Parliament; and by whofe Secret Counfels, and on what Hopes, that unnatural War was broach'd; and how very few, and next to none, there were in that Parliament, that were not in actual Communion with the Church of England, tho' many of them diffatisfy'd with fome Dangerous and Arbitrary Proceedings, both in Church and State? Should not these things have been confider'd by you as juft matter of Lamentation, and a Caution too against your inflaming Principles and Practices, and have taught you more Moderation toward fuch as are still accounted your Weaker Brethren? The Design of those that then influenc'd that Juncture, was to rid the World of the Puritans, and with them of all the Northern Herely, and how far your Zeal is now embarqu'd in the fame Defign, you best know. 'Tis true, there were fome, and too many, of the Factious Spirits of those days, who, had they had their impious Wishes, there had never been a Bishop more in England, nor Presbyter neither. But before you had laid thefe heavy Charges on the Innocent, you should have confider'd, who they were that were the chief Inftruments, and that acted on the fincerest Principles in the Restauration of the Banished King to his Kingdom.

In the remaining part of this Section, I find nothing material that hath not been, by what I have already faid, fufficiently Page 86. anfwer'd; Only fhall take a little notice

of the great Offence you take at my faying, It is not true, that an Inferiour Officer may not invest one of a Superiour Order in his Office, elfe what have the Bishops to do in the Coronation of Kings? To this you grant,that in matters of Human Invention, and which are managed by Compact and mutual Agreement, perfons may communicate to others what they had not formerly (formally, I fuppofe, it should be) but vertually only in themselves. By which words

you have fairly given up your Caufe, unless you can maintain it against an Army both of the Fathers, and of your own Doctors, that the Diocefan Bishop you are pleading for, is not of Humane Inftitution and Agreement, but an unalterable Decree and Ordinance of Chrift's appointment in his Church; which Decree of Heaven, when you are fure you have found, you will do well to communicate it to the Church; and yet then it will not hold in Extraor dinary Cafes.

You tell me, That by affirming that Timothy was an Evangelift, and an Extraordinary Officer, we cut off the Succours which we would draw from this place, for the Defence of our Ordination; For (lay you) according to our own Opinion, here is no Example of a Presbyter's conftituting a Presbyter. Which is your great, if not willful, Miftake; For our Opinion is not, that the Presbyters ordain'd Timothy an Evangelift, or Extraordinary Officer: This was what the Apoftle did, and not meer Presbyters; but 'twas the Presbytery, wherein perhaps, Paul was concern'd as Chief, that ordain'd him a Presbyter. And as for the Prophecy that was mention'd in his cafe, this could concern only his Perfon, that is, his Perfonal Qualifications, and fitnefs for the Office, by which thofe that ordain'd him, were directed, to exert their Ordaining Power in invefting him with the Office, and which might feem to be particularly needful in his cafe, because of his Youth: So that twas not the Prophecy that made him an Officer, whether Ordinary or Extraordinary, but those that had a General Power and Commiffion by Office fo to do, and were directed by the Holy Ghoft fo to apply their Power in this particular cafe. But your concluding Timothy to be a Bishop, because he was an Evangelift, that is, that he was but an Ordinary, because he was an Extraordinary Officer,is the ground of your Miftake all along, and fo must I take it,

until you have prov'd, that a Bishop and Evangelift are both one, or have demonftrated the Succeflion of the one to the other, by fome plain Apoftolical Rule. So that tho' we fhould grant what you here affirm, viz. 1. That after Timothy's advancement from a meer Presbyter to an Evangelift, other Presbyters were fubordinate to him. 2. That he was not depofed nor degraded from his Authority, but had it for Life. 3. That he did not take bis Honour to himself by Ufurpation. This will be of no more ufe to you, than if we did grant it, as we do, to the Apostle Paul himfelf, whofe Deputy, as an Evangelift, Timothy was. And whereas you tell us, that fuppofing Paul in conjuncton with the Presbytery, and as the chief Agent in that Action, did ordain Timothy a Presbyter, this perfectly agrees with the Practice of the Church of England, I think is another of Mistakes.

your

1. Because you compare your Bishops with Paul, who was an Apostle, an Extraordinary Officer.

2. Because you fuppofe it neceffary, that fome Extraordinary Officer, fuperior to a Presbyter, ought to be prefent, and the chief Agent in the Action of Ordination, to make it valid, for which we have no Rule in the New Testament. There was no Officer in the Churches of the Apostle's founding, fuperior to a Presbyter, but what was Extraordinary, and but Temporary; but Extraordinaries being now ceas'd, 'tis the Presbyter alone that is chief Officer of Divine Institution,

Wherein foever your Church of England agrees with the Doctrine and Practice of the Apoftolical Churches, we own it, and rejoyce in it; but to deny the Validity of Presbyterial Ordination, and to reordain the Proteftants of that Way, whether Natives or Foreigners, is not according to the PraEtice of the Apoftolical or Primitive Churches, efpecially while thofe of the Popish Orders are allow'd as

valid. Tho' Feliciffimus was ordain'd Deacon by Novatus one of Cyprian's Presbyters, and that Schif matically, yet he was not depos'd on the account of a void, tho' Canonically irregular, Ordination, but for his Male-administration; much less then when there is no fuch thing as Schifm in the cafe.

As for Mr. John Owen's Ten Arguments, proving from Scripture and Antiquity, that Ordination by Presbyters, without Bifhops, is valid, (tho' I know no more vertue in the number Ten, than you do) and which, you fay, you have confider'd, and find no great weight in them, but that they are fully answer'd by a Learned Conformist Mr. Gipps, who hath thereby eas'd you of that trouble; I have no need to give my Opinion of the Fulinefs of his Anfwer; Mr. Owen himself having done enough in his Reply to it, to demonstrate to the World, how Fully and how Learnedly Mr. Gipps hath acquitted himself in anfwering any one of thofe his Ten Arguments. And indeed I do not wonder that you account it an Eafe to be deliver'd from fuch a Task.

And now, Sir, Whether that which I have call'd a Rock, be only a Heap of Rubbish, as you scornfully term it? Whether I have advanced frivolous Conjectures, as you fay, for evident Truths, and meer Fictions for Rul'd Cafes? And how like a Rabbi, or Ecclefiaftical Hero, you have defended the Province you have undertaken, I humbly fubmit to the Cenfure of more Impartial Judges.

Sect. IV.

The Contents whereof, in your own words, are, A Review of the things that have been faid in the Defence of the Separation. And here after a Rude Preface, according to your manner, you defcend to Particulars.

1. The first is, Whether our being One Page 100, with in Matters of Chriftian Faith and Doctrine, will deliver us from the Guilt of

you

Schifm,

Schifm, in feparating from you in fome other things? That we are One with you in all the more Material Articles of the Chriftian Doctrine, you could not deny but feem'd to be paffionately offended that we were fo near to you in Doctrine, while we could not comply with you in what you feem'd to urge, as more effentially neceflary to Chriftian Union: Which I told you was unaccountably strange, that Communion with you fhould be the thing you fo zealoully contend for, and yet are afraid of our coming too near to you. But you now tell us, That you have as much reafon to be afraid, as ever the Trojans had to be afraid of the Greeks, whom they fo unadvifedly took into the City in the Belly of the Wooden Engine. Wherefore you, as a more fharp-fighted Gentleman, had rather that Schifmaticks, as you are always pleafed to call us, fhould continue their Railing at a distance, than that upon pretence of being one with you, they should get over your Fences for their own advantage, and the ruin of your Conftitution. I wonder what it is that makes you ftill fo jealous headed, and afraid of being ruin'd by us; Will a Reformation according to the Holy Scriptures undo you? Will Moderation, and bearing with your Diffenting Protestant Brethren undo you? Will Liberty in matters of Ceremony undo you? Or is it in truth the want of your Old Prey that is like to do it? Who hath hurt you in your Dignities, or your Revenues, or your Ceremonies, or any other way for thefe Forty Years paft, that you have tryed and tempted us? Do not ruin your felves and us. too, and then I do not know but that you are fafe enough.

But why are you fo impatient of the leaft touch at the Doctrines that are by fome preach'd among you, as too Arminian or Romish? Was it not the Sore that made you fling to high, as to charge this Accufation, tho' never fo juft, with the Blood and Confufion of Three Kingdoms, and to call me Fool

and