fancied themselves to be swoln to Giants are charged of old by many grave learned and honest men as very much treading in the Popes steps that is either upon the toes or heeles or hands or necks or heads of Kings and Soveraigne Magistrates The experience of which gave it seemes to King James such dreadfull apprehensions of that way that he equally feared Presbytery and Popery when they thundered with Excommunication and great guns too which had so filled Scotland many yeares with great inquietudes in his Mothers reigne and in his Minority that he thought them no better than godly rebellions in order to promote private and partiall factious and deformed Reformations Nor was Queen Elizabeth without her feares on this side when she not onely heard the Tragedies of Scotland but saw and felt the menacings and agitations in England even upon this account which the event hath taught us and all the world were no childish terriculaments nor brutish thunderbolts So that both high Presbytery and low Independency are by many wise men judged inconsistent with a just and complete Monarchy no lesse than with a right Episcopacy standing in the same posture of enmity against these as they pretend to do against the Papacy or Popery It will be very well if Reformed Presbytery can wipe off those staines and suspicious as easily and truly as Primitive Episcopacy did avoid them and our late Reformed and Reforming Bishops in England who alwaies joyned together fear God and honor the King without any Ifs or And 's without any reserves or salvo's save onely those which betray men to serve sin and Satan rather than to suffer with and for a good conscience in the service of God And however some Christian Bishops as St. Ambrose St. Chrysostome St. Athanasius St. Gregory Nazianzen St. Basil and others did sometime in weighty and exemplary cases vindicate the honor of Christian Religion and the Authority of Ecclesiasticall Discipline before and against some Christian Princes whose errors or passions had either swerved them from or transported them beyond that Orthodoxy Charity Justice and Moderation which became Christians as in the revenge taken by Theodosius upon the Citizens of Thessalonica and in other passages of State which tended to the publick scandall of Religion then countenanced by the Lawes and professed by the Princes yet still those great and good Bishops both preached and practised all civill respect and loyall subjection to them as their Soveraignes they never divided what God had joyned together they followed Christs Oracle to give to Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that are Gods the first were set out by the Imperiall Constitutions the second by the cleare Canons of Gods word interpreted not by every private mans new imagination but by the Catholick judgement and practise of the chief Fathers of the Church All Orthodox Bishops Presbyters and people ever held it to be a Vile Unchristian Antichristian Diabolick petulancy to speak evil of dignities either Civil or Ecclesiastick to curse the Gods or Rulers of Church and Common-weale to use railing accusations against their Superiours The rough garb of Satyrs was never thought comely for the Pens Pulpits or hands of Church-men it was a Solecisme in Christian Religion to have Ministers tongues sharp swords their mouths open sepulchers their sermons sarcasmes their prayers pasquils their invocations of God invectives against their Governours whose Authority was still sacred though their exorbitancies might be blameable What good Bishops and Presbyters eares would not have tingled then to have heard those filthy and dirty ditties which were tuned in England to the pipe of Martin Mar-prelate and Penry's Supplication to the Devil to which some men danced who were then thought zealous for Presbytery making sport at such lewd and infamous scurrilities against their Governours in Church and State as were fitter to have fetched teares from their eyes when they saw not onely worthy and Reformed Bishops but the whole Reformed Church of England and the Majesty of the Prince so torne and bespattered by those Borborites those uncleane Spirits The grave and modest sort of Bishops Presbyters and People who otherwaies much desired a just and orderly Reformation of Religion yea and valued the notable parts and zealous industry of Luther yet they extremely blushed at and disliked that outragious reply which his over-boyling heat made against our King Henry the Eighth when he wrote for the defence of that which he thought true Religion whose error in Luthers judgment did in no sort deserve so rude so scornfull so scurrilous and uncomely a reply in which sober men pittied Luthers native passion and rusticity which were more like an unbred and unbridled Monk than a meek Disciple of Christ or a zealous Preacher of his Gospel or an exact follower of St. Paul who publickly checked himself for the reproch and disdainfull speech he used ignorantly against the High Priest Ananias who probably had attained that dignity as then the fashion was among the Jewes by very sinister meanes yea and had upon the place done St. Paul a palpable injury commanding him to be smitten on the mouth when he should have heard his defence T is true Luther afterward used some soft recantations to the King but in vain it being looked upon as his Policy more than his Piety or Humility hoping thereby to advance his party to which he saw the King in some points was now driven more than enclined by the breach he had made with the Pope But it is hard to wash the hands of any person or party cleane whose insolency hath once cast dirt in the face of Soveraigne Princes or chief Magistrates who are the brightest visible image and glory of God among mankind being the Lords annointed as David called Saul now forsaken of God for his forsaking God first Although the actions or opinions of our Superiours in some things be lesse commendable as were those of Constantius and other Arrian Emperours yet are they not to be reviled in any case by those that will not deserve the name and fate of Shimei whom Abisha's loyall zeal cals a dead dog for his barking against his Lord the King now in his Eclipse and distresse whose cursing insolency that valiant Commander would presently have revenged with the lesse of his head and however Davids humility and clemency did pardon him at present yet afterward vengeance pursued him while he foolishly following his fugitive servants beyond his bounds and teddar forfeited his word and life to King Solomons just and wise severity the royall pardon not availing to protect so petulant and insolent a disloyalty which God would have punished though it were by man pardoned Yea some grave men have thought that those two learned and eloquent Bishops St. Chrysostom and St. Gregory of Nazianzum the one in his resolute but rough carriage to the Empresse Eudoxia the other in his sharp Steleticks against Julian
exercised to each other their numerous conventions their fervent devotions their reverent attentions their unanimous communions their cheerfull Amens those blessed hopes and unspeakable comforts which thousands enjoyed both living and dying in the obedience to and communion with the Church of England All these holy fruits and blessed effects as most certain seals and letters testimoniall were I conceive most pregnant evidences and valid demonstrations of true Religion and of a true Church so happily setled by the joynt consent and publick piety of this Nation that it was not in reason or conscience in modesty or ingenuity to be suddenly changed much lesse rashly deserted and rudely abandoned chiefly upon the giddinesse of common people or by the boysterousnesse of common souldiers whose buff-coats and armour cannot be thought by any wise and worthy Souldiers to be like Aarons breast-plate the place from which Priests and people are to expect the constant oracles of Urim and Thummim Light and Reformation Such of that profession as are truly Militant Christians that is humbly wise and justly valiant as I hope many Souldiers may be will think it enough for them modestly to learn and generously to defend as Constantine the Great said to the Nicene Bishops not imperiously to dictate or boldly to innovate matters of Religion in such a Church and Nation as England which was I am sure and I think still is furnished with many able Divines many Evangelicall Priests and Ministers of the Lord whose lips preserve saving knowledge who have many a one of them more learning and well-studied Divinity in them than a whole Regiment nay than an whole Army of ordinary Souldiers whose weapons are not proper for a spirituall warfare nor apt as Davids hands either to build or repair a Church otherwaies than as Labourers who may possibly assist the true Ministers who are and ought to be the Master-builders of Gods house whose skill is not to destroy mens bodies but to save their souls not to kill but to make alive It must ever be affirmed to Gods glory because without any vanity or flattery that the Church of England for this last golden century came not behind the very best Reformed Churches nor any other that profess Christianity in any part of the world which is not my particular testimony who may seem partiall because I unfeignedly professe my self a son and servant of it but it is and hath been the joynt suffrage of all eminent Divines in all forraign Reformed Churches who have written and spoken of the Church of England ever since its setled Reformation not with commendation onely but admiration especially those who coveting to partake of the gifts and labours of English Divines have taken the pains to learn our hard and untoward language Yea I may farther with truth and modesty affirm that saving the extraordinary gifts of Tongues Miracles and Martyrdomes the Church of England since its setled Reformation under Queen Elizabeth of blessed memory came not much short of the Primitive Churches in the first and second Centuries Which had at least some of them as I shall after shew rather more than fewer ceremonies partly Judaick partly Christian yea far greater errors and abuses were found among some of them than were generally among any professors in communion with the Church of England witnesse those touching the Resurrection of the body and in the celebrating of the Lords Supper among the Corinthians The first some denied the other many received covetously uncharitably drunkenly disorderly undecently in the Church of Corinth Besides the scandalous fact of the incestuous person with which they were not so offended as became Christians they were also full of factions and carnall divisions going to law one with another before Infidels undervaluing the blessed Apostle S. Paul and other faithfull labourers preferring false Apostles and deceitfull workers with no lesse folly than ingratitude challenging in many things disorderly and uncomely liberties which amounted to clokes of malice and a licentiousnesse tending to confusion These and other corruptions were among Christians of an Apostolicall Church newly planted carefully watred and excellently constituted Nor are there lesse remarkable faults found by the Spirit of God in six of the seven Asian Churches mentioned in the second and third Chapters of the Revelation while yet they were under Apostolicall inspection For the Devil who is a great rambler but no loyterer began betimes to sow his tares in Gods field by false Apostles unruly walkers deceitfull workers meer hucksters of Religion schismatick Spirits proud Impostors sensuall Separatists wanton Jezebels curious and cowardly Gnosticks with all the evil brood of Nicolaitans Simonians Cerinthians and other crafty Hypocrites brochers of lies patrons of lewdnesse extremely earthly and sensuall yet vaunters in proud swelling words of spirituall and heavenly gifts but more covetous of filthy lucre and sedulous to serve their own bellies than zealous to serve the Lord or to save souls In all which instances of diseases growing even upon any of those Primitive Churches however Christians are commanded to repent and do their first works to keep themselves pure from contagion private or epidemick yet are they no where put upon the pernicious methods of reproching rending and separating from the very frame and constitution of their respective Churches as they were holy Polities Constitutions or Communions setled by the Apostles in decent subordinations and convenient limits of Ecclesiasticall order government authority and jurisdiction without which all humane societies civil or sacred run to meer Chaosses and heaps of confusion Which as the God of order and peace perfectly abhors so he no where by any Divine precept or approved example recommends any such practises to Christians under the name notion or intention of reforming abuses crept into any Churches presently to rend revile contemn divide destroy and make desolate the whole order polity frame and constitution of them which is very Christian and very commendable If the grand example of Divine Mercy was ready to spare Sodom upon Abrahams charitable intercession in case ten righteous persons had been found in that city and Jerusalem in case one man could have been found there who executed judgement and sought the truth how little are those men imitators of Gods clemency or Abrahams pity who have studied and still endeavour by all acts of power and policy utterly to destroy such a Church as England was in which many thousands of good Christians may undoubtedly be found who are constant adherers to the Faith gratefull lovers of the Piety and most pathetick deplorers of the miseries of the Church of England Whose excellent Christian state and Reformed constitution deserved much better treatment from those at least who were her children carefully bred born and brought up by her however now they appear many of them better fed than taught more puffed up with the surfeits of undigested Knowledge than increased in humble
these Uses and to invest in Gods name his Church or Ministers as a holy Corporation in such a right as is hard to imagine how it can be ever justly alienated till the free consent of all parties concerned be had and declared First the present possessors they must freely resign their personal and temporary Right which they had no way forfeited Secondly next the whole Nation as Church and State in Parlament and Convocation Prince Peers Clergy and Commons for themselves their Heirs and Successors must fully and freely remit their publick Interest Thirdly and lastly Gods Mind must be known that he is willing to be deprived either of that Service and Honor he and his Son Jesus Christ had or of those means for the Maintenance of it which were devoted to him Nor can any power that I know but onely Gods Omnipotence absolve the living and survivors from that right which the Donors had when yet living and that Bond which from them though dead yet still lies on the Consciences of those survivors who for ever stand bound to discharge their trust by observing as sacred the Will of the Dead which if once lawful is not to be made void wilfully and presumptuously If at any time publick necessities do drive men to some temporary dispensations and seisures yet these must be so recompensed afterward in quiet times as may keep them from being made beyond inconveniences intentional and eternal Injuries to God and his Church that it may be but a Borrowing and not a Robbing of God or his Church If neither the Ministers of Christ nor his Church nor the State nor God nor the Dead nor the Living have any right claim or Interest in such things whose they either once were or at present are as to the Possession Property Use and Enjoyment which way can any men that are meer strangers to them and had no special right in them make such claim and power to them as to dispose of them unless they were things so relinquished as none owned them or had never been in any mans rightful possession and so fell to those jure occupantis who first could seize on them without dispossessing any of them who had a right to them and challenged that right in Gods the Churches and their own name as by legal possession which under favour is not the case whence this great pleader either draws his Title or their supreme and superdivine right who undertook to alienate Bishops and other Church-lands which were neither relinquished nor resigned nor forfeited by God or Man Doubtless those supreme Disposers of that part of the publick Patrimony had either some other principles or higher dictates and dispensations than this Advocate either understands or can bring forth or else they will have much adoe to answer the Dead or the Living the Church or the State God or their own Consciences the present Age or Posterity For to pretend that Bishops and Episcopacy were but a superfluous and superstitious superstructure added to the government of Christs Church raised by Ambition and Superstition is not onely very untrue but very immodest considering the purity and sanctity of those primitive and catholick Churches which he knows had Bishops even from the Apostles dayes for the well being of all Churches To alledge that their Estates and Lordships were superfluous ill bestowed and ill used is to calumniate or envy so many worthy persons every way his equals at least that were Bishops Deans and Prebends in England who without peradventure were every way as Learned as Liberal as Unspotted as Useful as Beloved of God and man as Deserving their Estates and Preâ—erments as ever this pleader without disparagement was or is by any men on any side thought to deserve his Doctorship or Waâ—ford or St. Magnus or Pauls Lecture or any part and portion of Bishops Lands or Deans and Prebends Houses If this complaining Champion bring not forth greater speares and shields to defend that from Sacriledg which some men have not only suspected in all Ages but shrewdly charged actum est this Goliah will be overthrown by every little David that can but distinguish his right hand from his lâ—ft or knowes what belongs to meum and tuum to the doing to others as you would have done to your self agreeable to Lawes in force and principles of common justice If his weak and impotent allegations may go for current contrary to the sense of Jew and Gentile of Law and Gospel of the greatest Divines and ablest Lawyers of the wisest Princes and soberest Parlaments that ever were besides all Synods and Councills of the Church which he may suspect as partiall to their own interest if the little wax and small shot which this pleader claps to the bowl may over-bias the case against all those so many ponderous prejudices which have on all sides been alledged to secure Gods right and Religions interests actum est de Ecclesia such popular that I say not parasitick Pleas will in time so spread among the heady easie and greedy sort of common people that we may bid farewell to all things given for publick encouragement and reward to Learning and Religion to Preaching or Ruling Ministers yea to relieve the poor and Aged all these things will seem loose and free hereafter whenever any men that have a mind to it shall have it in their power or pleasure to take away all as superstitious or superfluous and to apply them to civil or secular uses A work to speak freely fitter for Mahometans than any Christians for the Ruiners rather than Reformers of Religion I wonder that this Pleader who is thought so great a Polititian doth not see that his Estate as a Presbyter is no lesse maligned and quarrelled at by many than the Bishops were and are by him Such as have seen the Masters Cabin made prize will they spare the Masters mate A small Prophet may without any great inspiration foresee and foretell that if some mens Spirits were left to their own sway they would not onely buy and sell or pull down Bishops Palaces Deanes and Prebends Houses and Cathedrall Churches but all Chancels and Churches and Steeples all Parsonage and Vicariage-Houses in fine all setled maintenance would be stripped and Religion with its Ministry exposed to its Primitive nakednesse which were no shame if it were attended with the Primitive innocency liberality gratitude love and chariâ—y which were in the first Christians who differed as much from the modern temper as giving all to and taking all from the Apostles the Governours and Ministers of Christs Church If the Plea be good in conscience before God and good men that whatever any men shall think given superfluously or superstitiously to any pious or publick use may be honestly alienated farewell all when every party in England hath acted its part according to its principles whereto the stimulations of this Pleader may contribute much with vulgar and Mammonitish minds nothing will be left in
possibly as Valiant Pious and Morall yet Wisdome being the highest humane endowment and politick or gubernative prudence being the noblest exercise of wisdome in this world for the publick and common good of mankind few of whom are fit to governe themselves or others it is but fit that greater publick incouragements and preferments of Honor and Estate should be given to these than onely to strength which alone is but brutall the endowment of a body which men have common with beasts but the other is proper to our reasonable soules by which we are not far from Angels and neer of kin to God In which excellencies since some Ministers may and do exceed others which makes these want Governours and the others fit to govern what is there of Humane or Divine Law that can be against so prudent so necessary an Order and Polity in the Church as Bishops are and ever have been Whose so envied Estates and Dignities were still no more than that double honour which the Apostle challengeth from all Christians as due to those that rule well and labour in the Word and Doctrine not onely by teaching and writing themselves but by taking care that others do so too within the limits of sober Life and sound Doctrine which works many yea most I hope of our Bishops did and all might yea should have done since the Reformation with as much paines and to as much publick good as this or any other Antiprelatist can pretend to So far was the case of Bishops and Deanes and Prebends different from that of Monks and Abbots which this great D. seeks to parallel as equally needlesse idle odious and pittiless when he cannot be ignorant that Bishops being immediate Successors to the Apostles with whom were anciently resident in Cities the Venerable Colledges of Presbyters which were Deanes and Prebends as their ordinary Counsel these must needs be much elder than any Monastick Orders unlesse he think Jo. Baptist began those Bishops were as placed by the Apostles ever owned in all Ages and Places and reverenced by all orderly Presbyters and Christian people yea and by all Christian Princes by whose pious munificence they were endowed with Revenues and Honors long before ever Presbyters had their Glebes apart and Tithes appropriate to them yet were these Bishops and the Colledges of Presbyters more severely used than the Monks and Abbots who had pensions for life allowed them if they staied in England I appeale to all that are not Levellers in Church or State Is not Government good order and comely subordination as necessary in the Church among all men both of the Laity and Clergy as the family of Christ the Household of faith and an holy Polity City or Common-wealth as it is in all civil Fraternities Companies and Communities or in this paintiffs family Where besides food and other necessaries which he provides for himself in common with his Servants and Children yet doubtless he still reserves for himself a Benjamins portion as to the eminency of his Estate and Authority above them as a Father and Governour Were it robbery and violence to take away any thing unjustly from his children and not so to take all from him as a Father Let this great advocate who pleads I suppose without his see uncalled and unhired against the poor Bishops let him freely declare next bout to all the world whether if he had been a Bishop which honor few men are of the Heresie to think he would have refused being a double-Beneficed and very Conformable man he would have been content that measure should have been offered to him which he thus justifies and triumphs in as offered to his Fathers the Bishops men much his betters every way some of whose shooe-latchets he was not worthy to unloose unlesse he have more worth in him than ever yet he discovered to the world whose agitations have yet been as various as many and as importune to and fro as any Presbyters in England Besides that he endeavours for ever to obstruct any generous return of this Nation to put the Church and Clergy into any Estate of Order Honor and Estate worthy of such Learned and Worthy men as might be bred up if such publick incouragements were not wanting I do in no sort doubt of his Tenderness Touchiness and Impatience if the case had been his own I find how he is netled for a little portion of Bishops Lands to which he pretends a right of purchase I have ever heard this character of this plaintiff that he was ad rem satis intentus nor was he among Pharaohs lean Kine that needed to have fed upon the fatter Quo teneam modo How partial are the principles of some Protestant Preachers of some Quodlibetick Presbyters They may well be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who are so far 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 self-tormenting who are self-condemned who seek to ingratiate and corroborate with men of power by an absolute commending of that for lawful just and good without any peradventure which hath alwaies been a case scarce disputable among Learned and Godly men in all Ages so much did they ever not onely incline but generally resolve the case quite contrary to this great Casuist However it is the safer side no doubt not to alienate any Church-lands and in dubious cases a Divine yea a Doctor and a great one that undertakes to be Confessor and Absolver to Parl. and people he should rather advise in tutiorem partem to the safer side than adventure upon or incourage to that which hath any thing dubious or dangerous in it as to sin yea and a sin of an high nature as Sacriledg is esteemed by all Nations by all Christians that have not buried Christianity and Christ in the Mount Calvary of covetous hearts the Golgotha's or places of skulls where no Helena will ever look for the Crosse of Christ in hope to find it They are far enough from being true Christians who dare Crucifie the Pastors Preachers and Ministers of this Crucified Savour O how glorious and gracious an example to all sorts of men in the present and after-Ages hath this Rabbi this great Master now in our Israel given Prima est haec ultio quod se judice c. May not all men hereafter venture in any case never so doubted to follow this one Doctors opinion if any way plausible or probable against the generall streame and current of all Learned men A latitude which of late I find some Jesuits have allowed in cases of conscience Truly it might seem veniall for secular and military men in cases of civil urgencies and as they imagined necessities of self preservation to seize upon the shew bread the Priests portion and Goliahs sword too as David and his men did by the good leave of the Priests but it had become a Clergy-man and an eminent one who still ownes I think his Academick degrees as deserved and his Ecclesiastick Orders which sure were from
the Bishops hands and Authority as holy and valid else the Tithes and Glebes and Spirituall Livings cannot be so sacred and inviolable in his use and possession as he affirmes them to be I say it had become such an one at least to have been silent who is too rich and knowing to be a Liveller or an Anabaptist or a Quaker or a disowner of all Order and Office Ministeriall He should not have cast oyle by his eminent example and eloquent plea on that fire which he sees is ready to consume even all Presbyters as well as Bishops setled maintenance However if he could not avoid this rock of purchasing Bishops Lands his modesty had been some expiation and his silence a great abatement of the scandall he might have swallowed those holy but now desecrated morsells in secret and not have proclaimed on the house-top to all the world the rost-meat he hath gotten the Venison or part at least which he hath taken together with his great appetite and good digestion The world is not much concerned to know all these things nor much pleased at his swallowing down without chewing any bit of Bishops Lands or Deanes Houses or a whole Colledg or a Cathedrall Church if he can compasse them by his purse or policy for where a crum of this kind goes easily down in time a loaden cart with six horses may follow Were there not others States-men Lay-men and Military-men enough to have bought those Bishops and Church-lands if they must needs have been sold They might possibly have some Reasons of State and solutions of deeply Learned Lawyers which such an one as I and other simple Divines know not of and therefore may not censure But as to the principles of Schollars and the conscience of all Church-men generally we resolve that if it be but a disputable case where sin lies at the door if there be but any notable appearance of evil we are above all men to abstaine from it If it may be veniall in others pleading their ignorance or urgent occasions yet it must needs seem a most uncircumcized act for a grave Minister and of the Church of England a great Doctor and a Reverend Divine Church-men ought in any things of pregnant scandall to be most circumspect and cautious because their example is most contagious allowing as it were of course many graines of further liberty to Lay-men who never think that their girdles ought to be so strait as Ministers if ours be loose theirs will be unbuckled and at last quite thrown off Hence many of our Domestick and new started Presbyterians whom I well knew Mr. C. Mr. W. Mr. S. and others with all the Smectymnuan Legion who were earnest enough at first for the pruning of the over-grown or seare or too much over dropping boughs of Episcopacy and afterward they so far served the times and their Lords as to conspire to the felling down of those ancient and stately Standards in the Church yet I well know they never intended that Lay-men should have gone away with the Bark Tops Timber Bodies Chips and all no they good men intended very honestly and zealously that these superfluities of Bishops and Deanes Estates c. should have been applyed to buy in all Impropriations to augment poor Livings to put Presbyters generally into so good a plight and habit for back and belly that they might be fit to rule in common and have some Majesty as Aldermen of Cities and Burgesses of Townes usually have in their Cheeks and on their Backs for starveling and thred bare Governours like Consumptionary Physitians discredit their profession and deprecate their dignity We other poor Ministers who follow the sense of all the ancient Fathers and Councills of the Canon and Civil Lawes of School-men and Casuists of Reformed and not Reformed Churches both Greek and Latine we wonder what Angel from Heaven hath whispered to this purchaser and pleader to tell him of Gods non acceptance of Bishops lands Persons or Profession of which he was pleased to make so much and so good use to his glory and his Churches good both in England and all the Christian world for a thousand yeares yet now he is content it seemes they should all be Alienated Extirpated Destroyed Possessions Persons and Function of Bishops as unnecessary yea pernicious to the Church and Ministry in Honour Order Government Charity and Hospitality all which are better Reformed to Parity Popularity and Poverty This he reports as from the Cabinet-Counsell or Committee of Heaven where it seemes he hath been since he purchased Bishops lands Truly if an Angel from Heaven had told some Divines and other Gentlemen thus much they would not have believed him because they are perswaded so much of the Evangelicall Order the Apostolick Authority and the Catholick Succession the prudent necessity the honorable decency of Bishops in the Church of Christ upon which presumptions if not sure perswasions they conceive it had been a modesty in all Learned and weighty Ministers who had received their Ordination from Godly Orthodox and Reformed Bishops such as Calvin and Beza and Vedelius would have honored and submitted unto without any envy or diminishing of their Estates and Honors not to have touched so much as a shooe-latchet of what by Right Law and Merit had been theirs that it might at least have been upon Record to after-Ages for the Honour of the English Reformed Clergy in their lowest ebb and depression Ecclesiae Episcoporum bona inter Presbyteros Ecclesiasticos non invenerunt emptorem There is no doubt there would have been buyers enough beside men of larger Estates yet not of stricter consciences even this great and glorious purchaser who though he hath paid his mony yet hath not so put off his Armour hitherto as to have any great cause to boast seemed not at first so satisfied as to be forward not coming at the beginning of the Faire when sure the best peny-worths for example sake would have been sold to so eminent a D. the better to decoy on other purchasers but alas he seems obtorto collo renitente Minerva against his genius to be drawn in driven and necessitated at the fag end of the Market to take such eggs for his money as had been sate upon by a Bishop so many hundred of yeares and may as it seems be either addle or eggs of contention to this purchaser now so resolved and triumphing in his conscientious freedom to buy and sell in the Temple when other poor Scholars are still wind bound and narrow-soled as imagining that Christ long agoe drove all such kind of Merchandize out of the Church as ill becoming Christians as it did the Jewes yea and St. Paul teacheth Believers equally to abhorre Sacriledg as Idols To conclude this long digression whose scandalous occasion lay so high in my way that I could not avoid it this one great instance telling to all the world what this purchaser hath swallowed and how