The PREFACE. intoawoodof Iliflory, that there they mayeither win thegame. orend the chafe : Andif a Minifler of Chrifl be not armedhere, toconfute their h. ioricalforgeries, they will take it for a s.viaory and triumph, which made me write my lull book againft Johnfon (or Terret) to ThemHi- flcricaily the Antiquity of ourChurch, and the noveltyof theirs (which I could with young Miniflers unacquaintedwithChurch-1102y would penile.) But i f ourpeople were tritely acquaintedhow things have gone in the Churchfrom the beginning, it wouldbe ore of the moll eleblual, prefer-- vàtives againftPopery, when now thefal tfications arebecome itsftrength. I have oft thought that it had beengreater policy inthe Pap? s, if they could, to have burnt all Church-Hillery, but *daily of the Councils, that the credit might have depended on their bare word: For verily once reading ofCrab, Binnius, Surius, or Nicolinuswould turnagainfl them any ftomack,that is not confirmedin theirown difiaj. Butthey have overdone Baronius, and nowmade f great and coltly a load of the Councils, as that the deficiency of money, time, wit and patient induftry, Jhallfave the moll even ofthe Priefihoedfrom the underfiand- ing of the truth : And finchEpitomes as Caranza's leave out molt of the culpable part: and yet even filch they can hardly tolerate. IL The more moderate FrenchPapifts who magnifieCouncils aboue Popes, would manezts believe,that though Popes arefallible andmaymif. carry,yetGeneralCouncils,have been the univerfalChurch-reprefentative; which have aLegiflative and udicial Vniverfal power, and that our concord muff beby centring in their decrees 5 and allare Schifmaticksat leaf, that taAe not their Faith and Religion upon their tru : But if men knew that there never was a General Council of all the Chriflian Churches but only of the Empire, andhow wofidly they have milarried, it woulddomuch tofave themfrom all fnch temptations. III. The overvaluers ofChurch grandure, and .,wealth, andmain- tainers -of the corruptfort of biocefane Prelacy, Patriarks, &c.. write books and tell the ignorant confident flories, how limb aPrelacy bath been in the Church ever (,nce the dayes of theApo, Rtes, and that allthe Churches on earth contented to it: But ifthe people wereacquainted with Church-Hfiery theywould know, that the primitivefixcdEpifropacywas \ Parochial, or every Church affociated for per(onal prefent Conmu nion hada Bi(hop,Pre(byteryandDeacons of their own: (urfrxed Itinerant GeneralPafiors ,indefnitely takingcareofmanyChurches):And that it was the Bifbopsftrivingwhofhould begreatefl, andturningfingle Churches
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