A CONFERENCE BETWEEN A BENSALIAN Bishop and an ENGLISH Doctor CONCERNING Church-Government Shewing the difference betwixt that of BENSALIA AND THE Church of England Together with a LETTER FROM THE Bishop of Bensalia to the Archbishop of Canterbury in order to the healing of our Church-differences Being part of the History of a Terra Incognita lately discover'd in a Voyage by the North-East to China LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst and Joseph Collier and are to be Sold at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside and at the Bible on London Bridg M. DC LXXXI The Conference between a Bensalian Bishop and an English Doctor concerning Church-Government c. I Was cast upon that happy Country of Bensalia amongst other Discourses I had with several persons of note and eminency in their respective faculties and functions as I was one day in Conference with an ingenious and worthy Physician whose acquaintance I had contracted comes a Messenger with a Letter from the Bishop of Bensalia to the Doctor the main scope of which was That whereas he perceiv'd that those English strangers were so highly favour'd as to have that Indulgence granted by the King and Council to inquire into and make their remarks upon the Laws Government Customs c. of their happy Country more than ever was yet permitted to any strangers before Therefore was desirous to discourse us so urg'd him to bring us along and particularly the English Physician on the day following to dine with him At which news I was not a little glad that I might have such an opportunity unsought for yet desired by me of conversing with one of those wise grave Seniors I askt the Doctor if the Bishop of that great place being the Metropolis of the Country was a Lord he answered No For they lookt upon Christs Kingdom not to be of this world or at least that that Kingdom of his which is to be attended with grandure is not yet come I queried further with what state he was attended Not saith he as the Lord Bishops are in England yet hath a plentiful allowance and servants sufficient to attend but in no great pomp or splendour For saith he they judg in themselves that they are here to partake of the Humiliation of Christ that so they may the better be fitted for their Exaltation with him in his glorious Kingdom when it shall come But adds he further I suppose the Bishop may take liberty himself further to discourse these things to you Only take notice which he perhaps may not acquaint you with lest he be thought guilty of ostentation that he and other Bishops of this happy Country are very hospitable and charitable I was going to say to strangers but that we have so few that as to that matter not worth naming however to the poor I mean not to beggars for we have none in all our Country come to any of our doors but to the poorer sort of Families who live about them and to the binding poor mens children Apprentice and putting others of them to School although care is most-what taken of them by publick stocks to maintain publick Schools Work-houses or Manufactories which are constantly supply'd at the charge of the King and his Sophy However in every respect wherein they are in a capacity of shewing charitable acts they are not at all wanting Yea it 's part of their study how they may find out occasions for charitable offices and for their piety and exemplary lives are had in great estimation and reverenc'd by all men The next day the Doctor call'd of us according to his kind offer and took us in his Coach to the Bishops house who expecting us was in readiness for our reception where being by one of his servants brought into the Hall the Bishop came and with a comely grave countenance yet somewhat smiling saluted us and told us we were kindly welcome as should be shewn with all cheerfulness according to his ability After some previous discourse the Dinner came up I observ'd the Bishop had no Chaplain for he in person with a great deal of seriousness crav'd a blessing before meat At Dinner the Bishop was pretty pleasant with us askt us about many of our Customs in England and concerning our King what age he was I told him as far as I knew that he was about 46 or 47 years I began taking an occasion from the Bishops naming him to magnifie and extol our King for the greatest Prince in the world You mean quoth the Bishop in Europe But take heed of Bensalia as you will better know when you come to see our King and the grandeur of his State which with that of Solomon's house and the Sophy in relation to whom he is stiled Preses Sophora is the most magnificent in the world not excepting the world Europe He asked with a cheerful countenance what children our King had I replied very modestly I was not so well vers'd in our Court-affairs as to be able to give him any account thereof only I have heard some say he had none so beg'd his excuse in answering to that or other questions of that kind whereupon smilingly he began some other matter of discourse And amongst the rest askt me if many of our Clergy-men were not Good-fellows as you in your own Dialect saith he improperly enough call such I told him if any surely they were more than should be and more than became the gravity of that worthy function Come saith the Bishop you are very modest I commend you for your cautiousness in speaking any thing against your own Country-men I thankt him for so good an opinion he had of me Come saith he you may speak out here drollingly telling me we were out of their hearing For we know saith he the state of your affairs both as to what relates to your Court Clergy as other grand affairs as well as you can tell us only I am willing for discourse sake to ask questions and to be a little further satisfy'd in the truth of what we already have received I told him seeing it was so I could neither add nor diminish to or from the vertue or viciousness of our own people As to the latter I could not but confess that the more I convers'd with the Bensalians and became acquainted with their Laws Customs Demeanors justness in Traffick civility in behaviour and other worthy Endowments the more I dislik'd yea blusht at our own It 's quoth the Bishop the part of every honest vertuous good man to own honesty and vertue and goodness where ever he finds it and that without respect or any byas to Countries or persons but where it s nakedly apparent Although there was plenty of dishes of meat well ordered yet the Bishop eats generally but of two or three at the most You see saith the Bishop I have a good stomack I thank God to my meat I can eat heartily once a day at evening some small repast no Breakfast
you well can But we compel not at all and yet our flock by such soft tender means as we treat them with is much larger yea more secured and fixt to us than yours by your severer method is or in probability ever can be For we chain them to us by our friendliness Christian charity and tender affection shewn to them upon all occasions by which we purchase more love from them than yours can ever do by all threats of Citations Excommunications Capias's and other vexatious browbeaâ—ing modes of treating them all which sets them more aloof off you and confirms them more in their several Classis of Separation Thus our Bishops good old and reverend Fathers are they are not only afraid lest the pomp of the world should steal away their hearts from God and they thereby should become dronish Shepherds who thence should not only not feed the flock of Christ but perhaps through idleness and the heaping up of worldly wealth might give way to that error as to endeavour to hinder others from feeding the flock whom God had fitted with endowments and gifts for that purpose but also are afraid lest by too stiff maintaining arbitrary and disputable Ceremonies they should give cause to the beginning of divisions in our happy and peaceable Church Now my Son what remains to be spoken according to my propos'd method is next to shew you the reasons hereof and lastly to propose some expedients in order to the healing your long contracted differences in your Churches As to the first of which you may if you observe take notice that I have most-what interwoven the reasons with the differences I have been acquainting you with And that in the main the reasons of your differences and divisions amongst your selves chiefly if not solely springs from the deviation of your Church of England from ours of Bensalia as you may easily and with much perspicuity see in the lately quoted seven Heads to which we have reduc'd the most remarkable differences and deviations of your Church from ours which is obvious to any one who reads them Which I shall here only in short recount viz. 1. In your Head 2. In your permission and indulgence of dubious Controversies and jangling Disputations 3. In your strict imposition of dispensible Ceremonies upon your weak and dissatisfied Brethren 4. By your upholding those vexatious Courts call'd Spiritual Courts that newly furbished Inquisition or Religious-house of Correction where your sinswindgers from money-mulcts got by Citations Excommunications c. raise their fortunes out of the ruins of your weak and distressed Brethren whom you should rather pity commiserate and receive into tender bowels of compassion 5. In your Visitations by your scourging the people rather than removing bad exemplary and therefore scandalous Ministers the great eye-sore of your people 6. In that your Bishops as to dignity are Lords and as to function rarely preach Lastly By your compulsion in matter of Religion In all which I say you differ and deviate from us and our Church-discipline And therefore no wonder that you have not enjoyed those expected fruits which we constantly possess of love unity and peace but rather have been imbroiled in Domestick dissentions animosities and intestine Wars the bane and reproach of Christianity For can you expect to gain the credit of being endowed with Christian charity while you shew so much of a spirit of enmity as to impose burdens upon weak Consciences and not condescend in matters dubious and therefore indifferent to the weaknesses of your dissatisfied Brethren And can you think to procure a happy unity amongst your selves which we always enjoy while in the forenamed Heads you take away the very basis and foundation thereof Lastly can you upon serious consideration perswade your selves that ever you shall possess peace while you vex disquiet and sit upon the skirts of your Brethren in matters indifferent wherein they ought in all Christian tenderness not only to be received but to be as well satisfied as your selves But I hast lest your company will wonder what is become of us therefore as to the last thing I propos'd to discourse viz. to propound some happy Expedient in order to the healing your clashing differences and towards the begetting a Christian charity and firm union amongst your discording Churches which because it would be too tedious now to insist upon as also would I fear too much intrench upon your Companies patience I shall therefore refer to its due place in a Letter which I intend if it shall be permitted by our King and Sophi to write to one of your Arch-Bishops in England To conclude at present take notice my Son that I have not discours'd these matters to you without both the knowledg yea and advice of our King and his Sophi whose leave and consent we desire before we discourse any thing of this nature to strangers But in as much as you are my Son highly favour'd by them more than any stranger that ever yet came upon our happy Island I was I say not only permitted but indeed advised to make this relation of the state of our Church and to compare it with yours that thereby you may legibly view the difference Whether at your return from us you may have leave to publish this relation in your own Country in order to their good I know not as to which you are to wait our King with his Sophy's pleasure therein Only this on the by I may take leave to acquaint you with that none of your Country-men that we call to mind was ever before cast upon our coasts except one which was my Lord Verulam whose stay in the Country was so short as he took but a transient view and therefore gave but a slight and imperfect account thereof to the world Now in order to your more through information I have perform'd my charge and hope others according to their several incumbent tasks will do the like and if it shall be permitted to come abroad I pray God what I have said of ours may become exemplary to your distracted Churches in Europe especially to England that happy Country if they knew their own good to which place we seem with a joint consent I had almost said harmonically to wish well and to write the first copy after our original pattern which with a great deal of seriousness concluding the great God of Heaven for his beloved Sons sake bless unto you Amen Which done I made my Obeysance to the Bishop and humbly thank'd the Reverend Father for his great condescention love and familiarity in his late admirable discourse As I was coming forth of the withdrawing-room the Bishop thrust a heavy paper well lin'd with red into my hand What mean you Reverend Father said I the fee is rather due to you for you have given the advice while I have been your Auditor and our Church your Patient Come come saith the Bishop this is only a small pledg of the kindness and
at all take no Tobacco nor drink I between meals unless very thirsty whereby I enjoy my health I bless God very well And although our Physicions be without doubt the best in the world as having the best Medicines that nature and art can afford what of their own preparation in their Laboratory and what is handed down to them from the Sophy those Adepti and Masters of the greatest Hermetick Secrets yet for my own part I had much rather enjoy my health wherein I can by an orderly diet and temperance preserve it than be sick to make trial of their skill I commended the Bishops prudence in that matter and wisht his president was exemplary to our European Countries Why saith he you have excellent good Physicians amongst you Yes Sir said I but for all that we are somewhat of your mind have no great stomack to be sick if we can help it At which the Bishop smil'd When Dinner was over the Bishop rose up and return'd thanks himself A while after Dinner the Bishop betook himself into a withdrawing-room and ordered one of his servants to whisper in my ear his desire of my leaving the company to discourse a while in private with him mean while had taken care the company should be entertain'd with discourse by the Doctor and some other persons Come Sir saith he you may perhaps think somewhat strange of me for my pleasantness and cheerfulness at Dinner I am usually so to help the digestion of my meat for I think it quickens and invigorates the ferment if I may borrow a word or two with you in your noble faculty the ferment of the stomack oyls the wheels of the digestion procures the most laudable nutritive juices helps forward the circulation of the blood and all this the better in order to health But now I am willing to be very serious with you for I have some weighty things to acquaint you with which when you return into your own Country may perhaps if our King and his Sophi do permit you the liberty of publishing thereof be of great use to your people who as we are inform'd are so much divided in their judgments and opinions about matters of Religion we have the state of your Church-affairs we think truly represented to us and wherein I shall err through any mistake shall beg the favour at your hands to set me right My method shall be first to shew you the rectitude and uniformity of ours and the genuine consequences thereof viz. peace unity Christian charity and the exercises of other heavenly Graces Next how much yours comes short and deviates from ours then shall shew you the reasons and last if we have time shall propose some expedients in order to the healing your clashing differences towards the ratifying a Christian union amongst you First as to ours it is Episcopal which rightly understood we have great reason to conclude from Scripture and other Testimonies to be truly Apostolical and according to Divine institution which with the Presbytery and other Substitutes together with their modes of connexion to the people are sufficient to the constitution of our Church We have no universal Bishop or Pope but only own Christ Jesus to be the supreme Head of our Church Our Council of Bishops with some of the Elders or Presbytery do determine all our differences both as to Doctrine and Discipline 2. And for the continuation and promotion of our unity and peace we avoid all Scholastick disputations and verbal janglings as much as possible as seeing it by the doleful effects thereof throughout Europe to be the bane of Christianity the mother of dissention animosities contention and discord yea the very parent of all the enmity and war found amongst those whom charity would enforce us to call Christians whose lives and well-meanings more than the similarness of their opinions must speak them Christians or they will difficultly be found having by such contentions even rent the seamless coat of Christ the very badg of their Christianity viz. Love Peace and Unity We by a Law prohibit all disputes and controversies about Predestination viz. Election and Reprobation and other disputable Doctrines as observing them to be the mother of many animosities and contentions amongst brethren yea and well remarking that no History can give us any instance of persons converted to the true Christian faith thereby or of any already converted whose lives have thence been rended better But many Histories are fill'd with instances to the contrary I call to mind we had once a learned Philosopher happened to be cast ashore on our coasts who disputing with some of our Bishops they notwithstanding all their learned arguments although they might convince him which yet was hard to make him or any who stand out for victory confess yet they did not convert him till a zealous â—ishop less learned than the rest in great power and demonstration of the Spirit repeated to him the Creed and as I remember the Lords-prayer which done queries the man saying Philosopher dost thou now believe who by such power being conquered answer'd according to Naked Truth Yes I do believe and so became a Proselyte 3ly And because we would not offend our weak brethren we dispense with many Ceremonies which you of the Church of England as we are well informed are so stiff in defending as rather than you will abate any thing therein you will adventure the loss of hundreds yea perhaps thousands of the weaker brethren suffering them for the sake of some dispensible Ceremonies to depart from you by whole sholes to the great rending of the unity of your Church which by all means possible should have been preserved in the bonds of love and unity by your condescending to them in some things allowable both by Scripture and reason as well as from the different Genius of people both as to time and place As if the union of your brethren and consequently peace of your whole Church was not of more value to you than the stiff adhering to many indifferent and in cases aforesaid unnecessary Ceremonies If any amongst us be upon any occasion offended or dissatisfied we make it our business presently to pour in oyl and wine the Samaritan Balsom to heal up the wound using all the suppleing and soft means we can by friendly visits prayer and all tender demeanor to satisfie their scruples of Conscience and like good Physicians never leave them till they be made whole We beseech exhort admonish and rebuke according as necessity requires being instant with them in season and out of season And as Fathers for so in a spiritual sense we look upon our selves we are tender and affectionate to them using all fatherly admonition We by our tender bowels of compassion melt them down if they have the least grain of the Spirit of God in them and they know right well we make no prey of them but as Ministers and servants of Jesus Christ serve them in
as thinking from our Lord and his Disciples example that it was not of Divine institution which therefore we for their satisfaction forbear We impose no bowing at the Name of Jesus but bowing at the Altar we wholly prohibit lest we should in any measure admit of or connive at the Idolatry of Popery against whom we generally have a natural and inbred aversness Yea in all dispensible Ceremonies we set the doors of our Church so wide open that all who otherwise would be dissenters and in fine would in spite of us have Churches and Congregations of their own willingly come in and once in most willingly would go forth 7ly We compel or force none in matters of Religion as judging it to be a voluntary free action of the Soul in the exercise of things that relate to Heaven and happiness as well knowing that if we should constrain people to acts of Worship we could at the best unless it was from a free act of their souls but make hypocrites of them as to which we think the prophane person who has nothing of religious actions more acceptable in the sight of God than such deceitful hypocrites who only make Religion a stoking-horse for their worldly advantages 8ly We the Bishops study to avoid all height of honours for our King would have made us Lords but we beg'd of him that favour as not to confer such high dignities upon us and that because we being men of like frailty and passions with others were afraid lest that height of honour should ensnare us make us forget God turn dronish and careless shepherds which we declare our selves to have so great zeal for the honour and glory of God and good of the souls of our dear children or people as we would not have any thing of that nature happen for the gaining all the world or worldly honours lest neglecting our flock we should impose on them other dronish leud scandalous teachers whereby the flock would be scattered and they seek or make other shepherds of their own so quite break off and relinquish our Church which breaches we dread as also judging such high honours not suitable to the poor humble Ministers of Christ in this our Pilgrimage through the wilderness to the land of peace who are here to partake with him in the state of Humiliation as we expect and hope to share with him in his state of Exaltation at the coming of his Kingdom which very Kingdom we have always before us as near approaching the glory of which so dazles our eyes as that it darkens these transient scenes of temporal honours eclipses the beauty thereof and makes them only seem to us like a finer sort of Pageantry which makes us careless of them as also lest we should be in danger of Lording it over Gods heritage and thereby should give cause of dividing and rending the seamless coat of our beloved Lord and Master And now my Son I must acquaint you with one thing which strikes not so universally with the Genius of your people of England as with ours of Bensalia and that is concerning Musick in Churches First therefore as a foundation to what I have to say and to make it less strange to you I must tell youthat harmony whether vocal or instrumenal strikes in so naturally with the Genius of our people as what through their education and custom and perhaps a private instinct peculiar to Countries of which we can give no account Musick or Musical harmony seems to be so congeneal to them as nothing more every boy and girl in one sort or other is train'd up with it even Mechanicks are not ignorant of the grounds of Musick Vulcans at their Forges Glassmen at their Furnaces Shepherds and Shepherdesses in their Tents c. upon frequent occasions strike up into Musical consort and smite your ears with pleasant harmony In the very Groves and shady places we have instruments of Musick almost like Organs or Pedats which are set into motion by the air or wind and so contriv'd that without any hands guiding them they strike into pleasant tunes the very birds are so sorted as they make vocal consort Wisd 17. 18. So that the whistling winds the melodious noise of birds among the spreading branches the pleasing fall of waters and the rebounding Eccho from the hollowing mountains c. too tedious now to relate all sound aloud yea eccho forth and that sweetly too the natural bent of our peoples Genius to Musical harmony Which considered and what was wonderfully done to the destruction of that terrible army of the Moabites and Ammonites which came against Jehoshaphat King of Judah even by singing and praising God we have upon record in the Sacred Chronicles Book 2. Chap. 20. v. 22. We were willing for their further satisfaction and to make Religion in its acts of Devotion not burdensome and offensive but to be perform'd with alacrity and cheerfulness to appoint some choice musick in our Churches Which musick is not perform'd by a company of leud vain Quiristers Boys and Singing-men who sing for money as your Ballad-singers do such as you foster up to the great discredit of your Church-musick in England and other places of Europe which are indeed a great disgracc to so heavenly an ornament in the Church But most of our people even children from a dozen years of age are able not only to set in but also to go along in harmony with the Musick Which they do my Son with such seriousness and gravity as that it seems to be the most sweet and harmonious thing in the world They are so ravisht with that harmony as they seem to be wrapt up in it even beyond all outward things who thus in Psalms Hymns and spiritual Songs praise and magnifie God with such sweetness and wholeness of heart and such praises to God are sounded forth in so great innocency of spirit and sweetness of voice as surely nothing is more delectable next to the Beatisick Quire of Angels and heavenly spirits in the full Coelestial Chorus Whose greatest work in height above Is only with joy to sing and love Then he paus'd a little as if upon the uttering thereof he had been wrap up into a heavenly sweet extasie His Spirit for a while seem'd to retire And he was gone to th' Heavenly Quire At his return I was afraid Reverend Father said I by any question to interrupt you at the first so serious and at the last so sweet discourse but that your pause and heavenly rapture gave me an opportunity to take you up as you were falling or retiring to the pledg your body left behind and to acquaint you that your wholesome and sweet Doctrine together with the harmony of your Discipline has begot an ardent affection in my soul towards your so happy and concording Church so assimilating and symphonizing with the Divine Angelical Chorus Ah quoth the Bishop my soul was wrapt among That heavenly host who sweetly sing
have in the first place shewed you the happy and florid state of our Church with the amiable effects and fruits thereof which like a wholsome and fruitful tree whose leaves and fruits are for the healing of our whole Nation So my next work according to my propos'd method is to shew you how your Church of England as you call it comes short of and deviates from ours First Therefore my Son although yours be Episcopal which so far is well yet you differ from us in your Head and you see what little alterations made in Heads whether Ecclesiastical Civil or Natural begets great changes and alterations in all Bodies appertaining thereto To instance first in Ecclesiastick Bodies do not you observe that in the Romish Church the Head thereof viz. the Pope doth by his pretended Succession in Peter's Chair to be Christs Vicar upon Earth and as such assumes to himself that title competible to no man but to our Lord Jesus Christ who as God and Man is the true Head of his Church of Infallibility which Headship and Infallibility thereof what influence hath it not I pray upon the whole and how much I would ask doth that make their Church to differ not only from the Primitive Church of God but also from all others in the world We shall say nothing by reflection upon your Church as it stands related to its head leaving the suitableness of such a Head to such a Body and the symmetry of the proportions thereof to your own consideration And as to Civil do not you observe what alterations Tyrants those monstrous heads make in their body Politick And lastly as to the body Natural what influence Cephalick diseases have upon the whole Body is evident in Paralytick Apoplectick and Convulsive maladies what these slight touches upon things may hint to you I shall leave to your further and more leisure consideration 2ly How much your Church of England differs from ours of Bensalia by admitting Scholastick Disputations and verbal janglings your Universities and many books of Controversie put forth by them and their dissenting Brethren doth testifie with what effects they have had your late intestine broils Civil Wars yea and present animosities doth too much declare and we fear if not seasonably prevented may eat out the very marrow and pith of Christianity even love unity and peace from amongst you 3ly So much differs your Church from ours wherein yours are guilty of offending their weak brethren by strictly imposing upon them many indifferent Ceremonies neither agreeable to Scripture Reason nor the natural Genius of your people and thereby of making them sin by forcing to a separation and splitting of themselves into Parties Churches or Congregations of their own is too evident in the sophisms and factions of Presbyterians Independents Anabaptists Quakers c. of all which divisions how much your Episcopal Church what through your stiff adhering to some dispensible Ceremonies and through some other causes yet to be toucht upon has been and is the Patron let your speedy pouring in of oyl into the wounds of your offended and dissatisfied brethren be by the effects the Judg. Do your Bishops and their Substitutes by friendly visits prayer and tender demeanor endeavour the satisfying the scruples of Conscience in their dissenting Brethren Do they by abating or cutting off their bill of Ceremonies at halves which they may well enough afford to do and by opening wide their Church doors make way to take in those they have formerly so peevishly thrust out And lastly do they by their good lives pious example and other requisite suitable means study the reclaiming of their dissatisfied Brethren 4ly So much doth your Church differ and deviate from ours by how much you endulge and keep up those Courts of vexation call'd by you improperly enough Spiritual Courts Your Citations Excommunications Capias's Absolutions all to get money with we except what we hear of you know nothing of An Excommunicated person of your Church may so byassed are you by gain buy it off with money which in our Church without repentance is impossible to be done and when done it 's without charge to the offender Can your Bishops and their Vicegerents through a sound judgment in Spiritual things that differ distinguish aright between these three sorts of persons viz. 1. Those who are Hypochondriack and thereby fall into different notions 2. Those who for ostentation sake and to make themselves popular designedly blazon their new and lately coyn'd opinions diametrically opposite to the fundamental Principles of Christianity or Gospel of Christ And 3ly such as truly out of a Conscientious zeal establish and confirm some Doctrines and Disciplines different from the received ones Do they not only know I say how rightly to distinguish these but also by proper expedients how to reduce them to their proper Classis and bring them to rights again Do they not only know of which they cannot well be ignorant but do they likewise study to make it practical and are they solicitous to satisfie your peoples scruples without putting them to a peny charge 5ly Yours differ from ours in your Visitations and that first your Bishops rarely visit in person as we do 2ly Your Bishops Deputies search more into the faults and lapses of the people than into the errors debaucheries and bad exemplary lives of their Pastors and Teachers which is quite the contrary to what we do And how much care should be taken for the purging and expunging all scandalous Ministers in order to the health peace unity and welfare of the several Churches we preside the difference betwixt our Church-State where such care is taken and yours by the due consideration of matters now under discourse will easily determine 6ly Ours differ from yours particularly in relation to the dignity and function of the highest Ministers of the Church and that first as to dignity yours are Lords ours not yours make sure of a Kingdom here ours are as sure as they but with this difference ours is to come and only foresee it by faith yours have it present which requires not much faith for that which is of faith is not seen Therefore perhaps yours may think themselves on the surer side of the bush however as to that Kingdom of Christ we are willing to live by faith in view of it and do not envy yours their present temporal Kingdom 2ly As to the function we the Bishops of Bensalia always preach in our own persons which few of yours do but by proxy as we have the state of your Church represented to us contradict me in matters of fact if you can being willing in every respect by our care to shew our selves Episcopi Overseers Bishops indeed and Pastors over our belpved flocks one sheep in which flock we value more than a thousand if there were so many dispensible Ceremonies 7ly Compulsion in matters of Religion makes yours to differ from ours for you compell and drive by force as much as