authority to change it which must needs have reference to the Laws of God according to the subsequent words of the Bishops where he explaines his meaning by judiciously asserting That Christian Kings and their Parliaments are obliged to the Laws of God and rules os Christian piety and polity too of which the whole Church in its primitive example is the best interpreter and so his position in short is this That they have no lawful authority by the Laws of God and rules of Christian piety and polity to change Episcopal Government which is a cleer evident truth to me for I consider with my self that those Laws and Rules will admit at no hand of any schism ataxy confusion or division in the Church which are contrary to true Christianity for the abounding whereof amongst the Corinthians they were so often taxed of their too much carnality and that Bishops were set up by the Apostles themselves in remedium Schismatis for the preventing of schismes and divisions and that none of those errors and heresies were so prevalent or apparent to humane eyes in the Bishops times as since their Julian extirpation for the setting up of Prsbyterian practical-jesuitism was the ground of a day of fasting and humiliation amongst the Godly rebels and a Sermon thereupon preached by our unsacred Covenanter What shall we say to those things that men should show so much pretence of goodness in appointing a day to humble themselves for the errors and heresies of the times the true proper effects of their arrogant ways of Rebellion in setting up Presbytery as a distinct Government by it self without Episcopacy in direct opposition to the practise of the Catholick Church as well as to the King and his Laws which is and hath bin the head and fountain from whence the unclean muddy streames of heresies and blasphemies have had their rise and product And yet forsooth must have the means still kept for the production of the same ends of disorder and confusion Vpon the consideration of the whole I cannot but subscribe to the great truth of the Bishops words That as no legislative power is impowered by Gods Laws to bring in either Heresie Error Superstition Schisme Faction or Confusion so neither have the King Lords and Commons any prudent moral religious or lawful Authority by those Laws or those of this English Nation and Rules of Christian Piety and Polity to change the Ancient universal and excellent Government by Bishops to any that is As new and schismatical so far worse and unsuitable to England every way If one part of the sentence be true which by Croftons silence is absolutely concluded No man need fear to affirm the other without any derogation to the legal rightful Supremacy of the King That which speakes against Schisme and faction confusion and disorder will not surely give me any lawful power to extirpate Bishops the main preventers of it by being the constant promoters of love and unity § 27. Thus I have examined the words as I found them imperfectly quoted in Croftons Discourse without that additional clause which I have set down in my true Citation of them which he most unworthily and basely had left out that so he might have some what to fill up his rambling discourse with for a true Citation would have fo confounded his understanding as immediately to have commanded him into a becoming silence and ingenuous conviction of the Bishops truths but rather then he would depart from his cavilling art and shiftings he 'l mangle the words of an Antagonist to make his own way the smoother for credulous poor mortals to set their steps in which hath brought to my remembrance the answer of a most Reverend person to the Miltonian Justifier of Regicide and Rebellion depraver of verity and breaker of the Kings Image That he p See the Image unbroken p. 153. broke sentences and truths lest he should breake for want of matter And the words of the Bishops with that additional clause in it is so cleer a truth as can no waies be darkned by a Presbyters Argumentations which was seen evident enough by Crofton himself and so very craftily left it out and therefore needs no other defence but the bare words themselves which carry truth in their forehead to the convincing of any opposer which I have no sooner done but I took a resolution to follow the mans pattern for once and turn Quaerist too Where 's the Premunire that the Bishop hath stept into now Is speaking of a known Truth confronting of King and Parliaments Suppose the Bishop had lived in Queen Maries days and had said That neither Queen nor Parliament had any lawful power by the Laws of God and Rules of Christian Piety and Polity either to change the King Edward-Reformation or to set up and establish Popery in the kingdom Was it fit for any mans mouth but a cursed Jesuits to charge him with sedition and treason against the Queen in confronting her and her Parliaments by saying black is black and white is white by asserting a known truth Blessed be God we live under a Prince that desires not to have His Supremacy stretcht so as to make it an Instrument of Justification of the Lawfulness of His Actings either against God or his Truth or the Defenders of true Christianity that desires to have His Supremacy carryed on and maintain'd for no other ends and purposes then those for which it was first established To make Clergy-men as well as Lay know that he is their onely Supream Governor and in case of offence that His Power will reach to the punishment of both that they shall not be exempted from the Civil Magistrates sword of Justice either by the wicked pretence of a foreign Papal superior Jurisdiction or Antimonarchical Sentence or Determination of the traiterous seditious Consistorians if they do that which is not justifiable either by the Laws of God or this Land Where 's the Bishops sedition I wonder Where 's his treason that he needs to fear to be made less by the head for as this Leaguer cants it Why he saith in affirming the defect of the Kings and Parliaments prudent moral religious and lawful power to change Episcopacy to one that is worse and far unsuitable to England every way for that is it which the Bishop saith which our unsacred Covenanter hath dared to contradict with his shabbed pratling Ay but saith Crofton The Statutes of the Kings declare against the Pope That Holy Church was founded in Prelacy by their own donation power and authority and so by the same way changeable Ergo What That they have any prudent moral religious and lawful authority to change it to a worse After what rate doth this wily Covenanter argue Can they that swear to govern a people well and according to the Laws of the Land have any of that quaternary Power to change one Government for a worse Will the people in such a case think or can
Concernments for a pretty space took him off from any immediate further proceeding till being somewhat at leisure again the business entred into his thoughts and then made a final end of it but yet notwithstanding kept it so finished by him till the thoughts thereof prevailed with him to show it to a Reverend Person his much honored Friend for his perusal who suddenly after desired its publication and though his desire I presume proceeded from the subject matter of the Discourse and not from any worth that is in it which cannot well issue from such poor abilities wherewith the Author is endued yet he cannot but crave pardon for appearing in publick hoping that the Judicious will be pleased to pardon his frailties in the management of it and accept of his well-meaning mind for the grand defects of his understanding who humbly conceives that Discourses of this nature are at all times seasonable to antidote the contagion of those persons seditious principles and practises whose Motto will be always this Of being seditious in the State and schismatical in the Church and conclude with that remarkable Observation of Archbishop Bancroft in his admirable Survey of the pretended Holy Discipline That * Page 6. It hath been an ancient practice of the Adversaries of the Church of God then especially to be complotting of some mischief both against Sion and Jerusalem when in outward shew they have pretended most of all to be desirous to repair them and to seek their glory Die Lunae 20. May 1661. THe Lords in Parliament having considered of a paper sent unto them from the House of Commons for burning of the Instrument or Writing called The Solemn League and Covenant by the hands of the common Hang-man Do Order That the said Instrument or Writing called The Solemn League and Covenant be burned by the hand of the common Hang-man in the New Palace at Westminster in Cheap-side and before the Old Exchange on Wednesday the Twenty second of this instant May. And that the said Covenant be forthwith taken off the Record in the House of Peers and in all other Courts and places where the same is recorded And that all Copies thereof be taken out of all Churches Chappels and other publick places in England and Wales and in the Town of Berwick upon Tweed where the same are set up Anti-Baal-Berith justified c. NOthing can be the matter of a Vow or Covenant which is evidently unlawful but it is evidently unlawful for a Subject or Subjects to attempt to alter the Laws established by force without the concurrence and against the Commands of the Supream Legislator for the Introduction of a foreign Discipline said the * See his Fair warning to take heed of the Scottish discipline pag. 30. now most Learned and Reverend Primate of Armagh Upon consideration whereof and finding that Jugling Oath Entituled A Solemn League and Covenant to be the subject matter of Debate between the Reverend Episcopalians and the Presbyterians at this day I resolved with my self how unlearned soever to make a serious Enquiry into the nature of that Covenant and set down my Animadversions on it And upon such Enquiry I found it not at all to portend any good to this Nation and by an impartial Search into the genuine fruits and bloody villanous effects thereof which as Springs from that venemous Fountain have run forth over the Nation I finde that it deserved rather to have been buried like Corah and his Complices in everlasting oblivion and forgetfulness except it were for a detestation and perfect abhorrency of it then to be revived again as an Achan amongst us to involve and keep us still in blood and confusion I speak not this out of passion or partiality but out of a serious consideration of the evil matter contained in it part of the very Preface whereof sounds very strangely in mine ears where they tell us That according to the commendable practice of these Kingdoms in former times and Gods people in other Nations they have resolved to enter into a Solemn League and Covenant c. I have read a Saying somewhere That its ominous to stumble at the threshold and that these Absolonians should stumble so grosly against the Truth at the very entrance of their League argues their being filled more with Puritanism then Purity more with frantick zeal then that according to knowledge for had they had any regard to truth the world had never then been made acquainted with such a groundless Fiction for let them make appear by true Evidences and Histories if they are able and if not let them renounce their bold Assertion that ever such a League as this of theirs was ever framed devised and put in execution within this Nation for the extirpation of all Arch-Bishops Bishops and the rest of that glorious Hierarchy whose Liberties and Priviledges are established by the great Charter and other good Laws of this Land and that ever there were such a Combination against their Prince for no other end but to defend him If this were the Practice of former times What meant the Olivarian Covenanting-Metropolitan Nye when he point blanck affirmed That it was a Covenant with Narrative p. 12. such an Oath as for Matter Persons and other Circumstances the like hath not been in any Age or Oath we read of in Sacred or Humane Stories Now can any one that hath read any thing of the English Chronicles be so mad and frantick as to think that to be the Practice of former Ages which was never visible never done by any within this Kingdom nay and which one of the profound Swearers themselves affirms cannot be parallel'd That the like hath not been in any Age Either the one or the other must lie with a witness If what the Preface saith be true then Nye is notoriously deceived then farewel truth it self and all the noble Assertors of it if what Nye affirms be true as undoubtedly it is and cannot be denyed then that part of the Preface which sets such a fraud and deceit to catch the eyes and hearts of some credulous poor mortals must absolutely appear to be a damnable falshood and the proper effects of a Serpentine infatuation and their Covenant-building it self to be like that of the fools spoken of by our Saviour in the 7. of Saint Matth. and the latter end Nay that 's not all neither for they call it a commendable practice what and never done nor performed by any in this kingdom Surely if I should go and do a thing which was never before visible or acted by any and say It is according to the commendable practice of others I might well be esteemed void of any sense or reason in a meer distracted condition fitter for an inhabitant of Bedlam then any sober place amongst those who were able to distinguish betwixt Sobriety and Frenzy betwixt an Orthodox Christian and a Guisian Leaguer But suppose there had been such practises heretofore in
the times of Popish Egyptian darkness shall any pretending to true Protestantism which severely declaims all such perfidious Antichristian courses be found to be so far approvers of such infamous actions as to commend them for examples to others to tread in the same steps Can Subjects combining and swearing together to extirpate the legal established Church-Government of a Nation as Bishops were and are still here though the leg exercise of their Coercive power in the Star-Chamber and High Commission Courts was taken away by the Act in 1641. to prevent the subsequent Rebellion and Jesuitical-Combinations of Leaguing Presbyters and vowing to assist one another in their Covenanted Rebellion with their lives and fortunes against the express command of the supream Governor for the attaining of their Leaguing ends be called and stiled Commendable by any one pretending some affinity to Loyalty or Christianity which are inseparable and the constant attendants upon a true fearer of the Lord It 's a brave time with Rebels when their Treason and disloyalty are enrolled amongst the Records of Fame and Honour and their obedient opposites to the commands of their lawful Prince are in the very act of Loyalty tearmed and Recorded for terrible Delinquents against the thing which Nick-named it self so often A Parliament Halcyon daies for Sacrilegious Schismaticks when that which is condemned by the word of God nothing more shall be garnished forth with an Epethite of Commendable though what the Prophet by God's express command said so long ago that do I say now unto these strangers to Truth and Loyalty b Isaiah 5. 20. Wo unto them that call evil good and good evil § 2. They tell us too It was according to the practice of Gods people in other Nations Aha! What Gods people and Covenanting Rebels too What Reformers and swearing Extirpaters of the Episcopal promoters of the Reformation Saints and yet Schismaticks Christians and yet Traytors Surely our Covenanters were put to extream hard straits to make lies their refuge for their carrying on of their extirpating Reformation No other way to catch people into the black Road with them but by blinding their eyes with Errors and Contradictions A sad geneneration of Merozians It s true indeed the Guisian Leaguers in France went directly in the same impious courses before them unless they be their Gods people I know none for they alone were the Monsters that our Leaguers could properly say they were imitators of because they went to their hellish work with an Oath like ours and yet Guise himself like ours too had the face to tell his Prince That he was his faithful subject for all that Who as the Translator of a Parisians Work tells us living under c See the right of Kings and duty of subjects Pref. a milde and peaceable Prince slandered their King that he was an enemy to the Roman Catholick Religion as our Covenanters did the late Carolian Martyr to be an enemy to the Protestant and under the fair pretence of Religion screwed themselves into the favour of the Common people who are usually deceived by such pretences raising a strong party against the King by the name of the holy League which caused much confusion in that kingdom as by too sad and lamentable experience we have found to be the effects of our English Leaguers in this And now I appeal to the conscience of any man living whether they that can first Rebel against their d For so they swore the King was only Supream Governour and then have the confidence to tell us of a thing which never was like that of the man in the Moon and set it down with such a positive Asseveration as making it a pattern for their illegal traitorous undertakings and stile that Commendable which if any such thing had ever been ought to be abhorred as much as hell by him that desires the Rules of Christianity I say I appeal to the Conscience of any man living who desires not to be ensnared and kept so with the e See Mr. Reynell's Panegyrik intituled The unfortunate Change Caledonian Boar which was the cause of our distempers whether they that speak these lies and juglings these palpable falshoods and deceits could possibly have according to their assertion Before their eyes the glory of God and the advancement of the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ whose f See Mr. Quarrel 's Loyal Convert P. 5. glory will not be vindicated by such unlawful means and unwarrantable proceedings and whose kingdom is endeavoured to be pulled down by such a peerless Covenant But what 's it they swear that must have a juggling Preface to set it forth Why they tell us in their first Article That they will sincerely really and constantly through the grace of God as though that would ever square with such proceedings endeavour in their severall places and callings the Preservation of the Reformed Religion in the Church of Scotland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government according to the word of God and the example of the best Reformed Churches § 3. What have I to do with the reglement of Foreign Churches * See his Fair warning P. 1 said the Reverend Primate and so say I too What had English men to do to swear to preserve the Doctrine and Discipline of another Countrey Let them stand or fall to their own Master Ay but here was the Mystery We have an earnest longing desire to have Bishops extirpated and we having followed the pattern of our dear Scottish Brethren in rising up in arms against our King for that purpose and being not well able and sufficient of our selves to carry on our design against them we must call in the other to our aid and they will not come to us unless we will swear to set up their Church-way amongst us and therefore rather then Bishops shall stand we will do it For as the late Martyr said upon the Covenant nothing will induce them to engage till those that called them in have pawned thier souls to them by a solemn League and Covenant I am verily perswaded that there was not one amongst a hundred that swore that League to preserve the Scottish Discipline that knew no more what their Discipline was then a horse and so they swore with a blinde implicite faith to preserve they knew not what themselves Pure good swearing is it not Was this sworn in Truth Judgement and Righteousness as the Prophet saith an Oath should Jer. 4. 2. If not as it was not Is not therefore such mens swearing unlawful and so to be renounced and repented of Is it not an abominable wickedness in any one to swear to preserve the Scottish Discipline or when sworn to keep such a wicked Oath when the Reverend Primate hath made it appear by such cogent and undeniable Arguments of truth and sound Divinity beyond the reach and power of a Crofton or any Presbyterian adversary to answer without palpable
cavilling declaring of their own folly That g See his fair warning p. 2. this discipline which the Croftonians so much adore is the very quintessence of refined Popery or a greater tyranny then ever Rome brought forth inconsistent with all forms of civil Government destructive to all sorts of Policy a rack to the conscience the heaviest pressure that can fall upon a people and so much more dangerous because by the specious pretence of Divine institution it takes away the sight but not the burthen of slavery Reader peruse that small book and I 'le undertake it shal give thee full satisfaction what this Cockatrice egge the Scottish discipline is and what a precious jewel it is to be preserved But how will they preserve this Pandora's box why according to the word of God the example of the best reformed Churches that 's brave indeed to swear to preserve that according to the word of God which knows nothing of it as it is singular by it self Suppose I should swear to preserve a thief in his pilfering courses according to the word of God would that make the thieves actions good because it is expressed according to the word of God or would it not rather aggravate and heighten the bloody nature of my sins to swear with such a strange self-contradiction Just as if I should say I would do a thing according to the will and desire of another who hath openly made his protestation against it I am sure the thieves actions cannot be more opposite to the Sacred Canon of Scripture then some part of the Scottish Discipline is which the Reverend Primate hath well informed us of to which I refer the doubtful for satisfaction and therefore notwithstanding that expression the Oath for preservation of such an Anti-Monarchical Discipline cannot but be very wicked and therefore unlawful to be sworn or kept And as for the best Reformed Churches the Church of England by all impartial unbyassed sober Protestants was wont to be accounted the best Reformed Church in the world and h See the fair warning p. 2. before these unhappy troubles in England all Protestants both Lutherans and Calvinists did give unto the English Church the right hand of fellowship which made the most Reverend Doctor Hammond of renowned memory to affirm That i See his View of the new Directory and vindication of the ancient Liturgy P. 7. the Church of England as it stands established by law is avowable against all the Calumniators in the world to be the best and most exemplary Reformed so far saith he that if I did not guess of the sense of the Covenant more by the temper then words of the Covenanters I should think all men that have Covenanted to Reform after the example of the best Reformed Churches indispensably obliged to conform to the King-Edward or Queen-Elizabeth English Reformation the most regular perfect pattern that Europe yieldeth Thus that indefatigable Defender and Propagator of Catholick truths against the novel inchroachments of the then Julianizing times whose memory will be precious and his name smell as sweet odour in the nostrils of all true hearted Christian Protestants when the name of an Assembler will hardly be thought on without immediate branding him for Treason and disloyalty And so now having briefly dispatched the first I shall proceed on to the second and there they speak out what their Covenant for Reformation is for they tell us there too in their Rebellious language § 4. That they shall in like maner without respect of persons endeavour the extirpation of Popery Prelacy that is Church-Government by Arch-Bishops Bishops their Chancellors Commissaries Deans Deans and Chapters Arch-Deacons and all other Ecclesiastical Officers depending on that Hyerarchy Superstition Heresie Schism Profaneness and whatsoever shall be found to be contrary to sound Doctrine and the power of godliness lest we partake in other mens sins and thereby be in danger to receive of their plagues In good time Excellent Deformers They that were the grand Promoters and carriers on at first of the Regular English-Reformation though indeed not by Sedition and Rebellion against their Soveraign nor by making use of cursing Merozian Texts to stir up the people to assist them in such filthy courses but by obedience and subjection to the unjust punishment of Majesty and freely offering their bodies to the fire must now be extirpated by our Deformers of Truth and Christianity under a sly pretence of a detestable Reformation A good requital to them for their incomparable defences of the true Protestant Religion against the Jesuits and others of the Babylonian Romish rout to be now cast out as unprofitable branches by a pack of holy Leaguers not worthy to be named with them but what said our own late most noble Sovereign k See Eikon Basilike upon the Covenant Many Engines of religious and fair pretensions are brought chiefly to batter or rase Episcopacy This saith he they make the grand evil Spirit which with some other imps purposely added to make it more odious and terrible to the vulgar must by so solemn a charm and exorcism be cast out of this Church after more then a thousand years possession from the first plantation of Christianity in this Island and an universal prescription of time and practice in all other Churches since the Apostles times till this last Century But no antiquity must plead for it Presbytery like a young heir thinks the father hath lived long enough and impatient not to be in the Bishops chair and authority all art is used to sink Episcopacy and lanch Presbytery in England which was lately boyed up in Scotland by the like artifice of a Covenant And therefore for that Apostolical-Primitive Universal Church-Government of Episcopacy so Universal That l See Eikon Basilike in 24. P. 103. as the Martyr saith since the first Age for one thousand five hundred years not one example can be produced of any setled Church wherein were many Ministers and Congregations which had not some Bishop above them under whose Jurisdiction and Government they were and so by consequence unavoidable the damnable infamous nature of the Covenant for extirpation thereof There hath been so much said by our Reverend Episcoplains and by our late Josiah of most blessed and glorious memory that I shall forbear to say any thing more of it but refer them that desire satisfaction to their respective writings and I wonder when the Presbyterian will answer them I do not mean by cavillings and railings for there have been too much of that already but by true good solid sound arguments and reasons such as may carry truth in their fore-head which people shall easily perceive when they can once have the happiness to see the Swans turn black § 5. But is this all that these Leaguers swear to extirpate in this Article No they joyn with the former just as if a man should joyn a Scottish Presbytery with a Monarchy which
in the wise experienced judgement of King James m See the Conference at Hampt Court p. 81. as well agreeth as God and the devil Superstition Heresie Schism Profaneness and whatsoever shall be found contrary to sound Doctrine and the power of godliness A good hearing I like this part of the Article extreamly well and the better for that hereby they must endeavour to extirpate as much as possibly they can under the danger of perjury their very Extirpation Down Covenant down What dost thou hold up thy head for Thy Fathers that begot thee have knock'd thy brains out and have sworn to do it by their Sacred Covenant as they call it in swearing to extirpate Heresie Schism and Profaneness this I will make appear by their own confession and let them deny it if they are able which they unanimously set forth to the view of all the world no less then 52 of the party n See the Testimony to the truth of J. C. subscribed by the Ministers within the Province of London p. 30. p. 29. p. 30 p. 26. That in stead of true Piety and power of Godliness they had opened the very flood-gates to all Impiety and Profaneness and after they had removed the Prelatical yoke mark from their shoulders by their covenanted endeavors i. i. by vertue of their League Well! what then What followed their extirpating Oath against the Prelacy They tell us There was a rueful deplorable and deformed face of the Affairs of Religion swarming with noisom Errors Heresies and Blasphemies in stead of Faith and Truth torn in pieces with destructive Schisms Separations Divisions and Sub-divisions in stead of Vnity and Vniformity * page 31. That in stead of a Reformation they might say with sighs what their enemies said in scorn they had a Deformation in Religion and in stead of extirpation of Heresie Schism Prosaneness c. they had an impudent and general inundation of all those Evils A fair Confession and an ingenuous self-condemnation Observe Reader what these Changers of our times and deforming Leagueing-Reformers have publickly confessed to the shame and disgrace both of themselves and their graceless Covenant Here they tell us that they have opened the very flood-gates to all Impiety and Profaneness by vertue of that very Covenant whereby they were sworn to extirpate it and that after they had removed the Bishops Religion swarmed with noisom Errors Heresies and Blasphemies torn in pieces with Schisms and Divisions Very good Was not this very Covenant by force whereof these mad exploits have been done and the terrible effects thereof are so sadly complained of taken and sworn without yea against the consent and express Command of the onely Supream Governor and so by consequence absolute rebellion to whom these Swearers before by a legal established Oath had solemnly swore to bear true faith and allegiance Is not then that League which was the Instrument and Means for the producing of these horrible Impieties and sad Effects both in the form and matter of it extreamly unlawful naught and wicked and therefore not to be kept but damned eternally Our blessed Savior saith o Matth. 7. 18. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit And can this Covenant whereby the Swearers thereof have acknowledged for that was it they were speaking of when they confessed they have opened the very flood-gates to all impiety and profaneness be a good tree that hath brought forth such venemous deadly fruit or not rather a very corrupt tree that cannot bring forth that which is good Certainly that League must be a League and Covenant with hell and death that shall produce such hellish fruits and effects as by the printed Confession of the Swearers themselves was too evident and palpable it seems to be with any truth denied What remains then but that it should have the deserved fate of a corrupt tree even to be * ver 19. hewn down and cast into the fire by the hands of the common Hang-man The blessed Apostle St Paul told his Romans that he would have them to p Rom. 16. 17 18. mark them which caused divisions contrary to the doctrine they had learned and avoid them for they that are such saith he serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly and by good words and fair speeches like our unsacred Leaguers with their According to the word of God and the example of the best Reformed Churches deceive the hearts of the simple who are not able to see into the depth of their delusive Cheats And in another place asked his Corinthians that q 1 Cor. 3. 3 4. whereas there was among them divisions and what they were he tells us other where * 1 Cor. 1. 12 13. were they not carnal and walked as men And therefore again I Quaere Can this League from whence such destructive Separations Schisms Divisions and Sub-divisions have naturally flown be any other then extreamly abominable and wicked when the very causers of such divisions by what wayes or means soever are branded by the Apostle with this black mark of not being spiritual but carnal of serving not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly Qui vult decipi decipiatur He that will be deceived let him But it s impossible to catch any other with their destructive schismatical courses then those who are either ignorant or wilfully shut their eyes that they might not be enabled to see the mischiefs and villanies of their solemn League and Covenant which being so extreamly sinful both in the form and matter of it and by filling Religion with noisom errors heresies and blasphemies in stead of faith and truth and causing an impudent and general inundation of all those evils to be vehemently contrary to sound doctrine on the one hand and by opening the flood-gates to all impiety and profaneness to be notoriously opposite to the power of godliness on the other hand for there were none of these things heard or to be complained of in the Bishops time till r Isaiah 14. 29. out of the serpents root this Cockatrice the Covenant came forth whose fruits have proved no better to us then a fiery flying serpent I do here warn and conjure them in the presence of God Angels and men and as they will answer it before the Judgement-seat of Christ not onely to renounce but as much as in them lie to endeavor to extirpate such an impious profane and faithless Covenant for extirpation of the Prelacy the noble Hedge against all those Schisms Separations Divisions and Sub-divisions so much complained of by them according to the reality of the last Clause of this their second Article which they swore Return return O sacred Covenanter return return into those ways of truth plainness and loyalty toward God and your King which by your peerless Covenant you have so deeply apostatized from into the ungodly ways of falshood and
To submit our selves to the King as Supream and that for the Lords sake and did they not swear his Supremacy yea that he was the onely Supream Governor thereby implicitely denying upon Oath any Co-ordinates with him in the exercise of the Supremacy and therefore can perjury and disobedience to the Laws of our Creator be affirmed by any one not possessed with a deep frenzy to concern the glory of God It s true indeed when the Jews crucified our Savior it was out of a pretended tenderness to the glory of God and when our English-Jewish Tygres had murthered their lawful Sovereign it was meerly as they pretended for the advancement of Christs kingdom but that such actions as either of those concerned either the glory of God or the advancement of his Sons kingdom is onely a demonstration of the Assertors strong delusions for it plainly intimates unto us e See the Right Rebel p. 121. That there is a special work of Satan in it when such a strong delusion is sent unto men that they should believe such an Antichristian Lie tendred unto them under the colour of a Christian truth as the Doctrine of Rebellion is But this is just like the Second of the good of the kingdoms and therefore to that I again thus Quaere Was there not a War begun by a pack of true Delinquents got into the House of Commons and that they were such I appeal to the judgement of the Law Did not that war as all wars do tend to impoverish and oppress the Kingdom Was not this League sworn to carry it on and not to leave off whether to make defection to the contrary part or to give themselves to a detestable indifferency or neutrality in this cause of rebellion till they had fulfilled their mischeivous traiterous ends Can then that Covenant which binds people as this certainly did and doth to continue the imbroyling of a Nation or Kingdom in blood confusion perjury and Rebellion concern so much the good of it Can that which stirs up people to pursue the impoverishing taxing and inslaving of a kingdome for whither did the Rebelling and rising up in Arms and swearing men to continue therein tend but to that be affirmed by any except Frantick bedlamers to concern the good and benefit of it And lastly for the honor of the King for he and his honor are put at the fag end of all in this perfidious League I further again Quaere Is it for the honor of the King to have his subjects rebel against him Is it for the happiness of the King and his Posterity to have all his Assistants and Adherents destroyed as much as their fellow-subjects can under the black false notion of Evil Councellors and Malignants Did not the Covenant binde the takers to such things as those Let them deny it with truth if they can Can that Covenant which binds men to disloyalty and treason though hypocritically and lyingly pretending loyalty which doth not better the evil nor antidote the venome in it The devil though he appeares as an angel of light sometimes to ensnare men the more easily in his delusions yet he is but a black devil still for all that and therefore I may justly and truly make my Question thus Can that Covenant which binds men to disloyalty and treason and to break the Laws of this Land be any thing less then Antichristian And is it not therefore damnable and abominable and to be abhorred of every one that desires to observe the dictates of Gods good Spirit in the sacred Canon of Scripture Undoubtedly every one that understands the true ways of advancing the glory of God the honor of the King and the good of the kingdoms will hold himself obliged and bound to desie this Covenant as the very sink of Jesuitism and high-way to hell it self and he that hath ever read and considered well the Sacred Canon and the undeniable truth of what our Carolian Martyr bid the Scotch Parliament always f See Reliquiae Sacrae Carolinae the last printed Letter ☞ remember That as the best foundation of Loyalty is Christianity so trâ—e Christianity teaches perfect Loyalty for without this Reciprocation neither is truly what they pretend to be will finde cause enough to refuse the taking of and if taken to renounce and abjure such a seditious Vow and Covenant which ties men to continue Rebels all the days of their lives for he that shall swear to extirpate a sort of men whose Function is establish'd by the great Charter of our Liberties in absolute breach of the Law and against the Command of his Prince and endeavour to bring to pass his extirpation by force of Arms which is high Treason and swear that he will all the days of his life zealously and constantly continue therein against all opposition That man by any reasonable person will be concluded a sworn Rebel and to continue by vertue of his Oath without a just renunciation a Traitor to his King as long as breath remains in his body to enable him to carry on the intentions and purposes of it And yet this is the League that such a stir and clutter is kept about some mens Christian and loyal breaking of it and though some of its unlucky Patrons are pleased to alledge for its goodness that part of the Clause of the first Article wherein it is said according to the word of God and the examples of the best Reformed Churches yet I affirm That that doth no more prove what they intend by bringing of that Allegation then the * 2 Cor. 11. 14. devils being transformed into an angel of light doth prove that he was in reality that into which he was transformed then the †Matth. 7. 15. false prophets coming to us in sheeps clothing doth prove that they are not inwardly ravening wolves then the Pharisees ‖ Matth. 23. 21. appearing outwardly righteous unto men is a convincing Argument to prove that within they were not full of hypocrisie and iniquity § 11. But lastly they tell us That they profess and declare before God and the world their unfeigned desire to be humbled for their own sins and for the sins of these Kingdoms especially that they have not as they ought valued the inestimable benefits of the Gospel that they have not laboured for the purity and power thereof and that they have not endeavored to receive Christ in their hearts nor to walk worthy of him in their Lives No it 's very true for if they had we should never have seen an ungospel-like unchristian Rebellion raised and sworn to be upholden against our gracious King painted over with a plausible pretence against some pretended evil Councellors nor an Anti-legal jugling self-contradictory League sworn for the Dathanian extirpation of the great upholders of Monarchy and it's just Rights Priviledges Preeminencies and Authorities against the several Incroachments of Papists and Presbyters of Jesuites and Sectaries They complain there indeed
of the truth alas our Covenanters made it appear that their words and actions are two distinct things and people are very ready always to pass sentence upon men not according to their fair words and pretences but according to their actions and when they find a contrariety between them to fasten upon them their proper deserved name of hypocrites Nay their very words do not agree one with another and such surely must be accounted self-contradictory juglers with a witness for they had no sooner told us of making a Real Reformation of their lives in all duties they owed to God and man but presently after they shut up their Baal-berith with this Antichristian rebellious infamous and never enough to be detested prayer and conclusion beginning with a Most humbly beseeching the Lord to strengthen us by his holy spirit for this end and to bless our desires and proceedings with such success as may be deliverance and safety to his people as though Rebellion could ever produce safety long to the undertakers And which surely proceeded either from the instigation of the Devil or else was the plot and devise of some Romish Jesuitical Emissaries to make the true loyal Protestant Religion which teaches men according to Christs Rule rather to suffer and flee then to fight with and kill our enemies to stink as unsavoury stuff in the nostrils both of God and all truly pious men else certainly we should never have heard of an hellish lewd League made for encouragement to other christian churches if they be truly Christian they 'l abhor our Leaguers courses groaning under or in danger of the yoake of Antichristian Tyranny what for very Titus 3. 1. fear of a yoke must Christians rebel against Principalities and powers to disobey Magistrates which Titus had a command from St. Paul to put the then Christians in mind to be subject to though really groaning then under a sad yoke of Jewish and heathenish tyranny on the one side and the other certainly the Covenanters mind not what a neerness their feet are to be the very brink of hell when they laid down these Antichristian Articles for others to joyn in the same or like association and Covenant to the glory of God the enlargement of the kingdom of Jesus Christ Suppose a man that hath cut himself to stop it from bleeding should afresh with a knife make the wound wider would you not think him frantique and the peace and tranquillity of christian kingdoms and Commonweals It s a brave art to perswade people that wars and bloodsheds confusions and disorders tend to the peace and tranquillity of a kingdom and that this Covenant bound the takers to pursue their resolutions by the sword is plain beyond contradiction and we have not been deluded and cheated by our Leaguing Absaloms long enough it seems but we must continue hampered still in the noose of a Regicidian Antichristian leud impious profane Covenant for fear of being perjured forsooth if we draw our selves and necks out of it whereas true Christianity will not suffer a man to transgress so far the bounds of loyalty as to keep that nor true loyalty permit a man so far to go beyond the limits of the English Laws as to turn a Rebel to his King to stand to such a faithless Covenant which teaches men to k See Eikon Basilike His Majesties words upon the calling in of the Scots build their piety on their ruines of Loyalty to make bankrupt of their Allegiance under pretence of setting up a quicker trade for Religion But to their conclusive prayer a particular answer I shall give in such following terms as these § 13. We read in the 58 of Esa 1. verse the Lord commanding the Prophet in this manner Cry aloud and spare not lift up thy voice like a Trumpet and shew my people their transgression and the house of Jacob their sins Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways as a Nation that did Righteousness and forsook not the Ordinance of their God they ask of me the Ordinances of Justice they take delight in approaching to God Wherefore have we fasted say they and thou seest not But what said God to them Behold saith he ye fast for strife and debate and to smite with the fist of wickedness Here was fair pretences who could make better but that did but aggravate the sinful nature of their Crimes we have had such mock-fasts too in our times by our Leaguers God bless us from any more such and promises to reform themselves that the Lord might turn away his wrath from us and yet make it a part of their reformation presently to pursue their rebellious intentions against their lawful onely Supream Governour They pretended indeed to fast for their sins but their subsequent actions declared to all the world their fasting to be like that of their Jewish Brethren even for strife and debate for prosperity in Treason and to smite with the fist of Rebellion to cut and slay all the assistants of their King because they will not forsake their vertuous Soveraign renounce their sworn faith and allegiance and become joynt actors with them in their unclean beastly courses The Jews sought God daily and delighted to know his ways yet that excused them not So our Holy Leaguers pretend to seekafter God and to delight in approaching to him yet that serves not for an extenuation of their crimes nor for the lessening of their offences Observe Reader these Leaguers prayers how devoutly they can pray for success in their Treasons and Conspiracies nay and to have it for this end too that other people in forrain Nations may Covenant in like manner to rebel and rise up in Arms for the extirpation of the settled Church Government of the Nation without and against the consent and precept of their respective Princes and to follow our Leaguers peerless practices in it But I demand Is not such a prayer as this extreamly sinful in the matter of it do they not as good as pray for prosperity in their breach of the Law of God When I read it methinkes I cannot but admire at these Covenanters confidence and stupidity that they should first break the Laws of God in a most notorious manner by their perjury and disobedience to their Prince and then Covenant and bind themselves to proceed in the carrying on of their evil Treacherous designs and yet pray to God to prosper them in their villany when they might more justly according to Gods dealing with Corah and his holy-conspirators for Church-paritie have expected to have found the fate of those murmuring Saints against the Supremacy of the Prince and Priest the true and exact picture to me of our Covenanting Jack Presbyters to be swallowed up alive for their Extirpating Covenant and the earth whereon they trod to sink under them For l See his Pious votary p. 47 48 a Rebel saith the learned Hardy who goeth forth to fight against