420 Ìhe L I E E of the Ir I B. I, Anfw. x. And yet thefe very Men do profeti tobelieve, withMr.Stillingfleer,T hat no Form of Church-Government is ofDivine Appointment or Impofition : And if fo, whyis it not lawful for theKing and Parliament to change that which God bath not made neceffary ? Or for Subje&s to endeavour it by Petition ? 2. It is agreed on,by Cafuifts ( and their Bilhop of Lincoln Dr. Sanderfan, with thereft) That Oathsare to be taken fenfa flritïiore, and fo are Laws, and thofe efpecially which determineofthe Obligation of Oaths : But it is an unwarrantable audacious liberty for any Subje& unneceffarily thus to turn an Univerfal Enanciation into aDefinite and Particular ; and when the Law faith [ any alteration of Govern- ment] to fay that [ fore alteration] is not included. Their reafon is becaufe it is laid [of] and not [in] Government. Anfw. There is no Language (much lets the Engle) that allowethyou fuch a fence of thefe two Prepofitions, as if [of] mull needs mean the Species, and [in] may mean only the Integrity or Accidents. We dare notbe fo bold as to feign fuch a Difference and Latitude of fence , to be in the Prepofition [of] unlefe we could prove it. 3. Will it not be taken for Treafon if you make the fame ed tonndtthi[ffame[eféimenntx- Expofition of the other Claufeof the Declaration, and fay that Church or state]. Therefore if the King and Parliament meant no more, than to fay that no it to tecafonable to expound it Man is bound by the Covenant to endeavour an Effential or Spe- in your fence, of the One it is cifck Change of State-Government ; or no greater Change than fore unlawful fo toexpounditm what may leave it ßi11 in the Species of a Monarchy. Or do you to the Other. believe that they meantno more ? and that they determined not againft fuppofed Obligations to lower Changes of the Royal Government ? q There is not the accuratelt Grammarian and Logician of them all, that can tell juif what may be Paid to Specific a Government , and what but to integrate it ; and jolt how far a Change may go before it may be called a Change of the Species. s. But fuppofeall thiswere nothing : It is dearlyproved that it is not the Genres of Epifcopacy, but the Species ofEnglifh Prelacy (delcribed) which the Covenant meaneth. And I haveproved already that a jfecifuk alteration of this Prelacy is lawful ; and whether allo not-neceffary let the impartialReader judge. I have ask. ed the molt Learned of the DiocefanParty that I could meet with, thisQueftion, Whether it benot lawful forthe King and Parliament to take down Chancellors, and all Lay -Judges in Spiritual Courts, and Deans, Arch -deacons , Commiffaries, and the Courts themfelves, and to take down a Bithop of a Thoufand or many Hundred Churches, and to fee up a Bilhopin every Market Town with the adja- cent Villages, yea, or in every great Parilh, to govern with his Presbyters, as it was in Ignatiushis days ( and in Cyprian's)? And never Man of them denied it lawful for them tomake filch a Change, if they law it meet. I have asked them further, Whether they wouldnot call this a Change of Government ele_eerie , or accordingto the fenceof the Aft ? And they all confeft it ( For if they did not, the A& and Declarationwould herein do them no good f, but t I pray ask the Law -- givers, leave private Men to endeavour fach an Alteration, which they whether h from this Oath ofer rou know is all the Alteration that ever we defired of them ; and for mite, if you endeavour to emir- pate which they have called us Presbyterians ). I have asked them fur- the Englift Prelacy, but not Cher, Whether a Vow turn not a liter into an aparter? And they to root out all£pifeopuy., never deny it. Where then can you imagine any remaining difference ? Why this was all that they Paid, That it was not this Species of Prelacy, but Epifcopacy in genere which the Covenant II O for a Mind prepared and meant, andconfequently the All meaneth p. Which I have pro- willing to know the Truth. ved to be molt evidentlyuntrue ; there beingno other Epifcopary but our Prelacy then exiftent, nor Epifcopacy ever named in the Covenant in genere, but this Prelacy, being exa&ly defcribed, and this purpofely for the deciding of this very Doubt, by the means of Mr. Gataker, Dr. Barges, and many more in the Affemblies who renounced the extirpation of all Epifcopacy, and the Lords having taken the Covenant in that openly declared fence : But fop. pore all this had notbeen fo: Doth nota renunciationof theGerms contain the Spe- cies? And if anyMan voweth againft theGenres, miltaking it to be all finful, will not his Vow bind him againft that Species which indeed is finful, though not a- gainft the others? As fuppofe that a Man should think that All fwearing and Accu. ring others were a fin, and fo to ravehimfelf from the faid fins, thould Vow to God againft them all : Ifafterward this Man difcover that fome fwearing before aMagi- finite is a slaty, and fore (unslingof another, is he not for all that fä11 bound againft prophase
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