Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A65265
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Historicall collections of ecclesiastick affairs in Scotland and politick related to them including the murder of the Cardinal of St. Andrews and the beheading of their Queen Mary in England / by Ri. Watson.
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Watson, Richard, 1612-1685.
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1657
(1657)
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Wing W1091; ESTC R27056
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89,249
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232
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chief points or articles insisted on which I am concerned to observe were these That it is not lawful to fight for the faith nor to defend the faith by the sword Knox to save the reputation of his own proceedings adds if we be not driven to it by necessity which is above all law By the former clause the sword is taken out of the Kings hand who must be no military Defender of the Faith by the latter it is given to the people whose safety having a supremacy above the law may frame an arbitrary necessity to rebell That Christ ordained no Priests to consecrate as they do in the Romish Church these many years The sense whereof is best interpreted by another That every faithfull man and woman is a Priest So that every one consequently even of either Sex may administer the Sacrament of the Altar or at least that no ordination is necessary to endow or qualifie him that consecrates Or lastly That no particular form of words proceeding from his mouth have by Christs institution any speciall efficacy to the transmutation of the common elements into mystical and Sacramental essences conferring grace upon or operating it in the worthy receiver That Tythes ought not to be given to Ecclesiastical men as they were then called to them that since are called Classical I think they are not due to wit wholly saith Knox but a part to the Poor Widow or Orphans and other pious uses and good reason surely for if the widow hath them these pharisaical hypocrites know whence to fetch them and under what pretence to devour the houses where they are As great impiety may be cloaked under the name of pious uses when the principal must be supposed the advancement of the discipline toward which if a chargeable rebellion be found necessary not onely the tenth but the whole stock must be piously imployed and the Poor with the Orphan set out of the way That Christ at his comming hath taken away all power from Kings to judge and That the unction of Kings ceased at the comming of Christ Of this Knox is ashâ—med and will therefore needs have the article not to be the Lollards their Ancestors but the venemous accusation of the enemies whereas both in his time and ours howsoever disguised according to this doctrine hath proceeded the whole practice of the Presbytery against their Princes That the blessings of Bishops are of no value which passeth onely with this charitable animadversion by the same hand of dumb dogs they should have been styled That the excommunication of the Kirk is not to be feared That in no case it is lawfull to swear That true Christians receive the body of Iesus Christ every day by faith So no need of the Sacrament That after Matrimony be contracted and consummate the Kirk may make no divorcement That faith should not be given to Miracles so that it should seem Christ was mistaken in his means to propagate the Gospel That we are no-more bound to pray in the Kirk than in other places That they which are called Princes and Prelates in the Church are thievs and robbers These men Knox calls the servants of God whose merciful providence he magnifies in preserving the register of their tenents who without publick doctrine he means by the authority of a general Assembly gave so great light to the Kingdom of Scotland The importunity used by some of their faction about the King prevailed for their pardon the rather because some ridiculous apertnesse in their answers rendred them men not of depth to carry on a design and this discovery was thought enough to awe them and the check they had from Court to restrain them for many years after was little controversie had about Religion untill Patrick Hamilton Abbot of Ferne a man though devout yet of an hot and violentspirit discontented at home passeth over into Germanie where at Wittenberg meeting with Luther and Melancthon as he encreased his dislike of the doctrine he left professed in Scotland so he did his animosity against the persons of Bishops and such as had the government of that Church The zeal of Gods glory as Knox writeth did so eat him up that he could not long continue to remain there but to ease his stomack he returns into his Country and as if he had been vested with Apostolick Commission he solicites disputes and with too much virulenâ—y declaimes against the divinity of the times taking the Reformation both of Pulpit and Schools into his care The sound hereof comes soon to the ears of the Archbishop of S. Andrews the particulars were chiefly debated by Cambell a Dominican Frier and learned Thomist with whom he had disputed at large and being somewhat pleased that he had as he thought and the other professed made him his convert he was beyond expectation by the same man accused of Heresie and upon his articles condemned to be burnt for trifles as Knox saies viz. Pilgrimage Purgatory Prayer to Saints and for the dead Yet as great a Martyr as he was his printed work shewes him to have been a more subtil Sophister than orthodox Divine To omit the great discouragement he gives to Christian endeavours by this assertion in terminis The law bindeth us to do that which is impossible for us and the cold water he casts upon practick obedience by this The law doth nothing but command thee explaining it to be onely to inform our knowledge God not requiring nor expecting performance putting off that obligation upon Christ His perverting the sense of many texts in Scripture from which he draws two ungrounded licentious conclusions Faith onely saveth Increduliâ—y onely condemneth whereby good works are cashir'd and a salve is found for all bad ones the world the flesh the Devill can suggest to His bold enlargement of the Apostles assertion excluding from our Iustification Charity which is the work of the Gospell which we act by the benefit of Christs passion and by the assistance of his grace because he exempts the works of the law His sophistry in an antithetical argument No works make us righteous Ergo No works make us unrighteous whereas S. Paul saith That the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of heaven and he declares such unrighteous as do the works of the flâ—sh Mismâ—kâ—ng works onely characters of a good or evil man and the reward to bear by consequence no proportion unto them which is contrary to the Evangelicall doctrine That God will reward every man according to his works Beside that through the whole series of his wriâ—ing he makes Christianity an idle speculative profession a mere perspective of the passion of Christ For all which I impute not to him the guilt of heresie nor excuse them that executed him as such The reverence that had been paid him for his strictness of life and
to marry whom she pleased Queen Elizabeth not liking the Perth Parliaments answer nor the young Messenger that brought it they call'd another at Sterlin and from thence sent Pelkarn with a subtile enlargement about their declining the two former of her three Propositions but because they saw so long as the exil'd Queen had the countenance of Queen Elizabeth she had oppoâ—tunity to encourage and some means to assist their enemies which now began to be somewhat potent they take a sure way to set the two Queens at variance by severall suggestions wherein what was true had been done by Murray's advice if not fiâ—st procurement the private overture of a Marriage between the Queen of Scots and the Duke of Norfolk and what was false they were sure would incense Queen Elizabeth and prevent all possibility of farther mischief from the South Of this nature was That she had passed away to the D. of Andyn her right to the Crown of England That She and the Duke of Norfolke intended to cut off the present Royall possâ—ssours of both Kingdomes which plotâ— must be discoverd by providence just at Pelcarnes coming to the English Court whereupon the Queen and Duke were presently secured After this the Regent Murray goes on with less opposition and better success in Scotland yeâ— in the midst of his victories was rewarded for his murders rebellions and falsehood being shot at Lithgow in the belly upon a private revenge and so prevented of dispatching the young Prince which may be very fairly guessed by his proceedings to be intended his Mother boasting her self to have been the Wife not the Harlot of Iames the fifth and so this her son the lawfull inheritor of the Crown The holy Brethren would fain had Murray cannoniz'd for a Saint and Martyr in the cause and his bloud reveng'd they car'd not upon whom so any of the Queens dutifull Subjests might be cut off To bring such upon tryal as stood most in their way were many popular supplicates presented and what reason was rendred for deferring the enquiry at least till the Assizes if not rather till the next Assembly in May they either take for a close compliance of their Peers with the Queens or an impolitick yielding advantage to their enemies At length some of the wisest began to put in questions by what authority they could proceed to this or any other execution of Laws the Queen being deposed the King in his non-age and no legal establishment to be made of a successor to Murray in his Regency of the Kingdome Fain would they have made use of an old by grant extorted from the Queen but that they found null by the former election of Murray and if now taken up for authentick might be thought a recalling her Majesties authority from the dead This not holding good they leave all their sawcy French Proverbs behind them and come fawning upon Queen Elizabeth in English she denies them as well advice as assistance having before made plausible promises of both to the Queen of Scots though her prisoner The Rebeâ—lâ— were sensible what ground the Quâ—ens party daily got by their Anarchy though their necessities hastened them toward a conclusion of somewhat yet not knowing what they were to seek by what means and in what method to effect it Queen Elizabeth who seem'd not fullâ— satisfied with the thing must not be disgusted by the person The Earl of Lenox the young King's Grandfather is pitcht on for several reasons looking that way and first upon some Assembly revelation he was chosen an Interrex or Interloping King which soon after by some divine counter-light was discovered to be a monster in Government suspected for Saturnes unnatural stomack that might possibly devoure the young King and Iesus Christs Scepter to boot which the Presbytery had given him to play with in his hand To avoid this danger they divest him of his intercalary Kingship and having no law upon earth to impower them they furnish him with a Regency from heaven And now in his time no question all Parliamentary as well as Assembly authority may plead to be by divine right and their proceedings are justified by this extraordinary providence of God Upon this Patent the new Regent reforms what he could by the sword according to the true sense of the Discipline The poor captive Queen in compliance with the principles of nature and likewise in discharge of her civil duty who had the trust though not possession of a Kingdome by submisse yet enough Majestick requests in England by a mediation from France and Spain agitates what she can for her liberty and this for stopping farther effusion of Christian bloud in her Countrey and preventing the progresse of oppressive tyranny over her party Queen Elizabeth sensible of these unchristian proceedings by her arbitrary power sometimes orders a truce between the Scots gives fair answers as well to her prisoner as forein Ambasdours that interceded for her adviseth with her Council Wherein some were mis lead by too facile credulity of false informations from the North others not improbably corrupted all too much adâ—cted to their own interests and an overweening solicitude about the peace and security of England This begat an overture too high and imperious for a magnanimous free-born Princesse to yield to put new thoughts and designs into the Pope Spaniard and French enlarged the breach between her English Subjects for they had been divided and some unsatisfied in the proceedings relating to the Scotch Queen reviv'd and multiplied conspiracies at home Into all these did the northwind blow the sparkles of the Disciplinarian Rebellion which more or less encreased the flame where they lighted if upon matter ready to fire with a touch Queen Elizabeth finding her self environ'd with danger and apprehending no possible security but in a perfect composure of the Scotch differences in order to it calls upon the Presbyterian division for a new account about the deposition of their Queen They exhibit a large remonstrance upon it stuffed with so much pride and barbarous insolence as left no place for religion reason or law although they were great pretenders to the last pleading Ancient priviledge of the Scotch peoples superiority to their Prince This for which their Reformed Brethren may thank them they fortified with Calvins authority and in some cases enlarged it to imprisoning and deposing Kings what or wheresoever They not onely justified their censure but magnified their own lenity to their Queen as to the paâ—doning of her life to the succession of her son who being in their power and standing onely by their pleasure no marvail if in this years Assembly and Parliament all Acts and Statutes made before by him and his Predecessors annext the freedom and liberty of the true Kirk of God aâ—e ratified by his name whenas yet he could not superscribe them with his hand Queen