severall corruptions in it hath ever since maintained At least we may shrewdly suspect that he afforded this name a place there as the print or shadow at least of a Function which had beene before and the seed or basis of that which ought to have beene established among the Churches in his time then especially when it might be done with the least prejudice to manners or doctrine both which it was constantly beleeved were most of all undermined by Episcopacy The truth is all the Divines of greatest note with us have beene driven upon this conclusion whensoever they have fallen upon the same Question They all joyntly condemned with extreamest rigour the corruptions which in their times were in a sort the individuall companions of that Profession but they never deny it its due reverence considered abstractively in it selfe Calvin after he himselfe had executed the Office of a Bishop in Geneva * Instit l. 4. c. 4. § 4. discourseing of the ancient institution of Bishops in Cities of Arch-Bishops above them in Provinces and in fine of Patriarchs advanced at the Councell of Nice above both the former saith that this was done â—â— order to the discipline of the Church and withall acknowledgeth that Antiquity notwithstanding such innovations had not the least thought of obtruding upon the Church any other forme of government then what God himselfe had prescribed in his word That howsoever they bestowed on that forme of their owne the name of Hierarchy a word not extant in Scripture yet we are not to dwell upon the notion but to weigh the nature of the thing it selfe By which passage Sir you may easily inferre how this worthy Author stood affected to the Order we speake of That of Beza an able judicious writer if we reflect upon the times he liv'd in is no lesse for our purpose then the former He grants in one place that Episcopacy was usefull in the Church and that the distinction of Bishops and Arch-bishops was first instituted for the readâ—er convâ—â—â—ing of Synods and managing the affaires of the Church with more steadinesse To wave what this able Auth or hath farther delivered upon the Question who will not hence conclude if he cast but an eye upon the many difficulties they meet with that are to steere the inclinations of men either in Religion or Policy that he was so farre from disallowing Episcopacy that on the contrary he approv'd it as an Institution of highest consequence to Christianity And in the particular case of England every body knowes that these two eminent Persons absolutely subâ—â—â—ibed to its continuance there The one of which hath published so much to the world in a Tract against Saraviaâ— and doth not the other also speake expressely in behalfe of those in that Kingdome which the men of this generation would quite extirpate But let us farther examine their opinion who speake of the thing in generall Polâ—â—â—â— is peâ—emptory that to make up those breathes in the Church which happened after the Apostles times there was one set ever the rest of the Presbyters and call'd by way of eminence Bishop whereto he subjoyneth that in relation to that primitive order and discipline of the Church there hath ever beene one ranked before the rest of his Brethren to keepe them within compasse and to prevent the broaching of any new doctrines Melanchton is yet more expresse The policy of the Church saith he that is the exteriour face thereof is compounded of two ingredients The first is the Ministery a thing of Gods owne immediate institution and it containes five parts 1. The right of calling and ordaining Ministers 2. The injunction to preach the Gospell 3. The power of remitting sinnes 4. of administring the Sacraments and 5. The right of exercising Jurisdiction upon Offenders by excommunication The second is the humane Constitutions of Bishops and Councells who are to regulate the degrees of Ministers and the difference of time and place when and where to execute their Functions Now saith he those constitutions are to be maintained for the cherishing of good Order yet so as they be drained from all tincture of superstition And he gives the reason because they have a kinde of right naturall the very law of nature obligeing us to the constant observation of good order in the conduct of our lives A passage very part for Episcopacy as noting unto us the impossibility of composing any Church disorders without it For the Members will then teare one another in peices and the body which kept them together in so close and strict an union cannot long malâ—taine the peace and harmony which that order as the soule infused into them as Saint Basil somewhere speaketh I cannot wave neither a passage I have sometimes read in Hierome Savanarola a bitter enemy to the corruption of the Clergy and one that vehemently declaim'd against the disorders of the Church If faith he in his booke de veritate Fidei there shall happen any knoâ—ty difficult scruple in the Assemblies of the faithfull the Bishops are they that must decide the Question which must needes be construed of that superiority whereby they are to bridle the boldnesse and insolence of such as being hurried on with a spirit of confusion disquiet â—he Church with maladies hard to be cured This mov'd the other Hierome about 1200 yeares agoe to avouch that the prosperity of the Church did so mainely depend upon the superiour Minister that were it otherwise there would be as many Schismes among Christians as Presbyters Which consequent saith the Arch-bishop of Spalata is manifestly seene in such of the reformed Churches as have abandoned Episcopacy This was the reason why the Princes and all those of the Clergy that subscribed to the Ausburge Confession did joine in such an open Protestation before God and Man that they sought not for the extirpation of it They were as well acquainted as we with the corruption of the Bishops and had as much at least to feare from their continuance as we can possibly have And yet to prevent the unavoidable necessity of that confusion into which they would otherwise have fallen they unanimously agreed upon the defence of that Ancient Order and to oppose with all eagernesse such as should endeavour the abolition of the same This they hotly pursued not barely in order to Religion which they laboured to rescue from Romish slavery but also for some secular considerations intwisted with Religion it selfe as the union and concord of the People without which it would be a very hard taske for them to preserve their severall Rights and Prerogatives entire This also is the reason why the succeeding Emperours made so many attempts to bereave the German Protestants of this Order being taught by experience that Episcopacy keepes them closer together and that this union of the People is the greatest obstacle to their ambitious designs Had there been any Bishops in the Palatinate all the rest of the reformed parts in Germany
inviolable among all the Nations of the earth for well nigh the space of fourteene hundred yeares together not a man in all this time opening his mouth against it what ever difference of opinions Schismes and Heresies the Spirit of blindenesse introduced within the pale of Christianity till this age of our Reformers who perswaded themselves they could by humane prudence setle among the Ministers of the Gospell an equality of merit of zeale of charity and affection by ordaining an equality of Power and Authority and were further confident by this meanes to cut the throate of that Tyranny under which our Fathers for so long a time had groaned as also to re-invite into the world that sweetnesse and â—ffability wherewith the founders of the Church so expressely charged it should be governed And lastly they presumed that if the Prelates were once outed integrity innocence and good manners would be restored to their place in the Church againe nor should luxury incontinence or any other kinde of leudnesse usurpe their Roomes any more for ever These indeed were good wishes and desires but the meanes of persuing them starke naught Neither did they meet with a generall likeing divers having rejected them as fighting with that successe which others had promised themselves in the use of them Did not Germany which first threw the Pope out of the Saddle and where the purity of the Gospell was first restored to its ancient Liberty retaine still in her Churches that superiority against which they declaime here 'T is inviolably maintained in most countries of the North. Did the Patriarch of Constantinople abjure or condemne it Cyrill when he reformed himselfe after the example of the Protestants in the West Or dare any of us deny him our Communion because he retained it Nay was he ever so much as advised to forgoe it The lustre and majesty of the title he bare was no impediment to him from being both a confessour and a martyr of the same Christ we worship But let us herein consult with our most eminent Reformers Luther a most violent opposer of the Authors of ruine and corruption in the Church after he hath spent himselfe in heaping reproaches upon the Bishops calling them Idolls and dumb Statues idle puppets deceitfull maskes trunkes without branches or rootes empty shadowes stage-players such as were so farre from knowing the honour of their Function and how to discharge it aright that they did not understand the Etymology of the name they bare wolfes breifly trayâ—ours 〈◊〉 murtherers the monsters of the Vniverse the burden of the earth the Apostles of Antichrist moulded and fitted for the destruction of the world and extinguishing the light of the Gospell at last he comes to himselfe againe and tells us that he inveighs onely against the corruption of their liver and their palpable Ignorance as for the râ—st thâ— he harboured not a thought against the Order and frame of the Church and that nothing he had spoken of those idle drousie Animalls and filthy belly 〈◊〉 Gods ought to be applyed to the honest Pastours and reall Bishops whom he there calls the Headâ— and Over-seers of the Christian Church In other places as namely in his Captivity of Babylon he overthrowes the sacrament of Order and rejecteth as a groundlesse fancy their indelible character But he quarrells not there with Bishops alone but even with Preists and Deacons avouching all the faithfull equally to be Preists and Deacons and endowed with equall Authority Notwithstanding recollecting himselfe he concludes for the exellency of Episcopacy acknowledging the name thereof to be sacred and ancient and that if he deny it those against whom he declaimes 't is because he thinks it unlawfull to bestow it on such whose corruption and filthinesse vendors them so unworthy of it In the Tract he compiled for the instruction of Ministers he closeth hiâ— reformation with an establishment of Bishops to which he would have the Cities of Bohemia conforme themselves in electing one or two and enabling them with Authority over the rest to goe in visitation about the Churches after the example of Saint Peter in the Acts which he stileth a lawfull and Evangelicall Archiepiscopacy But if men â—e so vainely timerous that they dare not adventure upon the reestablishing of an Apostolicall Institution he permits them to retaine the custome of Rome in having Bishops to call ordaine and confirmâ— such a they shall finde capable according to the platforme and Doctrine of Saint Paul So likewise you may see divers examples of that age which testify that the opinions of those times were much different from ours about the point in Question We finde in one of Peter Martyrs Epistles to Beza that a certaine Bishop of Troy making a scruple of continuing in that profession after his conversion to the Reformation was unanimously received and acknowledged of all for a lawfull Prelate whose Authority together with his Piety prov'd a maine advancement of the Churches good This worthy Author not condemning Episcopacy in generall passeth only this verdict upon it that in as much as none are raised to that dignity but by the favour of Princes Christians can have but faint hopes of reaping any great benefit thereby In the same place he concludes for the necessity of their visitations as a present remedy to curethe naturall infirmity of man who is ever declining from bad to worse and be speakes there of Primates and Arch-bishops as of those who for Sanctity of life and Purity of Doctrine were designed to this Function in the severall Cities and Sees of greatest note withall condemning those who intrude at their owne pleasures into the Ministery concludeing it is not without some emphaticall ground that in the Epistles to Timothy and Titus the severall conditions and qualifications of Bishops Preists and Deacons are so punctually described Where it is worth your observation that he marshalls all three in their proper ranks a pregnant evidence that he made more then two degrees of Ecclesiasticall Order And so likewise doth the Author of our reformed discipline in France who in the first Article acquaints us with three sorts of Ministers Bishops or Pastours Deacons and Presbyters quoting to this purpose the same Epistles with Peter Martyr Where two things deserve our notice first the name of Bishops and next that of Presbyters As for the former I cannot but wonder why he should confound it with that of Pastours then after distinguish both from Presbyters if it be true as many would have it that Presbyters Pastours and Bishops were but one and the selfe same thing in the Primitive Church As for the name of Presbyters it is misapplyed with us to such whose Function speakes them to be no more then Deacons A thing utterly repugnant to the practice all ages Whence it appeares that he was somewhat ashamed to baulke an Order which he knew the Primitive and purer Christians held in such singular estimation and the Church maugre the
they had exalted above the ranke of others within the bounds of their câ—lling And agreeable hereunto what paines have the men we named ever denied to consecrate unto the Church Have they ever thwarted the Rules of their first Institution And if the name they beare speakes them engaged to a perpetuall taske in managing of publicke affaires have they not ever applied all the powers of their soules to the pursuance of the same Yes they have done it with a flaming and saint-like zeale and have made the world read in their Actions their constant readinesse to sacrifice their lives and fortunes to the good of their Brethren But they are traduced for countenancing Popery where it was already and scattering some new seeds thereof where it had been extirpate This may be true of some but is a grosse slander upon the most of them If it had a simple toleration this was done mostly out of a charitable regard towards the Reformed Churches in Popish Dominioâ—â— nay further for the good of the Papists themselves whom they so tolerated Their examples their conversation their affable deportment might happily one day draw them over to a Profession from which banishments and other the like rigorous courses doe commonly divert them Religion cannot be forced upon the soule God must either Infuse it himselfe or perswade it by men Had the Bishops leaned never so little to the Popish Party and could they have been induced by any warping in opinion to favour those of that Religion when the Protestants were overborne in Ireland they would certainly have used them with more humanity when they had them at their mercy as an argument of that good correspondence betwixt them But the case was much otherwise so as never were any in a more deplorable condition then they There is no manner of reproach disgrace losse persecution which hath not befallen them Had the Bishops there beene such as the common voice proclaimes them would they not have beeâ— spared And if they had not been Protestants indeed would they not have gone over to the Conquetours and have followed the prevailing party was there for all this I will not say a Bishop but even any well affected to Episcopacy whom the threats of Fire and Sword could prevaile with to embrace Popery and renounce the Reformed Religion They further tell us that they doated too much upon titles of pride and ambition and such honours as the superstition and Idolatry of blinder times bestowed on them Beshrew their hearts that did so But the Innocent have reason to complaine of hard dealing if they must be listed with the guilty were there indeed any such at all You will pardon me if I shall hereupon avouch that many even of our owne men have sometimes picked a quarrell where there needed none I remember we once fell in discourse upon this argument and how after some slight debate you agreed with me in the upshot that the Overseers of the Church ought in all reason to be invested with some distinct and peculiar character to draw respect from inferiours That this was ever the practice of the Church and the very intention of those that established a superiority therein Whence arose the severall appellations of Father Paternity Pope Holinesse with many such in use with antiquity Nor is Episcopacy and the respects due unto it commended unto us with more earnestnesse then formerly they were As God seemes to have graven his image in a more eminent manner upon the face of such as are in authority thereby representing his unity an unity not to be parallell'd with any thing in the world in like sort hath the Church universall honoured them with such prerogatives as might best denote the obedience due to God himselfe who conferred that function upon them Hence doth the Author of that Epistle to the Trallians which goes under the name of Saint Ignatius use these expresse tearmes Reverence your Bishop as yee doe Christ reserving also a share in the honour to the Presbyters that so by your subjection to the Bishop and the Presbytery yâ— may be sanctified in all things This Presbytery as he there interprets it himselfe is the Colledge of Presbyters a sacred Assembly the Bisoaps Councellors and such as we call Assessours in civill Courts to whom he enjoynes obedience as to the Apostles of Jesus Christ Where the distinction he makes betwixt the honour due to Bishops and that appertaining to Presbyters is worth our observation For he saith that the former are to be reverenc'd as Christ the other as his Apostles which he would never have done had he not presumed that they who were intrusted with the care of the Church did governe it according to the rules of their Master surrendring themselves to the obedience of his holy spirit and these holding fast to their head won authority to their Ministery and all their instructions by that conformity betwixt them I am not Ignorant that some cavill at this exhortation and take occasion hereby to condemne that age of having first attempted upon the honour and respect due unto Christ as if by such expressions the Bishops were put into the ballance with him but these men consider not how all this was grounded upon Scripture He that heareth you heareth me They have not rejected you but mee Obey thâ—â— that have the rule over you And besides what Ignatius enjoines in behalfe of Bishops Polycarpus a disciple of the Apostles expressely recommendeth in behalfe of Preists and Deacons in that excellent Epistle he wrote to the Philippians which we have only seene in manuscript Abstaining saith he from these things be ye subject to the Preists and to the Deacons as unto God and Christ the like expression was used by the Primitive Doctours of the Church in exhorting the People to obey their Kings and Princes which they borrowed from an Epistle fathered upon Barnabas not * This Epistle of Barnabas was 〈◊〉 first printed at Oxford by the Lord Primate of Ireland and since at Paris yet published to the world What inconvenience can there be in bestowing that upon one which hath beene given to many and allowing as much to a Bishop as hath beene granted an Assembly of Presbyters seeing that in the language of antiquity the care of the Church which was dispersed in the whole body is united in him and that authority which had beene scattered amongst so many wholly devolved upon him Suppose this corruption in manners they talke of were such indeed or worse suppose farther that the Bishops were guilty of some errours in Doctrine may we for all this suppresse them nothing lesse nay we are not so much as to decline theirs or any manâ— company upon this ground alone if we will beleeve one of our most able and judicious writers 〈◊〉 I meane who in his Lectureâ— Of the Church hath this passage that we ought not to deny a diseased Person the benefit of our society if the malady be not mortall and
the Spirit of Union and Concord is the Moderatour as that of Christians is there may be called thither the most eminent Protestants from forraigne parts by whose assistance all doubts and scruples may be solved This in my judgement is the way to maintaine the severall rights of each order in the State of England as also in the whole body of Christendome entire I know none that can dislike the project but your new Independants and the fanatique Illuminatâ—es commonly called Brownists who in truth are no other but the Brats or Brethren of the Munster-Faction These men have fancied to themselves a monstrous Common-wealth an absurd and motley State in which there should not be the least cognizance of civill Authority nor any other spirituall power acknowledged but such as the Sonne of God should by an insensible and â—idden influence exercise over them Collect now from these Premises how such kinde of people stand affected to Royalty and then what reckoning they make of Councels and the Persons they consist of Their aime indeed is to ruine both to have no Rulers or Overseers at all either Temporall or Spirituall Secular or Ecclesiasticall They want no specious colours to blanch the blacknesse of their Designe They make their King a Demy-Apostate and little better then a Tyrant They proclaime to the world that he had a resolution to violate Religion and to destroy their Liberties and Priviledges That he hath supplanted the Fundamentall Lawes of the Realme and falsified the Oath made to his Subjects the observation of which alone must entitle him to a Dominion over them As for the Overseers of the Church it hath no need say they of any at all in as much as the Founder and Head thereof hath skill enough to governe as he had to establish it That 't is enough if there be meere Pastours only to preach without being lifted above others or others above them Such be the Authors and Abettours of this Fancie who gave the first blow at Episcopacy A strange thing that some even of the honester sort should so rashly mingle with the enemies of that Order transported in the simplicity of their hearts by this groundlesse conceit that 't is the Prelates alone who have opened the gap to wickednesse in the Church as if where there are no Bishops at all Innocence and purity bare an absolute and soveraigne command in the Soules of men Ferrier Pâ—tes with many more besides in France will be perpetuall attestours to the world that your Church Government lyes no lesse open to the assaults and stratagems of the Devill then that which hath beene setled from all Antiquity Were it my drift to search it to the bottome it would be easie to demonstrate this with advantage and that had it beene a few yeares elder and liv'd in a Country where the Lawes of the Prince are not so rigorous against Innovatours as they be in France which permits but two sorts of Religion or at least if God had not from time to time raised some eminently guifted Persons therein in which respect I must needs confidently affirme that it flourisheth now more then ever there could not have wanted matter through the many visible inconveniences thereof to embroyle the Church in a tedious and perpetuall taske I shall but point at one 't is the equality of Pastours which indeed at first blush presents you with a comely glosse and hath a wonderfull influence upon the fancy when it beholds it at a distance but in truth is the source of disorder the fountaine of negligence and the bane of that laudable emulation among the virtuous to out-strip one another in goodnesse It is to shut the doore against the perfection of life in denying the strictest observers of their masters injunctions those advantages and prerogatives which himselfe hath designed them What a block is it in the way to all those eminent persons without who were a coming toward us You know better then I how memorable to this purpose is the example of the Arch-bishop of Spalata Being to be honoured with no ranke at all above others can you thinke they will quit that which they enjoy where they are There can be no humility so great but may justly take offence at this How can any Genius acquainted thoroughly with it selfe and borne to a preheminence over others with some singular endowments of Nature be allured over to a profession whose sweetest baiâ—e is but a voice with the meanest and where its resolutions shall be valued as cheape as those of any other particular Personâ— The world is not to learne what a traine of inconveniencies attend these kind of suffrages and Deliberations and how there must needes follow many farre worse upon the neck of those so long as there is nothing but a baâ—â— supputation of Votes without any endowed with Power and Abilities to poyse them Put case their Assemblies consist of a hundred Persons will there in truth be found ten who will not rather be opinionate to cover their severall defects then be conformable to the example of their fellowes or endeavour to better themselves by their Counsells Such is that selfe-love and radicall inclination we have to sooth our selves that we do not easily hearken to the commands of reason till we be awed thereunto And seeing this distinction of degrees is so necessary for the good of the Church how shall that end be obtained if there be not some delegated both in and out of those Assemblies to represent the power of the whole to exact upon all emergencies an account of their proceedings to have the right of proposing and collecting Votes of ratifying Decrees of promulgating and putting them in execution and daring to the field whatsoever opposers of the same Is this feisible without a Bishop seeing that in such Synods as ours all enjoy an equality of Power and Authority and where according to that proverbiall censure of the Assemblies of Carthage The greater number carries it from the better Besides when the Synod is dissolved each Minister is left to his owne liberty to do what his fancy shall suggest unto him Put case he be found hipping either in manners or Doctrine he iâ— accountable to none but those of his owne Consistory who are allwaies in readinesse like so many rotten Pillars to support a crazie Wall or so many blinde guides that will needes undertake to reduce straglers into the way or such as leade men upon a praecipice So that by this meanes the offender wants no invitations nor advantages to invâ—igle those that lend an care to him he being no way accountable but to another Assembly In the interim he is proling for parties to his crimes and Abettours to his Opinions so that instead of fearing the rigour of a Judge in the Synod he is often provided of an Advocate which would be altogether impossible were there one enabled to stifle such disorders in the wombe This hints me of what I have read in
Calvin upon this Argument That the Presbyters to wit all such as had the cure of Soules were accustomed in every City to cull out one amongst the rest upon whom in particular they bestowed the title of Bishop to prevent saith he those ordinary Divisions which flow from a Parity Notwithstanding this Bishop was not so farre liâ—ted up above his fellowes in honour and degree aâ— that he might exercise any act of jurisdiction over them His proper function resembled that of a Consul in the Senate He made relation of proceedings in a full House â—e advised informed exhorted He ruled aâ— by his authority managed the whole Action and put the generall and unanimous results of the Senate in execution whereto he subjoyneth that according to the universall attestation of all Antiquity the necessity of the times was the first Authoriser of this Custome Now this necessity was nothing but those divisions which crept in among the Pastours of the Church for want of some principall Overseers which is now farre greater in this Nation then ever it was with them as you shall see anon But let us feele a little more the pulses of these men that will have no degrees or preheminence in the Church They be the very same that would have none in the State also They strike at Episcopacy for the same ends they have assaulted Royalty They are no strangers to the frowardnesse of their owne dispositions but are sufficiently convicted how farre each of them in particular hath degenerated from the Maximes and even from the very graine of their Ancestours That they are generally odious and destructive to the Publike nor can ever build any hopes to themselves but such as must have their foundation in perpetuall discords That seeing their expectations frustrate and themselves consequently in a wretched condition their onely way is to advance a generall confusion and so to involve all order and constitution of former ages which crosse their wicked inclinations in the same common ruine The very complexion of these Râ—kâ—â—ells speakes the worth of what they oppose so eagerly To which if you addâ— the manner how they have from the beginning invaded it with what violence they have proceeded you may easily inferre the basenesse of those who put them upon that employment No sooner had they notice of those jealoâ—sies betwixt the King and his Parliament wherein at that time there were not a few sicke of the same disease with themselves but they readily embraced the opportunity to make their Soveraigne and the Bishops sensible of their inveterate spleene towards them Having first set some of the other sexe a worke which in the open streets renounced all shame and modesty in lieu of benedictions wherewith the custome was to greet Princes to belch out with a deliberate impudence most traiterous expressions against their King the impunity of that sexe whose insolence is oftner sleighted then punished animated the other to a desperate resolution of offering violence unto his Person To which purpose they invest his Pallace seize upon White hall gates and had not the well mannaged providence of some of the Lords though strongly suspected by that frantique multitude quashed their designe he could not have escaped their hands The King having given them the slip immediately they divert the streame of their fury upon the Bishops as if they had beene of a Jewish descent and some Pilates were upon the bench to give judgement they cryed away with those followers of Christ as the other had cryed away with Christ himselfe The Parliament indeavouring in a â—rudent way to settle this disorder found a rub at the first from some among themselves that had a maine hand in the businesse giving private intelligence to that seditioâ—s Rabble how their proceedings were disliked and how the House of Lords had carried the matter in favour of the Bishops and that they likewise were seconded by a considerable party of the House of Commons This set them all on fire in a moment insomuch that of Accusâ—â—s and Prosecuters they had turned Executioners if those pious men had not by keeping out of the way given place to their fury In the meane time they are still urgent they bawle they threaten But perceiving how that great Body would hardly be forced without destroying it and throwing themselves also into danger they joine subtilty to open violence The Bishops must be impeached of High Treason against King and Kingdome and of subverting the Fundamentall Lawes of the Land This prodigrous calumny nourished the boldnesse of their Abettours in Parliament and drew over to them all the faint hearted debarred the liberty of protecting justice and rendring her venerable to such as had yet freely withstood those violent courses From that very houre they are interdicted all resort to Parliament Their Houses are plundered their persons imprisoned their complaints derided In a word there is not any outrage imaginable which they did not exercise upon them insomuch that the very reasons they alleadged to cleare themselves were brought under the compasse of a high misdemeanour albeit they knew not how to proceed against them For even in their greatest heare they were forced to leave the matter undecided and so it continues to this day They are never more gravelled then when they fall upon debate of that The Parliament that is to say the Lower House and the Synod doe both joine heads together to put an end to the Question The one in debarting those a place in their Assembly who have a light to sit there from the first institution of Parliaments and whose votes in that place are so fundamentally necessary that without them all the decrees of the other are null and the originall constitution of the Kingdomes infringed thereby The other contributes to their totall extirpation and to shake off all obedience to them that so they may open a gappe to their Libertinisme and force upon the Church that disorder and confusion which the spirit of giddinesse they are possessed with hath ever aimed at Judge Sir by these proceedings what sincerity there it in these Novelists and if any honest man can shake hands with them Suppose the Bishops had indeed transgressed in matter of State this is but a poore plea for the proscription of Episcopacy in selfe The Persons should be punished not the Profession abolished after the example of those Emperours who having upon good ground such at least as appeared so to them ejected certaine of their Bishops did forthwith substitute others in their roomes to let the world know that if with one hand they put the law in execution against the crimes of men with the tother they would still maintaine the reverence due unto an Order in their esteeme so sacred that those they had divested of it they adjudged altogether unworthy of the same Suppose now they were found peccant in point of Religion this they may be as Men and as Sinners not as Bishops The Ministery among us