not only that Antichristian Hierarchy, but an Erastian supremacy: the faithful ministers of Christ thought themselves bound in conscience to protest; and accordingly they offered protestation to the parliament July----1606, obtesting, 'That they would reserve into the Lord's own hands, that glory which he will communicate neither to man nor angel, to wit, to prescribe from his holy mountain a lively pattern, according to which his own tabernacle should be formed: remembring always, that there is no absolute and undoubted authority in this world, except the sovereign authority of Christ the King; to whom it belongeth as properly to rule the church, according to the good pleasure of his own will, as it belongeth to him to save his church by the merit of his own sufferings: all other authority is so entrenched within the marches of divine command, that the least overpassing of the bounds, set by God himself, brings men under the fearful expectation of temporal and eternal judgment.--If ye should authorize bishops, ye should bring into the church the ordinance of man, which experience hath found to have been the ground of that Antichristian Hierarchy, which mounted up on steps of bishops pre-eminence, until that man of sin came forth, as the ripe fruit of man's wisdom, whom God shall consume with the breath of his own mouth. Let the sword of God pierce that belly, which brought forth such a monster; and let the staff of God crush that egg, which hath hatched such a cockatrice: and let not only that Roman Antichrist be thrown down from the high bench of his usurped authority, but also let all the steps, whereby he mounted up to that unlawful pre-eminence, be cut down and utterly abolished in this land: and beware to strive against God with an open displayed banner, by building up again the walls of Jericho, which the Lord hath not only cast down, but also hath laid them under an horrible interdiction and execration; so that the building of them again must needs stand to greater charges to the builders, than the re-edifying of Jericho, to Hiel the Bethelite in the days of Ahab.' Yet notwithstanding of all opposition, prelacy was again restored in parliament. And to bring all to a compliance with the same, presbyteries and synods universally charged, under highest pains, to admit a constant moderator without change; which many refused resolutely, as being the first step of prelacy. Upon this followed a great persecution of the faithful, for their non-conformity, managed by that mongrel and monstrous kind of court, made up of clergymen and statesmen, called the high commission court, erected in the year 1610, whereby many honest men were put violently from their charges and habitations; the generality were involved in a great and fearful defection. But the cope-stone of the wickedness of that period, was the ratification of the five articles of Perth, 'kneeling at the communion; private communion to be given to the sick, private baptism: and