Catholike Church hath holden which was not institute by Councels but ever kept in the Church that is most rightly beleeved to be an Apostolicall tradition and he brings for instances those holy daies which your Covenant abjures which hath ever been retained in the Church from the Apostles daies And albeit we could not prove Episcopacy from Scripture as wee may very wel prove it and is proved by those who defend the same yet this unquestionable rule of Augustine will bee sufficient to prove it to be of Apostolicall institution for you say it is not of Divine institution and I say it is not instituted by Councels and yet all that are but little exercised in antiquitie shall find that Episcopacie was ever in the Church from the Apostles dayes till this present time that it is called in question And beside that rule of Augustine consider that it is the generall tradition of the Catholik Church that Episcopacie hath ever been in it as an Apostolicall institution And by this generall tradition of the Catholike Church we are as certain that it is of Apostolicall institution as we are certaine of the received number of the Canonicall books of Scripture for we receive and take that number upon the continued generall tradition of the Catholike Church of Christ from age to age We reject and detest particular traditions of any present particular Church such as are those of the Church of Rome if they cannot shew those traditions to have been generally received at all times in the Catholike Church But there is no Protestant that doth not receive generall traditions of the Catholike Church such as is this concerning the definite number of the bookes of the Canonical Scripture and if I would assume a schismaticall humor I might with as good warrants deny that there are so many bookes in the Canon as the Catholike Church sayes there be as you deny Episcopacie to be of Apostolicall institution Thus have I briefly showne you the passages betweene the Anticovenanter and Covenanter which I leave to your consideration and returne to my purpose From this sweet harmonie in the preceding points especially of your independent power in Church matters there followeth another parallel by way of consequence viz. that you may excommunicate your King if hee doe not obey the Acts and Constitutions of your Assemblies Thus you threatned King James and his Councell both with excommunication if he would not execute your Acts of your Assemblie and good reason seeing it is the supreme judicatory and the King is a sonne of your Church from whom he ought to take the meaning And if hee bee refractarie why may not the Assembly excommunicate him as Ambrose did Thâ—â—dosius And as I have said already from your Travers of your government Huic disciplinâ— omnes Principes c. There is a necessity that all Princes Monarchs should submit their Scepter and obey this Discipline It s your chief Commander in the Camproyall Thomas Cartwright being asked whether the King himself might be excommunicated answered That excommunication should not bee exercised upon Kings I utterly mislike and so do we also yea albeit they be not Heretickes themselves yet if they doe not punish such as their Pastors commands them they may be excommunicate Potest ac debet Pastor regibus jubere ut puniant Haereticos Bellar. contra Barklaiunâ— c nisi fecerint etiam cogere per excommunicationem The Pastor may and ought to command Kings to punish Hereticks if they do it not even to compell them with excommunication But especially si sit Haereticorum vel Schismaticorum fautor Aâ—or insâ— moral part 2. l. 10. cap. 9. receptor vel defensor if hee be a favourer receiver or defender of Hereticks and Schismaticks If your Bishops be such men is not this your Kings fault your fault is that you use but too much lenity in not ascending from the Myter to the Crown for this may stand very well with your Tenent and Ours though Protestant Divines disclaim it for your Buchanan teacheth you that not only it is lawfull to excommunicate Princes but that they should both depose him Buchan de â—ure reg apud Scot. pag. 70. and destroy him for hee sayes Ministers may excommunicate Princes and he being by excommunication cast into Hell is not worthy to enjoy any life upon earth But truly Knox Buchanan are more rigid then we are herein for howbeit we grant that it 's lawfull to excommunicate Kings yet wee hold it not necessary that upon excommunication either deposition or killing should follow Indeed by our common Tenent it will follow that excommunication is an antecedent to deprivation or killing but we do not hold that deprivation or killing of Princes is a necessary consequent or effect of excommunication For say we quando talis effectus adjungitur Suaâ—ez de censur disp 15. sect 6. non est effect us ipsius excommunicationis sed specialis poena simul cum excommunicatione imposita When such an effect is joyned to excommunication it s not the effect of it but a speciall punishment imposed with it But it s wonderfull to see the wide difference between this our Tenent and yours and that which Protestants hold for they make the power of the supreme Magistrate Architectonicke and subject unto it all power civill Ecclesiasticall So that as in civill affaires they use the counsell and help of Politicians and Jurisconsults for establishing of Lawes according to reason so in Ecclesiasticall businesse they use the help and advice of learned Divines for establishing religion according to Gods Word which ought never to depart from their hands And it s most boldly said by them in the words of Bishop Davenant Reges non it a astringuntur Episcoporum vel Theologorum suorum opinionibus Daven deter quast 19. quin si adversentur legi divina cujus oportet reges studiosissimos peritissimos esse teneantur ex officio regio veram religionem illis omnibus licet reclamantibus tueri subditis suis proponere Kings are not so tyed to the opinions of their Bishops and Theologues but if they bee contrary to the Law of God of the which Kings ought to be great studiers and very well skilled they are bound by their Kingly Office to defend the true religion and set it before their Subjects albeit all those Divines should cry out against it But those men are Court Parasites as your usuall word is or as Beeanus calls those that defend the Kings Supremacie regios adulatores King-flatterers And I admire that Tertullian being under Heathen Emperours should be guilty of those flatteries while hee sayes in a Court-like complement Reges in solius Deipotestate sunt Tersul ad Scap. Ã quo sunt secunds post quem primiâ—ante omnes super omnes deâ—s homines Kings are only in the power of God from whom they are second after whom they are first before all and above all
themselves so that in certaine cases they may actually take it from him againe Let all Protestant Doctors condemne this yet let it never repent you to have received light from us The best works that ever Augustixe wrote were the books of retrectations and the best workes that you can doe is to forsake your errors You say the people makes the Magistrate and may be without him and have been many a yeare without him The Majesty doth remaine in the people and therefore as it is said in the Gospel May I not doe with my owne what I please Bell de cleâ—ie lib. 3. 〈◊〉 6. So say wee Potestas immediate est tanquam in subjectâ— in tota multitudine si causa legitimè adsit potest multitudo mutare regnum in Aristocratiam Democratiam The power is immediately as in the subject in the multitude and if there be a lawfull cause the multitude may change the Kingdome into an Aristocracie or Democracie When the King becommeth an enemy to the Common wealth hee ought to be removed Melius est ut pereat unus quam unitas And therefore you may not without reason say as in your Sions Plea to his Majesty Wee must not lose you and the Kingdome by proferring your fancies and groundlesse affections before sound reason You should complain to the heart that the head is much distempered The Lyon must be cured of the Kings evill The Potter may destroy the vessell which hee hath made himselfe But I pray you let this be spoken under the Rose for if we too much divulge it it will make both you and us most odious to all princes who will keepe us at such a low ebbe that we shall never be able to rise against them when wee thinke it necessary When the shepheard becommeth a Wolâ—e let the dogs chaâ—e him away he is for the people and the people is not for him when he turnes to their hurt let one who is for thâ—â—r good be put in his place for you know who said Virtuti non generâ— debetur regnum And it is better to have Kings by election then succession And therefore you doe mosâ— learnedly reason from the unreasonableness and absurdities of those Court Parasites in your learned informations for Defensive armes against the King who attribute such illimited power to their Kings Covenanters inâ—â—â— at for Dâ—â—â—nsive â—â—g 1. that they loose all the bonds of civill society against all the bonds of oathes and lawes suffering the Prince to doe what he pleaseth to the ruine of Religion the Church and Kingdome and the people shall do nothing but suffer themselves to be massacred or else stie which is impossible In parallel to this we say thus The danger is so evident Desâ—â—â—â— of 〈◊〉 Cathâ—â—â—â— 5. â—evitable that God hath not sufficiently provided for our salvation and the preservation of the Church and holy Lawes if there were no way to restraine such wicked Princes c. 〈…〉 this were as you say to expone all to the fury of the Prince Ibid. And therfore we conclude in the same place with those words The bond and obligation wee haue entered into for the service of Christ and his Church far exceeds all other duties which wee owe to any humane creature therefore where the obedience to the inferiour hindereth the service of the other which is superiour we must by law and order discharge our selves of the inferiour Covenanters inform for Defensive This our conclusion is most consonant to the words and sense of your second and fourth argument for war And since you were put to this necessity to take up armes for your defence notwithstanding of your Kings specious pretences who could condemne you to presse and urge the people by your reasons to take up armes to resist the violence of your King Covenanters inform for Defensive 57. Sigebert in anno 1088. who was furiously inveding you as you say and to thrust all away from their places that did withstand you as traitors to you the Church and Countrey and unworthy of your society I do not regard neither need you to be offended at that idle speech of Sigebert neither would I heare him if he did not aske leave of all good men from which number I will not be excluded to speake while he sayes thus â—o speak with the leave of all good men this onely novelty I will not say heresie was not crept into the world before the dayes of â—elldebrand that Priests should teach the people that they owe no subjection to evill Kings and that although they have sworne fidelitie to him yet they must yeeld him none neither may they be counted perjured for holding against their King but rather he that obeyeth the King is excommunicate and he that rebelleth against the King is absolved from the blemish of disloyaltie and perjurie c. Thus he And is this a matter to be condemned I pray you Doe we not cleerely see this performed among your selves the King himselfe will approve of it for you are confident of it while you say Wee are very confident of his Majesties approbation to the integritie of our hearts prâ—â—eâ—â—â—â—se Sâ—pâ—â— 1633. and peaceablenesse of our wayes and actions all this time past and doe protest that we will still adhere to our former proceedings mutuall defence c. And good reason for rebellion for such an important businesse against a King cannot bee disloyaltie and they that have not followed your course justly deserve Excommunication and Banishment Athanasius was but too silly a man being under the tyrannie of Constantius the Arrian Hereticke that did not incite the people to rebellion or to promove the designes of the Emperours brother who was Orthodoxe and worthier of the Crown Which if he had done he might have made a better Apologie to the Emperour Constantius who charged him with the same as if he had stirred up his brother and the people against him If he had done so he might have made Peters Apologie It s better to obey God then man But because he did it not hee makes an Apologie most beseeming a coward who did not as you did with counsell and courage lead the people to war against their Prince but sayes thus Vincat quaso apud te Ad anâ—siâ— Apoâ—â—â— aâ— Constant veritas ne relinquas suspicionem contra universam ecclesiaÌ„ quasitalia ant cogitentur aut scribantur à Christianis 〈◊〉 potissimum Episcopis Let truth I pray thee prevaile with thee and leave not a susâ—â—cion against the Catholick Church as if such things were either thought or written by Christians and especially by Bishops I am not so mad I am not beside my selfe O Emperour that thou shouldst suspect I had any such thought I am not so mad neither have I forgotten the voyce of God which saith Curse not the King in thy heart nor backbite the mightie in the secrets of thy chamber for the birds
of the ayre shall tell it and the fowles that she shall betray it Covenanterâ— inform for Dâ—fensive § 4. This man was too fearefull but you were of another spirit encouraging the people and dehorting them from being afraid of shadowes yea your Priests were good patterns to the rest to follow There was one of them who is worthy if you could permit Images to have his Statue ingraven in Marble Daâ—id 〈◊〉 to eternize him to the worlds end who went so stoutly to the Camp upon his horse with two Carabins at his Sadle two Pistols at his side with a broad Scottish sword those five weapons were like unto Davids sive smooth stones which he tooke out of the brooke to kill Goliah with This David no doubt would have killed sive English at the first encounter with his five deadly weapons and would have returned with triumph saying with Paul I have fought a good fight for 2 Tim. 4.7 Nehem. 6.11 should such a man as he flie But if any shall produce the Canons of divers generall Councels ordaining Clergie men that beare arms to be degraded and put from their place And that of Davenant Christâ—â— gladium verbi promittit non ferri Davenant deter quaest 4. fugam suadet non pugnam Christ promiseth to his Pastors the sword of the word and not the sword of Iron he perswades to â—lie but not to sight the answer is easie Those generall Councels though not intoto yet pro tanto are like your 6. generall or nâ—tionall Councels which you have condemned because they were against you and Davonant is a Bishop and so your adversary A third errour wherewith wee were formerly tossed by you is now removed it concerneth the Church-government which you at last being put to it doe acknowledge to belong to the Church not to the King What hath hee to doe there Let Kings take care of civill state Let Church of Church-matters debate This was the presumption and errour of Henry the 8. King of England Bell. de Rom. Pontis l. 1. ca. 7. as Bellarmine observeth Is enim se caput ecclesiae Anglicanae constituit eodem modo censuit alios principes capita suprema in suis ditionibus esse For he made himselfe Head of the Church and after the same manner judged other Princes to bee supreme heads within their owne Dominions And thus King Charles would also be therefore in your Pretestations you declare that it is your ancient grievance Protestat 18. Decemb. 1638. That his Majestie takes upon him that spirituall power and authoritie which properly belongeth to Christ as onely King and Head of his Kirk The ministery and execution whereof is onely given to such as beare Ecclesiasticall government of the same So that in his Majesties person some men presse to erect a Popedome And all your Protestant Divines do hold the same doctrine as so many Court Parasites The Fathers went too far on this way August contra lâ—â—â—â—â—â— Pâ—tiâ—â—ae lib. 2. c. p. 92. I will but name Augustine All men saies he ought to serve God by coÌ„mon coÌ„dition as men in another sort by several gifts offices by the which some do this some do that No private person could command idols to be banished cleane from amongst men which was so long before prophesied Idem contra Crâ—sâ— lib. 8. cap. 51. Therfore Kings beside their duty to serve God common with all men have in that they be Kings how to serve the Lord in such sort as none can do which are not Kings for in this Kings as they are Kings serve the Lord as God by David enjoyned them Psal 1. if in their Kingdomes they command that which is good and prohibite that which is evill not in civill affaires only but also in matters concerning Divine Religion c. This man is so confident that in his 50. Epistle he cryeth out Who being in their right wits dare alledge the contrary But truly the Donatists held the better part they durst alledge the contrary so dare We so dare you doe macti viri virtute novâ The fathers judgement in such state matters is not approved by his Holinesse the Pope Bellarmine our trustie Champion speaketh better for you That the civill Magistrate regit homines ut homines sunt magis ratione corporum quam animarum but on the contrary the Church Governour regit homines ut Christiani sunt magis ratione animarum quam corporum ille habet pro fine temporalem quietem salutem populi iste vitam sempiternam foelicitatem ille utitur naturalibus legibus institutis humanis iste legibus divinis The King governeth men as they are men and rather in regard of their bodies then their soules but the Church Governour governeth men as they are Christians and rather in regard of their soules then their bodies The end of the one is to procure the temporall quiet and safetie of the people the other hath for his end everlasting life and happinesse the one useth naturall Lawes and humane institutions but the other useth Divine Lawes And whereas your Doctors say that the King is the Keeper of the Tables and the Minister of God for our good and if for our good then chiefly for our principall good the good of our soules to have a care of Religion according to the examples of the religious Kings under the Law and Christian Princes under the Gospel c. Those and many such like idle arguments are not worthy that I should stand to answer them especially in an Epistle for there is no such need of Kings the people may well enough bee without them Covenanters informat for Defensive arg 3. for there was none till Cains dayes as you say The Church was well governed in the Primitive time while there was no Christian King Ad annos fermeè 30â— nullus fuit in Ecclesia Christianus Princeps secularis For the space of 300 yeers there was no secular Christian Prâ—nce in the Church sayes Bellarmine And therefore sayes he Bell. de laicis cap. 17. Christus Ecclesiam regendam Petro Episcopis commisit non Tyberio ejus Praefectis Hee committed the government of his Church to Peter and the Bishops not to Tyberius the Emperor and his Officers He said to Peter Feed my sheep not so to Kings but Doe my Prophets no wrong The Church-men must give an account to God of mens souls Kings have no such account to make as our Stapleton sayes well with you therfore concludes that not Kings but the Church is to be obeyed in Ecclesiasticall businesses according to that of the Apostle Obedite praepositit vestris Obey them that have the rule over you and submit your selves unto them for they watch for your soule Heb. 13 17. You doe then as it becommeth you not to regard the Kings words nor ohey his Proclamations but to perswade the people that I may use your own words
vel cultus religionis conformitas quia finguli principes quod ipsis melius videbitur flatuent quoruÌ„ decretis siro sistatur perpetua erunt besla This power being granted to Kings then Unitie of faith and worship and conformity of religion will not remaine lorg in one province or kingdome because every Prince will ordaine that which see meth best in his eyes To whose decrees if resistance be made there will follow perpetuall warre But this power being granted to the Church which cannot erre in her Synodicall acts there shall ever be Unity of faith depending upon the infallibility of Church Assemblies For I see in the seventh place that you do acknowledge the infallibilitie of generall Councels or Assemblies For that Assembly which you did hold at Glasgow lately Covenanters inâ—â—â—at for Deâ—â—nsive § 7. is to you so infallible that long time before you doe professe that you did swear for judgement and practice to adhere to the determination of it And now of late Julii 1. 1639 do protest before God and the world that you will still adhere to it And you have good reason so to do for if generall Assemblies may erre then say we â—â—lâ— de auâ—â—â— coâ—â—â— or Cap. 4. Possent merito revocari in dubium omnes damnatae hareses concilia nullo honore digna essent All heresies which are condemned may againe be called in question and our Assemblies esteemed worthy of no honour And therefore you may justly feare upon this ground that your Assembly might erre and that you may be branded with errour in your decrees and have all called in question again which you have condemned As for us of Rome condemne your Assemblies who will we shall never doe it but rather desire that you may still appoint the same Commissioners for your future assemblies therein to confirme all which they had decreed in the former for your acts of abjuring Episcopacie the Articles of Perth Service book Book of Canons pleaseth us very well howbeit we doe not throughly approve the reason of your acts You have thrust away and excommunicated your Bishops because you think them Antichristian so doe we excommunicate your Bishops because they are Antichristian But you think them Antichristian because you make it an Article of your Negative faith that they are a part of the Popish Hierarchie And we thinke them Antichristian because they are not so neither doe they acknowledge the Pope for their Head but doe declaime against him and the greatest wound that ever we have received is from such Bishops as they are as Cranmet Latimer Ridley Hooper Jowell Bâ—lson Andrewes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stupor mundi Whitgift Babington Abbots King Downame Ussher Morton Davenant Montague Hall White and that Arch-enemie of yours and ours Canterbury with divers others whom I like not to recite In this particular King James is opposite to us both because as Becanus well observeth he holdeth Recan de prim Reg. Angl. ca. 7. Jacobi Regis praesa monit that Bishops have their jurisdiction immediately from God while he saith Episcopos esse in Ecclesia debere tanquam institutionem Apostolicam ac ordinationem proinde divinam contra Puritanos contraque Bollarminum semper sensi qui negat Episcopos à Deo immediatè suam jurisdictionem accepisse Sed nihil mirum à Puritanis cum stare cum Jesuitae nihil aliud quà m Puritano-papistae sunt I ever thought that Bishops ought to bee in the Church as an Apostolicall institution and therefore a divine ordinance against Puritans and against Bellarmine who deny that Bishops have their jurisdiction immediately from God but no marvell that Bellarmine takes the Puritans part seeing Jesuits are no other thing but Puritan-papists And in that same place the King sheweth that from a generall Councell convocated by Christian Princes for the settling of Religion he would have Jesuits and Puritans excluded whom he calleth by a common title novitios furiosos incendiarios and sayes Ibidem Mihi praecipuus labor fuit dejectos Episcopos restituere Puritanorum anarchiam expugnare My chief labour was to restore the Bishops that were cast downe and to overthrow the anarchie of Puritans Wee thanke you also for removing the Articles of Perth for they were not rightly established for your Church did esteeme those ceremonies to be onely things indifferent commended and commanded by Authoritie for Decency and Order The not observation whereof was held no damnable sinne if it were without contempt of Authority and without the case of scandall and at the most your Church did hold that those ceremonies were onely significant and not operative as we hold But if they had been rightly established you should have observed them as things necessary to salvation and as parts of Gods worship which under paine of damnation ought to be performed and that they are sâ—gns operater working grace in those who observe them And therefore seeing your Church did not hold this opinion of them they aâ—e not Popish Ceremonies and so not ours and whatsoever you have more that is not ours we request you to abjure it The condemning also of the Service-book is most acceptable unto us because it is not our Masse-book and that you may see how much we hate it Be it known to you that by venue of the Popes Bull many yeers agoe we will suffer no Roman Catholike to goe to the Church so long as the Service-booke is reading either in England or Ireland and yet we will permit them to goe to their Sermons and of all Sermons we sympathize best with yours So that it seemeth a most unfortunate booke having both us and you for its enemies And since I am fallen upon this point let me relate an Historie that passed between a Covenanter an Anticovenanter as it was reported to me concerning this booke that you may make yâ—ur use of it The Covenanter demanded the cause why he could refuse to joyne with them in a Supplication to his Majestie against the book of Common Prayer seeing there were so many hands of able Ministers subscribing the same and obliging themselves to make it good that it was 1. Superstitious 2. that it conteineth the maine essentiall parts of the Masse 3. that it openeth a doore to let in all Poperie The Anticovenanter answered thus or to this effect Because such unjust aspersions are cast upon that poore Book which doth not containe so many Lines as it doth suffer Lyes hated be all that love not truth Papists and Puritans striving who shall speake most against it I shall bee so farre from becomming a causlesse enemy to it that I cannot deny it my friendship and helping hand But because you are so furious and I for speaking but one word in its favour have beene hotly persecuted with tongues and hands too it will be better to be possessed with a Lethargie then to appeare in defence of this Lyturgie which the most part even of the Ministrie hath
moderation whereof I do not repent and was very much offended with those who would not yeeld in such indifferent things for peace sake It was Calvin with Peter Martyr who by many arguments perswaded Bishop Hooper to conformitie especially to put on the Surplesse which he did I might produce all the rest of those worthy Divines Beza Melancton Bullinger Peter Martyr Gualter Zanchius who all of them condemn your opinion schismaticall practice who had rather rent the body of Christ Jesus then yeeld to any thing that doth not content your turbulent lusts and therefore your praiers are turned into sin while you pray the Lord of heaven truly and fully to inform his Majesty how farre this Booke is full of idolatrous superstitions and popish errors as you affirm in your Protestation against his Majesties Proclamation And it is no marvell that you condemne this Booke of Common Praier seeing you have condemned your owne book of Common Praier made at your Reformation The Ring-leaders of your faction condemne all set Praier whatsoever all set forme of celebration of the Sacraments Marriages The praiers which were read since the Reformation till this rupture are now banished the Church yea your Ring-leaders have banished the Lords Praier and say that those who use it make it an Idoll and therefore in their praiers it is never mentioned to the great scandall grief of many poor souls among you who yet love it because Christs command is when you pray say Our Father which art in heaven c. You Baptize celebrate the Communion not as you were wont to do after the form set downe unto you at the Reformation but every day after a diverse forme and manner being changeable like the wind so do you with Marriage Thus you differ from your selfe like the double-minded man Jam. 1.8 who is unstable in all his waies wavering like the waves of the sea driven with the wind tossed And what pleaseth you to day displeasâ—th you to morrow You do also daily coin new Articles of faith as to beleeve Episcopacie to be Antichristian and the young Lay-elder government to be that which Christ hath appointed in his Church It is an Article of your faith to beleeve that to receive the body and bloud of Jesus Christ in the humble gesture of kneeling is idolatry It is an Article of your faith that it is Popery if the Church set apart a day for the solemn and thankfull commemoration of Gods love to the world who so loved the world Galat 4 4 that when the fulnesse of time was come sent forth his Sonne made of a woman made under the Law to redeem them which were under the Law that wee might receive the adoption of Sons It is an Article of your faith that it is Popery if the Church doth set apart a day for the solemne and publike commemoration of the Passion of Christ Heb. 12.2 that the people may looke unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of their faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the crosse despising the shame It s an Article of your faith that it is Popery to give the Communion on Pasch day It s an Article of your faith that it is Popery if the Church appoint a day for the thankfull remembrance of Christs Ascension into Heaven It s an Article of your faith that its Popery if the Church appoint a day for the thankfull remembrance of the Descension of the Holy Ghost on Whitsunday to give gifts unto men It s an Article of your faith that the Service-book is Popish It s an Article of your faith that the Book of Canons which directly overthrowes the Popish Supremacie and the High Commission are abjured in your Confession of faith It s an Article of your faith that it was the intention of those whom you call blessed Reformers that all the foresaids which you have in your Covenant abjured expresly was abjured by them also as well as if it had bin expresly set downe which is the most ridiculous thing in the world for intentio est actus immanens which is impossible for any man to know except it be revealed And therefore since there is such difference among your selves every day bringing forth new dreames since to you some things are sometimes indifferent sometimes necessary good sometimes necessary evill sometimes a matter of faith sometimes Not I cannot but end this discourse with that of Hilarius in Application to you Hilar. lib. 3. cont Constant Faith is come now to depend rather on the time then on the Gospel our state is dangerous and miserable that we have now as many Faiths as wills as many doctrines as manners Whilst Faiths are either so written as we list or so understood as we will we make every yeer every moneth a faith and still we seek a faith as if there were no faith This I would fain know of you what faith at length you beleeve you have changed so often that now I know not your Faith That is happened unto you which is wont to follow unskilfull builders ever disliking their owne doings that you still put down that which you are still putting up You subvert the old with the new and the new you rent asunder with a new correction and that which was once corrected you condemus with a second correction O wicked men what a mockery do you make of the Church onely dogs returne to their vomit and you compell the Priests to sup up those things which they have spit forth and doe you command them in their confession to allow that which before they condemned What Bishops hand have you left innocent What tongue have you not forced to falshood Whose heart hast thou not brought to the condemning of his former opinion You have subjected all to your will and to your violence Thus Hilarius And therefore of those your new-coyned articles especially of your abjuring Episcopacy and establishing Presbyteriall discipline I may wel say that of Jerom Plantatio vestra non est vetus Jerom. in â—sal 1â—7 sed novella est non est de veterilege non de Prophetis non de Apostolis sed de novis magistris est Your plantation is not old but a novelty for it is not three yeers old it is not taken out of the old Law nor from the Prophets nor from the Apostles but new masters And therefore adulterum est impium est sacrilegum est quicquid humano furere instituitur â—â—pr lib. 1. c. 8. ut dispositio divina violetur Whatsoeuer is established by the fury of man whereby the divine disposition is violated is an adulterate wicked sacrilegious matter And I hold that as an undoubted rule of Augustine Quod universalis tenuit ecclesia August lib. 4. de Bapt. cap. 24. quodque non Conciliis institutum sed semper retentum est non nisi Apostolicâ authoritate traditum rectissimè creditur Whatsoever the
what estate condition or honour soever For as he sayes well in the same place The punishment of such crimes as touch the Majesty of God doth not appertaine to Kings and chiefe Rulers onely but also to the whole body of the people and to every member of the same as occasion vocation and ability shall serve to revenge the injury done against God I will not spend time to shew this by your practises against Queene regent who did oppose your course Knox hist of the Church of Scot. pag. 217. how by M. Knox and his followers an Oath of Confederacie was taken and the Nobility threatned to joyne with you under the paine of excommunication pag. 272. Then an imperious letter was written to her Majesty that if she should hinder their reformation * Ibâ—d 265. They should be compelled to take the Sword of just defence and protested that without the reformation which they desired they would never be subject to any mortall man And last of all They deposed her Majesty at the Councell of our good friend M. Knox Pag. 378. by a formall act penned by M. Knox and set downe in his History of the Church of Scotland And you do well as you say in your Covenant to follow the laudable example of your Progenitors as dutifull children according to that of the Wiseman Heare ye children the instruction of a father Prov. 4.1 and attend to know understanding for I give you good doctrine forsake you not my law And our worthy Father Mariana hath showne you a ready way which you as dutifull Sonnes have hitherto diligently followed Non dissimulandum esse Marian. lib 6. de reg cap. 6 pag. 59. expeditam autem maxiâ—â—â— tutamviam esse si publici conventus facultas detur communi consensu quid statuendum sit deliberare fixum ratúmque habere quod communi sententià steterit Monendus imprimus Princept crit atque ad sanitatem revocandus c. qui si mediciâ—am respuat neque spos ulla sanitatis relinquatur sentemiâ— pronunciatâ licebit reipublica ejus imperium detractare priâ—â—â—m Et quâ—â—iam bellum necessariò concitabitur ejus defendendi consilia explicare expedire arma pecumias in belli sumptus imperare populis si res feret neque aliter se respublica tueri possit codem defensionis jure ac verò potiori auctoritate propria principem publicé hostem declaratum FERRO PERIMERE This is not to bee dissembled that it is the most expedient and safe way if a publike meeting may be granted to deliberate what shall be done by common consent to hold that as firme and sure which shall be concluded by common consent First of all the Prince is to be admonished and to be brought to his wits againe c. If he reject the medicine and no hope of his recovery be left when the sentence is passed upon him the Common-wealth may first refuse his command and because of necessity there will be a stirring up for warre they may unfold their counsels for defence thereof and shew that it is expedient to have armour and to command the people to advance moneyes for the charge of the warres And if the matter will suffer and the Common-wealth cannot otherwise defend it selfe with that same right of defence but with a better authority and peculiar of their owne they may kill the Prince being declared publikely an enemy You have followed this counsell so full that you have practised it to the last comma yea till you come to the last two words FERRO PERIMERE At which the Anticovenanter cries out with a shout God save the King let his soule be bound up in the bundle of life Let this dreame of Ferro perimere be to them that hate him and the interpretation thereof to his enemies First of all you sent from Edinburgh thousands of letters to all corners of the kingdome for a * To conveene them from Dan even to Beersheba publike convention then by the commòn consent of all that appeare your Covenant made by the chiefe men of the confederacie was sworn and subscribed and all of them bound not to give obedience to the King but to hold sure and firme what should be thought good by common consent Your admonitions supplications and protestations have beene multiplied but all in vaine for as you say in your protestations he is so farre from acknowledging those things to be unlawfull which you have condemned that in his Proclamations he holdeth the plaine contrary opinion and only doth remove them as they say for the hardnesse of your heart and to preserve peace in the Land And therefore since he rejects your medicine as poyson Is there any hope of his recoverie that is that ever he shall be of your judgements And as for lata sententia though it be not done formally yet it 's done very materially in every corner of the Kingdome It 's a remarkable sentence past by one of you preaching upon some text of the Prophet Zacharie though it may be said that his Commenter was from a Sam. 15.16 The Lord hath forsaken our King R. B. and given him over to be led by the Bishops the blinde brood of Antichrist who are hot begles hunting for the blood of Gods Saints D.E. And another preached as well upon the 1 Cor. 10.1 Where he told that they of the holy Covenant were like Israel at the red sea and Pharaoh and his Host comming upon them Another was as forward as any of them H. R. When he compared the King to a wicked Italian who delighted to kill men both in soul and body Another that he might hinder the people to subscribe the Kings Covenant G.Y. preached unto them That the Kings offer of the Covenant to them was like Iâ—abs salutation of Amasa who tooks him by the beard and said art thou well my brother and then stabbed him in the fifth rib And M. Cant whom for honours sake I name his Sermon at Glasgow is knowne to all our Societie he prayed God to take away the Kings idolatry and said that the deare Saints in England had their nose and their cares slit for the profession of the Gospell I might be infinite in this point but because it is so well known I spare further instancing The next point is Detractatio imperij this you have done excellently by not only refusing obedience to his Laws civill and ecclesiasticall and to his Proclamations but also by continuall protesting against him and exhorting all to stand to the Covenant You have also kept your counsell of war provided Armour laid taxations on the people to defray the charges and the King is publicè hostis declaratus publikely declared to be your enemy by the ministerie pressing them to Armes by your learned informations and have taken all his Castles and strength from him and say that they are the â—eyes of your owne kingdome which you will keepe