case of rebaptizing, the Church takes up his truth, as her common stock; halks his error, not without a commiserating censure.

Now if any man shall think fit to pitch upon the noted mis-opinions of the holiest authors, for imitation or maintenance, what can we esteem of him, but as the fly, who, passing by the sound parts of the skin, falls upon a raw and ulcered sore?

And, if the best Saints may not be followed in their faults, how much less may we make choice of the examples or judgments of those, who are justly branded by the whole Church for schism or heresy? What were this other, than to run into the Prophet's Woe, in justifying the wicked, and taking away the righteousness of the righteous from them? Isa. v. 23. Is not he like to make a good journey, that chooses a blind or lame guide for his way?

When the Spouse of Christ enquires after the place of his feeding, and where he maketh his flock to rest at noon, he answers her; If thou know not, O thou fairest among women, go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock, and feed thy kids besides the shepherds' tents; Cant. i. 7, 8. What is his flock, but Christian souls? and his shepherds, but the holy and faithful Pastors? The footsteps then of this flock and the tents of these shepherds, are the best direction for any Christian soul, for the search of a Saviour, and of all his necessary truths. To deviate from these, what is it but to turn aside by the flocks of the companions?

If, then, it shall be made to appear, that one only branded heretic, in so many hundred years, hath opposed the received judgment and practice of the Church concerning Episcopal Government, I hope no wise and sober Christian will think it safe and fit to side with him, in the maintenance of his so justly exploded error, against all the Churches of the whole Christian World.

SECT. 9.

THE NINTH GROUND:

The Accession of Honourable Titles and Compatible Privileges, makes no Difference in the Substance of a Lawful and Holy Calling. NINTHLY, it must be yielded, That the accession of honourable titles or not incompatible privileges, makes no difference in the substance of a lawful and holy calling.

These things, being merely external and adventitious, can no more alter the nature of the calling, than change of suits, the body. Neither is it otherwise with the calling, than with the person whose it is. The man is the same, whether poor or rich. The good Patriarch was the same, in Potiphar's dungeon, and on Pharaoh's bench. Our Saviour was the same, in Joseph's workhouse, and in the hill of Tabor. St. Paul was the same, while he sat in the house with Aquila making of tents, that he was reigning in the pulpit, or disputing in the school of Tyrannus.

As a wise man is no whit differently affected with the changes of these his outward conditions, but looks upon them with the same face, and manages them with the same temper: so the judicious beholder indifferently esteems them in another; as being ready to give all due respects to them, whom the king holds worthy of honour, without all secret envy; yet not preferring the gold-ring before the poor man's richer graces; valuing the calling according to its own true worth, not after the price or meanness of the habiliments wherewith it is clothed.

If some garments be coarse, yet they may serve to defend from cold: others, besides warmth, give grace and comeliness to the body. There may be good use of both; and, perhaps, one and the same vesture may serve for both purposes.

It is an old and sure rule in philosophy, That degrees do not diversify the kinds of things. The same fire, that flashes in the tow, glows in the juniper: if one gold be finer than another, both are gold: if some pearls be fairer than other, yet their kind is the

same.

Neither is it otherwise, in callings and professions. We have known some painters, and in other professions many, so eminent, that their skill hath raised them to the honour of knighthood. In the mean time, their work, and calling, is the same it was.

But what do I go about to give light to so clear a truth? If, therefore, it shall be made to appear, that the Episcopacy of this island is, for substance, the same with that of the first institution by the Apostles, howsoever there may have been, through the bounty of gracious princes, some additions made to it, in outward dignity or maintenance, the cause is ours.

SECT. 10.

THE TENTH GROUND :·

Those Scriptures, whereon a New and Different Form of Government is raised, had need to be more evident and unquestionable, than those, which are alleged for the former that is rejected.

TENTHLY, it cannot but be granted, That those passages of Holy Scriptures, wherein any form of government, different from the anciently received and established, is pretended to be grounded, had need to be very clear and unquestionable; and more evident and convictive, than those, whereon the former, now rejected, policy was raised.

For, if only Scripture must decide this question; and no other, either evidence or judgment, will be admitted besides it; and if, withal, there be difference concerning the sense of the texts on either sides alleged; it must needs follow, that the clearer Scriptures must carry it, and give light to the more obscure.

We are wont to say, that possession is eleven points of the law: surely, where that is had, and hath long been held, it is fit there should be a legal ejection, and that ejection must be upon better evidence of right. If, therefore, the Church of God have been quietly possessed of this government by Bishops, for above these sixteen hundred years, it is good reason the ejectors should shew better proof than the ancient possessors, ere they be ousted from their tenures. And what better proof can there be, than more clear Scripture?

Shortly, then, if it shall be made to appear, that the Scriptures brought for a Lay-Presbytery are few, doubtful, litigious, full of diverse and uncertain senses, and such as many and much clearer places shall plainly shew to be otherwise meant by the Holy Ghost, than these new masters apply them; then it cannot be denied, that the Lay-Presbytery hath no true footing in the Word of God, and that the old form of administration in an imparity of Ministers ought only to be continued in the Church.

SECT. 11.

THE ELEVENTH GROUND:

If Christ had left this pretended Order of Government, it would have, ere this time, been agreed upon, what that Form is, and how to be managed.

ELEVENTHLY, I may well take it for granted, neither can it reasonably be denied, That, if the Order, which they say Christ and his Apostles did set for the government of his Church, which they call the Kingdom and Ordinance of Christ, be but one, and that certain and undoubted; then, certainly, it must, and should, and would have been, ere this, agreed upon by the abettors of it, what and which it is.

For, it cannot without impiety be conceived, or said without blasphemy, that the Son of God should erect such a kingdom upon earth, as, having lain hid for no less than sixteen hundred years, cannot yet be fully known and accorded upon: so that the subjects may be convinced, both that it is his, and by what officers and what rules it must be managed.

If, then, it shall be made to appear, that the pretenders to the desired Discipline cannot yet, all this while, agree upon their verdict, for that kingdom of Christ, which they challenge; it will be manifest to every ingenuous reader, that their platforms of this their imagined kingdom, are but the chimerical devices and whimsies of men's brains, and worthy to be entertained accordingly.

SECT. 12.

THE TWELFTH GROUND:

If this, which is challenged, be the Kingdom of Christ; then, those Churches, which want any essential part of it, are mainly defective; and that there is scarce any at all entire.

TWELFTHLY, it must be yielded, That, if this, which they call for, be the Kingdom and Ordinance of Christ, then it ought to be erected and maintained in all congregations of Christians all the world over: and that where any essential part thereof is wanting, there the Kingdom of Christ is not entirely set up, but is still mainly defective.

If, therefore, it shall appear, that, even in most of those Churches which do most eagerly contend for the Discipline, there neither are nor ever were all those several offices, which are upon the list of this spiritual administration, it will irrefragably follow, that, either those Churches do not hold these offices necessary, which, having power in their hand, they have not yet erected; or else, that there are but very few Churches, if any, upon earth rightly constituted and governed: which to affirm, since it were grossly uncharitable, and highly derogatory from the just glory of God's kingdom under the Gospel, it will be consequent, that the device is so lately hatched, that it is not yet fledged; and that there is great reason, rather to distrust the plots of men, than to condemn the Churches of God.

SECT. 13.

THE THIRTEENTH GROUND:

True Christian Policy requires not any thing absurd or impossible to be done.

THIRTEENTHLY, I have reason to require it granted, That true Christian policy requires not any thing which is either impossible or absurd to be done.

If therefore it shall be pretended, that, upon the general grounds of Scripture, this sacred fabric of discipline raised by the wisdom of some holy and eminent reformers, conform to that of the first age of the Church, it is meet it should be made manifest, that there is some correspondence in the state of those first times, with the present; and of the condition of their Churches with ours: otherwise, if there be an apparent difference and disproportion bewixt them, it cannot sound well, that one pattern should fit both.

If then both the first planters, and the late reformers of the Church did that, which the necessity of the times would allow; this is no precedent for the same persons (if they were now living) and at their full liberty and power; neither can the Churches of those cantons or cities, which challenge a kind of freedom in a democratical state, be meet examples for those which are already established under a settled monarchy: if therefore it shall appear, that many foul and unavoidable inconveniences, and, if not impossibilities, yet unreasonable consequences will necessarily follow upon the obtrusion of a Presbyterian government upon a national Church otherwise settled, all wise Christians, who are members of such Churches, will apprehend great and just cause why they should refuse to submit, and yield approbation to any such novel ordinances.

SECT. 14.

THE FOURTEENTH GROUND:

New Pretences of Truths never before heard of, especially in Main Points, carry just Cause of Suspicion.

FOURTEENTHLY, it must be granted, That, those truths in Divinity, which are new and hitherto unheard of in the Church, (but especially in those points, which are, by the fautors of them, held main and essential) carry just causes of suspicion in their faces, and are not easily to be yielded unto.

And, surely, if, according to Tertullian's rule, quod primum verum, that "the first is true;" then, the latest is seldom so, where it agrees not with the first. After the teeming of so many ages, it is rarely seen, that a new and posthumous verity is any other than spurious.

It was the position, it seems, of Poza, the brain-sick Professor of Divinity, set up by the Jesuits at Madrid, that "It is free for any man, besides and against the judgment of the holy Fathers and Doctors, to make innovations in the doctrine of religion *."

And, for his warrant of contemning all ancient Fathers and Councils in respect of his own opinions, borrows the words in Ecclesiasticus, cited by the Council of Constantinople † : Beatus, qui prædicat verbum inauditum; "Blessed is he, that preaches the word never before heard of;" impiously and ignorantly marring the text, mistaking the sense, belying the author, slandering the Council; the misprision being no less ridiculous, than palpable: for, whereas the words are is anony, in auditum: he turns them both into one adjective inauditum, and makes the sentence as mon

*Liberum esse, præter et contra sanctorum Patrum et Doctorum sententiam, in religionis doctriná innovare. Alphons. Var. Toletan. de Stratagem. Jesuit. + Concil. Constantinop. Act. 5. Ecclesiast. xxv. 9. paxáçı☺ ó xngúτlav TòY λóγον εἰς ἀκοὴν ὑπαύοντο.