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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62502	Three treatises concerning the Scotish discipline 1. A fair warning to take heed of the same, by the Right Reverend Dr. Bramhall, Bishop of Derris : 2. A review of Dr. Bramble, late Bishop of London-Derry, his fair warning, &c. by R.B.G. : 3. A second fair warning, in vindication of the first, against the seditious reviewer, by Ri. Watson, chaplain to the Right Honorable the Lord Hopton : to which is prefixed, a letter written by the Reverend Dean of St. Burien, Dr. Creyghton.	R. B. G. A review of Doctor Bramble.; Bramhall, John, 1594-1663. Fair warning to take heed of the Scotish discipline.; Baillie, Robert, 1599-1662.; Watson, Richard, 1612-1685.; Creighton, Robert, 1593-1672.	1661 (1661)	Wing T1122; ESTC R22169	350,569	378

unchurch the greatest part of Christians and contract this Soveraigne excellencie to your selves Your Latin disputations when they come by course among the ignorant or yonger frie of your Ministrie doe but multiplie haeresies make them now and then in their heate blaspheme God more learnedlie then in their weeklie exercizes and Sermons As occasion shall serve I may helpe you hereafter to more instances then one of the like practice among some of your brethren abroad where every beardlesse boy for with such your Presbyterie every where abounds hath libertie to talke for I can not call 't disputing upon the highest mysteries the Trinitie Praedestination c. As considentlie to the shame of your religion as the gravest Doctour can determine in the chaire What of this may be tolerable among the learned super rotam materiam Is litle beter then a forme and litle decencie in that which approves not much improves lesse the abilities of the longest liver among you all Our aequivalent to this let it be what it will in our Archdeacons Visitation your friend Didoclaves turnes off with a jeer making as if the abilities of our Ministrie were inquir'd into after they were constituted leaders of the flocke Primum cre●…tur du●…ores gregis deinde siunt discipuli where as it is principallie to discerne the advancement by studie of what abilities they had at their ordination whereby the election of rural Deanes may be regulated persons know'n that are enriched by gifts befitting them to be Bishops Your experience shall not draw me into an unnecessarie comparison between our English Clergie and the French or Dutch Divines whose ordination you are not ignorant hath been impeached by their adversaries whether deservedlie or no they are to looke to and their abilities resolv'd just like yours into an effusive readinesse of words But I bid defiance to you and your Countreymen of the Discipline to shew me among you all a Law'd an Andrewee a Montague a White to whom the English you name must give the guerdon of learning which I bele●…ve Reynolds caried not at Hampton Court Conference unlesse Perkins had more in his Chaine of p●…aedestination or Parker in his silie Arraignment of the Crosse. But how solide and singular soever was their learning their defection from the doctrines and practical praecedents of so many yeares standing among Catholike Christians makes their fayth in many things and their good parts comparitivelie in all but as chaffe to be blow'n away with the winde and the memoire of them to be winowed by our breath that the truer graine may be visible in Gods Church Avolent quantum volent pallea levis fidei quo●…unque Assltu tentationum eopurio●… mass a frumenti in horrea Domini reponetur It 's well your conscience can be enlarged in some litle charitie towards any of our Bishops though we may be justlie jealous of this kindnesse feare if we hear'd their names it may be placed upon persons inclined to your interest rather then commended to your good opinion by their m●…rit But whoso'er they be you meane we know you never prike any in the list of the learned but the best read men in Synopis's and systems in Common place bookes and Centurists or general lie in your select Reformed Fathers whom in a fallacie often times you perswade your Disciples to be the more proper men because standing you tell them upon the shoulders of the ancients when if set on even ground the longest arme they can make in true learning and eloquence will not reach halfe way up to their girdles But to proceed in some answer to your quaestion The Warner therefore speakes to you of ignorance because your Presbyteri●… parts with the greatest incentives and encouragements of studie Therefore of contempt because it quits those dignities which give praecedence to their persons and draw reverence to their function Therefore of beggerie because it diverts the Ecclestastical revenue and makes you but stipendiaries of the people Of this very conciselie yet fullie hath his late Majestie admonish'd you Chapt. 17. of E●…x Bu●… He that surveyes impartiallie the multitude of good Livings and other Clerical praeferments in England which might serve as a supplement to the bad will finde litle reason for any none at all for the greatest part of our Priests I meane those that had a title that were eidi●… cheirotonoumenoi as it is Can. 6. Concil Chalced to be begarlie contemptible for their want especiallie since those Pluralists you confesse were searce one of twentie that lived in splendour at Court●… or were Nonresident in the Countrey Such as were apolelymenoos ordinat ordained at large without title to any benefice or cure the Bishop was charged with them till provided for And they that complained of their povertie had no cause there being as you tell us such plentie in his palace The ignorance of our Clergie which it may be was not incomparable if we bring yours into the light was never greater then when Calvin and Knox had some heires and successours that crept into the praelacie degenerating from the austeritie of their Fathers who because they lov'd not the office never mean'd to discharge it Yet could dispense in their conscience with the title lawne sleeves into the bargain that under them they might take the revenues of our Bishops●… But when and where we had Austins and Chriso●… Lawds and Andrews's never cloud was dispelld with the rising sun so as ignorance at their asscent in the Ep●…scopate of our Church And they that heard not of the great studie in these Pr●…lates to remedie the evils brought in by the other are such as Zecharie speakes of that imagine evil against their brother their heart refusing to hear●…en and pulling away the shoulder and stopping the eare that they should not heare and making their hearts as an adam●… that they may not c. Those some that were most provident you meane I thinke most penurious in their families were those I told you of that made a trade of ●…ieir proeferinents and would dispense with any thing among the putitans but their purfes Such as those soms other that I named as they were apter to teach so were they know'n to be of beter behaviour and given to hosp●…a litie the requifites of a Bishop and accomplishments of ours whose parsimonie or providence for hu samilie was not that which advanced him a sumine to make a purchase If the su●…plusage of his ●…evenue could doe it in a cheape and plentifull Countrey J know not who have beter title to it then his heire Though as I am informed where I may trust meeting with a profess'd enmitie against his office whatsoever reserve of kindnesse was for his person This great purchase you meane was the recoverie of lands sacrilegiouslie taken and deteined from the Church in the purs●… whereof as he spared no endeavour so it should seem

a●… much abjured Presbyterie that praetends for Royaltie by the engagement that hath renounc'd it as you Episcopacie by the Covenant may they condition for their owne confused Jndependencie three yeares and as much longer as till you and they agree may they tell you that can never be because they are engag'd and in no hazard to reerect the roten stooles of English Scotizing repentance the corrupt classes of your Presbyters which the same sword hath ten times more justlie cut downe then it set them up But I see your full and formal consent findes no such good footing in your fallacie and therefore falls at length to a possibilitie of defect which you praesume with much facilitie to have supplied His Majestie that now is hath much to thanke you for that at the first you will make him as glorious a King as you made not his Royal father but after so many yeares experience of his reigne That being at libertie not onelie in his person from your prisons but in his reputation from the clogges of those calumnies you cast upon the guiltnesse innocencie of his Praedecessour you will advance him beyond all those sufferances that were Solemne praeparations to his murder and in primo imperij momento as in ultimo you did before hold him by the haire onelie not as yet permit the Independent hand to cut his throat untill forsooth he hath taken breath to supplie that wherein his too scrupulous too pusillanimous father fainted And then crowne him with ribbons and flowers for the fater sacrifice of the two by the giving up his honour and salvation beyond a life the onelie leane oblation of Charles the first But may His Majestie say you easilie supplie what his father travaild for without satisfaction to the uttermost limits of reason and conscience beyond the farthest excusable adventures of any Praedecessours in his three Kingdomes or out of them hazarding allmost to despaire his memorie with pious posteritie especiallie at that distance as shall not repraesent distinctlie every angle of the necessitie he was driven to and his soul to no other assurance of pardon then what the integritie of his repentance not so infalliblie haereditarie as his miseries and his glorious martyrdom afterwards helpt him to Would he thinke you so readilie but for a whisper of pernicious counsel in his eares passe by unregarded his fathers charge to persevere in the orthodoxe religion of England and hearken to the Devill of Rebellion whom he knowes well enough though turnd into a Angel of Reformation Can he so easilie after three or fower weekes conference at the Haghe with two ignorant Presbyters and but twice as many leaden headed Laikes have his reason convinc'd his consience satisfied which is Royal Father could not in so many yeares conversation with the ablest Divin●…s devout consultations had with the Living God himselfe by his prayers and his dead Yet livelie oracles of the Holie Word in his watches Or would he so readilie without it give up his Fathers invincible reserve to the irrcparable injurie of the Church his people his heire or successour in his Kingdomes Was he requir'd and intreated by Charles the first as his Father and his King in case he should never see his face againe not to suffer his heart to receive the least checke against or disaffection from the true Religion established in the Church of England And can he so easilie even while that pretious bloud hath dyed his garments in purple and being the Defender's of the fayth speakes the same language and calls every morning he puts them on for the same vengeance as once did the firstborne of the faythfull cast such requests and requisites behind him quit the true Christian guard he is charg'd with and desert all his constant subjects that must persevere in their religious profession according to the puritie of our canon Will he rather then want weare a crowne which is not wortb taking up or enjoining upon such dishonourable unconscionable termes And will he so readilie beare the infamous brand to all posteritie of being the first Christian King in his Kingdome who consented to the oppression of Gods Church and the Fathers of it exposing their persons to penvrie and their sacred functions to vulgar contempt Will he so easilie because his treasure exhausted his reven●…e deteind be tempted to use such prosane reparations if not acting consenting to perjurious and sacriligious rapines Or will he so readilie instead of huckes give holy things unto sivine and the Church's bread not onelie the crumbes of it unto dogs This his Royal Father durst not for feare a coale from Gods alter should set such a sire on his throne and his consience as could hardlie be quenched Nor in all likelihood will this ever obsequious sonne whom you call I hope in expectation of no such concessions the most sweet and ingenious of Princes unlesse such furies as you fright his conscience away while his tongue doubleth in an uncertaine consent having from your pens practices nothing but insuperable horrour and inevitable destruction in his sight Where in if ever you unhapilie praevaile may the same Royal tongue be seasonablie touch'd with a coale of a beter temper before the unquenchable fire of despaire catch hold of his soul or that of vengeance of his throne May it call for the fountaine of living waters to wash away the bloud of his slame subjects whose soules lie under the altar crying aloud for judgement and quaestioning its delay May that ountaine deriue it selve into the head and heart of this otherwise innocent King and day and night flow out at his eyes in torrents of teares for himselfe in no soloecisine the Virgin Father of his people And may at last his robes be wash'd white in the bloud of the Lambe and God wipe away all teares from his eyes Having payd in dutie this conditional devotion which I wish as frivolous and needlesse as your praesumption is malicious unlikelie I proceed to vindicate the Bishops discourse which J can not see how in sense may be sayd to fright the Kings conscience by asserting his right and undeniable praerogative the sinewes whereof you would shrinke up into nothing The Legislative power is not here stated or determined by his Lordship onelie the King call'd supreme Legislatour which he is What comment tries have been made of it to the praejudice of the right and custome of Parliaments shall be spoken to when you tell us which of his brethren and what in their writings it is you meane No right nor custome can be adjusted to them in your case which is vowing to God and sweating one unto another to change the lawes of the Realme c. by the sword without and against the King different from the sense of your Commissioners who would have the Legislative power aswell as the Militia to be the Kings For that power

and before him his Father his Grandmother his great Grandmother did all to their cost Then in plain English what is this political Power to call Synods to preside in Synods and to ratifie Synods which these good men give to the Magistrate and magnifie so much I shall tell the truth It is a duty which the Magistrate ows to the Kirk when they think necessary to have a Synod convocated to strengthen their summous by a civil Sanction to secure them in comming to the Synod returning from the Synod to provide them good accommodation to protect them from dangers to defend their Rights and Priviledges To compel obstinate persons by civil Laws and punishments to submit to their censures and decrees What gets the Magistrate by all this to himself He may put it all in his eye and see never a whit the worse For they declare expresly that neither all the power nor any part of the power which Synods have to deliberate of or to define Ecclesiastical things though it be in relation to their own Subjects doth flow from the Magistrate but because in those things which belong to the outward man mark the reason the Church stands in need of the help of the Magistrate Fair fall an ingenuous confession they attribute nothing to the Magistrate but onely what may render him able to serve their own turns and supply their needs I wish these men would think a little more of the distinction between habitual and actual Jurisdiction After a School-master hath his license to teach yet his actuall Jurisdiction doth proceed from the Parents of his Scholars And though he enjoy a kind of Supremacy among them he must not think that this extinguisheth either his own filial duty or theirs Like this power of presiding politically in Synods is the other power which they give him of reforming the Church that is when the State of the Church is corrupted but not when it is pure as they take it for granted that it is when the Jurisdiction is in their own hands Although godly Kings and Princes sometime by their own Authority when the Kirk is corrupted and all things out of order place Ministers and restore the true service of the Lord after the example of some godly Kings of Judah and divers godly Emperours and Kings also in the light of the New Testament yet where the Ministery of the Kirk is once lawfully constituted and they that are placed do their office faithfully all godly Princes and Magistrates ought to hear and obey their voice and reverence the Majesty of the Son of God speaking in them Leave ●…his jugling who shall judge when the Church is corrupted the Magistrates or Church-men if the Magistrates why not over you as well as others If the Church-men why not others as well as you here is nothing to be answered but to beg the question that they onely are the true Church Hear another witnesse in evil and troublesome times and in a lap ed state of affairs when the order instituted by God in the Church is degenerated to Tyranny to the trampling upon the true Religion and oppressing the Professours of it when nothing is sound the godly Magistrate may do some things which ordinarily are not lawfull c. But ordinarily and of common right in Churches already constituted if a man flie to the Magistrate complaining that he is injured by the abuse of Ecclesiastical Discipline or if the Sentence of the Presbyteries displease the Magistrate either in point of Discipline or of Faith he must not therefore draw such causes to a civil trib●…nal nor introduce a Political Papacy And as the Magistrate hath power in extraordinary causes when the Church is wholly corrupted to reform Ecclesiastical abuses so if the Magistrate shall Tyrannize over the Church it is lawfull to oppose him by certain wayes and means extraordinary how ever ordinarily not to be allowed This is plain dealing the Magistrate cannot lawfully reform them but in cases extraordinary and in cases extraordinary they may lawfully ●…eform the Magistrate by means not to be ordinarily allowed that is by force of arms See the principles from whence all our miseries and the losse of our gracious Master hath flowed and learn to detest them They give the Magistrate the custody of both tables so they do give the same to themselves they keep the second table by admonishing him he keeps the first table by assisting them they reform the abuses of the first table by ordinary right of the second table extraordinarily He reforms the abuses against the second table by ordinary right and the abuses against the first table extraordinarily But can the Magistrate according to their learning call the Synod to an account for any thing they do can he remedy the errours of a Synod either in Doctrine or Discipline No if Magistrates had power to change or diminish or restrain the Rights of the Church the Condition of the Church should be worse and their liberties lesse under a Christian Magistrate than under an Heathen For say they Parliaments and supreme Senates are no more infallible then Synods and in matters of Faith and Discipline more apt to err●… And again the Magistrate is not judge of Spiritual causes controverted in the Church And if he decr●…e any thing in such businesses according to the wisdom of the flesh and not according to the rule of Gods Word and the wisdom which is from above he must give an account of it unto God Or may the supreme Magistrate oppose the execution of their disciplin practised in their Presbyteries or Synods by Laws or prohibitions No it is wickednesse If he do so far abuse his authority good Christians must rather suffer extremities than obey him Then what remedy hath the Magistrate if he find himself grieved in this case He may desire and procure a review in another National Synod that the matter may be lawfully determined by Ecclesiastical judgement Yet upon this condition that not withstanding the future review the first sentence of the Synod be executed without delay This is one main branch of Popery and a grosse incrochment upon the right of the Magistrate CHAP. III. That this Discipline robs the Magistrate of the last appeal of his Subjects The second flows from this The last appeal ought to be the Supream Magistrate or Magistrates within his or their Dominions as to the highest Power under God And where it is not so ordered the Common-wealth can injoy no tranquillity as we shall see in the second part of this discourse By the Laws of England if any man find himself grieved with the sentence or consistoriall proceedings of a Bishop or of his officers he may appeal from the highest judicatory of the Church to the King in Chancery who useth in that case to grant Commissions under the great Seal to Delegates expert in the Laws of the Realm who have

to take Huntley in favour if you doe I will oppose You shall choose whether you will lose Huntly or me for us both you cannot keep It is nothing with them for a pedant to put himselfe into the ballance with one of the prime and most powerfull Peers of the Realme The poor Orthodox Clergy in the meane time shall be undone their straw shall be taken from them and the number of their bricks be doubled They shall lose the comfortable assurance of an undoubted succession by Episcopall Ordination and put it to a dangerous question whether they be within the pale of the Church They shall be reduced to ignorance contempt and beggery They shall lose an ancient Liturgy warranted in the most parts of it by all in all parts of it by the most publike formes of the Protestant Churches whereof a short time may produce a parallel to the view of the world and be enjoyned to prate and pray non-sence everlastingly For howsoever formerly they have had a Liturgy of their owne as all other Christian Churches have at this day yet now it seems they allow no prayers but extemporary So faith the information from Scotland It is not lawfull for a man to tye himself or be tyed by others to a prescript form of words in prayer and exhortation Parents shall lose the free disposition of their own children in marriage if the childe desire an husband or a wife and the parent gainst and their request and have no other cause then the common of men have to wit lack of goods or because the other party is not of birth high enough upon the childes desire the Minister is to travail with the parents and if he finde no just cause to the contrary may admit them to maerriage For the work of God ought not to be hindered by the corrupt affections of worldly men They who have stripped the father of their Countrey of his just right may make bold with fathers of families and will not stick to exclude all other fathers but themselves out of the fifth commandement The doctrine is very high but their practise is yet much more high The Presbyteries will compell the wronged parent to give that childe as great a portion as any of his other children It will be ill newes to the Lawyerrs to have the moulter taken away from their Mills upon pretence of scandall or in order to Religion to have their sentences repealed by a Synod of Presbyters and to receive more prohibitions from Ecclesiasticall Courts then ever they sent thither All Masters and mistresses of families of what age or condition soever must come once a year before the Presbyter wish their housholds to be examined personally whether they be fit to receive the Sacrament in respect of their knowledge and otherwise And if they suffer their children or servants to continue in wilfull ignorance What if they cannot help it they must be excommunicated It is probable the persons catechised could often better instruct their Catechists The common people shall have an High-Commission in every parish and groan under the Arbitrary dec●…ees of ignorant unexperienced Governours who know no Law but their own wills who observe no order but what they list from whom lyes no appeale but to a Synod which for the shortnesse of its continuance can afford which for the condition of the persons wil afford them little relief If there arise a private jar between the parent and the child or the husband and the wife these domesticall Iudges must know it and censure it Scire volunt secreta do●…us atque inde timeri And if there have been any suit or difference between the Pastor and any of hi flock or between Neighbour and Neighbour be sure it will not be forgotten in the sentence The practice of our Law hath been that a Iudge was rarely permitted to ride a circuit in his owne countrey least private interest or respects might make him partiall Yet a Country is much larger then a Parish and a grave learned Iudge is presumed to have more temper then such home-bred fellowes Thus wee see what a Pandoras box this pretended holy Discipline is full of manifold mischiefes and to all orders of men most pernicious CHAP. XIII That the Covenant to introduce this Discipline is void and wicked with a short Conclusion BVt yet the conscience of an Oath sticks deep Some will plead that they have made a Covenant with God for the introduction of this Discipline Oaths and Vowes ought to be made with great judgement and broken with greater My next task therefore must be to demonstrate this clearly that this Covenenant is not binding but meerly void and not onely void but wicked so as it is necessary to break it and impious to observe it The first thing that cracks the credit of this new Covenant is that it was devised by strangers to the dishonour of cur Nation imposed by Subjects who wanted requisite power upon their Soveraign and fellow-subjects extorted by just feare of unjust sufferings So as a may truly say of many who took this Covenant that they sinned in pronouncing the words with their lips but never consented with their hearts to make any vow to God Again error and deceit make those things voluntary to which they are incident especially when the errour●…s nor meerly negative by way of concealement of truth when a man knowes not what he doth but positive when he beleeves he doth one thing and doth the clean contrary and that not about some inconsiderable accidents but about the substantiall conditions As if a Physitian either out of ignorance or malice should give his Patient a deadly poyson under the name of a cordial and bind him by a solemn oath to take it the Oath is void necessary to be broken unlawfull to be kept if the patient had known the truth that it was no cordiall that it was poyson he would not have swom to take it Such an errour there is in the Covenant with a witnesse to gull men with a strange unknown lately devised platforme of Discipline most pernicious to the King and Kingdom as if it were the very institution of Christ of high advantage to the King and Kingdom to gull them with that Covenant which King James did sometimes take as if that and this were all one whereas that Covenant issued out by the Kings Authority this Covenant without his Authority against his Authority that Covenant was for the Lawes of the Realm this is against the Lawes of the Realm that was to maintain the Religion established this to overthrow the Religion established But because I will not ground my Discourse upon any thing that is disputable either in matter of Right or Fact And in truth because I have no need of them I sorgive them these advantages onely with this gentle memento That when other forraign Churches and the Church of Scotland it self as appeares by their publike Liturgy used in those

anomia ergapiria the very shops or Laboratories of rebellion The Church is not dissolv'd where dissipline's not executed if it were it should be where it is at the pleasure of the Magistrate suspended To imagine a final ineapacitie of meeting by perpetual succession of Tyrants hath litle either of reason or conscience it assaults the certitude of fayth in Gods promises advanceth infidelitie in his providence But to give you at length your passe from this paragraph Such as you in a schismatical Assemblie may have frequentlie in Scotland pinn'd the character of erroneous upon an upright Magistrate a Disciplinarian rebell to save his credit call'd a Royal moderate proclamation a tyrdnous edist The Bishops third allegation you finde too heavie therefore let fall halfe of it by the way You have too good a conceit of your Parliaments bountie though had they been as prodigal as you make them it litle becomes you to proclaime them bankrupts by their favour Their Acts were allwayes ratified by your Princes any which whom tell me one wherein this right Royal was renounc'd of suspending seditious Ministers from their office or if cause were depriving them of their places It were a senselesse thing to suppose that the Bishop would denie to the Church a proprietie to consult determine about religion doctrine haeresie c. Yet its likelie His Lordship allowes it not in that mode which makes her power so absolute as to define consummate authorize the whole businesse by her selfe He hath heard the King to be somewhere accounted a mixt person thinkes it may be that the holie oyle of his unction is not onelie to swime on the top be sleeted off at the pleasure of a peevish Disciplinarian Assemblie but to incorporate with their power The lawes of England have not been hitherto so indulgent of libertie to our Convocation but that the King in the cases alledged did ever praedominate by his supremacie And the Parliament hath stood so much upon priviledge that if Religion fetch'd not her billet from West-minster the could have but a cold lodging at St. Pauls The booke of Statutes is no portable manual for us whom your good brethren have sent to wander in the world yet I can helpe you to one An. 1. Eliz. that restor'd the title of supreme to the Queen withall provided that none should have authoritie newlie to judge any thing to be haeresie not formerlie so judged but the High Court of Parliament with the assent of the Clergie in their Convocation Where the Convocations assent by the sound should not be so determinative as the Parliaments judgement which right or wrong here it assumes As touching appeales because you will have somewhat here sayd though it must be otherwhere handled No law of Scotland denies an appeale in things Civile or Ecclesiastike to the King One yet in force enjoines subjection unto them the Act of Parliament in May 1584. which was That any persons either spiritual or Temporal praesuming to decline the judgement of His Majestie His Councel shall incurre the paine of treason What you call a complaint is in our case an appeale what taking order is executing a definitive judgement without traversing backe the businesse to Ecclesiastike Courts or holding over the rod of a coercive power to awe them into due regular proceedings I confesse this the Presbyters in Scotland never made good by their practice Their appeales were still retrograde from the supreme Magistrate his Councel to a faction of Nobles or a seditious partie of the people Such is that of Knox printed at large Or which in effect is the same The Scotish Assemblies when they had no power appeald to providence when they had whereupon they might relie unto the sword In case of Religion or doctrine if the General Assemblie which is not infallible erre in judgement determîne any thing contrarie to the word of God the sense of Catholike Antiquitie the King may by a court of Orthodoxe Delegates consisting of no more then two or three Prelates if he please receive better information of truth establish that in his Church Or which often hapens in Scotland If the Presbyters frame Assemblie Acts derogatorie to the rights of his Crowne prejudicial to the peace of his people the King may personallie justifie his owne praerogative and keep the mischiefe they invented from becoming a praecedent in law This doth not the word of God nor any aequitie prohibite The judgement of causes concerning deprivations of Ministers in the yeare 1584 you would have had come by way of appellation to the General Assemblie there take final end but this you could not make good within yourselves nor doe I finde upon your proponing craving it was then or at any time granted you by the King Two yeares before you adventurd not onelie for your priviledge in that … but against the Magistrates puting preachers to silence…hindering staying or disannulling the censures of the Church in examining any offender Rev. In the Scotes Assemblies no causes are agitated but such as the Parliament hath agreed to be Ecclesiastike c. Ans If any Parliament have agreed all causes of what nature soever to be Ecclesiastike by reduction so of the Church cognizance you have that colour for your pragmatical Assemblies but if you admit of any exception you have for certaine transgressed yourlimits there being no crime nor praetended irregularitie whatsoever that stood in view or came to the knowledge of the world that hath escaped your discussion censure not been serv'd up in your supplicates to be punished Rev. … No processe about any Church rent was ever cognosced upon in Scotland but in a Civile Court Ans. Your imperious though supplicatorie prohibition 1576. I allreadie mention'd In the Assemblie at Edenburgh April 24. 1576. You concluded…That you might proceed against unjust possessours of the patrimonie of the Church…by doctrine admonition last of all if no remedie be with the censures of the Church In that at Montrosse June 24. 1595. About setting Benefices with diminution of the rental c. you appointed Commissioners with power to take oaths call an-inquest of men of best knowledge in the Countrey about to proceed against the Ministrie with sentence of deposition Master Tho. Craig the Solicitour for the Church to pursue the Pensiionars in Caitnes for reduction of their pensions If in no particular you actuallie proceeded to Church censures It was because you foresaw they would not restraine the corruption no more of the laitie then the Clergie then your menasing petitions sometime obtein'd strength from some partial or pusillanimous Parliament or when you praevail'd not you wrapt this up with the rest of your discipline put all to the processe of a warre And this was you know the mysterious sense of Knox's method upon good experience praescrib'd on his death bed First

truths ordained for peace but encountred with troubles and their abettours expos'd to susteime the envie and obloquie of the world Therefore alasse its in vaine for you to invite them to come nearer to hang out like a dead cat in her skin unlesse you meane to have every one of them moral the rest of the fable with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But to leave off speaking in parables I desire the reader in plaine English to marke the base ingratitude of an unworthie Presbyter In that when a most ingenuous peace-desiring Prince for him he meanes when he speakes of his Praelatical adversaries invaded by audacious importunitie encompassed with all external visible necessitie placing himselfe upon the very pinacle of Christi-an charitie shall yeild all that the softest gentlest Casuist can indulge and that upon such conditions as how easie soever the perfidious contractours litle thinke to make good he must be argued with upon the ominous advantage of hi●… owne gratuitie praetended from his adventurous kindnesse to be demonstrativelie convinc'd to give up the rest of that which rebellious license schismatical singularitie and degenerate malice have now so devested into a new creature as neither law custome nor honour can call that English Bishop which religion instituded and reformation confirmed But a crou'd of guiltie conjured malefactours presseth shame and the proverbe to nothing so that ingratum si dixeris nihil dixeris Seneca knew it who had studied the point and experienc'd the practice Pudorum tollit multitudo peccantium desinet esse probri loco commune maledictum But to send you backe some of your owne logike and language If this naked bird which you so pleasantlie play with be a new creature because the feathers are pluckt then you must confesse that old creature revested with those Euaugelical beauties and Royal graces which once it possessed to be that know'n true English Bishop that in honour law custome if not in conscience which I need not suppose is to be inviolablie maintain'd when it shall be made to appeare as it may very easilie and hath been very frequentlie that such an order not much differentlie fashion'd and habited ever was and ever is to be in the Christian Church To make good the mutual toleration indented for between your sectarian brethren and your alltogetheras sectarian selves you closelie decline the warners confidence which avowes those texts of Scripture you wrest against Bishops with as much colour of reason and more truth the Independents may urge against Presbyters being resolv'd since you finde they can make you their province at pleasure if not command a transmigration of your Euangel to argue no more against them then to fight The triumph you make in two painted Syllogismes is very improperlie plac'd before the victorie where though you ride like a George on horsebacke in a pageant you will passe for no beter then a dumbe shew and with your wooden launce be mistaken by none but children and fooles for that primitive armed Saint that kill'd the dragon If you cast not your texts in a couple of better molds your workemanship will beare as litle the image of Gods word as your selves doe of the reasonable men that he created Were His Lp. at better leisure his great promises would reengage him in more necessarie imployments then answering every silie Presbyter in his follie but his Acolythus servant if not because he hath taken up so much of the similitude allreadie will for once and it may be oftner follow Solomons advice in the next verse seeing you so very wise in your owne conceit The first text you are medling with is Ephes 4. 11. whence your imaginarie argument not to be denied adoration is this Maj All the officers that Christ has appointed in his Church for the ministrie of the word are either Apostles Euangelists Prophets Pastours or Doctours Mi But Bishops are none of these five Ergo. You pleade custome for the free unquaestionable passage of your major which you must give me leave to obstruct first excepting against the improprietie of your termes being such as may evacuate your argument the Ministrie of the word when the Bishops discourse is about the regiment of the persons to whom the word allreadie is ministred Secondlie demanding to have it under Saint Pauls hand whether the offices he mentions of Apostolate prophecie c were by Christs institution for the personal perfecting of Saints in a Church established and not as the word seemes rather to signifie Pros ton Catartismon toon hagioon for jointing or knitting new Saints to the Church new membres to the bodie of Christ in the propagation of his gospel so aedisying the bodie of Christ by the worke of the Ministrie which in the next verse seemes to end in the unitie of fayth that is the general conversion of nations to Christianitie Thirdlie whether this enumeration of the Apostle's be universal to which 〈◊〉 finde more particulars added 1. Co. 12. 28. among them dynameis Kyberneseis Powers governments the former of which that you may not cavill about superinfused gifts he makes as much personal or persons as that of Apostle prophet Teacher vers 29. Besides that he expresselie calleth the Elders of the Church of Ephesus Bishops tells them they were instituted by the holie spirit which we know came downe to fulfill the promise by the mission of the sonne so they must passe upon account as officers appointed by Christ. Three fifths of your Minor thus you prove Bishops are not Apostles Euangelists nor prophets because they are confessed extraordinarie temporarie Bishops ordinarie perpetual To which I answer First That Bishops are Apostles in their ordinarie power of ordination jurisdiction though not in their extraordinarie of working miracles speaking with diverse tongues c. And this Tertullian hath sayd above 1300. yeares since who arguing with the haeretikes about succession bids them turne over their records shew that their first Bishop was an Apostle or Apostolical because personallie ordained by one of them This the Apostolical Churches could doe as that of Smyrna shewes Polycarp because placed there by Saint Iohn That of Rome Clement because ordained by St. Peter And such Bishops as these he calls Apostolici seminis traduces If they be Apostolical grafts good Mr. Baylie from what tree thinke you were they taken and of what may they without arrogancie beare the name Other of the Ancients call'd Timothie Bishop of Ephesus an Apostle among whom what enterfeering there was of these two termes you may reade in Theodoret upon 1. Tim. Jn the like sense may they be sayd to be Euangclists aswell as in the Revelation they are called Angele who praeside over the preaching of the Gospell and publication of it to them that have not heard Euangelion Kerygma being the same And they either are or should be Prophets in one kinde according to Saint Ambrose