and Truth. Hat ftyle muft ferve me for a Preface to this fhort dif courfe. The love of Peace and Truth, my hope is, hath made fome Impression in the reasons whereupon it proceedeth: And it were a wrong to the world to think that thofe marks can be offenfive. My purpose was, to contribute towards the true meaning of the Scripture in thefe matters: If I have failed of it, the attempt will deferve your excufe. But my heart telleth me not that I have fet any Text on the rack rack to make it confeffe more then it means. Ecclefiafticall writers, I have for the most part stripped of the authoritie which their years & merits in the Church have wonne, and produced them as witnesses at the Bar of common fenfe, to make evidence from the Hiftoricall truth of their fayings. The meaning of them is for the most part either tranflated by their words, or expreffed in the current of my dif courfe. Sometimes it is left to every mans apprehenfion to value : for when all is done, men must and will be judges for themselves. H. T. Faults escaped. Pag. 16. line 18. ac provide reade ac proinde. p. 34. 1. 5. expreffed r. expreffeth. p.58.1.3. because r. became. p. 62.1. 19. these r. those. 1.21. thefer. thofe. p.83.1.2 0. Synagogues r. Synagogue. p. 85.6.14. after elfe,adde. And the chief caufes in Religion brought to no Court but this. p. 87.1.19. after writeth, adde In Hilcoth Sanedrin. cap. I. p.roz.l.9. thofe r. thefe p.114.1.10. Baptift, r.Baptifmo.p.119.1.5. difperfingr.difpenfing.p.129.l.1. Tertullian: v. Tertullian) p. 131. l. 13. Toreh r. Foreh. p. 140.1.22. fomer. found.p.147. 24. alwayes r. (alwayes. p.151.4.5, after heart adds being. p.183.1.11, and v. of. CHAP. I. The Apostles eye-witnesses of our Lord, and eare-witneffes of his doctrine. S. Paul an Apoftle. Many perfonall qualities in them. They were Governours of Churches. E that defireth to efpie light at a narrow hole, must lay his eye near, if he mean to difcover at large: So must he be curious in confidering the Scriptures, that meaneth to difcern thofe things that are not declared there at large, but are collected by circumftance or confequence: efpecially in matters which we view at this diftance of time, which reprefenteth to us things done then through a mist of fucceeding cuftome. Thofe that feek for mines,have their virgula divina, a A rod rod which they hold even-balanced over the place where they hope for a vein, which if it hit right, the rod of it felf bendeth towards the earth: Our Lord in the Gospel commandeth us to search the Scriptures as men would feek for mines or treafure; let us keep an even balance of judgement, not bowing, but as the vein of truth fwayeth it: for if we put the grains of affection and prejudice into the gold-scales which we weigh nice truths with, no marvel if the lighter go down. Now because the queftion concerneth the Apoftles time, and the next to it, and the purpose is to represent the form pointed at in Scripture, by comparing it with fuch paffages of historicall truth and primitive practice as fhall seem best to expreffe it, let us in the first place confider the nature of their charge, that it may appear how farre the Church reteineth a fucceffion of it. For true |