offensive and groaning more and more under that yoke of bondage as they coneeived they waited for deliverance and were in the main of one soul and spirit with the Non-Conformists And even then the way called Puritanism did not give but get ground But now the Tenents of this way are rooted more then ever and those things formerly imposed are now by many if not by the most of this way accounted not only burthensom but unlawfull And after a long time of search and practice the mindes of men are fixed in this opinion and are not like to be reduced to the practice of former times and therefore in al reason the imposing of such matters of controversie as by so many are held unlawfull and by those that have a zeal for them judged indifferent not necessary cannot procure the peace of Church and Kingdom Section IX That this numerous party will not vary from its self or vanish upon changes in Government or new Accidents doth hence appear in that it doth not rest upon any private temporary variable occasion but upon a cause perpetual and everlasting Those forementioned Principles of science and practice which give it its proper Being are of that firm and fixed nature that new contingencies will not alter them nor length of time wear them out They are the great things of God which have a great power over the spirit of man And they are imbraced by such as highly prize them not for temporal advantages whereof they have no appearance but for an internal excellency discerned in them as being necessary to the glory of God and the salvation of men And consequently to these men it is not satisfactory at all adventures to be of the State-Religion or to believe as the Church believes Neither will they be dissolved or much weakned by the declining haply of some principall Ones who being bought off by preferment may turn prevaricators For notwithstanding such a falling off the inward spirit that actuates the whole body of them and knits them to each other will remain in full strength and vigour And though many others through weakness or mildness should stagger and give ground in the points of lesser moment and more controverted yet the root of the matter may remain in them and as to the main they may be still where they were But what are those great things for which this sort of men contend Surely they are no other then the lively opening of the pure Doctrine of the Gospel the upholding of all Divine Institutions particularly the strict observation of the Lords day a laborious and efficacious Ministry taking hold of the Conscience and reaching to the heart a godly Discipline correcting true and real scandals and disobedience in a word all the necessary and effectual means of unfained faith and holy life that the Kingdom of God may come in power And for these things sake they are alienated from the height of Prelacy and the pomp of Ceremonious Worship This was well known and provided against by the swaying part of the later Prelatists For in as much as they could not quell the Puritans by the rigid injunction of Conformity that they might give a blow at the root Lectures were suppressed afternoon Sermons on the Lords day prohibited under pretence of Catechizing which was only a bare rehearsal of the Form of Catechism for Children without explication or application of those principles a Book for sports and pastimes on Sundays enjoyned to be read by Ministers in their Parish Churches under penalty of deprivation sundry superstitious Innovations introduced a new Book of Canons composed and a new oath for upholding the Hierarchy inforced Far be it from me to impute these things to all that were in Judgment Episcopal for I am perswaded a great if not the greater part of them disallowed these Innovations Nevertheless those others that were most vehement active watchful vigorous did not by all the aforesaid means advance but rather weaken their Cause and lessen themselves in the esteem of observing men and the oppressed party increased in number and vigour It is therefore evident that this Interest for which we plead is not like a Meteor which after a while vanisheth away but is of a solid and firme consistence like a fixed Constellation And the injuries done unto it are not of that nature as to be acted once and for all and then to pass into the grave of oblivion but they are lasting pressures to a perpetual regret and grievance And should not these be done away especially when the occasions thereof wil be found not necessary but superfluous Section X. There remaineth yet some greater thing which strikes deep into this Enquiry which at the first glance perhaps may seem a fancy but by impartial judgement will be found a manifest and weighry truth namely that as this Interest will never vary from its self so it will never be extinguished while the State of England continues Protestant I do not now argue from Maximes of Faith and Religion as that the life and power of Christianity shall never fail that after the greatest havock of the true Church there will be a remnant a seed that shall spring up to a great increase after a little season but I have here entred upon a way of reason and let men of Reason judge Suppose that the Persons now in being of this strict profession were generally ruined and rooted out yet let but the Protestant Doctrine as it is by Law established in the Church of England be upheld and preached and it will raise up a genuine off-spring of this people whose way is no other then the life and power of that Doctrine as it is not onely received by tradition education example or any humane authority but also imprinted upon the spirit by a lively energy and operation And this I further say and testifie let but the free use of the Holy Bible be permitted to the common people and this generation of men will spring up afresh by the immortall seed of the Word For that pure spiritual and heavenly Doctrine pressing internal renovation or the new Birth and the way of holy singularity and circumspection and being written with such Authority and Majesty must needs beget though not in the most yet in may a disposition and practise in some sort thereunto conformable This is evident in reason if it be granted that the sacred Scriptures are apt to make deep and strong Impressions upon the minds of men And whosoever denies this as he is in point of Religion Atheistical so of Understanding bruitish For even those impious Politicians who in heart make no account of Religion yet will make shew of giving reverence to it because it is alwaies seen to have a mighty influence upon men of all ranks and degrees Wherefore upon the grounds aforesaid I hold it a matter of unquestionable Verity that the way in scorn called Puritanism will never utterly sink unto Protestantism it self shal fail
and pull down but not to build up They do not hang in the air bur build upon a firm ground they have setled principles consistent with the rules of stable policy Contrariwise Fanaticks truly and not abusively so called do build castles in the air and are fit instruments to disturb and destroy and root out but never to compose and plant and settle for which cause their Kingdom could never hold long in any time or place of the world Upon this ground Presbytery not sectarian Anarchy hath been assaulted with greatest violence by the more observing Prelatists against this they have raised their main batteries this appeared formidable for it is stable and uniform and like to hold if once setled in good earnest This party do not run so fast but they know where to stop they are a number of men so fixed and constant as none more and a Prince or State shall know where to find them They do not strain so high but they consider withal what the Kingdoms of the world will bear and are willing to bring things to the capacity of political Government They can have no pleasure in commotions and alterations for order and regular unity is their way and therefore stability of Government and publick tranquility is their interest It is most unreasonable to object that the late wilde postures extravagancies and incongruities in Government were the work of Presbytery or Presbyterians The Nation had never proof of Presbytery for it was never setled but rather decryed and exposed to prejudice by those that were in sway and that in the more early times of the late Wars The truth of this matter is cleared by a passage of our late Soveraign in a Letter to his Majesty that now is All the lesser Factions were at first officious Servants to Presbytery their great Master till time and Military Success discovering to each their particular advantages invited them to part stakes and leaving the joynt stock of uniform Religion pretended each to drive for their party the trade of profits and preferments to the breaking and undoing not only of the Church and State but of Presbytery it self Thus the joynt stock of uniform Religion was left and Presbytery neglected before the first War was ended Yea and those that stedsastly adhered to it were maligned and reviled by the exorbitant party for opposing their new models or agreements of the people Section XVII Neither can Sects or Schisms with any truth or justice be reckoned the Off-spring of Presbytery Consider the French Dutch Helvetian Churches how intire they keep themselves in Orthodox Vnity from the Gangreen of Sects and Schisms A wide Breach was once made in the Netherlands by Arminius and his Followers but after some years conflict it was healed by the Synod of Dort The Church of Scotland is inferiour to none in the unity of Doctrine and Church-Communion and their form of Ecclesiastical Policy and method of Discipline is very effectual to prevent the broaching of Errour King James in discourse with an English Bishop is reported to have rendred this account why so few Heresies and Errours of Doctrine are united and prosecuted to the publick disturbance of that Church Every Parish hath their Pastor ever present with them and watching over them and he with his Elders and Deacons hath a weekly meeting for censure of manners by which he perfectly knows his Flock and every abberation of them in doctrine practise and lest any heresie might seize upon the Pastor they have their Presbyters which meet together once also every week in the next chief Town or City and there they have their exercise of prophesying after which the Moderator asks the judgement of all the Pastors concerning the doctrine then delivered or of any other doubtful point then propounded and if the Presbytery be divided in their opinions the question is under an injoyned silence put over 〈◊〉 the next Synod which is held twice a 〈…〉 which the Pastors of that quarter or province do duly resort accompanied with their Elders and any question of doubt is either decided by that Assembly or with charge of silence reserved to a national Synod which they hold every year once whither come not the Pastors onely but the King himself or his Commissioners and some of all orders and degrees sufficiently authorized for determining of any controversie that shall arise among them Could the Bishops in former times procure a greater unity in the Church of England Whence therefore should this charge arise peradventure some Presbyterians have turned Sectaries Surely it would be taken for a weak arguing to say That Prelacy is the way to Popery because some Prelatists have turned Papists The truth is Sectarianism grew up in a Mystery of Iniquity and State policy and it was not well discerned till it became almost triumphant by Military successes But after that its growth and strength did manifestly appear Presbytery began to struggle with it and so continued until by the power of the Army it was inforced to sit down but never to comply Whereupon the tongues and pens of Sectaries were imployed against none more then the Presbyterians And I should be glad to hear of such bitter Invectives of the Papists against the Prelatists not that I rejoyce in the sin of the one or the suffering of the other but that the Protestant friends of Prelacy might more incline to their Protestant Presbyterian Brethren Surely the way to prevent the growth of the two utmost extreams is for the two middle parties to draw up and close together But however the world goes the Presbyterians shall ever keep as good a distance from the Sectaries or Fanaticks as the Prelatists shall from Papists And verily there is no greater bar against Fanaticism then the right Presbyterian principles as not to sever but joyn the written word and spirit for direction the spirit and use of Ordinances for Edification to erect a stated Church-Order and Discipline to allow to the Church a directive and to every Christian a discretive judgment to insist only upon Divine Scripture Warrant and to wave humane authority in matters of Religion For such is the temperament of these Maximes that they commend and require a distinct knowledge and illumination in the mind and in the affections lively motions and stirrings against Formality and blind Devotion and so do satisfie the minds of those who conceive that in true Religion there is spiritual light and life and power and also they shew the necessity of the written Word of constant publick Ordinances and private Exercises of Religion and of the direction and discipline of the Church all which do serve to settle the mind against dilusive impulses and wild fancies and raptures Section XVIII But of all the prejudices and scandals taken against this way there is none greater then this that it is represented as tyrannical and domineering and that those who live under it must like Issachar crouch under the burdens In
the first place let us rightly understand the meaning of this prejudice Is it because this Discipline doth censure scandalous disorders and enquire into the state of the flock as watching over their souls This is its high commendation in the sight of God and good men Doth Episcopacy care for none of these things Surely a Bishop is an Overseer to exercise the Office of a Bishop is to take the oversight of the Church and those that are over us in the Lord watch for our souls as those that must give an account thereof Howbeit Presbytery is not more severe in censuring the breach of Gods Commandments then the Hierarchy in censuring the breach of their own constitutions Or is the offence taken upon pretence that Presbyterians affect and arrogate an arbitrary power would rule by faction and exercise a rigout to the stirring up of animosities and unquiet humours Since the friends of Prelacy are loudest in this crimination I crave leave to use this mild retortion Is there no appearance of domination in Prelacy Was nothing like unto it objected to the dignified Clergy If you say those invectives and clamours were false and scandalous then let reason and charity be permitted to make some Apologie for the other discipline which the Nation hath hitherto never experienced in any measure of national uniformity and settlement But there are remedies at hand to prevent the abuse of any Government that is of it self lawful and laudable Certainly the wisedom of the King and Parliament with the advice of grave Divines may prescribe sure and certain rules of discipline Moreover to cut off all occasion and prevent all appearance of domineering all political coercive jurisdiction in matter of Religion may be with-held if need require from Ecclesiastical persons and that meer spiritual power alone which is 〈◊〉 to their office may be left to their management which is in the Name of Christ and by Authority from him to admonish the untuly and if they continue obstinate by the same Authority to declare them unworthy of Church-Communion and Christian Society and to require the Lords people to have no fellowship with them that they may be afflicted and humbled And because spiritual censures appertaining only to the Conseience may be too little regarded when no temporal dammage is annexed to them there may be a collateral civil power always present in Ecclesiastical Meetings to take cognizance of all Causes therein debated and adjudged in order to temporal penalties Vpon the whole matter aforegoing we firmly build this position That the Presbyterian Party ought not in Justice or Reason of State to be rejected and depressed but ought to be protected and encouraged Nevertheless there being a seeming complication in this business and an other ample party appearing in competition a difficultie remains and the matter falls into a further deliberation And thereupon we are fallen upon the second main Enquiry II Qu. Whether the Presbyterian Party may be protected and encouraged and the Episcopal not deserted nor disobliged Section XIX The grand Expedient in this difficulty is a well grounded Accomodation producing an intire and firm union That the Accommodation may be true and solid not loose and hollow it must be such as will content and satisfie for continuance and that it may be such the tearms thereof must not be repugnant to the conscientious principles of either party Otherwise whatsoever it be it is but a botch and will never hold Wherefore we now examine whether those principles are such as set the parties at an irreconcileable distance or else make the proposed union possible and hopeful As touching holy Doctrine they both receive the nine and thirty Articles of the Church of England unless that one side may demurr upon one or two passages respecting the Form of Ecclesiastical Government and Ceremonies being the matters now in question and remote from the foundation And in very deed the Doctrine of the English Bishops in general that lived in the elder times of Protestantism as Jewel Pilkington Babington and of the latter Bishops their Followers as Abbot Carleton Morton Usher Hall Davenant is intirely imbraced by the Presbyterians when as many of the latter Prelatists departed from it in the great point of Predestination Redemption Free-will effectual Grace Perseverance and Assurance of Salvation and termed it Puritan Doctrine Whereupon I conclude that those Prelatists of this Age who are the genuine Off-spring of the old Episcopal Divines will not divide from Presbyterians upon the account of Doctrine and that the other sort need not divide from them any more then from the rest that are of the Episcopal Perswasion But in the Form of Church Government the breach is much wider and the Reconciliation seems more difficult Indeed the Dominion of Prelacy and the exact Presbyterian parity are opposite Extreams Nevertheless a regulated Episcopacy and Presbytery may be found so far from mutual opposition and inconsistency that they may close together in a sweet Harmony The Scripture Bishop and the Evangelical Pastor is one and the same Officer The Primitive Ecclesiastical Episcopacy was not reputed by the Antients a different Order of Ministery The Bishop was only a Presbyter in a higher degree the President of the Presbytery and ruled in consociation with all the Presbyters The better part of the Scool-men place the difference only in degree not in order Of the same judgement were the old Episcopal Divines in England and even in the last times Morton Hall and Usher Whereupon they held the Forreign Protestant Churches that had no Prelaies to be true Churches and their Pastors true Ministers of Christ. And this is very remarkable in the most rigid Prelatists of their times when upon the new erecting of Prelacy in Scotland certain Scottish Bishops were to be consecrated here in England Bishop Andrews moved this question whether they ought not first to be ordained Presbyters as having received no Ordination from a Bishop Arch-Bishop Bancroft being there present maintained there was no necessity of Re-ordination for where a Bishop cannot be had Ordination given by Presbyters must be esteemed lawful This Solution being applauded by the other Bishops Doctor Andrews acquiesced On the other side an absolute equality among Ministers is not essential to Presbytery but a prudential priority according to the Churches occasions and consequently a stated Presidency may be admitted For the main principle of Presbytery is this That every Minister is truly a Pastor and that pastoral Authority includes both teaching and ruling for which cause the Presbyters may not yield up themselves as the Bishops meer Curates or Subjects For that would nullifie their Pastoral Office as to one part thereof which is as essential to it as the other in regard whereof the Presbyters are in Scripture called Bishops or Overseers and are charged to take the oversight of the Flock But this is no way violated by admitting a stated Moderator or president Bishop As concerning Worship or Divine Service
not with a safe conscience be present at the Popish Mass because he wounds his conscience by impious dissimulation thereby making a shew of approving that pretended expiatory sacrifice In another Question he resolves That Papists are bound to be present at the English Divine Service because nothing occurs therein that can be by themselves reproved In applying this to our case it is far from my thoughts to make the comparison between Presbyterians and Prelatists parallel with that between Protestants and Papists but I make the reason of both cases parallel for as Papists find nothing in the Protestant Liturgy according to their own principles impious or unsound in like manner the Prelatists can find no positive thing in the propounded terms of accommodation contrary to divine right and primitive practice only as the Papists find not so much as they would have in our Liturgy so the Prelatists in the said proposals Nay the Papists have better colour of reason to separate from our publique Service because although they find nothing positively unsound yet according to the Roman Faith they may pretend fundamental defects therein as the want of the sacrifice of the Mass but the Prelatists can here alledge no such thing the supposed defects and omissions being only in things remote from the foundation of Faith and Religion For we trust the greater number of them do not hold that there is no Church without a Prelate having sole jurisdiction over the Clergy That there is no Ministry but what is ordained by such a Prelate That there is no true divine Service where the Common-Prayer Book is not used and that there is no acceptable worship without humane mystical Ceremonies Let them that have taken up such opinions sadly consider whether they are led therein by conscience or by humour and designe Section XXVIII The greatest shew of reason opposing this moderation is a pretended fixation in Religion and indeed it is but a shew and colour That Religion is a thing unmoveable all that be truly religious do from the heart acknowledge and for the immobility thereof none contend more earnestly then the Presbyterians But they fix its unmovable state in the Canonical Scripture and they continually cry to the Law and to the Testimony against humane Traditions and Inventions in one Extream and against Enthusiasms in the other Upon occasion of any aberration in Doctrine or practice they recall us to the primitive rule and pattern and what is received from the Lord that deliver they to the Churches That sacred Rule they willingly suffer not to be captivated in its interpretation by the Churches infallibility as do the Papists nor by proud and arrogant reason as the Socinians nor by impulse and imagination as the Euthusiasts but they maintain it in its full authority to interpret it self whose authentick interpretation we are inabled to discern by rational inferences and deductions wherein we make use of reason not as an argument but as instrument As for the Decrees and Canons of the Church what rightful Authority doth make them as the Law of the Medes and Persians that altereth not Must things be enacted by the Church once and for ever And whether they be little or great clear or doubtful necessary or superfluous must they be held unquestionable and indisputable Surely this is to Idolize humane Constitutions and to equalize them with Divine and to lead the people to a blind implicite faith and a neglect of searching the Scriptures And upon this ground those large Churches as the Roman Grecian Aethiopick Armenian Indian and the rest are obstinately divided for many ages from each other and holding to this principle of unalterable Traditions and Constitutions they will be divided to the end of the world Had not all Ecclesiastical Canons and Decrees a beginning and that at sundry times and in divers manners And are not many of them as it were but of yesterday And when they were brought in where was the pretended fixation Doubtless Religion may be alike altered by Addition as by Substraction Nay Hath there not been Substraction also Are not divers Customs and Ceremonies of great antiquity now quite abolished among us If the Church of Rome may erre why not the Church of England Indeed the Papists that hold their Church infallible may hold the Decrees thereof unalterable but the Church of England claims no such priviledge Was it necessary that our first Reformers should see all things at the first day-break out of the night of Popery Or if they saw all things requisite for their own times could they foresee all future events and provide remedies for inconveniencies which time might bring forth It is a wise saying of a learned man That time it self is the greatest Innovator and again That Physick is an Innovation Surely as the naturall so the body politick sometimes needs physick and oftentimes moderate Reformations do prevent abolitions and extirpations Besides a great alteration in this kind hath continued in a stated posture for many years which inferres a greater necessity of an accommodation Nevertheless there is no attempt or question made of changing any thing that toucheth sound faith and good life or the substance of divine worship Yet in the Doctrine of the Church somthing possibly may have been inserted as an Article of Faith which is but problematical and in a fundamental Article some inconvenient expression may be used and this questionless may be altered without any imputation of uncertainty to the established Doctrine Some change in the outward Form and Ceremonies which are but a garb or dress is no real change of the Worship some change in the late external jurisdiction of the Church which was not formally Ecclesiastical and spiritual but temporal and coercive invested in the Bishops by the Law of the Land is no change in the true spiritual power that is intrinsecal to their spiritual office Nay the reformation may be encompassed with little variation as to the outward model and platform the Kingdom being already squared for it as hath been above shewed in the offers made by some Bishops Only the power will be more diffused being distributed among Bishops and Presbyters in due proportion Is it objected once remove the ancient bounds and we know not where to stop we must serve every humour and an inundation of errour and Schism will break in Surely Papists have as much to say herein against the Protestants as the Prelatists against the Presbyterians For they say that Protestantism is the womb of all Sects and that we having forsaken the infallible Guide the Church of Rome have lost our selves in a Wilderness of errour besides who were they that removed the ancient bounds set in the first English Reformation by introducing many innovations but to give a direct answer are not the sacred Scriptures and Christs holy Institutions sufficient bounds and land-marks Cannot prudent and faithful Church-guides keep the flock from wandring unless they hedge them in by unchangeable Canons
nothing of greater moment then to provide that the Order and Frame of Ecclesiasticks have not a tendency to make the superior Clergy proud and covetous and the inferior poor and vicious Section XLVIII A good Constitution or Frame of Ecclesiastical Politie is incomparably more available to produce good effects then good Canons or good Governors can be where the Constitution is naught For in such a state good Canons and good Governours will not be able to reform abuses and correct scandals and promote the true end of Church Discipline In the Trent-Council the Papalins or the Popes Creatures held this for a maxime That the Decrees of Reformation could not diminish the profits of the Court of Rome as long as the Authority of the Apostolique See was not impaired The Council being ended and the Decrees coming to be ratified by the Pope and the Officers of the Court representing their losses and prejudices by the Ratification and the Pope thereby perplexed and the Cardinals divided in their Opinions one Bishop a man well conversant in Court Affairs said That he could not chuse but wonder at this great fear concerning the confirmation of the Decrees which he saw did arise without reason for that Lawes have no power but what is given them by him that Governeth That the Pope by his Exposition might give them a larger or a stricter sence yea and contrary to that which the words do import That he might ordain a particular Congregation for expounding the Council and affectually provide that none should be able to alleadge the Decrees in prejudice of the Court The Pope was satisfied with these reasons being perswaded that it would fall out as the Bishop had said And so the Decrees of Reformation proved of no effect to reform the enormities of the Court of Rome By this it appears that new Laws and Decrees work little where a corrupt Frame remaineth still in force If in such a state of things good men promoted to Government should do their utmost to rule well they are no more able to reform the Churches committed to them then the two Cato's to reform the Roman Common-wealth when it was wholly corrupted and out of frame Beside in a corrupt frame of Politie there are these two great evils the one that good men will soon degenerate the other that bad men led by ambition and avarice will by Arts proper to the times more easily get promotions and a good Prince shall see it and not know how to help it That Politie whether Civil or Eccesiastical is well constituted that in its frame is apt to bridle humane desires but that is ill constituted which lets loose the reins to appetite No function or calling is exempted from the corruption that is in the world through lust And the grandeur of this world is not more perillous to any then to Ecclesiastical persons Section XLIX It is a singular excellency in any frame of Politie that the power of doing good be very ample and that a power to hurt be as much contracted and restrained as the ends of Government will permit And verily no wise and gracious persons would willingly be tempted with a power to hurt if they be sufficiently impowered to do good without it Besides it is an odious power and makes the Office hateful Now the way to this happy Order of things is obvious Let not severe Lawes and Canons concerning things disputable and unnecessary which may insnare the consciences of godly orthodox and peaceable persons remain in force The most zealous assertors and rigid imposers of Ceremonies acknowledge that they are not necessary parts of Worship the declaring That holiness is not to be placed in them is their best defence against the charge of wil-worship Therfore to suspend and silence able and painful Ministers to vex and punish other godly Christians that cannot submit to those Ceremonies is to procure much evil without a benefit to countervail it A power of doing much harm and little good is unhappily placed in any sort of men but especially in Christs spiritual officers who according to the Apostles words have received authority from the Lord for edification and not for destruction Section L. The most renowned Polititian observes that those Kingdoms Republicks and sects of Religions subsist longest that are often renewed or brought back to their first beginnings For the beginnings of all these must needs contain some goodness in them by means whereof they rise to their first reputation and increase Now in process of time that goodness will be overgrown by corruption and unless something happen to reduce it to the just mark those Societies must needs be destroyed And touching Religions he proves these Reformations necessary by the example of the Roman Religion saying If it had not been reduced again to its principles by St. Francis and St. Dominick it would have been quite defaced For these by their poverty and imitation of Christs life made a new impression thereof in mens minds which was quite blotted out thence and their new rules were so powerful and are now the cause that the dishonesty of the Prelates and Heads of Religion do not ruine it partly by their living in poverty and partly by the credit they have in confessing the people and preaching to them Indeed this Author doth not hit the mark and no marvel touching the true principles of Christianity and right imitation of Christ the reviving whereof he ascribes to those two popish Saints but his reason of Religion in general is solid and excellent and his instances in particular are right and sound being applyed as they are to the upholding of the popish Religion As for Religion truly Christian the way to preserve it in its power and glory is frequently to reduce it to its first beginnings for then was its goodness most eminent The primitive spirit of the Christian Church was a spirit of power and glory and the primitive order was most spiritual and powerful Let Christs holy Institutions let Apostolical precept and practice be the pattern of our Reformation What sound Protestant will deny the holy Scriptures to be a perfect rule of all divine Institutions To them we appeal by them would we stand or fall and they mention no Ministers of the Gospel that were not Bishops ruling the flock But in pursuance of peace touching the matter of Episcopacy the moderate Presbyterians are willing to descend to the times lower by one degree and to come to the Ages next following the Scripture-times and to accept what they do present unto us to wit a President-Bishop ruling in consort with Presbyters and Officer not of an other Order then Presbyters but of an higher degree in the same Order We appeal to those times concerning this matter And they that admire and almost adore antiquity should not deny our just appeal And wherein stands the power and glory of the Church militant Doth it stand in the pompous shews of Ceremonious worship with the