have determined but seeing there hath not it must run over the Chronicles In the meane time in such cases as are found it may anticipate instances to the contrary as in Queen Maries dayes and those of Henry the 8. when there was more just reason in respect of Religion if there might be any then now is alleaged and other Arguments such as the Doctrine of the Church of England ever since the Reformation and the like to equipoize this which is asserted gratis and if after disquisition this be not found true the conclusion of the conscience will be according to those premisses According to the example of Gods people c. This is of the same nature with the former warrant and therefore the conscience upon this may proceed as upon that seeing they have not set downe which of Gods people in any age or place upon the like causes have taken the like course till this be represented to the conscience the safest way will be to examine what our Saviour himself and the Apostles and primitive Christians who were assuredly Gods people did hold and practice for doctrine and example in the like if there have ever been or a worse case them is proved or pretended And if they have not resisted or held it lawfull their Princes in the greatest persecutions and utmost danger of Religion and all that could be dear unto them it may raise a conclusion till some stronger reasons can be presented or the errour of these be cleared and taken off what is to be done when we are required to assist a warlike entrance of Subjects with all the other circumstances which attend this action of the Scots made onely upon a beleeved charity of helping their neighbours The summe of all is That if all and every of the materials of this Preface in as much as concernes the Premisses were true our consciences cannot assent to the consequence that it is lawfull for us as Subjects of the Church England though we had not sworn or subscribed to some particulars against which some of the Articles are contrived to assist the Scots or consent to them in this warre which assistance is the generall end of this Covenant Secondly there is not any one member which doth conclude any thing to our consciences to move us to take it neither in the complication doe they conclude Thirdly there is not any particular member of it which doth not either directly or by considerations naturally suggested by them and altogether unforced prevaile with us to the contrary So that till every one of these obstacles and scruples be taken off we cannot without violence to our consciences take this Oath That we shall sincerely really and constantly through the grace of God endeavour in our severall places and callings the preservation of the Reformed Religion in the Church of Scotland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government against our common Enemies the Reformation of Religion in the Kingdoms of England and Ireland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government according to the Word of God and the Example of the best Reformed Churches And shall endeavour to bring the Churches of God in the three Kingdoms to the neerest conjunction and uniformity in Religion Confession of Faith Form of Church Government Directory for Worship and Catechizing That we and our posterity after us may as brethren live in Faith and Love and the Lord may delight to dwell in the midst of us In the first Article are we to be sworne to endeavour the preservation of the Doctrine Worship and Discipline of the Church of Scotland absolutely or with this added as a restriction against our common Enemies By whom doe we not rightly conceive to be meant the common Enemies to the Churches of England Scotland and Ireland That those words against our common enemies are to be taken restrictively it may be thought because they otherwise should have been vainly added and that by common Enemies those are meant the necessity of the Grammaticall sense implies there having preceded no other division to which this community can referre besides that of England Scotland and Ireland in the Preface So that the word Our must referre to We in the beginning of the Preface whose onely distribution which can referre to common here is that of the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland Is not therefore the true sense of this part of the Article this viz. I will sincerely really constantly through the grace of God in my calling against those who are enemies for example both to the Articles of the Church of England and those of Scotland both to our Liturgy and their directory for worship both to our Church-Government and to Presbyteriall Government endeavour to preserve their Articles manner of worship and Presbytery If thus it be these things are to be considered If the imposers of this Oath are assured in their Conscience that the Doctrine Worship c. of the Church of Scotland can infallibly be proved out of the Word of God why would they have us sweare to endeavour in our calling of the Ministery to preserve it with a restriction against some men onely and not absolutely and indefinitely Whether is this so free from the scandall of respect of Persons as an oath for the impartiall defence of Truth doth require If they doubt it cannot be infallibly proved how can our Brethren of Scotland without spirituall Tyranny desire an Oath to be imposed upon us Ministers of the Gospell of another Church to endeavour sincerely really c. in our calling viz. by preaching disputing or otherwise the preservation of it thus far Secondly how can we take an Oath to endeavour the preservation of that Doctrine which we neither know what it is as it now stands nor are told in any Declaration or Exhortation to us nor were bound to know or search no opportunity offering it self How then can this Oath be by us taken in judgement Or since we doubt thus though in generall how can it not being of Faith be other then Sinne Whether are we not if any thing shall be by us hereafter found in the Doctrine of Scotland contrary to sound Doctrine bound to endeavour by the second Article to extirpate it and by the first to preserve it As for their Discipline and Government so much as we understand of it though otherwise we never interposed yet being now called to give our consent to it or reason to the contrary we professe it to be such as that we dare not binde our selves by Oath to endeavour its preservation constantly and indefinitely for all time to come till it be evidenced unto us that it hath been in any time before untill this our last age If it shall here be replyed that we are required to endeavour the preservation of their Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government onely against our common enemies that is of us of the Churches of England Scotland and Ireland and so the preservation of it onely so
farre as we all agree this we cannot conceive to be the adequate sense of those words especially according to the intention of the imposers For it is clear as we have already touched that our common Enemies are not onely they who are adversaries to us in that wherein we all three doe agree but those also who in such things wherein we differ amongst our selves are yet by opposing themselves to us all our common Enemies against whom therefore by this Oath we should be bound to preserve to each that also wherein we differ amongst our selves Moreover that that Sense is neither the onely nor the chief Sense intended by the Imposers we have cause to think because if so restrained our Brethren of Scotland in favour of whom we conceive this part of the Article to have been proposed would be no whit secured against the fears of innovations from England if we were onely sworn to preserve unto them those things wherein we all agree at the entring this present League and Covenant Thirdly we desire to know why our Brethren of Scotland should desire it to be imposed upon us by Oath to maintain the Articles of their Religion so far forth as hath been said since our Mother the Church of England never yet hath imposed upon us by Oath to preserve her own known Articles but hath testified her moderation to all in that she hath required subscription onely of all men which were admitted into holy Orders or Ecclesiasticall Benefice or to degrees in the University And yet this was lately judged since the sitting of this Parliament to be too harsh an imposition upon younger Students at their admission to degrees and the urging of it suspended And we know not whether ever it was in use before this age even in any not corrupted Church to command men to swear the maintaining the Articles of their Religion much lesse their Discipline and Church government As to the second thing in this first Article to which we are to swear How can any who are perswaded that there is nothing in the Doctrine of the Church of England which is not consonant to the Word of God without vanity swear to endeavour the Reformation of it according to the VVord of God especially since we have lately protested to defend that Doctrine of the Church of England And how can any who reverently beleeve this Church to be in respect of her Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government established by Law no lesse perfect then any of the Reformed Churches swear to endeavour its reformation in all those according to the example of the best reformed Churches And here by the way we cannot but take notice that this part of the Article is so framed as if there were nothing in the Doctrine c. of the Churches of England and Ireland to be preserved and nothing in theirs of Scotland to be reformed Moreover the best direction for Conscience in examining what is here meant by Reformation will be to consider those instances wherein in the following Articles is declared the Reformation and then if perswaded that there is any thing there exprest as instances of reformation which is not according to much more if against the Word of God how can we take this part of the Oath at least in the sense of the Imposers As touching the third thing an endeavour of Uniformity c. the considerations for direction of conscience will be the same with the second For we are required to swear to endeavour an uniformity and that in the reformation before mentioned and after that reformation so that in whatsoever sense or kind the reformation by them mentioned and after described is not to be undertaken in the same our endeavour for uniformity is not lawfull Lastly in the taking of this first Article we should as we conceive make our selves guilty either of rash swearing or of perjury and that from the necessary consequence of the complication of these two clauses wherein first we should swear to preserve the reformed Religion in the Church of Scotland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government against our common enemies And secondly to bring the Churches of the three Kingdoms to the neerest conjunction and uniformity in those particulars among ourselves If we endeavour in our callings but by prayer to alter any thing in the Church of Scotland wherein our enemies are theirs also though therein we differ amongst our selves we commit perjury because we swear to preserve it To effect therefore the neerest uniformity in those particulars in the three Kingdoms we are sworn to endeavour to bring the other two Kingdoms to the neerest conformity to the Church of Scotland Now how can we swear to regulate by a rule and to reform by a form which we fully know not and much lesse know to be a fit rule or form without rash swearing sure we are we cannot swear it in judgement and for ought we know not in righteousnesse That we shall in like manner without respect of persons endeavour the extirpation of Popery Prelacy that is Church-government by Archbishops Bishops their Chancellours and Commissaries Deans Deans and Chapters Arch-deacons and all other Ecclesiasticall Officers depending on that Hierarchy Superstition Heresie Schisme Prophanenesse and whatsoever shall be found to be contrary to sound Doctrine and the power of Godlinesse lest we partake in other men sins and thereby be in danger to receive of their plagues and that the Lord may be one and his Name one in the three Kingdoms How can we swear to this part of the Covenant who doe believe that to endeavour the extirpation of Church-government by Bishops is an act utterly unlawfull for all severall places and callings and especially ours by the Law of God and this Land and to swear it much more sinfull And are we not here bidden to covenant and swear to endeavour the extirpation of Church-government by Bishops To us either the words are ambiguous and to ambiguities we may not swear or rather for we are loath to charge the words with ambiguitie the Grammatical sense according to which the Oath is to be taken speaks so for as to what we hear by some said that onely our Church-government in aggregato by all those Governours together in a collective sense taken formally is to be endeavoured to be extirpated and not each there mentioned first Such interpretation given out is private onely and not by the authority of the imposers and secondly those words and all other c. do manifest that all the formerly mentioned particulars in the parenthesis are to be construed distributively so farre forth as to the extirpation of them To omit that the word Prelacy there interpreted more properly agreeth to Arch-bishops and Bishops then to the rest there mentioned and a Prelacy they would be without them because preferred before Presbyters and if it no more were meant to ejure Bishops then Presbyters or Deacons since as well Presbyters and Deacons make up part of
our Church-government as it now stands in aggregate whether might this Oath be taken had they also been included Lastly is not their practise for whose satisfaction this Covenant should be taken a added to the common sense of mankind in the like manner of speaking or understanding such speeches evidence enough to us that we cannot take this Oath and Covenant unlesse we will swear to endeavour the extirpation of Church-government by Bishops If this be so we desire to know first whether it be lawfull for subjects to swear such a Covenant as directly contradicts the oath of their Soveraigne at his Coronation as this second branch of the Covenant doth binding us to endeavour the extirpation of the government of our Church by Bishops For that our Soveraign hath taken as contradictory Oath is evidently manifest by the last clause of the oath which the Kings of England take at their Coronation when after many other gracious promises wch the King makes to his people one of the Bishops reading to the King before the people concerning the Canonicall priviledges of the Church and beseeching him that he would be the Protectour and Defender of the Bishops the Churches under their government the King answereth in these words With a willing and devout heart I promise and grant my pardon and that I will preserve and maintain to you and the Churches committed to your charge all canonicall priviledges and due Law and Iustice and that I will be your Pretectour and Defender to my power by the assistance of God as every good King in his Kingdom in right ought to protect and defend the Bishops and Churches under their government Then the King ariseth and at the Communion Table makes a solemn Oath in the presence of the people to observe the premisses and laying his hand upon the book saith The things which I have before promised I shall perform and keep so help me God and the contents of this Book How can this Oath then for the extirpation of Church-government by Bishops be consistent with the Oath or Honour of our Soveraign which we have so solemnly protested to defend in the late Protestation How can we with a solemn Oath enter into such a Covenant to which we may neither swear without our Soveraigns consent nor yet can lawfully desire nor have his consent How sad were our condition were the King willing of himselfe to violate this Oath But what should we have to answer should we by taking such a Covenant this way necessitate so far as in us lies His sacred Majesty to violate his Oath so solemnly sworn at his Inauguration Secondly that to endeavour the extirpation of Church-government by Bishops is a sin against Divine Law all those Arguments and Authorities convince which prove that Bishops are of Apostolicall institution and unalterable and consequently Divine which we shall unfold in these Propositions First that their institution stands grounded upon our Saviours own Action and Institution of the Apostles Secondly that Christ and his holy Spirit by his Apostles appointed Bishops Thirdly that Christ the Sonne of God and the Holy Ghost afterward confirmed and approved Bishops and their Commission and power which the Apostles had appointed For the first we say their institution is grounded upon our Lords own instituting and ordaining twelve Apostles above seventy Disciples who saith to these his Apostles As my Father hath sent me even so send I you a St. Joh. 20. 21. As in other ends of his mission so how not in this which we know they did according to his pattern As he was sent by his Father therefore to ordain one order of Teachers of the Gospell superiour to another which we know because he did so ordain So also sent he his Apostles to ordain which accordingly they did and whatsoever they did by Christs example therein they did by his Commission here given in an imparity Bishops succeeding the Apostles above Presbyters subordinate as the seventy a That Bishops succeeded the Apostles in the ordinary part of their function as it is the judgement of the most ancient godly Fathers b that Bishops we say as contradistinct to Presbyters were the successours of the Apostles so is it manifest from Scripture since power Episcopall as it is now taken in this dispute which we shall prove to have been given by the Apostles to Bishops and to them onely after the Apostles was undeniably in the Apostles and for a while held in their own hands without communicating it to others That the Bishops were afterwards instituted by the Apostles themselves which so many ancient Authous have averred c And namely by the Apostolicall Authority of St. Paul and their institution part of holy Scripture is made good in that the power and Office of a Bishop as the word is now taken in the Ecclesiasticall notion is prescribed in the three Epistles of St. Paul to those two famous Church-governours Timothy and Titus particularly the Office and power of a Bishop as it is now taken contradistinctly to the Office of a Presbyter in these Texts 1 Tim. 1. 3. 1 Tim. 5. 19 20 21 22. 2. Tim. 1. 6. Tit. 1. 5 11. Tit. 3. 9. 10 and some others and these Texts thus interpreted by Antiquity d And as the office prescribed there is Episcopall so these two appointed to this prescribed office of a Bishop by St. Paul himselfe 1 Tim. 1. 3. 2 Tim. 1. 6. Tit. 1. 5. Yea by the holy Ghost say Chrysost. Theophyl Oecumenius by divine Revelation saith Theodoret of Timothy And that these two were Bishops according to the Ecclesiasticall notion of the word now used ancient Fathers plentifully witnesse b Moreover this superiority to office Episcopall to have been fixed and continued to the day of death is evident as from Church-history so also from 1 Tim. 6. 14. where {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} is the same with {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in the beginning of the Epistle 1 Tim. 1. 18. and includes in it the whole charge given by St. Paul to Timothy in this Epistle c From which Text also it is manifested that his Office prescribed was not personall onely but to descend by succession unto the comming of Christ d Thirdly this Office and power Episcopall that it was afterward approved and confirmed by the Sonne of God himselfe immediately and by the holy Ghost will be proved from Revel. c. 1. 2. 3. Where by the seven Stars the Angels of the seven Churches according to all reason from the Text it selfe and by the testimony of Antiquity e are seven Bishops of those seven Churches understood which Ecclesiasticall story mentions to have been in the Church long before this time as so many Angels and Apostles f of the Churches such as was Polycarp the Angell the Bishop of the Church of Smyrna made Bishop of that place by the Apostles themselves thirteen
Mark the first Bishop of Alexandria in Prooem. in Matth. who died six yeers before Saint Peter or S. Paul saith Saint Hierom. though therein he dissent from Irenaeus lib. 3. 35. yeeres before Saint Iames the Apostle besides therefore nine recorded as Bishops in holy Scripture Timothy and Titus Bishops of Ephesus and Crete and the seven of the seven Churches in Asia besides two Apostles Bishops viz. Iames of Ierusalem and a Peter of Antioch b and one Evangelist Mark of Alexandria c there are also nine other in all 21. recorded in holy Scripture all which except two of the seven Angels are there registred for Saints who if we will beleeve as credible records of Christians as any other humane Records whatsoever were Bishops before they died viz. Clemens d and e Linus made Bishops of Rome successively by Peter and Paul Evodius f Bishop of Antioch by Peter and Paul Dionysius the Areopagite Bishop of Athens g Archippus h Bishop of the Colossians Epaphroditus i Bishop of the Philippians Epaphras k Bishop of the Colossians Gaius l also Bishop of the Thessalonians Trophimus m Bishop of Arles To which you may adde the two and twentieth Antipas Bishop of Pergamus if we will beleeve Paraeus in Apoc. 2. proving it out of Arethas Caesariensis in Apoc. 1. and Onesimus Bishop of Ephesus n if he were not the forementioned Angel of the Church of Ephesus when Saint Iohn wrote his Revelation To omit to speak here of other Bishops who were Schollars and Auditors of the Apostles Ignatius of Saint Iohn o made Bishop of Antioch by Saint Peter Papias p Saint Iohns Schollar Bishop of Hierapolis Publius and Qâ—adratus q Bishops of Athens Disciples of the Apostles Simeon the son of Cleophâ—â— r Bishop of Ierusalem after Iames and the Kinsman of our Lord This order of Bishops which began though the first we read of in Scripture be Timothy and Titus in Saint Iames of Ierusalem or Saint Mark of Alexandria continued thorowout all the following ages of the Churches of God in which Bishops have been the most reverend Martyrs such as Ignatius Polycarp Irenaeus Bishop of Lions Cyprian of Carthage and more then 30. of the first Bishops of Rome successively both in Episcopacy and Martyrdom Of Bishops also especially did consist the first four generall Councels received by all the reformed Churches the confounders of the maine heresies touching the second and third persons in the blessed Trinity and by an Act of Parliament 1. Eliz. cap. 10. next to the canonicall Scriptures made the rule of judging Heresies who also in Councell gave judgement for the inviolable practice of the Church in this order the generall Councell of Nice providing Ne in unâ civitate duo sint Episcopi Cant. 8. The generall Councell of Constantinople adjudging to Bishops the power of Ordination Can. 2. and Can. 4. in the case of Maximus The generall Councell of Ephesus distinguishing betwixt the Bishop and the rest of the Clergy Can. 7. and confirming the Bishops jurisdiction Can. 5. The generall Councell of Chalcedon determining Can. 29. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} For as much then as in the first Article we are required to swear to endeavour the reformation of Religion according to the Word of God and the examples of the best reformed Churches surely we may not in the second Article swear to endeavour the extirpation of Church-government by Bishops and so to forsake the government grounded on the Word of God and to forsake the example of all the ages of the Primitive Churches then which we conceive no late reformed Church will pretend to be more pure and to whose examples they do or ought to endeavour to reform themselves But after all this it will be said that this government by Bishops is ejured onely as it interprets Prelacy which word if it have been translated Regimen Tyranicum the Translation as farre exceeds the truth of Grammar as the Prelates are accused to have exceeded their lawfull power forasmuch as Prelacy in its originall and acception of ancient Authors Praelati we say not elati imports but lawfull preeminence and power So is Timothy called by Gregory de Cura pastor p. 2. c. 11. Praelatus Gregi and the word Prelate is often honourably mentioned in our Lawes 9 Ed. 2. 24 Hen. 8. and is no more then the Title Praepositi mentioned also with honour by St. Cyprian Epist. 10. 55. 65. Augustin de civitate Dei l. 20. c. 9. or Antistites S. Cypr. ep. 69. Sancti Antistites S. August ep. 162. and divers words in Scripture used signifying equivalently such preeminence but let it not be told indeed in other Churches that any other is here abjured then Regimen Tyrannicum But are we warranted by the following stile of Hierarchy Doth that word import originally and anciently any other then a sacred government was it not accepted and approved in it selfe by Mr. Calvin lib. de necessitate Eccl. reformandae Talem si nobis Hierarchiam exhibeant in quâ sic emineant Episcopi ut Christo subesse non recusent c. ut ab illo tanquam uno Capite pendeant ad ipsum referantur c. tum verò nullo non anathemate dignos fateor qui non eam reverentèr summâque obedientiâ observent Moreover how can we in the same Article abjure Church-government by Bishops with Heresie Schisme and Prophanenesse as there it follows yea Prelacy even before Schisme and Heresie c. when as Bishops have been in all ages the chief confounders of heresie and heretickes such was Athanasius Bishop of Alexandria of the heresie of Arrius Cyril of Alexandria of the Nestorian heresie Caelestine Bishop of Rome Augustine Bishop of Hippo Prosper Bishop of Rhegium Fulgentius Bishop of Ruspi of the Palagian heresie and many more in all ages of the Church before and since Nor was there found any one Christian thorowout all the Primitive and purest times of the Church for above five hundred yeers after Christ who thought it fit to abolish Church government by Bishops much lesse to ejâ—re it save onely one heretick Aerius so censured by Epiphanius Haeres 75. and by Saint Augustine Haeres 53. whose speech savoured of madnesse saith Epiphanius for he had said What is a Bishop differing from a Presbyter a and the occasion of it Saint Augustine lets us know lib. de Haeres c. in Aerium Aerius being a Presbyter is said to have been vexed because he could not get to be ordained a Bishop and thence arose his envy Epiphanius witnesseth as much Haeres 75. Secondly as to Schism Saint Hierom the one and onely Father alledged as denying the divine Institution of Bishops yet held them necessary to represse Schism and then surely most necessary when Schism doth as in these our dayes most abound For avoiding of Schism Saint Hierom witnesseth Episcopacy was
apt to be advanced then by peace wherein although reason might easily conclude yet it will be much more certainly guided if we shal examine those precepts which Christ and his Apostles have laid down towards the accomplishment of those ends here proposed and try whether they doe suggest or intimate any thing towards such a warre If they doe not or if the contrary the conscience having before its eyes the glory of God c. will not be induced to take this course for the advancement of it For the rectification of conscience in this case it will be requisite to consider this warre to which we are enjoyned to contribute by whom and against whom it is undertaken Where if the conscience finde it to be unlawfull in the undertaking it cannot lawfully consent or assist viz. If it be no waies lawfull for such as we are moved to joyne with to take up Armes against such as we should be sworne to oppose If it might possibly be lawfull in the first undertaking it could no otherwise be but as it should be a necessary meanes to procure a just peace and the determination of conscience in this case will depend upon the consideration of the conjunctures of things at the undertaking and all the time of the continuance of this warre and if peace with truth might have been or may be established without it much more if this means shall be found opposite the conscience cannot without sin assent to this warre Here the mind is to examine the severall propositions motions overtures c. which have been and are made by both parties and according to them to judge The happinesse and honour of the King and his Posterity Here we are to consider whether or what this action of ours will contribute towards the honour and happinesse of the King and his posterity And because it is not easie to discover any foundation of such honour and happinesse c. besides that the managers of this party with whom they would have us to joyne have never particularly declared the way how these ends shall be or are advanced by their warre although it is one of their most common expressions the safest way at least the most naturall for the conscience is to raise a judgement of what is likely to ensue upon what hath preceded since these undertakings upon the same Principles where it is to consider whether his Honour or Contumely have beene increased by and since these warres And so for the happinesse of Himselfe and his Posterity consider whether if these men be upon the same designe with those who gave him battell at Edge-Hill Newbery c. what those designes made towards the happinesse of him and his Posterity The true publike Liberty Safety and Peace of the Kingdome If the Scots to whose assistance especially we are to be sworn should not hereby be able to conquer and prevail what will our taking of the Covenant advance the publike Liberty and Peace of the Kingdom according to the conceit of the enjoyners of the Covenant If they should consider how that can conduce to our Liberty unlesse thereby be meant freedom from our ancient Laws and from the setled happy government of Church and State whilst we may fear to be put under uncertain new ones Secondly Safety whether the danger of ruine doe not outweigh or equalize the hopes of safety Thirdly Peace whether this be the onely the likeliest or indeed any probable meanes of procuring Peace Seeing there are but two wayes obvious by which this course should procure it viz. Victory or reducing the King to yeeld to their desires Here the judgement of conscience will be grounded upon this Whether the King be no way but by force inclinable to a just Peace Wherein every ones private c. This is subordinate to the former immediately preceding Calling to minde the practices of the enemies of God against the true Religion c. Here we are to consider and reckon up who and of what sorts are the enemies of the Church of England of which we are and which is established by Law to which we have subscribed and what party in this quarrell is openly professed for it hath equally declared against all sorts of its enemies and which is not and accordingly c. Whereof the deploreable estate of Ireland c. Consider whether the true cause of this is to be referred both in the rise and progresse of it to the King or the malice of the Papists stirred up by those who they say had declared an intention of their utter extirpation and secondly where afterward the impediment of succour to those of our Religion lay The distressed estate of England whether that profession which is established by Law be distressed by the King or by Sectaries The dangerous estate of Scotland Wherein was their danger after all things were setled with them and who brought them into that danger that party which we should swear against or themselves After other meanes of Supplication Remonstrance Protestation and Suffering This which is here diâ—joyned from the rest of the motives and cast into a Parenthesis is indeed made the onely foundation of this way of proceeding and puts the onely case wherein such a way of covenanting c. can be imagined to be lawfull So that if these meanes have not beene both before and ever since the undertaking of this designe sincerely and effectually endeavoured by the intimation of this introduction it selfe this course is not warrantable and there are other principles of Scripture and our Religion which are to be examined if they have beene used such as inferre That it is not lawfull in any case whatsoever to resist with Arms the lawfull power by God set over us Now whether these means have been and are to used it will best appear by considering who hath sent the Messages for Treaty towards Peace what hath been declared by both parties of certainty and particularly touching Religion Law and Proviso's for tender Consciences and comparing together the severall Remonstrances Protestations and Sufferings Though all hitherto had beene used and rejected consider if the overture now lately made by the Kings party might not by the mercy of God be a meanes to produce Peace c. if the businesse be managed as it ought And according to the results of these the conscience must conclude For the preservation of our selves and our Religion The Religion wherein we are grounded and to which the Clergy hath subscribed in the Religion of the Church of England comprised in the Liturgy Articles Book of Ordination and Homilies of our Church confirmed by our 35. Article consider whether the Covenant be a meanes ordered in reason to preserve these from ruine According to the commondable practice c. If this Kingdome have done so that cannot resolve the conscience But consider whether ever in the like case the like warre was commenced if any one had been propounded the conscience would the more easily
thought necessary long within the Apostles times even as early as it was said by some I am of Paul I am of Apollo c. and therefore saith in his Dialogue Adversus Luciferian Ecclesiae salus in summi Sacerdotis dignitate pendet cui si non exors quaedam ab omnibus eminens detur potestas tot in Ecclesiis efficientur schismata quot Sacerdotes S. Cyprian also Epist. 55. Non aliunde haereses obortae sunt aut nata sunt schismata quam c. and so also lib. 4. epist. 9. Unde enim Schismata Haereses obortae sunt oriuntur nisi dum Episcopus qui unus est praesumptione contemnitur c. Master Calvin also himself upon Philipp 1. 1. Fateor quidem ut sunt hominum ingenia mores non posse ordinem stare inter verbi Ministros quin reliquis praesit unus So that we cannot apprehend the abjuration of Episcopacy to be a meane to that unity in this Article mentioned That the Lord may be one and his Name one amongst us but rather the continuation thereof according to the counsell of the holy Martyr S. Cyprian Unus Deus unus Dominus unus Episcopus and that of Ignatius ad magnes b Subjecti estote Episcope vobis mutuè ut Christus Patri ut inter vos divina quaedam sit unio Next Prophanenesse is here also to be cast out with Episcopacy yet who may not fear Gods Judgements if he deny the detestable growth of prophanenesse since the contempt of that Apostolicall institution of Episcopacy So that this Article as to Bishops extirpation we must refuse upon that close upon which others take it lest as it is said we should partake in others sin and consequently in their plagues Thirdly because neither can we swear to endeavour the extirpation of that part of this Church-government by Archbishops an Ecclesiasticall constitution so confessedly ancient nor that part of this Church-government by Deanes and Chapters that is a society of grave Divines of Presbyters joyned to the Bishop in his see of residence as assistants in Councell and Government as James Bishop of Ierusalem had his resident Presbyters Acts 21. 18. and consulted with them vers. 20. According also to the ancient generall and continued custom of the Church of God ever since the first Christian Emperours time and moreover endowed with means given to them by the last Wils and Testaments of many which it is not lawfull for us to endeavour to annull Hebr. 9. 17. and by the gifts of many other Donors who had true propriety in their goods and might and did transfer the undoubted property to those to be enjoyed by the right and liberty of the Subject especially such endowments having been consecrated and devoted unto God for pious uses and which may not therefore by us as we conceive be endeavoured to be alienated Prov. 20. 25. Numb. 16. 38. And as to the exercises of piety so also to the encouragement of the most excellent part of learning the study of divinity and of holy Scripture We shall with the same sincerity reality and constancy in our severall Vocations endeavour with our estates and lives mutually to preserve the Rights and Priviledges of the Parliaments and the Liberties of the Kingdoms and to preserve and defend the Kings Majesties Person and Authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms that the world may beare witnesse with our Consciences of our loyalty and that we have no thoughts or intentions to diminish His Majesties just power and greatnesse Because in the third Article whereas we are required and that in the first place to binde our selves absolutely without limitation expressed To preserve the Rights and Priviledges of Parliaments and the Liberties of the Kingdoms and were likewise tied simply and indefinitely to defend the Kings Person State and Honour by the Oath of Allegiance and the late Protestation here when we are bidden to swear to defend his Majesties Person and Authority it is added In the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms therefore this manner of swearing we dare not admit till it be publikely declared by the Imposers that the meaning of those words is not as to some it may sound that I binde my selfe to preserve and defend his Majesties Person and Authority so farre forth as he shall preserve and defend true Religion and the Liberties of the Kingdoms Since by the holy Scriptures of the old and new Testament by the Law of Nature and Nations by the Oath of God and by true Religion we are bound to endeavour the preservation and defence of his Person and Authority though he were a persecutor of the true Religion and an abridger of our Liberties such as were Saul and Nero in their times And surely a larger Declaration of our endeavours simply to defend his Person is at this time necessary when through the divisions of the Kingdom his sacred Majestie is so endangered and that his Majesty hath often complained of affronts offered to his person and hath complained also that some have endeavoured to kill his Person in two set battails and that there is nothing more frequent in the minds and mouths of some Shimei's then that the King is popishly affected A Papist in his heart and therefore some furious Zelot may not onely upon these surmises conclude himselfe exempted in case from the duty of preservation and defence of his Royall Person but also mistake it as a debt to this Covenant even to offer violence to his sacred Majestie May not therefore some such fuller Declaration and explication of our duty when we will by Oath professe it seem necessary to the end here proposed That the world may bear witnesse with our Consciences of our loyalty We shall also with all faithfulnesse endeavour the discovery of all such as have been or shall be Incendiaries Malignants or evill Instruments by hindring the reformation of Religion dividing the King from his people or one of the Kingdoms from another or making any Faction or parties amongst the people contrary to this League and Covenant that they may be brought to publike triall and receive condign punishment as the degree of their offences shall require or deserve or the supream Indicatories of both Kingdoms respectively or others having power from them for that effect shall judge convenient Whether are not all those to be accounted to us as Malignants c. by hindring reformation of Religion and consequently to be discovered that they may receive condign punishment whom we know to endeavour in their places and callings the continuation of Church-government by Bishops and the preservation of the whole frame of government as it now stands by the known Laws of this Kingdom established administred according to the right intent of those Laws against all alteration till it be by act of Parliament enacted by his Majesties