches. For it is to be feared that the Lord( as he speaketh) will make our plagues marvelous, 
Deu. 28.37.& 59.  and make us an astonishment to all people. We have just cause to bring home that to ourselves, that is spoken of Ephesus; 
{αβγδ}. Rev. 2.4.  I have against thee( for so are the words) intimating to us in them, that he will bring some great evil upon us, that he will not express; no way see we( under favour) to escape these terrible things threatened but by removing of this Mr. evil. It is not lopping, nor pruning, nor shaving, and trimming, nor pairing of the nailes of this evil( as some of great note have promised) that will serve the turn. As the Great turk said( of the loss of his men) it is but a shaving; it will quickly grow again. So will it be just in this, except you strike at the roote. Except you remove these Majorites, the reforming of the Minorites will do little or no good. believe us right Honourable, unless ye pluck up these stumps of Dagon by the very roots; their nails will grow ranker then ever they were, and they will scratch more divellishly then ever they did. Except this strange fire be removed, the Lord must make the consuming fire of his wrath break out upon us.  
He usuallie maketh a people to red their sin in great Characters in their judgments. Will any daub or trim, or put a new cover upon an old rotten house that will fall about their ears: or will they not rather down with it, rid away the rubbish, and build a new one?  
Will a chirurgeon cicatrise, or skin a purulent sore, or festered wound? Or will he not rather search to the bottom, and make a sound cure, by purging out the filthy matter, and eating out the dead flesh? Or will any adventure to cure a member that must be cut off? If they do thus, they kill the party. So in this case, the whiteing, daubing, or palliating, will not serve, but cutting off must make the cure. As a Gentleman said to a great man, complaining to him, that his house was all out of order,& he could not well discern the cause: if he would put away halting Tom, he should soon see what was the cause. And so it was indeed. So if the halting hierarchy, between God& Baal, should happily be removed, truth would quickly discover the necessity of it.  
That comfortable speech of Samuel to the people, mourning for choosing Saul their King, is very remarkable: 
1. Sam. 12.20.  ye have done this wickedness, but fear not, &c. As if he would say, the Lord will pardon: Yet turn not aside to vain things, but serve the Lord. For if you do, you shalbe destroyed both you and your King. Where observe that the Lord will be merciful to them for many sins, but if they turn to idols, the Lord will make havoc of all.  
We have not only turned aside, but we never turned wholly from vain things. And we turn aside more and more.  
If then this hierarchy be so deadly an evil, that as a great one said of his wicked wife; If it live, 
Ejus vita mea more.  the common-wealth must dy. Then are they inofficious pleaders( how great soever) that hold the main alteration, or total reformation; to be a perilous operation in a Church. But they go upon false grounds: First, that no certain ground of government is prescribed by God for his Church. The contrary whereof is proved, and that to be unalterable.  
For the further clearing of the unsoundness of this Position against the Law of God, the order of nature,& the strength of reason; let us go yet a little further, because it is delivered by a great one, that thought himself a great statist; yea we wish it had not fallen from the pen of some Minister of note.  
What can be more expressly and precisely laid down, than Discipline is discovered in that place of the gospel, so often quoted, and so well known, Math. 18.18. where( as it is observed by the learned) are all the parts of Discipline, namely reprehension& Censure. 
Zanch. in 4. precept.  Also the ●… rue and lawful Officers: Nempe presbyteri quibus est ●… ommissa non Dominis; To wit the Elders to whom it ●… s committed, not to Lords; Neither must it be used any other ways( saith the learned) then Christ hath appointed, qui est causa efficiens, &c. Who is the efficient cause of Discipline. The Elders are the instrumental cause, using the advice, approbation, and presence of the people, in the last act of Censure, namely excommunication. The material cause is faith and manners. The formal cause, debitus exercendi modus, a due manner of proceeding. From these particulars the learned deduce this, definition. Disciplina est facultas Ecclesia à Christo tradita, &c. Discipline is a power given by Christ to his Church, to teach, admonish, reprove, correct; yea to inflict the highest punishment of giving men over to satan, if they so deserve.  
For the further illustration, they apply that Parable in the gospel, 
Marc. 13.34.  where Christ is said to be like a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, commanding the porter to watch. Where be pleased to observe no authority, but that which is given; and no work, but that which is lest; and over these the Porters must watch, that no other authority be intruded, nor other work be done. To the same effect, they city that of the Apostle to the Corinthians, that he was bold after a holy manner to boast according to the measure of the rule which God had distributed unto him, 
2. Cor. 10.13.  and not of the things which God had not measured to him. Since by this then, and sundry other proves, by us produced, it appeareth plainly, that Christ hath appointed in his house one direct perfect and unalterable form of government( otherwise as the Learned observe, 
Calvin. In. stit. lib. 4.  it should be worse with Christ his house, then with mens houses.) How calumnious,( if not blasphemous) are they against the truth of God? How opprobrious to his wisdom? How injurious to souls? How Tyrannous over men of all estates? Who force a state, by word, writ, and practise, to maintain, that Christ hath left no certain form of government in his house. These men are the prelates, against whom especially learned Calvine directeth his speech in his discourse of Discipline, where he telleth us: 
Ibid. c. 12. Sect. 1.  quod Doctrina sit anima Ecclesiae,& Disciplina nervus; that pure Doctrine is the soul of the Church, and Discipline is the Sinews of the Church. Yet there are( saith he) that hate Discipline so, ut à nomine Disciplinae abhorreant; That they abhor the very name of Discipline, they are Antidisciplinarians. Then why should men of gifts, for fear or favour, maintain these prelates, in giving the Spirit the lie?  
We would have men to consider why they broach this untruth, and would have others to maintain it; namely that they may dung and dress, and still bear out that bitter root,& rotten stump of their Antichristian government; the denial of good government in Christ his house maketh way for all the bad government of the Beast, and such is the hierarchical government, which hath as much to do with the government of Christ, as the mass hath with the Sacrament: It hath none of the causes, or concurring parts, that maketh up the definition of Discipline.  
It hath not Christ for the efficient cause; nor the Elders for the instrumental; not faith or manners( whatsoever they pretend) for the matter, but rather the cursing of them, whom God hath blessed; and for the manner it is nothing but misorder itself.  
That complaint of an ancient Author Anno 1150. concerning corrupt Discipline, may well be applied to the Prelates Discipline. 
Potho. lib. de statu Domus Dei.  Est in omni ordine,& professione latens Disciplinae figmentum, Spiritui Sancto inimicum, innocentiae ac simplicitati, valde contrarium: There is in every profession( saith he) a show of order, and the counterfeit of Discipline, but it is enmity to the Holy Ghost, and altogether adverse to holinesse, and simplicity; Even just so is this their Discipline, of which a learned ancient of the same time giveth this remarkable testimony: 
Petrus Blesens. in Ep. ad Official.  Corrumpit, non corrigit, exasperat, non emendat: It corrupteth, but correcteth not, it rather hardeneth men in sin, then reclaimeth them from sin.  
2. They dream of as many forms of government as of State policy, which is nothing so. For God hath not prescribed any particular unalterable form of government to this or that common wealth( except to the Iewes) but hath left it various to the variety of States; so it be according to the general rules of piety and equity. But no sooner ordained God a Church, either under the Law or gospel, but so soon he prescribed a platform of government for it. 
Exod. 28.   
For clearing of this doubt, let D. Whittaker speak: 
De authoritat. sacrae Scripturae advers. Stapleton. c. 9. p. 436.  Regis& Ecclesiae dissimilis est ratio, authoritas legum condendarum Regis est, ac latas& promulgatas abrogare potest, &c. at Ecclesia scriptures, &c. Imo dico ego nec leges far potest in Domo Dei, alioqui Scriptura esset imperfecta: There is not( saith he) a like reason of the King, and of the Church; The King and State may make and set forth laws, and abrogate the same, making others in their place( as the necessity of the time, and good of the State shall require,) but the Church hath her Laws from the Scriptures, neither may any King make laws in the house of God, for if they might the Scripture should be imperfect.  
3. 
Acts 20.14. &c. Tit. 1.5.  For that pretended danger of total reformation it savoureth altogether of the flesh, and nothing of the spirit.  
Is it dangerous to remove a destroying evil?  
Is it dangerous to do what God commandeth, and to remove that which he hateth?  
Is it dangerous to remove the government of Antichrist, and to plant in the place thereof the government of Christ?  
Now that the episcopal government is Antichristian, and opposite to the government of Christ hath been formerly proved.  
We fear where we should not fear: and we fear not where we should fear. Should we fear to slay that which would slay us; or to maintain that which will save us?  
It is true, that Physitians hold it desperate rashness to put hand to a deadly malady: but there the body is given for dead: so if there be nothing but a resolution to perish, then an evil consequent will sort with a desperate supposal.  
But we look for better things from your Honours ( for secret things belong to God,) but you the Physitians of the commonwealth must apply, and ply your Medicines, and God will work the cure.  
The remoraes of reformation, and all the belly-God crew will certainly cry out with open mouth, that these reformers are troublers of our State. But was Zephanie a troubler of the State, 
Cap. 1.4.  in putting on josiah to remove the Chemarim Priests, and all the relics of Baal? Did Christ himself disturb the Church when he whipped the buyers and sellers out of the Temple? 
Mat. 21.12  which practise the learned apply as a president for reformation of Church Discipline; witness Michael Declamangis cited to that effect by Morney.  
Charles the great, 
Histor. Papal. pag. 225 Gabri: Puteol. de Confil.  and Lewes his son( both Emperours) acknowledged themselves bound, and also endeavoured to follow josiah in Church reformation. Finally did Beza disturb the Church in writing an Epistle to queen Elizabeth for the quiter abandoning all the high places, 
Anno 1572. & a plenary reformation of Church discipline? though Bancroft stormed at him for this, because he touched the Coppiehould of his belly; yet the good queen took him for no disturber of the peace.  
4. And lastly such as writ for reformation in part; yet upon carnal reason resist a total reformation; are evinced by their own grounds; as stand ye in the ways, 
Ierem. 6.15  and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein. The word there must show the way vers. 17. now a man must not go half in one way,& half in another( witness the same Prophet, the best expounder of himself) what hast thou to do in the way of egypt, to drink the waters of Nilus, &c. 
Cap. 2.18.  again they city that place from the beginning it was not so: 
Math. 19.8  which all the learned both ancient& modern apply to the having recourse to Gods first institution; ad Originem, 
Cipra ad Pompeium.  dominicam, Evangelicam& Apostolicam( saith a Father) let us go to Gods grounds, to Evangelicall& Apostolical truths &c. As for that Popish Prelatical objection( that it is not yet time, 
hag. 1.2.  as the Iewes said of building of Gods house:) Or as Pope Hadrian answered Sigismond( Or as Doctor Soame of the same particular for his time) that it was not possible& safe. 
Quod non sit tutum vel possibile.   
This we say is out of date: For it is either high time now or never. So we earnestly desire( as Paul wished to Agrippa) that not only almost, but altogether reformation may be perfected: To the effecting whereof, let the terrible sequel of neglect persuade you. bestir your zeal and courage( right Honourable) for preventing of that black day, which may come upon us unawares.  
Can a body live without a soul? Or a soul insensate or activate a body without Sinews? As we have heard the purity of Doctrine to be the soul of the Church, whereby it liveth, so also Discipline hath been shewed to be the Sinews of the Church, by which sense and motion is conveyed and maintained in the Church.  
It is impossible that our state should continue, but must of necessity fall into desolation, before we be ware, if reformation be not hastened in this particular.  
Master Calvine sheweth what enemies they are to the State that hinder Discipline, and that from the desperate condition they bring it to: Qui Disciplinam impediunt extremam desperationem, 
Instit. lib. 4. cap. 12.  &c. They who hinder Discipline, bring the State at length to an extremely desperate point.  
Heathen writers observe; 
In 2. Reg. cap. 11. pag. 276.  and so doth Peter Martyr upon the Kings, that so long as the Romans observed strict Discipline with a competent severity, so long they prospered, and enlarged their Dominions; said labente Disciplina; Discipline decaying, the Empire came to nothing.  
How then can we choose but perish, who profess Christ, and yet reject the government of Christ.  
Nicolaus Orem in his Oration before Pope urban the 5. sheweth this to be one of the forerunning signs of the ruin of Church and common-weal, when Discipline perisheth.  
To draw to a conclusion of the proof. Hear and tremble at that which the Lord threateneth against the rejecting of this his Ordinance: 
Rev. 3.16.  It will come to pass that I will spew thee out of my mouth. A Loathsome people, and a fearful& unreversible judgement.  
This threatening intimateth that he can not bear us; that he will cast us out into despicable places; and that he will never look any more after us; what is the main cause of all these? 
V. 20.  Even our keeping Christ out at doors, that is: we will not have him to reign over us.  
Give not then the people and State, our peace and wealth, our sheep& shepherds, our Crownes, laws, and royal King( the King of his subjects,& Father of his people;) your own noble and generous families: your faire means, and possessions, and Gods glory( which is worth all:) give not those( we entreat you) as lost, to the pit of desolation.  
Before we conclude the point, it shall be very material to answer one doubt that may arise, and is most objected from the difficulty of the business.  
We verily believe, that all the well affencted to State, or Religion, upon the perusal of this Decade shall be really and fully possessed of the truth of this Position, namely the absolute necessity of the removal of the Prelacy; 
jer. 4.11.12.  and that as the Prophet speaketh: a wind to fan or to cleanse, will not serve the turn; but it must be a full or mighty wind to root up; and carry away the very foundation of their being.  Ast opus egregium quis, &c. 
But who shall do this great work, and by what means may it be accomplished? yea who dare bell the Cat? Or where is that Spirit that will dash the brains of that babylonish Prelacy( we mean their place) against the stones? Or who hath that hand to bring those enemies of Christ( who will not have him to reign over them) before him, and slay them? We must confess here goeth the B●are away; for as evils are easier discovered then cured, so duties are sooner discerned then discharged. The difficulty of the duty, the seeming danger in the means, and want of valour to give the onsett, weakeneth the force of the strongest reasons. But as thrice noble Nehemias said to that false Bellie-God, 
Nehem. 6.11.  betraying Priest Semaiah, should such a man as I fly?  
So should you encounter all discouragements,& frighting alarms thus; should such men as we fear to do that for our King, and country, which is of more necessity then life itself?  
To come then to a direct answer; and first for the persons who must effect this, we say this evil must be removed by the Magistrate& Minister, according to their several places and stations.  
The Minister must remove the wicked by the sword of the Spirit( namely the word,) and if that cannot move, the Censure of Discipline must be used, 
{αβγδ}. 1 Cor. 5.13 cap. 5.21.  according to that of Paul: Put away from among yourselves that wicked one, and this must be done( saith the Apostle) without partiality, preferring none before another; by virtue of the same power were Hymeneus& Alexander delivered up to satan, 
1 Timoth. 1 20.  that they might learn not to blaspheme. But in this the best may lay their hand upon their mouth, and charge themselves with the sin of concealing this main part of Gods counsel. As for the worst, the Prophets prophesy falsely, 
jer. 5.31.  and the Priests bear rule by their means,& my people love to have it so, but what will we do in the end thereof? Yea for our parts we can not tell how the very best will answer it, for besides the Scripture the Fathers tell us, 
Cypr.  that Disciplina est Dei Custos; retinaculum fidei, &c. It is Gods keeper; the bond of faith, the wholesome guide of a happy way.  

Bern.  Of which an other: Disciplinae jugo omnis insolentia damnanda: By the yoke of Discipline is all insolency suppressed.  
This being commanded in the Word( as hath been shewed) Math. 18.18. having authority and ratification from above Math. 16.16. being a main principal of Religion; Heb. 6.2. being the practise both under the Law, and under the gospel in all Reformed Churches; this being taken away( saith gualther:) nihil nisi confusio& {αβγδ}: There is nothing but confusion& anarchy.  
Must Ministers not meddle with it, nor with the enemies of it? God forbid; for this were, for fear of men, to omit a main part of Gods counsel. This is to cross divine precept, it is against the threatenings of Gods vengeance, and against the practise of the Saints, witness these places which we commend to the perusing of Ministers, Deut. 18.18. Math. 28.20. jer. 1.17. where observe the fearful threatening, least I consume you before them. Where he clearly intimateth, that vengeance is prepared against them, who dare not faithfully▪ and fully deliver their charge, for the fear of mans face, or any other cause. This made paul assure himself of a woe, 
1 Cor. 9.16  if he preached not the gospel. Yea if he preached not all the gospel, for so was his practise: 
Act. 20.22.  I kept back nothing, as he would say, neither for fear, nor Lucre. So Micaiah would say nothing to the King, but what the Lord had said to him, and all that he would say, 
1 Reg. 22.13.14.  whatsoever should come of it.  
We know what Fig-leave defences are made in this behalf. As so, they may lose their ministery: they may preach the most and profitablest truths: they may save some veils: and by striking on this string they should do no good.  
All these doth learned and right-downe Mr. Parker answer in his policy, thus to argue is to be wise above that which is written. God needeth to no mans ministery, with any disadvantage of sin; and what promise hath the ministery without fidelity. This( as the learned observe) is to offer a Lame sacrifice, condemned Levit. 22.20. where the word doth intimate, the playing the ●heef with the sacrifice.  
This is( as one saith) to hid a part of the talent proditorio silentio; by a betraying silence, 
Gualt. Homil. 173, in luke. 19.  which the Lord threateneth fearfully Math. 25. Yea the Lord( as that Author observeth) exposeth them often to the hatred of such as they have pleased by their proditorious silence.  
The same in effect doth the Lord speak by his own mouth in that quoted place of ieremy c. 1. v. 17. I will consume thee, or as the original beareth it: I will cause thee to fear,( as if the Lord should say: 
{αβγδ} ) if thou wilt betray my cause, for fear of man, thow shalt be a Coward indeed; for it standeth not with my honour to bear thee out: This fear was a steyn in the face of all Melancthons excellencies, and what exigents it put him to they who red know.  

In Epist. ad Bull.  Nemo modestior quidaem, said nemo timidior, saith Zanchie of him: None more modest I confess, but none more fearful. It is a sure maxim, no way to be safe, but to be zealously faithful.  
Mr. Parker calleth this, hookstering of the word, in plain terms: Flagellare Christum, vt vita servetur: a whipping of Christ, that his life might be saved. Then up ye men of God. Nolite consentire tam scelesti vocabulo: Endure not to keep silence, according to that charge given you by God: 
Esa. 62. V. 6.7.  I have set watchmen upon the walls O jerusalem! which shall never keep silence, day nor night, and give him no rest till he establish, &c. In the name of the Lord, 
Eze. 13.5.  rise up in the gap, make up the breach, for so did not the false Prophets. In the like case Moses would not, 
Exo. 10.26 Daniel. 6.11. Marc. 6.18  for the greatest appearance of advantage, leave so much as one hoof. daniel would not boudge one heares-breadth. John Baptist strooke at the roote, and Christ himself went on with his work, 
Luke. 13.32.33.  notwithstanding of the threatenings of herod the Fox. down then with the colours of the Dragon; trample the sceptre of the man of sin in the dust; advance the standard of Christ, and say: you do not prevail, your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. Non minus mercedis vobis debetur lavantibus Ethiopem, &c. You shall be as well payed for trimming of a blackamoor Bishop, as though you made him white as snow.  
Thus as the Minister must do his part with the spiritual sword, so the Magistrate must do his part in removing this evil with the Sword of Iustice, and with this more particularly, you the great counsel of State, or High Court of Parliament stand charged; which truth, give us leave to demonstrate to your Honours three several ways: 

1. From precept.  
2. From practise, or president.  
3. From impregnable reason.    
For the first is that place of the Proverbs: 
Prov. 25.4.5. V.  Take away the dross from the Silver, and there shall come forth a Vessels for the finer.  
Take away the wicked from before the King, and his Throne shall be established in righteousness.  
Here we are to understand what is ment by the dross, namely evil men, and evil Officers; and who worse then the prelates and their places: They are as Trithemius citeth it from Arnulphus; Bonorum malici, the very hammers, to beat the good and goodness to powder, they eat sin, and they are clothed with sin, as we have shewed. In a word, they make up a very mass of sin.  
2. Here is to be considered the dangerous nature of this dross, it overlayeth, corrupteth, fretteth,& consumeth the silver excellency of a King, State,& Religion; and what else do the prelates, as we have shewed at large? That Phrase of the Spirit fitteth just their dealing with our King and State: they have made our silver to become dross, 
Esa. 1.22.  and our wine they have mixed with water; for the latter of these L.D. or D.L. made it literally good, as we hear in the Sacrament lately in his chapel. Our King, counsel, Nobles, Ministers,& all sort of people are woefully corrupted by that Romish dross.  
3. Hence we plainly see that except this dross be taken away, there is no establishing of the Throne in righteousness; So that this must be done, all reasonable men will grant; but what Magistrate should do it, whether the supreme or others,( if by the supreme it be not done) there still riseth a doubt. For the clearing whereof, as well as we can, give us leave a little.  
It is the Kings Honour indeed with David, Ezechia, and Iosia, to purge the house of the Lord: and to purge out these Pymagate Chemarims( the very dross of his throne,) with the fiery zeal-consuming love of Gods house, were a duty worthy of so Kingly a dignity.  
The Philosopher out of nature and experience sheweth us, that {αβγδ}, or happiness of a kingdom, consisteth in the well ordering of these three things; 
Arist. Politi. Lib. 7.  namely {αβγδ}; that is, in matters of war; in matters of Iustice; and matters of the ministery, and of Gods worship.  
For the ordering of the last of these there is an unalterable platform in the word, in the which business Kings must neither add, diminish, nor take away, but if any thing be not according to this rule, with the foresaid Kings, he must remove it; because he is vindex utriusque tabulae, and God will require it at his hands.  
The truth of this David cleareth in his last will and Testament to his son: 
1 King. 2, V. 2, 3.  I go the way( saith he) of all the Earth, be thow strong therefore, and show thyself a man: But how should he strengthen himself? Keep the charge of the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, commandments, and judgments; that is, such worship, such conversation,& such execution of Iustice, as the Lord commandeth; for all these he calleth his testimonies.  
Out of the which one of the Learned well observeth, that he sendeth him not to counsels, 
Pet. Mart.  Fathers( or as we may say) to prelates or rabbis, but to the word of God to be his guide; as it is written( saith he) in the Law of Moses, Deut. 29.9. josu. 1.7.  

cyril Hierosolit. 41. Catech.  Yea the Fathers also bear witness of this truth {αβγδ}: In matters of faith or Mysteries of religion, men must not institute any thing without the authority of the sacred word. Augustine upon these words of the 2. Psalm: Be wise therefore o ye Kings; 
V. 10.11.  be instructed ye judges of the Earth, serve the Lord with fear, &c. commenteth very prettily: Quomodo Reges serviunt, &c. Nisi ea quae contra Iussa Domini sunt Riligiosa severitate prohibeant, atque plectantur. Aliter servit qua homo, aliter qua Rex; qua homo vivendo fideliter; qua Rex justa praecipiendo,& contraria prohibendo, sicut servierunt Ezechias& josiah; Lucos& Templa Idolorum,& excelsa contra precepta Dei diruendo: How do Kings serve the Lord with fear( saith he) but by forbidding and punishing with a Religious severity such things, as are contrary to Gods commandment. A King must serve the Lord one way as he is a Man, and an other way as he is a King: as a Man by believing well, and living well; as a King▪ by commanding that which is good, and forbidding and removing that which is evil. So served Ezechias and josiah the Lord, by demolishing the Temples, Groves, and high places of the Idolaters, yea and their Officers too. So that we see there is neither precept nor president wanting to Kings in this particular.  
The King further enforceth this counsel upon his son from the benefit ensuing; that thow mayst prosper in all that thow dost; which counsel, saith the same Author, if it had been observed by Kings, the Church of God had not been pestered with such a heap of mens traditions; ad quas cum principes vergunt, &c. To which when Princes begin to incline, they grow incertain, and fleeting in their Religion.  
Hence we see what danger these Lords of Misrule, and Great Masters of Ceremonies bring our King and State into, which should make us all( and you especially, right Honourable, and the faithful Ministers) on the knees of our hearts, to importune our endangered King, in the words of David: be thow strong, or strengthened, O King, & show thyself a man, keep the charge of the Lord in this main& weighty particular of removing the Prelacy; Or( as Abimelech in an other case:) gracious Sr. take an axe in your hand, and cutting down, say to your Senate, what ye see me do, 
judge. 9.8.  make hast, and do.  
What hath the dross to do with the gold? Or the Throne of iniquity with the sceptre of Christ?  
A more necessary work for all Gods Church; a more Princely and profitable act to your Highnesse self; a more happy thing for the State, and more pleasing to God, could not be thought upon.  

{αβγδ}.  That these be the dross, or perfidiously immorigerous( for so the Septuagint rendereth it) besides all our proofs, woeful experience proclaims it; And gracious Sr. you know it better then we can tell you; It is their apish condition insensibly to abuse: they are as Worms& Mots unto Kings, and their States, one applieth directly that place of the Proverbs to their abusing of Kings: 
Lavater.  Episcopi qui Reges saepiunt eos contra puram religionem accendunt,& cavent ne quis ad colloquiam admittatur, &c. Bishops( saith he) who hedge in Kings, do incense their mindes against the purity of Religion, and block up the way, that no good man can have access or speech to them. This is very true, witness the bloody practise of the French prelates against the Waldenses, whom they accused to Lewes the 12. of many fowle, but forged crimes; barring all access to the King, whereby they might clear themselves: till at length that good King told those Foxes, that if he were to condemn the Devil, he would give him a hearing. Whereupon he sent his Confessor and secretary of State to try the matter; who returning to the King, cleared their innocency,& commended so their piety, and integrity, that the King affirmed by his ordinary oath, that they were better then himself, or the Prelates that accused them.  
We need not go so far for instances to your Highnesse; we have too many at home; witness the shutting up of access from poor women, and their petitions, for the delivery of their husbands, imprisoned against the Law of God, and your Majesties Laws by the Prelates. They are ever as a black cloud between your Majesties pious subjects, and the Princes favour: For the which Swinglius compareth them to the watching Dragon, that kept the golden Fleece.  
But this dross being taken away by your Majesties refining power, and this cloud being dispersed by the irresistible heat of your Sunshining zeal; the beams of your gracious favour shall warm the hearts, and cheer the countenances of all your truly religious subjects; that Heaven and Earth shall bless you, honouring Christ with the overthrow of his enemies, and the establishing of his sceptre in this nation; which was never yet done by any of your predecessors: The Lord will honour you, by making your crown fast upon your head; by confounding your foes at home& abroad, yea he will set you as a Signet on his finger, and as a Seal upon his hand. In a word, great King( as hath been said) you shall prosper in all that you do, and whether soever you turn jour self. Yea this transcendent piece of service to your God, shall make you far more glorious then all your ancients with all their great conquests.  
With these, or the like speeches, our sovereign should be plied, whose heart is in Gods hand, and who knows, but by prayers and such speeches we might prevail?  
But put the case that the good harmless King be a captivated joash, by Athaliahs Arminianised,& jesuited crew. Or a misled henry the 6 dispossessed of his faithfullest Friends, and best counsel by the pride of the French. Or a henry the 3. overawed by a devilish domineering favourite. Or an Edward the 6. over poised and born down from his good purposes to Gods glory, and the good of the State, by the halting and falsehood of the prelates, and their Romish confederacies; so that such a King, though he hold the sceptre, yet he swayeth not the sceptre, neither can he free himself, nor execute his designs, because the sons of the man of sin are to hard for him: Shall the counsel of State leave a good head( though it ache) in the hands of the wicked? God forbid.  
To cut themselves off from the head, is to show themselves no members, but either rebels or stark cowards;& not to help the head in such danger of destruction, both to head and members, is to proclaim themselves to all the world, to be dead, dishonourable,& unprofitable members.  
Then you the great counsel of State must remove the wicked from the head, and take away the corrupting and corroding dross from the silver-excellencie, and excellent integrity of the King; so shall ye have of him a refined vessel. What can the head do when the hands deliver not? especially if the animal spirits are obstructed by the foggy vapours of such an Ephialtes or Incubus; as the Bishops are. As one in that disease would gladly speak and do, yet can not possible for the weight of those Clogging vapours, overlaying both Spirits and nerves; So good Kings born down,& overlaid with a drossy crew; and scared with the black vapours of their Chilling fears thence arising, would often both express their desires of reformation, and reform indeed, but they can not, or dare not vent themselves, because they see so few hearts to affect the business, and so few hands to help in it, especially amongst the great ones; where on the contrary the enemies of reformation will lay all their lots together, yea they will set up estate, and life, yea soul, and all upon one rest, for the safeguard of the Divels kingdom; the more shane for us, that we dare do no more, then now a dayes we dare, for the kingdom of Christ.  
Azariah the son of Amaziah is much commended, that he did uprightly in the sight of the Lord, 
2. King. 15.3.4.  according to all that his Father Amaziah did, but for this he is blamed, even when he was at best, that the high places were not put away, but the people yet offered, and burnt incense in them.  
A learned Commenter giveth a reason of this; his {αβγδ}, or delinquency,( as he calleth it, 
Pet. Mart. ) et si esset optimum, &c. hoc non tentavit quod fortasse putaret inveteratos hominum errores difficulter evelli posse: though total reformation was the best( saith the author)& he knew it to be so, yet he durst not attempt it, because he thought that the people would hardly be brought from their inveterate errors.  
It is just so with us; for how may good motions of reformation, in sundry of our Kings, have miscarried, thorough fears arising from the perfidy,& rebellion of the Prelacy, we have partly shewed, and might further enlarge ourselves, but that your Honours know them well enough.  
undermining Prelates, and dominiering favourites, have cast our bravest Kings into many could sweats.  
henry the 3. as wise and well governing a Prince as any we had, after that he was rid of evil spirits; being in danger of drowning upon Thames, he was somewhat transported with fear; and being come on shore; Mountford bad him be of good cheer, now the danger was past: The King replied, that he was more afraid of him, then of drowning, or any other danger: and of all the fears, and cares,& desperate straits, of this King, who were the prime cause, but the proud Prelates?  
Yea a tragical instance of our late King might serve for proof enough, if there were no more. If ever Prince deserved the name of the Bishops King, and Father of favourites, that did he; but how was he requited of both? Surely for the reverence that we owe to Kings, we are ashamed to say how grossly they abused him, in life and in death; yea he found himself so deluded to his face, and( all things going head long to wrack) that he groaned in his soul to be rid of his burden; and if he had had as mettle men about him,( as some times he had, who would have broken the snare and delivered his soul) we should have seen that he would have owned the fact, and thanked them too.  
Yea with grief in heart, to come to the very dayes wherein we now live: Have not the Prelates,& their late Champion so hedged in our now sovereign, that he could scarce look but at their appointment; to the no small dishonour of his majesty, the undoing of the State, and the wounding of the hearts of all his loyal and loving subjects.  
Hence you see, great Senators, what need Kings have of such a counsel of State, as will deliver their veils from the snare of the Hunter.  
The late Lord Verulam gives a very pretty moral upon that fiction of the contention of the inferior Gods with jupiter; wherein it is feigned they were to hard for him, till Briareus came in, and made them know, they were but Rebell-Gods. He compareth the house of commons to Briareus his hands, whose office and place is to vindicate the sovereign power, the good of State-government, and the glory of Gods worship from pollution, ruin,& indignity: your Honours are the very hands which must, or should, work our deliverance, in Religion, King, and State: Let flatterers, and enemies to King, State,& Religion, say what they will, you must be to them, that which Antigonus said of Zeno, the great Philosopher: Gestorum Regis Theatrum: The very theatre of the Kings actions: Or as the Philosopher saith of the hand: It is the Instrument of Instruments. So must you be eyes, ad discernenda Regis pericula, to discern the present danger of the King, and hands to him and us, to deliver all out of danger. The ancients give for an Hierogliph of a wise Senate, and able counsel, a little fish going before the great whale, discovering shallowes and other dangers, and showing the way by the motion of itself. This living the whale is safe, but being dead, he knoweth not what to do; so must your provide for the establishing of the Throne, the rectifying of government, or he may spirit upon the rocks of malicious counsel, or sink in the quicksands of base flatteries, and at your hands his miscarriage will be required.  
This course have stout and wise counsellors taken for the deliveries both of Kings and States, as we may red ad large, both in sacred and profane Histories.  
The counsel of State delivered joash from the bloody tyranny of Athaliah, Gods worship from idolatry, and the kingdom from destruction; where if any object that Athaliah was an usurper, and that joash was kept besides the crown; we answer, it is as great a mischief to a State( if not greater) for a good King to be manacled& swayed by the wicked in his throne, as to be besides his throne. As it is an evident token of Gods wrath, to be without counsel; as the Spirit witnesseth of his own people: A nation void of Counsels, Deut. 32.28. that is, never a whit of counsel at all amongst them; so wicked counsellors( as the same Spirit speaketh) are the very Chair of Deceit, Proverb. 12.5. to carry Kings and kingdoms headlong to destruction.  
We red of uzziah his proud attempt, whose heart being lifted up with prosperity, and forgetting that God had wrought all his works for him, he will burn incense upon the Altar of the Lord. But Azariah, and the valiant men of the Lord, withstood him, showing from the Law, that it pertained not to him, 2. Chron. 26.11.17. &c. Yea though he was wroath, because he might think his good intent might carry him out, yet they would not suffer him V. 19.  
Why then should ye, great counsel of State, and our valiant men of God, suffer the Ministers of Antichrist? to offer strange fire on the Altar of the Lord, which will cause the fire of Gods indignation,( if it be not removed,) to consume us all.  
That passage of the Philistim Princes, is very remarkable: They seeing David with his Hebrews marching on with the King, fall to expostulate the matter with the King: 
1 Sam. 29.  what do these Hebrews here? The King apologied Davids fidelity to the Princes, from that good and faithful deportment, that he had found in him ever, since the time of his being with him: but with this the Princes were not satisfied, but were wrath, saying to the King: sand this fellow back to his place, &c. They render a reason; that he would be an adversary to them; for where with should he obtain favour of his Master? should it not be with the heads of these men?  
In this same passage, there be many useful, and observable things:  
First, that Gods people in their straits should beware how they cast themselves upon the enemies of God; for that may bring them into greater straits.  
2. As a learned Author saith well: Politia non malae, &c. It was not an evil policy amongst the philistines, 
Pet. Mart.  ut Rex admoneretur, imo libere reprehenderetur à suis, vt non semper posset quicquid velvet: To admonish the King,( saith he,) yea and freely to reprove him, ( especially in matter of no less weight than the saving or losing of himself and his subjects,) for Kings may not always do what they list. As if ( saith the said Author) they should further enlarge themselves to the King, by way of expostulation. Is this to guide your affairs by counsel? to take a man to battle with you; and give him a chief commanders place, who hath been a heavy enemy to you and yours: the shedding of our blood hath won him the hearts of his people; he hath a fair pull for the kingdom, and now you will put a prise in his hand, namely all our lives, by which he may bring himself in greater favour with Saul than ever he was before; believe it, that must not be; you( that are worth all us) we, and ours, and all ly at stake, we must not lose you, and the kingdom, by preferring your fancy or growndlesse affection before sound reason.  
3. The grownds of their opposition were very good; For what wise man could think that a man obliged by so many bounds to his Country, and of such faire hopes to the crown, would bathe in the blood of his brethren, and vassal the crown to an uncircumcised enemy, of whose cruelty they had often tasted, which if he could not do, then of necessity he must betray them; and in very dead, if the Lord had not brought David strangely off, he had never been in a greater straight. As for the Kings reply upon the experience of Davids good behaviour, it might easily be answered: that as there is nothing liker sanctity then hypocrisy, so there is nothing liker fidelity then whited treason under trust.  
For application: nam fas est& ab host doceri, for we may learn of our enemies: is not our King and State in as great danger as Achish and his kingdom was? Yea sure, and greater. Love you not your sovereign and your Country, as dearly well, as the Philistim Princes did their King and Country? Ye can not choose, but love both better; then be as faithfully free with him, as they were with Achish.  
Why should the prelacy be Domini fac totum, that is: Don do all, or grand commanders in Church& State policy? Since, 1. they oppose with tooth and nail every thing that is good.  
2. They have had their hand( as hath been proved) in all the great evils, that hath befallen the Church and State.  
3. Never any good thing prospered that they put their hand too.  
4. The King& State stood never need, but they always deceived them.  
5. And lastly,( as the Princes said) if opportunity serve, they will make peace with their head, if it be with the loss of all our heads, if they continue their places.  
That which tully objecteth to Verres, is the ordinary practise of the prelacy: Consulem suum deseruit,& venit ad Syllam: He forsook his consul( saith he)& went to Sylla: so if the Pope come to wind his horn a little higher here amongst us, the horns of the Beast will push down King& counsel, and all, to make way for their Master.  
If once the Pope with jehu cry: who is on my side? then all his train will be too too ready to fling Gods house out at windows.  
For evidence whereof; take their present actions, as a scantling of their future attempts: if you look not to them, they may well serve us, as a grecian Bishop of Muchla, in the Province of Tegaea, served his Country. The city was beleagered by Machumet son to Amurathes: he sent one of his nobles to Asanes, a brave commander and governor of the city, soliciting him partly by promises, and partly by threatenings, to give up the city; who answered, that the place was strong enough, and mantled with a threefold wall; besides other muniments, and store of munition; therefore it were a shane, to give a place of that strength for lost; if the great Turk were resolved to assault, they were resolved to maintain their honour, by death or by life. But the Bishop knowing that they could not long hold out, for want of victuals, 
Leonici Calcondolae de rebus Turcicis citatur à joseph. Scaliger Pag. 263. Proditor Episcopus.  sent a privy Messenger to the Turk, showing him what straight they were in, and that he might have the place as cheap as he could desire it. By this means the city was betrayed; wherefore the Author blaseth him in the margin of the history for the traitor Bishop. But this is but a petty matter to that which some of our own have done, who have betrayed whole kingdoms, besides their stirring up the subjects to rebellion.  
Besides the foresaid instances from Scripture, what abundance of examples have we in human Histories of grave Counsels prevailing with their Princes, to the great good of King and State.  
It is written of Antonius pus the Roman Emperour, that he debated with his counsel a business of great weight, so that he would have it according to his will: But Scaevola the great Lawyer, and faithful counsellor, with others of the like fidelity, would have it according to his weal, and so indeed they carried it: I see Masters( quoth the Emperour) it must be as you will have it. 
Dionis. Halic. lib. 2.  yielding this reason: Aequius est ut ego tot taliumque amicorum Consilium sequar; quam ut tot talesque amici meam unius voluntatem sequantur: It is fitter( saith he) that I should follow the counsel of so many, and so faithful friends; then that so many such should follow my will, being but one.  
The like is related of Lewes the XII. of France, who thanked his counsel much for their faithful and constant resolution.  
But to go no further, have not your ancestors both kept sundry Kings, for a great while out of the pit of destruction, and pulled some as Brands out of the fire? Instance, henry the III. whose history you know, who after that he came to himself was as good a King as the best. It is related of him, that he would often say, that had his subjects followed his will, both he& they had perished, but he thanked God, that if he knew not how to rule, yet they knew how to obey.  
Consider those things, and the Lord give you understanding. Let not men have just cause to say to the body representative of the State: what is become of the activity, right-downe fidelity, and love, of English Parliaments to their Princes? Let it not be said of you, as God upbraideth that proud, but cowardly people the Iewes. 
jer. 9.3.  That ye are not valiant for the truth. Or as an other Prophet hath it, that will not contend for the truth, that is, passeth by without regard, or removing the Arch-enemies of the truth.  
Give us leave to speak: Ye know how ye went away at the last rising, hanging down your heads, yea some with tears in your eyes,( as though) ye had been lead in Triumph after the Dukes Chariot: and what a deal of Triumph and tantost was there in the Tabernacles of the wicked?  
It grieved the veils of some, to see the Kings pale looks, and heavy countenance, howsoever the litlegood Prelate, and his faction, were always prompting with an omnia been, or ha, ha, so would we have it: But God hath broken the Base, break you the triple; or the trouble of the prelacy,& then the black Sanctos of their music is marred: But if you suffer still these grand enemies of State, with their confederate favourites, to turn our silver into dross, and our wine into water; all nations will blame you exceedingly, because they do conceive, if any other nation had our King that they should have of him a refined vessel: Yea take heed in this case, that it be not said to you by the Lord, as David said to Abner, and other of Sauls Courtiers, for the negligent watch they kept over the Kings person; Are you not valiant men, 
1. Sam. 26.15.16.  and who are like to you in Israell? Wherefore then have you not kept your Lord the King? This thing is not good that ye have done.  
Besides Ministers and Magistrates, all private parties that love God and their country, should have a hand in Babels overthrow; as the benefit tendeth to all, so the duty belongeth to all. The counsel of Hushai to absalon sorteth well with this business, that all Israell should be gathered from Dan to Beer-sheba, 
2. Sam. 17.11.13.  as the Sand of the Sea in number, who may with the ropes of their prayers, joined to the power of your hands, draw the city of their babel into the River of destruction, until there be not one small ston found.  
But more of this when we come to the means.  
2. We come in the next place to the second point of proof; namely the practise of nations, or the president of all reformed Churches. Approvable practise, especially of Gods people, in a thing of high, and necessary nature, is both a good warrant and inducement to others in the like case. Yea it serveth to condemn them, if they do not follow.  
To begin then with the united Provinces, when Philip the II. of spain, contrary to the nature of a King; the counsel,& entreaty of his Father, his own solemn oath,& covenant, made at his entry, had resolved in his heart, by the instigation and evil counsel of the Duke de Alva, to make slaves of the Netherlanders; cardinal Granvell, and the black counsel of Hell devised for the effecting of this, and for to add to their burdens, the bringing in of 15. new Bishops, together with the Spanish Inquisition, both which the Duke de Alva established, to the spoiling of their goods, the tormenting of their bodies, and undoing of their veils; the prisons were so full, they were forced to erect more, upon which cruel courses 100000. families left their places, and means, to save their lives, by living other where, but by this fiery trial the Lord did not onely purge the drossy, and heavy disposition of that people, and made them more weeldie for arms; but he also thereby made the scales to fall from their eyes, that in the midst of the furnace, they saw the light of the gospel, which with all those dangers they embraced and maintained with their blood, they gathered themselves into companies, as in Zealand there were 60. companies: they built Churches, which the cruel Duke demolished, and in their place set up gallows, executing all that could be found.  
Yet for all this they went on, till thorough Gods mercy, and the assistance of neighbouring Princes( both with their purses, and the blood of their subjects) they grew to an united body; and having broke the bands both of Spanish and Popish tyranny, they took away the dross of that overlaying,& tyrannizing prelacy, as the ground of all their wo, and as the onely way to establish the purity of Christs ordinances.  
They cashiered the Bishops of Vtrick,& of Haerlem in Holland. The Bishop of Midlebourgh in Zealand. The Bishops of Lewardin,& Groening in Frizeland. The Bishop of Deventer in Overyssell, after which they prospered exceedingly against the enemies, for this is the way indeed; to catch the old one.  
If this had not been a good course, or if any thing would have served but this, then notwithstanding of their resisting of the Spanish tyranny, they might and should have kept these Holy Fathers, the Prelates, as their chief builders of the house of God: But God taught them, and heavy experience cleared this principal; that there is no building of Gods house, after his own pattern, so long as the pillars of Antichrist bear sway in the house, there is no shutting of the door, whilst the thief is in the house: so long as they had kept possession, spain,& Rome could never fully have lost their possession, and therefore they took the right course, both for reformation,& liberty, to shut them quiter out at doors; neither did ever any true friend to the gospel to this day condemn them; not the King of France, being a Papist, nor his brother, Duke de Angue, their governor, though also a Papist.  
Vpon this their delivery from spain, and Rome, they gave this device to their arms; a coller about the Lions neck, with this word: Rosis Leonem, lorris mus liberat: The bands being broken, the mouse setteth free the Lion. And on the other side against it, the King of spain, and the Pope, with this device: Liber lo, revinciri pernegat: The Lion being once free, will not again be bound.  
The sum of all that hath been said, 
Meteren. Pag. 43. 45 49. 91. 305.  concerning this particular, be pleased to see in the history of the Netherlands. Onely give us leave to apply the devices.  
Our Prelates keep not onely the Lion, our sovereign, in bands, but even the Lion of the tribe of judah; and as the Pope& Spaniard counted no more of the belgic forces, and their confederate helps, then of so many mice; even so the proud Prelates partly thorough their own ambition; and partly thorough the carelessness, or fear, or part taking of others, are grown with all their rabble, so to outbrave the Parliament; that they count no more of them then so many mice: they are grown so pack now with the scar crow-censures of the State,( for they count them no better,) that they are no more afraid of that terrible tribunal, then the frogs were of the log, that jupiter is feigned to let fall amongst them: Yea as the Hungarian goeth not ordinarily with his weapon, nor is not reputed a brave Gentleman, till he have killed a Turk, so among that crew, he is not a fellow in grain, till he have braved the Parliament: But let them know whom they deride; and as the belgic mices teeth, or rather the noble Brittans blades freed this Lion( though now too forgetful of his deliverer;) so cut you the cords( for that is better then to unloose them) set free the Lion of State and Religion, and you shall be more precious to God, and better metal to the state, then the gold whereof the philistines mice were made, which they sent home in the Ark. Yea your device shall be this, conspicuously glorious to all the world, engraven in golden Characters, about the neck of King& Church. Hic Senatus est medicus huius Leonis: This Parliament hath cured this Lion of the Kings evil.  
A second instance of practise may be taken from the North-Britans or Scots, our neighbour nation; who did vindicate the liberty of the Church, and State, to so high an allay, that in every particular it was without parallel: so that the last King gave this testimony of it, that it was as pure a Church( if not purer) as any, since the time of Christ; and therefore he thanked God, that it was his lot to live in it; and how came they to the excellency of that purity? but by taking away the dross, namely the prelacy with all the train of the trumpery; so that they left not one hoof of the Beast. But who did this? even the counsel of State? but by what authority, command, or concurrence from the supreme Magistrate? Surely by none at all, but rather against the stern and cruel opposition of three Popish Princes, all reigning over them with an high hand; namely, Francis,& mary, King,& Queen of France& Scotland,& Queen Mother Regent for the time, Sister to the house of Guise. These three Princes were devoted soul and body to the Pope,& the two women were as resolute and politic for achieving of their malicious ends, as any of their Sex. Besides they had all the power and counsel of these house of Guise,( who swayed all France) to further their attempts. They sent great forces into Scotland, with a number of the fiercest spirits, shrewdest pates, and best soldiers, that were amongst them; that with fire and sword they might destroy those reformers, with their posterity, and root out the gospel. We will trouble you but with one instance.  
One Labrosse, a great counsellor,& Soldier, thought it was fittest to destroy all the nobility, and to billet some thousands of the French Horse upon their means; and as for the cominaltie to make vassals and slaves of them: his letters directed into France to this purpose were intercepted, which stirred up the state to stand for reformation, as much as for their lives. To these fierce designs the Bishops were fire& Bellows; witness, one of them in these bloody broils, 
Ep. Ambian. Buchan. rer. Scotio. lib. 10. p. 174.  who railed and cursed the Soldiers, because they did not burn, rob, slay, and ravish all right down before them. especially he was vexed, that they did not murder one William Matlan, a brave Gentleman, and so good a scholar, that he was to hard for all the learning of Sorbon: Therefore the Bishop would have the Soldiers to cut his throat, and that should be an unanswerable argument: but the Lord quenched all their fiery darts, and so strengthened the hearts, and guided the hands of the state; with the assistance of Queen Elizabeth, that they prevailed mightily against their, and Gods enemies, and never gave over the work, till they laid( as one said) the very Coapstone of reformation.  
It is true indeed, that our English Euroclydon, or unctuous South-burning wind of Babel, together with some rotten Meteors of enclosed vapours amongst themselves, have like an earthquake shaken the house, and uncovered the roof of it: but let us look to it; we are the unwholesome point, from whence this infecting wind hath blown upon them; for if we do not, it is like not onely to splitt our Ship upon the rock, but also to rent the veil of three kingdoms.  
We could relate at large more instances, as the French, swissers, Bohemians, germans,& Geneva,) who presently upon their reformation removed this ground of deformation,) but the truth is so well known, we should but take up time; onely observe this point of reformation, observed by the Biscayns to this day, as some writ: this being a Province of Spaines Dominions, the people can not endure a Lord Bishop to tread upon their ground; witness, that trial that Ferdinand the catholic made, by bringing a Bishop with him, guarding him in the middle of all his great train; but the people not able to endure him, the King sent him presently out of their territories, and they digged up the ground, whereon the Bishops Mule stood, and cast it into the Sea.  
I recite this the rather, because it is cited by that geybing Geographer, who telleth the puritans; 
heal.  that that were a fine place for them to dwell in; but there is a better way then that, root such Bishops out of England, and it will be a finer place for the Puritans to dwell in, and let the Bishops and their favourites go make their peace with Biscay.  
To conclude the point, you see( right Honourable) what other States have done for the deliverance of them, and theirs, and clearing the title of Christs kingdom; and that with more resistance, and less concurrence then you shall have; therefore you shall do well at length to follow in that which is good, least they and their actions rise up against you.  
The 3. and last point of proof is from the reasons ingageing you to the service. We have already in some Sections foregoing urged the matter from 9. several reasons, or motives: now give us leave briefly to add these four: nam abundantia non nocet: plenty is not offensive.  
1. constraint or command is laid upon you from the word, as we conceive, namely from that place of the Proverbs, so much beaten upon. Compared with other places of Scripture; 
Deu. 17.12.  as, thow shalt take away evil from Israell; where be pleased to observe, that every evil( without exception) must be taken away, and the greater evil, the greater necessity of removal, and who must do this? onely the supreme Magistrate? Not so; but also the Senate, yea every Minister, or judge, appointed by God, for so the word telleth us.  
In divers places the Lord complaineth, yea and wondereth, that men of place stand off from the Lord in this employment: 
Esa. 59.16.  and when he saw there was no man, he wondered that none would offer himself, &c. Again:  

cap. 63.5.  I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered there was none to uphold, &c. An other Prophet to the same effect:  

Eze. 22.30  I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap, before me for the Land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none,  
In all these places it is a wonder that the great jehovah should stand wondering, that there were none to lend a hand, to the saving of the Church and common weal: that there was no physician to Minister one Dram to that deadly diseased State: in the travels of the people in the wilderness, notwithstanding of the peoples transgressions, they had Moses for a physician. In the promised Land, they had many good Iudges. In Eli his time, they had samuel, and after him sundry good Kings: But at this time not one. What not one? Was there not jeremiah, Baruch, ezechiel, and a good remnant, that mourned in Sion, 
Eze. 9.9.  and were marked in the forehead? Yea sure; but ieremy was imprisoned beaten, and put in the stocks, and to ezekiel they were as Scorpions; the greater sort, as Princes, Nobles,& Magistrates, were either like the bulls of Basan, 
Hos. 4. & the King of Samaria, trampling all under foot; or like the noble men of Tekoa, they would not put their necks to the work of the Lord; 
Nehem. 3.5  or they were like the prudent Professors of these times, whose cautelousness Amos discovereth, that kept their silence in that time, for it was an evil time. 
Amos 4.13,  Or if there were a remnant, that could not hold their peace, but for Sions sake they must speak; they were holden, as Lavater well observeth: Hostes Reipub.& Ecclesiae: the enemies of the Church and common weal, tumultuous and factious fellows, they are never quiet; the Land can not bear them.  
The foresaid Author commenting, on Ezechiel, applieth this to his time, and so may we to our times; for there are some of all sorts, but that the prudent in place of authority especially should keep silence, or not stand up in the gap, that is the very matter of the Lords wonder: for it is no wonder that the wicked in regard of their enmity to God set their face against God, for in this they do but their kind; but for such as have taken Gods presse-mony, wear his livery, given up their names to fight his battailes, and have inrouled themselves for his household Servants; for such( we say) to have neither hand nor tongue, for Gods cause, and the removing of Gods enemies, it is a prodigious wonder indeed. In the original, the Lord is said to cause himself to wonder, as if he could not wonder enough. He speaketh to our capacity, and herein taxeth our stupidity; shall all the host of Hell, as Atheists, Papists, loose libertines, Time-servers, Neutrals, carnal gospelers,& Hypocrites, band themselves to the desperate service of the devil, whose end is damnation, and shall not the servants of the most high, whose wages is life eternal, lay all at the Lords foot, for the delivery of Sion: what a wonder is this?  
This threateneth( as the Lord speaketh in that place of ezechiel) a wafling of the betide; yea further a particular judgement to such as are in authority, and stand not up in the gap: I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the Land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none. Observe what followeth.  
Therefore have I powred out mine indignation upon them, I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath; their own way have I recompensed upon their own head, saith the Lord God. Where we entreat your Honours, to observe Hieroms observation upon the place, who by the heads understandeth the Magistrates, that howsoever the Lord will destroy that nation, where there is none to take his part against the wicked, yet he will plague the heads, especially who should stand up before the Lord in the Land, to save the rest.  
If for further encouragement you would be further satisfied, to what commandement the duty should be reduced, since every act must be warranted by a Law; we answer to the 2. commandement, which as it condemneth all unlawful governours, and government, with all mens devices in Gods worship; so it enarmeth men of place( as Magistrates and Ministers) to abandon all counterfeit government, and superstitious worship. And so much for the first reason.  
2. The 2. reason or motive added to enforce this duty upon you, is from the Kings gracious speech, at the last confirmation of the privileges, in Parliament; wherein he did cast himself& the care of the state upon you; signifying, that if you had not a happy Parliament, you might blame yourselves: now what happienesse can be to King or state, except ye pluck up the plants of all our unhappiness. As a word to the wise is enough, so a word from a willing King is enough. Your actions of reformation, by supplanting of mighty evils, shall be the best comment to the Kings speeches.  
Kings are not onely content, but also desirous to have divers things done, that they would hardly be seen in, till they be done, and then they are willing to own them; the reason is: they love to try what stewards of State they have, and whether they answer their places, in daring to remove the Silver from the dross.  
It is worthy the observing, that the State of Silicia presented once a petition to Caesar, against one D. Calphurnius; a lewd favourite, and oppressing deputy. Lucius Calphurnius, fur, latro,& maechrus est: quid tibi videtur? Calphurnius is a thief, a robber,& a hooremonger; what think you? To which Caesar answered no more but thus: Videtur: it seems so; and so( as they meant to do) they took an order with him, wherewith Caesar was well content.  
3. The 3. reason, w●ich we add, is taken from that use, which all the ●●ofessed enemies of State and Church make of this relacie, to effect their evil ends: as David said of Gol●ahs sword, there is none to that, so saith the Pope, Spaniard,& Arminian, for overturning of a State, and making havoc of a Church; there is none to a Bishop, give them that: that we do not slander them, let their own actions witness, wherein though we might be large, yet we will clear the proof in one or two instances, that we may draw to an end of the Position.  
When cardinal Granvell( as we have shewed) devised to enslave, and sack the Netherlanders, by the Spanish Inquisition, the onely means to bring it in, and to keep it on foot, was to put upon them 15. more Bishops,( making 3. Archbishops,) under pretence of better government; and for their maintenance, they turned the Abbeys into bishoprics, to the great discontentement of all sorts of people; but what was the reason? the story telleth us, that they might further the bringing in,& keeping up of that bloody Inquisition; so that they were the maddest lads that could be found, for consuming Church and State, with fire and sword.  
Duke de Alva, the Popes second son, 
Meteren. 43. 45. 49. 91. 305.  did establish( as we have shewed) both these Bishops, and the Inquisition; for the which Im pus the V. sent him a rich Sword, with a hilt all of gold, and an embroidered hat, decked with precious stones.  
Let the projects of the Arminians serve for an other instance. arminianism we know is the very Elixir of popery, the mystery of the mystery of iniquity; so fine a thread, that scarcely it can be seen, or felt: the quintessens of Equivocation: the oracle of Delph●s; the Cabinat of the Popes secret, and Spaines new-found passage for britain, and the Low Countries. As this plaguy Comet had its matter from the a dust fiery vapours of that Popish prelacy, so the prelacy is meat, drink, and apparel for the maintaining of it. Things live by the same things that they are bread off: now we have shewed and proved, that arminianism, and all other schisms, and Heresies, have their rise from the prelacy; and so by the prelacy it must be maintained.  
With this principal the Netherlands Arminians were well enough acquainted, about twelve year ago, when they drew to an head: and after much debating by arms and terms, they plainly expressed themselves, that they desired no more, but that Lord Bishops should be erected, who might set all thing in order, and keep the Church in peace; To that end they had cast their thoughts upon Vtenbogard, to be the man, who with Barnevelt should have vassalled all to their own will; so that they knew, that peace should have been the war of the Church: for the Arminian,& the Antichristian Bishops, are as the Father and the son relatives, which mutually subsist; yea the veyns and arteries of the prelacy, carried both blood& spirits from England, and other parts, to the maintenance of the belgic arminianism, the poisonable root, whereof lay lower at that time then we yet well conceive; and had so spread itself over the Low Countries, and England especially; that we may say of the Papists& Arminians, as the Britans said of the Danes, and the Sea: Pellunt barbari ad mere, repellit mere ad barbaros: We are tossed between the devil, and the deep Sea of Rome. As it is ordinarily now; no Papist, or blancher with Papist, no Statesman; so no Arminian, no Bishop, or fat person.  
As the Netherlanders then had best look to it, that their monstrous Rebellions bring not back again upon them those pragmatical Fathers of arminianism, to the loss of themselves, and what they have gained; so necessity is laid upon you the valiant men of Israell, to set both the Fathers and the Children on packing; for if all our enemies, foreign and Domistick use thē as the only fittest Instruments, to undo us; if you remove not them, the State shall be required of your hands; and the practise of the wicked shall condemn you, but we hope better things of you.  
4. The 4. and last motive is this, that if the Lord awaken not your hearts,& strenghthen not your hands, to stand up before the Lord, in delivery of the Land; then it is both a cause,& a sign, that the Land is given for lost; witness, the fore-cited place of ezechiel: I sought a man among them, that should stand up, &c. But I found none.  
Therefore have I powred out mine indignation upon them, and have consumed them with the fire of my wrath, &c.  
To this also the Prophet ieremy beareth witness, where speaking of the vineyard of the Lord, they have laid it desolate or waste, 
Cap. 12.11. ( saith he;) and being desolate, it mourneth to me, or over me; and what is the cause of this desolation, or laying waste, because no man layeth it to heart; That is: no man regardeth it, nor endeavoureth to remedy it.  
To the same effect, the Lord speaketh in an other place by the same Prophet:  
The bellows are burnt, the led is consumed of the fire, the founder melteth in vain; That is to say: All pains and cost were spent upon that people in vain: what was the reason? the wicked were not taken away, that was a manifest token, that the Lord had rejected them, for they were but reprobate silver. As this is clear from the word; so Comineus, and other great Statesmen, giveth this for an unfallible token of ensuing ruin, when none standeth up to deliver a State from the inbred devouring enemies of it.  
But some among us besotted insecuritie; may possibly reply: you are very peremptory, ye are no Prophets; God is not so ready to destroy, as every Hotspure out of the pulpit, or every prognosticating scribbler would make him to be; and if destruction do come, it may be we shall never see it; or if it come in our time, we can shift for ourselves, as well as others.  
For answer, the more warning the Lord giveth from the mouths of his Messengers, or from the pens of his Clerks, the nigher hand is destruction: Further we desire those Shifters, to take notice what the Lord saith to them by the Prophet Amos: 
C. 9.10. v.  All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, which say the evil shall not overtake nor prevent us.  
Others will reply, God hath taken off some of our arch-enemies, and will not he in their destruction establish our preservation? Yea sure, as hath been said, if we had hearts to follow home the blow; but otherwise as the Lord gave us such in wrath, so he may justly take them away in wrath,& give us worse in their stead.  
If we make not very good use of Gods execution,& do for God, as he hath done for us; he may justly deal with us, as he dealt with judah, 
jer. 28.13.  when the yoke of wood is broken, he may make us one of iron.  
A third sort will object, though our Land hath all signs& symptoms of a deadly disease; yet we are the Lords own people, and he will be our physician to heal us, according to his promise, Exod. 15.26.  
For answer, we must look so to the performance of the condition, that we may challenge the promise: If thow wilt diligently harken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandements, and keep all his statutes, then will I put none of those diseases upon thee, &c. For I am the Lord that healeth thee, or thy physician.  
But if they will not hear and obey, then he threateneth most of all, to punish them: who ever scape they shall not escape; witness, his own mouth, by the Prophet Amos:  

Cap. 3.2.  You onely have I known of all the families of the Earth: therefore I will punish you, for all your iniquities.  
And it must be so, because they most dishonour God; they cause the wicked to blaspheme; they grieve the Spirit in the godly; and they leave the Land destitute of all defence.  
Some yet will further reply, there are many sincere and upright in the Land, who keep themselves from the evil of their own hearts, and the iniquity of the times; yea they mourn for the sins of Sion.  
For answer, 1. They show not themselves in their places, zealous of Gods glory, contending for the truth, 
Ierem. 5.1.  they are not men in the streets,( as the Prophet speaketh) they do not quit themselves fully of these men, and things that are most offensive to God.  
2. If there be a few that by farthel have laid down themselves, and all that they have at the foot of the Lords cause; are they not counted as signs& wonders; and left alone to the destroyer, as a Ships mast upon the top of the mountane? who comes forth to help them against the mighty?  
3. All the mourners in Sion shall have their life for a prey, which may well content them; but if the great and Maister-evill be not taken away from Israell. It standeth not with Gods honour, nor the zeal of the truly bread; that the Lord for them should still spare a nation; who spareth and maintaineth that evil, that he most hateth.  
To come to a conclusion of the point, we beseech you( right Honourable) again and again, and that by the mercies of the eternal God: If there be in you any zeal to his glory, any faith to your country, any love to your Souveraigne; any compassion on your families, and us, any looking for consolation; that you take away the dross from the silver; so shall we have a refined vessel. We are bold to use to you the words of the Prophet ieremy: behold we set before you the way of life, and the way of death: Therefore do the Lords work, and ye shall live. These fifty yeares, and upward, the Lord hath pleaded by his agents, at the bar of your Parliament, for his own privileges, against the intrusion of the hierarchy, yet he could never have right, yea scarce a good hearing; it is time to look to it, and to give sentence on his side; for if he be forced to take the matter into his own hand, he will first cast the state over the bar, and then slay those that would not have him to reign over them.  
look steadfastly upon these things. All lieth at stake. You are the ordinary means, or none we see to redeem them. At any rate( then) strike neither at great nor small, but at these troublers of Israell.  
Smite that hazael in the fifth rib: Yea if Father or Mother stand in the way, away with them;( we beseech you,) Nam potius pereat vnus quam vnita●: Make rather a rotten three fall, then that the rotting drops thereof should kill the Sheep.  
The means whereby our deliverance from this evil may be wrought, shall be discovered in the handling of the last Position. And so much for this point.   

10. Position proved.  
NOw followeth the last point, but not the least motive of persuasion to the work; namely, the strikinge at this roote of the hierarchy; the removal of this idol; and the erecting of the puritye of Christs ordinances( as we conceive upon good ground) shall stay the course of sin; remove judgement; Recover Gods favour; make up the breaches of the Church, and common wealth, redeem the honour of our state; remove the wicked from the throne; Dash cut the brains of our enemies hopes; and bring many blessings upon our King; Church and common wealth.  
The evidence of this point will undenyablie follow upon the proof of the former. There be two ordinary means to enforce the performance of any duty, namely; fear of punishment,& hope of reward. Wee are bold to press them both. But wee hope your generous, and noble minds like better to be lead then driven; to be persuaded then enforced. The conjunct cause being removed; the effect must cease, and contrary effects must follow: for there is no vacuity.  
If we will stay the course of sin, we must go to the fountains head. The prelacy is the mother of all sin, and the daughters maintain the mother; Take away the mother, and the daughter shall not find so many husbands. The sythe to mow down sin( as hath been shewed) is Discipline, which the Prelates can not endure, and that argueth and plainly convinceth their kingdom, to subsist by sin.  
Some of their Champions scoffing at the desires of Gods people, for removal of them, and erecting of Discipline, 
B. Bilson de gub. 14. pag. 539.  bid them first set down, and propound an other government; Facilius est, &c. It is easier( saith one) to subvert, or cast down a thing then to erect it. Let them first find out an other government, ere they remove this. His Fellow proctor Scultingius hath the very same in effect, 
Lib. 1. p. 11  for the Popish government against the Calvinists.  
This scoff relisheth but of a Loose hart, we will not say of blasphemy; as if the government of Christs house were to seek. Opposers of the truth should have good memories. For he knoweth and confesseth that there was such a government as we pled for, and so is it yet still in readiness, if usurpation were removed. Every one knoweth, that an old rotten or plaguy house must be removed, or consumed with fire before a new Frame be set up: 
2 Thes. 2.6. {αβγδ}.  Remove that which withhouldeth,& Christ who standeth at the door, ready to come in, will bring his government with him.  
The foul mouthed Censurers of the petition for reformation, would persuade the State, that Discipline can not suite nor sort with the subsisting of a monarchy. 
Cans. 6.  And why? Because they put lying aspersions upon it, as excommunicating of Kings; proceeding against them as tyrants, robbing them of their right.  
It is an usual thing with neighbours to call honest women so, at the very first bout. They seek the Presbyterians where themselves do lie; si accusare sat est, quis erit innocens; If it is enough to accuse, who shall be clear? Hath it not been their own ordinary course( as hath been shewed) to interdict Kings, to depose them, and cause their lives to be taken from them, do they not now usurp the Kings right,( as hath been proved.) And where they grant that actions matrimonial of Tithes, and Testamentary actions do belong to the King de jure; yet they take them all to their own Courts de facto. But what profit or privilege can they show the presbyterians to have robbed Kings off? yea have they not rather partend with their own, for the advancement of the gospel?  
But to answer directly, to say that the government of a King,& the good of his State cannot stand with the government of Christ, jumpeth fully with that impious conceit of herod, 
Math. 2.3. {αβγδ}  who hearing of Christs coming in the flesh, was exceedingly troubled, but without cause, for Christ had no eye to his kingdom. Vpon this conceit one writeth these pretty iambics: 

Hostis Herodes impie,  
Christum venire, quid times?  
Non eripit mortalia,  
Qui regnat dat coelestia.   

Impious herod, enemy to Christ,  
What makes thee fear Christs coming in our mould?  
Will he from Earthly Kings their sceptres wrest?  
Who gives Kings Crownes, more glorious then of gold.    
In a word, none but enemies to Christ, are enemies to the government of Christ, and if Christ were here on Earth, they that cannot endure his government, would not endure himself.  
But to go on with the point of removing judgement, and the blessing ensuing upon reformation: besides the grounds from the former Positions; it is as clear a truth, as any in Gods book; from promise; Instances of Examples, and reason:  
For the first, the Scripture is abundant; it presseth no thing more; witness first, that place of samuel: and samuel spake to all the house of Israell: Put away the strange Gods from among you, 
1. Sam. 7.3, &c.  and Ashteroth, and prepare your hearts unto the Lord, and serve him onely, and be will deliver you out of the hands of the philistines. Here a people over head and ears in calamity; there was in them humiliation, but they wanted reformation: the Prophet biddeth them join reformation with humiliation, and they should have what they desired.  
To the same effect, the Lord speaketh by the Prophet Esaia: 
C. 1. v. 22.  though the Israelites Silver was become dross, and their wine mixed with water; that is; they were become glistering hypocrites, and they carried a fare show and semblance of Religion, as dross carries a show of silver, and wine, mixed with water, a colour of wine; For this especially the Lord hateth them, howsoever they pleased themselves in those deluding shows; yea their Princes& Priests, that should have reformed others, both by Discipline& Example, were Rebelles, Devourers, thieves,& Robbers, and companions of such, {αβγδ}: such mistress, such maid. Yet for all this; though these their sins were of a scarlet, or crimson die, if they will but hear and obey; if they will cleanse their hearts, and take away from before the Lord the evil of their works, and do good in stead of evil, he will not onely forgive them, but also bless them, they shall eat the good things of the Land, V. 19. Yea he promiseth to turn his hand upon them,( that is, to turn from smiting of them,) and he will burn out the dross, till it be pure, and take away all the tin, V. 25. Observe what followeth: He will restore their judges, as at the first, and their counsellors, as at the beginning; so shall it be called a city of righteousness, and a faithful city, V. 26. Observe the fruits of reformation, which though the Lord himself effecteth,( for without him we can do nothing,) yet he reformeth by fecundarie means, where in he honoureth man much, and maketh him manifest his obedience.  
This Mr. Zanchie witnesseth in a treatise of the reformation of the Church; speaking of the foresaid place of Esaia: I will burn out the dross, &c. Quid per stannum, &c. What is ment here by the dross and tin? new Doctrine, will-worship, and all such things as have not their foundation from Christ& his Apostles. Sunt igitur omnia stanna novarum Doctrinarum,& novorum cultuum tollenda,& statuenda quae tempore Christi& Apostolorum, 
Regula 10.  &c. Imo Ceremoniae& Disciplina ad prima principia,& primos fontes redigantur, ut profligatur omnis novitas, &c. The tin of new Doctrines, and new invented worship are to be removed, and things are to be established, according to the institution of Christ and his Apostles; yea all Ceremonies and Discipline are to be reduced to the first principals and fountanes head of Christs institution, that all novelty may be abandoned.  
Where he also observeth, that our Saviour Christ bringeth all things to the same standard, in these words, 
Math. 19.8  from the beginning it was not so, rejecting every ordinance, that hath not his institution from God.  
This said Author presseth further this point of reformation from that place of ieremy, which offereth itself for an other proof: 
C. 6. v. 7.  As a fountain casteth out her waters, so she casteth out her wickedness.  
To what a corrupt and corrupting habit of sin was jerusalem grown? like a poisonable wellspring it was ever casting out deadly waters; yea they were grown shameless in their abominations, and therefore the Lord threateneth to slay them V. 15. Yet for all this the Lord biddeth them: Stand in the ways, and behold, and ask for the old way, which is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your veils, V. 16. As if the Lord should say: look but upon my ways; compare them with the ways of sin, that seem so sweet unto you, and wherein your deceiving Prophets soothe you up; considder whether my ways be not both more equal,& more profitable then the ways of sin; for in them ye shall find refreshing, that is both comfort and prosperity, where in the ways of sin there is nothing but wo and sorrow. So that( as Zanchie observeth) he allureth, or enforceth them to reformation. Argumento ab utili: From an argument of commodity.  
So in the fourth of the same prophesy: O Israell! 
V. 1.  if thow return unto me,( saith the Lord,) and if thow put away thine abominations out of my sight, then shalt thow not remove.  
One place more from the prophesy of ezechiel: 
C. 45.8.9.  Albeit they set their thresholds by my thresholds, and their posts by my posts,( that is, their idols by my worship, as indeed we have done,) they have defiled my holy name with their abominations, which they have committed; yet let them put away their fornication, and the carcases of their Kings far from me; That is, monuments of idolatry, erected to Ammon and Manasseth: And I will dwell among them. Innumerable places from Genesis to the Revelation, we might quote to this purpose; but the point is so pressed daily from the pulpits, and you are so well acquainted with the Scriptures, that we need but to give a taste. If Ephesus will repent, and do her first work; and Sardis strengthen the things that are like to die. Yea if our Laodicea will be zealous and amend, the Lord will take up the controversy betwixt us and him; he will set his favour upon us; in stead of judgement we shall have mercy; in stead of Ignomine glory; in stead of want, plenty; valour and magnanimity; for faint-heartedness: our Church shall be buetifull; our common-wealth floorishing, and if ye remove the dross from the silver, we have the promise of a gloriously refined King.  
The second sort of proof is from the never-failing practise of Gods performance, with all such as do reform: hath the Lord failed, or come short in any thing that he hath promised?  
Did not the Israelites upon their mourning& putting away their idols,( especially Ashteroth) find deliverance from the yoke of the philistines, 
1 Sam. 7.  and that by a glorious and marvellous victory over them, from the Lords own hand, without ordinary means? What was Ai before Ioshua, when the cursed thing was removed? What was Benjamin before Iuda, when by humiliation their special sin was done away? In a word, can any give an instance, that ever Gods people were denied their suite, when they took a right course before the Lord? He is still the same God, and willbe so to us, if we do as they did for our breaches of Church, and common wealth.  
The third sort of proof is taken from the reason, why it should be so; namely, from the nature of Gods promises; which are all yea and Amen: from his end and intent in his threatening, which is not to destroy, but to reclaim: and lastly from his order of proceeding, namely he inviteth always to return, before he overturneth. Return, return, &c. Why will ye die?  
When God proclaimed his Israel to be nothing but a wellspring of wickedness; yet how loathe is he to cast him off. 
jer. 6.8.  Be thow instructed o jerusalem( saith he) lest my soul depart from thee, lest I make thee desolate in a Land that none inhabiteth: were the rebellions and abominations of judah so great, and so grievous that he hounded on the enemies to beseege her, and sack her v. 4.5. and yet was his soul with her? yes sure or how should he threaten that his soul, or affection should depart from her; yea his soul was loathe to depart, and would not depart at all if she would but harken to instruction: here the Lord showeth the careful desire of a parent, and the powerful prevailing love of an husband,& that towards a rebellious child, and an Adulterous-woman.  
The like affection we see in God towards that Rebellious& hypocritical Israell and judah, whose goodness was as the morning cloud, going away as the morning due, that is, they seemed to have a certain holinesse and repentance in them, but it was but formal and hypocritical: a cloud without rain, a vaporous matter, quickly dissolved, and as the morning due quickly dried up. Of all things God can not endure those sea-sick counterfeit apish fits and yet for all this, when nothing could reclaim them, the Lord breaketh out for them( as we may say) in a mother-like passion: 
Hos. 6, 4.  O! Ephraim what shall I do unto thee? O judah how shall I entreat thee? as if the Lord should say, all possible means have been used to cause you Israell and judah to return; but nothing hath prevailed, and what shall I do more? O! that there were any way, or means, to recover you; so that the Lord beareth, till he can bear no longer. Ah( saith the Lord) I will ease me of my adversaries, 
Esa. 1.24.  and aveng me of mine enemies, vox indignationis& commiserationis( as one saith) a voice of indignation, against sin; and yet a voice of commiseration toward the sinner; he must in Iustice revenge, and yet his mercy is loathe to do it.  
Since then the promise, and practise of the Lord, and reason from the Lord make all good the truth of this position; why should we either doubt of it, or give our selvs rest, till we enjoy the happy experience of it? wicked men putting far from them the evil day, let their case be never so desperat, they never say there is no hope; but Gods people fall fowle on the contrary; when they see a state in a forlorn condition; the wicked advanced, and the absteyner from evil made a prey to the wicked; they are disheartened from using means, because there is little likelihood of prevailing; holding it their only hope, to have no hope: thus, Zion said the Lord hath forsaken me, 
Esa. 49.14.  and my Lord hath forgotten me: not so; for if thow forget not him and thy duty, and indevor, God can not forget thy labour: observe how the Lord preventeth this objection, let the wicked, forsake his ways, and the unrighteous his own Imaginations, and return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he is very ready to forgive. But they might have objected; can God ever be reconciled to us, who have transgressed all his laws, and broken covenant so often with him? no sure; no man will do so; true saith the Lord, nor would you do so to any, but I am not as man, my thoughts are not your thoughts, 
Esa. 55.7.8.9.  neither your ways my ways; for as the heavens are higher then the earth, so are my ways higher then your ways.  
Where observe the condition; if wickedness be forsaken, and removed by those that are in place; then the Lord can not choose, but sand a blessing.  
This same Argument ab utili, or profit, hath prevailed much in the matter of Reformation, with people or states, merely seeking themselves, and their own ends, without any conscience of obedience to the commandement; and if they pretended any zeal, it was but strange fire, a temporary, and time-serving heat, was the most, and the best. So self-seeking jehu reformed to a great hight, in removing of the evil,& restoring and establishing of the good; He did execution upon all Ahabs seed, the Prophets, Servants, and Priests of baal to a man; 
1 Kings c. 10.  he burnt baal his Idols; threw down the Temple, and made a lakes of it; he boasted much of his zeal, and uprightness of hart; the Lord giveth this testimony of him, that he had executed that which was right in his eyes;& had done unto the house of Ahab all the things, that were in Gods heart, v. 30. And therefore the Lord promiseth, that his son should sit on the Throne of Israell, unto the fourth generation.  
The Lord made also this good; but was there either right eye, or right heart in jehu for all this? No sure, for he departed not from jeroboam his sin, 
Hos. 1.  and the Lord punished his posterity for the very act, that he approved, because he did it for a kingdom, and not to the Lord: yet we see how far this temporary reward prevailed in the matter of Reformation, with a mere time-server.  
The jesuits having got footing in the great Kingdom of japan, by their hellish plots,& undermining of great ones, they set all the State on fire; the Princes and Nobles against the King, and one against an other, till it was come to blood; but some wiser then the rest, discovering that infernal brood to be the ground, and cause of that state-consuming sedition; called the Iesuites to an account, executed some, and banished the rest, and enacted thereupon, that it should be present death for any Iesuite, to enter the Kings Dominions; which remaineth in force to this day.  
By this reformation they are rid of that crew, who are the curse of us, against whom we have laws as good as may be, but no execution.  
Vpon this same point of ensuing good, the Biscaines are at a deadly enmity, and natural antipathy with the brood of prelates.  
Vpon this ground Venice, milan, and Naples, will not endure to hear of the admitting of an Inquisition; for thereby, Honour, wealth, peace,& prosperous success, should be utterly cashiered, and they their means, and families should be worse then galley slaves.  
By force also of this strongly prevailing argument, the Netherlander rid themselves, and their State of that bitter root of Lord Bishops; whom they knew to be the strength,& leaders of the Popes forces, and chief pillars,( as we have proved,) for supporting that great Antichrist.  
For a closer of this point; be pleased to observe one instance from the present practise of the Hollanders. Since that nation is marked of all the world, to be the procreant& conservant cause of all mixtures of Religion, as that egyptian Nilus, is the mother of all sorts of monsters; it is matter of some wonder, why they are so far from tolerating that old pelagianism, and new arminianism, that they suppress it with all their main; executing some, banishing other some, offering means and lives, and all in opposition of it; yea if the Arminians meat in private, their house& means are like to be ruined& spoyled by the multitude, the people persewed to the danger of their lives, so as they love no thing so much as Pictures& prunking; so they hate no thing so much as the Spainyard& arminianism: but what is the cause of all this indignation against arminianism? Is it because it is the Popes Benjamin; the neetest spun thread of popery, the last and greatest monster of the man of sin,( for as the liker a Mounkie is to a man, the greater monster it is; so the liker impiety is to piety the more monstrous it is?) Or is it because they love,& long to be engrafted in that Antichristian stem of the prelacy? Or because it drayneth the very life out of Religion; and changeth all Religion into a Protean form of Religion? Or lastly, because it derogateth from the very essence, and attributes of God, exalting man against his maker? No; not for all these; yea directly for none of these; for then they would suppress popery fully; then would they not with Sultan soliman, or blanched Atheists, make so much of that machiavellian principal; that a State may tolerate any Religion, so it be for its profit: 
Maxim. 2.  which is directly( as one observeth) against the nature of God; and true Religion,( for there must be but one,) 
Specul. belly sacri. c. 39. p. 232.  the virtue of the commandement; the Office of the Magistrate; the dealing of Idolaters with their false worship, confirm this truth: and lastly; it is against the true profit of the State.  
again, if in conscience they obeied the commandement in one particular, they would also in an other, especially of the same species, or kind: But since none of all these be the very moving cause of their thus plying of the Arminians; what is the cause? Answer; this is the very marrow of the matter; they fear their copy hold; namely, lest the Arminian grow so strong, that he overtop the State, and get the staff out of their hand,( as indeed he is like to do,) lest like a Marmosett( which carries the face of a man,& yet is a great enemy to the Mounkie) he should learn a trick beyond all their tricks; to overturn their trading; or lest out of desire of revenge, for the supposed wrong done to their sect; like the Arabian Monster Caccus, they should set all on fire with their breath,& yet live themselves like the Salamander in the flamme; but if they can keep them under from all place of government, both in Church and common wealth; both in arms and civill judicature,( though in some of these places the Arminian prevayleth;) and if they can expose thē to the indignation of the people; and keep his horns so short, that he can not push; then they think they shall prosper in what they put their hand to; so that it is clear, that liberty, prosperous success, glorious renown, plenty, prevailing against the enemy, and the enlarging of their tents, maketh them look well to the Arminians water, that this bide of divers colours grow not to big in her nest.  
Then if we set apart Religion,( which God forbid,) yet let glory, prosperity, and good success, at home; victory over our enemies, abroad; the removal of all evil; the enjoying of all good, all attending upon the downfall of the prelacy, prevail with you, to the abandoning of the stinch of these Harpies, which have made our Israell like a bide of divers colours,( as the Lord speaketh,) that is in stead of the Lords livery, she is all stuck full of the gaudy Feathers of superstition, which causeth the Lord to set the beasts& birds of all nations about her, to eat her up. They stand gazing indeed at her gay Feathers; 
jer. 12.9.  but they flout her, and devour her, because she hath quiter spent all her Eagle-spirits.  
To conclude; be pleased( right Honourable) to take a pattern out of the prelates own practise, for the confirmation of this point. What is the reason, that the prelates can rather suffer divers sorts of heretics, and dangerous schismatics, to live by them, then the Reformers, or Disciplinarians, as they call them? Is it not because they meddle with the great Diana of their Lordly pomp? These would have the Prelates bring their callings to the trial of the sanctuary: These would have thē lay away their Lording,& do the work of the ministery; yea to be content of the portion of the ministery: These would have them to put away their abominations from the Lords eyes; where with they break the backs, and overburden the consciences of many thousands: These would have them to suffer Christ, whom they have kept so long at the door, to come in, and reign among us: But these are saucy fellows: These the Land can not bear: These must be smitten on the cheek, and put in the worst place of Golgotha, or banished the Land? and why good men? what hath the righteous done? A dangerous thing indeed; they have spoken against the profit of the hierarchy; and as one of the ancients saith well: 
Trithe●●. de Arnulpho ex ejus Chronic.  Si Petrus resurgeret, &c. If Peter should rise from the dead, and should meddle with their sins;& profits especially; they would spare him no more, then they do the faithful of our times.  
It was a main motive of the pharisees hatred toward Peter and John, that they had been with Iesus, Act. 4.13. So the Prelates hate these men, because they pled for Iesus.  
One of the Prelates watchmen, preaching before the King, out of the 11. of Numbers, upon Moyses pains taking, and the people his murmuring: In his Misapplication, came first to gird at the loan-mony recusant; and then bitterly to envey against the Presbyterians, or Disciplinarians,( as it pleased him to term them;) but why against them? because they could not endure that either due obedience, or Honourable maintenance, should be given to the Bishops; and therefore( said he) they had best look to them; for if they have the cutting of the Bishops Cloath, their trayns will be short enough.  
But to leave him in his Spiders Web, and to follow the point a little further: Intruders upon other mens right, can endure any men( how bad so ever) rather to live by them, then the servants of him, whom they intrude upon; and thence it is, that these wicked husbandmen killed the servants,( as it is in the gospel,) that came to receive their Maisters rent, Mat. 21.33, &c. They did not kill the thieves, or the robbers, and spoilers of the vineyard; but the Servants, yea and the son too; And the end of all was, that they might take the inheritance.  
Divers laterall or side-windes may blow together; but winds directly opposite, can not blow together: herod& Pilate did agree to the crucifying of Christ, because that wind might possibly blow some profit to them both,( as they supposed by the pleasuring of Caesar.) The Pharisees, Saducees, and Herodians( though all at odds one with an other) could yet concur to the ensnaring of Christ: Since all these have out of their love to profit, looked so closselie to such as were against their profit; whether they were friends or foes to God; whether their actions or ends were good, or bad; it will be great imputation to you, not to remove that, which hath ever hindered, and shall hinder, till it be removed, all the Honour, and welfare, that can be thought on, for the good of Church and State: and also not to establish the sceptre of Christ; which being established, all honour, and happiness, should attend us and ours; yea God shall dwell among us; and then what good thing can be wanting to us.  
Stand you up then before the Lord; lend God your hand,( as we may speak with reverence,) 
Exo. 15.26  and he according to his promise, will be our physician, and will put no more these heavy diseases upon us; If we return to him by true reformation, the Lord will turn to us, 
Hos. 6.1.  and will heal us, as he hath wounded us; stricke you but the right vein, and God will do the cure. As for Honour, if you will Honour God in this particular,( as hitherto he hath not been honoured in this nation,) he will not only make our ancient honour to return, but he will heap more honour upon our head, then ever heretofore he hath done; But upon the Kings majesty especially, and you the instrumental restorers of all things, you have Gods promise for it, and he will surely make it good: 
1 Sam. 2.3  them that honour me, I will honour; As for our enemies, foreign and domestic; this will be to them as the thunder clap, which discomfitted the philistines. This will be the onely hornett to stricke terror to the hearts of all our Romish canaanites. All the profane crew, and enemies of State, will be glad to hid their heads, at the fall of this babel; spain, Rome,& Austria. And all our English Edomites will be attired in mourning; crying out alas! alas! the helmet of our hope is fallen; yea, if you do it indeed, your Honours shall see, that none but Babels friends will either help them, or pity them. And for this especially, they are to be looked unto. If this be effected, the hearts of all that plaguy crew of dunkirk, and the hearts of all their abetters will fail them. This will be more matter of rejoicing to all the Reformed Churches in the world, and especially to Christs distressed people, then ever as yet they heard off from us; For to speak the truth, some Reformed Churches dare not trust us, and all expect little good of us, whilst the hierarchy overtoppeth the State; neither is this in them a groundless conceit.  
For first, how can the sceptre carriers of Antichrist affect and further a State, or Church governed by the sceptre of Christ, quiter opposite to their subsistence?  
2. How can they help them, when they hate their cause?  
3. How can they wish them well, and do them good abroad, when they persecute and kill at home their own brethren, and Countrymen, yea not sparing their kindred in their flesh, for the very same cause, which these forraignes maintain, and for which they suffer?  
4. They are no friends to such people, for they repined much they should have any supply; witness, that Amazia, or burden of the Lord, that in the time of collection called the French( Deffendors of the gospel) by the undeserved name of Traytors from the Pulpit. This Inquisition-Impe, is juxta pontem& pontificem, hard by the Pope, and the foot of the bridge; whose blasphemous scoffing of the word; reviling of Gods people; professing of popery, and resorting to Gondomars house, requires that you should rather censure him as a Wolf, than suffer him to be over a flock. To this particular also the Prelates bear witness, calling of the Ministers into question, for money collected to their poor brethren, Ministers of the Pallatinate. As for the last collection, no thankes to them.  
5. And lastly; They oppose bitterly, by speech& writing, the Learned,& worthy maintainers of the purity of Christs ordinances, or opposers of the Romish trash, and hierarchical government, as Beza, Calvine, Cartwright, &c.  
As the Papists have newly printed a thing against the Calvinists, for rooting of them out of all places, where they reside; so the Prelates are not wanting to second them here with pen,& pike, for their utter extirpation, yea they and theirs deliver it, as a maxim; If the Presbyterians or omniparians be not taken a course with; they can not stand. Therefore all religious professers( whether conformers or non-conformers) had need to look to themselves: For with them and the Papists, all these are Calvinists; witness that Sack-butt, that bid a plague on all comforming puritans.  
As for state-professors they hold them their friends. Since then the good of Christs cause: the glading of all Gods people: the ruin of Antichrist, and the shaming of his friends faces, calleth for so worthy and noble a work. Ne vestrae occasioni desitis, nec suam hosti detis: Loose not so faire an opportunity; give no advantage to your enemy. Strike this basilike-veine: For nothing but this will cure the pleurisy of our State. Which if you neglect, they may( perhaps one day) taunt you to your faces, with this disgraceful proverb: physician heal thyself.  
Take of then this Hydraes head: and sense, life, action, and motion of all the wicked, and wickedness, shall perish.  
lastly, to draw to an end; It maketh much for the prosperity, and peace of the State, if we make war on Gods enemies; because they are Gods enemies: and disburden the Land of that which is a burden to him; he will be at peace with us, and then all things shall go well with us. For if he be with us, who can be against us? As for th'increase of the Kings estate, and supply for his affairs; what can make more then this?  
For first, if the King be with God in this; he will be with him, and what can he want?  
2. The wealth of the subject shall be much increased, both by Gods bleshing on their labours; by reason of their better& more holy carriage; and further, by sparing 200000. pound per annum, at least; which the Prelates rak out of them.  
3. Being governed by the guidance of the gospel of peace. They shall not be so prove to law-suits, wherein much money is ill spent, and much idleness& other sins do ensue by attendance from their necessary affairs: and by consequence much poverty followeth.  
4. The ministery shall save by this means 100000. pound per annum, extorted from them by the Prelates.  
In causes and brawls about matrimony, the people spend not so little as 50000. pound per annum, besides the great sums which they have for probates of wills, being the Kings proper due, which might enrich his coffers 100000. pound per annum, and save them from abusing the will of the defunct, under a colour of supposed pious use. To omit the unlawful gains of their Soul-censures, with a great share of this; yea or all( if the King and State stood in need) would the subjects be ready to supply for service: For as the wealth and honour of a King standeth in the wealth, and love of his subjects, so what will they not give or do where their love is fixed.  
lastly, the Prelates Lord-like means, arising to 23217. pound, or there about, per annum,( as we conceive,) besides their commendames,( and other emoluments,) might serve his majesty for many good uses, where it doth no good now, but much hurt.  

advertisement to the subjects of Scotland. pag. 88. 8. 9  By this princely revenue( as one of their own friends observeth) but upon them by the prodigality of Princes, they are turned from religious Priests to temporal Princes: Into whose hands by this means the Princes have put the very same sword, wherewith to this day they do not only cut the throat of Kings and their authority, but have also spoyled the purity, and piety of the Church of God: and in place thereof have introduced this pollution, pride, avarice and superstition, which shall never have an end, so long as they remain so rich as they are. Devotie peperit divitias,& filia devoravit matrem: Devotion brought out wealth, and the mother devoured the daughter, we use his own ver●e words.  
Thus we see that bad they are by their calling; yet made worse by their revenue, which to remove into his Majesties hands, would be profitable for all, and hurtful to none. In this respect they may well be called {αβγδ}, as Aristotele calleth favorum pests: the plaguy consumers of hives; they eat up the sweat, and poison the rest.  
By removing of this Antichristian calling, and his Majesties taking the means to himself, he shall do two good Offices in one; namely, he shall supply the wants of the State, and pull them as brands out of the fire of their dangerous, and unlawful condition. Try but the withdrawing of their temporal emoluments, and they will presently forsake their leaden arguments.  
It is clear by the former testimony and others produced to that effect, how they spoil all both temporal and ecclesiastical jurisdiction: If they spare not Christ, they will spare nothing. They that would make Paul conform, cannot choose, but deform all. And therefore M. Bullinger calleth them harpies, that is monstrous birds with maiden visages, but ravenous tallants, leaving an ill smell upon all that they touch. They are compared by one to the devil, and Scamony, which always leaveth an evil disposition behind them.  
For our parts we will say no more of them, but that which a learned antiquary said of Rhumn●y Marsh: Hyeme mali; aestate molesti; nunquam boni: Bad in Winter: hurtful in summer: never good.  
And so much for the proof of the Positions.  
It will not be amiss before we shut up the treatise, to say some thing concerning the means, whereby the prelacy may be removed.  
Masculous resolution, and strenuous action, are the two twins of an heroic Spirit: as arms are never wanting to maintain true fortitude; so too, these two brought forth by true valour, and mature deliberation, means can not be wanting; If out of the pride and fear of the heart, they be not neglected, or quarreled, the work shall be done; but if all the means that possibly could be thought on, were laid open to the eye of a state, 
Lament. 1.6  yet if the Princes( as the Lord speaketh) be like Harts that find no pasture; or( as he speaketh of Ephraim) if they be like a silly dove without a heart; 
Hose. 7.11.  that is without resolution& courage; there can be no good done, nor honour achieved; and that is a fearful token, that the Lord hath a purpose to slay such a people: but we desire and pray to see better things of you,& from you,& that the Lord would give you eyes, harts, and hands, to use all good means, to bring your appointed work to pass.  
thrice noble Nehemiah undertook a great work; had very weak means, much opposition: not onely by the enemies without, but even by that false belliegod betraying priest Semaiah, he was tempted to a cowardly forsaking of the work; but God gave him an other heart. Should such a man as I flee( saith he:) 
Nehem. 6.11.  so must you( right Honourable) resolve to encounter all discouragements, difficulties, and frighting alarms thus: Should such men as we fear to do that for Christ, our King, and country, which is of more necessity then life itself.  
It were enough that we have proved punctually the work to belong to you, and to be of so absolute a necessity, as the avoiding of Gods displeasure, and the procuring of his favour; If we left the means to your wisdom,& experience; able to go beyond all that we ●an say: yet we hope it shall not be offensive, or derogatory to your judicious invention; if we be showing ●nd sharping some tools, wherewith you may work.  
But before we come to the particulars, be pleased again to remember, that all the means must be planted, and discharged directly against this grand evil of the prelacy: reformation must begin at the root.  
It is a good admonition of Peter Martyr: in Ecclesia reformanda Elizei exemplum imitandum est; 
in 2. Reg. v.  fontem ipsum &c. in the reforming of the Church, the practise of Elizeus is to be imitated; and the fountain is first to be healed, from whence all the poisonable contagion, 
Oratio ad Maximil. anno 1500.  and corruption cometh. These be they( as a learned man complained to the Emperour) à quibus Ecclesia laceratur; by whom the Church is torn in pieces.  
D. Downam would make the world believe that the contempt of these Bishops, 
In Epist. dedicat.  is the cause of the greatest evil, if not of all the evil among us; for which he citeth Chrysostome in 2. Timoth. 2. But D. Downam doth know very well, that Chrysostom knew no such Bishops as he speaketh off: indeed the contempt of Bishops, of Gods making, is no small cause of the evils that are upon us, and yet are further threatened against us; but all this contempt cometh, upon them by the prelates Tyranizing over them; who can not, but by removal of the prelacy attain the honor due to them. Now to the means.    


1. Mean of removal.  
TO begin then with information,( for we must first know before we do,) we stand all in need from the King to the beggar to be awaked, and made sensible of the necessity of this work to be done: we are deadly secure under the pressure of Gods wrath; we are neither sensible of Gods honour tread under foot, nor of his glory departed from us, nor of the indignity and indemnity, that is upon us, and all that we put our hand too: all that pass by, spoil us, and we spoil all that rely upon us: to omit many instances, which being too well known, maketh us odious to the world; let us touch upon the last, namely, the black pining death of the famished Rochellers, to the number of 15000. in 4. Monthes,( besides those that had formerly perished,) proclaimeth to the world the vanity, if not the falsehood of our help. It may justly be said of us,& them as it was said of Israels waiting, for such help as deceived them, their eyes failed for our vain help; 
Lament. 4.17.  in our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save. under correction, it was a poor part of our State, to leave the relief of Gods distressed people to a mortallie devoured enemy to God and his people: his plots yet take place; we speak what we hear, that he and his damnable confederacie, after that Master piece of the taking in of Rochell, had determined a peace among themselves, that he might with his Prelates and the rest of his counsel, finish his work upon us and the gospel.  
The tongues and pens of foreign proclaim our infamy: It grieves a truly bread Countrie-man to hear it; 
C. 1.11.  and yet for all this, as it is said in zachary: We all( from the highest to the lowest) sit still, and are at rest.  
The cause of all this is our holding of Christ so long at the door; who though he hath knocked this 60. yeares and upward, yet we would never understand his stroke. His enemies by strong hand have kept him out, and his friends would never help him against the mighty to bring him in: Some have set their foot upon his government, and fought for the Beast, against the angel: Some with Gallio count it but a quillet; and so they care not for it: Some rail upon the thing though they know it not; and others will be wilfully ignorant of it.  
But let us all labour to be instructed, even in this particular, or the soul of the Lord must of necessity depart from us.  
Awake& know this you great Senators, who are the Sences& soul of the King& State. Awake you watchmen upon the walls, and awaken others; you are these Spirits that should carry vital heat unto the head, and all the members: you should complain to the heart, that the head is much distempered; and so should you to the head that the heart is very sick: and to each of these of their particular diseases, whether they be by consent, or from the part itself: by how much Kings are more precious then others, by so much the more ye must deal plainly with them: Hear the word of the Lord, o King of judah!( saith the Prophet) that sittest upon the Throne of David, thow and thy servants, and the people that enter in by these gates; execute judgement, &c. and do no evil, &c. And then what honour or happienesse shall not attend the throne; 
Ierem. 17. V. 9.  but if you will not hear these words, I swear by myself, saith the Lord, that this house shall be laid waste; And what was the cause of this? Even the forsaking of the covenant of the Lord their God. This was the manner of Ieremies preaching;  
You must tell the King, 
Psal. 119.98.  that all the commandements of God must be with him; they must be the men of his counsel; so shall he be wiser then his enemies; 
V. 29.  But if he follow the counsel of Christs enemies, as the Prelates and others, then Christ will be his enemy. You must boldly with ieremy say to the King and to the queen, 
C. 13.18.  humble yourselves, sit down, or lie down,( as the word beareth,) not to put their neck under the yoke of babel; as that King and his mother was commanded; but by hearty humiliation& reformation, to free themselves and us from the yoke and bondage of babel: ask the King in plain terms, if the evil( yea this very evil) be not removed, how he shall give an account of his flock, when the destroyer cometh. To the same effect. ieremy speaketh to the King: Lift up thine eyes, behold them that come from the North. ieremy spied that which the King could not spy, and what further: 
V. 20.  where is the flock that was given thee? and the sheep of thy beauty?  
It is true( as one speaketh on the place:) Quod Reges putant se singulari privilegio muniri, 
Calv.  &c. That Kings think themselves by a privilege exempted from the command of the word, and that it is a debasing of their state, to humble themselves under the mighty hand of God; but God will have it so; and great Kings have done so, that had but little knowledge of God.  
To soothe up Princes in this their misconceit, there are to many Flesh flees; who spawn out their corrupt flatteries upon the ears of Kings; to the undoing of the King, and State; yea these twinge, and bite such as do deal faithfully with Princes; but let them know, they are but traytors to God, and to the King in the highest degree; For miserable is that Prince( as Gordianus said) from whom the truth is concealed.  
Tell his majesty, that Dagon and the ark cannot stand together; God and the devil cannot both be served in his Palaces; and this also should you great Statesmen sound in his ears; Backing and countenancing the faithful dealing of the ministery: be plain with his majesty, in discovering to him thorowlie the evil of the hierarchy, who with Elymas cease not, to subvert the ways of righteousness.  
Make it plain, as we have proved, that their Antichristiā authority; the beauty of Christs Church, the glory of his Crown, and the good of his people can not subsist together. But if he will remove that dross, and make the golden sceptre of Christ onely to sway, and set the crown of pure worship upon his head; Christ shall make his crouns heer fast upon his head;& crown him afterward with immortal glory; britain, and all Gods people shall rejoice; Spain, Rome, France,& Austria, shall mourn; the sheep of his beauty shall then be his ornament; all shall be new; we shall have a refined Church; a refined King; a refined people; refined Spirits, refined conditions, and with all these a refined success.  
As for Princes counsellors, and other great ones, by office or honour, tell them that ieremy his inquiry, 
C. 5. 3.  for the knowledge of the Lords ways& judgements, is returned with a non inventus, they have altogether broken the yoke, and cast away the bonds: Some open enemies to Christ, and the State, by popery, profanes, Athisme, &c. Some close enemies, some neutrals, not regarding what become of Christs cause; and some wish all were well; but they will be at no cost or pains with reformation: they would gladly countenance goodness; but they fear it shall discountenance them: For they will go no further with Gods cause, then it will carry their own cause.  
It is true that the most of the great ones know the hierarchy, but they partly want hearts to hate it with a perfect hatred; and partly they cannot submit to the power of Discipline; but if any great ones be resolute for Christ and his cause; they are left, as a mast upon the top of a mountain, and the enemies of Christ hold them to hard meat. And what is the cause of all this their iniquity, and pusillanimity? The hierarchy is the ground of all; For( as we have shewed) where Honours are erected and maintained against the honour of Christ, there true honour cannot long flourish. Their Lording over the Land, hath robbed the nobility of honour, blessing to their State, of their families, yea and of their veils; and that not onely by giving evil example, but also by keeping out the power of the means, by which they should have been moulded, and the true Discipline of Christ, by which they should have been kept in compass: Give them therefore an Alarm; Make them see their misery, and the Bishops to be the main cause of it; cause them to cast off the yoke of sin, and to put their necks to the Lords work; desire them, and charge them to lend the Lord their hand, especially now when it is come to a dead list, or the Lord in judgement will let them grow to such a hight at length, that they will vassal, and sink, both nobility and others, under intolerable burdens. proclaim to all sorts of people from the word, the Impiety, and iniquity of the Prelates places, and practices; Discover to the Prelates their dangerous condition, will them to come out of babel; and to cast off their Antichristian pomp. Show them& the people the fearful sin of pestering Gods worship, and overlayding peoples consciences with the inventions of men; yea with the trumpery of Antichrist.  
In all this( as you know better then we can tell you) you must be very free faithful, and impartial: the face of man you must not fear, jer. 1.17. You must speak all that the Lord commandeth, either directly, or by consequence, and not keep back one word, 
C. 26. 2.  as you will answer it: as the urim,& Thumnim of the Lord is upon you, so you must say to Fathers, Brethren,& Children, whether natural or political, I know you not; that is, neither nighnesse nor highnesse shall make me play the huckster with the word: you must have your portion; all affection of fear, love, or desire, must give place to the freedom of the embassy; and the glory of God, Deut. 33.8.9.  
Was Papinian the Lawyer plain with Caracalla; Ephestion free with Alexander; and maecenas so faithful with Augustus? what a disgrace will it be, and danger too, for you the men of God, to halt, or be mealie mouthed in a matter of so great weight; as the Lord said of rebellious and knobbie Israell: 
Hose. 6.5.  he he wed them by the Prophets, so you must lay the axe to the root of this three, and hue it down; for as it is not of the Lords planting, so it troubleth the ground, as you must make( according to the same place) the word and judgements of the Lord, as the light that is clear and conspicuous; so if they keep their trenches still against the Lord, ye must slay them with the word, according to that of the Apostle: 
2 Cor. 10.5  Having in readiness a revenge against all disobedience.  
Tell Diotrephes, if he leave not his Lording it over Gods house, and beating of his household servants, if he give not over his hold, Christ will see execution done upon him.  
Tell all the supporters of the prelacy, whosoever they be, and all that should put away the evil one, and will not; that the Lord hath determined to destroy the Land, 
2 Chro. 25.15.  because we have done evil, and will not harken to the counsel of God.  
As the inverse Trumpets, that sound a retreat when they should give the Alarm, are the betrayers of the State, agents for the enemy, and the bane of the ministery, so we think they are much to blame to say no worse, that turn the mouth of the Canon in reviling those that seek and stand for reformation.  
Is it not enough that Hananiah will not suffer Ieremia to prophesy; that Pashur smite him, and that Amaziah conjure Amos from the court; but also one of the house must beat his fellow servants; but it must be so, for if all be not right, the nigher the line with any opposition, the greater eclipse. 
C. 20. 10.  ieremy his familiars watched for his halting; and Davids companion& acquaintance did him the greatest hurt, Ps. 55.13; and Paul was worst used by his Kinsmen the Iewes, Act. 20.19. With such evil requital, let not good Souldiers be discouraged; for so they may with ieremy in a fitt, to fling away their arms; 
C. 20.  but let them look about a little with the same Prophet, and they shall see that the Lord is with them, like a mighty terrible one; therefore their persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail; 
V. 11.  they shall be greatly ashamed, for they shall not prosper. A remarkable place it is, and full of comfort. As it is an evil thing to be set against a good cause; so the speaking evil of good,& good of evil is liable to a fearful woe. Contumelia non est ira Caesaris digna: that {αβγδ}, or requital of railing, is pusillanimity;& if you can do it never so handsomely; you can but come even with him; but by bearing and making use of it, you may have the better of him.  
Naturalists tell us, how a little bide, called Charadrea, by secret attractive quality, cureth a man of the Iandise only by looking on him, for a time; so Christian patience, and magnanimous contempt, will in time, either drayn the gull out of bitter spirits; or make it more overflow to their own disgrace.  
To conclude the clearing of this point, that all sorts may be fully possessed of this truth, give the second commandement the due extent: This iron, if it be well plied, will bow down the back of the prelacy, and break the iron sinew of all superstitious worship; this hammer handled well, and this law well obeyed, shall purge out the iniquity of jacob, 
Esa. 27.9.  by breaking all the idols of Rome, as Chalkstones in pieces. The negative of this, as all expositors witness, 
Fonn. in 2. come.  forbiddeth the use of any rite, or outward mean in Gods worship, which himself hath not commanded.  
Ritibus sieve Ceremonijs à Deo ipso prescriptis, &c. Let us content ourselves( saith one) with the rites& ceremonies, 
Piscator.  prescribed by God himself: We give but a touch here, where we could be large,& we speak to those that understand; yea we have the testimony of a Prelate, for the confirmation of this truth, in his catechizing upon this commandement: 
D. Andrew.  God hath left( saith he) his word, the preaching of it; the Spirit, and his works, to instruct us: But all this will not serve, but men must have their own devices in Gods worship.  
Further, the affirmative part of this commandement inarmeth and commandeth the Minister, and Magistrate, to make reformation; witness, that place forequoted out of Esaia: He shall( that is Israell) make all the stones of the Altar as Chalkstones, &c. The cutting, minsing,& manucling of Gods will in this commandment maketh( as the Prophet speaketh) 
Esa. 26.3.  other Lords besides our Lord, to rule over us: That is, that neither rule by authority, nor Law. As some speak merrilie of the common Law, that it is all Law, and no conscience,& that the chancery is all conscience, and no Law, so we may speak seriously upon costly experience, that their spiteful courts are neither Law, nor conscience.  
To bind this precept the closser to our veils, let us observe but the reasons of it.  
1. The iealousy of God, that can endure no competition in the ordering of his house, is threatened as a fire, to consume the breakers of it.  
2. He holdeth them haters of him, that dare appoint him any other service; or order in his house, then himself hath appointed; and so they are indeed; for they that will appoint a Law to God, they can not endure him to be their Law-giver.  
3. The Iudgement against the breach of this commandement extendeth to the posterity. This particular much concerneth us; for we think that the whole nation( save a sillie few) have contented itself with the form of government, and worship prescribed in the Church; and they have lived; and dyed good Christians, with much comfort; yea have not divers worthy men among us, after long standing out, returned with peace enough, to embrace and pled for the Ceremonies and government?  
Well this same threatening of visiting the sins of the Fathers vpon the Children, will fright us out of the cleft of this rock, if it be well thought on; for what know we, but we are the men with whom the Lord of the house will reckon, visiting the idolatry, and superstition of our predecessors upon us, especially we following their steps: and put the case, we be taken away before the day of visitation come; yet first we know not what it may cost us in our consciences, ere we depart, either for never manifesting such love, as we should, in keeping of this commandement; or for leaving our first love once had to this commandement. 2. We must know for a certain, if we reform not that, our posterity must pay for it;& thus what great cruelty do we join with impiety?  
4. And lastly; Let that rich and abundant love of God, promised to the keepers of that commandement, constrain our hearts( if there be any love of Christ in us) to manifest our love to him, and our posterity, by keeping of this commandement. We have been the larger in the discovery of this mean of information. 1. Because an evil must be known before it can be avoided, or removed. 2. Because in the midst of much knowledge we are like to be lead captive,( as the Prophet speaketh,) for want of knowledge of this particular.   

The 2. Mean of removal.  
THe second mean of removal of this great evil, is for Ministers and Magistrates, to set themselves against this superstitious worship, and Antichristian government; teaching, and exhorting others, for to do the same: they must labour, and cause others labour for a holy hatred of the Prelates, and their burdens, as they are enemies and enmity to God; Of which that Godly King and Prophet gives a good president: I hate vain inventions, or imaginations, 
Ps. 119.13  but thy Law do I love. The word doth signify properly the branch of a three; intimating thereby the fiction, or frame of the hart; or otherwise a thing, that by growth would overtop God. With the knowledge of this evil, there must be a hatred of it in the heart; and a forsaking of it.  
Some will not know, that they may not do;& some know, and yet will not do, or dare not do: but knowledge of sin, and forsaking of sin, must go together; If we look to prosper, you must resolve and draw others on to abandon all the abominations from our eyes, wherewith we have defiled ourselves: 
Eze. 20.7.  you must labour, and cause others to be like Ephraim; who in his returning to God said to his idols: 
Hose. 14.8.  What have I to do any more with idols: Yea as an other Prophet saith: we must defile the covering of the Images, 
Esa. 30. ●2. ( that is: count them, and use them as filthy things:) thow shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloath, then shalt thow say unto it: get thee hence. In a word, if we will pull ourselves and others out of the fire, we must hate the garment spotted with the flesh: under which all the Orthodox understand all mans inventions in Gods worship. 
Iud. 23.  Thus we separate not from the Churches, but from the evils of them, and also from obedience to Antichristian Lords over them. We have showed this separation to be neither heresy, schism, nor Rebellion, but good divinity, and loyal obedience: Or otherwise the Scots, Hollanders, and french Protestants, be all Rebells, or heretics; which no friend to the gospel will aver: how shall ye ever deliver the Land, or Christ himself, of them, and their burdens, if ye obey them?  
For all the reformation that good josiah made, yet Zephanie will not content himself, 
C. 1. v, 4.  till the Chemarim-Priests and all the remnants of Baal be removed: surely, if he had lived in our Land, he had been counted( as others are) an unreasonable man, made for nothing but to trouble the State, by stirring up of contention.  
Why should ye the Messengers of the great God be the Servants of men?  
It is a good note of johan. Sarisburiens. to this purpose: 
Policrat. lib. 7. c, 10.  Serviendum non Dominandum, nisi quis fort seipsum dignum credat, vt angels debeat Dominari: Ministers( saith he) must serve in their callings, and not Lord it over others; except they think themselves worthy, to bear rule over the Angells.  
ask them for the subjection which they challenge; 
Gal. 1.10.  if they can say, as paul said: do I persuade men or God; and if they can not say so, then every faithful Minister must hold the rest that followeth, for his device: If I yet please men, I should not be the servant of Christ.  
And why should Gods people, of what degree soever, subject their necks to a babylonish yoke? Should they not stand fast in the liberty, 
Galat. 5.1.  wherein Christ hath set thē free? If they sit not in Moses chair, why should they heat them? that is, if they bring not a lawful warrant of their calling, why should they be obeied?  
To hear and obey Christ coming in his Fathers name, and Antichristian Prelates coming in their own name, cannot subsist together.  
That which the Spirit speaketh to the faithful in Thyatira, he speaketh to us all: 
Rev. 2.24.25.  I will put upon you no other burden, but that which ye have already; hold fast, till I come.  
A most pregnant place, against subjecting of ourselves, to any power, or religious practise, how specious, and spangled, with depth of devilish learning, soever it be.  
This mean of removal may be further followed by the execution of Disciplinarie Censure, or casting out, if no other thing will serve. Every Prelate,( we know,) or his deputed officer, will take upon him, to excommunicate God his people, upon no better ground( though not with so good authority) then the pharisees had to cast the blind man out of the Synagogue; 
joh. 9.34.  yea all the good men in England that stand for reformation of worship and Discipline, by the 2. 4. 6. 7. and 8. Canon stand,( after their Popish manner,) excommunicat ipso facto.  
To lay open the fowle abusing and profaning of this sacred ordinance, as by the Prelates sole authority; the committing of the power to men uncapable; denouncing it against the good; Abusing of it to babbles, and trifles; We have no time: Let this suffice that their practise in these, and other particulars, is against the word of God; the practise of the Apostles; all reformed Churches, from the beginning to this time; against Fathers, Councils, all Orthodox Authors, and in some things against their own constitutions; witness, Constitut. Anno 1571. but to the point; whereas against all Laws this they do, where they have no authority; so the Churches of Christ by that power committed to them, may and should exercise this jurisdiction of Censure against them( if otherwise they will not be reclaimed from tyrannizing over Gods house,) and that this is no new Doctrine to any that love, and know the truth, we are able to make good, from the word, reasons, consent of Popish and Protestant writers, and from practise. D. Downam indeed, with others of the hierarchy, layeth about him against this truth, and the maintainers thereoff, as though they touched the apple of his eye: he holdeth it an unworthy speech in holy Lambert, that Honourable martyr: 
Lib. 4. p. 162.  that a Pastor may be Censured by his Church, afterward; he cometh with this Censure over all the Reformed of that Iudgment; that to subject Pastors to their Churches, is fantastical, imaginary, ridiculous, and absurd; yea he calleth it a Brownisticall; or anabaptistical frenzy: 
Lib. 4. p. 144.  But let all the above-said evidences speak, whether D. Downam, and men of his mind, or the reformers be the schismatics; and herein we will be brief:  
First, for the word: tell the Church,( saith the Spirit,) 
Math. 18.17.  where to omit others. D. Andrews understandeth the words, of every particular Church, having power& commandement to put this power in practise; 
Tort. Tort. p. 42.  He instanceth in the Church of Corinth: Where we must understand this power not to be divisivè in membris, in every particular member divided; 
Lib. contro. p. 362.  but vnitivè in tota, jointly united in the whole; as Gerson well observeth: Claves non uni, said vnitati: the keys are not given to one, but to unity, saith Aug.  
To come to reasons: the first is from that principle of nature, wherewith every child is acquainted. Omne totum majus est sua parte: The whole is greater then the part; yea, as it containeth every part in it, so it hath power over every part. Now a Bishop( make the best of him) is but a part, or member of a Church; therefore he must be subject to the Censure of a Church: This Enthymem the Pope cannot evade, being pressed with it, by our writers from the testimony of gregory, 
Lib. 4. Ep. 2.8.  against John of Constantinople; but our hierarchy will cut this argument, if they can not untie it: For over the Church they will be, and not subject to it.  
A second reason may be taken from that Sonn-ship that they profess to the Church: they are often upbraiding others. Non habebit Deum Patrem, &c. they have not God for their Father, that have not the Church for their Mother: They are beaten here with their own rod; for they beate and spurn their Mother, and yet like ungracious Children they despise their Mothers correction: If they be within, will they not be judged.  

Lib. 5. C. 27.  D. Fyeld would make us believe, that a Bishop must not be judged by Elders; But the Apostle is of an other mind: 
1 Cor. 5.12 13.  do ye not judge those that are within?  
Other arguments we might use, as from the dignity of the Church; from the end of the Churches Censure; which is to pull men as brands out of the fire; and from the danger of such, as Kick against this prick; but we name them onely, since in every particular lieth, the force of an argument: as for these that will be affectedly ignorant, let them be ignorant still: but one thing we entreat you to observe, and we desire the hierarchy to take notice of it; that this exalting of themselves above the Church rellisheth strongly of the grossest popery; and with Popish Arguments they do maintain it. The grosser Papist holdeth the Pope to be above the Church, as johannes Saracenus, 
Pol. Paris. p. 42.  Bellarm. and Baronius; but the more moderate Papists teach the contrary; witness, Thomas Corfellis, in his disputation at the counsel of basil, cited by Aeneas silvius: Dicimus vniversae Ecclesiae potestatem omnimodam esse concessam; Romanumque pontificem illi subjectum; posse per ipsam deponi, abijci, excommunicari: We say that all power is given unto the Church; and that the Pope is thereunto subject; and by the Church he may be deposed, rejected, and excommunicated. The same question was debated, and concluded affirmativelie; namely, that the Pope is subject to a council; witness Gerson, cited by Saravia; 
Cont. Ger. p. 367  will it not then follow undenyablie, that a Prelate, or a petty Pope, is subject to the Censure of a Church? both hierarchy and Papists grant the antecedent: Potestas Ecclesiae supra Papam: the power of the Church is above the Pope.  
This doth D. Morton city from silvius; and why hath not a Congregation, 
Apot. p. 2. lib. 4. c. 12.  or Church, power over a Prelate?  
Some would fain wrangle with the consequent thus; that there is not the same reason from the power of a Church universal over the Pope; and of a particular Church in controversy with a Bishop: one of their own Bishops taketh away this instance, proving that our Saviours words: 
D. Andrew Tort. Tort. p. 42.  tell the Church; are to be understood de Ecclesia quaque particulari: of every particular Church; giving an instance thereof in the Church of Corinth.  
So D. Whitak. of that place of matthew 18. Particularis quaevis Ecclesia, &c. Every particular Church hath greater authority, then Peter; or any particular person.  
The truth of this consequent is also clear from reason, for by what power is a council superior, or doth exercise its power, but because it is a Church representative? and from which ground, both Popish,& Protestant writers, press the Popes subjection to the Censure of it; In witness whereof, D. Andrews citeth cardinal Cameracens. Cusan. and the whole school of Sorbon; concluding it against the Pope, in the council of Constance: If that man of sin then should be not onely deposed; but also cast out, if on formal proceeding, he would not repent him of his exalting himself against God; what letteth, but the limbs of the man of sin should be so proceeded against, if they persist in their tyranny and contumacy? If any object the Magistrates interposed authority; it is quickly answered: quod ejus potestas non est privativa, said cumulativa: that his power is not to abate, or weaken any ordinance of God; but rather for guarding, and making good all the ordinances of God, punishing with the sword the opposers.  
Vpon this particular Mr. Zanchie writeth both larglie, and learnedly, 
In 4. precept. p. 747.  answering all objections of hindrance from the magistracy; and giving many good reasons, why the Magistrate should rather further, then hinder this ordinance of God. As from the perpetuity of the gospel, this being a part of it: From the excellency of it: From the necessity; ends, and effects of it.  
One remarkable argument he useth: that the Magistrate himself being a member, and subject to the ordinance, cannot exempt any man from this ordinance: For this he citeth the Churches practise upon Ozias, 2. Chron. 26.16. and that instance of Theodosius related by Theodoret Lib. 5. 18.  
D. Whittaker contriveth this argument into few words: Qui vincit vincentem te, is etiam vincet te: 
De Cont. q. 5. p. 180.  If the Church bring him under, that is over thee; shall it not also bring thee under, meaning the Pope or Prelate?  
For a closer of the proof of this point; we produce the judgement of that World of wit, in his halcyon dayes; who in a general assembly, with much admiration disputed acutelie this point pro& con: whether malefactors in life or religion, against the first, or second Table, might be cast out, notwithstanding they were liable to temporal punishment: He concluded affirmatively, that heretics, blaspheamers, refactarie schismatics, bloodguiltie persons, and the like of what degree soever they were, ought to be cast out, by the Church; For they might escape the Kings hands; but the hand of God they could not escape. His laws must stand, said he; and we must all obey, though the laws of man be often made of none effect.  
Thus, or to this effect, the King spake; yea we could make it appear, that awful shaking blade of the Spirit, was more terrible to those robellious spirits, both to God and man, than the power of many Kings.  
By this it appeareth, who be the schismatics in this point. The Sorbonists in their book, called the ecclesiastical policy, chargeth Bellarmine, and Baronius, to be schismatics; because against the council of Constance& basil, they maintain the Pope to be above a council? We require judgement, whether D. Downam, and D. Bridges, with others of the hierarchy, maintaining Prelates, to be above the Churches, deserve not the livery of schismatics, that they would put upon others?  
Lastly, we want not approved practise for this particular: Instance, that Censure put deservedly( as himself acknowledged) upon Mr. Adamson, Bishop of S. Andrews; for taking that Antichristian title upon him( for little other fell to his shair but sin and shane.)  
The effects of excommunication, which the Apostle calleth a giving up to satan, were heavily and fearfully upon him; namely, inward pangs, outward pains, and much penury: No foreign absolution could ease him, till the Church, who had imposed the Censure, upon his humble confession and supplication, released him.  
The godly, and Learned of the realm, relate this at large; we must give but a touch: only this we wish, that they had still so used the stafe in driving away the fowles; that their sacrifice still might have been of as sweet a smell as formerly: but let them and us up and recover our ground; taking Chrysostomes advice in this very particular: Non purpuram; non fasces, &c. fear not the scarlet hood; the mitre, rochet, nor the crocier stafe; ye have greater power than these; He bindeth this on with good reasons: Si hominem timetis, &c. If ye fear man; that very man shall mock you; but if ye fear God, you shall be reverenced of men. Yea further, the neglect of this duty shall cause their blood, to be required of your hands.  
But heer flesh and blood will begin to startle; and turn the back on this honourable service: It will either lay or find abundance of Bears, and lions in the way; or at least their skins stuffed with straw.  
As the faint-hearted spies could not choose, but commend the sweetness of the soil, and fruitfulness of the promised Land; but they were daunted with the strength of the people, 
Numb. 13.27. &c.  the height of their walls; the Gyantlike stature of the sons of Anack; the Amalakites, and the rest of their cursed confederacie, dwelling in the mountaines; So all that have any hearts for God, must of necessity confess hoc exterminium mali; this rooting out of this evil, to be the most honourable, and profitable business, that ever was undertaken; but who is sufficient for it?  
They are the sons of Anack for strength,( and so they are indeed the sons of that monstrous Giant the man of sin;) they are deeply rooted, and strongly guarded with Amalakites, Hittites, jebusites, &c. that is, Atheists, Papists, Arminians, carnal gospelers, Protestants at large, the openly profane, and with all the enemies of the Church, and Common-wealth, and with all the Bellie-serving crew that depend upon them. They have further with them the counsel of achitophel; the courting of Shebna; the roaring and braving of goliath; the cruel pride and vanity of Haman; the flattery of Amaziah; the falsehood of Semaiah; and the bloody cunning of Doeg; and if in this height and might they be encountered, they will rage like the roaring of the Sea, and tear like a Bear, robbed of her whelps?  
For answer to all this; grant it be so,( for it may be, al these will be upon their stumps.) Should ye not the rather resist by all good means this {αβγδ}, 
1 Pet. 5.8.  or roaring monster, that he may flee from you.  
Consider, if you be not able to run with a footman; how will ye hold out with a Horseman? that is, if you cannot tell how to deal with a mortal man, being Gods enemy, how will you deal with God, being provoked, that ye come not out, to help him against his enemies? If the crystalline humour of the bodily eye be never so little removed by a blow or cut to the one side, or other, it maketh one thing seem two. So by false fears, the crystalline humour of the eye of faith being never so little obliqne, from directly looking upon God,& our commission, maketh our foe seem stronger, and our service seem harder, than they are indeed, or in very truth. Prodigious things upon proportionable distance, seem more fearful, than if they were nigh hand; so draw you to your colours, and march on to the charge; and you shall with Alexanders spies, discover them to be but Mounkies, marching over the mountains of babel, and no men of arms.  
Consider what the Lord saith, and it will strengthen your heart: 
Esa. 40, 31.  They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with the wings of an Eagle, &c.  

C. 4.1. v. 10.  fear thow me, for I am with thee; be not dismayed, for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea I will help thee; yea I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.  

V. 11.12.  behold all they that were increased against thee, shall be ashamed, and confounded; they shall be as nothing; and they that strive with thee, shall perish.  
do as those brave Spirits, josuah, and Caleb, counseled faint hearted Israell, to do with the Canaanites. 
Num. 14.9  fear them not, they are bread for us; their defence is departed from them, and the Lord is with us, fear them not. Can you red those places, and gather no courage?  
The Lord will do by you, as he did by Achaz; If ye will not fear, 
Esa. 7.4.  & be faint hearted; as sure as the Lord hath spoken, you shall cut off the tails of these two smoking fire brands from the head of babel; namely, Popish prelacy,& Arminianism; and then all the rest must fall: But if thorough fear of danger, you seek a hole in your commission; and turn of the service; then the Lord may impute it to you for rebellion, as he did to Israell his denial to enter the Land: 
V. 9.  Onely rebel not ye against the Lord, saith josuah to them. As the frequency of a diary, or light fever, may grow to a hectic; so that faithless fear of the Israelites, cast them into a deadly consumption; yea from one degree of sin, and judgement, to an other; As from fear, they fell to murmuring; from murmuring to rebellion; from rebellion to the murdering of their guides, If God had not hindered them; but this did so provoke the Lord, that had not Moses stood up, betwixt God and them, he would have cut them off from being a people; and because( as Moses said) they turned away from the Lord, he gave them over to go up against their enemies, without his advice; neither would he be with them; 
V. 44, &c.  and so they were consumed.  
2. Some will make a stop, that the Kings authority supporting of them, standeth in the way of reformation.  
For answer. 1. If they could say with the Apostle, that they were {αβγδ}, 
Rom. 1.1.  separated, or set apart for the gospel of God, they would not meddle with the authority of Kings. Duae virgae sunt; altera Regum gentium; altera Discipulorum Christi. Virga Regum, virga Dominationis; virga Discipulorum Christi, directionis. There be two rods( saith Rupertus:) 
In Math. 10  one of the Kings of the Earth; an other of the Disciples of Christ; the former is a rod of princely superiority; the latter a rod of direction: the one is over the body; the other over the soul.  
2. As we have proved, they have no such authority( as they do usurp) over either veils, bodies, or goods of men; and therefore they may be justly called Regis, Legis,& gregis, excidium: The very undoing of King,& Law, and people.  
3. Say authority were granted, in things incompatible; it were no authority at all. Virga dominationis non est concessa Ministris Evangelij pacis( saith the foresaid Author:) that rod of Princely dominion, is not given to the Ministers of the gospel of peace.  
The same argument our Saviour( whom they now and then call master) useth, to avoid the division of the brethrens inheritance: 
luke. 12.14  Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you? As if Christ would say: I have no calling to it; and who can give them a calling to do what they do? we may use to them the words of Bernhard: 
De consid. Lib. 1. c. 6.  Quid fines alienos invaditis? quid falcem vestrum in alienam Messam extenditis? Why do ye invade others offices, and cast your sikle in others Corn. Cur mayor vis esse Domino, &c. Why will ye be greater then your master, who answered the brother in matter of division; who made me a judge, &c. then it behoveth you all, according to your places, to vindicate the King, and kingly authority, the Law,& the subject; yea, and the gospel,( which is more then all,) from abuse, and tyranny.  
3. And lastly, some will object, if we cast off their bands, and oppose their tyranny, we shall be called tumultuous; they will cry a confederacie: people will forsake us, we shall loose our ministery, or place of government; our court-countenance; our credit; we may be banished, or imprisoned; and so our places should want us, where we might have done much good?  
For answer; first you must make a count, what it may cost you. Nullum periculum vincitur sine periculo: No danger is overcome without danger. And resolve upon self-denial, if you follow Christ. The fearful are neither good Soldiers, nor good Logicians: as God said to the Prophet: though they say a confederacie, 
Esa. 8, 12.  say not ye a confederacie fish not to far before the net? Sit vestri cura operis,& Dei cura eventus: Do ye the work; and leave ye the success to God. May ye not rather reason, that honour, and success, shall attend you, and yours? Is not God plentiful in promises of assistance in the work; and a blessing upon the work?  behold( saith the Lord of babel,) 
jer. 51.25.  I am against thee O! destroying mountain, which destroyeth all the Earth. sanctify the Lord of Hostes; and let him be your fear, 
Esa. 8.13.14.  and your dread; and he shall be to you for a sanctuary. 
But say that the evil, which you fear, should come upon you, and us,( as indeed it might, because we have so long stood off with God, and feared man more than him,) yet why should your places of magistracy, or ministery be redeemed with the least detriment, or dishonour to God? is not Thyatira, being( as one saith) a Type of the Church, high in popery, from Wickleeff to Luther, threatened for suffering of Iesabell? 

Park. lib. 1. C. 39.  
Apot. 2.20.   that is: Quod Romam ferrent: that they suffered Rome. As one saith, Iesabell no doubt was reproved, but she was not roundly dealt with; she should not have been suffered at all: But we take not up our arms at all against the brood of Iesabell. Turpe Christianos Pastores non in prelio Leones, said potius servos esse: It is shane( saith one) for Ministers, or men of place, not to show themselves like Lions, but as harts in the battle.  
What it is to be a lion, solomon telleth us: he turneth not away for any. 
Pro. 30.30.  As for your places, liberty, peace, and pains in the Lords harvest, God will say thus: 
Ps. 50.12.  If I be hungry, I would not tell thee; that is, what need I to thee; or any thing thow canst do? I am all sufficient, &c. Mens places and pains must serve Gods appointment; but Gods appointment must not serve mans policy. If you stand not up for God, you are fare to loose your places, and your comfort too. Pure obedience, without going to the right hand, or to the left, is the fruit of true love to Gods commandment. Hath the Lord( saith samuel) so great pleasure in sacrifice, as in obeying of his voice. 
1 Sam. 15.12.   
We know that earthly Kings hold it their greatest glory, to be precisely obeied in their peremptory commands, though they be many times different, or directly opposite to the rules of State; and men of no mean quality, devouted to those commands, hold it their greatest honour punctuallie to obey, though it be with danger of their head; Instance, that man, who upon the command of Henry the VIII. threw down the Fort in France; for which the council thought him worthy of death.  
A like instance we have in Duke de Medina, general of the Spanish Armado, in 88. he was commanded by the King, not to Land his forces, in England, before the Prince of Parme& his forces were come to join with him; which he precisely obeying, when he might have landed; It was conceived by the counsel of spain, that that neglect overthrew their attempt. The Duke being called to an account, did ingenuously confess, that in his judgement he might not onely have landed safely, but done some great and honourable service against the English; but the Kings command was of more weight with him, then gain, or loss; yea or life itself; for which the King commended him highly; affirming, that he had honoured him more in his punctual obedience, in a thing good to the eye of judgement, than he had gained him a kingdom by a contrary course. If it be thus with obedience to Kings, that may, and do err, though their intention be good; how strictly without altering or diminishing, should we obey the alwise God? whose commandements, both for matter& manner, are exceeding just.  
To conclude the point in the words of one of the Ancients, 
Greg. lib. 4. Ep. 36.  against usurped authority. State forts; State securi, oportet enim, vt constanter, &c. Stand fast, and be strong; be secure in standing for the Lord; keep the Churches of Christ, as ye have received them from the Apostles. Et nihil sibi in nobis haec tentatio Diabolica usurpationis ascribat: Let not that tentation of devilish usurpation, find any place in us; or let the serious, or sincere exhortation of a reverend Patriot, and Champion of Christ his kingdom prevail with you. Medici Ecclesiae Anglicanae omnes pro viribus esse debemus; profana Episcoporum vsurpatione, imo& saevitia ejam vulneratur: qui igitur Medicam manum adhibere cessant, aut desipiunt nescientes, aut salutem Ecclesiae perfidi produnt: we should all be Physitians to the Church of England; by the cruelty, and profane usurpation of Bishops it is sore wounded; they then that are negligent to put to their healing hand, are either unwise, or perfidiously, 
M. Park. Lib. 1. c. 39 p. 128.  they betray the safety of the Church, ponder the words well we pray you.   

The 3. Mean of removal.  
THe 3. Mean of removal of this evil, is conceived by some to be a council called; wherein the authority of the prelacy, their superiority, their Offices, and substituted Officers, their liturgy, and maintenance, may be thoroughly examined, and judged accordingly: But before we come to the particular application of this Medsin, it shall not be amiss, to give a taste of the praecognita, or generals of a council, for the better clearing of the particular.  
The papacy and prelacy are at strong opposition now and then among themselves, about the necessity, authority, and calling of a council, yet both join in opposition against the Presbyterians, or Reformers,( as they call them;) and this may appear in divers particulars.  
First, they charge the Presbyterians with disliking of councils; and again, they braulle,& keep a wondering, if at any time they call for a council; How can these hang together? That they do both these, let the hierarchy, and their Soldiers bear witness against themselves.  
For the first, 
Sutcli● Tract. de discipline. c. 9, p. 140  we dislike of nothing more( saith one of them) than that divers Disciplinarians have no councils: as though they could not endure councils.  
The untruth of this is manifested by the current of the learned; the practise of all Reformed Churches, and the confession of their own writers.  
Bogerman against Grotius testifieth from Iunius,& others, what love and good liking the Reformed bear to councils: 
Apolog. p. 2. Lib. 4.  So D. Morton, citing Calvine. Quod nullum certius sit remedium: there is no better remedy than a council. 
De triplic. Ep. p. 91. q. 3.  So Saravia of Beza: De necessitate Synodorum facile Bezae consentio: as for the necessity of Synods, I willingly agree with Beza. Concilia coguntur vt reformentur Ecclesiae ad formam optimam, 
De vera Ecclesiae reformat. Regula 10.  quam Christus& Apostoli, &c. councils are to be called( saith Zanchie) that Churches may be reformed, both in Discipline, and Ceremonies, to that form, which Christ and his Apostles have left; that all new Doctrine, Worship, and Ceremonies may be done away.  
To this purpose he citeth that promise or prophesy from Gods own mouth, Esa. 1.25. I will purge thy dross, &c. And so he citeth jer. 6.16. Stand in the way, &c. Where we see the Reformed make councils the means, to purge the Churches, and to find out the good way.  
It is true we do not with the Papist, or some of the misled ancients, extol councils, or equal them to the Scripture; as gregory esteemed of the 4. general councils, as of the 4. evangelists; but we answer, as Augustine did Maximinus the heretic, 
Lib. 3. adversus maxim.  willing to hear nothing but councils. Nec ego Nycenam, nec tu Ariminensem Synodum, &c. Let us not contend by synods, but by the authority of Scripture.  
There have been divers wicked councils, both under the Law and the gospel.  
four hundred false Prophets were assembled under ahab, to condemn Micaiah. 
1 King. 22.   
The high Priest, and the pharisees, 
joh. 11.47  gathered a council against Christ. ye when councils began to be corrupt. Gregore Nazianzen said: 
Epist. 25. ad procop.  He never did see a good end of any of them.  
Neither city we these as Calvine speaketh for us: 
Instit. lib. 4. c. 9.  Quod Concilia minoris facimus, vel quod Concilia metuimus: Out of any disesteem of councils, or that we fear councils, but that councils being subject to err; We believe them so far, as they are ordered and guided. Per lydeum lapidem,& non per lesbiam Regulam humani judicij;( as Zanch. speaketh) by the touchstone of the word;& not by the leadin rule of mans corrupt judgement; and therefore saith Iunius: 
Animadvers. in Bellarm. p. 429.  Res Concilijs non debent determinari: Things must not be determined by councils, without the guidance of the word.  
In the next place, the hierarchy forgetful of their former challenge, crieth out on reformers for desiring a council; witness, D. Bridges his reply, to one desiring trial, and reformation of things by a council: Is not this( saith he) to take away the authority of Bishops, 
Lib. 15. p. 12357.  and Archbishops, by whom, as by a compendious way, things may be determined?  
Te same quarrel picketh D. Whitgift to Mr. Cartwright, 
Tract. 5. c. 3  desiring a council: The calling of a council( saith he) is a way full of grievous, and intolerable consequences.  
The same song do the Papists sing to all Protestants, desiring a council. Iunius citeth Bellarmine thus, upbraiding the Lutherans: efflagitant Lutherani Concilium, 
Controv. 4.  &c. The lutherans would gladly have a council; but D. Morton sheweth us how Bellarm. and his follows. Excludunt necessitatem Concilij: they do abandon the necessity of a council. But upon what ground? Vpon the very same ground, in effect with the hierarchy. Via maxim compendiaria extinguendi Haereses, non per Concilia, said per sedem Apostolicam: The most compendious way,( say they,) to quench Heresies, 
Apol. p. 2. Lib. 4. c. 1.  is not by Councils; but by the power of the apostolic Sea, witness, Bellarm.& Coster.  
To the same effect Perierius: Frustra fit per plura, 
In Exod. 10  quod fieri potest per pauciora: It is labour lost, to do a thing by greater pains, when it may be done by lesser: Observe how the hierarchy and papacy jump together, in the same Positions and grounds; For as D. Morton further witnesseth of the papacy, that they exclude councils: Vt cathedrae papalis prerogativam adferant: that they may establish the prerogative of the Popes chair; the same doth the hierarchy; witness themselves, that they may establish the indisputable prerogative of an Archbishop, or Pope Minorite. As in this they are like one to another; so they are both like to the great enemies of State, or Bankrupt Politicians; who least they should be called to an account, are ever beating on this Matchivillian principle. In statu Monarchico expedit rara esse commitia: In a monarchical state, Parliaments should be very rare; which is both against reason,& the safety of the state; especially, if the wicked find place about the throne, whom the power of a Parliament should, and must remove; since this high Court is set in the middle, between the King, and State, yet partaking of both; that they may redress the grievances of both; just so, the intrusion, and violent keeping of possession by the prelacy, cannot endure a council.  
But to come to the application of the particular; cause them join yssew with us, and put the cause upon the trial of a lawful council; ubi causa cum causa,& res cum re,& ratio cum ratione comparetur: Where cause with cause; and matter with matter; and ground with ground may be compared, and determined.  
But in calling of this council, the hierarchy must be content to part with their Romish principle, namely; no Metrapolitan, no council. It is D. Bilsons Position in more words delivered, c. 6. p. 453, &c. Saravia, the Prelates Couvert, but like a cake not turned, pleadeth thus for Mammon; that the assemblies of the Presbiterians are not synods, 
De triplic. Ep. q. 3. p. 90.  but conventicles, because he readeth not of any synod, without an Archbishop. It is the very plea of Bellarmine for the Pope: Quomodo convocabuntur Concilia absque uno, in quo omnes,& c? How shall councils be called without one, in whom all the rest must consist? 
De council. c. 12.  Or how can Bishops be assembled without a head?  

Lib. 4. pag. 114.  Si nullus Metrapolitanus in qualibet Provincia; nullusque pastor in tota Ecclesia, &c. If there be no metropolitan in every Province, and no universal Pastor in the whole Church, how can a council be called, or kept.  
The argument for the one, is every way as good as for the other; if a provincial, or particular council can not be kept without a metropolitan; then a general can not be kept without a Pope: But the untruth of this papal and hierarchical assertion appeareth many ways.  
1. It is against that place of Scripture, which both they, and we, and all that profess Christ, allege for the warrantable calling of a council: 
Mat. 18.20  Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I will be in the midst of them. Yea I say unto you; 
V. 19.  if two of you shall agree vpon Earth in any thing, &c. which phrase is taken from that symphony, or harmony that is in Song; ubi communi consensu, non alicuius imperio: 
{αβγδ}.  where it is signified to us, that by the common consent, and not by the imperious edict of any, a council is to be gathered;( as one saith very well): and if by the name of Christ: they understand authority, given from Christ; by the very same the Metrapolitan authority is rejected; which is proved( as we have shewed) and confessed by all the ingenuous, to be but a humano institution.  
Tota Hierarchia instituta est, vt in Ecclesia unitas, 
Distinct. 18  & tranquillitas servetur, saith Duarenus the Civilian, and a great friend to prelates privileges: the whole Hierarchy was ordained, that the unity, and tranquillitie of the Church might be kept; But what Lord-keepers they have been, and are to the Church, we have partly shewed you; for we cannot tell you all: But for the point; that they are of mans positive authority, let their own speak; as D. Fyeld, Sutcliv. D. Bilson, &c.  
2. Was there any Metrapolitan in that apostolical council, Act. 15? Where if they answer, that the Prelates succeeded the Apostles( as some do) then they cross their own confession; that a Metrapolitan is a mere human institution. But they know well enough, and are forced to confess; that there was no Metrapolitan for the space of 300. yeares after Christ; and will they say there were no Councils? and if there were, they must be null in their judgement, for want of a Metrapolitan. Fideles per Afiam conveniebant ac nuper natas Doctrinas, 
Lib. 5. c. 16  &c. the faithful ones( saith Euseb.) assembled themselves thorough all Asia, rooting out new Doctrines, and all things repugnant to the word; in these no Metrapolitan. The same author witnesseth, that Constantine, coming to the crown, by a decree, restablished the liberty of calling synods, or Christian Societies together; which were formerly suppressed, by the tyranny of the Dragon. So that ye see the frequency of synods before any Metrapolitan. Yea a Synod was kept at Antioch, as D. Reynolds witnesseth against the mind of a Metrapolitan.  
3. What say they to all Synods that have been kept by Reformed Churches, since the time of reformation? Surely, they dare not say, they are no Synods. Yea they will be found to be the Synods indeed; For all the Synods kept in britain by Prelates upon trial, by the golden rule of Gods word, shall prove but Pseudosynods; Or as Nazianzen. speaketh to be {αβγδ}: the fixing of evil, not the dissolving of evil.  
Take for instance( to go no further) that provincial Synod, holden Anno 1603. the first year of King james; which was all that was holden from Ao. 1597. which a Learned worthy calleth: Flagellum piorum,& pandoram illam è cuius pixide, &c. 
Park. de Polic. lib. 5. c. 26.  the scourge of the Godly; and the box, out of which a multitude of mischiefs have overflowed the Church of England.  
But in these Reformed Synods, were there any Prelates? For the closer of this controversy, let a learned cardinal speak: 
De concord. cathol. lib. 2. c. 25.  Eius authoritas non ita pendet à congregante, &c. The authority of a Synod( saith Cusan) dependeth not so on a Metrapolitan, or Pope, that it is null without them; For then the eight general councils had been null, because they were not by a Pope.  
But what is the reason, the Pope, or Metropolitan petty Pope will bear such a sway in council, or they will have no council at all? D. Whittaker giveth Bellarmine the reason: Certum est reum noll. convocare Concilium, à quo judicetur: a Malefactor will never call an Assyze; except he may be judge himself. But as Iunius citeth Augustin; is it any reason, vt vnus judex sit,& accusator? that one should be both judge and accuser? Imo vt quispiam de alio judicare velvet, 
32. q.  & nollet se judicari? yea that he will judge others, and not be judged himself.  
judge ye then with Luther, cited by Iunius: Expetimus Christianorum liberum Concilium, 
Controv. 4.  &c. We desire a free council, as Christians should have; For of their councils under the Prelates, we may say, as Luther said of the Popes: quod porrigitur panis in mucrone gladij, 
Lib. de council.  at propius accedentes manubrio ferimur: They hold us out bread on the point of a sword, but when we come nigh, they beat us with the hilt.  
Be pleased then to let us have a council in the name of Christ; that is, with authority from the word, which they reject,( as M. Calvine well observeth,) that ad, 
Deut. 4.2. Malach. 2.7 Rev. 12, 18  or diminish, from the word; and then we doubt not by the help of God, but the Prelates shall not onely be in danger of a council; but they shall be quiter extinct by a council.  
For the evidence of this hope, let them but appear to these particulars;  
1. What council called and guided by the warrant of the word, can choose, but condemn the unlawful calling of the hierarchy, not having one jot of warrant from the word; yea directly condemned by the word; For matter incompatible with the ministery; For ground Antichristian authority; Conferred onely by our Kings, for want of better information; who are not able, nor any human power, to change the nature of it: and lastly, for manner merely Popish, and Histrionicall; as we could show from the Ceremonies used, but they are not worth the time.  
2. What council will approve that feudatarie Leedg-vassalladge of Ministers, with their oath of Homage, or Hominium,( as some call it;) that is, Man-service? Whereby they entangle, 
Lib. 1. c. 7. N. 9. Ecclesiae.  and tie themselves to military service; Tenentur militari: They are tied to serve in war, saith Spalato. Tollentes libertatem,& numera prophanantes,( saith that Learned, and much honoured Didoclavius,) undoing the liberty of the Church, 
Altar. Damasc. p. 11.  and profaning the function of the ministery.  
What council will approve of their Lordlie and supereminent titles, of Lord, earl,& Grace, and of the most honourable order of Gartyr? Or will they think it right, that they should take place of all the nobility,& some of all the officers of state save the Lord chancellor; as the Archbishop of york; Some take place of the Lord chancellor too; as the Archbishop of Canterbury.  
It is worth the observing, when the Bishops were inhibited the Parliament by Edward. 3. that proud Prelate John Straitford, came to the door, and pressed to be in, 
Godwin. de Presul. p. 157.  affirming that he was the grand PEOR of the Land, and next unto the Kings person, to have his voice( and so saith he) I challenge the right of my Church,& entrance into the house.  
Lastly; in this particular of honour, will a council think it fit, that the orphans of the nobility and gentry, being feudatories to the Bishops, should as Vassals, do homage or Knights service to them, though they hold other Lands in capite of the crown? Our Antiquari sheweth us, how the earl of gloucester held the Mannor of Tunbridge, 
Gamden.  of the Bishop of Canterbury on condition, that he should be the Bishop his Marshall at his installment. 
Godwin.  So the earl of Warwick was Marshall at that great and sumptuous installment of george Nevell, Archbishop of york.  
3. How can they hold up their face in council, to make good that power conferred on them, or abused by them in the high commission. Is it fit, that Ministers, by virtue of a secular power, should take upon them, to censure men in the matters of the service of their God; and other points of faith? and not onely so, but also to excommunicate, fine, imprison, break up their doors, and closerts; take away their goods, &c. contrary to the Law of God; the laws of the Land, and privilege of the Subject; as we have proved at large? Or would a council ever agree, to put two swords into the hands of mad men, or suffer them, to rack the Kings subjects upon that damnable oath of Inquisition? Yea they infringe the power of the commission itself; by virtue whereof, as they are to inquire for Heresies,& Errors among other things, so are they not to condemn that for heresy, or Error, which is not determined so to be, by canonical Scriptures; witness that act of the 1. Elizabeth, C. 1.  
4. What Godly council will admit of their distinctions of degrees of Archbishops, Bishops, Deans, Priests, and Deacons; not onely contrary to Gods word, but also rejected by all Orthodox, Ancient, and modern writers, except a very few of their own grain. 
In 4. precept. p. 732.  Plures gradus seu ordines Ministrorum non legimus in sacris literis, quam quos Apostolus in Epist. ad Ephes. expressit: We red not( saith Zanchie) of more degrees, or orders of Ministers in holy writ, than the Apostle hath expressed in the 4. of Ephes. V. 11.  
What council could endure their Court Canons, and multiplicity of Popish officers, both in ecclesiastical& Lay functions( as they do distinguish:) with the number, variety, and iniquity of their Courts, we mean not to trouble you; since they are to well known: onely be pleased to take a view of that Court of Faults, or Faculties,( as they term it,) whereby the Archbishop hath power under his seal from himself, or his commissioner of the said Court, to give, and to grant Licences, dispensations,& rescripts in all and every cause, wherein the Bishop of Rome did give& grant the same. And this mischief is established also by a law; 
25. Henr. 8. Rastal. R. 22.  but how lawfully, let Heaven and Earth judge: For by this means( as a learned worthy replieth) we haue the Archbishop surrogated in place of the Pope, 
Cartw. rep. 1. p. 87.  onely the Kings supremacy reserved.  
This beastly Romish Court( saith an other Ancient worthy) had its ground from the Canon Law, in which that filthy merchandise of lawless dispensations is exercised to the undoing of the Church. 
De Discipl. Fol. 22.   

Pag. 3.  The monition to the Parliament complaineth,( and that justly,) that in this Court, as at Rome, all things are to be sold. This Romish Mercate( as one saith prettily:) nec modum, nec fundum, nec finem, nec pudorem habet: hath neither measure, nor bottom; nor end, nor shane; For they dispense not onely with human Laws, but also with divine, as non-residencie, plurality,& simony, &c. The which dispensations are legum vulnera; the wounds of the laws; the robbing of purses and the bane of veils.  
As for their Officers, we have already laid them out in their colours, onely a word or two more to Church wardens, and Sydmen; because sundry very honest men wrong, both themselves, and others, by this ensnaring, and roving office. They are sworn, not to suffer any man to preach, except he come with the Prelates licence. To present such, as come not duly to devised service, or divine( as they falsely call it;) though there be no more but that Egyptian garlic, yet that they must not leave to hear a Sermon. They must also present to the Prelates Court, all such as will not kneel at the Sacrament; nor have their Children crossed, and Bishopped; nor their Wives Churched; nor will not join with the Litanie,& unholy Ceremonies; nor will not observe festival dayes,& other rites; yea if good& holy men be under the unjuste censure of the Prelates, they must bar them from the Sacrament, suffering unworthy wicked men to be admitted to the Sacrament, by the Ministers, at their pleasure; Whom saith D. Mucket, if they present not to the ordinary: nefarie sunt periuri, they are wickedly forsworn; yea further their painful, and holy Pastors, and teachers, 
De Polit. p. 344.  they must unnaturally, and perfidiously expose, by presentment to the tyranny of the Prelates; if they punctually obey not those impure, and plaguy Cannons: and say they could buy out their oath( which is unlawful to do) yet this is their untoward work.  
They are( as we have said) the Counterrfits of Gods true Officers, namely Elders& Deacons, whom they keep out of place, by serving of the tyranny of the hierarchy, who cannot endure to hear of Gods true Officers indeed: In a word, they Minister matter of filthy Lucre, to the Harpies of the Prelates Courts; yea they grieve and wrong Gods people, and do the worse sort no good; we wish for their good, that they might see their service weighed at the beam of the word,( which in dead is, or should be the true scale of a council,) and then they would hate their service,& love themselves the worse, yea we are verily persuaded, that never a true honest man would undertake the service, were it not for fear of the Prelates; which strongly argueth, that being an Office in Gods house, it is counterfeit, and stark nought.  
6. And lastly; Dare they bring their liturgy and Ceremonies into the true Scale of a council: both these and their Patrons shall be found light, as vanity itself.  
First, for the liturgy we have shewed you( though briefly) the palterly pedigree of it; and could( if time would serve) anatomize it intus,& in cute; from the bowel to the skin( as we say;) but that is done in a treatise by itself.  
What an apish Imitation of the levitical Priest is in the Ministers going into the chancel; praying with his face turned from the people, as though there were some dissension between him, and the people? As the Priest under the Law went into the sanctuary, 
Levit. 16. luke. 1.  the people being without; so the rubric prescribeth the Minister, to put a partition between him, and the people, where he may as well curse, as bless; he may speak what he will in a tongue known or unknown, for the people know not: from that same practise Bellarmine defendeth prayer in an unknown tongue. 
De Verb. Lib. 2. c. 16   
As for the Litanie well naturing the name of a laborious service in the Dust and dirt( for so Homer and others useth the name) it is borrowed from the practise of the Heathens, 
{αβγδ}.  as Causabon observeth out of Dionysius Habicarnass. 
Exercit. p. 327.  And is in very dead nothing, but an impure mass of conjuring and charming battologies; whereby the name of God is highly profaned; his house and worship abused; Gods people by it abandoned the sanctuary; and the profane love no worship so well as it. Polybius useth a pretty phrase to display the nature of it; {αβγδ} with a multitude of inticeing flattering speeches( to say no worse) to 'allure the Gods: but not to trouble your ears with the particular blasphemies of it; is it not matter of wonder, that they pray to be delivered from lightning, hail, tempest,& c? Yet not one word of that which is prescribed in the Litanie of Edward. V I. namely to be delivered from the Tyranny of the Bishop of Rome, which is worse than all the fire and lightning that can befall us. But they know well enough that that prayer stricketh at the root of their being; and therefore they have cut it of by their expurgatorious Index; and in stead of this, they press the Ministers to pray for their Lordships, which in effect, is to pray for the establishing of antichrist,& keeping Christ still out of his kingdom.  
Thence it is that it stiketh on the stommacks of good men, and putteth them divers times to a stand: but compelled prayers( as we speak) do neither party good.  
Yet for all this Romish stuff, every Minister is strictly tied by the Canons, to say or sing all the whole service, not omitting any thing, notwithstanding of Sermons, or any other motive to the contrary, and that upon pain of suspension, excommunication,& deprivation, as he shall double, 
Canon. 14.38.  or triple the offence: so that we see the breaking of the bread of life must give way to the drawing of the waters of Nilus.  
To come from the enacting of the service, to the rites and ceremonies contained in the service book; they are as strictly enjoined upon the same penalties, as the saying of service is; witness the said Canons in that behalf; which is not onely contrary to the law of God, but also to the laws of the land, establishing( as we haue shewed) that service book of Edward the VI. which expressly thus speaketh, concerning the ceremonies. As for kneeling; the sign of the cross; the lifting up of the hand, and smiting of the breast, and gestures of the like nature; it shall be left free to every one to do as he list: so that you see by the pressure of these latter Prelates, it is worse with us, then it was in the beginning of reformation. In the proof of the first Position we haue shewed these ceremonies to be trinkets out of the Popes cookeroome, and haue laid impregnable Positions against them; but that their impiety, in persecuting for such stuff; may appear,( for that is their onely argument,) and that all may see how these things should be liked by a council; let us lay them out yet a little in their colours, and that as briefly as may be.  
They are directly against the word of God; against the Positions of the Fathers; the acts of the councils; the current of the modern Orthodox; the truth of undeniable principles; and against the laws of the land. A touch of each of these, though we might be large, because we desire to keep within bounds.  
For the first; all addition in Gods worship, as well as taking away, is directly forbidden in Gods word, both in the old and new Testament; witness those places, Deut. 12.32. Rev. 22.18.  
But these Ceremonies are an addition in Gods worship to the word, as they do not deny.  
Ergo, they are directly forbidden by the word.  
Basil. upon the foresaid places of Deut. giveth an excellent reason of the mayor proposition of the argument: 
{αβγδ}, &c.  Infidelitatis argumentum& signum superbiae certissimum, si quis eorum quae scripta sunt aliquid velit rejicere, aut iterim quae non scripta sunt introducere: It is an argument of infidelity( saith he)& an undoubted evidence of great pride; 
Serm. de fidei confess.  if any man reject any thing that is written; or bring in that which is not written: 
Defence of the Ceremonies, p. 29.  As for D. Morton his distinction of addition corrupting and perfecting: he hath both the word of the distinction and the illustration of it, by way of simile, from Bellarmine, 
De pontiff. Lib. 4. c. 17  in defence of all the rubbish of Rome; to whom they must be beholding for their answers and arguments( as we have shewed) when they are put to a stand, by force of the truth; but the distinction is corrupt, and taxeth the Scriptures of imperfection, if any thing can be added to the perfecting of them; yea( as one observeth) it is petitio principij, or a begging of the question in hoc ipso contrarium, 
Tilen.  quod divinae legi additur; In the very same it is against the Word, in that it is added to the Word. Scriptura sacra divinitus perfecta, &c. Eoque nec contra ipsam, 
De pont. lib. 4. c. 17. Not. 10.  nec praeter ipsam, &c. The word is divinelie perfect; and therefore neither any thing against it, or besides it, may be added,( saith Iunius,) the same we might say of that distinction of essential, and accidental addition; the Pope, and Prelates, will add to the word, that it may be kept; and God will have nothing added, that it may be kept; are not then they, and their additions Antichristian?  
As for the Fathers, they make the word the trial of all traditions.  
Besides Basil, whom we have quoted, and others; Cyprian is very exact. 
Epist. ad Pamp.  Vnde est ista traditio, &c. whence is that tradition?( saith he) Is it from Christ his Evangelicall authority; or the Apostels appointment? Then is it to be done, because God will have that done, which is written, as God said to Iosua: the book of the Law will not depart from thy mouth. Where he flatly condemneth all unwritten traditions.  
Augustine, speaking of the indulgency of God toward his people, under the new Testament. 
Epist. 118.  Levi jugo nos subdidit: he hath put us under a light yoke( saith he) now if the legal Ceremonies being removed, men might instutute others, then( as the same Father saith:) Tolerabilior esset conditio judaeorum, &c. 
Epist. 119.  The state of the Iewes was better then ours; because they were under Gods ordinances, we are under mans presumptions( as he calleth them) the Ceremonies of the Law( as the Learned often observe) were not taken away, that men might substitute others. Nam si iis sulatis, &c. If these being taken away( saith D. Whittak. 
De pontiff. q. 7. c. 3. ) others might be brought in; where were the benefit of freedom by Christ? According to that speech: Stand fast therefore in the liberty, wherewith Christ hath made us free; 
Galat. 1.1.  and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.  
Mr. Calvine calleth the recalling of Ceremonies, not a bringing again of the vail,& burial of Christ: said fetida potius stercora, &c. They bring rather in stinking dunghills; quibus obruta est sincera fides,& Religio: 
In Act. 13.  by which sincere faith,& Religion, are overlaid; and they who take, or give liberty to use them,( much more they who enforce them,) give more to a Pope then God did grant to his own Law; yea the prelacy take more upon them, then they will grant to God; For by their Canons, they strictly enjoin the punctual observing of all the Servicebook; with every rite and ceremony therein contained, and without addition, or diminution, both for matter& form, sub nomine poenae, on no small penalty Canon. 14. Yet they will add at their pleasure in Gods worship.  
As for councils, they argue strongly against all mens devices in Gods worship, from the negative; namely, that they are not approved by the word; So the Bracarenses decreed against Milk in the Sacrament; and the Antisidiorenses, against Mulse or Metheglin in it; upon this ground; that they had no warrant from Christ his institution: Cessat ergo lac, quia evidens exemplum Evangelicae veritatis illud offerri non sinit: 
Brac. 3. c. 1.  Let Milk be no more in the Sacrament, because the instance of that Evangelicall truth will not suffer it. Yea, as the Learned observe, the very Sacraments should be condemned by the second Commandement, 
Park. decruce Part. 1. p. 62  under the name Image, if Christ had not instituted them.  
For the current of the modern Orthodox, we could also be large, but we must give but a taste.  
Besides Iunius,& others already cited, Beza observeth( as we have formerly shewed) an Argument a comparatis, from the second of the Colossians. If the rites of the Law, God his own ordinances, be taken away, because they were shadows of Christ to come, what impudency is it, to substitute in their place mens superstitions?  
Mr. Calvine calleth these human inventions; Laqueos ad strangulandas animas: Snares, to strangle the veils of men. Adulterant cultum Dei,& Deum ipsum, qui vnicus legislator est, suo jure spoliant: they corrupt the worship of God, and spoil God of his right, who is the onely Law-giver. Inst. l. 4. c. 10. s. 1.  
Besides all this cloud of witnesses against the Ceremonies; they are opposite also to impregnable Positions of truth.  
It standeth not with the nature of true Ceremonies, that these should haue any place in Gods worship; For a ceremony( as the Learned observe, as well Popish as Orthodox) is a sacred action, 
De cleric. C. 13.  or ordinance, having its excellency( as Bellarm. witnesseth) from no other ground, but in that it is appoynted to the worship of God. He instanceth from kneeling at the Sacrament. To the same effect speaketh Iunius: In jure Politico Reip. sui sunt Imperati,& solennes ritus; 
De Polit. Mos. C. 7.  Ceremoniae vero proprie, non nisi sacrae observationes in cultu divino appellantur: politic government hath power, to appoint its own rites, but Ceremonies properly, are sacred observations in divine worship: Since so it is, what mortal man should dare to take upon him, to appoint Ceremonies, or sacred ordinances in Gods worship.  
We wish from our veils, that men would possess themselves of that difference between Ceremonies,& civill circumstances of order; the want of which observation breadeth much disorder.  
1. Civill circumstances in Gods worship have their ground from nature; as there must be a place to teach in, a cup for the communion; and so of the like; but so have not Ceremonies, but from God his own Institution.  
2. These circumstances of order and comeliness may be used in civill, as well as in sacred things; but so may not Ceremonies; witness, the Prelates coursing of a Minister, for wipeing his nose on the surplice.  
A second Position, crossed by the Ceremonies, is this: That all necessary Ceremonies, under the gospel; are contained in the new Testament.  
The first argument for proof of this Position may be taken from the nature of a ceremony, discovered in the first Position to be a matter of faith; Ergo, it must be contained in the gospel.  
2. We may prove it by induction.  
As Christ instituted the Sacraments; so the Ceremonies in the Sacraments; as breaking of bread, distribution of it; and of the cup( though now removed by that Idolatrous gesture of kneeling:) Et sic de caeteris; and so of the rest.  
Ergo, &c. If this induction be not good, give us an instance against it, extra propositum.  
For the truth of this Position, Chemnicius speaketh expressly: Quos ritus Christus addi volvit eosdem instituit: What Ceremonies Christ would have in the gospel, he appointed the same.  
3. We may prove it also a comparatis, by comparing the gospel with the Law.  
All necessary Ceremonies under the Law, were contained in the Law, Exod. 24, &c.  
Ergo, all necessary Ceremonies under the gospel are contained in the gospel; otherwise the Law should be more perfect then the Gospel, which none will affirm.  
4. And lastly; we use this argument a distinctis. Either the gospel must contain all necessary Ceremonies of Gods worship; or Christ hath left to the Churches power, to appoint Ceremonies: But Christ hath left no power to the Churches, to appoint Ceremonies. Ergo, the gospel contains all necessary Ceremonies in Gods worship. The proof of the Minor is thus: All that Christ hath left to the Churches appointment, is to order things by Christ himself appointed, 1. Cor. 14.40.  
But to appoint new Ceremonies, is not to order things by Christ himself appointed.  
Ergo, he left it not to the Churches appointment.  
For the last particular, that these Ceremonies stand in opposition to the laws; it is clear, as we have shewed from that liturgy of Edw. VI. to the which the Law requireth subscription, and the book leaveth the things arbitrary.  
By this which hath been said, it may appear to your Honours, how the Prelates, and their appurtenances, shall never be able to stand in a council, which being guided by the word, cannot brook that which is enmity to Christ, and the State.  
In these things we have been the larger; that all may see how they invade, as Mr. Calvine saith, the liberties of Christ, bereaving his servants of the same.  
2. How their tyranny( as the same Author saith) exceedeth the laws of other gangrenes; because they tyramnize over the conscience.  
3. To show how by these courses of their traditions they do not onely transgress the commandements of God, Math. 15.3. but they make void( as the Spirit speaketh) the worship of God, by the commandements of men; namely, in regard of the power of it; and the honour due to it, V. 9.  
Let the Prelates disesteem of Gods ordinance witness this; not onely in preferring the least, and vilest patch of their liturgy, to preaching( as their Canons witness;) but also by their phrase of speech in their Canons; where they scarce, or do not at all esteem preaching to be a part of divine worship; witness the 19. Canon, where, in the time of divine service, or preaching( say they) where observe, they make the word divine, a main difference, to distinguish their liturgy from preaching: Yea one of their proctors, in plain terms, affirmeth preaching to be no part of divine worship. 
Howson. ser. in Psal. 118 pag. 78.   
4. And lastly; that we may all awake, to be sensible of the fearful evil that is toward us, except we purge the Lord his house, and worship of this superstition, and the Patrons of it. witness Esa. 29.14. Therefore behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people; a marvellous work, and a wonder; For the wisdom of the wise men shall perish; and the understanding of prudent men shall be hide.  
Where be pleased to observe the matter of judgement; namely, the perishing of wisdom& understanding from the wise men; that is from the Governours in Church& common-weal, who should be light to others; and if the light, that is in men be darkness, how great is that darkness, Math. 6.23.  
Observe also the manner: it shall be a marvellous work. And lastly, the degree of it, expressed in the ingemination, or doubling of the words, a marvellous work; a wonder, as if a man could not wonder enough.  
certainly, we are far overcome in this judgement; we have all knowledge, as the Apostle speaketh; but that wisdom,& prudence, that applicative power, that should actuate,& order this knowledge in the proper Sphere of his activity, is perished from our wise men. wisdom is the heart of knowledge; from whose due temperature cometh the beauty, and strength of a State.  
Zeal of the Lords honour is as the actual heat, coming from the heart, forerunning and activating all the members of the body politic; consuming the superfluous humors of benumbing, or deading sin; dispelling the vapours of deluding errors, and abandoning all the unnatural heat of superstition,& idolatry: But the want of this working wisdom hath brought us to a lethargy, or epilepsy.  
All men wonder, and stand amazed at your supine negligence, in hastening to quench the fire, that hath almost consumed us: They cry out, where are ye? what are ye doing? What is become of that spirit of valor; and true love to the Lords honour, and your Countries deliverance? They that are acquainted with the council of God, conceive this to be the cause; that the spirit of wisdom is almost perished.  
It is with us, in some measure, as it was with Ephraim: Ephraim is oppressed, and broken in judgement; 
Hos. 5.11.  because he willingly walked after the Commandement. So because we have willingly obeied the Prelates Commandement we are oppressed within, and without; and judgement is as a snare to us; Yea, if these Commandements be not countermanded, the Lord will look on, till they beate us to powder.  
〈◇〉 there be any spirit therefore of wisdom left in you; stir up the gift that is in you; And if you mean to live, abandon both them,& their Commandements. And so much for this Mean, of calling of a council.   

The 4. Mean.  
NOW we come to the 4. Mean: The case may so stand, that a general council cannot be had; as Beza writeth to Caesar, or Charles the 5. It were a happy thing by a council, to reform what is amiss, and so to pacify God; but as the same Author; If thorough the iniquity of time, and height of disorder, it be not possible to have a council; yet reformation must not cease; For in all the reformations of the reformed Churches, we do not red, that they had any national council, till they had cashiered the hierarchy, the very bane of Councils, as we could show by divers instances in our own island, and other where; but we cannot enlarge every thing.  
The Mean then of removal is to gather yourselves together in serious humiliation, 
Zephan. 2.2 & reformation, before the Lord, in knitting your hearts together, in the band of love; every one lending his helping hand( according to his place) to the breaking down of babel.  
We mean not to insist in the discovery of this powerful prevailing duty of Humiliation; because the theory hath been excellently taught,& written off, by our Learned divines; and some of Gods people have plied the practise of it; We will onely therefore give a touch of the general, with some brief direction for our particular.  
As holy, and valiant Ezra, with his people, being in danger of the enemy, used this, as a special remedy; 
Ezra 8.21, &c.  namely, to humble themselves before God; to seek a right way for themselves; their Children, and Substance; So it standeth us upon it, to do for us, and ours, and what we have; For all is like to be lost; but if in seeking of the Lord, we would have Ezra his success, 
V. 23.  of whom the Lord was entreated; we must with Iosua remove that thing of the curse; namely, the prelacy from having any power over it; for woeful experience hath taught us, that the Prelates finger is like the harpy his claw, it spoileth every thing, it cometh in.  
An able Pastor, some two yeares, gone in august, in a general fast in London, pleading for reformation, under Iosua his removal of the excommunicate thing; 
Ios. 7.11.  told us in plain terms, that the main thing was that damnable hierarchy; who made no matter of the sinking of the Church, and State; so they might swim in their honours,& pleasures.  
As jehosophat was sharply rebuked, and much crossed, for helping of the wicked; 
2 Chron. 19 2.  So in having them to be helpers or ringleaders in this duty, is to bring a curse, and not a blessing upon it. How can they do good in humiliation, that are enemies, both to it and reformation? witness, their persecuting of Gods people, for gathering themselves together; Or as an other Prophet hath it; for speaking one to an other; 
Malac 3, 16  that is, joining their strength together, to prevail with the Lord; which is a practise warranted from the word, the practise of the Saints, and the custom of the Churches; as is fully proved in a particular Treatise.  
In the reformation of the State of Scotland, the Nobles, and others of the congregation, were put to great straits, by the overtopping power of queen Mother, and her French forces; but having with them a mighty man of God; who could stand up in the gap, and tell the Nobles, and other of their particulars, in the controversy with God; every man humbled& reformed himself, so that the Lord was entreated, and at length they were rid of the prelacy, and all their excommunicate things; yea great fear fell upon the queen,& Prelates, and all their Popish forces, by the frequent, and fervent humiliations of Gods people; in so much, that the Queen confessed, that she feared more the prayer& fasting of Mr. Knox,& his assistants; than an army of 20000. men.  
We have heard, that some 7. yeares ago, two faithful Ministers were committed to a strong castle, upon a rock, where their fervency was such with God, that the Captains lady( being a Papist) sewed for their enlargement; for she said she was afraid, they should shake the foundation of the Castle, by their prayers, our God is the very same. O! that we had but such hearts.  
We are persuaded, that if your Honours would but clear this service of the leprosy of the Prelates, and cause Ministers and people go roundly to work, charging the ministry, as they would answer it before the Lord, to deal plainly in this particular of the prelacy, and with self-reformation to strike neither at great nor small so much as at that; The Prelates hearts would fail them, their knees should smite one against an other; and as the sound of Rams horns shooke the walls of jerico; so this one piece of humiliation, being of a right bore, and well plied, would shake the prelacy all in pieces; yea by this means some of them happily might give over their hold, and make their peace with God.  
But Gods people, with all, must labour to be of one mind, and of one heart; and by entering covenant with God, against those his enemies, and all that is enmity to God, resolve to hold them at staves end, till God give the victory.   

The 5. Mean.  
THe 5. convenient Mean, to take them off will be the removal of their surfitting,& sowle-starving means, which maketh them adventer upon their own bane, and maketh them the bane of the nation.  
One of the ancients discovereth well, the cause of the break-neck-haste to be Bishops. Propter dapes, vestitum, Comitatum, &c. Cupiunt esse Episcopi,& Ecclesiarum Prelati; vt Ecclesiae Dei magis praesint, quam prosint: For delicious faire, gorgeous apparel, and pompous train, 
Arnulph. p. 7.  they seek to be Bishops, and Prelates over Churches, that they may rather rule over the Church than benefit the Church.  
As the devil said of job calumniously: Doth he fear God for nothing? So it may be truly said of the Prelates, do they serve the man of sin for nothing? The flesh pots of Egypt, maketh them such devouted enemies to the government of the spirit.  
We have shewed from the pen of one of their own house, how their great revennews have undone King, States,& Religion: Yea we have for this the Astipulation of Romes Champion-Cardinall; namely Bellarmine; who pleading for Constantines supposed donation of the Lateran Palace, and other emoluments; confesseth, that the spiritual wealth decreased as the temporal wealth, increased lib. 2. c. 17. de pontiff. As by the Munificence of Princes, this poison was poured into the Church; So from the accumulative bounty of other Princes, the Ambition and Avarice of Prelates, grew intolerable,& insatiable, till at length superstition overtopt Religion; and a Lording tyranny suppressed the power of the ministery, and vassalled temporal authority.  
The cutting of the large Trains of their bishoprics out of other mens cloath, maketh all the nations where they reign, to go tattered and torn, both in soul, and state; Yea, and some they make to go stark naked.  
It is well observed by one, that if henry the VIII. had taken the bishoprics all in pieces, after the suppression of the abbeys; and made every mans burden proportionable to his portage, it had been more honourable to the ministry, and more profitable to the State; But leaving them laden with to much temporal honour, and revenue; as men overgrowen with flesh and fat, they become unweeldie, dishonourable, and unsupportable burdens to the State.  
Is it fit, that one should have the provender of so many labouring oxen, for lying like a dog in the manger, hindering the Pastor, to feed, and the hunger-starved veils to eat? Yea, they musle up the mouths of the oxen, and ty up the tongues of the faithful labourers, both from treading out the corn, and eating of the corn.  
Is it fit, or possible, that one man should rule over so many places, so many miles distant from his person; as though he were a Metaphisicall entity, or of such an infinite being, that he had spirit enough for them all: But what man is sufficient for one flock?  
For a speedy redress then of those evils, we entreat your Honours, to remove this fuel, and the fire shall cease; take away the carrion, and the Kites will be gone.  
We need not tell you again, what need the State hath of these means; and how well they might be employed; onely this, we are bold to commend unto you, that as our nation( to our shane) is grown the Ape, and Monster of all strange fashions; So if you will bring the Prelates in such a cut, that their clothes may sit close to their bodies; It will be the onely best fashion, that ever came into the Land. Yea so that sin of strange fashions should fall with others.   

The 6. Mean.  
THe 6. and last Mean of removal, is the continuance of a Parliament, till the tenets of the hierarchy be tried, by God, and the country; that is, by the laws of God, and the Land.  
The Kings royal word; the confirmation of the laws, and giving of subsidies, imply a necessity of redress of grievances; which cannot stand with the dissolving of a Parliament, till reformation be effected; but if the common adversaries should enforce a dissolution, because all reformation( if they be well preached) entrencheth upon them; Can it stand with the wisdom, valour, and fidelity, of you, the great Maisters of State, to quiter the ship, upon the tempestuous hard-blowing of a babylonish Euroclydon? No sure; for as paul said to the Centurion, and the Souldiers, Except ye abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved; 
Act. 27.32.  So except ye keep the ship, till ye have beaten the Dunkirkers of State; neither King, you nor we can be saved.  
Your Honours know, that every dissolution of a Parliament, without real reformation, is against right, reason,& record. Is it not the right of the State, to be disburdened of caterpillars, moths,& cankerworms; and of such Lions,& bears, as devour Religion,& State-Policie? What reason is it, that the State assembled from all the parts of the kingdom, should waste time and means; and when they pitch upon the point, they should be blown up with the Romish breath of the enemy? so that, as joab said to David, concerning absalon: Let them live, and if we all die, it matters not.  
Lastly; for record, there is an ancient one, the sight whereof your Honours may command, though we cannot. The tenor whereof is this, that this Court should continue sitting so long, as there were any matters belonging to this high Court to be determined; and for the more exact effecting of this; it was openly published by proclamation; some convenient time before their rising; that the subjects should appear, if they had any more matter of grievance, determinable in that Court.  
This was confirmed( as we are informed) by William the conqueror, notwithstanding that he came to the crown by the sword. Then stand your ground, and quiter yourselves like men in this matter of reformation; wherein( as we have shewed) you must begin at the head, or ye cannot prosper.  
As we may say with David, there is but a little between our life& death; so it shall become you with the same Prophet to make hast, 
Ps 1●9. 60  and not to delay the keeping of Gods Commandement in this particular. As the same Prophet vowed that he would not come into the Tabernacle of his house; nor go up to his bed; that is, he would give himself no rest, or take no other thing to his thought; till he had found out a place for the Lord; So should ye not take any privacy, so much to your thoughts, at home, or abroad, in your bed, or in the fields, as the making way for the Lords dwelling among us; which cannot be done but by the removal of his enemies.  
We have made bold to be the larger, because the matter is weighty,& we desired to prove as punctuallie as we could.  
We might have been larger, if the time and State would have permitted. But we know your Honours are persuaded of these things:( or as paul said to Agrippa: we know you believe.) The pondering and maintenance whereof we humbly entreat at your hands. We do aclowledge that it is an inveterate evil, and by custom and continuance hath much prevailed, as tyrannous laws use to do Yea like the idol of St. Rumball, 
See the emblems in the Perambul. of Kent. p. 232. Edit. 1596  with their gins& pings they have made it so heavy, that men think it not poysable, with all the strength of the State. But pull out their shiftie pin of pomp, and revenues, and then they are easily removed from their place. Si nullum tempus occurrit Regi: If there be no prescription to the King. It standeth with lesser reason, that any prescription of time should prejudice the right of the King of Heaven. It is most true, ardua prima via est, &c. the entrance will be somewhat hard, but the beginning is more then half. The way is very steep: but the glory of the action, is of force enough to effect it. Remember that gracious, and incourageing speech of God, concerning Zerubabels finishing of that great work: 
Zach. 4.7.  who art thou, O! great mountain, before Zerubabell; thou shalt become a plain, and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof, with shouting and crying, grace, grace, unto it. 
V. 5.  If your hands begin it( as it followeth there) your hands shall finish it; And they shall know, that the Lord of hosts hath sent you.  
But what need all those arguments, let this one pled for all: aut hoc, aut nihil: either this, or nothing.  
The neglect of this one thing together with that main mean of true humiliation, maketh us more and more ado; for as it weakeneth us, and strengtheneth the enemy; so it enarmeth the Lord in zeal daily, to give us more and more matter of humiliation; witness, his heavy hand in sinking that hopeful plant, the Prince of Bohemia, just at that time when this work was a finishing. As all the enemies of Sion will rejoice at it; so it is more matter of mourning to us, than we are ware off; yea( it may be) we may mourn more for it many yeares hence. Alase! why was he smitten but for our sins? which blasteth in the very bud all the hopes of Sions deliverance. The Lord smite the hearts of his princely parents; our royal sovereign; of you, the State representative, and the hearts of us all, to lay it to heart, as we should; for if we make not a right use of it, he hath a heavier rod for all and every one of us; he will never leave smiting, till we smite that which smiteth at his Honour; If we love sin better then our first born, he will not only smite our first born,( that is our darling, whatsoever it be,) but he will at length consume us.  
With heavy hearts, and mournful eyes, we speak it; The like ominous thing hath not befallen our King and State, since the much like lamentable casting away of the two sons, and one Daughter, of Henry the first; whose ship, by the carelessness of the shipper, was splitt upon a rock; where of 150 persons, one onely was saved, by laying hold on the mast, and was brought to Land the next day after.  
This loss proved after, the ground of great trouble, to the State; of the demolishing of many faire houses, and noble families, and of the effusion of rivers of blood.  
The Popes( or Prelates) Penmen, would make the Kings harshness to the clergy, a special cause of this; but our Histories witness, that he suffered more of the hierarchy, than was fitting for a King; witness that monstrous proud affront offered him by that tottering Prelate, Rudolph of canterbury, in forbidding the Kings marriage, with the Duke of Lorains Daughter, because another than he was to join them. Yea, further at Barkley, at the queens coronation, he malapertly asked the King, who set the crown upon his head; The King replied: he remembered not well; neither was it material. The Prelate( in a great rage) told him, that whosoever did it, he had done more then could be justified; and therefore( said he) to the King: You shall either leave off the crown, or I shall leave off saying of mass. The King, without change of countenance, said no more, but if I have it not by right, do with it as you please; whereupon he stepped toward the King,& began to untie the button, to take the crown off the Kings head; but the nobility, and others waxing wrath, 
Antiquit. at Britannic. p. 124.  at the impudency of that saucy shaveling, caused him, by crying out on him, to leave off his attempt with shane enough.  
Is it not a wonder, that Kings& Queens should either affect, or endure such a viperous generation? Some would make us believe, that the King( being struck with some panic terrors) repented his rough usage of that surly crew; but we are of that mind, that Kings, queens,& others, have greater cause to repent that they either maintain them, or have any thing to do with them at all. For so long as they are the unhappy husbandmen of the vineyard, there is not a slip of any good like to grow in it; but either they spoil it, or the Lord plucketh it up, that it may not be spoyled; witness( besides other instances) the present doleful instance of our losing the rarest jewel of his age. As we all desire in the band of duty, and the bowels of compassion, to condole in soul, with that mournful King and queen; so let us all desire the Lord, to put it into their& our hearts, to join reformation with humiliation; and that in particular they may hate this hierarchy, and their infectious liturgy, with a perfect hatred, for they shall never prosper by correspondency with them.  
As for the Kings admirable deliverance, we may say, though the one hand of the Lord was over him, yet the other was under him: And we wish his song may be of mercy, and of judgement; and that he may proclaim to all the world, by amendment, that his greatest loss hath proved his greatest gain.  
To make an end of our present Subject. We wish your Honours might prevail with the Prelates by faire means, to cast off that overcharging calling. If they would go by president that is not wanting: gregory Nazianzen rejected this calling to stay contention. Here in England John of Beverley, 
Anno 722.  schoolmaster to Bead forsook his prelacy, for the contention raised by the monks and others about the Ceremonies, and betook himself to Beverley, where he preached the word constantly, till his death, and thus he became a Bishop indeed. If they object that these men forsook their places occasionallie upon the corruptions of contentious people,& not for the unlawfullnes of their calling: we answer first, that by reason of the Popish Ceremonies, and their tyrannous government, there is now as much mischief& contention, as was then: And who is in the fault, but they that do, and press such things, which if they would relinquish, these things should cease. But to answer more directly, let them take Hierax, for a president, without exception. Who forsook the prelacy( as Isidore witnesseth) merely for the vnlawfullnes of the calling. 
Epist. 223.  Which calling was not then come to that height of unlawfullnes by many degrees that now it is: If they will not thus be persuaded, from the practise of the living, we could by relation bring them evidence from the dead Monachus electus Episcopus, &c. a certain monk being chosen Bishop, refused the burden, who after his death( as they say) appeared to his friend speaking to him thus: 
Caesar. Flisterb. Illustr. miracl. L. 2. c. 29.  si Episcopus fuissem periissem: if I had been a Bishop saith he I had been damned; but if they will not believe the living word; if one should rise from the dead they would not believe him. We fear they are like pleuritickes patients that cannot spit, whom nothing but inscision will cure( we mean of their callings, not of their persons,) to whom we have no quarrel, but wish them better than they either wish to us, or to themselves. One of their desperate mounte-banks out of the pulpitt could find no cure for us,( their supposed enemies) but pricking in the bladder: but we have not so learned Christ. To conclude, we desire to say no more to your Honours but up& do it: for the Lord hath bidden you. Your privileges both from divine& human laws are both impregnable and irresistible: then give us leave to desire your Honours to do no more than Heaven& Earth; King, Church,& State; you& yours require at your hands. So remembring yet once more that high Commission& safe conduct of your God, with which in al duty we conclude: 
Esa. 41.13.  The Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, fear not; I will help thee.  
Magnum iter ascendis, said dat tibi gloria vires.  
Non est è terris mollis ad Astravia.  
High must you soare, but glory giv's thee wings.  
No low attempt a starr-like glory brings.    
FINIS.   

kind Reader, bear with the literal Faults; want of due points, or accents; and some Sections not well divided; whereof we could give you divers causes.