ERRATA.  
Pag. 35. lin. 18. red eighth's, p. 38. l. 4. r. Bishops. p. 65. l. 7 r. or to conclude, that. p. 66. l. 9. r. Sacrament. p. 69. l. 19. r. and that they are. p. 158. l. 18. r. that are. p. 163. l. 17. r. Scripture. p. 70. l. 9. r. numerous.  
Other literal faults, and mistoppings the Reader is desired to correct at his leisure.   

AN ENQUIRY INTO The Ministry of PRESBYTERIANS, Whether Lawful or not? AS ALSO Into their way of PREACHING; IN A LETTER TO A Presbyterian Minister OF THE KIRK.  
The Second Edition.  
LONDON, Printed for B. took, at the Ship in St. Paul's Church-yard, 1678.   

TO THE Reader.  
READER,  
IT is not now the Order or Character of the Clergy, nor their power of Binding and Absolving Sinners, nor Catechism, nor yet the Liturgy of the Church, which the Multitude have any great regard for, but only their Lungs and Faculties of Preaching. By this Curiosity after Preaching, it comes to pass, that the People are inveigled away by every new Light and Impostor in Religion, who is commonly a Zealous and Popular Preacher; who wants no good words, nor Scripture- Phrases, nor demure converse. And so profound a juggler he usually is, that we are not otherwise able to detect him, than by inquiring in to his Mission. The onyl way for the Clergy( say some grave-bearded People) is to study to out-preach these Impostors: But I pray a little of their grave advice, how it shall be done, whether in words or sense? In words, is impossible: if in sense, it hath been done long enough ago.   

A LETTER TO A Presbyterian Minister, Concerning his Mission, or Authority to Preach the Gospel, &c.  
SIR,  
I Should be very much obliged to receive a Satisfaction from you, which I could never give myself, concerning the Validity of your Presbyterian Mission: I conceive it to be the most material thing in difference between us, and that it ought to be considered in the first place: There being no Imposture like that of assuming to be Preachers of the Gospel, without Lawful Authority. I shall here trouble you with the Reasons of my dissatisfaction in this matter.  
First then, I must crave your Pardon to look backward, as far as your first reforming Ancestors,( from whom presbytery does more immediately derive itself) Mr. Calvin in Geneva, Mr. Knox in Scotland, &c. And then permit me to ask a certain Question, which hitherto none of you would do us the favour to resolve; who sent them to reform the World? that is, in your sense, to Preach the Gospel? and How should they Preach, except they were sent? Rom. 10.15. Which words of St. Paul seem to be a Question, but are indeed a full and peremptory Affirmation, that no Abilities whatsoever can qualify any Persons for Preachers of the Gospel, without external and lawful Mission. St. Paul, though elected to the Apostleship by an immediate Call from Heaven, must not enter on his Office, without licence and Imposition of the hands of the Church, Acts 13.3.  
This being so evident, that lawful Mission is essential to a Preacher of the Gospel, and so confessed by your party; it will not a little concern you to be well assured, that your Ancestors of the Kirk,( those Reformers of the World) wanted not this essential; nor consequently yourself, who derive your Ministry from them.  
Grant me( Sir) a little of your patience, and consider there are only these Five imaginable Authorities, from whence they could pretend to have received it. 1. The Spirit of God. 2ly. Themselves, or their own internal Spirit. 3ly. Or the People. 4ly. Christ and his Apostles. 5ly. Or the Church of Rome. Other Authority or Mission,( as namely that of the Greek Church) you will not pretend to.  
And first, That they were raised up by the Spirit of God, is( you know) the matter in controversy, and the Allegation of all Fanaticks; it will be therefore a reasonable demand, by what evidences did it appear to the World? And how shall the Contemners of your Gospel be left unexcusable, but by evidence of their Authority, who are sent to reveal it? In the Affairs of this World, Ambassadors( you know) must not want their Credentials: How much less the Ambassadors of Religion? What? To reform the World, over-run with Idolatry and Superstition, and no appearance of your Authority, for so doing! To this you Answer, That the powerful gifts and fanctity of those Persons were great tokens of their being inspired by the Spirit of God; and that the conversion of many thousands from Superstition to Godliness was an undoubted Seal to their Ministry. This is the Answer of all Dissenters and Parties of what name soever, Independents, Anabatists, Behemists, &c. That they easily converted many Thousands, no body denies; but whether from Superstition to godliness, or only to a Pharisaical pride, censoriousness and contempt of their Neighbours, is the great controversy. Nay, was it never made a Note of a man Converted( as the excellent Friendly debate observes) that, though he have a great many faults, yet he is wrought to an antipathy to Bishops, Common-prayer, and Surplice? And as to yourself, I might appeal to your Conscience, whether you esteem any man a right Convert, that is, a Friend to these things; as to those powerful gifts you speak of, you do not mean any thing that is miraculous, or that others( perhaps Socinians themselves) will not as soon pretend to, whether praying or preaching; and truly, as for the sanctity of your whole party, observable is the confession of Mr. Calvin himself, in his Comment on the thirty fourth Verse of the eleventh Chapter of Daniel; and I promise you not to injure him in the quotation. said in illorum exiguo numero qui seize ab Idololatriis Papatus subduxerunt, mayor Pars plena est perfidia & dolis; praeclarum quidem Zelum simulant, said si intus excutias, reperies plenos esse fraudibus. Of that small number of Persons( saith he) who profess the pure Gospel, the greater part is full of perfidiousness and deceit: They pretend an excellent Zeal; but if you inspect them narrowly, you shall find them abounding with Frauds.  
If such were the first fruits of your Reformation in the days of Calvin, what may we expect now? Not but that others may be as faulty: but this, methinks, is such a Character, as one would not expect in so Reformed and so Godly a Party.  
Secondly, Themselves, or their own internal Spirit. It is absurd: For so all men may become Preachers of the Gospel, that will assume the Confidence.  
Thirdly, The People, let us allow this Authority for good; and then, I pray, will not Socinians, Independents, Anabaptists, Behemists, Fift-Monarchy-men,( and who not?) enter in at this Door, and pled their Call by the People, to reform the Presbyterians? Or have they not done it already? Be pleased to tell us what People do you mean? If those of your own opinion, they will not in some places amount to a Fourth, or Fifth part of the People: And must all the rest be debarred from Electing their own Preachers? Besides( you know) it is not the People's Call alone, that can constitute a Preacher of the Gospel: It is the Mission, and Ordination of your Predecessors, that I am now inquiring after; you cannot be ignorant concerning the Popular Election, or Voting for Ministers, that it had been disused many Centuries before Calvin, for the Tumults, Factions, and confusions that attended it: The unstable People seldom or never agreeing about the Persons to be Elected. Calvin himself is an instance, whom the People of Geneva Elected to be their Teacher; but after a while expelled him their Town, and after that invited him in again; as Beza relates it. show us any Divine precept, investing the People with Authority to choose their several Pastors, and you will very much oblige not only your own Party, but all the various Sects this day extant in the Christian World. If by the People's Call you only mean their Consent, our Ministers want it not; for if the People have any thing material to object, our Canons provide Suspension and Deprivation; if not, their displeasure signifies nothing. The Scripture mentions not any Popular Election, but of Deacons only; because they were to be the dispensers of the People's Charity, Acts 9.3.  
Fourthly, Or will you derive your Ministry from Christ and his Apostles? But all dissenters Proclaim their extraction from the same Original: which of them shall we believe? From Christ and his Apostles? Give me leave to ask whether immediately or mediately? Immediately you will not say; if mediately, I pray inform us by whom, or from whose hands did your Puritan Ancestors receive their Mission, or Ordination?  
Well, in the first place, some Body must sand them to preach the Gospel. Was it the Church of Rome? Yes, I have heard you say: And is not this to confess yourselves the Emissaries of Antichrist, that Man of sin, the Whore of Babylon? Quid Christo cum Belial? But the unhappiness of it is, that this Mission from Rome, or Roman Bishops, will as soon authorize the Sermons of a Popish friar, as those of your Predecessors. And as to your pretended Ordination from Rome, there is one difficulty in it, that I confess I cannot resolve; was it not Praelatical Orders, if any, they received from that Church? And was such Ordination good and valid, yea or no? If good, by what Authority do you take upon you to abolish it, together with the whole Order of Bishops? If not valid, what will become of your Orders? Episcopal imposition of hands we receive from Bishops, as a power superior to Presbyters: and to allow it for good, is to confess the impertinency of that Presbyterian Ordination you would set up in contradiction to it. And further, I would gladly understand, are any Persons sent to go and preach the Gospel after their own sense? After their own Conscience as you call it? If so, then he that hath received Mission from your Kirk, may when he list, become an Independent, or Anabaptist Preacher, and justify his new Doctrine by your Commission.  
As for Calvin, I have red over his life, written by Beza; and I find he was only designed for the Church by his Parents, but never actually initiated in any Orders of the Roman Church: Nullis Pontificiis Ordinibus initiatus, are Beza's words; who being his great Acquaintance and Successor at Geneva, could not but know it very well. I was of opinion that your Founder Calvin had been in some Orders, until your own Beza informed me to the contrary. He came to Geneva, 
See Beza.  in the Year 1536. And at first,( though entreated by the People of that City) would not consent to become their Preacher, but only Professor of Divinity; as being conscious of his want of Orders. If any Authers do Affirm, that Calvin was a Priest of the Roman Church( as I think they do not) doubtless his friend Beza knew it better; to whom as also to Papirius Massonius, another writer of Calvin's life, I must refer the Reader for further Satisfaction. This I grant, that the Bishop of Noyon in Picardy, gave him the profits of a small bnfice or two, to support him in his Studies at Paris; which at his return from thence he made no scruple to sell; and went his way to Geneva.  
But we need not trouble ourselves: The matter is confessed by Calvin himself, in his Epistle to the King of Poland, dated December 4th. 1554. to do him right, I must desire the Readers leave to set down his words at length.  
Si promiscue fas non est, 
See the volume of his Epistles Printed at Geneva, 1575.  quosvis ad Pastorum munus ascendere, rite eos vocari & institui necesse est, qui se probare volent legitimos & honore dignos. Fateor, optandum esset ut valeret continua successio, ut Functio ipsa quasi per manus traderetur. said memoria tenendum est quod prius attigi, quum Ecclesiae anima sit doctrinae puritas, frustra quae Ecclesiae propriasunt, & ab integro ejus statu dependant, apud eos homines requiri, quos constat esse professos Evangelii hostes; quia autem Papae tyrannide abrupta fuit vera Ordinationis series, novo subsidio nunc opus est ad Ecclesiae instaurationem. Atque omnino extraordinarium fuit hoc munus quod dominus nobis injunxit, dum opera nostra ad colligendas Ecclesias usus est.  
Qui ergo ita praeter spem hominum insolito modo repent apparuerunt, eorum vocatio a communi regula aestimari non debet. Here the Reader will observe in the first place, how he confesses the necessity of lawful Ordination; that it is not for every man to take upon him the office of a Preacher in Gods Church. I confess( saith he,) it were to be wished that the Chain of Succession might take place; but this cannot be expected together with the purity of Doctrine, from those( meaning the Church of Rome) who are professed enemies to the Gospel. The true line therefore of Ordination being broken off( mark this;) through the tyranny of the Pope, this Office which the Lord hath enjoined us for the gathering of new Churches, was wholly extraordinary, &c.  
Here is a confession plain enough of his want of ordinary Mission. Farellus also and Viret his Fellow-Preachers at Geneva, you will find in the same Querpo without Orders. As for John Knox, he was( saith Mr. Samuel clerk, a Presbyterian Minister who writes his life) put into Orders very young; that is, when he was Professedly of the Popish Religion, he was made Deacon or Priest of that Church by Episcopal Ordination. Let us believe this on the credit of Mr. clerk: And still we are to seek for their Presbyterian Mission; their Authority( I mean) for obtruding on the World their Presbyterian Doctrine and Discipline. This( Sir) I doubt you will never be able to show.  
Besides, I cannot find that any of the first Reformers in Scotland( except Knox) could pretend to any Ordination at all; in which particular you are greatly concerned to satisfy the World; since you grant, a single Presbyter cannot confer Orders.  
Indeed the Church of England is so apprehensive of your want of true Orders, that she admits none of you to her Ecclesiastical Functions without Reordination.  
Presbyteri & Diaconi praeter Episcopum nihil agere pertentent, Saith the fortieth Canon of the Apostles; a Canon which though it were not Apostolical, you cannot deny to be very ancient: And do not Saint Austin and Epiphanius reckon it among the Heresies of Aerius, that he affirmed, Bishop and Presbyter were the same thing? Aerius cum esset Presbyter( saith St. Austin,) doluisse fertur, quod Episcopus non potuit ordinary, 
Haeres. 53.  &c. Aerius, being a Presbyter resented his disappointment of a bishopric, and to satisfy his humour of revenge, would needs assert that they are the same Office. Yea, the Scripture is evidently against your Parity of Ministers; for doth not St. Paul advice Timothy how to exercise his Authority over Presbyters, saying, Receive not an Accusation against a Presbyter, but under two or three Witnesses? 1 Tim. 5.19. and again, Lay hands suddenly on no man. And was not Titus, a single person, invested with the power of Ordination? For this cause left I thee in Greet, that thou shouldst set in order the things that are wanting,( the Greek word signifies to control or correct) and ordain Elders in every City as I had appointed thee, Tit. 1.5. Thus I am satisfied your Presbyterian Progenitors had no ordinary Mission at all.  
Sleidan, a Protetestant Historian, reports in his Commentaries, 
Comment. lib. 5. ad annum 1525.  that Luther hearing of the Multitudes assembled by Thomas Muncer, the famous Prophet of the Anabaptists, wrote an Epistle to the Magistrates of Mulhusen, a City in Germany,( where the said Muncer remained) advising them to require of him, who sent him to reform the world? and if he answered, God, that he evidence it by some sign or extraordinary Token; otherwise that he be rejected: hoc enim proprium & familiar est Deo( said Luther) ut quoties consuetam & ordinariam viam velit immutari, tum voluntatem suam aliquo signo declaret. This is proper and familiar to God, whensoever he would change the established and ordinary way of Religion, to manifest his pleasure by some Token or other.  
The same Quaere( Sir) you may at your leisure do us the favour to resolve in reference to yourself. You cannot, alas! pretend any necessity to reform Episcopacy, but all the other Sects will pled the same to reform you. Yes, the Independents and Anabaptists have already revenged our Cause; and you may remember the time when they supplanted your Party, by the same Mission, that you reformed us, namely the Sword.  
Nor will it relieve you to say, that by this Argument the Jewish Church rejected Christ and his Apostles; the case not being the same betwixt Christ and the Jewish Church, and between us and you. To satisfy the Jews and their Question, By what Authority dost thou these things? our blessed Saviour appeals to the Miracles which he wrought, If ye believe not me, believe the works which I do. Nor will it avail you to return the Quaere upon ourselves, Who sent us to reform the Church of Rome? This truly is no Answer, but a desiring us to answer for you: Be pleased to know then, that the Church of England was never of your froward and uncharitable humour in relation to that Church; that she pretends to no power of reforming the Church of Italy, Spain, or France. To reform ourselves( saith Mr. 
Eccles. Pol. lib. 3. sect. 1.  Hooker) is not to sever from the Church we were of before; we are very sensible of their errors; and yet we confess with Saint Austin, there is no just necessity to divide the Unity of the catholic Church; because separations in the Church tend to no other end, but to discredit the Christian Religion, and render it less considerable, if not contemptible to its Adversaries, Turks and Infidels. He that will admit no Church( saith Primate Bramhall) but that which is spotless, with Acesius, must provide a Ladder for himself to climb alone to Heaven.  
But as to your Party( Sir) still the question remains. Who gave them Authority to preach their Reformation to these Kingdoms? give me leave to observe to you this passage in the Racovian Catechism: there I remember the question is put, Nonne ij qui docent in Ecclesia( Sociniana) ut singulari aliqua ratione mittantur, opus habent? Whether the Preachers of Socinian doctrine have need of any extraordinary Mission? the Answer is Nullo modo, quia nullam novam, nec inauditam afferunt doctrinam, &c. That is, not at all, because Socinians preach no new nor strange doctrine, but that onely which is primitive and declared in the holy Scriptures. The same is affirmed by Mr. Calvin concerning his own Reformation in the Preface to his Institutions: which the Lutherans( you know) will by no means admit for truth. See Conradus Schluselburg de Theologia Calvinistarum; as if Independents, Socinians, and all the Sects that ever molested the Church, did not press as much for themselves, boasting of Gospel-truth.  
The Question at present is not, Whether your Presbyterian Sermons be the doctrine of the holy Scriptures? but the question is, what Authority you have to preach them? and who gave you the Authority?  
To say that your Party agree with us in all the Vital Articles of Religion, is to say what, perhaps, few of you believe: for I doubt not,( if opportunity served) every Sect of you would advance its respective Religion, as if that onely were Gospel, and all other but lies and superstistition: or if you do believe it, the more is your unhappiness to molest the world about opinions, which you do not esteem of any vital importance.  
I wish I could oblige you to consider, whether you ought to take upon you to Reform, that is, suppress the Universal Order of Christs Church by Bishops, &c. banish all ancient Liturgies, the use of the Creed, the Lords Prayer, and Ten Commandments out of your public Devotions; all Anniversary Solemnities of Christs Nativity, Resurrection, &c. all Reverence or Kneeling at the holy Sacrament of Christs Body and Blood; revile the Church( whereof I cannot say you, but your Ancestors were made Members by Baptism) with the names of Superstition and Idolatry: preach your desperate doctrine of absolute Reprobation, and the impossibility of keeping Gods Commandments; introduce your own extemporary inventions instead of Liturgy; levy war against your sovereign; and all this without any Authority!  
For all these strange things I should think( Sir) your Ancestors had but need of some extrordinary Mission. Perhaps you will answer and tell us, that your Mission is extraordinary, and that extraordinary Prophets have been sent into the world without Miracles, as John the Baptist; yea further, that Miracles are no certain evidences of true Prophets.  
As for John the Baptist, you may remember the words of the Angel, Luke 2.15. he was filled with the Holy Ghost from his Mothers womb: he shall go before in the spirit and power of Elias,( a Character to which your Brethren will not pretend) he was a person prophesied of many Ages before his birth, Isaiah 40.3. The voice of one crying in the Wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord, &c.  
Again( say you) Miracles are no certain evidences of true Prophets, because there shall arise false Christs and false Prophets, who shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that if it were possible, they shall deceive the very Elect. Wherefore if they shall say unto you, behold he is in the desert, go not forth; behold he is in the secret Chambers, believe it not, Mat. 24.26.  
That false Prophets can work any Miracle but deceptio visus, I do not believe. The meaning of our Saviours words is this; if any other Prophet after him shall arise, assuming to be that Christ or messiah sent from God, though he may pretend to strange things, believe him not, go not forth after him. If new Prophets( Sir) though they come with a show of Miracles, are to be suspected, must we presently receive all the Preachers of new Lights, that have not so much as the pretence?  
I find a late Writer asserting that in holy Scripture there be two marks, by which together, not asunder, a true Prophet, or one newly sent from God, is to be known; one is, the doing of Miracles; the other is, the not teaching any doctrine of Morality adverse to that which hath been already taught of old: asunder( he saith) neither of these is sufficient; and for proof allegeth two places of Scripture, Deut. 13.1, 2, & 3 verses compared with mat. 24.24. Our blessed Saviour and his Apostles fulfilled both these marks; first in their Miracles, Act. 2.22. 2ly. they taught no doctrine of Morality opposite to that which they found already established. Christ came not to destroy the Law, but to fulfil it, saying none other things than what Moses and the Prophets did say should come to pass. But he preached a doctrine that had all the obliging characters of virtue and Goodness, of respect to Order and Government, witness his admirable Sermon on the Mount; non vox hominem sonat: Witness his advice to the Multitude and to his Disciples, Mat. 23.1. The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses seat; all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do. Consider( I say) his Sermon on the Mount, where he presses the necessity of moral goodness, and keeping the Commandements of God; otherwise methinks then your Prophet Calvin hath done. I shall instance a remarkable place in the second book of his Institutions, the 7th Chapter and fifth Section. Quod autem impossibilem legis observationem diximus, id nunc paucis verbis explicandum simul & confirmandum. Solet enim vulgo absurdissima sententia videri, ut Jeronimus non dubitavit Anathema illi denunciare; at quid Jeronimo visum sit, nihil moror. Impossibile appello quod nec fuit unquam, & ne in posterum sit, Dei decreto & ordinatione impeditur. I shall now( saith he) explain and confirm what I have said of the impossibility to observe the Commandments; which commonly seems a very absurd assertion, insomuch that Jerome doubted not to denounce it accursed; but what seemed to him I do not care. I call that impossible which never was, and which God hath decreed that it never shall be.  
virtuous doctrine! if the Commandements be impossible, and that God hath decreed them so; nemo tenetur ad impossibile. Alas! we are of ourselves too prove to take an allowance of sin, without this licence from Mr. Calvin.  
To be short, the Church of God may and ought to reform themselves, in case of error or corruption of manners; but if once we admit others to do it, unauthorized or unsent, we open a wide door to all Sects and Heresies: and another consequence is, we shall rest no where, but be tossed to and fro( as Saint Paul speaks) and carried about with every wind of doctrine, with the various Lights of all Pretenders. This, one would think, hath been apparent enough in the experience of our Age: for fancy( commonly called reason) when once broken loose from Authority, and from its Governors, runs forward it sees not whither, and knows not where to stop itself.  
Not that we deny our need of Amendment and Reformation in this world of Imperfection: but we give heed to the admonition of our blessed Saviour, Joh. 10.1. Verily I say unto you, he that enters not by the door into the Sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. Not entering in at the door signifies entering without any Authority, either extraordinary, when the doctrines are new and strange; or ordinary, when they are already known and confessed. That the Liturgy and Ceremonies of our Church are superstitious and Idolatrous, is to us very strange doctrine.  
Now let it be granted, for the suppression of Idolatry, in case the Church will not do her office, that it is lawful for any unauthorized persons( such as Knox, &c.) to take upon them to reform what they think amiss; there can be no sufficient cause given( saith Bishop Sanderson) why by the same reason, & by the same grounds, they may not take upon them to make Laws, raise Forces, administer Justice, execute Malefactors,( Malignants) or do any other thing the Magistrate should do, in case the Magistrate slacken to do his duty: which if it were once granted( as granted it must be, in case your Presbyterian Reformation be justifiable) every wise man seeth, the end can be no other but vast Anarchy and confusion: whereupon must unavoidably follow the speedy subversion both of Religion and State. Second Sermon ad Clerum on Rom. 3.8.  
This is our present case: You an unauthorised person, pretending to no extraordinary things, say all things are amiss: The Church is of opinion, yea, persuaded in her conscience that you do all things amiss; who shall be judge? the Scripture; alas! the Scripture is a Law; and no Law can ever pronounce either for one or t'other, but in the mouth of some judge. The Scripture must be judge, say the Independents, to avoid the Censures of your Kirk: what schismatic shall ever be convicted, that must be tried by a law, whereof himself must be the Interpreter?  
From all these premises I persuade myself your Ancestors were no Prophets sent from God, but intruded themselves on the office of Reformation; or( as the Prophet speaks) they followed their own spirits, and prophesied out of their own hearts. I have not sent these Prophets, yet they ran; I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied; therefore they shall not profit this people at all, Jer. 23.21, 32.  
To add one word more; consider all the Prophets mentioned in holy Scripture, Samuel, Elias, Isaiah, Jeremy, Hosea, &c. at the beginning of whose Prophecies( that the world might understand their divine Mission) it is usually declared how and in what manner they received it. Isa. 6. Jerem. 1. so as their Authority was confessed, when the matter of their Prophecies was little regarded. Some of them were qualified extraordinarily with the power of Miracles, Prediction of future and public events. Others had the ordinary licence from the Schools of the Prophets.  
In the new Testament, our blessed Saviour and his Apostles, beside the internal excellency of their doctrine, gave the world sufficient external evidence that they were persons sent from God: And whereas you say that you preach no other doctrine than that of Christ and his Apostles, it is the answer of Socinians, Independents, &c. persons no less sober and learned than yourselves; and( flatter not yourself) will serve every mans turn as well as yours. I am not now disputing whether you preach the doctrine of Christ and his Apostles; but by what Authority do you preach the doctrine of Presbyterian? until this appears, we understand no foundation of your Kirk, beside your own persuasion; which can be no better than any mans else that is as strongly persuaded to the contrary.  
But in the last place, cannot you justify yourselves by the sobriety and virtue of your lives? by the loyalty of your Actions? it is a great controversy, and I shall not take upon me to pronounce my own sense of it: But you have heard of King James his opinion in the matter. Ego a Puritanis non solum a nativitate continuo vexatus fui, 
In Praefatione Monitoria.  verum etiam in ipso matris utero propemodum extinctus, antequam in lucem editus fui. The Puritans( saith he) have vexed me not only since my birth, but before, they had almost destroyed me in my Mothers womb.  
And his Son the blessed K. Charles the First, from a certain intimate Acquaintance with your Party, writes thus to our present sovereign K. Charles the 2. If ever need of them, or must you stand in stand to their courtesy, you are undone; you may never expect less of loyalty, justice, or humanity, then from those who engage into religious Rebellion; under the Colours of piety, ambitious Policies, march, not only with greatest security, but applause as to the Populace: you may hear from them Jacobs voice, but you shall feel they have Esaus hands. 〈◇〉. chap. 27.  
The Lutheran Churches at this day speak no otherwise of your Party: for instance, let us hear Waltherus, a late Lutheran superintendant, speaking in his Harmonia Biblica concerning a reconciliation with the Calvinists. 
Impressa Norimbergae anno 1654. pag. 1106.  Before this can be, Urgenda sunt( saith he) trees admonitiones valde necessariae. Prima, ut mentiendi libidinem deponant Calvinistae. Secunda, ut turbulentis & seditiosis machinationibus( ex quibus hactenus quasi compacti esse toti, non nobis magis quam orbi Christianorum universo visi sunt) valedicentes, paci publicae favere, & pietatis cultumintranquillo exercere satagant, &c. In order to this reconciliation, we must desire the Calvinists( saith he) to grant us three things; First, that they leave off their humour of lying: The second, that abandoning their turbulent and seditious Machinations( for hitherto they seem to be compacted of nothing else, I appeal to all the Christian World) they would incline to the public Peace; and at length serve God in quietness. The Third, That they would satisfy the World by some public Writing, which of their Errors, Blasphemies, and Corruptions of the Scripture they are resolved to forego; Donec nihil horum fit ab ipsis, intra gremium pacis & fraternitatis, a nobis plane nec possunt nec debent admitti: Whilst they will do nothing of all this, in plain terms( saith he) we neither can nor ought to admit them as Bretheren.  
You may consult Waltherus, and see much more to this purpose, Harm. Biblica, Pag. 1102, 1103. 1104. which is the sense of all the Lutheran Churches at this day.  
Thus have I given you the reasons of my dissatisfaction concerning the Validity of your Presbyterian Mission. And I must confess that I have here expressed only some wishes, not any hopes of convincing you; all my expectation is, that perhaps some unprejudiced Persons will believe that your Presbyterian Kirk hath no advantage, in point of a solid Foundation, over Independents, Anabaptists, &c.  
The sum of what hath been said is this; 'tis not true Doctrine alone without external and lawful Mission, that makes a Preacher of the Gospel. Your Commission therefore must appear, ere you can oblige any prudent Persons to be your Hearers; to derive it from Prelates, is to ruin yourselves; for that is to confess the Authority of Bishops; if Episcopal Mission be valid( which mere necessity forces you to confess) then have our Ministers a good Authority to Preach against your Kirk. This you would fain evade, by saying it is valid as to the Substance, but not as to Circumstances; and I would as fain know who gave you power to alter it as to Circumstances? all this confirms what your Country-man Burnet says in his late Dialogue between a Conformist & Nonconformist; Rebellion is the very soul of the Kirk.  
If instead of a pertinent answer to all this Discourse, you shall please to pass your censure on the Author, and say he is some Papist, I must reply to you in the words of the excellent Bishop Sanderson, concerning the Puritan Preachers:  
Some of them, especially such as betake themselves to Preaching betimes, and have not the leisure and opportunity to look much into Controversies, understand very little of the true state of the question betwixt the Church of Rome and us; and yet to show their zeal against Popery, are forward enough to be meddling with it in the Pulpit, but with so much weakness and impertinency, that they leave the question worse than the found it, and the Hearer, if he brought any doubts with him, to go from Sermon more dissatisfied than he came. Preface to 14 Sermons printed anno 1657.  
In fine, as you have no true Mission to preach the Gospel, so am I satisfied it is not the Gospel you teach, but somewhat else instead of it. Give me leave to parallel the Maxims of the Gospel with those of your Party. First the Maxims of the Gospel are these.  
Love your enemies. Do good to them that hate you, and despitefully use you. Render to no man evil for evil. Speak evil of no man. If ye suffer for righteousness sake happy are ye. Let no man suffer as a busy body in other mens matters. Submit yourselves to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake, whether it be to the King as supreme, or unto Governors as unto them that are sent by him. As free, and not using your liberty for a Cloak of maliciousness. Servants be subject to your Masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward. For what glory is it, if when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye take it patiently, but if when ye do well and suffer for it, this is acceptable with God, 1 Pet. 2.20. Be perfect, be of one mind. Live in Peace. Be not wise in your own conceits; that is, fancy not yourselves more enlightened than others that have received the same Christianity. What? came the word of God out from you, or came it unto you alone? 1 Cor. 14.36. I beseech you by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing( observe this) and that there be no schisms among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgement, 1 Cor. 1.10. Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves. They that do otherwise, serve not the Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly; that is, their own interest. It is better to be the first, second, or third man in a Schism, than the fortieth, or perhaps the hundreth man, in the great body of the Church.  
Let us now hear your doctrines, I mean your Characteristical ones of your Party.  
It is lawful to raise defensive Arms against the King; asserted by your late Book entitled Jus Populi vindicatum. The Persons of Princes may be resisted, though not their Authority. Princes may be deposed and put to death in case of tyranny; 
See Rutherford Lex Rex.  of which tyranny the People( various and divided as they are) must be Judges. The King is singulis mayor, but universis minor. The People may enter into Covenant for Reformation, without consent of the King. If Magistrates( saith your Confession of Faith, chap. 31.) be open enemies to the Presbyterian Church, the Ministers of themselves, by virtue of their office, with other fit Persons may meet in their Assemblies. We are to distinguish betwixt the Kings personal and politic capacity: All human Laws must bend to the Law of necessity. Adeo Regibus atque Principibus insita est quasi perpetuum & vernaculum malum arrogantia, saith Calvin, 
Comment. in Sencae librum 1. de Clementia.  Arrogance is a 'vice almost perpetual and natural to Kings.  
These are some of your Evangelical doctrines. Besides, I have been sometimes no negligent Hearer of your Sermons, expecting when you would inform me distinctly and materially of my duty to God, to my Prince, or to my Neighbour; but this I might expect long enough.  
Truly, Christ and his Apostles did not cant after your manner about Free grace and privileges of the Godly and getting an interest in Christ, without persuading the necessity of keeping his Commandments. Ye are my friends( saith he) if ye do whatsoever I command you, Joh. 15, 14. The sum of the Gospel is this, that whereas in Adam we lost a Terrestrial Paradise, our Lord Jesus Christ the second Adam came into the world to restore us to a Celestial: but how restore us? by turning away every one of us from his iniquities, Acts 3.26. that God for Christs sake will remember our sins no more, provided we become new creatures: and that it is idle to expect the one without the other; for Christ is the Author of eternal Salvation to them that Obey him, Heb. 5.9. What this New creature is, your manner is to express with so much verbosity and oddness of language, besides impertinency, that your Auditors can never be the wiser except in their own conceits; whereas the Scripture gives us to understand it in very few, and those very plain words. Compare 1 Cor. 7.19. with Gal. 6.15.  
The Creed, the Lords Prayer, the ten Commandments, and the Sacraments, are the entire contents of all that instruction necessary to Salvation, which lies dispersed in the body of the Scriptures. This your People not understanding( like those silly women St. Paul speaks of) are always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the Truth, heaping to themselves Teachers, &c.  
But( you will say) does not our Kirk expound the Creed? I answer no, not in your shorter Catechism, where itis set down with much ado at the later end without explanation; to intimate what esteem you would have us put upon it.  
The best of your Sermons( Mr. Baxters for instance) if seriously considered, may very well serve to raise the Affections of their Hearers, but never settle their Understandings: indeed we are lead into a Wilderness by your Prayers, and a Labyrinth by your Sermons. The Lord Bacon observed it long ago, that your discourses( considering the tone and accent wherein they are uttered) are sometimes very powerful to bring sinners to the question what shall we do to be saved? but seldom or never tell us what. To my understanding all your Preaching is to as much purpose, as if a judge, instead of informing the Jury particularly and materially what our Laws forbid and what they require, should only affect to entertain them with a general Harangue of the excellency of Law. To tell your Auditors plainly and materially what they have to do, would, I confess, conduce but little to your designs. Fear God and the King, and meddle not with them that are given to change. Believe the holy catholic Church. Do unto all other men as you would they should do unto you. This is Pagan morality, and( if the People understood it) would spoil your purposes of supplanting the present established Church: though for want of such moral Preaching, hitherto your Party have had the luck to be as little remarked for their honest dealing, and less, perhaps, than other Sects. O but you preach against the profaneness, Drunkenness, and Whoredom of the Age! yes, I know it very well: and I also understand to preach against nothing else but the profaneness of the Times, is very convenient for your designs: 'tis a theme your People love to hear of, rather than of Envy, Malice, Lying, Sedition, Pharisaical pride, and such like infirmities of the Saints. There are( you know) sins of malevolence as well as sins of appetite; in the latter a man plays the Beast; but in the former he plays the Devil. In a word, the Christian Religion as delivered by our blessed Saviour and his Apostles, hath very much in it to oblige Turks and Infidels: but as for your Sermons 'tis a Miracle to me, if ever they oblige, I do not say Infidels, but any ingenious Christians. Flatter not yourselves; the world can never be amended by your Preaching; for in the same Sermon whilst you are beating down profaneness, you slily encourage the popular humours of Inconstancy, Envy, Pride, Censoriousness, Sedition, &c. To say nothing of your impertinent applications of Scripture Texts, especially these following; Ye are bought with a price, be not ye the servants of men, 1 Cor. 7.23. Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free, Gal. 5.1. Why as though living in the world are ye subject to Ordinances, Col. 2.20. In vain do ye worship me, teaching for doctrines the Commandments of men, Mar. 7.7. The Kings of the Gentiles exercise Lordship over them, but it shall not be so among you. O Father, thou hast hide these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto Babes. With these and other places of Scripture perverted from their true meaning, you triumph, as you imagine, over the Ceremonies and Government of the Church of England.  
But truly when a man considers it seriously, other than popular and wretched conceptions cannot be expected from the Ministers of your Kirk, who being generally of the lowest of the People of Scotland, and their means of education very slender, are necessitated( for all their trials as you call it) to set up with very little Acquaintance either of Men or Books that are considerable. This being their case, no wonder if their Notions are so suitable and level with the Fancies of some People, as Women, tradesman, Shopkeepers, malcontents, which compose the main of their Auditors. This sort of people( many of them) conscious to themselves of their escapes in point of virtuous dealing, are very much obliged by your Sermons of Free grace, Justification by Faith alone; Impossibility of keeping the Commandments, absolute Promises, &c.  
And so much for your Mission and your doctrine. Let us now, if you please, confer a few words about some other matters, and so conclude.  
First, concerning that Principle of yours, That nothing is to be done about the Worship and Service of God without express warrant in the holy Scriptures: And I pray inform us, where has our blessed Saviour or his Apostles appointed a Directory for public Prayer? hath the spirit any need of a Directory? what divine warrant can you produce for your singing to God in a set Form, and refusing to pray in a set Form? for speaking to him your sudden and extemporary thoughts, but speaking to the People with a studied and composed Sermon? in which of the Gospels are to be found those three significant Ceremonies required at the taking your Solemn League and Covenant? first that we must be Uncovered; secondly, that we must Stand up; thirdly with our Right hand lift up bare? what express Scripture have you for your Form of public Penance called the Stool of Repentance? for your Classes and Synods? your shifting of Moderators? or indeed for any thing you do in opposition to the present established Church? This Principle of yours( as hath been already observed by the Friendly Debate) makes that unlawful which the Scripture allows; in which we find many holy men doing those things( without any censure) in Gods Worship which he had no where commanded. For instance, what commandment had David for his design of building a Temple? or Solomon for keeping a Feast of seven days for the Dedication of the Altar? for erecting an Altar to be ascended by steps? expressly forbidden in the 20. of Exodus ver. 26. Thou shalt not go up by steps unto mine Altar. What warrant had Hezekiah for continuing the Feast of unleavened bread seven days longer than the time appointed by the Law? 2 Chr. 30.23. If you say that all these things possibly were warranted, though not by Scripture; but now Scripture warrant is necessary, since extraordinary inspirations are ceased: I pray tell us what Scripture have you for this very Assertion, that extraordinary Inspirations are ceased? if this be true, what will become of the extraordinary gifts of your Ancestors, Calvin, Knox, Goodman, &c. for ordinary Mission they had none. In a word this principle of yours makes the Worship of God impossible; the Time, the, Place, the Vesture, in which it shall be performed being no where appointed. Do not Anabaptists and Quakers retort it on yourselves? the one demanding express Scripture for Infants Baptism, the other for standing in a Pulpit; for preaching upon a Text, and that by an Hourglass, stinting the Spirit. 'Tis not consequences nor evident deductions they demand, but express Scripture: for nothing else will content you in the matter of Liturgy and Ceremonies.  
Another thing I would entreat you to reflect upon, is the reason of your displeasure at the temporal Revenues and Encouragements of the Church of England. That which dissenters, independents, Anabaptists,( if I understand them aright) would be at, is this, that the clergy be reduced to their primitive poverty and dependence on the People: and, methinks, Judas hath very well expressed their sense, John 12.4. To what purpose is all this waste of precious ointment on the feet of Christ? might it not have been sold for three hundred pence and given to the poor? This he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he had the bag and was a Thief. They consider not, how many virtues there are requisite in a Church-man, which can have no place in the house of scarcity; how little exemplary charity, temperance, or humility can be expected from a narrow Estate, that we cannot say he is a temperate man, who is so, having scarcely wherewithal to satisfy his thirst; or an humble person whose fortune gives him small temptation to be proud: are not all Christians under the same obligations of humility and contempt of Riches as the Clergy? Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, was said to all: and is it not true in experience, that the poverty of Priests must be attended with ignoranee or very slender knowledge besides contempt? the necessities of our blessed Saviour and his Apostles upon earth were supplied by Miracles, and therefore their case and ours not the same. Whatsoever Sectaries may think of the Church Revenues, the Levitical Maintenance appointed by God himself was far more considerable. Give me leave to recommend to your consideration those excellent words of K. Charles the First The Conclusion of 
〈◇〉. chap. 14.  the War makes it evident, that the main Reformation intended was the robbing the Church of its Lands, and the abasing of Episcopacy into Presbytery: but no necessity shall ever, I hope, drive me or mine to invade or sell the Priests Lands, which even Pharaoh's divinity abhorred to do: if the Poverty of Scotland might, yet the Plenty of England cannot excuse the envy and rapine of the Church-Lands. The next work will be Jeroboams Reformation, consecrating the meanest of the People to be Priests in Israel, to serve those Golden Calves who have enriched themselves by the Churches Patrimony.  
Sir, Deceive not your self with the pleasant fancy, that if once Bishops were put down, their Lands will be vested on you and your Brethren.  
Lastly, be pleased to reflect on your displeasure at the Liturgy of the Church of England. Some of you are for no Forms at all; others are for Liturgy, but it must be reformed.  
In the History of the Reign of Q. Elizabeth, this passage is observable. Four Classes of Presbyterians complained of the Liturgy to the Lord Burleigh, then Secretary of State; 
About the year 1585.  his Lordship bad them go and make a better: Whereupon the first Classis went and framed a new one, somewhat near that of Geneva. This the second Classis dislikes, and alters in six hundred particulars; which alteration was excepted against by the third Classis; and what the third resolved upon, the fourth would not consent to. Thus your Party expect a satisfaction about the Worship of God, which is impossible to be given you.  
As to your praying by the Spirit, there is a certain doubt in it, which hitherto none of you would do us the kindness to resolve: either you mean praying by the Spirit of God, or by your own spirits: If you conceive the words and matter of your Prayer by the dictate of the holy Spirit, then are your prayers as much the word of God as any of Davids Psalms, or as any part of the Bible; and being written from your mouths, may become caconical Scripture: If by praying with the Spirit, you only mean that you are inspired with devout affections, then there is nothing in your prayers, but what others may pretend to as well as yourselves. Surely you cannot be ignorant that praying by the spirit in the Scripture sense is praying in an unknown tongue. I will pray with the spirit( saith the Apostle) and will pray with understanding also. If I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful, 1 Cor. 14.15. Thus you mistake the sense of Scripture. In brief, since you do not pretend to entertain your people with immediate inspirations, you oblige them to a service they know not what; to offer up prayers whereof they know not a syllable, nor yourself neither, before you begin: if you know them before hand either for matter or words, then they cannot be extempore, as you would have the People believe. Peradventure the reason why the People fancy your prayers, is, their variety: they love not to go where they must be always entertained with the same expressions: but if the sense of our own infirmities( which are always the same) cannot oblige us to pray, why should a set of new words do it? They that are for new words will at last have new things, or worse than nothing, saith Mr. Baxter in his Cure of Church-Divisions, p. 184. third Edition.  
I conclude with the words of the blessed Martyr King Charles the First, 〈◇〉. chap. 16.  
Some men are so impatient not to use in all their devotions their own invention and gifts, that they wholly cast away and contemn the Lords Prayer. I ever thought that the proud ostentation of mens own abilities for invention, and the vain affectation of variety for expressions in public Prayer, merits a greater brand of sin, than that which they call coldness or barreness: Nor are men in those Novelties less subject to formal and superficial tempers( as to their hearts) than in the use of constant Forms, where not the Words but mens Hearts are too blame. I make no doubt but a man may be very formal in the most extemporary variety, and very fervently devout in the most wonted expressions. Nor is God more a God of vuriety than of constancy.  
Novelty in Religion may give( saith he) some short flashes of content to the vulgar People, who are taken with every new change as children with Babies, very much, but not very long.  
FINIS.