Church-history of the government of bishops and their councils abbreviated including the chief part…

And when Satan hath done his worst, the very writings of such men as Calvin, Bez•, Melanchthon, Hildersham, Ames, Dod, Burges, Gataker, Usher, D•venant, H•ll, &c. will not suffer men to believe their odious revilers: Even among Papists, when I read the works of Bernard, Gerson, Kempis, Th•ulerus, Sales, and the Lives of Nerius, Renti, &c. I cannot believe him that would tell me they were wicked men▪ though faulty: And the Lives written by Adam, Clerk, Fuller, &c. shall be believed before Calumniators.

And when Satan hath done his worst, the very writings of such men as Calvin, Bez•, Melancthon, Hildersham, Ames, Dod, Burges, Gataker, Vsher, D•venant, H•ll, &c. will not suffer men to believe their odious revilers: Even among Papists, when I read the works of Bernad, Gerson, Kempis, Th•ulerus, Sales, and the Lives of Nerius, Renti, &c. I cannot believe him that would tell me they were wicked men▪ though faulty: And the Lives written by Adam, Clerk, Fuller, &c. shall be believed before Calumniators.

Alas, how little are most Histories to be believed, where they prove not what they say; there are about sixty that say there was a Pope Joan, and near as many that say no such thing. Hildebrand to one half of the Bishops was the holy Restorer of the Church, to the other half the vilest Rebel. We are not agreed here •n London who burnt the City in 1666. nor what parties began the late War, nor what party brought the King to death, while we are alive that saw these public facts: Not only Lads that knew it not, but Heylin (the great Reproacher of the Reformers) would make men believe that it was Presbyterians in England that began the strife and War, when yet he had himself laid so much of it on Archbishops, and Bishops, and on the Parliaments complaints of Popery, Arminianism, and Arbitrary Illegalities; and after saith (Hist. Presb. p. 465. 470.) The truth is, that as the English generally were not willing to receive that yoke; so neither did the Houses really intend to impose it on them, though for a while to hold fair quarter with the Scots, they seemed forward in it. This appears by their Declaration of April 1646—Nor have they lived to see their dear Presbytery settled, or their Lay-Elders entertained in any one Parish of the Kingdom (that's false on the other side) and yet all must be done by this Parliament, as Presbyterians, four years before, when they were Episcopal, distasting only the persons and actions of Bishop Laud, Wren, and some other present Bishops.