An assertion of the government of the Church of Scotland in the points of…

Others there be who call in question the power and authority of Ecclesiastical Presbyteries, and of Synods, against which also some few Pens have been put to paper and have passed a censure no less hard then unseasonable, which (me thinks) might well have been spared, unless: there had been stronger and more convincing reasons for it. These I shall beseech, that with minds void of prejudice, they take into consideration the second part of this Treatise, written with no heat nor sharpness of words, but with plainness, and strength of reason: And withal I shall expect that they will not think the worse of the Author, for being ready to answer him that asketh a reason of him, or for writing a justification of the government of the Church of Scotland, to such as did desire to be more throughly resolved concerning the same; but that rather they will make use hereof, as a key by divine Providence put into their hands, to open a door unto further light.

Others there be who call in question the power and authority of Ecclesiasticall Presbyteries, and of Synods, against which also some few Pens have been put to paper and have passed a censure no lesse hard then unseasonable, which (me thinks) might well have been spared, unlesse: there had been stronger and more convincing reasons for it. These I shall beseech, that with minds voyd of prejudice, they take into consideration the second part of this Treatise, written with no heat nor sharpnesse of words, but with plainnesse, and strength of reason: And withall I shall expect that they will not think the worse of the Author, for being ready to answer him that asketh a reason of him, or for writing a justification of the government of the Church of Scotland, to such as did desire to be more throughly resolved concerning the same; but that rather they will make use hereof, as a key by divine Providence put into their hands, to open a doore unto further light.

Secondly, there is so much the more reason for asserting those two points, by how much they have been mainly opposed by Satan; for he it was whose cunning conveyance of old, made the office of ruling Elders to come into desuetude, through the sloth, or rather the pride of the Teachers, as Ambrose complaineth; and yet time hath not so obliterate that ancient order,