ed against holy Athanasius; for Athanasius being expelled by the
Arians, had fled to the emperor Constantine the younger, and had from him
obtained a return to his own church. Now this canon is very unjust, which
forbids that a bishop, or any other minister of the church, being unjustly
oppressed, flee to his godly civil magistrate; since it was lawful to the
apostle Paul to appeal to the Roman emperor wicked Nero, as the Acts of
the Apostles witness. But it may be seen in this place, that bishops were
very soon seeking dominion, yea, tyranny over the church, and over their
colleges." Besides all this, there is yet another thing which ought to
have a very principal consideration in the deposition of a minister, and
that is, the consent of the church and congregation where he hath served.
Let the magistrate know, saith Gerhard,(1123) "that as the vocation of
ministers pertaineth to the whole church, so to the same also pertaineth
the removing of ministers; therefore, as a minister ought not to be
obtruded upon an unwilling church, so the hearers, being unwilling and
striving against it, a fit minister ought not to be plucked away from
them." The deposing of a minister, whom the church loves and willingly
hears, Balduine accounteth to be high sacrilege,(1124) and holdeth that,
as the calling, so the dismissing of ministers pertaineth to the whole
church; and so teacheth Junius.(1125) Shortly, as a man is rightly called
to the ministerial office and dignity when he is elected by the church and
ordained by the presbytery, so is he rightly deposed and put from the same
when he is rejected by the church and discharged by the presbytery.

How there was brought forth in Scotland, anno 1610, a certain amphibian
brood, sprung out of the stem of Neronian tyranny, and in manners like to
his nearest kinsman, the Spanish Inquisition. It is armed with a
transcendant power, and called by the dreadful name of the _High
Commission_. Among other things, it arrogateth to itself the power of
deposing ministers; but how unjustly, thus it appeareth:

1. If those commissioners have any power at all to depose ministers, they
have it from the king, whose commissioners they are: but from him they
have it not; therefore they have none at all. The proposition is most
certain; for they sit not in that commission to judge in their own name,
nor by their own authority, (_quum nihil exerceat delegatus nomine
proprio_, as Panormitan saith,(1126)) but by