A Christian and Modest Offer

1. THE PROPOSITIONS WHICH THE MINISTERS OFfer to maintain against the Prelates.

1. A LL matters merely Ecclesiastical, which are lawfully imposed upon any Church, are such as may be concluded necessarily from the writ ten word of God.

2. All Human Ordinances used only or specially in God's worship, whereunto they are not necessary of them selves, are simply unlawful.

3. Every true visible Church of Christ is such a spiritual Body politic, as is specially instituted by Christ or his Apostles in the New Testament.

4. There is no True Visible Church of Christ but a particular ordinary Congregation only.

5. Every true visible Church of Christ, or ordinary Assemblie of the faithful, hath by Christ's ordinance power in it self, immediately under Christ, to elect and ordain, deprive and depose their Ministers, and to execute all other Ecclesiastical Censures.

6. The Pastor of a particular Congregation is the highest ordinary ecclesiastical Officer in any true constituted visible Church of Christ.

7. It is the Office of every true Pastor to teach & to govern spiritually only one Church or Congregation immediately under Christ.

8. The Pastor alone ought not to exercise Ecclesiastical jurisdiction over his Church, but others ought to be joined in Commission with him by the assignment of the same Church; neither ought he and they to perform any main and material Ecclesiastical act, without the free consent of the Congregation.

9. The Presbyterie which is desired is not Lay, as they call it; And the Churchwardens and Sidemen here in England, being joined as Assistants to the Ministers in the oversight of the several Parishes, are a resemblance of those governing Elders which are desired.

10. The Office and Calling of Provincial & Diocesan Prelates is contrary to the word of God.

11. It is simply unlawful for any Pastor under the New Testament to be also a Civil Magistrate.

12. The Civil Magistrates ought to be the Overseers of Provinces, & Dioceses, and of the several Churches therein: And it is their Office & duty enjoined them by God, to take knowledge of, to punish, and redress all misgoverning or ill teaching of any Church, or Church officer.

13. The Church government desired is more agreeable to the state of a Monarchy, and to the Kings Supremacy in causes Ecclesiastical, and more easy, and sat both for Church & Common wealth, then is the present government by Prelates.

14. No man hath authoririe to bring into the service of God any Ceremony merely Ecclesiastical, of mystical signification.

15. The Ceremonies in controversy are not indifferent, but contrary to the word of God.

16. The Ministers refusing the Conformitie and Subscription required, are therein neither Schismatiks, Seditious persons, enemies to the Kings Supremacy, nor any way undutiful to King, or State.

2. The Conditions, form, and manner of the Conference or disputation.

THat there may be a free choice made by the Ministers from amongst themselves of some 6. or 8. persons, unto whom the maintenance of these points may be committed; and as many chosen by the Prelates from among them selves, or their Conformed Clergy, to impugn the same.

2. That it my be lawful for those on either side so chosen, in any particular occurrent difficulty, to take counsel and advise of any other their Brethren; and that then the special acts of the said chosen parties may be reputed the Acts of all those that chose them.

3. That when one side hath opposed to the uttermost that they can, or shall see meet, then the other side shall oppose in like manner to the contrary: And that the Prelates may (if they will) make choice which side shall oppose in the first place.

4. That the Opponents frame their Arguments in strict form of Syllogism only: And that the Answerers (without any excursions, or personal speeches whatsoever) answer directly to the premisses, either by denying or distinguishing; and that all be done in writing.

5. That if at any time the Answerer denying a Proposition shall withal give a reason of his denial, he do it in few words: and that then the Opponent shall briefly by way of discourse take away the reason, and after that presently conclude the denied Proposition; that so the Argument may come to the intended issue.

6. That if either in the Question, Argument, or Answer there be any terms which shall seem doubtful, there be no proceeding in the Conferēce until the same be explained, and the explanations delivered in writing, if they which make doubt shall require it.

7. That neither side be urged to conclude those clauses, which in the main Questions, or in the premisses of any Syllogism are without controversy & granted: but that by consent they may be omitted, and that it may be only specified briefly that such or such a clause in such or such a Proposition is yielded unto: And if there be many clauses in one and the same proposition which are doubtful, that then it be lawful and free to prove one of them after another.

8. That the Arguments, Answers, and Replyes be sub scribed by every person of that side frō which they come, and so delivered to the other side.

9. That there be no passing to the second proposition, until the first be fully debated, nor to the third until the second &c. As also, no passing to a second or third argument, until the first be followed to the uttermost.

10. That reasonable time may be allowed for returning Replyes, & Answers: and when any argument is prosecuted to the uttermost, that all the Syllogisms, Answers, & Replyes be written together, and subscribed by all parties of each side in the conference, as their joint act: and that after they are so subscribed, there shall be no liberty to alter or change anything therein; But that before such subscription it may be lawful and free for each side upon better considerations to alter, change, or revoke any particular Reply, or Answer.

11. That when these controversies have been debated to the uttermost, in manner and form aforesaid, two of each side be chosen to digest the whole into a book; and that it may be published in English and Latin.

12. That all by controversies and contentions whatsoever, which shall fall out between the parties employed in this conference, may be heard, judged, determined, and sentenced by some civil Magistrate assigned by his Majesty for that purpose.

13. That the said Ministers undertaking this conference may have public warrant and protection from his Majesty for the performance of the same, in such manner as is here set down.

14. That if it plainly appear by this indifferent trial (or by the Prelates refusing to accept it) that the Ministers in these Propositions have the truth on their side, and that the Prelates are in so great error; Then the said Ministers & as many else as shall see the truth which they stand for, may be exempted from the jurisdiction of the Prelates, the Ministers restored again to their Ministry from which they have been unjustly deprived, freed from the Conformitie and subscription required, and may (with their particular Elderships & Churches) be subject only to the authority and jurisdiction of the Civil Magistrate; to whom at all times they are willing and ready to yield an account of all their actions, and to humble themselves under their censures for anything they shall be found to offend in; Conforming themselves unto their willes in all things, always, so far as they may with a good conscience; and where they cannot so do, submitting themselves to all such punishment, as it shall please them to impose upon them.

15. That if it seem not good to his Majesty & the state (for reasons best known unto themselves) to admit of so indifferent, honest, and reasonable a Conference, yet it would please them to require the Prelates, to publish a direct and full answer to such books as have (upon occasiō of the late storms) been published: viz. The Abridgement set forth by the Ministers of Lincoln Diocese; The Demands, & Considerations; Reasons proving a necessity of reforming our Churches in England; The old Protestant and New formalist; The Treatise of Divine worship; The 12 Arguments; The English Puritanism; and the Protestation &c: And that it may be lawful for the Ministers modestly and directly to reply unto the said Answers, as also to any of the books which are lately, or have been heertofore written against them & their cause; and to publish the same in print with leave of authority, which they under take and bind themselves with all convenient speed faithfully and honestly to perform; they protesting here before Almighty God, the searcher of all hearts, and the just revenger of all hypocrisy, that (to their knowledge) there hath as yet no material thing been writ̄ against them in these foresaid Propositions, or any other Controversy betwixt them and the Prelates, but they are able to give a reasonable and just reply unto the same: and that by those books, which have been published against them, they have been rather confirmed & strengthened in the said opinions which they hold against the Prelates, then any way satisfied or answered, as shall appear to all the world (by God's gracious assistance) if they may have permitted unto them that liber tie, to publish their writings to the world, which the Pre lats take unto themselves.

16. That if this most reasonable and just course of composing these controversies be denied them, yet at least they may have free leave to publish and to offer to the censure of the whole world nakedly and plainly, all those several Arguments, & Reasons, which they have thought upon for the confirmation of the former Propositions; as also their direct Answers to all such Arguments on the contrary side, as they shall find publ • shed in the writings of the Prelates and their adherents. In all which they promise to keep themselves closely & directly to the points in controversy, in so strict a form, that it shall be most easy for the Prelates to give an answer unto them, if so be they be in error in holding the said Propositions.

3. Just Considerations moving the Ministers to make this offer.

MAny of the Ministers having by reason of their Deposition from the public Ministry more cause, occasion, and leisure to study these controversies then before, do find that the more they wade into them, the more they are confirmed in that truth for which they suffer. So that howsoever the intendment of the Prelates hath been by their rigorous extremity of affliction to make them to force their consciences, against conscience to yield, that so they might rejoice in their flesh; and though the Lord hath surrered their rod (to the further hardening of their hearts) to lie so heavy upon some of his servants that they have put forth their hand to injquitie, yet othersome by this means are so far from shrinking from the profession of that truth which by their sufferings they have honored, that the more they have sustained for it, the more (by the mercy of God) they see the glorious evidence of it. And therefore in honor unto that heavenly truth they can do no less, then in the fear of God make this offer unto the greatest enemies thereof.

2. This cause, which the ministers profess and witness unto by their constant sufferings, being (as they are persuaded in their very souls and consciences) a divine & sacred truth; and being notoriously reviled and blasphemed as a hellish error by the mouths of the prelates & their favorers (one saying that he damned the discipline to Hell frō whence it came; others publishing in print that Christ is not the Lawgiver of his Church; all generally calling our doctrine and opinion in this cause, Schism and Haeresie, yea Treason and Rebellion; they having received this grace from God not only to see the truth herein, but to seal and confirm it by their sufferings, think it a most bounden duty that they owe unto their Lord and master Jesus Christ, whose Ministers and Servants they are, by all good means to justify the same; yea though they neither had suffered nor should suffer for it. Much more now, when as by the providence of God, they have in themselves, their wives, and children, sustained & endured so heavy things for it: And a more honest, moderate, Christian, and religious defense or Apology they cannot yield unto it, thē by making such an offer as this is, to the avowed enemies thereof.

3. It is notorious unto all the world, what indignities, sianders, false accusations, and calumniations, over and besides the other Legal proceedings (as they are pretended to be) the Prelates and their adherents in their private speeches, public sermons, and writings, lay upon those Ministers that hold & maintain this cause, proclaiming thē to be Obstinat & Refractarie persons, Enemyes to the King & State, Notorious & manifest Schismatikes, Turbulent spirits, Contemptuous and disdaining the Authority of their lawful Governors, presumptuous and willful Contenders with the Magistrate, Impugning his authority in things indifferent, and Soueraigntie in Ecclesiastical cause, False Prophets, Members rent and cut of from the Church of God, Runawayes from their Ministry, some standing upon these points of difference not for conscience but for carnal respects, some because otherwise they know not how to be maintained but by depending on that faction, some to gratify their benefactors & patrons and to please their friends, some for discontentment and want of preferment, some for giddines of innovation, some for pride of heart and self-love, some for hatred of order, and restraint of their liberty, some for ignorance, yet willful, because they will not know the state of the question, some to retain the opinion of constancy, &c. Now it being the duty of every Christian even for Christ's sake and the Gospel's which he doth profess, to clear his innocence against such false and impious slanders; much more is it fit for the Ministers of the Gospel, being thus wickedly traduced, so to do. And therefore they think themselves bound in conscience to make this free and voluntary offer unto their Calumniators; the very propounding whereof is sufficient to all honest and just minds, that do not willfully shut their eyes against the truth, to clear and free them from all the aforesaid slanderous imputations.

4. The Christian and merciful disposition and inclination of the Lower house of Parliament, and of sundry of the Nobles of the Higher house (who in a holy Commiseration of the Ministers distressed estates, and in a certain knowledge both of their honest lives and conversations, and of the good they have done in their Ministries, and of their peaceable and dutiful behavior to all in authority, have been earnest and zealous suppliants for them) hath been shamefully traduced by the Prelates; as though only through the encouragements & hopes reposed in them, and for this cause specially, that they might not be discredited and disgraced in their endeavors and intendments for Reformation, the Ministers did stand forth: Whereas by these presents all the world shall know and understand, that the cause for which the Ministers do suffer is such, as (all due thankfullnes and service reserved to the Honorable and Christian endeavor of the Parliament) though God should (which we hope he will never permit) so far forsake that High and Honorable Court, as in steed of being suppliants for the poor Ministers, they should join with the Prelates in making the most rigorous laws against them that might be (even to blood) yet the Ministers, by God's good grace, stand resolved to hold and maintain their said profession. In witness whereof they publish to the view of all men, this offer as a testimony of their confident resolution in the said cause for which they suffer.

5. There is such indifferency in this offer, and it standeth upon so just & equal grounds, that it ought not to be refused of any Christians, no though made by Jews, Turks, Arians, Papists, or any other Heretiks whatsoever: Much less when it is made by Ministers constantly professing & showing themselves willing and ready to submit themselves in all things to the written word of God; and who in all matters (except in these Controversies of Religion, wherein yet they agree with most of the Churches that have made a separation from Rome) are as obedient to the present State, and as unblameable in life and conversation as any other of his Majesty's subjects.

6. Divers of the aforesaid Propositions are such, as that if the Ministers should not constantly hold & maintain the same against all men, they cannot see how possibly (by the rules of Divinity) the seperatiō of our Churches from the Church of Rome, and from the Pope, the supreme head thereof, can be justified. And therefore for as much as in these controversies the Papists and the Prelates go hand in hand, the said Ministers do in like form and manner make the like Offer to the Priests and Jesuits, promising their reconcilement unto that Sea, if they can either by Arguments pull them from the foresaid Propositions, or can answer such Arguments as they shall propound in the defense of them, in manner and form before specified in the Offer. And therefore it both stands the Ministers upon to make the aforesaid Offer, and the Prelates (except they will have all the world to judge them to be friends in heart to Popery) to accept of the same.

7. The Doctors of Oxford in their answer to the Petition of the 1000. Ministers, and G. Powell in his last book undertake the answer of whatsoever can be objected in these causes: and M. Hooker in his Preface before his first book of Politiks, propoundeth unto the Ministers that seek Reformation the very like Offer and form of disputation: Which books were published with the special approbation of the Prelates. Wherefore the Ministers having been in such a manner challenged, they can do no less then make this offer; which cannot be refused of the Prelates, but they will be judged of all the world to offer that which they will not perform.

8. The Bishop of Rochester with the consent, and by the direction (no doubt) of some of the chiefest Prelates, hath now lately published his Sermon preached in September last before the King at Hampton Court; the main drift whereof is to prove that the office & calling of Dioce san Bishops, in present controversy, is a Divine & Apostoli call Ordināce: Besids, in his epistle to the Ministers of Scotland, prefixed before the said Sermon, he professeth that if there shall an answer be made thereunto with modesty and learning, nothing shall be more welcome, And that to avouch & make it good that the said Episcopal calling is unlawful, were a labor worthy the travel, and of the Prelates much desired. Wherefore seeing the Prelates themselves do offer to bring this cause to a public trial (& it concerneth us in England also no less then our brethren in Scotland ) & seeing by this course & order here laid down, this question amongst the rest will come to be far more exactly tried, then by any other way hitherto thought on, the Ministers have just cause to tender this Conference; nothing doubting but that the Prelates will willingly accept it, especially seeing they seem so much to desire it, and in all reason it is like to put an end to all these controversies, which have so long troubled the peace and quiet of our Churches.

9. Since the Ministers late troubles, there have been many books published in Print against them, containing many shameful untruths and abuses, wherein great violence & wrong hath been offered to God's truth; many gross and Popish errors have been divulged, and many impostures used, only to deceive the simple, and to blind their eyes, that they may not see the truth of the Ministers cause; which the Ministers take themselves bound in conscience to answer. But being not able partly by reason of their poverty, partly by want of means of Printing, partly for other difficulties, to publish, so soon as is requisite, so many answers (except they might have leave from authority) unto so many great books as many of them are: They have judged it meet (in the mean time) to make this Offer, wherein if they prevail & gain the cause, they make no question but they shall have all other particularities yielded, and shall save that other labor.

10. They have warrant thus far from his Majesty, both in his book called Basilicon doron; where he willeth them to press by patience and well grounded reasons to persuade other men to like of their judgments; and by the Proclamation of July 16. 1604: In which the Prelates are required to do their uttermost endeavor by persuasions, Conference, Arguments, and all other ways of gentleness and love to reclaim the Ministers; which being as yet not done by them, cannot be performed by a more direct and indifferent course, then by accepting such an Offer as this is.

11. By direction from the chief of the Prelates, G. Powell hath published, That his excellent Majesty, as he loved these Ministers dearliest of all others, so he sought the more earnestly to reclayme them by some correction. So that either the Prelates herein have offered his Majesty open wrong in proclaiming his special favor to the said Ministers, or else they are not to doubt, but in the abundance thereof he will vouchsafe to those poor distressed and chastised favorites of his so much grace, as to command that this Offer may be accepted, and by his Royal assent to confirm the same.

12. The Apologetical books which the Ministers have been constrained from time to time to publish in defense of their Persons and Cause, cannot come to the hands & scanning of those powers, that next under God are most able to relieve them. And therefore for the clearing of their innocence and the justifiyng of their cause (which is indeed the cause of God) they are constrained to make this public and solemn Offer, by means whereof it may come to pass that all men may take notice of the goodness of the cause, and of the gross wrongs they have sustained and endured for maintaining the same.

13. His Majesty signified to the Committies of the Lower house (Supplicating on the behalf of the Ministers) that before mercy there must go a submission, and that if they look for mercy at his hands, they must acknowledge a fault. This is that which they desire; If it can be proved that they have offended his Majesty in the least thing, they desire no mercy till they acknowledge a fault, and submit them selves for the same. But it is (no doubt) far from the heart of so Royal a Prince to require either Confession, or Submission, wherther is no transgressiō. For their own parts they are persuaded and resolved, that that truth for the professing whereof the Prelates proceed so severely against them, is most behoofull for his Majesty, his Crown, and dignity, and the whole State: And that in yielding herein in unto the Prelates, they should make a breach in that duty, which by God's law every true hearted and loyal subject in this kingdom oweth both to the King and State. And yet if they be in an error, there can be no more direct and likely course used to bring them unto a submission for the same, then to have these points freely debated by the acceptance of this Offer.

14. When the Ministers consider the daily increase of Papists, their treacheries and conspiracies, their insolent boldness, the continual broaching of gross and Popish errors, what little molestation the Papists have by the government of the Prelates, yea what favor they find secretly and under hand, what resistance was made to the Laws intended to have been made against them, especially by some and those not the meanest of the Prelates, what light matters are made of their horrible Treasons and damnable opinions, what little execution there is of the laws against them; they have reason to fear, that before they are aware & as it were in a dream, (if the reins be in this manner left in the Prelates hands for matters of religion) the neck both of his Royal Majesty and of the whole State shall be brought under the yoke of the Pope that Antichrist of Rome, and his devilish jdolatrie. And therefore in a serious mediatation of the best means to prevent this great & imminent evil, which lieth working in a mystery, they cannot think of a more direct course then this open and professed Opposition unto the Prelates in the foresaid Propositions; wherein if they shall prevail, they shall not only give a deadly wound to the Prelacie it self, but to the accursed Religion of Rome, from which (at least, if it be held to be Iure divino ) it receiveth both breath and life. For who was so simple that saw not, that at his Majesty's first coming to the Crown when the Prelates hangd down their heads in suspense & fear, the Papists hearts were as dead as stones; and that the very first Proclamation against the Ministers in behalf of the Prelates, revived the Papists again: And that ever since with the increase of the grace, favor, and authority of the Prelates, the hopes, boldness, and numbers of Papists have increased. And therefore howsoever the Prelates may mock children and fools in imputing the Ministers; yet any that wisheth the confusion of that Antichrist may with half an eye see, where the true cause is. And therefore they seeing this (except they should be willful traitors to God, their King, and Country) cannot but make opposition unto the Prelates in approving the Propositions above specified: wherein if they be in an error, and the Prelates on the contrary have the truth; they protest to all the world that the Pope and the Church of Rome (and in them God and Christ Jesus himself) have had great wrong & indignity offered unto them, in that they are rejected; and that all the Protestant Churches are Schismaticall in forsaking Unity and Communion with them.

15. The former Propositions are such, that there will not be found (as we are verily persuaded in our consciences) any one Conformable Minister in this kingdom, except he be a masked Papist, that will refuse to Subscribe to any one of thē, if so be it would please the King and State by Law to urge them thereunto under such penalties as the Ministers are urged to subscribe unto the Articles devised by the Prelates. Yea, we are out of all doubt, that the Prelates themselves (if it were pressed upon them by the King and state under pain of deprivatiō from their Bishoprics) would not stick to avouch upon their oaths, that the Ceremonies and Subscription, for which the Ministers stand suspended and deprived, are wicked and ungodly, & such as no good Christian ought to yield unto. Nay, if the case stood but upon the saving of their Temporaltyes thereby (which else they should loose) we doubt not but they would with heart & hand subscribe to any one of the aforesaid Propositions. Since therefore it is more then clear, that they have Offered plain violence unto the Consciences of all most all the conforming and subscribing Ministers; & that even contrary to their own consciences they have proceeded against their poor brethren, because they will not by conformity & subscr • ption renounce the truth contained in these propositiēs; can any blame the said Ministers, if having not only the said truth on their side, but in likelihood the Consciences of the Prelates also, they make such an Offer as this is?

15. It is agreeable to common sense and reason (and the Bishop of Chichester hath some such thing in his Lectures upon the Commandments) that doubtful actions should all-ways give place unto those that are out of all doubt & question. Seeing therefore no good Protestant ever doubted, but that it is lawful enough in it self to administer the word and sacraments in common and ordinary civil attire, to administer Baptism without the sign of the Cross or any such like mystical rite, and to undertake a Ministry (being called thereunto of the Church) without the authority of a Diocesan Prelate, and without any such subscription as is required: and seeing the consormity and subscription required (against which the Ministers do witness) hath been ever called into question since the first appearance of the Gospel out of Popery, & concluded and determined against, both in the profession and practice of the greatest lights of this age, and of so many Reformed Churches; have not the Ministers just cause (they desiring nothing which is of it self unlawful, & suffering for nothing but for the refusal of those things which have ever been in Controversy, whether they be lawful or not) have not the Ministers (we say) just cause to make this Offer, and to cleave constantly unto that which all men grant to be lawful, until by some such indifferent means as this is, the contrary matters, bejng so doubtful, shall be proved to be lawful.

16. It is notorious unto all the world what damnable and impious imputations the Prelates and their defendors have laid upon Calvin, BeZa, and all reformed Churches, raking up calumniations against them out of the writings of Allen, Parsons, and other traitorous Papists, notwithstanding Bishop Jewel and Bishop Bilson have most clearly in their writings against the Papists detected the falsehood thereof. And seeing that the Papists have gone about, since the discovery of that late detestable plot by gunpowder, to justify their abominable Treasons, Conspiracies, Rebellions, Periuries, and Equivocations by the doctrine of the worthyest Protestants, taking just advantage thereof by the slanderous writings of the Prelates against those of our own religion; And further seeing that the intent of the Prelates therein was to make all the Ministers, that consent in judgment with those persons and Churches which they have thus traduced, odious and vile in the eyes of all men, as persons in clined to perilous conspiracies, Treasons, and Rebellions; there being no other ground, nor any color of all this, but because together with other Churches they hold the foresaid propositions; howsoever in a late Reply unto the Papists the matter be pitifully shifted of: yet seeing these heavy proceedings against the said Ministers are a kind of confirmation of the aforesaid imputations, it stands them upon by this Offer to clear themselves, and to detect the unchristian and ungodly wrongs which the Prelates have don to so many worthy persons & Churches.

17. Upon a serious consideration how the hand of God hath been upon many of those, who, having formerly embraced this cause, have shrunk from tree truth maintained in these propositions; how some of them have evidently lost the grace and power of their gifts, some grown to be idle, neglecting both private and public duties, yea profane and scandalous in their lives and conversations, some ashamed to show their faces in the presence of any who truly fearing God have known their former carriage, some languishing and pining away till they have died, & that within few days after their yielding, some possessed (as it were) with a continual fury incessantly vexing & tormenting them, and thrusting them into continual storming & raging in the pulpit against those that do not as they do, all of them falling to the maintenance of most gross and Popish errors, and none of them respected almost by any, but contemned & scorned even of the Prelates themselves, as those which were either hypocrites before, or hypocrites now; The Ministers having received this grace from God, not only to see and acknowledge this truth, but to confirm it with their sufferings, have thought it more then needful to make this Christian Offer, for the staying and strengthening of such of their brethren, as are otherwise in danger to fall after the same manner.

18. In as much as all the professed and notorious Atheists, Papists, Blasphemers, Adulterers, Drunckards, & infamous persons in this Kingdom, are together with the prelates professed enemies unto the Ministers in this cause, and have been from time to time the special instruments of all the troubles which have befallen them for the same; can any man lay any just blame upon the Ministers for making this Offer, now, when as the Prelates have by their late proceedings given such cause to all the wicked and profane of the land to clappe their hands in Triumph over them?

19. It is well known in those Countries where the said Ministers have lived, especially to the Towns where they have exercised their Ministry, that, according to the proportion of their Livings and maintenance, they have kept as good hospitality, given as liberal entertainment unto others, and as much relieved (to their power) those in want, as any other Ministers whosoever; whereas now a great part of them, with their wives and children, are forced to live upon the benevolence and devotions of others. Which lamentable and miserable astate of theirs, the Prelates and their Adherents are so far from pitying, that they take occasion the more to scorn & deride thē, yea and to insult over them for the same: they being not ashamed both in the Pulpit & in Print falsely to affirm, that by this means not only the outward estate of the Ministers is bettered, but that they have voluntarily and of set purpose left their Ministry, that they might live in this manner upon the sweat of other men's brows, and by Contributions enrich themselves. Though therefore the many & great means, which the Ministers have used both to prevent these proceedings, and to be restored to their places again, are sufficient to lay open the shame of these malicious & spitfull calumniations; Yet they have thought it meet by this Offer to make it known unto all the world, that they are so far from affecting such a course of life, that they ever have been, and are still, most willing to do anything (but that, the doing whereof may procure damnation unto their souls) for the keeping or recovering of their former places, from which they have been thrust; to the end that they might ease their Christian friends of those great burdens, wherewith since these late troubles they have been pressed, in yielding relief unto their extremities.

21. The Prelates are now come to this height of Popish injquitie, that they are not ashamed to hold & maintain, that they being the Church, are in their Canons and Constitutions always directed in external things by the spirit of God; and that therefore whatsoever they decree is more then Human, yea even Divine; and that the true Church always depends upon the word, so as it cannot possibly swerve from the same; and therefore all her Traditions are holy and divine. And this Church of Prelates (professing themselves to be assembled in a sacred Synod in the name of Christ, and directed by the spirit of God, and Excommunicating all them that shall say the contrary ) have in their said late Synod decreed, that all who shall affirm, that either the Ceremonyes in Controversy are superstitious and unlawful, or that the Government by Archbishops and Bishops is not Apostolical and lawful, are to be excommunicated ipso facto. Now seeing that not only the Ministers suspended and deprived, but many thousand others in this Kingdom, do affirm and maintain these things, they stand all by virtue of those Canons Excommunicat, and standing in that estate (if justly) are by consequence in the case of damnation, yea so as (dying resolutly in these points) they must needs be damned everlastingly. Either therefore the Prelates shall show themselves to be Antichristiā, and that in a high degree, in sending without any mercy or compassion so many thousand souls, with the dash of a pen, to Hell, it being in their power to keep them out; or exceedingly presumptuous, in denouncing such a sentence against those whō they cannot but know & oftentimes do confess, to be the true servants of God; or at the least it standeth them upon diligently to use all good means for the recovery of so many souls out of Hell, especially then, when, by such an Offer as this is, they hold up their hands out of the pit, desiring to be pulled out.

22 Last of all, the Propositions being so plainly and distinctly laid down, and so directly opposite to the profession of the Prelates; they having also so often disgraced the Ministers for their paucity, and poverty of gifts and learning, and so often vaunted of the multitudes of great learned men on their side, and by that means having far greater choice of sufficient and able men then the Ministers have; and being better able to furnish them with all needful helps to such a work, and the points in Controversy so nearly touching their Jurisdiction, state, and dignity, which is so dear and precious unto them; also the Offer that is made unto them being so equal, just, and Christian, if they shall refuse to yield unto the same, & in steed thereof afflict the persons which humbly make this Offer unto them, they shall therein proclaim to all the world, that in these their proceedings they have sinned & do sin with a high hand and malicious heart, (contrary to knowledge and conscience) against God and his Divine truth: and therefore are to be judged to be at the next door of committing that unpardonable sin, which the Prelates, in the time of our Savior Christ's being upon the earth, in the like cases committed. From which if it be the good will of God (notwithstanding all the evil which they have done against these poor servants of Christ, and the Churches of God committed to their charge) they pray carnestly that they may quit thenselves, and that, upon their repentance in this life, they may attain unto such a crown of glory, as they in their consciences are persuaded is laid up for some of those, whom they use now living in the world as Heathens & Infidels.

4. AN ANSWER TO SVCH OPPOSITIONS, AS MAY BE MADE BY THE Prelates, against yielding to the aforesaid Offer.