had authoritie to shew for it I have given you as much as that you brought will beare What His Lordship brings here is another discoverie That you did erect them in your Assemblie Acts put them in execution as farre as you durst before any Parliament had pass'd them And Synodicallie established such as no Parliament had passed For this he cites your Acts of several Assemblies which you must either disavow or unriddle what the mistake is you impute Vnlesse you thinke good to save that labour confesse aswel as other your Brethren what is so manifest in your storie The particulars of your proceedings herein Arch-Bishop Bancroft long since collected in his booke of Dangerous Positions Where he shewes how you not onelie acted your selves at home but sent your emissaries into England to see the like practice there in the very face of Episcopal Government What other reasons beside the recalling the Church patrimonie caus'd the refusall of your second booke of Discipline I told you before Which with the rest may suffice to the vindication of what the Bishop premiseth in proofe of the conclusion he makes That the Dissiplinarians by their practies have trampled upon the lawes justled the Civile Magistrate out of his Supremacie in Ecclesiastical affaires His Lordship proceedes to his scrutinie of your doctrine wherein if he yet be more happie as you courteouslie tell us possiblie he will I shall take you to have the spirit of Tirestas having justlie lost your eye-sight for rash judging to be now better at prophesying then reviewing Which immediatelie appeares by your wandring at noonday being at a losse for that which every man may finde in the very place cited by the Bishop None are subject to repaire to this the National Assemblie to vote but Ecclesiastical persons c. This His Lordship conceives to crosse the Kings supremacie which being aswell Ecclesiasticall as civile gives him a power of voting presiding in Assemblies Nor was there ever act of free Parliament in Scotland old or late nor any regular justifiable practice of that Church but reserv'd this power to the King his deputed Commissioner without being chosen member of any Presbyterie or made a ruling elder in a National Assemblie which your booke of Discipline calls the generall Eldership of the Kirke Your hypercriticizing upon his thoughts while the spirit of divination comes upon you makes his Lordship no Super-Erastian in his doctrines Though what transscendent haeresie there is in a moderate answer to the malice in your question any of your aequitable comparers may reade in what Vedelius and Paraeus no herctikes I hope have published to that purpose as the doctrine of all reformed Churches the one quoting Bellarmine the other Stapleton as proper patrons of the Sub-Erastian principles in the Discipline Vedelius in his preface giving the world a caveat of the danger by the mischiefe it had brought upon England Scotland in the yeare 1638. How opposite they were to the Disciplinarian language sense in that particular which the Bishop remonstrates these single propositions can evidence Multo magu est Christiani Magistratus non solùm apprehensivè discretivè sed definitivè de religione judicare Here a definitive vote is asserted to the Magistrate …ad Magistratum pertinet judicium de religione seu rebus fidei causis Ecclesiasticis…tum formaliter tum objectivè Hereby a formal judgement in religion is attributed And this Doctor Rivet who I am told is call'd reverenc'd in the French Dutch Churches as the Calvin of these times hath vouched under his hand to be the Catholike doctrine of the Reformed If he had not we are sure it was the primitive practice of the good Christian Emperours to assume it to whom our conformitie is requisite Of Constantine the great who was personallie present in the Councel of Nice is sometimes called koinonos épiscopoumenon for his communite of suffrage with the Bishops Of the Emperour Theodosius who in the Councel of Constantinople sifted the several Confessions of the Arians Macedonians Eunomians as Brentius relates it cast himselfe upon his knees craving the assistance of Gods spirit to direct him in the choyce of what was most consonant to the doctrine of the Apostles Which epicrisis or completive judgement submitted unto by the Ancient Synods had these authoritative termes to expresse it Bebaioun épipscphizesthai épisphragizesthai cratinein cratioun epikyroun tà pepragmena To the exercise hereof the Discipline of your Reformed Brethren in these Countreyes not onelie admits but craves the presence suffrage of Delegates from the supreme Magistrate without which their Synodical Acts are not establish'd Quin etiam summi Magistratus delegati sunt postulandi ut in ipsorum praesentia eorumque suffragio Synodi Acta concludantur Nor did K. James any more in the Conference at Hampton Court then when in freedome He would have done in any Scotish Presbyterian Assemblie though he hated the name thought of the thing when somewhat was propounded that did not like him put it of with Le Roy Pavisera Rev. Yet the most of the prelatical partie will not maintaine him heerin Ans. Bishop Andrewes will in his Tortura Torti Bishop Field whom your friend Didoclave calls Hierambicorum eruditissimum in his volume of the Church beside many others And possiblie those that seem to be opposite may be reconcil'd if you have the maners to let them state the question among themselves The chiefe case wherein they not you instance of Leontius Bishop of Tripolis in his answer to Constantius the Emperour may be attended with circumstances which may terminate the dispute if not we must not take it on their word that for that as well as his other more regular demeanour he is own'd by Antiquitie to be kánon ecclesias as Suidas records The rule of the Church However it behoves you to cite your lawes to which the Bishops assertion is contrarie And I shall cut you short of that pompous traine which your vanitie holds up in the universal of all the Princes that have lived in Scotland confine you to two the rest being by their Religion unconcern'd in voting though not in permitting any Disciplinarian decrees King Iames the holie martyr King Charles the first who I hope you have not the impudence to say ever made profession so derogatorie to their right In what followes you practise over the fisher-man in the fable from whom you know that unlesse you trouble the water it is in vaine for you to cast in your net if you catch nothing for the Discipline you must sterve The whole paragraph is naught but a malicious seditious inference of your owne whereby you affixe an odious sense to the dutifull attributes of Royal prerogative your owne guilt causing a trembling in your joyuts at the thought of a scepter you buselie creep
takes off some what from the personal imputation yet with all demonstrates that it is not all bloud Royal which runnes in His Lordships veines nor it may be all bloud Noble having so ample testimonie from him who had allwayes some dregs of the Common thoare in his inke whose power is cankerd with envious invectives against them that have not layd their honour in the vulgar dust levell'd Majestie as well as Nobilitie with the people Whose Ghost will not thanke the Reviewer for calling him Prince of Historians being so litle enamourd with titles of that nature that he accounted them where they were more properlie due the filth of flaterie the plague of all legitimate praerogative His exemplarie practice in publike-private duties is indeed some what singular my selse having seen him very zcalouslic penning downe such slender to omit what I might call in the Reviewers language praeter anti-scripturall divinitie as was not fitting for any Novice or Catechumen in Religion to owne much lesse for so grave a Theologue to preach so well exerciz'd an adultist to register for his use I commend beter the exemplarie practice of the Reviewers brother Presbyter who seem'd to take a sound nap in the meane time hoping it may be to be better inspired in his dreame This potent Lord thus qualified brought up to his hand I can not blame Mr. Baylie for chusing him to be his patron who discernes with his eyes decernes by his dictates who being judge partie both will quaestionlesse doe right like a Lord Justice in the businesse The praejudice the Reviewer would here at first cast upon the person of the Bishop will advance his owne reputation but a litle in high way Rhetorike not advantage him one whit with any of those judicious aequitable comparers he expects who being able to instruct themselves upon these many late yeares experience that what Mr. Baylie calls that Church Kingdome is onely a praevalent partie of Schismatikes Rebells what adhaerence to the sacred truth of God an obstinate perseverance in an execrable covenant which hath tied up the hands of many a poor subject from the enjoyment of all the just liberties the established lawes of Scotland hold out to him will looke upon the Bishop as a couragious affertour of Gods truth the Churches puritie the Kings supremacie the subjects libertie if for that condemned by an unanimous faction in both Kingdomes will commend his zeale reverence his name and ranke him with the prime Fathers of the Church who so soon endeavoured to stop that deluge of miserie wherewith Britanie Ireland have been most unhapilie overwhelmed For the dirtie language he useth here otherwhere extreme sawcie spirit stigmatiz'd incendiarie c. I desire the Reader to take notice I shall sweep it out of his my way yet if he thinkes it may serve his turne as well as the garlike heads did Cario his master in the Comoedie the Printers boy shall throw it by itselfe at the backe side of my replie in a piece of white paper that he may not sowle his fingers What the Reviewer calls Boldnesse was prudence seasonable caution in the Bishop to praesent his booke to the eminent personages in this place observing the indesatigable industrie of Mr. Baylie his brethren of the mission very frequentlie in their persons perpetuallie by many subtile active instruments they imploy'd before after their coming hither insinuating into the hearts affections of all people here of what sexe or condition soever in Courts Townes Vniversities Countrey praepossessing them with the Justice of their cause the innocencie of their proceedings the moderation of their demands the conformitie of their practice designe to the praesent discipline Government of the Church presbyterie in these Provinces And great pitie it is that all people nations languages have it not translated into their owne dialect that a discoverie of this grand imposture may be made to them who are so insolentlie summon'd to fall downe worship this wooden idol of the discipline threatned the aeternal fierie furnace if they refuse it In the next Paragraph the Reviewer drawes Cerberus like his threeheaded monster out of hell Discipline Covenant unkindne's to our late soveraigne Novos Resumit animos victus vastas furens Quassat catenas His Apologie for the first being the conformitie I mentioned principally with the Brethren of Holland France whom he would very faine flater into his partie make the Bishop whether he will or no fall foule upon them whom His Lordship hath scarce mentioned in all his tract And I having no reason not desire to enlarge the breach shall say no more then this because some what he will have sayd That if their discipline harmoniouslie be the same particularlie in those extravagancies His Lordship mentions which to my knowledge they denie for alleging which they are litle beholding to Mr. Baylie they are all alike concerned yet having as learned Apologists of their owne when they finde themselves agriev'd will in their owne case very likely speake their pleasure In the interim I must require his instance where any Reformed Church hath declared regular Episcopacie which we call Apostolical Antichristian What particular persons of Mr. Baylies temper may have publish'd must not passe for an Ecclesiastical decrce And if all even in those Churches he mentions might freelie speake their minde I believe that order would have their Christian approbation as it is in any reformed Countreys established some such relation was made not long since about certain Divines of the Religion in France some that came from other parts to the Synod of Dust. And I can acquaint the Reviewer with the like piece of charitie bestowed by P. Melin in the letters that passed from him to Bishop Andrewes beside what Mr. Chillingworth as I take it hath collected out of him Beza in favour both of name thing though not to the same latitude we extend them And which will not be alltogether impertinent to adde I doe not remember I have heard that Causabon Vossius no obscure men in the French Dutch Churches were at any time by their presbyterie excommunicate for becoming limbes of the English Antichrist Praebendaries of the Archiepiscopall Church of Canterburie with us But if the Reviewer here begin to cant distinguish between Episcopacie Episcopal declinations for that indeed is the expression that he useth I must ingenuouslie acknowledge that there may be some practicall declinations in Episcopacie which may be Antiapostolical Antichristian beside against the line of the Word the institution of Christ his Apostles but I know none such in the Churches of England Scotland or Ireland if there have been any they are not our rule by his owne then must not be
Majestie had put downe your Presbyterie by the head your Ministerial office was with the exercise of your halls having to the time of your late rebellion no other then an ambulatorie Euangel no Disciplinarian legallie tolerated to officiate but such as would conforme to the canons of the Church If the King had sayd Egonon possum erigere Ministri caput the heads of the Aberdene Edenburgh Ministers might have confuted him upon the gates but that his mercie without the Synodical censure of impunitie interpos'd in that dispute As great an enemie as His Majestie was to such Erastians as the Bishop I am sure he was no friend to such Donatâ—…sts as you unlesse infestissimus hostâ—… be significant to that purpose He sayd you were the persidious bedlam knaves among the preachers my dictionarie will helpe me to no fiter English for his Latin persidi sanatici nebulones inter concionatores And you or your profession he often styl'd Calvinistarum Satanismum a sect of lapsed spirits among the Calvinists whose malice had metamorphoz'd them into Devils CHAPTER VII The Presbyterie cheates the Magistrate of his Civil power in ordine ad spiritualia THe Bishop begs no beliefe of his Readers beyond what he brings proofe out of your Discipline to prevaile for When you have made all offenses more or lesse scandalous like the Prophet in Hosee you become the snare of a fowler with this counterfeit call catch all the uncleane birds in your net If the Bishops Official takes notice of more civile causes then your Presbyterie the qualitie number had been Worth your noting for your Readers satisfaction To strengthen your evidence I consulted with Didoclave your brother Scout whom I finde to have made no such numerous discoverie I take him to be alltogether as strict able an inquisitour as your selfe That capital offenders whom the Magistrate hath spared should be excommunicated is disciplinarian censure which no societie of regular Christians ever inflicted Nor can any ingenuous Divine denie such accesse to the holie table if otherwise qualified then by their impunitie He must distrust either the prudence or pietie of the Magistrate conceiving him either too liberal of his pardon to a person shewing no remorse for his fault or impious in countenancing instead of cutting off an obstinate malefactour with his sword Erastus himselfe whom you raile at so often puts in this caution which Beza approves of for whatsoever he hath asserted in his booke Quod meminisse te velim etiamsi non semper adjeccro That the person you admit be suppos'd to understand approve embrace the doctrine of the the Church with which he desires to communicate That he professe an acknowledgement hatred of his sinnes he addes not from your stool of repentance That a murderer adulterer blasphemer thus pardoned thus poenitent thus supplicant for the seale of the Sacrament should be to fill up the amphitheater of any prou'd hypocritical popular presbyter made the sundays sport or spectacle to the people No Scripture commands it no orthodoxe Church ever practis'd it no law of Scotland imports it If you suspect his repentance to be but counterfeit his humble addresse a religious imposture you may discourse with him in private lay open before him the hainousnesse of his fact deterre him by the extremitie of the danger tell him if he disccrnes not the Lords bodie which he can not through the blacke unrepented guilt of that sinne he eates judgement he drinkes damnation But all this pertaines ad Consilium a terme us'd among the ancients in cases somewhat conterminate with ours to ghostlie councel no spiritual execution ad legis annunciationem non jurisdictionem to the terrible declaration of the law to no jurisdiction or legal exercise of your power Beside here I must put you in minde of what I otherwhere prove and is undeniable That your excommunicating facultie is not originallie in your Assemblie but derived to you from the supreme Magistrate with an implicite reservation of his own priviledge to remit it at pleasure it being no â—…ure divino discipline I hope for if such what becomes of those Churches that use it not The malefactours exemption from this without quaestion accompanies his largesse of civile mercie he stands acquitted from all spiritual aswell as temporal punishment For to suppose the Magistrate takes him from the gaoler to deliver him to Satan exchangeth his shakles for chaines of darkenesse his prison for hell is inconsistent with reason or charitie gets no more faith then such a cruel sentence hath the face to aske my opinion of its justice The learned Grotius tells you how John a Bishop of Rome became intercessour to Justinian the Emperour in the behalfe of poenitent delinquents that were separated from the union of the Church asscribing to him the authoritie honour of their restitution to the communion thereof Which argues him his Presbyters if you admit him not to be single in his jurisdiction at that time to have had no independent Discipine to crosse the Emperours power to have been no countermanders of his pardons That the Magistrates in Holland have very often commanded the Pastours to their dutie in these cases And that by an old law in England the Kings pleasure was craved before any of his servants could be excommunicated Fraud in bargaining false measures c. the Bishop takes to be maters of civile cognizance He findes them call'd abomination to the Lord not any where such scandals to the Church as to require publike satisfaction What Ecclesiastike rebukes are due he thinkes may be given by particular Ministers in their several charges without a summons before a Consistorian judicatorie Die Ecclesiae was no praecept of speed There were two or three errands to be done by the way The offended brother hath after conference a private arbitration praescrib'd him Nor doth it appeare that in cases of this nature our Saviour sing'd him a warrant to fetch his adversarie to the Church not a word is there that doth authorize the Church to command him out of the Court to anticipate or aggravate the civile censure by the Reviewers Ecclesiastike Rebukes The Bishop speakes of Presbyterie in the institution makes no instance of it in the practice I 'll take no mans word for disciplinarian honestie throughout 30. yeares trading The saints after that rate will not be readieat Doomesday to give up their account of compassing the earth getting in their inheritance annex'd to their dominion which they will have founded in grace If the Presbyteries wherein all that time you were conversant were no merchant adventurers tooke no share of the purchase they have kept some Jubilee to lease out their indulgence Or it was not unlikelie a piece of your Kirke-policie to connive a long time at all petie larcenie knowing who at length would be catch'd in the great cheate the 200000. pound sale of damnation
exerciz'd canonicallie by none but Bishops in the Historie of the Primitive Church According to the second canon of the Apostles Presbyter ab uno Episcopo ordinetur Diaconus reliqui Cleriâ—…i The laying on of hands of the Presbyterie both in Scripture and Ecclesiastike storie was onelie for external forme no intrâ—…secal power the efficacie of the act being in the Bishops benediction which I never finde attributed to the Priest As in the third Canon of the fourth Councel of Carthage Episcopo eum benedicente nowhere benedicente Presbytero Therefore your friend Didoclave is faine to acknowledge a great difference Magnum discrimen between St. Pauls imposition of hands and that at the same time of his Presbyterie whatsoever is mean'd by it Nam per imposâ—…tionem mannum Apostolorum Deus conferebat charismata non autem per imposâ—…ionem mannum Presbyterorum distinguishing in the ordination of Timothie between dia meta the former relating to Saint Paul the later to the assistent Priests Which is another interpretation of the texâ—… then you were pleas'd to make of it chapt 8. So that I see the bâ—…ethren agree not upon the point Succession through the lineal descent of Bispops from the Aposiles aâ—…d ordination by the hands of Apostolical Bishops have been ever used as strong arguments to uphold Catholike Christians in a comfortable assurance of their Ministrie as lawfull And haeretikes have been pâ—…essed by the ancient Fathers with the want of nothing more then these to justifie their profession Hâ—…c enim modo Ecclâ—…siae Apostolicae census suos deferunt sayth Tertullian And Irenaeus before him joines the gifts of God required in the Ministrie if he meanesnot the sacraments with the Apostolical cession of the Church Vbi igitur charismata Domini posita sunt ibi discere oportes veritatem â—…pud quâ—…s esi ea quae est ab Apostolis Ecclesiae successis c. The Presbyterians praetending divine institution must likewise prove such an uninterrupted succession or evidence their new extraordinarie mission otherwise they can minister litle comfort lesse assurance of their calling to be lawfull The former they can not doe for Saint Hierom's time at least who makes ordination a proprietie of the Bishops Quid facit excepta ordinatione Episcopus quod Presbyter not facit where a friend of theirs failes them when he sayth ad morem jusque siâ—…ae aetatis respexit That he had respect to the custome canon of his time Nor can they doe it for above 200. yeares uncertaine storie after Christ in which they have as litle light to shew their Presbyterie was in as that Episcopacie was out which they would faine perswade us to take upon their word dispensing with themselves for the use of unwritten tradition to so good a purpose If they will pleade an extraordinarie mission they should doe well to name the first messenger that brought the newes of their Euangel and what miracle he wrought which might serve him for a leter of credence to us who it may be otherwise shall be no such superstitious admirers of his gifts or person That therefore the orthodoxe Ministers must want the comfortable assurance of their undoubted ordination in the Ministrie which words yet beare a much more moderate sense then that you give them viz. That they may very well know and be assured that their calling and ministrie is null the distance being as I take it not so indivisible between the negation of one assurance to the position of the other Such a malicious interpreter beares the image may stand in Constantines opinion for the statue of him who is the father of calumnies cares not what pâ—…yson he casts to spot other mens names cracke their credits ta tesoiceias ita motetos deleteria apheidos proballon as true of an Aërian as Arian Your divination about the deleted words will succeed in some strange disoverie by and by In the interim you set too sharpe an edge upon the doctrine of the Bishops friends and doe act violence where it may be they intended not so much injurie as the ut most extremitie of justice allthough they held the axe in their hand in Christian charitie disputing the sentence not so hastie to execute it or beyond it in the rigour and cut off at one stroke the Clergie from their calling and so many â—…ay societies of Christians from the Church Vntill 〈◊〉 meet with some particular more forward instances then I know of I shall answer for them to the Churches of France Holland Zwitzerland and Germanie as Pope Innocent writ to the first Councel at Toledo about the ill custome of the Bishops ordination in Spaine That it 's very requisite somewhat should be peremptorilie determin'd according to the true primitive tradition might it be without the disturbance of so many Churches For what is done ita reprehendimus ut propter numerum corrigendorum ea quae quoquo modo sactaâ—… sunt non in dubium vocemus sed Dei potius dimittamus judicio We so dislike it as not to startle so great a number of delinquents with our doubt but referre the judgement to God who standeth in the congregation as well of Presbyters as Princes and is a Iudge aswell among Ministers as Gods The Sophisme of the Iesuits because so popular should have been refuted or else not recited allthough the â—…imilitude it brings runnes not upon all foure even with the doctrine of the Bishops prime friends Some of whom I beleeve will acknowledge there may be resident many Members of the true Church where are no true Sacraments being well praepared to receive them when they may have a true Ministrie to dispense them That one of the two Sacraments is true though not dulie administred when in case of necesstie by lay hands where is no true Ministâ—…e to doe it which may consist with that of B. Ignatius if applied to this purpose Ouk exon esti choris tou episcopou oute baptizein oute prospherein Exon at most but illegitimating the outward visible act not nulling the inward invisible grace That the other 's effectual when had but in voto if it can not in signo through want of any or which is as bad a lawfull true Ministrie to make it In the third clause I hope you will shake hands with the Iesuits and them Where is no true ordination there is no true ordinarie Ministrie or lawfull Priesthood as His late Majestie call'd it As for the fourth the Bishops friends whatsoever they may doe allay it thus Where are no Bishops can be no comfortable assurance of a true ordination And so in whatsoever reformed Countrey are no Bishops being no true Apostolike ordination no comfortable assurance is had of a true visible Church in the publike administration of the Sacraments though they hope well the invisible Members have an invisible true Priesthood among them or such an high Priest as being
the Church 1. Cor. 11. The Scotish practice touching Excommunication litle lese rigid then their Canon Ps. 74. 21. Sc. Lit. p. â—…00 Master Iohn Guthrie Bishopp of Murâ—…ay The following in convenients to be charged rather upon the Church then state * Quia a â—…empore quo us lagatus est capnt gerit lupinum ita quod abomnibus inter fici possit impuné Bracton Crueltie toward fugitives The Presbyterians as outragious as the Arians Brychatai epipriusa ten odonta Rescript ad Arium Arian Presbyserie more oppressive to the Nobilitie and Gentrie the Praelaccc The Reviewers counterseit of Presbyterie inverted Wisdome pietie and learning not so common in Elderships The Nobilitie Gentrie abused when chosen Elders Schulting Steinwich Hierarch Anacris Lib. 2. Dâ—…ut 22. 10. Doctours at law more sit judges then unstudied Nobles or Gentlemen Synods not to besummoned to receive lay appeales Collusion violence in the choyce of Members for the Assemblie Master David Michel Laird of Dun. L. Carnaegie Why so many Burgesses Gentlemen The laitie to have no decisive voyce Perth Proceed Master Andrew Ramsey E. Argile The King or his Commissioner hath litle power in Assemblies Protest of Gen. Ass. Nov. 28. 29. 1638. Nov. 28. sess 7. E Rothes Necessitie of appeale Exod. 23. 2. Prov. 10. 2. Sam. 18. 9. Pap. of 10. prop. before M. Hamilt arriâ—… 1638. Why Knigts and Burgesses so numerous Lib. 3. demonst c. 14. The original of patronage Coras Glas. Temporale spiritualli annexum Altar Daâ—…asc 2. B. Disc. ch 12. * Pl. in Carcuâ—… A. 5. sc. * Calophanta est qui honeste quidem loquitur sed â—…ujus facto ab oratione discrepant * Gen. 25. 25. Par. Alciat c. The Praelates title to Impropriations and Abbey lands beter then the Preâ—…byters Pro. 20. 25. The Reviewers praevarication 6 head Ch. 9. April 24. 1576. Sâ—… Decl. 1642. Append Prov. 26. 28. 129. 5 Noble Eldeâ—…s â—…lighted by the Clergic See 〈◊〉 of the Congreg to the Nobil of Sc. 1559. L. Sempil Lib 2. Calderwoods rediculous reverence of Bruce's gost Cujâ—…s anima si ullius mortalium sedet in coelestibus Ep. Ded. ad Aitar Dam. Manias Calamo Constant in Rescript Our Bishops contest not with King Nobles Their praeâ—…dence place neare the Throne 1. Tim. 3. 4. 5. Offices of state How the difference hapened between the E. Argile and Bishop Galloway Presbyterians heterodoxe Tert. De Praeser cap. 32. 1. No Ordination but by Bishops 2. 3. 4. Aitar Dam. cap. 4 5. No comfortable assurance but from Apostolical succession and Episâ—…opal ordination De Praeser cap. 32. Reliquos verò qui absistunt a principali successione quocunque loco colligunter sâ—…cspectos haâ—…ere c. Walo Messal 6. Kakos hermeneus antochrema eikon te kai andrias esti tou diabolou Reser ad Ar. The Praelates doe noâ—… annull the being of all Reformed Churches Ps. 82. 1. They use not the Sophisme of the Iesuits * This word dulie was left out by Henderson in his recitâ—…l of K. Ch. 1. words to this purpose Answ to 1. pap Ep. 7. Ad. Symrn. 1. Pap. â—…o Henders Heb. 7. 25. 26. Rom. 14. 23. The Reviewers malicâ—… in publithing what the Bishop had deleted perverting it They may be doubted to be un-Christian that call us Anti-christian The Church of Rome not most true Nor hath she the most easie way of salvation Rom. 11. 33. Ier. 32. 19. Separation from her in many things needlesse En apodeixei pneumatos â—…ai dynamâ—…os 1. Cor. 2. 4. Aâ—…tic 1. Febr. 〈◊〉 16. 9. Artic. 3. The Presbyterian Scots more bloudie then the Irish Chapt. 4. Whose Libertie of religion was limited Places of trust saffer in the hands of Papists then Presbyterians Artiâ—… 29. Kings cannot ratisie too well what they promise if just… Sed qui juramentis sudunt sicut pueri astragatus Pet. ad Alter Dam. Parliaments not be stay'd for in extremities if they can not be call'd at present The King never express'd his inclination to Covenans ers His Kingdomes ruine rather to be embraced then his souls Vers. 26. Prov. 26. 13. More learning under Episeopacie then Presbyterie Hâ—…mano capiti cervicem pictor quinum The Bishops trial before he ordaineth more serious then the Presbyters 4-head pag 14. they propose him a theme or text to be treated privatelie whereby his abilitie may the more manifestlie appeare unto them 4. Head Neither judge we that the Sacraments can be rightlie Mistred by him in whose mouth God hath put no Scrmon of exhortation 1. B. Disc. 4. head The Papisâ—…ical Priests have neither power nor authoritiâ—… to Minister the Sacraments of christ Iâ—…sus because that in their mouth is not the sermâ—…n of exhortation Ib. 9. head Alter Damasc. Schotâ—… hetcrâ—…doxe divines not comparable to the Orthodoxe English Admittunt ad Ministrium indignisâ—…emos sartores subulcos infimadâ—… faece homines modo sint togodaedali c. C. Schulting Hier. Anaâ—…ris Lib. 1. Tert. De Praescr câ—…p 1. Quod non ideo scandalizarioportâ—…at quod qui prudentissimi odificenâ—… in 〈◊〉 â—…shops â—…ded by the Reviewer to be suspected 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how the cause of ignorance contempt and beggeâ—…y Provision under Epiâ—… in England against the beggerie c of the Priests Puritanical Bisâ—…ops make an ignorant â—…lergie Cho. 7. v. 10. 11. 12. Our Bishop no Purâ—…haser by his parsimonie 〈◊〉 nowledgelabour or conscienâ—… sâ—…wed in Presbyterian preaching â—…les 5. 1. 1. Sam. 15. 22. Reading Ministers usefull and justifiable in our Church Eph. 4 14 4. Head for Readers Preaching without booke approved by our Praelates That within booke â—…ot to be disparaged Epâ—…st 4. Lib. 1. The Liturgie why read 2. Tim. 2. 15. 16. A parallel of it with primitiâ—…e 〈◊〉 beter then with the 〈◊〉 Praelatiâ—…al Dociours not yet so much for prâ—…aching aâ—… Presbyterians 9. head Verbi praedicatio de bet esse quasi anima liâ—…urgiae Alter 〈◊〉 Dam. 〈◊〉 10. Ibid. 1 sa 56. 7. Pucrile est ut miâ—…i vidâ—…ur aliter faâ—…ere Ibid. Gal. 5. 10. Divine Service Carefull Chrisâ—…ians will finde litle lâ—…isur e on weeke dayes to heare sermons Quantum ad crimina quae suâ—… declarata Ministris abillis ' qui petunt conâ—… aut consolationem relinquimus conscientâ—…s Ministrâ—…rum c. Disc. Eccl. Reformat Regni Franc. Can. 25. Catechizing beter then preaching in the afternoon found 9. Head Forenoon sermon con venient but not absolutelie necessarie See Hook Eccles Pol. 5. Book Sermons not to exceed an houre As litle liâ—…e and adifaction in Scripture ill interpreted aâ—… in Rhetorike without it Vinâ—… Lit adv hareâ—… cap 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 5. Ciril Hicrosol catech 2. Reason of bidding prayer before Sermon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 16. Vâ—…t non inveniamur discordes in ingressu ad preces ante concionem faciendas visum â—…uit utile uniâ—…ormibus verbis uti…Concio etiam â—…etur uniformiter verbis Marc. c. 6. No prayer for the dead in our Canâ—…n The Church of
THREE TREATISES Concerning the Scotish Discipline 1. A Fair Warning to take heed of the same By the Right Reverend Dr. Bramhall Bishop of Derrie 2. A Review of Dr. Bramble late Bishop of London-Derry his Fair Warning c. By R. B. G. 3. A Second Fair Warning in Vindication of the First against the Seditious Reviewer By Ri. Watson Chaplain to the Right Honorable the Lord Hopton To which is prefixed A Letter written by the Reverend Dean of St. Burien Dr. Creyghton HAGH Printed by Samuel Broun English Book-seller 1661. A FAIR WARNING To take heed of the SCOTISH DISCIPLINE As being of all others most Injurious to the Civil Magistrate most Oppressive to the Subject most Pernicious to both By Dr JOHN BROMWELL Lord Bishop of London-Derie in Ireland LUKE 9. 35. No man having drunk old wine straight-way desireth new for he saith the old is better HOSEA 2. 7. I will go and return to my first husband for then was it better with me than now Printed in the Year 1649. A FAIR WARNING To take heed of the Scotish Discipline as being of all others most Injurious to the Civil Magistrate most Oppressive to the Subject most Pernicious to both CHAP. I. The Occasion and Subject of this Treatise IF the Disciplinarians in Scotland could rest contented to dote upon their own inventions and magnifie at home that Diana which themselves have canonised I should leave them to the best School-Mastresse that is Experience to feel where their shoe wrings them and to purchase Repentance What have I to do with the regulation of forreign Churches to burn mine own fingers with snuffing other mâ—…ns Candles Let them stand or fall to their own Master It is charity to judge well of others and piety to look well to our selves But to see those very men who plead so vehemently against all kinds of tyranny attempt to obtrude their own dreams not onely upon their fellow-Subjects but upon their Sovereign himself contrary to the dictates of his own conscience contrary to all Laws of God and Man yea to compel forreign Churches to dance after their pipe to worship that counterfeit image which they feign to have fallen down from Jâ—…piter and by force of arms to turn their neighbours out of a possession of above 1400 years to make room for their Trojan horse of Ecclesiastical Discipline A practice never justified in the world but either by the Turk or by the Pope This put us upon the defensive part They must not think that other men are so cowed or grown so tame as to stand still blowing of their noses whilst they bridle them and ride them at their pleasure It is time to let the world see that this Discipline which they so much adore is the very quintessence of refined Popery or a greater Tyranny than ever Rome brouâ—…he forth Inconâ—…t with all forms of civil Government destructive to all sorts of Policy a rack to the conscience the heaviest pressure that can fall upon a people and so much more dangerous because by the specious pretence of Divine Institution it takes a way the sight but not the burthen of slavery Have patience Reader and I shall discover unto thee more pride and arrogancie through the holes of a threed-bare coat than was ever found under a Cardinals Cap or a triple Crown All this I undertake to demonstrate not by some extraordinary practices justified onely by the pretence of invincible necessity a weak patrociny for general Doctrine nor by the single opinions of some Capricious fellows but by â—…heir books of Discipline by the acts of their general and provincial Assemblies by the concurrent votes and writings of their Commissioners I foresee that they will suggest that through their sides I seek to wound forreign Churches No there is nothing which I shall convict them of here but I hope will be disavowed though not by all Protestant auctouâ—…s yet by all the Protestant Churches in the world But I must take leave to demand of our Disciplinarians who it is they brand with the odious name of Erastians in the Acts of their Parliaments and Assemblies and in the writings of their Commissioners and reckon them with Papists Anabaptists and Independents Is it those Churches who disarm their Presbyteries of the Sword of Excommunication which they are not able to weeld so did Erastus or is it those who attribute a much greater power to the Christian Magistrate in the managery of Ecclesiastical affairs than themselves So did Erastus and so do all Protestant Churches The Disciplinarians will sooner endure a Bishop or a Superintendent to govern them than the Civil Magistrate And when the Magistrate shall be rightly informed what a dangerous edg'd-tool their Discipline is he will ten times sooner admit of a moderate Episcopacy than fall into the hands of such hucksters If it were not for this Disciplinarian humour which will admit no latitude in Religion but makes each nicity a fundamental and every private opinion an Article of faith which prefers particular errours before general truths I doubt not but all reformed Churches might easily be reconciled Before these unhappy troubles in England all Protestants both Lutherans and Calvinists did give unto the English Church the right hand of fellowship the Disciplinarians themselves though they preferred their own Church as more pure else they were hard-hearted yet they did not they durst not condemn the Church of England either as defective in any necessary point of Christian Piety or redundant in any thing that might virtually or by consequence overthrow the foundation Witnesse that letter which their General Assembly of Superintendents Pastours and Elders sent by Mr. John Knox to the English Bishops wherein they stile them Reverend Pastours fellow-preachers and joynt opposers of the Roman Antichrist They themselves were then far from a party or from making the calling of Bishops to be Antichristian But to leave these velitations and come home to the point I will shew first how this Discipline entrencheth most extreamly upon the right of the civil Magistrate secondly that it is as grievous and intollerable to the Subject CHAP. II. That this new Discipline doth utterly overthrow the Rights of Magistrates to convocate Synods to confirm their Acts to order Ecclesiastical affairs and reform the Church within their Dominions ALl Princes and States invested with Sovereignty of power doe justly challenge to themselves the right of Convocating National Synods of their own subjects and ratifying their constitution And although pious Princes may tolerate or priveledge the Church to convene within their territories annually or triennially for the exercise of discipline and execution of constitutions already confirmed neverthelesse we see how wary the Synod of Dort was in this particular yet he is a Magistrate of straw that will permit the Church to convene within his territories whensoever wheresoever they list to convocate before them whomsoever they please all the Nobles all the Subjects of the Kingdom to
and before him his Father his Grandmother his great Grandmother did all to their cost Then in plain English what is this political Power to call Synods to preside in Synods and to ratifie Synods which these good men give to the Magistrate and magnifie so much I shall tell the truth It is a duty which the Magistrate ows to the Kirk when they think necessary to have a Synod convocated to strengthen their summous by a civil Sanction to secure them in comming to the Synod returning from the Synod to provide them good accommodation to protect them from dangers to defend their Rights and Priviledges To compel obstinate persons by civil Laws and punishments to submit to their censures and decrees What gets the Magistrate by all this to himself He may put it all in his eye and see never a whit the worse For they declare expresly that neither all the power nor any part of the power which Synods have to deliberate of or to define Ecclesiastical things though it be in relation to their own Subjects doth flow from the Magistrate but because in those things which belong to the outward man mark the reason the Church stands in need of the help of the Magistrate Fair fall an ingenuous confession they attribute nothing to the Magistrate but onely what may render him able to serve their own turns and supply their needs I wish these men would think a little more of the distinction between habitual and actual Jurisdiction After a School-master hath his license to teach yet his actuall Jurisdiction doth proceed from the Parents of his Scholars And though he enjoy a kind of Supremacy among them he must not think that this extinguisheth either his own filial duty or theirs Like this power of presiding politically in Synods is the other power which they give him of reforming the Church that is when the State of the Church is corrupted but not when it is pure as they take it for granted that it is when the Jurisdiction is in their own hands Although godly Kings and Princes sometime by their own Authority when the Kirk is corrupted and all things out of order place Ministers and restore the true service of the Lord after the example of some godly Kings of Judah and divers godly Emperours and Kings also in the light of the New Testament yet where the Ministery of the Kirk is once lawfully constituted and they that are placed do their office faithfully all godly Princes and Magistrates ought to hear and obey their voice and reverence the Majesty of the Son of God speaking in them Leave â—…his jugling who shall judge when the Church is corrupted the Magistrates or Church-men if the Magistrates why not over you as well as others If the Church-men why not others as well as you here is nothing to be answered but to beg the question that they onely are the true Church Hear another witnesse in evil and troublesome times and in a lap ed state of affairs when the order instituted by God in the Church is degenerated to Tyranny to the trampling upon the true Religion and oppressing the Professours of it when nothing is sound the godly Magistrate may do some things which ordinarily are not lawfull c. But ordinarily and of common right in Churches already constituted if a man flie to the Magistrate complaining that he is injured by the abuse of Ecclesiastical Discipline or if the Sentence of the Presbyteries displease the Magistrate either in point of Discipline or of Faith he must not therefore draw such causes to a civil tribâ—…nal nor introduce a Political Papacy And as the Magistrate hath power in extraordinary causes when the Church is wholly corrupted to reform Ecclesiastical abuses so if the Magistrate shall Tyrannize over the Church it is lawfull to oppose him by certain wayes and means extraordinary how ever ordinarily not to be allowed This is plain dealing the Magistrate cannot lawfully reform them but in cases extraordinary and in cases extraordinary they may lawfully â—…eform the Magistrate by means not to be ordinarily allowed that is by force of arms See the principles from whence all our miseries and the losse of our gracious Master hath flowed and learn to detest them They give the Magistrate the custody of both tables so they do give the same to themselves they keep the second table by admonishing him he keeps the first table by assisting them they reform the abuses of the first table by ordinary right of the second table extraordinarily He reforms the abuses against the second table by ordinary right and the abuses against the first table extraordinarily But can the Magistrate according to their learning call the Synod to an account for any thing they do can he remedy the errours of a Synod either in Doctrine or Discipline No if Magistrates had power to change or diminish or restrain the Rights of the Church the Condition of the Church should be worse and their liberties lesse under a Christian Magistrate than under an Heathen For say they Parliaments and supreme Senates are no more infallible then Synods and in matters of Faith and Discipline more apt to errâ—… And again the Magistrate is not judge of Spiritual causes controverted in the Church And if he decrâ—…e any thing in such businesses according to the wisdom of the flesh and not according to the rule of Gods Word and the wisdom which is from above he must give an account of it unto God Or may the supreme Magistrate oppose the execution of their disciplin practised in their Presbyteries or Synods by Laws or prohibitions No it is wickednesse If he do so far abuse his authority good Christians must rather suffer extremities than obey him Then what remedy hath the Magistrate if he find himself grieved in this case He may desire and procure a review in another National Synod that the matter may be lawfully determined by Ecclesiastical judgement Yet upon this condition that not withstanding the future review the first sentence of the Synod be executed without delay This is one main branch of Popery and a grosse incrochment upon the right of the Magistrate CHAP. III. That this Discipline robs the Magistrate of the last appeal of his Subjects The second flows from this The last appeal ought to be the Supream Magistrate or Magistrates within his or their Dominions as to the highest Power under God And where it is not so ordered the Common-wealth can injoy no tranquillity as we shall see in the second part of this discourse By the Laws of England if any man find himself grieved with the sentence or consistoriall proceedings of a Bishop or of his officers he may appeal from the highest judicatory of the Church to the King in Chancery who useth in that case to grant Commissions under the great Seal to Delegates expert in the Laws of the Realm who have
not of this world Their determinations passe for the Sentences of Christ. Alas there is too much faction and passion and ignorance in their Presbyteries Their Synodall Acts go for the Lawes of Christ. His Lawes are immutable mortall man may not presume to alter them or to adde to them but these men are chopping and changing their constitutions every day Their Elders must be looked upon as the Commissioners of Christ. It is impossible Geneva was the first City where this discipline was hatched though since it hath lighted into hucksters hands In those dayes they magnified the platform of Geneva for the pattern sbewed in the mount But there the Presbyters at their admission take an oath to observe the Ecclesiasticall Ordinances of the small great and generall Councels of that City Can any man be so stupid as to think that the high Commissioners of Christ swear fealty to the Burgers of Geneva Now forsooth their Discipline is become the Scepter of Christ the Eternall Gospel See how successe exalts mens desires and demands In good time where did this Scepter lye hid for 1500. yeers that we cannot finde the least footsteps of it in the meanest village of Christendome This world drawes towards an end was this discipline fitted and contrived for the world to come Or how should it be the Eternal Gospel When every man sees how different it is from it self in all Presbyterian Churches adapted and accommodated to the civill policy of each particular place where it is admitted except onely Scotland where it comes in like a Conqueror and makes the Civill Power stoop and strike topsaile to it Certainly if it be the Gospel it is the fifth Gospel for it hath no kindred with the other foure There is not a Text which they wrest against Episcopacy but the Independants may with as much colour of reason and truth urge it against their Presbyteries Where doth the Gospel distinguish between temporary and perpetuall Rulers Between the Government of a person and of a corporation There is not a Text which they produce for their Presbytery but may with much more reason be alledged for Episcopacy and more agreeable to the analogie of faith to the perpetuall practice and belief of the Catholick Church to the concurrent Expositions of all Interpreters and to the other Texts of holy Scripture for untill this new modell was yesterday devised none of those Texts were ever so understood When the practise ushers in the doctrine it is very suspicious or rather evident that the Scripture was not the rule of their reformation but their subsequent excuse This jure divine is that which makes their sore incurable themselves incorrigible that they father their own brat upon God Almighty and make this Mushrome which sprung but up the other night to be of heavenly descent It is just like the doctrine of the Popet infallibility which shuts the door against all hope of remedy How should they be brought to reform their errors who beleeve they cannot erre or they be brought to renounce their drowsy dreams who take it for granted that they are divine revelations And yet when that wise Prince King Iames a little before the Nationall Assembly at Perth published in print 55. Articles or Questions concerning the uncertainty of this Discipline and the vanity of their pretended plea of divine right and concerning the errours and abuses crept into it for the better preparation of all men to the ensuing Synod that Ministers might study the point beforehand and speak to the purpose they who stood affected to that way were extremely perplexed To give a particular account they knew well it was impossible but their chiefest trouble was that their foundation of divine right which they had given out all this while to be a solid rock should come now to be questioned for a shaking quagmire And so without any opposition they yeelded the bucklers Thus it continued untill these unhappy troubles when they started aside again like broken bowes This plant thrives better in the midst of tumults then in the times of peace and tranquillity The Elme which supports it is a factious multitude but a prudent and couragious Magistrate nips it in the bud CHAP. IX That this Discipline makes a monster of the Commonwealth VVE have seen how pernicious this Discipline as it is maintained in Scotland and endeavoured to be introduced into England by the Covenant is to the supreme Magistrate how it robâ—… him of his Supremacy in Ecclesiasticall affaires and of the last appeals of his own Subjects that it exempts the Presbyters from the power of the Magistrate and subjects the Magistrate to the Presbyters that it restraines his dispensative power of pardoning deprives him of the dependance of his Subjects that it doth challenge and usurp a power paramount both of the Word and of the Sword both of Peace and War over all Courts and Estates over all Laws Civill and Ecclesiasticall in order to the advancement of the Kingdom of Christ wherof the Presbyters alone are constituted rulers by God and all this by a pretended divine right which takes away all hope of remedy untill it be hissed out of the world in a word that it is the top-branch of Popery a greater tyranny then ever Rome was guilty of It remains to show how disadvantagious it is also to the Subject First to the Common-wealth in generall which it makes a Monster like an Amphisâ—…baina or a Serpent with two heads one at either end It makes a coordination of Soveraignty in the same Society two supremes in the same Kingdom or State the one Civill the other Ecclesiasticall then which nothing can be more pernicious either to the consciences or the estates of Subjects when it falls out as it often doth that from these two heads issue contrary commands If the Trumpet give an uncertain sound who shall prepare himself to the battel Much more when there are two Trumpets and the one sounds an Alarm the other a Retreat What should the poor Souldier do in such a case or the poor Subject in the other case If he obey the Civill Magistrate he is sure to be excommunicated by the Church if he obey the Church he is sure to be imprisoned by the Civill Magistrate What shall become of him I know no remedy but according to Solomons sentence the living Subject must be divided into two and the one half given to the one and the other half to the other For the Oracle of Truth hath said that one man cannot serve two Masters But in Scotland every man must serve two Masters and which is worse many times disagreeing Masters At the same time the Civill Magistrate hath commanded the Feast of the Nativity of our Saviour to be observed and the Church hath forbidden it At the same time the King hath summoned the Bishops to sit and Vote in Parliament and the Church hath forbidden them In the year 1582. Monsieur-le-mot a Knight of the Order
parts thereof to be agreable to the word of God it was the two Houses of the Parliament of England without a contrary voice who did ordaine the abolition of Episcopacy and the setting up of Presbyteryes and Synods in England and Ireland Can heere the Scotes be said to compell the English to dance after their pype when their own assembly of divines begins the song when the Lords and Commons assembled in the Parliament of England concurre without a discording opinion when the King himselfe for perfecting the harmony offers to adde his voice for three whole yeares together In the remainder of the chapter the warner layes upon the Scotes three other crimes first That they count it Erastianisme to put the governement of the Church in the hand of the Magistrat Answ. The Doctors knowledge is greater then to bee ignorant that all these goe under the name of Erastians who walking in Erastus ways of flattering the Magistrat to the prejudice of the just rights of the Church run yet out much beyond Erastus personall tenets I doubt if that man went so far as the Doctor heere and else where to make all Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction but a part of the Magistrats civill power which for its execution the supreame Governours of any state may derive out of the fountaine of their supremacy to what ever hands civill or Ecclesiastick themselfes think fit to commit it Let the Doctor adde to this much knowledge but a little ingenuity and he shall confes that his Brethren the Later Bishops who claime Episcopacy by divine right are all as much against this Erastian Caesaro-papisme as any Presbiterian in Scotland The elder Bishops indeed of England and all the Lawes there for Episcopacy seeme to be point blank according to the Erastian errours for they make the crowne and royall supremacy the originall root and fountaine whence all the discipline of the Church doth flow as before the days of Henry the eight it did out of the Popes head-ship of the Church under Christ. How ever let the Doctor ingenuously speake out his sence and I am deceived if he shall not acknowledge that how grosse an Erastian so ever himselfe and the elder Bishops of England might have been yet that long agoe the most of his praelatical friends have become as much opposit to Erastianisme as the most rigid of the Presbiterians The other crime he layes to the charge of the Scotes is that they admit no latitude in Religion but will have every opinion afundamentall article of faith and are averse from the reconciliation of the Protestant Churches Ans. If the warner had found it seasonable to vent a little more of his true sence in this point he had charged this great crime far more home upon the heade of the Scotes for indeed though they were ever far from denying the true degrees of importance which doe cleerly appeare among the multitude of Christian truthes yet the great quarrell heer of the warner and his freinds against them is that they spoiled the Canterburian designe of reconcealing the Protestant Churches not among themselfes but with the Church of Rome When these good men were with all earnestnes proclaming the greatest controversies of Papists and Protestants to be upon no fundamentalls but only disputable opinions wherein beleefe on either side was safe enough and when they found that the Papists did stand punctually to the Tenets of the Church of Rome and were obstinately unwilling to come over to England their great labour was that the English and the rest of the Protestants casting aside their needlesse beleefe of problematick truths in piety charity and zeale to make up the breach and take away the shisme should be at all the paines to make the journey to Rome While this designe is far advanced and furiously driven on in all the three Kingdomes and by none more in Yreland then the Bishop of Derry behold the rude and plaine blewcapes step in to the play and marre all the game by no arte by no terrour can these be gotten alongs to such a reconciliation This was the first and greatest crime of the Scotes which the Doctor here glances at but is so wyse and modest a man as not to bring it above board The last charge of the Chapter is that the Scotes keep not still that respect to the Bishops of England which they were wont of old in the beginning of Queen Elizabeths reigne Ans. In that letter cited by the warner from the generall assembly of Scotland 1566. Sess. 3. there is no word of approbation to the office of Episcopacy they speake to the Bishops of England in no other quality or relation but as Ministers of the word the highest stile they give them is reverend Pastors and Brethren the tenour of the whole Epistle is a grave and brotherly admonition to beware of that fatall concomitant of the most moderat Episcopacy the troubling of the best and most zealous servants of Christ for idle fruitles Ceremonies How great a reverence the Church of Scotland at that time carried to praelacy may be seen in their supplication to the secret counsell of Scotland in that same assembly the very day and Session wherein they write the letter in hand to the Bishops of England The Arch-Bishop of S. Andrews being then usurping jurisdiction over the ministry by some warrant from the state the Assembly was grieved not only with the popery of that Bishop but with his auncient jurisdiction which in all Bishops Popish and protestant is one and the same That jurisdiction was the only matter of their present complaint and in relation thereto they assure the counsel in distinct tearmes that they would never be more subject unto that usurped tiranny the they would be to the devill himselfe So reverend an opinion had the Church of Scotland at that time of Episcopall jurisdiction But suppone that some fourscore yeares agoe the Scotes before they had tasted the fruits of Protestant Bishops had judged them tolerable in England yet since that time by the long tract of mischiefes which constantly has accompanied the order of praelacy they have been put upon a more accurat inspection of its nature and have found it not only a needles but a noxious and poysonous weed necessare to be plucked up by the root and cast over the hedge Beside al its former malefices it hath been deprehēded of late in the very act of everting the foundations both of Religion and governement of bringing in Popery and Tiranny in the Churches and States of all the three Kingdomes Canterburian self conviction cap. 1. And for these crimes it was condemned killed and buried in Scotland by the unanimous consent of King Church and Kingdom when England thereafter both in their Assembly and Parliament without a discording voice had found it necessary to root out that unhappy plant as long agoe with great wisedome it had been cast out of all the rest of the reformed
Churches had not the Scotes all the reason in the World to applaud such pious just and necessary resolutions of their English Brethren though the warner should call it the greatest crime CHAP. II. The Presbiterians assert positively the Magistrats right to convocat Synods to confirme their acts to reforme the Churches within their dominions IN the second Chapter the warner charges the Scotes presbytery with the overthrowing the Magistrats right in convocating of Synods When he comes to prove this he forgets his challenge and digresses from it to the Magistrates power of choysing elders and making Ecclesiastick lawes avowing that these things are done in Scotland by Ecclesiastick persons alone without consent of the king or his counsel Ans. It seemes our Warner is very ignorant of the way of the Scotes discipline the ordinary and set meetings of all assemblies both nationall and provincionall since the first reformation are determined by acts of Parliament with the Kings consent so betwixt the King and the Church of Scotland there is no question for the convocating of ordinary assemblies for extraordinary no man in Scotland did ever controvert the Kings power to call them when and where he pleased as for the inhaerent power of the Church to meet for discipline alswell as for worship the Warner fals on it heereafter we must therefore passe it in this place What hee meanes to speake of the Kings power in choysing elders or making Ecclesiastick Lawes himselfe knowes his Majestie in Scotland did never require any such priviledge as the election of elders or Commissioners to Parliament or members of any incorporation civill or Ecclesiastick where the Lawes did not expresly provide the nomination to be in the crowne The making of Ecclesiastick Lawes in England alswell as in Scotland was ever with the Kings good contentment referred to Ecclesiastick assemblies but the Warner seemes to be in the mind of these his companions who put the power of preaching of administring the Sacraments and discipline in the supreame Magistrat alone and derives it out of him as the head of the Church to what members he thinks expedient to communicat it also that the legislative power alswell in Ecclesiastick as civill affairs is the property of the King alone That the Parliaments and generall assemblies are but his arbitrary counsels the one for matters of the state the other for matters of the Church with whom or without whom hee makes acts of Parliament and Church cannons according to his good pleasure that all the offices of the Kingdome both of Church and State are from him as he gives a Commission to whom he will to be a sheriffe or justice of peace so he sends out whom he pleaseth to preach celebrate Sacraments by virtue of his regal mission The Warner and his Erastian friends may well extend the royall supremacy to this largenes but no King of Scotland was ever willing to accept of such a power though by erroneous flaterers sometimes obtruded upon him see Canterburian self conviction cap. ult The Warner will not leave this matter in generall he discends to instance a number of particular incroatchments of the Scots Presbiters upon the royall authority wee must dispence in all his discourse with a small peckadillo in reasoning hee must bee permitted to lay all the faults of the Presbiterians in Scotland upon the back of the Presbitery it selfe as if the faylings of officers were naturall to and inseparable from their office mis-kenning this little more of unconsequentiall argumenting we will goe through his particular charges the first is that King James anno 1579 required the generall assembly to make no alteration in the Church-Policy till the next Parliament but they contemning their Kings command determined positively all their discipline without delay and questioned the Arch-Bischop of Sainct Andrews for voting in Parliament according to the undoubted Lawes of the Land yea twenty Presbiters did hold the generall assembly at Aberdeen after it was discharged by the King Ans. The Warner possibly may know yet certainly he doth not care what he writes in these things to which hee is a meere stranger the authentick registers of the Church of Scotland convinces him heire of falshood His Majestie did write from Stirling to the generall assembly at Edinburgh 1579 that they should ceasse from concluding any thing in the discipline of the Church during the time of his minority upon this desire the assembly did abstaine from all conclusions only they named a committee to goe to Striveling for conference which his Majestie upon that subject What followeth thereupon I. Immediatly a Parliament is called in October 1579 and in the first act declares and grantes jurisdiction unto the Kirk whilk consistes in the true preaching of the word of Jesus Christ correction of maners and administration of the true Sacraments and declares that there is no other face of Kirk nor other face of Religion then is presently by the favour of God established within this realme and that there be no other jurisdiction Ecclesiastical acknowledged within this realme then that whilk is and shal be within the samen Kirk or that which flowes therfra concerning the premisses II. In Aprile 1580. Proclamation was made ex deliberatione Dominorum Consilii in name of the King charging all Superintendentes and Commissioners and Ministers serving at Kirkes To note the names of all the subjectes alsweel men as women suspected to be Papistes or and to admonish them to give Confession of their faith according to the Forme approved by the Parliament and to submitte unto the discipline of the true Kirk within a reasonable space and if they faile that the Superintendents or Commissioners presente a role or catalogue of their names unto the King and Lords of Secret Counsell whereby they shal be for the time between and the 15 day of Iulie nixt to come to the end that the actes of Parliament made against such persones may be execute III. The shorte Confession wes drawen up at the Kings command which was first subscrived by his royall hand and an act of Secret Counsell commanding all subjectes to subscrive the same as is to be seen by the Act printed with the Confession wherein Hierarchie is abjured that is as hath been since declared by Nationall assemblies and Parliamentes both called and held by the King episcopacie is abjured IV. In the assemblies 1580 and 1581 that Confession of faith and the second book of discipline after debating many praeceding years were approved except one chapter de diaconatu by the Assemblie the Kings Commissioner being alwayes presente not finde we any thing opposed then by him yea then at his Majesties speciall direction about fifty classical Presbyteries were set up over all Scotland which remaine unto this day Was there heer any contempt of the royall authority About that time some noble men had gote the revenues of the Bisshop-rickes for their private use and because they could not enjoy them
by any legal right therefore for eluding the Law they did effectuate that some Ministers should have the title of this or that Bishopricke and the revenues were gathered in the name of this titulare or tulchan Bishop albeit hee had but little part e. g. Robert Montgomerie Minister at Sterline was called Arch-Bishop of Glasgow and so it can bee instanced in other Bishop-rickes and abbacies Now this kind of praelats pretended no right to any part of the Episcopall office either in ordination or jurisdiction when some of these men began to creep in to vote for the Church in Parliament without any Law of the State without any commission from the Church the generall assembly discharged them being Ministers to practise any more such illegall insolencies with this ordinance of the Church after a little debate King James at that time did shew his good satisfaction But the Warner heere jumps over nolesse then twenty seven years time from the assembly at Edinburgh 1579 to that at Aberdeen 1605 then was King James by the English Bishops perswasion resolved to put down the generall assemblies of Scotland contrary to the Lawes and constant practise of that Church from the first reformation to that day The act of Parliament did bear that once at least a yeare the assembly should meet and after their busines was ended they should name time place for the next assembly When they had met in the yeare 1602 they were moved to adjourne without doing any thing for two whole yeares to 1604 when then they were conveened at the time and place agreed to by his Majestie they were content upon his Majesties desire without doing any thing againe to adjourne to the nixt yeare 1605 at Aberdeen when that dyet came his Majesties Commissioner offered them a Letter To the end they might be an Assembly and so in a Capacity to receave his Majesties Letter with the Commissioners good pleasure they sate downe they named their Moderator and Clark they received and read the Kings letter commanding them to rise which they obeyed without any farther action at all but naming a dyet for the nixt meeting according to the Lawes and constant practise of Scotland hereupon by the pernicious counsel of Arch-Bishop Banckroft at London the King was stirred up to bring sore trouble upon a number of gracious Ministers This is the whole matter which to the Warner heir is so tragick an insolence that never any Parliament durst attempt the like See more of this in the Historicall vindication The nixt instance of our Presbiteryes usurpation upon the Magistrat is their abolition before any statute of Parliament thereupon of the Church festivals in their first book of discipline Ans. Consider the grievousnesse of this crime in the intervall of Parliaments the great counsel of Scotland in the minority of the Prince entrusted by Parliament to rule the Kingdome did charge the Church to give them in wryte their judgement about matters Ecclesiasticall in obedience to this charge the Church did present the counsel with a wryte named since the first book of disciplin which the Lords of counsel did approve subscribe and ratify by an Act of State a part of the first head in that wryte was that Christmas Epiphany purification and other fond feasts of the virgin Mary as not warranted by the holy Scriptures should bee laid aside Was it any encroachment upon the Magistrate for the Church to give this advice to the privy counsell when earnestly they did crave it the people of Scotland ever since have shewed their ready obedience to that direction of the Church founded upon Scripture and backed from the beginning with an injunction of the state His third instance of the Church of Scotlands usurpation upon the Magistrat is their abolition of Episcopacy in the assembly 1580 when the Law made it treason to impugne the authority of Bishops being the third estate of the Kingdome Ans. The Warner seemes to have no more knowledge of the affairs of Scotland then of Japan or Utopia the Law hee speakes of was not in being some yeares after 1580 how ever all the generall assemblyes of Scotland are authorised by act of Parliament to determine finally without an appeale in all Ecclesiastick affaires in the named assembly Lundie the Kings Commissioner did sit and consent in his Majesties name to that act of abolition as in the nixt assembly 1581 the Kings Comissioner Caprinton did erect in his Majesties name the Presbiteryes in all the Land it is true three yeares thereafter a wicked Courtier Captaine James Stuart in a shadow of a closse and not summoned Parliament did procure an act to abolish Presbiteries and erect Bishops but for this and all the rest of his crimes that evill man was quickly rewarded by God before the world in a terrible destruction these acts of his Parliament the very nixt yeare were disclaimed by the King the Bishops were put downe and the Presbitry was set up again and never more removed to this day The Warners digression to the perpetuity of Bishops in Scotland to the acts of the Church and State for their restitution is but to shew his ignorance in the Scotes story what ever be the Episcopall boastings of other Nations yet it is evident that from the first entrance of Christian Religion into Scotland Presbiters alone without Bishops for some hundred yeares did governe that Church and after the reformation their was no Bishop in that Land but in tittle and benefice till the yeare 1610 when Bancroft did consecrat three Scotes Ministers all of them men of evill report whom that violent Commissioner the Earle of Dunbar in the corrupt and null assembly of Glasgow got authorised in some pairt of a Bishops office which part only and no more was ratified in a posterior Parliament Superintendents are no where the same with Bishops much lesse in Scotland where for a time only till the Churches were planted they were used as ambulatory Commissioners and visitors to preach the word and administer the Sacraments for the supply of vacant and unsetled congregations The fourth instance is the Churches obtruding the second book of discipline without the ratification of the State Ans. For the Ecclesiastick enjoining of a generall assemblyes decrees a particular ratification of Parliament is unnecessary generall acts of Parliament commanding obedience to the acts of the Church are a sufficient warrant from the State beside that second book of disciplin was much debated with the King and at last in the generall assembly 1590 his consent was obtained unto it for in that assembly where unanimously the subscription of the second book of disciplin by all the ministers of the Kingdome was decried his Majestie some time in person and alwayes by the chancelor his Commissioner was present and in the act for subscription Sess. 10. Augusti 8. it is expresly said that not only all the Ministers but also all the Commissioners praesent did consent among
which Commissioners the chancelor his Majesties Commissioner was chief But neither the King nor the Church could get it to passe the Parliament in regaird of the opposition which some States-men did make unto these parts thereof which touched on their owne interest of unjust advantage this was the only stick The next instance of the Churches encroachement is their usurpation of all the old rents of the clergy as the Churches patrimony and their decerning in anassembly that nothing in the nixt Parliament should passe before the Church were fully restored to her rents Ans. Consider heere the Warners hypocrisie and unjustice he challenges the Presbiterians for that which no praelate in the world did ever esteem a fault a meer declaration of their judgement that the Church had a just right to such rents as by law and long possession were theirs and not taken away from them by any lawfull meanes What if heere they had gone on with the most of the praelaticall party to advance that right to a jus divinum what if they had put themselves by a command from Court into the possession of that right without a processe as diverse of the Warners friends were begun lately to doe in all the three Kingdomes but all that he can here challenge the Scotes for is a meere declaration of their simple right with a supplication to the Regent his grace that hee would indeavour in the nixt Parliament to procure a ninth part of the Churches patrimony for the mantainance of the ministry and the poore of the country for all the rent that the Churches then could obtaine or did petition was but a third of the thirds of the benefices or tithes That ever any assembly in Scotland did make any other addresse to the Parliament for stipends then by way of humble supplication it is a great untruth The last instance is the erecting of Presbyteries through al the Kingdome by an act of the Church alone Ans. I have showne already the untruth of this alleadgeance the proofe heere brought for it is grounded only upon an ambiguous word which the Warners ignorance in the Scotish disciplin and Presbitery though the maine subject of his booke permits him not to understand The Presbyteries were set up by the King after the assembly 1580 but the second booke of discipline of which alone the citation speaks how ever enjoind by many assemblies yet it could never be gotten ratified in any Parliament only because of these parts of it which did speake for the patrimony of the Church and oppugne the right of patronages How well the Warner hath proven the Presbiterian practises to be injurious to the Magistrate we have considered possibly he will bee more happy in his nixt undertaking in his demonstrations that their doctrinall principles doe trample on the Magistrats supremacy and Lawes their first principle hee takes out of the second book of disciplin Cap. 7. That no Magistrat nor any but Ecclesiastick persons may vote in Synods Ans. Though I find nothing of this in the place cited yet there is nothing in it that crosseth either the Laws or the Kings supremacy for according to the acts of Parliament of Scotland both old and late and the constant practise of that Church the only members of Presbyteries are Ministers and ruling elders Is it the Warners minde to vent here his super-Erastianisme that all Ecclesiastick assemblies Classicall Provinciall nationall are but the arbitrary Courts of the Magistrat for to advise him in the execution of his inhaerent power about matters Ecclesiasticall and for this cause that it is in his arbitrement to give a decisive voyce in all Church assemblies to whom and how many so ever hee will Though this may bee the Warners minde as it hath been some of his friends yet the most of the praelaticall party will not mantaine him heerein How ever such principles are contrary to the Lawes of Scotland to the professions also and practises of all the Princes and Magistrats that ever have lived there But the Warner heere may possibily glaunce at another principle of his good friends who have been willing lately to vent before al Britaine in print their Elevating the supremacy of Soveraignes so far above Lawes that what ever people have obtained to bee established by never so many assemblies and Parliaments and confirmed with never so many great seales of ratification and peaceably injoyed by never so long a possession yet it is nothing but commendable wisedome and justice for the same Prince who made the first concessions or any of his successors when ever they find themselfes strong enough to cancell all and make void what ever Parliaments Assemblies royall ratifications and the longest possession made foolish people beleeve to be most firme and unquestionable To this purpose Bishop Maxwel from whom much of this warning is borrowed doth speak in his Sacro-Sancta regum Majestas Though this had been the Cabine divinity of our praelats yet what can be their intentions in speaking of it out in these times of confusion themselves must declare for the cleare consequente of such doctrine seemes to be a necessity either of such Warners perpetuall banishment from the Courts and eares of Soveraignes or else that subjects be kept up for ever in a strong jealousy and feare that they can never be secure of their liberties though never so well ratified by Lawes and promises of Princes any longer then the sword and power remaines in their owne hand to preserve what they have obtained Such Warners so long as they are possessed with such maximes of state are cleare everters of the first fundations of trust betwixt Soveraignes and subjects they take away all possibility of any solid peace of any confident setlement in any troubled state before both parties be totally ruined or one become so strong that they need no more to feare the others malcontentment in any time to come Our second challenged principle is that wee teach the whole power of convocating assemblies to be in the Church Ans. The Warners citations prove not that we maintaine any such assertion our doctrin and constant practise hath been to ascribe to the King a power of calling Synods when and wheresoever he thought fit but that which the Warner seemes to point at is our tenet of an intrinsicall power in the Church to meet as for the word and Sacraments so for disciplin in this all who are Christians old and late the praelaticall and Popish party as well as others goe along with us to mantaine in doctrine and practise a necessity even in times of persecution that the Church must meet for the worship of God and execution of Ecclesiastick disciplin among their owne members In this the doctrine and practise of the Scots is according to their setled lawes uncontroverted by his Majestie If the Warner will mantaine that in reason and conscience al the Churches of the world are oblidged to dissolve and never more
to meet when an erroneous Magistrat by his Tyrannous edict commands them to doe so let him call up Erastus from the dead to be disciplined in this new doctrine of the praelats impious loyalty The third principle is that the judgment of true and false doctrine of suspension and deprivation of Ministers belongeth to the Church Ans. If this be a great heresie it is to be charged as much upon the state as upon the Church for the acts of Parliament give all this power to the Church neither did the lawes of England or of any Christian state popish or protestant refuse to the Church the determination of such Ecclesiastick causes some indeed doe debate upon the power of appeales from the Church but in Scotland by the law as no appeale in things civill goes higher then the Parliament so in matters Ecclesiastick none goes above the generall assembly Complaints indeed may goe to the King and Parliament for redresse of any wrong has been done in Ecclesiastick Courts who being custodes religionis may by their coercive power command Ecclesiastick Courts to rectifie any wrong done by them contraire to Scripture or if they persist take order with them But that two or three praelats should become a Court of delegats to receave appeales from a generall assembly neither Law nor practise in Scotland did ever admit nor can the word of God or any Equity require it In the Scotes assemblies no causes are agitat but such as the Parliament hath agreed to bee Ecclesiastick and of the Churches cognisance no Processe about any Church rent was ever cognosced upon in Scotland but in a civill Court it s very false that ever any Church censure much lesse the highest of excommunication did fall upon any for robbing the Church of its patrimony Our fourth challenged principle is that wee maintain Ecclesiastick jurisdiction by a divine right Ans. Is this a huge crime is there divine in the world either Papist or Potestant except a few praelaticall Erastians but they doe so If the Warner will professe as it seemes hee must the contradiction of that which he ascribes to us his avowed tenet must bee that all Ecclesiastick power flowes from the Magistrat that the Magistrat himself may execute all Church censures that all the Officers appointed by Christ for the governement of his Church may bee laid aside and such a kind of governors bee put in their place as the Magistrate shal be pleased to appoint that the spirituall sword and Keies of heaven belong to the Magistrate by vertue of his supremacy al 's wel as the temporall sword and the Keies of his earthly Kingdome our difference heere from the Warner will not I hope be found the greatest heresie Our last challenged principle is that wee will have all our power against the Magistrat that is although hee dissent Ans. It is an evill comentare that al must be against the Magistrate which is done against his consent but in Scotland their is no such case for all the jurisdiction which the church there does enjoy they have it with the consent of the Magistrat all is ratified to them by such acts of Parliament as his Majestie doth not at all controvert Concerning that odious case the Warner intimats whither in time of persecutiō when the Magistrat classheth with the Church any Ecclesiastick disciplin be then to be exercised himselfe can better answer it then we who with the auncient Christians doe think that on all hazards even of life the church may not be dissolved but must meet in dens and caves and in the wildernes for the word and Sacraments and keeping it selfe pure by the divine ordinance of discipline Having cleered all the pernicious practises and all the wicked Doctrines which the Warner layes upon us I think it needles to insist upon these defenses which he in his aboundant charity brings for us but in his owne way that he may with the greater advantage impugne them only I touch one passage whereupon he make injurious exclamations that which Mr. Gilespie in his theoremes wryts when the Magistrate abuses his power unto Tyranny and makes havock of all it is lawfull to resist him by some extraordinary wayes and meanes which are not ordinarily to bee allowed see the principles from which all our miseryes and the losse of our gracious Master have flowed Ans. Wee must heere yeeld to the Warner the great equity and necessity that every doctrine of a Presbyter should be charged on the Presbytery it selfe and that any Presbyter teaching the lawfulnesse of a Parliaments defensive armes is tantamont to the Churches taking of armes against the king These small unconsequences wee must permit the Warner to swallow downe without any stick however wee doe deny that the maxime in hand was the fountaine of any our miseryes or the cause at all of the losse of our late Soveraigne Did ever his Majestie or any of his advised counsellers declare it simply unlawfull for a Parliament to take armes for defence in some extraordinary cases however the unhappines of the Canterburian Prelats did put his Majestie on these courses which did begin and promote all our misery and to the very last these men were so wicked as to refuse the lousing of these bands which their hands had tyed about his misinformed conscience yea to this day they will not give their consent that his Majestie who now is should say aside Episcopacy were it for the gayning the peaceable possession of all his three Kingdomes but are urgers of him night and day to adhaere to their errours upon the hazard of all the miseries that may come on his person on his family and all his people yet few of them to this day durst be so bold as to print with this Warner the unlawfulnes of a Parliaments armes against the Tyranny of a Prince in any imaginable case how extraordinary soever CHAP. III. The Lawes and customes of Scotland admitte of no appeal from the generall assembly IN this chapter the challenge is that there are no appeales from the generall Assembly to the King as in England from the Bishops Courts to the King in Chauncery where a Commission uses to be given to delegats who discusse the appeales Ans. The warner considers not the difference of the Government of the Church of Scotland from that which was in England what the Parliament is in the State that the generall assembly is in the Church of Scotland both are the highest courts in their owne kind There is no appeale any where in moderat Monarchies to the Kings person but to the King in certaine legall courts as the Warner here confesseth the appeale from Bishops lyes not to the King in his person but to the King in his court of Chauncery As no man in Scotland is permitted to appeale in a civil cause from the Lords of Session much lesse from the Parliament so no man in an Ecclesiastick cause is permitted by
the verie civil Law of Scotland to appeale from the general assembly According to the Scots order practise the King in person or else by his high Commissioner sits al 's usually in the generall assembly as in Parliament But though it were not so yet an appeale from a generall assembly to be discussed in a Court of delegats were unbeseeming and unreasonable the one Court consisting of above two hundred all chosen men the best and most able of the Kingdome the other but of two or three often of very small either abilities or integrity who yet may be more fitt to decerne in an Ecclesiastick cause then a single Bishop over his officiall the ordinary trusted in all acts of jurisdiction for the whole dioces But the Scots way of managing Ecclesiastick causes is a great deale more just safe and Satisfactory to any rationall man then that old popish order of the English where all the spirituall jurisdiction of the whole dioces was in the hand of one mercenary officiall without all reliefe from his sentence except by an appeale as of old to the pope and his delegats so therafter to the King though never to be cognosced-upon by himselfe but as it was of old by two or three delegats the weakest of all courts often for the quality and ever for the number of the judges Two instances are brought by the Warner to prove the Church of Scotlands stopping of appeals from the generall Assembly to the King the cases of Montgomery and Adamson if the causes and events of the named cases had been wel knowne to the Warner as he made this chapter disproportionally short so readily he might have deleted it al together Both these men were infamous not only in their Ministeriall charges but in their life conversation both became so insolent that contrary to the established order of the Church Kingdome being suborned by wicked statesmen who in that day of darknes had wel neer brought ruine both to King and country would needs take upon them the office of arch-Arch-Bishops While the assembly was in proces with them for their manifold and high misdeameanors the King was moved by them and their evill patrons to shew his high displeasure against the assemblyes of the Church they for his Majesties satisfaction sent their Commissioners and had many conferences whereby the pride and contempt of these prelats did so encrease that at last they drew the sentence of excommunication upon their own heads the King after some time did acknowledge the equity of the Church proceedings and professed his contentment their with both these unhappy men were brought to a humble confession of their crimes and such signes of repentance that both after a renunciation of their titulare Bishopriks were readmitted to the function of the ministry which they had deserted Never any other before or after in Scotland did appeale from the generall assembly to the King the late excommunicat praelats in their declinatour against the assembly of Glasgow did not appeale as I remember to the King but to another generall assembly to bee constitute according to their own Popish and Tyrannical principles CHAP. IV. Faulty Ministers in Scotland are lesse exempted from punishment then any other men THE Warner in his fourth Chapter offers to prove that the Scottish discipline doth exempt Ministers from punishment for any treason or sedition they can act in their pulpits Ans. This challenge is like the rest very false The rules of the Church discipline in Scotland obliges Churchmen to bee subject to punishment not only for every fault for which any other man is lyable to censure but ordaines them to bee punished for sundrie things which in other men are not at all questionable and what ever is censurable in any they appoint it to be much more so in a Minister It is very untrue that the pulpits in Scotland are Sanctuaries for any crime much lesse for the grievous crimes of sedition and treason Let the Warner remember how short a time it is since an Episcopall chayre or a canonicall coate did priviledge in England and Ireland from all censure either of Church or State great numbers who were notoriously knowne to be guilty of the foulest crimes Was ever the Warners companion Bishop Aderton challenged for his Sodomy so long as their commune patrone of Canterbury did rule the court did the warner never heare of a prelate very sibb to Doctour Bramble who to this day was never called to any account for flagrant scandals of such crimes as in Scotland are punishable by the gallows the Warner doth not well to insist upon the Scots Clergie exempting themselfe from civill punishments no where in the world are Churchmen more free of crimes deserving civil cognisance then in Scotland and if the ears and eyes of the world may be trusted the popish clergy this day in Italy and Spaine are not so challengeable as the praelaticall divines in England and Ireland lately were for many grosse misdemeanors But why does the Warners anger run out so farre as to the preachers in Holland is it because he knoweth the Church disciplin in Holland to be really the same with that he oppugnes in the Scots and that all the reformed Churches doejoyne cordially with Scotland in their rejection of Episcopacy is this a ground for him to slander our Brethren of Holland Is it charity for him a stranger to publish to the world in print that the ministers in Holland are seditious oratours and that they saucily controll the Magistrats in their pulpits Their crime seemes to be that for the love of Christ their master they are zealous in their doctrin to presse upon the Magistrat as well as upon the people the true practise of piety the sanctification of the sabbath day the suppression of heresy and shisme and repentance for the sins of the time place wherein they live This is a crime whereof few of the Warners friends were wont to be guilty of their shamefull silence and flattery was one of the great causes of all the sins and calamities that have wracked the three Kingdomes the streame of their sermons while the enjoyed the pulpit was to encourage to superstition and contempt of piety to sing asleepe by their ungracious way all that gave eare unto them The man is impatien t to see the Pastors of Holland or any where to walk in another path then his own and for this cause would stirre up their Magistrats against them as it was his and his Brethrens custome to stirre up the Magistrats of Britan and Ireland to imprison banish and heavily vex the most zealous servants of God only for their opposition to the praelats profanity and errours The Warner I hope has not yet forgotten how Doctor Bramble and his neighbour Lesly of Down did cast out of the Ministry and made flee out of the Kingdome men most eminent for zeale piety and learning who in a short time had
done more good in the house of God then all the Bishops that ever were in Ireland I meane Master Blaire Master Levingston Master Hamilton and Master Cuningham and others The Warner needed not to have marked as a singularity of Geneva that there all the Ecclesiasticks quâ tales are punishable by the Magistrats for civil crimes for wee know none of the reformed Churches who were ever following Rome in exeeming the Clergy from saecular jurisdiction except it were the Canterburian Praelats who indeed did skarre the most of Magistrats from medeling with a canonical coat though desiled with drunckenesse adultery scolding fighting and other evils which were too common oflate to that order But how does hee prove that the Scots Ministers exempt themselves from civill jurisdiction first saith he by the declaration of King James 1584. Ans. That declaration was not from King James as himselfe did testify the yeare thereafter under his hand but from Master Patrike Adamson who did acknowledge it to bee his owne upon his death bed and professed his repentance for the lyes and slaunders wherewith against his conscience hee had fraughted that infamous libell His second proofe is from the second booke of discipline Chapter II It is absurd that Commissaties haveing no function in the Church should be judges to Ministers to depose them from their charges Ans. Though in England the Commissary and officiall was the ordinary judge to depose and excommunicat all the Ministers of the diocese yet by the Lawes of Scotland no Commissaries had ever any jurisdiction over Ministers But though the officialls jurisdiction together with their Lords the Bishops were abolished yet doth it follow from this that no other jurisdiction remaineth whereby Ministers might be punished either by Church and State according to their demerits is not this strongly reasoned by the Warner His third proofe is the case of James Gibson who had railed in pulpit against the King and was only suspended yea thereafter was absolved from that fault Ans. Upon the complaint of the Chancelor the alleadged words were condemned by the generall assembly but before the mans guiltines of these words could bee tryed hee did absent himselfe for which absence he was presently suspended from his Ministry in the nixt assembly he did appeare and cleared the reason of his absence to have been just feare and no contumacy this hee made appeare to the assemblyes satisfaction but before his processe could be brought to any issue he fled away to England where he died a fugitive never restored to his chardge though no tryell of his fault was perfected The fourth proofe is Mr. Blacke his case heereupon the Warner makes a long and odious narration If wee interrogat him about his ground of all these Stories he can produce no warrant but Spots-woods unprinted book this is no authentick register whereupon any understanding man can rely the writer was a profest enemy to his death of the Scottish disciplin he spent his life upon a Story for the disgrace of the Presbytery and the honour of Bishops no man who is acquainted with the life or death of that Author will build his beleefe upon his words This whole narration is abundantly confuted in the historicall vindication when the Warner is pleased to repeat the challenge from Issachars burden hee ought to have replyed something after three yeares advisement to the printed answer The matter as our registers beare was shortly thus in the yeare 1596 the Popish and malignant faction in King James his court grew so strong that the countenance of the King towards the Church was much changed and over all the Land great feares did daily increase of the overthrow of the Church discipline established by Law The Ministers in their pulpits gave free warning thereof among others Mr. Black of Saint Andrews a most gracious and faithful Pastor did apply his doctrine to the sins of the time some of his Enemies delated him at Court for words injurious to the King and Queen the words hee did deny and all his honest hearers did absolve him by their testimony from these calumnies of himselfe hee was most willing to be tryed to the uttermost before all the world but his Brethren finding the libelled calumnies to bee only a pretence and the true intention of the Courtiers therein was to stop the mouthes of Ministers that the crying sins of the time should no more bee reproved in pulpits they advised him to decline the judgement of the counsel and appeale to the generall assembly as the competent judge according to the word of God and the Lawes of Scotland in the cause of doctrin for the first instance they did never question but if any thing truely seditious had been preached by a Minister that he for this might be called before the civill Magistrat and accordingly punished but that every Minister for the application of his doctrine according to the rules of scripture to the sins of his hearers for their reclaming should be brought before a civill court at the first instance they thought it unreasonable and desired the King in the nixt assembly might cognosce upon the equity of such a proceding The Ministers had many a conference with his Majestie upon that subject often the matter was brought very neare to an amicable conclusion but because the Ministers refused to subscribe a band for so great a silence as the Court required against his Majesties countenancing of treacherous Papists and favouring the enemies of religion a seveer Sentence was pronounced not only against Master Black but also all the Ministers of Edinburgh In the meane time malcontented States-men did adde oyle to the flame and at the very instant while the Ministers and their friends are offering a petition to his Majestie they subborne a villane to cry in one part of the streets the Ministers are slain and in another part of the streets that the King was killed whereupon the People rush all out to the streets in their armes and for halfe an howr at most were in a tumult upon meere ignorance what the fray might be bur without the hurt of any one man so soone as it was found that both the King and Ministers were safe the people went all peaceably to their houses This is the very truth of that innocent commotion whereupon the Warner heere and his fellowes elsewhere make all their tragedies None of the Ministry were either the authors or approvers thereof though diverse of them suffered sore troubles for it CHAP. V. No Presbyterian ever intended to excommunicat any supreame Magistrat THE Warner in his fifth chapter chardges the Scotes for subjecting the King to the censure of excommunication and bringing upon princes all the miseries which the popes excommunications of old wont to bring upon Anathematised Emperours Ans. It does not become the Warner and his fellowes to object to any the abuse of the dreadfull sentence of excommunication no Church in the world was
claimed it none would have more opposed then the most zealous patrones of Episcopacy The injurious invectives which the Warner builds upon this his Erastian assertion wee passe them as Castles in their aire which must fall and evanish for want of a foundation Only before I leave this Chapter let the Warner take a good Sentence out of the mouth of that wyse Prince King James to testifie yet farther his minde against Erastianisme His Majestie in the yeare 1617 having come in progresse to visit his auncient Kingdome of Scotland and being present in persone at a publick disputation in Theologie in the Universitie of St. Andrews whereof also many both Nobles and Church-men of both Kingdomes were auditors when one of those that acted a part in the disputation had affirmed and went about to maintaine this assertion that the King had power to depose Ministers from their Ministeriall function The King himself as abhorring such flatterie cried out with a loud voice Ego possum deponere Ministri caput sed non possum deponere ejus officium CHAP. VII The Presbyterie does not draw from the Magistrat any paritie of his power by the cheate of any relation IN the seventh chapter the Warner would cause men believe many more of the Presbyteries usurpations upon the civill Magistrate The first is that all offences whatsoever are cognoscible in the consistory upon the case of scandals Ans. First the Presbyterie makes no offence at all to come before the consistory but scandall alone Secondly these civill offences the scandall whereof comes before the Presbytery are but very few and a great deale fewer than the Bishops officiall takes notice of in his consistoriall court That capitall crimes past over by the Magistrate should bee censured by the Church no society of Christians who have any discipline did ever call in question When the sword of the Magistrat hes spared a murderer an adulterer a Blasphemer will any ingenuous either praelaticall or popish divine admitte of such to the holy table without signes of repentance The Warners second usurpation is but a branch of the first that the Presbyterie drawes directly before it selfe the cognisance of fraud in barganing false measures oppression and in the case of Ministers brybing usury fighting perjury c. Ans. Is it then the Warners minde that the notorious slander of such grosse sins does not deserve so much as an Ecclesiastick rebooke Shall such persons without admonition be admitted to the holy communion Secondly the named cases of fraud in barganing false measures oppression come so rarely before our Church-judicatories that though these thirty yeares I have been much conversant in Presbyteries yet did I never see nor doe I remember that ever I heard any of these three cases brought before any church assembly In the persone of Ministers I grant these faults which the canons of the Church in all times and places make the causes of deprivation are cognosced upon in Presbyteries but with the good liking I am sure of all both papifts and praelats who themselves are free of such vices And why did not the Warner put in among the causes of church mens deprivation from office and benefite adultery gluttonny and drunkennes are these in his c. which he will not have cognoscible by the Church in the persons of Bishops and Doctors The Warners third challenge amounts to an high crime that Presbyterian Ministers are bold to preach upon these scriptures which speake of the Magistrats duty in his office or dare offer to resolve from scripture any doubt which perplexeth the conscience of Magistrats or people of Husband or Wife of Master or Servant in the discharge of their Christian duty one to another What ever hath been the negligence of the Bishop of Derry yet I am sure all the preaching Praelats and Doctors of England pretended a great care to goe about these uncontroverted parts of their ministerial function and yet without medling with the Mysteries of State or the depths of any mans particulare vocation much lesse with the judgement of jurisdiction in politicall or aeconomicall causes As for the Churches declaration against the Late engagement did it not well become them to signify their judgement in so great a case of conscience especially when the Parliament did propone it to them for resolution and when they found a conjunction driven on with a cleerly malignant partie contrary to solemne oathes and covenants unto the evident hazard of Religione and them who had been most eminent instruments of its preservation was it not the churches duty to give warning against that sinne and to exhort the ring leaders therein to repentance But our Warner must needs insist upon that unhappy engagement and fasten great blame upon the Church for giving any advice about it Ans. Must it be Jesuisitisme and a drawing of all the civill affaires to the Churches barre in ordine ad Spiritualia for an assembly to give their advice in a most eminent and important case of conscence when earnestly called upon in a multitude of supplications from the most of the Congregations under their charge yea when required by the States of the Kingdome in severall expresse messages for that end It seemes it s our Warners conclusion if the Magistrat would draw all the Churches in his jurisdiction to a most unlawfull warre for the advancement of the greatest impiety and unjustice possible wherein nothing could be expected by all who were engaged therein but the curse of God if in this case a doubting Natione should desire the assemblies counsel for the state of their soules or if the Magistrate would put the Church to declare what were lawfull or unlawfull according to the word of God that it were necessary heer for the servants of God to be altogether silent because indeed warre is so civill a busines that nothing in it concernes the soule and nothing about it may be cleered by any light from the word of God The truth is the Church in their publick papers to the Parliament declared oftner then once that they were not against but for an engagement if so that Christian and friendly treaties could not have obtained reason and all the good people in Scotland were willing enough to have hazarded their lives and estates for vindicating the wrongs done not by the Kingdome of England but by the sectarian party there against God the King covenant and both Kingdomes but to the great griefe of their hearts their hands were bound and they forced to sit still and by the over great cunning of some the erroneous mis-perswasions of others and the rash praecipitancy of it that engagement was so spoiled in the stating and mannaging that the most religious with peace of conscience could not goe along nor encourage any other to take part therein The Warner touches on three of their reasons but who will looke upon their publick declarations shall find many more which with all faithfullnesse were then propounded
by the Church for the rectifying of that action which as it stood in the state and management was cleerly foretold to be exceeding like to destroy the King and his friends of all sorts in all the three Kingdomes The irreparable losses and unutterable calamities which quickly did follow at the heeles the misbeleefe and contempt of the Lords servants and the great danger religion is now brought unto in al these Kingdomes hes I suppose long agoe brought griefe enough to the heart of them whose unadvised rashnes and intemperate fervour did contribute most for the spoiling of that designe The first desire about that engagement which the Warner gives to us concernes the security of religion In all the debate of that matter it was aggreed without question upon all hands that the Sectarian party deserved punishment for their wicked attemptes upon the Kings persone contrary to the directions of the Parliamentes of both Kingdomes and that the King ought to be rescued out of their hands and brought to one of his houses for perfecting the treaty of peace which often had been begunne but here was the question Whither the Parliament and Army of Scotland ought to declare their resolutiones to bring his Majestie to London with honour freedome and safty before he did promise any security for establishing Religion The Parliaments of both Kingdomes in all their former treaties had ever pressed upon the King a number of propositions to be signed by his Majestie before at all he came to London was it then any fault in the Church of Scotland to desire the granting but of one of these propositions concerning Religion and the covenant before the King were brought by the new hazard of the lives and estats of all the Scottish nation to sit in his Parliament in that honnor and freedome which himselfe did desire There was no complaint when many of thirty propositions were pressed to be signed by his Majestie for satisfaction and security to his people after so great and long desolations how then is an out-cry made when all other propositions are postponed and only one for Religion is stuck upon and that not before his Majesties rescue and deliverance from the hands of the sectaries but only before his bringing to London in honor freedom and safety This demande to the Warner is a crime and may be so to all of his beleefe who takes it for a high unjustice to restraine in any King the absolute power by any condition for they doe mantaine that the administration of all things both of Church and state does reside so freely and absolutly in the meere will of a Soveraigne that no case at any time can fall out which ought to bound that absolutnesse with any limitation The second particular the Warner pitches upon is the Kings negative voyce behold how criminous we were in the point When some most needlesly would needs bring into debate the Kings negative voyce in the Parliament of England as one of the royall praerogatives to bee maintained by our engagement it was said that all discourse of that kynde might bee laid aside as impertinent for us if any debate should chance to fall upon it the proper place of it was in a free Parliament of England that our Lawes did not admit of a negative voyce to the King in a Parliament of Scotland and to presse it now as a prerogative of all Kings besides the reflection it might have upon the rights of our Kingdome it might put in the hand of the King a power to deny all and every one of these things which the Parliaments of both Kingdomes had found necessary for the setling the peace in all the three dominions Wee marvail not that the Warner heere should taxe us of a great errour seeing it is the beleefe of his faction that every King hath not onely a negative but an absolute affirmative voyce in all their Parliaments as if they were nothing but their arbitrary counsels for to perswade by their reasons but not to conclude nor impede any thing by their votes the whole and intire power of making or refusing Lawes being in the Prince alone and no part of it in the Parliament The Warners third challenge against us about the ingagement is as if the Church had taken upon it to nominate the officers of the army and upon this he makes his invectives Ans. The Church was farre from seeking power to nominate any one officer but the matter was thus when the State did require of them what in their judgement would give satisfaction to the people and what would encourage them to goe along in the ingagement one and the last parte of their answer was that they conceived if a Warre shal be found necessarie much of the peoples encouragement would depend upon the qualification of the commanders to whom the mannaging of that great trust should be committed for after the right stating of the Warre the nixt would be the carying on of it by such men who had given constante proofe of their integrity To put all the power of the Kingdome in their hande whose by past miscariadges had given just occasion to suspect their designes and firmenesse to the interest of God before their owne or any other mans would fill the hearts of the people with jealousies and feares and how wholsome an advice this was experience hath now too cleerly demonstrate To make the world know our further resolutiones to medle with civile affaires the Warner is pleased to bring out against us above 80 yeares old stories and all the stuffe which our malicious enemy Spotsewood can furnish to him from this good author he alledges that our Church discharged merchants to traffique with Spaine and commanded the change of the mercat dayes in Edenburgh Ans. Both these calumnies are taken of at length in the Historicall Vindication After the Spanish invasion of the yeare eighty eight many in Scotland kept correspondence with Spaine for treacherous designes the Inquisitors did seduce some and persecute others of our merchants in their traffique the Church did deale with his Majestie to interceed with the Spanish King for more liberty to our country men in their trading and in the meane time while an answer was returned from Madrile they advertised the people to be warry how they hazarded their soules for any worldly gaine which they could find about the inquisitors feet As for the mercat dayes I grante it was a great griefe to the Church to see the sabbath day profaned by handy labour and journeying by occasion of the munday-mercats in the most of the great tounes for remedie heerof many supplications have been made by the Assembly to the Parliament but so long as our Bishops satte there these petitiones of the Church were alwayes eluded for the praelats labour in the whole Iland was to have the sunday no Sabbath and to procure by their Doctrine and example the profanation of that day by all sorts of playes
to the end people might be brought back to their old licentiousnes and ignorance by which the Episcopall Kingdome was advanced It was visible in Scotland that the most eminent Bishops were usual players on the Sabbath even in time of divine service And so soone as they were cast out of the Parliament the Churches supplications were granted and acts obtained for the carefull sanctification of the Lords day and removing of the mercats in all the land from the Munday to other dayes of the week The Warners nixt challenge of our usurpation is the assembly at Edinburgh 1567 their ratifying of acts of Parliament and summoning of all the country to appeare at the nixt assembly Ans. If the Warner had knowne the history of that time he would have choysed rather to have omitted this challenge then to have proclaimed to the world the great rottennesse of his own heart at that time the condition of the Church and Kingdome of Scotland was lamentable the Queen was declared for popery King James's Father was cruelly without any cause murthered by the Earle of Bothwell King James himselfe in his infancy was very neare to have been destroyed by the murtherer of his Father there was no other way conceivable of saftie for Religion for the infant King for the Kingdome but that the Protestantes should joine together for the defence of King James against these popish murtherers For this end the generall assembly did crave conference of the secrete counsel and they with mutual advise did call for a meeting of the whole Protestant party which did conveen at the time appointed most frequently in an extraordinary and mixed assembly of all the considerable persons of the Religion Earles Lords Barrons Gentlemen Burgesses and Ministers and subscribed a bond for the revenge of King Henryes death and the defence of King Iames his life This mixed and extraordinary assembly made it one of the chiefe articles in their bond to defend these Actes of the Parliament 1560 concerning religion and to endeavour the ratification of them in the nixt ensuing Parliament As for the assemblies letter to their Brethren for so frequent a meeting at the nixt extraordinary assembly it had the authority of the secret counsel it was in a time of the greatest necessity when the Religion and liberties of the land were in evident hazard from the potent and wicked counsels of the popish party both at home and abroad when the life of the young King was daily in visible danger from the hands of them who had murthered his Father and ravished his Mother Lesse could not have been done in such a juncture of time by men of wisedom and courage who had any love to their Religion King and country but the resolution of our praelats is to the contrary when a most wicked villaine had obtained the connivance of a Queen to kill her husband and to make way for the killing of her Son in his Cradle and after these murders to draw a nation Church from the true Religion established by Law into popery and a free Kingdome to an illegall Tyranny in this case there may be no meeting either of Church or State to provide remedies against such extraordinary mischiefes Beleeve it the Scotes were never of this opinion What is subjoined in the nixt paragraph of our Churches praesumption to abolish acts of Parliament is but a repetition of what is spoken before Not only the lawes of Scotland but equity and necessity referres the ordinary reformation of errours and abuses in Religion to the Ecclesiasticall assemblies what they find wrong in the Church though ratified by acts of Parliament they rectify it from the word of God and thereafter by petition obtaines their rectification to be ratifyed in a following Parliament and all former acts to the contrary to be annulled This is the ordinary Methode of proceeding in Scotland and as I take it in all other States and Kingdomes Were Christians of old hindred to leave paganisme and embrace the Gospell till the emperiall lawes for paganisme and against Christianity were revoked did the oecumenicall and National Synods of the auncients stay their reformation of heresies and corruptions in religion till the lawes of State which did countenance these errors were cancelled Was not popery in Germany France and Britaine so firmely established as civil lawes could doe it It seems the Warner heer does joyne with his Brother Issachar to proclaime all our Reformers in Britaine France and Germany to be Rebells for daring by their preachings and Assemblies to change these things which by acts of Parliaments had been approven before new Parliaments had allowed of their reformation Neverthelesse this plea is foolishly intended against us for the Ministers protestation against the acts of Parliament 1584 establishing in that houre of darknes iniquity by a law and against the acts of the Assembly of Glasgow declaring the unlawfulnesse of Bishops and ceremonies which some Parliaments upon Episcopall mis-information had approven both these actions of the Church were according to former Lawes and were ratified afterward by acts of Parliament yet standing in force which for the Warner a privatman and a stranger to challenge is to contemne much more grossly the law then they doe whom here he is accusing of that crime By the nixt Story the Warner will gaine nothing when the true case of it is knowne In King Iames minority one Captaine Iames Stuart did so farre prevail upon the tender and unexperienced yeares of the Prince as to steale his countenance unto acts of the greatest oppression so farre that Iames Hamelton Earle of Arran the nixt to the King in blood in his health a most gallant Prince and a most zealous professor of the true Religion in time of his sicknes when he was not capable to commit any crime against the State was notwithstanding spoiled of all his lively hood and liberty his Lands and honour with the dignity of high Chancelor of Scotland were conferred on that very wicked Tyrant Captain Iames a number of the best affected and prime nobility impatient of such unheard-of oppressiones with meere boasts and no violence at the road of Ruthven chased away that unhappy chancelor from the Kings persone this his Majestie for the time professed to take in so good part that under his hand he did allow it for good service in his letters to the most of the Neighbour princes he dealt also with the secrete counsel and the chiefe judicatories of the land and obtained from them the approbation of that act of the Lords as convenient and laudable promising likewise to ratify it in the nixt ensuing Parliament When the Lords for their more abundante cleering required the Assemblies declaration there upon the Ministers declined to medle at all with the case but the Kings Majestie sent his Commissioners to the Assembly entreating them withall earnestnesse to declare their good liking of that action which he assured them was for his
doubting for conscience sake his Majestie might lay aside Episcopacy and set up the Presbytery so fully as is required in all his dominions though not upon a divine right which the Presbyterians beleeve yet upon Erastus royall right which the Warner here and elsewhere avouches What the Warner puts heere again upon the Presbyterie the usurpation of the temporall sword in what indirect relation so ever its probation in the former chapter was found so weake and naughty that the repetition of it is for no use only wee marke that the Warner will have the Presbitery to be an absolute papacy for no other purpose but to vent his desire of revenge against the Presbyterians who gave in a challenge against the Praelats especially the late Canterburians among whom Doctor Bramble was one of some note to which none of them have returned to this howre an answer that their principles unavoidably did bring backe the pope For a Patriarch over all the westerne Churches and among all the Patriarches of the whole Catholick Church a primacy in the Roman flowes cleerly out of the fountaine of Episcopacy according to the avowed doctrine of the English praelats who yet are more liberall to the pope in granting him beside his spirituall super-inspection of the whole Catholick Church all his temporall jurisdictions also in the patrimony of St. Peter and all his other faire principalities within and without Italy There is no ceremony in Rome that these men stick upon for of all the superstitious and idolatrous ceremonies of Rome their images and altars and adorations before them are incomparably the worst yet the Warners friends without any recantation we have heard of avow them all even an adoration of and to the altar it selfe As for the doctrines of Rome what points are worse then these which that party have avowed in expresse tearmes a corporall presence of Christs body upon the Altar the Tridentine justification free-will finall apostacy of the Saints when no other thing can be answered to this our sore challenge it is good to put us off with a Squib that the Presbyterie is as absolute papacy as ever was in Rome The Presbyterian position which the Warner heere offers not to dispute but to laugh at that Christ as King of his Church according to his royall office and Scepter hes appointed the office-bearers and lawes of the house is accorded to by the most and sharpest of our adversaries whether English or Romish as their owne tenet howbeit such foolish consequences that all acts of Synods must be Christs Lawes c. neither they nor wee doe acknowledge His declamations against the novelty of the Presbyterie in the ordinary stile of the Jesuites against Protestants and of the pagan Philosophers against the Christians of old who will regarde our plea for the Praesbyterie is that it is scripturall if so it is auncient enough if not let it be abolished But it were good that heer also the Warner and his friends would be ingenuous to speake out their minds of Episcopacy Why have they all so long deceived the King in assuring him that English Episcopacy was wel warranted both by Scripture and antiquity Be it so which yet is very false that something of a Bishop distinct from a Presbyter had any footing in Scripture yet can they be so impudent as to affirme that an English Bishop in his very flesh and blood in his substantiall limbs was ever knowne in the World till the pope was become Antichrist A Bishop by virtue of his office a Lord in Parliament voycing in all acts of State and exercising the place of a high Thesaurer of a Chancelor or what ever civill charge the favour of a Prince did put upon him a Bishop with sole power of ordination and jurisdiction with out any Presbytery a Bishop exercising no jurisdiction himselfe in any part of his dioces but devolving the exercise of that power wholly upon his officials Commissaries a Bishop ordaining Presbyters himselfe alone or with the fashionall assistance of any two Presbyters who chaunce to be neare a Bishop the only Pastor of the whole dioces and yet not bound to feed any flock either by word or Sacrament or governement but having a free liberty to devolve all that service upon others and himself to wayte at court so many yeares as he shall think fit This is our English Bishop not only in practise but in law and so was hee defended by the great disputants for praelacy in England But now let the Warner speake out if any such treasure can more be defended or was ever knowne in scripture or seen in any Christian Church for 800. yeares and above after the death of Christ. I take it indeed to be conscience that forces now at last the best of our Court-divines to devest their Bishop of all civill imployment in Parliament court or Kingdome in denying his solitarines in ordination in removing his officiall and Commissary courts in taking away all his arches Arch Bishops Arch Deacons deane and Chapter and all the c. in erecting Presbyteries for all ordinations and spirituall jurisdiction It is good that conscience moves our adversaries at last to come this farre towards us but why will they not yet come nearer to acknowledge that by these their to lately recanted errours they did to long trouble the world and that the little which yet they desire to keepe of a Bishop is nothing lesse then that English Bishop but a new creature of their own devising never known in England which his Majestie in no honnour is obliged to mantaine for any respect either to the lawes or customes of England and least of all for conscience While the Warner with such confidence avowes that no text of Scripture can be alleadged against Episcopacy which may not with more reason be applyed against the Presbytery behold I offer him here some few casting them in a couple of arguments which according to his great promises I wish he would answer at his leasure First I doe reason from Ephesians 4. 11 all the officers that Christ has appointed in his Church for the Ministry of the word are either Apostles Evangelists Prophets Pastors or Doctors but Bishops are none of these fyve Ergo they are none of the officers appointed by Christ for the Ministry of the word The Major is not wonte to be questioned the minor thus I prove Bishops are not Apostles Evangelists nor prophets for it s confessed all these were extraordinary and temporary officers but Bishops say yow are ordinary and perpetuall our adversaries pitch upon the fourth alleadging the Episcopall office to be pastorall but I prove the Bishop no Pastor thus no Pastor is superior to other Pastors in any spirituall power but according to our adversary a Bishop is superior to all the Pastors of his dioces in the power of ordination and jurisdiction Ergo. The doubt heer is only of the Major which I prove Argumento Ã
paribus no Apostle is superior to an Apostle nor an Evangelists to an Evangelist nor prophet to a prophet nor a Doctour to a Doctour in any spirituall power according to scripture Ergo no Pastor to a Pastor Againe I reason from 1. Tim. 4. 14. Math 18. 15. 1. Cor. 5. 4. 12. 13 What taks the power of ordination and jurisdiction from Bishops destroyes Bishops as the removall of the soule kills the man and the denyall of the forme takes away the subject so the power of ordination and jurisdiction the essentiall forme whereby the Bishop is constitute and distinguished from the Presbyter and every other Church officer being removed from him he must perish but the quoted places take away cleerly these powers from the Bishop for the first puts the power of ordination in the Presbytery and a Bishop is not a Presbytery the second puts the power of jurisdiction in the Church and the third in a company of men which meet together but the Bishop is not the Church nor a company of men met together for these be many and he is but one persone When the Doctors learning hes satisfied us in these two he shall receave more scripturall arguments against Episcopacy But why doe wee expect answers from these men when after so long time for all their boasts of learning and their visible leasure none of their party hes hade the courage to offer one word of answer to the Scriptures and Fathers which in great plenty Mr. Parker and Mr. Didoclave of old and of late that miracle of learning most noble Somais and that Magazin of antiquity Mr. Blondel have printed against them What in the end of the Chapter the Warner addes of our trouble at King James his fiftie and five questions 1596 and of our yeelding the bucklers without any opposition till the late unhappy troubles we answer that in this as every where else the Warner proclaines his great and certaine knowledge of our Ecclesiastick story the troubles of the Scots divines at that time were very small for the matter of these questions all which they did answer so roundly that ther was no more speach of them therafter by the propounders but the manner and time of these questions did indeed perplex good men to see Erastian and Prelaticall counsellors so farr to prevaile with our King as to make him by captious questions carpe at these parts of Church-discipline which by statuts of Parliament and acts of Assemblyes were fully established Our Church at that time was far from yeelding to Episcopacy great trouble indeed by some wicked States-men was then brought upon the persones of the most able and faithfull Ministers but our land was so far from receiving of Bishops at that time that the question was not so much as proposed to them for many yeares thereafter it was in Ann. 1606 that the English Praelats did move the King by great violence to cast many of the best and most learned Preachers of Scotland out of their charges and in Ann. 1610 that a kind of Episcopacy was set up in the corrupt assembly of Glasgow under which the Church of Scotland did heavily groane till the yeare 1637 when their burdens was so much increased by the English praelaticall Tax-masters that all was shaken of together and divine justice did so closly follow at the heeles that oppressing praelacy of England as to the great joy of the long oppressed Scotes that evill root and all its branches was cast out of Britaine where wee trust no shadow of it shall ever againe be seen CHAP. IX The Common-wealth is no monster when God is made Soveraigne and their commands of men are subordinated to the clear will of God HAving cleered the vanity of these calumnious challenges wherewith the Warner did animate the King and all Magistrates against the Presbyterians let us try if his skill be any greater to inflame the people against it Hee would make the World beleeve that the Presbyterians are great transsubstantiators of whole Common-wealths into beasts and Metamorphosers of whole Kingdomes of men into Serpents with two heads how great and monstrous a Serpent must the Presbytery be when shee is the Mother of a Dragon with two heads But it is good that she has nothing to doe with the procreation of the Dragon with seven heads the great Antichrist the Pope of Rome this honour must bee left to Episcopacy the Presbytery must not pretend to any share in it The Warners ground for his pretty fimilitude is that the Presbyterians make two Soveraignities in every Christian State whose commands are contrary Ans. All the evill lyeth in the contrariety of the commands as for the double Soveraignity ther is no shew of truth in it for the Presbyterians cannot bee guilty of coordinating two Soveraignities in one State though the Praelats may wel be guilty of that fault since they with there Masters of Rome mantaine a true hierarchie a Spirituall Lord-ship a domination and principality in their Bishops above all the members of the Church but the Presbyterians know no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no dominion no Soveranity in Church officers but a meer ministry under Christ. As for the contrariety of commands its true Christs Ministers must publish all the commands oftheir Soveraigne Lord whereunto no command of any temporall Prince needs or ought to be contrary but if it fall out to bee so it is not the Presbytery but the holy Scriptures which command rather to obey God then man Dare the Warner heere oppose the Presbyterians dare he mantaine a subordination of the Church to the State in such a fashion that the cleer commands of God published by the Church ought to give place to the contrary commands of the State if the Warner must needs invert and contradict Christ ruling of this case let him goe on to preach doctrine point blank to the Apostles that it is better to obey men then God It falls out as rarely in Scotland as any where in the world that the Church and State run contrary wayes but if so it happen the commune rules of humane direction towards right and wrong judgement must be followed if a man find either the Church or the State or both command what he knowes to be wrong for neither the one nor the other hath any infallibility their is no doubt but either or both may be disobeyed yet with this difference that for disobedience to the Churches most just commands a man can not fall under the smallest temporall inconvenient without the States good pleasure but for his disobedience to the most unjust commands of the State he must suffer what ever punishment the law does inflict without any releefe from the Church Two instances are brought by the Warner of the Church and States contrary commands the first the King commanded Edenburgh to feast the frensh Ambassadours but the Church commanded Edenburgh to fast that day when the King desired them to feast
The fourth hurt is that every ordinary Presbyter wil make himselfe a Noblemans fellow Ans. No where in the World does gracious Ministers though meane borne men receive more respect from the Nobility then in Scotland neither any where does the Nobility and gentry receive more duely their honour then from the Ministers there That insolent speach fathered on Mr. Robert Bruce is demonstrat to be a fabulous calumny in the historicall vindication How ever the Warner may know that in all Europe where Bishops have place it hes ever at least these 800 yeares been their nature to trample under foot the highest of the Nobility As the Pope must be above the Emperour so a little Cardinal Bellarmin can tell to King Iames that hee may well be counted a companion of any Ilander King were the Bishops in Scotland ever content till they got in Parliament the right hand and the nearest seates to the throne and the doore of the greatest Earles Marquesses and duks was it not Episcopacy that did advance poore and capricious pedants to strive for the whyte staves great Seales of both Kingdomes with the prime Nobility and often overcome them in that strife In Scotland I know and the Warner will assure for England and Ireland that the basest borne of his brethren hes ruffled it in the secreet counsel in the royall Exchequer in the highest courts of justice with the greatest Lords of the Land it s not so long that yet it can be forgotten since a Bishop of Galloway had the modesty to give unto a Marquise of Argile tanta mont to a broadly in his face at the counsel table The Warner shall doe well to reckon no more with Presbyters for braving of Noblemen The nixt hee will have to bee wronged by the Presbytery are the orthodoxe clergy Ans. All the Presbyterians to him it seemes are heterodoxe Episcopacy is so necessary a truth that who denies it must be stamped as for a grievous errour with the character of heterodox The following words cleere this to be his mind they losse saith hee the confortable assurance of undoubted succession by Episcopall ordination what sence can be made of these words but that all Ministers who are not ordained by Bishops must lie under the confortlesse uncertainty of any lawfull succession in their ministeriall charge for want of this succession through the lineall descent of Bishops from the Apostles at least for want of ordination by the hands of Bishops as if unto them only the power of mission and ordination to the Ministry were committed by Christ because of this defect the Presbyterian Ministers must not only want the confort of an assured and undoubted calling to the Ministry but may very well know and be assured that their calling and Ministry is null The words immediatly following are scraped out after their printing for what cause the author lest knoweth but the purpose in hand makes it probable that the deletted words did expresse more of his mind then it was safe in this time and place to speake out it was the late doctrine of Doctor Brambles prime friends that the want of Episcopall ordination did not only annuall the calling of all the Ministers of France Holland Zwit-zerland and Germany but also did hinder all these societies to be true Churches for that popular Sophisme of the Jesuits our praelats did greedily swallow where are no true Sacraments there is no true Church and where is no true Ministry there are no true Sacraments and where no true ordination there is no true ministry and where no Bishops there is no true ordination and so in no reformed country but in England and Ireland where were true Bishops is any true Church When Episcopacy comes to this height of elevation that the want of it must annull the Ministry yea null the Church and all the Reformed at one strock is it any mervaill that all of them doe concurre together for their own preservation to abolish this insolent abaddon and destroyer and notwithstanding all its ruine have yet no disconfort at all nor any the least doubt of their most lawfull ordination by the hands of the Presbytry After all this was writen as heer it stands another copie of the Warners book was brought to my hand wherin I found the deleted line stand printed in these distinct tearmes and put it to a dangerous question whither it be within the payle of the Church the deciphering of these words puts it beyond all peradventure that what I did conjecture of the Warner and his Brethrens minde of the state of all the reformed Churches was no mis-take but that they doe truely judge the want of Episcopall ordination to exclude all the Ministers of other Reformed Churches and their flocks also from the lines of the true Church This indeed is a most dangerous question for it stricks at the root of all If the Warner out of remorse of conscience had blotted out of his book that errour the repentance had been commendable But he hes left so much yet behind unscraped out as does shew his minde to continue what it was so that feare alone to provoke the reformed heere at this unseasonable time seemes to have been the cause of deleting these too cleare expressions of the praelaticall tenet against the very being and subsistence of all the Protestant Churches which want Episcopacy when these mē doe still stand upon the extreame pinacle of impudency and arrogance denying the Reformed to be true Churches and without scuple averring Rome as shee stands this day under the counsel of Trent to be a Church most true wherin there is an easy way of salvation from which all separation is needlesse and with which are-union were much to be desired That gracious faction this day is willing enough to perswade or at least to rest content without any opposition that the King should of himselfe without and before a Parliament though contrary to many standing Lawes grant under his hand and seale a full liberty of Religion to the bloody Irish and to put in their hands both armes Castles and prime Places of trust in the State that the King should give assurance of his endeavour to get all these ratified in the nixt Parliament of England these men can heare with all moderation and patience but behold their furious impatience their whole art and industry is wakned when they heare of any appearance of the Kings inclination towards covenanting Protestants night and day they beate in his Majesties head that all the mischieves of the world does lurke in that miserable covenant that death and any misfortune that the ruine of all the Kingdomes ought much rather to bee imbraced by his Majestie then that prodigious Monster that very hell of the Covenant because forsooth it doth oblige in plane tearmes the taker to endeavour in his station the abolition of their great Goddesse praelacy The nixt hurt of Ministers from the Presbytry is that by it they
a long time was willing to acknowledge the Parliaments jointe interest in the militia yea to put the whole militia in their hands alone for a good number of yeares to come so farre was his Majestie from the thoughts that the Parliaments medling with a parte of the militia in the time of evident dangers should be so certainly and clearly the crime of rebellion The Warners second demonstrative ground wee admit without question in the major that where the matter is evidently unlawfull the oath is not binding but the application of this in the minor is very false All that hee brings to make it appeare to be true is that the King is the supreame Legislator that it is unlawfull for the subjects of England to change any thing established by Law especially to the prejudice of the Praelats without their own consent they being a third order of the Kingdom otherwise it would be a harder measure then the Friers and Abbots received from Henry the eight Ans. May the Warner be pleased to consider how farre his dictats heere are from all reason much more from evident demonstrations That the burden of Bishops and ceremonies was become so heavy to all the three Kingdomes that there was reason to endeavour their laying aside he does not offer to dispute but all his complanit runnes against the manner of their removall this say I was done in no other then the ordinary and high path-way whereby all burdensome Lawes and customes use to be removed Doth not the Houses of Parliament first begin with their ordinance before the Kings consent be sought to a Law is not an ordinance of the Lords and Commons a good warrant to change a former Law during the sitting of the Parliament The Lawes and customes of England permit not the King by his dissent to stoppe that change I grant for the turning an ordinance to a standing Law the Kings consent is required but with what qualifications and exceptions wee need not heere to debate since his Majesties consent to the present case of abolishing Bishops was obtained well neere as farre as was desired and what is yet lacking wee are in a faire way to obtaine it for the Kings Majestie long agoe did agree to the rooting out of Episcopacy in Scotland he was willing also in England and Ireland to put them out of the Parliament and all civil courts and to divest them of all civil power and to joyne with them Presbyteries for ordination and spirituall jurisdiction yea to abolish them totally name and thing not only for three yeares but ever till he and his Parliament should agree upon some setled order for the Church was not this Tantamont to a perpetuall abolition for all and every one in both houses having abjured Episcopacy by solemne oath and Covenant the Parliament was in no hazard of agreing with the King to re-erect the fallen chaires of the Bishops so there remained no other but that either his Majestie should come over to their judgement or by his not agreing with them yet really to agree with them in the perpetuall abolition of Episcopacy since the concession was for the laying Bishops aside ever till hee and his houses had agreed upon a settled order for the Church If this be not a full and formall enough consent to the ordinance of changing the former Lawes anent praelats his Majestie who now is easily may and readily would supply all such defects if some of the faction did not continually for their own evill interests whisper in his eares pernicious counsel as our Warner in this place also doeth by frighting the King in conscience from any such consent for this end he casts out a discourse the sinshews whereof are in these three Episcopall maximes First that the legislative power is sollie in the King that is according to his Brethrens Cōmentary that the Parliament is but the Kings great counsel of free choyce without or against whose votes hee may make or unmake what Lawes he thinks expedient but for them to make any ordinance for changing without his consent of any thing that has been or instituting any new thing or for them to defend this their legall right and custome time out of mind against the armes of the Malignant party no man may deny it to be plaine rebellion II. That the King and Parliament both together cannot make a Law to the praejudice of Bishops without their own consent they being the third order of the Kingdome for albeit it be sacriledge in the Lords and Commons to clame any the smallest share of the legislative power this i◅ them were to pyck the chiefest jewel out of the Kings Crowne yet this must be the due priviledge of the Bishops they must be the third order of the Kingdome yea the first and most high of the three far above the other two temporall States of Lords and Commons their share in the Legislative power must be so great that neither King nor Parliament can passe any Law without their consent so that according to their humble protestation all the Lawes and acts which have been made by King and Parliament since they were expelled the house of Lords are cleerly voide and null That the King and Parliament in divesting Bishops of their temporall honour and estats in abolishing their places in the Church doe sin more against conscience then did Henry the eight and his Parliament when they put down the Abbots and the Fryers Wee must beleeve that Henry the eight his abolishing the order of Monks was one of the acts of his greatest Tyranny and greed wee must not doubt but according to Law and reason Abbots and priours ought to have kept still their vote in Parliament that the Monasteryes and Nunryes should have stood in their integrity that the King and Parliament did wrong in casting them down and that now they ought in conscience to be set up againe yea that Henry the eight against all reason and conscience did renounce his due obedience to the Pope the Patriarch of the West the first Bishop of the universe to whom the superinspection and government of the whole Catholick Church in all reason doth belong Though all this be heere glaunced at by the Warner and elsewhere hee prove it to be the declared mind of his Brethren yet we must be pardoned not to accept them as undenyable principles of cleare demonstrations The last ground of the Doctors demonstration is that the covenant is ane oath to set up the Presbyterian government in England at it is in Scotland and that this is contrary ◅o the oath of Supremacy for the oath of Supremacy makes the King the only supreame head and governour of the Church of England that is the civil head to see that every man doe his duty in his calling also it gives the King a supreame power over all persons in all causes but the Presbytery is a politicall papacie acknowledging no governours but
stated to be the controversie between us The Presbyterian aberrations which the Bishop hath observed are for the most part taken from the crookenesse of the Discipline it selfe which in the very Acts of their Assemblies he findes not so straight as to run parallel with the word of God or practice of the true Catholike Church whether what His Lordship cites to that purpose be calumnious imputations or no will best appeare in the procedure of our discourse But the Reviewer takes it ill that Didoclave Gerson Bucer Salmasius Blondel were not rather replied to then the mysteries of the Kirke Discipline revealed This poor tricke of diversion will not take If what hath been writ in the behalfe of Episcopacie stand firme notwithstanding these or any other stormes that passe over it requires no such frequent reparations The holie cause indeed will shortlie need such auxiliaries as these He doth well therefore to call for them in time And yet it may be the imcomparable knight will not be charm'd by a litle mercenarie breath into the reare of a distressed beggarlie engagement He hath been since better informed of many fraudulent practices in the Kirke so well satisfied about the state of our affaires that Mr. Baylie is litle pleased for all his sugar candi'd commendations with the earnest he hath allreadie given to imploy his pen paines about a better subject for the future And 't is a mere fiction what he so confidentlie averres of Sr. Claud Somayi's offering to dispute with the Divines by a Person of honour about the King a person of reverence then not farre from him having told me that His Majestie knowes not any thing of the buisinesse nor did the Divines about him heare of any thing to that purpose Therfore let his person of honour come out from behind the curtaine vouch his credit to be such as quolibet contradicente we must believe him when he appeares in his colours makes good any such offer as is mention'd I presume I may say that no apprehensions of trouble hazard will deterre such judicious and learned Champions from entring upon any just reasonable vindication of truth In the meane time they doe but the dutie of their places in their Royal attendance which the Reviewer calls the Court artifice their trade if they watch the seasons distribute the houres of the Kings opportunities wherein privatelie to avoyd the importune intervention of other civile businesse not to decline I know not what contradiction which they are not in that case reasonablie to expect from their modest fellow servants of the laitie I hope there are no Clerical Disciplinarians there about to instill into His Majesties tender mind how unsafe it is for his soul how litle for his honour to desert the Holie Church that is the Episcopal doctrine government which came into the world with Christianitie it selfe hath for 1500 yeares enjoy'd a joint haereditarie succession aequi-universall diffusion with the same to joyne with a crew in a Northerne corner of rebellious Covenanters if yow will have it so for ought hitherto can be judg'd enemies to God to his Father to Monarchie it selfe if he will take it upon his Father or Grandfathers word To put him sarther in mind that his Martyr'd Father sayd There are wayes enough to repair the breaches of the state without the ruine of the Church it is the Episcopal Church that he meanes To instruct him that he may as conscientiouslie pardon the Irish as the Scots reward with a limited libertie of their Religion what other gracious encouragements he pleaseth the first fruits of their voluntarie submission to his government without imposing the slaveric of any covenant or conditioning for a toleration in his other Kingdomes And this to be as it is in reference to a Parliament to be conven'd so soon as the state of that Kingdome will admit To assure him that this is very consistent with conscience honour all Good reason for ought they know repugnant to no law yea to linke the soul of the most sweet ingenuous of Princes too sweet too ingenuous indeed to have to deale with the rough-hev'd Covenanters of the mission with those Golden chaines let downe from heaven reached out by the hand of a tender hearted father to his sonne in those peerlesse Counsels which the most prudent advice in the last Testaments of all his praedecessours can not parallel To tell him then That his necke is like the tower of David builded for an armourie whereon there hang a thousand bucklers all shields of mightie men The Bishops unlâ—…ckie foot as he calls it is visible onely in Mr. Baylie's margin As close as he others follow upon the sent not the least tracke in e'ikôn Basilikè will in the end be found by them nor by the whole packe of bloud-hounds other where But to be sure here as well as in 100 Pamphlets beside is the foule Scotish Presbyterian paw which besmear'd His Royal Majestie while he liv'd would now spoyle that pretious oyntment cast as ill a savour as it can upon his sacred memorie being dead Not the Bishops but God it may be sometime by their subordinate Ministrie strengthened our Royal Soveraigne to his last in that which the lampe of natural reason the leading starre of Catholike Antiquitie the bright sun in the firmament of the Word above all that inexpressible light streaming from the spirit of God revealed to him to be the safe sanctuarie of truth Not the Bishops but the Presbyterian Scots hardened their hearts to thrust their native King out of their protection with out any compassion did drive him from Newcastle to Holmebie which appeares to be the fatal praecipice where he fell And these same men continue after his death to crie loud in the cares of his sonne to take that direct path to his ruine rather then root or branch or slip shall be left of the Praelatical Clergie whom they would faine have lie like dung upon the face of the earth make a fat soile to pamper the Presbyterian in his lusts Their gathering together His Majesties papers if they must needs have the honour of causing them to be presented in a booke with out a page or syllable of their owne was but binding up that bundle of myrrhe which should lie all night in the Virgin breast of his Royal sonne who maugre all the malice of his enemies hath that beloved for his comfort That fall of ungracious dew as the Reviewer Diabolically calls it came from an higher region then the Bishops It was the judgement of God given to the King by him his righteousnesse to the Kings sonne It is he that here comes downe like raine into this fleece of wool this most soft sweet ingenuous of Princes in gentle
they could So that this straight tie can in some cases we see play fast loose the strictnesse of it whereof we have had so sad an experiment will be found onelie by the hands of the holie leaguers for such we know were the newnam'd Independents at first to bind Religion Majestie Loyaltie to the blocke then lay the axe to the root of them all stifle them from repullulating if they can Therefore they that manage the conscience whether of Court or Citie or Countrey doe well if they possesse their Religious votaries with a particular full sense of the inevitable miserie that will follow them if they be catchd in this noose advise them to whip all such sawcie beggars such Whying Covenanters from their gates The next taske of the Reuiewers Engineer-ship is to draw an out worke about the open unkindnesse treason pretilie qualisied in the terme against the observe he sayth not our late King which he makes of so large a compasse that all the Presbyterian credit he can raise will never be able to maintaine it for an houre which this skillfull officer foreseeing despaire puts him first upon a salie where the Ghosts of Wicklisfe Husse Luther with a brazen piece of falshood his Disciples are draw'n out to assault his dangerous enemie in his trench For which he knowes as well as I can tell him there are other parts of the Reformed world beside England those of Luthers Disciples that keep up Episcopacie to this day And forgetting in part what he hath sayd allreadie minding lesse what he shall babble otherwhere about the businesse he tells us here 't is the violence of ill advised Princes which when he pleaseth he makes the Policie of the Bishops themselves that hath kept up this limbe of Antichrist he meanes the Episcopal order in England Since the first Reformation whence hath come the perpetual trouble in our land the Historie of the Schismatical Puritanâ—… will sufficientlie satisfie any man that will search And how the Church Kingdome are now at last come so neare the ground the Disciplinarian practices will evidence But the Scotish Presbyterie that gave the first kicke at the miter hath since lift up the other leg against the Crowne may chance to catch the fall in the end having now much adoe to light upon its feet Having made his retreat he begins to endeavour the maintaining of his masterpiece by degrees tell us Their first contests stand justified this day by King Parliament in both Kingdomes Ans And must so stand I say not jufied till King Parliament meet once againe in either to consider whether with out a new ratification by their favour your after contests make not a just forfeiture of their gracious condescension to your first His Majestie of ever blessed memorie hath told you His charitie Act of Pacification sorbids him to reflect on former passages Which argues some such passages to have been as were not very meritorious of his favour And though his Royal charitie may silence it doth not justisie your contests by that Act. The borders of Scotland being as well His Majestics as yours though you keep to your Presbyterian style which affords no proprietie to others then themselves yeilds very litle communitie to Kings the King our borders I hope it was free for him to move toward them as he pleas'd If your resistance to the Magistrates he deputed made him for the securitie of his person come attended with an armie for his guard or if the rod axe could inflict no paenal justice by vertue of the judge's word upon a banded companie of miscreants at home therefore sent abroad to crave the regular assistance of the sword no lawes of God nor your Countrey dictates any just or necessarie defense which is nothing but an unjustifiable rebellion Nor can Dunce law so justifie your meeke lying downe in your armes but that if the King would have made his passage to you with his sword you might have justlie been by a more learned law helpt up with a halter about your necke The novations in Religion were not such a world but that two words Liturgie Canons may compasse it What was in them contrarie to the lawes of God hath a blanke margin still that requires your proofe that any were to the lawes of your Countrey will never be made good having the King Lords of the Counsel I meane those of your Kingdome that did approve them The power in your armie to dissipate the Kings is but a litle of Pyrgopolynices breath The easie conditions given you to retreat may be attributed to His Majesties mercie aversenesse from bloud not to his apprehension of your power The Kings second coming toward you with an armie was upon no furious motion of the Bishops who had no stroke in his Councel for warre but upon the fierie trial you put him to by that many flagrant provocations wherewith you other incendiaries nearer home daylie environ'd him who fearing the precedent accommodation by peace might afford respite for a farther more particular discoverie of the principal actours in contributers toward the late warre expose many considerable brethren to a legal trial notwithstanding the agreement contracted impatient ambition having allreadie been too much impeded by observing the easie conditions you mention made the first breach according to the right account first rais'd a militarie power which His Majestie had very good reason to suppresse The successe you had by your first impression upon part of His Majesties Armie at New-bourne your easie purchace of the Towne of New-Castle was not such as cleard the passage to London without the farther hazard of which you were too well payd for your stay in Northumberland instead of a rod that was due you caried too honourable a badge at your backes of His Majesties meekncsse when the second time you returned in peace What passed after your packing away to the raising of the new armie you speake of you may reade blush if you have any grace in the former part of His martyr'd Majesties booke if you have none you may as I beleeve you doe laugh in your slovenlie slecve to see your prompt scholars come to so good perfection copie your owne rebellion to the life The Bishops then were litle at leisure to looke abroad to any such purpose being happie if they could get an house for their shelter from the threats stones that flew very thicke about their cares the rabble rout at London by that time being well inform'd what effectual weapons stones stooles such like as surie on a sodaine could furnish had been against blacke gownes white sleeves at Edenburgh before That any armie could at that time be raised when the Kings Forts Magazines Militia Navie were seizd into the hands of
see a bargaine was driving between craftie merchants till having clapt hands the one brought his rich commoditie to Holmebie the other pay'd his money at New-Castle The unexpected evil for I must alter the number admit of none but the murder of the King that followed which no mortal eye could foresce any mortal heart might fore scare the well affected brethren have prevented if they pleas'd The Armies rebellion is very nonsignificant language from your pen unlesse figurativelie expressing the vengeance of God upon that rebellious citie which with her golden cup had made the Land drunke the Nations mad with the abundance of her wine What you call destroying the Parliament was but the plucking up throwing out of the way that rotten root the stocke fairest branches whereof had been cut downe by the keen axe of a violent vote long before How readie these Scots which the Reviewer must vindicate were to the utmost of their power to have prevented the mischiefe in the murder of the King what hazard they ran of what was dearest to them appeares by their hast to come in to Duke Hamiltons partie the large contributions they gave toward the raising an armie to that purpose To make good the proverbe Murder will out the next words implie the Reviewers confession The hard measure they had often receiv'd from the King stucke then in their stomakes would not out till now with their malice impostumated in his bloud That they did not in time unanimouslie stirre to purpose for that end they are indeed to answer it to God who were the true authours thereof And who they were let the Scotish pulpits I meane not their Presbyters speake out The innocencie of the Church is not cleard in the following treatise to be so much as Pilates they can not wash their hands in it nor their mouth They made the tumults they never asked what evill he had done this Royal bloudwill be upon them upon their children But here comes up a second part of their venemous vomit for though they cast the temptation upon the serpent they charge the original sinne upon the King The King gave not his good subjects satisfaction by granting all their demands which they found most necessarie due This they say by the mouth of the Reviewer was the cause of the many miseries if there be any connexion was the cause why they stirred not in time what 's the meaning of this but Caiphas's expedit It is very expedient very necessarie he die for these people thankes good Presbyter Scot pay this debt of satisfaction in his bloud Which conclusion is no sooner dispatched but like very logical Rebells they fall presentlie on making a new syllogisme prepare a second argument of the axe The very same cause ties up this day the hands of Covenanters could they have that is they can not have the young King to joyne with them in their covenant to quit his unhappie Bishops to lay aside his formal dead liturgie the satisfaction to his good subjects which they finde necessarie due He hath drawn some what beside his limbes from the loynes of his father though the serpent hath not reach'd him the fruit of the forbiden tree he hath transmitted as much malignance in the barke Ergo when they get him into their hands which God forbid t is but talking a litle with the Pharisees Priests taking the money according to the covenant They have made the premises may then sit at home with their hands in their pockets being well assur'd the conclusion must follow quia expedit It is very expedient another man because another King which the hand of heaven powerfullie prevent To draw him into the net this decoy ducke courts His Majestie with more truth then good meaning for he puts it into a parenthesis I'observe that when hereafter it shall be left out the Scotish Reviewer Remonstrances may not jarre in their expressions A lovelie hopefull promising Prince for all naturall endowments as this day breathes in Europe or for a long time has sway'd a Scepter in Britaine And yet this lovelie Prince without taking the Covenans c. shall not breath nor sway the scepter in Scotland With which some other ungracious principles a nest of these unluckie Northerne birds did latelie besiege him not in his cabin for his fathers worke lay upon their hands when he was there they wanting then the iron instrument to cut the silver cord of his life but in his Royal bedchamber at the Hague And going home it should seem by the weeping crosse they the good people because they can doe no more sit downe with mournsull eyes till occasion be administer'd that by Dunce law which holds as well against the sonne as the Father they can doe no lesse then lie downe in their armes for their just necessarie defense But they hold here 't is time I thinkâ—… for they have transgress'd too farre the bounds of an epistle CHAPTER I. The Scots bold address with the Covenant to K. Ch. 2 Their partie inconsiderable The Bishops method language matter asserted The quaestion in controversie unawares granted by the Reviewer WHile Sixe walking Images the pretended Commissioners of the Church Kingdome of Scotland that is to say a selected packe of the most zealous disciplinarian faction which had fairlie wrought the destruction of both were with the greatest impudence that ever was heard of pressing into His Majesties sad most disconsolate retirement at the Hague when he held backe the face of his throne had spread his cloud upon it When his face was foule with weeping on his eyelids the shadow of death While with the highest crueltie that could be instead of condoling his most lamentable afflictions beyond the tyrannie of Jobs comforters they were going about not onelie to lay open in his sight but to thrust violentlie that bloudie axe the Covenant I meane which had cut off his Royal Fathers head into his hands This reverend resolute Prelate steps in between them the Court throwes in their eyes the guilt not onelie of their late actions but of their old Antimonarchical as well as Antiprelaticall government it selfe not so much hoping to amuze them or stop them in their progresse to the King whose adamantine face elephantine feet he knew would breake through all the briars thornes that the hand of truth could cut out of that Northerne wildernesse of errour lay though ne'r so thicke in their way as to set the marke of that beast in their forhead which destroyes root branch of Religion Lawes of Regall Apostolical government yea of the libertie of the people that all well affected to any of these or themselves might have seasonable warning to get out of their way or gather strength to hunt
reference to its reception otherwhere because vested with the power of a civile law in Scotland nor is that law unalterable when a future Parliament may take into consideration the inconveniencies that accompanie it The Bishop need not be grieved being as ignorant as your selfe you are enough as King knowing as you would seem that His Majestie doth not at all question the justice because he doth not the legalitie of these sanctions Therefore his Lordship may thinke on speake on when he pleaseth more about this bussinesse yet vouch with out a maske loyaltie in his face nor for ought you draw from him need his veines be so emptie nor his stomake so sharpe set as to eate his former words much lesse be so desperate as to burne his whole booke the consistence of it with his toughts professions laying no slander upon the King his Royal Father of ignorance injustice the one having established the other offering to establish by your civile lawes such a Church discipline as is mentiond both having done it upon most unreasonable importunitie without any know'n inclination to or approbation of the same Farther what a slander this would prove upon your grounds beyond the irreverence toward any actions of a King which is haled hither in a forced consequence by the cords of your malice may be guessed by the Royal Father's confession in his solitude If any shall impute my yeilding to them the Scots as my failing sinne I can easilie acknowledge it but that is no argument to doe so agaiâ—…e or much more For the Royal sonne His Majestie now being you say he hath not yet gone beyond an offer therefore His Martyr'd Fathers poenitential acknowledgement of his failing sinne join'd to your seasonable admonition That there can be no such actual concession but upon the peril of ignorance or buge injustice except he ownes it aswell to be the religious dictate of his conscience as a poltike indulgence upon necessitie of state may probablie move him at leisure to deliberate whatsoever he shall determine to doe in this wherein God direct him for the best aswell for his owne sake as the saftie of his Kingdomes make him cautious hereafter how the importunitie of the mission gets ground upon his goodnesse when all his grants shall be so publikelie registred as conscientious acts by such barbarious pens deliver'd to posteritie as sealed with his soule The Bishops presumption in that which followes is none but what from the grounds of modest Christian charitie may be raised viz. That a knowing a just King such as your owne character renders him will acknowledge that contrarie to the dictates of his conscience which is proved contrarie to the lawes of God man And this may be proclaimed if not prohibited without being his Confessour or taking it from the Clerke of the closet in any whisper Nor doth your mistâ—…ust of reports beare authoritie enough to make His Majesties conscience passe for Presbyterian no more then that for a command or imposition by law which was by your petitionarie violence ravish'd from his passive innocencie into a grant So that you see in the very beginning you stumble at a strawe being to finde somewhat worse in your way you were best life your legs higher in your progresse How much the Disciplinarian Scots have contributed from the beginning toward the alteration of Religion in England is too large a storie to be inserted in this dispute Their old account the Rt Reverend Arch-Bishop Bancroft cast up in his Dangerous positions English Scotizing Discipline their later arreares ruu very high in the historie of our times beginning with his religious learned successour The losse of whose head is not more to be imputed to the peoples clamours then the Scotish papers Whatsoever they did before I hope they can not denie themselves to be one of the horned beasts which together with their English brethren make the supporters of the Presbyterian Rebells scutcheon in the Covenant This in their remonstrance upon their last inroad into England when their fainting brethren with the cause were giving up the ghost they tell the King plainlie they shall zealouslie constantlie in their severall vocations endeavour with their estates lives to persue advance This pursuance was against the King Bishops which with the Convocation of divines are the true full representatives of the Church of England The assemblie of Divines were but locusts caterpillars brought together at Westminster by a Northerne wind The lawes of England convocate no such creatures nor in such a maner King Parliament were mere names had then there no real being so no breath to such a purpose nor those in the two Houses afterward more then the heads on the top of them in any politike capacitie to ordaine the abolition of Episcopacie Beside what the Assemblie did deliberate debate poor mechanike people 't is very well know'n they did as daylie labourers sacrilegious hirelings spend the thred of their time in your service payd the price of their souls for a sequestration or two the Covenanting brethren's pillage of the Church So that if they began the song you know by whom they were payd for their paines if they danc'd not after your pipe poor scraping wretches they came at your call how soever you were in a medley together to be sure your Covenanting Divel had got you all into a circle will better distinguish you when he calls to you for his reâ—…koning But by your favour good Sir His Majestie kept out for the very three yeares you mention told you plainlie he would make one in the practike harmonie of the Catholike Church That permission for it was no more necessitie extorted though he could not at that time get you all into Bedlam he thought in thrce yeares you would pipe dance your selves wearie then be content to give way to a better solemnitie of the Cathedral musike to come in In the meane time estates lives engag'd in the advancement of the Covenant by the sword the end thereof being to setle discipline was medling with imposing upon our Church Quod erat demonstrandum The Bishop you see gives a shrewd guesse who they are you endeavour to brand with the name of Erastians how all Protestans Churches even such as are not Episcopal must be beholding to you for that title because they come not up to the rigour of your Discipline Wherein Erasttus slaterd the Magistrate to the prejudice of the just rights of the Church concernd you aswell to prove as to mention then to have draw'n a parallel of the like flaterie in the Bishop Your doubting argues you ignorant or negligent confirmes my beleefe that you have travail'd as litle in Erastus's doctrines as his wayes gone no farther then the title of his booke What His
for what I thinke in my judgement best I may not thinke so absolutelie necessarie for all places at all times Not so rooted setled not so absolutelie necessarie implies no act of everting the foundations both of Religion Government c. nor can such an act be so pleasing to Kings nor that order which is wholelie imployed therein win so much upon their affections judgements as to make them professe to the world they thinke it best as you see our King of blessed memorie hath done When England thereafter as you terme it did root out that unhappie plant they danc'd after the Scotish pipe though England was neither in that thing calld an assemblie nor in any full free Parliament that did it They were but a few rotten members that had strength enough then to articulate their malice in a vote but have since given up the ghost being cut downe by the independencie of the sword their presbyterie with them for a Stinking weed throw'n over the hedge or Severu's wall into Scotland where they their blew-bottle brethren are left to lie unpittied on the dunghill together The rest of the ReformedChurches otherwhere did never cast out what they never had such an happie plant as regular Episcopacie in their grounds those that have as some such I have told you there are carefullie keep it The one part hath been more wise in their actions the other more charitable to us in their words Let the Scots applaud or clap their hands when they please there is an act behind the plays ' not yet done CHAPTER II. The Scottish Discipline overthrowes the right of Magistrates to convocate Synods otherwise to order Ecclesiastical affaires THe Bishop doth not forget his challenge about the Magistrates right in convocating Synods But if Mr. Baylie's eyes be too old to see a good argument in an enthymem let him take it out of an explicite syllogisme which may fairlie be draw'n out of His Lordships first second paragraph in this Chapter MAJ. That Discipline which doth countenance the Church to convene within the Magistrates territories whensoever wheresoever they list To call before them whomsoever they please c. doth overthrow the Magistrates right to convocate Synods to confirme their Acts c. MIN. But this new Discipline doth countenance the Church to convene within the Magistrates territories whensoever wheresoever they list c. Ergo CONCL. This new Discipline doth overthrow the Magistrates right to convocate Synods c. The Major his Lordship proves from that know'n Soveraignite of power wherewith all Princes States are indued From the warinesse of the Synod of Dort Can. 50. From that decree out of Ench. Cand s. min. Synods ought to be called by the supreme Magistrate if he be a Christian c. From the power the Emperours of old did challenge over General Councels Christian Monarches in the time of Poperie over National Synods The Kings of England over their Convocations The Estates of the Vnited Provinces From the professions of all Catholikes Protestants in France very particularlie liberallie the State of Geneva where the ordering of all Ecclesiastike affaires is assumed by the Seigniorie The Minor he takes for granted is know'n out of all the proceedings in the Presbyterie which from time to time have thus conven'd convocated themselves therefore His Lordship onelie intimates it in his first paragraph yet afterward proves it in part by an Assemblie meeting when it had been prohibited sitting after it was discharged by the King which the 20. Presbyters did at Aberdene Anno 1600. And all this with the Reviewer is to forget the challenge because he hath forgot his logike the new light hath dazeld the eye of his old intellectual facultie to discerne The truth of it is this was a litle too hot for Mr. Baylies fingars because it makes such cleare instances about the Synod of Dort Geneva wherein they differ from the Scotish Presbyterie which he will not owne because he every where denies therefore takes no notice of it as he goes Nor can any ignorance of the way of the Scotish Discipline be imputed to the Bishop who produceth so numerouslie the practical enormities thereof strikes at the very foundation as infirme because contrarie to the know'n lawes lawfull custome the supreme Magistrate dissenting disclaiming For what he pretends to have been unquestionablie authentike by vertue of Parliament Acts the Kings consent since the first reformation I have otherwhere successivelie evidenc'd up as farre as the unhappie beheading of Marie Queen of Scots in England to which the rest may be hereafter annexed to have no other strength then what rage violence could afford it The power which he sayth every man in Scotland gives the King without controversie to call extraordinarie Assemblies when he pleaseth takes not away in its hast the maine part of the Bishops objection implying no negative to this That the Presbyteric hath often extraordinarilie assembled without the Kings leave nay against his command nor will they be checkt in that rebellious license by his power What the Bishop meanes to speake of the Kings power in chusing Elders c. Mr. Baylie might know but that still he hath no mind to take notice That in the former paragraph His Lordship spake of a seigniorie a Civile Magistrate at Geneva to which at the end of the yeare are presented the Elders by that continued or discharged The Civile Magistrate in Scotland hath no more power in placing or displacing which before was calld continuing or discharging the Elders then in the election of the Emperour whose inhaerent right he conceives to be as good there as at Geneva therefore if the lawes do not expresselie provide it they are such he thinkes as tend to the overthrowing of that right This His Lordship meanes as part of that he was to prove being a clause in the title of this Chapter Your closing with the Parliament which the Bishop hath not mention'd is but to beget a wonder by making an hermaphroditc of the question which before was but single in your sexe You are not so united but that I can untwist you though against your will consider in this case the Presbyterie by it selfe The making of Ecclesiastike lawes in Scotland as for England it shall not be here disputed as desirous as you are to be wandring from home was never in justice nor with any Kings content referred so absolutelie to Ecclesiastike Assemblies as not to aske a ratification from the crowne What the Bishops minde is about the head of the Church will be clearlie rendred when just Authoritie demands it but His Lordship thinkes not good to be catechiz'd by every ignorant Scotish Presbyter nor give answer to every impertinent question he puts in If your fingars itch to be handling the extrinsccal power in the Minister derivative from the supremacie
them license for holding of their Assemblies once in the yeare or oftner as occasion shall require which proves that all their power onelie proceeds from us so must it not be convened without our owne prasence or then of our Commissioner nor no day nor place set downe for the next Assemblie but by Our or our Commissioners appointment except we be not pleased neither to goe in our owne person neither to send any for assisting the sayd Assemblie And how these limitations have beene observed by them at this time let the world judge first in not onelie refusing the praesence of our Commissioner but most contemptuouslie injuriouslie barring the doore upon him next in setting downe the dyes of the next Assemblie without either his privitie or consent The letter which His Majesties Commissioner Sr. Alex Strayton of Lowrenston offered you know was a missive from the Lords of the Councel not addressed to them as to an Assemblie therefore no such capacitie requir'd to their receiving it His Majesties letter to the Commissioners of the general Assemblie signifying his pleasure to have the appointment of this meeting deferred no new indiction to be made without his consent having been long before delivered the substance of it by them communicated to the several Presbyteries of the Kingdome In contempt whereof these persons assembled at Aberdene where the day before they sate downe was a publication at the mercate Crosse of a charge to the contrarie from the Lords of the Councel Beside they had not His Majestie tells them any warrant to hold a new Assemblie without the praesence either of the Moderatour of the last or of the ordinarie Clerke of the Assemblie As for their dutifull demeanour afterward That they rise immediatelie after the reading of the Missive Mr. Baylie knowes to be absolutelie false Howsoever the naming a diet for the next meeting Was against an expresse clause in His Majesties letter which by the Councel is calld a Rebellious traiterous misbehaviour For the trouble that followed hereupon if by the counsel of Arch-Bishop Bancroft that could not be pernicious because the proceeding against them was legal They were calld before the Lords of His Majesties Councel had libertie given them to entertaine lawyers make their defense which prov'd a Declinatour disclaiming all subjection to His Majestie His Councel This Declinatour was repell'd they were found to have unlawfullie conven'd His Majestie commanded that the ordinarie course of justice should proceed Whereupon Sixe of them were presented upon panel at Lynlithgow before His Highnesse Justice being the ordinarie Judge who had joyned to him a great number of Noblemen c. Their inditement grounded upon the first statute in May 1584. Two of their Procuratours Counsellers at law not being able to perswade them to a course of humilitie did upon their obstinacie refuse to plead for them Indeed Sixe or seven of them touched with the open discoverie made by the Kings Declaratour upon humble submission were dismissed sent home to their charge See more particularlie of all these in the Declarations of K. James his Councel 1606. The next instance of the Bishops Viz. Their abolishing the chiefe festivals of the Church the Reviewer can not justifie to any purpose either from the authoritie or the time For first this great Councel of Scotland were but a parsel of the rebell Nobilitie that had of late deposed persecuted the poore Queen Dowager to the death And now having the yong King Queen at as great a distance as France at the same rate order the affaires of the Church as they had the policie of the State The charge they gave the Assemblie brethren dated the 29. day of April 1590. the summe whereof is so formallie placed in the front of the Discipline was upon procurement by themselves It being ordinairie with them when they had any new device on foot to extort some pretended authoritie by their letters Therefore it is but a mocke obedience by service not onelie offered but obtruded Nor was it so pleasing to them whom they here owne for their masters but that after many dayes perusal it was with dislike scorne rejected by diverse Those that sign'd it had no power to ratifie it no more then just before the Confession of fayth which they were faine to send over into France And how their Act or promisse in secret Councell dated the 27. of Ianuarie was illuded from time to time Knox relates very much laments in his storie For the time there was no such Parliament intervall as required the diligence of the Councel of State for what they call'd a Parliament though none was but new lie dissolv'd when presentlie consultation was had how the Church might be established in a good Godlie policie The reason of which haste was lest the yong Queen should come over interpose her Royal authoritie in this great Councel of State as she did afterward rejected the Discipline for all the Act of State that had passed on it demanding How many of those that had subscribed would be subject unto it her Secretarie telling them That many subscribed in fide parentum as children are baptized Those dayes which Mr. Baylie calls here fond seasts out of the booke of Discipline that farther abominations were not thought such by the Primitive Christians who were strict in the solemnitie of such times And if the writings of the ancient Fathers the Godlie approved lawes of Iustinian the Emperour might be admitted as once they were offered to decide the controversie betvixt us we know what Would become of this part of the Discipline The authoritie of the Church warranted by the holie Scriptures is sufficient to justifie them us in this observance Nor were the Scots so fallen out with these abominations but that they let them stand in the Calendar before their Liturgie c. And there were a people in Scotland which in the Bishops dayes did celebrate those feasts Therefore ever since they have not shewed such readie obedience to that direction of the Discipline See the Bishop of Brechen's defense of the Perth Articles Your farre-fetecht comparison accidentallie improves the Bishops knowledge by a seasonable experiment Who findes the Disciplinarian barbarismes in Scotland as monstrous as any he ever read of in Iapan your nullities in religion as many as Vtopia hath in policie or nature If your thoughts had not been rambling so farre for recruits to your malice you might have been furnish'd with truth nearer home which His Lordship brings unto your doore As fine as here you make your selfe for the triumph out of every wing you plucke you will by by be at a losse for your victorie must then weare your blew cap without a feather For that you may know my meaning His Lordship can afford you no such pretie thing as the antichronisme you lay hold
on He sayth not That statute of treason waâ—… in being in the yeare 1580. And his Printer you might see had done him so much right as to set a number 4. yeares older directlie against the place where it is mention'd His Lordships words are these Which ridiculous ordinance was maintain'd stiffelie by the succeeding Synods notwithstanding the statute That it should be treason to impugne the authoritie of the thrce Estates The plaine sense whereof is this The succeeding Synods to the yeare 1584. maintain'd it stisfclie And not onelie they but likewise the succeeding Synods afterward notwithstanding the statute then made That c. Yet not to be too literal That there should be three Estates to whom your brethren presented their Assemblie Acts as they did by the King them to be confirmed even before the yeare 1580. yet That to impugne the authoritie of the three estates or to procure the innovation or diminution of any of them should have no statute nor law to make it at least interpretative treason is a peice of politikes that Iapan nor Vtopia will never owne nor any man that is civiliz'd in submission to government beleeve The businesse of appeales we are to meet with in the chapter following so farre you shall have leave to travaile with the counterfeit credit of that untruth What you make here such a positive consent of Lundie the Kings Commissioner in that Assemblie even now went no farther then a suspense in silence where all you found was That it appear'd not he apposed And how that might be I there gave you my conjecture In the next Assemblie 1581. the Kings Commissioner Caprington was not so hastie to erect in His Majesties name Presbyteries in all the land The businesse was this The King sends him Cuningham with letters to the Assemblie at Glasgow to signifie That the thirds of the Ecclesiastical revenues upon the conference had between his Commissioners those which they had before sent from Dundee were not found to be the safest maintenance for the Ministrie they having been so impair'd in twentie yeares before that nothing of certaintie could appeare That thereupon had been drawn a diagrame of several Presbyteries whereby a division of the greatest parishes was to be made a uniting of the lesse to the end that the Ministers might be with more aequalitie maintained and the people more convenientlie assemble'd That His Majestie had determined to sent letters to several of his Nobilitie in the Countrey to command their meetings and counsel here about This he did not till the next summer nor was any thing effected diverse yeares after The conventions of the Ministrie were to be moderated by every Bishop in his Dioecesse who was by agreement to praeside in the Presbyteries with in his limits So that the modelling Presbyteries was onelie for setling a convenient revenue upon the Ministers so farre was it from abolishing Episcopacie that the Bishops were to have the managing the affaire It would not have cost you nor your printer much paines to have put in what hapened before the yeare 1584 The opposition against your abuse hereof by the Bishops Montgoinerie Adamson His Majesties discharging by proclamation the Ministers conventions Assemblies under paine to be punished as Rebells publishing them to be unnatural subjects seditious persons troublesome unquiet spirits members of Satan enemies to the King the Commonwealth of their native Countrey charging them to desist from preaching in such sort as they did viz. against the authoritie in Church causes against the calling of Bishops c. removing imprisoning inditing them c. Which put you upon the desperate attempts of surprizing and restraining His Majestie 's person whereof otherwhere So that the King you see had very good preparatives to purge his Kingdome of such turbulent humours before Captain Stuart put him in minde to make use of that physike Which Captaine Iames was no such wicked Courtier when the saints in behalve of the Discipline set him up to justle with Esme Stuart Lord Aubignie for the nearest approach unto Royal favour This Parliament 1584. was summon'd with as loud a voyce as any other was as open as the sun at Edenburgh could make it Nor was Captain Stuarts crime about it such as to denominate his exile the vengeance of God which was wrought in the eyes of the world by your rebellion Nor his death by Dowglasse's high way murder aveng'd afterward in alike terrible destruction that in Edenburgh high street where sanguis sanguinem tetigit bloud touched bloud though I dare not as you doe judge for reward nor divine such ambiguous cruelties for money being no Priest nor Prophet as you are to the heires of those bloudie soulders in Micah chapt 3. I dare not say that it either was the fingar of God though he imploy not the hand of his power to restraine them Rev. … these acts of his Parliament the very next yeare were disclaimed by the King c. Ans. They were not disclaimed the 21 of December the next yeare when James Gibson being question'd for dis loyal speaches about them before His Majestie his Councel very impudentlie told the King he was a persecutour for maintaining them and compar'd him to Ieroboam threatned he should be rooted out conclude that race His confidence was in the returne of the banish'd Rebel-Nobles who forced all honest men from the Court possessed themselves of His Majesties person acted all disorder in his name This was the regular restoring of Presbyterie Which to say was never more removed to this day in that sense you must speake it is to abuse the ignorance of some new convert you have got in the Indies who it may be at that distance know not that Bishops had the visible Church government in Scotland for about theirtie yeares together since that time Rev. The Warners digression to the the perpetuitie of Bishops in Scotland c. Ans. The perpetuitie of their order in that Kingdome is no disgression in this place where His Lordship shewes your practical contradiction in pulling downe Episcopacie with one hand yet seting it up though under the name of Superintendencie with the other The sequestring their revenue altering their names pruning off some part of their power he takes to be no root branch ordinance for the deposition of their office or utter extirpation of their order This he asserts to be the greatest injurie your malice could ever hitherto bring about therefore goes not one step out of his way to let you know That Bishops have been perpetual in your Church Nor doe you out of yours but keep the same path of truth you began in in acquainting us with the antiquitie of Presbyters who it should seem are terrae filii that sprung up in Scotland like so many mushromes the next night after Christianitie came in Though
he that is read in your opinions actions will take it for granted that you must pay the acknowledgement of your Presbyterie to the Sanhedrin your sects conversion to the lewes If you will impudentlie crowd it into the companie of the first Christians that came into Scotland you can not denie but that for some part of the Centuries you speake of it was confin'd to the monkes colls never came to clamour at the Court the poore Culdiis with a great deale more humilitie pietie then the Covenanters caried it in their cowles Rev. … after the reformation there was no Bishop in that land Ans. The reformation you meane began the day before or after the Greeke Calends if you will helpe me to an account of the one I shall know how to order the aera of the other Many yeares confusion there was of Poperie Presbyterie Superintendencie The reform'd Episcopacie could never get ground till King James set it forward then it went not far before it met with your violent encounter by Sword Covenant which never suffered the crowne nor Miter to stand long unshaken till both were held up by the Armes of England the Kings person secure at a distance to command you That ever such a thing as reformed Presbyterie according to the Canon in your Discipline had the free positive consent of King Parliament without which it can not legallie passe for the Religion of your Kingdome I denie to be visible any where in your storie Rev. … till the yeare 1610. Ans. That yeare did indeed complete the Episcopal power which King James had by degrees piouslie industriouslie promoted many yeares before Rev. … When Bancrost did consecrate three Scots Ministers c. Ans. A brother of yours tells us they were consecrated by Bishop Abbot As evil as their report was the men were not so bad as their names need be in charitie conceled They were Iohn Spotswood Andrew Lamb Gawin Hamilton Bishops of Glasgow Brechen Galloway Who enjoy now their reward in heaven for the râ—…viling they had on earth it being for Gods sake his Church according to our Saviours promise St. Matth. 5. 11. The first was a man for zeale to the Church fidelitie to the King prudence in Government constancie under affliction singular inimitable indeed for his excellent gifts onelic hatefull to the Disciplinarians though especiallie because he through long experienec was of all Scotish men best acquainted with ablest to detect their crosse wayes to the King all Soveraigne Magistracie He died piouslie peaceablie at Westminster in the second yeare of this rebellion was buried in the Abbey Church The second was a great assiduous preacher even when he was blinde through extreme age He also died in peace with the good report of all except these calumniatores who hold that no Bishop can be an honest man whose invention is so rich of nothing as reproaches against better men then themselves The third was a reverend Praelate of great parts singular learning a most constant preacher who lived in peace died in his bed Rev. … that violent Commissioner the Earle of Dunbar Ans. His violence did not carie him beyond his Commission because he executed that upon the rebellious Aberdene Assemblers would not take off some of his kindred or acquaintance who were in the jurie that deliberatelie cast them in their verdict nor intercede for their stay in Scotland being desir'd you here meet with him at the Synod of Glasgow Which being at large prov'd legitimate in every circumstance required by law is in vaine condem'd as null by your faction Nor was it corrupt in any more then three members of about 140. who being rotten drop of from the close union harmonious suffrage of the rest Rev … got authorized in some part of the Bishops office Ans. I hope you will not denie that Bishops were authorized to ordaine in this Synod And into how many particulars their power of jurisdiction was branched your brother very pittifullie complaines… jurisdictio in omnibus offendiculis sive in doctrina sive in moribus … Armantur … potestate exauctorandi ministros suspensionis censuram irrogandi excommunicationem decernendi c. you may reade the rest then tell us what part of their office was left out Rev. Superintendents are no where the same with Bishops much lesse in Scotland Ans. That they are aequivalent to Bishops is evident by the conformitie in their offices power The particulars whereof His Lordship recites out of the fourth sixt heads of your 1. Book Discipl To which upon my Review I could adde some more if those were not enough Their ambulatorie commission was no other then our Bishops ambulatorie visitation If your onclic in the time before have any influence here exempt them from all duties in their visitation but preaching the word c. you cut of three parts of their injunction in the Discipline If they were onelie as you say for a time it concerneâ—… you to tell us where they ceas'd denie there were any since or ever shall be more but upon some future new plantation in your Churches Being pressed about obtruding your Discipline you tell us For the Eâ—…clesiastike enjoyning of a general Assemblies decrees a particular ratisication of Parliament is unnecessarie Which holds not where the particular decrees of your Assemblie transgresse the general intent of that Act whereby you are authoriz'd to meet That relates to the times and matters to be treated of In the former you are limited to custome or praescription In the later to the doctrine discipline receiv'd Which are therefore ratified in such Acts together with your Assemblies Presbyterie Sessions that obedience might be render'd upon the visible conformitie of your decrees injunctions to that rule But to make any Act of Parliament so general as to ratisie at adventure all possible arbitrarie commamds of your Assemblie to the altering of the doctrine or discipline established were to praecontract affinitie with all sects haeresies to enter into an implicite league or Covenant with the Devil about his worship so it may be de futuro ad placitum Synodi generalis Let me put this case suppose a general Assemblie should by an Ecclesiastical decree enjoyne the canons of that Antichristian government against which you praetend your discipline is framed Whether or no is that injunction authentike upon the general A of Parliament for their Assembling without a particular ratification thereof I might adde how ridiculous it is for you to make the power of your Assemblies so absolute yet trouble King Parliament so often with your importunate petitions to passe what is fullie ratified before that by their owne General Acts including that very particular for which you supplicate The debates about the second booke of Discipline I
beleeve But that in the Assemblie 1590. the Kings consent to it was obtaind I can sooner admit upon undeniable authoritie then your Logike you pretend not to the perpetuitie of His Majesties personal praesence which was but some times it should seem not at that time of general consent Nor is your Act for subscription so cleare in the assurance you give us that His Majesties Commissioner was there you onelie take it for granted he was among the herd Nor so explicite in his positive consent you onelie collect it from a clowdie universal to serve your turne honour him with a primacie in suffrage Wherein you are a litle redundant in courtesie there having been a time when if His Majestie or His Commissioner siting in Assemblie should denie his voyce to any thing which appear'd unjust repugnant to his lawes yet it that were concluded by most voyces you would tell him he was bound jure divino to inforce obedience to your Act. The case for ought I know stood no otherwise here in this Assemblie Where to discountenance the testimonie you bring you have been told long before now That the superintendents of Angus Lothian Fife c. George Hayes Commissioner from the North. Arbuthnoth of Aberdene others were dissenters from this Act about the discipline whereby His Majesties or His Commissioners consent becomes somewhat improbable to the authoritie whereof such men as they had in prudence submitted if not in dutie by their silence That States-men in Parliament oppos'd it is evident That the King ever endeavourd to get it passe is your single assertion Neque usquam sictum neque pictum neque scriptum If your Church did it was for want of worke for you told us even now To this a particular ratisication of Parliament was unnecessarie What the Bishops opinion is about the patrimonie of the Church how farre by whom what part of it may be law fullie alienated when just occasion is given I praesume His Lordship freelic faythfullie will declare In the meane time his chalenge against the Scotish Presbyterians is without hypocrise injustice Himselfe many other good Prelates having ever aesteem'd it a fault to call the annexing some part of the Church revenues unto the crowne a detestable sacriledge before God Nor can Mr. Baylie instance in any indefinite disputes including all that hath been or shall be given to the Church that have hapened since the first reformation between the Kings of England their Bishops Who had they found their Princes rapacious sequestratours would not have failed in their dutie modestlie to admonish them of the danger yet had it may be abstained from calling them theeves murderers peculiar termes characteristical of the Discipline-To which I thinke I shall doe no injustice if I assert that the revenues of Bishops Dcanes Arch-deacous of Chapellries Friaries of all orders together with the sisters of the seenes abstracting from the favour of Princes no more belong to the Scotish Presbyters then they doe to the Mufties of the Turke The intention of the doners having never been that such strange catell should feed in their pastures Nor can M. Baylie shew me any law that makes him heir to Antichrist or a just inheriter of his lands Beside methinkes the weake stomack'd brethren should take checke at the meate offered unto idols any silken sould Presbyter be too nice to array himselfe in the ragges of Rome or be cloth'd at that cost that belong'd to the idolatrous Priesthood of Baal But it may be in the heate of Reformation they went to worke with the coyning irons which they more then once got into their possession with them altered the impression of the beast And the mattokes shoucls Which other armes being wanting they very often tooke in their hands were possiblie onelie to turne up the Church land whereever crop had been reap't by Antichrist that abominable glebe went downe to the center of the earth What he talkes about the Praelatical jus divinum their taking possessions by commands from Court without a processe requires his instance then he shall have his answer In the interim he playes the hypoctite in a question What if then the Disciplinarians had gone to advance that right to all jusdivinum when the Assemblie at Edenburgh did so April 24. 1576. But he sayth all the Scots can be challeng'd for is a mere declaration of their judgement simple right in a supplication to the Regents Grace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These Scots judgement was not allwayes in righteousnesse and their simplicitie in supplicates had many times more of the Lion then the Lambe Witnesse that to the Queen Regent 1559. where they declare their judgements freelie as true faithfull subjects they tell her yet this is the style of that declaration …Except this crueltie be stayed by your wisdome We shall be compelled to take the sword of just defense c. …If ye give eare to their pestilent counsel…neither ye neither yet your posteritie shall at any time after this finde that obedience faythfull service within this Realme which at all times ye have found in us In the assemblies supplications to the Lords of secret Councel May 28. 1561. the second article annexed to which was for the maintenance of the ministerie this Before ever these tyrants dumbe dogs Empire above us…we…are fullie determin'd to hazard life whatsoever we have recived of God in temporall things…And let these enemies of God assure themselves That if your Honours put not order unto them That we shall shortlie take such order That they shall neither be able to doe what they list neither yet to live upon the sweat of the browe December 25. 1566. They order requiring instead of Supplicating Churh censures to the disobedient Their sixt head of Church rents in the first booke of Discipline runnes very imperiouslie upon the must The Gentlemen Barons c. must be content to live upon their just rents suffer the Kirke to be restored to her libertie And Jul. 21. 1567. They tell them they shall doe it shall passe nothing in Parliament untill it be done That ever any assemblie in Scotland did make any other addresse to the Parliament for stipend then by way of such humble supplication I grant is a great untruth Nor were onelie the birds thus petition'd for but time after time all tithes rents whatsâ—…ever could be comprized under the patrimonie of the Church were demanded as insolentlie as could be which meetes me every where in their storie as frequentlie as Mr. Baylies dissembling falsifying in his Review In the last instance the Bishop denies not but there was a time when a kinde of Presbyteries was legallie approv'd receiv'd And this I presume he will admit to be after the Assemblie 1580. About which allreadie you have indeed alledged more untruth then you
under the protection of the club The name of Parliament you make but a pandar to countenance the wanton license of your Assemblies the great seale you would have set to nothing but an indenture of the Crownes perpetuall servitude to your Synods The Prelates Cabin divinitie which sea language you 're in love with since your voyage into Holland came often above decke with very innocent loyal intentions long before these times of confusion which your Consistorian divinitie hath wrought And though you take your selfe to appeare as ominous as Caster without his brother in the shrowds it feares no shipwraâ—…ke by any storme you can raise nor lookes through your cleare prediction upon its ruine You have not hitherto found such a fate in your words as to produce a consequential necessitie of the banishment of Marquisses Bishops from Court though divine justice may hereafter inspire our Soveraigne to returne this judgement upon your heads who are ever breathing murder exile into his eares For while such popular Sicophants as you are suffered to live in any Monarchs dominions neither can the People be secure of their peace nor Princes of their lives K. Iames spake it plainlie when he sayd A Scotsh Presbyterie as well agreeth with Monarchie as God the Devil Such Reviewers who looke but halfe way home into the original of crownes are cleare everters of the first foundation of Kingdomes which made Kings some what more then siduciaries of the people whose solid peace consisted in an hurâ—…ble active submission to their just commands a Christian quiet passive obedience if tyrannicallie imperious This to be sure would keep the best part if not the best partie from ruine till the high hand of heaven over ballance their temporall sufferings with an aeternitie of reward where no malecontentment can be to come To the second challenged principle your answer is very slight impertinent And would I undertake a farre more unpleasing imployment then Phocion had in chiping Demosthenes for which he was call'd kópis ton lógon I should make a slender instrument of your review there being beside the extravagancie of your railing language your malicious enlargements in false commentaries diverting your Reader from the genuine orthodoxe meaning of the text drawing him into an intricable labyrinth of jealousies feares the chimaerical brats of your owne braine which you would faine lay at other mens doores scare sixe pages in your booke that are a direct answer to the Bishop which I can not impute to your ignorance but your cunning who feeling your selfe held closse by the necke in the letter of your lawes Assemblie Acts would very fame winde your selfe out of the controversie or run away with it into any Church or Countrey but your owne In this paragraph the Bishops citations prove what he intends nor dare you I see denie what you are too conscious you maintaine It having never been your practice but when you could not doe otherwise to wait the Kings or Queens call for your Synods In the yeare 1561. Knox writes expresselie That gladlie would the Queen her secret Counsel have had all the Assemblies of the Godlie that is the Rebellious Disciplinarian discharged They notwithstanding make a convention the businesse comes to dispute Mr. Secretarie Leshington makes a doubt whether the Queen allowed it or no to whom was this answer returned If the libertie of the Church should stand upon the Queens allowance they were assured not onelie to lacke Assemblies but also to lacke the publike preaching of the Euangel In the beginning of your late commotions the Historian that so officioussie styles himselfe the Parliaments Secretarie mentions a writing publish'd by you wherein you affirme That the power of calling a Synod in case the Prince be an enemie to the truth or negligent in promoting the Churchs good is in the Church it selfe And that the state of the Church of Scotland at that time was necessitated to such a course Nor doth your Disciplinarian doctrine make the Christian Magistrate any more then your Baylisse to take up your rents or the Captaine of your guard to defend you Vedelius renders it in more harsh language… faciunt ex iis Magistratibus mancipia imò lictores curnisices Episcoporum seu Ministrorum Ecclesiae To advance the Kingdome of Iesus Christ. …To defend it against all that would procure its hurt… To â—…ssist fortisie the Godlie proceedings of the Kirke in all behalfes… To see that the Kirke be not invaded… To hold hand as well to the saving of the Ministers persons from injurie openviolence as to their rents possessions Finallie not a word is there in all that chapter or booke that asscribes to him a syllable of this power So that the King may call a Synod when whersoever he thinke sit if the toy take you in the head to anticipate or procrastinate his time you will assemble when wheresoever you please for you tell him he ought to heare obey your voyce And your friend Didoclave averres this to be a businesse that hath no absolute dependance upon him Non absolute simpliciter pendere a Christiano Magistratâ—… If when you have a minde to meet he prohibites that must make no demurre non cunctandum est non cessandum ab officio … For this you pretend an intrinsecal power touching which I demand what it is when where how farre to be exerciz'd What old or late dutifull Christians did use it when any Christian King did forbid it Who of the Praelatical partie they be that maintaine it in their writings or practice for I know none that in either extend it to a like latitude with you And how many soever you have of the Papists all the Popes are not of your side Leo confessing that he had not power to call a Counsel but the Emperour nor durst Liberius call one against Constantius pleasure The necessitie you frame of meeting for the execution of the Discipline even in times of persecution may have reference to an heathen Magistrate or Christian. If to the former you doe it either in confidence of your power to resist him in that rebellion wherein how are you justified Or else you runne desperatelie upon your ruine which is selfe murder no martyrdome for Quis requisivit by what praecept or counsel is it required at your hands If to the later there may be at least a sallibilitie in your judgements if not an obstinate perversenesse in your will Et quis vos judices constituit who made you that are parties Arbitratours If at any time the ancient Christians assembled it was where no Imperial edict restrain'd them And then the learned Grotius tells you Non opus fuisse venia ubinulla obsturent Imperatorum edicta What private conferences they had in the times of heathenish persecution you know by their apologies were voy'd of suspicion which yours never were but
anomia ergapiria the very shops or Laboratories of rebellion The Church is not dissolv'd where dissipline's not executed if it were it should be where it is at the pleasure of the Magistrate suspended To imagine a final ineapacitie of meeting by perpetual succession of Tyrants hath litle either of reason or conscience it assaults the certitude of fayth in Gods promises advanceth infidelitie in his providence But to give you at length your passe from this paragraph Such as you in a schismatical Assemblie may have frequentlie in Scotland pinn'd the character of erroneous upon an upright Magistrate a Disciplinarian rebell to save his credit call'd a Royal moderate proclamation a tyrdnous edist The Bishops third allegation you finde too heavie therefore let fall halfe of it by the way You have too good a conceit of your Parliaments bountie though had they been as prodigal as you make them it litle becomes you to proclaime them bankrupts by their favour Their Acts were allwayes ratified by your Princes any which whom tell me one wherein this right Royal was renounc'd of suspending seditious Ministers from their office or if cause were depriving them of their places It were a senselesse thing to suppose that the Bishop would denie to the Church a proprietie to consult determine about religion doctrine haeresie c. Yet its likelie His Lordship allowes it not in that mode which makes her power so absolute as to define consummate authorize the whole businesse by her selfe He hath heard the King to be somewhere accounted a mixt person thinkes it may be that the holie oyle of his unction is not onelie to swime on the top be sleeted off at the pleasure of a peevish Disciplinarian Assemblie but to incorporate with their power The lawes of England have not been hitherto so indulgent of libertie to our Convocation but that the King in the cases alledged did ever praedominate by his supremacie And the Parliament hath stood so much upon priviledge that if Religion fetch'd not her billet from West-minster the could have but a cold lodging at St. Pauls The booke of Statutes is no portable manual for us whom your good brethren have sent to wander in the world yet I can helpe you to one An. 1. Eliz. that restor'd the title of supreme to the Queen withall provided that none should have authoritie newlie to judge any thing to be haeresie not formerlie so judged but the High Court of Parliament with the assent of the Clergie in their Convocation Where the Convocations assent by the sound should not be so determinative as the Parliaments judgement which right or wrong here it assumes As touching appeales because you will have somewhat here sayd though it must be otherwhere handled No law of Scotland denies an appeale in things Civile or Ecclesiastike to the King One yet in force enjoines subjection unto them the Act of Parliament in May 1584. which was That any persons either spiritual or Temporal praesuming to decline the judgement of His Majestie His Councel shall incurre the paine of treason What you call a complaint is in our case an appeale what taking order is executing a definitive judgement without traversing backe the businesse to Ecclesiastike Courts or holding over the rod of a coercive power to awe them into due regular proceedings I confesse this the Presbyters in Scotland never made good by their practice Their appeales were still retrograde from the supreme Magistrate his Councel to a faction of Nobles or a seditious partie of the people Such is that of Knox printed at large Or which in effect is the same The Scotish Assemblies when they had no power appeald to providence when they had whereupon they might relie unto the sword In case of Religion or doctrine if the General Assemblie which is not infallible erre in judgement determîne any thing contrarie to the word of God the sense of Catholike Antiquitie the King may by a court of Orthodoxe Delegates consisting of no more then two or three Prelates if he please receive better information of truth establish that in his Church Or which often hapens in Scotland If the Presbyters frame Assemblie Acts derogatorie to the rights of his Crowne prejudicial to the peace of his people the King may personallie justifie his owne praerogative and keep the mischiefe they invented from becoming a praecedent in law This doth not the word of God nor any aequitie prohibite The judgement of causes concerning deprivations of Ministers in the yeare 1584 you would have had come by way of appellation to the General Assemblie there take final end but this you could not make good within yourselves nor doe I finde upon your proponing craving it was then or at any time granted you by the King Two yeares before you adventurd not onelie for your priviledge in that … but against the Magistrates puting preachers to silence…hindering staying or disannulling the censures of the Church in examining any offender Rev. In the Scotes Assemblies no causes are agitated but such as the Parliament hath agreed to be Ecclesiastike c. Ans If any Parliament have agreed all causes of what nature soever to be Ecclesiastike by reduction so of the Church cognizance you have that colour for your pragmatical Assemblies but if you admit of any exception you have for certaine transgressed yourlimits there being no crime nor praetended irregularitie whatsoever that stood in view or came to the knowledge of the world that hath escaped your discussion censure not been serv'd up in your supplicates to be punished Rev. … No processe about any Church rent was ever cognosced upon in Scotland but in a Civile Court Ans. Your imperious though supplicatorie prohibition 1576. I allreadie mention'd In the Assemblie at Edenburgh April 24. 1576. You concluded…That you might proceed against unjust possessours of the patrimonie of the Church…by doctrine admonition last of all if no remedie be with the censures of the Church In that at Montrosse June 24. 1595. About setting Benefices with diminution of the rental c. you appointed Commissioners with power to take oaths call an-inquest of men of best knowledge in the Countrey about to proceed against the Ministrie with sentence of deposition Master Tho. Craig the Solicitour for the Church to pursue the Pensiionars in Caitnes for reduction of their pensions If in no particular you actuallie proceeded to Church censures It was because you foresaw they would not restraine the corruption no more of the laitie then the Clergie then your menasing petitions sometime obtein'd strength from some partial or pusillanimous Parliament or when you praevail'd not you wrapt this up with the rest of your discipline put all to the processe of a warre And this was you know the mysterious sense of Knox's method upon good experience praescrib'd on his death bed First
be given you upon vour knees when His Majestie shall by Gods assistance have power to chastise your rebelling cursing covenanting excommunicating imprisoning murdering decreeing the confusion of his Royal familie three flourishing Kingdomes in your Assemblies CHAPTER IV. Seditious Rebellious Ministers in Scotland seldome or never censur'd by the Assemblie HEre Mr. Baylie layes faster hold upon the title then the Bishops evidences in the Chapter because sedition rebellion are charg'd home to the conscience of the Presbyters their usual indemnitie imputed to the Discipline he would faine step over these publike enormities to personal vices against which by his leave the Ecclesiastike rigour is not such but it can admit of very frequent indulgences many times convert the guilt or shame of such haynous transgresions to the glorie of their Gospel a more certaine signe of the sinners election by grace according to John Knox's divinitie after proofe made against Paul Meffane The treason of Iudas the adulterie of David abnegation of Peter did derogate nothing from the glorie of Christs Evangel nor yet the doctrine which before they had taught but declared the one to be a reprobate the other to be an instrument in whom mercie must surmount judgement Nay if they find it advantageous to their discipline these declamers against adulterie bloud will make religious applications to any as they did to Murray their Regent-bastard murderer to say no more of him whom they made the greatest saint upon the earth the most eminent patron of their Church That your pulpits have been perduellionis plaustra the common stages for sedition treason I have made appeare upon an old item somewhere else And because you had not enough of them for the last old Comaedie you were to act how you did mount it in halls schooles other profane places is deliver'd unto us upon Royal authoritie in his late Maejsties large Declaration 16â—…9 Where is to be found such loyal doctrine as this One in Edenburgh upon his Majesties urging subscription to your owne Confession of fayth sayd It was an Italian a devellish device first to make them renounce God perjure themselves then afterward there was an intention to destroy their bodies so that this subscription imported no lesse then the destruction both of their bodies soules Rollocke did as much upon a seaffold in publishing a wicked rebellious protestation Another That though there were never so many Acts of Parliament against the Covenant yet it ought to be maintain'd against them all And Andrew Cant since charg'd His Majestie thus to his face Awake thow lumpe of clay thow wast not sleeping when thow gavest cut the blondie commissione to Iames Graham Of all which I desire Mr. Baylie to name one that suffer'd any censured from a Synod what priviledge these or any other scandalous crimes had in England or Ireland the High Commission Civile censures can cleare But the Reviewers conscience can tell how many such tooke shelter under the wings of the Covenant who were threatned processe if they subscrib'd not having done it passed for very zealous pious brethren in the cause Their names infirmities if Mr. Bayâ—…lie hath not I have charitie to conceale Or if I had not could their ordination be justified they accounted of our brotherhood I should thinke my selfe oblig'd to it under the penaltie of the 55. Canon of the Councel of Carthage Episcopus accusatores sratrum excommunices si emâ—…ndaverine vitium recipiat eos ad communionem non ad Clerum If he bear'd the like reverence to Antiquitie when he speakes so broadlie of the Bishop of Derric he might bethinke himselfe of the 57 Canon Clericus maledicus maxime in sacerdotibus cogatur ad postâ—…andum veuiam si noluerit degradetur nec unquam ad officium absque satisfactione revocetur And to give His Lordship his due interest in the prudent provision of the Church I direct the reader to that in the Councel of Constantinople De accasatoribus Orthodoxorum Episâ—…oporum non admittendis which is to be found in the edition of Chr. Iustell where he shall see by how many clauses Mr. Baylie is excluded from being admitted to enter any accusation against him first by the Religion he professeth adjudg'd as bad as heresie by the ancient Canons for decreeing in conventicles against the authoritie of Bishops antisynagontas tois kanonikois hemin episcopois … And whether upon the several grounds that follow an Oecumentical may not reject him hoos kathybrisanta tous kanonas kaiten ecclesiastiken lymenamenon eutaxian as a reproachfull despiser of Canons a bane to the eutaxie of the Church let any of his aequitable compareâ—… consider Yet I thinke I shall breake no canon by retorting his quaestion his acts being so publike himselfe autocatacritos convinc'd under his hand in his booke Did the Reviewer never heare of a Presbyterian sibb to Mr. Baylie who to this day was never but may be in good time called to any account for flagrant scandals of such crimes even the same the Bishop mentions sedition treason which aswell in Scotland as in any other Kingdome are punishable by the Gallowes These crimes above any deserve civile cognizance from which as free as the Scotish Churchmen have been I dare undertake to prove out of their storie That there was hardlie ever Synod in Scotland Presbyterian I meane but was guiltie of Rebellion or bloud having ever made their covenants with death their agreement with hell having made liet their refuge under salshood bid themselves as they did Isai. 28. 15. So that Mariana his diseiples whether in Italie or Spaine or all the world over can not in aequitie have layd such devillish doctrines such publike murders of Princes Nobles to their charge Foedus umbrarum perit As constant a Covenanter as you are with the living I see the holiest league can not chaine up your furious malice against the dead Your naming Bishop Aderton For his sinne that blessed Martyr the L. of Canterburie for his patron speakes you a sonne of neither Christian charitie nor truth If Presbyterie had been as old as the Councel of Nice I perceive your sawcie fingars would have snatch'd the libells out of Constantines breast your zealous tongues that are made seven times hotter otherwhere would have runn the hazard to licke the Bishops faults out of the fire I wish you had help'd me to a better bargain of your silence not forc'd me to give you this which I am â—…oth to part with in exchange for your blabbing That if all be true that is in print which for your credit I hope is not Your Discipline had no other then a Sodomite for its patron some thinke you may take your choyce of French or Scot. How this abomination hath been propagated with your Discipline though by it no Disciple I leave
them to relate who to shame you into some speachlesse civilitie have had reason to be your Domestike observers if they can frame it by chast language in a riddle Yet because your Presbyterie shall gaine no credit if I can helpe it by any counterfeit innocence I will returne you a line or twoâ—… in Latin which may informe you that such an ill weed hath grow'n even where the sharpe sickle of the Eldership hath praetended to cut downe all wickednesse before it Hoetamen dissimulare non possum in Palatinatu nulla prius seandala tam atrocia incidisse quam ed sint quae seniorum illic constitutorum culpa acciderunt Et quis obsecro eos postea feret correptores qui sceleratissimum hominem Siculum Sodomitam cundem pestilentissimum calumniatorem you inherite at least the upper halfe of his qualities impune elabi passi sunt ne ad Iudices legitimos traheretur If you name Bishop Aderton in your next you will force me to breake the bond of modestie with my Readers make me lay this horrid scene nearer home If you will shew your self a better Christian or Scholar strengthen your arguments with the ruines of Bishops doctrines where you finde them not rake up the rubbish out of some few sinnes or lapses in their lives you may write your pleasure without a blush expect the like ingenuitie on this side Pseudon syncolletes…leptotaton leron hiereus Excuse me sir if Aristophanes at praesent furnish me with no more honorable titles to salute you by for your ingenuous meritorious demeanour in the next paragraph Wherein you are pleas'd to pervert all that the Bishop mean'd innocentlie writ temperatelie sacrifice your soule to the Father of lies to gaine the countenance of your ' brethren in Holland Historical â—…ruth I hope is no slander Nor can it be their shame to keep peace in their Churches turne seditious incendiaries out of doores But while you plead for these your owne brethren among them the rest holding not that point of your discipline what respect you beare to their vigilant Magistrates whom you taxe for putting out of their cities men zealous in their doctrine pressing the true practice of pietie c. I leave to some interpreter to tell them But my selfe shall tell you by the way that they joyne not with you in rejecting our Episcopacie as Anti-christian Name you what booke of theirs or person of any note that hath done it I am sure since you your English mates fell to worke with root branch Spanheim their great divinitie professour in Leyden held up his hands wished that all had been such as Arch-Bishop Vssher Bishop Morton then the order with such men he acknowledg'd would passe here wel enough So that it should seem in the rest there wanted onelie a conformitie in some such thing as Calvins opinions to qualifie them for a tolerable communion with the Dutch What their zealous Ministers have preached for practice of pietie suppression of haeresie schisme the Bishop is farre from calling or accounting any crime But because you croud into their zealous preachments the sanctification of the Sabbath-day in your Judaical sense If they pressed it in the rigour of your discipline their auditours use a large practical license to confute them To passe by their weeklie Sabbath mercates many publike faires one of which you I met with at the Hague I could have shewd you there the dancing on the ropes if not a dutch stageplay for a need many other prettie sights to which you were invited with sounding of trumpets beating of drumes which is their businesse at this instant in another part of the reformed Provinces where I am I can tell you of several recreations I have observed beside playing on the ice objected against the Ministers of St. Andrewes that were spectatours which I litle thought on when the poor praelatical Clergie not many yeares since were cursed with Presbyterian bell booke candel for approving a narrower toleration in our Countrey Our persecutions have help'd us to this some other experience whereby we shall be hereafter enabled to unmaske your adventurous impudencie to the world Whether the streame of Presbyterian oâ—… Praelatical ermons have run clearer from contempt of pictie from silence flaterie c. may be seen by him that will looke into these last 12 yeares current of the times If the vigilant Bishops such as their Lordships of Derrie Downe purg'd their chanels from the filthie doctrines rebellious obstructions of Blaire Leving stone Hamilton Cuningham others they did it for the more even passage of pure Primitive reformation The zeale of these men was eating out the foundation of Gods house their swelling waters did overflow the bankes of government where they came Their impious doctrines made them first be turn'd out of Scotland where Blaire had been before expelled the Vniversitie of Glasgow by the Professours for teaching his scholars in his lectures upon Aristotle that Monarchicall government was unlawfull the lawfullnesse whereof Mr. Baylie accounts part of the Prelates profanitie errours Vpon the like misdemeanour the same justice overtoke them in Ireland but at a time as it hapened when Christs Covenanting Antimonarchical Kingdome began to be reedified in Scotland which wanting such bold pieces to supportit their blasphemous treasonables sermons to cement it they were very heartlie welcom'd praeferred to places of greatest eminencie in that Church What a singular difference there is in the point of exemption from secular jurisdict on between the Geneva Discipline yours the proceedings in the next paragraph will shew And what person convict of or notorious for those crimes that you reckon was ever priviledg'd by the spiritual Court you are to mention Your generals are aire the Bishop craves no favour of your extraordinarie charitie to conceale The Declaration 1584. might be penned by Mr. Patrike Adamson yet be King Iames's If his Majestie declin'd the acknowledgement thereof the yeare after when your Rebells had seiz'd upon his person at Sterlin that may very well be imputed to his feare Nor was that the onelie negative subscription you extorted from your prisoner that yeare who when at libertie afterward with the same hand blotted out that which when you had the guidance of his pen you had forc'd him to write against his owne inclination sense If Mr. Adamson prosessed upon his death his repentance for lies slanders to which we have a contrarie tradition from some that were praesent he did no more then your great Declaratour Buchanan for his that were opposite to the other And how both these sort of lies that caried contradictions could proceed from the same spirit or their repentance have the same grace truth to reforme it I leave to your discerning spirit to reconcile or if you find them different to distinguish
writs to callâ—…in the Nobilitie to their succour some of whom had in zeale abetted the late tumult The Lord Forbes payd his sine for going into the street The Lord Hamilton hath an invitation to be General should have had his commission from the Synod no quaestion if he had signified his acceptance He very noblie loyallie delivers up his letter to the King detects the Rebellious project of the Discipline Some of the Ministers are sent for convicted obtaine pardon of the King but no actual oblivion from any his good subjects who ever after detested that disloyal sect branded the 17. day of December with the indeleble infamie of that prodigious attempt How like this lookes to an halfe houres tumult or petie fray How Ignorant were the People how innocent the commotion How free the Ministrie from being authours or approvers Let the Reviewers aequitablâ—… tomparers determine CHAPTER V. The Discipline exempts not the supreme Magistrate from being excommunicate TVatim agis The Bishop argues about excommunicating Kings you answer about censuring officials that pronounce sentence for non-payment of money wherein yet you are not more impertinent then malicious For you know well enough that sentence was not executed for that but for obstinacie against the power commands of the Church Wherein if any officials inconsideratelie proceeded it must not bring in quaestion the more deliberate prudence of them that made the constitution to that purpose The rash praecipitancie of the Scotish Presbyterian rule practice though many times very reprovable in the later I sinde not heere in the Bishops allegation nor of what magnitude the sinnes are for which they excommunicate though we have know'n a desertion of the Brethren in conspiracie against their Prince or a glance through their fingars an interpretative neutralitie hath been made the great sinne threatned with this censure Neither the Praelatical partie nor any orthodoxe Christians in the world come into your communion in the point of excommunicating their Kings nor comprehend them within the object of their Discipline by which though they have kept the sonnes of the Church in a filial awe yet ever reserv'd a paternal priviledge for their Kings the Nursing Fathers of the same Imperatoria unctione toâ—…stur poenitentia And the learned Grotius assures us that the Kings of France for many ages have expresselie challenged this exemption for themselves No poâ—…sint excommunicatâ—…i Rev … did never so much as intend the beginning of a processe against their King c. Ans. Christian prudence admits no such charitable glosses upon the Scotish intentions where is no colour of ambiguitie in their words In which if the King be a man or a Magistrate he must be necessarilie included made subject aswell to Church animadversion as admonition If Mr. Baylie hath a perspective for the thoughts of all his praedecessours he may enjoy the pleasure of such spiritual reviewes or revelations to himselfe but can have no demonstrative evidence to propagate the like confidence among others True causes of citation of Princes to an Assemblie is the peculiar language of the Discipline no such truth is implied in this truer text of Scripture Where the word of a King is there is power who may say unto him what dost thou The beginning of the next verse is not the Scotish Assemblie in answer to that quaestion What these true causes have been I have partlie manifested out of their storie their owne Registers justifying their successive meeknesse indulgence wherein though no King may be found excommunicateâ—… because their spiritual sword wanted luster and brightnesse to strike such amazement into Princes as to make them let fall the temporal one out of their hands yet not any one of them hath there been since the Assemblies were possess'd of their infernal commission but have been personallie threatned imprison'd depos'd or murdered they should have tasted the meeknesse of the Discipline in them all if the season had served they could have catch'd or kept them in their power Against which universal experience whether Mr. Baylie's single word may be taken for the future securitie of His Majestie his successours I submit with silent reverence to be debated in their Councel Rev. We love not the abused ground c. Ans. We are as litle in love with the Reviewers affronting of Kings as they with what he calls the Warners flatering of Princes To the quaestion he so magisteriallie propounds St. Ambrose notwithstanding his Act to Theodosius makes answer upon that speach of David cited by the Bishop addes the reason in such language as Mr. Baylie will not heare from any Canterburion-Praelate Quod nullis ipsi Reges legibus tenebantur quia liberi sunt Reges a vinclis delictorum The same is to be found in Isiodore Pelus And Tertulian to this purpose many hundred yeares before Presbyterie was hatch'd Sciunt Imperatores quis illis dederit imperium … sentiunt Deum esse solum in cujus solius potestate sunt a quo sunt secundi post quem primi ante omnes super omnes Deos homines And because the Reviewer calls this doctrine Episcopal let him take St. Hieroms note too by the way Rex ipse David alium non timebat This Catholike doctrine praeserves the Majestie of Princes de jure inviolable from the insolencle of Assemblies Where the abuse of it spurres them on to any dangerous praecipiâ—…es they are to stand or fall unto themselves The poor oppressed people would many times worke out their deliverance by prayers patience if the outragious Presbyters did not thrust them downe with the hazard if not destruction of their persons dash all civile government in pieces CHAPTER VI. Kings may sometime pardon capital offenders which the Disciplinarians denie As they doe their Royal right to any part of the Ecclesiastike revenue WEre your reasoning as methodical as the Bishops I should not be so in every Chapter at a losse to find out more to what then what to answer having hitherto met with none but Socrates's three darke principles in your booke tò chaos touti kai tas nephelas kai ten glottan confusion clouds tongue which among them have made such a mist in your own eyes such a clatering in your eares as you can neither see nor heare a good logical argument brought before you We that are above this disturbance at a distance observe his Lordship laying out the doctrine of your Discipline for so I 'll speake for once received by you all then illustrates it by your practice wherein if he had roome enough he would muster up so many particulars as with an c. might conclude an inductive universal Though the other way of acconsequential arguing hath been thought tolerable in Mr. Baylie no Doctour as I take it as not long since in his uncharitable mention made of Bishop
his person was faine to put away his friends of greatest trust the Chancellor Treasurer Baron Humes c. but within a moneth repents him appeales to his Nobles by their advice recalls them yet permits Bothwell to depart The Ministers are angrie that the Papists are not persecuted by fire sword They assemble without the Kings order call together the Barons Burgers Bothwell enters againe with 400. Horse as farre as Leith makes proclamation summons all in to defen'd religion put away evil Counsellers sends it to the Synod at Dunbar which favour'd it The same day he marcheth against 3000. of the Kings forces neare Edenburgh fainteth in his businesse and gets away to the borders Queen Elizabeth sets out a proclamation against him yet presseth the King for proscription of Papists The Lords are but few that meet expresse some reluctance at it The Ministers Burgers are many which vote it take their armes downe out of the windowes c. Argile is sent against them beaten The King drawes toword them permits three of Huntley's houses to be pull'd downe Huntley escapes to his Aunt in Sutherland thence into France These were Huntley's notorious crimes multiplied outrages which cryed up to the God of heaven Out of which let the world judge what reason the Ministers those mercifull men of God had to give such warning crie to the Iudges of the earth to shed his bloud That appearance with display'd banner against the King in person should be made an article against him by Mr. Baylie a loyal peaceable assertour of ten yeares armed rebellion in three Kingdomes I dare not adventure my spleen to discourse on but in Mr. Baylies language hope by his good advise the Prelates will no more Lull ' Princes asleep in such a sinfull neglect of their charge but breake off their slumber by wholesome seasonable admonitions from the word of God such as that Prov. 10. A wise King seatercth the wicked bringeth the wheel over them Or what other texts their Lordships better know applicable to the most just necessarie chastisment of schismatikes Rebells About E. Angus Errol you thinke your selfe not concern'd to make answer because your brother Presbyter Mr. Rob. Bruce gave King Iames leave to recall them but with this considerable sentence against E. Huntley Well Sir you may doe as you list But chuse you you shall not have me the E. Huntley both for you Pretie humble soules who can weigh downe the chiefest Earles in the ballancing of a state In the next paragraph you dawbe with untemper'd morter such as can never keep the Kings right to any Ecclesiastike revenue the claime of the Discipline together For having comprehended in the patrimonie of the Kirke all things without exception given or to be given to that the service of God All such things as by law or custome or use of Countreys have been applied to the use utilitie of the Kirke 2. book Disc. ch 9 And call'd them theeves murderers without exception of persons that alienate any part of this patrimonie 1. books Disc 6. head you are the innocent dove that here bring us newes That the Church never spoyld the King of any tithes while those birds of spoyle your forefathers have left him neither eare nor straw to possesse But to deale with you at your owne weapon in your words If the King never had any first fruits then as the Bishop sayth you are the Popes that with-held it by you that were the Reformers was that point of papacie maintained If he neither had nor demanded to what purpose toke you such paines to obtaine in favour of the Church to have it declar'd in Parliament That all benesices of cure under Praelacies shall in all time coming be fee of the first yeares fruits fift penie the Ministers have their significations of presentation past at the Privie seale upon His Majesties owne subscription his secretaries onelie without any payment or caution to his Treasurer for the sayd first fruits fift penie About tithes you say His Majestie the Church had never any controversie in Scotland How agrees this with your Declaratour in his appendix to the maintenance of your sanctuarie When the minor-age of a good King had been abused to the making of a law whereby the most of these rents first fruits Tithes the lands belonging to Bishoprikes were annexed to the crowne the Church very earnestlie do labour for restitution never gave over till these lawes were repealed If you review your records you will finde in the yeare 1588. that you had a plea with which you call an earnest suit to His Majestie about patronages such considerable opposition as put you upon inhibiting all commissioners Presbyteries to give collation or admission to any person praesented by authoritie from the King And to omit many a greater you had before with the Queen Anno 1565 The Nobilitie Gentrie were more beholding to your impotencie then patience for peace What gracious men yon have shewd your selves since your Rebell-Parliament got that incumbent power into your hands your congregations would speake if they durst whom you feed with the bread of violence with that you cover them as a garment So that whether the Presbyterie be not as good patrons of the people as they are vassals to the King need never more be quaestion'd in Scotland Whether by the wickednesse of Praelates or Presbyters the King Church were cousin'd of the tither will appeare by them that bragg'd most when they were most endanger'd by the sequestring the other patrimonie from the Church which I finde to be the Presbyters that could not keep councel but boasted they had given a seasonable blow unto the Bishops That legitimate power in the Magistrate the Bishop pleades for King James never declared to be a sinne against Father Son or Holy Ghost nor did ever the patrons of Episcopacâ—…e oppose it That changeling you here substitute in the roome calls you Father by the ridiculous posture in which it stands your friend Didoclave had more ingenuitie then to inferre a claime to the power of preaching celebrating the Sacraments upon the power of iurisdiction over Ecclesiastical persons derived upon the King from his praedecessours in England given them by a statute Verba statuti de jurisdictione non de simplici functionum sacrarum administratione intelligenda esse quis dubitat The well grounded consequences which you call Castles in the aire will hereafter batter your Presbyterie to the ground when Princes shal retract their too liberal indulgence take a courageous resolution to claime their own relie upon Gods providence to maintaine it King Iames had given you the practical meaning of his wise sentence seven yeares before he spake it at St. Andrews For as you may very well remember when His
I must againe send you as I can not too often to the famous Grotius De Imper. Sum. Pot cap. 9. What the Parliament propon'd to you about the late engagement included no such great scruple of conscience as to long for the comfort of your resolution nor was that when they had it the starre by which they steer'd their course in the businesse They knew your violence call'd zeale to be such as would force an entrance into the hearts of many poore people which when it sindes emptic swept garnished for better ghests would call in 7 wicked rebellious spirits to possesse them This epidemical mischiefe they endeavour'd to praevent by acquainting you with the plausibilitie of their enterprize if they could have praevailed for either your consent or silence they should have the lesse need they thought to looke backe in the prosecution of their designe What conjunction soever you found to be at that time driven on I can assure you there was a clearlie malignant partie on this side that found themselves separated who trembled at the hazard of their religion the persons of them that were to be most eminent instruments of its praeservation when they saw such a solemne outward compliance with oathes Covenants with a Committee of Estates that declar'd so at large for the former joint-interest with England against the Liturgie established religion in our Church Yet their warning against it made no other noyse then sounding of their bowels in compassion to the King whom they desired to have by any meanes delivered out of the hands of the mercilesse Independent and a tendernesse toward their sweet ingenuous Prince who with his loyal generous Nobilitieâ—… they feard might be deluded fall into the hands of the darke mercenarie Presbyter the orthodoxe untainted partie being not intermix'd in such a visible number as seem'd likelie to secure them from that danger The Congregational supplications were naught but your Consistorian jugglings Your selves sow'd the winde in some whispering Assemblie instructions then reap'd the whirlewind in tumultuous petitions from the people So that your own spirit first rais'd the storme then wrapt it selfe in a mistie multitude for concealment That the States of the Kingdome sent several expresse messages for that end viz. to receive an Assemblies replic in a Magisterial Declaration against their proceedings in pulpit banning cursing in Clamourous seditions as you could make militairie opposition I can not get within the compasse of my faith take it to be such a salving of conscience as none but a Scottish Classical Casuist will professe beyond what any Jesuite in ordine ad spiritualia will challenge with all the rebellious circumstances that accompanie it For that filthie conclusion you cast upon the Bishop we know aswell as if we had seen it drop that it came from the corrupt praemises in your head In the case you produce His Lordship ties not up the tongues of Gods servants but concludes the counsel of the wicked to be deceit Gods law not to be taken from your preaching nor his Covenant any more from then in your mouth To applie your general to the particular in hand The warre you thought unlawfull because it proclaim'd libertie to the captive the opening of the prison to His Majestie that was bound And the law in St Iames you had no reason to submit to who may not uncharitablie be thought to have resolved upon a connivance at or collusive neutralitie in the murder that was otherwise visiblie to follow The greatest impietie injustice I know was in it as exquisite as you are in casting the fashion of uncertain evils was the advancement of your Covenant in the Van. And if for that the Engagers were to expect nothing but the curse of God I am sure they deserv'd no anathema from your Kirke If your doubting Nation be put in the scales with your resolving Nation that engaged I beleeve we must give you at least a graine or two to make it aequiponderate They that stated their soules by the councel of your Assemblie stay'd behinde to praevent all recruit oppose the retreat of their more loyal Countrey men upon a possible misfortune For the lawfulnesse whereof they had somewhat worse then silence from the miscalled servants of God though I am sure no authoritie from his word When Religion Royaltie lay panting under the talents of most cruel Rebells the Civile businesse of warre was by the other birds of prey unseasonablie disputed What concern'd the soul in it had the cleare sunshine from the law the testimonie to warme quicken it That the Assemblie spake not according to this word was because there was then no light in them the lampe of the wicked was put out What the Church declared in their publike papers to the Parliament had very litlie of modestie or truth It bound up your engagement in so many knottie conditions as had made it sure enough for vindicating the wrongs the sectarians had done when the onelie injur'd persons were excluded out of their share in the promised successe To expect reason by Christian friendlie tâ—…eaties from them that you acknowledge had bid adieu to Religion Covenant when your zealous selves praetenders to both never offered any heretofore was like the fine-spun thread or Covent garden paper you put in afterward between the axe the Royal head it cut off If the good people in Scotland were so willing to hazard their lives estates what good Pastours were you that held their hands forc'd then to sit still By whose cunning misperswasion the engagement was spovled or impeded in the stating we require no farther evidence then from your pamphlets By whose rash praecipitancie or somewhat else in the managing if it may not be ascribed to the fortune of the warre is a mysterie yet not perfectlie revealed The number was large enough though the most religious as you call them were absent the armies courage I thinke had not been much greater by their companie The lies spoken in hypocrisie did but cauterize the conference of the wretched people that stayd at home The lethargie call'd peace which they slumber in for the time may hereafter breake out into an active warre to the ruine of the Assemblie spirits that seduc'd them The three reasons the Bishop toucheth upon as the principal may be the test for the many more that went with them So that we shall not need to rake in your dunghills for the jewel that you promise which when we have found will not yeild one graine of faythfullnesse in your Church They that foretold the destruction that followed were not unlikelie the instruments to effect it If the Kings friends should not march till the Assemblie Zedekiahs put on their hornes though his person be more righteous we looke his successe should be litle better then
Ahabs the Independent Syrians push'd no otherwise then in mockerie and sport while his loyal subjects should be too seriouslie scatered on the hills as sheep that have no shepheard to enfold them If the misbeliefe contempt of whom you call the Lords servants the great danger unto which you make religion be brought were the onelie losses sustain'd in the last armies misfortune let those workers of iniquitie perish that to the ruine of soules endeavour to repaire them What griese of heart or repentance hath shew'd it selfe in those persons you say contributed to the spoiling but must meane unlesse you condemne your selves such as were forward in promoting that designe whether in a politike hypocrisie or which can hardlie be rationallie afforded then a misguided sinceritie will find it to be poenitenda poenitentia a hard retreat from the guilt shame of that botomlesse penance you praescrib'd them unlesse their judgement be as their sinne the same with his who sold his birth-right as they theirs to their libertie for a morsell of bread a poor inconsiderable temporal subsistence may finde no place of repentance though they secke it carefullie with teares Should all the Disciplinarian hands be cut off that were not held up to the agreement of bringing by a warlike engagement the Sectarian partie â—…in England to punishment David Lesley would have but a left-handed armie His Majestie might relie upon halfe his securitie aswell for his crowne as his religion They who to gaine their arreares so easilie I must say traitourouslie parted with that Royal person are not to be credited as men so unanimouslie resolv'd with hazard of lives estates upon his rescue Nor can any man whose faith as not resolv'd into aire so readie to engender with the faint breath of every dissembler beleeve that they would with such hazard make a long march to the Isle of Wight who would not with lesse conduct His Majestie a day or two from Holmebie But had you been at that trouble had Victorie strewed roses in your way when you should have with pleasure regain'd the rich purchase you went for I preceive you had been at a losse for a chapman a great uncertaintie where to dispose it untill you had got one For first you talke of bringing the King to one of his houses to perfect the treatit Then of bringing His Majestie to London with honour freedome safetie Next of bringing him to sit in his Parliament with what honour freedome himselfe should desire And all these with in the extent of a few lines which make three degrees of doubt in the Saints even after their debate of that matter universal agreement not to be quaestion'd But let us suppose the last best of the three in your purpose your avant Curriers on horsebacke to hasten it I see you are pleas'd to call them backe with a quaestion to which I pray tell me where the Lords servants or loyal subjects of Christs Kingdome e'r made a like Yet you shall have your answer by by though you shew not the like civilitie to the Bishop who seemes to state his quaestion thus Whether when the Parliament Armie of Scotland had declar'd their resolutions to bring His Majestie to London c. without conditioning for a promise of securitie for establishing at best a controverted religion any legitimate full Church Assemblie ought an illegitimate imperfect Clerical combination or Conventicle could in ordine ad spiritualia declare against the engagement call for the Kings hand seale oath to establisp a cut throat covenant to the ruine of his person posteritie Religion Lawes Libertie Monarchie whatsoever His Majestie was by a solemne oath indispensable peswasion of conscience obliged with the hazard of life Kingdomes to maintaine In answer to yours take this The Parliament armie of Scotland in declaring their resolutions c. did what they ought that according to your own principles for you had the securitie of His Majesties Royal word more then once for establishing your Religion in Scotland according to the treaties that had been perfected between the two Kingdomes If you intended the like courtesie to England your Parliament Armie had it consisted of none but the Saints were in no capacitie to take it being no part of the principals concer'd in the benefit nor deputed by England to capitulate for it Therefore their rescuing His Majesties person out of the Sectaries hands had been the untying of his puting him in a posture to give The bringing him to his Parliament in London where likewise your own Commissioners resided had been the seting him in sight of such as were to aske receive Which is the same kind of Logike you us'd in your answer to both Houses of Parliament upon the new propositions of peace the 4. bills to be sent 1647. Where I finde your opinion judgement to be this That the most aequal fairest just way to obtaine a well-grounded peace is by a personal treatie with the King that his Majestie for that end be invited to come to London with honour freedome safetie For which you offer 6. reasons 1. The sending of your propositions without a treatie hath been often essayed without successe… Of those propositions this ever was one To promise securitie for establishing religion And what better successe could now be exspected 2… His Majesties proesence with his Parliament must be the best â—…if not the onelie â—…remedie to remove our troubles This remedie the Parliament Armie intended to helpe you to 3… Without a treatie or giving reasons for asserting the lawfullnesse expedience of the propositions to be praesented they may be aesteemed impositions This proposition was to be sent without a treatie being neither lawfull nor expedient for the many reasons His Majestie had formerlie render'd I remit the Reader to your paper for the rest a great deale more of selfe contradiction with somewhat worse which one of the new English Lights hath discover'd in his answer But you shake of that like an old serving-man which had done your drudgerie in his youth bestow your liverie on the Parliaments praecedent which providence beleeve me will save you but litle Your argument's this The Parliaments of both Kingdomes in all their former treaties ever pressed upon the King a number of propositions Ergo The Church may desire the granting of one I should be too courteous in casting up the numerous account of their rebellions aequal to their propositions keep out but a single unitie for you I shall chuse rather to tell you cautioning first for the falshood in the fundamental hypothesis That in cases of treatie the Church of Scotland is subordinate to one therefore hath no adaequate conditioning priviledge with the Parliaments of both Kingdomes especiallie in her peevith state of opposition to both Secondlie This proposition desired is the Trojan horse into
with reference to no unlawfullnesse but inconvenience retracted that too in his too late yet seasonable repentance afterward Though for what His Lp. objects were there too after Acts of Parliament to ratifie the substance of what the Kirke repraesents no one of them thereby justifies the circumstance of Ministers mutinous protesting against lawes made in houres of darkenesse upon what misinformation soever which is treason against man and excusable by no formal obedience toward God This for the Bishop to publish being one of the Governers of that Church which strangers plot what they can to seduce into the same rebellion with their owne is no contemning of law but discharging his conscience and dutie in his place By the next storie the Bishop will gaine a more perfect discoverie of your resembling those grievous revoiters in Jeremie who walke with slanders being brasse iron Who bend your tongue like a bowe for lies and yet when the true case is know'n be accounted by Solomon but a fool for your labour In King James's minoritie who stole his name though they ner had his heart to act by it the most unnatural oppresion of that most gallant Queen his vertuous and gracious mother to murder and banish many noble assertours of the reformed orthodoxe religion lawes appeares upon publike record in your storie This one Capt. Iames Stuart very noblie with standing your divellish temptations to have him maintaine a distructive dissention at Court with Esme Stuart E Lenox a faythfull subject most deserving favourite of the Kings improving that litle interest you helpt him to to a more Christian conjunction in love and loyaltie and a double vigilancie over the Kings person exposed too often to your treacherous designes is unlikelie to have any better character at your hands then what you commonlie give to persons of such sidelitie and honour His advancement to the titles estate of E. Arran Chancellar of Scotland was partlie in reward of his guardian care over him whom somwhat else beside sicknesse had made unfit for the management of either Yet were not these taken by force But on free session then desperate to whom if the King were nearest in bloud not to mention a third which your zealous professours commonlie finde him his Majestie had a double title to his lands a power undisputable to dispose of the Chancellars office at his pleasure What beside Capt. Iames's unheard of oppressto is which dirt his zeale for religion contracts when it passeth through the uncleane chanell of any Presbyters mouth troubled the Nobilities Patience the reader may finde somewhat more trulie and impartiallie related not onelie in the Apocriphal histories of the two Rt. Reverend arch-Arch-Bishops of Canterburie and Saint Andrewes but even in the Canonical tradition of Philadelphs Vindicatour who praemiseth some repulse your Church Delegates had about their querulous petitions A difference that fell out between E. Lenox Gowrie about some point of honour to revenge which he calls Murre Glame and diverse other disquiet discontented spirits into a confaederacie whom you call a number of the prime best affected nobiiitie which improper title he more ingenouslie declines in a peice of Rethorical ignorance putting his hand more modestlie before his eyes as loth to looke on their sinfull rebellious demeanour Qualcscunque fuerint plerique eorum non multum laberabo … qualis quisque corum suerit nescio applies the blinde mans speach ' in the 9. of Saint Iohn to the authours of the miracle in this change And beside the mere boast no violence you rejoyce in confesseth diverse of the Kings servants were wounded among the rest William Stuart the newes whereof brought Capt. Iames thither Who was not chaced away by their strong breath but clapt up into a castle by their power the Kings guard being before remov'd from him and His Majestie taken by Gowrie and his conspiratours into custodie The E. Lenox banished into France where with in a short time he died whether by griefe principallie or his sicknesse he defines not He addes That the Heads of this faction sent the Abbot of Paslet to your Assemblie at Edaenburgh for their approbation who what soever they did afterward at that time onelie thanked God for deliverance viz from the imminent instice of the law to which most of their Members were lyable durst not approve the businesse or appeare to doe it at least put up a non'sense petition to God praying him it were well done after it was done and whether well or ill then unalterable by their prayers or indeed by devine power whose omnipotencie is not limited when denied to make good moral contradictions to pleasure an hypoeritical Assemblie He speakes nothing of the Kings sending to his Councel or judicatories to declare the act of the Lords convenient and lawdable for which he expected no reasonable mans credulitie nor patience unlesse so farre as to spit it backe into his face Nor yet of His Majestics entreating the Assemblie but of their sending Delegates to him The answer he gave them if any or such as the Vindicator hath helpt us to is much different from yours and though not extorted by the terrour of death which may well be suspected by the successive treasonable attempts of the same Gowrie and his sonne afterward gives litle approbation of the fact being onelie his acknowledgement of a blessing from God for delivering his person and the Commonwealth from mischiefe by which doubtlesse he meant the happie praeservation of his life So that I againe appeale to your aquitable comparers what historical truth we are likelie to have of your penning when seting one Disciplinarian brother against another without consulting unprinted records we can confute you line by line among your selves The letter His Majestie sent to Q. Elizabeth was forced Regem invitum compulerunt sayth Camden where by he allowed no more that act for good service then he would have done a thiefe for taking but his purse when he might likewise have had his life But to proceed Capt I'ames shortlie after crept not in but was calld Revocatur Aranius sayth your brother Therevenge whether obtaind by him or no was but the justice of the law executed with litle severitie upon any but moderated by the mercie of a gracious King and tenderd to all upon submission But traitourous Assemblies giving universal allowance for possible misfortunes had ever an aftergaime of treacherie in reserve Therefore the Ministers running at this time into a voluntarie exile was upon the apprehension of their guilt diffidence even in the word of a King for their impunitie if not rather a designe to make His Majestie secure and so to praepare for the treason at Striveling that followed few moneths after where not onelie Capt I ames was chac'd away but the Kings life endangerd for which Gowrie very justlie payd his owne These their actions were ratified by no Parliament but a partie nor
If her Majestie complained that this was done without her Majesties commandement so had all that God had blessed within the Realme from the beginning of this action meaning the Presbyterian Reformation That he was a watchman both over the Realme and over the Church of God gathered within the same by reason whereof he was bound in conscience to blow trumpet publikelie so oft as ever he saw any appearance of danger either of the one or of the other This Act thus related the Bishop will have what you can not disprove to be a huge rebellion not onelie in the Actours but also in Iohn Knox who was praesent if not in person by full consent and approbation To breake open the Royal Palace to bring any delinquent to trial is according to no law but what your Rebellious Assemblie hath framed That this Priest saying Masse within the Liberties of the Court did contrarie to law the Queen having ever reserved that priviledge to her familie remaines yet to be proved You did the like to the Arch-Bishop of Saint Andrewes which Camden tells you was permitted by law and though you had Murrays authoritie for it accounts you no better then Rebells for your paines… Servidi Ecclesiae Ministri Moravij authoritate suffulti vim facerent impune sacerdoti qui missam in aula quod lege permissiâ—…m erat doe you marke it celebrârat Iohn Knox's confession which I gave you under his hand may be the harbinger to lodge credit enough to the next storie that followes in any man that knowes what superstitious observers your Assemblies have been of all the principles and praecedents he gave them Nor need you be so coy in taking upon you here the defense of their Convocating the people in armes which you are forc'd to do other where as well as you mince it into god'lie directions and conscientious advertisement and upon lesse colourable occasions approve it every where when done Though Mr. Spotswood's testimonie can not be refused in the particular evidence he gives in yet I 'll be confined for once to your owne brother in Evill that confutes him When his Grace relates the Ministers commanding the people to armes Your brother playes the Critike upon the word but grants the matter in controversie between them and justifies it from the danger that was at hand from the Popish Lords whom he makes Conspiratours with Spaine Hortate sunt nam jubere aut imperare non poterant quod â—…um in tanto periculo constitutae essent respublica Ecclesia illus vitio vertendum non est When his Grace sayth planilie The King praefixed a day for their trial the menacing libells put up in the name of a national Synod the tumultuarie meeting of the faythfull deferr'd it and made the onelie remedie a necessitie of his remitting their exile Your brother denies not one clause of all this but onelie moderates the termes and enlargeth in some particular circumstances that aggravate the fact viz. That they appointed a fast this I hope was done by the Assemblie That they moved the King to appoint a day for their trial the Barons those of Perth not to admit them which advice or injunction they followed till they had received letters from the King which because they obey'd the brethren tooke pet armes for the defence of religion by whose advice let any man judge That the King commanded the Conspiratours to submit themselves in a small number to a judical proceeding That upon the 12. of November they met at Edenburgh The Conspiratours pleade by their lawyers c. Propound their conditions The King declares in a speach the inconveniences very likelie to followe if the Lords were not restored That an Ast of oblivion was voted which offended the brethren What Seditious Sermons and actions ensued appeares undeniablie in your storie Let this be compared with the Bp of Derries relation That the King was forced to take armes come upon a fatal necessitie by your rebelling when your importunitie praevaild not How farre he pursued them What acts of grace he afterward vouchsafd them you there fore conceale because it confutes what your imperfect historie imports CHAPTER VIII The divine right of Episcopacie better grounded then that praetended in behalfe of Presbyterie HAd I any hopes to keep you in your wits when you were revived I would here sprinkle a litle cold water pitie upon your faynting spirits who any man may see are giving up the ghost by your grasping and catching at what you finde within reach and not liking the lookes of that spirit which appeares readie at hand to conduct you would have you care not whether Anti-Christian Bishop or Papist to secure you His Lp. having remonstrated at large your exorbitand power here summarilie shewes how by the divine right you praetend to this sore is incurable your selves incorrigible and how Princes must necessarilie despaire of recovering or keeping thairs while Christs Kingdome is yours and you have Christs Scepter in your hand The streame of divine Rhethorike and reason he brings for it you and your Companie whom the prophet Isai. Describes to be a troubled sea that can not rest whose waters cast up mire and dirt hope invisiblie to swallow To which if Mercurius Aulicus must be initled Let Britannicus be more properlie to yours whom I have often heard to be a Common lawyer but must now take him for some classical divine since you have grac'd him so much as to serive most of his mater language into your booke How unhappie soever you make the Bishop in this chalenge as in the rest he caries fortune enough in his argument to confute you Misero cui plura supersunt Quam tibi faelici post tot quoque funera vinâ—…et Those of his brethren who stand for the divine right of the Discipline of the Church doe it chieflic in reference to that power of order and the distinction they finde of Bishop from inferiour Presbyters in the text They that draw in the other power of jurisdiction relate onelie to what they finde practic'd by the Apostles or by God in them going under the name of excommunication and the keyes How many circumstancials must passe for substancials when determind by the judicatories of your Church and be made adaequate in divine right to the general rules to which you reduce them need not here to be numberd being scatered every where in this discourse and very obvious to the Reader in your storie But in answer to what the Bishop objects of geting both swords spiritual and temporal into your hands the one ordinarilie by common right the other extraordinarilie the one belonging directlie to the Church the other indirectlic the one of the Kingdome of Christ the other for his Kingdome in order to the propagation of religion and to let the Papist a lone whom out of what mysterie I know not you very often me thinkes call to your assistance I pray name
one of his Lp's learned brethren that ever writ for 't what concessions have pass'd from the elder Edward and Elizabeth Praelates of England or what from the later Erastians as you style them in diminution of the jus divinunâ—… of Episcopacie desends not to the jus humanum in your sense there beingâ—… midle Apostolical right participant of both enough to constitute an immutabilitie in their order whatsoever change their jurisdiction may admit of at least such as they finde aequivalent to the communicating of women baeptizing of infants observation of Sunday which when you bring arguments to unfixe you may with greater confidence treate against Bishops wherein those friends His Lo. hath about the King are so perfectlie instructed that they laugh at your sillie straâ—…agems to pervert them being such as if at any time they repraesent to His Majestie as you earnestlie desire will thereby no quaestion confirme his pious resolution in the continuance of that holie order especiallie since the maxime you build upon That conscience is bottom'd onelie upon a divine right they finde ruind by Saint Paul in his doctrine and practice who convinceth the heathen upon the right or principles of nature and argues from the testimonie of conscience they had sufficientlie bottom'd upon the worke of the law written in their hearts Nor had he ever converted any of the nations without divine revelation antecedent I meane in them aswell as in himselfe which had made lesse effectual and pertinent the ministrie of the Gospell if no moral arguments had obliged their consent How farre this is applicable to Episcopacie though were it not it is to your argument against it I am not here to discusse onelie intimate I may that in proportion it is possible as much to a sacred as civile Monarchie I meane not coordinate the later had it not the law of God hath the language of nature importunate to commend it I will trifle with you no farther in this matter but lay downe this conclusion which you may take up to what advantage you can That in a thing ambiguous such as you here seem to give if not grant Episcopacie to be since no command of God nor warrant from scripture enjoynes or tolerates the change since no Apostolical nor Christian Church for so many hundred yeares before that single citie of Geneva began it since neither that nor any other besides ever acted or at least publikelie avowed what change you demand in the many particulars that have been and shall be inserted in this dispute to the inevitable subversion of Regal government to the confusion of Christian subjection in the enjoyment of just libertie to the plaine praejudice of Parliament priviledge in three dominions to the seting up of much spiritual and carnal wickednesse some grave reverend Divine might modestlie speake a word in season and say His Majesties conscience can not at the best but doubt and doubting ought not by the law of God and rule of reason to resolve on it Which indeed is the substance of his Royal Fathers printed profession That he found it impossible for a Prince to praeserve the state inquiet unlesse he had such influence upon Church men and they such a dependance on him as might best restraine the seditious exorbitances of Ministers tongues c. And this is onelie to be had in that government which was one bottome for his conscience… That since the first age sor 1500 reares not one example can be produc'd of any sotled Church wherein were many Ministers Congregations which had not some Bishop above them under whose jurisdiction and government they were This was another bottome for his conscience To which such a divine as I spake of might adde with a due reserve of all humblie revence to and most unshaken confidence in that Holie Martyr and his most pious hopefull successour our gracious soveraigne now living That he who for any politike end suggested or necessitie most fond'le praetended of the subtilest presbyterian of you all shall adventure to take himselfe off from this bottome when Iudaisme or Turcisme some part of your mixture shall be alike plausible praetended as more advantageous to his purpose may be fear'd to befound not well setled upon Christianitie it selfe but fall from it throw away one or both Testaments of Scripture which upon the universal tradition of the Church as the other upon the Cathoike practice of the same he first rationallie received as the word of God though afterward he found other motives prompting a beliefe of it to be such which at last be had superinduc'd by what too many vainlie praetend to the instinct or plerophorie of the spirit His Majestie likewise found most agreeable both to reason and religion that frame of government because paternal not magisterial c. Which was a third bottome for his conscience Nor did he thinke it any point of wisdome or charitie where Christians differ …there to widen the differences and at once to give all the Christian world except a handfull of some Protestants so great a seandal in point of Church government c. of which wisdome and charitie the gifts of the spirit of God he made another very good botome for his conscience Let Mr. Baylie reade the rest of that most excellent divine chapter and answer it if he can The maine ground of the Bishops discourse being wilfullie mistaken by the Reviewer his structure is weake about the Warners conscience And the Kings advantage His cordial beliâ—…e of the divine right of Synodâ—… and Presbyteries together with that of the Reformed Churches which the Bishop shewes to be different may come from a private spirit that misinformes them then is no good interpreter of Scripture nor any sure praecedent for Christianitie throughout Their strict and inseparable adhaerence to his errour beside that it antidates all treaties null without an effectual complinance against conscience and honour excommunicates all the world but themselves excludes them from all hope of fellow ship with this new select societie of Saints who could they multiplie into a number large enough to fill the circle of their ambition and had they every one a drop of Scotish rebellious bloud in their veines would no longer labour the conversion of Kings but take Gods angrie worke out of his hands to bring their Princes to nothing… and be the whirlewind themselves to take them away as stubble He that lookes not through Mr. Baylies glasse of vanitie and lies can never be able to view the Bishop clasped so close with the elder Praelates impairing the divine right nor then with the consequence he makes about the legal or expedient mobilitie of Bishops Therefore as the ambition greed revenge so the dissimulation in conscience is his who can not but know what texts himselfe useth to câ—…te for the divine right of Presbyterie and what the Bishop expresselie sayth that the same may with much
more reason be alleged for Episcopacie and more consonable to the analogie of fayth The agreement of sundrie Praelatical divines with Eraâ—…us is here impertinentâ—… mention'd What correspondence the Bishop holds with them hath been too often all-readie acknowledg'd and maintaind Mr. Baylies urgent illogical inference obligeth the Bishop neither in ingenuitie nor reason to untie the bonds of the Kings conscience which his own assures him God hath bound if not by the hands of his sonne by those of his Apostles and their successours through all Christian ages and Churches Nor can his Lp from the principle you presse demonstrate any securitie to His Majestie from offending God in the change Nor yeild satisfaction to his doubts If Erastus's Royal right which you so often have inveighd against may be us'd as a sophisme to delude the King into your presbyterie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I pray by your favour let it stand as it is a better argument to confirme him if he needs it in Episcopacie Yet that either here or otherwhere this Royal right is induc'd by His Lordship to ratifie the order I say not to actuate the Jurisdiction of Bishops I can not finde upon my reviewing and must therefore desire a point by your oculat fingar to direct me Were not the Presbyterians more obstinate in resuming their errours then the Bishop forward to recapitulate his proofes his Lp. had spar'd a good part of this chapter though the receiud rules of method requir'd it Weake and naughtie are hackney answers which if spurrd too often and reason holds not up by the head are likelie to lay Presbyterie in the dirt Your Iudgement of his revenge is according to your practice who poore impotent creatures like wormes or flies by corruption filth support an uselesse corps to defile that hand that crusheth you to the death The praelatical integritie makes good the praesent disadvantage of their fortune their evidence in proofe before any aequitable comparers will praeserve still the principate in dispute Major est sinon fortunae ratio quà m ut tali solatio egeat minifestiorque vis quà m ut alieno malo opinionem sibi virium querat Your Canterburian challenges were but Scottish Iigges made onelie for mirth to a rude multitude in confusion the one very inconsiderable in musike the other flat if any thing in the harmomie of truth If the principles of Praelacie unavoydablie bring backe the Pope the practice of Presbyterie unquaestionablie goes before him makes his Papacie hold it by the traine The Patriarchate of the â—…est and primacie of Rome flowes never out of the fountaine of Episcopacie but when some ignorant Presbyter is turning the cocke or tampering with the spring Those English Praelates that so freelie gave away the Patrimonie of Saint Peter c. were some singular Executours of Constantinus Donation yet in that nothing so liberal to the Pope as the Presbyters are covetous and griping the common inheritance to themselves who since his refusal that had the profer in possession take the mocke spirit at his word fall downe and worship and then under the counterfeit of dominion in grace intitle them selves not to Italie alâ—…ne but to all the Kingdomes of the earth What difference there is in number or nature between the ceremonies they us d those in Rome will appeare best by comparing their ritual with our rubrike Canons The ornament of sacred historical pictures the name of altars and the adoration of God in uniformitie before them have the ancient Christians innocent praecedent to commend them when commanded or Countenanc'd by our superiours in the Church and to vindicate them inus from the superstition and idolatrie you impute so liberallie to Rome When the Praelates Papists cope in the controversie there are several other ceremonies they sticke at That these are the worst as religiouslie put in practice by the Bishops friends requires more then your old see saw to confirme it Adoration of or to the altaris that which I never heard professd by their mouth nor read yet dropt from their pen. For me let them that owne it recant it and if none such befound Let the mouth of him that speaketh lies be stopped and the sroward tongue be cut out The real praecence of Christ in the Eucharist on the altar as I take it was never denied by our Church a corporal never asserted by her nor any of the Bishops friends that I have heard of though the 21. objection against our Liturgie in your historie of the Synod os Glasgow implies it The justification they held was fetchd farre beyond Trenâ—… and if they that went for it were not able to distinguish between Saint Pauls workes and Saint Iames's they were very unfit to trade forthat pearle bad merchants for the Kingdome of heaven Their free will was held no paragon of nature but a priviledge by grace which deliver'd them from the fatalitie of the curse restoring them in some measure to a libertie of choyce And unlesse you will fetch backe Tatians errour make one God for the law another for the Gospel so long as the ten Commandements oblige us we have aswell as the Israelites of old heaven and earth for our record that life and death are to this day set before us and by the merits of Christ the grace of having them in the free election of our will Their final apostacie was seldome or never intitled to Saints or if so with caution enough ro praevent calumnie They asscribed ever an infallible praescence to God an immutabilitie in his knowledge But to make him so peremtorilie antecedentlie spontaneouslie irrespectivelie praedestinate a certaine number of men call'd Saints before their resurrection from sinne so irresistiblie operate by his power as to praevent all possibilitie of backsliding offending or being fallen forceablie raise them reenstate them in native innocencie and his favour they found consonant to none dissonant from diverse positive texts in or inferences from Scripture such as these Let him that standeth take heed lest he fall which excepts no more the last houre or moment of life then the first in the exercise of reason… Worke out your Salvation with feare and trembling 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 importing an earnest endeavour unto the last against final apostacio not impossible And the reason in the next verse implying an hazard of the energie of grace which onelie supports a Saint from his fall I demand yea or no a direct answer to this Whether if a Phineas had come and taken David 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the act with Bathsheba the point of his speare had been assuredlie blunted or his hand held by an Angel from heaven Whether if so this extraordmarie miracle had not been wrought in order to the accomplishment of somewhat praefix't to the oeconomie of Gods Royaltie upon earth in his person Whether the like case or capacitie can in such be
truths ordained for peace but encountred with troubles and their abettours expos'd to susteime the envie and obloquie of the world Therefore alasse its in vaine for you to invite them to come nearer to hang out like a dead cat in her skin unlesse you meane to have every one of them moral the rest of the fable with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But to leave off speaking in parables I desire the reader in plaine English to marke the base ingratitude of an unworthie Presbyter In that when a most ingenuous peace-desiring Prince for him he meanes when he speakes of his Praelatical adversaries invaded by audacious importunitie encompassed with all external visible necessitie placing himselfe upon the very pinacle of Christi-an charitie shall yeild all that the softest gentlest Casuist can indulge and that upon such conditions as how easie soever the perfidious contractours litle thinke to make good he must be argued with upon the ominous advantage of hiâ—… owne gratuitie praetended from his adventurous kindnesse to be demonstrativelie convinc'd to give up the rest of that which rebellious license schismatical singularitie and degenerate malice have now so devested into a new creature as neither law custome nor honour can call that English Bishop which religion instituded and reformation confirmed But a crou'd of guiltie conjured malefactours presseth shame and the proverbe to nothing so that ingratum si dixeris nihil dixeris Seneca knew it who had studied the point and experienc'd the practice Pudorum tollit multitudo peccantium desinet esse probri loco commune maledictum But to send you backe some of your owne logike and language If this naked bird which you so pleasantlie play with be a new creature because the feathers are pluckt then you must confesse that old creature revested with those Euaugelical beauties and Royal graces which once it possessed to be that know'n true English Bishop that in honour law custome if not in conscience which I need not suppose is to be inviolablie maintain'd when it shall be made to appeare as it may very easilie and hath been very frequentlie that such an order not much differentlie fashion'd and habited ever was and ever is to be in the Christian Church To make good the mutual toleration indented for between your sectarian brethren and your alltogetheras sectarian selves you closelie decline the warners confidence which avowes those texts of Scripture you wrest against Bishops with as much colour of reason and more truth the Independents may urge against Presbyters being resolv'd since you finde they can make you their province at pleasure if not command a transmigration of your Euangel to argue no more against them then to fight The triumph you make in two painted Syllogismes is very improperlie plac'd before the victorie where though you ride like a George on horsebacke in a pageant you will passe for no beter then a dumbe shew and with your wooden launce be mistaken by none but children and fooles for that primitive armed Saint that kill'd the dragon If you cast not your texts in a couple of better molds your workemanship will beare as litle the image of Gods word as your selves doe of the reasonable men that he created Were His Lp. at better leisure his great promises would reengage him in more necessarie imployments then answering every silie Presbyter in his follie but his Acolythus servant if not because he hath taken up so much of the similitude allreadie will for once and it may be oftner follow Solomons advice in the next verse seeing you so very wise in your owne conceit The first text you are medling with is Ephes 4. 11. whence your imaginarie argument not to be denied adoration is this Maj All the officers that Christ has appointed in his Church for the ministrie of the word are either Apostles Euangelists Prophets Pastours or Doctours Mi But Bishops are none of these five Ergo. You pleade custome for the free unquaestionable passage of your major which you must give me leave to obstruct first excepting against the improprietie of your termes being such as may evacuate your argument the Ministrie of the word when the Bishops discourse is about the regiment of the persons to whom the word allreadie is ministred Secondlie demanding to have it under Saint Pauls hand whether the offices he mentions of Apostolate prophecie c were by Christs institution for the personal perfecting of Saints in a Church established and not as the word seemes rather to signifie Pros ton Catartismon toon hagioon for jointing or knitting new Saints to the Church new membres to the bodie of Christ in the propagation of his gospel so aedisying the bodie of Christ by the worke of the Ministrie which in the next verse seemes to end in the unitie of fayth that is the general conversion of nations to Christianitie Thirdlie whether this enumeration of the Apostle's be universal to which 〈◊〉 finde more particulars added 1. Co. 12. 28. among them dynameis Kyberneseis Powers governments the former of which that you may not cavill about superinfused gifts he makes as much personal or persons as that of Apostle prophet Teacher vers 29. Besides that he expresselie calleth the Elders of the Church of Ephesus Bishops tells them they were instituted by the holie spirit which we know came downe to fulfill the promise by the mission of the sonne so they must passe upon account as officers appointed by Christ. Three fifths of your Minor thus you prove Bishops are not Apostles Euangelists nor prophets because they are confessed extraordinarie temporarie Bishops ordinarie perpetual To which I answer First That Bishops are Apostles in their ordinarie power of ordination jurisdiction though not in their extraordinarie of working miracles speaking with diverse tongues c. And this Tertullian hath sayd above 1300. yeares since who arguing with the haeretikes about succession bids them turne over their records shew that their first Bishop was an Apostle or Apostolical because personallie ordained by one of them This the Apostolical Churches could doe as that of Smyrna shewes Polycarp because placed there by Saint Iohn That of Rome Clement because ordained by St. Peter And such Bishops as these he calls Apostolici seminis traduces If they be Apostolical grafts good Mr. Baylie from what tree thinke you were they taken and of what may they without arrogancie beare the name Other of the Ancients call'd Timothie Bishop of Ephesus an Apostle among whom what enterfeering there was of these two termes you may reade in Theodoret upon 1. Tim. Jn the like sense may they be sayd to be Euangclists aswell as in the Revelation they are called Angele who praeside over the preaching of the Gospell and publication of it to them that have not heard Euangelion Kerygma being the same And they either are or should be Prophets in one kinde according to Saint Ambrose
Scripturas revelantes the ablest interpreters of Scripture or speakers of mysteries in the spirit to aedification exhortation and comfort though not foretellers of things to come Nam quicquid latet sive id futurum est sive praesens mysterium diâ—…itur The reason why your adversaries pitch upon the fourth is to decline your trivial objections against the other three Your syllogisme that labours to prove Bishops no Pastours hath no doubt but a certaintie of falshood in the major which your argumentum a paribus comes some what improperlie to make good you having spoke of a confess'd imparitie but just before But for once a bargaine no bargaine pactum non pactum sit non pactum pactum quod vobis lubet It would be a rare invention surpassing Aristoles Logike if without a reserve you could get a conclusion to creep out of a single proposition for take it on my word your lucke is bad in majours which whether you play at even or odde are all pariter falsae sicke of a disease and this here left desperate without any remedie to recover it No Apostle you say is superiour to an Apostle This is contrarie to what one Walo Messalinus whom under another name you mistake to be your friend hath frequentlie asserted That they were primi secundi majores minores The second and lesse subordinate in spiritual power to the first and greater This he gathers out of Theodoret and others The greater he explaines to be the twelve the lesse those deputed by them for teaching and governing Nay he discovers a third order inferiour to them both of which was Epaphroditus subordinate to Saint Paul who himselfe was but minor Apostolus being none of the twelve So that here being three degrees I tell you from him what I might from others or with them rather collect from the text That an Apostle is superiour to an Apostle As much might besayd for Euangelists whereof foure were principal or if not it is because they were by their office of the lower classe or Coadiutours to the Apostles Such were Titus Timothie Apollos c. Saint Hierom sayth all Apostles were Euangelists but not all Euangelists Apostles And so likewise that all pastours were Doctours but not vice verse The learned Grotius That Doctours were Bishops or Arch-Bishops rather the same with those call'd Metropolitans afterward Pateres Kai didascaloi are Epiphanius titles for them To prove majour minor prophets under the new Testament is needlesse till you answer what I have brought about Apostles or strengthned the majour in your argument which I absolutelie denie And besides remit you to a learned Doctour who proves the word Pastor to be the Bishops peculiar among the Ancients and frustrates that imparitie from which you argue Your second reason out of Saint Matthew and Saint Paul hath a litle Philosophical Soul and forme in the majour but no divine one in in the minour and so according to your similitude in the moment of removal or separation must perish The first text 1. Tim. 4. 14. puts no power more then approbant or assistent of ordination in the Eldership a Bishop is as much a Presbyterie and no more a Presbyter I meane in your sense of diminution then Saint Paul who seemes to make that act of ordination solitarie and personallie his owne 2. Tim. 1. 6. And the Greeke Scholiasts say the Elders here were Bishops excluding interminis all presbyters from that power oâ—… gar hoi Presbyteroi echeirotonoun ton Episcopon say both Theophylact and Oecomenius For the word which you will needes have to be classical not personal perchance somewill say it may denote the order or office the Episcopate they meane and be put figurativelie here for the single person of the Apostle comparing these words together meta Epitheseoos toon cheiroon tou Presbyterion dia tes epithescoos toon chciroon mou But let it be what it will the power of ordination must continue in the Bishop so long as Christians keep to the New Testament and Fathers and fetch us not a fift Gospel or some newer Apostle from Geneva That the second Saint Matth. 18. puts the power of jurisdiction in the Church is gratis dictum your authoritie not so great as that your autos ephen will be able to carie it First therefore you are required to prove that excommunication the act of jurisdiction you meane is here at all intended and not rather no more then the three degrees of fraternal correption the highest whereof is that elegsis enoopion pantoon a rebuke before all 1. Tim. 5. 20. Vt qui non potuit pudore Salvari Salvetur opprobrijs sayth Saint Hierom he sayth not damnetur or eijciatur censuris That he which could not be saved by private shame might by more publike reproach Secondlie That the Church here was a judicial Assemblie call'd to that purpose or if met to other that a formal processe was brought before it And that they were not rather some greater number then the two or three witnesses upon what occasion soever met together which may very well be call'd Ecclesiae with out the signal meaning of the word Coram multis Lib. Musar keta Koinon Justin tunc multis dicendum est in Saint Hierom. Nor is it likelie a deliberate judgement in Court into which a Christian Congregation converted should be after processe in hazard to be slighted or neglected by one Member delinquent ean paracouse Nor that to be such which relates rather to the person of the plaintiffe then Iudges estoo soi Let him be unto thee… Thirdlie If it be such a Congregation or Church as you would have it whether the complaint were to be repraesented to them in general and not rather in their hearing to their superintendents or praesident above them Epi toon tes Ecclesias proedroon demosiseoson to ptaisma sayth Theophylact. Fourthlie That sit sicut Ethnicus publicanus Let him be unto thee as an heathenman and a publicane is undoubtedlie a sentence commanded to be pronounced by those superintendents or that Church or an injunction rather then permission to the partie injur'd to have no farther familiaritie or friendship to have no more to doe with him then with heathen and publicanes a voluntarie declination of whose companie was no scandal to the charitie Christians professed any civile office out of common humanitie left arbitrarie and not censur'd if tend'red Fiftlie whether binding and loosing vers 18. Be asserted with reference to this Church and not rather to the Apostles as your friend Erastus will have it or more probablie to any partie against whom the trespasse was committed Potestatem tribuit Apostolis sayth Saint Hierom. Vu garmonon hosa lyousin boi hiereis eisi Celymena all' hosa kai hemets hoi adiketentes and Theophylact. And si Fratrem habes pro Ethnico publicano ligasti illum in terra
si correxeris fratrem solvisti eum in terra Sainr Austin which seemes to be the proper meaning of the place After all which I expect you should make some apologie for your brethren abroad that in the yeare 1563. Sept. 6. excommunicated Iohn Morell the Frenchman for writing this doctrine burn'd his booke and interdicted under a great poenaltie the reading any copie of it that might escape them The third 1. Cor 5. appeares not evidentlie to put the power of jurisdiction in a companie of men met together Theophylact taking it for a modest condescension in Saint Paul to joine the Corinthians with himselfe whose solitarie power was absolute Hiname doxe autades Kai autous proslambanei Koinoonous And the context importing the sentence such as it was to be but declarative in them them by the vertual praesence of the Apostles spirit and judicial in Saint Paul who had passed it before ede Kekrika sayth he vers 3. Though it will trouble you to prove that here was any jurisdiction exerciz'd delivering to Satan being probablie but a desertion of the partie peccant using no intercession in his behalfe but leaving him naked for Satan to assault him with corporal torments which prodigious punishment was usual in those times Excommunication it can not be because it limits his censure to the destruction of the flesh deprives him not of the Sacraments the want whereof is destructive to the spirit The twelfth verse addes no strength to your argument the sense seeming to be onelie this I have nothing to doc to judge them that are without but leave them to God I have to doc to judge them that are within worthie of deliverance up to Satan And ye judge them that is deliver them up when ye are gathered together my spirit As he had sayd vers 4. So it is Saint Pauls spirit that is principal in this jurisdiction and the companie of men met together but his delegates or assistants convocated at his pleasure To Your assumption I likewise answer That the Bishop is as much the Church as Saint Paul in this case and hath as much of the ordinarie power transmitted to him So that you see it requires not the Doctours learning but the search of his Acolythus and servant to satisfie you if you will be with antiquitie reason Which being done you may send more scirptural arguments against Episcopacie by your brethren of the next Commission Touching those you have brought allreadie you need not be so confident in calling for their answer unlesse they were somewhat better The visible leisure is in none but such as you your courteous Disciples in England have procured to be imprison'd in severall goales of both Kingdomes others having businesse enough by shifting from one place to another to secure their persons and save their lives from your crueltie The poor prisoners have few visible helpes to that purpose If you will finde courage or conscience enough to undertake their free accesse to the Fathers and other authours that are visiblie necessarie to that purpose I have enough left still to assure you in the name of them that have more learning then they boast of that whatsoever becomes of your punie Clerkes Master Parker and Didoclave who may be easilie turn'd of with some carefull quotations and references to a multitude of bookes allreadie printed Master Blondels magazine of antiquitie shall be seiz'd on and what in it is upsie Scotch which is not all for the presbyterie you bragge of shall in spight of your power be rescued for the true owners that is the Bishops For your meracle of learning the most noble Somais we wish he may worke more such wonders as he hath of late and send his petie advocate a new blew bonnet at parting trimmed with a distick begining if he pleaseth Ille ego qui quondam for his fee. Were publike masters of fact as mysterious as the intrigues in your spiritual Iunto and Consistorian Caballs some Endor oracle must perchance have been consulted and one of your blacke guardant Angels been superstitiouslie worship'd or ceremoniouslie waited upon for revelation But when the bookes of the dead are before their day opened by your hands and their workes of darknesse registred by your pennes the warner may every where without an ironie proclaime his knowledge in your storie as great as his strictest search and as certaine as your rash consession could create King Iames's 55. quaestions so troubled the Scotish divines that they finding their plea of divine right and immutabilitie of their discipline to be disputed the Perth Assemblie indicted principallie for that purpose to divert the King if not otherwise to praevent his multiplying such problemes to which David Blackes processe the businesse about the banish'd Lords may be annexed they rais'd a desperate sedition on the 17. of December which allreadie is discours'd on Their if you meane the Synods answer was not so round but that they first protested parlied about their priviledge at the conference with His Majestie and the Estates required time to returne reason vote resolve in all points If thereafter the propounders were speachlesse in the businesse it might be because the Synod caried it for the King and determined the problemes in his sense which for ought I know is that the Bishop meanes by yeilding the bucklers without any opposition The maner and time might very well perplexe them being in a free Synod and meeting with their bold contestation for David Blacke Nor were they troubled onelie at the Erastian Praelatical Counsellers about the King but at Patrike Galloway and Iames Nicolson of late Saints but now it should seem become Apostate presbyters in the Synod The quaestions put by the King were not captious and carping at the parts of Church discipline but a just controversie raised about the whole fairlie propounded freelie discussed deliberatelie resolved to the satisfying his conscience and silencing schismatical scruples for the future I have often told you no statutes of Parliament nor Acts of any but factious Assemblies authorisd your Discipline though were it ratified as you would have had it by any other set your jusdininum aside and fetch not your praecedent from the Medes and Perâ—…ans a power aequivalent to that which did it might reverse it The visible Church in your countrey at that time was not so farre from yeildino to Episcopacie but that your brother confesseth the cranie was then made by which it afterward crept in though I am at a losse for so much day light in your storie as to see the yeare when legallie it was thrust out Perhanerimam sayth he ad essentialia ipsa externi regiminis impetendum extruendum Episcopatum aditum sibi patefecerunt You can not denie but that it brought them thus farre on their way to the title of Praelates and voting in Parliaments Wicked states men at that time beares the same signifiancie with
the infinite extent the interminate divisibilitie of your power In the booke that he cites is the greatest censure of the Church praescribed and more methodicallie then mercifullie shewed how a small offence or sclaunder may justlie deserve excommunication by reason of the contempt and disobedience of the offender Pag. 60. And lest any should thinke that the osfenses named are not so hainous as that of the Corinthians incest whence you take your paterne and Saint Pauls authoritie for your processe you give such to understand that mercie and favour may rather be granted to any other sinne then to the contempt of wholesome admonitions and of the just and law full ordinances of the Church Pag. 80. Which if as you say it never procured the smallest censure you have been a great deale too profuse of your pardons Where you professe your obligations so great to the performance of the commandement of God Or if you thinke it not such may be justlie required by any Erastian to render a reason why that ignis fatuus that foolish spirit of bondage walkes in your Discipline from generation to generation while they laugh at the calamitic you threaten and moâ—…ke when your feare cometh upon the people But he that knowes you will never mistake you for such meeke lambes in this mimike disguise of lions when he findes you aswell preying as roaring And how any the most charitable man will have just cause to complaine of your rigour let your aequitable comparers judge observing with me but one passage of multitudes in your forme that one which speakes you the most savage petitioners that ever invocated the name of Christ whom you humblie beseech for feare his mercie that is written to be above all his owne workes should be above that of yours the inhumanitie you are about that whatsoever in his name you pronounce in earth meaning the sentence of excommunication though but for susspicions and jealousies if not confessed to be as real faults as any peevish brother shall construe them he Would ratifie the same in heaven Which can not be paralleld in the Turkish Aicaron nor among all the superstitions rites and cruel offices of the heathen per formed to the most bloudie most insatiate of divels who doth nothing else but goe about seeking whom he may devoure Where as if this be your slacknesse wherewith sectaries charge you which you are soric you are not able to refute it should seem you are sorie there are no more hells then one no pluralitie of soules in your single Impaenitents no imaginable protraction of punishment beyond aeternitie for the execution of your censures The Sabbath recreations which the Bishop sayth are voyd of scandal are likelie to be at most but those mention'd in the booke of toleration so much decried by the brethren of your faction among which were no stage playes nor in my memorie any allowed to be acted on Sundays and so not frequented by his friends The greater license on the Sabbath Kirmasses you slide over without any of that zeale which His Lordship prophesieth though your selfe have been a spectatour of it in these Countreys So that in your owne words which I am a frayd will too often be mistaken for mine and bring upon me the imputation of a sloven If the Aposteme in your lowest gut had not chang'd places with your braines your words had been wiser and your unsavourie breath which you too often eructate somewhat sweeter The debate among some of your sect Whether in Scotland or no which is not expressed about starch and cuffes may very well passe upon the credit of the Warner that asserts it your putting him upon the poofe makes me guesse you are not in a readinesse to denie it Howsoever we know the curses of the Laundrie have been through two or three descents a traditional legacie to the brethren of your order in England for the counterscuffles they made about the former And the debate on the later hath produc'd an injunction to your Societie somewhere else to cast away those litle idolatroue ragges which could scarce be taken for any reliques of Rome their gloves too it may be upon better reason lest the cleanlinesse of their hands might beget a jealousie of some superstition in washing them before their publike officiating on their unhandsome distributing of the word What litle latitude of discretion you allow how your superiours must be your slaves or pupils in the attire aswell of their bodies as sules is evident by your preaching and articling against the apparell even of the Ladies of Honour that waited upon your Queenes Majestie three sundrie dayes when she rode in great state and solemnitie to the Tolbuith in Parliament time Ao 1563. Of the second oppression which the Bishop objects you give up a very imperfect account leaving the greatest weight to he as heavie as it can upon the head of your Synods in calling the Magistrate fool for his mercie and knave for his briberie which you onelie suspect because he is not as rigid as your selves In enjoyning publike satisfaction after the Defendant hath given it at an assize c. What you bring is litle to the purpose and if it were hath been packt away with its answer long a goe Wherewith yet if gou will not be satisfied you must be set to reviewe Erastus and answer him When he tells you of old no notice was taken of your double formalitie viz of crime and scandal so as to subject the delinquent for the same fact to the censure of two distinct Courts Civile and spiritual He calls ad raucedinem usque for one text or example in Scripture to justifie it He proves out of St. Austin c. That the Church used the spiritual sword onelie when the temporal was not in Christian hands He puts you to make good your maine consequence That if the Magistrate doth not his dutie an Assemblie Court is required to constraine him or as youe Liturgie speakes to admonish him and that too as the Bishop urgeth when he hath discharg'd it according to his Iudgement and conscience From your proceedings of this kinde His Lordship drawes 3. observations which you cannot denie and yet dare not acknowledge and therefore say nothing but worke in a whimzie of his excursions upon his owne friends not any of whom approve the injustice the irrationalitie much lesse imitate the cueltie of your practice The Popish Praelates are not so neare allied unto the Doctour nor doe they need to be taken into his protection The English are and can vindicate themselves against you for admitting to the holie table with signes of repentance without Ecclesiastike publike satisfaction murtherers that are either quit by their jurie or have their pardon sealed by the King whores that either are spared out of hopes of amendment or have had the whip at Bridewell and theeves burn'd in the hand at Newgate
or sau'd by the benefit of their Clergie And this upon beter grounds then the Presbyters denie them communion with those who as much as they make up their mouthes dare not take up a stone to cast at them The Doctour knowes his owne meaning and plainelie speakes it And they must be very ignorant or worse that are not of his minde or rather of St. Pauls which I take to be this That when a man shall without visible hypocrisie say be hath examin'd himselfe he is not to be againe examin'd by the Classe but may eate of that bread and drinke of that cup That when he hath judged himselfe he should not be judged That when he is judg'd he is chastened of the Lord not condemn'd and executed by the Kirke Your interrogatorie or argument a minore ad majus in case of Scandal is defective untill you render a just definition of scandal applicable to all where in your discipline doth instance After which having made your scale of degrees your antecedent requires your proofe viz. That small scandals are to be purg'd away by that repentance that here is in quaestion between us Had I ever read of any Presbyter in Scotland what I have of Fabian once Bishop of Rome That he was chosen by the extraordinarie descent of a dove upon his head I might charitablie hope sor some spirit of meekenesse among the brethren of the Discipline and have some litle credulitie that the want of gall in any one of the number might qualifie the exuberance and overflowing biternesse in the rest But when I meet with such tragike Histories of their implacable furie and see every where their unjust judgement running downe like a torrent and their unrighteous rigour like a mightie streame I can put litle trust in the slender banke of Master Baylies professions in behalfe of his Presbyterie from whom expect as litle mercie as truth and as litle Christian righteousnesse as peace The Warner can not be ignorant of your Scotish wayes while his eyes are open to reade them in your bookes or his eares to heare them in very credible reports He that lives in Scotland and never seeth the execution of that censure must betake himselfe to the mountaines converse in some corner with those creatures who know as litle of excommunicating by as they ever did of communicating with a Church For the 47. yeares halcion dayes that you have seen of which from your birth which you so superstitiouslie mention you must give us leave to abate at least one or two as praegnant in knowledge and as quicke an Intelligencer as you could be in your cradle and about 30. of 40. more wherein the curst blacke cowes had short hornes the Presbyterian severitie being regulated by the Bishops who caried the badge of clemencie aswell as innocencie on their armes the great citie you liv'd in must be taken for the onelie bright Mercie seate in your Countrey while the sun of righteousnesse did never arise otherwhere but turn'd his face away from it as a land of darkenesse full of cruel habitations As touching the two censures you acknowledge had the profanesse in the papist and the horrible scandal in the Praelates been priviledg'd as much in the punishment with a proxie as they say the more true and more horrible scandal in a brother of the Commission the rod of that furie had passed upon the backes of the fooles in your Citie as for the luftie Presbyters delinquencie I have heard your excommunication was executed upon the Nodie-Innocents in his parish If you goe no farther then Saint Pauls command 2. Thes. 3. 14. You should denounce no publike excommunication in the Church but diates epistoles scmeiousthai by private leters signifie his fault You should have no companie nor familiaritie with him that he may be ashamed not forbid every man to sell him bread that he may be sterved You should admonish him as a brother not count him as an enemie commanding him to be reputed as accursed delivered to the devil Much lesse should you arrogate the praerogative of God if not a greater in visiting the sinne of the father upon the children such it may be as hate you not denying them baptisme till they come to be of age c. And to shew what good Angels you are after sentence pronounced you dismisse not the Congregation before they have sung with you the 100. Psalme a Psalme of exultation whereby as much as may be you rejoyce at the confusion of a sinner Nor is your reserve of litle kindnesse very constant in permitting the excommunicate the companie of them that are tied by natural bonds unto him when the sharpenesse of your censure cut ' these bonds with-held this indulgence from Master Iohn Guthrie Bishop of Murray to whom when he lived in Angus you denied the comfort and conversation of his brother though a preacher of a parish thereabout For the inconveniences that follow how powerfull hath been the influence of the Church upon the State in such Acts of Parliament as are made consequential to their Acts of Assemblies may be guessed by the frequent servile submission to the tyrannie of their papers In the Parliaments where your Princes were ever praedominant it can not be thought they would ratifie an Act so destructive to their owne strength in the diminution of their subjects as to set the heads of wolves upon the shoulders of men and for such trivial faults as the Bishop mentions antecedent to your censure with leters of horning expose them to be worried by dogges For this crueltie may your Church be deservedly challenged and that by Proelates who gave no such customarie allowance to thier officials to excommunicate as appeares by the caution in the Canon 1571. Nullus horum nec Cancellarius nec Commissarius nec Officialis in cognitione causarum procedâ—…t usque ad serendam sententiam excommunicationis nisi tantum in causis instantiarum And in the Canon 1604. If the delinquent made his appearance and after processe was to be censured the official was nor to pronounce the sentence but the Bishop nullam ejusmodi sententiam pronunciari volumus praeterquam per Episcopum c. Nor were the civile inconvenients like those after leters of horning And how easilie all for great crimes was commuted for your brother Didoclave complaineth at large Where as you run againe from the severitie in your lawes to the clemencie in your practice though that be no answer to the Bishop who presseth upon your Canon your diverse late yeares crueltie which still is continued confutes you in the face of the world In which if your sentence tooke place in heaven as it doth to their confusion on earth so many have payd the price of their soules for observance of the first fift Commandements their dutie to God obedience to their King Your parenthesis that hookes in the greatnesse of sinnes is convict by the slight
pecoadilloe forementioned And the length of your processe shall be cut short by one instance in the forenamd Bishop Guthrie who was never so much as admonish'd by a brother nor summond by a messenger unlesse to yeild up his house to Rob. Monroe being caried to Edenburgh not to have trial but to heare that sentence had passed upon him before he came In the case of fugitives your Discipline makes no distinction not arbitrarie between the contumacious and timerous And he that stands to your account shall come short of his reckoning on mercie if your flying rowle can reach his soul at a distance aswell as to be sure it shall consume the timber and stones of his house that 's at hand CHAPTER XII The Presbyterie a burthen to the Nobilitie Ministrie and all Orders whatsoever You know what Constantine sayd concerning the Arians… Christe Christe Kyrie Kyrie ti depote hemas to lesterion hosemeran titroskes He complaind that when their hainous crimes whereof they were accused had wounded their heads and the deformitie of Shame spread over their faces their violent boldnesse stood fiercelie in opposition to the truth They wept not in Sorrow but roar'd in madnesse with a grinding of their teeth The Presbyterians I see by many passages in this chapter want neither impudence nor rage to outface and raile as much as any haeretikes whatsoever when once their discipline is touched to the quicke The Praelatical malice seemes no way exorbitant by this supplement of the Bishops wherein his just indignation chaceth all the remaining eccentrike motions of these planets these ftaires that wander from the fixed beauties in the firmament of the Church If you can but finde patience or your stomake will serve you to returne to your owne vomit and licke up your language the aire will be cleansed which was become unsavourie onelie by the uncomelinesse of your speach The Noblitie and Gentrie in all parts of Britaine have had too long and unhapie experience of the difference between the fatherlie counsels or friendlie correction of Bishops whom Religious Princes in honour of their function have dignified with the title of Barons and priviledge of Peeres and the unsufferable insolencies of Presbyters whose peacockes tailes that traine it daylie in the vulgar dust and sweep together the raskalitie of the people are poudlie spread and fanned in their faces Those in England which were none of the best that refused no hazard to shake off that easie yoke which was layd upon them by the hands and institution of Christ have broke their neckes in their hast you see their honour buried in the grave The Scotish Nobilitie that lead them the way having serv'd allmost a double apprentiship at the trade alas groane for their freedome yet dare not aske it from him whose mercie they feare must not be so injurious to justice as after so many rebellions and murders especiallie that unpardonable parricide to redeem them from bondage and to quit the for feit of their lives and estates Therefore they chuse rather unhapie choyce between necessitie and nothing to renew their slaverie Were the British Bishops set downe againe and which they may be in beter earnest then you meane it well warmed in their repaired sees as they would looke to receive a filial respect so they would doubtlesse repay a paternal Christian care of the Nobilitie and Gentrie in their charge Those that heretofore did not if any did not had no natures nor principles befitting their dignities and till they have changed what they had for such 't is pitie if they survive they shovld be reenstated You should doe well to name those that set their feet on the neckes of the greatest Peeres but withall to set downe how long they could keep their footing there when a just appeale had been made to the capital power that was above them If the publike â—…oo scandalous license of any peere how great soever receiv'd at their mouthes a friendlie rebuke If after that his untractable confidence in sinne some legal restraint or fatherlie chastisement at their hands when Gods impartial and irrespective commandements are alter'd when Christian lawes that are consonant repeal'd they may be then not till then discharg'd of this dutie and visited by Master Baylie when he shewes his commission for their arrogance in the exercise of any oppression or tyrannie in their Courts In the pretie peice that followes Master Baylie hath play'd the part of Pauson the painter in Plutarch and artificiallie draw'n the Presbyterian horse in his ful career giving as he thinkes every limme its due proportion to grace him in that posture But when with Pausons customer we turne the table and lay the beast on his backe his designe is spoyl'd and that uglie spectacle of a founder'd jade drawes contempt and laughter from all judicious passengers that behold it That every small Congregation in Scotland can furnish your Elderships with wise pious and learned men by the dozen will never be credited till we get some Historical assurance that when all good parts pietie and prudence were divorced from Canaan Athens Lacedaemon they made a voyage to Scotland to court the wilde affections of the Presbyters in the North. For the double portion of discretion and learning in your Classical Presbyterie which drawes in by fifteens the Nobilitie Gentrie you runne the adventure of losing a beter inheritance if you take St. Pauls to meane that in the leter as you sometimes tell us when you are angrie with Court and our Academical Clergie Not many wisemen… not many noble 1. Cor. 1. 26. But it is in truth your owne carnal wisdome not so much to adde worth as to arrogate power to and make absolute the authoritie of your Consistorie that in other mens names you may Lord it over not onelie the Common people but the Senate as he told some of your kindred that had searched every secret corner in your spiritual house Consistorium ut dominari possit Senatui asciscit pro senioribus Consutes Senatores Optimates… Where if persons of qualitie be wanting to complete your number you goâ—… to plow with an oxe and an asse yoke a Count and a Cobler together while your prickeard Pastour keepes the goad in his hand to quicken their dull pace and drive them into Rebellious Covenants and so to their shame and destruction The Iudge in our Officials Court is to be no petie mercinarie lawyer but a Doctour that hath approved his skill in our Civile lawes before one of our learned universities thereby supposed to have beter abilities to judge then any Nobleman Gentleman Burgesse one or more except some select persons who by studie may have attained to some excellence in that facultie wherewith neither by birth nor education they are know'n to be ordinarilie qualified unlesse Dame nature in Scotland hath some faeminine molds in every parish for your Elders or
praecedent or reason The Kings Majesties person or in his absence his high Commissioner is there onelie you tell him to countenance not vote in your meetings and proesides in them for exernal order not for any intrinsecal power So that when you goe on calmelie in your businesse he findes litle to doe without Domitians flie-flap of more use by farre in a summer Synod then a Scepter among you which you often times wrest out of his hand and continue your meetings after he hath dissolv'd them You can denie him or his commissioner the sight of publike papers brought into the Court which libertie the meanest subject may challenge And twhen he hath any thing to object against suppositions or at best suspicious Registers the E. Rothes can tell him boldlie in your names he must speake it praesentlie if at al and because he doth not you wait no longer but proimperio vote them to be authentike Beside to deminish as well the Kings state as authoritie you send Assessours or Assistants to your Elders and invest them with power aequivalent to his Councel This meeting thus disordered sits too long by a monâ—…th when no more and Assembles too often when but once in a yeare The number of such Members no more hindereth an appeale then a multitude of Malefactours can sentence a necessitie of becoming their followers in doing evil Their wisdome is such as his to whom a wiser man tells us it is a sport to doe mischief Their eminencie like Sauls head and shoulders higher then the common people in Rebellion And their honour somewhat like Absoloms mule beares them up to the priviledge of the great oake in the wood for their hanging in beter aequipage then their fellowes So that beside the justice there 's an absolute necessitie of appeal to the Parliament or in that to the King from himselfe to himselfe who sits there as supreme here in no other capacitie but of your servant Which is farre more justifiable and necessarie then vour appeale from both Parliament and Assemblie to the bodie of the people which I tell you againe is the final appeale you make when Assemblies are not modell'd to vour minde The number and qualification of Knights and Burgesses is therefore large and as great in your Assemblie as Parliament that your power may be as large and great in the State as the Church and the Nobilitie sit in one by election because they sit in the other by birth and so in a condition to unite the counsels of both according to the instructions of some few Presbyters that by Sycophantike infinuations have got possession of their soules and by their Spiritual Scepter dominion of their suffrages Headie zeale craft and hypocrisie got in commission or Covenant together we finde by experience can fit them to judge in Ecclesiastike affaires when age wisdome and pietie are sentenc'd If â—…he hundred choyce unparliamentarie pastours make up the oddes of some absent Noblemen it should seem you and the Nobilitie are even pares cum paribus Peeres alike in your honourable Assemblie Which they must not disdaine since Christ himselfe I meane not his Anoynted that you take to be out of quaestion goes but for a single Elder or Moderatour at most So Cartwright and his Demonstratour cajoles them together when he sayth If they the Princes and Nobles should disdaine to joine in consultation with poore men they should disdaine not men but Christ himselfe So that Christ being in his name made your Assembly Praesident or Prolocutour the King in his Commissioner your protectour the Nobilitie your aw full subvoters or suffraganes I see nothing wanting can conciliate a tyrannie to your Presbyterie nor keep your foot of pride from trampling as basely as may be upon the people But not to forget at last what you set in the front as first to be answered The Presbyterian course as you or I more trulie have describ'd it is not much more readie then the Praelatical because the benefit of appeale is to be had ordinarilie but once or twice in a yeare not much more solide because most of your Iudges can reasonablie be thought neither good Civilians nor Casuists not much more aequitable because as you order them many more of the laitie then Clergie In the second hurt your Nobilitie sustaine the Bishop lookes not upon the judgement of foreigne Reformed Devines you doe not say of Churches nor yet on their practice which I have know'n some time a great deale too sawcie with Princelie Patrons but upon the aequity of the thing upon the priviledge our Nobles in England enjoy the right yours have to the same by many yeares praescription and the lawes of your land The first will be found if the original be searched The right of patronage being by the due gratitude or favor of Kings Bishops reserved to such as either built Churches or endowed them with some considerable revenue as likewise for the encouragement of others to propagate meanes and multiplie decent distinct places for Christian conventions Hoc singulari favore sustinetur ut allectentur Laâ—…ci invitentur indâ—…antur ad constructionem Ecclesiarum The exercise hereof in Iustinian is expressed by the termes Epilegein or onomazein which signifies an addiction or simple nomination to stand good or be null'd at the just pleasure of the Bishop and therefore accounted no spiritual act in the Patron but a temporal annexed to that which is spiritual in the Bishop and therefore not simonaical as your brother Didoclave would have it Nor is there that absurdâ—…ie he mentions of arrogating to one what belong to all the Members of the Church as is praetended but can never be proved Nor that danger in transmitting this right from one to another if the care of the first patron desâ—…end not with it which defect the care of the praesent Bishop must supplie Nor is it requisite he should be a Member of the same parish to which he praesents since the Bishop is head of the same diocese to whom That this is contrarie to the libertie of the Primitive and Apostolike Kirke to the order which Gods word craves and good order is onelie sayd but not argued in your Discipline no more then by you when and to whom it became a grievance Your patience in enduring it goes for no heroical vertue being peevish enough soon after the Act of annexation had passed as appeares by your cariage in the Assemblie at Edenburgh 1588. and turned into a Rebellious Conspiracie allthough painted with the name of a Parliamâ—…nt that now at last because it could not at first hath taken it away The Nobilities losse of their Impropriations and Abbey lands is very considerable when they bethinke themselves upon what false pleas and to what unconcern'd persons they must part with them Touching which as Sycophantike as is the Bishops accusation he 'll not abate a sig of his right for
or idolatrie of Rome That you have made doth but magnisie her and oblige you had you any Christian charitie or justice to thanke God for praeserving so much of his word worship in her service what the Bishop intends when effected will warrant our Church upon your principles in most parts of her Lâ—…turgie when shewed consonant to the most publike sormes of Protestant Churches though 't is hard for Fathers to aske advice or borrow authoritie of their children for Ancients to heare wherein Iob was mistaken That with the yong men is wisdome and with the shortnesse of dayes understanding The King and the many well minded men I beleeve were never deceived by our Doctours who I can not thinke ever affirmed they were as much fâ—…r preaching in their practice and opinion as the Presbyterians So much as to set aside praying for sermonizing as your 〈◊〉 Booke Discipline doth telling us That what day the publike sermon is they could neither require nor greatlie approve that the Common prayers be publikeliâ—… used I require the name of any that sayd the life and soul of the Liturgie was preaching without which it could not be intire in its parts That he must never goe in and out of the House of God without ringing his bells a fit alussion the nord of exhortation Interpratation and praeferring the nams given the Temple by some of the â—…ewes Domus expositionis before that by God Domus Orationis Though it may have been the fruitlesse practice of some to quit themselves as they hop'd of the disreputation you brought them as ignorant and laziâ—… to preach somewhat more often then formerlie till they found their ringing the bells was to scare the people from Church and doubling their paines reform'd not their opinions nor reduc'd them to their duties They that prayed without booke before and after their sermons came not up to the Presbyterians opinion that it is a childish thing to doe otherwise Nor to their practice To bawlke the first and second service of the Church What they either assirmed or did in this kinde might bemore to shew your grâ—…sse â—…ifsimulation at all times in making if such a difficult businesse to talke then to personate their owne in this of their affliction which when you have brought them to the lowest shall never seduce them so to decline the enâ—…ie of the people as by profaning the House of God sooth them in their eâ—…rour styling those aivine ordinances which in your maner or frequencie of use being both without praecept are but humane Canons and Acts and for most part in the mater consist of strise sâ—…ditions and haeresies the workes of the â—…lesh or the Divel that dictates them So that you may see if your eyes be not full of somewhat else while you are spâ—…rting yourselves with your owne deceivings their tenet remaines the same that it wâ—… and themselves readie enough in this season as unfiâ—… as you thinke it to ring as low'd aâ—… you will in the eares of the world That for Divine service in publike people need no more but the râ—…oding of the Liturgie Which is beter furnish'd with pious petitions occurring to all visible necessitiâ—…s and for others emergent the Church keepes a reserve and in due time ever affords a recruit then any set or extemporarie prayer that er came out of Presbyters mouth 2. Sermons on weeke dayes if not festivals wheron a commemoration of Saints dâ—…parted is necessarie for Historical instruction and for imitation exemplarie maâ—… belayd aside by Christians that have no more time to spare from their honest callings then they ought to spend in the application and practice of what they heard on the Sunday in meditation upon God his attributes and workes c in the serious examination of their lives and very particular sâ—…rutinie of their actions secret publike good bad indifferent or mixt in sorting or parselling their sinnes of mission commission weaknesse praesumption and in private repenting weeping praying praysing In conferring closelie with holie men chieflie their Priest and pastour of their soules laying open before him their doubts distractions infirmities perverse inclinations Invisiting the sicke strengthning the weake considering the poore and placing charitie with prudence condoling with and comforting the afflicted Composing controversies reconciling differences designing and enterprising Heroicke exploits for the just advancement and honour of the King and publike advantage of Countrey Citie or Parish whereof they are Members Finallie acting all of which these are not halfe that concernes them in their publike and private capacitie And when all is done not before in what leisure's redundand let them in Gods name call for a weeklie or daylie sermon and where the Priest hath discharg'd as much more of his dutie and findes in himselfe abilities to compose such an one as with confidence or rather conscience he can speake it let them have it 3. That Sundayes afternoon Sermon is well exchanged for catechizing children instructing them in their principles of Religion and acquainting them with the doctrine and discipline of the Church to which they ought to adhaere when they come to their choyce at yeares of discretion which is the custome of some Presbyterian Churches abroad and either hath or should have been tong since of the Scots 1. Book Disc Before noon must the word be preached and Sacraments ministred and afternoon must the yong children be publikelie examined in their Catechisme in the audience of the people 4. That on the Sunday before noon sermon is very convenient abuses being redressed and must be while and where enjoined Yet in Nations converted to Christianitie by the preaching of the Apostles or Apostolical men and so fullie confirmed as no reasonable feare may be of their apostacie since the infallible spirit is not cooperative with all if with any and where as among the Presbyterians the noxious spirit of delusion in the mouthes of very many preachers it 's farre from being necessaire to salvation that care must be had lest it bring damnation to the hearers 5. That where some learned Scholars or honest industrious Ministers not at pleasure but publike appointment on festivals dayes make a sermon or have an oration for litle difference need be about the name and it may be 't were beter to have lesse in the thing it would be short not exceeding an houre according to the Court paterne which is likelie to be the best in the Kingdome and for the most part hath come nearest the most approved example of the primitive Fathers as may be seen by their sermons and homilies that are exstant And it should seem Presbyterie aswell as Episcopacie hath found some inconvenience in Sermons that were longer which produced the 34. Canon in the Provincial Synod at Doâ—…t 1574. Ministri 〈◊〉 animâ—… loâ—…gis conciâ—… quas ultra horam non extendent 6. That spirit and life for adification since
that can not constitute can abrogate no lawes But they will tell you in constituting the King can not be excluded And we inferre that no more he can be in repealing If your minde serve you to engage farther in this dispute you were best answer the learned Grotius 8. chap. De Imper. Sum. Pot. to which I promise you my replie In the next place as if you were moderating a matachin dance from seting the King and Parliament atoddes you turne both their faces and powers agaâ—…nst the Praelates whom I doe not finde His Lordship puting in competition with the King about the right of making lawes but aggravating the injurie done them by your partie in the Parliament and appealing to their conjcience with what justice they could covenant against the rights of a third order of the Kingdome without either their satisfaction or consent If the whole Repraesentative of the Kingdome have thus priviledg'd the Bishops one lame part can not deprive them of it Their prioritie and superioritie hath been so ancient that no Lords no Commons would scruple at it but such as likewise at the original supremacie of their King And therefore you may know the bill against their priviledges was five times rejected in the upper House the beter Court of honour of the two and when the sixt time it was caried by a few voyces it was when the most honourable persons were forced to be absent Their share in the Legislative power hath been so great that since any was allotted them your forefathers never heard of a law made in Parliament without them The King may passe what he pleaseth and what he doth so is a â—…an The two Temporal States with his baâ—…e name without his power can make none nor yet having it as they account it derived from his Regalitie not his person Ius enim serendarum legum sive generalium sive spâ—…ciaiium samma poteslas communicare alteri potest a se abdicare non potest What one orth ' other passe to the injurie of persons fundamentallie concern'd be it law can not be justified in conscience which is all J take to be urged by the Bishop But what would you have sayd if there had been such a law in behalfe of Episcopacie in England as there hath been in spaine That no King could reigneâ—… which is more then a Parliament sit and vote without the suffrage of the Bishops Which made Ervigius upon the resignation of Bamba that turn'd Monke call a Councel of them at Toledo to have a confirmation of his crowne And the time hath been in England when a difference fell between Edward and Ethelred about succession to K. Edgar a devolution of it unto the arbitrement of the Bishops The humble protestation of the twelve Bishops rudelie menaced and affronted did not pronounce the lawes acts after their recesse null and of none effect in derogation to the praerogative of the King either solitarie or in conjunction with what persons soever he pleas'd to make his Legislative Councel but in saving to themselves their rights and interests of siting and voting in the House of Peeres the violation of which they conceived to invalidate a Parliament at least without the Kings passing a rescissorie Act and an Act of new constitution Because in law and practice it is usual to any who conceive themselves praejudg'd even in those things where Acts of Parliament passe against them to protest Which if you remember were the words and part of a long plea to another purpose though upon the same advantage of the Bishops right in Scotland used by those your Countreymen that alike intended their ruine but could not colourablie offer at it without the Act anext the constitution of the Parliament Whether the Bishops being a third order of the Kingdome and by that craving their share in the Legislative power be more humble then the Presbyters who take themselves to be absolute without King and two states in making all Ecclestastike lawes and against King two states in abrogating all civile statutes Ordinances concerning Ecclestastical maters that are sound noysome and unprofitable and agree not with the time … And censuring punishing all persons King and Parliament not excepted I file up with the other references to your aequitable comparers let them be the Lords and Commons you here pleade for You may chuse whether you will grant what the Bishop takes as demonstrable That his brethren had harder measure from the thing call'd King and Parliament then the Abbots and Friars from Henry 8. When he devested them of their estates Your consecutorie Beleese hath no article made up out of any of the Bishops words Who though he could not keepe intruder out of his palace and possessions meanes to have no such troublesome inmates in his minde And since you have sequestred him from his gardens keepes out of your reach a Tarasse to exspatiate in his thoughts He commends your eyes that can see so distinctlie such Platonical Idea's as never had existence yet when you draw too neare commands you to your distance with the same answer that Bacchus did Hercules in the Comoedie for all his club Meton â—…mon oikei noun echeis gar oikeian The Bishops last reasoning is as sound as those before and in all is there a connexion of those parts which any demonstrative integral can require To your first impeachment by quaestion I answer That article of the Covenant beares the seting up of the Scotish Presbyterian government in England which is for a uniformitie in both Kingdomes if taken with the next that extirpates praelacie viz. Church government by Bishops For when Praelacie is downe I pray what remaines according to your principles but Presbyterie to set up As for Scotish Presbyterie you have often told us 't is the same with that of all Reformed Churches And if alltogether be not according to the Word of God after so many yeares Synods Conferences and Letters what blinde Covenanters you are to sweare a league of life death upon the like or more uncertanitie of future discoverie by a few unskilfull persons whose petie phantastike lights put together must be made a new imaginarie milkie way surpassing in a fermed singularitie of splendour any among the greater truer luminaries in the firmament of the Church But I have allreadie shewed how in vaine you aequivocate about that clause which hath cost your friend Rutherford and others so much paines What the oath of supremacie imports is evident by the words in it The varietie of sences to catch advantages like side windes in paper sailes which are subject to rend in pieces being the poor policie of Presbyters that dare not stand to the adventure of plaine dealing supreme Governer of this Realme c. Aswell in all spiritual or Ecclesiastical things or causes as temporal Which the Bishops you see conceald not though you gratâ—…e your selfe with the observation
enthusiasmes who give out for Michael the Archangels revelations what counterfeit impostures Morpheus puts of to them in their dreames Touching a general Councel with a wish for which His Lordship piouslie concludes No Covenanters goe before him nor will set one step after him in that desire who most uncharitablie make three parts of fower in the Christian world Antichristian and so no constitutive members of such a meeting An occumenicke Synod of Protestants would un doubtedlie condemne them which is most shamefullie praejug'd to approve of the rebellion and murder in their Covenant Nor can their Principals in honour be silent at such an horrid impious praesumption publickelie printed imputed to them The Bishops ae his brethren have declined no solemne assemblies of their owne countreyes those so called were factious schismatical conventicles illegallie gatheâ—…ed composed of such mushromes as how numerous soeuer durst noe admit of twentie Praelatical Divines into debate lest they should be squeez'd into a litle spungie earth winde their originals having no substantial worth or abilities to support them You need not pray the Warner to speake unto the question you put since you have his answer before hand without asking viz. That its worth the enquiring even in such an Oecumenicke synod whether the markes of Antichrist doe not agree as eminentlie to the Assemblie General of Scotland as to the Pope He mentions some that plainlie doe meanes it may be as much of all the rest To the charge in a Christian Councel they would answer That they are able to evidence before God the World That all bloud miserie drawn from brought upon the former King his Kingdomes must be cast upon the Covenant General Assemblie in Scotland who will never cease to embroyle all in new calamities untile they be destroyed That if this King his whole familie resolve not to prosecute Gods cause which the former did with much Christian courage unto the death they hazard the tearing their crownes into more peices then the miters the demolition of their thrones beneath that of the Praelates chaires To conclude all The Reviewers breath though violent enough becomes in vaine so definitive as to perpetuate persecutions against the providence of God whom the Bishops looke upon as a potent Protectour of Kings a mercifull repairer of the breach made in his Church by their owne ruines Their resolutiâ—… may be justlie peremptore to persevere in their opinion of the Scotish Presbyterian crueltie to be such That as they have burjed their Bishops alive conniv'd at if not countenancd the Massacring their Kings so their endeavour will not be wanting to scater the ashes of tâ—…e Royal familie three Kingdomes on their graves Though their consistorian fourmes repenting stooles with other luggage be next cast into the flames first kindled by themselves The mysteries of their religion being murder dead monuments such as never made those heathen the summe of whose devotion Clemens of Alexandria comprehended in two words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 FINIS Errours to be amended Epist. Ded. pag. 3. line 18. Reade she or her Ancients Ans. to Ep'Ded p. 2. l. 8. for common shoare r. com fewer Ibid. l. 9. for power r. paper p. 3. l. 6. for and r. c. p. 6. l. 16. for comfort r. confort l. 38. for burning r. warning p. 7. l. 18. for both r bold l. 36. for must r. most p. 8. l. 20. r. deceitfull lovers of themselves there are p. 9. l. 35. r. two or three such words as p. 11. l. 32. for late r. babe p. 16. l. 13. for Reviewer r. Reviewes Acolut p. 8 l. 13. for own r. owned p. 13. l. 30. for otherguede r. otherguesse p. 19. l. 37. for literal r. liberal p. 20. l. 8. for apposed r. opposed p. 21. l. 15. it delcatur p. 22. margin for Chaldaeos r. Culdaeos p. 26. l. 10. for then r. they l. 11. for all r. a. p. 29. l. 1. for Hierambieorum r. Hierarchicorum l. 25. for buselie r. basilie p. 31. l. 30. for in that r. that is l. 41. for anomia ergapiria r. anomias ergasteria p. 37. l. 17. for stake r. sticke p. 38. l. 19. for acknowledge r. acknowledged p. 40. l. 2. for reasonable r. treasonable p. 45. l. 19. for Vnitglupteu r. Vuygeastein p. 48. l. 36. After Oecumenical adde Councel p. 53. l. 37. for asgle r. aire p. 59 l. 24. for acconsequential r. unconsequential p. 60. marg for to excom r. no excom p. 60. l. 29. for too rigid r. to rigid p. 64. l. 32. for halls r. heeles p. 68. l. 20. for triel r. Ariel p. 72. l. 11. for then r. them p 73. l. 3. for as r. is p. 78. marg for vicitie r. nicitie p. 80. marg for 493. r. 1593. p. 81. l. 34. r. though but in the time Ibid. marg r. The Bishops Sunday toleration p. 48. l. 10. pro libra r. litera Ibid. l. 12. for jura r. dura p. 85. l. 19. for papists r. pupills l. 33. for its r. in p. 86. l. 14. for coloural r. colourable Ibid. marg r. Scotish Presbyterian reformation from c. p. 87. l. 7. for latewarmnesse r. lukewarmnesse l. 13. for too r. 100. p. 88. l. 1. for session r. cession l. 14. for Murre r. Marre marg for Ruthuer r. Ruthuen p 92. l. 21. for servidi r. fervidi p. 94. l. 9. for scrive r. transscribe p. 57. l. 1. for then r. them p. 101. l. 39. for superintended r. superintendent p. 11. for masters r maters marg for contracted r. confuted p. 117. l. 14. guerts r. Masters p. 121. l. 6. for indiscreet r. in discreet p. 122. marg fuos r. suo p. 126. l. 9. for on r. or p. 127. l. 31. r. from whom I expect c. p. 142. l. â—…9 for cession r. succession l. 40. for successis r. successio p. 145. l. 40. for Autoraniei r. Autouranici p. 148. l. 39. for r. c. p. 149. marg for sudunt…astragatus r. sudunt astragalis p. 152. l. 35. for pallea r. paleae for Affltu r. Afflatu with no point before it p. 127. marg for togodaedali r. logodaedali p. 153. marg for odificentur in rumam r. aedificentur in ruinam p. 155. l. 41. for manitates r. inanitatis p. 157. l. 16. for if r. it l. 41. for mission r. omission p. 159. l. 40. for doubte r. double p. 162. l. 14 for forming r. foming p. 163. l. 1. for too r. so p. 165. l. 13. susplicates r. supplicates pag. 169. l. 6. r. to the Bishop pag. 175. l. 83. for to r. so large Ibid. marg for a estes quos sidem ea vocant r. testes quos sidemen vocant for minus r. munus p. 177. margâ—…for spirationes r. conspirationes p. 175. for many leaves r. may leave p 180. l. 5. for quae r quia p. 181. l. 26. for quis pium r. quispiam p. 182. marg
Their praecedence and place neare the throne Ibid. Officies of State 141 The Antiquitie c. Of Bishops justified very judiciouslie by Dr Ier. Tayler Whose booke is an antidote against the poyson of all the Reviewers objections 102 Bishops Apostles 106 Evangelists Prophets Pastours 107 Doctours 108 Bishops Ceremonies no burthen 187 The Bishop of Derrie's prudence no boldnesse in the publication of his booke Anf. to Ep. Ded. 2 Very seasonable 1 In it His Lordship is no slanderer of the King 4 Blackes rebellious case 53 Baleanqual Bruce other Ministers guiltie of raising the tumult 56 Blaire and his complices justlie banished out of Ireland 51 Bothwells notorious crimes 61 Bruce's bold speach to the King about E. Huntley 63 The Bishops appeale in the Assemblie at Glasgow not derogatorie to the Kings personal praerogative 45 C. CAlderwood's ridiculous reverence of Bruce's ghost 139 E. Cassils demeanour Ans. to Ep. Ded. 1 Canons infirming the Reviewer to be an aceuser of the Bishop 48 Publike catechizing of Masters and Mistresses indecent 171 Not very necessarie before their receiving the Sacrament Ibid. The Kings Chaplanes use no Court artifice but what becomes such reverend worthie persons in their places Ans. to Ep. Ded. 4 A proposition of trial to be made whether Christ's scepter must be swayed by Bishops or Presbyters 100 The difference between us the Church of Rome about ceremonies 98 Iurisdiction of Commissaries 52 The Kings Commissioner how off ronted in Pr Sc. Synods 134 Riot in Scotland to get downe the High Commission Court Which was not so tyraâ—…nical as the Pr. Consistorie 173 Wherein is more rigour then other where among the Resormed Churches 174 The adventurous concessions of K. Ch. I. extorded by the necessitie or difficultie he was brought to 104 K. James's dislike of the Scotish short confession Many unjustificable praetices about it 14 Conscience not bottom'd onelie up on divine right 95 Contrarietie of commands at the same time ordinarie under Scotish Presbyterie 114 The Reviewers fallacie to salve it in the case of the French Ambassadours 115 His ignorance of the true stated controversie between vs and the Church of Rome 8 His cunning in altering the true state of that between the Bishop and himselfe as in many places so 30 K. Ch. 1. invaded not the Scotish Consistorie his condescensions leaving them contended 190 The Reviewers uncharitable interpreting Mr. Corbets's end a punishment from God 3 Particulars about framing the English-Scotish Covenant The persons by whom c. 177 How dishonourable it is to the English that approved it 179 The Reviewes's abominable affected falshood in defense of it 180 His impudence in preaching at the Hage that nothing at all had been objected against it Ans. to Ep. Ded. 7 How destructive it is to the Royal line Ibid. 12 How the same with that of K. Iames 1580. 183 How it divers from it 184 Foraigne Presbyterians asham'd to countenance it 196 The ambiguitie of the words in it leaves religion to the libertie of their conceits that take it 198 Covenants unlawfullie taken are more unlawfullie kept 177 The Praelates docline not the judgement of Councels 202 No inhaerent right in Courts to nominate Commissioners for intervalls 123 Spirituall crucltie in the prayers of Scotish Presbyters 125 Their temporal crueltie as much as they praesume may by Gods providence be restrained 203 The Court conscience will if the experiment be tried soon finde the difference between the Episcopal and Presbyterian Clergie 197 D. NO defensive armes for subjects 40 Court of Delegates neither unbeseeming not unreasonable 43 K. Iames's Declaration 1584. How by His Majestie subscribed 51 The Pr. Scots imprudence as well as injustice c. in delivering up K. Ch. 1. to his murderers Ans. to Ep. Ded. 14 The old grudge that mor'd them to it Ibid. 15 The same newlie conceived against K. Ch. II. Ibid. 15 The difference between Vs and Scotish Presbyterians is more then in Bishops and ceremonies 199 The Sc. Discipline omits what the ancient Canons had among the cases of Ministers deprivation What it hath conconcernes more Presbyters then Praelates 67 It playes the tyrant over the consciences of the people 124 Divine attributes profaned in asscribing them to the Discipline and Assemblie Acts. 100 Covenanters missetake the Discipline for Christs institution 180 No legal establishment in Scotland of the first booke of Discipline 18 K. Iames's consent to the second booke of Discipline how improbable 24 They anticipate the law in the exercise thereof 27 The English Discipline long since setleâ—… by law in Scotland and our Liturg there used 16 That of the Pr. Scots obtruded upon England Ibid. Divine right pleaded for Presbytere frustrates all treaties 96 Episcopacie wants no Discipline aequivalent to that in the Scotish Presbyterie 175 Our doctrines about real praesence justification free will final apostafie praedestinatîon breissie touched And a quaestion propounded about Davids case 98. 99 Dowglasse that murdered Capt. I. Stuart kill'd in Edenburgh high street 21 E. OUr Episcopacie not reputed Antichristian by other Reformed Churches Ans. to Ep. Ded. 3. 50 K. Ch. I. suspended the jurisciction of Episcopacie in Scotland for no crimes No full and free Parliament that voted in downe in England 9 Episcopacie no obstruction to the Kings peace Why it may not be lay'd aside 40 What right it hath to become unalterable 94 The reasons of K. Ch. I. well bottom'd 95 Some particulars about the historie of Scotish Episcopacie 111 Abolition of Episcopacie is not that which will ever give the Pr. Scots satisfaction 165 K. Ch. I. in his largest concessions yeilded not unto it 188 The asserrours of the Magistrates just power misse call'd Eraâ—…ans by the Reviewer 6 Erastus's Royal right of Church government can not untie the Kings conscience if streightned Nor is that onelie it the Bishops praetend to 97 The Sc. Discipline exempts not Kings from being excommunicate 57 Excommunication not mean'd by delivering up to Satan 110 Ignorance no ground for the execution of it 172 The Scotish Presbyters practice touching excommunication litle lesse rigid then their canon 227 The inconveniences that follow to be imputed rather to the Kircke then State 128 Impunitie no good ground for excommunication 61 The Kings pardon quitting poenitent malefactours 65 F. SCotish Presbyters much too busie in private families 175 Fayth not so common if such a grace as ordinarilie it is defined 201 Church Festivals not legallie abolished in Scotland 18 Crueltie toward fugitives 129 G. GIbson's insolent speaches unto the King 21 The Assemblie's juggling in his case 52 Gilespie's theoreme for resisting Magistrates disclaimed by no Assemblies The substance of it the sense of many 37 The King why concerned to be cautelous in his grants to the Presbyterian Scots 5 The Bishops Office entirelie authorized in the Assemblie at Glasgow 1610. 23 H. THe proceedings against D. Hamilton's late engagement discussed 70. 71. c 115. 117. c. Mr. Henderson's speach of Bishops 199
E Huntley's case truelie related 61 I. K. Iames a greater Anti-Presbyterian then Anti-Erastian 64 The Praelates title to Impropriations and Abbey lands beter then that of Presbyters 137 Presbyterian indulgence in cases of sedition and rebellion 47 Their monstrous ingratitude for the too liberal graces of K. Ch. I. 104 The Kings concessions to the Irish more justifiable then the other could be to the Scotish Presbyterian demands 146 The Pr. Scots endeavours to impose their Discipline upon England 5 The Assemblie at Westminster having no power to authorize it 6 Many of the Presbyteries in Scotland have very unfit unable Iudges 174 Iurisdiction Ecclesiastical sloweth from the Magistrate 34 Sc. Presbyters usurpe Civile jurisdiction 69 No power of jurisdiction in what the Reviwer misse interprets the Church 108 Nor in a companic mot together 109 K. THe election of a King not originallie justifiable in any people 164 K. Ch. I. not inclinable though by counterseit promises praevail'd with to cast himselfe upon the Presbyterian Scots Ans. to Ep. Ded. 12 His writings not interlined by the Bishops The Reviewers commendation of them unawares Ibid. 〈◊〉 K. Ch. II. hath expressed no inelination to the Covenant If any praeventive disswasion of His Majesties from it hath been used by the Praelatical pattie it was a dutifull act of conscience and prudence 149 His Majestie can not so easilie will not so readilie grant what his Royall Father denied 191 Scots Presbyterians never seriouslie asscribed any good intentions to K. Ch I. nor 2. 197 L. MOre learning under Episcopacie then Presbyterie 150 The King supreme Legislatour 193 The Bishops share in making lawes as great as any one of the three Estates Ibid. Our Liturgie why read A parallel of it with primitive formes fiter then with the Breviarie 156 The Church of Scotland hath had a liturgie not onelie for helpe but practice 160 The Presbyterians hypocritical use of it 161 M. THe Magistrates definitive judgement in Synods owned by the Reformed Divines both Praelatical and Presbyterian 28 Sc. Presbytetie will have Magistrates subject to the Kirke 120 Presbyters why against clandestine marriages 166 Consent of Parents how to be required Ibid. No obedience due to them commanding an unjust marriage 169 The Bishops cautelous in giving license for clandestine marriages 170 Gods mercie in praeserving Arch-Bishop Maxwel falsified by the Reviewer 3 The businesse about the Spanish Merchants sophisticated 80 Sc. Presbyters controllers in the Militia 79 The power of it in the King 186 Pr. Ministers rebellious meeting at Mauchlin moore 119 They exceed their commission 121 Their power with the people dangerous to the government 122 Their rebellious proceeding in the persecution of Arch-Bishop Montgomerie and Arch-Bishop Adamson 43 The murders other prodigious impieties acted by the Sc. Presbyterians in prosecution of their ends 82 The scale of degrees whereby they asscended to the murder of K. Ch. I. 38 Which might have been foreseen by their propositions never repealed 76 Murder may be pardoned by the King who hath been petitioned in that case by the Disciplinarians themselves 60 N. THe King 's negative voyce justified as well in Scotland as England 77 What is the power of his affirmative 78 The Sc. Presbyters gave the occasion and opportunitie for the Nobles to get the Ecclesiastike revenue The Episcopacie more then titular they kept up 15 Presbyterie more oppressive to the Nobilitie Gentrie then Praelacie 130 Noblemen why chosen Elders 〈◊〉 131 Where such how slighted by the Presbyters 139 O. SC. Presbyters assume the arbitration of oeconomical differences 68 The Officers appointed by Christ in his Church need not be restrained to the number of five Nor those taken to be the same the Presbyterians would have them 106 The Officials Court a more competent Iudicatoric then the Classical Presbyterie 132 No power of ordination in the Presbybyterie 108. 142 No comfortable assurance but from Apostolical succession Episcopal ordination which Presbyterians want Ibi. The Sc. Presbyterians trial before ordination more formal then truelie experimental of abilitie in the persons 150 The qualification different from that required by the Bishops 152 The original of the pretended oath taken by the King for securitie of the Sc. Discipline 163 P. THe Sc. Assemblies decrees to be ratified by Parliament 24 As those of our Convocations 32 Presbyterie makes Parliaments subject to Assemblies 120 The Parliament of Scotland in no capacitie to make demands after the murder of the King 163 Presbyterie hath no claime to the Church patrimonie given by Episcopal founders and benefactours 25 Their disputes with Princes about Church revenue 63 The original right of patronage in Lay persons 136 Peirth Assemblie 1596. 111 Provision under Episcopacie against the povertie of such as are ordained 153 The Praelats still of the same minde rhey were about the rights and priviledges of Bishops 103 Reason of bidding prayer before sermon 159 In the Canon forme is no prayer for the dead 160 Set formes of no use to beginers that pray by the spirit 161 The gift of prayer in the Pater Noster Ibid. Presbyterians divided about prayer 162 The injuries by extemporarie prayer Ibi. Presbyteries when and how erected in Scotland Bishops to praeside in them 20 Christianitie at its first entrance into Scotland brought not Presbyterie with it 22 Fallacie in the immediate division of religion into Presbyterian Popish 53 No authoritie of Scripture for the many practices of Scotish Presbyterie 101 Litle knowledge labour or conscience shewed in Presbyterian preaching 154 Scotish Presbyterians beter conceited of themselves then of any other Reformed Church to which yet they praetend a conformitie in their new model 198 K. Iames's speach concerning Scotish Presbyterie 30 How a King may and when exercise the office of a Priest 195 Sc. Presbyteries processe for Church rents 33 The same fault under a different formalitie not to be twice punished 126 Q. K. Iames's 55. Quaestions 111 R. REading Ministers usefull and justifiable in our Church 154 The Praelats doe not annull the being of all Reformed Churches 143 Though they have no full assurance 144 The Reviewers speach of Bishops and Peirth articles 199 The Church of Rome true though not most true 145 A rigid separation from her in many things needlesse 146 Assemblies can reforme onelie according to canon not the canon 84 The Primitive Christians reformation different from that of Sc. Presbyterians 85 That of the Church of England began rather at K. Edw. VI. then Henr. VIII 86 The Parliament can noâ—… reforme without the King 188 Resistance against the person of the Magistrate can not be made inobedience to his office 35 Reviewer willfullie missetakes the scope of the Bishops booke 45 His barbarous implacable malice against the dead 49 A riot under praetense of taking a Priest at Masse 91 Abetted by Knoxe with his confessed interest in many more 92 The Pr. Scots must bring beter markes then their bare words for revelations 201 S. FOraigne
Presbyterians tolerate more libertie on their Sabbath then the Bishops on our Sunday 50. 125 The hypocritical superstition of the Sc. Presbyters in the sanctification of their Sabbath 81 Offenders quitted to be admitted to the H. Sacrament without publike satisfaction in the Church 126 False measures c under colour of scandal not to be brought into the cognizance of the Church 66 All civile causes are brought before the Presbyterie under the pretense of scandal 170 The Pr. Scotish partie inconsiderable 2 They gave beter language to our Bishops heretofore then of late 8 Carefull Christians will finde litle leisure on weeke dayes to heare many sermons 157 Sermons not to exceed an houre 158 Those that are Rhetorical may be as usefull as many meerlie Textuarie 159 St. Claud Somais no Countenancer of the late Kirke proceedings Ans. to Ep. Ded. 4. 111 The Sc. Presbyterians coordinate two Soveraignities in one State 113 Two Scotish Kings at one time avouched by A Melvin 114 Capt. Iames Stuart vindicated at large 87 Superintendents aequivalent to Bishops 23 Imperious supplicates from the Presbyterie 26 Rebellion the subject of most 165. 179 The Kings supremacie impaired by Presbyterie 27. 195 Placed upon the People 29 Scotish Presbyterie overthrowes the right of the Magistrates convocating Synods 10. 30 Synods where the Magistrate prohibited them 31. 36 Receiving appeales not the principal end of calling Synods 132 Noblemen to have no suffrages in them but when sent thither by the King 134 T. THe by-tenets of the Discipline 3 The Texts of Scripture urged against Episcopacie for Presbyterie answered 105 c The Presbyterians treason at Ruthuen 88 At Striveling 89 V. FAmilie visitations commendable aswell in orthodoxe Priest as Presbyters 173 The Reviewer much in love with the uncleanlie metaphore of a vomit 176 W. ACcording to the Word of God a more dubious and frivolous limitation in the Covenant them heretosore in the oath for Episcopacie 181 FINIS 1 Sâ—…n Gâ—…r 16. 7. Dâ—…ar Parl. 1648. c. Assemb Gâ—… Aâ—…no 1556. Can. 50. Ench. cand S. min. ex decrâ—…o sal The Edit Gron. 1645. pag. 161. Los ordiuâ—… Eccles. printed at Geneva 1562. pag. 66. pag. 20. Pagin 20. Pag 9. Pag 11. Octob. 20. 1597. Assâ—… Abberd 1600 1 Book dise 1. held Ass Dun. 1580. Patl. 1584 1 Book discip 4. and 6. head Anno 203. 1606. Ass. Glasg 1610. Parl. Edenb 1612. Ass. Edenb 1590. 2 Book disc Chap. 9. 1 Book disc 6. head Ibidem Ibidem Ibidem Ass. Edenb 1 6 4 7. Ass. Glasg 1 5 8 1 Ass. Edenb 1 5 9 0 Ass. Edenb 1 5 9 1. 1 〈◊〉 Book disc Chap. 7. 2 Chap. 12. 3 Ass. Edenb 1 7 0. a Book disc Chap. 7. Chap. 12. 2 Book disc Chap. 1. Theoremaâ—… III. imp Edenb 1 6 4 7. decreto Synodi Theor. 4 Theor. 8. Theâ—…r â—…2 Information from Sâ—…t â—…nd p. 19 Theor 98. Theor. 82. Theor. 96. Tâ—…r 50. 5â—… Ibid. 2 Book of disc châ—… 10. Theor. 84. and 85. Ibidâ—… Theor. 43. Theor. 97. Theor. 88. Theor. 82. 2. Theor. 82. 3. Theor. 91. 92. 2. 1582. Ass. Saint Andrâ—…ws 1582. Ass. Saint-Andrâ—…ws 1582. 〈◊〉 Eccl. Ord. pag. 14. Dâ—…c 15â—… a Book diâ—…c châ—…p 11. At Edâ—… 1587. Minster â—…vid Bâ—… 1596. 4 1 Book dâ—… 7 heâ—…d 2 Book dâ—…c Chap. 〈◊〉 Thâ—… 〈◊〉 9 1 Book disc â—…d 9. Ibid. Ass Edenb 1594. Parl. Ed. 1594. Gen. 79. 7. Vindication of Commissioners Jun. 6 1648. 6 1 Book dise 7. head 2 Book dise Chap. 7. 1 Book disc 〈◊〉 head and Thâ—…r â—…3 Theor. 47. 4â—… Vindicat. com p. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 knowledge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1648. Theor. 63. vindication p. 5. Humble advise Edchb. Iune 10. 2â—…48 vindication p. 8. Ass. Dund 1593. Ass. Fdâ—…b 1567. 〈◊〉 Book dise â—…h 7. Vindication pâ—…g 11. 〈◊〉 10. 1582. 1583. Ass. Edenb 1582. Sept. 27. 1648. Ar. 3 Theor. 84. Ann. 1562. Ass. Edenburg 1593. An. 1596. 1 Cor. 1â—… 1. 1 Kin. 3. 25. 1582. Febr. 16. At Saint Giles Church March 22. Declar. Scot. Leit p. 57. 58. 1 Book dis 7. head Theor. 63. 1 Book 9. head p. 44. Scot lit 48 47. 1 Book dis 7. h aâ—… 55. Articl 1596. Scot. Liâ—… 49 Motus Brtanici 171 1 Book dis 9. head 1 Book dis 9 head The Authorâ—… reasons of his wryting The Praelats are unable by reason to defend Episco pacy Cheir strongeâ—… 〈◊〉 are 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 The 〈…〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The only crane of the Covenant is that it extirpate praelacy The Bishops are most justly cast out of England The Scots were never injurious to their King The Scotes selling of the King is a most false calumnie The reason of the dediâ—…ation The unseasonablenes of Doctor Brambles warning The irrational way of the warners writing The most of his stuffe is borrowed and long agoe confuted The conâ—… bitternes of the warners spirit The warner stricks at the Scotes discipline through the Kings sides In the threshold hee stumbles on the Kings conscience The Scots never offered to impose any thing uâ—… on England The elder praelats of England were Erastians and more but the younger are as much an i-Erastian as the most riged of the Presbytery The Scotes first and greatest crime is irreconciliablenes with Rome The Scotes were ever anti episcopall The Praelates lately were found in the act of introducing Popery into the Church and Tiranny into the Kingdom No controversie in Scotland betwixt the King and the Church about the convocating of Synods The warners Erastian and Tirannick principles hated by the King The Warners ignorant and false report of the Scotes proceedings Bishops were abolished and Presbyteries set up in Scotland with King Iames consent The innocency of the much maligned assembly of Aberdeen Christmas and other superstitious festivals abolished in Scotland both by Church and State The friends of Episcopacy thryves not in Scotland The second book of disciplin why not al ratified in Parliament The Warners hipocrisy calling that a crime which himselfe counts a virtue The Warner a grosse Erastian Praelatical principles impossibilitate alsolid peace betwixt the King and his Kingdoms Erastian praelats evert the legall foundations of all government The finall determination of all Ecclesiastick causes by the Lawes of Scotland is in the generall assembly The divine right of discipline is the tenet of the most of praelats All the power of the Church in Scotland is legall and with the Magistrats consente The prelats rather then to lay aside their owne interest will keepe the King and his people in misery for ever Appeals in Scotland from a generall assembly were no lesse irrationall then illegall The Churches just severity against Montgomery and Adamson was approven by the King and the parties themselfe The pride of prelats lately but never the Presbitery did exempt their fellows from punishment for their civil faults The Warner is injurious to the Ministers of Holland The pretended declaration of King Iames was
Bishop Adamsons lying libel Though alwayes in England yet never in Scotland had Commissarie any jurisdiction over Ministers Iames Gibson was never absolved by the Church from his Proces Master Blacks appeale from the counsel cleered The tumult of the seventeenth day of December was harmelesse and no Minister guilty of it The praelats ordinarly but the Presbytery never were for rash excommunications The Praelats flatter Princes to their ruine The Scots Ministers preaching for justice was just and necessary Huntlyes notorious crymes Never any question in Scotland betwixt the King and the Church for Tythes and patronages King James avowes himselfe a â—…ater of Erastianisme The Presbytery cognosceth only upon scandals and that in fewer civil things then the Bishopscourts were wont to meddle with The Churches proceedings in the late engagement cleered from mistakes The Church medled not with the manday mercat but by way of supplication to Parliament The Church once for safty of the infant Kings life with the concurrence of the secrete counsel did cal an extraordinary meeting By the lawes and customes of Scotland the Assembly praecieds the Parliament in the reformation of Ecclesias-tical abuses The Church parte in the road of Ruthven clecred The interest of the generall assembly of Scotland in the reformation of England The violent apprehension of Masse-Priests in their act of idolatry reproved by the Warner The Warner and his Praelatical Erastian brethren are obliged by their owne principles to advise the King to lay aside Episcopacy and set up the Praesbytery in all his dominions The praelaticall party were lately bent for Popery The Praelats professe now a willingnes to abolish at least three parts of the former Episcopacy The portion of Episcopacy which yet is stuck to cannot be kept up upon any principle either of honour or conscience The smallest portion of the most moderat Episcopacy is contrary to scripture The Praelats unable to answer their opposits Prelacy was ever grievous to Scotland There is no Lordship but a meer service and ministry in the Pastors of the Church The Warner is ful of calumnious untruths The eight desires of the Church about the ingagement were just and necessary It is one of the liberties of the Church of Scotland to publish declarations The leavy was never offered to be stopped by the Church The Church was not the cause of the gathering at Mauchlin Moore The assembly is helpfull and not hurtfull to the Parliament The apointment of comittees is a right of every court as well Ecclesiastick as civil There is no rigour at all in the Presbytery Crimes till repented of ought to keep from the holy table Excommunication in Scotland is not injurious to any The Warners outrage against the Presbytery The Praelats were constant oppressors of the Nobility and gentry The way of the Scotes Presbytery is incomparably better then that of the English Episcopacy All questions about patronages in Scotland are now ended The possessors of Church lands were ever feared for Bishops but never for the Presbytery The praelats continue to annull the being of al the reformed Churches for their want of Episcopacy The Praelats are so baselie injurious to all the reformed Churches that their selses are ashamed of it The generality of the Episcopal clergy have ever been covered with ignorance beggery and contempt The Praelats continue to hate preaching and prayer but to idolize a popish service Vide ladâ—…nsium cap. 7. Episcopall warrants for clandestin marriages rob Parents of their children Serious catechising is no Episcopal crime Church sessions are not high commissiones The Covenant was not dishonourable to union Covenanters were not deceived but understood what they sweare The Warner unwittingly comends the Covenant The King did not clame the sole and absolute possession of the militia The change of lawes in England ordinarly beginne by the two houses without the King The King did really consent to the abolition of Bishops The Praelats would flatter the King into a Tyranny The praelats takes to themselves a negative voice in Parliament The Praelats grieve that Monks and Friers the Pope and Cardinals were casten out of England by Henry the eight The just supremacy of Kings is not prejudged by the Covenant The Warners insolent vanity The covenant is not for propagating os Religion by armes The Warners black Atheisme a The Praelats condemne the defensive armes of the Dutch Frensh Protestants b The Praelats decline the judgement of counsels c The Praelats overthrow the foundatioÌ„s of Protestant Religion d The Praelats are stil peremptorie to destroy the King and all his Kingdoms if they may not be restored My reason for refuting his Epistle The Rewiewers vanitie in giving titles inconsistent with the praesent condition practice of his Lord. The Earle of Cassils no late Illuminate No credit for his samilie to be commended by Buchanan Very Improper to style Buchanan Prince a Legitimi regni gravissima pestis Praet ad Dial. de jur Reg. b The Reviewers sermon divinttie c He may well count it an advantage to have the E. Cassils his judge d An honour for the Bp. to be calld by the Rev unpardonable incendiaire The Rev's uncleanlie language Aristoph Plut. The active boldnesse of the Scotish Presbyterians in Holland c a The three headed monster in controversie b Sen. Her Fur. c The Scotish Discipline vrey different from that in Holland France d No Reformed Church calls regular Episcopacie Antichristian e Many emincnt persons in those Churches have approv'd of it Vindic of K. Ch. p. 125. Apost Instit of Episcopacie Episcopal declinations different from Episcopacie Presbyteria aberrations the same with Presbyterie The praesent concernment greater to reveale the Scotish Discipline the refute old adversaries of Episcopacie a Sr. Claud Somays likelie to be no great friend to the Discipline b He offe red no dispute with the Kings Chaplaines about Episcopacie They transgresse not the dutie of their place by informing the Kings conscience about The Primitive Doctrine Discipline Eikôn Basiliké cap. 14. Praeservation of the Church a Pardoning the Irish tolerating their Religion b Eikôn Basilikè conscience honour reason law c Inclining his mind to the Counsels of his Father d Cant. 4 4. e Eikôn Basilikè penned wholely by K. Ch. 1. not a syllable of it by the Bishops f God not they the supporter of the Matyr'd King a The hard-hearted Scotish Presbyterians b Holmebie the fatal praecipice to K. Ch. 1. c Endeavours to make it such to K Ch. 2. d His best way to praevent it is consorting with his Fathers booke e Wherein is divine wisdome Counsel f Ps. 72. g Gods providence in ordering his commendations of this booke to proceed out of the mouth of the Revicwer h The Reviewers scaesonable advertishment to the King a K. Ch. 1. no Presbyterian in heart nor tongue at Newcastle the Isle of Wight b His papers to Mr. Henderson against it c
No Bishop No King d Ovid. Met. lib. 5. fab 1. e The Reviewers false profession in publike contrarie to conscience vulgar knowledge f The same speach now printed in effect No necessitie for the Scots to enter into a Covenant which is No oath of God but the Devil No wonder why the lovers of the King are no Covenanters a The Cheat of the Covenant b The Scot-Presbytirian open unkindnesse that is treason against the late King c Bishops in other Reformed Churches d The Reviewers in constancie a K. Ch. 1 never justified the Scotish contests b Eikôn Basilikè Ch. 13. c The King may bring an armie to the Scotish borders d Alawe above Dunce law e Liturgie Canons contrarie neither to the lawes of God nor Scotland f The Reviewers brag K. Ch. 1. gave the Scots too easie conditions a He had good reason to raise a secound armie against them b The Scots successe at New bourne opened not a passage for them to London c The Pr. Scotish Rebellion copied by the English d K. Ch. 1 his raising an armie a signe of divine providence e The Rebells faint in their faith notwithstanding the revelations they pretend to f The Prerb Scots coming in no condition of the peace a Their guilt made them feare a third warre b Their worke of supererogation in interceding c Their Remonstrance d They mediate for no reasonable accommodation e Were never slighted nor rejected f Were justlie denjed g Covenants the common road for faections h Remonst about the Treaty in the Isle of wight The Covenant destructive to all the Royal line The charge Against K. Ch. 1. taken out of the Pr. Scots Remonstrance The Presb. Scots wicked Impostours no messeangers of Christ. The Kings partie not subdued when His Majestie left Oxford The King not necessitated to cast himselfe upon the Scots He had promised all reasonable satisfaction before His Religious adhe rence to his old oathes The Kings presence might best have composed the divisions in Scotland Isai. 32. 17. His garrisons surrendered upon the counter feit professions of the Pr. Scots They obteine no termes satisfactorie to the King Their injustice unkindnesse imprudence Their deliverie of the Kings person was a selling him to his Enemies They might have prevented the murder thaâ—… followed Ier. 51. 7. They were not readie to the utmost of their power An old grudge the reason why they were not S. Matth. 27. 24. The Kings not granting all demands They beare the like grudge against K. Ch. 2. * In libro Cap. 1 The Reviewers politike staterie Ecclesiast 12. 6. The unseasonablenesse of the Scots coming to the King at the Hague Iob 26. 9. Iob 16. 16. The seasonable successe of the Bishops Warning The Scotish Presbyterians an inconsiderable partic Sen Conâ—…rov Iob 8. The Bishops method apposite to his matter His proose â—…o by tenets His allegations confirm'd by others The Reviewers rash uncharitable judgement about the ends af Mr. Corbeâ—… Arch-Bishop Maxwell His vanitie in mentioning the frequent impressions of his book His language more bitter then the Bishops his hast greater to vent it No regard wanting in the Bishop to Scripture nor reverence to th Reformed Churches Nor respect to the Magistrate and lawes The Bishop no slanderer of the King nor his Royal Father Eikôn Basilikôn ch 17. The Reviewers seasonable advertissement abouâ—… the Kings late offer to the Scots No râ—…sb presumption in the Bishop The Scots endeavours to impose their discipline upon England K. Ch. 1. in no barmonie with the Prcâ—…byterians All Protestants implied to be Erastians as well as the Episcopal by Mr. Baylic The Reviewer not acquainted with the late controversie between us the Papists No Canter-burian designe but what was forged at Edenburg Basilik dor The Scots heretofore gave no so bad language to the English Bishops 1. Pet. 5. 2 Though they acted enough against their Bishops at hâ—… Ierr. 8. 22. The crimeâ—… alleged not the grounds of K Ch. 1. his concessions against Episcopacle in Scotland Episcopacie in England not put downe by a legal Assemblie Parliament The Reviewer knowes not good logike when he meetes with it The Bishop not ignorant of the way of the Scotish Discipline The Reviewers Sophystrie The Bishops meaning about the Kings power in chusing Elders Ecclesiastike lawes The head of the Church Assembies are the Kings arbitrarie Counsels The Bishop had reason to instance in particulars The Assemblie contest with the King about his command Conf. as Hapt Court And. Melvin Epist. ad Th. Bez. 1579. K. I. his Nobilitie against the Discipline Vindic. Epist. Hieron Philadelph The Reviewer his brethren agree not in their storie Duo folia dilac erata in ignem conjecta Gâ—…or Con. De duplic stat Relig. apud Scot. lib. 2. … ministri cu omnia ex suo suorumque arbitrio pendere savente annitente imprimis Buchanano cerncrent c. K. 1. his dislike of the short Confession Many unjustisiable praciices about it Vindic. Epist Hieron Philadelph Archiepis Fan S. Andr. Pa. 1 77 Archiepis Fan. S. Adr. Epist. ad Theod. Bez. The reason upon which the Nobilitie maintaind Bishops Pseudo-Episcopatu The Presbyterie the Cause of the Nobilities kceping the revenue of the Church Episcopacie more then titular by the Covenanters acknowledgement The Bishop too courteous in passing over 27. yeares storie meane base abject persons who were never any way remarkable as â—…en of great gifts Decl. of His Majesties Counc Imperfect policie alterable at the Kings pleasure The Priviledge of Assemblies limited The Legal proceedings against the Aberdene Assemblers Their obstinacie The Church festivals abolished in Scotland by no just Authoritie The primitive Christians observ'd thom Orat of the Protest of Scotl. to the Q. Reg. 1558. The Bishop not mistakeÌ„ in the Scottish Chronologic What kinde of Presbyteries were erected by K. Iames his Commissioners to what purpose Bishops to praeside in them Declar. 15â—…2 The abuse of the Kings indulgence by the Presbyters The E of Arran no wicked Courtier His bloud reveng'd Bishop Bancroft Dang Posiâ—… b. 1. Gibsons bold speaches to the King Perpetuitie the Bishops in Scotland The Reviewers long reach for the antiquitic of Presbyters … facile est credere Victorem Pontisicem …in Scotia reperisse multos quos salutaribus undis expiaret alios quos Judaizantium in feâ—…erat error G. Con. De dupl stat Rel. apud Scot. lib. 1. Multi ex Britonibus Christiani savitiam Diocletiani tiementes ad eos Scotos confugerant è quibus complures doctrina vitae integritate clari in Scotia substiterunt vitamque solitariam tanta sanctitutis opinione apud omnes vixerunt ut vita sanctorun cellae in templa commutareniur Ex eoque consuetuao mansit apud posteros ut prisci Scoti templa cellas vocent Hoc genue Monaâ—…horum Chaldeos appellabant mansitque nomen institutum donec Monachorum genus rocentius
in plures divisum ectas eos expulit Buchan Hist. lib. 4 Episcopacie intirelie authorized in the Synod of Glasgow Vind. Epist Hitr. Philadelph Superintendents aequivalent to Bishops Presbyters not to have Synods as often as they list nor doe in them what they please The King consented not to the second booke of Discipline K. Ch. 1. Larg Declar 1633. pag. 411. Refutat libel De Regim Eccl. Sâ—…ot The Bishop no hypocrite in his chalenge about the patrimonie of the Church 1. Book Disc. 6. head which be longs not by haereditaire right to the Presbyters Let. of K. Ph. Q. Mar. Ann. 1559. The Reviewer is the hypocrite Mainten of the sanstatie pag. 10. The Disciplinarians declaration of their judgements in their impudent imperious supplicats They anticipate the law in the exercise of the Discipline Hieron Philadelph de Regim Eccles. Scot. Epist. Iren. Philaleth Narrat mot Scotic Their doctrine as destructive as their practice Ovid. Met. lib. 3. sub 4 2. Book of Disc. ch 7. 2. The Bishops Super-Erastianisme the doctrine of the Reformed Churches Ad Dissert De Epise Constant. M. Ph. Par. Vindic. propos 8. D. Par. N. Vedel De Epise Const M. q. 5. The practice of the good primitive Emperours Har. Syn. Belgic c. 10. Altar Damasc. pag. 15. Renounced by none of the Scotish King The Reviewers malice not any Prelatical principles doth impossibilitate as he speakes the peace betwixt the Kiag his Kingdomes Conf. at Hampt Court The Disciplinarian doctrine practice against the Kings power to convocate Synods Pag. 41. DeEpiscop Constanstin M. 2. B. of Disc. ch 10 Cap. De primat Reg. Epist. 43. De Imper sum Pot. cap. 8. Constantin De Ario. The ultimate determination of Ecclesiastike causes by the lawes of Scotland is not in the general Assemblie No more then in the Convocations of England Appeales to the King in Scotland Court of Delegates against neither word of God nor aequitie All causes agitated in Scotish Assemblies Processe about Church rent Letter to the Gen. Assembli at Sterling Aug. 3. 1571. Reviewer declines answering about the legislative power Danger in asserting the divine right of Ecclesiastike jurisdiction Hug. Groti De Imper. Sum. Pot. Scotish Donatist Polit. Anglic Ad Reg. Iac. Sozomen Eliens De Episcopat Constant M. Disciplinariam call resistance against the person obedience to the office of the Magistrate The Reviewer too bold with his Majestie The Disciplinarians no compartie for the Primitive Christian The Reviewers cunning in passing over what he dares not can not answer His unkindnesse to his brother Gilespie whose theoremes are the doctrine of the whole Presbyterie Harm Syn. Belg. cap. 1 Gilespie's theoreme the rule of the late Disciplinarian practice a Nec enim dissimulabant foederati nimis diu apud Scotos regnatum esse Monarchis nec recte cum illis agi posse Stuarto vel uno superstite Hist. M. Montisros No defensive armes for subjects Episcopacie no obstruction to His Majestics peace See the leâ—…rned judicious Digges upon this subjects Appeale in Scotland from a General Assemblie neither irrational nor illegal Altar Damascen 3. Paper An. 1574 The Rebellious insolent disciplinarian proceedings against the too Rt. Reverend Arch-Bishops Montgomerie Adamson Answ. to the Prosession Declar made by Marq. Hamilt 1638. Vindic. Epist Hier. Philad Supplicum libellorum Magister Se posse salvo Regis imperio de causa tota cognoscere â—…arg D clar pag. 308. Marg. not upon Potest of the Gen. Assemb at Edenb Crosse Decemb 18. 1638. Quioccasione laeti palinodiam â—…i per vim expressam sed in numeris a se locis inter-polatam typis publicarunt The Bishops Appeale not derogatorie to the Kings personal Prâ—…rogative The Reviewer mistakes the scope of the Bishops warning Ch. 5. v. 1. Sedition rebellion not censur'd by the Discipline Hift. of Reform 4. booke Scotish Presbyters mounting in halls schooles c. An. 436. Ancient Canons against Ministers accusers of their brethren Reviewer no competent witnsse against Bishops He will not be at peace charitie with the dead Gualth Epist. Erast. Aug. 3. 1570. Nor speake any truth of the living Spanheims speach about English Bishops The Kings booke of recreations farre short of what other Reformed Churches tolerate on the Lords day Vindic. Chr. Philaed Blaire his companions justlie banished K. Ch. 1. larg Dec. 1639. pag. 324. The Discipline in Scotland different from Geneva King Iames Declaration 1584. Part. 3. An. 1684 The Bishops consequence good from Commissaries to Civite Magistrates Fucus ad fallendum simpliciores vel potius illudendum Ecclesiis pag. 404. Altar Damase The Assemblie jugling in Gibsons case The Bishops relation of Mr. Blackes case vindicated enlarged Hamp Court Conf. Rom. 6. 1. Ephes. 6. 16. Hebr. 11. 33. Nescio quid nec quando sed multo ante Vind. ep Philad L. 1. c. The od de Relig De Impersum Potestcirc sacr cap. 9 Nam co repore summaÌ„ fuit Ecclae concordia authoditas ut aulici ab ea tametsi Regia gratia niterentur timerent Vindic. Ep. Chr. Philad Let to the Q. of Engl. Iul. 16. 1561. The Ministers guiltie of the tumult Decemb 17. 1596. * Vasius The Rev. impertinencie or cunning in altering of the state of the quaestion Let of the Congreg to the Nobles of Scotland 1559. De Imper sum Poâ—… cap. 9. Disciplinarian intentions never better then their words Eccles. 8. 4. No thankes due to them for not excommunicating their Kings The Ancient Fathers quit peccant Kings of all humane censure Apos Gent. adv The Bishops reasonning not unconsequential Aristophâ—… Nubes Bloud the seed of the Discipline Esai 1. 15. Mercie Gods attribute so the Kings 〈◊〉 Book Discipl 9. head Presbyters sollicite pardon for murder * Rigour to be preached c. under nonâ—… but implous or nâ—…ligent Magistrates so exâ—…ommunication for impunitie E. Huntleys case wholie minted in the Assembiiâ—… Bothwells notorious crimes R Bruce's speach against E. Huntley First fruites c. witheld from the King as much by the Presbyters as Pope An. 1587. Contradiction about tithes pag. 57. Patronages Presbyterian rebellion tyrannie Rejoycing at the sequestring the Church patrimonie Qui jactare non dubitârunt se Episc plygin kairian inflixisse Aitar Damasc. p. 3. K. Iames anti-presbyterie No Donaâ—…ist Ep. lector Aitar Damascen Georg. Con. De Dupl Stat. Relig. apud Scot. lib. 2. Their latitude of scandal 8. 9. Malefactours pardoned not to be excommunicated False measures c. maters of civile cognizance The Reviewers 30. yeares experience no argument of Presbyterian henestie Their Canons not the same with those of the ancient Church Victorem Romanum Epum circa annum Dui 200. legimus Coenae usuâ—… interdixisse injurias condonare nolentibus Th. Erast. thes 7. No canon against rebellion nor deprivation of rebellious Ministers Presbyters as peccant as Bishops Ch. 2. 11. 29. 9. Revel 17. 5. 9. 2. 3. 2 S. Pet. 2. 13. Their exercing civile
jurisdiction Their eoconomical superintendencie Preaching personallie against Princes Knox Hist. Lib. 2. Their proceedings in the late engagement St. Matth. 12. 43. Declar. Iul. 21. 1649. Isai. 63. 15. Prov. 12. 5. Ps. 50. 16. Isai. 61. 2. 11. Isai. 8. 20. Prov. 13. Ianuar. 6. 29. 1649. 1. Tim. 4. 2. 1. Kings 22. Heb. 12. 16. Scot. Mist. dispell'd I crem 9â—…1 Isai. 58. Edenb 12. May. 1649 postser Scottiâ—…h mist Dispell'd Hendersons Prophesie Pap. to K. Ch. 1. Iun. 3. 1646. Esih. 4. 12. Preâ—…yters Deâ—…aring against Parliament debates The Kings negative voice proper to be debated in a Scottish Parliament Ans to both Houses upon the new propositions and the 4. bills 1647. Why opposed by the Presbyters Eic Bas. Ch. 11. The Kings affirmative voice Hug. Grot. De Imper. Pot. cap. 8. No such vicitie need be us'd about mominating ofsicers Ch. 4. The Presbyters destructive demurres Scot. Mist. disp The Reviewers impertinencie in the successe of the Spanish Merchants As. Dund 1493. The Presbyterian zeale for the 4. Commandment bypocritical cover for their breach of the rest Prov. 11. 9. Recreations resections to fit us for spiritual duties Rob. Bruc'es motion to alter the Sabbath The Bruc'es Sunday toleration not so large as the Reformed Church's abroad The monsirous impietie of the Presbyterians in prosecusion of their ends Lib. 5. 1560. Lib. 3. Assemblies have no power to summâ—…n contrarie to the Kings proclamation Cantic 8. 6. 7. Contradiâ—…iion The Assemblies can reforme onelie according to canon not the canon 2. Tim. 2. 23. 24. Ancient Assemblies reversed no Civile lawes Euseb. Reformed no haresies â—…ith out the Emperour Henrie the eight's reformation the occasion not the original of ours Scotish Presbyterians from the begining sâ—…hisme None but they have declared Bishops ceremonies unlawfull Ch. 6. 28. Ch. 9. 3. Capt I. Siuart vindicated The treason at Ruthuer Saint Iam 4. 16. S. Macth 11. 12. The King can not be sayd to invade the Presbyter Consistorie Rev 1. 18. Prov 24. 2. c. 27. 20 Tert De Praeser advraeser haeret c 42. Arch-Bp Lauds Armenianisme Pâ—…perie the doctrin of scripture and the Fathers Prov. 25. 23. Advers hares cap 16. Ariote under praetense of taking Priest at Masse Abetted by Knoâ—… improid to a rebellion Vit Eliz. 〈◊〉 â—…563 Assemblie's summoning the people in Armes upon the trial of Popish Lords Isai. 57. 20 Power of order and jurisdiction The midd le Apostolical right of Episcopacie Conscience not bottom'd onelie upon a divine Right Rom. 1. v. 2. ch Alterations unsate and sinfull while conscience is doubtfull The reasons of K. Ch 1. against a change Peace Antiquitiâ—… Vniversalitie The considerable approch of Church discipline to doctrine Paternal government Communion with Christians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ch 17. Ius divinum of Presbyterie srustrates all treaties excommunicates all Christians threatens all Princes Isai. 40. 23. 24. The Reviewers perverting the Bisâ—…ops doctrine Erastus's Royal right abused in a Sophisme Sen De Clem l. 1. c. 20. The consequences from Episcopal principles not such as praetended S. Matth. 4. 9 Difference between us and Rome bout ceremonies Prov. 10 31. Real Praesence corporal disserent Hist. Mot. Iustification S. Matth. 13â—…45 Free will Deut. 30 19. Final Apostasice 1. Cor. 10. 12. Phil. 2. 12. A quaestion about Davids case Rubrike in the consirmation Christ as King of his Church appoints lawes c. H. Grot. Hane none magis licet Ecclae mutare quà m mutare licet ipsam scripturam V indic Eplae Philad By whom his Seepters is to be swayed Vincent Lyrin advers haeres cap. 14. English Episcopacie out done by the more for ward Presbyterie B. Discips 4. head The treasure thereof to be found as well before as after the years 800. Dr. Ierm Taylor Can. 2. The Praelates still of the same minde they were Declar. B. 2. Dang Posit Not the Court but Citie Divines devest Bishops Sen De Benef. lib. 2 cap. 7. S. Matth. 7. 9. 46. 17. The Reviewers detestable ingratitude De Ben. lib 3. cap. 16. The texts of scripture against Episcopacie discussed Prov. 26. 4. 5. Act. 20. Beshosp are Apostles Lib. advers haeres cap. 32. May be call'd Euangelists H. Grot. Proleg ad Matth. Should be prophets In 1. Cor. 12. H. Grot. Why Pastours Apostles superiour to Apostles Euangelists Coadjutours Doctours Bishops haeres 75. Dr. Tayler Episcop assert No power of Ordination in the Presbyterie 2 Tim. 1. 6. No power of Iurisdiction in the Church Confirma Thes. lib. 4. c. 5. De Verb. Dom. hom 15. Iohn Morell excommunicated for this doctrine No power of jurisdiction in a Companie met together Delivering to Satan what Why Blondel c. are not answered Somais fare well to the Presbyterie The Scottish presb may be contracted out of their owne storie Revel 20. 12. K. I.'s 55. quaestions non plus'd them Episcopacie recovered ground in Scotland Vindic. Epist Philadelph Whence they had not been legallie ejected Psalm 137. Psalm 1. Revel 2. 7. The Reviewers slender shiss Icr. 8. 17. The Preshyterians not Praelates coordinate two Soveraignaties in one state Two Kings in Scotland Not God onelie but his Anoynted likewise to be obeyed St. Matth. 26. 25. St. Luke 9. 23. Contrarietie of Commands very frequent in Scotland The Revicwers fallacie Humble petitions c full of threats The Church-chasing and exeommuniting for the late engagement The untruths are the Reviewers Prov. 6. 28. The Rev. eares not for hearing of the late engagement Ps. 69 23. The 8. desires of the Church neither just nor necessarie The Ch. of Scotland hath no libertie to declare against King and Parliament Job 5. 13. Prov. 17. 24. Heb. 11. 39. Ephes. 2. 2. Gal. 1. 8. 9. Lament 4. 20. Contradiction between the Revic margin and text The levie was offered to be stopped May 11. 1649. Lib. De Ir. cap. ulr Ministers â—…in armes Not cens by the Commissioners of the Kirke S. Pet. 2. 16. v. 13. Presbyterie makes Parliaments subject to the Assemblies 2. Book discipl 1. ch Heb. 1. 14. Ps. 104. 4. Ier. 14. Isai. 42. 19. Ministers power with the people dangerous if seditiouslie bent Th. Capâ—…nel eap 18. Ps. 45. 5. â—…psis Cardinalibus and P. P. maxformidabilis fuit diremita aut unyt principes subditos suos arbytratu Ps. 12. 4. Eik Bas cap. 17. St. Liturg. p. 87. V. 18. Isai. 66. 24 No in haerent right in Courts to nominate Commissioners for intervalls Haggai 1. 6. The Presbyterie a tyrannie over the consciencies of thepeople Censures upon slight grounds Scot. Lit. Rom. 8. 15. Prov 1. 26. Spiritual crueltie in the prayers of Presbyters Sc. Lit. p. 196. 1. Pet. 5. 8 Our Sabbath recreations shorst of those in other Reformed Curches Trivial debates and articling against habiss Knox Hist. The same fault under a different formalitie not to betwice punished Lib. De Fid. Op. cap. 2. Offenders quitted to be admitted to the H. Sacrament without publike satisfaction in
uttered by Bruce lookes more like a calumnie then their relation to a fable And yet such a superstitious reverence is payd by your fond brother Didoclave to the memorie of his name that he could be content to pin his fayth on his sleeve and hang his soul at his girdle Anima meâ—… cumanima tua Bruci si ex aliena â—…ide esset pendendum and were there to be but one priviledge of aeternal residence in heaven he thinkes neither Patriach nor Prophet Apostle nor Martyr no nor the Virgin Mary her selfe were likelie to carie it from Bruce Which compar'd with King Iames's opinion of him as a perfidious madman that had a whirligigge in his head delivered after to many experiments of his rebellious zeale and frantike restivenesse is enough to condemne both saint and votarie to some bedlam purgatorie before imposture can fixe or facilitie of fancie finde these new imaginarie lights among the starres Your following invective is writ with Arrius's quill and by such scribling you gaine the title that Constantine gave him patroctonos epiâ—…iceias discovering your selfe to be a parricide of aequitie murdering truth in your relation and justice in your parallel His Lordship takes himselfe not concern'd in this case to recollect 800. yeares Historie of Europe to picke out of the pietie humilitie of many Reverend Bishops the pride and passionate errours of some few Noâ—… hath he malice enough with you to make that the nature of their office which hath been some litle monstrositie of minde by ill habits accidental to their persons Beside what among the Papists the nobilitiâ—… by birth of many Bishops concurring with the received dominion and large revenve of their Spiritual pâ—…aeferment may elevate their thoughts and enhaunce their owne opinion of themselves if impaâ—…donable addes litle to the condemnation of ours which partake in litle with them but their titles The universal supremacie which the Pope arrogates aswell over Kings as Bishops may puffe up a litle Cardinal that is neare him in his purple possesse him with a conceit that he may Write himselfe companion to a King whom he thinkes but is mistaken oblig'd in Spiritual humilitie to lie prostrate at his holinesse foot and kisse his slippeâ—… But the same Kings soveraigntie in Ecclesiasticiâ—… at home secur'd him from all such conâ—…estation with his Bishops Though had it not the argument from a Cardinal in Rome to a Praelate in England will hardliâ—… finde a topike Those in Scotland take themselves as capable of honour conferr'd upon their order as their Popish praedecessours Nor are such legal establishments if not of right of Princelie favour to becast away in complement Nor were they to make an unnecessarie distance out of forme when the material meaning of their vicinitie to the throne was the neare concernment of their counsel to the King Orthodoxe Monarchs as well as Papists having doubting consciences and orthodoxe Bishops as good abilities to resolve them I have not heard they crowded much or quickened their pace to get the doore of the Earles c. Their Provincial that with much humilitie and respect unto their H. H. tooke it was lead to it by the hand that had exalted them or their progernitours But for the reason of praecedence which I guesse to be your meaning you were best review the Heralds office and reforme it Poor podants are not to be reproached for making a litle diocese of their Schooles Priests being charged to make such of their houses and from the experimental regiment of boyes raising their abilities by honest endeavours to the meriting an higher Episcopate of men Nor their conscientious demeanour in that office to be aesteemed the arroganciâ—… of their order if it move Kings to commit the white staves to the crosiar and great seales to be under the keyes of the Church The most capricious of them all and most contentious for the honour which I thinke were none but such as did you too much service when they had it were many straines below your Presbyterie of Knoxes Bruces c Who have contested with Kings for their Scepters which with white staves and seales they brought under the pedantike jurisdiction of their rod. Never have Bishops so ruâ—…led it as many base borno Presbyters with the secret Counsel To whose Consistories all Courts of Iustice were faine to doe homage the greatest Lords of the land become subordinate Elders to the parson of their parish It 's not so long that yet it can be forgoten since a most violent and malicious man call'd the Goodman of Earlstounne a client of the E. Argile for interrupting of divine service forceable overturning the Communion Table in his Parish Kirke thâ—…eatning and abusing the Minister with many other such enormous crimes was fined but the fine never exacted by the High Commission and confined for a season The E. Argile complain'd of his hard usâ—…ge to the Lords of Counsell and enformed against the Bishop of Galloway that he promised to him somewhat which he had not perfâ—…rmed The Bishop denied the promise gainsayd what the Earle alledged whereupon sayd the Earle If you say so 't is as much as if I liâ—… The Bishop modestlie replied I doe not say so but I beseech your Lp. to call your selfe beter to minde you will finde it as I say This is giving the lie because he would not take it on himselfe and ruâ—…ling with a great Lord because he would not be ruâ—…led out of a just vindication of the truth yeild his consent that a Counsel Table should approve turning the communion table out of the Church The Reviewers should doe well to bring in his accounts fuller when he reckons with Bishops for braving of Noblemen All Presbyterians are heterodoxe to all good Catholike Christians with whom Episcopacie is so necessarie a truth as next to the divine institution Vniversalitie Vbiquitie and perpetuitie can render it Confingant tale aliquid haeretici … nihil promovebunt Could your invention seigne such authoritie to Presbyterie yet your doctrine would diversifie you into a sect What the Bishops following words cleare shall not one whit be clouded by any obscuritie in my replie though the strongest eradiations that come from them would sinke themselves silentlie in the deep playd you not the malignant Archimede though no such exact Mathematical Divine to reflect them into a flame that may set the ship of the Church on fire about our earâ—…s some coales of this fire I shall heape on your head cast backe into your bosome which if you meane not to quench you may blow up to what faâ—…ther mischief you thinke good The Apostles were Bishops who did undoubtedlie delegate the power of ordination to none but such as were constituted Bishops by them to that purpose This power appeares not undoubtedlie to have been exerciz'd by any but Bishops in the Historie of the Scripture This power was