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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
power_n	ordain_v	ordination_n	presbyter_n	4,289	5	10.5064	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80839	Berith Anti-Baal, or Zach. Croftons appearance before the prelate-justice of peace, vainly pretending to binde the covenant and covenanters to their good behaviour. By way of rejoynder to, and animadversion on Doctor John Gauden's reply or vindication of his analysis, from the (by him reputed) pitiful cavils and objections; but really proved powerful and convincing exceptions of Mr. Zach. Croftons Analepsis. / By the author of the Analepsis, and (not by the Dr observed) Analepsis anelephthe, to the continuing of St. Peter's bonds, and fastning his fetters against papal and prelatical power.	Crofton, Zachary, 1625 or 6-1672.	1661 (1661)	Wing C6988; Thomason E1085_6; ESTC R208062	67,248	104

aspect and appearance will be found by any man conversant in Scripture and acquainted with the estate and affairs of the Church notorious falshoods 1. Presbytery hath no divine appointment was not commanded by God never used in the ancient Church hath nothing in it piously morally or po●itically good or necessary Epist to the Reader How Sir can you read of the Elders of Ephesus and the Presbyterie that ordained Timothy and say Presbytery was not commanded by God Can you read in the Fathers of the Presbyterie advancing by their own power a primus Presbyter in the antient canons of the essentialitie of the Presbyteries concurrence in all acts of Discipline of the Fathers Epistles to and concerning Presbyteries and yet say Presbytery was never used in the Church Can you consider Presbytery is a Colledge of Gospel Ministers gove●ning communi consilio by j●ynt advice and yet conclude there is in Presbyterie nothing piously morally or politically good Will not every childe in his double Psalter tell you In the multitude of Councellors there is safety and every School-boy teach you plus vident oculi quam oculus and yet are you so blind as to see no moral political good in Presbyterie but this is but one Doctors opinion the meanest Clerk in your Cathedral would tell you your Grace was at a loss when you thus concluded Nor do you hit the next 2. Presbytery was not conjoyned to Episcopacy if you mean in its first constitution and the order of it which was without and before Bishops afterwards made by its power you begin well nor hath any power or authority unto the governing of the Church is no way necessary to a Bishop otherwise then by advice when called and required and that to be taken or refused at the Bishops pleasure pag. 289. I pray Sir help the Papists and untie that knot whether Peter received the keys of the Kingdom of heaven as a Presbyter or Bishop ordinary Minister or Apostle or prince of the Apostles It is pity John Chrysostom had not you for his Advocate when he was charged as with a crime for ordaining without his Presbyters I hope the correction of the ancient Canons being committed to you you will purge out those that confine the Bishop to his chair to declare and execute the decrees of the Presbyterie and make void the ordinations and censures made without the Presbyterie forget them of the Council of Carthage And Sir there is one passage or two in Scripture worth your notice Let him tell the Church sufficient to such an one is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the punishment inflicted by many You know Sir they are words that imply plurality dignity and authority I pray Sir when your pen is in your hand draw a line through these words in the form of ordering Priests minister the Discipline of the Church to what end should they promise faithful diligence to that which they have nothing to do withal and concerneth them not But to the third 3. To endeavour to advance Presbytery to exercise in the rule and government of the Church is Schisme and Superstition pag. 214 215. How is Church Government an Article of Christian faith and an essential act of Divine Worship Oxford Reasons Sect. 3. your friends at Oxford were of another mind when they charged the Scots supposed say so to look like Schisme and Superstition What fools were Clemens Alexandrinus Augustin and Gregory the great and other Fathers to Father John Gauden they left us this ground of Schisme and Superstition Vnitas Ecclesiae catholicae non consistit in uniformitate disciplinae sed in unitate fidei but our Bishop standeth on their shoulders and can see further then little Mr. Crofton who yet hopes to see as far as little Zacheus in his Sicamore Tree advancing Presbytery as Gods institution and to keep the unty of the spirit in the b●nd of peace 4. Bishops are the sole and chief cisterns conservators conduit and derivators of all holy orders discipline and Government the principal Pillars and Fathers of the Church pag. 221 248. I hope Sir you will then make your succession as clear as the sun I would make a journey to Exeter to have the intricacies thereof well unravelled what became of the Churches when in Alexandria per totum Aegyptum the Presbyters did ordain and think you that Denmark demolished the Church when Christian their third King did by publick edict beat down your Pillars your charity is more to the reformed Churches then to condemn or censure them as no Churches pag. 196. but yet you will cut off their pipes cisterns conduits and make them come fetch Waters at your Wells your charity is very rational 5. Episcopal presidency and authority is a Soveraign power and spiritual jurisdiction in ordination confirmation censures rebuking silencing excommunication absolution and other exercise of Ecclesiastical power without above and against Presbyters and people pag. 215 229. Well said D. Gauden I like a man that can speak out Mr. Crofton shall know your meaning anon but your jurisdiction is so spiritual that to him your Sovereign power is invisible it is probable you may make him feel it though he cannot see it but I am confident it must be in his body not in his soul make good this description by Scriptures Fathers Divine principles or good Authors Popish or Protestant and if you make not a full formal Pope I will burn the Covenant renounce my reason and believe as your Church believes for all that I have met with give Presbyters an interest if not the greatest share with and without the Bishops in every of these acts of Ecclesiastical jurisdiction 6. The Episcopacy which England had or the English Hierarchy for its difference from Presbytery in place honour office authority use and honourable support is of universal tradition and observati●n in all ages and places eminent in the judgment and practice of antiquity and the Church from Christ and his Apostles until now of late in use and authority in the Church as the Lords day and infant baptisme which to deny is impudence and falsity against the very letter and practice of the new Testament and judgment of all antiquity Pag. 198 220 228 248. How Sir the practice and letter of the new Testament and yet but a tradition you sure will say more of it you do well to paralel it to the Lords day and infant Baptisme for they will be evidently grounded on the practise and letter of the new Testament and so be found more then a tradition but Sir will you stand by it that Episcopacy was an universal observation in all ages and eminent in all places till of late I pray Sir enquire when it came into Scotland and how basely it was driven out of Denmark they are places in the Christian World again was Englands Hierarchy distinct from Presbyters in place office authority honour use and honorable support of universal tradition and practice how am

determineth that Parliaments Kings Lords and Commons have no prudent moral religious and lawful authority to change the antient universal and excellent government by Bishops for Christian Kings and their Parliaments are obliged to the Laws of God and rules of Christian piety and policy too of which the whole Church in its primitive example and constant custome is the best interpreter No legislative power is empowred by Gods law to bring in heresie error or schisme into the Church or take away the essentials of sound Doctrine and Christian Communion ever owned and maintained in the Church of Christ pag. 196. well said Doctor aut Caesar aut Nullus No Bishop no King must now be a Scripture maxime and article of faith if Smectymnuus his stirr up to the papacy be not now held Salmasius his Apparatus ad papatum asserted and Beza his Episcopi papam pepererunt verified by the Bishop of Exeter I am much mistaken but Sir have you not stretched too far and stept into a premunire little Mr. Crofton should fear to be made less by the head as guilty of Treason sedition at the least should he thus confront King and Parliaments in what all their Statutes declare to be their own creature and constitution changeable at their pleasure even from the statutes of Carlile and 25. of Edward the 3. Declaring against the Pope that holy Church was founded in prelacy by their own donation power and authority Where is Sir the Kings Prerogative over all persons in all causes Ecclesiastical What is become of your Oath of Supremacy can you make this peremptory determination as your self calls it consist with it any more then with your Covenant hath a gracious King lately advanced you to debase nay dethrone him and his Parliament too I know no better confutation of this errour then the hundred eighteen thousand eight hundred and forty pounds payd by the Bishops to Henry 8. to redeem the premunire into which this perswasion had betrayed them with the Petition and Statute of the submission of the Clergy which in my apprehension runs direct counter to Dr. Gaudens peremptory conclusion It hath been observed to be the fatal chance of the Deputies of Ireland to lose their heads and the Bishops of England to run themselves into a Premunire which when his Majestie affected with their bold encroachment doth exact will make them feel and it may be deal with them as did the King of Denmark provoked by the same peremptorie determinations These Sir are your errors in matters Ecclesiastical which you must give little Mr. Crofton leave to tell you are more obvious notorius and abominable heresies then was that charged upon Aerius though an undeniable uniuersal truth by Epiphanius nor doth he fear to be contradicted by any sober or judicious Prelate resolved to keep Episcopacy one peep short of Papacy unto which I shall make bold to oppose these few conclusions of undoubted verity and universally confessed by all Antiquitie which that little Mr. Crofton may not appear too great a dictatour let Dr. Gauden owning sacred or Ecclesiastick story deny it if he can 1. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Shepheard and Bishop of our souls the great good chief and onely one to whom all must be gathered by whom all must be ruled that will be saved and from whom all must be authorized that will feed his flock 2. The Lord Jesus executeth this pastoral charge and Episcopal function by the Ministry of men successively sent and commissioned by his immediate authority and in his name without which they may not Minister to or be received by his flock 3. That the mission and commission of Jesus Christ is directed and given to two onely officers in his Church Bishops or Elders and Deacons the one to look after the bodies outward necessities and condition of his sheep to serve Tables the other to manage all the pastoral charge and Episcopal office as it immediately concerneth the soul of his people 4. That all Ministers are equally invested with and do intrinsecally possess authority from Christ for administration of all acts of feeding or ruling the flock of Christ without any difference of order place charge name office or dignity and therefore are joyned in the same general commission called by the same name Bishop or Presbyter chosen by the same characters conseerated after the same order charged with the same duty feeding or overseeing and challenge the same dignity esteem obedience and double honour from and among the sheep 4. That for some time in the pure and primitive time and estate of the Church the Presbyters did by and among themselves govern the Church communi consilio without any over them as Episcopus episcoporum or Pastor pastorum as having from Christ a different order and function yea without any gradual priority or preheminence of any particular Presbyter above the rest 6. That in process of time the Presbyters neglecting the course and care of Christian mortification by which they ought to have subdued their ambition and passions and so silenced their schism did by the working of the man of sin and permission of God devise a politique way or remedy thereof and advancing among themselves a Primus Presbyter ad schismatis remedium who was after dignified with the title Bishop and was by Canons honoris causa placed in Cities who was before in any poor village This giveth just ground for Smectymnuus note that Episcopacy above Presbytery was an humane invention on Diabolical occasion 7. That all jurisdiction and ruling power was yet acknowledged to abide originally intrinsecally and properly in the Presbyterie whose creature the Bishop was to act pronounce and execute their decrees and therefore when Bishops began to encroach and invade the Presbyters libertie and authoritie to usurp and ingross their power and function and make them subject and servile to them Canons were made to limit confine and subject the Bishop maintain and preserve the Presbyters power in Ordination Excommunication and Absolution not to be done without the Presbyters So that Presbyterie was ever known in the Church as Christs and his Apostles institution and Bishops apart and in preheminence to them the Churches Canonical constitution and Presbyters creation to the formality of whose advancement consensus clericorum was essential 8. That by this political preferment of a primus Presbyter the man of sin did work and exist in the Church engrossing the power of the Presbyterie and advancing himself above them he assumed by degrees a Principality to which he made the Presbyters sworn vassals by which became the subject of Princes indulgence and benevolence until capable of universal influence and extention through the Christian world he assumed an universal Papacie which he executed by subordinate Bishops heads of Diocesses and Provinces contracted universalities throughout the Church thus Beza well notes Episcopi papam pepererunt and Salmasius discovers the apparatus ad papatum ●nd many judicious men see nothing but a

he one of them guide or guided because he knoweth not how to go into the City which one thus illustrates Nesciunt viam in Vrbem Lava qui a recto tramite aberrant in loca a via adducuntur The Dr having in his Analysis loosed from the Haven of Reason true Religion and the fear of God runs adrift where-ever the wind of his own words can hurry him and leads his Reader into a wilderness where he hears no sound but the shrieks of Satyrs barking and howling of beasts at best raging and rayling of men or wilde and improper discourses that direct to no certain end The Dr having unhappily returned railing unto what seemed rational in his Anatomist according to what is noted as usual with heretiques Haeretici cum perver sitatis suae non possunt reddere rationem in maledicta convertuntur and endeavoured by words and shuffling glosses to darken the plainness and clearness of the truth urged by the Analeptist of whom we must say as Bishop Jewel of the Jesuite Harding in his confutation of him Who so takes upon him to maintain untruth must needs be forced to discourse about with long vagaries to lead his Reader from the purpose and to feed him with words for want of matter Defence of the Apologie of the Church of England Preface to the Reader The truth is the Reverend Dr hath expressed great affection to Episcopacy in his zeal for it fully matching Harding's apprehension of the Papacy and Assertion That the Popes chair or English Prelacy is the very knot of Christian Vnity and so branding with Schism all that say the contrary Nor falls he much short of Pope Boniface having according to the measure of his Prelatical power Anathematized all Presbyters as he did Aurelius and all the Bishops of the Councel of Africa not exempting Augustine himself Aurelius cum collegis suis instigante diabolo superbire caepit contra Romanam Ecclesiam Nor is he much defective in their subtilty whilst visum est utile ut scribatur ad Episcopum Romanum ut consideret res nostras det consilium will more easily signifie the Popes power and be rendred It hath seemed good that we write unto the Bishop of Rome that he visit us and determine our matter by his sentence then I swear with reality sincerity and constancy to endeavour the extirpation of Prelacy that is to say the Government by Arch-bishops Bishops c. can be rendred I do swear to my power to establish and advance Prelacy the Government by Arch-bishops Bishops only I will consent to reform the excessive and defective abuses thereof but the cause cannot be good that must be salved by such strained yea contrary interpretations especially in matters of an Oath with how great ability the Dr hath managed his great affection against his little Antagonist let wise men judge the weight of the cause and some mens doting on the bare say so of a Bishop more then the cogency of the Reply hath produced this following Tract to thy cost and trouble as well as my pains and expence of more precious time into which before I pass thee I must minde thee of these two things pretermitted in the following Animadversion 1. That Dr Gauden seems to gather much strength from the silence or seeming compliances of some to his absurd contradictory interpretations of the Covenant Because I will do him or them on whom he reflects no wrong read his own words viz. I finde no men of learning and ingenuity but are ashamed to appear in such a cause Sober Presbyterians do very loyally piously prudently own yea and profess to the King's Majesty a quiescence under Episcopal Government as no way inconsistent with the Covenant Epist to the Reader This mitigated and just sense of the Covenant some that were and are great masters in our Israel and assertors of the Covenant are now content to owne abating the rigour which somtime possessed some Covenanters against Episcopacy in that sense wherein this and most other Churches ever owned and used Episcopal Government and Authority among and above Presbyters yea many of them begin to cast a favourable eye on Episcopal dignity no less then on Church lands fearing nothing so much as not to have a share of them much congratulating as the King 's happy restauration so the hopes of recovering the pristine Honour and Government with the Revenue and Rights of the Church in point of Episcopacy not in the fallacy of a Presbyterian parity but of a presidential constant eminency of Bishops in authority over Presbyters pag. 72 73. That any have by their silence or seeming compliance given the least occasion to this insultation is matter of grief and scandal to good men who yet have observed the subtile attempts strenuous endeavors of Prelats and their abettors to tempt debauch the consciences of some Zealous Covenanters and cannot but bless God that any have obtained power to withstand such temptations decline such glorious baits which should they and many have admitted I was am resolved through divine grace to sing no song under the sufferings that are threatned against me save only this All this is come upon me yet have I not dealt falsly in thy Covenant but charity bids me conclude that the Dr reckons without his host and that the boasting clamour is a base calumny He professeth the reason of the so late appearance of this elaborate wilderness was an expectation of what others would say in the cause and yet he runs so fast as not to heed the Covenanters Plea which would have told him some men no way short in learning and ingenuity of Dr Gauden did appear in such a cause moreover many may and do appear in it that appear not to write for it Pen and Pulpit are different capacities multitudes of books need not let the Dr judiciously not judicially confute one of his Antagonists I dare assure him more will take up the quarrel and defend it I could if he call on me shew the letters of many faithful Covenanters out of many Counties in England joyntly and singly owning the same cause of the Covenant with Mr Cr. and are neither afraid nor ashamed to own it I know not what any particular Presbyter might profess to his Majesty I hope such on whom the Dr reflecteth will in due season vindicate themselves I have cause to think the Dr reports this as faithfully as he did Mr Baxter's discourse about the Liturgie I well know that those who had immediate conference with his Majesty professed in private debates with their Brethren another judgement of the Covenant and Episcopacy then what is now reported of them I am sure at a general meeting of the Covenant Presbyters in and about the City of London the cause of the Covenant was debated generally owned in its opposition to Episcopacy and other things returned amongst us and by joynt consent it was agreed to petition his Majesty and

when little Mr. Croftons Analepsis was laid at your feet to be taken up or kicked away but enough of this it is more fit for your Anonymous Anatomist then for a man of modesty who shall keep himself distinct as you have differenced him and shall therefore desire to weigh what your Worship hath against his Analepsis Mr. Crofton is in this elaborate tract dealt with a part but the little man is so light that he is tossed up and down the Wilderness that seeking he cannot without tyring find himself in these indeed tedious and intangled as your self calls them animad versions he did according to his little reason unravel your last snarled skain and resolved it into a regular method which methinks Sir might have kept your fluency within some bounds and have curbed your wild excursions he shewed you the Rocks against which your resolution dashed and digested your discourse into argumentation as well as he could and dare say you appeared better to the Reader in Mr. Croftons Analepsis then in your own Analysis why kept you not to this I promise you if this be Rhetorick I shall not love it till it keep to rule be plain pure perspicuous and methodical without which it is but natural fluency of words and volubility of tongue and not fordid tedious obscure flat wild rabid raging empty and barely wordy without sentence confused and immethodical as is yours unto the very heigth of exorbitancy take notice of it if I be as God forbid I should be Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and an appeal be made to the Archp. against your writings I will adjudge you instead of your Marginal digitations to your Reader to place over every Paragraph the figure by which you frame your sentence and mood by which you form your argument for now you have vindicated your Analysis I must send to you to pray an Analysis of your vindication my reason it is too little to make it I must be fain to guess your meaning by your mumping The Doctors great design in his Analysis professed to reconcile the Covenant and Episcopacy but how unhappily he lost it and miscarried in it was modestly declared by little Mr. Crofton whom I apprehend this great Doctor scorns to admit as a Dictator so as to take notice of or amend his errors on which his conscience cannot but tell him all his Casuistical endeavou●s have been and must needs be shipwrackt without all possibility of satisfaction to conscience how ever it may catch the fancy of his prelatical proselytes who are pleased with a sound against the Covenant and consider not the certainty of it and are ready jurare in verba Episcopi be they never so groundless the say so of a grave Prelate is a sufficient reason of their faith The inadvertency of his expressions both for their fury and falshood against Presbytery the Parliament and all those whose consciences cannot correspond with his propounded Prelacy as well as against his particular Antagonists is so far from being abated that it is more vigorously acted and made so accumulative that his book runs over with foams of rage filling as I said before more the twenty sheets of paper with such furious and foolish objurgatio●s ridiculous reflexions and scurrilous chiding that he that enters this book and passeth but the Threshold must needs say this man is in no temper to resolve a doubt or satisfie a conscience he is in the heat of a scolding passion and so lay it aside as unfit to be read really had angry Mr. Crofton been his Chaplain he must have become an index expurgatorius to his book and presumed to dictate more sobriety and meekness before it had seen the world for that the wrath of man cannot work the righteousness of God men cannot but judge this book an hot contest and violent plea for his prelatical honour and revenues in which beginning to be warm he groweth as hot as a Toast and fearing to lose them falls into a fretting chafe against the Covenant and Covenanters which promise them little security and therefore runs his rage against sacriledge and buying Bishops Lands from which it is well known Mr. Crofton is free nor indeed doth he charge him rather then for his Episcopal office in Christs Church the conscience of which would have made him sensible a Bishop must be no brawler but patient In this angry mood we cannot expect him to be very clear o● certain in the ratio formalis objecti the object of the obligation scrupled and disputed the want of which hath been noted to him by the different acceptation of the term Bishop and Episcopacy the which Mr. Crofton did not onely explain but propose unto him a doublesence thereof affirming the one to be Scriptural primitive and Catholique the other to be Papal Novel and tyrannical and on the variety of his words prayed a positive determination which of them he owned and would reconcile to the Covenant but his greatness would not condescend to make a choice of either according to Mr. Croftons proposal but that we may know he scornfully takes notice that Mr. Crofton had observed his uncertain proposal of the object in ambiguous words he affords us a parenthesis in the threshold of his book which runs thus The way of Episcopal order and authority that is lest Mr. Crofton should again mistake my meaning the presidency of one chief Prebyter or Bishop among many and above all lesser Bishops or Presbyters in his Diocess according to the ancient custome and laws E●clesiastical and civil I thank you Sir for this grave cast of your eye did Mr. Crofton mistake you without cause or clamour it to your damage or did he not take the paines to pick up your words and put them together and tell you that some of them speld one thing and some another distinct from that and modestly desire which you would own and stand by Sir the spirit and men of your Diocess are said to be near a kin to the Welchmen and they must have leave to tell their tale twice and for ought I see you must tell yours thrice for I am as likely to mistake you as I was before such an Heraclitus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you are in your Aenigmatical extrication of your own made intricacies and rhetorical labyrinths Before I presume to determine your meaning I must enquire what you mean by Presidency whether you intend not to extend it beyond the gradus of a Moderator unto the power and efficacy of a President of a Colledge at the least what you mean by above all less and subordinate Bishops whether Officio honore Cathedrae or Ordinis authoritate which your Episcopal order authority doth suggest though the title Bishop given by you to Presbyters doth seem to mitigate it What do you mean by antient custom only that which hath long use and can plead prescription and which may have run long and yet leave us a space in which we may

gradual difference between Englands Prelacie and Romes Papacie this being in specie the same with that and so a formal papatus alterius mundi 9. Under this usurpation Presbyterie sensible of its intrinsecal power did resist and often complain and when it was by force acted by fraud restrained yet made and continued its contests and its paritie in order and authority and hath ever been dogmatically asserted and polemically debated by not only the enemies but friends of the Papacie by Canonists Schoolmen Commentators and open discourses in Councils where the Pope durst never admit a free dispute not so much as in the Councel of Trent and as the Reformation of the Church proceeded Presbyterie not only pleaded but reassumed its own proper power and authority and managed the affairs of the Church as against the Pope so without Bishops and England it self though through the policie which too much attended and acted its reformation it retained an Episcopacie yet did dethrone its spiritual jurisdiction and resolve it into a meer humane and civil constitution acting circa ecclesiam and most plainly avowed the intrinsecal power of Presbyters in the act of the submission of the Clergie and other Statutes disavowing any ecclesiastical or scriptural constitution of Prelacie and baring them from all juridical acts otherwise then by the Kings commission and in his name And all our English Divines have openly asserted and polemically defended the power and authority of the Presbyters in their contests against Papists concurrence with and defence of the reformed Churches and their Presbyterial acts and at length our late learned Primate of Armagh in his grave Reduction affirmed it to be the Presbyters right to rule and govern the Church and propounded an expedient in order to the restitution thereof too long held from them the which being in its natural tendency desperata causa papatus as Voetius hath well termed his defence of the Presbyterated reformed Churches the man of sin doth under a Cassandrian accommodation withstand and endeavour to stifle it in which however he succeed to oppose he shall not prevail Presbyterie being Christs own ordinance and the primitive constitution of the Church and mediate discharge of his pastoral and Episcopal office whilst this is a plain humane constitution conform to the course of the world and contrary to the charge of our great Shepherd Matth. 20.25 The Princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them and they that are great exercise authority over them but it shall not be so among you Sir consider well this Climax I will assure you it is to me so obvious and apparent in Ecclesiastical story that he that will not see must turn Sceptique and must say Non persuaseris etiamsi persuaseris and how much soever Presbyterie be sleighted and represented to the world with the insignificant odious charge of Schism and superstition Christs kingly Office in and over his Church is bottomed in it and the recovery of its full liberty to the exercise of its just authority is not only justice but duty that may that which must be pursued pleaded for unto bonds yea death it self and therefore to match your number I upon these undeniable premises make these conclusions which if you will turn your Rhetorick into Reason and with a calm and composed spirit debate it I will be bound logically and theologically to defend against you Hierarchia Anglicana non est ecclesia nec ad ecclesiae entitatem aut gubernationem necessaria adeo ut ejus extirpatio estimetus schisma Hierarchia Anglicana est nullo modo divina aut ecclesiastica sed mere humana civilis cujus abolitio extirpatio sit licita sub juramento faederanda Englands Hierarchy is not the Church nor necessary to the being or government thereof so as that the extirpation thereof should be accounted schism Englands Hierarchy is neither divine or ecclesiastical but meerly civil and humane whose abolition and extirpation may be lawfully sworn and covenanted Until Sir these be confuted you who blame others do your self build upon a plain petitio pincipii Dr. Gauden being well considered will be found no less erroneous in his Politiques then in his Ecclesiastiques running away with certain general notions as if universally granted and undoubtedly true and agreed upon by all whilst indeed they are openly and generally denied I shall gather them together as the former and leave the Reader to take notice of them as he reads his book they running as a line through his book some of them being obvious in every page where his passion would give him leave to speak like a reasonable creature As that 1. The Hierarchy or Episcopacy is established by the Laws of England which I have in my Analepsis Analepthe denyed and the Covenanters plea hath more fully and judiciously expostulated and contradicted in Cap. 6. pag. 22 23 24. I do aver that the English Laws finding Episcopacy conversant about the Church doth restrain its exorbitancies and direct its administrations but neither Canon nor common law doth establish it and in terminis declare and authorize it to be the Government of the Church of England 2. No Oath may be fully sworn which shall bind to an endeavour to extirpate what is established by law and therefore although sworn by the legislative authority and command or by the sharers in the legislation it is ipso facto void and yet endeavour of alteration is to every man sui juris no way inconsistent with that passive obedience which we owe to laws in force and all Laws lye vailed and at the legislators feet to take up or refuse and void and an Oath is the most positive authentique repeal of a law vailed and at the least binding the sharers in the legislation and such as shall succeed into their capacity to repeal those laws which establish the thing which they have sworn to extirpate 3. There is no legislative power de facto operating and exerted binding the subject to any action or obedience unless all things concur which may constitute a full and formal statute law and so all Votes Orders and Ordinances Resolves and Judgment of any the Estates of Parliament are of no force power or authority during their session Which all Lawyers acquainted with Englands constitution will deny unless their Oracles of divinity have at the Temple taught them new notions of law which the constant practice of Lords and Commons and subjection and obedience of those whom they represent doth ordinarily contradict 4. That Lords nor Commons severally nor both conjunct can impose on themselves or others whom they represent any Oath without the knowledge consent and command of the King and if they do it is ipso facto void therefore you suggest that the protestation which is apparently sworn by Parliament and Kingdome without the King to be precarious whilst there is nothing of petition in it but much of legislation and that manifest by the subjects obedience even to your