and did in times past lovingly agree together in Union of Affection and Profession for this design and could bear some differences then in other Opinions where this design was found to be agreed in and then the burthen and trouble complained of was the imposition of superstitious Rites and Doctrines and Traditions of men the lordly Rule of BBs the evil proceedings of their Courts and want of Liberty to worship God according to our Conscience for attempting and pressing after which some were imprisoned and some lost blood and life some were silenced many cited and many drawn to their Courts and some excommunicated and some occasioned to flie into other Countries by reason of all which they that feared the Lord went under the terms of Puritans Precisians Factionists Schismaticks and disobedient to Authority and so made the odium and scorn of the common people derided abased c. and then glad in secret to meet for Fasting Prayers and Instructions In those dayes we loved one another and professed might we enjoy Liberty of Conscience for enjoyment of and fellowship in the Gospel bread and cheese mean fare and mean accommodations for the outward man should content us This was a time of sadness but now God hath tried us and we are found not upright in what we professed as our many discontents and complaints do testifie even now when God hath freed us from those burthens and complaints we then groaned under and given us a Protector and Government under which we enjoy more Liberty of Conscience and fellowship in the Gospel than we could then have thought of if we did not fall cut among our selves and because our particular lusts are not satisfied ready to fault and murmur against Governour and Government also as the Children of Israel did in the Wilderness against Moses after their great deliverance but their murmurings were against the Lord as it 's to be feared ours also will be found to be an ill requital of so great mercy once so highly prized and earnestly prayed for and now received so lightly esteemed it brings to my minde the saying of a godly Minister in those times who loved me and I him and having some communion together though our Habitations were far distant on occasion of some saying in which we fully agreed not I thank God saith he that such differences as this breeds no dis-union nor dis-affection between us I desire it might be so with all that fear the Lord but we have a common enemy meaning the BBs that persecutes us all and we may thank God for it for by that means we are kept at peace with and love to one another and if that common enemy be once removed then shall we fall out among our selves He that said this is now with God I that heard it am yet living on this earth to see his words verified I am sorry we make no better use of God's mercy and return so evil to him for so great good done us I pray God give us to be humbled for it and now in love and thankfulness to him and love to one another to lay aside vain-glory envy bitterness wrath anger evil speaking and help us to be kinde one to another and tender hearted not every one seeking his own things but each the good of other and then may we enjoy the benefit of the mercy given us and so be thankful for and live comfortably under the Government God hath so graciously set over us for which my Address is to you which one might think needless for such as we and if it be needful for some as it appeareth it is yet it is difficult for me to make it rightly because of the diversity of mindes among us I pray therefore bear with me and accept it while I endeavour it as well as I can and so I make my Address to 1. You reverend Fathers and Brethren whose minde and bent is set for a National Provincial and Classical Presbytery for Order and Government of Church-affairs and to have the Power of the Magistrate to confirm and stablish the same and so to give such Power to you that by the Power of the Magistrate imparted to you you may set up and carry an end the same and discontent if the Magistrate afford you not this Power Surely Order among Brethren and in Church-Assemblies and Affairs is needful desireable profitable and beautiful and even that in having Officers also yet that it is so needful desireable profitable and beautiful for outward Order to be alwayes in all Ages or in all Nations or in all Congregations or in every or all the parts of any one Country or Province the same I nowhere finde in Scripture 1 Cor. 14 26-40 11.2,3 4. but this I finde a true Church and for spiritual gifts highly enriched and commended and Order required and yet no outward Officers mentioned yea probable because of their divisions not betrusted to chuse their Officers till the Apostle came and set such things in order Act. 14 21-23 yet were they true Churches in Corinth as there were divers in other places that were true Churches for some time before they had any such outward Officers And I also read how in the same time and Age in another place that in the Church there was Bishops or Elders and Deacons or Ministers to help in Ministration Phil. 1.1 Act. 6 3-6 and especially for the relief of the poor and this a Church as much approved as any I know and yet I finde in Crete and Ephesus divers Churches that had Bishops or Elders and Deacons Tit. 1 5-xi and also a Bishop or Elder appointed to oversee all the Churches in that Province with their 1 Tim. 1 3-5 3 5. Bishops Deacons to admonish them both for right Doctrine and Manners and to be chief in helping them both for ordaining and confirming both of Elders and Deacons c. as Titus in Crete and Timothy in Ephesus 1 Cor. 12.28,29,30 Eph. 4 7-13 1 Tim. 3. 2 Tim. 2. 3 4 1-5 1 Tim. 6.11,14 To say Timothy and Titus did this as they were Evangelists is but a saying without proof for as the names of Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastors Teachers were not appropriated to Ecclesiastically called Church-Officers but to all those so gifted by Christ and other Officers called Bishops Deacons or Elders and Deacons so the work of an Evangelist is set out plainly and fully to be in teaching c. and this the command to be kept till the appearing of our Lord Jesus and though men so gifted be fittest for such oversight also yet no necessity yea or possibility to have alwayes the like outward order in Church-Officers and Government though Churches differing in some outward form may be alike true and good both in Doctrine and manners and that among them all was done in Faith and Love by the Word and such spiritual power and weapons as the Word afforded them without