reference to its reception otherwhere because vested with the power of a civile law in Scotland nor is that law unalterable when a future Parliament may take into consideration the inconveniencies that accompanie it The Bishop need not be grieved being as ignorant as your selfe you are enough as King knowing as you would seem that His Majestie doth not at all question the justice because he doth not the legalitie of these sanctions Therefore his Lordship may thinke on speake on when he pleaseth more about this bussinesse yet vouch with out a maske loyaltie in his face nor for ought you draw from him need his veines be so emptie nor his stomake so sharpe set as to eate his former words much lesse be so desperate as to burne his whole booke the consistence of it with his toughts professions laying no slander upon the King his Royal Father of ignorance injustice the one having established the other offering to establish by your civile lawes such a Church discipline as is mentiond both having done it upon most unreasonable importunitie without any know'n inclination to or approbation of the same Farther what a slander this would prove upon your grounds beyond the irreverence toward any actions of a King which is haled hither in a forced consequence by the cords of your malice may be guessed by the Royal Father's confession in his solitude If any shall impute my yeilding to them the Scots as my failing sinne I can easilie acknowledge it but that is no argument to doe so agaiâ—…e or much more For the Royal sonne His Majestie now being you say he hath not yet gone beyond an offer therefore His Martyr'd Fathers poenitential acknowledgement of his failing sinne join'd to your seasonable admonition That there can be no such actual concession but upon the peril of ignorance or buge injustice except he ownes it aswell to be the religious dictate of his conscience as a poltike indulgence upon necessitie of state may probablie move him at leisure to deliberate whatsoever he shall determine to doe in this wherein God direct him for the best aswell for his owne sake as the saftie of his Kingdomes make him cautious hereafter how the importunitie of the mission gets ground upon his goodnesse when all his grants shall be so publikelie registred as conscientious acts by such barbarious pens deliver'd to posteritie as sealed with his soule The Bishops presumption in that which followes is none but what from the grounds of modest Christian charitie may be raised viz. That a knowing a just King such as your owne character renders him will acknowledge that contrarie to the dictates of his conscience which is proved contrarie to the lawes of God man And this may be proclaimed if not prohibited without being his Confessour or taking it from the Clerke of the closet in any whisper Nor doth your mistâ—…ust of reports beare authoritie enough to make His Majesties conscience passe for Presbyterian no more then that for a command or imposition by law which was by your petitionarie violence ravish'd from his passive innocencie into a grant So that you see in the very beginning you stumble at a strawe being to finde somewhat worse in your way you were best life your legs higher in your progresse How much the Disciplinarian Scots have contributed from the beginning toward the alteration of Religion in England is too large a storie to be inserted in this dispute Their old account the Rt Reverend Arch-Bishop Bancroft cast up in his Dangerous positions English Scotizing Discipline their later arreares ruu very high in the historie of our times beginning with his religious learned successour The losse of whose head is not more to be imputed to the peoples clamours then the Scotish papers Whatsoever they did before I hope they can not denie themselves to be one of the horned beasts which together with their English brethren make the supporters of the Presbyterian Rebells scutcheon in the Covenant This in their remonstrance upon their last inroad into England when their fainting brethren with the cause were giving up the ghost they tell the King plainlie they shall zealouslie constantlie in their severall vocations endeavour with their estates lives to persue advance This pursuance was against the King Bishops which with the Convocation of divines are the true full representatives of the Church of England The assemblie of Divines were but locusts caterpillars brought together at Westminster by a Northerne wind The lawes of England convocate no such creatures nor in such a maner King Parliament were mere names had then there no real being so no breath to such a purpose nor those in the two Houses afterward more then the heads on the top of them in any politike capacitie to ordaine the abolition of Episcopacie Beside what the Assemblie did deliberate debate poor mechanike people 't is very well know'n they did as daylie labourers sacrilegious hirelings spend the thred of their time in your service payd the price of their souls for a sequestration or two the Covenanting brethren's pillage of the Church So that if they began the song you know by whom they were payd for their paines if they danc'd not after your pipe poor scraping wretches they came at your call how soever you were in a medley together to be sure your Covenanting Divel had got you all into a circle will better distinguish you when he calls to you for his reâ—…koning But by your favour good Sir His Majestie kept out for the very three yeares you mention told you plainlie he would make one in the practike harmonie of the Catholike Church That permission for it was no more necessitie extorted though he could not at that time get you all into Bedlam he thought in thrce yeares you would pipe dance your selves wearie then be content to give way to a better solemnitie of the Cathedral musike to come in In the meane time estates lives engag'd in the advancement of the Covenant by the sword the end thereof being to setle discipline was medling with imposing upon our Church Quod erat demonstrandum The Bishop you see gives a shrewd guesse who they are you endeavour to brand with the name of Erastians how all Protestans Churches even such as are not Episcopal must be beholding to you for that title because they come not up to the rigour of your Discipline Wherein Erasttus slaterd the Magistrate to the prejudice of the just rights of the Church concernd you aswell to prove as to mention then to have draw'n a parallel of the like flaterie in the Bishop Your doubting argues you ignorant or negligent confirmes my beleefe that you have travail'd as litle in Erastus's doctrines as his wayes gone no farther then the title of his booke What His
for what I thinke in my judgement best I may not thinke so absolutelie necessarie for all places at all times Not so rooted setled not so absolutelie necessarie implies no act of everting the foundations both of Religion Government c. nor can such an act be so pleasing to Kings nor that order which is wholelie imployed therein win so much upon their affections judgements as to make them professe to the world they thinke it best as you see our King of blessed memorie hath done When England thereafter as you terme it did root out that unhappie plant they danc'd after the Scotish pipe though England was neither in that thing calld an assemblie nor in any full free Parliament that did it They were but a few rotten members that had strength enough then to articulate their malice in a vote but have since given up the ghost being cut downe by the independencie of the sword their presbyterie with them for a Stinking weed throw'n over the hedge or Severu's wall into Scotland where they their blew-bottle brethren are left to lie unpittied on the dunghill together The rest of the ReformedChurches otherwhere did never cast out what they never had such an happie plant as regular Episcopacie in their grounds those that have as some such I have told you there are carefullie keep it The one part hath been more wise in their actions the other more charitable to us in their words Let the Scots applaud or clap their hands when they please there is an act behind the plays ' not yet done CHAPTER II. The Scottish Discipline overthrowes the right of Magistrates to convocate Synods otherwise to order Ecclesiastical affaires THe Bishop doth not forget his challenge about the Magistrates right in convocating Synods But if Mr. Baylie's eyes be too old to see a good argument in an enthymem let him take it out of an explicite syllogisme which may fairlie be draw'n out of His Lordships first second paragraph in this Chapter MAJ. That Discipline which doth countenance the Church to convene within the Magistrates territories whensoever wheresoever they list To call before them whomsoever they please c. doth overthrow the Magistrates right to convocate Synods to confirme their Acts c. MIN. But this new Discipline doth countenance the Church to convene within the Magistrates territories whensoever wheresoever they list c. Ergo CONCL. This new Discipline doth overthrow the Magistrates right to convocate Synods c. The Major his Lordship proves from that know'n Soveraignite of power wherewith all Princes States are indued From the warinesse of the Synod of Dort Can. 50. From that decree out of Ench. Cand s. min. Synods ought to be called by the supreme Magistrate if he be a Christian c. From the power the Emperours of old did challenge over General Councels Christian Monarches in the time of Poperie over National Synods The Kings of England over their Convocations The Estates of the Vnited Provinces From the professions of all Catholikes Protestants in France very particularlie liberallie the State of Geneva where the ordering of all Ecclesiastike affaires is assumed by the Seigniorie The Minor he takes for granted is know'n out of all the proceedings in the Presbyterie which from time to time have thus conven'd convocated themselves therefore His Lordship onelie intimates it in his first paragraph yet afterward proves it in part by an Assemblie meeting when it had been prohibited sitting after it was discharged by the King which the 20. Presbyters did at Aberdene Anno 1600. And all this with the Reviewer is to forget the challenge because he hath forgot his logike the new light hath dazeld the eye of his old intellectual facultie to discerne The truth of it is this was a litle too hot for Mr. Baylies fingars because it makes such cleare instances about the Synod of Dort Geneva wherein they differ from the Scotish Presbyterie which he will not owne because he every where denies therefore takes no notice of it as he goes Nor can any ignorance of the way of the Scotish Discipline be imputed to the Bishop who produceth so numerouslie the practical enormities thereof strikes at the very foundation as infirme because contrarie to the know'n lawes lawfull custome the supreme Magistrate dissenting disclaiming For what he pretends to have been unquestionablie authentike by vertue of Parliament Acts the Kings consent since the first reformation I have otherwhere successivelie evidenc'd up as farre as the unhappie beheading of Marie Queen of Scots in England to which the rest may be hereafter annexed to have no other strength then what rage violence could afford it The power which he sayth every man in Scotland gives the King without controversie to call extraordinarie Assemblies when he pleaseth takes not away in its hast the maine part of the Bishops objection implying no negative to this That the Presbyteric hath often extraordinarilie assembled without the Kings leave nay against his command nor will they be checkt in that rebellious license by his power What the Bishop meanes to speake of the Kings power in chusing Elders c. Mr. Baylie might know but that still he hath no mind to take notice That in the former paragraph His Lordship spake of a seigniorie a Civile Magistrate at Geneva to which at the end of the yeare are presented the Elders by that continued or discharged The Civile Magistrate in Scotland hath no more power in placing or displacing which before was calld continuing or discharging the Elders then in the election of the Emperour whose inhaerent right he conceives to be as good there as at Geneva therefore if the lawes do not expresselie provide it they are such he thinkes as tend to the overthrowing of that right This His Lordship meanes as part of that he was to prove being a clause in the title of this Chapter Your closing with the Parliament which the Bishop hath not mention'd is but to beget a wonder by making an hermaphroditc of the question which before was but single in your sexe You are not so united but that I can untwist you though against your will consider in this case the Presbyterie by it selfe The making of Ecclesiastike lawes in Scotland as for England it shall not be here disputed as desirous as you are to be wandring from home was never in justice nor with any Kings content referred so absolutelie to Ecclesiastike Assemblies as not to aske a ratification from the crowne What the Bishops minde is about the head of the Church will be clearlie rendred when just Authoritie demands it but His Lordship thinkes not good to be catechiz'd by every ignorant Scotish Presbyter nor give answer to every impertinent question he puts in If your fingars itch to be handling the extrinsccal power in the Minister derivative from the supremacie
Majestie had put downe your Presbyterie by the head your Ministerial office was with the exercise of your halls having to the time of your late rebellion no other then an ambulatorie Euangel no Disciplinarian legallie tolerated to officiate but such as would conforme to the canons of the Church If the King had sayd Egonon possum erigere Ministri caput the heads of the Aberdene Edenburgh Ministers might have confuted him upon the gates but that his mercie without the Synodical censure of impunitie interpos'd in that dispute As great an enemie as His Majestie was to such Erastians as the Bishop I am sure he was no friend to such Donatâ—…sts as you unlesse infestissimus hostâ—… be significant to that purpose He sayd you were the persidious bedlam knaves among the preachers my dictionarie will helpe me to no fiter English for his Latin persidi sanatici nebulones inter concionatores And you or your profession he often styl'd Calvinistarum Satanismum a sect of lapsed spirits among the Calvinists whose malice had metamorphoz'd them into Devils CHAPTER VII The Presbyterie cheates the Magistrate of his Civil power in ordine ad spiritualia THe Bishop begs no beliefe of his Readers beyond what he brings proofe out of your Discipline to prevaile for When you have made all offenses more or lesse scandalous like the Prophet in Hosee you become the snare of a fowler with this counterfeit call catch all the uncleane birds in your net If the Bishops Official takes notice of more civile causes then your Presbyterie the qualitie number had been Worth your noting for your Readers satisfaction To strengthen your evidence I consulted with Didoclave your brother Scout whom I finde to have made no such numerous discoverie I take him to be alltogether as strict able an inquisitour as your selfe That capital offenders whom the Magistrate hath spared should be excommunicated is disciplinarian censure which no societie of regular Christians ever inflicted Nor can any ingenuous Divine denie such accesse to the holie table if otherwise qualified then by their impunitie He must distrust either the prudence or pietie of the Magistrate conceiving him either too liberal of his pardon to a person shewing no remorse for his fault or impious in countenancing instead of cutting off an obstinate malefactour with his sword Erastus himselfe whom you raile at so often puts in this caution which Beza approves of for whatsoever he hath asserted in his booke Quod meminisse te velim etiamsi non semper adjeccro That the person you admit be suppos'd to understand approve embrace the doctrine of the the Church with which he desires to communicate That he professe an acknowledgement hatred of his sinnes he addes not from your stool of repentance That a murderer adulterer blasphemer thus pardoned thus poenitent thus supplicant for the seale of the Sacrament should be to fill up the amphitheater of any prou'd hypocritical popular presbyter made the sundays sport or spectacle to the people No Scripture commands it no orthodoxe Church ever practis'd it no law of Scotland imports it If you suspect his repentance to be but counterfeit his humble addresse a religious imposture you may discourse with him in private lay open before him the hainousnesse of his fact deterre him by the extremitie of the danger tell him if he disccrnes not the Lords bodie which he can not through the blacke unrepented guilt of that sinne he eates judgement he drinkes damnation But all this pertaines ad Consilium a terme us'd among the ancients in cases somewhat conterminate with ours to ghostlie councel no spiritual execution ad legis annunciationem non jurisdictionem to the terrible declaration of the law to no jurisdiction or legal exercise of your power Beside here I must put you in minde of what I otherwhere prove and is undeniable That your excommunicating facultie is not originallie in your Assemblie but derived to you from the supreme Magistrate with an implicite reservation of his own priviledge to remit it at pleasure it being no â—…ure divino discipline I hope for if such what becomes of those Churches that use it not The malefactours exemption from this without quaestion accompanies his largesse of civile mercie he stands acquitted from all spiritual aswell as temporal punishment For to suppose the Magistrate takes him from the gaoler to deliver him to Satan exchangeth his shakles for chaines of darkenesse his prison for hell is inconsistent with reason or charitie gets no more faith then such a cruel sentence hath the face to aske my opinion of its justice The learned Grotius tells you how John a Bishop of Rome became intercessour to Justinian the Emperour in the behalfe of poenitent delinquents that were separated from the union of the Church asscribing to him the authoritie honour of their restitution to the communion thereof Which argues him his Presbyters if you admit him not to be single in his jurisdiction at that time to have had no independent Discipine to crosse the Emperours power to have been no countermanders of his pardons That the Magistrates in Holland have very often commanded the Pastours to their dutie in these cases And that by an old law in England the Kings pleasure was craved before any of his servants could be excommunicated Fraud in bargaining false measures c. the Bishop takes to be maters of civile cognizance He findes them call'd abomination to the Lord not any where such scandals to the Church as to require publike satisfaction What Ecclesiastike rebukes are due he thinkes may be given by particular Ministers in their several charges without a summons before a Consistorian judicatorie Die Ecclesiae was no praecept of speed There were two or three errands to be done by the way The offended brother hath after conference a private arbitration praescrib'd him Nor doth it appeare that in cases of this nature our Saviour sing'd him a warrant to fetch his adversarie to the Church not a word is there that doth authorize the Church to command him out of the Court to anticipate or aggravate the civile censure by the Reviewers Ecclesiastike Rebukes The Bishop speakes of Presbyterie in the institution makes no instance of it in the practice I 'll take no mans word for disciplinarian honestie throughout 30. yeares trading The saints after that rate will not be readieat Doomesday to give up their account of compassing the earth getting in their inheritance annex'd to their dominion which they will have founded in grace If the Presbyteries wherein all that time you were conversant were no merchant adventurers tooke no share of the purchase they have kept some Jubilee to lease out their indulgence Or it was not unlikelie a piece of your Kirke-policie to connive a long time at all petie larcenie knowing who at length would be catch'd in the great cheate the 200000. pound sale of damnation
they abus'd many with an appearance of identitie in the mater and similitude in the end And themselves frequentlie confessed that this Covenant was nothing but that general one applied to the particular occasions at that time It is as certaine that the Covenant of the Rebells in all the three Kingdomes 1643. was held out at least to them in Scotland that toke it to be the same with that they toke before otherwise then as it must be againe applied to a conjunction with their brethren of the other two Kingdomes Nor was there any other new emergent cause nor was that one for any new Covenant and you are not to multiplie solemne oathes and Covenants you sayd without necessitic Nor is there in this the sense of any one clause that is not in the other as it concern'd your owne Nation And the enemies with their practices against whom and which you fram'd it you professe to be the same though now increased in your praeface All which have elements enough beside an airie sancie to make up your grosse errour or affected falshood in denying so demonstrable a truth Yet that notwithstanding this imposture there is a real difference in the triplie respect which the Bishop speakes of was never hitherto denied as I know by any Episcopal writer which are many that occasionallie have mention'd it So that his Lordship cuts not his owne vine but your fingars that will be medling with his worke for which he may expect and will have due thankes from his friends that rightlie understand him For how soever indeed that short confession was at first not onelie draw'n up by the Kings command nor freelie subscribed with his hand but obtruded violentlie upon him being devised by a partie of seditious male-contented Noblemen and Courtiers made such by the Clergie that were worse against Esme Earle of Lenox who they hoped by this test would be discovered to be a Papist Yet the King made a very good vertue of necessitie and since he must impose it fiâ—…st upon his familieand afterward upon his subjects being supreme could and did it in his owne sense though it may be oppositie to theirs that made it the ambiguitie of the words tolerating both To which in that sense he praefixed his Royal authoritie whereas your later Covenant in yours was absolutelie against his sonnes That in his sense was for the lawes of the Realme the praeservation of Episcopacie This against them for its utter extirpation That to maintaine the religion established which he did to the uttermost of his power This to its destruction which it is in effecting though it spoiles in the casting that golden calfe you intended to set up So that the words themselves which doe not more flatlie contradict the Bishop then they are contradict by your workes are not so expresse for the Kings authoritie the law of the realme and religion established and wherein they are such an abstruse meaning have they as he that takes your league is ouos agoon mysteria the dull creature that ignorantlie caries all the mysteries of your iniquitie on his backe In the next paragraph is nothing but a branch or two of your former wild discourse therein a nest of small birds chattering what we often heare to no purpose or never to lesse then here having no significancie at all in answer to the Bishops Memento which recognizeth Q. Elizabeths indulgence to whom your praedecessours scraped and whined for militarie assistance to say no worse undeservedlie had it without imposing the Discipline os England Whereas you to use the words of K. Ch. 1. are not to be hired at the ordinarie rate of auxiliariâ—…s much lesfe borrowed or bestowed nothing will induce you to ingage till â—…hose that call you in have pawned their soules to you The Discipline Liturgic which you quarell with some times because different from the English was obtruded upon you by no other crast and force then a plaine legal injunction Deliberated on from the time of K. Iames's investiture in the crowne of England approved in a general Assemblie at Aberdene 1616. the Liturgie I meane the Discipline having been received long before read publikelie in the Kings chapell at Haly-rud-house ever since the yeare 1617. not onelie without dislike but with frequent assemblies of the Councel Nobilitie Bishops and other Clergie Iudges Gentrie Burgesses women of all rankes In several other places in the time of K Ch. 1. The alterations which were not of such moment as to be met with opposition were partlie made generallie approved by the Bishops and principal Clergie in Scotland who in the exercise of it were injoined to proceed with all moderation and dispense with such for the practice of some things conteined in the booke as they should finde either not well perswaded of them or willing to be informed concerning them or did hope that time and reason might gaine a beter beleefe of them How otherwise your Discipline was obtruded upon the English what free long and deliberate choyce they used beside the sighes and groanes of many pious soules hurried into prisons or disspersed in a miserable exile your owne Scots Cushi shall beare witnesse Who out of no ill meaning to your cause reveales the truth of your tyrannie from the beginning… That upon your second coming in it was when some of our Nobles tooke occasion to supplicate for a Parliament which the King scarce durst denie for the Scotch armie nor the perpetuitie of it afterward for no other reason… That when it came to armes the Scotes could not sit still in conscience honestie whereupon they sent a Commissioner from their Synod to the English Parliament 1642. to move them to cast out Bishops Then others to the King at Oxford to signe all propositions which because he would not doe they resolve to assist their brethren against him whom they call the common enemie The formalitie of an invitation was used to this purpose but their inclination and resolution had pass'd before And indeed your Assemblie 1642. confess'd an obligation lay upon them to encourage and assist so pious a worke but not as you doe here onelie out of brotherlie concernment but for securitie of yourselves because without it you could not hope for any long time to enjoy your owne puritie peace which had cost you so deare The Bishops following grounds which he makes good to be de monstrative doe not therefore betray the weaknesse of because they adde strength to the praeceding What wind is in them you follow too fast after and feed as greedilie upon as Ephraim on the East which turnes to the same bad nourishment in you both increasing lies and somewhat else which you may reade Hose 12. 1. And were the softest hand insensible of their substance they would praeponderate your answers which are as deceitfull upon the weights as he that made them and allsogether lighter then vanitie it selfe For
change the whole Ecclesiastical pollicy of a Common-wealth to alter the Doctrine and Religion established to take away the legall rights and privileges of the Subjects to erect new tribunalls and courts of Justice to which Sovereigns themselves must submit and all this of their own heads â—…ue of a pretended power given them from heaven contrary to kâ—…own laws and lawfull customs the Supreme Magistrate dissenting disclaiming Synods ought to be called by the supreme Magistrate if he be a Christian c. And either by himself or by such as he shall please to choose for that purpose he ought to preside over them This power the Emperours of old did challenge over General Councels Christian Monarchs in the blindnesse of Popery over National Synods the Kings of England over their great Councels of old and their Convocation of later times The Estates of the united Provinces in the Synod of Dort this power neither Roman Catholick or Protestant in France dare denie to his King None have been more punctual in this case then the State of Geneva where it is expressely provided that no Synod or Presbytery shall alter the Ecclesiastical pollicy or adde any thing to it without the consent of the civil Magistrate Their elders do not challenge an uncontrolable power as the Commissioners of Christ but ate still called the Commissioners of the Signiory The lesser Councel names them with the advise of the Ministery their consent is not necessary The great Councel of 200 doth approve them or reject them At the end of the year they are presented to the Signiory who continue them or discharge them as they see cause At their admission they take an oath to keâ—…p the Ecclesiastical Ordinances of the civil Magistâ—…ate The finall determination of doctrinal differences in Religion after conference of and with the Ecclesiasticks is referred to the Magistrate The proclamations published with the sound of trumpet registered in the same book do plainly shew that the ordering of all Ecclesiastical affairs is assumed by the Signiory But in Scotland all things are quite contrarie the civil Magistrate hath no more to doe with the placing or displacing of Ecclesiastical Elders than he hath in the Electoral Colledge about the Election of an Emperor The King hath no more legislative Power in Ecclesiastical causes than a Cobler that is a single Vote in case he be chosen an Elder other wiâ—…e none at all In Scotland Ecclesiastical persons make repeal alter their Sanctions eyery day without consent of King or Councel King Jonâ—…s proclaimed a Parliament to be held at Edenburgh and a little before by his letter required the Assembly to abstain from making any Innovatioâ—…s in the Policy of the Church and from prejudging the decisions of the States by their conclusions and to suffer all things to continue in the condition they were until the approcâ—…ing Parliamâ—…nt What did they hereupon They neglected the Kings letter by their own Authority they determined all things positively questioned the Arch-Bishop of St. Andrews upon their own Canons For collating to benefices and Voting in Parliament according to the undoubted Laws of the Land Yea to that degâ—…ee of sawcines they arrived and into that contempt they reduced Sovereign power that twenty Presbyters no more at the highest sometimes but thirteen sometimes but seven or eight dared to hold and maintain a General Assembly as they miscalled it after it was discharged by the King against his Authority an Insolence which never any Parliament durst yet attempt By their own Authority long before there was any Statute made to that purpose they abolished all the Festivals of the Church even those which were observed in memory of the Birth Circumcision Resurrection and Ascension of our Saviour By their own Authority they decreed the abolition of Bishops requiring them to resign their offices as not having any calling from Gods word under pain of Excommunication And to desist from preacbing until they had a new admission from the General Assembly And to compleat their own folly added further that they would dispose of their possessions as the Churches Patrimony in the next Assembly which ridiculous Ordinance was maintained stifly by the succeeding Synods notwithstanding the Statute that it should be Treason to impugn the Authority of the three Estates or to procure the innovation or diminution of any of them Which was made on purpose to control their vain presumption Notwithstanding that themselves had formerly approved and as much as in them lay established Superintendents to endure for term of life with their numbers bounds salaries larger than those of other Ministers indewed with Episcopal power to plant Churches ordain Ministers assign Stipends preside in Synods direct the censures of the Church without whom there was no Excommunication The world is much mistaken concerning Episcopacie in Scotland for though the King and Parliament were compelled by the clamours and impetuous violence of the Presbyters to annex the temporalities of Bishops to the crown yet the Function it self was never taken away in Scotland from their first conversion to Christianity until these unhappy troubles And these very temporalities were restored by the Act of restitution and their full power was first established Synodically and afterwards confirmed by the three Estates of the Kingdom in Parliament By their own Authority when they saw they could not prevail with all their iterated indeavours and attempts to have their book of discipline ratified they obtruded it upon the Church themselves ordaining that all those who had born or did then bear any office in the Church should subscribe it under pain of Excommuication By their own Authority or rather by the like unwarrantable boldnesse they adopted themselves to be heirs of the Prelates and other dignities and orders of the Church suppressed by their tumultuous violence and decreed that all tythes rents lands oblations yea whatsoever had been given in former times or should be given in future times to the service of God was the patrimonie of the Church and ought to be collected and distributed by the Deasons as the Word of God appoints That to convert any of this to their particular or profane use of any person is detestable Sacriledge before God And elsewhere Gentle-men Barons Earls Lords and others must be content to live upon their just rents and suffer the Kirk to be restored to her libertie What this libertie is follows in the same place all things given in hospitalitie all rents pertaining to Priests Chanteries Colledges Chappelries Frieries of all orders the Sisters of the Seens all which ought to be retained still in the use of the Kiâ—…k Give them but leave to take their breath and expect the rest The whole revenues of the temporalities of Bishops Deans and Arch-Deans lands and all rents pertaining to Cathedrall Kirks Then supposing an objection that the Possessours had Leases and Estates
they answer That those who made them were theeves murtherers had no power so to alienate the common Good of the Kirk They desire that all such Estates may be anulled and avoided that all Collectours appointed by the King or others may be discharged from intermedling therewith and the Deacons permitted to collect the same yea to that height of madnesse were they come as to define and determin in their Assembly judge whether it be not a modest constitution for a Synod That the next Parliament the Church should be fully restored to its Patrimony and that nothing should be past in Parliament until that was first considered and approved Let all Estates take notice of theâ—…e pretensions and designs If their project have not yet taken effect it is onely becauâ—…e they wanted sufficient strength hitherto to accomplish it Lastly by their own Authority under the specious title of Jesus Christ King of kings and Lord of lords the onely Monarch of his Churcâ—… and under pretence of his Prerogative Royal they erected their own Courts and Presbyteries in the most parts of Scotland long before they were legally approved or received as appeareth by their own Act alledging that many suites had been made to the Magistrate for approbation of the Policy of the Kirk which had not taken that happy effect which good men would crave And by another act acknowledging that Presbytertes were then established Synodically in most parts of the Kingdom And lastly by the Act of another General Assembly at Edenburg ordaining that the Discipline contained in the acts of the General Assembly should be kept as well in Angus and Mernis as in the rest of the Kingdom You see sufficiently in point of practice how the Disciplinarians have trampled upon the Laws and justled the civil Magistrate out of his Supremacy in Ecclesiastical affairs My next task shall be to shew that this proceeds not from Inanimadvertence or Passion but from their Doctrine and Principles First they teach that no persons Magistrates nor others have power to Vote in their Synods but onely Eccl siâ—…tical Secondly they teach that Ecclesiastical persons have the sole power of convening and convocating such Assemblies All Ecclesiastical assemblies have power to convene lawfully together for treating of things concerning the Kirk They have power to appoint times and places Again National Assemblies of this Countrey ought alwayes to be retained in their own liberties with power to the Kirk to appoint times places Thus they make it a Liberty that is a Priviledge of the Church a part of its Patrimony not onely to convene but to convocate whomsoever whensoever wheresoever Thirdly for point of Power they teach that Synods have the judgement of true false Religion of Doctrine Heresies c. the election admission suspension deprivation of Ministers the determination of all things that pertain to the Discipline of the Church The judgement of Ecclesiastical matters causes beneficiary matrimonial and others Jurisdiction to proceed to excommunication against those that rob the Church of its patrimony They have legislative Power to make rules and constitutions for keeping good order in the Kirk They have power to abrogate and abolish all Statutes and Ordinances concerning Ecclesiastical matters that are found noisom and unprofitable and agree not with the time or are abused by the people And all this without any reclamation or appellation to any Jâ—…dge Civil or Ecclesiastical Fourthly they teach that they have these priviledges not from the Magistrate or People or particular Laws of any other Countrey The Magistâ—…ate can not execute the censares of the Church nor prescribe any rule how it should be done but Ecclesiastical power floweth immediatly from God from the Mediatour Jesus Christ And yet further The Church cannot be governed by others than those Ministers and Stewards set over it by Christ nor otherwise than by his Laws And therefore there is no power in earth that can challenge to it self a Command or Dominion upon the Church And again It is prohibited by the Law of God and of Christ for tho Christian Magistrate to invade the Government of the Church and consequently to challenge to himself the right of both Swords spiritual and temporal And if any Magistrate do arrogate so much to himself the Church shall have cause to complain and exclaim that the Pope is changed but the Papacy remains So if Kings and Magistrates stand in their way they are Political Popes as well as Bishops are Ecclesiastical Whatsoever these men do is in the Name of our Lord Jesus and by Authority delegated from him alone Lastly they teach that they have all this Power not onely without the Magistrate but against the Magistrate that is although he dissent send out his prohibitions to the contrary Parliamentary ratifications can no way alter Church canons concerning the worship of God For Ecclesiastical Discipline ought to be exercised whether it be ratified by the civil Magistrate or not The want of a civil Sanction to the Church is but like Lucrum cessans non damnum emergens As it addes nothing to it so it takes nothing away from it If there be any clashing of Jurisdictions or defect in this kind they lay the fault at the Magistrates door It is a great sin or wickednesse for the Magistrate to hinder the exercise or execution of Ecclesiastical Discipline Now we have seen the pernicious practices of their Synods with the Doctrines from which they flow it remains to dispel umbrages wherewith they seek to hide the uglinesse of their proceedings principles from the eyes of the world We say they do give the Christian Magistrate a political Power to convocate Synods to preside in Synods to ratifie the Acts of Synods to reform the Church We make him the keeper of both tables Take nothing and hold it fast here are good words but they signifie nothing Trust me whatsoever the Disciplinarians do give to the Magistrate it is alwayes with a saving of their own stakes not giving for his advantage but their own For they teach that this power of the Christian Magistrate is not private and destructive to the power of the Church but cumulative and onely auxiliary or assisting Besides the power which they call abusively authoritative but is indeed ministerial of executing their decrees contributing to their setlement they ascribe to the Magistrate concerning the Acts of Synods that which every private man hath a judgement of discretion but they retain to themselves the judgement of Jurisdiction And if he judge not as they would have him but suspend out of conscience the influence of his political power where they would have him exercise it they will either teach him another point of Popery that is an implicite faith or he may perchance feel the weight of their Church censures and find quickly what manner of men they be as our late gracious King Charls
this wild monster out of the world Which accurate Remonstrance of the Bishops carying with it the highest authoritie of their Assemblie acts provincial general of the concurrent sense in the writings of many their deified Divines prevail'd with all impartial advertend persons to bring this glittering Godesse of the Scotsh discipline to the touch to discover all the dirt drosse whereof every limbe of her is made reduc'd many her before incautious worshipers to a better practice of their dutie opinion of the Catholike truth So that the shrine trade being very likelie to goe downe the craftsmen's gaine to faile this Demetrius as it hapens at a distance from the great companie of his brethren adviseth onelie with one of his tribe 3. or 4. the idolatrous worshipers of his imaginations cries aloud in print Magna est Diana Great is Diana of the Scots yea so great he makes her in the very first page of his booke as if she were Queen of heaven earth no other divine providence but hers able to recover as he speakes the wofullie confounded affaires of the King no other nations hands upon the earth but the Antiprelatical be the instruments to effect it Whereas they are at this time the most inconsiderable faction in His Majesties Dominions being kept at a bay by the present tyrannie in England having such distractions divisions among themselves so intermingled with a Royal Independent partie that let them talke or write what they will they can make no muster roll of their owne strength durst they speake out their desires or could their guilt permit them an assurance of securitie protection they would with all their hearts take sanctuarie in the person aswell as hitherto they have done an abused authoritie from the name of their King cast themselves with their covenant their claimes to all former concessions even touching their discipline at his foot But desperatione ultima in furorem animus convertitur instead of that they turne despaire into madnesse hoping onelie for some miracle to be wrought by the hand of God that they may have companie in their ruyne Naturali quodam deploratae mentis affectiu morientibus gratissimum est commori But we are told the hopes of such hypocrites shall perish That they shall be cut of their trust be but a spiders web Having done his crie he begins to chop logike with the Bishop complaines of his method though most apposite to the purpose calls for Scripture Fathers Reason as if disciplinarian practical instances required the strength of any of the three unlesse the vertuous precedents of Father Iohn of Leyden or Kniperdolin should come in as they may in judgement against the Scots He admits of the Bishops proofes I am very glad he doth but as by tenets belonging litle or nothing to the main question Whereas if The overthrowing the rights of Magistrates to convocate Synods c. Chapt. 2. Subjecting the supreme to their censures chap. 5. Chcating him of his civile power in order to religion ch 7. be but by tenets Their challenging this exorbitant power by divine right ch 8. That the exercise of it is hurtfull to all orders of men chap. 12. Belong litle or nothing to the maine questions about the discipline it should seem we must climbe heaven for the height of the controversie see whether it will suffer God any more then the King to sit sure in his throne have the supreme government of the world The heape of calumnics he mentions is a faythfull collection of historicall narrations which requires not the credulitie of the simple but the search of sedulous people if distrusted who may take the other bookes in their way satisfie themselves about what passages he pretends to be detorted If any of the Bishops allegations are coincident with them in Lysimachus Nicanor Isachars burden they have two witnesses at least to quit them at the barre need not stand to the mercie of Iudge Baylie for their pardon Whatsoever were the sufferings of the authours Mr. Corbet Mr. Maxwell the Reverend Arch-Bishop of Towmond truth integritie ought not to be danted The hand of heaven is not allwayes guided by the mouth nor Gods judgements discernd by the eye of the Disciplinarian brethren though most commonlie we heare of no lesse then the murder of the best men when they make themselves dispensers of his punishments I am crediblie informed that Mr. Corbet was murderd by the Irish the Arch-Bishop stript naked left desperatelie wounded but by Gods mercie recover'd since died a natural death What spirit it is that hath cosind Mr. Baylie into this uncharitable beliefe of Gods strange punishments in their ends or rather fram'd contrarie to his conscience this rash judgement in his mouth I leave to the Christian reader to conjecture Had the like befallen any couple of his brethren he would have writ with their bloud some red letters in the Calendar made them currentlie passe for two Martyrs of the discipline If what the Bishop they have jointlie published be fullie aswered by Mr. Baylie in his booke printed at London Edenburgh Amsterdam because the weight of the presse addes every time more strength to his arguments for I know not else to what purpose he mentions the severall impressions he might have sav'd this labour of Reviewing publish'd a fourth editon of it at Delfe After so much praejudice the Bishop is beholding to you for his hearing since you have tasted the sweetnesse of his spirit sobernesso of his language in his first page you doe well to spit out the bitternesse of your owne in a mad epistle before your booke If any regard had been wanting in his Lordship to the passages of Scripture whereupon you build your Antiepiscopal tenets the quotations would have been some what more numerous in your Review That no reverence should be required to the harmonic of the Reformed he takes care in the third paragraph of his booke where he sayth he hopes there is nothing whereof he convicteth you but will be disavowed… by all the Protestant Churches in the world which it should seem they may doe yet agree with you in the maine of your discipline for you calld all those but by-tenets ev'n now That they doe so beyond a non admission to a rejection of our Episcopacie as Antichristian between which as I take it there is some difference I desire you to tell us where What respect the Bishop beares to the Civile Magistrate lawes appeares best by his vindication of just authoritie to them both against your disciplinarian incroachments His Lordship doth not forget by what authoritie your discipline is established though the extravagance of your practices stands not justified by that which you pretend to If your rule doth it doth not quit it selfe of censure in
with the Act you pretend to at your leisure The approbation of the Assemblie was but the harmonie of a faction such being excluded as were not prejudged approvers or if praesent overaw'd by a praevalent partie in their vote as much as other Ministers abroad by Philadelphi Vindicatours confession in their consent Quis credat quenquam qui rem sacram administrabat…ausum fuisse calculo suo non probare Or if they were free did approve it they did it in that sense that many Orthodoxe persons did sweare or subscribe it …in eam confessionem jurâsse neminem Presbyteriorum regimini alligat Which King Ch. 1. in his large Declaration tells you to be consistent with Episcopaâ—…ie it unqu-estionablie true Or it may be the register of your approvers was handled as the roll of subscribers wherein were a great many more names then had been hands … adde Episcopos nunc sedentes magnam partem Ministrorum subscriptiones illas inficiari The opposition Of the Kings Commissioner it may be was ingrossed in the two leaves torne out of your publike records if not left out as impertinent to the proceedings of that Assemblie If he gave a passive consent by his silence it was in conformitie to his Masters subscription command which you mention'd The direction of His Majestie for the 50. Classical Assemblies was specializ'd by your power which did direct him The crecting of them was with no intent to pull downe Episcopacie as may be in effect gather'd from your words For if they remaine to this day the same stood while the Bishops were in power as subordinate chapters or consistories unto them These some Noble men you speake of were most of the Nobilitie as your Brother Andr. Melvin doth acknowledge … reluctantibus nobilium plerisque And these did not now erect of new a titular Episcopacie but maintained that which had been legallie established And this they did not onelie to hold fast their Ecclesiastical revenue but upon other more conscientious grounds as he ingenuouslie confesseth Viz. To keep the state of the Kingdome entire from being rent in pieces sublato enim Episcopatu I l'e leave the lie for his heires to licke up regni statum convelli To praeserve Majestie due to the King constitutis Presbyteriis regiam Majestatem imminui And by asserting his right to some Church revenues to prevent the utter exhausting of his exchequer … bonis Ecclesiasticis … restitutis Regis aerarium exhauriri causantur That the Nobilitie enjoyed so much of the revenue beside what was payd in to the King came upon the perpetual divisions rais'd by the Presbyterie in the Kingdome which perturbing ever the establishment of the Episcopal order voting them to have no more right to the meanes then they had to the office the learned at least prudent Nobilitie having better assurance that neither power nor meanes belong'd de jure to the brethren of the discipline it is not unlikelie till the controversie should be ended they framed a kind of plausible argument to continue the steward ship in themselves Yet in the meane time by your leave they did effectuate more then a title to this tulâ—…han Bishop And this kind of Prelates pretended right to every part of the Episcopal office exerciz'd much more then you mention'd Which having been made good against you in several volumes I shall onelie bring an undeniable argument by producing confitentes reos the whole packe of Covenanters of all orders qualities aswell Ministers as others Who in their publike bill or Complaint upon which an Act of the Presbyterie of Edenburgh passed Octob. 24. 1638. have these Words Whereas the office of a Bishop as it is now used within this Realme was condemned by the booke of policie by the Act of the Assemblie holden at Dundee Anno 1580. Whereof these are the words For asmuch as the office of a Bishop as it is now used commonlie taken within this Realme hath no sure warrant from Authoritie c. Hence I argue thus The office of a Bishop now used in the yeare 1580. the office of a Bishop now used in the yeare 1638. is ex confesso the same But the office of a Bishop 1638. consisted in the power of ordination jurisdiction Ergo so did the office of a Bishop 1580. And as much is implied by the Act of that Synod which condemnes expresselie the power as well as the title of Bishops that with reference to the persons of the Bishops then living that had executed this power were to lay it downe or become excommunicate Therefore you shew us but the halfe face in your discovrse about their voting in Parliament Into which imployment they crept not but came upon considence of better authoritie then any general Assemblie could give them as shall be proved hereafter particularlie in the case of Rob. Montgomerie Arch-Bishop of Glasgow whom you name That there was some debate takes of somewhat from the Kings forwardnesse in commanding subscribing directing in special That he shew'd his good satisfaction I beleeve not when you publish it with a blancke Reviewer But the Warner heere jumps over no lesse then 27. yeares time c. Ans. The Bishop undertooke no continued historie of your Disciplinarian rebellions Therefore in passing over 27. yeares he sav'd himself a trouble but hath done too great a courtesie for you unlesse you were more thankefull for his silence Though indeed this signal rebellious Convention of a few stubborne ignaro's at Aberdener shewes to what an height maturitie of mischiefe your other sucking Conspiracies had come to if Royal presence had not been at hand to suppresse their growth nip these blacke boutefeus in the bud That King Iames at that time was by his English Bishops perswasions resolv'd to puâ—… downe the general Assemblies of Scotland is disavowed in words by publike proclamation bearing date the 26. Septemb. in act by appointing one to be holden at Dundee the last Tuesday of Julie Yet if he had with the grave advice consent of his three Estates your Church lanes constant practice must have strooke saile as it afterward did unto the supremacie of that power Himselfe telling you That no Monarchie either in Civillor Ecclesiastical policie had then attained to that perfection that it needed no reformation Nor that infinite occasions might not arise whereupon wise Princes might foresee for the benefit of their Stâ—…es just cause of alteration For what immediatelie followes take His majesties answer out of a Declaration penned with his owne hand As to the nature of their particular priviledge in holding of Assemblies they have in this their last praetended Assemblie broken the limitations of that priviledge that is clearlie set downe in the first Acte of the Parliament in the 92 yeare which is the latest clearest warrant for their Assemblie For there it is speciallie provided That as We give
guilt of which you would gladlie runne into dens caves or move the hills mountaines to cover you In the meane time in vaine you hope to have any the anâ—…nt Christians companie Who in times of their persecution never held publike Assemblies in their Edenburghs Imperial Cities never arm'd themselves to maintaine the divine ordinance of the Discipline Though had they done it litle would their praecedent availe you the just imposition of a Christian King being very unlike the heathen Emperous persecution Nor was the Presbyterie that divine ordinance of Discipline practiz'd by the persecuted in the wildernesse Mr. Baylie in this time by his affected diversions devious mazes having run himselfe halfe out of breath begins to thinke on the shortest way home to finde which he takes a large leape over the hedge by vertue of some Disciplinarian priviledge passeth two whole pages of consequence unanswer'd Perit libertas nisâ—…tlla contemnis quae jugem imponunt yet not so cleare but that one bramble hath catch'd him by the sleeve if the truth were known I beleeve many more have prick'd him to the heart for one of most danger I advise him to seeke out a timelie remedie stand to the charitie of his aequitable comparers for the rest 't is that sharpe quaestion which the Bishope propounds Who shall judge when the Church is corrupted the Magistrates or Church-men If the Magistrates why not over you aswell as others If the Church-men why not others aswell as you Mr. Gilespies Theorem because pressing such downright rebellion he without any brotherlie love leaves on the shoulders of a single Presbyter will not afford one fingar of the Presbyterie to ease him though the tantamout be not so unconsequential as to need a stake to helpe it downe in a swallow It being very well know'n that if Mr. Baylie should not tantamont in this businesse the Assemblie brethren would give him a drench in the Scotish horne send him to grasse with the long-eard creatures as being no fit companie for the late more rational rebells in a Synod The consequence if it must need be such from one particular denied by none to a universal affirmative as strange as it lookes may be made good by the new Disciplinarian logike Mr. Baylie himselve having more then once profess'd an identitie in the Scotish with the Reformed disciplines abroad in the harmonie of which I finde such a canon as this Si Minister donum habet aliquid ad aedificationem conscribendi illud typis non mandabit quin prius a classe examinetur probetur From the Classe he knowes it takes a remove to the provincial Synod thence to the national Assemblie Now if the Reviewer will not tell us in what Assemblie Mr. Gilespie was censur'd or this theoreme of his disavow'd because it will be such a singular case as never was heard of Rebellion disclaim'd in a Scotish Presbyterian Assemblie otherwise then in a Catholike mist which never drops in any particulars he shall have the reputation of catching this unconsequence for once But as the Bishops sayth Take nothing hold it fast if he can Beside he knowes there are many other such theoremes of Mr. Gilespies upon which the Bishop hath built many high accusations which the Discipline must acknowlege must be meant to be of that number which had the approbatorie suffrages of the Vniversities in Holland viz. Leyden Vtrecht or else he spake litle truth and as litle to the purpose in his Epistle Yet to helpe him to somewhat of better authoritie He is desir'd to take notice That the substance of this theoreme was not declin'd in a protestation made he knowes by whom in Edenburgh Parliament 1558. In the dutifull letter to the Queen Regent from the faythfull Congregation of Christ Iesus in Scotland 22. May 1549. In another from the Lords of the Congregation 2. Jul. 1559 In an answer to the Queenes proclamation by the Lords Barons other brethren of the Congregation 1559. In a declaration of the Lords against another proclamation of the Queenes 1559. To all thesé 't is undeniable that the Assemblies adhaer'd or indeed rather the Lords c to them In the Church Assemblie's supplication 28. May 1561. In the vote of the whole Assemblie 1563. In the Superintendents Ministers Commissioners letter to the Bishops and Pastours in England they write If authoritie urge you farther ye ought to oppose your selves boldlie not onclie to all power that dare extol it selfe against God but also against all such as dare burthen the consciences of the faythfull they mean'd the same opposition themselves made in Scotland In the seventh article fram'd by the Assemblie 1567. Beside what was very particularlie pressed by Knox in Sermons Conferences letters c all acknowledge the sense of several Assemblies But all these authorities are absolet the several ends of such speaches actions being long since accomplish'd in Scotland However M. Baylie denies that the maxime in hand was the fountaine of any our late miseries or the cause at all of the losse of our Soveraigne Fati ista culpa est nemo fit fato nocens If he had but in kindnesse delivered his meaning at large quitted aswell his independent brethren of their bloudie performance in the fift act as he doth the Presbyterian properties that caried on the rebellion in the foure first of the Tragoedie they might have masked merrilie together in their antike disguises of innocencie pointed out to some sillie credulous spectators the guilt of this horrid murder in the starres But I shall reach him a ladder where by he may ascend to the top of this truth not aninch higher then Edenburgh Crosse what else he wants when he comes there to doe justice accordinglie as he shall be enlightned upon his owne selfe for his share in this maxime unpardonable mischiefe The first step hereof begins neare the ground with the meane baser sort of the people who on the 23. Jul. 1637. when by his Blessed Majesties command the service booke was to be read in Edenburgh Great Church fell into the extraordinarie wayes of clapping hands cursing outcries throwing stones at the windowes aiming at the Bishop with a stool Continuing this hubbub in the streets besetting the counsel house whether the reverend learned worthie Bishop of Galloway was forced to flie for his refuge Their outcries being commonlie such as this God defend all those who will defend Gods cause God confound the service booke all the maintainers of it of whom the King must needs be mean'd to be one who had expressclie authoriz'd it Vpon this follow two extraordinarie petitions one in the names of the Noblemen Gentrie Ministers Burgesses against the service booke booke of Canons which being not answerd to their mind at Sterlin otherwhere themselves in protesting did the same thing which they had call'd the uproare
His Majesties letters but Messengers such as were two Heralds at Armes His Master of Requests who in the Kings name inhibiting their proceedings they send him word by Macgil they can salve their obedience yet goe through with the businesse Setting up Durie Belcanqual two Edenburgh Ministers to raile against the E Lenox when they are accus'd quitting them by their Ecclesiastike praerogative Putting their scholars at Glasgow in Armes occasioning bloudshed in resistance of the Principal Magistrates of that place against whom they afterward proceeded His Majestie summous them to his judicature at St. Andrewes they send their oratours instead of comming themselves The King exchangeth a promise of securitie for theirs of suspending the censure They admit the condition but collude with His Majestie leaving an underhand power with some select brethren to give sentence as occasion should serve When they get loose they contest with his Majestie by a serpent-supplicate which when it creepes at the foot wounds to the heart Tell him boldlie he playes the Popeâ—… takes a sword in his hand more then belongs to him The Earle of Arran demanding who dares subscribe such a paper Andrew Melvin answers undauntedlie for himselfe some others for hast snatcheth the pen out of a scribes hand that was neare him writes his name exhorts his complices ro doe the like By letter to His Majestie they shew how farre His Majestie had been uninformed upon miâ—…nformation prâ—…judg'd the praerogative of Iesus Christ the liberties of his Church what becomes of the Kings when this is pleaded They enact ordaine that none should procure any such warrant or charge under the paine of excommunication Where K. Iames did acknowledge the aequitie of the Church proceedings in these cases I desire to be inform'd I am sure K. Charles 1. many yeares since hath writ That they did wickedlie that which they could not doe And that it is a very reproveable instance Which to have been ever his fathers opinion I have under the hand of one of the most learned knowing men eminent historians in your Kingdome As likewise that they did never confesse their crimes nor renounce their Bishop-rikes c but that they were most cruellie persecuted by that firebrand of schisme in the Kirke sedition in the state Andrew Melvin his subscribing Associates made so odious to the people by their excommunication that they suffered most grievous penurie in the end were sterved to death which did not quench the malice of their mercilesse enemies who after their death continued persecuting their names memories making them infamous by false supposititious recantations whereof they themselves were the authours publishers Others that acknowledge a word or two to this purpose that drops from Arch-Bishop Adamson say he did it when set on the racke by his hunger being faine to beg bread of his enemies who glad of the occasion sold their charitie by weight for his selfe seeming-conviction when they had it being too greedie to gaine damnation to themselves did sophisticate every syllable with a lie The Bishops in their Declinatour against the Assemblie of Glasgow if you remember well appeale to no general Assemblie otherwise then as it shall pleace His Majestie to constitute it personallie be present or by his Commissioner without whom they acknowledge no authoritie it hath They referre it to His Majestie to call one to repaire their injurie by way of humble desire or direction no way derogating from nor impairing his separate absolute praerogative to redresse all personallie if he please Their expressions relating to Royall power in this particular are such as follow … So that they praeventing not proceeding by warrant of Royal authoritie … May we not therefore intreat my Lord Commissioner His Grace in the words of the Fathers of the fourth General Councel at Chalâ—…don Mitte foras superfluos For discharge of our dutie to God to his Church to our sacred Soveraigne lest by our silence we betray the Church is right His Majestics authoritie our owne consciences … And we most humblie intreat His Grace to intercede with the Kings Majestie that he may appoint a sree lawfull Generall Assemblie… to whom Dr. Rob. Hamilton by these praesents we give our full power expresse mandate to praesent the same in or at the sayd Assemblie or where else it shall be necessarie to be used where 's that Mr. Baylie with all submission obedience due to our gracious Soveraigne His Majesties High Commissioner All which are clauses assertive of His Majesties supremacie over General Assemblies implie his power to take cognizance of their demeanour Though after all this compliance with your method countenancing a seeming pertinencie in your arguments I must seasonablie put you in minde that you are very much mistaken in the Bishops meaning here as otherwhere maintaine a blindeconflict which your selfe For allthough His Lordship often take advantage of your Assemblie proceedings as contrarie to your lawes justifiable establishment of the Ecclesiastike power in your Kingdome yet where there is a concordance of your practice with your rule if accompanied with inconvenience of state incroachment upon that just praerogative which Monarchs otherwhere doe or may assume if destructive to that libertie of the people which is given them by the Gospell Christian freedome sealed to them in their baptisme if disagreeing with the primitive practice for the first five or sixe hundred yeares after Christ you lie open to the force of his arguments though you ward the blow from falling upon your Church in its owne peculiar as constituded in your Countrey For his Lordships endeavour is not onelie though in part to shew how tyrannical your discipline is to your selves but how praejudicial destructive it may prove to us in England if through want of caution or a facile yeilding to your insolent attempts way should be made for you to propagate what you call the Kingdome of Jesus Christ but is indeed the tyrannie of Satan the second practice of Lucifers ambition To banish Gods Anoynted from the earth since he faild in his project of turning God himselfe out of heaven we be ensnared in the like Presbyterian slaverie with the Scots Therefore you see he entituled his booke A Warning to take heed of the Scotish Discipline c. And were it not that you would clamour in vour next pamphlet you were unanswer'd this advertisement might passe with any rational reader for a refutation of at least halfe your booke If I should prosecute you with the many appeales that have been made before the Bishops declinatour of the Assemblie at Glasgow I know you would runne to your cover of complaints pag. 20. of your booke What others have been since will be brought to yourremembrance in such a flying roule as the Prophet Zacharie mentions unlesse a gracious pardon
which all the rest of your treason 's contrived there being no fraudulent possibilitie Ecclesâ—…astike nor Politike which your Sinon Assemblie hath not cunninglie lodg'd in the bellie the winding entrailes the maeanders of the Covenant Your clause in the parenthesis when the bolts are off set at libertie tells us your meaning is this Let the Kings person children continue imprison'd His Queen Prince c. banished His revenue sequester'd his life be irrecoverablie endanger'd rather then those of the Scottish Presbyterian partie for the rest you can not excommunicate out of your nation though not in your covenant should run the hazard of their lives estates Which was the true result of your debate agreement That you heard no complaint when many of the thirtie propositions were pressed was because your eares were stopt against the lamentations of everie English Jeremic that wept for the slaine of the daughter of his people being such an Assemblie as the nextâ—…verse describes you That an out crie as you call it is made when onelie one proposition is stucke upon is because that one streightneth the bands of your wickednesse layes heavier burdens upon the shoulders of innocencie will not let the oppressed goe free And then Gods Prophets are call'd upon to crie aloud not to spare to lift up their voyce like a trumpet c. This one was that the yeilding to which would most of all have violated His Majesties conscience in reference to which he tells you 'tis strange there can be no method of peace but by making warre upon his soul. Yet let the case be disputable your tender excusable at least in respect of the time which you say was not to be before His Majesties rescue but onelie before his bringing to London c. If so why was not His Majestie first rescued delivered out of the hands of the Sectaries then your proposition insisted on The Bishop tells you the reason out of Humble advice Edenb Jun. 10. 1648. viz. lest his libertie might bring your by gone proceedings about the league Covenant into quaestion All honest Christians loyal subjects though heathen are of the same beliefe with his Lordship whatsoever is their opinion in generall expect that you prove the innocence or justice of conditioning in this particular with your confess'd captive King Concerning the absolute soveraignitie of Kings you are other where answer'd if not satisfied may finde more worke made you by the famous Grotius whose booke was manifestlie penned against you your usurping brother-Rebells of England bids defiance to all your Didoclaves Buchanans Brutus's of both nations till replied to But away with your counterfeit inclination to treaties which you ever abhorred like death fearing in that peace there could be no peace for your wicked selves therefore gave publike thankes to God for delaying your torments in the disappointment of that at the Isle of Wight aswell by your plots devices as by the Sectaries armed-force The holinesse of this religious proposition was but the blinde under favour of which you stalked made safer approaches to His Majesties murder by another never hitherto repeald immutablie design'd Nor are there many of your publike papers but forespake the destruction of his Royal Person and Familie unlesse he submitted to the tyrannie of your tearmes and whether that had quitted him as much from your judgement as it assuredlie had from his supremacie and crownes may be guessed by the experiment he made in his first too full fatal concessions which your own Parliament Acts have registred completelie satisfactorie to the demands or desires of all sorts of people in Scotland which too indulgent paternal goodnesse having turn'd into poison you regorg'd in his face by a foreigne invasion and a base mercenarie rebellion till like evening wolves you rent in peices and prey'd upon his person in the darke The proposition I meane is that for which one of your sectarian brethren calls God Angels and Men to judge of your dissembling in pressing a personal treatie when His Majestie formerlie desiring one you told him There having been so much innocent bloud of his good subjects shed in this warre by His Majesties commands and commissions … you conceive that untill satisfaction and securitie be first given to both his Kingdomes His Majesties coming to London could not be convenient nor by you assented to What satisfaction you meane we know by your Discipline which makes murder unpardonable and then I pray what securitie could be taken but his life If the granting this one proposition you stand upon concerning Religion and the Covenant had draw'n after it as it seemes by your silence the satisfaction for bloud and securitie for your peace We may clearlie conclude your Religion was murder and no resting Canaan for your Covenant but in His Majesties death Which in effect was thus foretold him by that bold Henderson My soul trembleth to thinke and to foresee what may be the event if this opportunitie be neglested He would not use he said the words of Mordecai to Esther because he hoped beter things Whereas if his hopes faild him we may well argue he had us'd them as you doe that survive him in your endeavour that he and his fathers house should be destroy'd But that you take confession to be the Doctrine of Antichrist you mâ—…ght without an ironie put an â—…ce to your own being criminous to the purpose in declaring against the Parliaments debates which if therfore needlesse and impertinent because you thinke or will have them thought to be so the Great Councel you make but a subordinate Eldership or Classe to the supreme Assemblie of your Kiâ—…ke You are not allwayes so modest as to keep your distance from your English Parliaments affaires We have for many yeares found you like loving beagles upon eithers concernment so closelie coupled in the slip of your Covenant as if when the game should be lost upon eithers default you meant to be truss'd up together for companie If it be proper to have any King in Scotland the proper place of debate about his negative voice is as well a free Parliament there as in England If your lawes admit not of that they admit of no King whose Regalitie consisteth in that nor hath he any legislative authoritie without it It is the argument of your own Commissioners who use to fetch their Syllogismes from the Assemblie therfore you that made it are best able to solve it Their or your words are these The quaestion is where in his the Kings Royal authoritie and just power doth consist And we affirme and hope it can not be denied That Regal power and authoritie is chieslie in making and enaciing lawes and in protecting and desending their subjects which are of the very essence and being of all Kings And the exercise of that power are the chiefe parts and duties of their Royal
Religion the ordinarie reformation whereof is referred to your Ecclesiastical Assemblies are such onelie as appeare to be peccant against the ordinarie rule or canon by just authoritie established But that the Canon it selfe should be alterable at the pleasure of subjects in a combined Assemblies declining their subordination to a superiour power in King and Parliament and making them selves not onelie absolute to act but supreme to praescribe is contradictorie to all law and aequitie nor can any necessitie countenance it What you finde wrong in the Church according to your method must be no other then that which had been formerlie decreed in some of your Assemblies which must implie a fallibilitie in their application of the rule This errour when you goe about to rectifie from the word of God you may chance to have no clearer evidence then your praedecessours nor the people assurance that your eyesight is better So that for ought they know one blinde Assemblle may leade another by the hand and both with their followers fall into the ditch Beside It may so hapen that religious Acts answerable to the word may be offensive to some wicked Assemblie that have not the feare of God before their eyes These if they have the power to be sure they want not perversenesse to abolish for which I finde no cautionarie restraint in your discipline For after you have praetended to rectifie if upon your dissembling petition a following Parliament refuseth to ratifie that you have power to abolish and establish what you please I finde every where confessd by your faction And this indeed as you say is your ordinarie method of proceeding in Scotland but in no other Reformed Countrey who every where attribute to the Magistrate an Architectonike power in the Church and but a ministerical or instrumental to any Synod or Assemblie Videlius and other your brethren of note on this subject making you Bellarmines papists though when your Kings stand publikelie in opposition against you for the maintenance of their right 't is quaestionable whether his most plausible reasons will as well priviledge you in his doctrine The legal method of England you know well enough is otherwise and therfore can not ad mit of your Discipline without altering the fundamental lawes the most essential part of gouverment in our kingdome The three foolish unlearned quaestions that follow tell us you are in the mind to gender strises rather then according to Saint Pauls counsel follow righteousnesse fayth charitie or peace To the first I answer Christians of old before the Emperial lawes for paganisme were revoked were more or lesse hindred from embracing the Gospell according to the zeale rigour remissenesse or clemencie of the Emperours that reigned Those that obeyd not their commands suffer'd their punishments resisted no powers reversed no lawes Nay it s as high a trial as can well be instanc'd when Maximilian Diocletian publishd an edict to demolish their Churches and burne their Bibles because one was found that in great in dignation tore the paper in peices being condemned to die all Christians that heard it approved the sentence and commended the justice of the pagan Magistrate in his execution To the second thus The oecumenical and National Sâ—…nods of the ancients had ever the praesence or authoritie of the Emperour without which they reformed no haeresies nor corruptions in religion Who by ratifying their canons did cancel all the lawes of state which did protect those errours When this could not behad but with praejudice to religion the Emperours them selves being draw'n in by the haeretikes to their partie they onelie declared their different opinion submitted to censure were disspersed in exile nor did they countermand by the terrour of excommunication and cursing but when summond by the Emperour to rectifie any abuses in the Church This may be seen in the time of Constantius addicted to the Arians To your third I answer thus The civile lawes in Britanie I meane for our part in it whereby Poperie was established were annull'd by the King whom we make absolute in that power If the reformation begun by Hen 8. be thought clogg'd with any seeming violence sacriledge or schisme which some ties on his conscience that requir'd a more deliberate solution and some indirect passionate procedings give the Papists a kinde of coloural argument to object I see not how you are justified that imitate it nor we bound to susteine the inconveniences that attend it who may fairlie make the reigne of K. Edward our epoch and from him in his first Parliament fetch our authoritie for the change On your side of Britain I finde naught but a continued rebellion in the reforming partie as you meane it till K. Iames grew up to a judgement of discerning and some resolution of restraining Nor till that time though I hope well of many thousand persons under a Presbyterian persecution can I in reason quit the praevalent part of your Church from a succession in schisme For Germanie and France I have no more to do at this time to be their judge then their advocate seeing no where His Lp. joyning with his brother Issachar in impleading then for rebellion All you can logicallie collect is such a major as this They who reforme according to the Presbyterian Scotish metâ—…od by abolishing Acts of Parliament in a surreptious or violent Synod by framing Assemblie Acts for religion and giving them the authoritie of Ecclesiastical lawes without or against the consent of the Magistrate cheate the Magistrate of his civile power in order to religion If you will needs be assuming in behalfe of your brethren in Germanie and France they must put you to prove it or quit them selves of your conclusion as they can In the meane time I see your pasture is bad that you turne your catell so often grazing abroad For the foole in the next line you send to the Bishop I guesse it may be his minde to have him return'd by the creature that caries his brother Issachaâ—… burden expecting a wiser answer by the next paper Mercurie you imploy which can not be without bringing to light that law that praeauthoriz'd the Ministers protestation against the Acts of Parliament 1584. And that Act of Parliament since the null Assemblie of Glasgow yet standing in force that made Bishops and ceremonies vnlaw full The former beside the contradiction it caries with it devolving the legislative power upon the Kirke which according to you can keep the Parliament in awe not by petitioning but protesting and so ratifie or null all lawes declared at her pleasure The latter beside the long perseverance in sinne it imputes to the Latin and Greek Churches as well before as after the corruption in either the late warmnesse to all Reformed Churches abroad which never hitherto in any National Assemblie declared regular Episcopacie and ceremonies unlawfull outdoing the very Act of abolishing which his Majestie in Parliament ratified
draw up a solemne league and covenant the danger was great and they were not able with all their forces to stand two moneths before the Kings armie bot we shall draw it up here and send up with you some noblemen gentlemen Ministers that shall see it subscribed which was done To proceed your Rebell Parliaments desires beside what may be gatherd from your papers were not as I have heard very humblie praesented by the persons many times that brought them And when your smoothest language is glossed upon as best it may be by your rude militarie Interpreters at more distance your negative will not hinder them of being impositions rather then supplications Religion and liberties in all the three Kingdomes were very sufficientlie secur'd by the lawes Scotish Presbyterie is no religion but rebellion in the principles and the libertic taken by it is license befitting no subjects and therefore not to be desired of a King For which if such a covenant or oath is but one malne peice of securitie as you confesse I leave to be judged if any judgement can comprehend the other maine peices of vassalage for your safetie you yet farther expected from the crowne An authoritie to crave many leaves a libertie to refuse and be of no sufficience to impose upon the subject so long as during the contenuance of the Parliament Nor can you shew that uncontroverted law which gives validitie to an ordinance controverted by the King who assumes no power of politike imposible concessions such as treason felonie breach of peace are by name with us covenanting is such when against the Kings consent The last part of the demonstration is too true and so farre dishonourable as it blazons the cowardize of men well principled in their religion to God and loyaltie to their King who for the benefit of a litle fresh aire out of prison and a titular interest in an estate the revenues whereof must be excis'd contributed fift parted twentieth parted and particulated into nothing at the pleasure of the blew-apron'd men in the Citie and Committee plowmen in the Countrey would desperatelie cast their soules into the guilt and curse of a covenant which they utterlie detested and their persons into the slaverie of proud sinfull unreasonable men whom before it may be they fed with their charitie and commanded The nullitie of this oath upon the difference of heart and mouth is demonstrable The very taking it being so farre from obliging to be kept as it subjects them to the judgement of God because not done in truth nor in righteousnesse Isai 48. Nec vero ultra quam conseâ—…sum est juramentum operatur secundum ipsum quae tunc actul deficit in substantia desiciente consensu quem defectum juramentum minime supplet Say the lawyers And he that sweares to commit sacriledge and murder is as much bound by his oath which I would faine heare Master Baylie dictate from his chaire against them when they tell him Iuramentum non est vinculum iniquitatis The especial aggravation which he drawes from the Bishops ground is as especial a lie and as evident a falshood as ever came out of the mouth of man an irrecoverable shame to the whole Presbyterie That a Minister Professour their great champion commissioner should utter it when not onelie the penaltie of two pence hath been threatned but of sequestration and imprisonment hath been executed upon thousands and beside these because some particular must be instanc'd upon neare 100. fellowes of Colledges in one weeke banishment out of the Vniversitie of Cambridge this I can best justifie being one of the number Which was a leading case to Oxford when in their power and the feare of unjust suffering they threatned her first argument against their covenant Therefore let us leave the dishonour we were speaking of where we found it upon the head of our Nation in part who degenerated so farre as to take a covenant from the hand of strange rebells no otherwise their brethren then in the in quitie of maintaining hypocrisie and license both which they see with their selves selves now in thraldome to Atheisme and a mercenarie sword And beare about them the marke of Gods vengeance in the sight of us who survive to magnifie him in his iustice saying Iustus Dominus in omnibus vijs suis sanctus in omnibus operibus suis. The Bishops second demonstration need be no beter then the first whereby you are convicted as bad as it is you dare not venture upon halfe of it but like a cunning old rat that hath before been catch'd by the taâ—…le in a trap will be nibling at the baite but not enter too farre with his teeth for feare his head goe for 't next This makes you so tender of dealing with the majour which if not well caution'd why doc not you denie it or attacke it on that side which you guesse weaklie guarded You pervert the minour though litle to your advantage The Bishop sayth not that in the Covenant you sweare the latelie devised discipline to be Christs institution but that you gull men with it as if it were so imposing upon them the strictest oath to engage their estates and lives in the praeseruation and propagation of it which is as much as can be required for Christs institution or Euangel a title as strange as you make it often given your Discipline which allreadie I have touchd at Yet because here you so confidentlie put us upon the words of the Covenant somewhat not much unlike what the Bishop imputes I finde in the praeface… having before our eyes the glorie of God and the advancement of the Kingdome of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ… whereby I charge your meaning to be the Presbyteriall Government of your Kirke if not I require you plainlie to denie it and to send me this proposition subscribed by your hand The plat forme of Discipline to which we sweare in the Covenant is not Christs institution Especiallie since your General Assemblie 1642. hath sayd That the Reformed Kirkes doâ—… hold without doubting their Kirke officiers and Kirke Government by Assembles higher and lower c to be jure divino and perpetual Your brother-Presbyters in England That Presbyterian Government hath just and evident foundation both in the word of God religious reason And the praeface to the English Directorie telling you That their care hath been to hold forth such things as are of divine institution in every ordinance Were it not to tire out my Reader I could shew this to be your language ever since your Discipline was framed thought so necessarie a truth that your denial must make Christ not so wise as Solon or Lycurgus if he left it as a thing mutable by men or now after so many ages of his Church to be put to the vote in their Parliaments and Synods So sayth a friend of yours in these words
Ministers reject them proclaim a fast â—…ai e a tamult in Edenburgh Petition prefer Articles The King depa teth from the Citie removeth his â—…rts oâ—… Jâ—…uice the people repent tâ—…e Ministers persist and seek to ingage the Subjects in a Covenaâ—…t for â—…utuall defence One Mâ—… Waâ—…sh in his Sermon tells the people that the King was possessed with a devil yea with seven devils that the subjeâ—…s might lawfully rise and take the sword out of his hands The Seditious incouraged from the Pulpit send a letter to the Lord Hamilton to come and be their General He noblv refuseth and sheweth their letter to the King Hereupon the Ministers are sought for to be apprehended and flie into England The Tumult is declared to be trea on by the Estates of the Kingdom I have urged this the moâ—…e largely yet as succinctly as I could to let the woâ—…ld see what dangerous Subjects these Diâ—…ciplinarians are and how inconsistent their principles be with all orderly Societies CHAP. V. That it subjects the supreme Magistrate to their censures c. FOurthly they have not onely exempted themselves in their duties of their own function from the tribunal of the Sovereign Magistrate or Supreme Senate but they have subjected him and them yea even in the discharge of the Sovereign trust to their own Consistories even to the highest censure of Excommunication which is like the cutting of a member from the body Natural or the out-lawing of a Subject in the body politick Excommunication that very engine whereby the Popes of old advanced themselves above Emperours To discipline mâ—…st all the Estates within this Rcalm be subject as well Râ—…lers as they that are ruled And elswhere all mea as well Magistrates as Inferiours ought to be subject to the judgement of General Assemblies And yet again no man that is in the Church oâ—…ght to be exempted from Ecclesiastical censires What horrid and pernicious mischiefs do use to attend the Excommunication of Sovereign Magistrates I leave to every mans memory or imagination Such courâ—…es make great Kings become cyphers and turn the tenure of a crown copie-hold ad voluntatem Dominorum Such Doctrines might better become some of the Roman Alexanders or Bonifaces or Gregoâ—…ius or Plus Quintus than such great Professours of Humility such great disclaimers of Authority who have inveighed so bitterly against the Bishops for their usurpations This was never the practice of any orthodoâ—… Bishop St. Ambrose is mistaken what he did to Theodosius was no act of Ecclesiastical jurisdiction but of Christian discretion No he was better grounded David said Against thee onely have I sinned because he was a King Our Disciplinarians abhor the name of Authority but hugge the thing their profession of humility is just like that Cardinals hanging up of a fishers net in his dining room to put him in mind of his discent but so soon as he was made Pope he took it down saying the fish was caught now there was no more need of the net CHAP. VI. That it robs the Magistrate of his Dispensative power FIfthly all supreme Magistrates do assume to themselves a power of pardoning offences and offenders where they judge it to be expedient He who believes that the Magistrate cannot with a good conscience dispence with the punishment of a penitent malefactour I wish him no greater censure than that the penal laws might be duly executed upon him until he recant his errour But our Disciplinarians have restrained this dispensative power in all such crimes as are made capital by the judicial Law as in the case of Bloud Adultery Blasphemy c. in which cases they say the offender ought to suffer death as God hath commanded And If the life be spared as it ought not to be to the offenders c. And the Magistrate ought to prefer Gods expresse commandment before his own corrupt judgement especially in punishing these crimes which he commandeth to be punished with death When the then Popish Earls of Angus Huntley and Erroll were excommunicated by the Church and forfeited for treasonable practices against the King it is admirable to read with what wisdom and charity and sweetnesse his Majesty did seek from time to time to reclaim them from their errours and by their unfeigned conversion to the reformed Religion to prevent their punishment Wherein he had the concurrence of two Conventions of Estates the one at Falkland the other at Dumfermling And on the other side to see with what bitternesse and radicated malice they were prosecuted by the Presbyterics and their Commissioners sometimes petitioning that they might have no benefit of law as being excommunicated Sometimes threatening that they were resolved to pursue them to the uttermost though it should be with the losse of all their lives in one day That if they continued enemies to God and his Truth the Countrey should not brook both them and the Lord together Sometimes pressing to have their estâ—…es confiseaâ—…d and their lives taken away Alledging for their ground that by Gods Law they had deserved death And when the King urged that the bosom of the Church should be ever open to penitent sinners they answered that the Church could not refuse their satisfaction if it was truly offered but the King was obliged to do justice What do you think of those that roar out Justice Justice now a dayes whether they be not the right spawn of these Bloud-suckers Look upon the examples of Cain Esau Ishmael Antiochus Antichrist and tell me if You ever find such supercilious cruel bloud-thirsty persons to have been pious towards God but their Religion is commonly like themselves stark naught Cursed be their anger for it was fierce and their wrath for it was cruel These are some of those incroachments which our Disciplinarians have made upon the rights of all supreme Magistrates there be sundry others which especially concern the Kings of Great Brittain as the losse of his tenths first-fruits and patronages and which is more than all these the dependence of his Subjects by all which we see that they have thrust out the Pope indeed but retained the Papacy The Pope as well as they and they as well as the Pope neither barrel better herrings do make Kings but half Kings Kings of the bodies not of the souls of their Subjects They allow them some sort of judgement over Ecclesiastical persons in their civil capacities for it is little according to their rules which either is not Ecclesiastical or may not be reduced to Ecclesiastical But over Ecclesiastick persons as they are Ecclesiasticks or in Ecclesiasticall matters they ascribe unto them no judgement in the world They say it cannot stand with the word of God that no Christian Prince ever claimed or can claim to himself such a power If the Magistrate will be contented to wave his power in Ecclesiastical matters and over Ecclesiastical persons as they are such and give them leave to
of the Holy Ghost with an associate were sent Ambassadours from France into Scotland The Ministers of Edenburgh approving not his Message though meerly Civill inveigh in their Pulpits bitterly against him calling his White Crosse the badge of Antichrist and himself the Ambassadour of a Murtherer The King was ashamed but did not know how to help it The Ambassadours were discontented and desired to be gone The King willing to preserve the ancient Amity between the two Crownes and to dismisse the Ambassadours with content requires the Magistrates of Edenburgh to feast them at their departure so they did But to hinder this feast upon the Sunday preceding the Ministers proclame a Fast to be kept the same day the Feast was appointed and to deteine the people all day at Church the three Preachers make three Sermons one after another without intermission thundring out curses against the Magistrates and Noblemen which waited upon the Ambassadors by the Kings appointment Neither stayed they here but pursued the Magistrates with the censures of the Church for not observing the Fast by them proclaimed and with much difficulty were wrought to abstaine from Excommunicating of them which censure how heavy it falls in Scotland you shall see by and by To come yet neerer the late Parliament in Scotland injoyned men to take up Armes for delivery of their King out of prison The Commissioners for the Assembly disallowed it and at this present how many are chased out of their Country How many are put to publike repentance in sackeloth how many are excommunicated for being obedient to the Supreme Ludicatory of the Kingdom that is King and Parliament Miserable is the condition of that people where there is such clashing and interfereing of Suprem Judicatories and Authorities If they shall pretend that this was no free Parliament First they affirm that which is not true either that Parliament was free or what will become of the rest Secondly this plea will advantage them nothing for which is all one with the former thus they make themselves Judges of the validity or invalidity of Parliaments CHAP. X. That this Discipline is most prejudiciall to the Parliament FRom the Essentiallbody of the Kingdom we are to proceed to the repraesentative body which is the Parliament We have already seen how it attributes a power to Nationall Synods to restrain Parliaments and to abrogate their Acts if they shall judge them prejudiciall to the Church We need no other instance to shew what small account Presbyteries do make of Parliaments then the late Parliament in Scotland Notwithstanding that the Parliament had declared their resolution to levy forces vigorously aâ—…d that they did expect as well from the Synods and Presbyteries as from all other his Majesties good Subiects aready obedience to the commands of Parliament and Committee of Estates The Commissioners of the Assembly not satisfied herewith do not onely make their proposalls that the grounds of the Warre and the breaches of the Peace might be cleared that the union of the Kingdomes might be preserved that the popish and prelaticall party might bee suppressed that his Majesties offers concerning Religion might be declared unsatisfactory that before his Majesties restitution to the exercise of his Royall power he shall first engage himself by folemn Oath under his hand and Seal to passe Acts for the settlement of the Covenant and Presbyterian Government in all his Dominions c. And never to oppose them or endeavour the Change of them An usurer will trust a bankrupt upon easier tearms then they will do their Soveraign and lastly that such persons onely might be intrusted as had given them no cause of jealousie which had been too much and more then any estates in Europe will take in good part from half a dozen Ministers But afterwards by their publick Declaration to the whole Kirk and Kingdom set forth that not being satisfied in these particulars they do plainly dissent and disagree and declare that they are clearly perswaded in their consciences that the Engagement is of dangerous consequence to true Religion prejudiciall to the Liberty of the Kirk favourable to the Malignant party inconsistent with the union of the Kingdom Contrary to the word of God and the Covenant wherefore they cannot allow either Ministers or any other whatsoever to concuâ—… and cooperate in it and trust that they will keep themselves free in this businesse and choose affliction rather then iniquitie And to say the Truth they made their word good For by their power over the Church-men and by their influence upon the people and by threatening all those who engaged in that action with the censures of the Church they retarded the Levies they deterred all preachers from accompanying the Army to do divine offices And when Saint Peters keyes would not serve the turn they made use of Saint Pauls sword and gathered the countrey together in arms at Machleene-Moore to oppose the expedition So if the high court of Parliament will set up Presbytery they must resolve to introduce an higher court then themselves which will overtop them for eminency of authority for extent of power and greatnesse of priviledges that is a Nationall Synod First for authority the one being acknowledged to be but an humain convention the other affirmed confidently to be a divine instistution The one sitting by vertue of the Kings writ the other by vertue of Gods writ The one as Councellers of the Prince the other as Ambassadours and Vicars of the sonne of God The one as Burgesses of Corporations the other as Commissioners of Iesus Christ. The one judging by the law of the land the other by the holy Scriptures The one taking care for this temporall life the other for eternall life Secondly for power as Curtius saith ubi multitudo vana religione capta est melius vatibus suit quam ducibus paret where the multitude is led with superstition they do more readily obey their Prophets then their Magistrates Have they not reason Pardon us O Magistrate thou threatenst us with prison they threaten us with hell fire Thy sentence deprives us of civill prorection and the benefit of the law so doth theirs indirectly and withall makes us strangers to the common-wealth of Israel Thou canst out-law us or horn us and confiscate our estates their keyes do the same also by consequence and moreover deprive us of the prayers of the Church and the comfortable use of the blessed Sacraments Thou canst deliver us to a Pursevant or commit us to the Black Rod they can deliver uâ—… over to Sathan and commit us to the prince of darknesse Thirdly for priviledges the priviledges of Parliament extend not to treason selony or breach of peace but they may talke treason and act treason in their pulpits and Synods without controlment They may securely commit not onely petilarciny but Burglary and force the dores of the pallace Royall They may not onely break the peace but convocate
only their Kingdome but their lives and estats and all they have for his Majesties service upon the grant of their few and easy demands but no misery either of King or people can overcome the desperat obstinacy ofPraelaticall hearts As for parents consent to the mariage of their children how tenderly it is provided for in Scotland it may be seen at length in the very place cited It was the Bishops who by their warrants for clandestine mariages and dispensations with mariages without warrant have spoiled many parents of their deare children with such abhominations the Presbytery was never acquainted all that is alleadged out of that place of our discipline is when a cruel parent or tutor abuses their authority over their children and against all reason for their owne evill ends perversely will crosse their children in their lawfull and every way honest desires of mariage that in that case the Magistrats and Ministers may be intreated by the grieved childe to deale with the unjust parent or tutor that by their mediation reason may be done I beleeve this advice is so full of equity that no Church nor State in the world will complaine of it but how ever it be this case is so rare in Scotland that I professe I never in my life did know nor did heare of any child before my dayes who did assay by the authoritative sentence of a Magistrate or Minister to force their parents consent to their marriage As for the Warners addition of the Ministers compelling parents to give portions to their children that the Church of Scotland haths any such canon or practise its an impudent lie but in the place alledged is a passage against the sparing of the life of adulterers contrary to the Law of God and for the excommunication of Adulterers when by the negligence of the Magistrat their life is spared this possibly may be the thorne in the side of some which makes them bite and spurne with the heele so furiously against the Authors and lovers of so severe a discipline The Presbyteries nixt injury is done to the Lawyers Synodes other Ecclesiastick Courts revoke their Sentences Ans. No such matter ever was attempted in Scotland frequent prohibitions have been obtained by curtisan Bishops against the highest civil judicatories in England but that ever a Presbitry or Synode in Scotland did so much as assay to impede or repeale the proceedings of any the meanest civil court I did never heare it so much as alleaged by our adversaries The nixt injury is against all Masters and Mistresses of families whom the Presbytery will have to be personally examined in their knowledge once a yeare and to be excommunicat if grosly and wilfully ignorant Ans. If it bee a crime for a Minister to call together parcels of his congregation to be instructed in the grounds of Religion that servants and children and where ignorance is suspected others also may be tryed in their knowledge of the Catechisme or if it bee a crime that in family-visitations oftener then once a yeare the conversation of every member of the Church may be looked upon we confesse the Ministers of Scotland were guilty thereof and so farre as we know the generality of the Episcopall faction may purge themselves by oath of any such imputation for they had somewhat else to doe then to be at the pains of instructing or trying the Spirituall State of every sheep in their flocks we confesse likewise that it is both our order and practise to keep off from the holy table whom wee find groslly and wilfully ignorant but that ever any for simple ignorance was excommunicat in Scotland none who knowes us will affirme it The last whom he will have to be wronged by the Presbytery are the common people who must groane under a high commission in every parish where ignorant governors rule all without Law medling even in domesticall jarres be twixt man and wife Master and Servant Ans. This is but a gybe of revenge for the overthrow of their Tyrannous high Commission-Court where they were wont to play the Rex at their pleasure above the highest subjects of the three Kingdoms and would never give over that their insolent domeneering court till the King and Parliaments of both Kingdomes did agree to throw it down about their eares The thing he jeares at is the congregationall Eldership a judicatory which all the Reformed doe enjoy to their great confort as much as Scotland They are farre from all arbitrary judications their Lawes are the holy Scripture and acts of superior Church-judicatories which rule so clearly the cases of their cognisance that rarely any difficulty remaines therein or if it doe immediatly by reference or appeal it is transmitted to the Classes or Synode The judges in the lowest Eldership as wee have said before are a doszen at least of the most able and pious who can bee hade in a whole congregation to joine with the Pastors one or more as they fall to be but the Episcopall way is to have no discipline at all in any congregation only where there is hope of a fyne the Bishops officiall will summon before his owne learned and conscientious wisedome who ever within the whole dioces have fallen into such a fault as hee pleaseth to take notice of as for domestick infirmities Presbyterians are most tender to medle therein they come never before any judicatory but both where the fault is great and the scandal thereof flagrant and broken out beyond the wals of the family These are the great injuries and hurts which the Church discipline has procured to all orders of men in the whole reformed world when Episcopacy has been such an innocent lambe or rather so holy an angel upon earth that no harme at all has ever come by it to any mortall creature a misbeleeving Jew will nothing misdoubt this so evident a truth CHAP. ULT. The Warners exceptions against the covenant are full of considence but exceeding frivolous THough in the former Chapters the Warner has shewed out more venome and gall then the bagge of any one mans stomack could have been supposed capable of yet as if he were but beginning to vomite in this last Chapter of the covenant a new flood of blacker poyson rusheth out of his pen. His undertaking is great to demonstrat cleerly that the covenant is meerly void wicked and impious His first clear demonstration is that it was devised by strangers imposed by subjects who wanted requisite power and was extorted by just feare of unjust suffering so that many that took it with their lips never consented with their hearts Ans. This cleer demonstration is but a poor and evill argument the Major if it were put in forme would hardly be granted but I stand on the minor as weake and false for the covenant was not devised by strangers the Commissioners of the Parliament of England together with the Commissioners of the Parlia ment and generall assembly
Lordship asserts about the supremacie of the Civile Magistrate Ecclesiastike jurisdiction derived from thence is but what he all his brethren have sworneto not one of the late Bishops retracted who claim'd Episcopacie by divine right nor were they at daggers drawing with that horrible word Erastian Caefaro-papisme having a farre more monstrous creature call'd Scoto-Presbytero-Papisme to encounter Our lawes are the same aswell to the latter as the elder Bishops if their subjection to them must be accounted such an errour the next pedlars pack that you open we may looke to finde Christianitie bundeli'd up into a sect The Bishop hath more charitie in him then to become an accuser of his friends so much ingenuitie as to heare your sense not onelie speake his owne about their writings which when you bring in any particular instance shewing them to joyne with the most rigid Presbyterians in opposing Erastus about the Magistrates power you may looke for your answer Here the Reviewer I can not say for want of a pare of spectacles for who is more blinde then he that will not see is pleas'd to over looke the whole bodie of the Bishops charge against them instead of quiting himselfe to any purpose recriminates onelie upon other mens scores having as it seemes been very slenderlie acquainted with the late controversies between the Papists us not sounded the depth of the question as it was stated by our later most learned writers particularlie that most glorious martyr the Right Reverend Arch-Bishop of Canterburie with the rational subtile Mr. Chillingworth who between them having clear'd the well of that dirt which defil'd commonlie the fingars of them that went to draw water at it before made the face of truth appeare at the botome to any that came impartiallie to behold it But the Bishop mentioning nothing hearebout I have no authoritie farther to enlarge being oblig'd onelie to put Mr. Baylie in mind that in his next Review he give account to the world Why the Scotish Presbyterie comes not into the harmonie of all Protestants both Lutharans Calvinists who give unto the English Episcopal Church the right hand of fellowship why he his later Brethren out do etheir forefathers who durst not condemne her either as defective in any necessarie point of Christian pietie or redundant in any thing that might virtuallic or by consequence overthrow the foundation The Canterburian designe was forged at Edenburgh into a passe for the Scots to come over the borders The Prelatical partie might charitablie wish but never rationallie hope to see all Christian Churches united in truth love so long as the perverse Presbyterie confines all Religion to it selfe For whatsoever the blew caps came in we know when they went out they caried many vvainloades of somevvhat clse beside the spoile of the blacke-caps reconciliation vvith Rome so long as such bootie is to be had they want more power then will to set up a new controversie in England But while they are thinking of that I must put them in mind of what we have in hand notwithstanding Mr. Baylies pretense assure him King James who had trouble enough with them makes good upon his owne experience that every nicitie is a fundamental among them every toy takes up as great a dispute as if the Holie Trinitie were question'd …De minimis Politiae Ecclesiasticae quaestiunculis tantum excitant turbarum ac si de sacrosancta Trinitate ageretur As touching your answer to the last charge you cunninglie omit what is found in the letter a word at least of approbation to the office of Episcopacie in that Bishops are call'd guides or leaders of Christs flocke wherein a superintendence Prelacie or precedence is own they being Pastorum Pastores for by the flocke there is mean'd the inferiour Ministerie not Laitie otherwise that text of St. Peter is unfitlie applied Feed the flocke of Christ which is committed to your charge caring for it not by constraint e'piscopôuntes mi a'nagkastôs e'piscopôuntes is being Bishops over it where a'nagkastôs must relate to the Ministers who were constrained to weare the cap surplice tippet or else be deprived of all Ecclesiastical function as your Assemblie complaines at the very begining of the letter Yet had they writ no more then you produce had been of the same minde with you now it would follow necessarilie that you acknowledge several members of Antichrist Ministers of the word reverend Pastours brethren of the Kircke Which give me but under your hand in your next My Lord of Derrie I presume will use you as his profess'd brother very kindlie trouble you no more about that businesse I must adde this Mr. Knox as futious otherwise as he was before Queen Elizabeths time when as your Historian relates in his life K. Edward VI. offered him a Bishoprike he resus'd it with a grave severe yet not so severe speach saying the title of Lordship great state had quid commune cum Antichristo somewhat common with Antichrist he sayd not the office of an English Bishop was Antichristian nor his person a limbe of Antichrist himselfe What the same Assemblie sayd or did about the Arch-Bishop of St. Andrewes was in the midst of their freanzie when as by their actions may be judged they had alreadie made good what they threatned were become subjects or slaves to the tyrannie of the Devil Whose title their successours have these last ten yeares renewd payd a greater homage then ever to that Lord. What you suppone is a grant of the question That some 80. yeares agoe the Scots might admit the Protestant Bishops tolerable in England the law being still the same upon which they are founded if their practice be not which is more then you prove whatsoever it may detract from their persons it derogates no thing from the continuance of their office Neither hath your inspection been so accurate of its nature but that like unskillfull physicians ye have cast away that balme of Gilead whereby the health of the daughter of Gods people must be recovered like ignorant simplers have throw'n over the hedge for a noxious â—…eed that Soveraigne plant which God ordain'd for the perpetual service sanitie of his Church As for those crimes which you mention though you will never be able to make them good against the Reverend Prelates of any the three Kingdomes yet for shame say not for those you got the consent of the King to condemne kill burie in your countrey the sacred order of Episcopacie in that Church His Majestie having not expressed the least word or syllabe to that purpose The most that ever he yeilded was this For it should be considered that Episcopacie was not so rooted setled there in Scotland as t is here in England nor I in that respect so strictlie bound to continue it in that Kingdome as this
of the King you were best turne over Erastus the learned Grotius after which I guesse we shall heare of you no more Your Assemblies are Arbitrarie but at Royal pleasure otherwise then as by your covenanting sword you cut of their relation to the King his great Councels So that your Kings were willing to accept had good reason to assume more then ever you would give them How you robd them of their right by your multipli'd rebellions see Scotish-Presbyterian selfe conviction in my Epitome of your storie If the Bishop had left this matter in generall your hue crie to be sure had gone after him for particulars His reasoning stands not to the courtesie of your indulgence being grounded upon the Acts of your Assemblies whose backes had been long since broke with the weight of no peckadillos in disputing but high mightie villanies in rebelling had it not the strength of the whole lay Presbyterie to support it Though by the way I must tell you The failings of your officers may be taken as naturall to inseparable from your office when having been so noto riouslie publike they passe without your censure or dislike So that this mote as much as you miskenne it will prove a beame in your eye of such consequence in this argument as you will scarce finde the way through the most hainous particulars that follow The first of which layes such a blocke in your way as you can not step over till you have as good as acknowledged one of the principal articles in that charge You confesse His Majestie did write from Stirling to the General Assemblie at Edenburgh 1579. that they should cease from concluding any thing in the discipline of the Church during the time of his minoritis And how well you obey'd it we may collect by what followes Vpon this desire dutifull subjects would have taken it for a command the Assemblie did abstaine srom all conclusions that we shall see presentlie onelie they named a Committee to goe to Striveling for conference with His Majestie upon that subject Any man that is acquainted with your Assemblie logike will know that this clause with the onelie if it passe not for a conclusion caries the force of two praemises with it And he must be very ignorant in your storie that hath not found all your conferences with your Kings to have been contests Whether this was so or no I leave to the discretion of the reader when he sees what you say followed thereupon Immediatelie a Parliament is called in Octob. 1579. And in the first Act declares grants jurisdiction unto the Kirke… And declares that there is no other face of a Kirke nor other face of Religion then is praesentlie by the favour of God established within this Realme And that there be no other jurisdiction Ecclesiasticall acknowledged within this Realme then that whilke is shall be within the samen Kirke or that which followes therefra concerning the praemises Now let us lay all this together The young King is resolved to have no medling with the discipline yet no sooner doth he see your Commissioners sweet faces but immediatelie a Parliament is called And in that Parliament your Discipline must have the primacie In the Acts And that leading Act must not onelie establish what you have at hand but upon the engagement of Regal Parliamentarie power purchase all future possibilities of your pleasure give your invention a patent to play the wanton There must be some witch craft sure in your Committee by your relation a magicke spell to retrive on such a sodaine the Kings wandring affections to the Discipline But when I finde His Majestie professing that after ten yeares of age you never had his heart A brother of yours lamcnting that for five yeares before this you had had a perpetual conflict with the Bishops ever got the worst That most of the Nobilitie upon several interests were at this time bent against you I am at a losse for the Kings libertie as much as for some other concurrent due authoritie in this Act reade nothing but your violence in these proceedings But let us see how you a namelesse friend of yours agree He tells us the letter that Dunkenson brought to this Assemblie had otherguede contents That the King onelie quickned your dispatch in consultation a. bout some head of the discipline preparing your unanimous result for the consent of the Parliament that followes The Kings jealousie of your medling with these affaires he seemes to anticipate by two yeares of your account if there were any such thing whereof he doubts he sayth the King was better informed of the truth He farther complaines of two whole leaves about this businesse that were rent out of your publike records that ever since left posteritie in a cloud this was done in the yeare 1584. which he calls the houre of darknesse You say the authentike Registers are extant â—…onvince the Bishop to be heire of falshood Error cauâ—… quâ coepit eat All the truth that I can picke out of this confusion is That the King was disaffected to the Discipline That the Assemblie did not obey his command nor answer his desire with their silence And that what consent you say he gave in Parliament soon after was either forg'd or procured by constraint What followes concerning your rigour to the Papists many orthodoxe Christians comprehended in that title is easilie credited But you should have done well to have set downe the names Dominorum Consilii ex quornm deliberatione proclamation â—…as made then we should have know'n how neare they were of kinn to your faction Some bodie tells us That the Ministers did deliberate Buchanan did act according to the maximes of loyaltie he publish'd That the Kings name was to it what else you pleased is not much to be doubted when you had got his person in your power For how short a time you could keep his inclination to the Discipline which was proclaim'd ap peares out of your storie of an Assemblie mans penning How cordiallie peremptorie the king was in his command how forward in subscribing whatsoever is in the Act for the short Confession of fayth And what good effects it wrought among the people you may take notice out of His Majestie speach in the Conference at Hampton Court wherein he shewes how ridiculous the thing was the person that drew it up I thinke it unfit to thrust into the booke every position negative…according to the example of Mr. Craige in Scotland who with his I renounce abhorre his detestations abrenunciations did so amaze the simple people that they not able to conceive all those things utterlie gave over all falling backe to Poperie or remaining still in their former ignorance These are the Kings words about Mr. Craige the Authour his Confession which you may compare
them license for holding of their Assemblies once in the yeare or oftner as occasion shall require which proves that all their power onelie proceeds from us so must it not be convened without our owne prasence or then of our Commissioner nor no day nor place set downe for the next Assemblie but by Our or our Commissioners appointment except we be not pleased neither to goe in our owne person neither to send any for assisting the sayd Assemblie And how these limitations have beene observed by them at this time let the world judge first in not onelie refusing the praesence of our Commissioner but most contemptuouslie injuriouslie barring the doore upon him next in setting downe the dyes of the next Assemblie without either his privitie or consent The letter which His Majesties Commissioner Sr. Alex Strayton of Lowrenston offered you know was a missive from the Lords of the Councel not addressed to them as to an Assemblie therefore no such capacitie requir'd to their receiving it His Majesties letter to the Commissioners of the general Assemblie signifying his pleasure to have the appointment of this meeting deferred no new indiction to be made without his consent having been long before delivered the substance of it by them communicated to the several Presbyteries of the Kingdome In contempt whereof these persons assembled at Aberdene where the day before they sate downe was a publication at the mercate Crosse of a charge to the contrarie from the Lords of the Councel Beside they had not His Majestie tells them any warrant to hold a new Assemblie without the praesence either of the Moderatour of the last or of the ordinarie Clerke of the Assemblie As for their dutifull demeanour afterward That they rise immediatelie after the reading of the Missive Mr. Baylie knowes to be absolutelie false Howsoever the naming a diet for the next meeting Was against an expresse clause in His Majesties letter which by the Councel is calld a Rebellious traiterous misbehaviour For the trouble that followed hereupon if by the counsel of Arch-Bishop Bancroft that could not be pernicious because the proceeding against them was legal They were calld before the Lords of His Majesties Councel had libertie given them to entertaine lawyers make their defense which prov'd a Declinatour disclaiming all subjection to His Majestie His Councel This Declinatour was repell'd they were found to have unlawfullie conven'd His Majestie commanded that the ordinarie course of justice should proceed Whereupon Sixe of them were presented upon panel at Lynlithgow before His Highnesse Justice being the ordinarie Judge who had joyned to him a great number of Noblemen c. Their inditement grounded upon the first statute in May 1584. Two of their Procuratours Counsellers at law not being able to perswade them to a course of humilitie did upon their obstinacie refuse to plead for them Indeed Sixe or seven of them touched with the open discoverie made by the Kings Declaratour upon humble submission were dismissed sent home to their charge See more particularlie of all these in the Declarations of K. James his Councel 1606. The next instance of the Bishops Viz. Their abolishing the chiefe festivals of the Church the Reviewer can not justifie to any purpose either from the authoritie or the time For first this great Councel of Scotland were but a parsel of the rebell Nobilitie that had of late deposed persecuted the poore Queen Dowager to the death And now having the yong King Queen at as great a distance as France at the same rate order the affaires of the Church as they had the policie of the State The charge they gave the Assemblie brethren dated the 29. day of April 1590. the summe whereof is so formallie placed in the front of the Discipline was upon procurement by themselves It being ordinairie with them when they had any new device on foot to extort some pretended authoritie by their letters Therefore it is but a mocke obedience by service not onelie offered but obtruded Nor was it so pleasing to them whom they here owne for their masters but that after many dayes perusal it was with dislike scorne rejected by diverse Those that sign'd it had no power to ratifie it no more then just before the Confession of fayth which they were faine to send over into France And how their Act or promisse in secret Councell dated the 27. of Ianuarie was illuded from time to time Knox relates very much laments in his storie For the time there was no such Parliament intervall as required the diligence of the Councel of State for what they call'd a Parliament though none was but new lie dissolv'd when presentlie consultation was had how the Church might be established in a good Godlie policie The reason of which haste was lest the yong Queen should come over interpose her Royal authoritie in this great Councel of State as she did afterward rejected the Discipline for all the Act of State that had passed on it demanding How many of those that had subscribed would be subject unto it her Secretarie telling them That many subscribed in fide parentum as children are baptized Those dayes which Mr. Baylie calls here fond seasts out of the booke of Discipline that farther abominations were not thought such by the Primitive Christians who were strict in the solemnitie of such times And if the writings of the ancient Fathers the Godlie approved lawes of Iustinian the Emperour might be admitted as once they were offered to decide the controversie betvixt us we know what Would become of this part of the Discipline The authoritie of the Church warranted by the holie Scriptures is sufficient to justifie them us in this observance Nor were the Scots so fallen out with these abominations but that they let them stand in the Calendar before their Liturgie c. And there were a people in Scotland which in the Bishops dayes did celebrate those feasts Therefore ever since they have not shewed such readie obedience to that direction of the Discipline See the Bishop of Brechen's defense of the Perth Articles Your farre-fetecht comparison accidentallie improves the Bishops knowledge by a seasonable experiment Who findes the Disciplinarian barbarismes in Scotland as monstrous as any he ever read of in Iapan your nullities in religion as many as Vtopia hath in policie or nature If your thoughts had not been rambling so farre for recruits to your malice you might have been furnish'd with truth nearer home which His Lordship brings unto your doore As fine as here you make your selfe for the triumph out of every wing you plucke you will by by be at a losse for your victorie must then weare your blew cap without a feather For that you may know my meaning His Lordship can afford you no such pretie thing as the antichronisme you lay hold
Grotius that had better skill in the lawes then you or I sayth That in causes of Delegacie semper appellasio conscssa fuit ad Imperatorem si ex Imperiali jussione judicatum esset aut ad Iudicum quemcunque si ex judiciali praecepto which holds good against your general Assemblie if that judgeth earegali jussione that it doth so is cleare from your Assemblie Act April 24. 1578. wherein it petitioneth the King to set establish your policie a part whereof is your Assemblie judication That it is for the most part order'd to the King in his Courts is not any way to confine his power but to free him from frequent impertinencies unseasonable importnnities of trouble or it may be a voluntarie but no obligatorie Royal condescension to avoyd your querulous imputation of arbitrarie partialitie tyrannie in judicature Therefore you injure the Bishop by converting his assertion into a negative confession As if when he sayth it is to the King in Chancerie he must needs acknowledge It can be neither to the King out of Chancerie nor to him there but with collaterall aequipotential â—…ssistants Whereas your friend Didoclave complaines that our appeales are ever progressus â—…b unico ad unicum wherein whether he mean'd an aggregate or personal unitie I leave you to interpret That an appeale is not permitted from your Lords of session or Parliament in Scotland is because whatsoever is regularlie determin'd there receives its ratification from the King But if one or other in their session without him should determine a case evidentlie undeniablie destructive to the rights of his crowne or liberties of his people whether His Majestie may not admit an appeale assume his coercive power to restraine their license I thinke no loyal subject in Scotland will controvert As touching your Assemblies King Iames tells you It is to be generallie observed that no priviledge that any King gives to one particular bodie or state within the Kingdome of convening consulting among themselves which includes whatsoever they doe when they are convened consulting is to be understood to be privative given unto them so the King thereby depriving himselfe of his owne power praerogative but onelie to be given cumulative unto them as the lawyers call it without any way denuding the King of his owne power authoritie This His Majestie alledged against the Ministers at Aberdene whom he accuseth not onelie of convening but acting after they were convened He particularlie mentions their setting downe the dies of the next Assemblie His Councel addes their endâ—…vour to reverse overthrow all those good orders godlie constitutions formerlie concluded for keeping of good order in their Church If you alledge that His Majesties Commissioner was not there then you grant me their acts are not justifiable without him And that all are not necessarilie with him I argue from the language of the Commission whereby they meet which limits them thus secundum legem praâ—…im against which if any thing be acted upon appeale the Kings praerogative may rectifie it at pleasure if not any judge may praetend to be absolute then the King must be absolutelie nothing having committed or delegated all power from himselfe What civile law of Scotland it is that prohibites appeales from the General Assemblie you should doe well to mention in your next I know none nor did King Iames thinke of any when he cited his distinction from the Scottish Lawyers aswell as any other Where an Assemblie proceeds contrarie to the lawes of God man Which is not impossible while it may consist of a multitude men neither the best nor most able of the Kingdome the Bishop thinkes an appeale to a legal Court of delegates constituted by a superiour power might be neither unseeming nor unreasonable The law of old never intended they should be the weakest of all Court Where it hath so happened by your owne rule pag. 22. The Delegates not Delegacie are to be charged Such heretofore in England as imployed mercenarie officials for the most part were mercenarie Bishops if they had been cut to the core would have been found I doubt Disciplinarian in heart though Episcopal in title The Scots way of managing Ecclesiastical causes is not more just because more derogatorie to the right of the King And the late Martyr'd King found it not more safe therefore told Mr. Henderson plainlie the papacie in a multitude might be as dangerous as in one how that might be Gualter writ to Count Vnit-glupten in a letter Emergent hinc novae tyrannidis cornua paulatim cristas attollent ambitiosi Ecclesiarum pastores quibus facile fuerit suos assessores in suas partes attrahere cùm ipsii inter hos primatum teneant He might have found the experiment of it in Scotland Nor can it be more satisfactorie to those rational men with whom the Bishops arguments are prevalent beside what else may be effectuallie alledged against it Allthough the two instances the Bishop brings for stopping appeales were accompanied with so many treasonable circumstances as might have enlarged his chapter into a volume deleted the credit of a Scotish Disciplinarian Assemblie out of the opinion of all the Cristians in the world Yet His Lordship thought good to furnish his reader with better authoritie from the second Booke of Discip. ch 12. which shall here meet you againe to crave your acquaintance From the Kirke there is no reclamation or appellation to any Iudge Civile or Ecclesiasticall within the Realme The reputation of the two Reverend Arch-Bishops Montgomerie Adamson depends not upon the sentence of a turbulent envious Synod much lesse any single malicious Presbyter in a pamphlet with whom we know 't is crime hainous enough to be a Bishop shall not want his vote to make them excommunicate Their manifold high misdemeanours are mention'd in the censure of the Presbyterie of Striveling for admitting Montgomerie to the temporalitie of the Bishoprike of Glasgow his owne for aspiring thereto Assemblie 1587. And of the other for taking the Kings commission to sit in Parliament 1584. In the last Act of which his commission is printed to register â—…his guilt The principal of their evil patrons among the wicked States-men I meane next under the King to whom you yeild that praerogative at least is sayd to be the Earle of Arran who deserves that character for being second at that time in His Majesties favour he is sayd by your brethren to have taken them into the Parliament So that lay their commission Earle Arrans courtesie together which without the other had implied the pleasure of the King they tooke not without authoritie upon themselves as you sayd the Episcopal office nor place in that Parliament Whether the pride contempt of the Prelates or Presbyters were greater may be judg'd in the case of Arch-Bishop Montgomerie by the Assemblies slighting not onelie
be given you upon vour knees when His Majestie shall by Gods assistance have power to chastise your rebelling cursing covenanting excommunicating imprisoning murdering decreeing the confusion of his Royal familie three flourishing Kingdomes in your Assemblies CHAPTER IV. Seditious Rebellious Ministers in Scotland seldome or never censur'd by the Assemblie HEre Mr. Baylie layes faster hold upon the title then the Bishops evidences in the Chapter because sedition rebellion are charg'd home to the conscience of the Presbyters their usual indemnitie imputed to the Discipline he would faine step over these publike enormities to personal vices against which by his leave the Ecclesiastike rigour is not such but it can admit of very frequent indulgences many times convert the guilt or shame of such haynous transgresions to the glorie of their Gospel a more certaine signe of the sinners election by grace according to John Knox's divinitie after proofe made against Paul Meffane The treason of Iudas the adulterie of David abnegation of Peter did derogate nothing from the glorie of Christs Evangel nor yet the doctrine which before they had taught but declared the one to be a reprobate the other to be an instrument in whom mercie must surmount judgement Nay if they find it advantageous to their discipline these declamers against adulterie bloud will make religious applications to any as they did to Murray their Regent-bastard murderer to say no more of him whom they made the greatest saint upon the earth the most eminent patron of their Church That your pulpits have been perduellionis plaustra the common stages for sedition treason I have made appeare upon an old item somewhere else And because you had not enough of them for the last old Comaedie you were to act how you did mount it in halls schooles other profane places is deliver'd unto us upon Royal authoritie in his late Maejsties large Declaration 16â—…9 Where is to be found such loyal doctrine as this One in Edenburgh upon his Majesties urging subscription to your owne Confession of fayth sayd It was an Italian a devellish device first to make them renounce God perjure themselves then afterward there was an intention to destroy their bodies so that this subscription imported no lesse then the destruction both of their bodies soules Rollocke did as much upon a seaffold in publishing a wicked rebellious protestation Another That though there were never so many Acts of Parliament against the Covenant yet it ought to be maintain'd against them all And Andrew Cant since charg'd His Majestie thus to his face Awake thow lumpe of clay thow wast not sleeping when thow gavest cut the blondie commissione to Iames Graham Of all which I desire Mr. Baylie to name one that suffer'd any censured from a Synod what priviledge these or any other scandalous crimes had in England or Ireland the High Commission Civile censures can cleare But the Reviewers conscience can tell how many such tooke shelter under the wings of the Covenant who were threatned processe if they subscrib'd not having done it passed for very zealous pious brethren in the cause Their names infirmities if Mr. Bayâ—…lie hath not I have charitie to conceale Or if I had not could their ordination be justified they accounted of our brotherhood I should thinke my selfe oblig'd to it under the penaltie of the 55. Canon of the Councel of Carthage Episcopus accusatores sratrum excommunices si emâ—…ndaverine vitium recipiat eos ad communionem non ad Clerum If he bear'd the like reverence to Antiquitie when he speakes so broadlie of the Bishop of Derric he might bethinke himselfe of the 57 Canon Clericus maledicus maxime in sacerdotibus cogatur ad postâ—…andum veuiam si noluerit degradetur nec unquam ad officium absque satisfactione revocetur And to give His Lordship his due interest in the prudent provision of the Church I direct the reader to that in the Councel of Constantinople De accasatoribus Orthodoxorum Episâ—…oporum non admittendis which is to be found in the edition of Chr. Iustell where he shall see by how many clauses Mr. Baylie is excluded from being admitted to enter any accusation against him first by the Religion he professeth adjudg'd as bad as heresie by the ancient Canons for decreeing in conventicles against the authoritie of Bishops antisynagontas tois kanonikois hemin episcopois … And whether upon the several grounds that follow an Oecumentical may not reject him hoos kathybrisanta tous kanonas kaiten ecclesiastiken lymenamenon eutaxian as a reproachfull despiser of Canons a bane to the eutaxie of the Church let any of his aequitable compareâ—… consider Yet I thinke I shall breake no canon by retorting his quaestion his acts being so publike himselfe autocatacritos convinc'd under his hand in his booke Did the Reviewer never heare of a Presbyterian sibb to Mr. Baylie who to this day was never but may be in good time called to any account for flagrant scandals of such crimes even the same the Bishop mentions sedition treason which aswell in Scotland as in any other Kingdome are punishable by the Gallowes These crimes above any deserve civile cognizance from which as free as the Scotish Churchmen have been I dare undertake to prove out of their storie That there was hardlie ever Synod in Scotland Presbyterian I meane but was guiltie of Rebellion or bloud having ever made their covenants with death their agreement with hell having made liet their refuge under salshood bid themselves as they did Isai. 28. 15. So that Mariana his diseiples whether in Italie or Spaine or all the world over can not in aequitie have layd such devillish doctrines such publike murders of Princes Nobles to their charge Foedus umbrarum perit As constant a Covenanter as you are with the living I see the holiest league can not chaine up your furious malice against the dead Your naming Bishop Aderton For his sinne that blessed Martyr the L. of Canterburie for his patron speakes you a sonne of neither Christian charitie nor truth If Presbyterie had been as old as the Councel of Nice I perceive your sawcie fingars would have snatch'd the libells out of Constantines breast your zealous tongues that are made seven times hotter otherwhere would have runn the hazard to licke the Bishops faults out of the fire I wish you had help'd me to a better bargain of your silence not forc'd me to give you this which I am â—…oth to part with in exchange for your blabbing That if all be true that is in print which for your credit I hope is not Your Discipline had no other then a Sodomite for its patron some thinke you may take your choyce of French or Scot. How this abomination hath been propagated with your Discipline though by it no Disciple I leave
his person was faine to put away his friends of greatest trust the Chancellor Treasurer Baron Humes c. but within a moneth repents him appeales to his Nobles by their advice recalls them yet permits Bothwell to depart The Ministers are angrie that the Papists are not persecuted by fire sword They assemble without the Kings order call together the Barons Burgers Bothwell enters againe with 400. Horse as farre as Leith makes proclamation summons all in to defen'd religion put away evil Counsellers sends it to the Synod at Dunbar which favour'd it The same day he marcheth against 3000. of the Kings forces neare Edenburgh fainteth in his businesse and gets away to the borders Queen Elizabeth sets out a proclamation against him yet presseth the King for proscription of Papists The Lords are but few that meet expresse some reluctance at it The Ministers Burgers are many which vote it take their armes downe out of the windowes c. Argile is sent against them beaten The King drawes toword them permits three of Huntley's houses to be pull'd downe Huntley escapes to his Aunt in Sutherland thence into France These were Huntley's notorious crimes multiplied outrages which cryed up to the God of heaven Out of which let the world judge what reason the Ministers those mercifull men of God had to give such warning crie to the Iudges of the earth to shed his bloud That appearance with display'd banner against the King in person should be made an article against him by Mr. Baylie a loyal peaceable assertour of ten yeares armed rebellion in three Kingdomes I dare not adventure my spleen to discourse on but in Mr. Baylies language hope by his good advise the Prelates will no more Lull ' Princes asleep in such a sinfull neglect of their charge but breake off their slumber by wholesome seasonable admonitions from the word of God such as that Prov. 10. A wise King seatercth the wicked bringeth the wheel over them Or what other texts their Lordships better know applicable to the most just necessarie chastisment of schismatikes Rebells About E. Angus Errol you thinke your selfe not concern'd to make answer because your brother Presbyter Mr. Rob. Bruce gave King Iames leave to recall them but with this considerable sentence against E. Huntley Well Sir you may doe as you list But chuse you you shall not have me the E. Huntley both for you Pretie humble soules who can weigh downe the chiefest Earles in the ballancing of a state In the next paragraph you dawbe with untemper'd morter such as can never keep the Kings right to any Ecclesiastike revenue the claime of the Discipline together For having comprehended in the patrimonie of the Kirke all things without exception given or to be given to that the service of God All such things as by law or custome or use of Countreys have been applied to the use utilitie of the Kirke 2. book Disc. ch 9 And call'd them theeves murderers without exception of persons that alienate any part of this patrimonie 1. books Disc 6. head you are the innocent dove that here bring us newes That the Church never spoyld the King of any tithes while those birds of spoyle your forefathers have left him neither eare nor straw to possesse But to deale with you at your owne weapon in your words If the King never had any first fruits then as the Bishop sayth you are the Popes that with-held it by you that were the Reformers was that point of papacie maintained If he neither had nor demanded to what purpose toke you such paines to obtaine in favour of the Church to have it declar'd in Parliament That all benesices of cure under Praelacies shall in all time coming be fee of the first yeares fruits fift penie the Ministers have their significations of presentation past at the Privie seale upon His Majesties owne subscription his secretaries onelie without any payment or caution to his Treasurer for the sayd first fruits fift penie About tithes you say His Majestie the Church had never any controversie in Scotland How agrees this with your Declaratour in his appendix to the maintenance of your sanctuarie When the minor-age of a good King had been abused to the making of a law whereby the most of these rents first fruits Tithes the lands belonging to Bishoprikes were annexed to the crowne the Church very earnestlie do labour for restitution never gave over till these lawes were repealed If you review your records you will finde in the yeare 1588. that you had a plea with which you call an earnest suit to His Majestie about patronages such considerable opposition as put you upon inhibiting all commissioners Presbyteries to give collation or admission to any person praesented by authoritie from the King And to omit many a greater you had before with the Queen Anno 1565 The Nobilitie Gentrie were more beholding to your impotencie then patience for peace What gracious men yon have shewd your selves since your Rebell-Parliament got that incumbent power into your hands your congregations would speake if they durst whom you feed with the bread of violence with that you cover them as a garment So that whether the Presbyterie be not as good patrons of the people as they are vassals to the King need never more be quaestion'd in Scotland Whether by the wickednesse of Praelates or Presbyters the King Church were cousin'd of the tither will appeare by them that bragg'd most when they were most endanger'd by the sequestring the other patrimonie from the Church which I finde to be the Presbyters that could not keep councel but boasted they had given a seasonable blow unto the Bishops That legitimate power in the Magistrate the Bishop pleades for King James never declared to be a sinne against Father Son or Holy Ghost nor did ever the patrons of Episcopacâ—…e oppose it That changeling you here substitute in the roome calls you Father by the ridiculous posture in which it stands your friend Didoclave had more ingenuitie then to inferre a claime to the power of preaching celebrating the Sacraments upon the power of iurisdiction over Ecclesiastical persons derived upon the King from his praedecessours in England given them by a statute Verba statuti de jurisdictione non de simplici functionum sacrarum administratione intelligenda esse quis dubitat The well grounded consequences which you call Castles in the aire will hereafter batter your Presbyterie to the ground when Princes shal retract their too liberal indulgence take a courageous resolution to claime their own relie upon Gods providence to maintaine it King Iames had given you the practical meaning of his wise sentence seven yeares before he spake it at St. Andrews For as you may very well remember when His
to their brethren yet keeping backe whole viols of vengeance and wrath unto themselves For the many causes of Ministers deprivation cognosced upon in your Presbyteries you have the good liking of neither Papists nor Prae lates who finde no canon that gives commission to such a mungrel socitie of lay-Clerical Presbyters to take away what they have no power to conferre If I give but not grant your usurped tyrannie a priviledge by many yeares rebellious precedent to cognosce of such cases I must except against clipping of canons the coyne that beares the Majestike image of the Primitive Church such as is the 67. in the fourth Councel of Charthage Seditionarios nunquam ordinandos Clâ—…ricos sicut nec usurarios nec injuriarum ultores The first of the three had met with your vertous Fore-Father Knox in the Castle of St. Andrewes sav'd all the mischiefe we have reap'd by his call from abetting the murder of Cardinals to rebelling against Princes renting the Church the Commonwealth into Congregational Covenanting parties The last which was your injust praetense if not in your banners at least in the Remonstrances which you brought in your hands when you invaded England Canons holding aswell for depriving as ordaining had rid us of all the rable of Rebellious revengefull Presbyters without a stroke For the businesse of usurie I shal not draw up my charge till I discover the Scottish Presbyterian Cantores Yet you were best have care whatsoever becomes of the ancient Canons that you be not too severe in depriving for that lest you get a rebuke from your brethren abroad who it may be desire not to shake hands with you in that point of the Discipline The Bishop neither tooke out nor put in any causes of Church-mens deprivation but merelie transcrib'd what he thought more concern'd a Civile Court then a Synod If he had been at the charge of reprinting all whereof your booke of Discipline makes mention he must have left an c. to bring up a reserve though yov will not owne it of preaching penning practizing schisme sedition Rebellion against moderate just pious Kings aswell as what your Assemblies were solicitous to prohibite under the terme of Schisme or Rebellion against the Kirke For the first last of the three sinnes you draw out because you will have the pleasure at least of licking your lips at the naming His Lordship knowes no Bishop nor Doctour but may finde a namelesse Scottish Presbyter to give place to If he should be mistaken which he hath not so much reason to hope as charitie to wish he sees in St. Iames the guilt of murder aequivalent to adulterie made as great a transgression of the law He heares of Isaiah's triel in Scotland which deserves the same wonder crie of the Prophets Ye are drunken though not with wine ye stagger though not with strong drinke c. And since your last returne out of England beholds sitting at Edenburgh aswell as London the great whore instead of her blew arrayed in purple scarlet colour decked with gold pretious stones pearles having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations filthnesse of her sornication And upon the forhead of the woman drunken with the bloud of the Saints with the bloud of the Martyrs of Iesus a name written with a beame of the sunne Mysterie Babylon the Great The Mother of harlots abominations of the earth For the third sinne of gluttonie which you will have produc'd because in your canon though not much for your credit that your excessive gossiping comes to be cognosced by your Church all Bishops Doctours may freelie bid desiance to your sect of whom so manie are so often known to be as fed horses in the morning though you flatter your selves into a conceit that the noyse is not heard are neighing as much as those in Isai. So that you may in due time have what you better deserve the same curse with the Priests in the Prophet Malach which will spoyle your reviewing singling out other mens crrours or secret sinnes to the shame of Christianitie among the Nations when your selves are spiloi kai momoi the principal spots blemishes that are in it God may corrupt your seed spread dung upon your saces soleunitatum stercus even the dung of your solemne feastes you more likelie then they may be taken away with it The Bishops third chalenge mounts somewhat higher then your answer which pleades onelie for preaching upon texts concerning the Magistrates dutie resolving from Scripture their doubts both which reach up onelie to a judgement of direction but his Lordâ—…hip cites the clause in your theorem which makes difficult cases between King people subjects of cognizance judgement before the Assemblies of the Kirke And this he sayth riseth to a judgement of jurisdiction Your second booke of Discipline is more modest in language though as mischievous in meaning The Ministers exerce not the Civile jurisdiction but teach the Magistrate how it should be exerciz'd according to the word whereas if you take cognizance of pronounce judgement in these difficult cases Or call before you such as may be more easie but should be heard otherwhere this is no other but exercing civile jurisdiction as spiritual as you make it If you with the terrour of your excommunicating Maozin overaw the Magistrate into a servile submission to what you praescribe this I take to be no teaching but commanding instead of resolving by deliberate advice Christian moderation cutting in sunder with this sword of your spirit no word of Gods the knots perplexities of his conscience What doubt-resolvers you are commonlie between Master servant husband wife your licentious demeanour in many families may informe us where it is too well know'n you have made your selves judges of the trivial oeconomical causes in the hall dispensers of or with more private duties in the chamber So that they say the good man hath many times met with a consistorian censure at his table if not with a Presbyter a Presbyterian prohibition in his bed I beleeve you mistake preaching Praelates Doctours for some babling Puritanical Pastours Lecturers in England who have made these things their care gone about them as the uncontroverted parts of their Ministerial function The Bishops negligence herein was the silent reverence he payd which you owe to Majestie at a distance And His Lordships modest declining domestike curiosities a civile diversion from that wherein the word is so cleare as to need no interpreter the Husband or Masters authoritie so absolute as admits no superintendencie to praedominate Your license to preach personallie against Princes I finde given to your Fore-fathers in an answer to the Queenes proclamation 1559 Your tradition still continues the same touching which for brevities sake
men most likelie to make good the interest you aim'd at This you were before practising in England where your Sectarian Masters that had set you on horsebacke mean'd not to take your bridle in their mouthes and be rid by your ambition to their ruine Though you advis'd them faire for 't in your Papers March 3. 1644. requiring to have the officers in their armie qualified to your purpose… men know'n to be zealous of the reformation of religion and of that uniformitie Which both Kingdomes are obiiged to promote and maintaine c. As in September the yeare before you told them you could not conside in such persons to have or execute place and authoritie in the armie raised by them who did not approve and consent to the Covenant Which I sinde by one well acquanted with your meaning interpreted thus You desired to have zeaious hardic men out of the North whose judgement about the Covenant and treatie had concurred so as to introduce your Nation to be one of the Estates of England to have a negative voice in all things who would have pleaded your cointerest with the Parliament of England in the Militia of the Kingdome disposal of places and officies of trust c. Having faild there of your cointerest with the Parliament you straine here for your cointerest with the King and would have the commanding power of his militant Kingdome in their hands that should have held His Majestie like a bird in a string which if he once stretch'd for recovering his own just liberties or his peoples they could have pluck'd him in to clip his troublesome wings or cage him at their pleasure The firmnesse of your Covenanting Commanders to the interest of God the Dispeller reveales in his experience of their striking hands with hell in cursing and swearing plundering and slealing which might have sill'd the hearts of the people had your poison not been administred under the guilt of wholesome advice with more rational jelausies and feares then any by past miscariages of them whose designe at that time was very hopefull and honourable otherwise then as it caried the fatal praetext of your Covenant before it To let the world know how long your mysterie of iniquitie hath been working in the bowells of the State the Bishop alledgeth ancient praecedents of So. yeares standing from more impartial more credible relations then those in yourRomance falselie intitled An Historical Vindication What you shovell in here about treacherous correspondence with Spaine is but an handfull of sand without lime adhaeres not at all to the Inquisitours troubling the Merchants in their religion nor that to your admonishing the people to be warie in their trade nor all at all to the truth which the Bishop tells you was a Synodical Act prohibiting their traffique under the rigid poenaltie of excommunication which all the art you have can not melt into a friendlie advertisement Those of the Merchants whom you say the Inquisitours seduced required no relaxation Nor were the rest so persecuted as to be discourag'd in their trade when they petition'd the King to maintaine that libertie where of your spiritual chaines had depriv'd them Therfore all your courteous mediation was but a disguis'd Imperious prohibition whereby you checkt the King and in ordine ad spiritualia tooke it for granted you mated him by the Merchants weake submission to your Censure Could we but once take it your Church in agrieving fit for her owne so publike profanesse in the daylie breach of the 5 6 other commandaments that follow we would tolerate her zeale though not commend her discretion in her will worship superstitious nicitie touching the violation of the fourth But when we finde her enlarging her conscience to laugh at rebellion murder c. We guesse her crocodiles teares to be more out of designe then compastion her mouth open for the destruction of them that are not through knowledge of her hypocritie delivered The profanation of the Sabbath is not so in conjunction with à Monday mercate but that à Saterdays journey with some sixpeenie losse or à Sunday nights watch and labour might separate them Your holie supplications were leven'd with Iudaisme which had not the Bishops in Christian libertie eluded as your advantage might lie the Parliament might have next been importund to Dositheus's follie to erect à rediculous statuarie Sabbath in your Countrey Though I heare all were not so hard hearted as you make them but that Patrike Forbes Bishop of Aberdene did translate the mercates which are none of the least in his diocese to wednesday as the provincial records of that place will testifie From the obstruction made by the rest to your petitions you cannot inferre what you have formd in a calumnie about their doctrine example on that day What sorts of playes which were not all if you reckon right the most emminent Bishops either us'd or tolerated were such as consisted with and spirited the Dominical dutie of publike and private devotion wherein they had the authoritie and praecedent of otherguesse Christians then any scotish Assemblie praecisians and seconded with reason such as hitherto you never seriouslie and solidelie answered If they endeavoured to make the Sunday no Sabbath they did it in a farre better sense and on better grounds then Rob. Bruce could have changd it as you know he endeavoured to Wednesday or Friday and Lent from spring to Autumne on purpose to priviledge the pure brethren ' in the singularitie of their worship and free them from a profane communion though not in the time with Papists and Praelates If the Bishops had a designe to advance their Kingdome by such old licentiousnesse and ignorance as this innocent libertie might be feard to reduce We know to whom the Presbyters somewhere are beholding at least for their Sabbath policie though they thinke good to enlarge it beyond Episcopal sports and playes to publike mercates to brewing fulling grinding carying beer corne dung and indeed what not except opening whole shops and wearing old clothes For redressing which I doe not finde your compassionate prayers to god or advice to them which I remember you us'd so effectual as to make any amendment or gaine any proselytes to your circumcised severitie Therefore till you praevaile I pray let the Bishops be troubled no more with what all your flintie fac'd malice can not appropriate to the times or places of their government What hath been granted since you cast them out of the Parliament was by them that had no more power in one sense to giue then in another to denie Yet had all your demands meant no worse then you spake in that about the due sanctification of the day you might have let them sit still have had the Souters your friends reconcil'd and made a better mercate of those Royal concessions which met too farre unlesse your gratitude had been greater your unlimited reguests For the
reasonablie suppos'd incident to all that you call Saints and what securitie they have from all casualties all attempts in the very moment of sinne to destroy them The general promises can be no protection in such cases some it may be are not so general as to be made applicable to all which well scann'd incline to the peculiar concernment of them to whom they were made and of whom onelie they seeme to be â—…ean'd But in points of this nature whatsoever the Warners friends have avowed your exception against them is the same with that against the expresse words of the Church in the Assemblie at Glasgow 1638 draw'n from what she professd That insants baptiz'd have all things necessarie to salvation This you may take as the summe of that which the Bishop knew to have been with much moderation reason often answerd to your sore challenge Your slight replies thereunto being indeed but squibs and crackers for children to sport with had not the armes of sinfull men the Kings artillerie been rebelliouslie us'd as a more unanswerable argument to force them The following position His Lp. nowhere will dispute nor doth laugh aâ—… That Christ as King of his Church hath appointed lawes for governers of the same Who and what these are in the general Saint Paul hath left in his letters to the first Christians which they and their successours have kept for us that come after He takes you for usurpers tyrants who crosse to these lawes for pride filthie lucre make your selves not onelie Lords over Gods heritage but commanders of subjection from Kings 2. b. Disc ch 1. Pro Rege Regum Domino Dominantium presbyteria nobis Synodos supponentes The consequence hereupon That Acts of Synods must be Christs lawes where Synods make themselves Dictatours of his pleasure and repraesentatives of his person is no other follie then what the Logical rules of Relatives praescribe us which if your Sophistrie decline I must referre the Reader to the like expressions so frequentlie us'd in your publike papers in the several contests that Knox had with your Queenes their Councels in defense of your discipline And to come somewhat nearer in your very praeface before the booke it selfe where your Reformed Kirke is call'd the spouse of Icsus Christ the rules of her discipline in the language of Scripture The Lords lawes and commandements…the heavenlie proportion of divine discipline And at last compared to the booke of Gods covenant that lay hid in the Temple Under the name of which Discipline we are admonished is to be understood Beside the two bookes the Acts Constitutions and practices agreed upon and recorded in the Registers of the General and provincial Assemblics c. And a brother plainlie asserts That your Discipline in the general which we denie to have any other authoritie then your votes is as immutable as the Scripture I finde you now here such a Master of Rhethorike and language as to take your judgement in comparing of styles If the Bishop hath borrowed the Iesuites invectives or any from the Pagan philosophers he could not beter bestow them then on you that are neither good Protestants nor Christians His declamations against your noveltie will be regarded by such as take universalitie and perpetuitie for two discretive markes of Christs Kingdome government which must not be limited to a rebellious schismatical Centurie in one Countrey The antiquitie you boast of is founded upon as great a mistake of the Gospell as was the sadduces of the law you both erre not knowing the Scriptures Yet that being your plea I will urge the Bishops argument no farther concerning the change and difformitie of your discipline which may be prov'd in particulars not twice romov'd from your essentials themselves but appeale with you to Caesar who calling to his Councel the Primitive Fathers the most publike spirits most unbyassed Interpreters may by the tributarie assistance if his Majestie please of as many Bâ—…hops or Doctouâ—…s as sectarian Presbyters after a faire schelastike discussion discerne the truth decide the controversie and according as he findes Christs scepter was swayed among Catholike Christians by deputation of one part or other abolish the Rebell Vsurper at his pleasure But Annuneiare or imperare aliqued Christianis Chatholicis praeter id quod acceperunt nunquam licuit nusquam licet nunquam licebit To declare or command a beliefe of divine right in that which hath not been received in Gods Church never was no where is nor will it at any time be law full Your dearth of matter renders you taedious in the rest of the paragraph and the course faire wherewith you entertaine your reader flesh bloud and limbes of an English Bishop makes you suspected here to have been at a stand to have layd your spiritual scribling aside till you went to market and fetcht these carnal expressions from the â—…ambles My Lord of Derrie and his friends in citing authoritie and pressing reason for their order have dealt so farilie wrought so effectuallie as for all the stripping your sleeves and the other hocas pocas trickes that he tells you of you will finde no cleanlie conveyance of your Presbyterie into the heads of any your judicious comparers nor will their eares be chain'd by your brazen hypocrisie to maintaine it Your too curious anatomie of English Episcopacie touching which you interrogate will onelie countenance them in a demand not otherwise intended of a Scripture warrant for Scottish Presbyterie as such disciplining excommunicating deposing I shall doe no wrong if I adde what I prove justifying praysing God for the death if not the murder of Kings renouncing the name but acting every one a double part of a lord in Parliament not onelie voycing in but imperiouslie overruling all Acts of State all elections of principal officers in order to conscience for praevention of scandal keeping a lower Commission Court in every Towne parish forcing every Bayliffe and provest to be your creature A Presbyterie bold'lie ordaining without a Bishop and gulling the people into a foolish conceit of Gods call in them when 't is their lying spirit that hath praeposless'd them For let the people call or praesent whom they will if the learned the priviledge of which title every covie of Dunces challenge to themselves judge the person unable of the regiment he is set aside and they forced to take without violent intrusion they tell them whom the superintended Councel offereth to instruct them A Presbyterie exercing all jurisdiction without any appeale from themselves A Presbyterie feeding their flockes like swine with graine and huâ—…kes such divinitie as every brewer or hogheard can helpe them to never leading them through the gâ—…een pastures of the ancient learned and devout Fathers nor to any other waters of comfort but such as the very fountaine whereof the foot of schisme or rebellion hath troubled This is
Scripturas revelantes the ablest interpreters of Scripture or speakers of mysteries in the spirit to aedification exhortation and comfort though not foretellers of things to come Nam quicquid latet sive id futurum est sive praesens mysterium diâ—…itur The reason why your adversaries pitch upon the fourth is to decline your trivial objections against the other three Your syllogisme that labours to prove Bishops no Pastours hath no doubt but a certaintie of falshood in the major which your argumentum a paribus comes some what improperlie to make good you having spoke of a confess'd imparitie but just before But for once a bargaine no bargaine pactum non pactum sit non pactum pactum quod vobis lubet It would be a rare invention surpassing Aristoles Logike if without a reserve you could get a conclusion to creep out of a single proposition for take it on my word your lucke is bad in majours which whether you play at even or odde are all pariter falsae sicke of a disease and this here left desperate without any remedie to recover it No Apostle you say is superiour to an Apostle This is contrarie to what one Walo Messalinus whom under another name you mistake to be your friend hath frequentlie asserted That they were primi secundi majores minores The second and lesse subordinate in spiritual power to the first and greater This he gathers out of Theodoret and others The greater he explaines to be the twelve the lesse those deputed by them for teaching and governing Nay he discovers a third order inferiour to them both of which was Epaphroditus subordinate to Saint Paul who himselfe was but minor Apostolus being none of the twelve So that here being three degrees I tell you from him what I might from others or with them rather collect from the text That an Apostle is superiour to an Apostle As much might besayd for Euangelists whereof foure were principal or if not it is because they were by their office of the lower classe or Coadiutours to the Apostles Such were Titus Timothie Apollos c. Saint Hierom sayth all Apostles were Euangelists but not all Euangelists Apostles And so likewise that all pastours were Doctours but not vice verse The learned Grotius That Doctours were Bishops or Arch-Bishops rather the same with those call'd Metropolitans afterward Pateres Kai didascaloi are Epiphanius titles for them To prove majour minor prophets under the new Testament is needlesse till you answer what I have brought about Apostles or strengthned the majour in your argument which I absolutelie denie And besides remit you to a learned Doctour who proves the word Pastor to be the Bishops peculiar among the Ancients and frustrates that imparitie from which you argue Your second reason out of Saint Matthew and Saint Paul hath a litle Philosophical Soul and forme in the majour but no divine one in in the minour and so according to your similitude in the moment of removal or separation must perish The first text 1. Tim. 4. 14. puts no power more then approbant or assistent of ordination in the Eldership a Bishop is as much a Presbyterie and no more a Presbyter I meane in your sense of diminution then Saint Paul who seemes to make that act of ordination solitarie and personallie his owne 2. Tim. 1. 6. And the Greeke Scholiasts say the Elders here were Bishops excluding interminis all presbyters from that power oâ—… gar hoi Presbyteroi echeirotonoun ton Episcopon say both Theophylact and Oecomenius For the word which you will needes have to be classical not personal perchance somewill say it may denote the order or office the Episcopate they meane and be put figurativelie here for the single person of the Apostle comparing these words together meta Epitheseoos toon cheiroon tou Presbyterion dia tes epithescoos toon chciroon mou But let it be what it will the power of ordination must continue in the Bishop so long as Christians keep to the New Testament and Fathers and fetch us not a fift Gospel or some newer Apostle from Geneva That the second Saint Matth. 18. puts the power of jurisdiction in the Church is gratis dictum your authoritie not so great as that your autos ephen will be able to carie it First therefore you are required to prove that excommunication the act of jurisdiction you meane is here at all intended and not rather no more then the three degrees of fraternal correption the highest whereof is that elegsis enoopion pantoon a rebuke before all 1. Tim. 5. 20. Vt qui non potuit pudore Salvari Salvetur opprobrijs sayth Saint Hierom he sayth not damnetur or eijciatur censuris That he which could not be saved by private shame might by more publike reproach Secondlie That the Church here was a judicial Assemblie call'd to that purpose or if met to other that a formal processe was brought before it And that they were not rather some greater number then the two or three witnesses upon what occasion soever met together which may very well be call'd Ecclesiae with out the signal meaning of the word Coram multis Lib. Musar keta Koinon Justin tunc multis dicendum est in Saint Hierom. Nor is it likelie a deliberate judgement in Court into which a Christian Congregation converted should be after processe in hazard to be slighted or neglected by one Member delinquent ean paracouse Nor that to be such which relates rather to the person of the plaintiffe then Iudges estoo soi Let him be unto thee… Thirdlie If it be such a Congregation or Church as you would have it whether the complaint were to be repraesented to them in general and not rather in their hearing to their superintendents or praesident above them Epi toon tes Ecclesias proedroon demosiseoson to ptaisma sayth Theophylact. Fourthlie That sit sicut Ethnicus publicanus Let him be unto thee as an heathenman and a publicane is undoubtedlie a sentence commanded to be pronounced by those superintendents or that Church or an injunction rather then permission to the partie injur'd to have no farther familiaritie or friendship to have no more to doe with him then with heathen and publicanes a voluntarie declination of whose companie was no scandal to the charitie Christians professed any civile office out of common humanitie left arbitrarie and not censur'd if tend'red Fiftlie whether binding and loosing vers 18. Be asserted with reference to this Church and not rather to the Apostles as your friend Erastus will have it or more probablie to any partie against whom the trespasse was committed Potestatem tribuit Apostolis sayth Saint Hierom. Vu garmonon hosa lyousin boi hiereis eisi Celymena all' hosa kai hemets hoi adiketentes and Theophylact. And si Fratrem habes pro Ethnico publicano ligasti illum in terra
because they are the men that ought to speake just like you denie all supremacie Their first language is this Quis dominus Who is Lord over use The Politician I spake of hath a discourse worth your reading wherein he shewes you how Maliomet stirred up the people against Heraclius the Emperour He sayth as much for Calvin your protoplast which whatsoever may be apologiz'd for him I am sure is inexcusable in Knox and you that are the workemanship of his hands This made Charles the good so prudent and resolute who being become too unhapie in nothing more then in suffering your Babel building to be finished in Scotland when he beheld the like worke of your fellow Rebell Architects in England would not exclude himselfe out of doores nor part with that power whereby he might best restraine the seditious exorbitances of Ministers tongues who with the keyes of heaven have so farre the keyes of the peoples hearts as they praevaile much by their oratorie to shut in and let out both peace and loyaltie While the Warner scosfes at your threats his meaning is to have deluded people to scorne them and know in your words that the thundrings of the Scotish aswell as that Roman Anti-Christ are but vanitie and â—…inde To tell them in a figure that hell and death are no more in your keeping then the gaole in the prisoners that walkes abroad in the streetes with his shakels about him but must render himselfe at the end of his covenant The Praelates proclamation of such Atheisme as this is a printed copie out of the original writ by the fingar of God in the 10. S. Matth. Whereby is to be banished out of the hearts of the people all feare of them which kill the bodie but are not able to kill the soul for all their kirke-bulls and censures that threaten it To the quaestion you close with I answer That Satan hath driven allreadie the first instruments of his Republike in Britaine into a very narow roome in the North where Cromwell and other his more usefull instruments at praesent are likelie to keep them till if God neither convert nor by a miracle otherwise confound them his worke being done he may lash them with whips of their owne making topt ' with Serpents heads and Scorpions tailes and at last deliver them to the worme that shall not die cast them into the fire that shall not be quenched and make their stinking memorie an abhorring unto all slesh The third part of the parallel hath been in every particular justified and were more instances requisite to evidence the truth they might be a numberlesse number of such imputations as you are never able to refute The charge which the Bishop subjoines is not so poore but that it enricheth his proofe with the best argument of your spiritual supremacie The daylie practice of the Parliaments of Scotland such as have been of late and heretofore when your Reformation tooke place constitutes no right confirmes no power os nominating commitees for intervalls Nor is there any inhaerent right in Courts to nominate interreigning Commissioners but by Royal favour in such as except their intertearming vacations are perpetual and standing not call'd by fits ad placitum Domini Regis no not in the Parliament it selfe Which to omit other proofes was the ground of this clause in their Act of oblivion 1641. That the peace to be now established may be inviolablie observed in all time to come It is agreed that some shall be appointed by His Majestie and the Parliaments of both Kingdomes who in the interim betwixt the sitting of the Parâ—…ments may be carefull that the peace now hapilie concluded may be tontinued c. … And it is declared that the power of the Commission shall be restrained to the articles of peace in this treatie As likewise of that fatal Act for perpetuating the last blacke Parliament in England which had probablie neâ—…r been required if it might have nominated a Committe of state that idol to which it now sacrificeth in bloud to sit till the next summons upon any inhaerent right in that Court. For the Iudicatories of your Church I am tired with telling you that no law of the Kingdome doth privativé authorize them to meet their Assemblie being illegal without the King or his Commissioner neither of which are to come upon course or at call And their power of appointing Committees hath as often been quaestion'd and how often is that as it ever was executed without or against the positive consent or command of the King or Queen for the time And trulie the committees in the times os your late troubles were the Ambuscado wherein you lay closelie in wait to disturbe both Church and state while your armed bodie in Parliament retired Whose frequent meetings were forced no otherwse then by the incessant zeale in their Members to persecute Religion and loyaltie Whose diversion from their particular charges for attendance on the publike rebellion was join'd with so great fascherie and expense to fullfill their lusts at other mens cost Which with all their heart they will in Sempiternum continue if feare of their neckes make them not at length slip out of the collar or their grey haires and withered carkasses after many a surfeit call them not to some other account or their Chiefe in whose service they made these necessarie meetings pay them not their necessarie wages in pertusum sactulum into a bag full of holes which shall never be filled no more then was the measure of the iniquitie they acted CHAPTER XI The Presbyterie cruel to particular persons IF King and Parliament be as they may very well incenced against the Presbyterie at sight of the Bishops reason more then out of sympathie with him in his anger his warning hath taken in part the effect that he wished and aim'd at Yet in vaine shall they vindicate all just authoritie to themselves if the people be kept in a servile observance of a tyrannous discipline pay their blinde obedience to the Kirke Therefore the Warner excedes no bounds in his rage but en largeth his bowels of pitie to them who for the most part having disarmed their soules of that judgement which should dictate their freedome from Church censures upon acts indifferent or sinfull in an inferiour degree their due submission to an arraignment of thoughts onelie in the Court of a poenitent conscience or hereafter before the tribunal of heaven where sits the onelie Iudge of hearts the discerner of perverse inclinations expose themselves naked to the boundlesse furie of mercilesse Reviewers to the sharpe scrutinie of malicious Inquisitours to the arbitrarie sentence of most sinful Iudges and therefore most suspicious surmisers The Bishop mentions no faults but such as toward which your Discipline mentions no favour limited to the privacie of the care Nor yet doe all those give occasion for that which you take to shew
praecedent or reason The Kings Majesties person or in his absence his high Commissioner is there onelie you tell him to countenance not vote in your meetings and proesides in them for exernal order not for any intrinsecal power So that when you goe on calmelie in your businesse he findes litle to doe without Domitians flie-flap of more use by farre in a summer Synod then a Scepter among you which you often times wrest out of his hand and continue your meetings after he hath dissolv'd them You can denie him or his commissioner the sight of publike papers brought into the Court which libertie the meanest subject may challenge And twhen he hath any thing to object against suppositions or at best suspicious Registers the E. Rothes can tell him boldlie in your names he must speake it praesentlie if at al and because he doth not you wait no longer but proimperio vote them to be authentike Beside to deminish as well the Kings state as authoritie you send Assessours or Assistants to your Elders and invest them with power aequivalent to his Councel This meeting thus disordered sits too long by a monâ—…th when no more and Assembles too often when but once in a yeare The number of such Members no more hindereth an appeale then a multitude of Malefactours can sentence a necessitie of becoming their followers in doing evil Their wisdome is such as his to whom a wiser man tells us it is a sport to doe mischief Their eminencie like Sauls head and shoulders higher then the common people in Rebellion And their honour somewhat like Absoloms mule beares them up to the priviledge of the great oake in the wood for their hanging in beter aequipage then their fellowes So that beside the justice there 's an absolute necessitie of appeal to the Parliament or in that to the King from himselfe to himselfe who sits there as supreme here in no other capacitie but of your servant Which is farre more justifiable and necessarie then vour appeale from both Parliament and Assemblie to the bodie of the people which I tell you againe is the final appeale you make when Assemblies are not modell'd to vour minde The number and qualification of Knights and Burgesses is therefore large and as great in your Assemblie as Parliament that your power may be as large and great in the State as the Church and the Nobilitie sit in one by election because they sit in the other by birth and so in a condition to unite the counsels of both according to the instructions of some few Presbyters that by Sycophantike infinuations have got possession of their soules and by their Spiritual Scepter dominion of their suffrages Headie zeale craft and hypocrisie got in commission or Covenant together we finde by experience can fit them to judge in Ecclesiastike affaires when age wisdome and pietie are sentenc'd If â—…he hundred choyce unparliamentarie pastours make up the oddes of some absent Noblemen it should seem you and the Nobilitie are even pares cum paribus Peeres alike in your honourable Assemblie Which they must not disdaine since Christ himselfe I meane not his Anoynted that you take to be out of quaestion goes but for a single Elder or Moderatour at most So Cartwright and his Demonstratour cajoles them together when he sayth If they the Princes and Nobles should disdaine to joine in consultation with poore men they should disdaine not men but Christ himselfe So that Christ being in his name made your Assembly Praesident or Prolocutour the King in his Commissioner your protectour the Nobilitie your aw full subvoters or suffraganes I see nothing wanting can conciliate a tyrannie to your Presbyterie nor keep your foot of pride from trampling as basely as may be upon the people But not to forget at last what you set in the front as first to be answered The Presbyterian course as you or I more trulie have describ'd it is not much more readie then the Praelatical because the benefit of appeale is to be had ordinarilie but once or twice in a yeare not much more solide because most of your Iudges can reasonablie be thought neither good Civilians nor Casuists not much more aequitable because as you order them many more of the laitie then Clergie In the second hurt your Nobilitie sustaine the Bishop lookes not upon the judgement of foreigne Reformed Devines you doe not say of Churches nor yet on their practice which I have know'n some time a great deale too sawcie with Princelie Patrons but upon the aequity of the thing upon the priviledge our Nobles in England enjoy the right yours have to the same by many yeares praescription and the lawes of your land The first will be found if the original be searched The right of patronage being by the due gratitude or favor of Kings Bishops reserved to such as either built Churches or endowed them with some considerable revenue as likewise for the encouragement of others to propagate meanes and multiplie decent distinct places for Christian conventions Hoc singulari favore sustinetur ut allectentur Laâ—…ci invitentur indâ—…antur ad constructionem Ecclesiarum The exercise hereof in Iustinian is expressed by the termes Epilegein or onomazein which signifies an addiction or simple nomination to stand good or be null'd at the just pleasure of the Bishop and therefore accounted no spiritual act in the Patron but a temporal annexed to that which is spiritual in the Bishop and therefore not simonaical as your brother Didoclave would have it Nor is there that absurdâ—…ie he mentions of arrogating to one what belong to all the Members of the Church as is praetended but can never be proved Nor that danger in transmitting this right from one to another if the care of the first patron desâ—…end not with it which defect the care of the praesent Bishop must supplie Nor is it requisite he should be a Member of the same parish to which he praesents since the Bishop is head of the same diocese to whom That this is contrarie to the libertie of the Primitive and Apostolike Kirke to the order which Gods word craves and good order is onelie sayd but not argued in your Discipline no more then by you when and to whom it became a grievance Your patience in enduring it goes for no heroical vertue being peevish enough soon after the Act of annexation had passed as appeares by your cariage in the Assemblie at Edenburgh 1588. and turned into a Rebellious Conspiracie allthough painted with the name of a Parliamâ—…nt that now at last because it could not at first hath taken it away The Nobilities losse of their Impropriations and Abbey lands is very considerable when they bethinke themselves upon what false pleas and to what unconcern'd persons they must part with them Touching which as Sycophantike as is the Bishops accusation he 'll not abate a sig of his right for
or idolatrie of Rome That you have made doth but magnisie her and oblige you had you any Christian charitie or justice to thanke God for praeserving so much of his word worship in her service what the Bishop intends when effected will warrant our Church upon your principles in most parts of her Lâ—…turgie when shewed consonant to the most publike sormes of Protestant Churches though 't is hard for Fathers to aske advice or borrow authoritie of their children for Ancients to heare wherein Iob was mistaken That with the yong men is wisdome and with the shortnesse of dayes understanding The King and the many well minded men I beleeve were never deceived by our Doctours who I can not thinke ever affirmed they were as much fâ—…r preaching in their practice and opinion as the Presbyterians So much as to set aside praying for sermonizing as your 〈◊〉 Booke Discipline doth telling us That what day the publike sermon is they could neither require nor greatlie approve that the Common prayers be publikeliâ—… used I require the name of any that sayd the life and soul of the Liturgie was preaching without which it could not be intire in its parts That he must never goe in and out of the House of God without ringing his bells a fit alussion the nord of exhortation Interpratation and praeferring the nams given the Temple by some of the â—…ewes Domus expositionis before that by God Domus Orationis Though it may have been the fruitlesse practice of some to quit themselves as they hop'd of the disreputation you brought them as ignorant and laziâ—… to preach somewhat more often then formerlie till they found their ringing the bells was to scare the people from Church and doubling their paines reform'd not their opinions nor reduc'd them to their duties They that prayed without booke before and after their sermons came not up to the Presbyterians opinion that it is a childish thing to doe otherwise Nor to their practice To bawlke the first and second service of the Church What they either assirmed or did in this kinde might bemore to shew your grâ—…sse â—…ifsimulation at all times in making if such a difficult businesse to talke then to personate their owne in this of their affliction which when you have brought them to the lowest shall never seduce them so to decline the enâ—…ie of the people as by profaning the House of God sooth them in their eâ—…rour styling those aivine ordinances which in your maner or frequencie of use being both without praecept are but humane Canons and Acts and for most part in the mater consist of strise sâ—…ditions and haeresies the workes of the â—…lesh or the Divel that dictates them So that you may see if your eyes be not full of somewhat else while you are spâ—…rting yourselves with your owne deceivings their tenet remaines the same that it wâ—… and themselves readie enough in this season as unfiâ—… as you thinke it to ring as low'd aâ—… you will in the eares of the world That for Divine service in publike people need no more but the râ—…oding of the Liturgie Which is beter furnish'd with pious petitions occurring to all visible necessitiâ—…s and for others emergent the Church keepes a reserve and in due time ever affords a recruit then any set or extemporarie prayer that er came out of Presbyters mouth 2. Sermons on weeke dayes if not festivals wheron a commemoration of Saints dâ—…parted is necessarie for Historical instruction and for imitation exemplarie maâ—… belayd aside by Christians that have no more time to spare from their honest callings then they ought to spend in the application and practice of what they heard on the Sunday in meditation upon God his attributes and workes c in the serious examination of their lives and very particular sâ—…rutinie of their actions secret publike good bad indifferent or mixt in sorting or parselling their sinnes of mission commission weaknesse praesumption and in private repenting weeping praying praysing In conferring closelie with holie men chieflie their Priest and pastour of their soules laying open before him their doubts distractions infirmities perverse inclinations Invisiting the sicke strengthning the weake considering the poore and placing charitie with prudence condoling with and comforting the afflicted Composing controversies reconciling differences designing and enterprising Heroicke exploits for the just advancement and honour of the King and publike advantage of Countrey Citie or Parish whereof they are Members Finallie acting all of which these are not halfe that concernes them in their publike and private capacitie And when all is done not before in what leisure's redundand let them in Gods name call for a weeklie or daylie sermon and where the Priest hath discharg'd as much more of his dutie and findes in himselfe abilities to compose such an one as with confidence or rather conscience he can speake it let them have it 3. That Sundayes afternoon Sermon is well exchanged for catechizing children instructing them in their principles of Religion and acquainting them with the doctrine and discipline of the Church to which they ought to adhaere when they come to their choyce at yeares of discretion which is the custome of some Presbyterian Churches abroad and either hath or should have been tong since of the Scots 1. Book Disc Before noon must the word be preached and Sacraments ministred and afternoon must the yong children be publikelie examined in their Catechisme in the audience of the people 4. That on the Sunday before noon sermon is very convenient abuses being redressed and must be while and where enjoined Yet in Nations converted to Christianitie by the preaching of the Apostles or Apostolical men and so fullie confirmed as no reasonable feare may be of their apostacie since the infallible spirit is not cooperative with all if with any and where as among the Presbyterians the noxious spirit of delusion in the mouthes of very many preachers it 's farre from being necessaire to salvation that care must be had lest it bring damnation to the hearers 5. That where some learned Scholars or honest industrious Ministers not at pleasure but publike appointment on festivals dayes make a sermon or have an oration for litle difference need be about the name and it may be 't were beter to have lesse in the thing it would be short not exceeding an houre according to the Court paterne which is likelie to be the best in the Kingdome and for the most part hath come nearest the most approved example of the primitive Fathers as may be seen by their sermons and homilies that are exstant And it should seem Presbyterie aswell as Episcopacie hath found some inconvenience in Sermons that were longer which produced the 34. Canon in the Provincial Synod at Doâ—…t 1574. Ministri 〈◊〉 animâ—… loâ—…gis conciâ—… quas ultra horam non extendent 6. That spirit and life for adification since
their negligence is inexcusable and their dulnesse pitiable yet that your act of cruel jurisdiction is justified by no divine command nor Catholike example If never any for simple ignorance were excommunicated in Scotland You must be rebuk'd for transgressing your rule and failing in your dutie as your Kirke pleaseth thus to declare it In sufferable we judge it that men be permitted to live and continue in ignorance as Members of the Kirke Whether greater tyrannie were exerciz'd in the High Commission Courts or your Consistories your aequitable comparers by this time are not to seeke What excesse on your side hath been evidenc'd is here resumed onelie to aggravate your floud of boundlesse crueltie by the many heads from which it issues and the cataracts it powres upon the poor people in every parish The Bishops playd indeed the Rex in that their Court because they acted in it by authoritie and deputation from the King But you and your Brethren playd the Rebells to the purpose when you first rioted then rebell'd and covenanted before er you supplicated to suppresse it K. Ch. 1. by his grace and too fluent charitie praevented the violence intended by your Parliament though he found no thankes nor yet acceptance at your hands His proclamation being rudelie encountred with a rebellious protestation read by Iohnston The King Anticlerical Parliament in England that alasse joind hands in a maner yet searce agreed to throw downe the other about their eares without which the Praelates had no power lesse then no reason if it might be to let it fall have not onelie covered the poor Bishops with the ruine of that Court but since hands and hearts were divided the laborious Lords and Commons without him have pull'd the Fabrike of both Houses and of Monarchie upon themselves The Congregational Eldership a thing wheresoever more to be jeerd at and lesse endured then a Commission is enjoy'd with so much more comfort among other of the Reformed then in Scotland as we are eye witnesses of lesse authoritie rigour in it And while I am writing this Replie one of the Reformed Presbyters your Countreyman ingenuouslie confesseth to me that he thinkes in his conscience the present Kirke tyranniem Scotland he speakes it indeed rather of the practice then rule ofâ—…se â—…se Scotish Elderships taken out of Holie scripture can not be very Particâ—… 〈◊〉 many cases Their Acts of superiour judicatories doe not can nâ—… 〈◊〉 â—…pecific interpretative Scandals nor in all occurring pofsibiâ—… proportion corporal punishments or pecuniarie mulcts in the arbitrement of which lies the tyrannie of this petie Aristocratie and most ridiculouslie many times used in cutting haifethe haire shaving beards c. as before now hath been objected by others that having I beleeve seen it better know it In the abuses by such censures and difficultie of some cases when appeale is made to a Synod the Biâ—…op tells you which you observe not that the shortnesse of its continuance can afford the condition of the persons will afford litle reliefe Your dozen of the most able pious plow men in many parishes with an unexperienc'd illiterate Pastour praesiding in their Councel are no very reverend Iudges in many cases Aud what pitifull creatures they must be of necessitie in some places may be guessed untill this quaestion be answer'd which is sent you from another Countreyman of yours an honest able Divine Whether you have not heard of Câ—…untres Churches in Scotland especiallie amongst the Saints of Argiâ—…e where not three hapâ—…e not one in the whole parish could reade Amphictyonum consessus A very honourable bench A Senate that no doubt would strike greater amazement but upon other reasons then the Romane if any foraigner should behold them In that you say the Episcopal way is to have no discipline at all in any congregation you are somewhat more hard hearted then your brethren Who acknowledge some of the functional rubbish of your Temple building Elders and Deacons upon the shoulders of our Church wardens Sidemen and Collectours part of whose charge is to observe maners inquire out ill livers admonish the scandalous and praesent them to the ordinarie To direct them in this dutie the Bishops articles are disspersed and an Audit held of their account at every visitation The officials pleasure regulates not their information which is to be as impartial as an oath can make it His conscience commonlie is not to large though his learning and wisdome be of greater extension then the Elders What power he exerciseth is by law and custome In correctionis negotijs alia quidem sacient omnia excommunication is more niselie and conscientiouslie excepted quae de jure possunt solent fieri Constit. 1571 To the Presbyterian tendernesse of medling with domestike infirmities some what is sayd allreadie which the Answerer by leter thus avoucheth It is certaine that a foolish man revealing foolishlic his faults to his wise the zealous wife upon some quarelling betwixt her and her husband hath gone to a good Minister revealed what was told her and the honest impertial Minister hath convented the man charged him with his sinne and made him confesse satisfie and doe penance publikelie Here the flagrant scandal was onelie the fire or furie that broke out of a weake womans breast into a pragmatical Presbyters eares whose heade is no sanctuarie for spiritual secrecies but his curiositie the mine that under workes the foundation of private families and palaces too where of that of Mary Queen of Scots may be a formidable and lamentable example and when jealousies faile of materiall truth in the discoverie to blow them up with malicious calumnies what they can For suits and differences incident between Pastour and flocke Lay Elder and his neighbour the passion upon which perverts blindes the eyes of the wisest men that are your Congregational or Classical Iudges you passe quietlie by it as having nothing to say for it These are the great injuries and hurts which make the Scotish Discipline Scandalous to all the Reformed world being prov'd destructive to the just praerogative of Kings the power of Parliaments the libertie of subjects enslaving all orders of men where it takes place to the arbitrarie jurisdiction of a corrupt Synod and that commonlie moderated by the usurped Papacie of a Knox a Buchanan a Melvin an Henderson such meeke lambes as no misbeleeving Iew can misdoubt them to be fore runners of his Messias who hath prae-inspired this good principle into their heads To bring their Kings rather then goe themselves to the slaughter And wheresoe'r they get power to teare out the throat of the thearers and make them dumbe never more able to open their mouthes against the know'n Deitie of their Presbyterie CHAPTER XIII The Bishops exceptions against the Covenant made good and this proved That no man is obliged to keep it who hath taken it IF I had not found the Reviewer a
not a proposition is there in prosyllogisme or syllogisme that is seemes you can denie though you scarce any where shew ingenuitie to grant For the second which you thinke so hard to prove let it be adventur'd thus He that by covenant disposeth of himselfe and armes contrarie to the established lawes which by the Kings right in him he is obliged to maintaine disposeth of them against that rights But every Covenanter disposeth c. For the established lawes enjoine him to defend the Kings person without limitation or reference to religion at least not to fight against it which the Covenant by your practike interpretation doth oblige to Where the power of the Militia resides His Maâ—…esties unanswerable Declaration for the Commission of array will best satisfie you And himselfe tells you trulie it is no lesse his undoubted right then is the crowne In the exercise of it though the Parliament be not excluded yet their power is never legallie considerable but when they are as the bodie with the soul in stain conjunctâ—… with the King Defense of liberties hath no law to arme them against praerogative nor is there a cause imaginable impowering them to take up armes against a partic countenanced by the Kings praesence which can be according to no law but what is call'd such by rebellious people that offer violence to Royal right If any such there be let us have but one impraegnable instance and we 'll shake hands I beleeve you are not much in love with that old custome of the Frisians long before they became Presbyters who chose their Earle carying him upon their bucklers and crying alowd Haecest potestas Frisiae You can now adayes beter indoctrinate them according to the custome of yourfaction when praevalent which is to admit no new King but at the swords point and there to keepe him crying after this maner or somewhat like it in your proclamational libells Haec est libertas Presbyteriales Scotiae Yet your Commissioners when in the mood can praesent the hilt to his hand and argue with both houses as they did upon the new propositions why the power of the militia should be in the crowne asking How Kingâ—… otherwise can be able to resist their enemies and the enemies of the Kingdome protect their subjects keep friendship or correspondence with their allies … asserting that the depriving them of this power rootes up the strongest foundations of honour and sasctie which the crowne affords will be interpreted in the eyes of the world to be a wresting of the scepter and sword out of their hands So that the Bishops friends may take from yours aswell as from him the same demonstrable conclusion he layd downe And this for all the Kings acknowledgement which was never any of the Parliaments joint interest in his authoritie against his person which is the true case though you shamefullie conceale it Nor did His Majestie so put the whole Militia in their hands as to part with his right when he bound his owne from the exercise Nor was he sure he was not or might not seeme to be perjur'd for his courtesie which all Kings will not hazard though he layd the guilt or dishonour at their doores whither God hath brought allreadie a portion of their just punishment that constraind him saying I conceive those men are guiltic of the enforced persurie if so it may seem who compell me to take this new and strange way of discharging my trust by seeming to desert it of protecting my subjects by exposing my selfe to danger or dishonour for their safetie and quiet Therefore what thoughts he had of your parties medling with the Militia may be best judg'd by his words How great invasion in that kinde will state rebellion in a Parliament when there 's any as there was none at that time nor since shall be told you when the Bishop gives you occasion to demand it Or if you can not stay so long I must send you againe to the judicious Digges to satiate your too curious and greedie appetite of such fare as will not well be digested in many stomackes To the nulling yourCovenant by His Majesties proclamation you say nothing because it separates him from the partie to which you attribute all malignance and you know you can not securelie medle with him but in a croud In the Bishops second demonstration we must be beholding to you for giving what you can not keep with any credit which more awes you then conscience That where the mater is evidentlic unlawfull the oath is not binding The application of which up to your covenant will be justified when brought to the touch by Gods lawe or the Kingdome 's But you first summon it before reason which helpes you with no rule To lay aside what might be otherwise rectified were there cause for 't Nor any evidence that the burden of Bishops and ceremonies was so heavie as to presse you into the necessitie of a Covenant This his Lordship need not offer to dispute since the King ever offerd a regulation of that order and those rites by the primitive paterne wherein it otherwise differed then in a necessarie innocent compliance with the politike constitution of his Kingdome And the Church had render'd all rational satisfaction aswell for the ceremonies reteined as those abolish'd And both by particular men most eminent in learning and judgement had been unanswerablie maintained in every graine or scruple that could be quaestion'd or complaind of Yet the praesent government how light soever is burdensome especiallie to men that looke for advantages by the change And the worst of men can seeme as serious in complaint as if their vertues had been the onelie martyrs to crueltie and the very common hackneyes for oppression Quid reliqui habemus praeter miseram animam came out which a sad sigh from Catiline before his bankrupt Comrades who had left no such subject for rebellion to thetoricate on if their lives had been as good pawnes in the midst of their prodigalitie as their lands This your method of reformation whereof the Bishop complaines for which you plead custome failes not onelie in the maner but of the power the most material requisite to effect it And the high path way is not so ordinarie as you can name the Parliament that ever trod in it before We in England having no such custome nor indeed any where the true Churches of God as to alter religion and government without the King To your quaestion which ever shelters fraud in universals I particularlie answer and to our purpose 1. That the Houses of Parliament are not to begin with an ordinance for a covenant or oath to change the lawes of the Realme to abolish the Discipline of the Church and the Liturgie lawfullie established by the sword which are the Bishops words before the Kings consent be sought to that beginning much lesse when his dissent is foreknow'n of that
E Huntley's case truelie related 61 I. K. Iames a greater Anti-Presbyterian then Anti-Erastian 64 The Praelates title to Impropriations and Abbey lands beter then that of Presbyters 137 Presbyterian indulgence in cases of sedition and rebellion 47 Their monstrous ingratitude for the too liberal graces of K. Ch. I. 104 The Kings concessions to the Irish more justifiable then the other could be to the Scotish Presbyterian demands 146 The Pr. Scots endeavours to impose their Discipline upon England 5 The Assemblie at Westminster having no power to authorize it 6 Many of the Presbyteries in Scotland have very unfit unable Iudges 174 Iurisdiction Ecclesiastical sloweth from the Magistrate 34 Sc. Presbyters usurpe Civile jurisdiction 69 No power of jurisdiction in what the Reviwer misse interprets the Church 108 Nor in a companic mot together 109 K. THe election of a King not originallie justifiable in any people 164 K. Ch. I. not inclinable though by counterseit promises praevail'd with to cast himselfe upon the Presbyterian Scots Ans. to Ep. Ded. 12 His writings not interlined by the Bishops The Reviewers commendation of them unawares Ibid. 〈◊〉 K. Ch. II. hath expressed no inelination to the Covenant If any praeventive disswasion of His Majesties from it hath been used by the Praelatical pattie it was a dutifull act of conscience and prudence 149 His Majestie can not so easilie will not so readilie grant what his Royall Father denied 191 Scots Presbyterians never seriouslie asscribed any good intentions to K. Ch I. nor 2. 197 L. MOre learning under Episcopacie then Presbyterie 150 The King supreme Legislatour 193 The Bishops share in making lawes as great as any one of the three Estates Ibid. Our Liturgie why read A parallel of it with primitive formes fiter then with the Breviarie 156 The Church of Scotland hath had a liturgie not onelie for helpe but practice 160 The Presbyterians hypocritical use of it 161 M. THe Magistrates definitive judgement in Synods owned by the Reformed Divines both Praelatical and Presbyterian 28 Sc. Presbytetie will have Magistrates subject to the Kirke 120 Presbyters why against clandestine marriages 166 Consent of Parents how to be required Ibid. No obedience due to them commanding an unjust marriage 169 The Bishops cautelous in giving license for clandestine marriages 170 Gods mercie in praeserving Arch-Bishop Maxwel falsified by the Reviewer 3 The businesse about the Spanish Merchants sophisticated 80 Sc. Presbyters controllers in the Militia 79 The power of it in the King 186 Pr. Ministers rebellious meeting at Mauchlin moore 119 They exceed their commission 121 Their power with the people dangerous to the government 122 Their rebellious proceeding in the persecution of Arch-Bishop Montgomerie and Arch-Bishop Adamson 43 The murders other prodigious impieties acted by the Sc. Presbyterians in prosecution of their ends 82 The scale of degrees whereby they asscended to the murder of K. Ch. I. 38 Which might have been foreseen by their propositions never repealed 76 Murder may be pardoned by the King who hath been petitioned in that case by the Disciplinarians themselves 60 N. THe King 's negative voyce justified as well in Scotland as England 77 What is the power of his affirmative 78 The Sc. Presbyters gave the occasion and opportunitie for the Nobles to get the Ecclesiastike revenue The Episcopacie more then titular they kept up 15 Presbyterie more oppressive to the Nobilitie Gentrie then Praelacie 130 Noblemen why chosen Elders 〈◊〉 131 Where such how slighted by the Presbyters 139 O. SC. Presbyters assume the arbitration of oeconomical differences 68 The Officers appointed by Christ in his Church need not be restrained to the number of five Nor those taken to be the same the Presbyterians would have them 106 The Officials Court a more competent Iudicatoric then the Classical Presbyterie 132 No power of ordination in the Presbybyterie 108. 142 No comfortable assurance but from Apostolical succession Episcopal ordination which Presbyterians want Ibi. The Sc. Presbyterians trial before ordination more formal then truelie experimental of abilitie in the persons 150 The qualification different from that required by the Bishops 152 The original of the pretended oath taken by the King for securitie of the Sc. Discipline 163 P. THe Sc. Assemblies decrees to be ratified by Parliament 24 As those of our Convocations 32 Presbyterie makes Parliaments subject to Assemblies 120 The Parliament of Scotland in no capacitie to make demands after the murder of the King 163 Presbyterie hath no claime to the Church patrimonie given by Episcopal founders and benefactours 25 Their disputes with Princes about Church revenue 63 The original right of patronage in Lay persons 136 Peirth Assemblie 1596. 111 Provision under Episcopacie against the povertie of such as are ordained 153 The Praelats still of the same minde rhey were about the rights and priviledges of Bishops 103 Reason of bidding prayer before sermon 159 In the Canon forme is no prayer for the dead 160 Set formes of no use to beginers that pray by the spirit 161 The gift of prayer in the Pater Noster Ibid. Presbyterians divided about prayer 162 The injuries by extemporarie prayer Ibi. Presbyteries when and how erected in Scotland Bishops to praeside in them 20 Christianitie at its first entrance into Scotland brought not Presbyterie with it 22 Fallacie in the immediate division of religion into Presbyterian Popish 53 No authoritie of Scripture for the many practices of Scotish Presbyterie 101 Litle knowledge labour or conscience shewed in Presbyterian preaching 154 Scotish Presbyterians beter conceited of themselves then of any other Reformed Church to which yet they praetend a conformitie in their new model 198 K. Iames's speach concerning Scotish Presbyterie 30 How a King may and when exercise the office of a Priest 195 Sc. Presbyteries processe for Church rents 33 The same fault under a different formalitie not to be twice punished 126 Q. K. Iames's 55. Quaestions 111 R. REading Ministers usefull and justifiable in our Church 154 The Praelats doe not annull the being of all Reformed Churches 143 Though they have no full assurance 144 The Reviewers speach of Bishops and Peirth articles 199 The Church of Rome true though not most true 145 A rigid separation from her in many things needlesse 146 Assemblies can reforme onelie according to canon not the canon 84 The Primitive Christians reformation different from that of Sc. Presbyterians 85 That of the Church of England began rather at K. Edw. VI. then Henr. VIII 86 The Parliament can noâ—… reforme without the King 188 Resistance against the person of the Magistrate can not be made inobedience to his office 35 Reviewer willfullie missetakes the scope of the Bishops booke 45 His barbarous implacable malice against the dead 49 A riot under praetense of taking a Priest at Masse 91 Abetted by Knoxe with his confessed interest in many more 92 The Pr. Scots must bring beter markes then their bare words for revelations 201 S. FOraigne
beleeve But that in the Assemblie 1590. the Kings consent to it was obtaind I can sooner admit upon undeniable authoritie then your Logike you pretend not to the perpetuitie of His Majesties personal praesence which was but some times it should seem not at that time of general consent Nor is your Act for subscription so cleare in the assurance you give us that His Majesties Commissioner was there you onelie take it for granted he was among the herd Nor so explicite in his positive consent you onelie collect it from a clowdie universal to serve your turne honour him with a primacie in suffrage Wherein you are a litle redundant in courtesie there having been a time when if His Majestie or His Commissioner siting in Assemblie should denie his voyce to any thing which appear'd unjust repugnant to his lawes yet it that were concluded by most voyces you would tell him he was bound jure divino to inforce obedience to your Act. The case for ought I know stood no otherwise here in this Assemblie Where to discountenance the testimonie you bring you have been told long before now That the superintendents of Angus Lothian Fife c. George Hayes Commissioner from the North. Arbuthnoth of Aberdene others were dissenters from this Act about the discipline whereby His Majesties or His Commissioners consent becomes somewhat improbable to the authoritie whereof such men as they had in prudence submitted if not in dutie by their silence That States-men in Parliament oppos'd it is evident That the King ever endeavourd to get it passe is your single assertion Neque usquam sictum neque pictum neque scriptum If your Church did it was for want of worke for you told us even now To this a particular ratisication of Parliament was unnecessarie What the Bishops opinion is about the patrimonie of the Church how farre by whom what part of it may be law fullie alienated when just occasion is given I praesume His Lordship freelic faythfullie will declare In the meane time his chalenge against the Scotish Presbyterians is without hypocrise injustice Himselfe many other good Prelates having ever aesteem'd it a fault to call the annexing some part of the Church revenues unto the crowne a detestable sacriledge before God Nor can Mr. Baylie instance in any indefinite disputes including all that hath been or shall be given to the Church that have hapened since the first reformation between the Kings of England their Bishops Who had they found their Princes rapacious sequestratours would not have failed in their dutie modestlie to admonish them of the danger yet had it may be abstained from calling them theeves murderers peculiar termes characteristical of the Discipline-To which I thinke I shall doe no injustice if I assert that the revenues of Bishops Dcanes Arch-deacous of Chapellries Friaries of all orders together with the sisters of the seenes abstracting from the favour of Princes no more belong to the Scotish Presbyters then they doe to the Mufties of the Turke The intention of the doners having never been that such strange catell should feed in their pastures Nor can M. Baylie shew me any law that makes him heir to Antichrist or a just inheriter of his lands Beside methinkes the weake stomack'd brethren should take checke at the meate offered unto idols any silken sould Presbyter be too nice to array himselfe in the ragges of Rome or be cloth'd at that cost that belong'd to the idolatrous Priesthood of Baal But it may be in the heate of Reformation they went to worke with the coyning irons which they more then once got into their possession with them altered the impression of the beast And the mattokes shoucls Which other armes being wanting they very often tooke in their hands were possiblie onelie to turne up the Church land whereever crop had been reap't by Antichrist that abominable glebe went downe to the center of the earth What he talkes about the Praelatical jus divinum their taking possessions by commands from Court without a processe requires his instance then he shall have his answer In the interim he playes the hypoctite in a question What if then the Disciplinarians had gone to advance that right to all jusdivinum when the Assemblie at Edenburgh did so April 24. 1576. But he sayth all the Scots can be challeng'd for is a mere declaration of their judgement simple right in a supplication to the Regents Grace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These Scots judgement was not allwayes in righteousnesse and their simplicitie in supplicates had many times more of the Lion then the Lambe Witnesse that to the Queen Regent 1559. where they declare their judgements freelie as true faithfull subjects they tell her yet this is the style of that declaration …Except this crueltie be stayed by your wisdome We shall be compelled to take the sword of just defense c. …If ye give eare to their pestilent counsel…neither ye neither yet your posteritie shall at any time after this finde that obedience faythfull service within this Realme which at all times ye have found in us In the assemblies supplications to the Lords of secret Councel May 28. 1561. the second article annexed to which was for the maintenance of the ministerie this Before ever these tyrants dumbe dogs Empire above us…we…are fullie determin'd to hazard life whatsoever we have recived of God in temporall things…And let these enemies of God assure themselves That if your Honours put not order unto them That we shall shortlie take such order That they shall neither be able to doe what they list neither yet to live upon the sweat of the browe December 25. 1566. They order requiring instead of Supplicating Churh censures to the disobedient Their sixt head of Church rents in the first booke of Discipline runnes very imperiouslie upon the must The Gentlemen Barons c. must be content to live upon their just rents suffer the Kirke to be restored to her libertie And Jul. 21. 1567. They tell them they shall doe it shall passe nothing in Parliament untill it be done That ever any assemblie in Scotland did make any other addresse to the Parliament for stipend then by way of such humble supplication I grant is a great untruth Nor were onelie the birds thus petition'd for but time after time all tithes rents whatsâ—…ever could be comprized under the patrimonie of the Church were demanded as insolentlie as could be which meetes me every where in their storie as frequentlie as Mr. Baylies dissembling falsifying in his Review In the last instance the Bishop denies not but there was a time when a kinde of Presbyteries was legallie approv'd receiv'd And this I presume he will admit to be after the Assemblie 1580. About which allreadie you have indeed alledged more untruth then you
had authoritie to shew for it I have given you as much as that you brought will beare What His Lordship brings here is another discoverie That you did erect them in your Assemblie Acts put them in execution as farre as you durst before any Parliament had pass'd them And Synodicallie established such as no Parliament had passed For this he cites your Acts of several Assemblies which you must either disavow or unriddle what the mistake is you impute Vnlesse you thinke good to save that labour confesse aswel as other your Brethren what is so manifest in your storie The particulars of your proceedings herein Arch-Bishop Bancroft long since collected in his booke of Dangerous Positions Where he shewes how you not onelie acted your selves at home but sent your emissaries into England to see the like practice there in the very face of Episcopal Government What other reasons beside the recalling the Church patrimonie caus'd the refusall of your second booke of Discipline I told you before Which with the rest may suffice to the vindication of what the Bishop premiseth in proofe of the conclusion he makes That the Dissiplinarians by their practies have trampled upon the lawes justled the Civile Magistrate out of his Supremacie in Ecclesiastical affaires His Lordship proceedes to his scrutinie of your doctrine wherein if he yet be more happie as you courteouslie tell us possiblie he will I shall take you to have the spirit of Tirestas having justlie lost your eye-sight for rash judging to be now better at prophesying then reviewing Which immediatelie appeares by your wandring at noonday being at a losse for that which every man may finde in the very place cited by the Bishop None are subject to repaire to this the National Assemblie to vote but Ecclesiastical persons c. This His Lordship conceives to crosse the Kings supremacie which being aswell Ecclesiasticall as civile gives him a power of voting presiding in Assemblies Nor was there ever act of free Parliament in Scotland old or late nor any regular justifiable practice of that Church but reserv'd this power to the King his deputed Commissioner without being chosen member of any Presbyterie or made a ruling elder in a National Assemblie which your booke of Discipline calls the generall Eldership of the Kirke Your hypercriticizing upon his thoughts while the spirit of divination comes upon you makes his Lordship no Super-Erastian in his doctrines Though what transscendent haeresie there is in a moderate answer to the malice in your question any of your aequitable comparers may reade in what Vedelius and Paraeus no herctikes I hope have published to that purpose as the doctrine of all reformed Churches the one quoting Bellarmine the other Stapleton as proper patrons of the Sub-Erastian principles in the Discipline Vedelius in his preface giving the world a caveat of the danger by the mischiefe it had brought upon England Scotland in the yeare 1638. How opposite they were to the Disciplinarian language sense in that particular which the Bishop remonstrates these single propositions can evidence Multo magu est Christiani Magistratus non solùm apprehensivè discretivè sed definitivè de religione judicare Here a definitive vote is asserted to the Magistrate …ad Magistratum pertinet judicium de religione seu rebus fidei causis Ecclesiasticis…tum formaliter tum objectivè Hereby a formal judgement in religion is attributed And this Doctor Rivet who I am told is call'd reverenc'd in the French Dutch Churches as the Calvin of these times hath vouched under his hand to be the Catholike doctrine of the Reformed If he had not we are sure it was the primitive practice of the good Christian Emperours to assume it to whom our conformitie is requisite Of Constantine the great who was personallie present in the Councel of Nice is sometimes called koinonos épiscopoumenon for his communite of suffrage with the Bishops Of the Emperour Theodosius who in the Councel of Constantinople sifted the several Confessions of the Arians Macedonians Eunomians as Brentius relates it cast himselfe upon his knees craving the assistance of Gods spirit to direct him in the choyce of what was most consonant to the doctrine of the Apostles Which epicrisis or completive judgement submitted unto by the Ancient Synods had these authoritative termes to expresse it Bebaioun épipscphizesthai épisphragizesthai cratinein cratioun epikyroun tà pepragmena To the exercise hereof the Discipline of your Reformed Brethren in these Countreyes not onelie admits but craves the presence suffrage of Delegates from the supreme Magistrate without which their Synodical Acts are not establish'd Quin etiam summi Magistratus delegati sunt postulandi ut in ipsorum praesentia eorumque suffragio Synodi Acta concludantur Nor did K. James any more in the Conference at Hampton Court then when in freedome He would have done in any Scotish Presbyterian Assemblie though he hated the name thought of the thing when somewhat was propounded that did not like him put it of with Le Roy Pavisera Rev. Yet the most of the prelatical partie will not maintaine him heerin Ans. Bishop Andrewes will in his Tortura Torti Bishop Field whom your friend Didoclave calls Hierambicorum eruditissimum in his volume of the Church beside many others And possiblie those that seem to be opposite may be reconcil'd if you have the maners to let them state the question among themselves The chiefe case wherein they not you instance of Leontius Bishop of Tripolis in his answer to Constantius the Emperour may be attended with circumstances which may terminate the dispute if not we must not take it on their word that for that as well as his other more regular demeanour he is own'd by Antiquitie to be kánon ecclesias as Suidas records The rule of the Church However it behoves you to cite your lawes to which the Bishops assertion is contrarie And I shall cut you short of that pompous traine which your vanitie holds up in the universal of all the Princes that have lived in Scotland confine you to two the rest being by their Religion unconcern'd in voting though not in permitting any Disciplinarian decrees King Iames the holie martyr King Charles the first who I hope you have not the impudence to say ever made profession so derogatorie to their right In what followes you practise over the fisher-man in the fable from whom you know that unlesse you trouble the water it is in vaine for you to cast in your net if you catch nothing for the Discipline you must sterve The whole paragraph is naught but a malicious seditious inference of your owne whereby you affixe an odious sense to the dutifull attributes of Royal prerogative your owne guilt causing a trembling in your joyuts at the thought of a scepter you buselie creep