Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	england_n	great_a	king_n	4,201	5	3.7869	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86729	Digitus testium, or A dreadful alarm to the vvhole kingdom, especially the Lord Major, the aldermen, and the Common-Councel of the City of London. Or a short discourse of the excellency of Englands lawes and religion. Together, with the antiquity of both, and the famous Kings that England hath had to defend both the religion and the laws against the heathen Romish emperours, and against the Romish power, under Popes. With the several plots the Popes of Rome have used against the Kings of England, to throwe them down, and how of late he hath prevailed against the magistracy and ministery of England, his new designes, and manner of progress: together, with a serious view of the new oath or ingagement, with 22. queries upon the same. And also objections made against the non-subscribers thereof answered. Let the ingenuous reader take so much pains, as to read that incomparable peece of vindication of a treatise of monarchy by way of discovery of three main points thereof.	Hall, Henry, d. 1680, attributed name.; Hall, Edmund, 1619 or 20-1687, attributed name.	1651 (1651)	Wing H339A; Thomason E621_13; ESTC R206419	34,005	37

three Estates cannot be molested yet the instruments that he implies against Law may be tryed This Law is most agreeable to the Law of God and the Law of nature to the Law of God for Kings are the Representatives of God on earth and none can touch them we see this clear in two famous instances in Saul who could crimes have brought him under the censure of men had enough to dethrone him for he was a Tyrant a murtherer and a publick enemy to the Church and State yet David when he could have done justice upon him said God forbid for he is the Lords anointed the declared King of Israel And David that was guilty of murther and adultery both of them deserving death by the Law yet was not questioned by his Subjects because God only hath the power of punishing Kings and not man This is most agreeable to the Law of nature for if Kings should be subject to their Subjects then the order must needs be confounded and the Law of nature utterly rooted up which orders approves no further then the supreme Authority which if judged by any is not the supreme and so produceth confusion and infinition Therefore we conclude that the Laws of England are the best Laws in the World in every respect both for matter form and distribution And as for Laws so for pure Religion it is beyond all other Nations it received the Apostolick faith almost if not all out as soon as Rome that brags of its antiquity Gindas telleth us that England received the Gospel in the Apostles dayes Joseph at Armathea bringing it into the Kingdom and Origen and Turtullian tell us that it received the Gospel as soon as any Natian in Europe This we are sure that it hath retained it in its purity the longest of any Nation it had a great share in the Presevitians under the Heathen Emperours of Rome after that under the Arrian and Entichion Heresies and after that under Popus the bloudiest and cruellest enemy to the Church so that from the Apostles time till this day Christian Religion though sometimes obscured never was obliterate nor extinct in the Kingdom And as this Kingdom hath been famous for Laws and Religion above others so it hath been the famousest in the World for Religious and valiant Kings to protect it and eminent Ministers to divulge it Lucious the Son of Coilus who was King of England was the first Christian King Jesus Christ smiling upon this Nation above all others in blessing it with a righteous King which was a miracle in the World at that time Constantine the 8. King of England after Lucius who was the Son of beautiful Helea King Coil his Daughter of England whom she brought forth at York he becam Emperour of Rome conquering the Heathen Emperours with a Brittish Army and so converted Rome Heathen into Rome Christian the famousest Reformation that ever was wrought in the World so that England is famous for being the first Christian Kingdom and setting up Christian Empire English Kings having been the only great friends to true Religion in the time of Paganisme And as they were the greatest friends to Christs Church against Rome Pagan so they have been the greatest friends to the true Chucrch against Rome Antixfian for about the year 1070. when the Pope was in his full height of soverainty the Normons line succeeding the Saxons in England were the first Kings that contemned the Popes Authority William the Conqueror spit at him and Wilt Rufus who succeeded him openly spake against the Popes usurped power of binding and loosing withstanding and rejecting his intrapped fopperies declaring against the Pope the folly of invocating Saints he plucked proud Arch Bishop Anselmes nose under his Girdle in despight of the Pope and so did the royal Family of the Plantagenets The Tudors and the Stuarts got their several parts in greater degrees against the Pope as they succeeded each other So that the Normans may be said to resist the Pope the Plantagenets to grapple with the Pope the Tudors to unhorse the Pope and the Stuarts to stob the Pope King James being the first King that writ against him proved him to be Antichrist Against the Kings of England the Popes have born an old grudge and indeavoured to destroy those Kings or Queens which resisted their Authority at least 12. Treasons against Q. Elizabeth were discovered and prevented which so frustrated Pope Pius Quintus projects that it broke his heart for malice that he could not with his Bulls which with his own hands he sealed depose and dethrone the Protestant Queen for she took occasion from the Popes wickedness and the Papists treachery to extirpate Priests and Jesuites out of the Kingdom whereupon Pope Gregory 13. erected a Colledge on purpose for English Priests and Jesuites that fled from England to Rome and another at Doway which was much nearer England that they might there both frame their granadoes of Treason against the English Court and receive such persons as were succesless in their Treason and made escapes out of England Against King James besides that Treason of Warson and Clarke the prodigious Gunpowder-plot was contrived by the Papists to destroy the King the Prince the House of Lords and the House of Commons in the twinkling of an eye upon this ground because Pope Clement 8. by a Bull Commanded that the King should not be crowned without a toleration of Popery but God prevented that prodigious blowe Hereupon the King and the Parl framed the Oath of allegiance to be taken by every subject in the Kingdom 't is thus I. A. B do truly and sincerely acknowle●ge profess testifie and declare in my Conscience before God and the World that our Soveraign Lord K. James is lawful and rightful King of this Realm and of all other His Maj. Dominions and Countries and that the Pope neither of himself nor by any Authority of the Church or See of Rome or by any other means with any other hath any power of Authority to depose the King or dispose any of his Majesties Kingdoms or Dominions or to authorize any forraign Prince to invade or anoy him or his Countries or to discharge any of his subjects of the allegiance and obedience to His Majesty or to give license to any of them to bear Arms or offer any violence or hurt to His Maj. person State or Government or to any of His Maj. Subjects I do swear from my hear● that no withstanding any Declaration or excom. against the King his Heirs and Successours or any absolution of the said Subjects from their obedience I will bear faith and true Religion to His Maj. His Heirs and Successors and him and them will defend to the utmost of my power against all conspiracies and attempts whatsoever and I do detest and abhorre as impious and heretical the damnable Doctrine of the Pope that Princes may be excommunicated and deprived of their Kingdoms deposed and murthered by their

in so doing whether we do not approve of their cutting off the King throwing down the House of Lords and casting out all the Covenant-keeping Commons with the rest of the Covenant keeping Officers in the Kingdom hereby contracting the guilt of Blood Treason and other foul Enormities to our selves by being partaker in other mens sins which David Psal. 1. bids us neither to sit with nor stand with nor walk with not to have the least communion with Object But is objected by the ablest of them from Rom. 13. 1 2. That that the Powers that be are to be obeyed let them be what they will be if they are in being they are to be obeyed because they are the Ordinance of God Ans. The Apostle layeth this Command upon Subjects not to rebel against the visible Supream Authority this the Engagers hold to be the sence of the Apostle if so then hence we draw this Argument Whatsoever subiects shal Rebel against a visible supream Authority they resist the Ordinance of God But an Army and other subiects in contradicting the Votes of the two Houses cutting off the King and pulling down the house of Lords Rebel against the Supream Authoritie Ergo Here is an Argument ad hominem so that the Apostle seems to tell us that usurping powers are not the Ordinance of God but the resisters of the Ordinance of God and therefore by their own Arguments the present power is rather to be dealt with as resisters of the visible Supream Authority then obeyed or acknowledged for Supream As for that of Christs acknowledging Caesar 't is well known the Case is far different from ours for the Roman Emperors had conquered Iudea many years before and the whole Nation became Tributary to the Romans the Supream Authority of the Iews acknowledged Caesar to be their King We have no King but Caesar and they had for a certain Tribute compounded with Caesar which Tribute money Christ forbids them not but commands them to pay if the Iews will Covenant with Caesar Christ bids them not break Covenant with Caesar and this is all and how far is this from our Case Iesus Christ is a great enemy to usurpation and so much abhors that Christians should subject unto it especially under the Gospel that he cals it Devil worship Revel 13. 4. Subjecting to a Tyrannicall Government is called the worshiping of the Devil Verse 1 2. the beast arising out of the Sea i. e. the Ecclesiastical State meaning the Pope the great Independant or the world verse 2. to whom the Devil the Dragon gave his seat and power and great authority The Dragons seat before Constantine was the Emperial Throne seated at Rome this the Devil gave the Pope and why is it said the Devil gave him his power and seat but because he got it in the Devils way by lying Covenant-breaking Rebellion against their Leige Masters the Emperors and his murthering and dethroning of them and usurping their authority This usurped power of the Pope verse 3 the world wondered after that is yeelded subjection unto acknowledged his soveraignty and Verse 4. and they worshiped the Dragon how so the next words tell you he gave power to the Beast The Romans did not and the Roman Catholiques did never absolutely professe themselves worshipers of the Devil but in as much as they worshiped an usurped Power a Power gotten by Treachery Rebellion murther and deceit they worshiped the Devil This Text holds out two clear Truths 1. That there are Powers which are not of Gods setting up out of the Devils setting up 2. To subject to such usurped power is subjection to the Devil and as odious in the sight of Christ as worshiping of the Devil Object Kings were ordained in wrath and God was angry with Israel for desiring a King Ergo Kings are not the government approved by God Sol. To this we answer in a word to the Engagers who upon this ground reject the government of Kings 1. God did not give the office of a King but the person of a King in wrath for when God took away the person he continued the office 2. He promised to Abraham that Kings should come of him 3. He that denyes the office of a king denyes Christ who is a King and denyes the established Government in the form of it by God in the Church since Adam 2. God was not angry with them simply for seeking a king but 1. for their manner of seeking a king they would seek one in the pride of their heart onely to be like other Nations 1 Sam. 8. 5. their hearts were hankering after not only to be like other Nations government but their Religion ● For that they sought a king inordinately they could not be content with a government that was over them but had an itching discontented humor against the present visible government They made a remonstrance that their Judges were unjust therfore they would be no longer subject to them v. 5. this God is angry at For Subjects to reject or indeavour to change the government of a kingdom or to overthrow the visible lawfull Authority upon dislike of the Government is a God-provoking sin let the Ingagers look to it The supreme Powers are onely disposed of by God Doubtlesse they might have prayed to God in his due time to fulfill his promise Gen. 16. of giving them a king for Israel never came to the high noon of Reformation and glory till kings were set over and that was in Solomon at which time the Church and State of the Jews flourished beyond all things before or since so that in praying for a king in order to the glory of God the accomplishment of his promises and the good of his Church it had been no sin but for the people of their own heads mutinously and in opposition to a visible Authority to desire a king this was a great sin Ob. If Gods providence order such things we must submit to providence and revealed decrees of God lest we be found fighters against God Sol. To this we answer there are the decrees of God and the commands of God we speak of them now as contra-distinct things quo ad nos The precepts or revealed commands of God in his word are the unquestionable rules of Christians at all times whereby to regulate all their actions against which no providence nor necessity can prevail so as to dispense with those Laws or precepts we mean morall precepts such as are naturally moral not morall barely by institution for such a morall differs nothing from ceremoniall except in duration such morall precepts in extremâ necessitate may be dispensed withall as to help an ox out of a pit on the Sabbath day which is a labour and toil and simply a breach of the Sabbath yet in regard of the necessity it gives a dispensation or rather the Law dispenseth with it But as for morall commands which are such by nature they are indispensible rules except in the case

all the World and their damnation sleepeth not be not found amongst the number of Hypocrites Apostates Atheists and Papists persecuting the poor Church the sword is put into your hand for the preservation not for the persecution of a godly zealous Ministery The God of all wisdom direct you for the Churches good and his glory for which ends we dedicate these our Papers to you A short Discourse of the excellency of Englands Laws and Religion c. IT is not unknown to us the Free-born Protestants of England that our Nation claimeth the priority of all other Nations in the World for ancient and famous Laws and Peace and Religion The Laws and Customs of England saith Learned Fortescus are ancienter then the Laws of the Romans yea of the Venetians which are esteemed the ancientest in the World they are more famous then others because better then the Laws of other Nations and that in a threefold respect in the subject matter in the form and 3. in the disposing of them The ras substrata of the statute Laws of England is reason which indeed is the totum compositum of the common Law Common Law is a vast mine of right reason out of which all other Laws are digged and fitly squared to the good of the Kingdom he therefore is esteemed the best Lawyer that spoke the best reason and herein the People of England excel all other Nations in that they are only subjected by the Law to reason and the purest reason which to be is doubtless perfect freedom yea it may truly be affirmed that by the Law they are subjects only to divine reason for we have such a standing Law upon record that whatsoever Custom maxim or Statute shall be faind directly contrary to the Law of God that Custom Maxim Statute or Case shall be ipso facto void and so adjudged And as for the matter for the form the Laws of England are the absolute and undoubted best in the World for as there is universal obedience required and injoyned to every Law inacted for there is a general assent in the acting and constitution of that Law There are 3. estates which concur as joynt causes of the same effect in making of a Law These 3. Conjunctions do make the supreme Authority of the Nation the Apax or Culmen potestatis being set upon the Kings head all Writs and procession issuing out in his name with him are joyned the House of Lords and the House of Commons these 3. divisions are limitted by Law but compunction they have power to repeal or make a Law and none can say unto them why do you so but either of these apart are limitted by Law Limitations of royal power have been made and acknowledged by Magna Charta and several other acts and no obedience acknowledged any otherwise then according to Law and King Charles acknowledged that the measure of his power was the Law and he desired no more then what he was invested with by Law And so of the other two estates of Lords and Commons these three have negative voices alike have freedom in their several places a like freedom to make motions and freedom to reject what they dislike This is the absolutest best Government in the World as is clear from God and Nature God himself who is the Almighty Monark of all Spirits hath pleased to reveal himself to Man in a Trinity of persons and governs the universe by himself Angels and Men Celestical Bodies by Sun Moon and Stars the little World Man by understanding will and affections and the Kingdom of England by King Lords and Commons The King of himself cannot make a Law of himself if he do t is tyranny nor the Lords in a part by themselves nor the Commons by themselves against the other two if they do it is usurpation exceeding presumption perjury and Treason for they are sworn to the contrary by their Oaths of allegiance and supremacy to act nothing against the Crown and Dignity of their Soveraign Lord the King besides they are sworn to maintain the Priviledges of Parliament The King makes the first of these three Estates by a right which is not by election nor by Conquest simply but by inheritance for the Saxon Kings laying the plat-form of good Government here in England continued it succesfully until the Danes drove them into Corners subduing them for a time the which they soon recovered again and so recovered their ancient Customs and Laws again and continued them Edward the Confessor who was of the Saxon line having no Heir descending of his body intended to make Edgar Ethling Gran-child to Ironside his successor but Edward the Confessor dying Harrold-Earl Godwins Sonne being popular for his Victories usurped the Crown and dispossessed the right Heir deluding William of Normandy to whom he had promised by Oath the Government of the Kingdom after the death of Edward William Duke of Normandy hereupon pleads a right to the Crown of England by promise as he said from Edward the Confessor and hereupon brought an Army with him from Normandy and gave battel to Harold the Usurper at Hastings in Sussex where he overthrow'd him by whose overthrow there was way made for a Treaty betwixt Duke William and the Nobles and Citizens then at London Duke William pleaded his right by promise as having a grant of the Kingdom made to him by Edward the Confessor and confirmed by Harrold who forswore himself and usurped the Crown hereupon Duke William was received and acknowledged King by the Nobles and City of London after this Edgar Ethling who indeed was the right Heyr compounded with Duke William and for a royal allowance which Duke William granted him he reconciled himself to him and thus William came in as Successour to Edward the Saxon King and so it succeeded from the Normans to the Plantagenets Henry the 2. being the Sonne of Maud Henry the 1. his Daughter whom he married to Jeffery Plantagenet who begat Henry the 2. and so it passed from the Normans to the Plantaginets in whose unquestionable time eight Kings succeeded each other afterwards they divided Henry the 4 of the younger house usurped the Crown being of the house of Lancaster but Edward the 4. of the house of York coming in upon a better Title then those of Lancaster overthrew those that opposed his Title this Division continued and lived until Richard the 3. died who breathed the last of the Plantagenets The Tudors next succeeded the Plantagenets Henry the 7. matching with Elizabeth the eldest Daughter to Edward the 4. of the house of York united both houses of York and Lancaster laying the white Rose and the red together in the royal person of Henry the 7. the Scepter fell back into the Current of the old brittish blood together with the German Norman Burgandian Castalian and French atchievements with the intermarriages which 800 years had acquired incorporated and brought back into the old royal time

Nauntons fegmenta Regalia p. 2. Sec. 1. So that the Stuarts have an unquestionable Title to the Crown of England from the old Christian brittish Kings whose antiquity is beyond all the Kings in the World The Tudors expiring in Queen Elizabeth the mighty Family of the Stuarts succeeded by an unquestionable Title as lineally descended from Margaret the eldest Daughter of Henry the 7. of whom descended James the 1. of England and sixth of Scotland he reigning 22. years died and left the possession of England Scotland and Ireland to Charles the 1. who after he had raigned 24. years was cut off by a violent death Jan. 30. 1648. at his own door So that by this it may appear by what right the Kings of England have for above these 100. years made the first and chief estate in Parliament t is by a right of succession and inheritance always acknowledged and granted by the King The House of Lords make the second Estate because the Nobility of a Kingdom are the main pillers of those political Thea●ors where they live and as they are Clarior et illustri●r pars populi they do claim that priviledge jure geutium in this Kingdom they claim it as their Birth-right never in any age denied them their house being far more ancient then the House of Commons for Henry the 1. was the first that established the House of Commons and the House of Commons make the third estate who are called by the Kings Writ and chosen by the people to be their Trustees in Parl these being chosen and come up to Westminster or the place where the King appoints they are called over in the Kings presence and there they answer for what Shire or Town they are which done by the Kings Commandment they choose them a Speaker who maketh requests to the King that he would be content that they may injoy their liberties to speak their minds freely that they may punish any of their House offending that they may in doubts have the liberty to consult with His Majesty and the House of Lords promising in the Commons names not to abuse but to improve their priviledges as faithful true and loving subjects ought to do for their Princes Honour and advantage The House of Commons have power to impeach any person of Treason except the King for the King is one of their Estates and the Head now neither of these 3. Estates can impeach an other the King Lords cannot impeach the House of Commons because it is the third estate and the King and Commons cannot impeach the House of Lords because it makes the second Estate hereby the community must necessarily dissolve it self if either of the Estates could impeach each other therefore the Lords and Commons be they never so intire and full have no power de jure to impeach the King because he makes the first estate in Parl indeed they have power to curb the exorbitances of each other and for this end their two Estates of Lords and Commons were devised to curb the excess of Monarchs but in no wise to dethrone them The House of Commons never was a Court of Judicature it had a regative voice in the making of new Lawes and the chiefest hand in granting subsidies levying Taxes and imposing Customs on this Kingdom without whom the King and Lords could not proceed The original of the Subjects liberty came first out of Germany where saith Tacitus nec Regibus libera aut infinita potestas erat Kings had not unlimitted power but the weighty matters of the Realm were dispatched by general meetings of all Estates but it can never be found that the House of Commons was a Court of Judicature they are but the Peoples Trustees and this power they have that they have a negative voice in the making of a Law or imposing of any Taxes and herein is the great and vast liberty of the English Subject included that there can be no Law imposed on them but what their Representatives or Trustees in Parl shall agree unto and if after they have agreed unto a Law which proves inconvenient or not so effectual as was intended for the good of the People The next Session saith Fortescue Cancito reformari potest And thus the Laws of England in their framing are the best Laws in the World 3. And as the best in their frame and constitution so they are the best Laws in distribution for as all Estates have a hand in framing a Law so no Estate is exempted from observing of those Laws so that English Laws may truly be called Justice in the abstract for they do suum cuique tribu●re They give the King his due the Nobles their due and the Commons their due to each man from him that welds the Scepter to him that holds the Plough it gives him his right The Law sets the King above imprisonment or attainture by his Subjects by this Rule in Law nemo imprisonetur aut disvisietur nisi per judicium Legale parium Now all other men in the Kingdom may be tryed because there are to be found his Fellow-Subjects equal in all the priviledges of a Subject with him but a King take him either in his personal capacity or publick capacity he is no Subject of the Law indeed he is sworn to maintain and defend the Law The King is bound to maintain the Law by his Oath the form of which Oath runs thus You shall keep the Church of God the Clergy and People intirely in peace and concord in God according to your power The King answers I will keep them you shall cause equal and right justice in all your judgements and discretion in mercy and truth according to your power The King answers I will do it you shall grant just Laws and Customs to be kept and you shall promise that those shall be protected by you and to the lover of God to be strengthened which the common People shall choose according to their power To which the King answers I give and promise it This Oath the King takes at his Coronation viz. Parl. Rol. 1. Hen. 4. but in case he doth not so fully execute the Laws as is meete there can be no Judge legal of the King because he is a Monark and there cannot be Judges of the accesse of Monarchy for none can be found his equals and to judge him otherwise were to deny the Monarch what is granted to the meaner Subject which is to be judged by his equalls But though the Monark cannot be judged yet the instruments of that Monark may for a Commission from the King cannot bear out a Subject beyond Law the exorbitant Commands of such a Monak as our English Monark being politically powerless and if Authority fail in the supreme Power the instrument can have none from thence derived to him but must necessarily fall under the censure of the Law so that though the King is head of the

Subjects or any other whatsoever And I do believe that neither the Pope nor any other can absolve me from this Oath and all these things I do plainly swear according to the plain and common sence and understanding of the same words without any equivocation or mental evation or secret reservation This Oath with the Oath of supremacy the supreme Authority of the Nation thought fit to impose upon all the Protestants and other subjects in the Kings Dominions The Protestants rejoyced that there were such Oaths whereby they might manifest their loyalty to their Soveraign Lord the King only the Papists refused it having and using no other plea but tenderness of Conscience and fear to offend the Church of Rome these Oaths distinguished Protestants from Papists a long time in England during which time the Kingdom indured much peace and prosperity but after the death of K. James K Charles succeeding him in the Throne and matching with one of the Popish Religion a gap was opened for Priests and Jesuites to enter into the Kingdom and Romish designs were set on foot for the setling of Jesuites in the Kingdom under the name of protestants the Pope granting dispensations and Jesuites writing books as Ortwinus and several others of the Church of Rome that it was lawful for a Roman-Catholique to make profession of the ●rotestant Religion to go to their Churches and outwardly comply with Protestants and yet be a sacred Catholique and that it was lawful vulpirare cum vulpibus to play the knave with a knave they are their own words Hereupon subtil Jesuites under the name of Protestants seated themselves in England undiscovered held correspondence with the Conclave of Rome and carried on the Popes design professing all obedience to the King but keeping their poysonous treason against him in their brests ready to spit in the Kings and his Posterities face when they had fit opportunity for they had learned their lesson within book that it is lawful to spoil an Heretique King of his Goods melius tamen est quod Authoritate judicis fiat but 't is better to do it by a Court of Justice this is not a new opinion of the Popes nor of the Jesuites though newly acted And this is another opinion of theirs that uxor Catholica viro haeretico bene volentiam reddere non tenetur that a Papists wife may refuse to submit to her Husband she may plot and conspire his death by the Popes Law and this is another Cardinals opinion whose Books are licensed Pater qui filium habet haereticum exh●reditare talem filium tenetur that the Father may disinherit his Son being a Protestant Simancha episcopus saith propter tonne haeresin patris filii non sunt sui juris by reason of the Fathers Heresie the same freed from his allegiance Nay they hold that Subjects may lawfully refuse to obey Protestant Princes saith Beliarmine Non licet Christianis tolerare regem haereticum That Christian Subjects ought not to tolerate a Protestant King to live for in the Papists sense they are the Hereticks With these poisonous opinions did many subtil Jesuites and Priests lie about the Court get into Vniversities and other places in the Kingdom under the name of Protestants many of them These with the Popes Nuncio having won the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury to their party as States-men conceived drove on a subtil design to overthrow the Government of the Kingdom by a Parl and so to pull down the Protestant Magistracy and all their wholsome Laws and by insinuating Altars Crucifixes Images and Image-worship with several other popish Ceremonies and imposing them on the Ministery of England thereby they intended at once to root out the Protestant Ministery and Protestant Religion This took effect according to the Popes desires so fully and raised the hopes of the Popish party so high that they resolved like Haman to destroy the Church in every of the Kings Dominions Scotland they intended to new-mould to the Popes model which Nation though poor and weak intemporals proved to the world that they were rich and strong in spirituals for they discovered the Popes designes and the English Jesuites the plots of the Spanish faction insomuch that the Protestant Nobility of England petitioned the King for a ●arl which was granted and the etcaetera Oath a Popish new Engagement on purpose devised to supplant the Protestant Ministery was utterly broken The Parl was by the gracious consent of the King established to sit until by their own Act they dissolved themselves This as it was great joy to the Protestants so it was exceeding terror to the Papists and Popish faction many of which fled beyond the Seas to Rome and other places Several others like subtil Foxes got on Sheeps-Cloathing and walked amongst the Separatists who during the Prelates tyranny were counted the most religious and zealous Protestants with these did they joyn and quickly learned their language fitting them in all things to a hair crying out against Antichrist the Pope of Rome Common Prayer or Antichrists Bible and Bishops as Antichrists brats this pleased the Separatists and no whit displeased the most of Protestants who too far lost their discretion through the violence of their blind passions who thought to much could not be said against Episcopal Government it had been so exceeding tyrannical hereby the subtil Jesuites under the name of zealous Protestants pluckt the Protestant Ministery and the Protestant Religion and the Protestant Magistracy as much into danger on the other hand as it had been before by the Popish Prelatick party for upon a true bottom did the Romish Sophists build a false Argument thus The Pope is Antichrist that 's true the Pope made Bishops say they and the Bishops made Ministers therefore the Ministers now were set down for Antichristian Ministers here the Devils Cloven foot appeared and mark what progress and advantage they made of this The next consequence was If Ministers be Antichristian then the Ordinances they administer are Antich Baptisme is Antich singing Psalms observing the Lords day meeting in Churches all this was Antichristian so that the Pope set up two designes for the miscarriage of that of Scotland for what with the Parl just and strict proceedings against the Popish party about the Court and what with their prevalency at Court with the Queen and the King designes by the Court factions were on foot to bring the Northern Army against the Parl to over-awe them as appears in the preamble of their Protestation made May 5. 1641. Thus whereas the designes of Priests Jesuites and other adherents to the See of Rome have of late been more frequently and boldly put in practice then formerly to the undermining and danger of the ruine of the true reformed Protestant Religion and the subversion of the fundamental Laws of England and Ireland by wicked plots and conspiracies and breach of Parliaments whereby the Kings Maj. person is indangered and an Army

for them to proceed upon to settle the peace of the Kingdom then even then this party against the Votes of the Supream Authority of this Nation and against their allegiance violently rushed in upon the houses pulled out and restrained one hundred and fifty imprisoned the chief Protestants and ablest States-men who were most violent against the Papists and left only a party remaining in the lower House such as themselves best liked of this party seized on the King caused him to be publiquely arraigned and at his own door at Noon in the view of all the people cut off his Head who was then the only Protestant King in the world and only because he resolved to root out Popery and establish true Religion according to the Covenant Since which time the same party having rid their hands of the Protestant Magistracy have oft printed Books against the Calling of the English Ministry which Books have been printed by Authority licensed and frequently taught and scattered amongst the people And they have again and again petitioned that Power which they set up if not to pull down Ministry States Preachers as they call them to take away their Estates their Tythes and Livings by which they and their families subsist and how far they have proceeded in England and Wales to ruine the Covenanters Ministry all the world may see But the chief Politicians amongst them conceiving that Design to be too short to reach all the Protestant Ministry as the Heads of Colledges and such men and being well assured by taking away Tythes they shall prejudice their own party equal with others have pitched upon a more Politick Design for the extirpation of the Covenanters which is by framing a contrary Oath to the Covenant and imposing it upon the Ministry hereby their own party escape the snare and only the Godly Faithful Loyal and Orthodox Ministers are taken they have taken their Tythes from them silenced some thrust out of their Livings many banished others imprisoned o●hers outlawed all the Covenanters and lastly have resolved to turn them this Winter out of all Cities Towns and Corporations Thus far have they proceeded by this Popish Engine to destroy the Protestants This New Oath so far as we can perceive is a meer Design to destroy the Parliament to destroy the Army to destroy the Ministery and the Kingdome 1. Mr. Lilburn seemeth rationally to prove that this new oath or ingagement cannot be intended to uphold the present power that inforceth the taking of it but to maintain the Liberties of the Common-wealth whose just Liberties and Ancient customes they confound and therefore by that ingagement men say that party justly are bound not to establish but to pull down any usurped power over the people 2 If Mr Lilburn who is a man very popular in the Kingdome having alwayes been a publick sufferer should as he conceives himself bound by that Engagement gather of Gentlemen Souldiers and other Commoners and free-born People of England a considerable Party to remove those out of the way whom he and his party conceive are Tyrannical and Opposers of the People and in their stead erect another Party who are the true chosen Representatives of the People whether he may not justly tax all the Engagers that resist him as Covenant-breakers and proceed against them accordingly and so consequently whether this doth not open a gap and a wide one to set up whom the People shall choose above the present House sitting and Engagement to be Assistants in such Parliament confounding Acts as 't is declared 2. As it is destructive to the Parliament so likewise to the Army For saith one part of the Army The present Government is by Representatives of the peoples choosing Saith another part The present Government is by that Party in the House of Commons who invited us to the City to pull down the King Lords and the greatest part of the Commons and by our Power enabled to make Acts and enforce the Kingdom to obey them Saith another part of the Army The present Government is the Councel of State and the Councel of War for that party in the House were not of our setting up only we suffured them to sit there and the Councel of war commanded them to act what they did therefore the Councel of War with the Councel of State erected by us are the present Government Whether all these several Parties especially if there should be clashing betwixt them may not by this Engagement conceive themselves in Conscience bound to maintain their several Parties as the present Government without King or Lords And thus 't is likely to prove destructive to the Army 3. 'T is absolutely destructive to the Protestant Ministry and the sound Protestants of the Kingdom For it makes them in the sight of all the people in the world guilty of the horrible and Jesuitical Designs and Practises of the cutting off of the King the throwing down of the House of Lords and excluding of the Covenant keeping Protestants for by subscribing that Engagement they testifie to God and the world that they approve of all that they have done as they say 2. They make themselves guilty of horrible Perjury for they did swear Allegiance to the King his Heirs and Successors to defend them against all Attemps and Conspiracies whatsoever Now this is directly to conspire the extirpation of the Kings Posterity 2. The Protestation is against it 3. Their Covenant directly opposeth the Engagement For therein they engaged to maintain the King Lords and Commons and in this Engagement they engage to they know not what without King and Lords So that if they engage they in their Consciences pull the guilt of Murther Treason and other foul Facts upon their head● and forswear themselves Or if they do not engage they are it seems to be stripe of their Estates protection of the Law and lies at the mercy of every Villain So that 't is absolutely destructive to the Ministry and the like may be said of the Protestants of the Kingdom Oaths say the Caseists and all other Divines ought to be plain and clear without equivocal terms or doubtful expression For every Oath or Engagement is given and taken to oblige the party that takes it to the performance of what he swore unto Now every wise man in taking an Oath proposeth first these two things 1. Who imposeth it 2. What it is that is imposed For that 's certain an unlawful or usurped Power cannot impose an Oath it is lawful Authority must impose it otherwise the Oath though good may justly be refused As the Gun-powder Traytors had their Design taken effect they had got into the Throne and imposed an Oath though lawful in it self upon the Barons Knights Citizens Gentry and Commons of England yet it would doubtless and ought to be rejected by them because the Authority was imposed which usurped it This must needs be so for otherwise a Master if over-powered by his servants is

bound to take and submit to such an Oath as his servant shall impose which would soon set Beggers on horse-back and make all men of Honor and Wealth perpetual slaves but greater confusion then this there can not be in Hell for 't is Confusion bottomless and unfadomable 2. What it is that is imposed that must be inquired into for no man of conscience or honour or the least degree of wit but will inquire what it is that he takes before he take it he will not take it first and enquire afterwards what it means that 's forbidden by Solomon Now that men may understand what they ingage or swear unto the words ought to be simple cleer and plain that men may understand them For juramentum obligat lecundum intentionem jurantis sine d●●● alias secundum secundarium intellectum ejus cui juratur saith Aquinas Now if there be Amphibolas equivocal terms and obscurities in an Oath how can it possibly be but there must be errors either in him that gives it or he that takes it or both As for this Engagement indeed it is politiquely gilded like a poysoned Pill with as much subtilty and craft to induce people to take it as may be for they call it An Engagement not an Oath for then they supposed people would scruple it but it is only subscribing to two or three words and there 's an end this is no great matter with Atheists Apostates Schismaticks Lovers of the World and Haters of God and Goodness but they that are wise sober-minded and conscientious As they two well know what Authority imposeth it so they cannot possibly see what is inintended in it nor what to make of it He that seriously views it will positively conclude there was never such a little big-belly'd viporous Monster seen in the world before to have so many Engines within so small a compass to teer in pieces all parties that engage in it We 'l spread it to the eye of the world I. A. B. do promise and declare that I will be true and faithful to the Commonwealth of England as it is now established without a King and House of Lords Within this little Circumference of words there are no less then two and twenty Doubts to be resolved and necessary Queries to be answered before this Engagement can be taken by any man of Honour or Conscience Viz. 1 Quere What is the meaning of the word Common-wealth Whether is it meant in the primary proper sence for the Body of the Nation or for the common good of that Body Or whether in the secundary borrowed sence for the Body of the Representative 2. Whether if it be meant in the latter sence by Common-wealth be meant a Parliament or a House of Commons chosen as formerly or by any other way and how Or whether the thing be changed with the name 3. Whether it be only an exclusive Engagement as being against King and Lords without including any Government in their stead to which we engage 4. Is the meaning that we shall be true and faithful to the Common-wealth whiles King and Lords are excluded Or that we shall endeavor also to continue their exclusion And so whether he that endeavoreth their restoring or he that hinders it not do break the Engagement though he be faithful to the Commonwealth while they are absent 5. If the present Government should be overthrown and King and Lords set vp whether doth he break this Engagement who shall be faithful to them or that shall swear or engage for them against the present Government 6. If by Commonwealth be meant the present Government as the words Now Established would make us think it is then what is it that is established whether an intire House of Commons or not intire whether only the present House or all future or any future Whether this House to be perpetuated or if not whether to continue till they voluntarily dissolve which we know not whether it will be perpetuated or not and consequently whether we engage to any succeeding Parliament or not Or if they dissolve whether the next must be annual or triennial or of duration of their own pleasure as this or whether chosen as formerly or how 7. Whether the meaning of the word As be to engage us to endeavor that all future Parliaments shall be established in the same course and by the same means as this hath been 8. Whether the word Now have reference to the first Calling of this House of Commons or to any alteration since made And if so by whom and when and by what Authority was that change made 9. What 's meant by true and faithful whether only to do them no wrong or not to be perfidious or else to obey them or further to engage and hazard our estates and lives on their behalf or how far 10. And so if King and Lords should raise an Army to recover their Authority whether he that refuseth to fight against them do break his Engagement 11. Seeing the people are judged the Supream Power as it is acknowledged by the present House do they hereby engage to their Representers or to the present Authority as their Supreriors or Rulers and so give away their Supremacy or is it so natural to them that they cannot give it away which else would have been done heretofore Or do they engage to them only as their Trustees or Servants viz. That they will defend them in the work that they set them about 12. Whether if an Army or any powerful Company should seize on the present House of Comons or the greater part should imprison exclude or hang them up at Tybarn are the people bound by this Engagement to rise for their Defence and make War against these Invaders 13. If this Parliament or any hereafter should endeavor to perpetuate themselves and so prevent our having any more free Elections whether do we hereby engage to be true to them or if we endeavor to dissolve them do we break this Engagement 14. Doth this Engagement take away the Power of the next Parliament And if they when they meet and sit restore King and Lords which now are thrown down do they break this Engagement 15. If this next Parliament shall so re-establish King and Lords and will not rule without them must we resist all and be without any Government or must we endeavor to choose a new Parliament and if they do the like what must we do 16. If the present House shall again change their Judgments and set up King and Lords or require us to swear to them must we obey or resist them 17. If this Army by observing that there is no Government but Monarchy or one Insupremacy in all the Bible mentioned or by reading that For the sins of people many are thy Rulers or by the experience of new divisions and parties in Parliament breeding distempers in Government or by being won over by the prevalency or flattery of some one

of an immediate call to the contrary by revelation from God As Abraham was call'd to kill his son Isaac which was against a naturall precept yet having an immediate call from God had not God stayed his hand he might have lawfully done it because he that commanded Abraham so to do was the Lord and maker of the Law which he can dispense with But this case cannot be ours under the Gospel because God hath given us his revealed will in writing since which immediate revelations have ceased in the Gospel Churches there being no need of them at all Now as for the Providentiall acts of God or his revealed decrees these are no rules for us to walk by nor follow any otherwise then they concur with the revealed will of God in his precepts We bring a case shall make good this assertion and stop the mouthes of all rationall antagonists In the 1 King 11. 29. to v. 39. there was that decree revealed to Jeroboam by the prophet Ahijah who exactly revealed Gods intentions to give to him ten of the twelve Tribes and the house of David but two Judah and sickly Benjamin scarce worth the mentioning as a Tribe it was so small God reveals the reason to him why he did it viz for idolatry and forsaking the true God This v. 37. donation of Gods to Jereboam is repeated again to him that God would choose him and give him a vast power over the people to do and reign as his heart could desire Here if ever a man might have pleaded Providence and have urged the revealed decree of God for attempting treason against Solomon certainly if in any case or person it had not been rebellion in him to attempt that which Providence had decreed him Nor rebellion in Israel to have subjected to him whom God had declared to be their king But Jereboam in following the revealed decree of God contrary to a moral precept of God viz the fifth Commandment which injoyneth Subjects and inferiors to submit to their lawfull superiors for this very cause he is set down in the word of God as a Rebell against Solomon 1 King 11. 26. there he is put in the rear of the worst of the enemies of the Crown and royall family of Israel and stigmatized with this infamous mark of a Rebell for v 26. Jereboam the son of Nebat an Ephrathite of Zereda Sauls servant even he lift up his hand against the King and the cause of this his rebellion is set forth in the rest of the following Chapter because God had revealed his decree concerning the punishing of the Royall Family for their sin in giving him ten of the Tribes This revealed will of God was so far from justifying his acting against a morall precept that his actions are set forth hanging as it were on Hamans gallows expressed in the terms of the highest treason twice together He lift up his hand against the King he lift up his hand against the king Nor are the ten Tribes lesse excusable who subjected to Jereboam for though they might have pleaded self preservation and if they had not revolted they had all been undone and the providence of God who would have it so who had decreed it so and revealed those decrees to them by a Prophet these might not be resisted yet these ten Tribes notwithstanding for their rejecting of the visible and lawfull Authority and supremacie of the kingdome are twice branded in holy Chronicles for Rebels 1 King 12. 19. Israel rebelled against the house of David And 2 Chron. 10. 19. Israel rebelled against the house of David So that it is manifest that following of Providence is so far from being a Christians duty that many times it is a desperate sin and therefore it was that holy David when he might have cut off Sauls head and when Providence had cast him into his hands he durst not walk by acts of Providence but by divine precepts which commanded him to do no murther He might have pleaded self-preservation and in killing him he had killed a publick Enemie and a murtherer But David had a better guide then Providence to direct him Witty and true was that expression of a pious and learned Divine If Joseph in Aegypt had followed Providence he had without doubt committed folly with his Mistris and have said Providence put him upon it We therefore conclude that acts of Providence are no rules for Christians to follow and it is so far from resisting of God the not being governed by them that many times it becomes a great sin as is evident by what hath been declared and the ten Tribes have this sin written in bloody characters upon their back untill this day for from Rebellion they turned to Idolatry and from that day forward they sank deeper and deeper into misery untill they lost their Religion Laws liberties and Nation which judgement remains upon them untill this day God having hanged them in Gibbets to teach Posterities after them to take heed of their sins viz of following Providence against a Precept Ob. But how comes it to passe that they that make a scruple of subscribing this Ingagement yet make no scruple of paying taxes Is not such a subjection an acknowledgement of their Authority and do they not condemne themselves in doing one and not the other A. We will not undertake to give the fullest Answer hereunto yet we hope a satisfactory Answer we shall be able to give 1. We therfore say that we that do pay taxes do make scruples of paying them and were we not inslaved should much more expresse our selves 2. Paying of taxes doth not imply a not scrupling of the authority that demands and exacts them A man may pay his money to a thief yet not acknowledge that authority to be just 3. Taxes that are now imposed are extorted and not voluntarily payed and as to that a power is usurped over mens estates as if the Nation were compleatly conquered Now in such a case we conceive our selves meerly passive and no way active at least free from any spontaneous act Now this is far from acknowledging the iustness and lawfulness of the supremacie of such a Power t is one thing to be inforced to a subjection in person and estate and quite another thing to acknowledge that power which usurps this authority to be supreme and legall which the Ingagement absolutely inforceth upon the Subscribers But let the world judge from this Objection how cruel and tyrannical that Government is that when the poore Protestants shall be content to submit to most grievous taxes for quietnesse sake yet this is not sufficient unlesse they will subject their souls and insnare them also in unreasonable and cruell bondage Is it not sufficient for the paying of taxes bearing of Free-quarter and suffering many afflictions to purchase that which in no age was ever denyed our freedom but we must be cut-lawed accounted the off-scouring of the world and exposed to the cruelty of merciles

single person whose deserts and worth they conceive is such as they resolve to make him sole Governor and so set up Monarchy again whether we are bound by this Engagement to resist them 18. Do we engage to the present Power absolutely or conditionally If this or any other Representative shall Tyrannize and invade the peoples Estates or take away propriety which are things that cannot be authoritative acts because the people having no such power themselves cannot give it to others seeing there is no power but what 's derived from Gods who hath given none to do evil are we in this case bound to continue our faithfulness 19. If the people shall find that this present House or any other hereafter hath forfeited their Trust or been guilty of the fore mentioned Crimes may they not recall that their Trust and exclude them from Government 20. Or if any of us be members of the Army and the said Army shall hereafter judg that this House hath been so guilty and shall exclude some and banish others and behead others for so the Powers as now established stand and so we understand as now established do we break the Engagement if we joyn with the Army in so doing or should we resist them 21. If this minor part of this present House or any succeeding shall judg that the whole is in danger by a corrupt majority and having strength thereunto shall exclude them do they break the Engagement or we if we further them in it 22. If one part of the People or Army shall judg that this or any future Representative hath been this Trust and the other part judg otherwise which must we adhere to according to this Engagement When the Authors of this Engagement shall clearly and fully resolve these Doubts and give national and satisfactory Answer to these Queries they will in great measure satisfie the Kingdom at leastwise the more rational part of them and much more dispose them to engage for the good of the Kingdom until then we could heartily wish that Mr Dury and such vain Bablers who most grosly abuse and misapply Scripture and other Moral Rules might be refrained from vometing up in the publique view such indigested Crudities to the scandal of the English Nation and reproach of the Protestants throughout the world We do profess when the lawfulness of the Authority that imposeth it shall be made out clear to us and our Doubts fully resolved with the manifesting of the Iustice Goodness and Necessity of this Engagement we speak it seriously and unfeignedly there shall none more willingly nor readily then our selves subscribe it until then we cannot but think the pressing of the Engagement and the punishing the Non-Subscribers with with such intollerable punishments as the exposing their Estates and persons to open violence such on enslaving irrational and destructive Act against the Protestants of England as since the planting of the Gospel in this Kingdom until this day the like destructive Act can scarce be found It enslaves the Souls as well as the bodies of men for what greater snare can there be to the Conscience then to be inforced to engage to they know not whom 2. To they know not what All the light that is in it is that it plainly tells a man that subscribes it that he swears point blank against his Oath of Allegiance his Protestation and his Covenant all which engage him to maintain King and Lords this engageth him against King and Lords in the bare words Object It is said by the most learned of the Engagers That the taking of this Engagement is no breach of the Covenant because the Covenant obligeth no longer then there is a possibility of keeping it but King and Lords being taken away there is no possibility of maintaining that that is not Sol. But we humbly conceive under favor that this Argument is no way satisfactory For though it be granted that 't is impossible for a Covenanter to maintain King and Lords when they are thrown down yet 't is not impossible for him in his calling and place to maintain Kingly Government As it is impossible for the son to yield actual obedience to the father whom Theeves and Robbers have murthered yet 't is possible for that son to express his fillial affection that he bore to his father and his real intentions of preserving his father by exclaiming against the Malefactors and using all lawful means to bring such men to condign punishment and utterly shunning all compliance with them Put the case a company of hired servants in a family should conspire to kill the Master of the family or imprison him and seize on the wealth and estate of their Master divide it amongst them proclaim themselves Lords and Masters of the family command the children to yield obedience to them though the children are not able to resist them nor yield that obedidence for the present which is due to their father nor the wife express that conjugal love by reason of the violent restrant and separation yet it is possible for the wife to abhor the company and disclaim the authority of those servants not to own them for her lord nor submit unto them nor be confederate with them though she cannot for the present enjoy her husband and so for the children though they cannot possibly love as their father yet they may disclaim the power that abused their father pray for his restoring and abhor compliance with that party that so presumptuously and wickedly threw down their father This they may do and are bound to do by the Law of Nature as children to a father and to do the contrary as to be confederate with those that destroyed their father were unnatural wickedness and a meer Conspiracy notwithstanding their father were not then in being Rex pater patriae 2 We affirm That the Kings Title is now on foot and the Lords in being therefore there is a possibility of keeping the Covenant now Can any created much less usurped Power free us from our Oath which we made to maintain King Lords and Commons Religion Liberty and the Peace and Union of the Kingdom and never to be drawn directly or indirectly by any Combination Perswasion or Terror to be divided from this blessed Union and Conjunction whether to make defection to the conteary part or give our selves to a detestable nutrarity or indiffterency but all the days of our lives zealously and constantly continue therein against all opposition This clause of the Covenant seems to be made purposely against the Powers now in Command And do they imagine that men of Conscience or Honour will so foully blur their Profession and Reputation and endanger their Souls by a contrary Subscription Ashcam tells us That usurped Powers are so notwithstanding theyout and succeed another generation We would fain know whether subscribing this Engagement be not an acknowledging of the present Power sitting to be the Supream Authority of the Nation and consequently