Ministerie of the word without usurping a stated superior Order of Governing as their special work let be immixing themselves by privilege in secular Courts and affaires 3. That they should be obeyed is this their power for discipline and Government set down in Scripture not also its rules limites Were the Apostles more then Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the Mysteries of God was not the sure word of Prophecie their great warrant When the Apostle Paul is about to set order in the Church of Coriath hear his Preface by ye followers of me even as I also am of Christ And as in the ordinance of the Lords Supper he only delivers what he had received of the Lord so even as to that smallest of matters the Length and Fashion of the hair doth he use any other Authority then what he seconds with rational persuasion How far was he then from that dominion over our Faith which you ascribe to the Church not only of appointing significant instructing Ceremonies but of abrogating things as expresly ordained in your opinion as the true Sacraments 4 You say That things should be done to Order Edification and Peace keep within these bounds and invert not this Method and we are agreed but if you subsist not in the regulation of the manner but wil impose New things which the Lord requireth not nay which he abhorreth even your own inventions framed to your own lusts and interests or produced by your delusions then make peace your Argument because ye will not allow it to such as in Conscience cannot conforme the Lord who hath founded Zion Reigns in it who hath builded his House rules over it will one day judge Thus you see how these your everlasting obligations do fully conclude all the truths that we assert Where you adde that the other Rules are now altered with the alterable state of things whereunto they were accommodate if you understand it soundly of these things only which are indeed ceased it is a very certain and allowable truth but you remember not that in the very Page preceeding you impute this alteration so groslyâ— to the bare Practice of the Catholick Church a very doubtfull terme and thereby not only unsetle Scripture foundations as to the Sacraments but endeavour to introduce such an arbitrary authority in the Church that in place of establishing true Christian Liberty which you seem here to assert it is evident that you go about plainly to set up an absolute Spiritual tyranny over the Church of God and so to load it with the Ceremonies and innovations a bondage more severe then the old dispensation from which we are liberate but blessed be our Lord Jesus Christ who hath delivered us not only from that old Law of Ordinances but hath made us free that we should be no more the Servants of Men nor liable to be judged in meat or drink or in respect of an holy Day or of the new Moon or of the Sabbath and having blotted out the hand writting of God's Ordinances that was against us hath put no new blank in Mens hands for their own devices and superstitions To conclude then in your own words these things are so rationall and also so clearly deduced from your own concessions that I see nothing either to be excepted against our Conformity to the Scripture pattern and the true Christian liberty both in opinion and practice which we maintain or to be alleaged for your pretended liberty consisting in a Licentious absurd imposing on such whom you acknowledge to be free But in order to this last point viz. your attempt to remove a Scripture rule easie in it self and imparting true Libertie to its observers and to set up an unwarrantable Yoke of Church Authority in its place I conceive it is that here you go about to represent your N. C. as a vain and clamorous boaster of the Crown Throne and Kingdome of our Lord on purpose to prejudicate against our just complaint of your invasion and Robbery but waving your Calumnious Methods I shal only endeavour to speak â—urth the words of truth and sobernesse I shall not here discourse of the Kingdom of Christ in all its parts whereunto we finde in Scripture both the outward Protection of the Church vengeance upon Adversaries and all judgement even the great and last ascrived but in order to our present purpose I affirme plainly that our Lord Jesus as the Redeemer is in a peculiar manner exalted to be Head and King in and over his Church by vertue of which Kingdome he sendeth forth and Authorizeth his Ministers hath defined their Order and Power determined Censures and given and declared Laws to be observed in his house and that in such a manner and in that perfection that in all things properly thereto relating he hath only left to the Officers by himself appointed a Ministerial power of administration so that there is neither place left nor power given to diminish from or adde to the Officers Laws Censures and Orders which he hath therein established that these things are so cannot be better cleared then by remitting you to our larger Catechisme where as you will finde satisfying Scripture proof for their confirmation so really I cannot but by the way recommend to you its more serious study for the curing of that loosenesse in Principles which almost in every thing you discover My part at present shall be to consider your strange discourse on this subject You say then Christ's throne Crown and Kingdom are inward and spirituall not of the World nor as the Kindoms of the World Sir though I acknowledge the Scripture phrase in this matter to be Metaphoricall Yet I wish you had better observed it and forborn the hard and unused expression of an Inward Crown But to the question Christs Kingdom is indeed in its power and effects the restriction a little above premised being remembred internall and Spirituall but doth it therefore follow that its administration is not externall and visible when the Lord declared all power to be given unto him and by vertue thereof sent forth his Apostles and Ministers and gathered Churches having peculiar Rulers Laws and Ordinances was not this both visible and audible Are not all the acts of Discipline and Government properly thereto referable of the same Nature Our Lords Kingdom is truely not of the World nor as the Kingdomes thereof is it therefore not in the World What doth this arguing conclude You proceed a great part of his Kingdom is the liberty whereto he hath called us and I grant that as liberty and deliverance from Sin and Satan are among its choise benefites and therefore the exultation of Zachariah his thanksgiving so our liberation from the yoke of Jewish Ceremonies and all such bondage is that which we readily acknowledge in opposition to youâ— unwarrantable exactions but what would you thence inferre because Christ hes liberate us from the former slavery and Pedagogie hath he
therefore left us to the worse Tyranny of mens pretended and corrupted power and deluded imagination God forbid but as the hath set us free for ever so he hath only laid on us his own easie â—â—oke and light burthen of Pure and Evangelick ordinances by which our Liberty is so far from being intringed that it is thereby both preserved and enlarged In the next place you say Since no Allegorie holds it is ridiculous to argue because offices in a Kingdom are named by the King therefor it must be so in the Church It 's answered 1. do you then think that our Lords Kingdom is only Allegorick Or because the symboles and badges usuall in Earthly Kingdoms are in a figure thereto transferred is it therefore wholly a figure but God hath set his King upon his holy Hill of Zion and Know you assuredly that God hath exalted him to be both Lord and Christ bâ—wisâ— therefore and be instructed Kiss the Son lest he be angrâ— and learn to acknowledge his Kingdom in all the parts and privileges thereof by him declared Next it is most evident that not only Christs Kingdom in and over his Church is reall and certain and that Officers truely such vested with his Authority and therefore depending on Christ as King are held forth by the Scripture and to be really found therein but seing he himself hath in the Gospel so expressly founded their mission upon that All power given unto him and Paul so plainly referres the giving of Apostles c unto his Ascension and exaltation are you not ashamed to alledge these things to be only by us concluded from the vain appearance of an Allegory And thus to make your self ridiculous in that scorne you intended for others But poor wretch you adde That we may as wel say that there must be coin stamped by Christ as Officers appointed by him in his Church for this is the runing of your words Lord deliver you from this profane Spirit thinkest thou that the Kingdom of Christ hath need of money as it hath indeed need of Officers Or because money is current and symony a frequent practice in your Church hes it therefore any place in Christs true Church Sir your profane scoffing at the Kingdome of Christ is one passage amongst many that give me Confidence to say arise O God plead thine own cause remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee dayly But I professe I am confounded in my self when I think of my own provocations and on the iniquitie of his Sons and Daughters for if the abuse of the Glorious Gospel shineing amongst us in so much puritie had not been great he would not have given up the dearly beloved of his Soul into the hand of such persecuting adversaries and such scoffers at him who justifie these malicious mockers in Cajaphas Hall with an over-plus of wickednesse O if he would returne he would quicklie emptie Pulpits and Chairs in Universities of such who bend their tongues for lies and make the world see because they have rejected knowledge he hath also rejected them that they shall be no Priests to him The next thing you subjoin is what King will think his prerogative lessened by constituting a Corporation to whom he shall leave a liberty to cast themselves into what mould they please providing they obey the General Laws and hold that liberty of him Thus you will alwayes aspire to enter into the Counsel of God if your vote had been here asked it is very like you would have bestowed large privileges upon that Church where you might have been a sharer But we bless him to whom the Church is committed and on whom the Government is laid who hath provided better and given unto his Church complete Officers perfect Ordinances true Laws and good Statutes and ordered his house in all things and therefore as we are not to enquire what the Lord might have done but humbly and thankfully to acknowledge what he hath done so in these things for men to disown his Authority and deny his bounty and usurp to themselves a power of altering what he hath established and fashioning the worship and Government of Gods house according to the device of their own heart is no doubt no lawful liberty but a licentious invasion of Christ's prerogative and a jealousie-provoking sin of Laese Majestie Divine That thus it stands betuixt you and us the preceeding passages do plainly witness and the faithfulness of Jesus Christ as a Son over his own house so expresly commended and preferred before the faithfulnesse of Moses is an argument which you will never dissolve You say his faithfulnesse consisted in his discharging the Commission given him by his Father Most certain but you ask who told us that it I suppose you mean the appointing the Officers Ordinances and Government of the house of God was in the Fathers Commission Herein is a marvellous thing You know that Jesus Christ whrist was sent by the Father to redeem gather feed guid and Govern his Church and you see that as the things in question are thereto necessarie so in discharge hereof he sends out Apostles and Ministers Ordains Officers vests them with power and Authority instructs them to a Ministerial and lowly administration and deportment defines Censures appoints his Ordinances and Laws liberats the Worship of God from the shadows and types of the Jewish Pedagogie and cleares its true and spiritual exercise and liberty and finally acquits himself faithfully in all his house do you then question if he did these things or doubt you that he did them by Commission it is a hard Dilemma which you will never evade but you adde that if we argue from Moses it will inferre that all particulars must be determined whereupon you urge that as Moses determines the dayes of Separation for a legal uncleannesse why doth not the Gospel the like for spirituall uncleannesse It 's answered if you had taken up the Argument aright and considered the faithfulnesse of Christ and Moses not in order to the same but with relation to their respective Commissions You had not fallen into this mistake but the Scripture parallel is clear Moses as a servant did faithfully completely order Gods house therefore Our Lord much more as a Son hath thus ordered the Church his own house Whence as it doth no wayes follow that whatsoever things were institute by Moses ought to have been in like manner imitate by our Lord so this is most concludent that as Moses as a Servant did diligently and exactly execute his Commission in order to the Tabernacle its service Ministers and all its appurtinents so Christ both by reason of a command received and of his interest and power hath exceeded the faithfulnesse of Moses in the Ordering and appointment of things appertaining to his Church But for the better confirming our Reasoning and the removing of your Mistake I do only recommend to you this obvious truth viz. that the Commendation of our Lord held
be pleased to re-examine your instances I doubt not but you will find them neither to be unanswerable nor that the Doctrine of our Teachers against causeless Separatists doth homologate your inference As to what you add That it is a great cruelty if a Minister be put from his place whether justly or unjustly that the people should be starved Sir I am verily of your opinion and therefore as I wish our outed Ministers had testified more love in despising hazards for the relief of Souls so I cannot but remember you how dreadful a charge this driving away of Pastors and starving of Souls will one day amount to against such who have been its direct Authors However seing the love and faithfulness of Christ the Great Shepherd hath secured the event they that believe need not make haste for verily they shall be fed Your N. C. next Argument is That your Curates are naughtie men and weak preachers Sir such is the notoriety of this charge and so afflicting ought it to be to every one concerned in the credit of the Gospel and honour of its Ministery that I am assured all sober men will rather impute it to tenderness then want of matter that I incline not either to inlarge the objection or insist in the examination of your answere You think it an odd piece of Religion for us to reproach our Pastors by the name of Curats a designation not to be ashamed of but though the name Curate ows its invention only to the vanity of men by whom the lowly Scripture-stile of Minister was disdained and be of no proper origination and in effect the product of the corruption both of the Churches humility and purity of the Latine Tongue yet seing you account it honourable and I and many others do rather use it for distinction I heartily wish that you and others who do appear so sensible of an apprehended reproach may be as serious in reflecting upon that important aggravation it shall furnish in the last Judgement against these who in stead of caring for Souls do visibly destroy them As for what you insinuat that the Curats are our Pastors and over us in the Lord pardon me to say that I cannot finde the relation either in their office or exercise and that if Scripture-marks do intitle to Scripture-names these Intruders entering not by the door are liker to Theeves these false Teachers are but revening Wolves and these Prophets who teach lies are but the taill Nay every one who rightly considers how that in place of minding the Lords Work whereunto they pretend and honouring him before the people they have made his offering and Sanctuary to be abhorred and his name to be prophaned in liew of that honour which you acclaime may justly conclude that they that despise the Lord shall be lightly esteemed Say not where is Christian Charity to call the manifest lewdness and lies of these pitiful Miscreants whose gross abominations are almost every where the grief of the godly and the very scorn of all nay such whereof your self pag. 30. doth abhorre the patrociny and for which you pretend to be a bitter mourner in secret Slight grounds and to bid men be slow to take thence an impression is plain mockery Charity that beleeveth all things resteth and rejoiceth only in the Truth and rejoiceth not in iniquity neither can you alleadge our grounds being good your Church in our not complaining to be neglected it were strange charity to beleeve as the proverb runs that Satan will reprove sin As for your alledging that to separate upon the personal â—ailing much more weakness of a Preacher will open a wide door to Separation Whatever danger may be in your smooth generality yet I am confident not to owne for as to separation I have already cleared how the practice of these you do condemn doth differ from it for Ministers such vitious intruders and flagitious livers as your Curates are is a Soveraign expedient for preserving both of Truth and Christian Unity and that as to ty the good of Worship to the sincere intention of him that manageth it is an error so to think that Gifts and a suitable converse in a Minister are of no influence or regard as to the work of his Ministery and that because not to hear Sermons only but the solemn worship of God is the chief end of our meeting wherein you are mistaken if you think that you and we do not agree which we can do be the Minister what he will is irreligion unmixed which your jejune commending of the reading of good Scriptures and singing of good Psalmes doth not palliate Be the minister what he will What be he Socinian Arminian notoriously flagitious an Adulterer or Incestuous Person a despiser of Discipline a strengthener of the hands of the Wicked and sander of the hearts of the Godly a Symoniack is nothing but what he may will and many of yours do de facto will nay be he Popish Mahumetan Pagan or Atheist all are but what he may will O execrable latitude But you conclude this point that our crouding to hear such weak men now in Conventicles who formerly were of no esteem among us sayes we are not so zealous for good Preachings as we would make the world beleeve Pray Sir if a man in plenty make choise and in penury make a shift will you thence inferre he is not desirous of the best this is too weak but to be ingenuous with you I question not but some Curats make constantly more able and frequently better Sermons for the matter then weaker Non-conformists and vet the just grounds of our exceptions do still conclude that they are neither so good men nor acceptable Preachers as these whom we preferre As for what you add That the way to make a man popular among us is to rail against Church and State It is a malitious calumny wherewith you endeavour to slander us unto our Rulers and which they who ought to be as the Angels of God may easily discerne and repell Your N. C in the next place objects to you the obligation of the Covenant wherein the whole Nation and the posterity are engaged to maintain our former Presbyterian Ministery extirpat your Prelacie and all depending on that Hierarchie and whatsoever shall be found conâ—raire to â—ound Doctrine and the power of Godliness I shall not improve this argument being of such an obvious evidence in any further explication but briefly review what you answere on the contraire And 1. Your evil Conscience foometh forth your indignation against the Covenant in your reproachfull calling it our Goliah alwayes brought out by us to defy the Armies of the living God whose strength like Sampsons lay in its hair the Armies that fought for it and not in any innate vigour But as notwithstanding all the arrowes of malice blasphemy and rage that you and your party have shot at it it still abideth in strength and the Armies of its
also grant that it is not our choice but the Lords own prescription which he doth accept Suppose your Forms were as much better then our conceptions as a Mans First-born is preferable to the beast of the field yet if not required they cannot come up with acceptance on his Altar and therefore I conclude that however the sincere Users may finde grace in his sight yet the peremptory Imposers cannot be innocent A third mistake is that because in the use of certain Set-forms a man may possibly pray with deep spiritual impressions and high elevations Nay the sublimest acts of communion with God may be expressed in the simplest Forms such as Thou art my God therefore you conclude that sâ—inted Forms are more suted to true spiritual devotion then the multiplicity and variety of words in an extemporarie exercise which do lead out and do too frequently only excite a phantastick transient pleasure almost evanishing with the sound wherewith they are pronounced But seing that the variableness of the condition of a militant Viator can hardly be defined much less the free actings of the Spirit in such exigences confined to any prescribed Forms and that the more Seraphick raptures of Divine contemplation do therefore subsist in few and plain words because above the reach of expression it is undoubtedly certain that neither the right use-making or rather agreeableness of certain forms to very sincere and serious devotion nor the simplicitie of words used in the nearest admission of heavenly fellowship do at all remove the unwarrantableness and inconveniencie of the restraint of Set forms when under the necessity of an imposition As for what is insinuate of these fancical heats and pleasures wherewith words ex tempore may possibly delude it is only an accidental inconvenience from our corruption and by the faults of your imposed Forms infinitly overballanced as I have already shewed These things being thus cleared for confirming of my assertion against your stinted and imposed Forms I say first That these impositions are peccant against the Truth of Gods worship because the samine requires his own express warrant and prescript It is in vain to worship after the commandements of men the service which he requireth not he abhorreth Will-worship is an abomination But such is your imposed and commanded Liturgie if now what doth the Lord require ought to be the serious reflection of every one that draweth near unto him if in all things commanded we ought to be circumspect without adding to or diminishing ought from it If the Lord did most exactly define the manner and every rite and ceremony of the legal Sacrifices and service yea every pin of the Tabernacle with the whole contrivance and orders of the succeeding Temple if strange fire made use of even in an offering to God be so severely vindicat and the erecting of another Altar then he had appointed even for his Sacrifices what can we conclude concerning your imposed Forms and the manner of that service which you so arbitrarily enjoin That they are of farre greater moment in his Worship then many of these things about which we see his holy jealousie to be so attentively conversant commonsense doth evince how then can they be receaved without his warrant without which all humane devisings are rejected Say not that the rigor of this strictnes was a part of the old legall bondage for granting that it may be so as to the particular manner of that dispensation yet you are so farre from being thereby helped that as I have formerly shewed that the burthen of the things by you imposed stands manifestly convicted by our Gospel-liberty so the immoveable principle that in his Worship his own prescription is the alone warrant of acceptable performance doth equally redargue the presumption of your imposing in whatsomever model without his Command But it may be objected that seing our extemporarie Prayers are as well a part of Divine Worship as your stinted Forms and that as to the frame of the words the former can no more yea rather less then the later pretend to a congruity to the word and will of God the argument from the unlawfulness of Will-Worship doth militat more against us then you 'T is answered If the question in this matter were only whether Set-forms or extemporarie straines may possibly be composed with the greater consonancie in words unto Scripture-phrase the objection might have some though in respect of what I have already touched of the promised gift of Prayer very little weight but seing our debate runs clearly concerning the manner how the true and Spiritual Worship of God is to be externally performed If the Lord whole alone it is to prescribe in this matter hath in a just congruity to the liberty of his own Spirit left it to the night and sanctified use of the rational expressive facultie and the due improvement of these helps and promises wherewith he hath instructed us for man vainly to arrogat a better contrivance in his devised impositions is an intolerable presumption and therefore though the conceived as well as the stinted Prayer be a part of Gods Worship Nay though this as well as the other singly and sincerely used may be accepted yet seing the Lord hath allowed the liberty of the former and doth not at all require the obligation of the latter the imposing thereof must of necessity be repute and cast as an humane invention I need not stay to resume that conceived Prayer for the reasons above mentioned and in respect of the promised gift and assistance of the Spirit whereof the composing and commanding of Set-forms is destitute may probablie be and is often found to be the better phrased Nor shal I tell you that the manner thereof is so undoubtedly the more rational genuine and lively that if even those of your way could be perswaded that men were sufficiently thereto qualified they would easily grant the imposing and use of Forms to be less necessary it is enough for us that the Lord who knoweth the best of our performances in whatsomever sort to be but lame and imperfect hath both allowed and accepted of our extemporarie petitions whereas your injoined Forms are no where required 2. I say that the imposing of Forms impingeth upon the Spirituality of Prayer and Worship That which boundeth and restraineth the free Spirit of the Lord in the motions and breathings whereof the very life of prayer doth consist impingeth upon the Spirituality of Prayer and Worship But so it is that the imposing of Forms restraineth and bindeth up c. Therefore c. That the Spirit of the Lord whereby his people especially in prayer are guided and acted is free not only in its gift but also in its operations both Scripture and experience do teach The winde bloweth where it listeth c. and so is every on that is born of the Spirit where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty not only from the bondage of corruption but
King 's pretending to an arbitrary and absolute disposal of these previleges thus granted to be an injurious invasion and usurpation Yet in order to the Church and her rights and immunities they are not ashamed to cut off â—o even and just a parallel and deny so evident a consequence in behalf of her righteous liberty But wisdome is justified of her children And how much were it to be wished that at the least the children of light were as wise as the children of this world are in their generation 3. Beside the invasion threatened to the Church in its power of administration and the usurpation from the Church of the power of Government which this Supremacy imports it further attributes to the Prince according to our Parliaments late explication an illimited power in matters of Religion proper and reserved to God alone To enact whatever a man thinketh fit in Ecclesiastick meetings and maâ—â—ers I am certain is that which the Lord did never allow to any meer man under heaven and yet that this power is assumed and how by vertue thereof old unwarrantable superstitions have been retained new rites and ceremonies in Divine Worship devised and Churches turned and overturned according to mens pleasure is sufficiently known without my condescendence And therefore seing the King by vertue of his Supremacy doth not only intermedle by giving his civill sanction and confirmation to the intrinseck powers of the Church by you mentioned as you do allege or by acts imperate as others in contradistinction to elicite acts in these matters doe use to express it but doth lay claime to an absolute power in and over all Church-matters and persons the filly pretense whereby you go about to smooth it is not worthie of any mans notice In the next place you tell us of some explications provided for removing of the scruples which the generality of the words of the oath of Supremacy might suggest And to this it may suffice for answer that seing these explications are certainly confined to England and by no publick Act received or owned among us your allegeance with your childish ground that we have this oath from them is wholly impertinent as to our releifeâ— But seing the setting down of these explications contained in the English act and Articles above cited Which you do counningly omit will not only by comparing therewith the far different practices of the Kings of that Realme discover the inadequatnesse not to say the slightnesse of these sensings in effect meerly devised to palliat an excess in it self nowise justifiable but more fully manifest the strange extravagance both of the practical acceptation and late express interpretation of this Supremacie You may read them as follows the words of the Act in quinto Elizab. Declare her power and Authority to be a soveraignity over all manner of persons borne within the Realme whether they be ecclesiastical or temporal so that no forreigne power hath or ought to have any superiority over them and these of the Articles run thus Art 37. We give not to our Princes the ministring either of Gods Word or of the Sacraments the which thing the injunctions also lately set forth by Elizab our Queen do most plainly testifie but that only prerogative which we see to have been given alwayes to all godly Princes in holy Scriptures by God himselfe that is that they should rule all Estates and degrees committed to their charge by God whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal and restrain with the civill sword the stubborne and evill doers These being the termes of these explications what consonancie the medlings of their Princes in imposing rites ceremonies and formes of Worship enjoyning their own dayes and profaning God's commanding what Doctrine Ministers should forbear permitting excomunication in their own name jointly with the Lords and finally by sitting and ruling in the Temple of God as in their own Court do hold therto is obvious to the first reflection Only this I must say that if the Kings of England their Ecclesiastick actings be indeed sufficiently warranted by the foregoing explanations the Author of the late discourse of Ecclesiastick policy who in prosecution of the King's Supremacie doth plainly annexe unto it the Authority of the preisthood and power over the conscience at least the obedience of men in matters of Religion in place of that applause wherwith he is generally received at Court deserves rather to be demeaned as the highest calumniator and depraver of his Majesties government But not to trouble you further with these double English senses viz that pretended by their Acts of Parliament and Articles which I grant to be more sound and such wherewith many godly men have rested satisfied and the other more true received and followed by their Court and Clergie nor yet to insist upon your incomparable and blessed Who now hath mens persons in admiration Bishop Usher his more full interpretation equally redargued by what I have alreadie said Let us consider our Scots most excessive though more ingenuous explanation and although I do apprehend the words of the Oath of Supremacie to be in themselves capable of a sound sense and that by understanding supreme Governour of this Kingdomeâ— not to be a limiting designation but a plain qualification of the nature of the government as being in order to its correlat this Kingdome in it selfe civil and only in this notion to be extended to persons and causes ecclesiastick all difficulties may be salved yet when to the rise and manner of this Supremacie above declared I adde how of late it hath been made the ground of the King his restoring of Bishops and framing their government to an absolute dependence upon himselfe granting of the high Commission appointing the constitution of a National Synod and of other strange acts before touched and especially that as the Act Parl. 1592. expresly and justly limiting this Supremacy was by the first Act 〈◊〉 2. Parl. 1661. Wholly abrogate and made voidâ— so by the first Act of the Par. 1669. The same Supremacie is assâ—rted to that absurd hight as doth import a plain surrender of Conscience and submission of all Matters of Religion for as to civills we are not so rash to his Majesties pleasure in a more absolute manner then ever to this day hath been acclaimed either by Pope or general Council These things I say being weighed I think I may safely conclude that I look upon the Supremacie not only as a civill Papacie but an height of usurpation against our Lord King in Zion whereunto never Christian Prince nor Potentate did heretofore aspire And here your N. C. seconding my assertion tells you that this Supremacie clearly makes way for Erastianisme To which you answer That this is one of our mutinous arts to find out long hard names and affixe them to any thing displeaseth us But passing the childishness of this conceite as if either a long or hard name were more odious then a short in my opinion