Presbytery POPISH, NOT EPISCOPACY.  
By way of Epistolary Discourse to a Person of a misperswasion, leading Presbytery to the School of Repentance, rather then to continue in the seat of the scornful.  
By H. E.  
LONDON, Printed for Philemon Stephens the younger, at the Kings Arms, over against the Middle Temple Gate in Fleetstreet. 1661.   

To the READER  
Courteous Reader,  
ALthough the many Books which have been already printed in defence of Episcopacy, may seem not only to forestall the credit, but to evacuate the use of future Impressions, about the same subject; yet considering the mess of Confederate Brethren, who are sworn to oppose it, which( being an Oglio of all Sects) is of far greater dimension then the defendant party. I presumed it would not amount to the reckoning of a vanity to enter with my unkeen weapon into the same field: which( though unworthy to be mustered with those forces of wit, that fight for victory) may serve( like the attendants of an Army) to face the enemy. It is the fate of truth for its naked simplicity to be as little known, as trusted, with earthly inhabitants: whereas error, clothed with glozing variety, finds not only acceptation, but maintenance in the hearts of most. What Gangrenes of Heresies, and freting sores of schismatical opinions have infested the body of our National Church? since Bishops( the ministerial preservers thereof in soundness of Doctrine) were first divorced from their office, as the History of former ages can yield no examples to parallel, so( being by Satans subtlety heightened to an exquisite degree of wickedness) the possible corruption of succeeding times, will want invention to excel. Such was the sudden growth of greedy innovations in the black art of enmity, against their ancient guides, that experience hath proved them to be a true exception to the Philosophers saying, Nemo repent fit turpisaimus. And if their master, who raised them to the pinnacle of preferment, had not thrown them down headlong by a timely temptation, they would have all turned conceited Monarchs, and not looked over, but for the kingdoms of the earth. It will be as much shane hereafter to report, as it is now grief to remember the fiery generation of those meteors of men, which( rising by the fall of our great stars) have vapoured from the Regions both of pulpit and press, into the houses of the honourable, and musty Cottages of the basest people, deluding them into such a lamentable deviation from their right principles, that the greatest part as them( like benighted Drunkards) are not yet able to find the way home. The consideration whereof doth offer us so much occasion, to pity the dangerous estate of their diseased souls, that I could wish no better success to attend this work, then that, by detecting the malignant distemper of their faults, it may become a direction for their recovery. But knowing that habituated Crimes will not readily yield to a separation from the subjects that possess them, and that custom in sin,( holding reason in bondage to the dominion of sense) doth seldom nauseate the sinner to a detestation thereof. I am disposed to doubt, that the event will be unanswerable to the scope of my desire. However the chiefest Part of this Book being written in time of persecution, when Tyranny had stated the Tribes of all honest men in a fitter capacity of receiving wrongs then giving reasons, I shall not now disown the exposing thereof to public view, though it happen to make a fermentation of humours in the choleric stomacks of our English Pharisees. For being set forth with the same intention wherewith it was first penned, more to declare my willingness to approve, then ability of mind to defend the right of Episcopal Government. It may not be coujectured to be composed with confidence to confute those that deny, but out of love to confirm them who believe the same.  
To thee therefore, Gentle Reader, whosoever thou art of this number, do I principally dedicate this my labour, wherein if thou apprehended nothing deserving thy condemnation, but the truth of my affection to the welfare of the Church, it will be applause enough to satisfy the expectation of  
Thy well-wishing friend, 
 HUGH EDMONDS.   

THE CENSORS CENSURED.  
AS in natural, so in bodies politic, there are no distempers more smartly afflicting, than those which invade the most noble parts, and amongst the many causes, which work a solution of unity, in a civill constitution of government, the corrupt humours of a brain-sick clergy are the most intrinsical. The Truth whereof, though we have by the sad experiences of our own past miseries been better taught to bewail, than dispute; yet being farther instructed by the present discovery of their propagated mischiefs( notwithstanding the bountiful rays of mercy diffused amongst them from our Englands Sun) we cannot but account it a pitiful folly to commiserate them, who think it a virtue to be cruel to themselves; for they, whom neither the sense of their own sin, nor apprehension of the Kings pardon can reform, must needs be not onely the worst of subjects, but men. What lawful ground those Associates have had to show themselves so lately busy with their tongue-pullies, to draw on a pack of Craftsmen into a conspiracy of hands, for the raising up of their Presbyterian Diana; and by the pionerie of their wits to undermine the foundation of the Kings authority in spiritual affairs, covetousness and pride must be the Advocates,( though ignorance be the chief witness) in their plea, should the Grandees of the Church( because they are the Apostles Derivatives, betwixt Christ& whom there was no temporal jurisdiction intervenient) conclude for themselves a privilege of immunity from the power of Kings in Ecclesiasticalls; There might appear some reason in the face, though no truth in the bulk of the Argument; but for Petit Presbyters who are but under-graduates in spiritual jurisdiction, and, for the outside of their calling, the Bishops workmanship, for such, I say, hoven up with a Timpanie of impudent ambition, to entitle themselves to that, which their second makers with humility disown, even in the most Hierarchical order of the clergy, can be no less than an act of capital presumption, and saucy irreverence, which hath not so much as the countenance of a rational plea to defend it. Amongst the seven things which God hateth, pride is the sin of the first Claffis, Pro. 6. 6.& for its antiquity of Lordship hath the pre-eminence, whereby only it cometh to pass( saith the same wisdom) that man maketh contention; in exemplification whereof, I have newly observed some stiffnecked factors of the Presbyterian merchandise so haughtily stubborn in their opinion, that they seem desperately resolved rather to break with their own errors, than bow to the truth, which others maintain, being now fuller of scornful discontent in the eyes, then heretofore they have been of envious detraction in their mouths, as if( like the Sun) they were naturalised to look biggest, when they are going down; and although our Gracious Sovereign, for his complacency and benevolence to all people, doth rightly compear that Darling of mankind, Qui neminem à se dimisit tristem, and for his compassion and charity is not inferior to the Scottish Monarch, who was therefore styled the poor mans King: yet the tyranny of these mens arrogant spirits, will not allow them to pray for this incomparable person by his determinate name, but to present him to heaven in a driblet of words, under the notion only of Individuum ex hypothesi, as if Charles the Second, were to them a Shibboleth, which they could no more plainly pronounce hang obey. It may well therefore be wished, that his Sacred majesty would in Iustice( which is the root of mercy) be pleased to do to the insolent Presbyters, what once the good Theodosius said to a contentious Prelate, Si tu paeem fugis, ego te ab Ecclesia fugere mando, which would be a ready means to prevent such Church Moths from freting out the beauty of that garment, wherein they are bread, and to extinguish the generation of Diotrephan Tribes, who( like intestine worms, maintained by the hospitality of the stomach) out of a greedy appetite to higher fare, than their Ordinary can afford them, will at last destroy the very body that gave them being. But that their mouths may not be fully stopped, before they have spoken the utmost for themselves, I shall do them that right to declare what I have learned from some of their stars of the first magnitude, by whose influence of wit the lesser lights are supplied with this subtle distinction, which indeed is but an excuse as blamable as the fault, we are, say they, subject to Kings circa sacra, but not in sacris, whereby they falsely suppose themselves in their ministerial Robes, so absolutely impropriate to God, that no man can have a Relative interest in them, and, within the pale of the pulpit, to be such a peculiar enclosure from the Commons of the Nation, that they are not base enough for subjection to the high way of the Kings Government, as if their spiritual incumbencie were a decreed exception to the Apostles Rom. 13. 1. Omnis anima, and their ordination to teach supreme Magistrates an injunction not to obey him. Surely Hilkiah( a better man than a Presbyter) was not of their mind nor manners, in his religious behaviour towards his Sovereign, who( though conscious of the Kings youthful age, more apparently fit to execute the advice, then to command the service of a high Priest) did not take it upon himself to reform the abuses of the Church, but waited for better authority then his own to legitimate the work, and( which is highly observable) having found the book of the Law, which seemed a proper instrument as well for the Priests custody as use, 2 Kin. 22. he thought it his duty to deliver it to the King, both to be kept and red. To make a solemn Covenant with God, is agere in sacris, a matter that concerns not the skirts, but the very bowels of Divinity; yet this did Josuah, Jos. 24.( who was neither Priest nor Prophet) by his kingly authority, engaging all the people in subiection thereunto. Moses, though not in office, was yet in act, a Priest by consecrating Aaron, whence it is more then probable, that Kings by their unction, are endowed with a higher capacity to deal in holy things, than our classical Authors will allow them to be, whose power bearing date immediately from the court of Heaven, makes both their persons sacred, and their names divine, whereby they are not only truly, but solely qualified for Gods Deputation, and so being next to the most High, can neither have superiors nor equals upon earth within their Dominions, they are Christi Domini, the Lords own anointed, which denomination was never given to Priest or Prophet, but( as a learned Bishop hath observed) in 33. places of Scripture( where it may be found) is always spoken either of Christ or Kings. It must needs be then the disease of a loyal heart to remember how ingeniously mischievous some Rebels have been heretofore in maintaining the Kings authority, either coordinate or subordinate to the power of Parliaments, and what use hath been since made of there Hellish tenant not only for sequestration, but subversion of mens estates, will be easier for our posterity to condemn, than for us to forget. Should our Sovereign Lord the King have been longer deprived of his just right, in distributing Iustice either by rewarding the virtues, or punishing the vices both of ecclesiastical and Civill persons, Gods complaint of Israel might be Englands proverbial songs; like people, like Priests, the people would feel the bite of the Priests teeth, the Priests the venom of the peoples tongues, and both the smart of divine judgement, Ezekiels foxes would degenerate into Isaiahs dogs, those, who did craftily watch, would greedily eat up the sins of the people, and attend their flocks, as the Capernaites did Christ, to feed their own bellies, and to be clothed with the wool of the sheep, rather than with the righteousness of the great Shepherd. But blessed be the name of the Lord, who hath set the Crown on his Majesties head with his own hands, without the vain concurrence of fleshly arm●s, whereby he hath revealed, per me Reges, to be not only his word but his dead, not permitting the act, but approving the Right of his Reign, which in Truth should be as well a terror as conviction to the consciences of those who have stamped it in some peoples brains for doctrine as currant as their Creed, that Monarchical government is but a more noble kind of Tyranny, which hath existence only by Gods connivance, and is rather the rod of his wrath to punish, than the staff of his love, to support a Nation. Truly, where there is a brimfulnesse of lenvious resolution to oppose the best, there can be no room for charity, which submitteth to the worst of Governours, and it may be justly feared, that no true concordance will inhabit the centre, whilst such Heteroclites are left to lurk in the circumference of the Church, who will rather profess themselves St. Peters animals by standing out in their own conceit, than St. Pauls souls in stooping to the authority of their lawful superiors, neither can they be well thought fit Trustees for the security of the Gospels treasure, who having once shipwrecked their Allegiance to the King, are still bankrupt of faith and honesty. Those are the old stocks, whereupon Satan hath graffed the variety of Sects, which hath been the shane, and is yet the grief of Englands Church, whose first non conformity to caconical orders, hath been the very originals, whereunto the many copies of obstinate Fanaticks, that are now extant, have their true reference, who following the tracts of St. Judes murmurers, in admiration of some mens persons for advantage sake, do dissociate themselves from the community of Saints, not only in opinion, but practise, than which nothing can be more destructive to the concord and peaceable unanimity of spiritual Congregations; for as in physical Compositums, a violent disunion of Integrable parts breeds a more dangerous shisme in the body, than a humorous distemper; so in Ecclesiastical corporations, an actual separation from the catholic fellowship of believers in Gods service is a greater pander to confusion, than the scandal of a speculative distraction. It is time therefore for our Seminary Presbyters, who have been the Protoplastiques of a Rebellious generation, both in Church and State, to make a confession of theit past faults, as well as their present faith to the King. They are now sufficiently red in the book of their own consciences to know, nemo periculosius peccat, quam qui peccata defendit, to Apologize for sin is more damnable, than to act it, and not to retract inexcusable errors, doth as much unqualifie a delinquent for mercy, as the perpetration thereof can adapt him to justice. Repentance, though it may be too soon ended, can never bee too late begun; he, that lives like St. Lukes judge on the bench, neither fearing God, nor regarding man, may have the grace to die like the Jews thief on the cross, with profession of both; for that power which expressly denieth forgiveness to one sin onely, doth implicitly conceede a possibility of pardon to all others. On this consideration it would be worth their pains to translate their Petition for Presbytery into a svit for indemnity, and publicly to aclowledge his Majesties Declaration which is the proof of his grace, to be an argument of their guilt, who( like cunning fencers, that aim at the legs, when they intend to veny the pate) under a reformative pretence of destroying those ravenous beasts, which worry the people, begged leave of their master to hunt the kingdom, which being granted, they took liberty of themselves to make him their chief game: for it is well known from Dan to Beersheba, that the credit of their false doctrine was the very leaven wherewith the people were first moulded into a sour lump of armed malice against their sovereign.  
And I may truly say, it was the unlucky Boutefen, which not only yielded smoke to smother all Treaties into a nullity of success, but that gave light also to clear the way for more active instruments then themselves to take off the Head of our eternally renowned Saint Charles, together with the Government from his shoulders; for although they entred not the Stage with those miscreants that personated Pilate in the fifth Act; yet because they appeared with others who played the parts of Annas and Caiphas, in the first Scene of the Tragedy, we may justly christen them the Grandfathers in law of that bloody fact, which being unmatchable in human stories, may be in some sort compared to the crafty compliment of the cruel wolf in the fable, who  told the sheep, Da mihi potum,& ego mihi dabo cibum, meaning to eat him up for his courtesy. A fact, which as former ages have not been so learnedly wicked to invent, so I hope the future will be more honestly wise than to imitate; A fact, which may school our Kings of England into a use of the Italians prayer, to be delivered from their friends whom they trust, as well as from their enemies whom they fear, and inform the people with the Spaniards soul, rather to sheathe their swords in one anothers bowels upon private quarrels, than to draw them against their Sovereign in open war.  
But, if the Recognition of such an execrable murder be not caution enough for subjects to restrain them from Rebellion, let the memorable example of the Amalekites punishment be their exhortation to obedience, 2 Sam. 1. 13, 14. who( though a stranger to Sauls kingdom, and by them requested to conclude his pain with the inference of death) was by Davids command for touching the Lords anointed, instantly condemned to loose his life.  
If Kings lives then are so precious in Gods account, that they may not be touched in the heat of proclaimd hostility, what a cursed sin must that be, which justifieth those who take them away in could blood?  
By these animadversions I hope the whole host of spiritual officers, who have fought against the Regiment of the Church, will be victoriously fens'd into a unanimous Iudgement, that it is far better for them to have the Apostles doctrine in their hearts, then the Scots discipline in their hands, to be content with that estate wherein they have been, then to covet that wherein they ought not to be, to submit to the King in causes Ecclesiastical, rather then by calling his power in question, to abuse their own authority in the Gospel, to give Caesar his, will be no substraction from their due, had not our Saviour paid for himself and Peter, it might be doubted, whether the Clerks of this age( like the old Egyptian Priests) would not pled their estates untributary, as well as their offices unsubject to the King.  
With what tenor of spiritual power they are invested Jure divino, none but those laics whom the Popes Mandate hath screen'd from the Sun-shine of Gods word, can be ignorant.  
The officious Acts of Jehoiada to Jehoash, and Nathan to David, are not only presidents to warrant the right, but boundaries to limit the extent of their claim; they must instruct Kings as the one, and may reprove them as the other did, which was not executed by an excommunicative scourge to make David do pennance for his offence, but with the monition of a meek spirit, to give him a penitent sense thereof; for as the act of reproof argued the King to be Gods subject: so the mode of reproving maintained him to be the Prophets Sovereign.  
And thus I believe Azariah, withstood uzziah by no other force, save that of the tongue, whose aim was to strike at the fact, not the person of the King, to induce him into a consciousness of his fault, not so require his submission to punishment, which, because immediately inflicted of God, supposeth him privileged not to receive it from man: so that rebus sic, stantibus, our ministerial Guides have little reason, and less grace to pride themselves in their Ghostly authority of rebuking Kings, such verbal Reprehensions being no more then religious servants( not adventuring beyond the sphere of their calling) may lawfully practise towards their ungodly masters; for as it is the Resolve of Divines, that in case of necessity quill bet Christianus est sacerdos, so it is not only the liberty, but the duty of every one in Gods case boldly to reprove an offending brother, as I think myself bound to tell the associated brethren, that they have highly wronged the Majesty of God& the King, both by their oral and manual prolusions to introduce a new fangled governmentin the Church,& that it will be more safe for them to observe the duty of looking into their own, then the false commission of overseeing their superiors actions, the performance whereof might happily make that saying ex culpa sacerdotum ruina populi, to be as well known to themselves, as felt by others, and convert the hypocrisy, which some do, into the sincerity of obedience, which all should profess; for though none of them be puritanized into donatism, but can protest it their necessary obligation to reverence the Kings person, yet most are so far sublimated from the dross of superstition, that they cannot without defiling their consciences vail to the train of his ceremonious Titles, they can easily concoct supreme Governours, dryly swallowed, but with the sauce of Ecclesiastical causes it quiter nauseates their stomacks, and the name of head is more offensive to their palates, then perfumes are to the nostrils of those that are grieved with an Histerical passion; a monstrous straw for such mighty men to stumble at, which may be put in the same balance with that of their schismatical predecessors in the conference at Hampton Court, who were scandalised with the word absolution in the Liturgy, but well content with the Term Remission of sins.  
What difference there is betwixt supreme governor and Head in a notional acception, is more fit for Grammatical critics, then politic Christians to inquire, as they are complicated in one subject, and determined to a constant oneness both of action and end, they must by the rules of honesty as well as Art, be construed Synonymous, and in a promiscuous manner adjudged to contract their literal variety into an identity of sense.  
Indeed we cannot deny but the Title of supreme Head was first given to King Henry the Eight by the Pope, who being by his own institution in the world( as the soul is in the body by Gods Creation) Totus in toto, and not onely singulis, but universis mayor, cannot be supposed to part with a piece of himself but for his own ends; yet we conceive it no trespass against any Canon, either of Scripture or reason, to convert that to a good use, which was first bestowed to an ill purpose, but for Presbyters to take that away for the better esteem of their own authority, which was given by the Pope, to disgrace the Kings jurisdiction in the Church, is no less unreasonable to device, then irreligious to practise.  
That great Bulwark of objection,( Christ is the sole Head of the Church, ergo no other can have the Title) which hath been presumed too strong for an army of Schoolmen to beat down, must necessary yield upon terms to our side. For although as the Church is internally considered in respect of the kingdom of Grace, and our Saviour Christ as Lord thereof, by right of Redemption, ruling the hearts of the faithful by his spirit, there is no subjection allowable, nor headship to be attributed but to him only; yet as he is King by right of Creation, loving an Imperial Sovereignty over all his creatures, and the Church in a militant condition, which( by reason of an inseparable commixture of good and bad, and common relation of the inward and outward man) doth necessary require an external policy to maintain a uniformity and order in the worship of God, so he hath ordained his Vicegerent on earth to whom both Clergy and Laity most be subject.  
And in this qualification of sense Kings may be truly styled supreme Heads in causes Ecclesiastical, within their Dominions; Thus Samuel called Saul the Head of the Tribes of Israel, 1 Sam. 15. 17. which in eodem signo rationis doth imply all persons, as well Ecclesiastical as civil in that Commonwealth, to be his subordinate members. And that the Priests were subject in their very Offices to the supreme power of their magistrates, 2 Chron. 8. Solomons Acts in ordering their courses, and appointing the Levites to their charges,( who in manifestation of their duty are faid not to depart from the commandement of the King) do sufficiently evidence, whose authority likewise to punish sins of the first table, that refer to Religion as well as those of the second, which belong to human society.  
Gods own prescript Laws to Moses, Deut. 13. Deut. 17. Levit. 17. are the authentic seals to confirm, whereunto we may annex that fact of our Saviour Christ himself, chastising the Jewish peddlers, by virtue of his divine Royalty, for profanation of the Temple, as an exemplary proof beyond all exception.  
Having picked out the pith of their Divinity in the former objection, there resteth one hard Argument more to break, wherein lies the marrow of their logic, if the power, say they, in Ecclesiastical matters be proper to the supreme magistrate as a Mastistrate, then it should belong to all magistrates, and consequently to the heathen: the definition of a magistrate being one in Christian and Heathen Princes; but this would be both sinful and ridiculous to assert, ergo that cannot lawfully be maintained.  
Truly this is a witty sophism, which deserves the Reply of an ingenious Respondent in the Philosophers School, salse profecto, said falso quidem. I presume the same learning which qualified them to oppose others, may enable them to answer themselves in this point; for if their consequence be good, Baals Priests had as much right to the service of the Temple, as the Levitical Clergy-men, neither can our Protestant ministers have a better Title to the dispensation of Christs ordinances, then the officers of the Romish Church do now claim.  
Therefore if they will honestly defend their own as we do the Kings authority in the Church, they must aclowledge their argument to be contrary to the principles of art, as their opinion is to the precepts of Religion; for when a Restrictive Term is adjoined to an equivocal subject( as magistrate is) To argue from an indefinite to a universal, is an illegal consequence, the reason is, because what is attributed by such a note of limitation, is not an absolute but a comparate propriety, which doth convenire subjecto mediant alio, as the power of the King in causes Ecclesiastical is not proper to him, simply secundum naturam, but Relatively as he is a true Christian Magistrate; according to which univocation, if their Argument had been formed, the consequence would be logically true.  
But as we do appropriate this power onely to Kings truly Christian, So I must acquaint them that the Heathen subjects had such a Reverend respect to the authority of the supreme magistrate in matters of their idolatrous Religion, that Aristotle, Polit. l. 3. could say {αβγδ}. The King is Lord and Ruler of things that per●ain to the Gods.  
To conclude, I wish those men, who( like the first matter have an indifferency to all forms, and are so unfixedly disposed in Religion, that they can be content with the Sichemites, to be circumcised for the●r advantage, would( not for wrath but for conscience sake) give a seasonable Testimony of their obedience by a willing conformity to the Kings power in Ecclesiastical causes, that the Church may be no longer grieved with the rapine of foreign wolves, or spoil of domestic foxes, but that sound doctr●ne may flourish within her ga●es, and true discipline be establ●shed in her borders, to which end the Lord sand us a speedy Restauration of our ancient Government by the hands of Zerubbabel and Joshua, the King and the Bishop, that as we are baptized in one faith, so we may be subject to one Rule,& as we are of one body, we may be all of one mind, to worship God both in the purity and beauty of holinesse, and to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. Amen.  
FINIS.   

THE AUTHORS LETTER TO AN Anti-Episcopall MINISTER Concerning the GOVERNMENT OF THE CHURCH.  
Qua potes, excusa, nec Amici discere causam,  
Quo pede caepisti, sic been semper eas.  Ovid. 
Written Anno Domini 1651.  
LONDON, Printed for Philemon Stephens the younger at the Kings Arms over against the Middle Temple Gate. 1661.   

SIR,  
ALthough it be a task above the greatest experiment of Nature, to stop the open sepulchers of other mens mouths; yet to vindicate a mans own name from the unjust imputations of scandalous aspersions, is a duty compatible with the least vigour of grace.  
It is well known to the messenger who brought me your challenge, how unwilling I was at first to open my Cephalique vein in those Canicular daies, wherein Remedies strongly applied, are more dangerous then diseases, and most men by a malignant constellation, unluckily complexioned to dislike what they cannot correct, but receiving a second information of your goliath spirit, daring the whole Israel of our side to a Goose-quil-fight, after a serious debate betwixt my understanding and will, I resolved at last, rather to expose myself to the hazardous censure of some for a dispensible forwardness, then necessary to incur the blame of others, and my own conscience, for an inexcusable cowardice in Religion.  
Thanks be to God, I do not only believe as a Christian; but as a scholar understand the divine right of Church-Government, which in its substantials, by the consent of most men on all sides, i● not ambulatory( like a movable Tent) to be set up, and put down, at the pleasure either of civil or Ecclesiastical power, but( like the Persian Law) unalterable, both in respect of persons, and time; but whether the administration of this decreed Government, be by divine commission originally granted, either to a Presbyterian, Independent, or Episcopal ministry, sub Judice lis est: in which process( dismissing the sceptic enqu●ries of human Authors, as writs insufficient to determine controversy) we must appeal to the word of God for our quietus est.  
The Consistorian Presbytery, which for a wh●le( like Senacheribs Letter) insulted over Kings, people, hath always been as great a stranger to my study, as to my faith; for I could never think that the extemporary invention of a necessitous condition, would ever become an object of speculation, much less of practise, to the Church of England. The Arguments which are chiefly urged to maintain the credit of this society upon a divine score, are altogether unsatisfactory to my conscience, not so much because they do in a singular construction, run counter to the catholic sentence of the Church in former ages, as in that they offer violence to the natural sense of the word, which is the best Interpreter of itself; for I would gladly be informed by you, or any man of your constitution, who( like Diogenes, an Epicure by conversation, but a stoic in opinion) can seem an Independent in face, yet be a Presbyterian in heart, why, or how the Term Ruler, which in all places of Scripture, touching spiritual matters, is the essential predicate of a pastor, should or can be understood of a Lay Elder, especially since the original word used by St. Paul, in Genere, Rom. 12. 8. is by the same Apostle 1 Thess. 5. 12. directly given to the pastor in specie.  
I would likewise willingly know by what mystery of Art you can prove the Teacher, Exhorter, and Ruler to be distinct kinds of officers, the Acts of Teaching, Exhorting, and Ruling, 1 Tim. 3. 2 Tim. 4. Heb. 13. 17. being in several and plainly intelligible Text letters, jointly appropriated to one and the same subject: or with what confidence you can compose yourself to resolve the question, whether the Teacher be above the Exhortor, or the Exhortor above the Teacher, in their distinct offices, utrumque non vacat absurdo; for if the Teacher be above the Exhortor, then the Teacher may exhort, but the Exhortor not teach, and so è converso, the reason is, because the greater may do, what the less can, but the less cannot, what the greater doth, as the Teacher and Exhortor may govern as well as the Ruler, but the Ruler cannot teach nor exhort as well as they, according to the classical Commentators own opinion. Therefore( unless there be an Algebra in Divinity to invent the secret of a numeral diversity without a difference) this incomprehensible new distinction of Ecclesiastical functions must needs be such a grand Asystaton to the word of God, as he that is but an ABCdarian in Scripture, may easily spell at the first sight.  
And here I cannot sufficiently wonder at the deliberate, and cum privilegio error of our Synodical Presbyters, who so hotly urge the inseperability of the keys against 
Vid. jus divinum in Regim. Eccles.  their Independent brethren, to lock up the peoples mouths from gaping after the power of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, and yet allow those amongst themselves to judge in the Consistory, whom they forbid to preach in the Pulpir. Certainly, if the reason be forcible enough to bar the Independent multitude, it must of necessity be equally effectual to exclude the Presbyterian singularity, from the management of spiritual commissions, the propriety of a thing being as incommunicable to one, as to many of a different kind, for the use of Reason is as incompatible with the nature of a particular, as of a universal beasthood.  
Baalams ass by a natural constitution had no more privilege to speak, then the whole family of that sex, neither hath a Triumvirate of Laymen better authority to rule in the Church, then a century of the same lineage.  
Away then with solum non solus praeest, a fresh distinction, which smells of as much untruth as novelty, calculated for the meridian rather of a Utopian Commonwealth, then an English Church. Can a real division stand with an absolute inseperability of the keys: hath God joined them together in his word, and must they now be divorced by human inventions? ubi scriptura non distinguit, nec nos distinguere debemus, was always held a sound Canon in the doctrinal body of Theology, till the Popes head by the destructive machination of an Index expurgatorius, broken off the neck of the Rule.  
What a sinful shane is it for our reforming prophets,( who claim the reputation of Gospel Edifiers) to go about to build up Jerusalem with the Rubbish of Babylon? and to daub over the wall of Christian Religion, with the untempered mortar of Jesuitical distinctions. Christ gave the keys to his Disciples, as preaching ministers of the word, and powerful dispensers of his Sacraments; therefore such as they are the sole Proprietaries of that Authority, for quatenus ipsum includit per se. How then can this new thing called Lay-Elder be rightly said to rule only? who hath no right to rule at all: surely dabo tibi claves regni coelorum was not spoken to a mixed person, comprehending Clergy and Laity,( St Peter was no such Hermaphrodite) but to a Homogeneal root, virtually containing a univocal generation of ministerial branches, to be spread over the whole world, for defence of the catholic Church. Oh take heed therefore how you corrupt sound Texts with adulterate glosses, or advance a Geneva Transla●ion above Gods original, let not the biasse of novel opinions turn your heart from the way of Truth,( it being far better to halt in the right path then to run headlong into a wrong) but seriously consider whether it be not safer to maintain a Church-warden by Ecclesiastical policy, then a Lay Elder by divine right? As for the precise Independency, which is now the predominant humour in the distempered body of this Commonwealth; I conceive it to be falsely grounded, either on precepts not truly understood, or examples not commonly practised: by the one, that is, erroneously attributed to the people, which is directly intended to Church Officers, as Matth. 18. 17. and from the other, that, which for the promulgation of the Gospel in the blooming of the Church, was dispensed to some special persons by an extraordinary instinct of the holy Ghost, as Acts 11. 19, 20. is drawn into a common and ordinary use for all sorts of men in these dayes.  
From the first particular we have a ready weapon to beat down the strong imagination of some vulgar inqu●si●ors, who report the opinative enmity betwixt the Presbyterian and Independent to be an irreconcilable opposition, as if the one were a Jew, and the other an Egyptian: a bold error, worthy to be put out of countenance in the stocks of correction; for although those yeomen in Religion, hold not together in capite, yet they are joint-tenants in tail, and( like the monumental foxes) are bound by agreement to find firebrands for the combustion of the Church.  
The only variance amongst them is, either in the Arithmetical account of sin, as Mary Magdelen, who was possessed with seven devils, differed from the Gadarene that had the company of a legion, or in the temporal computation of their original, as Cain, the first murderer, was distinguished from Judas the greatest traitor in the world.  
In which respect( though some, mistaken in the science of Ecclesiastical Heraldry, have given Presbyterians the honour to be of the older House) the Independents, without suspicion of pharisaism may at a festival dinner, challenge the uppermost place as their due, by an unquestionable right of pre-eminence from their ancient Progenitors, for( unless Aarons Levites superannuated, did degenerate into Lay Elders, or the assembly in the case of that runaway Concubine, kill with over-leacherous kindness, were a type of a Geneva Consistory) I cannot apprehended the least advantage either of a right line in sense, or collateral in consequence, to deduce the Genealogy of a Presbyterian( in the last Edition) through the whole age of the old Testament, whereas the Independents pedigree, is notoriously known to be derived from the Congregational confederates of konrah, Dathan, and Abiram, famous upon Record in the very infancy of the Law.  
But passing from their Prerogative to their presumption, give me leave in a just exprobration to deride the confidence of this forward generation, who( ere they have learned with the Ethiopian Eunuch to understand the Scriptures) will undertake to dispute in the school of Tyrannus, and( as if they were of the house of Stephanus) be their own ordainers to save others, before they know( like St. Pauls Jailor) what they must do to be saved themselves.  
For who but a fools wise man will believe, that Davids eating the show bread, was a catholic licence for every hunger-starved Israelite, or Epicure Jew to make it his ordinary meals meat.  
Necessity, that great School-mistresse of Arts,( though it hath no law by proverb) is not lawless by Providence, neither was it ever decreed by the policy of heaven, that any man( though he owneth the condition of the unjust Steward, without art of husbandry to dig, and boldness to beg) should relieve the want of his teeth by an injustifiable trade of the tongue.  
It seems a merry spectacle to behold a serpentine mechanic, who like a pictured head, hath much art, but no sense, to vault from a Tub into a Pulpit: but it is a sad history indeed to hear him with the strings of his tongue, led a troop of silly evites by the ears, out of the garden of Paradise, into the wilderness of hell, by fooling them into a fanatic fancy, that they may be wiser, then God by creation fashioned them to be, nor can the innocency or uprightness of mens intentions excuse the obliquity of their actions, no more then the Bethshemites harmless curiosity in looking into the Ark, or Vzza's conceited courtesy in touching it, could privilege them from the punishment of death. A handsome pair of Judaical presidents to damn the practise of those men, who are either overbusy in prying into Gods secret counsel, or too presumptuous in handling his revealed will.  
It was not loss of limb, but of life, for any one( except Aaron and his sons) to wait on the Priesthood in the old Church, and if God were so careful by a penal statute of death, to provide a uniformity of consecrated officers to attend on his Altar under the Law, why should we so much undervalue the Majesty of our Saviour Christ, and his Economical providence over the household of faith, as to think that he hath allowed his own table to be served with a Gallamalfry of ministers under the Gospel; or that he doth approve an unpolished rabble of lame and blind laics, to set themselves up as pillars and lights in the Christian Church, since those even amongst the Clergy, who had but the least blemish of corporal deformities were forbidden to officiate in the Jewish Sanctuary.  
The offering up of incense was an acceptable service, as well to procure the blessing of Gods love, as to prevent the curse of his anger, yet being unlawfully done, by hands not ordained to the performance of the duty, it became an impulsive cause of severe vengeance, the Preface only of which misdemeanour exposed uzziah( Royalty having no ward against the stroke of divine Justice) to the grievous penance of a durable disease; and if it were the just merit of a King to be marked in the forehead, for committing but a demirape on the Priests office, what should minims of men deserve to suffer, who in a full career of sinful ambition, pursue the honour of a higher calling, then God hath made them either capable to overtake, or skilful to undergo.  
Verily the Camels doom in the fable, who for desiring the Bulls horns, lost his own ears, is a penalty too modest for such Mountebank adventurers. Doth not the Scripture witness, that Christ put some Teachers in the Church, to teach us that no man should presume to put himself, and but some, to assure us, that all cannot be put in the same office, and is not his short plea in the Brethrens case a signal declaration to the whole world, that as he, being dedicated to a spiritual employment, would not entangle himself with civil matters: so no man that is constituted in a civil vocation, should be bold to meddle with spiritual affairs.  
Truly, if the coming into Moses chair without Aarons call, doth not signify a climbing up the wrong way, I am yet to learn the meaning of entering in at the right door, or if a self-willed invading of the ministerial function. be not to run in Gods errand without sending, I know not what it can be to go with a Commission; I hearty wish those watchful Seers, who are so clear-sighted in espying the motes of others, had the illumination of true grace to discern the beams of their own errors; for I must roundly tell them, if St. Pauls check to the pragmatical Thessalonians, cannot humble them into a ꝯtinence of themselves within the term of their own business, St. Peters censure will justly exalt them into the fellowship of murderers and thieves.  
Neither can I omit to pay the tribute of the like charitable affection to the desperate fraternity of their next kindred by blood, whose brains, overwhelmed with the vapours of an Anabaptistical fever, dispose them to dream of a ubiquitarie coordination of men, which to those who are thoroughly awakened into the liberty of their senses, is all one with an exact confusion of States; for order( without using the rack of an abusive Trope to make it speak more truth then it literally intends) is nothing else but the Stewardship of nature, maintained by a gradual procession, as well of one above another in place, as after another in time; therefore it can be no less then an abnegation of our Creatorship, and a rebellious outlawing of ourselves from divine protection, to seek that on earth, which is not to be found in Heaven, save in God only, whose individual identity of essence is the only exception against irregularity of persons. All other creatures( though of the same kind, as men and Angels) by reason of their numerical difference in nature, being susceptible of degrees in accidental qualifications: and how suitable this physical observation is to religious doctrine St. Pauls brief injunction in words, Let every soul be subject, is a large lecture of confirmation in effect, which universal precept not only includeth the world of liberal and mechanic Artists, but likewise the whole tribe of Ecclesiastical officers, neither can that sophistical subterfuge( the quintessence of Presbyterian Tyranny) that Church-men are subject to Kings in their persons, but not in their office, free them from the complete duty of the Text, but is rather an aggravation of their untowardness to obedience for such Legierdemain( like that Apologetical distinction which the Romanists invented for Julius the Third, that he was a good Pope, but a bad man) though it may dilude a child of Niniveh that knows not the right-hand from the left, cannot dazzle the eyes of intelligent persons from a sensible discovery of the imposture, because ministers, quatenus ministers, and in the very officious relation of their spiritual factorship( unless Scripture be of no more value then a Legendary proof) are liable to the censure, Judgement and Reproof of the supreme Magistrate.  
For that Moses, out of pious anger, hotly rebuking Aaron for making the golden calf, was guilty of an over-zealous presumption, or Aaron, by a way of penitential submission, calling him Lord, of too reverend dissimulation; I must profess, I am not wicked enough to believe, nor whether Solomon, who by his own regal authority, deposed Abiathar the high Priest, and set Zadock in his office, did act beyond the sphere of his calling.  
Have I an impudent sufficiency of profane criticism to question? I am neither ignorant nor incredulous of the powerful privileges which have been, and still are familiar to Christian Worthies, yet I am loth to believe that those men who will not obey as subjects for an hour, shall reign as Kings on the Earth for a thousand years, or that they who esteem it the best policy of discipline to march in bands( like Solomons locusts) without a Leader, are a fit Army( though their teeth be swords, and their jaw-teeth knives) to fight against Gog and Magog for the Monarchy of the world.  
I rather think such fool-hardy volunteers that list themselves in the service of the Church, to bring the body into one rank, without the word of Gods command, are more apt( like Elies sons) to grease their mouths with the fat of the peoples offerings, and to lie with their Sisters at the Congregation door, then to stand up against idolatrous Philistines, for the Redemption of Christs Ark, or to sacrifice their lives in defence of the Gospel.  
But as a learned English man once said in case of History, so may I in this controversy, He that followeth truth too close to the heels, may chance to have his teeth dashed out: my present purpose is rather to vent my own, then to traffic with other mens opinions; yet this I must believingly say, the Presbyterian ruling, and Independent preaching, Lay Elders are no more warranted jure divino, then Usurpers are allowed by municipal, or Usurers by the civill Laws.  
And if our Saviour Christs expostulatory demand, who made me a Judge? be not Argument enough of conviction to the one, and the Apostles determinate question, are all prophets? a sufficient answer of satisfaction to the other, I shall leave them both to content themselves with that liberty which St. Paul gave to the Corinthians, if they will be ignorant, let them be ignorant still, and conclude their opinions to sympathise with the nature of those perverse kind of devils, which cannot be cast out but by prayer and fasting.  
The Episcopal jurisdiction which consisteth in a perpetual right of presidency over the Presbytery, is both to my faith and reason the proper subject of Church Government, confirmed by Aarons superintendency over the Levites in time of the Law, and by the Apostles eminency above the Disciples under the Gospel, whose jurisdictive pre-eminence was not( like the gift of miraculous power, a spiritual monopoly, to be extinguished with their persons, but a comprehensive privilege, entailed on their successors to the worlds end.  
Their extraordinary personal qualifications, served to convert those that were without, but their Prerogative power to govern them who were within the line of professed Christianity, the one was given for the birth, the other for the education of Christians, the first died with their original subjects, because the means ceases, when the end is accomplished, but the second lives in a derivative posterity, because where the end is not determined, the means must continue; for although the essence of Church Government be in facto, yet the exercise is still in fieri, committed to the hands of select officers, not for a temporary use, but a perpetual work of the ministry, till we all come in the unity of faith to the perfection of Saints.  
Neither is it agreeable to the principles of religious reason, that what was heretofore of good, should now be of bad, or no use in the Church.  
Why should not I believe it an ordinance of Gods approbative will, that, as the Pontificial dignity begun with Aaron, continued de jure in a successive Priesthood, till Christs coming in the flesh? so the Prelatical order founded in the Apostles, shall remain in an Episcopal Generation, till his coming to judgement.  
I am sure an orderly rule to prevent the growth of contentious spirits, is fit for Christians as well as Jews, and the practise of disciplinary jurisdiction as needful in this age, as in the primitive time, mongrel issues both of schismatic and heretical Sects, being now as much swarming in England, as grasshoppers once were in Egypt, or broods of monsters are in Africa.  
Neither do I build this faith more upon the foundation of politic then Theological inductions; for granting( which is an unquestionable doctrine) that the Apostles received their degree of authoritative superiority above the Disciples, not as extraordinarily gifted persons( because some of the Disciples wrought miracles as well as they) but as ministerial officers of the Church, it must necessary follow that the same kind of supereminent power doth rightfully belong to all their successors, for reduplicative propositions are of a universal consequence, according to the noted maxim in the Schools, a quatenus ad de omni valet consequentia.  
And whereas it is objected, that Bishops being planted in their office by mans authority, cannot in truth be called the Apostles successors, who were immediately commissionated by our Saviour Christ, without intervention of human means.  
Therefore our Argument must needs lapse into the scandal of a false progression ab Hypothesi ad Thesin, I know not what better rejoinder I shall make to such a frivolous cavil, then what a sound father replied to a corrupt Interpreter of Scripture, nemo ita intelligit, nisi qui nonintelligit, no man understands that to be a good reason, but he that understands none; for if lawful succession in the matter of an office must necessary depend on the manner of institution, then the Rulers of Israel may not be truly said to have succeeded Moses in their magisterial callings.  
Indeed the Apostles immediate mission from Christ( whence they had their Title) doth seem to enter a caveat in foro Ecclesiae, against the claim of any other to the same name, but not to the Executorship of the same office, as it was transmittible to posterity.  
Next to those everlasting Church: monuments the Apostles, we have the presidential acts of Timothy and Titus, to make good the right of Episcopal supremacy, whose power of ordination, and prerogative of censuring the offending Elders, doth convincingly argue their fixed majority above the presbytery, for par in parem non habet potestatem, to be active in exercising, and passive in submitting to a power, are distinct Acts, which must needs beget an unequal respect in the Subjects, neither can the force of the maxim be defeated by that small repulse of a great Rabbi in the schooie of Church Levellers, that one neighbour may compel another to give him satisfaction for wrongs offered, ergo hoc aliquid nihil est, which conceit is much like in feature to that ridiculous conceit of Aesops fly on the cart, who thought himself author of the vapouring dust, which was raised by the violent motion of the wheels, who knows not but by execution of the magistrates power, a Steward may be enabled to take away the goods of his Lord, and a base hangman the life of a noble thief, which are their superiors, yet neither of them have any authority of jurisdiction in themselves( which is the state of the question in hand) over their equals; nor is the subjection of one Prophet to another, an homage only of moral compliance, which barely consisteth in a mutual submission of judgements to the rule of better advice, as the Disciples of Smectymnuus do fond imagine, because the word {αβγδ}, which the Apostle useth 1 Cor. 14. 32. is not only by right of Etymology and consent of profane Writers, an absolute sign of personal subordination, but likewise by the same Apostle repeated to express the subjection of people to their supreme Governours, Rom. 13. 1. and by St. Peter of servants to their masters, 1 Pet. 2. 18. whose duty( as I take it) standeth not in an indifferency of complimental officiousness, but in the necessity of real obedience.  
The common exception against the instance of Timothy and Titus, as being Evangelists, and consequently neither Bishops themselves, nor fit patterns whereby others may be formed into that office, hath been so abundantly exploded, that the finer sort of Presbyterian Advocates are ashamed to own such a course plea.  
But that which grates them all to the quick, is their solitary power of ordination, whence the Bishop becomes the Presbyters Godfather, which they being neither willing to confess, nor able to deny, would fain put off with the old shift of an extraordinary privilege, whereby indeed they affront themselves, as well as the Bishops, and directly advance the opinion of those giddy fanaticks, who maintain ordination of ministers to have no foundation in the word of God.  
It cannot be denied but all inferior Ministers are lawful copartners with their superiors in the Elementary commission, go and teach, but that an equal interest in the authority of some special administrations should create the inmate neighbourhood of a Synonymous complexion betwixt them,( as if a Bishop were but the counterpene of a Presbyter) would be no less then a demonstration of singular ignorance to grant.  
And what though the Primates of Christianity( who were both the materials and builders of the Church) did act the part of ordinary labourers in Gods vineyard, and were content to live in their spiritual calling by a promiscuous contribution of titular characters; yet the example of their first general understanding was no bar, but an overture( witness the history of their own Acts) to an after discrimination of particular offices.  
Therefore how a perpetual parity( notwithstanding the Apostolical institution of degrees) should be the necessary successor of a temporary enterfare in the ministry, seems an Apocryphal riddle, as far out of the ken of my apprehension, as the hypocrisy of a stratagem is from a childs discovery.  
Neither can I be satisfied why the argument of a nominal community should prevail more with my understanding to profess Bishops and Presbyters but one in office, then to deny Apostles and Disciples( having the same familiarity of appellation) to be divers; for if the medium be of pure necessity, Apostles and Disciples must be one in office, as well as Bishops and Presbyters, if it be not, Bishops and Presbyters may be divers, as well as Apostles and Disciples: and if one officer could subsist with variety of names, why might variety of officers with one name; why not a Bishop and Presbyter with the common name of Elder, as well as an Apostle, with the distinct name of Presbyter and Deacon.  
To clear this point more fully from the mist of doubtful Expositions, and to cut the throat of that thread-bare evasion, Privilegia personalia non trahuntur in exemplum.  
St. John doth digito demonstrare, directly delineate the substance of Episcopal authority, for the Angels of the Asian Churches, were neither Apostles nor Evangelists,( all of them being dead when he wrote those Epistles) and yet they were reared in a degree( if not an order) of dignity above the Presbytery within their several precincts, as appears by the peculiar and definite application of his style, where the article {αβγδ} prefixed to the substantive, to the Angel, and doth not only denote a determinate individuum, but an eminent person, which is a sufficient confutation of that beggarly shift, which supposeth a collective sense of the words, equally including the whole Presbytery, whereas both the direction and charge of the Epistles do notably restrain the summary intention of the Apostles expression, in a distributive interpretation to the singular Bishops of those Churches, for as it is a blasphemous imagination to conceive the holy Ghost speaking more then he intends: so it is an unwarrantable presumption to suppose him intending more then he speaks.  
Gods written Word is the exact copy of his will, and full number of our faith, which may not be divided by substraction, nor multiplied by addition.  
Shall we practise less in our lives, when he commands more in his laws, or when he writes one in the right line of his Word, shall we transcribe many by a crooked Parenthesis of an interlineary gloss? What is this, but either to undermine the divine foundation by atheistical detraction, or overly it by Antichristian superstition:  
What rule have we either in logic or Divinity( without a consequent collection of circumstances from the Text) to give a plural construction to a word of singular termination, or what constraint of rhetoric can we pretend to fly from the congruity of Grammatical concordance, to the irregular support of a solecistical synecdoche? For my part, as I think it a necessary duty to observe that directory caution, which I have learned in the primordial Rudiments of Religion, never to depart from the literal sense, as long as it agreeth with the analogy of faith, and contexture of Scripture: so I cannot be persuaded( much less convinced in conscience) to believe, that the holy Apostle writing though of infallible things) to failing persons, should wrap up his purpose in an implicit term, since the connexion but of one letter( the issue of an instant pains) would have plainly unsolded the scope of the matter, and explicitly equallized his speech to his meaning. The Holy Ghost explains the vision of seven Candlesticks by an adequate numeration of seven Churches, and the mysterious figure of so many stars by the like quantity of Angels, whereby( if according to the verdict of our new Septuagint Interpreters we understand the whole ministry of the Church) we must consequently destroy the analogical applications of the truth to the Type; for why the same arithmetical proportion should not be maintained betwixt the stars and Angels, as there is betwixt the Candlesticks and Churches, which by a special note in the one, and particular nomination of the other) are precisely limited to the number of seven, I find no ground either of reason to induce, or Religion to command my belief.  
As for the contraposition of similitude( whereof the pregnant Presbyters after long travail were delivered) that as a thousand persons making up one Church, is represented by one Candlestick, so many ministers making up one Presbytery by one Angel.  
I conceive it more fit to exercise a schoolboys wit, then a Divines judgement; for the word Church being a noun collective, which requireth a multitude of men to constitute its essential definition, can bear no proportion of similitude with the term Angel or minister, that is vox sejunctae significationis, and necessary excludeth a plurality of persons, besides their false procedendo à concreto ad abstractum, which he that is but a blear eyed logician, may judiciousl● spy in many ministers, making up one Presbytery, which( to hold a correspondency with the whole) should be expressed: so many ministers making up one Presbyter.  
When they have art enough to make this good, I shall beg the honour to be their pupil. Indeed sometimes a singular expression admits of a general construction, as our Saviours speech to St. Peter, Matth. 16. 19.( though del●vered in a solitary phrase) is understood in a comprehensive sense, which is not an imaginary inference of private interpretation, but a real exposition of public truths confirmed by collation of Scripture; for what is signified by Thee in one place, is expounded by Ye in another, and what is intended by Tibi dabo to St. Peter, is declared by Accipite in the rest of the Apostles, but by one Angel to understand all the Presbytery, is not only an Heterodox and cross construction to the literal sense of the Text itself, but an unsuitable analysis to the conference of other places, which do evidently appropriate the burden, as well as the direction of the charge, in an interrupted style, without variation of number to one person.  
Therefore St. Austins Apology to his dissenting father, Dent veniam quidlibet aliud opinantes, ego magis credo tanto Apostolo, shall be my defence in this case, I shall rather believe the plain language of one Apostle, then the figurative comments of a Presbyterian university; who( in imitation of that politic knack of Julius Caesar; Deposuit nomen Dictacurae, at vim retinuit) do in pure zeal put down the name, but in corrupt affection take up the power of a Bishop, and advance it to a higher step of supercilious severity, then ever the Archest Bishop adventured to practise; for I never heard nor red that any of them( since the Popes power was purged out of this land) did claim the pride of an ungracious authority to place the chair of state under the stool of repentance, which the rigged Presbyterians have most impudently done: besides these convincing testimonies of Scripture, which to me are as clear as the noon day Sun. The unanimous consent, and universal practise of the Church in all ages, recorded in history Ecclesiastical,( which is a sufficient evidence for matter of fact) are two main supporters to bear up my belief of the Bishops right. For why should not I credit Eusebius, who tells me that Policarpus was S. Iohns Angel or Bishop of Smyrna, as well as Beza, who writes that Calvin was President of the Geneva Assembly, I confess I do as much pity as condemn the humorous dispositions of our factious novelists, whose heads are troubled with the Athenian itch, non tam magna quam nova mirari, and( like unstable Weathercocks) carried away with every new puff of doctrine, from the sentry of their old principles: as initio non fuit ita, and hujusmodi consuetudinem non habemus, are arguments enough to confute either an inquisitive Pharisee, or a schismatical Corinthian, which engageth me to subscribe to the catholic custom of the Church, rather then consent to the upstart eventilations of private spirits; for although antiquity without truth is but a musty conserve of error, yet to arrest the tracts of our predecessors upon a bare suspicion of falsehood, seems to me an act as much against the law of Christian charity, as Ecclesiastical policy, neither is the customary infirmity of a misperswaded conscience, so dangerous as the peremptory innovation of unadvised brains; for human frailty may extenuate an ignorant error, but nothing can excuse a presumptuous sin.  
To conclude, although our Bishops are now disleized of their ancient tenor by an ejectment dead of the sword, and( who were heretofore thought worthy, as Reverend fathers of dutiful respect) are now become objects of their childrens scorn; yet the present alienation of their condition, persecuted by the herd of popular catchpoles) is too soft an argument to turn the edge of my opinion; for in such substantial cases,( wherein judgement must be usher to affection) Cicero's paradoxical plea shall be my religious resolution, licet irrideat si quis vult, plus apud me tamen vera ratio valebit quam vulgi opinio: Sir, as I have freely given you this account of my faith, touching the government of the Church, so I hope you will not think it unworthy either your Christian patience to red, or your learned pains to answers the same, I am not so much wedded to my own, but can be in love with better reason, which if you please to afford me, you will engage me, not only to aclowledge myself your conquered enemy in opinion, but likewise willing to subscribe your convert friend in affection,  
Christianus Philalethes   

METROMACHIA, OR, A POETICAL COMBAT Betwixt the author And the same MINISTER.  

author.  
IN suckling age, when convert souls were scant,  
The Gospel preachers were itinerant,  
When Christs chief Lackeys posted day and night  
From stage to stage to make a proselyte,  
Church Angels then by patent had no less  
Then the worlds Kingdoms for their diocese.  
But when those Christian babes, by the sweet bread  
Of life, were sprouted to a numerous head,  
Then the unerring counsel thought it meet,  
To fasten fetters to the Pastors feet.  
The first born Bishops took no over plus,  
Above the bounds of Crete and Ephesus,  
And shall their younger brethren seek to try  
Their fortunes by a strange plurality:  
As if a christened Curate when he list,  
Could rebaptize himself Evangelist.  
Oh what a spot doth filthy lucre place  
Vpon th' example of a Clergy face,  
This is the cause so many fixed stars  
Are turned malignant Planets since these wars,  
Who wander from their proper spheres to strike  
The vacant sheaf of corn which they best like:  
Return b●●nd shepherds, your commissioned power  
Is only for to feed, not to devour  
The harmless sheep, which( when you run astray)  
Are to the wily fox and wolf a prey.  
Can they prove faithful martyrs at a stake,  
Who love the flock but for the fleeces sake?  
The Manna of the word can ne're delight,  
Nor make a glutton a true Israelite,  
Whose brains are quartered in his guts, perplexed  
To be confined unto an empty Text.  
Such pulpit flatterers are more fit to prate  
In markets, then to preach within the gate  
Of the Lords Temple, where the golden wedge  
Tempts none but Achans into sacrilege:  
Those Elders by their use teach men to try  
The Apostles physic to young Timothy;  
And for to purge their Diet from complaints;  
They do hold forth the Love-feasts of the Saints.  
But where is he that writes himself content,  
With the same Authors courser compliment  
Of food and raiment, that in barren ground  
Hath learned his thirsty lesson to abound?  
Where is the Priest that in a small tithe' a place  
Can banquet freely on the Herb of Grace?  
Or that can frolic with a well pleased look  
On the lean Index of his Easter book,  
And like the Lent fed Baptist glad to call  
A desert Vicarage his best Hospital.  
Such creatures now are as rare in this Land,  
As pilgrim travellers in the Arabian sand.   

Minister.  
SOme froward Children of our Age still cry,  
Though they may have both suck and lullaby  
Enough from their Kind Mother, whose full Breast  
And sugared voice allures them to their rest:  
Yet still they cry, because they Children are,  
And froward too, and that makes peace a war:  
Fie apish, pevish squals, what can no food  
Content your palate, but what is not good?  
Your blindness makes you want that which you have,  
And therefore what you want, not that you crave.  
The Church when in its swaddling band it lay,  
Had nurses for its infancy, and they  
By their great care did cause the tender babe  
To stretch its limbs from Salem to Arabe,  
And( being fairly grown near marriage)  
She fell under that Romish stepdames rage,  
Who did this virgin prostitute to th' lust,  
Of all her wanton favourites, then must  
This charmed dansel move, or sit, or hold,  
As that great whore, or her base lovers would,  
They played their pranks, and did her teachers frame  
By their unscriptur'd model, and thence came  
Your lordly Bishops, priests too lordly too,  
Which thievish Churchmen did the Church undo,  
Yet long they reigned, yea reigned until this day,  
Until the lamb his banner did display,  
And snatched his spouse off from the lions paws,  
Where now he gives to rule by his own laws.  
And these confine no teacher to one place  
Above the rest, but place him or displace,  
As work calls for them, here no tithes do draw.  
The teacher, but his great Commanders law.   

author.  
'tis strange a Lecture man, who undertakes  
To teach should be so lavish in mistakes;  
Our froward children by instinct do say  
They meet with wormwood in their milky way,  
dropped by nurse foxes, who in wait do ly,  
To give them a death sleeping lullaby.  
Can the shrill accents of a whining breast  
Sweeten their senses with a candid rest!  
Whose bones are as unpleasing as the call  
Of mourners at an Irish funeral.  
Can doctrine prove good food mixed with the raw  
Juice of schismatical Coloquintida?  
What freedom is therein a fettered slave?  
Or what a calm of peace can children have?  
When that the storming fathers do unstring  
Their long hanged tongues in pulpit skirmishing.  
I wish they wanted what they have, and then  
They would not crave to have the same again.  
This Clerk doth well display those who did plant  
The infant Gospel Temple, but doth want  
A good Church Heralds spectacles to see  
The Alpha of a Bishops pedigree,  
Who is no bastard, stained with blood impure,  
Claiming from Rome his primogeniture,  
But lawful branch of th' apostolic stock,  
Who built their house upon a lasting rock,  
Whence they by faiths perspective did descry  
Mysterious craftsmen of iniquity,  
Who laboured with an artificial hate,  
The spirits pureness to sophisticate;  
Yet did Christs spouse the stepdame bawd defy  
That would make sale of her virginiy.  
Nor did the Romish Church( though in disguise  
From the foundation truth apostatise,  
Until that Damned Counsel spawned at Trent,  
Had split with Cannons her main Battlement:  
What if the Lordly Adjunct were first set  
By Kings, as an enameled Epithet,  
On plain substantial Writers, must that gloss  
Bankrupt the Text to a perpetual loss?  
Bishops commissions cannot lose their dates,  
By the access of such Magistrates,  
No more then an Appendix Garment can  
Undo the bulkie fabric of a man.  
Is't only now the Saints have learned to sing  
A right tuned anthem to their Heavenly King?  
Hath he decreed that this new year should be  
proclaimed the first year of their Jubilee?  
Then did our martyred Predecessors dwell  
Not in Gods House, but in the Gates of Hell.  
Is it his Law that Churches should be built  
After the model of a wandring tilt;  
And Churchmen steer their course from dale to hill  
By the large compass of their greedy will?  
The Apostles then their Pastors wings did clip,  
To fix in Towns a standing Eldership.  
Doth not the Spirit ring an angry peal  
Into the Ephesians Angels ear, whose zeal  
Was shrunk but in degree of maiden heat  
From these, where he by calling had his seat.  
And is it yet the Divine will and law  
Of liberty, that Pastors may withdraw  
Their first love from their flocks, still wasting less  
Until it vanish to a nothingness?  
Doth not the spirit mark a hireling by  
His careless leaving of the Sheep to die,  
And cursing threaten for such sinful tricks,  
To take the Church Lights from their candlesticks,  
It is Gods work then, or the Devils play  
Which calls on them to move themselves away?   

Minister.  
CHildren and Fools tell truth, thus you discover  
Your Parentage, and childish rage all over;  
And cause you get a Leader that seems tall,  
Y are glad and mad to follow such a Saul,  
Who feigns to cloath you all in Scarlet, but  
They will prove Garments of the Romish cut;  
Amongst the Prophets he may prophesy,  
That is no Prophet in a Prophets eye:  
Thus whispers Mahomet through his close Trunk  
Lies to his creatures, and the Whore keeps drunk  
With her old Prostigies, the giddy many,  
Which thirst for Bishops, Priests, Church forms, or any  
Corrupted Lees, and that her lies may take,  
She makes her Sacred Book her almanac:  
You talk of worm wood Pulpit skirmishings  
Of Fetters, Foxes, and such deadly things:  
But here's your cunning, or your knavery,  
You are the Thieves, yet first make hue and cry,  
Yours are the fleecing Priests, the greedy Dogs,  
The persecuting Wolves, the croaking Frogs,  
The Drones, the Wasps, the Cranes, the blind St. Johns,  
The Kill-souls, and the true Camenions;  
And that their Character I truly sing,  
There needs no proof, but their just suffering:  
But the lost Bishop, and his birth is it,  
Which you stretch on the Tenters of your Wit;  
Which with my spectacles the best that are,  
I see from apostolic claim as far  
Distant as East from West, which you likewise  
Might see, had you but eye-pleasing for your eyes.   

Author.  
CHildren and Fools may well be Telltroths, when  
The greatest Clerks are not the wisest men:  
When men are drunk with lies, the truth must be  
Bib'd in by Sucklings in a mystery.  
Whose Dove-like-hearts do pant with zealous rage  
To hear a Rook blaspheme their Parentage:  
Ile not dispute whether a tall Saul can,  
led better then a wandring Jonathan;  
Or which doth best set forth a Doctors face,  
The Linsey-Woolsey, or the Scarlet Grace.  
But what our Prophets of the New Game, but  
Have gained in Learning, by a shuffling put  
Of their Book seniors to the whole sale loss,  
Both of parsonage Text, and vickrage gloss:  
Or what a sound noised faith doth fill our ears  
Blown from their lung impostum'd trumpeters,  
Is so well noted, that we need not grudge,  
To let the whole world be an umpire judge,  
For when Patch cobbler shall in pride translate  
His stool office to a chair Consulate,  
And stretch his will beyond the last, to mend  
A soolwry trodden with a Scripture end,  
When s●ipper tailor shall prefume to make  
A Christian wedding garment, for whose sake,  
He that did our first lapsing parents bless  
With coverings for their sinful nakedness,  
Hath preordain'd that none should look so high,  
But those whom he hath sent to prophecy,  
When such pragmatic cutters lay aside  
Their shears, that they may with their tongues divide  
Gods word into new fashiond doctrine, how  
Can this mad prophet say, God speed the plow.  
His chain of ugly names belongs by right,  
To an untamed English Iesuite,  
Who scorns to be enclosed within the line  
Of Church-communication discipline,  
Doth not he suit the picture of a fool,  
Or an exploded Dunce in logic school:  
Who makes his proof by a disfigured throng  
Of words, absurder then the question.  
Are Bishops malefactours, cause they have  
Been by a powerful hand conveyd to grave,  
Or hurled into prison, must they be  
Therefore the objects of just Infamy?  
If reason should be dressed still in this guise,  
Twould be a sinful Art to syllogize,  
For what a damned conclusion might men press  
From the contexture of such premises,  
By this the Jews might argue when Christ died,  
That he deserved to be so crucified.  
He that hath learned to level in degree,  
A Bishops and a Pastours pedigree,  
May by the same invented rule conclude,  
The stars are all of equal magnitude.  
Well, since this Clerks complexion is too hot  
To be allayed by my Ink galley pot,  
Let him alone, 'tis fruitless to invite  
From silver shrines an Idol Ephraimite,  
I see such giddy Church tops will turn round  
Till they be gigg'd by Bishops to the ground.   
FINIS.