THese few Leaves of Paper breake on through, after the Humble re­monstrance, with lesse noyse, be­cause of lesse bulke; and not stuffed with the huskes of a bare pleasing speech, but presented to your view with more substance then Rethorique, and with more things then words, and such as I hope will plucke off the vizard of dutifull Sonne from the Authour of the Remonstrance, or make his Mother little behol­ding to him for his advise. Yee are not ignorant of the great distractions, oppositions, and of the di­versity of affections and feares of the people of the whole land about the event of the Churches reformation in hand: for indeede some out of a zeale, somewhat inconsiderate doe cry downe E­piscopacy as Antichristian. Others very mo­derate crave and wish earnestly, Episcopacy were [Page 2]reformed and purged from the Romish and Ty­rannicall government that incumbers it, and which since the last reformation in King Edward the sixth dayes, no free Parliament yet was so hap­py as to redresse: Againe, a third kind of men carried by a contrary winde, maintaine Episco­pacy to bee by Divine right, not so much as na­ming that apply of discord, nor mentioning the maine thing which is so much stood upon, which is not that Episcopacie is either of Divine right or not, for if (as the Author of the remon­strance acknowledgeth,) a Church may stand without Episcopacie, it matters not much, which of these two opinions is held: but the maine point debated lyes in this assertion, that Episco­pall government, as it is established in England is most disagreeable to Christ and the Apostles institution, and to therites and constitutions of the primi­tive Church, and makes a part of the mysterie of iniquities, which the Roman Church for many hundred yeares in England hath had the greatest share in. Likewise the favourers of the humble remon­strance traduce as libellers the opposers of that tenet of Episcopacie by Divine right, and of the corruptions that attend Episcopacie, as it is esta­blished in England. These distractions and op­positions being such; may it please the Hono­rable Court seriously to ponder that there is as great a latitude between having no Bishops at all, and having them with the tendred limitations by those they call libellers; as there is betweene re­taining a limited power in Bishops, and confir­ming [Page 3]the Bishops in the exorbitant authority and greatnesse of Government as it is established in England: which Governement God forbid it were retained, being as it is conceived by the most learned, pious, and judicious of the land most Antichristian, and attended with more evill then the quite abolishing of Episcopacie can prove hurtfull, and of dangerous consequence; and that for these reasons and grounds follow­ing.

I. Episcopall Government as it is established in England, is a continuation of the height of pow­er and jurisdiction, which in the darkest times of Popery the Pope hath usurped by his Bishops and Abbots farre beyond the footing, he ever tooke in France, Spaine, or Germany. Therefore what the Authour of the remōstrance alleadgeth of the ancientnesse of Episcopacie, and of its con­tinuance hitherto 1500. yeares is vaine and fri­valous, for the Roman Church upon the same ground or pleading of antitiquitie makes her he­resies and abominations warantable.

II. The Bishops institution and inthronising is altogether repugnant and contrary to the lawes and customes of the Primitive Church, and a­gainst the constitutions of the Prime Christi­an Emperours, who ordained that the people joyntly with the inferiour Cleargie should pre­sent to the Emperour a catalogue of the most pi­ous and learned men of the Diocesse, and the [Page 4]man that the Emperour was to pitch upon, be invested with the function of a Bishop: for proofe thereof reade the constitutions of Charles the great; Lewis the godly, Gregory the great, Gela­sius and others.

II. The height and superiority of place that Bishops hold, is one of the greatest reliques of the Popish tyranny in England, which is most unfit in Ministers of the Gospel, repugnant to the customes of other Nations, & to the distance, yea rather nearenesse of Office and dignity, that ought to be betweene Bishops and Ministers. It is not heard but in England that Chancellors or Lord Keepers take place after Arch-Bishops, while o­ther Ministers are so farre inferiour and distant from them, as a Prince from of poore tenant or a high sumptuous palace from a poore thatcht cot­tage.

IIII. The Bishops sole exercise of Iurisdicti­on is such, as the like was never heard in any Court of justice, and is repugnant to reason and naturall equity, and cannot bee but an appendice derived from the sonne of perdition, that arro­gates to himselfe an unerring sole power: The Kings Bench, Common-pleas, & Exchequer, are benches of a certaine number of Iudges; The Chancellor of England hath an assistance of 12. Masters. I would faine know when Christ said dic Ecclesiae, if he understood that a Bishop should be a sole Iudge within his Diocesse in deciding any litigious cause.

V. Also the exercising of any power by de­puties, which is the prerogative of Kings, is a monstrous usurpation in the Bishops of England; a strange bird hatcht in no court but theirs, every judge in any other Court discharging his judiciall function in his own person. 'Tis no mar­vell if they that Preach by deputies observe the like practise in keeping of Courts.

VI. The Bishops jurisdiction entrenching up­on the civill Magistrate or Iudge by their jus Pon­tificium or Canon law, which the Pope left them for a legacie, such are the causes testamentary and matrimoniall, is an usurpation no lesse bad then the former, and derogates from the holy power of Ecclesiasticall keyes, which Bishops assumed in the prime pure times of the Church.

VII. It were not so much to usurge jurisdicti­on, if their lawes were but sound, and their legall proceeding just: But their High Commission, the oath ex officio, the horrible abuse of excom­munication, the commutations of bodily penance into pecuniary, their hinderances of prohibitions, stopping the course of law, their determining of tithes & possessions of livings by a Quare impedit, are as many pockie eye-sores, which deface the holy calling of Bishops, and make them, though their first institution had beene of Divine right, to be now lesse then of humane institution.

VIII. Ther not depending on any free Ecclesi­asticall assembly is as much or more then the Pa­pists ascribe to the Pope, who by maine of them is thought inferiour to the councel and censurable by ir.

IX. Their Visitations are apish and counterfet imitations of the ancient Synods which are dege­nerated into receits of custome, as paying for Licences, Procurations, Benevolences, Synodalls, and the like. Nihil est quod curia Episcoporum non vendat, &c.

X. Their convocations or Synods are little better; where deputati sunt deputantes, the deputies are deputing; where in most of the members of it, there is no free choise of election; but Bishops, Deanes, and Arch-deacons have right to sit by their place and office: where those of the lower House are like to maine stockes, that have no mo­tion, but as they are carried by the members of the sphere of the higher house.

Who ever shall reade Mathaeus Paris and Ma­thaeus Westmonasteriensis; and view the disfi­gured face of the Church of England under Henry the second, John, & Henry the third, Kings of England, will acknowledge that the Pope had more power & jurisdiction in England in the per­sons of his Bishops and Abbots, then in any other Kingdome, and will not wonder if Bi­shops have hitherto kept possession, though they [Page 7]hold no more of the Pope; nor will hee easily be perswaded, that that governement is of Divine or Apostolicall institution, which hath ever been contrary to the constitutions of the ancient Church, and to Imperiall lawes, and repugnant to the proceedings of all Courts of Iu­stice, and to common equitie and sence.