Selected quad for the lemma: faith_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
faith_n	church_n	scripture_n	tradition_n	15,184	5	9.5685	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44308	The non-conformists champion, his challenge accepted, or, An answer to Mr. Baxter's Petition for peace written long since, but now first published upon his repeated provocations and importune clamors, that it was never answered : whereunto is prefixed an epistle to Mr. Baxter with some remarks upon his Holy Common-wealth, upon his Sermon to the House of Commons, upon his Non-conformists plea for peace and upon his Answer to Dr. Stillingfleet. / by Ri. Hooke.	R. H. (Richard Hooke); Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. Petition for peace.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. Holy commonwealth.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. Sermon of repentance.	1682 (1682)	Wing H2608; ESTC R28683	62,409	170

taught you You cast off the Reins of Church Government you set your selves at Liberty Did this Cure your Divisions and create among you Peace and Unity No after you had divided from the Church and cast off its Rule and Orders you subdivided among your selves and broke all into pieces and parties never did any Age see such lamentable Divisions in this Church and Nation But you accuse the Bishops as if they will not give you leave to serve God as his Apostles did God forgive you this as false as foul an Accusation Do not the Bishops maintain and the Church stedfastly continue in the Apostles Doctrine Do they not against the Romanists who would obtrude upon us their Traditions in conjunction with the Scriptures assert the Scripture alone to be a most perfect Rule of Faith and Manners Do they not serve God as the Apostles have taught and so many you in Communion with our Church Truly if your meaning be that they give you not leave to serve God as Apostles and no less or lower will serve you than to be as they to give Laws to all the Churches and to be under the Laws of none you must prove your selves to be such before you crave that leave But though you are not Apostles yet you are Prophets you foresee and foretell the Sufferings of your Innocent Party Strange What a Noise they make in almost every Paragraph lamenting and repeating their Sufferings We are against our wills enforced as often to let them know and I wish they would rightly resent and lay it to heart that the Bishops and Conformable Clergy have been really Sufferers for many years and in the Loss of all they had and they the Causes of their Sufferings and for all those years enjoyed all Ease and Plenty and at this time of their present loud Complaint they have yet suffered nothing and are certain they shall not doe if they will return to their Duty all their former Miscarriages being by his Majestie 's Mercy buried in oblivion and if they will doe so they may be received into Favour and are as capable of all Preferments as any the truest Sons of the Church I am unwilling to remark the other part of their Prophecie ripping up our Divisions by their Party raised and continued ever since the Reformation they in effect threaten they will be their Sons and Heirs and that we must not expect Peace but look for Misery and Division unless they may have their Demands to be as free and high as the Apostles and here as their manner is they heap up a multitude of Scriptures you may judge how pertinently by the first they alledge 1 Philippians 14. There St. Paul saith Many of the Brethren in the Lord waxing confident by his bonds were much more bold to speak the Word without fear This Text they cite to prove that the Bonds and Burthens and Displeasure which is upon them from their Superiours hinders them from serving the Lord without fear Saint Paul's bonds made these Brethren confident and set them above fear But our Brethren upon their meer fancy of Bonds and Burthens are faint-hearted and with fear even distracted The other Scriptures make as little for them or against the Bishops and so I shall pass them over The 18 th and 19 th Reasons are of the same Bran yet again and again they cry up their Abilities and their Godliness and cry out of their Sufferings and Persecutions and the Ungodliness of all who are not of their way I cannot conceive the Reason why this one Topick of their Sufferings makes up more than Ten of their Twenty Reasons and they bring it in over and over so very often but that they think no body knows or will believe they have suffered any thing and therefore they say it so often or else by the loud and repeated Cry of their own they would drown the loud Cry of the Bishops Sufferings by them and their Party which yet the Bishops themselves pass by in Silence but the World cannot but take notice of with much concernment Let us yet hear them again In the 18 th they call themselves the Holy Seed and so many able Ministers laid aside and that many of them suffer and that the Ungodly add Affliction to their Affliction And in the 19 th So many truly fearing God being cast or trodden down are tempted to think ill of that which themselves and the Church thus suffer by and when so many of the worst befriend this way because it gratifieth them it tendeth to make your Cause judged of according to the qualities of its friends or adversaries Of their Sufferings enough and too much of their Godliness and the Ungodliness of all who are not of their Party We have heard often too 't is their strain and way with the Pharisee to stand on their Tiptoes and say God I thank thee I am not thus and thus I am not such as this Publican The worst they say befriend that way 1. That 's no proof of the evil of that way rather of the goodness which shines forth so apparently that it convinces and even enforces the worst of men to approve it Video meliora probóque 2. Who are those worst The King the Parliament and all the obedient Sons of the Church of all Estates and Qualities This is usually their great proof that themselves truly fear God their dislike of established Order this their evidence that others have not the fear of God their Obedience to those whom God hath set over them in Church and State By the one they commend themselves by the other they condemn all but themselves and that this is no untrue Accusation they have made appear in that they made no difference between the best and the worst but cast out all of the Episcopal way Nay as one of them pleading before them the Sobriety and Unblameableness of his Life and Conversation they told him to his effect He should fare the worse for that they liked not so well a sober as a scandalous Malignant who gave their Proceedings against him some colour of Justice 2. They tell us they are tempted to think ill of that they suffer by Ans 'T is easie to guess whence that Temptation is a Criminal is tempted to think ill of the Law because he suffers by it Ungodly men are tempted to think ill of God and murmur at him because they suffer by his just Judgments for their Wickedness You are taught otherwise Matt. 5.44 20. We repeat what formerly we have said That the Holy Ghost hath already so plainly decided the point in controversie in the Instance of Meats and Days Rom. 14.15 that it seemeth strange to us that yet it should remain a Controversie A weak Brother that maketh an unnecessary difference of Meats and Days is not to be cast out but so to be received and not to be troubled with such doubtfull Disputations despising and judging the Servants of the Lord

THE NON-CONFORMIST'S CHAMPION HIS CHALLENGE ACCEPTED OR An Answer to Mr. Baxter's PETITION FOR PEACE Written long since but now first published upon his repeated Provocations and importune Clamors that it was never answered Whereunto is prefixed An EPISTLE To Mr. BAXTER With some Remarks upon his Holy Common-wealth UPON His Sermon to the House of Commons UPON His Non-conformists Plea for Peace And upon his ANSWER to Dr. STILLINGFLEET By RI. HOOKE D. D. Vicar of Halyfax LONDON Printed for Tho. Flesher at the Angel and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard Anno Dom. 1682. TO THE READER YOU will find the following Letter to Mr. Baxter long enough and therefore I shall say little by way of Preface But to advertise you That this Answer to the Petition for Peace was written A. 1661. the same year the Petition was published by Mr. Baxter in the Name of the Non-conforming Commissioners by his Majesty impowered to treat with the Right Reverend Bishops touching some Alterations to be made in the Liturgy and 't is now onely transcribed and published without any material Alteration This if you carry in your Mind in the Reading thereof 't will prevent divers Mistakes which otherwise may be made in the Mis-timing it and particularly about the pretended great Sufferings of the Non-conformists of which in the Petition they make loud and frequent but false Complaints The Episcopal Party having by them deeply suffered for many years But the Non-conformists at that time having not suffered in the least and being as capable as the Conformists would they have submitted to the wholesome Orders of the Church of England of enjoying Favor and Preferment unto which Mr. Baxter boasts that himself was courted As to my Remarks upon his Commonwealth if he shall object that he published to the World his Desire that Book may be look'd upon as Non Scriptus and so he is not concern'd in the Seditious Theses by him laid down and by me laid open I leave it to himself to judge whether such an insignificant Nothing the wiping his Mouth after so black a Crime be to him a sufficient Purgation to the World a sufficient Satisfaction and which is most considerable whether his bare Wish his Book were not written be sufficient to undeceive and bring to Repentance the many whom it may have corrupted and tempted to Rebellion 'T is the Wish of one of Mr. Baxter's own Party for him what Nero wisht for himself That he had never known Letters Truly it were to be wisht That when Labouring under Sickness as he saith he had written his Everlasting Rest he had gon to it He hath been so restless ever since and so great a Troubler of Israel that without a deep Repentance of his dangerous Errors and Actings I fear he will come short of that Blessed Rest There goes a Story That Hugh Peters riding in Querpo by Oliver's Coach in a great Rain and he offered to lend him his Coat he told him He would not be in his Coat for a Thousand Pound Seriously I would not be in Mr. Baxter's Condition for a Thousand Worlds holding his Principles for all his great Pretensions of Godliness and frequent Appeals to the last Judgment where those who are contentious uncharitable fierce heady high-minded who speak evil of Dignities and resist the higher Powers though they have the Form of Godliness will be condemned as well as the openly ungodly and profane If he think me severe 't is onely in order to his Repentance which I heartily desire that I display his Errors with some Plainness And truly I judge Complements and soft Words not fit for Bigots and Perturbers of Church and State and open Revilers of the Laws and the Government I have oft wondred at and pitied an old Statesman who when he might live in Honour and Peace is ever in Trouble and cannot go quietly to his Grave And I have the same Passion for Mr. Baxter a Statesman too But the Salamander can live no where but in the Fire And a Person who loves Suits though they have wasted his whole Estate if he had another would spend it all in Law I would some of Mr. Baxter's Friends could persuade him to leave off Controversies and imploy the Remainder of his Life in writing Retractations a Work proper and necessary for him if for any other in this quarreling and contradictious Age. I have offered you some Reasons why the Episcopal Commissioners thought not fit to make Answer to the Petition for Peace The Reason why I have answered it is To take down Mr. Baxter's confident and frequent Boastings in his late passionate Writings as if it were unanswerable and to vindicate the Church of England which as one truly saith whosoever hath the Learning and Temper to consider and understand doth know to be the brightest Image of primitive Purity and Worship and the most perfect Conjuncture of the most ancient and most holy Faith that since the primitive Times of Persecution any man had ever the Honor of suffering for or defending The God of Peace and Truth continue the True Religion with our Peace and cast out that Spirit of Contention Division and Disobedience which possesseth the Dissenters and give them the Spirit of Meekness Humility and Christian Subjection unto Authority ERRATA p. 20. for greeting reade Grotius p. 26. for Caution Canton p. 30. for shortly surely p. 33. after Loud this stroke p. 37. for Savoy sawcy p. 39. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 40. for Those Apostles The Apostles p. 84. for That will contribute That you will contri p. 87. l. 1. dele that p. 91. l. 5. dele England p. 103. for Reverend Reverenc'd p. 105. in Marian in the Marian. p. 107. for vobis nobis TO Mr. Richard Baxter SIR IF this Paper shall doe any good or harm you will have a share of the praise or blame since it had never seen the light had it not been brought forth by your midwifery Meeting lately with your Non-conformist Pleas I found the Petition for Peace often in them mentioned and again more than once in your Answer to Dr. Stillingfleet and as oft as you name it you are pleas'd to say 'T was never answered whereby you would make the World believe 't is unanswerable This brought to my remembrance that I had by me your Petition for Peace and had answer'd it the same year 't was published but kept it private in expectation of an Answer from the Episcopal Commissioners who were most able and most concerned but they not thinking fit to doe it for reasons best known to themselves and perhaps for some hereafter mentioned and the Liturgy of the Church with some Alterations of the Convocation being shortly after by Law established I laid by my Answer as needless and scarce thought of it more till your bold and angry Plea caused me to seek it out among many scattered Papers and to review transcribe and expose it I expect but without fear of its defensibleness

who hath been a parallel to King David both in his Persecution and Restoration is as truly his parallel in Piety and holy Zeal for the true Religion and hath made it his first Care as soon as God brought him back to his Kingdom to bring back the Ark of God to Jerusalem to restore the holy Doctrin Worship and Government of our Church which had with himself been long banished and having in the happy Examples of his most Royal and Religious Predecessors observed how exceedingly this Church hath florished under the established Order for many years how eminently her Faith hath been spread abroad in every place how all her Sisters of the reformed Church rejoiced to behold her order and stedfastness towards Christ The Daughters all calling her blessed as also finding by sad experience that in these times of Trouble and Confusion of which we may truly wish with Job That they were blotted out of times and might not come into the number of years the plucking up of the established Order hath been the loss at once of Truth and Peace in the Church and the cause of all the bitter Dissentions and lamentable Divisions wherewith it hath been wounded and dilacerated and which never could be cured or closed by any the Balms and healing Medicins applied by Presbyterians Independents or any other who pretended to be our Physicians this I say his Majesty in his Princely and Pious Wisedom observing hath restored to God's glory and his own great honour that Religion which had before this Rupture obtained and long flourished 2. But there is nothing can be so well devised so warily composed so innocently established as to satisfie all Judgments and anticipate all Objections That Manna wherewith God himself fed his people from Heaven that Angels food was soon loathed and despised As it was at King James his coming to this Crown so at his present Majestie 's there are Dissenters and Complainers who with great and loud Importunities vehement Accusations and a mighty specious Zeal cry out against the publick Worship and Order to be restored His Majesty imitating in the like case the example of that our English Solomon was pleased to give Commission for a Conference or Treaty between some select persons of the Episcopal and Presbyterian Judgment to consider of the Form of publick Worship the Common Prayers of this Church and if occasion be to make such reasonable Alterations Corrections and Amendments therein as should be jointly agreed upon to be needfull and expedient and doubtless for the same reason with that of King James Not but that any thing in the Common Prayer contained might very well have been born with by men who would have made a reasonable construction of things But for that in a matter concerning the Service of God we were nice or rather jealous that the publick Form thereof should be free not onely from blame but from suspicion so as neither the common Adversary should have advantage to wrest ought therein contained to other sense than the Church of England intendeth nor any troublesome or ignorant person of this Church be able to take the least occasion against it The Treaty wanting that Issue his Majesty and all good men desired and no Accommodation thereby effected it is enquired and diversly censured where the blame lies 3. The Presbyterians charge the Episcopal Commissioners to be wholly in the fault and say They have petitioned the Bishops proposed their Alterations made their Objections against the Liturgy replied upon the Bishops Answers finally have cleared themselves and given account to his Majesty of the whole Transaction But the Bishops have answered nothing to their Petition have not considered their Alterations have said little to their Objections and granted as little by way of Concession Therefore they profess the Disappointment hath not been on their part and that they have quiet in their minds having discharged their duty and been Seekers and Followers of Peace But for all this fair flourish it will appear to any Judgment that is not forestalled that 't is on the score of the Presbyterians and for the fault of their undue managing thereof that the Treaty hath proved ineffectual and this I shall manifest by first answering their pretensions and then considering their Petition 1. That the Bishops answered not their Petition it was for good causes what they ask was not in the power of the Bishops to grant the matter was unreasonable the motives weak and not worthy an Answer being in number many but light in weight as when they come to be examined will appear and however directed to the Bishops the Petition was intended to gratifie the people of their own party the design of it being popular and the aim of it apparent to keep up their Interest 2. That they answer nothing to their new Form which they call their Alterations a perfect Abolition of the Churches Form was not their fault but their favour They were obliged to the Bishops for their silence who might justly have convented them instead of answering them the very publishing of that Form being a high Attempt against the Laws and a plain Violation of his Majestie 's Directions in his Commission 3. That they say little to their Objections is for that many of them had little in them were trivial and stramineous and little or nothing have they said in their Objections but what had been said before by Cartwright and others and by Archbishop Whitgift and Mr. Hooker abundantly answered 4. That they granted little by way of Concession they had great Reason and great Precedents Great Reason for 1. The Compilers of the Common Prayer Book were holy able zealous and orthodox Persons and such an Alteration as they desired as I said in effect an Abolition had been to question their Piety and Ability and to cast Dirt in the Faces of those venerable Fathers Confessors and Martyrs 2. The Common Prayer Book was revised approved and confirmed by divers Acts of Parliament and Proclamations in several Princes Reigns to alter it after their Model had been also to cast Dirt in the Face of Supream Authority and to question the Wisedom and Piety of the wisest and most pious Kings and Parliaments 3. It would have opened a gap to the Papists who cry out against us for Novelty and Inconstancy 4. It was his Majestie 's Order That there should be as little Alteration as might be for that the people were acquainted with and accustomed to the Form established 2. They had great Precedents for 1. In Queen Elizabeth's time it being revised very few alterations or additions were made and 2. In King James his time also who judged the Form so compleat that he would have some small things rather explained than changed nay more admonisheth all men That hereafter they shall not expect nor attempt any farther Alteration 5. For that the Bishops have said little and the Presbyterians much it makes nothing for the one nor against

accuse our Lord himself is not his Prayer made up of meer Generals Sure so many grave Divines should not make their Objections by Number but by Weight and due and sober Consideration How little they considered this will farther appear in that 3. They confess their Objection to be untrue when they tell us that the Litany is for Grace Peace Rain Fair-weather c. and indeed I may challenge our Brethren to shew any Particulars needfull for the Church to petition at the hands of God in her publick Worship omitted in the Litany 8. They desire That all obsolete words may be altered Ans That may be soon done for few or no obsolete words are in the Liturgy but doth not God do not we understand old and plain words must we coin new ones to please him and our selves must we be rhetorical quaint and curious complement God in our Prayers Let us take unto us those words the Church hath from God's Word put into our mouths and join with them our Hearts and let us not doubt but God will hear us graciously 9. It troubles them That the publick Worship of God may not be administred by any that dares not wear a Surplice Ans Who are those tender ones that dare not What a frightfull Bugg is a Surplice that you dare not wear it in the Administration of the publick Worship Nay you dare refuse to administer in God's publick Worship rather than wear a Surplice Your Master Beza was not so timerous or dainty Mihi videtur Ecclesias minime deserendas propter Pileum aut Vestes aut aliquid aliud hujusmodi vere medium aut indifferens To me it seemeth that we ought not to forsake the Churches for Caps or Vestments or any other such like thing of a nature mixt and indifferent Mr. Moulin was not so tender could as he professed willingly wear a Fool's-coat and Cap so he might freely and publickly administer God's true and holy Worship Are not different and decent Vestures by God himself appointed to his Priests in their publick and holy Ministrations and why may not the Governors of the Church command under the Gospel the like decent and distinct Habits to Ministers which God commanded under the Law so as no Religion or Sanctity be placed in them as we declare there is not but they are onely enjoined for Comeliness and Gravity suitable to such Solemnities Solemn Actions of Royalty and Justice have their suitable ornaments enjoyned and they are unto them a Beauty and beget from the People a Veneration Are they onely a Stain in Religion These general Objections against the Common Prayers in their Grand Debate I thought good to consider together with their Reasons in their Petition of Peace that they may see we do not slight nor fear any of their Forces but dare encounter their whole strength Their particular Objections against the parts of the Liturgy are long since by Mr. Hooker and others so convincingly answered those which are old and the new are so weak and inconsiderable that they deserve not a sober Animadversion and therefore I shall not give the Reader the trouble of a Confutation To expose a few of them is enough and he may judge of the rest by their Assize 1. They desire the word Minister which is used in the Absolution and divers other places may be used throughout and not Priest and Curate 2. The Confession they tell us is very defective not clearly expressing Original Sin nor sufficiently enumerating Actual Sins with their Aggravations but consisting onely of Generals whereas Confession being the Exercise of Repentance ought to be more particular This is already answered 3. The often repeating the Lord's Prayer and the Gloria Patri comes within compass of those vain Repetitions our Saviour condemns a vain Objection and may be as well made against David Psal 136. and against many other his Psalms as also against Moses Solomon and our Saviour himself 4. They would have that Petition in the Litany Good Lord deliver us from sudden Death to be altered thus Good Lord deliver us from dying suddenly and unpreparedly 5. They would have that Prayer That it may please God to preserve all that travel by Land or by Water to be changed and expressed indefinitely all that travel 6. They express their dislike of Kneeling at the Reading of the Commandments did they never break any of them and is there not a Prayer subsequent to each of them Lord have mercy upon us 7. They are offended at that Expression in the first Prayer before Baptism That God by his Son our Saviour's being baptized in the River Jordan hath sanctified that and all other waters to the mystical washing away of Sin To satisfie this nice Scruple 't is changed and the word all left out I shall no further pursue these trifles professing my great grief and astonishment that persons pretending to so great Gravity can possibly be guilty of such Lightnesses 'T was a piece of pride and weakness in Calvin to charge our Liturgy as containing in it Tolerabiles Ineptias These and such like light and trivial exceptions of our Brethren will to any sober Judgment appear Ineptiae Intolerabiles Leaving their Grand Debate which I think in the Prophets and Apostles sense may without uncharitableness be affixed not onely as the Title but is much the Subject and Design too of their Paper I goe on to the Consideration of their Petition for Peace Sweet is the name of Peace and now if ever Sweet is the Peace of the State after so long Civil War and the Peace of the Church after so long Division and Persecution Peace is a Blessing of Blessings not a single but a complicated Blessing 'T is Peace that puts us into and keeps us in Possession of all we enjoy Saint Paul tels us of a Bond of Peace Peace is the Bond of our Liberties Properties Estates and Lives and of that which should be to us dearer than all these our Religion 'T is this Religious Peace for which they petition O that they had hearkned to the Petitions of others before But then they prepared for War and sounded the Trumpet to Battel Then to talk of Peace and Accommodation was the mark of a Malignant Then Curse ye Meroz was the Text And O take heed of Treaties Well 't is happy if at last Thoughts of Peace may be entertained But my Brethren why petition you for Peace is it not Peace if not where is the blame who are those which hinder Peace Then is it Peace in the Church when the Magistrate is at Peace with the Church and a Defender of the Faith when Ministers are at Peace with themselves and join regularly in their holy Ministrations when Ministers and their People are at Peace the one teaching and the other embracing sound Doctrine when Magistrates Ministers and People do publickly openly freely uniformly profess and hold the true Christian Religion do join and unite in the publick Worship

formerly I am to learn they know his late Majesty made to them moderate Proposals but was refused and they confess the Lord Primate of Ireland made moderate Proposals but by them never accepted As to their bold Appeal to all Protestant Churches presuming they will give their Judgments for them and against the Church of England's established Constitutions which they have the huge Confidence to prophesie even of the Judgment of all succeeding ages They might without a Revelation by their Jugdment past and present have foreseen their Judgment for the future The past age hath cryed Grace Grace to our happy orderly and moderate Reformation in Doctrine Government and Worship the Protestant Churches have given us the Right-hand of Fellowship have maintained sweet Communion with us have in Marian Persecution received our Exiles their most eminent Lights have sent us high Congratulations their ablest Ministers have divers of them come over and with Joy beheld our Order and some have lived and died amongst us What Judgment did Mr. Beza give Let himself speak Quod si nunc If now the Reformed Churches of England being underprop'd with the Authority of Bishops and Archbishops do continue as this hath hapened to that Church in our memory That she hath had Men of that Calling not onely most notable Martyrs but also excellent Pastors and Doctors let them truly enjoy that singular Blessing of God which I wish may be perpetual unto her What Judgment did Peter Martyr pass in the Case of Bishop Hooper about the Ceremonies Did he not answer his Arguments vindicate the lawfulness of them exhort him to submit unto them The Judgment of Doctor Moulin you have heard and much more might be told you of the high Honour he had for the Church of England And to come nearer what Judgment the Protestant Churches passed upon your Covenant your Reforming the Church by the Sword and in the Bloud of the Nursing Father and the Prime Pastour of it with many Thousands more you have surely heard Were they not ashamed confounded and astonished at our Schisms and Seditions and Violations of all Authority Sacred and Civil And Have not your Actions in the late lamentable times cast a Blemish upon the Honour of our Nation never to be washed off An English-man daring scarce to look another man in the face in a foreign Countrey being under the Objection and Reproach of Rebellion Murthering their King Changing the best tempered Monarchy in the World into a puny Common-wealth and that swallowed up soon into a Barbarous Protectourship and Abasing the most primitive and venerable Episcopacy into a novel and contemptible Parity and Linsy-woolsey Presbytery made up of Preachers and Lay-elders and that too straight undermined and baffled by a Mushrome Independency Pudet haec Opprobria vobis dici potuisse non potuisse refelli This is the past Judgment of the Protestant Churches abroad concerning our Church established and you who ruined it till God in mercy restored it For the Churches of succeeding ages I think they will hardly believe the History of ours That such men as you professing highest Godliness should in a pretended zeal for it preach up Sedition and Schism and embroil the Church and Nation wherein you were born and baptized in Bloud and Confusion and which seems more incredible Appeal to all Protestant Churches in your own Justification nay Supplicate the King whose Royal Father was martyred and himself long banished for standing up in defence of the Church which you opposed and by Force destroyed to screen you from the Churche's Power to grant you the chief Benefices in the Church and give you Liberty to be of another Church to enjoy a Worship and Government of your own Mode and Model But my Brethren how come you to make this lowd Challenge Why enquire you or rather Why presume you what Judgment the Protestant Churches will make of our Churches proceedings Sure your mighty Zeal and ardent Affection to your Cause hath clouded your own Judgment and quite bereaved you of your Memory You mention often and with seeming regard his Majestie 's gracious Declaration touching Ecclesiastical Affairs he therein tells you the present Judgment of the Reformed Churches abroad and had you Faith to believe his Royal word you might have spared this Argument and Out-cry which you may blush for and wish you had suppressed Hear his Majesty speaking their Judgment We do think Our self the more competent to propose and with God's Assistence to determine many things now in Difference from the time We have spent and the experience We have had in most of the Reformed Churches abroad in France the Low-countries and Germany where We have had frequent Conference with the most Learned men who have unanimously lamented the great Reproach the Protestant Religion undergoes from the Distempers and too notorious Schisms in Matters of Religion in England And as the most Learned among them have alwaies with great Submission and Reverence acknowledged and magnified the established Government of the Church of England and the great Countenance and Shelter the Protestant Religion received from it before these unhappy times So many of the have with great Ingenuity and Sorrow confessed that they were too easily mis-led by mis-information and prejudice into some disesteem of it as if it had too much complyed with the Church of Rome whereas they now acknowledg it to be the best Fence God hath yet raised against Popery in the World and We are persuaded they do with great Zeal wish it restored to its old Dignity and Veneration You see what Judgment the Protestant Churches have passed upon the Church of England and her former Proceedings and thereby may take an Estimate what Judgment they will pass on her present Proceedings and how the Churche's Cause and yours will be represented to them They will acknowledg and magnifie with great Submission and Reverence the established Government of the Church of England if you dare believe his Majesty and consequently will censure you as Schismatical and Disobedient to refuse to submit unto it But I must not misrepresent you your Submission you profess If after our Submission to his Majesty's Declaration and after our own Proposals of the primitive Episcopacy and of such a Liturgy as we here tender we may not be permitted to exercise our Ministry the Pens of those moderate Bishops will bear witness against you that were once employed as the Chief Defenders of that Cause we mean such as Reverend Bishop Hall and Usher who have published to the World that much less than this might have served to our fraternal Vnity and Peace Ans You before appealed to the Protestant Churches abroad now unto two Bishops of our own and with like Success 1. You say you have submitted to his Majestie 's Declaration you should have instanced wherein His Majesty there declares That having seen all the Liturgies that are extant and used in this part of the World he esteems that of