their Persons H. B. displeased that the Bishops doe challenge their Episcopall authoritie from our Saviour The challenge of Episcopall power from Christ and his Apostles neither new nor strange as H. B. pretednds Of the Episcopall succession in the Church of England Episcopall succession how esteemed and valued amongst the Antients The derivation of Episcopall discent from the Church of Rome no prejudice vnto the Hierarchy or Church as H. B. makes it The Bishops antiently called Reverend Fathers The scandalous and scornfull attributes given by H. B. to the Bishops in the generall and to some of the chiefe of them in particular A briefe replie to all his cavills against the chiefe of those particulars H. B. makes his addresse to all sorts of people to joyne together with the King to destroy the Bishops and is content to run an hazard of his own life so it may be done The ruine of the Bishops made by H. B. the only present meanes to remove the Plague A generall answere to these slanderous and Seditious passages LEt us now looke upon your dealing with my LL. the Bishops how you handle them their place their persons their proceedings who being the principall object of your malice must not expect more civill usage then the King their Master especially considering in cold blood how they have provoked you by calling you forth upon the stage However use them as you please you have one good shelter For if your stile seeme sharper then usuall wee are to blame if wee impute it not to your zeal and fidelity for God and the King being you are to encounter those who be adversaries to both Begin then zealous sir wee stand ready for you First then you quarrell with the calling and stomack it exceedingly that some of them should say in the High Commission being put unto it by your Brother Bastwick that they had their Episcopal authority from Christ and if they could not prove it they would cast away their Rochets And so say you they might their Capps too for any such proofe they can bring for it p. 68. What more It 's plaine that they usurpe professe and practise such a jurisdiction as is not annexed to the Imperiall Crowne of England but with the Pope and Prelates of Italy they claime from Christ Ibid. Well then what hurt of this Thus you see our Prelates have no other claime for their Hierarchy then the Popes of Rome have and doe make which all our Divines since the Reformation till yesterday have disclaimed and our Prelates cannot otherwise assume but by making themselves they very limbes of the Pope and so our Church a member of that Synagogue of Rome And this you say because it is affirmed by Dr. Pocklington that we are able lineally to set downe the succession of our Bishops from Saint Peter to Saint Gregory and from to our first Archbishop Saint Austin our English Apostle downwards to his Grace that now sits in the chaire c. p. 69. Thus also in the Newes from â—pswich you are much offended with the Prelates that they will needs be Lord Bishops jure divino by the holy Ghosts own institution and shame not to stile themselves the Godly Holy Fathers of our Church and Pillars of our faith when as their fruites and actions manifest them to be nought else but Step-fathers and Catter-pillers the very pests and plagues of both And not long after you bestow a gentle touch on Dr. Pocklington calling the Prelates as your use is the true-bred sonnes of the Roman Antichrist from whom D. Pocklington boasts they are lineally descended But whatsoever be the claime from Christ or his Apostles or the Church of Rome you have found out a fitter Author of the holy Hierarchie even the spirit that beares rule in the aire the devill Who doth not only haunt the Pallaces of Prelates perhaps he went sometimes upon your occasions but hath infused such a poison into the chaire of this Hierarchie as that man who sits in it had need to be strongly fortified with Preservatives and Antidotes of true Reall Grace not nominall and titular that is able to overcom the infection of it p. 106. This is the summe of what you say or repeat rather with a nil dictum quod and this is hardly worth the saying by so great a Rabbin the answere being made before the objection yet since you say it something must bee sayd about it and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Your first exception is that the Episcopall authoritie is claimed from Christ and that some of the Bishops said in the High Commission that if they could not prove it they would cast away their Rochets This is no more then what had formerly beene said in the conference at Hampton Court when on occasion of Saint Hieromes saying that a Bishop was not divinae ordinationis the Bishop of London Dr. Bancroft interposed that unlesse hee could prove his ordination lawfull out of the Scriptures he would not be a Bishop foure houres You see then this is no new saying devised but yesterday and contrary to what hath beene the judgement of all our Divines since the reformation as you please to tell us The learned workes of Bishop Bilson entituled The Perpetuall government of Christs Church and those of Dr. Adrian Saravia against your Patriarke Theodore Beza de diversis ministerii gradibus with many others of those times shew manifestly that you are an impudent Impostor and care not what you say so you make a noise And yet I cry you mercy I may mistake you not knowing exactly what you meane by your Our Divines For if by your Divines you meane the Genevian Doctors Calvin and Beza Viret and Farellus Bucan Vrsinus and those others of forreine Churches whom you esteeme the onely Orthodox professours you may affirme it very safely that the derivation of Episcopall authority from our Saviour Christ is utterly disclaimed by your Divines Calvin had never else invented the Presbytery nor with such violence obtruded it on all the reformed Churches neither had Beza divided Episcopatum into Divinum humanum and Satanicum as you know he doth But if by our Divines you meane those worthies of the Church who have stood up in maintenance of the holy Hierarchie against the clamours and contentions of the Puritan faction or such as are conformable unto the Articles and orders of the Church of England you do most shamelessely traduce them as your custome is and make them Patrons of that Tenet which they most opposed For tell me of a truth who is it which of our Divines that holds Episcopall authority to be derived from any other fountaine then that of Christ and his Apostles and that conceive their ordination is not de jure divino grounded and founded on the Scriptures and thence deduced by necessary evident and undeniable illation if any such there be hee is one of yours Travers and Cartwright and the rest of your Predecessours men never
all by Parliament and yet the Parliament did nothing in it All that was done by Parliament was that the day of that deliverance was appointed for a kinde of holy day wherein the pâ—ople were to meete together to set forth Gods glory and it was there enacted also that upon every such day that very statute of the institution should be read publickly to the Congregation Of any forme of prayer set forth or afterwards to be set forth ne gry I am sure in all that statute The booke was after made and published by the Kings authority without the trouble of a Parliament However being set out and published though not by Parlament you cannot but be grieved at the alterations Well what are they First you complaine that whereas in the former booke there was this passage Roote out that Babilonish and Antichristian sect which say of Hierusalem c. in the Edition A. 1635. it is set downe thus Roote out that Babilonish and antichristian Sect of them which say of Hierusalem c. Here 's of them added more then was And this you thinke doth make a great and fearefull difference For whereas in the Originall it was plainely meant that all Iesuites Seminary Priests and their confederates are that Babilonish and Antichristian sect which say of Hierusalem c. this latter booke either restraines it to some few that are of that mind or else mentally transferres it on those Puritans that cry downe with Babilon that is Poperie which these men call Hierusalem and the true Catholick Religion p. 130 131. It seemes you have a guilty conscience you would not start so much at this else Quid prodest non habere conscium habenti conscientiam sayd the Father rightly That Babylonish Sect which say and that Babylonish Sect of them which say make 's so little difference that were you not guilty to your selfe of many ill wishes against Hierusalem you would not have so stomacked at the alteration And being that it is confessed by you their Oracle that the Puritans doe cry downe with our Hierusalem by them called Poperie they come within the compasse of the prayer take which forme you list either that Babilonish Sect or that Babilonish Sect of them Nor is it strange that so it should bee For howsoever the Iesuites Priests and their confederates were at first intended yet if the Puritans follow them in their designes of blowing up the Church and State and bringing all into a lawlesse and licentious Anarchie the prayer will reach them too there 's no question of it The Statute 1. Eliz. c. 2. Confirmatorie of the Common prayer booke hath ordained severall penalties for such as shall deprave the said booke of Common prayer or obstinately refuse to use it or use any other forme of prayer then that there appointed as also a particular mulct of 12d toties quoties upon every man that doth absent himselfe from Church on Sundaies and holy dayes This was intended at the first against Recusants there being then no Puritans in rerum natura And may not therefore all the penalties therein contained be justly laid upon the Puritans if they offend in any of the kinds before remembred The like may also be affirmed of the High Commission established hereby at the first for the correction and reduction of the Papists being then the onely opposite partie to the Church and yet you know the High Commissioners may take a Puritan to taske if they finde him faulty That which you next complaine of is that whereas in the old booke the prayer went thus Cut off these workers of iniquity whose Religion is rebellion whose faith is faction it is now altered into this who turne Religion into rebellion and Faith into faction Hereupon you inferre that these Innovators would not have the Popish Religion to bee termed rebellion and their Faith faction as the antient Copie plainely shewes it to be but turne it off from the Religion to some persons which turne Religion into rebellion and Faith into faction so as by this turning they plainely imply that the Religion of Papists is the true Religion and no rebellion their Faith the true faith no faction p. 131. You make another use of it in your Apologie and tell us that it tendeth to justifie and extenuate notorious treasons traytors and to usher in Poperie Superstition and Idolatry p. 3. Here is a change indeede you say right in that but that which you inferre thereon is both false and scâ—ndalous For taking it for granted that they by whose authority the said clause was altered thought it not fit to call the Religion of the Church of Rome rebellion or the Faith therein professed faction must it needs follow thereupon that by so doing they imply that that religion is the true religion and that faith the true faith There 's a non sequitur with a witnesse There is a kinde of religion amongst the Turkes Because I cannot say that their religion is rebellion doe I imply so plainely as you say they doe that therefore their religion is the true religion And there 's a faith too questionlesse among the severall Sects of Christians in the Easterne Muscovite and African Churches Because I thinke not fit to say of any of them that their faith is faction must I conclude astringently therefore the faith profest by each particular Sect is the true faith You might well tax me should I say the one and I may laugh at you for concluding the other Adeo argumenta ex falso petita inepto habent exitus as Lactantius hath it Your use is yet more scandalous then your inference false For how doth this tend to justifie and extenuate notorious treasons and Traytors The treasons and the traytors stand as before they did unlesse the staine be laid more deepe upon them then before it was Before the imputation seemed to rest on the faith it selfe which being a generall accusation concerned no more the guilty then it did the innocent But here it resteth where it ought upon the persons of the Traytors who are not hereby justified or their crime extenuated but they themselves condemned and the treason aggravated in an higher manner That which comes after of ushering in Poperie Superstition and Idolatry is but your ordinary flourish one of your generall calumnies and needes not a particular answer O but say you and undertake to make it good the very religion is rebellion and the faith is faction and therefore there was somewhat in the chang which deserved that censure That their religion is rebellion you prove two wayes First because the Iesuites and Seminary priests refuse to take the oath of Supremacie which is injoyned to all Papists 3. Iac. c. 4. You must needes shew your law you have such store of it For speake man was the oath of Supreamacie enacted 3. Iacobi Then am I out againe for my bookes tell me it was 1 Elizabethae In your Apologie you place the oath of
alleigance 1. Elizabethae and here to make your ignorance the more remarkeable you place the oath of Supremacie 3. Iac. Cujus contrarium verum est The oath of alleigeance t is you meane And sure you will not say all Seminarie Priests and Lay-papists refuse the oath of alleigeance considering that of each sort some have written very learnedly in defence thereof therefore according to your way of disputation the religion of all Papists is not rebellion and consequently their faith not faction The second proofe you offer is that by Doctor Iohn White and Dr. Cracanthorp it is affirmed that the Church of Rome teacheth disloyaltie and rebellion against kings that Popish Authors doe exalt the Popes power over kings that some of theÌ„ have sayd that Christian kings are dogges which must be ready at the Shepheards hand or else the Shepheard must remove them from their office p. 134.135 This argument is full as faulty as the other was and will conclude as much against your selfe and the Puritan faction as any Papist of them all The Citizens of Geneva expelled their Bp. as the Calvinians in Emden did their Earle being their immediate Lords and Princes Calvin hath taught us that the three estates Paraeus that the inferiour Magistrate Buchanan that the people may correct and controule the Prince and in some cases too depose him And you Mass Burton have condemned that absolute obedience unto Kings and Princes which is due to them from their subjects and that unlimited power which is ascribed unto them because theirs of right Therefore we may from hence conclude or else your argument is worth nothing that out of doubt the Puritan religion is rebellion and their faith faction As for your generall challenge p. 191. viz. What one Protestant can they bring that ever committed treason against his king or lifted up an hand against his sacred person I leave it to the Papists to make answere to it to whom your chalenge is proposed But I could tell you in your eare which I would to God were otherwise of more than one or two twice told and twice told to that Protestants of that sort which you most labour to defend and make to bee the onely right ones Had you distinguished as you ought betweene the doctrines of that Church and the particular either words or actions of particular men you had not made so rash a venture and lost more by it than you got So then the religion of the Church of Rome not being in it selfe rebellion though somewhat which hath there beene taught may possibly have beene applyed to rebellious purposes there is a little feare that their faith is faction and so the alteration not so grievous as you faine would have it What further reason there was in it you shall see anon The third booke altered as you say is that set sorth by the king for the publicke fast in the first yeare of his reigne and which his Majestie by his proclamation commanded to be reprinted and published and so reade in the Church every Wednesday What finde you altered there In the first Collect as you tell us is left out this remarkeable pious sentence intirely viz. Thou hast delivered us from superstition and idolatry wherein we were utterly drowned and hast brought us into the most cleere comfortable light of thy blessed word c. And then you ad Loe here these men would not have Popery called Superstition and Idolatry nor would they have the Word of God so commended as that cleare and comfortable light which teacheth us all duties both to God and man p. 142. This is the last of all these changes which tend as you informe us to bring in Popery and therefore I will tell you here what I conceive to be the reason of those alterations which you so complaine of You cannot chuse but know because I think you have it in your Pamphlet against D Cosens that in the Letanie of King Edward 6. there was this clause viz. From the tyrannie of the Bishop of Rome and all his detestable enormities from all false doctrine c. Good Lord deliver us This was conceived to be as indeede it was a very great scandall and offence to all those in the Realme of England which were affected to the Church of Rome and therefore in the Liturgie of Queene Elizabeth it was quite left out Had you beene then alive you might perhaps have quarrelled it and taxed those learned men that did it of Popery Innovation I know not what and then conclude it that they would have the people think that there was neither tyrannie in the Pope nor any detestable enormitie in the Church of Rome But as that then was done with a good intent and no man quarrelled for it that I can heare of why should you thinke worse of the changes now or quarrell that authoritie which gave order for it before you knew by whose authority it was so done conceive you not that those who in this Kingdome are affected to the Church of Rome are not as apt to take offence now as they were before or that there is not now as much consideration to bee had of those which are that way affected as was in any part of the said Queenes time the matter being of no greater moment than this is how great soever you pretend it Most of our faults before have beene of Commission but these that follow most of them are omissionâ— onely First you except against the leaving out of the whole prayer It had beene best for us c. And this was done with an Alas because therein was commended the profitable use of continuall preaching the Word of God p. 142. The Newes from Ipswich calls it the most effectuall prayer of all because it magnifies continuall often preaching c. and call's our powerfull Preachers Gods servants Say you me so Then let us looke upon the Prayer where I perswade my selfe there is no such matter All that reflects that way is this It had beene also well if at thy dreadfull threates out of thy holy word continually pronounced unto us by thy servants our Preachers we had of feare as corrigible servants turned from our wickednesse This all and in all this where doe you finde one word that magnifies continuall preaching or that takes any notice of your powerfull Preachers quorum pars ego magna as you boast your self Cannot the dreadfull threats of Gods holy word be any other way pronounced and pronounced continually by Gods servant then by the way of Sermons only or if by sermons onely by no other Preachers than those whom you stile powerful preachers by a name distinct I trow the reading of Gods Word in the congregatioÌ„ presents unto the people more dreadfull threats then what you lay before them in a sermon and will sinke as deepe Therefore assuredly there was some other reason for it then that you dreame of â—nd thinke you that it
your Sermon p. 7. Hold there a little brother B. As farre as you have said the truth they will all joyne with you Veritas a quocunque est est a Spiritu Sancto said St. Ambrose truely In that assuredly you shall find no Adversaries But when you leave to speake the trueth which is the Office of a Preacher and fall upon Seditious false and factious discourses to inflame the people and bring them into ill opinion both of their King and those to whom the goverment of the Church is by him intrusted you are no more a Preacher but a Prevaricator a dangerous Boutefeu and Incendiarie as you have beene hitherto That this is true shall be most plainly manifested in the Anatomie of your Sermon for wee will call it so to please you where the charge is pressed A second reason which you have to prove them your Adversaries is that they have usurped such a title of jurisdiction as cannot consist with that title of Jurisdiction which the Law of the Land hath annexed to the Crown Imperiall p. 7. If so they are the Kings Adversaries in the first place robbing him of the fairest floure in the Regall diadem and as the Kings Adversaries the common Adversaries of all loyall subjects no more yours then mine But how may it appeare unto us that they have made so great and manifest an usurpation as you charge them with Because say you they doe continually exercise their Episcopall jurisdiction without any Letters Patents of His Majestie or His Progenitors in their own names and rights only not in His Majesties Name and right c. Great pitty but you should be made the Kings Atturney you would bring all the Clergie doubtlesse in a Premunire and make them fine more deeply for it then when King Henry the 8th first charged them with it But this being objected to them in that sermon also we shall there meet with it One thing I must take with me now for feare I find it not hereafter You say the Bishops exercise their Episcopall jurisdiction in their own names and rights only not in his Majesties name and right to the manifest breach of their oathes aforesaid Alas poore Prelates cast away your Rochets and resigne all to Brother B. Before he had indited you at the Kings Bench for usurpation and now he files a bill against you in the Star-Chamber as in case of perjurie For he assures us that the Statute 1. Eliz. c. 1. uniting all manner of Jurisdiction Ecclesiasticall whatsoever unto the Imperiall Crowne of this Realme enacteth the Oath of Supremacy and Allegeance eo nomine to that very end and purpose that none should presume to exercise any Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction within this Realme but by virtue of the Kings Letters Patents and in the Kings Majesties name and right Qui nunquam risistis nunc ridete Here 's such a piece of learned ignorance as would make Heraclitus laugh It seemes you had no conference of late with your learned Counsell who had he seene this passage might have marred the merriment For pray you Sir was the Oath of Allegiance enacted 1. of Elizabeth Then certainly my books deceive me in which it is reported to have been enacted 3. Jacobi on the occasion of the Gunpouder Treason And for the Oath of Supremacy made indeed 1. Eliz. was it enacted eo nomine to that end and purpose as you please to tell us What that no Bishop might proceed in exercise of his ordinary Episcopall Authoritie without especiall Letters Patents and in the Queenes Majesties Name and right only Find you in all the Statute any mention of Letters Patents more then in and for the erection and establishment of the High Commission for excercise of that supreme and highest jurisdiction of right invested in the Crowne as for the Oath look it well over once againe if there be any one word which reflecteth that way of suing out especiall Letters Patents by the Party sworne for the discharge of the authoritie committed to him or that makes mention of the Queenes name to be used therein Assuredly learned sir that Oath was framed to settle the abolishment of all forreine power and jurisdiction such as the Popes of Rome had lately practised in this Kingdom and for no other end and purpose Or if it were enacted eo nomine to that end and purpose that none should exercise any Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction within this Realme but by virtue of the Kings or Queenes Letters Patents then certainly it must be thought that all and every Temporall Judge Justice Major and other lay and temporall Officer or Minister all that take wages of the King in any of His dominions those that sue out their Livery or Oustre le maine young Schollars in the Universitie when they take degrees or finally whosoever is required by the Statute to take that Oath have in them a capacitie of Jurisdiction Ecclesiasticall but may not exercise the same without Letters Patents or else must forthwith take up armes against those that doe As for that clause which followes after And in the Kings Majesties name and right that 's just like the rest It was indeed enacted so in some certaine cases 1 Edw. 6. c. 2. but was repealed by Parliament 1. Mar. c. 2. and stood repealed all the reigne of Queene Elizabeth and therefore could not be intended in the statute 10. I see Sir you are as excellent in the Law as in the Gospell and marveile that you have not mooted all this while in some Inne of Chancery Le ts on Sir to those other Arguments which you have studied to prove the High Commissioners to be your adversaries and if we follow your account they are three in number but stilo novo we shall finde but one and that one worth nothing First they who are adversaries of God and the King are your adversaries p. 9. Secondly they which are Christs enemies are your enemies And thirdly they which are the Kings enemies are your enemies p. 10. This is as good as handy dandy pretty sport for Children I hope you will not divide Christ from God and I am sure you cannot divide the King from himselfe Let then your three arguments passe this once for one and shew us how you meane to prove that the Bishops are the adversaries of God and the King That 's made as cleare as all the rest by arguing a non-concessis pro concessis by taking it for granted because you say it that they are dangerous innovators hinderers of the Gospell opposers of his Majesties Lawes Proclamations and Declarations against all innovations of religion c. What proofe you have of this more then your owne bare Ipse dixit we shall see hereafter and when we see it we will answer to it as we see occasion Meane while I would faine know how this concernes you more then others why any schismaticke or delinquent may not pretend the selfe same reasons to decline the judgement of that Court as
owned for hers by the Church of England Of whom wee may affirme what the historian saith of the Athenians when besieged by Sylla animos extra moenia corpora necessitati servientes intra muros habuerunt Geneva had their hearts we their bodies onely I hope you doe not here expect that I should show you what precedencie or superioritie our Saviour gave the twelve Apostles before and over all the Seaventie or how the Apostles in their owne persons exercised authority over other Pastors or how they setled severall Bishops in convenient places as Timothy in Ephesus and Titus in Crete with power of ordination Tit. 1.5 and power of Ecclesiasticall censure 1 Tim. 5.19 or finally what successours they left behind them in those particular Sees where they most resided This were but actum agere to sing our old songs over as you use to doe and therefore I referre you to the writings of those worthies before remembred our Divines indeed Nor had I said thus much but to let you see that neither the claime is new devised but yesterday nor by all our Divines disclaimed since the reformation both which with shame enough you are bold to say The next thing that offends you and you clamour of is that they claime a visible and perpetuall succession downe from S. Peter to Pope Gregory from him by Austin the Monke first Arch Bishop of Canterbury unto his Grace now being and Sic de coeteris For by this meanes you say they make themselves the very limbes of the Pope the true-bred sonnes of the Roman Antichrist and consequently our Church a member of that Romish Synagogue Who would have thought but this had pleased you For if the Bishops bee the sonnes of the Roman Antichrist and the Church a member of the Romish Synagogue then are you acquitted and all your clamours raylings and opposition aswell against the one as the other may be fairely justified But let your inference alone till another time what is it that you quarrell in the ground thereof Is it that Saint Peter was at Rome or was Bishop there whether for 25. yeares as Eusebius tell 's us we will not dispute you may remember it is granted or rather not denyed by Calvin HOwever his minde served him to have made a question of it yet propter Scriptorum consensum non pugno the evidence was so strong hee could not deny it Is it that Gregory Pope of Rome sirnamed Magnus after a long descent succeeded him The Tables of succession in the Church of Rome make that cleare enough and Irenaeus brings downe the succession till his owne time during which time the lineall succession in that Church by reason of the many persecutions under which it suffered might be made most questionable That Gregory sent this Austin into England to convert the Saxons and made him having before beene consecrated by the Archbishop of Arles the first Archbishop of the English is generally delivered by all our writers from Venerable Bede to these present times as by those also which have writ the life of the sayd Pope Gregory Finally that my Lord the Archbishop that now is is lineally descended in a most faire and constant tenour of succession you shall easily finde if you consult the learned labours of Mr. Francis Mason de ministerio Angâ—icano The Papists would extremely thanke you and thinke you borne into the world for their speciall comfort could you but tell them how to disprove that lineall succession of our Prelates which is there laid downe A thing by them much studied but conatu irrito and never cast upon our Prelates as a staine or scandall that they could prove their Pedegree from the holy Apostles till you found it out Whatever you conceive hereof you cannot choose but know that the succession of the Prelates in the purest times was used as an especiall argument against those Sects and heresies which were then on foote And since you challenge Dr. Pocklington for the succession of the Bishops in the Church of England I will send you to him for three instances which might have satisfied you in that point if you will be satisfied the first from Irenaeus l. 3. cap. 3 4 5. the second from Tertullian de praescript cap. 11. and the last from S. Austin contra Petil. l. 2. c. 51. In all of which it is apparant and see them you must needs being the occasion of his instance in the Church of England that the succession of the Bishops in their severall Churches ita ut primus sit aliquis ex Apostolis beginning their discent from some one or other of the holy Apostles hath beene a speciall meanes to confound those hereticks which tooke up armes against the Church as some men doe now Now for your instance you pleade that if this rule of succession hold our Bishops are the true-bred sonnes of the Roman Antichrist and tell me then I pray you Sir whose sonne are you that had your ordination and received your Ministrie from those Bishops which were so discended you must needes be a limb of the Pope also like it as you list But never feare it Sir there is no such danger as you dreame of either that any Priest or Prelate in the Church of England should therefore bee a sonne of the Roman Antichrist or that the Church should be a member of that Romish Synagogue because wee claime by and from them a visible succession of and in the sacred Hierarchie Wee may receive our orders from them and chalenge a succession by them from the blessed Apostles and yet not bee partakers with them in their corruptions When Hezekiah purged the temple and set all things right which had beene formerly amisse in the Iewish Church thinke you that the High-Priests which followed after thought it a shame to fetch their Pedegree from Aaron Or doe you finde it was objected against them that did that because some of those from and by whom they claimed it had misbehaved themselves in so great an office and possibly advanced Idolatry in that tottering state therefore all those that followed them and descended from them were also guilty of the same crimes Or to come nearer to your selfe thinke you your ministery the worse because you did receive it from the hands of them whom you accuse for true borne sonnes of the Roman Antichrist and that your brethren in New England will not thinke themselves the purest and most perfect Church in the Christian world although they once were members of that here established which they have forsaken T' was not the purpose of those holy men in King Edwards time to make a new Church but reforme the old and onely to pare off those superfluities which had in tract of time beene added to Gods publicke service In which regard they kept on foote the Priesthood and Episcopate which they had received with many of those rites and ceremonies to which they were before accustomed not taking either