to the fartheft end of the heavens, and hadft left to do marvellously among the fons of these laft ages. O perfect and accomplish thy glorious acts! for men may leave their works unfinished, but thou art a God, thy nature is perfection: fhouldft thou bring us thus far onward from Egypt to deftroy us in this wilderness, though we deferve; yet thy great name would fuffer in the rejoicing of thine enemies, and the deluded hope of all thy fervants. When thou haft fettled peace in the church, and righteous judgment in the kingdom, then shall all thy faints addrefs their voices of joy and triumph to thee, ftanding on the fhore of that red fea into which our enemies had almoft driven us. And he that now for hafte fnatches up a plain ungarnished prefent as a thank-offering to thee, which could not be deferred in regard of thy fo many late deliverances wrought for us one upon another, may then perhaps take up a harp, and fing thee an elaborate fong to generations. In that day it shall no more be faid as in fcorn, this or that was never held fo till this prefent age, when men have better learnt that the times and feafons pass along under thy feet to go and come at thy bidding: and as thou didst dignify our fathers' days with many revelations above all the foregoing ages, fince thou tookeft the flesh; fo thou canft vouchfafe to us (though unworthy) as large a portion of thy fpirit as thou pleaseft: for who fhall prejudice thy allgoverning will? feeing the power of thy grace is not paffed away with the primitive times, as fond and faithless men imagine, but thy kingdom is now at hand, and thou standing at the door. Come forth out of thy royal chambers, O Prince of all the kings of the earth! put on the visible robes of thy imperial majefty, take up that unlimited fceptre which thy almighty Father hath bequeathed thee; for now the voice of thy bride calls thee, and all creatures figh to be renewed.

SE C T. v.

Remonft. Neglect not the gift which was given thee by prophecy, and by laying on the hands of prefbytery. Anfw. The English tranflation expreffes the article

(the),

(the), and renders it the prefbytery, which you

to omit.

do injury

Remonft. Which I wonder ye can so prefs, when Calvin himself takes it of the office, and not of the men.

Anfw. You think then you are fairly quit of this proof, because Calvin interprets it for you, as if we could be put off with Calvin's name, unlefs we be convinced with Calvin's reason; the word wper Buтégiov is a collective noun, fignifying a certain number of men in one order, as the word privy-council with us; and fo Beza interprets, that knew Calvin's mind doubtlefs, with whom he lived. If any amongst us fhould fay the privy-council ordained it, and thereby constrain us to understand one man's authority, should we not laugh at him? And therefore when you haveused all your cramping irons to the text, and done your utmost to cram a prefbytery into the skin of one perfon, it will be but a piece of frugal nonfenfe. But if your meaning be with a violent hyperbaton to transpose the text, as if the words lay thus in order, "neglect not the gift of prefbytery:" this were a conftruction like a harquebufs fhot over a file of words twelve deep, without authority to bid them stoop; or to make the word gift, like the river Mole in Surry, to run under the bottom of a long line, and so start up to govern the word prefbytery, as in immediate fyntaxis; a device ridiculous enough to make good that old wife's tale of a certain queen of England that funk at Charing cross, and rose up at Queenhithe. No marvel though the prelates be a troublesome generation, and, which way foever they turn them, put all things into a foul difcompofure, when to maintain their domineering they seek thus to rout and difarray the wife and wellcouched order of Saint Paul's own words, ufing either a certain textual riot to chop off the hands of the word prefbytery, or else a like kind of fimony to clap the word gift between them. Befides, if the verse must be read according to this tranfpofition, μὴ ἀμέλει τὸ ἐν σοὶ χαρίσματος το πρεσβυτερία, it would be improper to call or dination χάρισμα, whenas it is rather only χείριασμα, an outward teftimony of approbation; unless they will make it a facrament, as the papifts do: but surely the prelates would have Saint Paul's words ramp one over another,

fame tenor all the way, for we fee not where he particularizes; then certainly he muft begin collectively, elfe the conftruction can be neither grammatical nor logical.

Secondly, If the word angel be individual, then are the faults attributed to him individual: but they are fuch as for which God threatens to remove the candleftick out of its place, which is as much as to take away from that church the light of his truth; and we cannot think he will do fo for one bishop's fault. Therefore those faults must be understood collective, and by confequence the fubject of them collective.

Thirdly, An individual cannot branch itself into fubindividuals; but this word angel doth in the tenth verfe. "Fear none of those things which thou fhalt fuffer; behold the devil fhall caft fome of you into prifon." And the like from other places of this and the following chapter may be observed. Therefore it is no individual

word, but a collective.

Fourthly, In the 24th verfe this word Angel is made capable of a pronoun plural, which could not be, unless it were a collective. As for the fuppofed manuscript of Tecla, and two or three other copies that have expunged the copulative, we cannot prefer them before the more received reading, and we hope you will not, against the tranflation of your mother the church of England, that paffed the revife of your chicfeft prelates: befides this, you will lay an unjuft cenfure upon the much-praised bishop of Thyatira, and reckon him among thofe that had the doctrine of Jezebel, when the text says, he only fuffered her. Whereas, if you will but let in a charitable conjunction, as we know your fo much called for charity will not deny, then you plainly acquit the bishop, if you comprehend him in the name of angel, otherwife you leave his cafe very doubtful.

Remonft. "Thou sufferest thy wife Jezebel:" was she wife to the whole company, or to one bishop alone?

Anfw. Not to the whole company doubtlefs, for that had been worse than to have been the Levite's wife in Gibeah but here among all thofe that conftantly read it otherwife, whom you trample upon, your good mother

of

of England is down again in the throng, who with the reft reads it, that woman Jezebel :' but suppose it were wife, aman might as well interpret that word figuratively, as her name Jezebel no man doubts to be a borrowed name.

Remonft. Yet what makes this for a diocesan bishop? Much every way.

Anfw. No more than a fpecial endorsement could make to puff up the foreman of a jury. If we deny you more precedence, than as the fenior of any fociety, or deny you this priority to be longer than annual; prove you the contrary from hence, if you can. That you think to do from the title of eminence, Angel: alas, your wings are too short. It is not ordination nor jurifdiction that is angelical, but the heavenly meffage of the gofpel, which is the office of all minifters alike; in which fenfe John the Baptift is called an Angel, which in Greek fignifies a meffenger, as oft as it is meant by a man, and might be fo rendered here without treason to the hierarchy; but that the whole book foars to a prophetic pitch in types and allegories. Seeing then the reafon of this borrowed name is merely to fignify the preaching of the gospel, and that this preaching equally appertains to the whole miniftry; hence may be drawn a fifth argument, that if the reafon of this borrowed name Angel be equally collective and communicative to the whole preaching miniftry of the place, then must the name be collectively and communicatively taken; but the reason, that is to fay, the office, of preaching and watching over the flock, is equally collective and communicative: therefore the borrowed name itself is to be understood as equally collective and communicative to the whole preaching miniftry of the place. And if you will contend ftill for a fuperiority in one perfon, you muft ground it better than from this metaphor, which you may now deplore as the axehead that fell into the water, and fay, "Alas, mafter, for it was borrowed;" unless you have as good a faculty to make iron swim, as you had to make light froth fink.

Remonft. What is, if this be not ordination and jurifdiction?

Anfw. Indeed in the conftitution and founding of a church, that fome men infpired from God should have

an

an extraordinary calling to appoint, to order, and difpofe, muft needs be. So Mofes, though himself no priest, fanctified and ordained Aaron and his fons; but when all needful things be fet, and regulated by the writings. of the apoftles, whether it be not a mere folly to keep up a fuperior degree in the church only for ordination and jurisdiction, it will be no hurt to debate awhile. The apoftles were the builders, and, as it were, the architects of the chriftian church; wherein confifted their excellence above ordinary minifters? A prelate would fay in commanding, in controlling, in appointing, in calling to them, and fending from about them to all countries, their bishops and archbishops as their deputies, with a kind of legantine power. No, no, vain prelates, this was but as the fcaffolding of a new edifice, which for the time muft board and overlook the highest battlements; but if the structure once finished, any paffenger fhould fall in love with them, and pray that they might ftill ftand, as being a fingular grace and ftrengthening to the houfe, who would otherwise think, but that the man was prefently to be laid hold on, and fent to his friends and kindred? The eminence of the apoftles confifted in their powerful preaching, their unwearied labouring in the word, their unquenchable charity, which, above all earthly refpects, like a working flame, had spun up to such a height of pure defire, as might be thought next to that love which dwells in God to fave fouls; which, while they did, they were contented to be the offscouring of the world, and to expofe themfelves willingly to all afflictions, perfecting thereby their hope through patience to a joy unfpeakable. As for ordination, what is it, but the laying on of hands, an outward fign or fymbol of admiffion? It creates nothing, it confers nothing; it is the inward calling of God that makes a minifter, and his own painful ftudy and diligence that manures and improves his minifterial gifts. In the primitive times, many, before ever they had received ordination from the apoftles, had done the church noble service, as Apollos and others. It is but an orderly form of receiving a man already fitted, and committing to him a particular charge; the employment of preaching is as holy, and far

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