most of the forsaid Propositions All these popular and tumultuary engagements being in their very essence combinations among factious Subjects without and against the known will and consent of Supreme Authority and that not to caâ—â—y on or pursue laudbale and setled Laws but without all paralell to reverse and repeal established and standing Laws against the Royal Will of our Soveraign Law-giver and therefore in the judgement of the most rigid at this day acknowledged to have had much sin in them upon this very Score Much might be said in discovery of the sinfulnesse and unlawfulnesse of these late Covenants and Oaths not only in regard of their efficient Cause as made by Subjects against the will of their Soveraign in such things as necessarily required His consent but further in respect of their subject-matter as being guilty of high injustice to the right of the King both in the matter of combination without Him and of conditional Allegiance to and preservation of Him as also the altering of Religion established by Law without His consent and as engaging to accuse all Malignants not accepting a mans own self and to endeavour that all such may be brought to punishment without hope of mercy or pardon binding also to pull down the established Church-Government before agreement upon another and every man to go before another in the example of Reâ—ormation without either waiting for the Minister to direct or Magistrates Authority to lead the way then these what can be more unjust binding also to impossibilities as to defend and assist ALL that engage into these Oâ—tâ—s and never to offer their opinions to neutrality or indifferency the very taking also of these Oaths was in fact directly contradicent to the formal words thereof for whereas they swear to extirpate Schism and Faction and to preserve the Liberties of the Kingdomes and Authority of the King The very taking and enforcing of these Oaths being a vowed Schism from their Mother-Church a sworn Faction against their more Loyal Neighbours the greatest prejudice to the Liberties of the Kingdoms the taking of these being destructive to all legal Publike Liberties and the highest contempt that could be offered to the Kings Authority as appeareth not only from what is above-said but further in this that some of these Oaths did engage absolutely to preserve the power of Parliaments but the Kings Person and Authority with reservation for this end forsooth that the world may judge of their Loyalty and how they had no intention to diminish his just Power But left this short word by inlarging on these and such like peccancies of these late Covenant-Oaths should swell into a volumne We shall forhear Nor shall we speak of the unparalelled fraud and force practised in imposing these Oaths upon honest and wel-meaning Subjects neither of the grand impostur's whereby factious and self-designing men did speciously usher-in and drive-on their own base carnal interests under the colour of the interests of Jesus Christ in our sadly-experienced late Tragedies And shal briefly draw a corrolary from these above-specified Propositions concerning the Point of Episcopal Government in this Church and the sâ—eming obligation of the Subjects in this Land by their Oaths and Vows against it And it is this 1. That these Oaths in the first place were in the judgement of many of the most Sober and Learned simply sinful and unjust upon the score of their tendency to the extirpation of that form of Church-Government which they conceived to be of Divine Right and Institution so that in order to all these who were then or are yet of perswasion that Episcopacyis jure divino these Oaths cannot be supposed to be any wise in point of conscience binding And sure more may be said for a Divine Right and Institution of an imparity in degrees and even in office among Church-guides and so for Episcopacy then can be for any other Form or Model of Church-Government in the World But Secondly Passing this and supposing only Episcopal Government to have been upon the matter indifferent as I trust the more modest sober and moderate will readily acknowledge then for Subjects to engage by Covenants or Oaths for the utter extirpation thereof without the concurrence of Supreme Authority nay and against the consent and expresse will of the Soveraign Magistrate and the established standing Laws of this Kingdom of which the King alone is the Fountain and Origine Cum ipse sit author juris ut Bracton lib. 3. tra 1. c. 9. And as another eminent in Law saith wele Vita caput autoritas in Principe est omnium quae in republica agi solent How sinful then must needs these Oaths and Engagements have been How contrary to the just Right of the Soveraign Who in Adiaphoris and indifferents is acknowledg'd by all to be Summus Supremus Arbiter and therefore how invalid and insufficient as to obligation upon any who have been insnared by them is obvious to every eye that will not shut it self against convincing light How much also such are concerned heartily to homologat and close with His Majesti's Gracious Resolutions in the present setlement of this long tossed Church is as apparent But Thirdly As to the most rigid who to the admiration of the truely Sober would assert an intrinsecal unlawfulnesse and sinfulnesse in Episcopal Government however so wel regulated I say that even their Oath for the Extirpation of Episcopal Government cannot oblige even as to them being that for private Subjects by themselves to endeavour to establish or prefer any new Law however so just and laudable in it self or to reverse and rescind any standing Law however so unjust and sinful against or without the Soveraign's Will and Royal conseâ—â— is heinously sinful and rebellious and in it self and fine operis plainly Anarchical and eversive of all Government whatsomever and I trust no Oath to act rebellion sin or Anarchy will be supposed by any sober to be binding unlesse it be to a speedy and hearty repentance so that even the Engagements and Oaths of those who are most rigid in this matter were in themselves beyond all contradiction sinful and therefore can in no wayes be obligative even as to those So that upon what ever account else it may be that it pleaseth some men zealously to engage against Episcopacy in its present setlement and re-establishment it cannot be upon the value of their Oath as they would make simple people to believe as if that were an indispensablety stressing their consciences that being in its own nature sinful all combinations without Soveraign consent being such as themselves will now freely acknowledge and therefore they cannot but see themselves in conscience obliged to reverse and mourn for these their sinful Oaths And to deal a little freely so much talking of Oaths and indispensable Oaths with the frequent threats of the danger of perjury which have been so much thundred out to fright wel-meaning and tender Christians cannot
of it self vacated from being binding or obligatory But Propos 4ta There is this fourth Proposition No prejudice or violence done to the right of any other man can be so highly dangerous and sinful as that prejudice and violence which are done to the just right of the Supream Magistrate and His Soveraign Authority This is undeniably irrefragable for in so far as the Publike Interest is beyond the Private in regard of worth and excellence and as to intemerable preservation so far is the prejudice done to the just right of the Soveraign Magistrate and His Authority incomparably sinful beyond what can be done to the right of any private Subject or Subjects whatsomever But Propos 5ta There is this fifth Proposition The just right of the Soveraign Magistrate and His Authority is egregiously trampled upon and prejudged when private Subjects encroach upon it and do upon suspition or jealousie of disallowed intentions or actions of their Soveraign Princes combine confederate or binde themselves to Allow Enact or Establish any thing much more to reverse or repeal allowed established and standing Laws concerning any matters belonging to Religion upon the we le or ill administration whereof the greatest security or ruine of a State depends without much more against the consent and command of lawful Soveraign Authority This Proposition is clear not only from the Municipal and known Laws of this Kingdom but even from the very Law and light of nature it self for it is obvious to every Tenderer of Soveraignty that it is one of the choisest and most inviolable Jewels of the Crown of a Supream Power to which none are co-ordinate but all subordinate as to every Supream Power as Supream all must needs be viz. That no Popular Combinations Bonds or Leagues should be among Subjects upon what score or pretence how specious soever without much lesse against the consent and command of the Authority foresaid for and if it were fâ—ee for Subjects thus at pleasure to Combine Confederate c. A King in which the Supream Power in a true Monarchy resides were but a bare weak titular King and shaddow only of a Soveraign depending prècario upon the Subjects whom at pleasure they might cast off or destroy nay and of it self it opens a patent door for the eversion and ruine of all Government and Supream Power so that any who will may by a Confederacy rebel upon one pretext or another Hence it 's evident there can be no greater encroachment upon no higher prejudice done unto Soveraign Authority then for Subjects in any-wise to Combine or Bind themselves against the Supream Royal Will and without consent of the Soveraign And if it be so high a prejudice done to the just right of the Soveraign for Subjects in any case to Combine or Confederat without him were it even to the carrying on of standing and known Laws what a heinous injury must it infer upon the Soveraignes just right for Subjects to Combine for the reversing and repealing of established and standing Laws without nay and forcibly against Royal Commands is not this the most superlative and transcendent prejudice which can be done to the just right of the Supream Authority But here now that we may a little more unfold this Proposition it would be noticed that it is deem'd a favourable plea by some for Subjects tho in no case else yet in the Concern of Religion to Combine and Confederate without the allowance or consent of Soveraign Authority for redressing abuses and reforming disorders therein especially when the Supream Magistrate being required thereto doth deny his concurrence and withhold the shoulder But such men they are not aware that in this they joyne issue with Phanatick Anabaptists and the bloodiest of the Popes devotionaries who with them in this resemble Sampson's Foxes being linkt together by the Tails though their Heads look different wayes and with them cry up the lawfulnesse of carrying on a Reformation in Religion by outward force and violence so much contrary to the wayes and Word of God Joh. 18. 36. My Kingdom is not of this world c. If it were my servants would fight Where blessed Christ Jesus doth plainly insinuate that His Kingdom being spiritual cannot must not be advanced with temporal armes for the weapons of the Christians warfare are not Carnal but Spiritual 2 Cor. 10. 4. There is no command from Christ to kill and slay the common enemies of our Religion but contrariwise to pray for our persecuters and not to resist evil Matth. 5. 44. See also other Scriptures such as Zech. 4. 6. 1 Tim. 6. 2. and 2 Tim. 2. 25 c. Nay and this course it is against the very nature of Religion it self for faith which is the Soul of Religion is an inward act of the soul which all the force in the world can neither plant nor extirpate â—am suddenda non cogenda est Conformable to this was the constant Doctrine and Practice of the Pious Sober Primitive Church which had learned better what belong'd to Authority then to resist the Ordinance of God even in a Heathen Caesar whose Religion enjoyn'd them not to kill but to be killed for it Nor was this for want of ability but of Authority As we read in the most Ancient Apologists for the Christian Faith such as Arnob. Lactant. Cyprian cont Demetr Tertull. in apol ad Scap. Just in Tryph. August in Psalm 144. Ambros in luc 22. 38. Athan. epist ad solit vitam agentes c. Then further Popular Reformation or Covenanting for Reformation of Religion without concurrence of the Supream Magistrate hath no warrantable president but rather to the contrary in Sacred Writ See those Scriptures at convenience Deut. 29. 2 10 11 12 c. Josh 24. 25. 2 King 23. 23. 2 Chron. 15. 8 12. and cap. 29. 3 10. and cap. 34. 31 32. Ezra 10. 3 4 5. In all which and in many the like you have ever the Chief Magistrates Moses Joshua Hezekiah Josiah c. concurring or rather going before the People as their place requir'd in the several Reformations therein mentionate but no where the people Covenanting upon a Reformation of Religion even in times of the worst of Kings without concurrence of the Supream Magistrate Arise for the matter belongs to thee saith the whole Assembly of Elders there met to Ezra the prime Ruler in that cited place Ezra 10. 4. To shun the force of which Argument and for a sinful impairing the Supreme Power of the Soveraign some have â—ancied a supposed co-ordination of power I shall not once name these whose impudence hath imboldned them to assert a monstrous Subordination of the Soveraign to the People betwixt our King and His People in their representative Meetings This indeed is the Arch-pillar upon which some of no small Note have laid the stresse of their Cause for the supportment of the lawfulnesse of Popular-reformings without the Supreme and Royal Consent But surely this as it
be look'd upon by considering persons but as so many methods and impostures to delude whileas even the most violent pressers of the bindingnesse of these Oaths against Episcopacy do in their open professions and acknowledgements renounce and disclaim the obligations of these Oaths as to the combination and confederacy that is in them consederacies and combinations among Subjects upon what pretext soever without special allowance and consent of the Supreme Magistrate being by themselves acknowledged to be sinful and rebellious which yet is if not the very formalis ratio and essence of these ensnaring Covenant-Oaths yet doubtlesse the prime object and man foundation of them whileas also they acknowledge the unbindingnesse of these same Oaths as to conditional and reserv'd Allegiance by undue and unwarrantable limitations and restrictions and yet still presse the Oath and its bindingnesse against Episcopal Government and in a copulative Oath such as these Oaths and Covenants acknowledge themselves to be if the obligation as to any one point be dissolved and loosed it can hardly be understood how as to the whole or any other particular there can be any more bindingnesse therein What will the forsaid acknowledgments infer being weighed in the ballance of discerning men but that were it not that the fear of incurring the censure and penalties of treason did overawe these Covenant-Oaths c. would be still vigorously asserted to be as binding and obligative in point of combination without and against the Soveraign Magistrate's consent and in order to conditional and limited Allegiance as they are said to be in order to the point of Episcopacy To dispense with these Oaths and Covenant-engagements in these great Points and Interests and yet still to set out the same as indispensable tyes and Sacred inviolable Bonds against Episcopal-Government is not this handsomely to play the Pope in dispensing in some more weighty and binding consciences in lighter concerns of one and the same copulative Oath or is it not rather as some observing persons give it to act the impostures in imposing upon the Peoples easinesse and credulity for upholding of the tottering Diana of a Para-mount Power some have so sinfully usurped and so tyrannically practised and are yet so unwilling to part with left the power of this Church be recovered into those hands out of which it was wrested by violence and injustice And what a needlesse noise is it that is so much raised by the zealous clamors of some against Episcopacy may it not be remembered that it was declared by the contrivers and abettors of the Covenant in its first rise that though they supposed Episcopacy to be against Law in Scotland yet they did not require any by taking of the Covenant to abjure it but that the practise of it should be forborn and the matter referred to a free General Assembly See Ministers Answ to the 4. dem of the Doctors of Aberdene And one would think that the edge of such preposterous zeal might have been rather blunted then sharpned by these last three and twenty years exeperience And is not Episcopacy a Government which had its rise in the Apostles themselves and by continual and universal succession hath since been still owned and practised by the Christian Church as the continued succession of Bishops in the See's of Alexandria from Mark the Evangelist in Jerusalem from James the Apostle in Antioch from Peter c. shew If historical credit may be given to such Worthies as Irenaeus Eusebius Socrates Theodoret Hierom with many other grave and famous Ecclesiastick Writers in so much that â—â—â—tus for affirming a Bishop not to be above a single Presbyâ—er was generally reputed by the Christian World for thirteen hundred years together as well in the Eastern as Western Church for a down-right Heretick a Government which hath been still owned in the Church of Scotland when Order and Government did overtop Faction and Interest and ever still till Seditions Tumults Insurrections and Rebellions did go current for Discipline and Order And in a word a Government which by the universal consent of the Churches of Christendome both in Asia Africk Grece Russia and other parts of Europe that never acknowledged any subjection to or dependance upon the See of Rome hath been constantly embraced and the Opugners of it generally branded for Hereticks which of all other Forms hath undovbted the best Title to Divine or Apostolical Institution against which nothing is or ever could be objected but the humane infirmities and personal failings of some particular men from which no Government is or can be totally exempted and priviledged which in the most of these few Churches who want it some whereof are under the want of Bishops because they cannot tell how to come by them their Princes being of a different Religion and so will allow none but of their own others there be who are willingly without them because setled in such a Government as they find most suitable to a Popular State and dare not venture upon a change all others enjoying the felicity of Episcopal Government either the thing and name both or else the thing under another name viz. Superintendents Inspector's c. by their best and ablest Ministers hath been frequently desired Our practise sure is without all parallel in that never did we read of any Church before a misleading Faction in this our Church of Scotland that ever turn'd out their Bishops if they were of the same Religion vowing to root them out by the Sword contrary to the command of the Supream Lawful Magistrate So that we must needs accuse all the World besides our selves of folly Antichristianism and ignorance or then resolve to forbear our peevish quarrellings against this Government of the Church by Bishops to which through Gods Mercy and His Majesties care this broken Church is again restored To all the former it may be added that in all the Bible it is not to be sound that the power either of Ordination of Jurisdiction ever was exercised by a singl Presbytery yea and it is none of the least of doubts whether there be mention of any judicial consistory of single Presbyters simpliciter pares in all Sacred Writ without delegation from and in a dependence upon a Superiour Power residing in a single person If then the design of some Zelots against Episcopacy may not seem to have worse at the bottome and do not tend to lead Subjects into misconstructions of His Majesties Gracious Intentions let the impartial determine So that to draw towards a conclusion we may see how contrary such Oaths and Vows are to the duty which good Subjects by vertue of their relation and as Subjects they owe to their Soveraign how contrary to due Allegiance how obstructive and repugnant to the performance of the great moral duty of obedience due by Subjects to Supreme Authority and the established Laws thereof as also how inconsistent with the welfare of the Church and State we live in and
consequently how sinful is easie to discern by comparing these Oaths c. with the irrefragable Propositions above set down And therefore if any according to our last Proposition good Subject or Subjects have been drawn by any pretence perswasion or force whatsomever to bind himself by Oath or Covenant against Episcopal Government which was and now again is established by Law he hath not sworn in justice but engag'd himself to the certain prejudice of His Soveraign's just Right by a sinful combining with private Subjects against His Authority to the doing of many things contrary to established Law and which is most impious by endeavouring to introduce the form of a Solemn Oath upon a matter so incapable of and indisposed for such a Form if any I say hath been thus engag'd he is obliged in duty and conscience to disclaim reverse and renounce his said act otherwise beside the horrid scandal which he shall draw upon the Reformed Religion he doth run himself upon the breach of the third Command by making his Oath a bond of iniquity And for the further satisfaction of the satisfiable it may ponderate that the power imposing these Oaths was originally invalid and naught and where the fountain is corrupt the streams issuing thence can by no means run clear Nam quod deest in causa deest in effectu and therefore what is done in vertue of such invalid power can scarce amount to right or lawful as grounded upon such a rotten Basis of pretended Authority And which ought exceedingly to stisfie Subjects in their dis-obligation from these ensnaring tyes Our Father I mean Pater Patriae without whose consent no vow or engagement of the childe is obligative as we may see Numb 30. 4 5 c that a Virgin or a Wise making a vow without consent of the Father or Husband is dis-obliged therefrom if the Husband or Father hearing of the vow do disallow thereof and we being in a moral sense as much at the dispose of the King the Father of the Countrey the Civil Father of us all if not more then Children at the dispose of their natural Parents whileas the vows forsaid are dispenc'd and irritate by Him they can be no more binding tyes to us suppose them otherwise lawful and we His diffent being any wayes signified to us are dis-oblig'd and no more bound but may forgo these vows and in our so doing the Lord will forgive us as it is in Numb 30. 6. forgive us not for that we renounce these Vows that being duty but for our rash or cowardish engagement in them without due consent that being our sin If it be said that our Civil Father His Majesty His consent was indulg'd to these Engagements which may therefore be still suppos'd to be binding To this it is replied First This doth not take away the unlawfulnesse of any of these Oaths and Vows which were undertaken antecedently to any Royal and Authoritative consent thereto procured so that such who before that before-alleg'd consent did engage in these combinatory Oaths did therein heinously sin so that these are thereby oblig'd to nothing but Repentance The first Swearing and Covenanting at least being rebellious and sinful But Secondly Any Royal consent that ever was procured or granted was a violented coacted consent and therefore in Law to be look't upon by all honest Subjects as a non-consent coactus enim consensus nullus so that the Princes involuntary and constrained yeelding and ceding to a prevailing Faction affords and layes no just title or ground of obligation no not upon Himself in the exteriour Court much lesse upon His Subjects Nâ—m ex actione involuntaria non nascitur obligatio reg juris vid. cod hb. 2. tit 20. And then Thirdly That supposed consent of our present Soveraign is obvious to the eye of all the World to have been forc'd and coacted He being by a Faction in this Kingdome at that time most undutifully and disloyally kept as a Noble Prisoner rather then a free King and by them violented to give colour of life to these things which in their very nature did bereave Soveraignty of its breath and therefore that consent is now repeal'd as appeareth from His Majesties present Resolutions and His High and Honourable Council their Proclamation of the date September 1661. relating to Church-Government So that hence no shew of any title of obligation as to these Vows and Oaths doth affect the Subjects but rather to the contrary His diffent being of equal force to disoblige as His consent is to ty or oblige And now by this time I trust it doth appear that for any stiffly to oppose the setlement of this Church by Episcopacy is so unwarrantable that none who hath any sense of Religion to God of charity to their Mother-Church or of grateful duty to their Gracious King will presume to justifie and if any will prove so peevish Subjects I trust know better how to value Peace being so harrassed and spoil'd by the late intestine Divisions then to be so easily engag'd again to devote that little blood and treasure which remains to the sinful and ambitious lusts of a few men whom though our King and this Kingdom were not able to call to an account which yet they may find yet there is a God in heaven who seeth all their hearts and will one day judge and be aveng'd of all such their sinful actions By what is said men may see at any time how weak the cords of an unlawful Oath Vow or Engagement are and how little they bind save only to Repentance and that for their unadvised rashnesse if spontaneously undertaken and for their cowardise if through fear submitted to By this also it may appear to how little purpose men make use of these tyes and fetters that bind not in truth but only ensnare like to those cords wherewith Sampson was bound and as easily upon occasion broken asunder being that there wants a twisting-in of these conditions required in the Propositions premised to strengthen and confirm them nay so far are they from holding fast the person Engaged that upon a due back-search and examination they help to set him looser when as he shall seriously bethink himself of the guilt and burden of sin he yet lyes under Nam tolerabilius est promissum non facere quod turpe est Ambros de offic lib. 3. cap. 12. no other way of escape then but by a speedy cancelling of the obligation Briefly and to conclude this short word for satisfaction in which we have appeared upon no other incentives but of conscience of Loyalty and of zeal for order and beauty in this our Mother-Church of the Scrupulous Where the Promise or Oath both for matter and manner is rightly undertaken we cannot be too anxious and solicitons in keeping of it so Matth. 5. 33. Religiose observa juramentum was one of Pythagoras his first lessons to his Disciples yea God himself hath vouchsased it a room within the catalogue of his most glorious titles of being faithful and keeping Covenant otherwise where fraud or force with the like shall happen to interpose and withall the matter in many respects above-specified be injustifiable concerning such an obligation when or wheresoever undertaken the best resolution in my humble opinion is that it is ill taken and worse kept nay and is of it self void from the beginning and binds to nothing but what I heartily wish all may find in the end REPENTANCE FINIS Si quis necessitate coactus juraverit pignusve posuerit quo is ad insidias Domino suo parandas vel â—pem injuste cuivis ferendam adstringitur resiliat potius quam quo coepit insistat suademus L L. Alured c. 1. Consilium prudensque animi sententia jurat Et nisi judicii vincula nulla tenent