A SHORT discourse, Evincing necessary BY TEN several SOLID AND SVBSTANTIALL arguments. That the Church wardens & Sidemen of England can not execute their places( according to that Oath which they take at their admittance into their Office) without sinning against God and that in a very high nature.  Exod. 20.7. 
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his Name in vain.  Ierem. 4.2. 
Thou shalt swear, The Lord liveth, in Truth, in Iudgment, and in righteousness.  Levit. 19.12. 
You shall not swear by my Name falsely; neither shalt thou profane the Name of thy God: I am the Lord.  Heb. 6.16. 
An Oath for confirmation is amongst men an end of all strife.  
Printed Anno 1634.   

THE CHVRCH-WARDENS AND SIDE-MEN OF ENGLAND can not execute their places( according to that Oath which they take at their admittance into their office) without sinning against God, and that in a very high nature.  
THey must make their presentments to the Bishops Courts: in doing whereof they uphold, as much as in them lieth, that cursed Hierarchy, which is a main limane of that man of sin devoted to destruction, which every man in his place should help to ruinated with all his might, Revel. 18.2.6. Now to haue any hand in the supporting of those lordly prelates, which rob Christ of his Kingly authority, and in stead of his regal sceptre put a reede into his hand; and to be the means of keeping out of our Church Christs own officers and ordinances, and of the cotinuing of such Offices, and officers, and ordinances amongst us, as Christ, the sole King and Lawgiver of his Church never appointed nor approved for the ruling and governing of his Churches, is a flat breach of the second commandement, and a manifest complying with those rebels, Luk. 19.14.  
2 They must of necessity be guilty of horrible perjury, unless they present the whole Congregation, and every particular person in it; they being all and every one of them delinquents against one Article or an other. Now such a general presentment, without naming particulars, the Articles allow not, nor will it be admitted in their Courts. And the usual manner, as we know, in those presentments, is, to single out some few, and to connive at the rest. Wherein how these sworn men can dispense with that oath which they haue taken, for my part( I profess ingenuously) I can not see, If that be not a taking of Gods name in vain, and a most fearful abusing of it, I know not what is. Thus they transgress the third commandement in a high degree.  
3 They must present their faithful Minister for the bare omission of such things as are diametrally and directly contrary to the word of God, some of which are forbidden in the letter of the moral Law, as namely the cross, and Surplice: which, by the doctrine of our Church, being significant Ceremonies, appointed to teach by mystical signification, are either parts or means of Gods worship, which no man may presume to device, but they must bee of divine Institution, or else they are nought, Exod. 20.4. Thou shalt not make to thyself, &c. And thus they break the fift commandement, by being instruments of the causeless trouble and disgrace of their painful pastor, whom they are bound to honor, 1 Tim. 5, 17 and 1 Thess. ●. 13.  
4 They expose by their presentments both Minister and people to the will and pleasure of an ungodly Channcellor and Commissary, whose mercies they know to be cruelty. Those merciless prelates( being mighty hunters) having got into their clutches their poor brethren, pursue them with all eagerness, and do what they can to draw out, or at least to dry up their blood. And thus these officers in our congregations are guilty of the breach of the sixth commandement.  
5 They rob the Subjects of a great part of their wealth, and bring in a mass of money to those idle bellies, which are all nought from the Pope to the Apparitor. It is true the prelates purse the money; but our Church Officers by these their presentments, make themselves accessary to that horrible and intolerable theft committed in the sight of the Sun at noon day, directly against the eight commandement.  
6 They must present as faults many things which they know to be none, as namely, the Ministers not wearing the surplice according to the Canon, his not using the cross in baptism, and his omitting of any part of the books of Common prayer; the peoples not kneeling in the act of eating and drinking at the Lords table, and at the reading of the ten commandements, & not crouching and cringing at the name of Iesus. And by presenting these omissions as offences, they profess plainly, that they hold the doing of the said things to be the duties both of their Minister and of the people; whereas they know, or at least wise, if they were willing to be informed, they might easily know, that they can not be done without sin against God. Thus they call evil good, and good evil, darkness light, and light darkness, bitter sweet, and sweet bitter, and so make themselves liable to that fearesuit woe, Isa. 5, 20. Thus also they make themselves trespassers against the ninth commandement, in bearing false withes against their neighbour, and against the truth itself.  
7 They must present their christian brother, for not doing sundry things whereof they know he maketh scruple, and which they are well assured he can not yield to with the peace of a good conscience; as, in particular, for not kneeling at the Sacrament: which many good christians, vpon very good grounds, take to be a thing either simply unlawful, or at least of such evil report, that a man fearing God should not easily bee brought to use it, Phil. 4 8. wherein these officers do walk very uncharitably. For by this their presenting their poor brethren they cause them many times to use that gesture contrary to their scruple, and so they destroy those for whom Christ dyed, Rom. 14.15. And thus they make themselves guilty of soul murder, which is a foul and a crying sin, and the most fearful murder that can be.  
8 They must present poor people, which without their daily labour in their callings scarce haue bread to put into their mouths, and are utterly unable otherwise to relieve their families, for opening their shops vpon an holy day, as they term it, and not for coming to Church every one of those idle dayes; whereas the Lord saith expressly, six dayes shall they labour, Exod. 20 9. And thus they cause men to be evil entreated for-well doing, and expose them to a great deals of trouble, and to punishment for doing their duty. Wherein they are very injurious to the commonweal, by increasing the number of the poor, and making poorer such as by Gods blessing vpon their labour and endeavours might bee able to live comfortably themselves, and be helpful to others: which, to speak plainly, is no better then to rob the spittle.  
9 They must present their nearest and dearest friend, if he let but a word fall against the government of the Church by Archbishops and Bishops, and the rest of that Romish rabble: which Lordly prelates every one that hath but half an eye may plainly see, and must needs confess to be the shane and bane of our Church and Commonwealth; and being plants, which our heavenly Father never planted, they must be rooted up, Mat. 15.13. Wherein every man is bound to help the Lord against those mighty ones, unless he will incur that bitter curse thundered out by the angel of the Lord against the inhabitants of Meroz, judge, 5.23.  
10 They must present their Minister, if he read not in the congregation the Canons once every year: if he admit any strangers to the Communion; if he suffer the Father to be at the Font at the time of the baptizing of his child, which the article calleth being God father to his own child; and for a number of such like fopperies. Why do these strange lords require to haue such strange and uncouth things presented to their Courts? will they needs set their threshold by Gods threshould, and their post by his posts, Ezek. 43.8. And must the Messenger of the Lord of Hostes be the herald to proclaim and publish to the people their godless and graceless Constitutions? And if no strangers may be admitted to the communion, what shall become of such as are by suits in law, and other occasions, kept many moneths together from their own Parishes? And in what a case are they, whose Parish-churches are some yeares either repairing or new building? Is there a necessity that they shall all that while bee kept from the Lords table? And who is so fitt to make professiou of that faith into which the child is to bee baptized, and to undertake for the bringing of the child up in the faith and fear of the Lord, as the own father? But the particularities of this kind are so many and so gross, that if they should be severally examined, there would be no end.  
And therefore it behoveth every man, as he will answer it to the Lord Iesus Christ, at that great and dreadful day of his appearing, to shun those Antichristian offices, and to keep himself free from that abominable and execrable oath, by which men bind themselves to do the works of the devil, who is the Accuser of the brethren.  2. Tim. 2.7. 
Consider what I say, and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.   

THAT THE PRELATES GIVE A moral operation to their rites and ceremonies, and the Papists do no more, see for this these argum. following, extracted out of Dr. Ames his fresh suite against human ceremonies.  
WHat ever is a mean any manner of way ordained, to bring in divine worship, and to carry the mind and heart to God in that: is fo morally efficacious, as the Papists require, and so as our Divines condemn it, Nay if it be by teaching, and stering towards these supernatural works, as Gods spiritual worship: Its that which the Lord condemns in images, which tell lies, itis that which the Lord threatens Isa. 29.13. that his fear is taught, according to mens commands. And this kind of efficacy our Cerem. have by their institution as they are appointed, and enjoined to be used. The preface to the book of common Prayer, discovering the preferrment of the imposers, hath these words: Such are retained, which are apt to stir up the dull mind of man to the remembrance of his duty to God, by some notable and special signification, whereby he might be edified.  
2. These Cerem. which are of the same kind, and homogeneal with the significative part of the actions in the Sacrament, they may be said, to have a real and true efficacy of teaching, and so be a work of proper worship: because that part of the Sacrament, which is placed in signification, is so: but these ceremonies are homogencall, and of like nature, with that part of the Sacrament, doth baptism consecrate the child to God and so doth the cross: doth baptism signify the covenant, between Christ & child? so doth the across: itis openly said, to betoken the engagement, that is betwixt Christ and the child, that he shall be Christs servant, and soldier to follow his colours, and to fight under his banner unto his dying day: though this image have no tongue of its own, yet it speaks by the mouth of the prelates appointing, & their substitutes the ministers acting this image.  
3. Consider that which is made end of out Cerem. that our Cerem. are able, or at least are conceived to be able to attain, for every rational means can reach the end, now this is the end of the cross his institution, the white at which it shoots, and the minister makes it spell this lesson, even our dedication unto Christ. and our continual perseverance in his service, so that as the end is, so the means are, the end is properly holy, and religious, ergo, the means appointed thereunto( such this is) must be holy, religious, and efficacious thereunto, in the preferrment of the institutor.  
4. Those which are of the same rank, and set in the same room, with Gods own cree. they must be conceived to have holiness, and efficacy in them, for so Gods ordinances have. But these significant Cerem. thus instituted, are of the like nature with some of Gods own spiritual rites, As the Phylacteries Numb. 15.39. were appointed by God, for this end, to be remembrances, and admonishers of the law to those that used them. the same place our Cerem, supply, and are ordained for the same purpose.  
If it be here said that God himself appointed his and therefore they are holy and religious, but ours being instituted by man have no more then man can give them, I answ: God appoints his, and therefore they are truly holy, and religious, and ought to be embraced: Mens inventious being set in the same rank, are holy, and religious, but falsely and superstitiously such and therfore are to be abandoned.  
1. If Gods own Ceremonies were therfore to be removed because unprofitable, then much more ours. Heb. 7.18.  
2. If we must answer for idle words, then much more for idle ceremonies.  
3. That wherein neither the governor, attains his end in commanding, nor the governed his in obeying, to command that, is unlawful: but he that commands unprofitable Ceremo. he attains not his end in commanding, nor the governed his end in obeying: Ergo.  
4. 2. Coll. 18. Those things which perish in the using, with those we must not be burdened: but unprofitable Ceremo, perish in the using: ergo, with those we must not be burdened.  
5. Things indifferent, when they are used not in subordination to help forward moral duties, then their use is unlawful, but when they are unprofitable, then they are not in subordination to help forward the moral. Ergo.  
6. That which crosseth the place and office of the governor, that he must not do or maintain. but to enjoin a thing unprofitable is against his office and place. for his office is to rule for our good, Rom. 13.4. but unprofitable things are not so. Ergo.  
7. That which the Magistrate can command or maintain in the Church, he must do by virtue of some precept: That which is done by virtute of a precept, will be available to bring about that end, whereof there is a precept, but unprofitable things cannot attain that end: Ergo cannot be done by virtue of a precept: ergo, are not under the command of a magistrate.