Five disputations of church-government and worship

I conclude therefore that we are not only of one faith and Church w•th you, but differ so little in our opinions about lower things, that you can thence have no pretence for an alienation: And therefore with those of you that are godly and peaceable, I take it for granted that we are actually agreed. But if any will sacrifice the Churches Peace▪ their Charity, their souls to their parties, or passions and discontents, I leave them to God, and to the reading of other kind of Books, that tend to change an unrenewed mind.

II. And to those of you that follow the newer strain of Prelatical Divines, I shall adventure a few words, how small soever the probability is of their success. And 1. To those of you that are not departed from the Communion of all Protestants; nor gone with Grotius over to the Romanists. I beseech you, as before the Lord, proceed not in your bitterness, uncharitableness, or separation from your ⟨p. 14⟩Brethren, nor your hindering the work of God in their ministration, till you are able to produce such solid grounds for what you do, as you dare stand to at last, before the Judgement-seat of Christ. 1. Some of you charge us with no less then Heresy, as following Aerius in the rejecting of Bishops, or equalizing Presbyters with them: and can you hold communion with Heretics? I answer, 1. All is not heresy that every angry man hath called so, no not of the venerable Ancients. Do you indeed take your Dignity and preeminence to be an Article of our Faith? Why then was it never in the Creed? 2. Many among us are for Episcopacy, that are not for your sort of Prelacy. It is that species that our Controversy is about. 3. I shall answer you in the words of our Reverend Morton (a Prelate, though not of the New strain) Apolog. Cathol. Par. 1. cap. 33. pag. 96, 97. who answereth the Papists that use against us the same objection [Non de differentia omni, sed de differentia Ordinis, seu Potestate Ordinandi (NB) quaestio est instituenda. Adversar. Aerius haereticus ordinis differentiam negabat esse jure divino; idem Protestantes: Resp. Quod idem forte sanctus Hieronymus, nec aliud Patres alii asseverarunt: hoc scholae vestrae Doctor primarius non ita pridem facile largiebatur: Mich. Medina, lib. 1. de sac. orig. affirmat, non modo S. Hieronymum idem in hoc cum Aerianis haereticis sensisse, verum etiam Ambrosium, Augustinum, Sedulium, Primasium, Chrysostomum, Theodoretum, Oecumenium, Theophylactum. Bellarm. lib. 4. de Eccles. milit. c. 9. Ita, (inquit Valent. Jesuit. Tom. 4. disp. 9. qu. 1. punct. 2.) isti viri alioqui sanctissimi & orthodoxy— At (inquit id. ibid.) non est tolerabilis haec responsio. Probabo vero hoc non modo ferendum, sed etiam omnibus aliis responsis praeferendum esse. Advocatus. Erasmus Annot. in