the one is the intention of the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance and the other the purpose of the Covenant needs not to be demonstrated with any illustration seeing the doubters may be satisfied in the Oaths themselves And therefore I conclude the contrariety between the one and the other in the words of the learned Paraphrast when he set down his minde with a Neither can that limitation in the Covenant wherein they oblige Page 8. themselves to the preservation of the King in the maintenance of the true Protestant Religion the Priviledges of Parliament and the Liberty of the subject limit or abate the force of those absolute obligations whereby all subjects are obliged to the King and his lawful Heirs and Successors which are upon them by the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance but as such limitations look very unhandsomly so they have not at all any force of abatement in them but ought to be abhorred disclaimed and rejected by all honest Subjects and Christians as an evil gapp opened to Rebellion and Sedition to those that have a minde to make such an evil use thereof under pretence that the King doth that which indeed he ought not to do either depart in any thing from the true Religion or violate the Priviledges of Parliament or the Liberties of the subject § 17. Lastly For this League and Covenants contrariety to the Protestation I shall first set down in general the words of a Right Reverend person upon it who hath told us That b See the Imaâ—e unbroken the Protestation was confined to established Law but the Covenant to destroy Law and what was established by it the Protestation to defend the Doctrine the Covenant to destroy the Government which is comprehended in the Doctrine How do these two hang together Reconcile them and it will be as easie to make light and darkness order and confusion vertue and wickedness lawful unlawful acts to appear one the same thing to every persons eye and ear And therefore how shallow and weak soever my judgement is in every thing yet I hope those that are judicious will excuse me though I presume for once to commend what I say now to their and every mans serious consideration because if I am erroneous it s not through wilfulness or obstinacy but meerly for want of understanding to discern that which is better upon supposition that I am in an errour which I cannot say till I be convinced of it and that which I have to say upon this account shall come dressed to peoples eyes in no other terms then these which I have now subjoyned Every one that took this Protestation did Vow and Protest to maintain and defend as far as lawfully he might observe that well Sir John with his life power and estate the true Reformed Protestant Religion expressed in the Doctrine of the Church of England Now minde the Thirty nine Articles as they are usually called have been alwaies hitherto wont to be accounted The Doctrine of the Church of England the Thirty sixth Article whereof is so far from speaking against the Bishops for the advancing and promoting of a dogged surly Anti-Monarchical Scottish Discipline that the very book of Consecration of Arch-Bishops and Bishops and ordering of Priests and Deacons which had the Royal Civil sanction at the making thereof is affirmed there to have nothing in it that is superstitious or ungodly and this is a part of that which in this Protestation was termed The true Protestant Religion Nay and this must not be defended neither but as far as lawfully I may so that if there had not been the least mention of Episcopacy in any of the Articles yet confining themselves in their Protestation to the rules and orders of the Laws the Supremacy of the King over all persons Clergy and Lay in all causes Ecclesiastical and Civil and Episcopacy its stout propp and defender both undermined subverted and destroyed by a Scottish Discipline stand as safe and firm by the very Protestation as they were before that was ever made or taken Now comes a Solemn League and Covenant and bindes its takers by force of Arms to beat down Episcopacy comprehended in that very doctrine which the Presbyters had sworn to maintain and defend with their lives powers and estates and established by Law to turn their neighbours as the Revered Primate See his Fair Warning page 2. saith out of a possession of above one thousand four hundred years to make room for their Trojan horse of Ecclesiastical Discipline a practise never justified in the world but either by the Turk or by the Pope I and do this too not as far as lawfully they may but any way in the world by hook or by crook per fas aut ne fas so that they can but attain at the ends aimed at in their extirpating noddles to beat down the firm brazen walls of Episcopacy to rear up the muddy noisom ones of an unwholsom factious Presbytery in their rooms And therefore once again I Quaere Can that Protestation whereby I A. B. do promise vow and protest to maintain and desend as far as lawfully I may with my life power and estate the true Reformed Protestant Religion expressed in the Doctrine of the Church of England wherein the lawfulness of Bishops is expresly comprehended any way agree with an illegal League which bindes me to extirpate Bishops in direct opposition to that Doctrine as contrary unto the power of godliness Our Leaguers I know would fain be accounted true and good Protestants and yet swear to extirpate that which is a main propp of the true Protestant Religion and therefore in this case the definition holds very firm and true which was long since given of such at the Conference at Hampton Court That they are * Pag. 38. Protestants frayed out of their wits Again part of that doctrine which by the Protestation the takers vowed to defend is that †The Kings Majesty hath the chief power in his Realm of England and other his dominions unto whom the chief Government of all states of this Realm whether they be Ecclesiastical or Civil in all causes doth appertain And by the Covenant the takers swore to preserve and maintain all the days of their lives the thing called the Scottish discipline Now nothing can be more opposite to the Supremacy of the King asserted in the Article and vowed to be defended with life power and estate in the Protestation then this very Scottish discipline which our Baal-Berithists by an after oath swore to preserve Yea light and darkness God and the Devil heaven and hell the serving of Christ and the worshipping of Baal will assoon be brought to agree with each other as the Scottish Presbytery will with Monarchy King James told us it by a sad doleful experience as the discipline of Scotland wil accord with the Regal Supremacy over all persons in all causes as well Ecclesiastical as Civil he that
the times of Popish Egyptian darkness shall any pretending to true Protestantism which severely declaims all such perfidious Antichristian courses be found to be so far approvers of such infamous actions as to commend them for examples to others to tread in the same steps Can Subjects combining and swearing together to extirpate the legal established Church-Government of a Nation as Bishops were and are still here though the leg exercise of their Coercive power in the Star-Chamber and High Commission Courts was taken away by the Act in 1641. to prevent the subsequent Rebellion and Jesuitical-Combinations of Leaguing Presbyters and vowing to assist one another in their Covenanted Rebellion with their lives and fortunes against the express command of the supream Governor for the attaining of their Leaguing ends be called and stiled Commendable by any one pretending some affinity to Loyalty or Christianity which are inseparable and the constant attendants upon a true fearer of the Lord It 's a brave time with Rebels when their Treason and disloyalty are enrolled amongst the Records of Fame and Honour and their obedient opposites to the commands of their lawful Prince are in the very act of Loyalty tearmed and Recorded for terrible Delinquents against the thing which Nick-named it self so often A Parliament Halcyon daies for Sacrilegious Schismaticks when that which is condemned by the word of God nothing more shall be garnished forth with an Epethite of Commendable though what the Prophet by God's express command said so long ago that do I say now unto these strangers to Truth and Loyalty b Isaiah 5. 20. Wo unto them that call evil good and good evil § 2. They tell us too It was according to the practice of Gods people in other Nations Aha! What Gods people and Covenanting Rebels too What Reformers and swearing Extirpaters of the Episcopal promoters of the Reformation Saints and yet Schismaticks Christians and yet Traytors Surely our Covenanters were put to extream hard straits to make lies their refuge for their carrying on of their extirpating Reformation No other way to catch people into the black Road with them but by blinding their eyes with Errors and Contradictions A sad geneneration of Merozians It s true indeed the Guisian Leaguers in France went directly in the same impious courses before them unless they be their Gods people I know none for they alone were the Monsters that our Leaguers could properly say they were imitators of because they went to their hellish work with an Oath like ours and yet Guise himself like ours too had the face to tell his Prince That he was his faithful subject for all that Who as the Translator of a Parisians Work tells us living under c See the right of Kings and duty of subjects Pref. a milde and peaceable Prince slandered their King that he was an enemy to the Roman Catholick Religion as our Covenanters did the late Carolian Martyr to be an enemy to the Protestant and under the fair pretence of Religion screwed themselves into the favour of the Common people who are usually deceived by such pretences raising a strong party against the King by the name of the holy League which caused much confusion in that kingdom as by too sad and lamentable experience we have found to be the effects of our English Leaguers in this And now I appeal to the conscience of any man living whether they that can first Rebel against their d For so they swore the King was only Supream Governour and then have the confidence to tell us of a thing which never was like that of the man in the Moon and set it down with such a positive Asseveration as making it a pattern for their illegal traitorous undertakings and stile that Commendable which if any such thing had ever been ought to be abhorred as much as hell by him that desires the Rules of Christianity I say I appeal to the Conscience of any man living who desires not to be ensnared and kept so with the e See Mr. Reynell's Panegyrik intituled The unfortunate Change Caledonian Boar which was the cause of our distempers whether they that speak these lies and juglings these palpable falshoods and deceits could possibly have according to their assertion Before their eyes the glory of God and the advancement of the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ whose f See Mr. Quarrel 's Loyal Convert P. 5. glory will not be vindicated by such unlawful means and unwarrantable proceedings and whose kingdom is endeavoured to be pulled down by such a peerless Covenant But what 's it they swear that must have a juggling Preface to set it forth Why they tell us in their first Article That they will sincerely really and constantly through the grace of God as though that would ever square with such proceedings endeavour in their severall places and callings the Preservation of the Reformed Religion in the Church of Scotland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government according to the word of God and the example of the best Reformed Churches § 3. What have I to do with the reglement of Foreign Churches * See his Fair warning P. 1 said the Reverend Primate and so say I too What had English men to do to swear to preserve the Doctrine and Discipline of another Countrey Let them stand or fall to their own Master Ay but here was the Mystery We have an earnest longing desire to have Bishops extirpated and we having followed the pattern of our dear Scottish Brethren in rising up in arms against our King for that purpose and being not well able and sufficient of our selves to carry on our design against them we must call in the other to our aid and they will not come to us unless we will swear to set up their Church-way amongst us and therefore rather then Bishops shall stand we will do it For as the late Martyr said upon the Covenant nothing will induce them to engage till those that called them in have pawned thier souls to them by a solemn League and Covenant I am verily perswaded that there was not one amongst a hundred that swore that League to preserve the Scottish Discipline that knew no more what their Discipline was then a horse and so they swore with a blinde implicite faith to preserve they knew not what themselves Pure good swearing is it not Was this sworn in Truth Judgement and Righteousness as the Prophet saith an Oath should Jer. 4. 2. If not as it was not Is not therefore such mens swearing unlawful and so to be renounced and repented of Is it not an abominable wickedness in any one to swear to preserve the Scottish Discipline or when sworn to keep such a wicked Oath when the Reverend Primate hath made it appear by such cogent and undeniable Arguments of truth and sound Divinity beyond the reach and power of a Crofton or any Presbyterian adversary to answer without palpable
cavilling declaring of their own folly That g See his fair warning p. 2. this discipline which the Croftonians so much adore is the very quintessence of refined Popery or a greater tyranny then ever Rome brought forth inconsistent with all forms of civil Government destructive to all sorts of Policy a rack to the conscience the heaviest pressure that can fall upon a people and so much more dangerous because by the specious pretence of Divine institution it takes away the sight but not the burthen of slavery Reader peruse that small book and I 'le undertake it shal give thee full satisfaction what this Cockatrice egge the Scottish discipline is and what a precious jewel it is to be preserved But how will they preserve this Pandora's box why according to the word of God the example of the best reformed Churches that 's brave indeed to swear to preserve that according to the word of God which knows nothing of it as it is singular by it self Suppose I should swear to preserve a thief in his pilfering courses according to the word of God would that make the thieves actions good because it is expressed according to the word of God or would it not rather aggravate and heighten the bloody nature of my sins to swear with such a strange self-contradiction Just as if I should say I would do a thing according to the will and desire of another who hath openly made his protestation against it I am sure the thieves actions cannot be more opposite to the Sacred Canon of Scripture then some part of the Scottish Discipline is which the Reverend Primate hath well informed us of to which I refer the doubtful for satisfaction and therefore notwithstanding that expression the Oath for preservation of such an Anti-Monarchical Discipline cannot but be very wicked and therefore unlawful to be sworn or kept And as for the best Reformed Churches the Church of England by all impartial unbyassed sober Protestants was wont to be accounted the best Reformed Church in the world and h See the fair warning p. 2. before these unhappy troubles in England all Protestants both Lutherans and Calvinists did give unto the English Church the right hand of fellowship which made the most Reverend Doctor Hammond of renowned memory to affirm That i See his View of the new Directory and vindication of the ancient Liturgy P. 7. the Church of England as it stands established by law is avowable against all the Calumniators in the world to be the best and most exemplary Reformed so far saith he that if I did not guess of the sense of the Covenant more by the temper then words of the Covenanters I should think all men that have Covenanted to Reform after the example of the best Reformed Churches indispensably obliged to conform to the King-Edward or Queen-Elizabeth English Reformation the most regular perfect pattern that Europe yieldeth Thus that indefatigable Defender and Propagator of Catholick truths against the novel inchroachments of the then Julianizing times whose memory will be precious and his name smell as sweet odour in the nostrils of all true hearted Christian Protestants when the name of an Assembler will hardly be thought on without immediate branding him for Treason and disloyalty And so now having briefly dispatched the first I shall proceed on to the second and there they speak out what their Covenant for Reformation is for they tell us there too in their Rebellious language § 4. That they shall in like maner without respect of persons endeavour the extirpation of Popery Prelacy that is Church-Government by Arch-Bishops Bishops their Chancellors Commissaries Deans Deans and Chapters Arch-Deacons and all other Ecclesiastical Officers depending on that Hyerarchy Superstition Heresie Schism Profaneness and whatsoever shall be found to be contrary to sound Doctrine and the power of godliness lest we partake in other mens sins and thereby be in danger to receive of their plagues In good time Excellent Deformers They that were the grand Promoters and carriers on at first of the Regular english-English-Reformation though indeed not by Sedition and Rebellion against their Soveraign nor by making use of cursing Merozian Texts to stir up the people to assist them in such filthy courses but by obedience and subjection to the unjust punishment of Majesty and freely offering their bodies to the fire must now be extirpated by our Deformers of Truth and Christianity under a sly pretence of a detestable Reformation A good requital to them for their incomparable defences of the true Protestant Religion against the Jesuits and others of the Babylonian Romish rout to be now cast out as unprofitable branches by a pack of holy Leaguers not worthy to be named with them but what said our own late most noble Sovereign k See Eikon Basilike upon the Covenant Many Engines of religious and fair pretensions are brought chiefly to batter or rase Episcopacy This saith he they make the grand evil Spirit which with some other imps purposely added to make it more odious and terrible to the vulgar must by so solemn a charm and exorcism be cast out of this Church after more then a thousand years possession from the first plantation of Christianity in this Island and an universal prescription of time and practice in all other Churches since the Apostles times till this last Century But no antiquity must plead for it Presbytery like a young heir thinks the father hath lived long enough and impatient not to be in the Bishops chair and authority all art is used to sink Episcopacy and lanch Presbytery in England which was lately boyed up in Scotland by the like artifice of a Covenant And therefore for that Apostolical-Primitive Universal Church-Government of Episcopacy so Universal That l See Eikon Basilike in 24. P. 103. as the Martyr saith since the first Age for one thousand five hundred years not one example can be produced of any setled Church wherein were many Ministers and Congregations which had not some Bishop above them under whose Jurisdiction and Government they were and so by consequence unavoidable the damnable infamous nature of the Covenant for extirpation thereof There hath been so much said by our Reverend Episcoplains and by our late Josiah of most blessed and glorious memory that I shall forbear to say any thing more of it but refer them that desire satisfaction to their respective writings and I wonder when the Presbyterian will answer them I do not mean by cavillings and railings for there have been too much of that already but by true good solid sound arguments and reasons such as may carry truth in their fore-head which people shall easily perceive when they can once have the happiness to see the Swans turn black § 5. But is this all that these Leaguers swear to extirpate in this Article No they joyn with the former just as if a man should joyn a Scottish Presbytery with a Monarchy which
p See their Reasons p. 15 16. To pray say those reverend persons to the purpose in the conclusion of the Covenant seemeth to us all one in effect as to beseech Almighty God the God of love and peace 1. To take all love and peace out of the hearts of Christians and to set the whole Christian world in a combustion 2. To render the Reformed Religion and all Protestants odious to all the world Mark the third To provoke the Princes of Europe ☞ to use more severity towards those of the Reformed Religion if not for their own security to root them quite out of their several Dominions 4. The tyranny and yoke of Antichrist if laid upon the subjects necks by their lawful Sovereigns is to be thrown off by Christian boldness in confessing the truth and patient suffering for it not by taking up arms or violent resistance of the higher Powers and yet forsooth this is that sacred Covenant that must be so strictly kept to set the whole Christian world in a combustion This is that League which must be so zealously continued in to render the true Protestant Religion and professors thereof odious and detestable to all the world yes and for the enlargement of the kingdom of Jesus Christ too they tell us I remember a very good observation of one upon this very account q See the Right Rebel p. 145. That as none of the Disciples denyed cursed and forswore his Master but Peter onely who alone without his leave drew a sword in his defence so neither is it said of the rest that they forsook him and sted till after that Peter had rashly attempted to defend him by force as if the Holy Ghost would have Christians observe That fighting for Christ without warrant from him is the next fore-runner of forsaking him That * Pag 139 if there be any one thing above others which The Antichrist may properly challenge as peculiar to himself it is the professed practise of Rebellion of purpose to promote pretended Religion for nothing can be more directly opposite both unto the Doctrine and Practise of Christ himself and his Apostles of Orthodox Christians in the times of the Primitive Church and of all genuine Protestants since the Reformation and yet that was the absolute tenour of the Covenant to resist King Charles to fight with a pretence for the advancement of King Jesus which how contrary to his Will Practise and Command may very well be gathered out of what hath been already set down as well as what Croftons profound Lawyer Mr. Prynne himself hath said upon that subject in his True and perfect Narrative Pag. 68 74 75 76. In which last page he sets down one of the express affirmations of the Jesuits plainly declaring the great union between them and our English Leaguers in that unchristian Practise That their Gospel and Religion is to be propagated set up the Heroticks and Evangelical Sectaries who resist them Refuted how Extirpated Abolished with Fire Sword and War like holy Leaguers and therefore upon all that hath been said in my Animadversions upon the several Articles of the Sacred Covenant so called I hope there is no man of any ingenuity or understanding but will conclude with me the damnable sinfulness thereof both in the Form and matter of it and so according to the Leaguers own Assertions in the number of those unlawful Oathes which must at no hand be kept by any takers of them § 14. Having thus dispatcht my Animadversions on this illegal League I shall now proceed to set down their own words to prove the unlawfulness and sin of keeping of their so much idolized Diana and so the necessity of repentance from all its takers Their words are these in their exhortation to take the Covenant That if there should any oath be found into which any Ministers or others have entred not warranted by the Laws of God and the land in this case they must teach themselves and others that such oathes call for repentance not pertinacy in them which words being suitable to what the Reverend Dr. Hardy said I shall here adjoyn his words That r See his Pious Votary p. 16. those Covenants which ingages men instead of keeping the Laws of God injuriously to violate both the Laws of God and perfidiously to break their own former oaths are no better then Leagues with hell and Covenants with the Devil Now mark will the Law of God warrant any persons whatsoever in the swearing a Reformation against their Kings consent will that Law which commands me to yeild obedience to the King as Supream warrant me in my disobedience and rebellion against him for to carry on my work of reformation Can that Law which enjoyns me to be subject to Principalities and Powers warrant my throwing that subjection off because I have the face to affirm and pretend it is for the fulfilling of it That this is the tenour of this impious Covenant we need no other witness then it self which plainly testifyeth to all the world that the swearers thereof took up arms meerly to alter Religion And that disobedience to God in the rebellion against the King was the very matter and subject of the Covenant is exceeding plain to any who consider the famous assertion of the now most learned Primate of Armagh one of whose words weighs more in the judgement of any understanding person then ten thousand of of such bablings as our wily factious Presbiters keep such a chatting in the Nation with s See his fair warning p. 30. Subjects saith that most accomplished Speaker vow to God and swear one to another to change the Laws of the Realm to abolish the discipline of the Church and the Liturgy lawfully established by the sword which was never committed to their hands by God or man without the King against the King which no man can deny in earnest to be plain Rebellion So that unless they can make the Law of God to warrant that which it no where commands but severely condemns Their League and Covenant according to the exhorters own affirmation calls for repentance and not continuance in the keeping of that which the several takers had either the confidence at first rebelliously to swear or through the horrible seductions or threats and menaces of the Delinquent Imposers took it not considering the venom in it without and against the Carolian Martyrs consent in perfect defiance of his legal sworn onely supream authority And as for its being warranted by the Laws of the Land hear in the first place what the reverend Judge Jenkins saith in general It is an oath saith t See his Lex Terrae p. 158. that famous Lawyer against the Laws of the Land against the Petition of Right and he gives us a reason for it presently after thus No man saith he by the Law can give an oath in a new case without an act of Parliament and therefore saith he again the
other inferior made without the knowledge of Father Husband or Superior should be at the pleasure of the Superior confirmed or made void Ergo this unsacred Covenant being taken without the consent or knowledge of our Regal Superior or as the Bishop alledges by the †See the 144 page of his book Subjects of England who were by Law and Oaths inferior to and dependents on the King obliged to duty and allegiance by his open Proclamation against it according to that Scripture is frustrate void and of none effect but ingenuons Arguings would have quite and clean spoiled the design of such a * Page 232 Sophistical Caviller and therefore he craftily forbore the pursuit of true Disputations not quarrellings and envious cavillings with his Reverend Adversary lest thereby his k 2 Tim. 3. 9. See p. 10. of Croftons book folly should have been made manifest to all men yea even to his Presbyterian proselytes who are pleased with a sound against the Bishops book and consider not the certainty of it and are ready jurare in verba Presbyteri be they never so groundless with whom the Say-so of a godly Presbyter is esteemed a sufficient reason of their Faith And yet the man thinking how bravely he had drawn the Bishops Arguings to serve the base ends of his own vain talking he presently begins to crow and vapour and cries out of a Syllogism Currens quatuor pedibus running of four feet and tells his Readers a Tale of a tub a story of his godly Brethren the Jesuits Conference at Ratisbone who just like his own Argument here against the Bishop set down thus their profound Determinations of the Articles of their Faith Qui negat articulum fidei est hereticus sed hereticus est qui negat Tobiam habuisse Canem Ergo just like our matchless Disputer sequitur articulum esse fidei quod Tobias canem habuerit He that denies an Article of Faith is an heretick But he is an heretick that denies Tobit had a dog Therefore it follows that it is an Article of Faith that Tobit had a dog Not considering that in his Parallel he fights with nothing but his own shadow that he utters his minde for the disgracing and vanquishing of no body but his own dear self not at all of the Bishop who hath no such rotten Arguments in all his Book And that we may perfectly see the mans design in Writing even to fill up his Book with cavilling he tells us in his Preface side 3. of the Bishops writing Mr. Grafton as if he should answer Dr. Gaudie when as one that could not reade he takes no notice of what the Bishop had set down at the latter end of his book to read Crofton for Grafton through the whole Discourse If his eyes were so dim he could not see it he should have said so and then I should have done my best to have got a clear pair of Spectacles for him that he might by that means have read what the Doctor had said for him to correct as well as others seeing he was one of his Readers but alas he wanted somewhat to say to fill up his Preface and therefore sets down this for a part of it to make appear his invincible ways of disputing His quotations of the Bishops words are such that besides those imperfect un-scholar-like ones I have already set down there are no less then fifteen or sixteen several other quotations which are either imperfect like the former or else absolute false ones as upon a true examination I have found them and such as leads his Readers into a wilderness for to see the truth of them but I consider his cavilling Discourse was made in a great deal of haste and his mad-brain'd tricks have made his Book good for nothing but to be the subject of some mens laughter and indignation for my part Mr. Crofton I * See the 8. page of his book will excuse you for your wrong imperfect false quotations though not for your Antimonarchical seditious Principles and Assertions up and down your Book if your very friends do not with blame to you say You are come a great deal too soon and have verified the old proverb upon your self The more haste the worst speed And truly I am afraid it had been better for your outward and inward safety both that your Book had been like the Bishops which you madly profess and say contrary to the judgements of many sober understanding men l Page 5. whosoever in his right mind doth but read will finde it a Rudis indigestaque moles a meer Chaos of Confusion where by the way whosoever is not of the same judgement therein with you is censured to be out of his wits like your self whose Wits run a wool-gathering rather then that which you are pleased to stile methodical exceptions which denies the onely Supremacy of the King It s but a sad merriment to play with edge-tools to laugh at your Adversary with Rebellion in your mouth and if the mercy of our most Gracious Sovereign prevent not which I know no reason in the world for you will finde it so to your cost before you are let loose from the reins of your Just deserved Imprisonment § 24. Again the Bishop said pag. 196. That he peremptorily determines that the King Lords and Commons have no prudent moral religious and lawful power to change an ancient universal and excellent Government by Bishops To any that is AS new and Schismatical SO far worse and unsutable to England every way Christian Kings and their Parliaments are obliged to the Laws of God and Rules of Christian Piety and Polity too of which the whole Church in its Primitive example and constant custom is the best interpreter As no Legislative power is impowered by Gods Laws to bring in Heresie and Error and Superstition so nor Schism Faction or Confusion by causelesly nuding or taking from the Essentials of sound Doctrine or Christian Communion ever owned and maintained in the Church of Christ Here 's the Docters whole sentence word for word as I took it out of his own Book and not as its mangled by our Presbyters paultry delusive false quotation where he makes the words run thus Doctor Gauden peremptorily determineth That Parliaments Kings Lords and Commons have no Prudent Moral Religious and lawful Authority to change the Ancient Universal and excellent Government by Bishops for Christian Kings and Parliaments are obliged c. leaving out those words of the Doctors which made his learned Assertion unanswerable and true beyond any sound contradiction which are these To any that is AS new and Schismatical SO far worse and unsutable to England every way that so his own arguings might thereby appear the better and sound more pleasingly to the ears of his factious brethren a practise somewhat like unto one that pictures a man with the greatest deformity of body he can for no other end but to make his