ly, that the church orders which we observe, being not commanded in Scripture, are offensive and displeasant unto God; I have spent the second book in sifting of this point, which standeth with you for the first and chiefest principle whereon ye build. Whereunto, the next in degree is, that as God will have always a church upon earth, while the world doth continue, and that church stand in need of government; of which government, it behoveth himself to be both the author and teacher: so it cannot stand with duty, that man should ever presume in any wise to change and alter the same; and therefore, “that in Scripture there must of necessity be found some particular form of ecclesiastical polity, the laws whereof admit not any kind of alteration." The first three books being thus ended, the fourth proceedeth from the general grounds and foundations of your cause, unto your general accusations against us, as having in the orders of our church (for so you pretend) "corrupted the right form of church polity with manifold popish rites and ceremonies, which certain reformed churches have banished from amongst them, and have thereby given us such example as (you think) we ought to follow." This your assertion hath herein drawn us to make search, whether these be just exceptions" against the customs of our church, when ye plead that they are the same which the church of Rome

hath, or that they are not the same which some other reformed churches have devised. Of those four books which remain, and are bestowed about the specialties of that cause which lieth in controversy, the first examineth the causes by you alledged; wherefore the public duties of the Christian religion, as our prayers, our sacraments, and the rest, should not be ordered in such sort, as with us they are; nor that power, whereby the persons of men are consecrated unto the ministry, be disposed of in such manner as the laws of the church do allow. The second and third are concerning the power of jurisdiction; the one, whether laymen, such as your governing elders are, ought in all congregations for ever, to be invested with that power? The other, whether bishops may have that power over other pastors, and therewithal, that honour which with us they have? And because, besides the power of order, which all consecrated persons have, and the power of jurisdiction, which neither they all, nor they only have, there is a third power, a power of ecclesiastical dominion, communicable, as we think, unto persons not ecclesiastical, and most fit to be restrained unto the prince, our sovereign commander over the whole body politic. The eighth book we have allotted unto this question, and have sifted therein your objections against those pre-eminences royal which thereunto appertain. Thus have

I laid before you the brief of these my travels, and presented under your view, the limbs of that cause litigious between us, the whole intire body whereof, being thus compact, it shall be no troublesome thing for any man to find each particular controversy's resting place, and the coherence it hath with those things, either on which it dependeth, or which depend on it.

I shall now select a few passages from the body of this celebrated work; and endeavour, in these selections, to exhibit the leading principles on which the author founds his arguments.

The law of reason doth somewhat direct men, how to honor God as their Creator; but how to glorify God in such sort as is required, to the end he may be an everlasting Saviour; this we are taught by divine law, which law both ascertaineth the truth, and supplieth unto us the want of that other law. So that in moral actions, divine law helpeth exceedingly the law of reason to guide man's life; but, in supernatural, it alone guideth. Proceed we further; let us place man in some public society with others, whether civil or spiritual; and

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in this case, there is no remedy, but we must add yet a further law. For although, even here likewise, the laws of nature and reason be of necessary use; yet somewhat over and besides them is necessary, namely, human and positive law, together with that law which is of commerce between grand societies, the law of nations, and of nations christian. For which cause, the law of God hath likewise said, “Let every soul be subject to the higher powers." The public power of all societies, is above every soul contained in the same societies. And the principal use of that power is, to give laws unto all that are under it; which laws, in such case, we must obey, unless there be reason shewed, which may necessarily inforce, that the law of reason, or of God, doth enjoin the contrary: because, except our own private and but probable resolutions be by the law of public determinations over-ruled, we take away all possibility of social life in the world. A plainer example whereof than ourselves, we cannot have. How cometh it to pass, that we are, at this present day, so rent with mutual contentions, and that the church is so much troubled about the polity of the church? No doubt, if men had been willing to learn, how many laws their actions in this life are subject unto, and what the true force of each law is, all these controversies might have died, the very day they were first brought forth. It is both commonly

said and truly, that the best men otherwise are not always the best in regard of society. The reason whereof is, for that the law of men's actions is one, if they be respected only as men; and another, when they are considered as parts of a politic body. Many men there are, than whom nothing is more commendable when they are singled: and yet in society with others, none less fit to answer the duties which are looked for at their hands. Yea, I am persuaded, that of them, with whom in this cause we strive, there are whose betters among men would be hardly found, if they did not live amongst men, but in some wilderness by themselves. The cause of which their disposition, so unframeable unto societies in which they live, is, for that they discern not aright, what place and force these several kinds of laws ought to have in all their actions. Is there question either concerning the regiment of the church in general, or about conformity between one church and another, or of ceremonies, offices, powers, jurisdictions in our own church? Of all these things they judge by that rule, which they frame to themselves with some show of probability; and what seemeth in that sort convenient, the same they think themselves bound to practise, the same.by all means they labour mightily to uphold; whatsoever any law of man to the contrary hath determined, they weigh it not. Thus by following the law of