some the affection some the desire of the flesh is not subject to the Law of God And although there is no condemnation for them that beléeve and are baptized yet the Apostle doth confesse that concupâ—scence and lust hath of it self the nature of sinne X. THe condition of man after the fall of Adam is such that he cannot turn and prepare himself by his own natural strength and good works to faith and calling upon God Wherefore we have no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable to God without the grace of God by Christ preventing us that we maâ— have a good will and working with us when we have that good will XI WE are accounted righteous before God only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ by faith and not for our own works or deservings Wherefore that we are notified by faith onely is a most wholesome Doctrine and very full of comfort as more largely is expressed in the Homily of Iustification XII ALbeit that good works which are the fruits of faith and follow after Iustification cannot put away our sinnes and endure the severity of Gods â—udgement yet are they pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ and do â—pring out necessarily of a truâ— and â— holy faith in so much that by them a lively â—aith may be as evidently knowen as a â—ree discerned by the â—â—utt XIII WOrks done before the grace of Christ and the inspiration of his Spirit are not pleasant to God forasmuch as they spring not of faith in Iesu Christ neither do they make men meet to receive grace or as the School-Authors say deserve grace of congruity yea rather for that they are not done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done we doubt not but they have the nature of sinne XIV VOluntary Works besides over and above Gods Commandments which they call works of Supâ—rerâ—gation cannot be taught without arrogancy and impiety For by them men do declare that they do not onely render unto God as much as they are bound to do but that they do more for his sake then of bounden duty is required Wheras Christ saith plainly When ye have done all that are commanded to you say We are unprofitable servants XV. CHrist in the truth of our nature was made like unto us in all things sinne onely except from which he was clearly void both in his flesh and in his Spirit He came to be a Lamb without spot who by sacrifice of himself once made should take away the sinnes of the world and sinne as Saint Iohn saith was not in him But all we the rest although baptized and born again in Christ yet offend in many things and if we say we have no sinne we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us XVI NOt every deadly sinne willingly committed after Baptisme is sinne against the holy Ghost and impardonable Wherefore the grant of repentance is not to be denied to such as fall into sinne after Baptisme After we have received the holy Ghost we may depart from grace given and fall into sinne and by the grace of God we may arise again and amend our lives And therefore they are to be condemned which say they can no more sinne as long as they live here to deny the place of forgivenesse to such as truly repent XVII PRedestination to life is the everlasting purpose of God whereby before the foundations of the world were laid he hath constanâ—ly â—ecâ—éed by his counsel secret to us to deliver from curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of mankind to bring them by Christ to everlasting salvation as vessels made to honour Wherefore they which be indued with so excellent a benefit of God be called according to Gods purpose by his Spirit working in due season they through grace obey the calling they be iustified freely they be made Sons of God by adoption they be made like the Image of his onely begotten Sonne Iesus Christ they walk relâ—giously in good works and at lengâ—h by Gods mercy they attain to everlasting felicity As the godly consideration of Predestination and our Election in Christ is full of sweet pleasant and unspeakable comfort to godly persons and such as feel in themselves the working of the Spirit of Christ mortifying the works of the flesh and their earthly members and drawing up their mind to high and heavenly things as well because it doth greatly establish and confirm their faith of eternall salvation to be enjoyed through Christ as because it doth fervently kindle their love towards God So for curious and carnall persons lacking the Spirit of Christ to have continually before their eyes the sentence of Gods predestination is a most dangerous down fall whereby the devil doth thrust them either into desparation or into retchlessenesse of most unclean living no lesse perilous then desparation Furthermore we must receive Gods promises in such wise as they be generally set forth to us in holy Scripture and in our doings that will of God is to be followed which we have expresly declared unto us in the Word of God XVIII THey also are to be had accursed that presume to say that every man shall be saved by the Law or sect which he professeth so that he be diligent to frame his life according to that law and the light of nature For holy Scripture doth set out unto us only the Name of Iesus Christ whereby men must be saved XIX THe visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithfull men in the which the pure Word of God is preached and the Sacraments be duely minister according to Christs Ordinance in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same As the Church of Hierusalem Alexandria and Antioch have erred So also the Church of Rome hath erred not onely in their living and manner of ceremonies but also in matters of faith XX. THe Church hath power to decrâ—e Rites or Ceremonies and authority in controversies of faith And yet it is not lawfull for the Church to ordain any thing that is contrary to Gods Word written neither may it so expound one place of Scripture that it be repugnant to another Wherefore although the Church be a witnesse and a keeper of holy Writ yet as it ought not to decree any thing against the same so besides the same ought it not to inforce any thing to be beléeved for necessity of salvation XXI GEnerall Councels may not be gathered together without the commandment and will of Princes And when they be gathered together forasmuch as they be an assembly of men whereof all be not governed with the Spirit and Word of God they may erre and sometime have erred even in things pertaining unto God Wherefore things ordained by them as necessary to salvation have neither strength nor authority unlesse it may be declared that they be taken out of holy Scripture XXII THe Romish doctrine concerning Purgatory Pardons worshiping
and adoration as well of Images as of Relicks and also invocation of Saints is a â—ond thing vainly invented and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture but rather repugnant to the Word of God XXIII IT is not lawfull for any man to take upon him the office of publick preaching or ministring the Sacraments in the Congregation before he be lawfully called and sent to execute the same And those we ought to judge lawfully called sent which be chosen called to this work by men who have publick authority given unto them in the Congregation to call and send Ministers into the Lords vineyard XXIV IT is a thing plainly repugnant to the Word of God and the custome of the Primitive Church to have publick prayer in the Church or to minister the Sacraments in a tongue not understanded of the people XXV SAcraments ordained of Christ be not onely badges or tokens of Christian mens profession but rather they be certain sure witnesses and effectuall signes of grace and Gods good will towards us by the which he doth work invisibly in us and doth not onely quicken but also strengthen and confirm our faith in him There are two Sacraments ordained of Christ our Lord in the Gospel that is to say Baptisme and the Supper of the Lord. Those five commonly called Sacraments that is to say Confirmation Penance Orders Matrimony and extream Vnction are not to be counted for Sacraments of the Gospel being such as have grown partly of the corrupt following of the Apostles partly are states of life allowed in the Scriptures but yet have not like nature of Sacraments with Baptisme and the Lords Supper for that they have not any visible sign or ceremony ordained of God The Sacraments were not ordained of Christ to be gazed upon or to be carried about but that we should duely use them And in such onely as worthily receive the same they have a wholsome effect or operation But they that receive them unworthily purchase to themselves damnation as S. Paul saith XXVI ALthough in the visible Church the evil be ever mingled with the good and sometime the evil have chief authority in the ministration of the Word and Sacraments yet forasmuch as they do not the same in their own name but in Christs and doe minister by his commission and authority we may use their ministry both in hearing the Word of God and in the receiving of the Sacraments Neither is the effect of Chriâ—â— ordinance taken away by their wickednesse noâ— the grace of Gods gifts diminished from such as by faith and rightly do receive the Sacraments ministred unto them which be effectuall because of Christâ— institution and promise although they be ministred by evil men Neverthelesse it appertaineth to the discipline of the Church that inquiry be made of evil Ministers and that they be accused by those that have knowledge of their offences and finally being found guilty by just judgement be deposed XXVII BAptisme is not onely a sign of profession and mark of difference whereby Christian men are discerned from others that be not Christned but it is also a sign of Regeneration or new birth whereby as by an instrument they that receive Baptisme rightly are grafted into the Church the promises of the forgivenesse of sinne and of our adoption to be the Sonnes of God by the holy Ghost are visibly signed and sealed faith is confirmed and grace increased by virtue of prayer unto God The Baptisme of young children is in any wise to be retained in the Church as most agreeable with the institution of Christ XXVIII THe Supper of the Lord is not onely a sign of the love that Christians ought to have among themselves one to another but rather it is a Sacrament of our redemption by Christs death Insomuch that to such as rightly worthily and with faith receive the same the bread which we break is a partaking of the Body of Christ and likewise the Cup of blessing is a partaking of the blood of Christ Transubstantiation or the change of the substance of Bread and Wine in the Supper of the Lord cannot be prooved by holy Writ but it is repugnant to the plain words of Scripture overthroweth the nature of a Sacrament and hath given occasion to many superstitions The body of Christ is given taken and eaten in the Supper onely after an heavenly and spirituall manner And the mean whereby the Body of Christ is received and eaten in the Supper is Faith The Sacrament of the Lords Supper was not by Christs ordinance reserved caried about lifâ—ed up or worshipped XXIX THe wicked and such as be void of a lively faith although they do carnally and visibly presse with their téeth as S. Augustine saith the Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ yet in no wise are they partakers of Christ but rather to their condemnation do eat and drink the signe or Sacrament of so great a thing XXX THe Cup of the Lord is not to be denied to the Lay people For both the parts of the Lords Sacrament by Christs ordinance and commandement ought to be ministred to all Christian men alike XXXI THe offering of Christ once made is that perfect redemption propitiation and satisfaction for all the sins of the whole world both originall and actuall and there is none other satisfaction for sin but that alone Wherefore the sacrifices of Masses in the which it was commonly said that the Priests did offer Christ for the quick and the dead to have remission of pain or guilt were blasphemous fables and dangerous deceits XXXII BIshops Priests and Deacons are not commanded by Gods Law either to vow the estate of single life or to abstain from marriage Therefore it is lawfull also for them as for all other Christian men to marry at their own discretion as they shall judge the same to serve better to Godlinesse XXXIII THat person which by open denunciation of the Church is rightly cut off from the unity of the Church and excommunicated ought to be taken of the whole multitude of the faithfull as an heathen Publican untill he be openly reconciled by Penance and received into the Church by a Iudge that hath authority thereunto XXXIV IT is not necessary that Traditions and Ceremonies be in all places one or utterly like for at all times they have been divers and may be changed according to the diversitie of Countries times and mens manners so that nothing be ordained against Gods Word Whosoever through his private judgement willingly and purposely doth openly break the Traditions and Ceremonies of the Church which be not repugnant to the Word of God and be ordained and approved by common authority ought to be rebuked openly that other may fear to do the like as he that offendeth against the common Order of the Church and hurteth the authority of the Magistrate and woundeth the Consciences of the weak brethren Every particular or nationall Church hath authoritie to ordaine
Europe And yet we are herein to praise God that in this their astonishment he hath given them a little interval that they came to their senses to make this acknowledgement They needed not to specifie to us in what they were forgetful of their Duty their comportments justifie their words that they had wholly forgotten it It appears also that they had forgot their duty to God their King their Countrey and to the Church from which they received their Ministry and to which they had sworn Obedience and towards them also to whom they write For if they had born any Brotherly affection they would not have been so forgetful as to write to them and in such a stile and by a publick Declaration They would have taken heed to render them odious and suspected without cause and to draw upon them persecution from which there could proceed no other fruit unlesse to make them Companions in their miseries for to render us Companions in their crimes we hope they shall never obtain But these Divines and their Masters who employ them shall find themselves deceived in their design to induce the Reformed Churches of France to shake off the yoke of their King under colour of shaking off the yoke of Antichrist The fidelity and peaceable conversation of these Churches doth take away even the shadow of such things from their Superiours whose justice is such that they will not condemn the Subjects of their King for the offences of strangers but will be more careful to protect the innocent then their ill neighbours are active to render them blame-worthy and unhappy The King and his Councel need not fear the French of the Reformed Religion will take the Oath of the Covenant to which they are invited with so much earnestness and craft For to speak of them in the terms of one of their beloved Pastors They take no Oaths to others but to their Soveraign Princes they cast not their eyes on a stranger they hold that it is not for a Subject to find occasion of disobedience in the Religion of his Prince making Religion a Match to give fire to Rebellion they are ready to expose their lives for the preservation of their King against whomsoever it be were it one of their own Religion whosoever should do otherwise should not defend Religion but serve his ambition and should draw a great scandal upon the truth of the Gospel This is the Doctrine wherein they are instructed this is the Profession in which all good Frenchmen of the Reformed Religion will live and die But if strangers whose heads run round with the wine of astonishment will force the Churches of France to drink of their Cup they will use the French freedome refuse to pledge them and behold their zeal to press them to do as they do with despite and compassion Let them not think it strange that they run not with them into the same excess of riot they do not offend them for whilst they have this strong wine in their heads they keep their sobriety and are filled beseeching God to shew mercy upon those who would seduce them Now as it is the custome of drunken persons who would draw others into the same excess with themselves and to drink according to their pleasure to make them believe that they have seen them themselves in that condition so the English Covenanters to defend their actions and augment their Party alledge very often to the French Churches their wars for Religion the remembrance whereof is very sad and to use this Argument to seduce them is no other thing then to counsel them to be miserable because they have been so and to go with their eyes shut and run the remains of their broken vessel against the rock where they were shipwrackt Moreover it s very unjust in them to impute to the whole body the actions of a party for in the late wars all the Churches on this side the River Loyre continued in their obedience and very neer the half of the other Churches The people were carefully preserved in their duties by their faithful Pastors This holy Doctrine which condemns the resisting of higher powers and commands to wait patiently deliverance from God and to suffer for righteousness sake was most pressed and urged in their Churches and whilst some of the Religion were in Arms during the minority of the King they preached at Paris Their strength was to sit still Isai 30.7 There fell lately into my hands an Epistle well penn'd which was sent to the State-Assembly of Rochel in the beginning of their sitting to encline them to peace and the obedience of his Majesty Behold here a passage of it I think it very profitable for you to be informed the truth what the opinions and dispositions of our Churches are by persons that have a particular knowledge of them You are now debating Gentlemen of the separation of your Assembly for to obey his Majesty or of its subsistence and to give order to your affairs I am bound to tell you that the general desire of our Churches is that it would please God to continue peace unto us under the obedience of his Majesty and that seeing the King is resolved to employ his Armies to make you obey they promise themselves so much of you that you will do what possibly you can to avoid this tempest and yield rather to necessity then enter into a war wherein the ruine of a great part of our Churches are certain and into a trouble wherein we may behold the entrance but cannot see the issue and that ye will take away the pretext from them who drive on the King to fall upon us Those that fear God desire that if we must be persecuted it should be in bearing the Cross of Christ and for the profession of the Gospel In brief I assure you that the greatest and best part of our people desire you to decline this unjust enterprise Here is not the Authority of a Single Person 't is the testimony of the greatest and best part of the Churches of France 't is a general Declaration of the Churches and of those amongst them who feared God that the duty of Christians persecuted is to bear the Crosse not Arms. It 's then very falsly and injuriously done that the example of the French Churches should be so often and importunately alledged by the Covenanters to justifie the Subjects resisting their Sovereign since that ever in the time of war the greatest and best part were against it A French Divine who loved both his Religion and King found himself so prick'd by this reproach made to the generality of his Party that he prayed us to insert here this expression of his judgement and of the soundest part of the Churches of France The war for Religion in this Kingdome is a wound yet fresh and ye can hardly touch it but ye will hurt it and make it smart and it s very sore against my will that I
true and lawful Bishops and such as S. Paul writes of in his Epistles to Timothy and Titus and we deny not saith he but there hath been formerly such Bishops and that there are some now and that they elect such now in the Kingdom of England Beza writes thus to Archbishop Whitgift Archbishop of Canterbury In my writings touching the Ecclesiastical Government I have ever opposed the Roman Hierarchy but it was never in my intention to oppose the Ecclesiastical policy of your English Church nor to require of you to form your Church according to the pattern of our Presbyterian Discipline for whilst the substance of your Doctrine is uniform with the Church of Christ it is lawful for us to differ in other matters according as the circumstances of times places and persons require and is avowed by the prescription of antiquity and for this effect I desire and hope that the sacred and holy society of your Bishops will continue and maintain for ever their right and title in the government of the Church with all Christian equity and moderation Moreover the Churches yea the English Bishops render to their Brethren beyond the Seas the like charity Thus speaks Famous and Reverend Bishop Hall I most cordially respect and with me our Church their dear sister those excellent forreign Churches who have chosen and followed an outward form of government which in every respect is most expedient and sutable for their condition With the like charity an excellent Bishop whose Title of his Book being without name binds us not to name him Having proved that according to the antient Institution of the Christian Church the Bishops always gave the imposition or laying on of hands I write not here saith he to prejudice our neighbour Churches I dare not limit the extraordinary working and operation of the Holy Ghost there where the ordinary means is wanting without the fault of the persons God gave his people Manna so long as they were in the Wilderness necessity is a strong pleader many Reformed Churches live under Kings and Bishops of another Communion Others have particular Reasons why they could not continue nor introduce Bishops but it is not so amongst us speaking of the Church of his own Country A few lines after he adds As for my self I am very much inclined to believe that the Lord looks upon his people with pity in all their prejudices and that there is a great Latitude left to particular Churches in the constitution of their Ecclesiastical government according to the exigence of place and persons provided that the Divine Order and Institution be observed Now after these charitable judgements the Reformed Churches do not believe that which the Epistle of the Assembly of Divines would perswade them that the Bishops hate forraign Churches and reach that without Bishops they could have no Church nor lawful call of Ministers so that if any of ours have offended of late the Reformed Church in the point of Discipline they are disavowed in it by their Bishops Here is thanks be to God a Christian Harmony the Churches which have no Bishops say Let them that would and can injoy the Order of Episcopacy let them injoy it far be it from us that we should either proudly or rashly reprove them for it The Bishops respect cordially the Forraign Churches which have not the same Order and account the Government established amongst them in all respects the most expedient for them Let both the one and the other hold themselves there and let them grant one another the Liberty to govern in the outward according to prudence and exigencies and let them joyn brotherly together to maintain the substance of Religion constant and uncorrupted It is the councel of the Reverend Bishop before alledged There are some Plants saith he which thrive best in the shadow if then this form of government without Bishops agree best to the constitution of some Common-wealths we pray to God to give them joy in it and pray them to say as much for us Petimus damusque vicissim This is spoken Christianly and wisely if our enemies had the charity to have said so much there would have been no Covenant neither would they have pulled down Monarchy for to pull down Bishops under colour of pulling down the Kingdom of Antichrist But if they would that in this quarrel the Reformed Churches should joyn with them they should first have drawn from them a Declaration that they held the Episcopal degree unlawful and a mark of Antichrist and incompatible with the Gospel and that rather then suffer it they should overthrow the State and dispossess your Kings for lesse then this perswasion could not induce the Reformed Churches to espouse the quarrel of the Covenant We will proceed no further in this controversie only because the Covenanters build their rules of Reformation upon the example of the French Churches which the French Reformers never thought of we beseech all equal persons to consider the Christian prudence of those that put their hand to this great work in France having the Court and Clergy contrary to them The best that they were able to do in the matter of Discipline was to provide Pastors who should teach purely and leave them in a simple equality there being no question of governing in times of persecution but to instruct and suffer and it being a thing subject to danger and envy to erect new degrees which could not be done without quarrelling at them which were established Necessity contributes to prudence for the Reformation in France having begun by the common people and some few of the inferiour Clergy who were opposed by the Civil and Ecclesiastical Power we cannot wonder if the Government which they established according to the time was popular if the Reformation had begun by Bishops the Government had been Episcopal the Priests that were converted had not poweâ— to convert their Bishops as the English who began the Reformation helped by their Authority the conversion of their Clergy and people For the inferiour Orbs having a contrary motion to the superiour have not the power to make them follow their course But the superiour Orbs carry along with them the inferiour It was a great matter that the Reformed people could gain any retrogation against the rapidity and swiftness of the greater Sphears The discipline of the French Churches is most commodious to their present estate and hardly could there be found a more proper for a Church that lives under Magistrates of a contrary Religion in expectation of the reformation of them who possess the Ecclesiastical degrees The French Ministers in this humble and equal order keep themselves in a state of obedience proper to submit themselves to their Diocesans when it shall please God to convert them and we believe that their Fathers did chose this equality not as an opposition to the degrees of the Clergy but as a way to dispose them and as a
plank ready to invite the Bishops to pass over to their Reformation But if the Churches of France should come to maintain this Doctrine of the Covenanters that the Order of Episcopacy is an appurtenance of Antichrist and that there is no Kingdome of Jesus Christ but there where the Ministers are equal and poor This would put the conversion of the French Churches out of all hope But for as much as we desire the advancement of the Gospel we keep our selves from re-inforcing the considerations of flesh and blood or from augmenting the reproach of the Gospel we are not offended at the degrees nor revenues of the Clergy we render not the entrance into the Church more thorny then it is For to preach Reformation to a Clergy of a divers Religion and bind them to degrade and strip themselves for to reform them what other thing is this but at once to call them and to shut the door against them It 's true that notwithstanding all earthly considerations God may do miracles for to convert them but that hinders not but that we should carry our selves prudently to invite them and we ought not of deliberate purpose to make new Barracadoes between them and us because God can if he please break them But to the end that the difference of disciplines move no quarrel amongst the Reformed Churches this truth ought wisely to be considered that there is no entire rule of discipline laid down in Scripture and that not to have an outward order in the Church all the parts whereof not being expresly set down in the Word of God is to involve themselves in great difficulties and shut themselves up into straight bounds it 's to search that in the Word of God which is not there to be found Let all things be done decently and in order 1 Cor. 15. It s a Scripture that may be stretched very far and which remits to the Christian prudence of the Ministers of the Word of God to advise of such an order which is most expedient for the times and places wherein they live provided that nothing be done against Divine Institution It 's then necessary that to the Divine Institution the humane should be joyned and it was never otherwise in Church Now that which is humane in the discipline can never be so well united and fitted with the Divine that there may be made of these two a form entirely regular and a perfect composition It 's like the iron and clay in the feet of the Statue of Nebuchadnezzar which could never well joyn themselves one with another for the Ecclesiastical Ordinances are the feet of Religion bearing on them a head of gold and a brest of silver that is striving to uphold a Doctrine of great price but they themselves touch the earth and are mingled and there is not such a prudence and sanctity of Reformation which can form a discipline purely celestial nor joyn that which it hath of humane and Divine in it with such a justness as to compose a perfect order with materials of so different a nature This here is the cause of so many faults which may be found in all Ecclesiastical Order For notwithstanding the confusion of Schismes and Heresies the sharpness of persecutions the infinite revolutions of States during sixteen ages a pure and divine Doctrine remains in the World as gold which is found alwayes at the bottom of the Furnace The same cannot be said of the discipline for that is defective in all Churches and varieth yea ought to vary according to the times and places and it hath so much of man in it that what it hath of Divine is alwayes more or less Sophisticated by humane inventions and will be alwayes so until Jesus Christ hath withdrawn his Church from the earth and raised it to that great Ecclesiastical Government which is the Rule of Heaven Surely though there be certain rules of discipline Divine and certain there yet remains ever something for Prudence to form which ought to accommodate it self to necessity So bending according as occasions serve the rules that God hath left to the wisdome of men as the Divine be not damnified and that the Government of the Church thwarts not that of the State which is our misery at this day Whosoever shall consider the Kingdomes and Commonwealths of Christendome shall find that every where the Religion of the State hath a discipline suitable to the civil Government the Church taking hold of the State as the Ivy that groweth about a tree But the Covenanters pretend the quite contrary labouring to form the State to their new pattern of Ecclesiastical Discipline Hither tended the Petition of the rabble of London to the House of Commons which was after by the same House in a Body presented to the House of Lords wherein they required an equality in the State that thereby there might be one in the Church An action which will leave for ever to posterity an infamous and true character of the intentions of the Covenanters But in this they have but followed the Doctrine of their Sect. Cartwright had taught them before as the Tapestries or Hangings are fitted to the House so the Commonwealth ought to be fitted and accommodated to the Church and the Government of the State to the Ecclesiastical Government This design is wholly void of all prudence and possibility and being ruinous to the State must of necessity be the ruine of it self It 's certain that the Doctrine of Religion must not be accommodated to the State but that which is humane in the discipline ought to be subject to humane Laws and the authority of the Magistrate since God demands it of us Submit your selves to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake But these men make no difference between the Doctrine and the Discipline and would perswade us that they have a whole Body of Discipline altogether Divine and which is even the substance of the Gospel without which there is no true Religion but it is that we cannot find in the Gospel but in stead of that they prove it by the Sword CHAP. XVIII How the Discipline of the Covenanters is far from the practice of other Churches THere is another point which the Covenanters ought to prove before they associate themselves with the Churches of France in matter of Discipline They must prove that they have an Ecclesiastical discipline like unto theirs For all Churches which had no Bishops have not for all that the same discipline As for the discipline of the Covenanters they need make none by theirs nor receive any from them for they have none at all and they take the way never to have any If the menaces of the Scotch Army cause them to make an Ordinance in favour of the Presbytery they make presently an honourable reparation to the Independents And much of their prudence lies in this to accord all to the different Parties but give them nothing in making use
change and abolish Ceremonies or Rites of the Church ordained onely by mans authoritie so that all things be done to edifying XXXV THe second Book of Homilies the severall titles whereof we have ioyned under this Article doth contain a godly and wholsome Doctrine and necessary for these times as doth the former book of Homilies which were set forth in the time of Edward the sixth and therefore we judge them to be read in Churches by the Ministers diligently and distinctly that they may be understanded of the people Of the Names of the Homilies 1 OF the right use of the Church 2 Against peril of Idolatry 3 Of repairing and keeping clean of Churches 4 Of good works first of Fasting 5 Against Gluttony and Drunkennesse 6 Against Excesse of Apparel 7 Of Prayer 8 Of the Place and Time of Prayer 9 That Common Prayers and Sacraments ought to be ministred in a known Tongue 10 Of the reverent estimation of Gods Word 11 Of Alms doing 12 Of the Nativity of Christ 13 Of the passion of Christ 14 Of the Resurrection of Christ 15 Of the worthy receiving of the Sacrament of the Body and Bloud of Christ 16 Of the Gifts of the holy Ghost 17 For the Rogation daies 18 Of the State of Matrimony 19 Of Repentance 20 Against Idlenesse 21 Against Rebellion XXXVI THe Book of Consecration of Archbishops and Bishops and ordering of Priests and Deacons lately set forth in the time of Edward the sixth and confirmed at the same time by authority of Parliament doth contain all things necessary to such Consecration and ordering neither hath it any thing that of it selfe is superstitious and ungodly And therefore whosoever are consecrated or ordered according to the Rites of that Book since the second year of the aforenamed King Edward unto this time or hereafter shall be consecrated or ordered according to the same Rites we decree all such to be rightly orderly and lawfully consecrated and ordered XXXVII THe Queens Majestie hath the chief power in this Realm of England and other her Dominions unto whom the chief government of all estates of this Realm whether they be Ecclesiasticall or Civil in all causes doth appertain and is not nor ought to be subject to any forreign Iurisdiction Where wee attribute to the Queenes Majestie the chiefe government by which titles we understand the mindes of some slanderous folkes to be oâ—fended we give not to our Princes the ministring either of Gods word or of the Sacraments the which thing the Injunctions also lately set forth by Elizabeth our Queen do most plainly testifie but that only prerogative which we see to have been given alwaies to all godly Princes in holy Scriptures by God himself that is that they should rule all estates and degrees committed to their charge by God whether they be Ecclesiasticall or Temporall and restraine with the Civil sword the stubborne and evil deers The Bishop of Rome hath no Iurisdiction in this Realm of England The Lawes of the Realm may punish Christian men with death for heinous and grievous offences It is lawful for Christian men at the Commandment of the Magistrate to weare weapons and serve in the warres XXXVIII THe Riches and goods of Christians are not common as touching the right title and possession of the same as certain Anabaptists do falsly boast Notwithstanding every man ought of such things as he possesseth liberally to give almes to the poore according to his ability XXXIX AS we confesse that vaine and rash swearing is forbidden Christian men by our Lord Iesus Christ and Iames his Apostle So we judge that Christian Religion doth not prohibite but that a man may sweare when the Magistrate requireth in a cause of faith and charitie so it be done according to the Prophets teaching in justice judgment and truth The Contents Chap. 1. OF the Seditious Liberty of the new Doctrines which hath been the principal means of the Covenant p. 1. Chap. 2. That the Covenanters are destitute of all Proofs for their war made against the King p. 12. Chap. 3. Express Texts of Scripture which commands Obedience and forbids Resistance to Soverigns p. 23. Chap. 4. The Evasions of the Covenanters upon the Texts of Saint Paul Rom. 13. and how in time they refuse the judgment of Scripture p. 28. Chap. 5. What Constitution of State the Covenanters forge and how they refuse the judgment of the Laws of the Kingdom p. 40. Chap. 6. What Examples in the Histories of England the Covenanters make use of to authorize their actions p. 46. Chap. 7. Declaring wherein the Legislative power of Parliament consists p. 50. Chap. 8. How the Covenanters will be Judges in their own cause p. 63. Chap. 9. That the most noble and best part of the Parliament retired to the King being driven away by the worser p. 65. Chap. 10. A Parallel of the Covenant with the holy League of France under Henry the Third Pag. 71. Chap. 11. The Doctrine of the English Covenanters parallel'd with the Doctrine of the Jesuits p. 72. Chap. 12. How the Covenanters wrong the Reformed Churches in inviting them to joyn with them with an Answer for the Churches of France p. 81. Chap. 13. The preceding Answer confirmed by Divines of the Reformed Religion with an Answer to some Objections of the Covenanters upon this Subject p. 101. Chap. 14. How the Covenanters have no reason to invite the Reformed Churches to their Alliance since they differ from them in many things of great importance p. 115. Chap. 15. Of abolishing the Lyturgy in doing of which the Covenanters oppose the Reformed Churches p. 122. Chap. 16. Of the great prudence and wisdom of the first English Reformers and of the Fool hardinesse of these at present p. 132. Chap. 17. How the Covenanters labour in vain to sow Sedition between the Churches of England and France upon the point of Discipline Of the Christian prudence of the French Reformers and of the nature of Discipline in general p. 145. Chap. 18. How the Discipline of the Covenanters is far from the practise of other Churches p. 156. Chap. 19. That the Covenanters ruine the Ministers of the Gospel under colour of Reformation p. 163. Chap. 20. Of the Corruption of Religion objected to the English Clergy and the waies that the Covenanters took to remedy them Pag. 167. Chap. 21. An Answer to the Objection That the King made War against the Parliament p. 176. Chap. 22. Of the Depraved and Evil Faith of the Covenanters p. 184. Chap. 23. Of the Instruments both Parties made use of and of the Irish Affairs p. 207 Chap. 24. How the different Factions of the Covenant agreed to ruine the King and contributed to put him to death p. 226. Chap. 25. Of the cruelty of the Covenanters towards the good Subjects of the King p. 232. CHAP. I. Of the seditious Liberty of New Doctrines which hath been the principal means of the Covenant A Compleat History of our Affairs since
is unlawful because there is no such thing or the like found in Scripture These their Confessions are very remarkable and indeed most strange coming from Christians who should rather frame their policy to Scripture than reject the Scripture because it contradicts the policy they would establish They have found out an invention to cast off the yoke of their King which is to cast off that of the Word of God After this so open a profession it 's against all equity they should make use of Scripture for their cause either in their Writings or Sermons They alledg nothing but examples but there is no reason that the examples should be made use of by them who reject the Commands but after they have turned themselves into as many postures as a Fencer to defend themselves against the invincible Text of the Apostle in the end hither they are driven to refuse wholly to debate the difference touching their duty to their King by the Commands of Scripture The last Figure of Proteus is the Natural and after all their tricks of Lying and Hypocrisie at last their Nature shews it self In fine when all is said this is the only answer on which they rest that the Commands of Scripture cannot determine the point of their resistance and that we must have recourse to the Lawyers This speech is commonly in the mouths of all the wisest of their party and let all Christian Churches take notice of this their most shameful Evasion The Covenanters of England who pretend to establish the Kingdom of Christ according to the Word of God refuse to be judged by the Commands of Scripture touching the War made against their Soveraign CHAP. V. What Constitution of State the Covenanters forge and how they refuse the Judgment of the Laws of the Kingdom TO elude the strength of humane Laws as well as divine they forge a primitive and fundamental Constitution of this Estate destitute of all authority both of God or man And here we must distinguish between their doctrine they taught in the beginning of their Covenant and that which they taught afterwards for then when they were to fight with the King in the field and were not yet capable oâ— so high hopes as afterwards they effected they forged a form of State suitable to their possibility then which was to constrain the King by the Terror of their Arms to accord to all that should please them and wholly to put the Government into their hands notwithstanding their Principles then led them to those Conclusions which since followed for they supposed that the Soveraign Power was inherent in the People that the People elected the King and had committed to him the Authority that he exercised reserving to themselves the Power to assume it again when the State should judge it most convenient and to take away the sword of Justice and the Militia to make use of it against him if there were need That the King had not the Supream Power but by Paction which being once broke by him the Subjects were exempted from their Obedience That he was onely Depository of the Supremacy but when the Estates were assembled the Supremacy was joyntly possessed by him and the two Houses so that the King had but the thirds and that but very hardly for they held that the States had a Negative voice and the King could do nothing without their consent and whether the King had the Negative Voice of right they were not agâ—eed but all accorded to take it away from him in effect that is to say after their account That the People might refuse the King what displeased them but if the King denyed what the People propounded to him they esteemed that the two Houses might and ought to do it without him and force him to it by Arms and this Doctrine hath been confirmed by their practise or to speak the truth this their practise hath occasioned this Doctrine Now since God through his secret and incomprehensible Judgments hath suffered the wickedness of this Age to have success above their desires they built upon these principles this Conclusion that the People may judge and execute their King dissolve the Monarchie for ever and turn it into an Aristocracy or Popular Government for yet they cannot agree to which they should hold themselves since then they would perswade us that the Constitution of the English Government exempts us from these two great dangers Disobedience to God and damning our Souls in resisting the King and since they would oblige us for Conscience sake to oppose the King in obedience to God and the higher Powers and that our Clergie are commanded to exhort the people that God hath commanded them to draw their Swords against their Soveraign there is a necessity to satisfie our Reason and resolve our Consciences hereupon to enquire whether the Nature of the State be such as they have painted it out to us And for this we have not referred our selves to those of the Royal party but have consulted with the most Judicious Writers of the Covenanters who pass amongst them as Oracles of the State expecting that for proof of this form of Government they would have produced the old Records of the Kingdom which are now in their Custodie the ancient Statutes of Parliaments and the Testimony of their old Historians but they alledge no such things though much pressed thereunto by their Adversaries onely they make a Discourse in the Air upon the Law of Nature that hath given to every person and by consequent to every Estate a power for his preservation troubling the Ignorant Readers brains with barbarous terms and thorny distinctions and extracting the Quintessence of the State into an invisible substance They tell us that the Parliament was coordinate and not subordinate to the King That the three Estates of Parliament whereof the King made one being fundamental admitted not of the difference of Higher or Lower That the power of the King in Parliament was not Royal but Political That this Fundamental Law of the kingdom was not written for if it were it should be superstructive and therefore Mutable and not Fundamental That the mixture of the three Estates in Government was not Personal but Incorporate Those that understand not these Mystical sentences ought to be nevertheless content it being not reasonable that they should understand them better then the Authors themselves An affected obscurity amongst Ideots passeth for knowledge and ye shall find that the Discourses that have least reason in them are most difficult like Olive stones which are very hard because there is nothing in them Now is it not requisite to subtilize upon the virtuality and actuality of the Peoples power for to inform the Conscience of the Subject touching the Justice of his Arms against his King but for that there is indeed need both of Divine and Humane Authority and such as is easie and to be understood of all But the observation of Mr. du Moulin
is very true that ordinarily Lying arms its weaknesse with thorns like Lizards who save themselves by running into Bushes Above all in a point where the Question of Right is founded upon that of Fact as this Question now whether it be lawful for the English to take up Arms against their Prince here to go about to satisfie Reason and Conscience with political and metaphisical Contemplations is not to purpose they should besides Divine Authority which should ever march before enquire whether the Laws and Constitutions of the Country authorize this War The Question being not to dispute which is the best Form of Government but to preserve the Form to which God hath subjected us and to observe the Laws of the Kingdom and after many Moral and Political Discourses for our Adversaries pay us with no other those that have any Honesty or Understanding come always to this that they would shew us by what Law of England it is permitted the Subjects to take up Arms without the Kings permission and against him When did the people ever make this Election Where is it that they have reserved the liberty to resume the Supreme Authority when they shall please Is there any Statute made during the Ages that this Monarchy hath continued that prefers or equals the two Houses to the King or doth authorize them to ratifie any thing without him Where is the Articles of that Capitulation which in some certain cases dissolves the Subjects Oath of Allegiance Is there any Case in the Law in which it should be lawful for Subjects to take from their King or Supreme Magistrate his Forts Navies and Magazines and to take into their hands the sole Administration of Justice and the Militia to confer the great Offices of the Crown to receive Ambassadors to treat with Forreign Nations and to dispose of the Goods and Lives of the Kings Subjects To these so important Questions for the duty and happiness of all the members of an Estate and the eternal salvation of their Souls and Bodies to answer with Platonick considerations and in stead of producing the Laws of the Kingdom to Philosophy upon the Law of Nature and form an appeal from Authentical and known Laws to a Word not written made at pleasure This is to mock God and men this is to insult upon the Brutality of the people and to take a wicked advantage from the wine of Astonishment or Senselessness which God in his just wrath hath poured forth upon this miserable Nation for if they did beleeve there remained any common sense in this blind and mad people durst they so boldly return so ridiculous an Answer to those that demand where are those Fundamental Laws written that now make all other Laws bow to them namely that the Fundamental Laws are not written and that if they were they should be superstructive and not fundamental after this account the command to love God with all our heart and our Neighbour as our self is not fundamental because it is written it were to profane Reason to imploy it to refute a reasoning so unreasonable it must needs be that these people know they have to do with Persons of great credulity since they dare give them for a Fundamental Law a Fantasie which they never heard before spoken of and whereof no Writings nor Histories make mention and this is to fight against their King overthrow the State lose their goods hazard their Lives and Consciences But what should I say There is no reason but is perswasive when the Conclusions are taken and there is strength to maintain them Christendome which have now their eyes upon our Broils will take notice of the open confession of the Troubles of this State That for the War against the King and for the form of Government which they establish in the kingdome a Superiour power that abolisheth the Royal they have no Fundamental Law written Is not this then marvellously to abuse the Justice of God and the patience of reasonable creatures made after his Image and indued with knowledge to constrain them to prostitute their Consciences and Lives in a Quarrel for which they openly confess there is not any Law written and for which there is not the least footing of Approbation in all that hath been established or left authentically written since England hath been a Nation We have let you see before how they decline the Defences of Scripture against the resistance of Soveraigns behold now they confess there is no fundamental Law written for to justifie their Arms and the superiority of the people above the King which they would introduce with the sword and thus they acknowledge they have no authority neither divine nor humane for what they do as Cardinal Perron having maintained the power of the Pope over the Temporal of Kings before the Estates of France in conclusion affirmed that it was an Article which was not decided neither by the Scriptures nor the Ancient Church so that the Pope and our Mutineers agree together to usurp an authority upon Kings without any ground or warrant in the Word of God and contradicted by all humane Constitutions that is to say that hoth God and man are contrary unto them CHAP. VI. What Examples in the Histories of England the Covenanters make use of to authorize their Actions BUt do we not much wrong them to say that there is nothing makes for them in all the ancient Writings and Histories of this Kingdom Do they not alledg the two Parliaments that deposed Edward the second and Richard the second yea truly and to their great shame as the wisest of their party do acknowledg affirming that those Acts of Parliament against Richard the second were not properly the Acts of the two Houses but of Henry the fourth and his victorious Army in which they say true for the Duke of Lancaster who after caused himself to be called Henry the fourth having prevailed with the people to rise against their lawful King assembled a Parliament which he made to do whatsoever he would and having deposed and imprisoned this poor King soon after caused him to be put to death though this action were as just as it is execrable yet it would make nothing to the purpose where the Question is of that which the two Houses may do separate from the King for the deposing of King Richard was by another King sitting in Parliament for until these last States the two Houses never thought that they were able to conclude any thing without the Royal Consent and since the Parliaments held under the House of York declared Henry the fourth Usurper of the Crown and therefore condemned the Parliament which had confirmed his usurpation The other example is no better than this the deposing of Edward the second by the Conspiracy of his Wife and the Favourites of this Queen who served themselves of a Parliament to execute this wickedness and having deposed the King and crowned his Son who
to obey the Laws until the same Authority that made them alters and changes them This Authority being that of the Prince sitting in Parliament we hold not our selves bound by that which passeth in any House or Councel without him and against him accounting that where the Princes Authority shines not their power is eclips'd above all since the Houses at Westminster were reduced to the fourth part of their number and the lesser part the major part being frighted away and filled their vacant places with persons of their own judgement without the Kings Authority if the Houses had ever any Power without him it was like the light of the Moon without the Sun Exiguum malignum Lumen as the Astrologers call it it was a little light which did nought but hurt Our great Lawyer Fortescue speaks well that as a Natural Body when the Head is cut off is not called a Body but a Trunck so in the Body Politick the Commonalty without a Head cannot any way incorporate or make a Body CHAP. VIII How the Covenanters will be Judges in their own Cause BUt was there ever any thing more unreasonable then this proceeding They would that the judgement of the Lesser part of the Two Houses without the King and against all former Parliaments should be received yea in their own Quarrel and that in the Controversie whether the King hath Authority above this Assembly or it above him this Assembly will be judge 't is for them they tell us to declare what is Law and to make the Law Now that Assembly declares that their Authority is above the King that their Arms are just and the Kings unjust and that the Representative Body of the State cannot erre in Law and that it 's your duty to stand to their judgement These people would be ashamed to confess where they have learned thus to reason Is it not of him who said Dic Ecclesiae hoc est tibi ipsi Tell it to the Church that is to say to thy self and truly to confute them we will do them the shame to employ the same words we make use of against him changing only the persons In the present Quarrel one of the Controversies is Whether the Two Houses at Westminster without the King are the Soveraign Judges in point of Law In this Controversie should the Two Houses be Judges they should then be Judges in their own Cause and should be assured to gain their process Item if it be disputed whether they can erre in this Controversie also they would judge they could not erre Should they be Infallible Judges of their Infallibility Who beholds not in this an evident contradiction That it must be that he that disputes whether the Two Houses can erre must address himself to the Two Houses as to Judges that cannot erre to judge this Question so likewise in the Question whether the Authority of the Two Houses be above the King it 's certain that the Two Houses cannot be Judges since by this same Question their Authority to Judge is called into doubt the one pretends that the difference hath been decided and judged by the Authority of a Soveraign and infallible Judge it 's certain that hereby he renders the wound incurable the quarrel eternal and beyond all terms of reconciliation It matters not to say that between two parties that pretend to the Soveraignty there can be no Judge but that the strongest must carry it for if the two parties desire peace they may choose Arbiters The King or Supreme being the Natural Soveraign of his Enemies and he who gives vigor to the Laws hath desired notwithstanding that the difference should be determined by the Laws he pretends not to infallibility He hath also often chosen his Neighbours for Arbiters and hath fully satisfied them by reasonable offers and such as are worthy of him witness the Report that the extraordinary Ambassadors of the States Generals made to their Lords for which the Parliament of London declared their great discontent in writings The King being to render account of his Actions to none but God alone submitted himself notwithstanding to Reason and Piety remitting himself wholly to the Ancient Laws and Constitutions of his Kingdome He hath often protested and oft-times published and in this difference taken all Christendome for Arbiters but what in the Question whether his Subjects can make a Law against him and whether they have right to make war on him and would also that he should remit himself to their Ordinances yea even those which they have made without him against his will and against himself and that he should acknowledge them for Supreme Judges in their own cause without other Arbiters then their will Now they have had their wills wholly and have been Judges and parties both together a priviledge that belongs to God alone to whose Supreme Court we appeal CHAP. IX That the most Noble and best part of the Parliament retired to the King being driven away by the worser THat which doth strongly perswade us to believe that the Priviledges of Parliament which they would extend even in infinitum have an ill foundation is because we have seen them opposed by the better part of the Parliament both in Quality and Dignity For besides the King an hundred seventy five of the House of Commons and the best qualified withdrew themselves from amongst them and of the Lords eighty three so that scarcely the third part remained at Westm Almost all the Gentry wholly followed the King and when we consider the persons the Condition and Revenues of those that withdrew themselves we cannot see that they had any need to fish in troubled waters or to warm themselves at the Great Fire that began to slame as those had that remained Without doubt that great Body of Lords and Gentlemen of the Kingdome loved their Liberty and would never have assisted the King to have obtained an unlimited power break their Priviledges and impose a perpetual yoak of slavery upon them and their posterity When need was these Members of Parliament assembled themselves and the King deferred to their Councels as much as their Priviledges required Whereupon those of the Parliament of London were extraordinarily vexed maintaining that the Name and Power of Parliament was from that time fastened to the place where they sate which is a point that we will not dispute how strange soever it be but we would have them remember that they have had their sitting in other places and have not for all that thought they had left their Authority at Westminster and we dare answer for them that if the Lords and Commons which held with the King had driven them away and taken their place they would soon have changed their Opinion Besides this strong consideration of numbers and persons all those who know that the King is the Fountain of Authority and that without him there is no more lawful Power then day without the sun would never make
content them without considering the salvation of their souls the safety of their persons make publick prayers in their Assemblies for the Covenanters Preach to the people that their War is lawful and holy and that after being questioned by the Magistrates of a contrary Religion constantly maintain that it is the cause of God whatsoever may happen to their Goods Lives and the profession of the Gospel But behold here that which is worse in the conclusion of the Oath of the Covenant which they sent with their Epistle to all the Neighbour Churches they invite them earnestly to take this Oath or the like And above all they invite those Churches who live under the power of a contrary Religion The Invitation is in form of a Prayer That it would please God to encline by their examples the other Churches that groan under the yoke of Antichrist's Tyranny to associate themselves with this Covenant or the like For to take then their Summons in their own sense that is to say That the Churches of France to please them would make a Covenant against their Soveraign expecting as a thing which they need not doubt that the English Covenanters would overcome their enemies in an instant and would be ready at the day appointed to succour their Confederates beyond the Seas with their victorious Armies before their King justly provoked should ruine them The Covenanters Declarations especially in the year 1642. flatter these poor Churches with this hope and through all their discourse clearly resolv'd to go forth and pull down Antichrist in all Countries and make a general conquest for Jesus Christ These are very like the Messages that John of Leyden sent to Munster to make all the Commons in Germany to rise and all the world if it were possible Not that the Leaders of the Covenant considering their strength and interest thought themselves capable of so vast a design but according to my opinion they had two ends in making this so open a profession The one to draw to their party the weak and passionate who in enterprises have regard to the lustre and promise of the design and not to the possibility of the execution Of such spirits the great Herd of the world is composed who in the great and publick Motions suffer their fancies to be bewitched with Poetical hopes incompatible with the nature of the affairs Such was the promise of another Declaration which lul'd the imaginations of the adherents That this War would bring them deliverance from all their sufferings and fears and be the beginning of a new world of joy and peace which God would create for their consolation For this new world of peace and joy which was but three skips and a stride off as they thought they found such besotted spirits who cast themselves headlong into a Gulph of evils without bottom or bounds The other apparent end was to gain credit to their party by the applause of Forreign Churches to fortifie themselves by the powerful association of the Low-Countries and to try whether the French of the Reformed Religion were so ill affectionate as to take up Arms against their King without ever caring what should come after when they were once engaged in a war wherein formerly they had ill success And these people were so void of charity and humanity that they were content to buy an unprofitable reputation to their party by the certain ruine of those they invite to alliance with them As he that cared not to cut down his Neighbours Oak were it but to make himself a pick-tooth For suppose that the French Churches should have suffered themselves to be gained by their perswasions In what condition were they in to succour them Could they have furnished Money Armes Men and Shipping Had they the means to put out the Fire when they had once kindled it All the Succours that these Gentlemen could give them would be to declare the Votes of the two Houses That the Armes of the Churches of France were Defensive and Just and those of their King Offensive and Unlawful Or have Declared his Majesty fallen from his Dignity and Crown of France as they declared those two Illustrious Princes Prince Rupert and Prince Maurice Sons of the late King of Bohemia excluded from Succession in the Palatinate which Vote shall take place when the Masters of the Covenant shall have Conquered the Palatinate by their Armes in spight of the Forces of France the Emperour and Spains and they become sole Arbiters of the Empire Before the Covenanters come to the end of this design a little too far off these brave Princes will have leasure to make their peace and many things may intervene which will induce their Judges to abate of their so great severity For to perswade these poor Churches to cast themselves headlong into ruine the Assembly at London in their Epistle labour to exasperate them by the remembrance of all that they had suffered and perswaded them that all Churches on this side as well as on the other side of the Seas were concluded to be ruined by the same Agents that after the Churches of England and Scotland should be devoured they would then fall upon their Neighbours and that it was not against the men but against the profession of the true Religion and against Godliness that their Enemies made War Whereby they would make the Neighbour Churches believe that King Charles confederated with the Pope to ruine the Reformed Religion and that after he had dispatched his own subjects he would do the like to his Neighbours of the same Religion There needs no great measure of the Gift of discerning Spirits to judge by what spirit these Grave Divines were led who take such pains to send their Brethren to the slaughter within and out of their Kingdome and to make the Doctrine of the Gospel a Trumpet of Sedition to arm subjects against their Princes and put all Christendome into a flame of bloody and unnatural wars And therefore they had reason to confess themselves thus to Forraign Churches they beseech them to excuse them that they had not writ sooner alledging according to the second Interpretation of their Friend That since they were assembled they found themselves so amazed with the Wine of Astonishment that God had given them to drink that they had wholly forgot their duty But in the Addition which they disperse amongst all the Churches they do not acknowledge themselves only Attonitos amazed but Ebrios drunken and both in the one and the other they had great reason Oh the force of Truth Oh the wonderful Providence and Justice of God to draw from these subtil and crafty souls their own condemnation How is it possible that so many choice and picked Divines whereof this Assembly was composed should be so blinded as to let pass from them so shameful a Confession in the name of all their Body and of all their Party to be divulged through all the Churches of
And a little after he gives the reason why the French Churches do not follow their example Because living in a Country where Superstition abounds the people would be easily drawn to abuse them and be tainted with the common contagion The Prudent and Religious acknowledge with him That in this the Churches have liberty to govern themselves according to the exigencies of time and place and that if in the English Calender there be some festivals which might well be passed by and whereof there might be some fear of the consequence these things ought to have been fairly represented with the humility of subjects and the charity of Christians and not defame the reputation of the English Church as idolatrous and a member of Antichrist nor reform the Church and the King by the Sword since the Reformed Churches in this point acquits them and the example of the Primitive justifies them But although they make a great shew of their agreement with other Churches they make but use of them in some points where they like and approve of and spare not to accuse them of idolatry as well as others when they please 'T is that which they do without naming them then when they reject as gross idolatry the observation of the memory of the daies dedicated to the Nativity Passion Resurrection and Ascension of Christ and the sending of the Holy Ghost into the Church Behold here the Opinion and Practise of the Reformed Churches declared by that Godly and Learned Festus Hominius It s a thing of very great profit to the edification of the Church to commemorate and press solemnly to the people at certain ordinary times the principal manifestations of God and his most signal Benefits to his Church since that the Primitive Church even in the times of the Apostles dedicated certain daies to the Anniversary Celebration of the Nativity Death Resurrection and Ascension of Christ and sending of the Holy Spirit It s very well done to retain the practise of the ancient Church in a thing which is not simply indifferent but singularly profitable to edification provided that none attribute superstitiously any Sanctity to be in the daies and impose not upon the consciences of Christians a yoke of absolute necessity contrary to the Liberty of the Gospel Our new Reformers cannot affirm in sincerity that the Clergy of England attributed any Inherent Sanctity to be in the daies or made use of them to impose a yoke of absolute necessity upon their consciences there was no need then to abolish them with such rigour not to scandalize so many pious souls nor resist a vain fear of superstition by insolence and prophaneness which is a remedy worse then the evil The day of the Nativity in the year 1644 was changed by an express publick Order into a Fast which was the first time since the Apostles that there was any Fast kept that day in the Christian Church and because many would not Fast they sent Souldiers into their houses a little before dinner to visit their Kitchins and Ovens who carried away the meat and eat it though it was a fasting day who were exempted from fasting provided they made others fast such insolencies were ordinary if we may call them insolent actions which were done by Authority And as for Easter day on which and the daies following the people are enjoyned by Act of Parliament to receive the Blessed Sacrament the devotion of the people in many places have been opposed by violence We have heard of a Parish where by main force the Bread and Wine was taken away from the people who were assembled at Church for this holy action Behold their wayes to change the times and to reform abuses which is to resist a supposed superstition with a true and manifest one and to make Sacriledge fight for Religion Le ts pass to other differences The Reformed Churches do not believe as they that all significant ceremonies excepting in the Sacraments are unlawful for then it would follow that to keep off the Hat and kneel at Prayer should be unlawful for these are ceremonies which signifie reverence whence many of the Covenanters for this reason refuse to put off their Hats or kneel at prayer without being taken notice of and reproved by authority Also the Reformed Churches do not believe as they that to be tyed to written prayers or forms of prayers in the Administration of the Sacraments is to binde the Spirit of God many of the Covenanters are come so far as to call the usage of forms of prayer idolatry yea even the use of the Lords Prayer which the most part of this faction refuse to say although by a special priviledge it s permitted the Minister by their Directory to make use of it if he please for it s not commanded him According to this Directory as they call it that is to say an instruction how the Minister should govern himself in the Church The Minister must not say the Apostles Creed nor repeat the ten Commandments of God whereby the people shall be without any form of what they are to believe or what they are to do therefore in the families of most part of this faction they reach noâ— their children neither the Creed the Lords Prayer nor the ten Commandments and as for the children which have learned these holy forms they teach them to forget them Above all things they take a special care that the Minister tyes not himself to any form of words as a thing of dangerous consequence and which hath a taint of Antichrist Henceforward then there will be no uniformity in the Divine Service nor no more help for the infirmity of aged Ministers nor for the understanding and memory of simple and dull Auditors who cannot comprehend at the first aboard what the Minister saith but had need to be well accustomed to him Also there will be no more bounds to devour phantastical spirits which is the principal vice of this Nation Every Church will have a particular Order or rather will have none at all for the Pastor hath liberty to alter it every time he pleases nothing being forbidden but to make use of the long established forms by the Authentical Acts of many Parliaments sanctified by the publick devotion of so many years and composed by the first Reformers persons excellent in piety and wisdome whose books these are not worthy to carry after them If these Directors had had any fear of scandalizing the Churches whom they invited to associate with them they would never have abolished the custome received in all the Reformed Churches and generally in all the Christian Churches of the World who have certain forms for the publick Service of God If they had born any respect to Antiquity and to the universal consent of the Christian Church in all ages and in all places they would not have begun in this age a custome so prodigiously singular as to banish out of the Church all forms
expectation of those Churches that they reject the ordinary Liturgy Oh our good God! these persons do they meddle to preach the Truth Because that France and England are separated by Sea and Language do they think their people shall never be informed the truth of the opinion of their neighbours touching the English Liturgy nor the manner of their practise in matter of their publick Service I hope they will leave to others the practise of this Maxime Lie boldly although you be refuted after there will remain some impression upon the spirits of the hearers And therefore we will believe charitably that the most part of these Divines knew not what they said but referred themselves to the Faith of others and hoping that after they are better informed they will change their opinion we will say to them as St. Paul to the Galatians I have confidence in you through the Lord that ye will be none otherwise minded but he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment whosoever he be Gal. 5.10 Since then they speak of their long experience let us take it from the beginning soon after the Liturgy was compiled it was sent to good Calâ—in who thus writ to the Protector of England as for the form of prayers and Ecclesiastical ceremonies I much approve that they should be established as a certain form from which it may not be lawful for the Pastors to go in the execution of their charge Behold two points very contrary to the Covenanters the one that he very well approves of the Book of Common prayer and the Ecclesiastical Ceremonies the other that there ought to be a certain form of Divine Service from which it should not be lawful for the Pastors to digress Will they not say in reading these words of Calvin Durus sermo this is a hard saying who can hear it What cruelty is this to undertake to bind the Spirit of Zeal and to dare to speak of a Rule to them who will stand fast in the liberty Christ hath made them free and will not again be entangled in the yoke of bondage for they make use of this Text for that subject we will leave them this Text of Calvin to ruminate and pray them not to begin the date of their long experience till after his Decease Martin Bucer will yet shorten it some years he speaks thus to the Churches of England of the form of their Divine Service I give thanks to God who hath given you grace to reform these Ceremonies in such a purity for I have found nothing in it which is not taken out of the Word of God or at least is not contrary to it being rightly interpreted That which the Directors and their party find most to be reprehended in this Book is of so small consideration with Beza that he wrote thus to those who were so enraged against it The Surplice saith he is not a thing of such importance that Ministers should be so scrupulous as to leave their Function rather than wear it or that the people should forbear to â—eed of the bread of life rather than hear their Pastors preach who wear them And as for receiving the blessed Sacrament of the Lords Supper kneeling Musick in Churches and things of the like nature he saith to them That these are such small and indifferent things which should not much trouble them Behold here their long experience much shortned for its little above fourty years since Beza died Gualter and Bullinger likewise commending the English Liturgy condemned the affected tenderness of some who made use of it for a cloak of their Sedition and Rebellion speaking thus in an Epistle which they both joyntly wrote to their discontented Brethren in England upon this Subject That if any of the people perswade themselves that these things smell of Popery let them learn to know the contrary and let them be perfectly instructed and that if the clamours of any of them raise up troubles amongst the multitude let them beware lest in doing so they draw upon your necks a more heavy yoke and provoke noâ— his Majesty and bring not many Ministers into such dangers out of which they shall find no means to escape This advertisement might well be turned into a Prophesie and these persons who falsly alledge the Reformed Churches are offended with the Liturgy of England repent too soon that they had not followed their exhortations and submitted themselves Now the King hath offered to exempt tender Consciences from the observation of certain things which offend them yea to submit the whole Reformation to a lawful Synod But in stead of receiving this Gracious offer of his Majesty they persecute him and his Clergy with all violence manifesting thereby that it is not our Reformation but our destruction which is capable to content them and these tender Consciences which tremble at the sight of a Surplice or the sound of an Organ are strong and lusty enough to commit murder and Sacriledge like the Pharisees who strained at a Gnat and swallowed a Camel His Majesty made a Declaration to all the reformed Churches of the sincerity of his Profession and intention to live and die in the holy Religion which he had maintained and because the Factious of his Kingdom had used all their endeavours to alienate Forreign Churches from the Church of England upon the outward of Religion his Majesty remembers them there how at the Synod of Dort both the Discipline and Liturgy of England was approved by word and writing by the most eminent Divines of Germany France Denmark Sweden and Switzerland as appears in the Acts of that Synod and yet nevertheless the Covenanters at this day are so impudently bold as to publish that by long and sad experience they have found that the English Lyturgy was offensive to the Forreign Reformed Churches Where is their honesty Where is their sincerity Do they hope by these wicked waies to draw down a blessing of God upon their cause The Truth which they pretend to advance must it be established and set up by lying By all this then it appears that their long experience comes to nothing but if they are wanting in the old experience let them produce the new Where are the Forreign Churches that require of them the abolition of the publike Service Would they could cause them to speak for themselves By Forreign Churches they cannot understand the Scotch Church for since the beginning of this war the Covenanters would not acknowledge them for strangers for fear of being reproached for inviting and bringing in Forreign Forces and keeping them under pay in the Kingdom And as for other Churches we account the experience of the Authors of the Directory do not much exceed ours Now we have not known any Protestant stranger ever made it any difficulty to joyn in the publick prayers of the Church of England except some walking Anabaptists as in London they have lately made to appear and neither in
France nor the Low Countries we never knew or understood the least trace of dissention hereupon and if the fashion of some Particulars amongst us displease other Churches they do not less displease ours The Reformed Churches are better instructed than lightly to quarrel at the exteriour circumstance of Divine Service where the substance is whole and sound they have learned to speak after Calvin in the Confession presented in the Name of the Churches of France to the Emperour and Princes of Germany We acknowledg that all and every Church have this right to make Laws and Statutes and for to establish a common Policy amongst them provided that all things be done in the House of God decently and in order and they owe obedience to these Statutes so that they do not inthrall the Conscience nor impose Superstition and those that refuse this are accounted by us seditious and wilful Beza goes yet a little further and maintains that in the outward of Religion Many things may yea ought to be born notwithstanding they are not justly commanded St. Augustin hath an Epistle upon this Subject which is a Golden Epistle wherein he instructs Januarius of the indifferency of Ecclesiastical Observations as of the times of Fasting and the divers customs of receiving the Blessed Sacrament of the Lords Supper All things of this kind saith he have their Observations free and for this there is no better of Discipline for a grave and prudent Christian then to do as he seeth them do in all the Churches whither he goes for that which is neither against faith and good manners ought to be held indifferent and ought to be observed according to the company with whom we live and converse and hereupon he reports how his Mother being come to Millan found her self in great perplexity because they did not fast on the Saturday as they did in the Church from whence she came and he to resolve he went to ask counsel of St. Ambrose Archbishop of Millan who answered him When I saith he go to Rome I fast on the Saturday when I am here I fast not on that day do ye the same Into whatsoever Church ye go observe their customes if you your self will not give offence to persons and will that no person should give you offence All Protestants of Europe except the Faction of the Covenant govern themselves thus in whatsoever place they are they joyn with the Reformed Church whatsoever their form of Discipline be which as some say is divers in all Nations To this grave counsel of S. Ambr. S. Austin adds a Character to the life of the imperious and scrupulous humour of our melancholy zealots whom one would think had an intention to paint them out I have oft perceived saith he with much grief and sorrow that many weak and infirm persons have been much troubled through their Contentions wilfulness and superstitious fearfulness at some of their Brethren for doing some things which could not be certainly defined by the Authority of the Holy Scriptures nor by the tradition of the universal Church nor by the utility that might thereby come for the bettering and amendment of our lives only because there is some matter for their conceptions to reason and discourse upon or because they think the farther they go or are able to separate themselves from the Customs received is the most exquisite and nearest to perfection moving such litigious and idle Questions that they make appear to all that they will never allow of any thing well done unless they do it themselves The Reformed Churches take and give this Liberty that every one form an outward Order of Divine Service according to their prudence and its more to be wished than expected that there should be one and the same order throughout all Churches But I know not any Church that reject and cast off all certain Forms as the Covenanters The Declaration following made some few years since by persons of account in the Churches of France is notable As for the Ceremonies and Customs of Ecclesiastical Service and Discipline no judge convenient to leave to every Church his own without altering or changing any thing One day when it shall please God to perfect and confirm amity amongst these Churches we may be able by an universal councel and consent to form a certain Liturgy which may be as a Symbole and Bond of Concord The Churches of the Covenanters ought to be exempted out of this Number for the Liturgy is become to them an Apple of Discord which hath made them quarrel with all Churches of the world being in this point like unto Esau whose hands were against every one and every ones hands against him Therefore the Directors refute themselves by a manifest contradiction then when by their publike Declaration they tell the people that it is to conform themselves to the Reformed Churches that they prescribe not an ordinary form of publike Prayers and Administration of the Sacraments Seeing that it is a thing most notoriously known that all the Reformed Churches have certain Forms of Prayers But they do as if they should apparrel themselves with Green and Yellow because the Ministers of France apparel themselveâ— with black 'T is the Doctrine of the Brownists which now predominate in England that for to have a Liturgie or Form of Prayers is to have another Gospel Now after all this Do they not well think you to court the Churches of France and to make a great noise of their conformity with them having so openly condemned them and their phanatical Phrensie in this point is proceeded so far that neither the Lords Prayer nor the Ten Commandements nor the Apostles Creed are repeated in their Churches nor are taught their Children in their Houses much less any Form of Catechism Behold here a Faction who reject the Books of Christian Religion An horrible and unheard of thing in all ages and in all Churches since Christianity entred the world And dare these people speak of Reformation and Conformity with the Reformed Churches CHAP. XVI Of the great prudence and wisdome of the first English Reformers and of the fool-hardiness of these at present IF these directors who boast themselves of a new Light had had at least the light of Prudence they would have considered that they had to deal with popular Spirits who were accustomed to a good and holy Liturgie but since on a sudden interdicted the use they could not but think they were suddenly transported into another Gospel for the people are dull and fastned upon the exterior and that if they be once fastened to a form of devotion which is good although below perfection there is occasion to praise God that the people have any tast of devotion even in any Form and it should be cherished and encouraged And if there be any thing in this Form to be amended it should be done so mildly and dexterously that the people be not exasperated and the
from Whom they take the use of their holy prayers have great cause to fear they will also take from them their Religion whereupon some have Fallen into a desperate Melancholy if they deal thus with us because they have a greater measure of light then we it is much to be desired that they had a little more that they fall not into the offence condemned by S. Paul and through thy knowledge shall thy weak brother perish for whom Christ died but when ye sin against the Brethren and wound their weak conscience ye sin against Christ 1 Cor. 8.11 12. Heretofore this faction would be spar'd in their disobedience to the Ecclesiastical Laws pretending tenderness and weakness of Conscience but now that they are become Masters of the Laws they regard not our weakness but force us to follow their fantasies without considering our doubts and scruples The King by the Articles of Uxbridge offered them liberty of Conscience but they will not give neither the King nor his subjects the like liberty Either take the Covenant or leave your Benefice was the choice they gave many Ministers Alledge to them the great and deep affliction of the people because they had taken from them their Common Prayers their Forms for the celebration of the Sacraments and of Marriage their customs of receiving the Sacrament at Christmas Easter and Pentecost and the decent manner of burying their dead with some Prayers and Texts of Scripture which put the living in mind of their mortality and raised up in them an assurance of their resurrection They will answer you that these observations are not necessary and mock at the affliction of the ignorant people But we hold that it is necessary to obey God who hath commanded us to do nothing whereby thy weak brother stumbleth is offended or made weak but be such as give none offence neither to the Jew nor to the Gentiles nor to the Church of God Rom. 14.21 Also the imaginary danger which they fear of things that may come to passe is a thousand times less then the present scandal and offence done to pious souls to behold all Ecclesiastical order overthrown and Liberty given to prophane and fanatique spirits to whom any thing is permitted unless to obey the King and the orders established by Lawfull Authority But let us pass to other offences There are many more besides the violation of Orders the very substance of Religion is endamaged What care do many people take to Baptize their children How do they reprove them that Baptize no more in the Name of the Father the Son and the holy Ghost Is it notpermitted to every one to Baptize or not Baptize their children and Baptism is it not refused to many Infants which are presented to be Baptized These new Reformers find so many difficulties in the capacity of their Parents that they are constrained many times to carry their children far from their dwellings to be received into the Christian Church for 't is one of the Errors of the Times that if the Father hath not Faith that is to say a Faith after their mode the Infant must not be Baptized In stead whereof the Reformed Churches in Baptizing Infants consider not the Faith of the Parents but of the Church in which they are born and the Doctrine not according as it is believed but according as it is taught Fidem non subjectivam sed objectivam For if they must be certain whether the Father hath Faith they should also be certain that he is the Father of the Infant which the Charity of the Church questioneth not Also it is an ordinary custom amongst them to rebaptize aged persons and to plunge women naked into the Water untill they say they feel faith The abuse of the blessed Sacrament of the Lords Supper is yet worse because it is more universal and maintained by the body of their Divines We beseech all lovers of the Christian Religion to enquire themselves of these Ministers how long time they have forborn to receive or administer this holy Sacrament when was it that the heads of the Covenanters received it when is it that their Souldiers were partakers of it those zealous murtherers whose assassinations and plunderings are steeped in piety Is it because they dare not receive the body and blood of our Lord with hands defiled with rapine and innocent blood But this reason cannot serve for the Churches where the Ministers are laid hold on and forbidden to administer the Sacrament where they are Ministers How many Churches are there where there hath been no speaking of a Sacrament these fifteen or sixteen years And is it not for them to mock God to make a Directory of the manner of receiving the Lords Supper and not to make use of it yea by force to hinder execution and performance of it Our Lord Jesus hath commanded us To do this in remembrance of him 1 Cor. 11.26 But behold here persons who impose a necessity not to do because they know not those who are worthy and therefore they hinder others to obey Jesus Christ taking by force the Bread and Wine from the people who were assembled to communicate and carried away the Minister out of the Church for fear he should administer the Sacrament These actions cry to heaven and will one day draw down a just vengeance These proceedings make us fear least they rank the Lords Supper amongst the superannuated ceremonies which must be abolished for in many Churches where the Covenanters are it 's not used which is a horrible thing to hear the Church of God since Christs time never before brought forth such examples Certainly since Jesus Christ would that we should do this in remembrance of him until his coming again if he should come now he would find it very strange that they had left before his coming this celebration of the memory of his death which he had so expresly commanded and it is to be presumed that he will receive no reason against his Command for the coming of Jesus Christ is the only reason which ought to make this holy Ordinance cease By this scruple that they dare not administer the holy Supper but to those alone whom they know to be worthy which is the general pretext of their party for their total abstinence they condemn not only the Reformed Churches who exclude none from the holy Communion unless they be ignorant and scandalous persons but also Jesus Christ who administred to the Disciple that betrayed him even then when he was plotting his treason in his heart By this also they even bind themselves not to celebrate the Supper of the Lord until they be inspectors and lookers into Conscience that is to say Gods For otherwise they cannot be fully satisfied of the worthiness of persons and all those who have a holy desire to partake of the Lords Table shall not be admitted until these principal Clerks of the Councel-Chamber of God have formed a Church which consists
purely of Elect. It s great pity when men will be too wise and introduce Laws of Severity into the Church which God hath not required at our hands These men should meditate on the Text of Solomon Eccles 7.16 Be not righteous over-much neither make thy self over-wise why shouldest thou destroy thy self Or otherwise Why shouldest thou draw desolation on thy self Thus the Pharisees by an impertinent wisdome and affected Authority and a sublime Divinity of Chymeras were confounded in the vanity of their understandings and drew desolation upon themselves and their Church But yet there is a mystery of Iniquity under this scruple which doth deeply stain the Divines of the Covenant for their Masters foment them for to advance their affairs and it is easie to see that if they once become the strongest they will exclude from the Sacrament of the Lords Supper all those who cannot banish from their heart the love of their King and the Church wherein they were born and brought up In a Sermon preached before the House of Commons and printed by command we learn that their Party will no more communicate with the Antichristian Faction the Preacher explains himself and tells us he means all those that adhere to the King in this quarrel They have many times preached that none should receive the Lords Supper but those who had taken the Covenant yea they have spoke aloud that the Oath of the Covenant and the Lords Supper should be administred together so that the Communicants must swear upon the Body Blood of our Lord and upon the hope of their Salvation that they would be Rebels to their King as long as they live and the Blood of Jesus Christ must be imployed for the same use the cup of mans blood which the confederates with Cataline drunk round one to another in taking the Oath of Conjuration to murder their Superiours and ruine their country But this design is not yet ripe for execution they defer it for a time In the mean time these Gentlemen and the Spiritual Fathers deny themselves the Seal of their Union with Jesus Christ and hereafter they will dispose of this Sacrament according as the necessity of the Covenanters do require They forgot to put down this Article of their reservation in the Epistle they sent to forreign Churches but in inviting them in general to conform themselves unto them they exhort them to this amongst the rest What Must the Reformed Churches then abstain from the Lords Supper and chuse to interdict the Ordinance of Jesus Christ rather then put themselves in danger of administring to the unworthy Must the Universal Christian Church be gulled by their scruples composed of the folly of some and the malice of others Must all believers in the World hold their Faith in suspence and deprive themselves of the Sacrament of their Union with Jesus Christ until the Covenanters of England have found a proper time to make use of the Body and Blood of Christ to bind together a wicked faction and have made the mysteries of Salvation their footstool for ambition Rather then suffer by a criminal complacency that Religion should be so destroyed and that these horrible things should pass for Doctrines of the Reformed Churches let all those who bear this title defend the honour of the Gospel and thereby a publick detestation of so great a corruption Let all those who love God testifie by a just anger they hate the evil It matters not what fraternity these Innovators pretend with other Churches if they corrupt the Christian Religion and invite them to do the like Familiaris accipere haud familiariter let them manifest they have no fraternity with heresie and impiety repulse boldly the temptation of those who invite so basely to do ill that they may have no more courage to return But there is one consideration which should mitigate your indignation against them That amongst this most impious extravagansie there is a malady and disease of the spirit for many of this party have their brains dislocated and displaced Some whereof have taken their children and gone and sacrificed them pretending a particular command like that God gave to Abraham others have shut themselves up with a Bible and resolved to eat nothing because it is written That man shall not live by bread alone but by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God Some have killed their cat because she had taken a mouse on Sunday but defer'd the execution until Munday And there are women and tradesmen amongst them who preach by the spirit without call knowledge or premeditation others who account the receiving of the Sacrament on their knees is to communicate at Mass and that the Surplice is the Smock of the Whore of Babylon the Publick Prayers Mass refined the sound of the Organs the Hoboyes of Antichrist ye need not wonder the Covenanters have so great a party since fools and Ideots are on their side The like weakness is seen in the Epistle of the Assembly to the Reformed Churches they highly aggravate the persecutions prepared for all those who would not bear the mark of the beast meaning by this mark their obedience to the order of Episcopacy and the use of the Publick Service for the King required no other thing of them but as beasts which being cast into the river ordinarily swim against the stream so many of these brutish spirits think they can never be saved but in going against the ancient received customes how good soever they be and make all their piety and honesty to consist in a sullen and dogged devotion fantastical and turbulent which will give no rest to themselves nor others This scrupulous humour hath produced strange effects witness he that killed his mother and brother in cold blood having no other quarrel against them but that they loved the Liturgy This was a preamble of the devil who the year after began this war for the same subject in which he made use of the melancholy humour of the people to cut the throats of their brethren for devotion according to the instructions before alledged out of Sions Plea and the Souldiers Catechisme In effect their spirit of contradiction and their bloody inclination which hath formed this maxime of the times that the Reformation must be made by blood are the productions of a sharp choler predominant in the Hipocondres or bowels whose vapours besiege the animal spirits which carries them into a savage rage which hath something of the nature of the Licanthropy There is alwayes in the worst parties excellent natures which are carried away with the stream and we know amongst the party of the Covenant some very brave men but the churlish zealots whose fierceness and number govern even the Governours themselves are of weak and malignant spirits whose temper is like that of Tiberius that is of dung kneaded and wrought together with blood these are men of sad sordid and reserved natures
to fear God the next following is to honour the King I make no doubt but the Kingdome of Christ may be established without pulling down mine and in a time free from partialities its impossible any should pass for a good Christian who shews not himself a good Subject The Government of Christ serves to confirm mine and not to overthrow it for as I acknowledge I hold my power of him so I desire to exercise it for his glory and the good of his Church If any one had sincerely proposed the Government of Christ or understood in their heart what it required they would never have been so ill governed in their words and actions as well towards me as one towards another As the good ends cannot justifie the evil wayes so also the evil beginnings cannot produce good conclusions unless God by a miracle of mercy make Light to spring out of Darkness Order out of our Confusion and Peace from our unruly Passions This is spoken as a King as a Phylosopher and as a good Christian Our enemies to blind the eyes of their Neighbours made them believe a long time that they desired such a reformation as theirs but the hypocrisie of this profession appeared then when the King offered to assemble a National Synod and to invite the Neighbour Churches to it whom these people would seem to imitate And this the good King would never have named had he not an intention to defer much to their Judgement But of this his Majesty could never obtain an answer for it was that which the Independents feared above all and we see not that the Presbyterians did any way favour this proposition the actions both of the one and the other were such that it was the surest course for them to palliate them with Declarations sent a far off rather then to have them brought to light here at home in a Synod and they were very well content to receive their Neighbours to their Society but not to admit them to their Counsel They have hereby made it appear that it was not reformation but the revenues of the Church they pursued otherwise they would have imbraced the proposition of his Majesty and the request of the Clergy who desired nothing more then to be heard in a lawful Synod and to reform willingly that which was displeasing to some But this had untwisted the designs of their enemies who then should have had no pretext to ruine the Clergy and enrich themselves with their spoils and take from Monarchy the support of the Church if the Ecclesiasticks had been reformed Then let the rage and invective malice of our enemies greaten our faults in quality and number as much as they can let them make small spots imposthumes Let them paint us out in false colours and disfigure us like devils to the eyes of all the world All that the severest Justice can require of us is to amend and freely to submit our selves to the censure of a lawful Assembly and then when a great King who is subject to none but God shall come to them and offer to change that which hath been practised or tolerated and to lend his ear to receive better information O this was a grace capable to molifie hearts of stone and to turn the complaints of his subjects into acclamations of joy and praises But they will neither the grace of the King nor our amendment To these offers of the King so sincere and frequent they answered not but by complaints and blowes and they consulted not of means to correct us but to destroy us they will not take the pains to cleanse the Church they will cut it up by the root root and branch 'T is the Watch-word of the seditious whereby they pretend to know those that are of the godly party and they have also put an unnatural maxime in the mouth of the furious and blind people that the reformation must be made in blood This they call to renew or revive the Church but it 's as the Daughters of Pelias undertook to make their Father young again who to that end cut his throat to let his old blood pass out of his body but after it was not in their power to put in new God keep us from them who come to reform the Church their Mother with a Sword and that would cut our throats to make us young again Certainly beholding Chyrurgeons coming to let us blood with a Sword in both hands we have reason to withdraw into some safe quarter and to fear a healing which will not take away the evil but in taking away our life We dare say for our Clergy that if it should cost them their lives to redeem the peace of their King and State they would account them well imployed and willingly consent to be cast over-board with Jonas that their loss might appease the tempest This is of greatest anguish and affliction to see Murther pass for Piety then to suffer in their persons and they cheerfully wish that a potion of their blood could quench the heat of their bloody zeal This zeal appeared in the title of Sions Plea and in the book called Christ on his Throne The first pleads for the Presbyterian the other for the Independent Both of these books have this Text in the Frontispice Bring those mine enemies that would not that I should raign over them and slay them before me By enemies they understand those who will not imbrace their Discipline And their actions now have and do make a bloudy commentary upon the Text. That if our Lord Jesus Christ who poured forth his most precious bloud to spare ours put not a stop to this flux of bloud these Zealots will reform England as the Anabaptists reformed Munster and as the Spaniards converted the West-Indies Let all Christian Churches of the World then know that the English Church confesseth humbly before God her infirmities and acknowledgeth her self the defaults which peace and the length of time is wont to bring to the best established order and hath done her duty to reform submitting her self to a general Synod and the States of the Kingdome under the Authority and conduct of her good King and that a sacrilegious and murthering faction drunken with the bloud of their Soveraign and the goods of the Church Having oppressed the liberty of the Assembly of States snatched this holy work out of her hands and would hear of no other reformation but her total destruction introducing in the place of ancient and lawful order a Chaos of prophane and licentious Heresies destructive to Religion and State CHAP. XXI An Answer to the Objection That the King made War against the Parliament IT 'S the ordinary complaint of the Covenanters that the King made War against his Parliament a phrase which seems tacitly to imply that the King rebelled against his Superiours and indeed there are many that understood it so in good earnest conceiving the Parliament to be above the King And hereupon