A. Preface to the Reader. long before him , asto their lang-tage, and expreffion about Church order and Officers , it is evident that there bath been ill-favour'd tamperingwits them , by themwho thought ro pre- vaile themfelves ofhis Authority, for the affertingof that,which never came into his mind. M I intimated before, I have not infifted on any of thofe things, nor do on them altogether, w th the likethat maybe added , as a fufficient foundation for the total rejection ofthofe E- Fiflles which go under the nameof Ignatius. There is in lome ofthem,a fweet & gracious fpi- rit ofFaith, Love,Holinerszeale for God;becomming fo excellent , & holy aWirnefs ofChrift as he was ,evidently bleaching andworking. Neither is there any need at all,that for the de- fenceofour Hypothefrs concernieg the non-inflitution ofany Church officer what ever,relating to more Churches in his Office , or any other Church , thena /ogleparticular Congregation, that we fhould fo reed them. For although many paffages,ufually infifted on,and carefully collected by ). H: for the proofoffuch anEpifcopacy,to have beenreceived by them ofold as is now contended for, are exceedingly remote from theway, and mannerof theExpreffions, of thofe things, ufed-by the Divine Writers , with them alto that followed after , both before as bath been manifefled,and Tome while after the da',esoflgnatiw,asmight be further clear- ly evinced , and are thrill} into the Pries ofthe difcourfewith loch an incoherent Imperti- nencv, as proclaimes an Inrerpolarion,beìng fome ofthem alfo,very ridiculous, & fo foolilhly Hyperbolical, that they fall very little lhort ofBlafpbemies, yet there areExpreffions in all, or moll of them, that will abundantly manifeft.that He whowas their Authour(who ever he was)never dreamt ofany fuch fabrtckofChurch-Order as inafter ages was infenfibly received. Men who areful oftheir own apprehenfions.begotten in theby fuch reptefentations ofthings, as either theirdeferable pretence bathexhibited to their mind,or any after prejudicate prefumpri- on bath poffeífed themwith,are apt upon the leaf[appearance ofany liknefs unto that Church they fancyto imagine that they lee theface&all the lineaments thereof,when upon dueexami- nation,it will be eafilÿ difcovered,that there is not indeed the leaf[ retemblance,between what they find in,and what they bring to the Authors, in and of whom they make their enquiry; The Pa pills having hatched, & owned by feveral degrees,that monftrous figment ofTranfub- flantiarion(to inftance.aniongmany in that Abomination)afolly,deftruaive towhatever is in us, as being livingCreatures, Men, or Chriffians, or what ever byfenfe, Reafon, or Religion, we are futnifhed with ali,offetingviolence tous in what we heare,inwhat we fee with our eyes; andlookupan, in what ow hands do handle , and our palauraft , breaking in upon our un- derflandi,g.c with vagrant flying formes fenfe fubfifting Accidents,with as many exprefs con- tradidions on fundiy accounts,as the nature of things is capable ofRelation unto , attended with more grofs Idolatry then that of the poor naked Indians ; who fall down and worfhip a peiceof redCloth,or ofthofe who firfl adore their gods, and then corred them;do yet upon the difcovery ofany Expreffions among theAncients , which they now make uie of,quite to another End , and purpofe,rhen they didwho firft ventured upon them , havingminds filled with their own Abominations, do prefentic cry our and triumph , as if theyhad found the wholefardrll of the mars . in it's perfea drefs , and their breados ggodin the middeft of ir. It ia no otherwife in the cafeof Epifcopay r men ofthefe latter Generations,from what they law in/fly/in, being , and that ufefulnefsof it to all their delires and interefls , having entertained thoughts of love to it, and delight in it. fearching Astiquity,not to inflrud them in the truth, but to eftablifh their prejudicate Opinion received by Tradition from their Fathers,and to con- fulcthem with whom they have todo , what ever Expreffions they find , orcan heare of,that fail in,as to the foundofwords wthwhat is nowinffled upon inftanrly theycry out , Vici- mua to-Pran I what a limple generation ofPresbyters , and Independents have we that are ig- norant ofall Antiquity or do not underfland what they read and look upon. Hence ifwe will not believe that in Ignatius his dayes there were many Parifh Churches with their Jingle Preifis, in fubordination to a Diocefan Bilhep,either immediatly,or by the interpofed power of a Chore- Epi¡opus and the like,and thole Diocefans againe in the precincts of provinces laid in a due fubjedion to their Metropolitans, who tookcare ofthem,as eley of theirParith Priefls, every individual Churchhaving no Officer but a Presbyter every Diet-efan Church, havingno 'Presbyter ,buta Bithop,and every r 3fetropolitanChurch having neither Presbyter, not Bithop properly related unto it, as fuch,butan s4rch.Rithop, we areworfe then Infidels truly i can- not but wonder whether it doth not fometimes enter into thefe men's thoughts to apprehend, howcontemnible they are in theirproofes , for the fatheringof Inch an Ecclefiaflical diftti- bution of Çovernours, andGoverment,as indeniably lacquiedafter thecivil divilons, and-con- flitutions of the times and places wherein it was introduced ,upon thofe holy perlons whole fouies neveronce entered into thefecrets thereof. Thus
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