that speciall dignity which had extraordinary call mission gifts and power immediatly from Christ they contented themselves with the ordinary titles of Bishops and Presbyters untill use the great Arbitrator of words and Master of Language finding reason to distinguish by a peculiar name those persons whose power and office were indeed distinct from and above all other in the Church as suceeding the Apostles in the ordinary and constant power of governing the Churches the honour of whose name they moderately yet commendably declined all Christian Churches submitting to that special anthority appropriated also the name of Bishop without any suspition or reproach of arrogancy to those who were by apostolical propagation rightly descended invested into that highest largest power of governing even the most pure primitive Churches which without all doubt had many such holy Bishops after the pattern of Timothy Titus whose speciall power is not more clearly set down in those Epistles the chief grounds limits of all Episcopall claim as from divine Right then are the Characters of these perilous times those men that make them such who not enduring sound doctrine clear testimonies of all Churches practise are most perverse disputers and proud Usurpers against true Episcopacy who if they be not Traytors and Boasters yet they seem to be very covetous heady high-minded inordinate feirce lovers of themselves having much of the form litle of the power of godlines Who by popular heaps of weak light and unlearned Teachers seeke to over-lay smother the pregnancy and authority of that power of Episcopall government which beyond al equivocation vulgar fallacy of names is most convincingly set forth both by Scripture and all after-Historyes of the Church This I write rather like a Divine than a Prince that Posterity may see if ever these Papers be publick that I had fair grounds both from scripture-Canons Ecclesiasticall examples whereon My judgment was stated for Episcopall government Nor was it any policy of State or obstinacy of wil or partiality of affection either to the men or their Function which fixed Me who cannot in point of worldly respects be so considerable to me as to recompence the injuries and losses I and My dearest relations with My Kingdomes have sustained and hazarded chiefly at first upon this quarrell And not only in Religion of which Scripture is the best rule and the Churches Vniversall practice the best commentary but also in right reason and the true nature of Government it cannot be thought that an orderly Subordination among Presbyters or Ministers should be any more against Christianity then it is in all secular and civill Governments where parity breeds Confusion and Faction I can no more believe that such order is inconsistent with true Religion then good features are with beauty or numbers with harmony Nor is it likely that God who appointed severall orders and a Prelacy in the Government of his Church among the Jewish Priests should abhor or forbid them among Christian Ministers who have as much of the principles of schisme and division as other men for preventing and suppressing of which the Apostolicall wisdom which was divine after that Christians were multiplied to many Congregations and Presbyters with them appointed this way of Government which might best preserve order and union with Authority So that I conceive it was not the favour of Princes or ambition of Presbyters but the wisdome and piety of the Apostles that first setled Bishops in the Church which Authority they constantly used and injoyed in those times which were purest for Religion though sharpest for Persecution Not that I am against the managing of this presidency and authority in one man by the joynt Counsell and consent of many Presbyters I have offerd to restore that as a fit means to avoid those Errours Corruptions and Partialities which are incident to any one man Also to avoyd Tyranny which becomes no Christians least of all Church-men besides it will be a means to take away that burden and odium of afaires which may lie too heavy on one mans shoulders as indeed I think it formerly did on the Bishops here Nor can I see what can be more agreeable both to Reason and Religion then such a frame of Government which is paternall not Magisterial and wherein not only the necessity of avoyding Faction and Confusion Emulations and Contâ—mps which are prone to rise among equals in power and function but also the differences of some Ministers gifts and aptitudes for Government above others doth invite to imploy them in reference to those Abilities wherein they are eminent Nor is this judgment of Mine touching Episcopacy any pre-occupation of opinion which wil not admit any oppositions against it it is well knowne I have endeavoured to satisfie my self in what the chiefe Patrons for other wayes can say against this or for theirs And I finde they have as sarr lesse of Scripture grounds and of Reason so for examples and practise of the Church or testimonies of Histories they are wholy destitute where in the whose stream runs so for Episcopacy that there is not the least rivolet for any others As for those obtruded examples of some late reformed Churches for many retain Bishops still whom necessity of times and affaires rather excuseth then commendeth for their inconformity to all Antiquity I could never see any reason why Churches orderly reformed and governed by Bishops should be forced to conforme to those few rather then to the Catholick example of all Ancient Churches which needed no Reformation and to those Churches at this day who Governed by Bishops in all the Christian world are many more then Presbyterians or Independents can pretend to be All whom the Churches in My three Kingdoms lately Governed by Bishops would equalize I think if not exceed Nor is it any point of wisdom or charity where Christians differ as many do in some points there to widen the differences at once to give all the Christian world except a handfull of some Protestants so great a scandall in point of Church-government whom though you may convince of their Errours in some points of Doctrine yet you shal never perswade them that to compleat their Reformation they must necessarily desert and wholly cast off that Government which they and all before them have ever owned as Catholick Primitive and Apostolicall So farre as never Schismaticks nor Hereticks except those Aerians have strayed from the Vnity and Conformity of the Church in that point ever having Bishops above Presbyters Besides the late generall approbation and submission to this Government of Bishops by the Clergy as well as the Laity of these Kindoms is a great confirmation of My Judgement and their inconstancy is a great prejudice against their novelty I cannot in charity so far doubt of their learning or integrity as if they understood not what heretofore they did or that they did confirme contrary to their consciences So that their
but for their weighty and judicious piety than those are whose weaknes or giddines they sought to gratifie by taking it away One of the greatest faults some men found with the Common-Prayer-book I beleive was this That it taught them to pray so oft for Me to which Petitions they had not Loyalty enough to say Amen nor yet charity enough to forbear Reproaches and even cursings of Me in their own forms instead of praying for Me. I wish their Repentance may be their only punishment that seeing the mischiefs which the disuse of publique Liturgyes hath already produced they may restore that credit use and reverence to them which by the ancient Churches were given to Set Formes of sound and wholsome words And thou O Lord which art the same God blessed for ever whose mercies are full of varie y yet of constancy Thou denyest us not a new fresh sense of our old and dayly wants nor despisest renued affections ioyned to constant expressions Let us not want the benefit of thy Churches united wel-advised Devotions Let the matters of our prayers be agreeable to thy will which is alwaies the same and the fervency of our spirits to the motions of thy holy Spirit in us And then we doubt not but thy spirituall perfections are such as thou art neither to be pleased with affected Novelties for matter or manner nor offended with the pious constancy of our petitions in them both Whose variety or constancy thou hast no where either forbidden or commanded but left them to the piety and prudence of thy Church that both may be used neither dispised Keep men in that pious moderation of their Iudgments in matters of Religion that their ignorance may not offend others nor their opinion of their own abilities tempt them to deprive others of what they may lawfully and devoutly use to help their infirmities And since the advantage of Errour consists in novelty and variety as Truths in unity and constancy Suffer not thy Church to be pestered with errours and diformed with undecencies in thy service under the pretence of variety and novelty Nor to be deprived of truth unity and order under this fallacy That constancy is the cause of formality Lord keep us from formall Hypocisie in our own hearts and then we know that praying to thee or praising of thee with David and other holy men in the same formes cannot hurt us Give us wisdome to amend what is amisse within us and there will be lesse to mend without us Evermore defend and deliver thy Church from the effects of blind zeal and over-bold devotion 17. Of the differences betweene the King and the two Houses in point of Church-government TOuching the GOVERNMENT of the Church by Bishops the common Jealousie hath bin that I am earnest and resolute to maintain it not so much out of piety as policy and reason of State Wherein so far indeed reason of State doth induce Me to approve that Government above any other as I find it impossible for a Prince to preserve the State in quiet unlesse he hath such an influence upon Church-men and they such a dependance on Him as may best restraine the seditions exorbitances of Ministers Tongues who with the Keys of Heaven have so far the Keys of the Peoples hearts as they prevaile much by their Oratory to let in or shut out both Peace and Loyalty So that I being as King intrusted by God the Laws with the good both of Church and State I see no reason I should give up or weaken by any change that power and influence which in right and reason I ought to have over both The moving Bishops out of the House of Peers of which I have elsewhere given an account was sufficient to take off any suspicion that I encline to them for any use to be made of their Votes in State affairs Though indeed I never thought any Bishop worthy to sit in that House who would not Vote according to his Conscience I must now in charity be thought desirous to preserve that Government in its right constitution as a matter of Religion wherein both My judgement is justly satisfyed that it hath of all other the fullest Scripture grounds and also the constant practise of all Christian Churches til of late years the tumultuarinesse of People or the factiousnesse and pride of Presbyters or the covetousnesse of some States and Princes gave occasion to some mens wits to invent new modells aud propose them under specious titles of Christs Government Scepter and Kindome the better to serve their turns to whom the change was beneficiall They must give Me leave having none of their temptations to invite Me to alter the Government of Bishops that I may have a Title to their Estates not to believe their pretended grounds to any new wayes contrary to the full and constant testimony of all Histories sufficiently convincing unbiased men that as the Primitive Churches were undoubtedly governed by the Apostls and their immediate Successors first best Bishops so it cannot in reason or charity be supposed that al churches in the world should either be ignorant of the rule by thē prescribed or so soon deviate from their divine and holy patterne That since the first Age for 1500. 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 Whose constant and universall practise agreeing with so large and evident Scripture-directions and examples as are set down in the Epistles to Timothy and Titus for the setling of that Government not in the persons only of Timothy and Titus but in the succession the want of Government being that which the Church can no more dispense with in point of wel-being then the want of the Word Sacraments in point of being I wonder how men came to look with so envious an eye upon Bishops power and authority as to oversee both the Ecclesiasticall use of them and Apostolicall constitution which to Me seems no lesse evidently set forth as to the maine scope design of those Epistles for the setling of a peculiar Office Power and Authority in them as President-Bishops above others in point of Ordination Censures and other acts of Ecclesiasticall discipline then those shorter Characters of the qualities and duties of Presbiter-Bishops and Deacons are described in some parts of the same Epistles who in the latitude and community of the name were then and may now not improperly be called Bishops as to the oversight and care of single Congregations committed to them by the Apostles or those Apostolicall Bishops who as Timothy and Titus succeeded them in that ordinary power there assigned over larger divisions in which were many Presbyters The humility of those first Bishops avoiding the eminent title of Apostles as a name in the Churches stile appropriated from its common notion of a Messenger or one sent to
facility and levity is never to be excused who before ever the point of Church-government had any free and impartiall debate contrary to their former Oathes and practice against their obedience to the Laws in force and against My consent have not only quite cryed down the government by Bishops but have approved and incouraged the violent and most illegall stripping all the Bishops and many other Church-men of all their due Authority and Revenues even to the selling away utter alienation of those church-lands from any Ecclesiastical uses So great a power hath the stream of times the prevalency of parties over some mens judgements of whose so sudden and so total change little reason can be given besides the Scots Army comming into England But the folly of these men will at last punish it self and the Desertors of Episcopacy will appear the greatest enemies to betrayers of their own interest for Presbytery is never so considerable or effectuall as when it is joyned to and crowned with Episcopacy All Ministers will find as great a difference in point of thriving between the favour of the People of Princes as Plants do betweene being watered by hand or by the sweet and liberal dews of Heaven The tenuity and contempt of Clergy-men wil soon let them see what a poor carcasse they are when parted from the influence of that Head to whose Supremacy they have been sworn A little moderation might have prevented great mischiefs I am firm to Primitive Episcopacy not to have it extirpated if I can hinder it Discretion without passion might easily reform whatever the rust of times or indulgence of laws or corruption of manners have brought upon it It being a grosse vulgar errour to impute to or revenge upon the Function the faults of times or persons which seditious popular principle and practise all wise men abhor For those secular additaments ornaments of Authority civill Honor Estate which My Predecessors Christian Princes in al countries have annexed to Bishops Church-men I look upon them but as just rewards of their learning and piety who are fit to be in any degree of Church-Government also enablements to works of Charity and Hospitality meet strengthenings of their Authority in point of respect and observance which in peaceable times is hardly payed to any Governours by the measure of their vertues so much as by that of their Estates Poverty and meannesse exposing them and their Authority to the contempt of licentious minds and manners which persecuting times much restrained I would have such men Bishops as are most worthy of those incouragements and best able to use them if at any time my judgement of men failed My good intention made My errour veniall And some Bishops I am sure I had whose learning gravity and piety no men of any worth or forehead can deny But of all men I would have Church-men especially the Governours to be redeemed from that vulgar neglect which besides an innate principle of vitious opposition which is in all men against those that seem to reprove or restrain them will necessarily follow both the Presbyterian party which makes all Ministers equall and the Independent inferiority which sets their Pastors below the People This for My judgment touching Episcopacy wherein God knows I do not gratifie any design or passion with the least perverting of truth And now I appeal to God above and all the Christian world whether it be just for Subjects or pious for Christians by violence infinite indignities with servile restraints to seek to force Me their KING and Soveraign as some men have endeavoured to do against al these grounds of My Judgment to consent to their weake and divided noveltis The greatest Pretender of them desires not more then I do That the Church should be governed as Christ hath appointed in true Reason and in Scripture of which I could never see any probable shew for any other wayes who either content themselves with the examples of some Churches in their infancy solitude when one Presbyter might serve one Congregation in a City or Country or else they deny these most evident Truths That the Apostles were Bishops over those Presbyters they ordained as wel as over the Churches they planted and that Government being necessary for the Churches wel-being when multiplyed sociated must also necesarily descend from the Apostles to others after the example of that power and superiority they had above others which could not end with their persons since the use and ends of such Government still continue It is most sure that the purest Primitive and best Churches flourished under Episcopacy may so still if ignorance superstition avarice revenge and other disorderly and disloyall passions had not so blown up some mens minds against it that what they want of Reasons or primitive Patterns they supply with violence and oppression wherein some mens zeal for Bishops Lands Houses Revenues hath set them on work to eat up Episcopacy which however other men esteeme to Me is no lesse sin then Sacriledge or a robbery of God the giver of all we have of that portion which devout minds have thankfuly given again to him in giving it to his Church and Prophets through whose hands he graciously accepts even a cup of cold water as a libation offered to him Furthermore as to My particular engagement above other men by an Oath agreeable to My judgment I am solemnly obliged to preserve that Government and the Rights of the Church Were I convinced of the unlawfulnes of the Function as Antichristian which some men boldly but weakly calumniate I could soon with Judgement break that Oath which erroneously was taken by Me. But being daily by the best disquisition of truth more confirmd in the reason Religion of that to which I am Sworn how can any man that wisheth not My damnation perswade Me at once to so notorious and combined sins of Sacriledg and Perjury besides the many personall Injustices I must doe to many worthy men who are as legally invested in the ir Estates as any who seek to deprive thē and they have by no Law been convicted of those Crimes which might forfeit their estates livelyhoods I have oft wondred how men pretending to tendernes of Conscience and Reformation can at once tell Me that My Coronation Oath binds Me to consent to whatsoever they shall propound to me which they urge with such violence though contrary to all that Rationall and Religious freedom which every man ought to preserve and of which they seem so tender of their own Votes yet at the same time these men will needs perswade Me That I must and ought to dispense with and roundly break that part of My Oath which binds me agreeable to the best light of Reason and Religion I have to maintain the Government and legall Rights of the Church 'T is strange My Oath should be valid in that part which both My self and
all men in their own case esteem injurious unreasonable as being against the very natural and essentiall liberty of our souls yet it should be invalid and to be broken in another clause wherein I think my self justly obliged both to God Man Yet upon this Rack chiefly have I been held so long by some mens ambitious covetousnesse and Sacrilegious Cruelty torturing with Me both Church and State in Civill dissentions till I shall be forced to consent and declare that I doe approve what God knowes I utterly dislike and in My Soul abhorre as many wayes highly against Reason Justice and Religion and whereto If I should shamefully and dishonourably give My consent yet should I not by so doing satisfie the divided Interests and Opinions of those Parties which contend with each other as well as both against Me and Episcopacy Nor can My late condesending to the Scots in point of Church-government be rightly objected against Me as an inducement for Me to consent to the like in My other Kingdoms For it should be considered that Episcopacy was not so rooted and setled there as 't is here nor I in that respect so strictly bound to continue it in that Kingdom as in this for what I think in My judgement best I may not think so absolutly necessary for all places and at all times If any shall impute My yeelding to them as My failing and sin I can easily acknowledge it but that is no argument to do so again or much worse I being now more convinced in that point nor indeed hath My yeelding to them bin so happy and successefull as to incourage Me to grant the like to others Did I see any thing more of Christ as to Meeknesse Justice Order Charity and Loyalty in those that pretend to other modes of Government I might suspect My judgement to be biased or fore-stalled with some prejudice wontednes of opinion but I have hitherto so much cause to suspect the contrary in the manners of many of those men that I cannot from them gain the least reputation for their new wayes of Government Nor can I find that in any Reformed Churches whose paterns are so cryed up and obtruded upon the Churches under My Dominion that either Learning or Religion works of Piety or Charity have so flourished beyond what they have done in My Kingdomes by Gods blessing which might make me beleive either Presbytery or Independency have a more benigne influence upon the Church and mens hearts and lives than Episcopacy in its right constitution The abuses of which deserve to be extirpated as much as the use retained for I think it far better to hold to primitive uniform Antiquity than to comply with divided novelty A right Episcopacy would at once satisfie all just desires and interests of good Bishops humble Presbyters and sober people so as Church affairs should be managed neither with tyranny purity nor popularity neither Bishops ejected nor Presbiters despised nor People oppressed And in this integrity both of My judgment Conscience I hope God will preserve Me. For Thou O Lord knowest My uprightnesse and tendernesse as thou hast set me to be a Defender of the Faith and a Protector of thy Church so susser me not by any violence to be overborn against My Conscience Arise O Lord maintaine thine own Cause let not thy Church be deformed as to that Government which derived from thy Apostles hath been retained in purest and primitive times till thâ— Revenues of the Church became the obiect of secular envy which seeks to rob it of all the incouragements of Learning and Religion Make me as the good Samaritan compassionate and helpfull to thy afflicted Church which some men have wounded and robbed others passe by without regard either to pitty or relieve As my power is from thee so give me grace to use it for thee And though I am not suffered to be Master of my other Rights as a KING yet preserve me in that liberty of Reason love of Religion and thy Churches welfare which are fixed in my Censcience as a Christian Preserve from sacrilegious invasions those temporall blessings which thy providence hath bestowed on thy Church for thy glory Forgive their sinnes and errours who have deserved thy iust permission thus to let in the wilde Boar and subtill Foxes to wast and deforme thy Vineyard which thy right hand hath planted and the dew of Heaven so long watred to a happy and flourishing estate O let me not bear the infamous brand to all Posterity of being the the first Christian KING in this Kingdom who should consent to the oppressions of thy Church and the fathers of it whose errours I would rather with Constantine cover with silence and reform with meeknesse than expose their persons and sacred functions to vulgar contempt Thou O Lord seest how much I have suffered with and for thy Church make no long tarrying O my God to deliver hoth me and it from unreasonable men whose counsels have brought forth and continue such violent confusions by a precipitant destroying the ancient boundaries of thy Churches peace thereby letting in all manner of errours schismes and disorders O thou God of order and of truth in thy good time abate the malice aswage the rage and confound all the mischievous devices of thine mine and thy Churches enemies That I and all that love thy Church may sing praises to thee and ever magnifie thy salvation even before the sons of men 18 Vpon Vxbridge-treaty and other Offers made by the King I Look upon the way of Treaties as a retiring from fighting like Beasts to arguing like Men whose strength should be more in their understandings than in their limbs And though I could seldome get opportunities to Treat yet I never wanted either desire or disposition to it having greater confidence of My Reason than My Sword I was so wholly resolved to yeeld to the first that I thought neither My selfe nor others should need to use the second if once we rightly understood each other Nor did I ever think it a diminution of Me to prevent them with Expresses of My desires and even importunities to Treat It being an office not onely of humanity rather to use Reason than Force but also of Christianity to seek peace and ensue it As I was very unwillingly compelled to defend My self with Arms so I very willingly embraced any thing tending to peace The events of all War by the sword being very dubious and of a Civill VVarre uncomfortable the end had hardly recompencing late repairing the mischief of the means Nor did any successe I had ever enhance with Me the price of Peace as earnestly desired by Me as any man though I was like to pay dearer for it then any man All that I sought to reserve was Mine Honour and My Conscience the one I could not part with as a KING the other as a Christian The Treaty at Uxbridge gave the fairest hopes of an hapdy
Cannon know any respect of Persons In vaine is My Person excepted by a Parenthesis of words when so many hands are armed against Me with Swords God knowes how much I have studied to seâ— what ground of Justice is alledged for this Wa against Me that so I might by giving just satisfaction either prevent or soone end so unnaturall a motion which to many men seemâ— rather the productions of a surfeit of peace anâ— wantonnesse of minds or of private discontents Ambition and Faction which easily find o make causes of quarrell then any reall obstructions of publick Justice or Parliamentary Priviledge But this is pretended and this I must be abâ— to avoid and answer before God in My owâ— Conscience however some men are not wiâ—ling to believe Me lest they should condemâ— themselves VVhen I first with drew from White-hall â— see if I could allay the insolency of the Tumulâ— of the not suppressing of which no account i Reason can be given where an orderly Guaâ— was granted but only to oppresse both Mine aâ— the Two Houses freedome of declaring and voting according to every mans Conscience whâ— obstructions of Justice were there further the this that what seemed just to one man might nâ— seeme so to another VVhom did I by powâ— protect against the Justice of Parliament That some men withdrew who feared tâ— partiality of their tryal warned by My Loâ— of Straffords death while the vulgar threatned to be their Oppressors and Judgers of their judges was from that instinct which is in all creatures to preserve themselves If any others refused to appear where they evidently saw the cur rent of Iustice freedom so stopped and troubled by the Rabble that their lawfull Judges either durst not come to the houses or not declare their sense with liberty safety it cannot seem strange to any reasonable man when the sole exposing them to publick odium was enough to ruine them before the cause could be heard or tryed Had not factious Tumults overborn the Freedom and Honour of the two Houses had they asserted their Iustice against them made the way open for all the Members quietly to come and declare their Consciences I know no man so dear to Me whom I had the least inclination to advise either to withdraw himselfe or deny appearing upon their summons to whose sentence according to Law I think every Subject bound to stand Distempers indeed were risen to so great a height for want of timely repressing the vulgar insolencies that the greatest guilt of those which were Voted demanded as Delinquents was this That they would not suffer themselves o be over-aw'd with the Tumults and their Paâ—ons nor compelled to abet by their suffrages â—r presence the designs of those men who agiated innovations and ruine both in Church â—â—ate In this point I could not but approve their generous constancy and catiousnesse further then this I did never allow any mans refractorinesse against the Priviledges and Orders of the Houses to whom I wished nothing more then Safety Fulnesse and Freedom But the truth is some men and those not many despairing in fair and parliamentary ways by free deliberations and Votes to gain the concurrence of the Major part of Lords and Commonâ— betook themselves by the desperate activity o factious Tumults to sift and terrifie away aâ— those Members whom they saw to be of contrary minds to their purposes How oft was the businesse of the Bishops enjoying their Ancient places and undoubted Priviledges in the House of Peers carried for theâ— by far the Major part of Lords Yet after fiâ— repulses contrary to all Order and Custome â— was by tumultuary instigations obtruded again and by a few carried when most of the Peeâ— were forced to absent themselvs In like manner was the Bill against Root aâ— Branch brought on by tumultuary Clamours â— schismaticall Terrours which could never pasâ— till both houses were sufficiently thinned aâ— over-awed To which Partiality while in all reâ—son Justice and Religion My conscience forbâ— Me by consenting to make up their Votes â— Acts of Parliament I must now be urged wiâ— an Army and constrained either to hazard M owne and My Kingdoms ruins by My Defence or prostrate My Conscience to the blind obedience of those men whose zealous superstition thinks or pretends they cannot do God and the Church a greater service than utterly to destroy that Primitive Apostolicall and anciently Universall Government of the Church by Bishops Which if other mens Iudgements bind them to maintaine or forbids them to consent to the abolishing of it Mine much more who besides the grounds I have in My Iudgement have also a most strikt and indispensable Oath upon My Conscience to preserve that Order and the Rights of the Church to which most Sacrilegious and abhorred Perjury most un-beseeming a Christian King should I ever by giving My consent be betrayed I should account it infinitely greater misety then any hath or can befall Me in as much as the least sinne hath more evill in it then the greatest affliction Had I gratified their Anti-episcopall Faction at first in this point with My consent and sacrificed the Ecclesiasticall Government and Revenues to the fury of their covetousnesse ambition and Revenge I believe they would then have found no colourable necessity of raising an Army to fetch in and punish Delinquents That I consented to the Bill of putting the Bishops out of the House of Peers was done with a firme perswasion of their contentednâ— to suffer a present diminution in their Rights and Honour for My sake and the Common weals which I was confident they would readily yeeld unto rather then occasion by the leaâ— obstruction on their part any dangers to Me o to My Kingdome That I cannot adde My consent for the totall extirpation of that Government which I have often offered to all fit regulations hath so much further tie upon My Conscience as what I think Religious and Apostolicall and so very Sacred and Divine as no to be dispensed with or destroyed when what â— only of civill Favor and priviledge of Honoâ— granted to men of that Order may with theâ— consent who are concerned in it be annuâ— led This is the true state of those obstruction pretended to be in point of Justice and Authority of Parliament when I call God to witneâ— I knew none of such consequence as was wort speaking of a VVarre being only such as Jâ—stice Reason and Religion had made in My ow and ther mens Consciences Afterwards indeed a great shew of Delinquents was made which were but consequeâ—ces necessarily following upon Mine or other withdrawing from or defence against viâ—lence but those could not be the first occasion of raising an Army against Me. VVherein was so far from preventing them as the have declared often that they might seeme to have the advantage and Justice of the defensive part and load Me with all the envy injuries of first assaulting them
above mine Own the salvations of mens souls above the presevation of their Bodies and Estates Nor may any men I think without sinne and presumption forcibly endeavour to cast the Churches under my care and tuition into the moulds they have fancied and fashioned to their designes till they have first gained my consent and resolved both my own and other mens Consciences by the strength of their reasons Other violent motions which are neither Manly Christian nor Loyall shall never either shake or settle my religion nor any mans else who knowes what Religion means and how farre it is removed from all Faction whose proper engine is force the arbitrator of beasts noâ— of reasonable men much lesse of humble Christians and loyall Subjects in matters of religion But men are prone to have such high conceits of themselves that they care not what cost they lay out upon their opinions especially those that have some temptation of gaine to recompence their losses and hazards Yet I was not more scandalized at the Scots Armies comming in against my will and their forfeiture of so many obligations of duty and gratitude to me then I wondred how those here could so much distrust Gods assistance who so much pretended Gods cause to the People as if they had the certainty of some divine Revelation considering they were more then competently furnished with my Subjects Armes and Ammunition My Navy by Sea my Forts Castls and Cities by Land But I find that men jealous of tue Jnstifiablenesse of their doings and designes before God never think they have hnmane strength enough to carry their work on seem it never so plausible to the People what cannot be justified in Law or Religion had need be fortified with Power And yet such is the inconstancy that attends all minds engaged in violent motion that whom some of them one while earnestly invite to come into their assistance others of them soone after are weary of and with nauseating cast them out what one Party thought to rivet to a setlednesse by the strength and influence of the Scots that the other rejects and contemnes at once despising the Kirk Government and â—iscipline of the Scots and frustrating the successe of so chargable more then charitable assistance For sure the Church of England might have purchased at a farre cheaper rate the truth and happinesse of Reformed government and discipline if it had been wanting though it had entertained the best Divines of Christendome for their advice in a full and free Synod which I was ever willing to and desirous of that matters being impartially setled might be more satisfactory to all and more durable But much of Gods justice and mans folly will at length be discovered through all the filmes and pretensions of Religion in which Politicians wrap up their designes In vaine do men hope to build their piety on the ruines of Loylty Nor can those confederations or designes 〈◊〉 durable when Subjects make bankrupt of their Allegiance under pretence of setting up a quicker trade for Religion But as my best Subjects of Scotland never deserted Me so I cannot think that the most are gone so far from Me in a prodigality of their love and respects toward Me as to make Me to despair of their return when besides the bonds of nature and Conscience which they have to Me all Reason and true policy will teach them that their chiefest interest consists in their fidelity to the Crown not in their serviceablenesse to any party of the People to a neglect and betraying of My Safety and Honour for their advantages However the lesse cause I have to trust to men the more I shall apply my self to God The Troubles of My Soul are enlarged O Lord bring thou Me out of My distresse Lord direct thy Servant in the wayes of that pious simplicity which is the best policy Deliver Me from the combined strength of those who have so much of the Serpents subtilty that they forget the Doves Innocency Though hand ioyne in hand yet let them not prevaile against My soule to the betraying of My Conscience and Honour Thou O Lord caâ—st turne the hearts of thâ—se Parties in both Nations as thou didst the men of Judah and Israel to restore David with as much loyall Zeal as they did with inconstancy and eagernesse pursve him Preserve the love of thy Truth and uprightnes in me and I shall not despair of My Subjects affections returning towards me Thou canst soone cause the overflowing Seas to ebb and retire back again to the bounds which thou hast appointed for them O my God I trust in thee let me not be ashamed let not my Enemies triumph over me Let them be ashamed who transgress without a cause let them be turned back that persecute my Soule Let integrity and uprightnesse preserve me for I wait on thee O Lord. Redeem thy Church O God out of all its Troubles 14 Vpon the Covenant THe Presbyterian Scots are not to be hired at the ordinary rate of Auxiliarie nothing will induce them to engage till those that call them in have pawned their Soules to them by a Solemne League and Covenant Where many engines of religious and faire pretensions are brought chiefly to batter or rase Episcopacy This they make the grand evill Spirit which with some other Imps purposely added to make it more odious and terrible to the Vulgar must by so solemne a charme and exorcisme be cast out of this Church after more than a thousand yeares possession here from the first plantation of Christianity in this Island and an universall prescription of time practise in all other Churches since the Apostles times till this last Century But no Antiquity must plead for it Presbytery like a young Heyr thinks the Father hath lived long enough and impatient not to be in the Bishops Chair Authority though Lay-men go away with the Revenues 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 Although I am unsatisfyed with many passages in that covenant some referring to My self with very dubious dangerous limitations yet I chiefly wonder at the designe drift touching the Discipline and Government of the Church and such a manner of carying them on to new ways by Oaths and Covenants where it is hard for men to be engaged by no less then swearing for or against those things which are of no cleare morall necessity but very disputable controverted among learned godly men whereto the application of Oaths can hardly be made and enjoyned with that judgement and certainty in ones self or that charity and candour to others of different opinion as I think Religion requires which never refuses faire and equable deliberations yea dissentings too in matters only probable The enjoyning of oaths upon people must needs in things doubtfull be dangerous as in things unlawfull damnable and no lesse
superfluous where former religious and legall Engagements bound men sufficiently to all necessary duties Nor can I see how they will reconcile such an Innovating Oath and Covenant with that former protestation which was so lately taked to maintain the Religion established in the Church of England since they count Discipline so great a part of Religion But ambitious minds never thinke they have laid snares and ginnes enough to catch and hold the Vulgar credulity for by such politique and seemingly-pious stratagems they think to keep the populacy fast to their Parties under the terrour of perjury Whereas certainly all honest and wise men ever thought themselvs sufficiently bound by former ties of Religion Allegiance and Laws to God and Man Nor can such after-Contracts devised and imposed by a few Men in a declared Party without My Consent and without any like power or precedent from Gods or mans lawes be ever thought by judicious men sufficient either to absolve or slacken those morall eternall bounds of duty which lie upon all My Subjects consciences both to God and Me. Yet as things now stand good men shal lest offend God or Me by keeping their Covenant in honest lawfull ways since I have the charity to think that the chief end of the Covenat in such mens intentions was to preserve Religion in purity and the kingdoms in peace To other then such ends and meanes they cannot think themselves engaged nor will those that have any true touches of Conscience endeavour to carry on the best designes much lesse such as are and will be daily more apparently factious ambitious by any unlawfull means under that title of the Covenant unlesse they dare preferre ambiguous dangerous and un-authorized novelties before their known and sworn duties which are indispensable both to God and My self I am prone to believe and hope That many who took the Covenant are yet firm to this judgment That such later Vows Oaths or Leagues can never blot out those formâ—r gravings and characters which by just lawfull Oaths were made upon their Soul That which makes such Confederations by way of solemn leagues covenants more to be suspected is that they are the common road used in all factions and powerfull perturbations of State or Church where formalities of extraordinary zeal and piety are never more studied and elaborate then when Politicians most agitate desperate designes against all that is setled or sacred in Religion and Laws which by such scrues are cunningly yet forcibly wrested by secret steps and lesse sensible degrees from their known rule wonted practise to comply with the humours of those men who aym to subdue all to their own will and power under the disguises of Holy Combinations Which cords and wythes will hold mens Consciences no longer then force attends and twists them for every man soone growes his owne Pope and easily absolves himselfe of those ties which not the commands of Gods word or the Lawes of the Land but only the subtilty and terrour of a Party casts upon him either superfluous and vaine when they were sufficiently tied before or fraudulent and injurious if by such after-ligaments they find the Imposers really ayming to dissolve or suspend their former just and necessary obligations Indeed such illegall waies seldome or never intend the engaging men more to duties but only to Parties therefore it is not regarded how they keep their Covenants in point of piety pretended provided they adhere firmly to the Party and Designe intended I see the Imposers of it are content to make their Covenant like Manna not that it came from heaven as this did agreeable to every mans palate and relish who will but swallow it They admit any mens senses of it though diverse or contrary with any salvoes cautions and reservations so as they crosse not their chief Designe which is laid against the Church and Me. It is enough if they get but the reputation of a seeming encrease to their Party So little do men remember that God is not mocked In such latitudes of sense I believe many that love Me and the Church well may have taken the Covenant who yet are not so fondly and superstitiously taken by it as now to act clearly against both all piety and loyalty who first yeilâ—ed to it more to prevent that imminent violence and ruine which hung over their heads in case they wholly refused it than for any value of it or devotion to it Wherein the latitude of some generall Clauses may perhaps serve somewhat to relieve them as of Doing and endeavouring what lawfully they may in their Places and Callings and according to the Word of God for these indeed carry no man beyond those bounds of good Conscience which are certaine and fixed either in Gods Lawes as to the generall or the Lawes of the State and Kingdome as to the particular regulation and exercise of mens duties I would to God such as glory most in the name of Covenanters would keepe themselves within those lawfull bounds to which God hath called them Surely it were the best way to expiate the rashnesse of taking it which must needs then appeare when besides the want of a full and lawfull Authority at first to enjoyne it it shall actually be carried on beyond and against those ends which were in it specified and pretended I willingly forgive such mens taking the Covenant who keep it within such bounds of Piety Law and Loyalty as can never hurt either the Church My selfe or the Publique Peace Against which no mans lawfull Calling can engage him As for that Reformation of the Church which the Covenant pretends I cannot think it just or comely that by the partiall advice of a few Divines of so soft and servile tempers as disposed them to so sudden acting and compliance contrary to their former judgements profession and practise such foule scandalls and suspitions should be cast upon the Doctrine and Government of the Church of England as was never done that I have heard by any that deserved the name of Reformed Churches abroad nor by any men of learning and candour at home all whose judgments I cannot but perfer before any mens now factiously engaged No man can be more forward than My selfe to carry on all due Reformations with mature judgement and a good Conscience in what things I shall after impartiall advise be by Gods Word and right reason convinced to be amisse I have offered more than ever the fullest freest and wisest Parliaments did desire But the sequele of some mens actions makes it evident that the main Reformation intended is the abasing of Episcopacy into Presbytery and the robbing the Church of its Lands and Revenues For no men have beene more injuriously used as to their legall Rights than the Bishops and Church-men These as the fattest Deer must be destroyed the other Rascal-herd of Schismes Heresies c. being lean may enjoy the benefit of a Toleration Thus Naboth's Vineyard made
him the onely Blasphemer of this City and fit to die Still I see while the breath of Religion fills the Sailes Profit is the Compasse by which Factious men steer their course in all seditious Commotions I thank God as no man lay more open to the sacrilegious temptation of usurping the Churches Lands and Revenues which issuing chiefly from the Crowne are held of it and legally can revert onely to the Crowne with My Consent so I have alwayes had such a perfect abhorrence of it in My Soule that I never found the least inclination to such sacrilegious Reformings yet no man hath a greater desire to have Bishops and all Church-men so reformed that they may best deserve and use not only what the pious munisicence of My Predecessours hath given to God and the Church but all other additions of christian bounty But no necssity shall ever I hope drive Me or Mine to invade or sell the Priests Lands which both Pharaoh's divinity and Ioseph's true piety abhorred to doe So unjust I think it both in the eye of Reason and Religion to deprive the most sacred imployment of all due encouragements and like that other hard-hearted Pharaoh to withdraw the straw and encrease the Taske so pursuing the oppressed Church as some have done to the read sea of a Civil Warre where nothing but a miracle can save either It or Him who esteems it His greatest Title to be called and His chiefest glory to be The Defender of the Church both in its true faith its iust fruitions equally abhorring Sacriledge and Apostacy I had rather live as My Predecessour HENRY 3 sometime did on the Churches Alms then violently to take the bread out of Bishops and Ministers mouthes The next work will be Ieroboam's reformation consecrating the meanest of the People to be Preists in Israel to serve those Golden Calves who have enriched themselves with the Churches Patrimony and Dowry which how it thrived both with Prince Priests and People is well enough knowne And so it will be here when from the tuition of Kings and Queenes which have been nursing Fathers and Mothers of this Church it shal be at their alowance who have already discovered what hard Fathers and Stepmothers they will be If the poverty of Scotland might yet the plenty of England cannot excuse the envy and rapine of the Churches Rights and Revenues I cannot so much as pray God to prevent those sad consequences which will inevitably follow the parity and poverty of Ministers both in Church and State since I thinke it no lesse than a mocking and tempting of God to desire him to hinder those mischiefs whose occasions and remedies are in our own power it being every mans sin not to avoid the one and not to use the other There are wayes enongh to repair the breaches of the State without the ruins of the Church as I would be a Restorer of the one so I would not be an oppressour of the other under the pretence of Publiquâ— Debts The occasions contracting them were bad enough but such a discharging of them would be much worse I pray God neither I nor Mine may be accessary to either To thee O Lord doe I addresse My prayer beseeching thee to pardon the rashnesse of My Subiects Swearings and to quicken their sense and observation of those just morall and indispensable bonds whiâ—h thy Word and the Lawes of this Kingdome have laid upon their Consciences From which no pretensions of Piety and Reformation are sufficient to absolve them or to engage them to any contrary practises Make them at length seriously to consider that nothing violent and iniurious can be religious Thou allowest no mans committing Sacriledge under the Zeal of abhorring Idolls Suffer not sacrilegious designs to have the Countenance of religious ties Thou hast taught us by the wisest of Kings that it is a snare to take things that are holy and after Vâ—ws to make enquiry Ever keep thy servant from consenting to periurious and sacrilegious rapines that I may not have the brand and curse to all posterity of robbing Thee and thy Church of what thy bounty hath given us and thy clemency hath accepted from us wherewith to encourage Learning and Religion Though My Treasures are Exhausted My Revenues Diminished and My Debts Encreased yet never suffer Me to be tempted to use such prophane Reparations lest a coal from thine altar set such a fire on My Throne and Conscience as will be hardly quenched Let not the Debs and Engagements of the Publique which some mens folly and prodigality hath contracted be an occasion to impoverish thy Church The State may soone recover by thy blessing of peace upon us The Church is never likely in times where the Charity of most men is grown so cold their Religion so illeberall Continne to those that serve Thee and thy Church all those incouragements which by the will of the pious Donours and the Iustice of the Laws are due unto them and give them grace to deserve and usâ— them aright to thy glory and the releif of the poor That thy Preists may be cloathed with righteousnesse and the poor may be satisfyed with breád Let not holy things be given to Swine nor the Churches bread to Dogs rather let them go about the City grin like a Dog and grudg that they are not satisfyed Let those sacred morsells which some men have already by violence devoured never digest with them nor theirs Let them be as Naboth's Vineyard to Ahab gall in their mouths rottennesse to their mames a moth to their Families and a sting to their Consciences Break in sunder O Lord all violent and sacrilegious Confederations to doe wickedly and inâ—uriously Divide their hearts and tongues who have bandyed together against the Church and State that the folly of such may be manifest to all men and proceed no further But so favour My righteous dealing O Lord that in the mercies of thee the most High I may never miscarry 15. Vpon the many Jealousies raised and Scandals cast upon the King to stir up the People against Him IF I had not My own Innocency and Gods protection it were hard for Me to stand out against those stratagems and conflicts of malice which by Falsities seek to oppresse the Truth and by Jealousies to supply the defect of Reall causes which might seeme to justifie so unjust Engagements against Me. And indeed the worst effects of open Hostility come short of these Designes For I can more willingly lose My Crowneâ— than My Credit nor are My Kingdoms so dear to Me as My Reputation and Honour Those must have a period with My life but these may survive to a glorious kind of Immortality when I am dead and gon A good name being the embalming of Princes a sweet consecrating of them to an Eternity of love gratitude among Posterity Those foule and false aspersions were secret engines at first employed against My peoples love of Me that