7. 2 6. I shew before that there is reason to fear that the sins of a few especially of Magistrats Ministers will bring wrath upon the whole body of the people as is plain from these Scriptures Levit. 10. 6. Isai. 43. 27 28. Lam. 4 13. Mic. 3. 11 21. shewing the sins of Ministers may procure universal Destruction And 2 Sam. 24. 25. 2 King. 21. 11. Ier. 15 4. proving the sins of Magistrats may procure it And Num. 3. 14 15. Iosh. 22. 17 18. Demonstrating that the sins of a party of the people may draw wrath upon the whole Now the only way the Scripture points out to evite avert such publick judgments is to make our resentment of these indignities done to our God our Mourning over them and our witness against them as publick as the sins are at least as publick as we can get them by a publick pleading for Truth Isai. 59. 4. for the defect whereof He hides His face and wonders that there is no man no Intercessor vers 16. that is none to plead with God in behalf of His born doun Truths There must be in order to this a publick seeking of Truth which if there be any found making conscience of the Lord makes a gracious overture to pardon the City Ier. 5. 1. we cannot think there were no mourners in secret there but there was no publick Meeting for it and publick ouning the duty of that day There must be valour for the Truth upon the earth Ier. 9. 3. a publick resolute ouning of Truth There must be a making up the hedge standing in the Gap for the Land that the Lord should not destroy it Ezek. 22. 30. a publick Testimony in opposition to defection There must be a pleading with our Mother Hos. 2. 2. which is spoken to private persons in the plural number Commanding all that would consult their oun safety publickly to condemn the sins of the whole Nation that they may escape the publick punishment thereof as it is expounded in Pool Synops. Critic in locum By this means we must endeavour to avert the wrath anger of God which must certainly be expected to go out against the Land which hath all the procuring causes all the Symptoms Prognosticks Evidences of a Land devoted to destruction that ever a Land had If then there must be such Publick Mourning and such Solemn Gathering for it such public pleading for Truth Seeking of Truth valour for Truth making up the hedge and pleading with our Mother there must of Necessity be publick Meetings for it for these things cannot be done in private but must be done by way of Testimony Which I make a 2. Reason The Nature End of Meeting for Gospel Ordinances is for a publick Testimony for Christ and His Truths Interest against Sin and all dishonours done to the Son of God. So that the only end is not only to bring to Christ build up Souls in Christ but it is to Testify also for the Glory of Christ whether Souls be brought in built up or not The Preached Gospel is not only the Testimony of Christ 1 Cor 1. 6. but a Testimony for Christ in which sense The Testimony of Iesus is said to be the Spirit of Prophesie Revel 19. 10. so called Durham expounds it for its bearing Witness to Christ in which respect Ministers are often called Witnesses It is also the Testimony of Israel not only given to Israel but given by Israel unto which the tribes go up the tribes of the Lord Ps. 122. 4. Whensoever therefore or howsoever the Testimony of the Church is contradicted that 's not a Lawful Meeting of the tribes of the Lord. It is also the Testimony of the Preachers for Christ against them that will not receive them Mark. 6. 11. And a Witness unto all Nations to whom they preach Math. 24. 14. And of all the Witnesses that hold it suffer for it Rev. 6. 9. And the same which is the Word of Christs Testimony is the Word of theirs Rev 12. 11. by which they overcome for which they love not their lives Wherever then the Gospel is preached it must be a Testimony But it cannot be a Testimony except it be Publick at least as publick as it can be as we find all Christs Witnesses were in the Old New Testaments 3. The Motive or principle prompting the Lords people to a frequenting of Gospel Ordinances is a publick Spirit stirring up to a publick Generation Work whereof this is the Scope to promote the Kingdom of Christ and not only to obey the Lords Command enjoining the duty to enjoy the Lord the end thereof or to edify their oun Souls But to partake in promote this Great Work of the Day for the Glory of God and the Churches good For the Gospel is not only a Banner of Love over His Friends but Christs Standart of war against His Enemies Isai. 59. 19. under which all that countenance it are called to list themselves as His Souldiers called chosen faithful And it is required of His Souldiers that they be valiant for the Truth upon the earth Discovering a Gallant greatness generosity of a Publick Spirit having their designs desires not limited to their oun interests even Spiritual but aiming at no less than Christs Publick Glory the Churches publick good the Saints publick Comfort having a publick Concern for all Christs Interests Publik Sympathie for all Christs Friends and a publick declared Opposition to all Christs Enemies This is a Publick Spirit the true Spirit of all Christs zealous Lovers Votaries Which when He is a missing will prompt them to go about the City in the streets and in the broad wayes to seek Him whom their Soul loveth Cant. 3. 2. and not only in their beds or secret corners but they must go to the streets and to the fields and avow their seeking of Christ even though the Watchmen should smite them the keepers of the walls take their vails from them Cant. 5. Which obliges them not only to take Him in to their oun Cottages and intertain Him in their hearts and give Him a Throne there but also to endeavour to enlarge His dwelling and propagate His Courtly residence through the World that the Kingdoms of the earth may becom the Kingdoms of the Lord and if they cannot get that done yet that He may have the Throne in â—her Mothers house and take up His abode in the Church or Nation they belong to that there His Ordinances be established in purity peace plenty power according to His oun Order And if that cannot be but that their Mother play the harlot and He be provoked to give up house with her and by her Childrens treacherie the Usurping Enemy be invited in to His place Habitation and take violent possession of it and enact His extrusion expulsion by Law yet they will endeavour to secure a place for Him among
Clergy as he shall nominate in the external Government of the Church the same consisting with the standing Lawes of the Kingdom shall be valide effectual And in the same Act all Lawes are rescinded by which the sole power Jurisdiction within the Church doth stand in the Church Assemblies And all which may be interpreted to have given any Church power Jurisdiction or Government to the Office bearers of the Church other than that which acknowledgeth a dependence upon subordination to the Soveraign power of the King as Supreme By which Prelats are redintegrated to all their priviledges preheminencies that they possessed anno 1637. And all their Church power robbed from the Officers of Christ is made to be derived from to depend upon and to be subordinate to the Croun prerogative of the King whereby the King is made the only fountain of Church power and that exclusive even of Christ of whom there is no mentioned exception And his vassals the Bishops as his Clerks in Ecclesiastiks are accountable to him for all their administrations A greater usurpation upon the Kingdom of Christ than ever the Papacy it self aspired unto Yet albeit here was another display of a banner of defyance against Christ in altering the Church Government of Christs Institution into the humane Invention of Lordly Prelacy in assuming a power by prerogative to dispose of the external Government of the Church and in giving his Creatures patents for this effect to be his Administrators in that usurped Government There was no publick Ministerial at least united Testimony against this neither Therefore the Lord punished this sinful shamful silence of Ministers in His holy Justice though by mens horrid wickedness when by another wicked Act of the Council at Glasgow above 300 Ministers were put from their Charges and afterwards for their Non-conformity in not Countenancing their Diocesan Meeting and not keeping the Anniversary day May 29. The rest were violently thrust from their labours in the Lords vineyard and banished from their Parishes and adjudged unto a nice strange Confinement twenty miles from their oun parishes six miles from a Cathedral Church as they called it and three miles from a Burgh whereby they were reduced in to many inconveniencies Yet in this fatal Convulsion of the Church generally all were struck with blindness baseness that a Paper-Proclamation made them all run from their posts and obey the Kings Orders for their ejection Thus were they given up because of their forbearing to sound an alarm charging the people of God in point of Loyaltie to Christ and under the pain of the Curse of the Covenant to a wake and acquit themselves like men and not to suffer the enemie to rob them of that Treasure of Reformation which they were put in possession of by the tears prayers blood of such as went before them instead of those prudential fumblings fisflings then since so much followed Wherefore the Lord in His holy righteousness left that enemie against whom they should have cried contended and to whose eye they should have held the Curse of the Covenant as having held it first to their oun in case of unfaithful silence in not holding it to his to cast them out of the House of the Lord and dissolve their Assemblies and deprive them of their priviledges because of their not being so valiant for the Truth as that a ful faithful Testimony against that Encroachment might be found upon record Nevertheless somewere found faithful in that hour pour of darkness who kept the Word of the Lords patience and who were therefore kept in from that tentation which carried many away into sad shamful defections though not from suffering hard things from the hands of men only these who felt most of their violence found grace helping them to acquit themselves suitably to that dayes Testimony being thereby prevented from an Active yeelding to their impositions when they were made passively to suffer force However that season of a publick Testimony was lost and as to the most part never recovered to this day The Prelats being settled readmitted to voice in Parliament they procure an Act Dogmatically condemning several Material parts points of our Covenanted Reformation to wit these positions That it was lawful for Subjects for Reformation or necessary self defence to enter into leagues or take up Armes against the King And particularly declaring that the national Covenant as explained in the year 1638. and the Solemn league Covenant were are iâ— themselves unlawful Oaths and were taken by imposed upon the subjects of this Kingdom against the fundamental Lawes Liberties thereof That all such gatherings petitions that were used in the begining of the late troubles were unlawful seditious And whereas then People were led unto these things by having disseminated among them such principles as these That it was lawful to come with petitions Representations of grievances to the King That it was lawful for people to restrict their Allegiance under such such limitations and suspend it untill he should give security for Religion c. It was therefore enacted that all such positions practices founded thereupon were treasonable And furder did enact that no person by writing praying preaching or malicious or advised speaking express or publish any words or sentences to stir up the people to the dislike of the Kings prerogative Supremacy or of the Government of the Church by Bishops or justifie any of the deeds actings or things declared against by that Act. Yet not withstanding of all this subversion of Religion Liberty and restraint of asserting these Truths here trampled upon either before men by Testimony or before God in mourning over these Indignities done unto Him in everting these all the parts of Reformation even when it came to Daniels case of confession preaching praying Truths interdicted by Lavv fevv had their eyes open let be their vvindovvs in an open avouching them to see the duty of the day calling for a Testimony Though aftervvards the Lord Spirited some to assert demonstrate the Glory of these Truths duties to the vvorld As that Judicious Author of the Apologetical Relation vvhose Labours need no Elagium to commend them But this is not all for these men having novv as they thought subverted the Work of God they provided also against the fears of its revival making Acts declaring that if the outed Ministers dare to continue to preach and presume to exercise their Ministrie they should be punished as seditious persons requiring of all a due acknowledgment of hearty complyance with the Kings Government Ecclesiastical Civil And that who soever shall ordinarly wilfully withdraw absent from the ordinary Meetings for Divine Worship in their ouâ— Churches on the Lords day shall incur the Penalties there insert Thus the sometimes Chast Virgin whose name was Beulah to the Lord the Reformed Church
like lightning or like the Sun in its Meridian beauty discovering so the Wonders of Gods Law the Mysteries of His Gospel and the Secrets of His Covenant and the Sins Duties of that day that a numerous issue was begotten to Christ and His Conquest was Glorious Captivating poor slaves of Satan and bringing them from his power unto God and from darkness to Light. O! who can remember the Glory of that Day without a melting heart in reflecting upon what we have lost and let go and sinned away by our Misimprovements O that in that our day we had hearkened to His voice and had known the things that belonged to our peace A day of such power that it made the People even the bulk body of the People willing to come out and venture upon the greatest of hardships and the greatest of hazards in pursuing after the Gospel through Mosses Moors inaccessible Mountains Summer Winter through excess of heat extremity of cold many dayes night-journeyes even when they could not have a probable expectation of escaping the Sword of the wilderness and the barbarous fury of bloody Burrio's raging for their prey sent out with orders to take kill them it being now made Criminal by Law especially to the preachers Convocaters of those Meetings But this was a day of such power that nothing could daunt them from their duty that had tasted once the sweetness of the Lords presence at these persecuted Meetings Then had we such Humiliation-dayes for personal publick Defections such Communion-dayes even in the open fields and such Sabbath-Solemnities that the places where they were kept might have been called Bethel or Peniel or Bochim and all of them Iehovah-Shammah wherein many were truly Converted more Convinced and generally all Reformed from their former immoralities That even Robbers Thieves and Profane Men were some of them brought to a saving subjection to Christ and generally under such restraint that all the severities of heading hanging c. in a great many years could not make such a Civil Reformation as a few dayes of the Gospel in these formerly the Devils Teritories now Christs Quarters where His Kingly Standart was displayed I have not Language to lay out the inexpressible Glory of that day But I will make bold to say two things of it first I doubt if ever there was Greater dayes of the Son of Man upon the Earth since the Apostolick times than we enjoyed for the space of Seven years at that time And next I doubt if upon the back of such a lightsome day there was ever a blacker night of darkness defection division confusion and a more universal impudent Apostasie than we have seen since The world is at a great loss that a more exact complete account demonstrating both these is not published which I am sure would be a fertile Theme to any faithful pen. But this not being my scope at present but only to deduce the steps of the Contendings of Christs Friends His Enemies I must follow the threed of my Narration Now when Christ is gaining Ground by the preached Gospel in plenty in purity power the Usurpers Supremacy was like to stagger and Prelacy came under universal Contempt in so much that several Country Curats would have had but scarce half a dozen of hearers and some none at all And this was a General Observe that never failed that no sooner did any poor Soul come to get a serious sense of Religion and was brought under any real Exercise of Spirit about their Souls Concerns but as soon they did fall out with Prelacy and left the Curats Hence to secure what he had possessed himself of by Law and to prevent a dangerous Paraxisme which he thought would ensue upon these Commotions the King returned to exerce his innate Tyranny and to emit terrible Orders and more terrible Executioners bloody Emissaries against all Field Meetings which after long patience the people at length could not endure but being first chased to the Fields where they would have been content to have the Gospel with all the inconveniences of it and also expelled from the Fields being resolute to maintain the Gospel they resolved to defend it themselves by Armes To which unavoidable necessity in unsupportable extremity did constrain them as the only remaining remedy It is known for several years they met without any Armes where frequently they were disturbed dispersed with Souldiers some killed others wounded which they patiently endured without Resistence At length the Ministers that were most in hazard having a Price set upon their heads to be brought in dead or alive with some attending them in their wanderings understanding they were thus appointed for death judged it their duty to provide for the necessary defence of their lives from the violence of their Armed Assaulters And as Meetings increased diverse others came under the same hazard which enforced them to endeavour the same remedy without the least intention of prejudice to any Thus the number of Sufferers increasing as they joyned in the Ordinances at these persecuted Meetings found themselves in some probable Capacity to defend themselves and these much endeared precious Gospel Priviledges to preserve the Memory of the Lords great Work in the Land which to transmit to posterity was their great design And they had no small encouragment to endeavour it by the satisfying sweetness comfort they found in these Ordinances being perswaded of the justness of their Cause and of the groundlessness of their Adversaries quarrel against them And hereunto also they were incited prompted by the palpableness of the Enemies purposes to destroy the Remainder of the Gospel by extirpating the Remnant that professed it Wherefore in these circumstances being redacted to that strait either to be deprived of the Gospel or to defend themselves in their Meetings for it And thinking their turning their backs upon it for hazard was a cowardly deserting duty and palpable breach of Covenant-Engagments abandoning their greatest Interest They thought it expedient yea necessary to carry defensive Armes with them And as for that discouragment from the difficulty danger of it because of their fewness meanness it did not deter or daunt them from the endeavour of their duty when they considered the Lord in former times was wont to oune a very small party of their Ancestors who in extremity jeoparded their lives in defence of Reformation against very potent powerful Enemies These now ouning the same Cause judged themselves obliged to run the same hazard in the same circumstances and to follow the same method durst not leave it unessayed leaving the event to God considering also that not only the Law of Nature Nations doth allow self defence from unjust violence but also the indissoluble obligation of their Covenants to maintain defend the true Religion one another in promoving the same made it indispensible to use
1680. at the Torwood he excommunicated some of the most scandalous and Principal Promoters Abettors of this Conspiracy against Christ as formally as the present Case could admit After Sermon upon Ezek. 21. 25 26 27. And thou profane wicked Prince of Israel whose day is come c. He had a short and pertinent discourse on the nature the subject the causes and the ends of Excommunication in general And then declared that he was not led out of any private Spirit or passion to this Action but constrained by Conscience of duty and zeal to God to stigmatize with this brand and wound with the Sword of the Lord these Enemies of God that had so Apostatized rebelled against mocked despised defied Our Lord and to declare them as they are none of His to be none of ours The persons excommunicated and the Sentence against them was given forth as followes I being a Minister of Iesus Christ and having Authority and Power from Him do in His Name by His Spirit excommunicatâ— cast out of the true Church and deliver up to Satan Charles the Second King c. The Sentence was founded upon these grounds declared in the pronunciation thereof 1 for his high mocking of God in that after he had acknowledged his own sins his fathers sins his mothers Idolatrie yet had gone on more avowedly in the same than all before him 2 for his great Perjurie in breaking burning the Covenant 3 for his rescinding all Lawes for establishing the Reformation and enacting Lawes contrarie thereunto 4 for commanding of Armies to destroy the Lords people 5 for his being an Enemy to true Protestants helper of the Papists and hindering the execution of just Lawes against them 6 for his granting Remissions Pardons for Murderers which is in the power of no King to do being expressly contrare to the Law of God. 7 for his Adulteries and dissembling with God man Next by the same Authority and in the same name he excommunicated Iames Duke of York for his Idolatrie and setting it up in Scotland to defile the Land and entycing encouraging others to do so Not mentioning any other sins but what he scandalously persisted in in Scotland c. With several other rotten Malignant Enemies on whom the Lord hath ratiâ—â—ed that Sentence since very remarkably whose sins punishments both may be read more visiblie in the Providences of the time than I can record them But about this time when amidst all the abounding defections divisions of that dark dismal hour of tentation some in zeal for the Cause were endeavouring to keep up the Testimony of the day in an abstraction from Complying Ministers Others were left in holy judgment to be a stumbling block to the Generation hardening them in their defections and to be a beacon to the most zealous to keep off from all unwarrantable excesses to fall into fearâ—ul extravagances and delirious damnable delusions being overdriven with ignorant blind zeal into untroden paths which led them into a labyrinth of darkness when as they were stumbled at many Ministers their unfaithfulness so through the deceit of Sathan and the hypocrisie of his Instruments they came to be offended at Mr Cargil his faithfulness who spared neither left hand declensions nor right hand extremes and left him and all the Ministers not only disouning all Communion with those that were not of their way but execrating Cursing them and kept themselves in desert places from all Company where they persisted prodigiously in fastings and singing Psalms pretending to wonderful raptures Enthusiasmes and in fine I. Gib with 4 more of them came to that hight of Blasphemy that they burnt the Bible Confession of Faith. These were the sweet singers as they were called led away into these delusions by that Impostor Sorcerer Iohn Gib who never encreased to such a number as was then feared reported being within thirty most part women all which for the most part have been through Mercy reclaimed from that destructive way which through Grace the Reproached Remnant adhering to the foresaid Testimony had alwayes an abhorrence of Wherefore that ignorant impudent Calumnie of their Consortship with Gibs followers is only the vent of viperous Envy For they were the first that discovered them and whose pains the Lord blessed in reclaiming them and were alwayes so far from partaking with them that to this day these that have come off from that way and have offered the Confession of their scandal do still complain of their over-rigid severity in not admitting them to their select fellowships To which may be added this undenyable Demonstration that whereas the persecuâ—ing Courts of Inquisition did alwayes extend the utmost severity against the Ouners of this Testimony yet they spared them And the Duke of York then in Scotland was so weâ— pleased with Gib's Blasphemies that he favoured him extraordinarly and freely dismissed him This was a cloudy dark day but not without a burning shining light as long as that faithful Minister of Christ Mr Donald Cargil was following the Work of the Lord who shortly after this finished his Testimony being apprehended with other two faithful zealous Witnesses of Christ Mr Walter Smith and Mr Iames Boog who with 2 more were altogether at Edinburgh 27. Iulij 1681. Crouned with the Glory of Martyrdom Then came the day of the Remnants vexation trouble darkness dimness of anguish wherein who so looked unto the Land could see nothing but darkness sorrow the light darkened in the Heavens thereof wherein neither Star nor Sun appeared for many dayes and poor People were made to grope for the wall like the blind and to stumble in noon day as in the night While the Persecution advanced on the one hand a violent spait of defection carried doun the most part of Ministers Professors before it driving them to Courses of sinful scandalous Conformings with the times Corruptions Compearings before their Courts Complyings with their Commands paying of theis Cesses and other Exactions Taking of their Oaths Bonds and countenancing their Prelatical Church-Services which they were ashamed to do before And thereupon on the other hand the Divisions and Confusions were augmented and poor people that desired to cleave to the Testimony were more more offended and stumbled at the Ministers who either left the Land in that clamant Call of the peoples necessity or lurked in their own retirements and declined the duty of that day leaving people to determine themselves in all their perplexities as a prey to all tentations But the tender Pastor and Shepherd of Israel who leads the blind in the way they know not did not forsake a Remnant in that hour of tentation who kept the Word of His Patience and as He helped those that fell into the hands of Enemies to Witness a good Confession so He strengthened the zeal of the remaining Contenders against all the
private Assassination therefore they are called Murderers by Amaziah his Son 2 King. 14. 5 6. but upon the matter it was the Justice of God which he deserved if it had been duely execute for the blood of the Sone of Jehojada the Priest 2 Chron. 24. 25. So Amon the Son of Manasseh for his walking in the way of his Father in Idolatry Tyranny and forsaking the Lord God of his Fathers was slain in his oun house by his Servants who conspired against him But though this was Justice also upon the matter and consonant to the Command for punishing Idolaters Murderers yet because defective in the manner and done by them that tooke too much upon them in a perfidious way of private Assassination Conspiracy therefore the People of the Land punished them for it 2 King. 21. 23. 24. But the repressing punishing of Amaziah is a more unexceptionable instance The people made a Conspiracy against him in Ierusalem and he fled to Lachish but they sent after him to Lachish and slew him there 2 King. 14. 19. after the time that he turned away from following the Lord 2 Chron. 25. 27. Which was according to the Command Deut. 13. which hath no exception of Kings in it This Action was not questioned either by the people or his Successor as the formentioned Conspiracies were His son Uzziah succeeding who did right consulted the Lord 2 Chron. 26. 4 5. did not resent nor revenge his Fathers death which certainly he would have done by advice of Zechariah who had understanding in the visions of God if it had been a transgression The famous faithful Mr Knox doth clear this passage beyond Contradiction in his conference with Lithingtoun Hence I take an Argument a fortiori If people may conspire concur in executing Judgement upon their King turning Idolater Tyrant Then much more may they Revolt from him But this example clears the Antecedent Ergo. 11. The same power priviledge of peoples punishing their Princes was exemplified in the Successor of him last mentioned to wit in Uzziah the son of Amaziah called Azariah 2 King. 15. when he degenerated into the ambition of arrogating a Supremacy in causes Ecclesiastick Sacred as well as Civil his heart was lifted up to his destruction for he transgressed against the Lord his God and went into the Temple of the Lord to burn Incense In which Usurpation he was resisted by Azariah the Priest and with him fourscore Priests of the Lord that were valiant men who withstood him and told him it did not appertain to him to take upon him so much and bade him go out of the Sanctuary or else it should not be for his honour Which indeed he stomacked at as an affront to be controled resisted but in thinking to resent it he was plagued of the Lord with leprosie which the Priests looking upon they thrust him out from thence And thereafter sequestred him from all Supremacy both that which he had before in things Civil and that which he was affecting in matters Sacred for he was made to dwell in a Several house being a leper the Law including here execute upon the King as well as the beggar and to resign the Government into his son Jothams hands 2 Chron. 26. 16-21 Where it appears he was not only excommunicated by a Ceremonial punishment but also deposed Judicially Whether he voluntarly dimited or not it is to no purpose to contend its evident that by the Law of God the actual exercise of his power was removed whether with his will or against it it is all one And that he was punished both by God and by men is undeniable Yea in this his punishment was very gentle and far short of the Severity of the Law for by the Law he should have been put to death for intermedling with these holy things interdicted to all but to the Priests under pain of death Numb 3. 10. Numb 18. 7. The stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death All were strangers that were not Priests Whence I argue If a Prince for his Usurpation beyond his line in things Sacred may by the Priests be excommunicated and by the people deposed then may a Prince not only Usurping a Supremacy as Charles did but an absolute power of overturning all things Sacred Civil as James doeth oppressing his subjects in all their Liberties be disouned a fortiori for that is less than deposing or dethroning But this Example clears the Antecedent Ergo See Knox discourse to Lethingtoun Lex Rex Quest. 44. § 15. pag. 461. Ius popul chap. 3. pag. 56. 12. What if I should adduce the Example of a Kings Rebellion against and Revolt from a Superior King to whom he his Fathers both acknowledged themselves subject Surely our Royalists and Loyalists would not condemn this and yet in justifying it they should condemn their beloved principle of uncontroled subjection to uncontrolable Soveraigns possessing the Government Ahaz became Servant to the Assyrian Monarch 2 King. 16. 7. yet Hezekiah his son when the Lord was with him and he prospered Rebelled against the King of Assyria and he served him not 2 King. 18. 7. Hezekiah was indeed a King but he was not Sennacheribs King he acknowledges himself his vassal and that he offended in disouning him vers 14. which certainly was his sin against the Lord to make such an acknowledgment for if his Fathers transaction with the Assyrian was sin then it was duty to break the yoke if the Lord was with him in that rebellion then it was his sin to acknowledge it to be his offence And to make good this ackowledgment it was certainly his sin to commit Sacriledge in robbing the House of God to satisfie that Tyrant By way of Supplement I shall adde that instance of repressing a mad furious Tyrant which all will acknowledge to be Lawful Nebuchadnezzar was both stricken of God with madness and for that was depelled from the Kingdom according to the heavenly Oracle The Kingdom is departed from thee and they shall drive thee from men Dan. 4. 31-33 Calvin sayes upon the place he was ejected as usually is done to Tyrants by the Combination of the nobles people Pool Synopsis Critic in Locum Thus he was unkinged for a time both by the just Judgement of God and by the intermediation of the just Judgement of men and could not be ouned to be King at that time when his nails were like birds Clawes and he could not tell his oun fingers They could not oune him to be the Governour then of so many Kingdoms when he could not Govern himself Hence though this is an instance of Heathens yet because they acted upon a rational ground it may be argued If Kings because of Natural madness when they cannot govern themselves may not be ouned Then also because of Moral madness when they will not govern but to the destruction of Kingdoms may not be ouned But
the former is true Therefore also the Latter The same reason against the Government of Asses will also militate against the Government of Tygers the first is more eligible then the last Fifthly This may be confirmed from Several promises in Scripture 1. There are many Gracious precious promises of Reformation of the Magistracy and Restitution of good Rulers as a great blessing from God to Mankind and to the Church Isai 1. 26. I will restore thy Iudges as at the first and thy Counsellors as at the begining afterwrrd thoâ— shalt he called the City of righteousness If Judges must first be restored before the City can be a City of righteousness then they must be restored before we can oune the Government thereof for that Government under which it cannot be a City of Righteousness cannot be ouned since it is no Government but a Rebellion Combination of Thieves see vers 23. I do not here restrict the promise as it is a Prophecy to its exact fulfillment as if no Government were to be ouned but what answers this promise of the restitution of the primitive order of Magistrats but I plead that when the Princes are rebellious Companions of Thieves the Government is not to be ouned till Judges be so far restored as to reduce righteousness in some measure which cannot be under Tyranny And in the general I may plead that none is to be ouned as a Magistrate but who some way is found in a promise for there is no Ordinance of God no duty no blessing no good thing either to be done or enjoyed but what is in a promise but Tyranny or ouning of Tyrants or subjection to Usurpers is not nor cannot be in a promise We have many other promises about Magistrates as that the Lord will be for a Spirit of Iudgement to him that sitteth in Iudgement Isai. 28. 6. A Tyrant cannot be capable of this happiness nor we under Tyranny nor any while they oune them Kings shall be the Churches nursing Fathers and their Queens her nursing Mothers Isai. 49. 23. Kings are not alwayes so but all Kings to be ouned are such as can be so at least they are never to be ouned when they turn destroyers of what they should nourish But Tyrants can never be Nourishers It is promised to the Lords people if they will hearken diligently unto the Lord and keep the Sabbath then shall there enter into their gates Kings Princes Ier. 17. 24 25. And if they will execute Judgement righteousness and deliver the spoyled out of the hand of the oppressor c. they shall obtain the same blessing Ier. 23. 3 4. But it is never promised neither doth it ever come to pass in Providence that these duties procured Tyrants There are many other promises to the same purpose from whence may be concluded the Lord will not alwayes leave His people to houl under ineluctable Tyranny but will accomplish their deliverance in His oun time way though we are not to look to Miracles Whence I argue 1. Since all the Ordinances of God Rulers in a special manner are appointed promised as blessings these cannot be ouned for His Ordinance which are not Blessings but Curses 2. That which would vacate evacuate all the promises of Magistracy cannot be a Doctrine of God But this that obliges to oune Tyrants Usurpers as long as they are up would vacate evacuate all these promises of Magistracy For except the Lord work Miracles which are not in the promise and do all without means they cannot be accomplished For if any means be used they must be such as will infer disouning of Tyrants for Magistrates cannot be restored except Tyrants be removed and whatever way they be removed without Miracles by others or their oun Subjects they must still be disouned and that before they be removed for if they be to be ouned before their removal if they exist cannot make them to be disouned dispossession cannot take away their right if they have it before 2. There are many promises of breaking the yoke of Tyrants Isai. 10. 27. His burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder and his yoke from off thy neck And in that promise of the Churches deliverance enlargment wherein they are Prophetically urged stirred up to some activity in cooperating with the providence Isai. 52. 1 2. they are called to awake put on strength their beautiful garments and to shake themselves from the dust and to rise and loose themselves from the bands of their neck that were captives Here is not only a promise of deliverance or a ground of encouragment what the Church may expect but a promise of direction for their being active in delivering themselves as men from the encroachments that were made on their humane Liberties that they should loose themselves from these bands Whose bands from their bands that ruled over them and made them to houl and the Lords Name to be blasphemed vers 5. Here 's a promise of breaking the bands of Rulers by them who houled under their subjection And it also includes a precept that people should not stay any longer under these yokes than they can shake them off or slip from under them Hence we see we are not to lie stupidly sleeping or sinking in the Ditch expecting the accomplishment of the promise of Deliverance but are to endeavour actively in dependence upon the Lords Assistance to deliver our selves Hence we may argue 1. A promise by way of Command that a people under bands of oppressing Rulers shall rouse themselves up to loose themselves from them implies infers a promise a duty of disouning those Rulers for otherwise they cannot be loosed from their subjection But here is a promise by way of Command that a people under bands of oppressing Rulers shall rouse themselves up to loose themselves from them Ergo 2. If the removal of Tyranny Usurpation be promised as a blessing then those can never be ouned to be the Ordinance of God for the removal of that can never be a blessing But in these promises we see the removal of those is promised as a blessing Therefore they can never be ouned Sixthly To the same purpose we may cite some Threatenings that will confirm the same Truth 1. There are many Threatenings against Tyrants themselves There are two mentioned Ier. 22. that seem patly to quadrate and near of a piece with our Misrulers both because of the demerit of the Threatening and the likeness of the Judgement Threatened The ground of it was building their house by unrighteousness and their chambers by wrong vers 13. And severally they are Threatened Iehojakim with the burial of an Ass unlamented vers 18 19. Coniah with a life without prosperity and a death without issue to succeed vers 30. The first of these is verified in the Elder of our Royal Brothers the last is like to be of both But that which I take
others from concerting that same necessary witness in the season thereof And for this end he will change both matter manner in managing the War. He will not now persecute for the old Controverted heads of Poperie with fire faggot as formerly for refusing to worship Our Lady or the blessed Sacrament of the Altar These weapons Engines are so worn out of use that they will not work now as they did before And that old Baud of Babylon is become so ugly and out of date that he does not believe her beauty can be so bewitching except she put on a new busk But her Eldest Daughter the Prelatical Church of the same Complexion with herself except that she is coloured with Protestant paint is fitter for his service to allure our Land into fornication And who will not be entyced must be forced to Communion with her by finings confynings exactions extortions impositions of Oaths c. Religion must be litle concerned here for there is Preaching enough and of Protestant Doctrine too and without the Monkie-Tricks Montebank showes fopperies of English-Popish Ceremonies Lyturgical services What would they be at Is it not better to yeeld to this than to fall into the hand of the Scotish-Spanish-Inquisition that will rack the Purse the Body Conscience and all This is one Complex head of suffering and thought a very small one by many But now finding this would not do his business yet it looked too like Religion still He hath therefore invented a new Machin He will not now Persecute nor force the Conscience at all so good natur'd is the Devil and his Lievetenant grown in their old age for matters of meer Religion Nay if we may believe him who when he speaketh a lie speaketh it of his own he hath not done it this long time but only in all the violent Courses exercised against these Sufferers he hath been Magistratically chastising the disobedience rebellion of a few turbulent Traitors who would not oune the Government And thus under the notion of Rebellion disouning Authority he hath had access success to destroy almost an innumerable number of honest innocent faithful fruitful lovers of Christ who though indeed they have had their sufferings stated upon those points yet I doubt not shall be found among the followers of the Lamb and Confessors and Martyrs of Christ who haue overcome by the blood of the Lamb the word of their Testimony not loving their lives unto the Death whose blood is crying for vengeance against the shedders thereof And He will make inquisition for it when He comes to overturn overturn take His own right for which they have been Contending Nevertheless this is a prejudice too prevalent with many to misregard the Case Cause of these Contenders or any thing that can be said to represent them favourablie And all these disadvantages difficulties discouragements together considered would soon cool my Courage and at first blush make me leave off before I begin were I not persuaded that it is the Cause of Christ these reproached people are suffering for and that their great sufferings reproaches are both alike unjust from both which the Lord vvill vindicate them bring forth their righteousness as the light their judgment as the noon day â—n His oun time In confidence of vvhich depending on his Conduct I shall undertake as briefly as is possible for me to represent their case and clear the Cause so far at least as concerns their Contest vvith their pesecuting Enemies vviâ—h vvhom I only deal at present it not being my purpose to descend particularly into their necessitated Contendings vvith Complying Brethren partly because they vvould make the volume to excresce unto too great a bulk because they are to be seen elsevvhere yet in effect these also are not only here narratively deduced but vvhatever is odious in them is vindicated vvhat is difficult in some measure enodated But it may be expected and desiderated that I should give a distinct deduction of all the Steps of this woful defection against which a great part of the Testimony hath been stated but I would have the Reader advertised I touch only that part of the Testimony which hath been sealed by severe sufferings from enemies It were a Task transcending my Capacity and a Theme wherein I have no pleasure besides that it is inconsistent with my Leasure to inlarge upon such a sad and shameful subject Though the world indeed is at a loss that they that would do it cannot and they that would should do it will not And it is a greater loss not only to Scotland but also to the whole Christian world that what hath been done in this kind already cannot see the light or rather that the Church of Christ is deprived of its light which through the injury of the times the disingenuous Prudence of some who suffer themselves to be imposed upon by the Patrons of Defection is embezilled suppressed I mean that excellent faithful History of Defection the posthumous work of famous Mr. M'ward whose praise is in the Churches which if they that have it in keeping would do themselves the honour and the world the happiness of publishing it there would be no more need to discover from whence to what and how that Church hath fallen degenerate nor so great dissicultie in that indisputable indispensable duty that such a day calls for in searching trying our wayes to the end we may turn again to the Lord Nor any necessity for my poor essay to invite incite the people of the lord to take Cognizance Compassion of poor perishing Scotland I wish that they who have it may consult more their oun duty and credit and what they owe to the memory of the dead the Churches edification the dayes Testimony and the honour of Christ than to continue robbing the world of such a Treasure wich I doubt not to call Treason against Christ Sacriledge against the Church stick not to tell them if they will not publish it the world must knovv there was such a thing done But it not being my design now to detect or reflect upon all the defections of that declining by declensions divided by divisions almost only not destroyed Church I shall medle with them no further than what is necessary to clear the cause refering the knowledge and account of them either to the Notoriety of the grossest of them or to the more particular enarration of them to be found in papers emitted published by the Contenders against them Of vvhich one is of this same years edition entituled The Informatory vindication of a poor wasted misrepresented Remnant c. In vvhich may be evident that notvvithstanding of all this darkness distress defection division under vvhich the Church of Scotland hath been so long is still labouring there is yet a poor
without sedition withhold the fruits profits which your false Bishops Clergy most unjustly received of yow Upon which he subjoins the preceeding Arguments Yet now a dayes these have no weight but such as refuse either to pay Oppressors exactions or Curats stipends are condemned for giddy fools Again we find that when they were challenged for duty they would never decline a declaration of its righteousness nor do any thing directly or indirectly which might seem a condemning of it And therefore they wold receive no pardons for these things which they could not confess to be offences Iohn Knox challenged for offending the Queen had her promise that if he would confess an offence his greatest punishment should be but to go within the Castle of Edinburgh and immediatly to return to his own house he refused absolutely But now if our Pardon-mongers prudent men had been so circumstantiate surely they could have helped themselves with their distinctions they might confess be pardoned for offending the Queen thô not confess it to be a fault in their Conscience But Mr Knox had not learned that then When they were pursuing the Murder of King Henry of Darnely the Queen finding her self not strong enough offers to forgive pardon that insurection The Earle of Morton in name of all the rest did not only refuse a Cessation but told her they would not ask a pardon But now sufferers for refusing of these base unmanly aswell as unchristian Complyances are much condemned Finally because this strictness especially in their severity against their Enemies may be accused of Iewish rigidity inconsistent with a Gospel Spirit of Lenity which also is imputed to the much condemned sufferers of Scotland at this time for their Testimonies against Toleration Liberty of Conscience Let us hear what Knox sayes whatsoever God required of the Civil Magistrate in Israel or Juda concerning the observation of true Religion during the time of the Law the same doth He require of Lawful Magistrates professing Christ Jesus in the time of the Gospel And Cites a large Testimony out of Augustine to this purpose And afterward objecting to himself the practice of the Apostles who did not punish the Idolatrous Gentiles he answers That the Gentiles being never avowed to be Gods people before had never received his Law and therefore were not to be punished according to the rigor of it to which they were never subject being strangers from the Commonwealth of Israel But if any think after the Gentiles were received in the number of Abrahams children and so made one people with the Jewes beleeving then â—hey were not bound to the same obedience of Israels Covenant the same seems to make Christ inferior to Moses and contrare to the Law of His heavenly Father for if the Contempt and transgression of Moses's Law was worthy of death what judge we the contempt of Christs ordinance to be And if Christ be not come to dissolve but to fulfill the Law of His Heavenly Father shall the Liberty of His Gospel be an occasion that the special glory of His Father be troden under foot and regarded of no man God forbid And therefore I fear not to affirme that the Gentiles be bound by the same Covenant that God made with His people Israel in these words Beware that thou make not any Covenant with the Inhabitants of the Land but thou shalt destroy their Altars c. When therefore the Lord puteth the Sword in the hand of a people they are no less bound to purge their Cities Countreyes from Idolatrie then were the Israelites what time they received the Possession of the Land of Canaan III. For the head of Resistence of Superior powers we have no clearer instances in any Period then in this where of the above mentioned hints give some account to which in their sentiments arguments may be here subjoined They prised and improved this principle so much that they put it in their Confession of faith Art. 14. To save the Life of Innocents to repress Tyranny to defend the oppressed are among the good works of the Second Table which are most pleasing acceptable to God as these works are commanded by Himself And to suffer innocent blood to be â—hed if we may withstand it is affirmed to be sin by which Gods hot Displeasure is kindled against the proud unthankful world And if there were no more to render the late Test of Scotland detestable that condemns all resistence of Kings upon any pretence whatsoever this may make all Christians all men abhor the contrivance of it that that same Test that confirms this Thesis doth also impose the Antithesis upon Conscience It obliges to this Confession in the first part of it and to deny it in the Latter But no wonder that men of feared Consciences can receive any thing thô never so contradictory to it self And that men who deny sense and that principle irradicated in humane nature may also deny Conscience make a fool of it in sowdering Contradictories But not only did our Reformers assert this Truth for which now their children adhering to their Testimony suffer both rage and reproach but also gave their reasons for it As 1 Mr Knox in his first Conference with the Queen argues thus There is neither greater honour nor obedience to be given to Princes than Parents but so it is that the father may be stricken with a phrensie in the which he would slay his oun children now if the children arise take his weapon from him bind his hands do the children any wrong It is even so with Princes that would murder the Children of God subject to them their blind zeal is nothing but a very mad phrensie and therefore to take the sword from them and cast them into prison till they be brought to a more sober mind is no disobedience against Princes 2 In his Conference with Lithingtoun he proves the same point from the consideration of the justice of God punishing the people for not resisting the Prince The Scripture of God teacheth me saith he Ierusalem Iuda were punished for the sins of Manassoh If you alledge they were punished because they were wicked and not because the King was wicked the Scripture sayes expressly for the sins of Manasseh yet will I not absolve the people I will grant the whole people offended with their King but how to affirme that all Iuda committee the acts of his impiety hath no certainty who can think that all Ierusalem should turn Idolaters immediatly after Hezekias notable Reformation One part therefore willingly followed him in his Idolatry the other suffered him so were criminal of his sin even as Scotland is guilty of the Queens Idolatry this day In the same Discourse he makes it plain that all are guilty of Innocents murder who do not oppose it from Ieremies words in his defence before the Princes Know ye for certain if ye put me to death ye
the King of Kings and all his instructions set doun limited in the book of God that cannot be extended abridged or altered by any mortal wight King or Emperour And seeing he was sent to all sorts his Commission discharge of it should not nor cannot be Lawfuly judged by them to whom he was sent they being sheep not Pastors to be judged by the Word and â—â—t to be judges thereof in a judicial way The Interloquutor being past against him for this the Brethren thought it duty that the Doctrine of the Preachers should be directed against the said Interloquutor as against a strong mighty hold set up against the Lord Jesus and the freedom of the Gospel and praised God for the force unity of the Spirit that was among themselves And being charged to depart out of Toun they leave a faithful Declaration at Large shewing how the Liberties of the Church were invaded robbed But all this was nothing in comparison of their wrestlings for the Royalties of their Princely Master and Priviledges of His Kingdom against that Tyrants Insolencies after he obtained he Croun of England For then he would not suffer the Church to indict her oun Assemblies And when the faithful thought themselves obliged to counteract his Encroachments and therefore conveened in an Assembly at Aberdeen anno 1605. they were forced to dissolve and thereafter the most eminent of the Ministers there assembled were transported Prisoners to Black-ness Whence being cited befor the Council they decline their Judicatory And one of their Brethren Mr Robert Youngson who had formerly succumbed being moved in Conscience returned and when the rest were standing before the Council desired to be heard and acknowledged his fault and therefore howbeit not summoned by the Lords was charged by the Living God and compelled to compear that day to justifie that Assembly to the great astonishment of the Lords and comfort of His brethren He subscribed the Declinature with the rest And for this they were arraigned and condemned as guilty of Treason and banished Before the execution of which sentence Mr Welsh wrote to the Lady Fleming to this effect What am I that He should first have called me and then constituted me a Minister of glad things of the Gospel of Salvation these fifteen years already and now last of all to be a sufferer for His Cause Kingdom To witness that good Confession that Jesus Christ is the King of Saints and that His Church is a most free Kingdom yea as free as any Kingdom under Heaven not only to convocate hold keep her Meetings Conventions Assemblies But also to judge of all her affairs in all her Meetings Conventions among His members and Subjects These two points 1 That Christ is the Head of His Church 2 That she is free in her Government from all other jurisdiction except Christs are the special Cause of our imprisonment being now convict as Traitors for maintaining thereof We have now been waiting with joyfulness to give the last Testimonie of our blood in confirmation thereof If it would please our God to be so favourable as to honour us with that dignity After this the King resolving by Parliament to advance the estate of Bishops again as in the time of Popery without Cautions as before and further to establish not only that Antichristian Hierarchie but an Erastian Supremacy The faithful Ministers of Christ thought themselves bound in Conscience to protest And accordingly they offered a faithful Protestation to the Parliament Iulij 1606. obtesting that they would reserve into the Lords own hands that Glory which He will communicate neither with man nor Angel to wit to prescribe from His holy Mountain a Lively pattern according to which His oun Tabernacle should be formed Remembring alwise that there is no absolute undoubted Anthority in this world except the soveraigne Authority of Christ the King to vvhom it belongeth as properly to rule the Church according to the good pleasure of His oun vvill as it belongeth to Him to save His Church by the Merit of His oun Sufferings All other anthority is so intrenched vvithin the marches of Divine Command that the least overpassing of the bounds set by God Himself bring men under the fearful expectation of Temporal Eternal judgements If ye should authorize Bishops ye should bring into the Church the ordinance of man vvhich experience hath found to have been the ground of that Antichristian Hierarchie vvhich mounted up on the steps of Bishops preeminence until that man of sin came forth as the ripe fruit of mans vvisedome vvhom God shall consume vvith the breath of His oun mouth Let the svvord of God pierce that belly vvhich brought forth such a monster And let the staff of God crush that egg vvhich hath hatched such a Cockatrice And let not only that Roman Antichrist be thrown down from the high bench of his usurped authority but also let all the steps whereby he mounted up to that unlawful preeminence be cut down utterly abolished in this Land And beware to strive against God with an open displayed banner by building up again the walls of Iericho which the Lord hath not only cast down but also hath laid them under an horrible Interdiction execration so that the building of them again must needs stand to greater charges to the builders then the reedifying of Iericho to Hiel the Bethelite in the days of Ahab Yet notwithstanding of all opposition Prelacy was again restored in Parliament And to bring all to a Complyance with the same Presbytries Synods universally charged under highest pains to admit a constant Moderator without change which many refused resolutely as being the first step of Prelacy Upon this followed a great Persecution of the faithful for their Nonconformity managed by that Mongrel Monstrous kind of Court made up of Clergy-men Statesmen called the High Commission Court erected anno 1610. whereby many honest men were put violently from their charges habitations the Generality were involved in a great fearful Defection But the Copestone of the wickedness of that Period was the Ratification of the five Articles of Perth kneeling at the Communion private Communion to be given to the sick private Baptisme and Confirmation of Children by the Bishop and observation of festival dayes Which were much opposed testified against by the faithful from their first hatching anno 1618. to the year 1621. when they were ratified in Parliament at what time they were also witnessed against from Heaven by extraordinary Lightenings Tempest And against this the Testimony of the faithful continued till the Revolution anno 1638. Here we see how the Cause was stated in this Period and may gather also wherein it aggress and how far it differs from the present Testimony now suffered for under all rage reproach I. The matter of the Testimony was one with that that we are suffering for against Popery Prelacy Supremacy
except that it was not so far extended against Tyranny because that Tyrant was not such an usurper nor such a violater of the fundamental constitutions of the Civil Government as these that we have had to do with all But as to the managing the Testimony they far out stripped their successors in this generation in conduct courage Prudence zeal as is above hintend in many instances to which we may adde some more When several plots of Papist Lords had been discovered conspiring with the King of Spain And they were by the Kings Indulgence favoured and some were also perswaded to treat with them famous Mr Davidson opposed with great resolution Declaring before the Synod of Lothian that it favoured much of defection in these dayes that such notorious rebells to God His Church the Country should be so treated with we should not rashly open a door to Gods Enemies without better proof of their manners nor were yet seen And when a convention in Falkland was consulting to call home these conspiring Traitors Mr Andrew Melvin went thither uncalled and when found fault with by the King for his boldness he answered Sir I have a call to come here from Christ His Church who have special Interest in this Turn and against whom this Convention is assembled directly I charge yow and your Estates in the Name of Christ His Church that ye favour not His Enemies whom He hateth nor go about to call home nor make Citizens of these who have traiterously sought to betray their City native Countrey with the overthroiw of Chists Kingdom And further challenged them of treason against Christ His Church the Countrey in that purpose they were about About the same time in a private Conference with the King he called the King Gods sillie vassal and taking him by the sleeve told him Sir yow and Church Countrey is like to be wracked for not telling the Truth and giving yow faithful Counsel we must discharge our duty or else be enemies to Christ yow Therefore I must tell yow there are two Kings and two Kingdoms There is Christ and His Kingdom whose subject King Iames the 6th is and of whose Kingdom he is not a King nor a Head nor a Lord but a member and they vvhom Christ hath called to vvatch over govern his Church have sufficient Authority and Power from Him which no Christian King should control but assist othervvise they are not faithfull subjects to Christ. Sir vvhen yovv vvere in your svvedling clouts Christ reigned freely in this Land in spight of all His enemies but novv the vvisdom of your Council vvhich is Devilish pernicious is this that yovv may be served of all sorts of men to your purpose grandour Iew Gentile Papist Protestant because the Ministers Protestants in Scotland are too strong control the King they must be vveakened brought lovv by stirring up a party against them and the King being equal indifferent both shall be fain to flee to him so shall he be well setled But Sir let Gods wisedom be the only wisdom this will prove meer mad folly for His curse cannot but light upon it so that in seeking both yow shall lose both To the like effect Mr Robert Bruce in a Sermon upon Psal 51. gives faithful warning of the danger of the times It is not we sayes he that are Partie in this cause no the quarrel is betwixt a greater Prince and them What are we but sillie men Yet it has pleased Him to set us in this Office that we should oppone to the manifest usurpation that is made upon His Spiritual Kingdom Is there a more forcible mean to draw down the wrath of God than to let Barrabas that nobilitate Malefactor pass free and to begin the war against Christ and His Ministry It puteth on the Copestone that so many of our brethren should not be so faithful as their Calling this Cause craveth Fy upon false brethren to see them dumb so faint hearted when it comes to the Chock Not only are they ashamed to speak the thing they think which is a shame in a Pastor but speak directly against their former Doctrin They will speak the Truth a while till they be put at but incontinent they will turn and make their gifts weapons to fight against Christ for there is none so malicious as an Apostate when he begins to slide back c. The same faithful witness because he would not preach as the King would have him against his oun conscience to justifie Proclaim the Kings Innocency in a forged conspiracy against him was put from his Church in Edinburgh and being requested in an insinuating manner to desist from preaching but for nine or ten dayes he condiscended at first thinking the matter of no great importance yet that night his body was cast in a fever with the terror of his conscience and he promised he should never obey their Commandment any more These were faithful men yet we find they challenge themselves in deep humiliation for their short comings defections at the renovation of the National Covenant March 30. 1596. the greatst solemnity ever had been seen in Scotland before that time so that the place might worthily have been called Bochim O when shall we see such a day when even the most faithful among us shall mourn over our far more aggravated defections but if they mourned then for these first degrees of declensions we may say quam gravius ingemiscerent illi fortes viri qui propter Ecclesiae Scoticanae Libertatem olim in acie decertarunt si nostram hanc ignaviam ne quid gravius dicam conspicerent I know notwithstanding of all this that some encourage themselves in a base Complyance with the present corruptions of our Church from the practise of these Worthies Alledging they did not scruple to hear join with Prelatical men dispensing the ordinances But this Objection will be easily refelled if we consider first the Period wherein they were but growing up to a more perfect Reformation and therefore might bear with many things which we cannot after we have been reformed from them They were then advancing and still gaining ground we are now declining and therefore should be more shie to lose what we have gained They had then of a long time enjoyed their Judicatories unto which they might recur for an orderly redress of such grievances that offended them and when they were deprived of them yet they were still in hopes of recovering them and so suspended their total secession from that corrupt Church untill they should recover them in the mean time still holding their right and maintaining their cause against these Invaders But we were at thevery first begining of this unhappy Revolution totally deprived of our Judicatories and denuded of all expectation of them in an ordinary way and of all place but what they are Masters of to contend with them
advanced that the Government of the Church by Congregational Elderships Classical Presbyteries Provincial National Assemblies is aggreed upon by the Assembly of Divines at Westmnster and voted concâ—uded in both houses of Parliament After this the Malignants in England being crushed in all their Projects the King renders himself to the Scots in New castle by whom because by Covenant they were not obliged to defend him but only in defence of Religion Liberty which he had been destroying and they defending because in this war he did directly oppose oppugne these conditions under which they were only to defend him and therefore they had all alongst carried towards him as an enemy as he to them And because by the same Covenant they were obliged to discover render to condign punishment all Malignants Incendaries of whom he was the chief and to reâ—ain the Peace Union of the Kingdoms which could not be retained in maintaining their destroyer And to assist mutually all entered into that Covenant which he was fighting against he was delivered up into the English and kept under restraint in the Isle of Wight untill he received his just demerit for all his oppressions Murders Treachery Tyranny being condemned execute Ianuar. 30. anno 1648 9 Which fact though it was protested against both before after by the Assembly of the Church of Scotland out of zeal against the Sectarians the executioners of that extraordinary Act of Justice yet it was more sor the manner than for the matter and more for the motives ends of it than for the grounds of it that they opposed themselves to it and resented it For they acknowledged remonstrated to himself the Truth of all these things upon which that sentence execution of Justice was founded And when a wicked Association Unlawful Engagment was on foot to rescue him they opposed it with all their might Shewing in their Answers to the Estates that year 1648. and Declarations Remonstrances the sinfullness destructiveness of that Engagment that it was a breach of the Commandments of God of all the Articles of the Covenant Declaring withal they would never consent to the Kings Restitution to the exercise of his Power without previous assurance by solemn Oath under his hand seal for settling of Religion according to the Covenant By which it appears they were not so stupidly Loyal as some would make them Yet indeed it cannot be past without regrate that there was too much of this plague of the Kings-evil even among good men which from that time forth hath so infected the heads hearts of this Generation that it hath almost quite extinct all Loyaltie to Christ and all zeal for Religion Liberty Then it began to infuse diffuse its Contagion when after the death of Charles the first in the year 1649. they began after all that they had smarted for their trusting these treacherous Tyrants and after that Grace had been shewed them from the Lord their God by breaking these mens yokes from from off their necks and puting them again into a Capacity to act for the good of Religion their oun safety and the peace safety of the Kingdom to think of joining once more with the people of these abominations and taking into their bosoms these Serpents which had formerly stung them almost to death Hinc ilâ—â— lachrimae en origo Scaturigo nostrae defectionis There was indeed at that time a Party faithful for God who considering the many breaches of the Solemn League Covenant and Particularly by the late Engagment against England did so travel that they procured the Covenant to be renewed with the Solemn Acknowledgment of sins Engagment to duties which was Universally subscribed sworn through all the Land wherein also they regrete this tampering with Malignants And therefore the Lord did mightily save defend them from all their Adversaries subdued them at Stirling and in the North. They did also give warning concerning the young King that notwithstanding of the Lords hand against his Father yet he hearkens unto the Counsells of these who were Authors of these Miseries to his Father by which it hath come to pass that he hath hitherto refused to grant the just necessary desires of the Church Kingdom for securing of Religion Liberty And it is much to be feared that these wicked Counsellers may so far prevail upon him as to ingage him in a war for overturning the Work of God and bearing doun all those in the three Kingdoms that adhere therto Which if he shall do cannot but bring great wrath from the Lord upon himself throne and must be the cause of many new great Miseries Calamities to these Lands And in the same warning by many weighty reasons they prove that he is not to be admitted to the exercise of his power without security for Religion Liberty And when the bringing home of the King came to be voted in the Assembly there was one faithful witness Mr Adam Kae Minister in Galaway protested against it fore shewing fore telling what mischeef misery he would bring with him when he should come These things might have had some weight to demur the Nation from medling with that perfidious Traitor But all this serves only to aggravate the sin shame of that distraction which hath procured all this destruction under which the Land mourns to this day That notwithstanding of all these Convictions warnings yea and discoveries of his Malignancy Treachery inclinations to Tyranny They sent Commissioners and concluded at Treaty with him at Breda During which Treaty the Commissions which he had sent to that bloody villain Montrose his Cut throat Complices to raise an Armie wast invade the Countrey with fire sword the second time were brought to the Committee of Estates discovering what sort of King they were treating with Whereupon after serious Consulting not only together but with the Lord And after many debates what to do in such a doubtfull case wherein all was in danger the Estates concluded to break off the Treaty and recall their Commissioners To which intent they sent an Express with Letters to Breda which by providence falling into the hands of Libberton a true Libertine false betrayer of his trust Country was by him without the knowledge of the other Commissioners delivered unto the King who consulting the Contents of the Packet with his Jesuitical Hypocritical Cabal found it his interest to play the fox being disappointed at that time to play the Tyger and dissemble with God man. And so sending for the Commissioners he made a flattering speech to them shewing that novv after serious deliberation he vvas resolved to comply vvith all their Proposals Where upon the poor cheated Commissioners dispatch the post back with Letters full of praise joy for the satisfaction they had received The Estates perceiving themselves
of Scotland did now suffer a violent villanous rape from a vermine of vile Schismatical Apostates obtruded imposed upon her instead of her able painful faithful succeseful Pastors that the Lord had set over her and now by their faintness the Enemies force robbed from her And none now allowed by Law to administer the Ordinances but either Apostate Curats who by their Perjurie Apostacy forfaulted their Ministry or other Hirelings Prelatâ— Journey-men who run without a Mission except from them who had none to give according to Christs Institution the seal of whose Ministry could never yet be shown in the Conversion of any sinner to Christ but if the tree may be known by its fruitâ— we may know whose Ministers they are ut ex ungue Leonem by their Conversions of Reformation into Deformation of the Work Cause of God into the similitude of the Roman beast of Ministers into Hirelings of their Proselytes into ten times worse children of the Devil then they were before of the power of Godlyness into formality of Preaching Christ into Orations of Morality of the purity of Christs Ordinances into the vanity of mens Inventions of the beautiful Government of the House of God for Edification to a Lordly preheminence Domination over consciences in a word of Church State Constitutions for Religion Liberty all up side doun into wickedness slavery These are the Conversions of Prelacy But now this astonishing blow to the Gospel of the Kingdom introducing such a Swarm of Locusts into the Church And in forcing a Complyance of the people with this defection and that so violently rigorously as even simple withdrawing was so severely punished by severe Edicts of fyning other arbitrary punishments at first what did it produce did it awaken all Christs Ambassadours now to appear for Christ in this clear clamant case of Confessing Him and the freedom Purity of His Ordinances Alas the backwardness bentness to backsliding in a Superseding from the duties of that day did make it evident that now the Lord had in a great measure forsaken them because they had forsaken Him. The standart of the Gospel was then fallen and few to take it up The Generality of Ministers Professors both went Conformed so far as to hear the Curats contrary to many points of the Reformation formerly attained contrare to their Covenant Engagments and contrare to their oun principles practice at that same time scrupling and refusing to keep the Bishops visitations and to Countenance their Discipline power of Iurisdiction because it was required as a Testification of their acknowledgment of Complyance with the present Government And yet not scrupling to Countenance their Doctrine usurped power of Order required also by the same Law as the same Test of the same Compliance submission It s strange that some yet doe plead for persisting in that same Complyance after all the bitter Consequents of it Other Ministers Lay altogether by in their retired recesses waiting to see what things would turn to Others were hopeless turned Farmers Doctors others more wyllie staid at home Preached quietly in Ladies Chambeâ—â— But the faithful thought that this Tyrannical ejection did 〈◊〉 or could not unminister them so as they might not Preaâ—â—â— Gospel where ever they were as Ambassadours of 〈◊〉 but rather found themselves under an indispensible necessity to Preach the Gospel and witness for the freedom of their Ministry and make full proof of it in preaching in season out of season and thereupon as occasion offered preached to all such as were willing to hear but at first only in private houses and that for the most part at such times when Sermons in publick surceased a superplus of Caution But afterwards finding so great difficulties and Persecutions for their house Meetings where they were so easily attrapped were constrained at last to keep their Meetings in the fields without shelter from cold wind snow or rain Where testifieing both practically particularly against these Usurpations on their Masters Prerogatives and witnessing for their Ministerial freedom contrary to all Law-Interdictions without any Licences or Indulgences from the Usurper but holding their Ministry from Jesus Christ alone both as to the Office exercise thereof they had so much of their Masters Countenance success in their labours that they valued neither hazards nor hardships neither the contempt of pretended Friends nor the Laws nor threatnings of Enemies adjudging the penalty of death it self to Preachers at Field Conventicles as they called them Now having thus overturned the Church Government by introducing Prelacy to advance an absolute Supremacy the effects whereof were either the Corruption or Persecution of all the Ministrie Encouragment of profanity wickedness the enerease advancment of Popery Superstition Error cruel impositions on the Conscience and oppressions for Conscience sake by the practices of cruel Supra-Spanish Inquisitions and all manner of outcryes of outragious violence villany The King proceeds in his design to pervert evert the wel modelled moderated Constitution of the State Government also by introducing advancing an Arbitrary Tyranny the effects whereof were an absolute Mancipation of Lives Liberties and estates unto his lust pleasure the utter subversion of Lawes and absolute impoverishinâ—â— the people For effectuating which he first procâ—â— lasting Imposition of intollerable Subsidies Taxatiâ—â— to impoverish that he might the more easily enslave the Nation Next a further recognizance of his Prerogative in a subjection of persons fortunes whole strength of the Kingdom to his absolute arbitrement in a Levy of Militia of 20000 footmen 2000 horsemen sufficiently armed with 40 dayes provision to be ready upon the Kings call to march to any part of his Dominions for opposing whatsoever invasion or insurrection or for any other service The first sproutings of Tyrannie were cherished by the cheerfull stupid submission generally yeelded to these exorbitances under which they who suffered most were inwardly Malecontents but there was no opposition to them by word or Action but on the contrary generally people did not so much as scruple sending out or going out as Militia-men never adverting unto what this Concurrence was designed demanded and given for Nor what an accession it was in the nature influence of the mean it self and in the sense intention of the Requirers unto a Confederacy for a Complyance with and a Confirmation strengthening of Arbitrary Tyrannie After the fundamental constitutions of both Church State are thus razed rooted up to confirm this Absolute Power he contrived to frame all inferior Magistrats according to his mould And for this end appointed that all persons in any publick Trust or Office whatsoever should subscribe a Declaration renouncing abjuring the Covenants whereby Perjurie was made the chief indispensible qualification and Conditio sine qua non of all that were
for the honour of their Master and the freedom of their Ministrie Whereupon as many poor People were stumbled and jumbled into many confusions so that they were so bewildered bemisted in doubts debates that they knew not what to do and were tempted to question the Cause formerly so servently contended for against all opposition then so simply abandoned by these that seemed sometimes valiant for it when they saw them consulting more their oun ease than the Concerns of their Masters Glory or the necessity of the poor people hungering for the Gospel and standing in need of Counsel in time of such abounding snares whereby many became a prey to all tentations So the more zealous faithful after several Addresses Calls Invitations to Ministers finding themselves deserted by them judged themselves under a necessity to discountenance many of them whom formerly they followed with pleasure and to resolve upon a pursuit prosecution of the duty of the day without them and to provide themselves with faithful Ministers who would not shun for all hazards to declare the whole Counsel of God. And accordingly through the tender Mercy of God compassionating the exigence of the People the Lord sent them first Mr Richard Cameron with whom after his serious solicitation his Brethren denied their concurrence and then Mr Donald Cargil who with a zeal boldness becoming Christs Ambassadours maintained prosecuted the Testimony against all the Indignities done to their Master and wrongs to the Cause both by the encroachments of Adversaries and defections of their declining Brethren Wherein they were signally countenanced of their Master And the Lords Inheritance was again revived with the showres of the Gospels blessings wherewith they had been before refreshed and enlightened with a Glance Glimpse of resplendent brightness immediatly before the obscurity of this fearful night of darkness that hath succeeded But as Christ was then displaying His beauty to His poor despised persecuted People so Antichrist began to blaze his bravery in the solemn shameful reception of his harbinger that Pimp of the Romish whore the Duke of York Who had now pulled off the Mask under which he had long covered his Antichristian Bigotrie through a trick of his brother constrained by the Papists importunity and the necessity of their favour recruit of their Coyn either to declare himself Papist or to make his brother do it whereby all the locusts were engaged to his Interest with whom he entered into a Conspiracy and Popish Plot as was discovered by many infallible evidences and confessed by Coleman his Secretary to Sir Edmund-Bury Godfrey for which lest he should witness against him when Coleman was apprehended that Gentleman was cruelly murdered by the Duke of Yorks contrivance command Yet for all the demonstrations of his being a Bigot Papist that he had long given unto the world it is known what some suffered for saying that the Duke of York was a Papist and being forced to leave England he was come to Scotland to promots Poperie Arbitrary Government However thô the Parliament of England for his Poperie Villanie and his ploting pursuing the destruction of the Nation did vote his Exclusion yet degenerate Scotland did receive him in great pompe pride Against which the forementioned faithful witnesses of Christ did find themselves obliged to testify their just resentment and to protest against his succeeding to the Croun in their Declaration published at Sanquhair Iune 22. 1680. Wherein also they Disoune Charles Stewart as having any Right Title or Interest in the Croun of Scotland or Government thereof as being foreâ—aulted several years since by his perjurie breach of Covenant Usurpation on Christs Prerogatives and by his Tyranny breaches in the very Leges regnandi in matters Civil And declare a war with him and all the men of these practices homologating the Testimony at Rutherglen and disclaiming that declaration at Hamiltoun This Action was generally condemned by the body of lurking Ministers both for the matter of it and the unseasonableness of it and its apparent unfeasibleness being done by a handful so inconsiderable for number strength or significancy But as they had very great important reasons to disclaim that Tyrants Authority hinted in the Declaration it self and hereafter more fully vindicated so the necessity of a Testimony against all the Tyrannical Encroachments on Religion Liberty then current encreasing and the sin shame of shifting delaying it so long when the Blasphemous Supremacy was now advanced to its summity the Churches Priviledges all overturned Religion and the Work of Reformation trampled under foot the Peoples Rights Liberties destroyed and Lawes all subverted and no shadow of Government left but arbitrary Absoluteness obtruding the Tyrants will for Reason and his Letter for the Supreme Law witness the Answer which one of the Council gave to another objecting against their Proceedings as not according to Law what devil do ye talk of Law have not we the Kings Letter for it And all the ends of Magistracy wholly inverted while innocent honest People were grievously oppressed in their persons Consciences Estates And Perjuries Adulteries Idolatries and all impieties were not only connived at but countenanced as badges of Loyaltie and manifest monstrous Robbries Murders Authorized Judgement turned into gall and the fruit of Righteousness into hemlock do justify its Seasonableness And the ends of the Declaration to keep up the Standart of the Gospel and maintain the Work of Reformation and preserve a Remnant of faithful Adherers to it the nature of the Resolution declared being only to endeavour to make good maintain their Revolt in opposition to all who would pursue them for it and reinforce them to a subjection to that yoke of slaverie again and the extremity of danger distress that party was in while declared pursued as Rebells and intercommuned interdicted of all supplie solace being put out of their oun and by Law precluded of the harbour of all other habitations and so both for safety subsistence compelled by necessity to concur keep together may alleviate the Censure and stop the Clamour of its unfeasibleness But thô it is not the prudence of the managment but the justness of the Action that I would have vindicated from obliquies yet it wanted nothing but success to justify both in the conviction of many that made much outcry against it In these dangerous in his maintainance of the true Covenanted Religion which homage they cannot now require upon the account of the Covenant which they have renounced disclaimed and upon no other ground we are bound to them the Croun not being an inheritance that passeth from Father to son without the Consent of Tenants 3 Of the hope of their returning from these Courses Whereof there is none seeing they have so often declared their purposes of persevering ill thein And suppose they should dissemble a repentance
persons twice once to have their ears cut and be banished and after the lopping of their ears some have been re-examined and Sentenced to death and execute 23. They have Sentenced some and hanged them both in one day Others early in the morning both to surprize the persons that were to die and to prevent Spectators of the sight of their Cruelty Others have been kept in suspense till the very day hour of their execution 24. Not only have they murdered serious zealous Followers of Christ in taking away their Lives but endeavoured to murder their Names and to murder the Cause for which they suffered loading it with all Reproaches as Sedition Rebellion c. which was their peculiar Policy to bring the Heads of Sufferings to Points that are most obnoxious to mens Censure and accounted most extrinsick to Religion whereby they levelled their-designs against Religion not directly under that notion but obliquely in the destruction of its Professors under the odium reproach of enemies to Government 25. But chiefly they labour to murder the Soul defile the Conscience and only consult to cast a man doun from his excellency which is his integrity that is a Christians Croun and that they would rather rob him of as any thing either by hectoring or flattering him from the Testimony which they endeavour by proposing many offers with many threatenings in subtile termes And pretend a great deal of tenderness protesting they will be as tender of their blood as of their oun Soul which in some sense is true for they have none at all of their oun Souls and purging themselves as Pilate did and charging it upon their oun head 26. They will be very easie in their Accommodations where they find the poor man begining to faint and hearken to their overtures wherein they will grant him his life yeelding to him as cunning Anglers do with Fishes And to persuade him to some length in complying they will offer Conference sometimes or reasoning upon the Point to satisfie informe his Conscience as they pretend but really to catch him with their busked hook 27. If they have any hope of prevailing they will change a mans Prison and take him out from among the more strict fervent in the Cause that might sharpen strenghen his zeal and put him in among the more cool remiss 28. Sometimes they used to stage several together whereof they knew some would Comply to Tantalize the rest with the sight of the others Liberty and make them byte the more eagerly at their bait to catch the Conscience But when they had done all they could Christ had many Witnesses who did retain the Croun of their Testimony in the smallest Points till they obtained the Croun of Martyrdom and attained to the Croun of Glory Speaking boldly to them without fear or shame and disdaining their flattering Proposals but looking on them under a right notion as stated there in opposition to Christ whereby they found this Advantage that hence they were restrained from all sinful tampering with them or intertaining any discourse with them but what was suitable to speak to Christs enemies or doing any thing to save their life but what became Christs Witnesses who loved not their lives unto the death Of whom universally this was observed that to the Admiration of all the Conviction of many enemies the Confirmation of many friends the Establishment of the Cause and the Glory of their Redeemeâ— they went off the stage with so much of the Lords Counâ—enance so much Assurance of Pardon Eternal Peace so much hope of the Lords returning to Revive His Work and Plead His Cause again in these Lands that never any suffered with more meekness humility composure of Spirit and with more faithfulness stedfastness resolution than these Worthies did for these despised reproached Truths for which their surviving Brethren are now Contending Suffering while others are at ease PART III. THE PRESENT TESTIMONY Stated and Vindicated in its Principal Heads BY what is above premitted the Reader may see the Series Succession of the Testimony of Christs Witnesses in Scotland from time to time in all the Periods of that Church how it hath been transmitted from one generation to another Doun to our hands how far it hath been extended and what Increments it hath received in every Period how it hath been opposed by a Continued Prosecution of an hereditary War against Christ by an Atheistical Papistical Prelatical and Tyrannical faction and how it hath been concerted contended for maintained sealed actively passively by an Anti-pagan Anti-Popish Anti-Prelatical Anti-Erastian Anti-Sectarian and Anti-Tyrannical Remnant of the Followers Professors Confessors Martyrs of Christ in all Ages Now it remains in the third last Place to consider the Merit of the Cause as it is now Stated to see whether it will bear the weight of those great Sufferings wherewith it hath been sealed I hope all the Lovers of Christ who have an esteeâ— â—ven of His reproaches above all the Treasures of Egypt will grant that if these sufferings be Stated on the least or lowest of the Truths of Christs then they are not Misstated noâ— built upon a bottom that will not bear them or is not of that worth to sustain them For Certainly every Truth the least of Truths is of greater value than any thing that we can suffer the loss of for it yea of infinitely greater value than the whole world So that if I prove these Heads of Suffering to be Truths wherein Conscience is concerned the Cause will be sufficiently vindicated from the loadings lashings of such as prefer Peace to Truth ease to dutie who to Justify their oun backwardness detastable lukwarmness call some of them only State questions about things Civil and not Gospel-Truths and Heads to State suffering upon And if they be Truths Duties the Cause will some way be rendered more Illustrious that it is Stated upon the smallest hoofs hair-breadths of the Concerns of Christs Declarative Glory as being a greater witness of its Ouners Love Loyalty to Christ and of their pure tender zeal for His honour than if for more substantial fundamental Truths which a Natural Conscience may reclaim to Decline when for the meanest Circumstantials of Christs Truths they dare are ambitious to bestow their dearest blood But if the Complexe of them be impartially Considered no unprejudiced Arbiter will suffer himself to have such extenuating Impressions of the present Word of Patience Testimony of the suffering Remant in Scotland this day But it will appear to be a very weighty worthy Concern as any that either Men or Christians can be called to Witness for being the Priviledge of all mankind the Duty of all Christians and the Dignity of all Churches to assert It is for the Glory Croun Prerogatives and Imperial Regalia of the King of Kings with reference to His
all Power given to him in Heaven in Earth and all Authority even because He is the Son of man An Institute right by the Fathers Inauguration which hath set Him as King in Zion An Acquisite right by His oun Purchase by which He hath merited obtained not only Subjects to Govern but the Glory of the Sole Soveraignty over them in that relation a Name above every Name A Bellical right by Conquest making the People fall under Him and be willing in the day of His Power and overcoming those that make war with Him An Hereditary right by Proximity of blood Primogeniture being the first born higher then the Kings of the Earth and the first born from the dead that in all things He might have the Preeminence An Elective right by His Peoples choise surrender a Croun wherewith His Mother Crouned Him in the Day of His espousals In a humble recognizance of all which Rights we oune avouch that He hath that Incommunicable Prerogative of Sole Soveraignty over his Visible Kingdom as well as Invisible without a Copartner or Competitor either Coordinate or subordinate in Prescribing Lawes by no humane Authority to be reversed in appointing Ordinances immutable without addition or diminution for matter or manner instituting a Government which no man or Angel can without Blasphemy arrogate a Power either to invert or evert change or overturn And Constituting Officers which must depend only on His Authority and His alone and must be cloathed only with His Commission and His alone guided by His Instructions His alone Acting according to His Lawes Prescribed Platforme and His alone without any dependence on subordination to Licence warrand or Indulgence from any Mortal And therefore We disoune detest every thing that hath not the stamp of His Authority either in Doctrine Worship Discipline or Government And will discountenance Prelacy Supremacy Popery and all Corruption contrarie to His Institution who is Sole Supreme Lawgiver to the Conscience and will submit to or comply with nothing that may directly or indirectly signify our respect unto them Hence we will take none of their Oaths subscribe none of their bonds yeeld to none of their Impositions pay none of their Exactions Neither will we hear or receive Ordinances from any Minister but the faithful Authorized Ambassadours of Christ our King whatever either rage or reproach we suffer for it We assert affirm also that our Exalted Prince is King of the whole world by whom Kings reign Princes Decree Justice as His Ministers of Justice in subordination to Him whom He hath appointed to rule over us with just boundaries that they may not exceed and true Characters by which we should know them pay them deference And therefore who soever shall arrogate to themselves and extend their power beyond above His prescripts being neither called to nor qualified for nor improving the Office for the ends He hath appointed We will acknowledge them no otherwise than Usurping Tyrants not Magistrats nor Ministers of Justice to whom He hath given the Sword by His preceptive Will only as Lyons Bears Wolves to whom he hath given a rod by His providential Will In that case we may be passively subject when we cannot do better but will never oune Consciencious Allegiance to them nor oune them as our Lawful Magistrars And therefore we will not bow to their Idols they have set up nor prostitute either Conscience or Liberty to their Lust But will endeavour under our Masters Banner Conduct to preserve whatever he hath intrusted to us Religion Life Liberty Estate And whatsoever the Lord our God hath given us to possess As they unjustly possess what their God gives them And will maintain a war of constant opposition to them against whom our Lord hath declared a war for ever without parly Treaty of peace Capitulation Composition Truce or any Transaction we will neither Medle nor make with them less or more nor seek their favour nor embrace it when it is offered on any termes that may imply any obligation to surcease from our duty to our King and irreconcileable opposition to them c. Now I shall come more Distinctly to the purpose in offering a short vindication of the Heads Grounds of our great sufferings Dividing them into their principal parts which I reduce to two viz Negatives Positives The Negative Grounds I reckon three principally 1. For Refusing to acknowledge a Corrupt Ministrie 2. For Refusing to oune a Tyrannical Magistracy 3. For Refusing to Swear subscribe their unlawful imposed Oaths Chiefly that of Abjuration which was the occasion of suffering unto death The positive Grounds are also three 1. For frequenting field-meetings to receive Gospel-Ordinancs from faithful Ministers 2. For maintaining the principle practice of Defensive Resistence of Superior powers 3. For maintaining the priviledge Duty of offensive revenge in executing Justice upon Murdering Enemies of Mankind in cases of extreme necessity In prosecuting which I shall intertexe some subordinate questions relating to their respective Heads and endeavour to discuss them briefly HEAD I. Where The Sufferings of many for Refusing to acknowledge a Corrupt Ministrie are Vindicated and the Question of Hearing Curats is cleared THis Question though it may seem nice and of no great Moment to Persons of Gallio's or Laodiceds temper indifferent Lukwarm dispositions consulting their oun more them the things of Christ which maks it pass without any enquiry with the most part of the world Yet to all who are truly tender in keeping a good Conscience free of the times Contagion to all who have the true Impression of the fear of God who is Iealous especially in the matters of his worship to all who have the true zeal of God eating them up in a just indignation at the indignities done to him in usurping the office corrupting the Administration of the Ministrie to all who truly Love the Gospel and put a due value on the Ordinances of Christ the Corruptions whereof this Question touches it will be accounted of great importance There are three Questions about the Duty of hearing the Word Concerning which the Lord Jesus gives us very weighty Cautions viz what we should hear Mark. 4. 24. how we should hear Luk. 8. 18. and whom we should hear The last of which though it be not so expressly Stated as the other two yet the Searcher of the Scriptures will find it as clearly Determined and as many Cautions to guard from erring in it as in any other Case And that the Concern of Conscience in it is very weighty And certain it is if there had been more advertency in this Point there would not have been such inconsideration and Licenciousness in the matter manner of hearing Nor would that itching humor Luxuriancy of lust in heaping up teachers to please the fancy have been so much encouraged to the great detriment of the Church disgrace of the
called in One Hope Professing One Lord Confessing One Faith sealed with One Baptisme Eph. 4. 3. c. And for Brethren to dwel together in Unity is good pleasant and like the precious Oyntment upon the head that ran doun upon Aarons beard Psal. 133. 1 2. A fragrant Oyntment indeed if it be composed aright of Gospel-simples according to Divine art and the Wisdom that is from above which is first pure then peacable and not made up of Adulterate Politicks that Union that hath the Spirit for its Author the Scripture for its Rule Peace for its bond beauty love for its Cement Faith for its foment Christ for its foundation and Truth holiness for its constant Companions cannot but be intensely desired enixely endeavoured and fervently followed by all the Professors of the Gospel of Peace Subjects of the Prince of Peace Which makes Division Schisme not only a great Miserie but a Grand sin But it must be in the way of Truth Duty and consistent with holiness the honour of Christ otherwise if it be in the way of Apostasie defection it is but a Confederacy Conspiracy against the Lord. And true Union can neither be attained nor retained nor recovered except the sinful Cause of Division Defection and the holy overruling Cause the Anger of the Lord be removed in turning to following him II. Thô there be not perfect Union but diversity both of judgements and practices in several Cases there may be Communion with a Church in its Ordinances and Ministrie As 1. We may have a Catholick Communion with all Christian Ministers Members of the Catholick Church considered as such holding the Head Christ and the foundation sure And so we may meet for Worship with all Devout men in every Nation under Heaven whether they be Parthians or Medes or Elamites or French or Dutch c. thô differing in Controversies of lesser moment not overturning that if they hold the Universal Testimony of the Gospel against the Common enemies thereof Iewes Turks or Pagans for there is neither Greek nor Iew if he be a Christian Christ is all and in all Col. 3. 11. But if they be Hereticks we can have no Communion with them 2. We may have a more special Communion with all Protestant Ministers Members of the Reformed Church considered as such more strictly and upon stricter conditions providing they hold not only the Universal of Christians but the General Testimony of Protestants against the Greater lesser Antichrists thô differing from us in some circumstantial points not Reformed and not contradictory unto the Protestant Testimony against Poperie all Heresie nor declining from their oun Reformation by Defection or Schisme And Consequently its Lawful to oune Communion with the Churches of the United Provinces and take Ordination from them thô they have some formes not allowable from which they were never Reformed because they are sound in the Protestant Testimony But with the Sectarians or Schismaticks or Apostates among them we cannot oune that special Communion 3. We may have a more Particular Communion upon yet stricter conditions with all our Covenanted Brethren Ministers Members of the Churches of Britain Ireland considered as such Providing they hold not only the Universal not only the more Special Protestant Testimony against the Greater lesser Antichrists but the Covenanted Testimony for the Reformation in Doctrine Worship Discipline Government against Poperie Prelacy Superstition Heresie Schisme Profanness according to the Covenant Thô differing from us in those Controversial points never Reformed and which were never the Word of Christs patience and do not overturn the Covenanted Testimony But with those that contradict counteract that we cannot oune that particular Communion 4. We may have yet a nearer Organical Communion upon stricter conditions still with all the Ministers Members of the National Church of Scotland constitute confederate under one Reformed Government according to the Rule of Christ providing they hold not only all the former Testimonies under the foresaid considerations but the Presbyterian Testimony as stated in the Ecclesiastical Constitutions and sworn to in the National Covenants Engagements of that Church founded upon the Word of God against Poperie Prelacy Erastianisme Sectarianisme Toleration Schisme Defection thô differing in some things from us never Reformed never considered in Ecclesiastical Judicatories never engaged against in our Covenants never Stated as the Word of patience and Matter of Testimony But with those that oppose suppress reproach and abandon this Testimony we cannot oune this Organical Communion in this broken State of the Church We may have yet a stricter Congregational Communion upon stricter conditions in and with the Ordinary or extraordinary Meetings or Societies of the Lords people for Gospel Ordinances with any Minister or Ministers duely truely admitted to that function according to Christs Appointment and the Call of the people whether in a fixed or unfixed relation provicing he holds the Testimony of Christ under all the former considerations and ounes and adheres unto the true received principles of the Church of Scotland in Doctrine Worship Discipline Government founded upon the written Word of God and whatsoever Declarations or Testimonies former or latter particular or more General are aggreable thereunto thô differing from us in some of the Integral not Essential parts of our Testimony against the Enemies of our Covenanted Reformation But with such as deny or decline from it by Schisme or Defection or Complyance with the enemies thereof we cannot oune this Congregational Communion in this broken State of the Church III. Thô there be many things in a Church to brangle lessen the Comfort of our Communion with it and the Ministrie thereof yet we may keep fellowship with a true Church thô in many things faultie and Corrupt as all Churches are in some measure in this Militant State. As the Church of Corinth had many corruptions in their practice yet no separation is enjoyned from it And the Lord did not require separation from the Churches of Pergaâ—â—â— Thyatira though they had many corruptions deficiencies in Discipline in a Toleration of Hereticks and would lay no other burden upon them but to hold fast what they had as Mr Durham shewes in his Comment on the Revel chap. 2. Lect. 6. Pag. 148 149. as also Chap. 18. Lect. 1. Pag. 585. in 4 to This must be granted especially in these cases 1. In the infant State of the Church when the Reformation is only begun then many things may be tolerated before they be gradually Reformed which in an adult State are not to be suffered 2. In a growing case of the Church advancing out of corruptions then many things may be born with while they are ascending wrestling up the hill which in a Declining State when the Church is going backward must not be yeelded unto See that Objection of hearing Prelatical men in the time of
is nothing seen but a fearful hardening in profanity ignorance Atheisme so that many that seemed to have somewhat like Religion before through hearing of them are turned loose laxe in all Duties yea never can it be instanced these 27 years that they have brought one soul to Christ from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God but many instances might be given of their murdering souls as indeed they can not be free of it who cannot warn nor declare the whole Counsel of God. Hence these who cannot but be soul-Murderers may not be heard nor intertained as Soul-Phisicians But the Curats cannot but be soul-Murderers Again we can expect no good from them but a great deal of hurt Seeing their Ministrie is not the Lords Ordrnance which He will approve and no performances can be acceptable unto the Lord which are not in manner as well as in matter aggreeable to His will hence the wickedness even of the Lords Lawful Priests not only caused the people to abhor the offerings of the Lord but even the Lord Himself to abhor His Sanctuary and to account their incense an abomination so that He could not away with the Calling of their Assemblies which yet upon the matter were duties Should not we then hate that which the Lord hates and withdraw from that which He hath forsaken But the Meetings of the Curats for Administration of Ordinances in their way the Lord hates and hath signally forsaken Therefore we should hate forsake them This is confirmed by what Mr Durham sayes in that digression about hearing Revel 1. pag. 55. in 4 to seeing edification is Gods gift can it be expected but in his way Or can that be accounted His way which He hath not warranted VII As we would not partake of their Judgment in countenancing of their Administration of Ordinances so we would keep our selves free from all participation of their sin For we must not be partakers with any in sin nor have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness that we must reprove and that we find the Lord reproves condemns Eph. 5. 7 11. And not only Ministers in ordaining but people in hearing may be in hazard of partaking of some mens sins who enter into the Ministry 1 Tim. 5. 22. we must keep at the greatest distance from sin Hence if we cannot hear the Curats without partaking of their sin then we must not hear them But we cannot hear the Curats without partaking of their sin Therefore we must not hear them The Minor I prove If hearing of them be a Tessera of our Incorporation with them â— Test of our Submission to them a badge of our compâ—yance with them and sign of our Approbation of them then we cannot hear them without partaking of their sin But hearing of them is such The Major cannot be denyed if Prelacy conformity therewith be sin as is in part proven above for if these be sins then we must not incorporate with nor submit to them nor comply with them nor approve them The Minor I prove by Parts 1. Hearing of Curats is a Tessera of our Incorporation with them For Communion in Sacred things doth infer an incorporation of the Communicants or Joiners in all cases both in Lawful unlawful Communions 1 Cor. 10. 17-20 All partakers of the bread are one body and they which eat of the Sacrificies are partakers of the Altar And also they that partake of the Sacrifice offered to Devils though they do not offer it so themselves yet they are incorporate and have fellowship with Devils And 2 Cor. 6. 14-17 where they that do not come out and are separate from unlawful Communions are expostulated with as making an unequally yoked fellowship between righteousness unrighteousness light darkness Christ Belial the Temple of God Idols Hence then if we cannot partake of their Sacred things without partaking of their Altar and becoming one body with them and making such an unequally yoked Mixture with them then we must be separate But the first is true from these places This Argument concludes with equal force against joyning with any deeply engaged in the gross defections of the time 2. Hearing of Curats is a Test of our Submission to them Complyance with them for so it is required by Law as the Acts themselves say that a chearful concurrence countenance assistence given to such Ministers and attending all the ordinary Meetings for divine worship is an evidence of a due ackowledgment of hearty complyance with his Maj. Government Ecclesiastical civil as now established by Law within this Kingdom Act of Parl. Iul. 10. 1663. And themselves look on all such as obey this Act as their friends Hence if this be sinful to submit to them and comply with their establishment in obedience to a sinful Act of Parliament then it is sinful to hear them But the former is true as hath been shown Ergo 3. Hence it followes by native consequence that hearing of Curats is a sign of our Approbation of them for he that gives that which is required accepted Interpreted as an evidence of a due acknowledgment of complyance with the Government Ecclesiastical gives the sign of his Approbation of it But the hearer of Curats does that in obedience to the Act requiring accepting expressly interpreting it so Therefore c. VIII As we would be free of their sin in approving of complying with their course so we must endeavour to stand at the greatest Distance from all appearance of sin in our selves either by commission or omission in which our Joining with them in these circumstances would involve us For we must astain from all appearance of evil 1 Thess. 5. 22. and from every thing that circumstances may make sinful for otherways suppose a thing might be materially Lawful not simply sinful yet circumstances may make it sinful and a countenancing it so circumstantiated doth infer a Communion in these Circumstances that make it sinful They that eat of the sacrifice are Partakers of the Altar and if the Altar be not of Gods Approbation the thing offered though otherwise Lawful to be eaten cannot justify the eaters so circumstantiated An Idol is nothing and that which is offered in Sacrifices to Idols is nothing yet they who eat of it when they know it is so circumstantiated have fellowship with Devils 1 Cor. 10. 18 19 20 21. And it is called Idolatry comp vers 14. which provokes the Lord to jealousie vers 22. Especially when an action is so circumstantiated that it would infer an omission of our Duty and a declining from or denying of our Testimony then it is clearly sinful For whosoever shall deny the Lord before men him will He deny before His Father Math. 10. 33. And we must hold fasâ— the Profession of our faith without wavering Heb. 10. 23. and keep the word of His patience if we would be kept in the
hour of tentation and hold it fast that no man take our Croun Rev. 3. 10 11. All Truth must be avowed practically avowed on the greatest hazard And as this Testimony must be full so must it be also constant It was Demass shame that the afflictions of the Gospel made him forsake the Apostle after great appearances for Christ And therefore whatever Truth or Duty is opposed that becomes the special object of this Testimony Rectius Instruend Consut 3. Dial. chap. 1. pag. 18. 19. Hence if Hearing of the Curats would infer involve us under the guilt both of commission of sin and omission os Duty then we cannot hear them without sin But the former is true Therefore also the Latter I prove the Minor by Parts First that it would infer involve us under the guilt of Commisssion of sin All that is said above doth evince it And besides palpable breach of Covenant hereafter to be charged cleared And Idolatrie is a great sin of that naâ—ur but the hearing of the Curats doth infer this Which may be made out thus The breach of the sceond Commandment is Idolatrie for to make the sins against that Command odious they are all commprehended under that odious name of worshipping Images as the sins against the seventh are called Adultrie comprehending all unchast thoughts words actions Hearing of Curats is a breach of the second Command Ergo The Minor I prove thus Every worship not according to Christs appointment is a breach of the second Commandment But hearing of Curats is a worship not according to Christs appointment Which I prove thus A worship enjoined by and performed in obedience to a Law establishing a humane Ordinance in the Church besides and against the Institution of Christ is a worship not according to Christs appointment But the hearing of Curats is a worship enjoined by and performed in obedience to a Law establishing a humane Ordinance to wit Diocesan Erastian Prelacy with the Curats their substitutes Hence also the second doth follow by necessary consequence that it would infer involve us under the guilt of Omission of Duty For first if reductively it may involve us under the guilt of Idolatrie breach of the second Commandment then it will infer the guilt of omission of these necessary Duties incumbent to the Lords people with a reference to Idolatry to make no Covenant with them nor with their Gods nor let them dwell in the Land lest they make us sin Exod. 23. 32 33 Exod. 34. 14 15. to overthrow their Altars break their Pillars and destroy the names of them out of the place Deut. 12. 3. Iudg 2. 2. I do not adduce these precepts to stretch them to the full measure of the demerit of the grossest of Idolaters for as there are degrees of breaches or the Commandment some grosser some smaller so there are also degrees of punishment and as to the manner of destroying extirpating all pieces of Idolatry But that the Commands being founded upon a Moral ground lest they 〈◊〉 snares unto us do oblige us to some endeavour 〈…〉 extirpating overthrowing all Pieces or 〈◊〉 according to the word and our Covenants And 〈…〉 true right Zeal of God should and would not only inspire all with an unanimous aversion against the profane intruding Curats but animate us as one man to drive away these wolves theives and to eradicate these plants which our heavenly Father never planted Napht. Prior edit pag. 108. The least Duty that can be inferred is that of the Apostles flee from Idolatry 1 Co 10. 14. which Idolatry there mentioned to be avoided is to eat of the sacrifices offered to Idols whence we infer that if to eat of things consecrated to Idols be Idolatrie then also to partake of Sacred things consecrated by Idols must be Idolatry as the Curats dispensing of Ordinances is consecrated by hath all its Sanction from an Iâ—ol of Diocesan Erastian Prelacy But we see the Apostle expresses the former Therefore we may infer the Latter Further it will also infer a declining from denying a Necessary Testimony in the case circumstantiated Even the smallest matter is great when a Testimony is concerned in it were it but the circumstance of an open window Daniel durst not omitt it upon the greatest hazard And now this is clearly come to a case of confession when there is no other way to exoner our consciences befor God the world and declare our Non-conformity to this course of backsliding no getting of wrongs redrest or corruptions in the Ministry removed but by this practice And certainly some way we must give publick Testimony against these courses and there is no otherway so harmless innocent as this though suffering follow upon it Apol. Relat. Sect. 14. 272. 273. And now there is no other way apparent whereby the difference shall be kept up betuixt such as honestly mind the Covenanted work of Reformation and the corrupt Prelatical Malignant Enemies but this Argument also will infer the expediency of withdrawing from all Ministers with whom our circumstantiat Joyning would involve us in a participation with their defections IX As we would endeavour to avoid Sin in our selves So we must have a care to give no occasion of others sinning by our taking Liberty in a promiscuous Joining in Church Communion whereby we may offend stumble the consciences of others for to that in this as well as in other things we must have a special respect and forbear things not only for our oun unclearness but for the sake of others also If therefore the Hearing of Curats be a Scandal we must refuse it be the hazard what will. For who so shall offend one of Christs little ones it were better for him that a milstone were hanged about his neck Math. 18. 6. No man must put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brothers way Rom. 14. 13. They that sin so against the brethren and wound their weak Conscience they sin against Christ 1 Cor. 8. 12. we must forbear somthings for conscience sake conscience I say not our oun but of others giving none offence neither to the Iewes nor to the Gentiles nor to the Church of God 1. Cor. 10. 28 29 32. and so cut off all occasion from them that desire occasion 2 Cor. 11. 12. These Commands discharge whatever Practice give occasion of our brothers sinning of calling Truth in question of acting with a doubting conscience or which weakens his Plerophory or assurance And neither the Lawfulness nor indifferency of the thing it self nor mens Authority commanding it nor the weakness yea or wickedness of those in hazard to be stumbled will warrand the doing of that out of which offence arises Rectius Instruend Confut. 3. Dial. chap. 1. pag. 19. Mr Durham in that forecited place saith It carries offence along with it in reference to the partie who runs unsent it proves a strengthening
questions to be answered when impertinently interrogate but may be both Cautiously Conscienciously waved We have Christs oun practice his faithful servant Pauls example for a Pattern of such prudence Christian caution But yet it were cruel unchristian rigour to censure such as out of a pious principle of zeal to God conscience of duty do freely positively declare their judgment in an absolute disouning of their pretended Authority when posed with such Questions though to the manifest detriment of their lives they Conscienciously looking upon it as a case of confession For where the Lord hath not peremptorily astricted His Confessors to such rules of prudence but hath both promised and usually gives His Spirits Conduct encouraging animating them to boldness so as before hand they should not take thought how or what they shall speak and in that same hour they find it given them it were presumption for us to stint them to our rules of prudence We may indeed find rules to know what is a case of confession but hardly can it be determined what Truth or duty we are questioned about is not or may not be a case of confession And who can deny but this may be in some circumstances a case of confession even Positively to disoune the pretended Authority of a bloody Court or Council when either they go out of their Sphere taking upon them Christs Supremacy and the Cognizance of the concerns of His Croun whereof they are Judges no ways Competent then they must freely faithfully be declined Or when to the dishonour of Christ they blaspheme His Authority and the Sacred boundaries He hath prescribed to all humane Authority and will assert an illimited absolute Authority refusing discharging all offered Legal Scriptural restrictions to be put thereupon as hath been the case of the most part of these worthy though poor Martyrs who have died upon this head then they must think themselves bound to disoune it Or when they have done some cruel indignity despight to the Spirit of God and to Christ His prerogative Glory and work of Reformation and people in murdering them without Mercy and imposing this ouning of their King by whose Authority all is acted as a condemnation of these witnesses of Christ their Testimony and a justification of their bloody cruelties against them which hath frequently been the case of these poor people that have been staged upon this account In this case and several others of this sort that might be mentioned then they may be free Positive in disouning this Test of wicked Loyaltie as the mark of the Dragon of the secular beast of Tyranny And in many such cases when the Lord gives the Spirit I see no reason but that Christs witnesses must follow His Pattern of zeal in the case of confession which He witnessed before Pontius Pilate in asserting His oun Kingship as they may in other cases follow His Pattern of Prudence And why may we not imitate the zeal of Stephen who called the Council before whom he was staged stiff necked resisters of the Holy Ghost Persecuters of the Prophets and betrayers Murderers of Christ the Just one as well as the Prudence of Paul But however it be the present Testimony against this pretended Authority Lies in the Negative which obliges alwayes semper ad semper that is to say we plead that it must never be Ouned There is a great difference between a Positive disouning and a not Ouning though the first be not alwayes necessary the Latter is the Testimony of the day and a negative case of confession which is allwise clearer than the Positive Though we must not allwise confess every Truth yet we must never deny any 3. It is confessed we are under this sad disadvantage besides others that not only all our Brethren groaning under the same yoke with us will not take the same way of declining this pretended Authority nor adventure when called to declare their judgment about it which we do not condemn as is said and would expect from the rules of equity charity they will not condemn us when we find our selves in conscience bound to use greater freedom But also some when they do declare their judgment give it in termes condemnatory of contradictory unto our Testimony in that they have freedom positively to oune this Tyranny as Authority and the Tyrant as their Lawful Soveraign And many of our Ministers also are of the same mind And further as we have few expressly asserting our part of the debate as it is now stated so we have many famous learned divines expressly against us in this point as especially we find in their Comments upon Rom. 13. among whom I cannot dissemble my sorrow to find the great Calvin saying saepe solent inquirere c. men often inquire by what right they have obtained their power who have the rule It should be enough to us that they do govern for they have not ascended to this eminency by their oun power but are imposed by the hand of the Lord. As also Pareus saying too much against us For answer to this I refer to Mr Knox his reply to Lithingtoun producing several Testimonies of Divines against him upon this very same head wherein he shewes that the occasions of their Discourses Circumstances wherein they were stated were very far different from those that have to do with Tyrants Usurpers as indeed they that are most concerned and smart most under their scourge are in best case to speak to the purpose I shall only say Mens averment in a Case of Conscience is not an oracle when we look upon it with an impartial eye in the case wherein we are not prepossessedâ— it will bear no other value than what is allayed with the imperfections of fallibility and moreover is contradicted by some others whose Testimony will help us as much to confirm our persuasion as others will hurt us to infirm it 4. But now when Tyrants go for Magistrats lest my plea against ouning Tyranny should be mistaken as if it were a pleading for Anarchy I must assert that I and all those I am vindicating are for Magistracy as being of divine Original institute for the common good of humane Christian Societies whereunto every soul must be subject of whatsoever quality or Character and not only for wrath but also for conscience sake though as to our soul conscience we are not subject which whosoever resisteth resisteth the ordinance of God and against which Rebellion is a damnable sin Whereunto according to the fifth Commandment and the many reiterated exhortations of the Apostles we must be subject and obey Magistrates and submit ourselves to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be unto the King as Supreme c. And we account it a hateful brand of them that walk after the flesh to despise Government to be presumptuous self willed and not afrayed
briefly plainly We do not usuâ—p a judgment in the case pretending no more Authority over them in our private Capacity than we allow them to have over us that is none at all Nor can we admit that they should be both Judges party for then they might challenge that prerogative in every case and strengthen themselves in an incontrollable immunity impunity to do what they pleased But we appeal to the fundamental Lawes of the Kingdom aggreeable to the word of God to Judge and to the whole world of impartial Spectators to read pronounce the judgment Lâ—x Rex Quest. 24. Pag. 213. sayeth in answer to this There is a Court of Necessity no less than a Court of Justice And the fundamental Lawes must then speak and it is with the people in this extremity as if they had no ruler And as to the doubtsomness of these Lawes he sayeth 1 As the Scriptures in all fundamentals are clear expone themselves actu primo condemn Heresies So all Lawes of men in their fundamentals which are the Law of Nature Nations are clear 2 Tyranny is more visible intelligible than Heresie and it s soon discerned The people have a Natural Throne of Policy in their conscience to give warning materially sentence against the King as a Tyrant where Tyranny is more obscure and the thread smal that it escape the eye of man the King keepeth Possession but I deny that Tyranny can be obscure long 7. I shall grant that many things are yeeldable even to a Grassant Dominator Tyrannical Occupant of the place of Magistracy as 1. There may be some cases wherein its Lawful for a people to yeeld subjection to a Lawless Tyrant when groaning under his overpouring yoke under which they must patiently bear the inâ—â—â—nation of the Lord because they have sinned against Him until He arise plead His oun Cause execute judgment in the earth Mic. 7. 9. until which time they must kiss the rod as in the hand of God and oune adore the holyness Soveraignty of that Providence that hath subjected them under such a slavery and are not to attempt a violent ejection or excussion when either the thing attempted is altogether impracticable or the means manner of effectuating it dubious unwarrantable or the necessary Concomitants consequents of the cure more hurtful or dangerous than the disease or the like As in many cases also a man may be subject to a robber prevailing against him So we find the people of Israel in Egyt Babylon c. yeelded subjection to Tyrants But in this case we deny two things to them 1 Allegiance or active voluntary subjection so as to oune them for Magistrats 2 Stupid Passive obedience or suffering without resistence For the first we owe it only to Magistrats by virtue of the Law either Ordinative of God or Constitutive of man. And it is no Argument to infer as a mans subjecting himself to a Robber assaulting him is no soild proof of his approving or acknowledging the injury violence committed by the robber therefore a Persons yeelding subjection to a Tyrant a Publick robber does not argue his acknowledging or approving his Tyranny oppression For the subjection that a Tyrant requires and which a Robber requires is not of the same nature the one is Legal of subjects which we cannot oune to a Tyrant the other is forced of the subdued which we must acknowledge to a Robber But to make the Paralell If the Robber should demand in our subjecting our selves to him an ouning of him to be no robber but an honest man as the Tyrant demands in our subjecting our selves to him in ouning him to be no Tyrant but a Magistrate then we ought not to yeeld it to the one no more than to the other For the Second to allow them Passive obedience is in-intelligible Non-sense a meer Contradiction for nothing that 's meerly passive can be obedience as relative to a Law nor can any obedience be meerly passive for obedience is always active But not only is the inaccuracy of the Phrase excepted against but also that position maintained by many that in reference to a yoke of Tyranny there is a time which may be called the proper season of suffering that is when suffering in opposition to acting or resisting is a necessary indispensible duty and resisting is a sin For if the one be an indispensible duty the other must be a sin at the same time But this cannot be admitted For though certainly there is such a season of suffering wherein suffering is Lawful laudable necessary and all must lay their account with suffering and litle else can be attempted but which will encrease sufferings yet even then we may resist as well as we can and these two Resistence Suffering at the same time are not incompatible David did bear most patiently the injury of his Sons usurpation when he said let the Lord do to me as seemeth Him good 2 Sam. 15. 26. ch 10. 12. and betaketh himself to fervent prayers Psal. 3. and yet these were not all the weapons he used against him Neither did he ever oune him as a Magistrate We are to suffer all things patiently as the Servants of the Lord and look to Him for Mercy relief Psal. 123. 2. but we are not obliged to suffer even in that season as the slaves of men Again suffering in opposition to resistence does never fall under any moral Law of God execept in the absolutely extraordinary Case of Christs passive obedience which cannot fall under our deliberation or imitation Or in the case of a positive Law as was given to the Iewes to submit to Nebuchadnezzar which was express peculiar to them as shall be cleared That can never be commanded as indispensible duty which does not fall under our free will or deliberation but the enemies will as the Lord permits them as the Case of suffering is That can never be indispensible duty which we may decline without sin as we may do suffering if we have not a call to it yea in that case it were sin to suffer therefore in no case it can be formally indispensibly commanded so as we may not shift it if we can without sin Suffering simply the evil of punishment just or unjust can never be a conformity to Gods preceptive Will but only to His Providential disposal it hath not voluntas signi for its rule but only voluntas beneplaciti All the Commands that we have for suffering are either to direct the manner of it that it be Patiently Chearfully when forced to it wrongfully 1 Pet. 2. 19 20. or Comparatively to determine our choise in an unavoidable alternative either to suffer or sin and so we are commanded rather to suffer than to deny Christ Math. 13. 33. and we are commanded upon these termes to follow Christ to take up His Cross when He layes
it on in His Providence Math. 16. 24. See at length this cleared Lex rex Q. 30. Pag. 317-320 otherwise in no case subjection even Passive can be a duty for it is allwise to be considered under the notion of a plague Judgment Curse to be complained of as a burden never to be ouned as a duty to Magistrats As we find the Lords people resenting it as a servitude under which they were servants even in their oun Land which did yeeld increase unto the Kings whom the Lord had set over them because of their sins Neh. 9. 36. 37. 2. In diverse cases there may be some Complyance with a meer occupant that hath no right to reign as upon this account the Noble Marquis of Argyle and Lord waristoun suffered for their Complyance with the Usurper Cromuel Such may be the warrantableness or goodness or necessity or profitableness of a Complyance when people are by Providence brought under a yoke which they cannot shake off that they may part with some of their Priviledges for the avoidance of the loss of the rest and for the conveniency profit peace safety of themselves and their Countrey which would be in hazard if they did not comply they may do whatsoever is due from them to the Publick weal what soever is an office of their station or place or which they have any other way a call unto whatsoever may make for their oun honest interest without wronging others or the Countries Liberties in their transactions with these Powers even though such a Complyance may be occasionally to the advantage of the Usurpers Seeing good necessary actions are not to be declined for the ill effects that are accidental to them and arise from the use which others make of them But though this may be yeelded in some cases to such Usurpers especially Conquerers that have no right of occupying the empire but are Capable of it by derivation from the peoples consent yet it must not be extended to such Usurpers as are also Tyrants that have no right of their oun nor are capable of any and that overturn all rights of subjects To such we can yeeld no Complyance as may infer either transacting with them or ouning them as Magistrates We find indeed the Saints enjoyed Places under these who were not their Magistrates as Nehemiah Mordecai and Esther was Queen to Ahaswerus But here was no Complyance with Tyrants for these Heathens were not such only some of them were extraordinary Persons raised up by an extraordinary spirit for extraordinary ends in extraordinary times that cannot be brought to an ordinary rule as Esthers Mariage and all of them in their places kept the Law of their God served the work of their generation defiled not themselves with their Customes acted against no good and engaged to no evil but by their Complyance promoted the wellfare of their Countrey as Argyle waristoun did under Cromuel Again we find they payed Custom to them as Neh. 9. 36. 37. and we read of Augustus his taxation universally complyed with Luk. 2. 1-5 and Christ payd it This shall be more fully answered afterwards Here I shall only say 1 It can never be proven that these were Tyrants 2 Christ Paid it with such a Caution as Leaves the title unstated not for conscience as tribute must be paid to Magistrats Rom. 13. 5 6. but only that he might not offend them 3 Any other instances of the Saints taxations are to be judged forced acts badges of their bondage which if they had been exacted as tests of their allegiance they would not have yeelded Strangers also that are not subjects use to pay Custom in their trafficquing but not as tests of their allegiance 3. There may be also in some cases obedience allowed to their Lawful Commands because of the Lawfulness of the thing commanded or the coincidency of another Just obliging Authority commanding the same We may do many things Tyranno Iubente which he commands and Tyranno premente which he enforces and many things also ipso sou volente seu nolente whether he will or not But we must do nothing Tyranni jussu upon the consideration of his Command in the acknowledgment of obedience due by virtue of Allegiance which we oune of Conscience to a Lawful Magistrate We must do nothing which may seem to have an accessoriness to the Tyrants unlawful occupancy or which depends only on the warrant of his Authority to do it or may entrench on the Divine Institution of Magistracy or bring us into a Participation of the Usurpers sin In these cases we can neither yeeld obedience in Lawful things nor in unlawful Nor can we oune absolute subjection no more then we can oune absolute obedience for all subjection is enjoined in order to obedience And to plead for a Priviledge in point of obedience and to disclaim it in point of subjection is only the flattery of such as having renounced with conscience all distinction of obedience would divest others of all priviledges that they may exercise their Tyranny without Controll Napthali pag. 28. prior edit 4. There may be Addresses made to such as are not rightful Possessors of the Government for justice or mercy or redress of some intollerable grievances without scruple of accepting that which is materially justice or mercy or seeking them at the hand of any who may reach them out to us though he that conveyes them to us be not interested in the umpirage of them Thus we find Ieremiah supplicated Zedekiah for mercy not to return to prison and Paul appealed to Cesar for justice But in these Addresses we may not acknowledge the wicked Lawes that brought on these grivances nor conceal the wickedness no more than the miserie of them which we have endured nor may we oune the Legal power of them that we address to take them off nor signify any thing in the matter or manner of our Representations that may either import a declining our Testimony for which we have suffered these grievances or a contradiction to our declinature of their pretended Authority Only we may remonstrate what cruelties we have endured and how terrible it will be to them to be guilty of or accessory to our blood in not pitying us which was all that Ieremiah did And as for Pauls appeal we find he was threatened to be murdered by his Countrey-men Act. 23. 14. from whose hands he was rescued brought before the judicatory of Festus the Roman deputy not voluntarely thence also they sought to remand him to Ierusalem that they might kill him Act. 25. 3. whereupon he demands in justice that he might not be delivered to his accusers Murderers but claims the benefite of the Heathens oun Law by that appeal to Cesar. which was the only constrained expedient of saving his oun life Act. 28. 19. by which also he got an opportunity to witness for Christ at Rome But as shall be cleared further afterwards Cesar
the more vigour without suspending it upon their precedency For now they can pretend to no precedency when they do not answer the end of their erection and do not seek the publick good but their oun private advantage they cease to be the Ministers of God of the people and become private persons And reason will conclude that when the Ephori or Trustees betray their Trust and sell or basely give away the Liberties Priviledges of the people which they were entrusted with the people cannot be brought into a remediless condition if a Tutor waste destroy the pupills estate the Law provides a remedy for the pupil Ius popu vind cap. 15. pag. 335. 336. The remedy in this case can only be as every one must move in his oun sphere while all concur in the same duty So if any in higher place become not only remiss but according to the influence of their power would seduce others into their Apostasie it is their duty to resist endeavour their Reformation or removal And if these more eminently entrusted shall turn directly Apostates obstructive destructive to common Inteâ—â—â—â— the people of an inferior degree may step forward to occupy the places assert the Interests which they forefault desert Neither is this a breach of good order for Ordor is only a mean subordinate to intended for the Glory of God the peoples good and the regulation thereof must only be admitted as it is conducible not repugnant to these ends A Generals command to his souldiers in battel does not impede the necessity of succession in case of vacancy of any charge either through death or desertion even of such as in quality may be far inferior to those whose places they step into Naph Pag. 151. Prior Edition I do not assert this for private peoples aspiring into the Capacity of Primores or Peers but that they may do that which the Peers desert and dare not or will not do if the Lord put them in a Capacity to do it And more plainly I assert that if the Peers of the Land whose duty it is principally to restrain repress Tyranny either connive at it or concur with it and so abandon or betray their Trust then the Common people may do it at least are obliged to renounce reject disoune allegiance to the Tyrant without the peers For which I offer these reasons 1. Because all men have as much freedom Liberty by nature as Peers have being no more slaves than they because slavery is a penal evil contrare to nature and a miserie consequent of sin and every man created according to Gods image is res Sacrâ— a Sacred thing And also no more subjects to Kings c. than they freedom being natural to all except freedom from subjection to Parents which is a Moral duty most kindly natural and subjection of the wife to the husband c. but otherwise as to Civil Politick subjection man by nature is born as free as beasts No Lyon is born King of Lyons nor no man born King of men nor Lord of men nor Representative of men nor Rulers of men either supreme or subordinate because none by nature can have those things that essentially constitute Rulers the calling of God nor gifts and qualifications for it nor the election of the People 2. The original of all that power that the 〈◊〉 or Representatives can claim is from the people not from themselves from whence derived they their being Representatives but from the peoples Commission or Compact when at the first constitâ—tion of Parliaments or publick Conventions for affairs of State necessity put the people who could not so conveniently meet all to confer that honour burden upon the best qualified who had chief Interest by Delegation Hence if the people give such a power they may wave it when perverted and act without their oun impowered Servants 3. The peoples power is greater than the power of any delegated or constituted by them the Cause is more than the effect Parliament-men do represent the people the people do no not represent the Parliament They are as Tutors Curators unto the people and in effect their servants deputed to oversee their publick affairs therefore if their power be less the people can act without them 4. It were irrational to imagine the people committing the administration of their weighty affairs unto them did denude themselves of all their radical power or that they can devolve upon them or they obtain any other power but what is for the good advantage of the people therefore they have power to act without them in things which they never resigned to them for they cannot be deprived of that natural aptitude natures birth right given to them by God Nature to provide the most efficacious prevalent means for the preservation of their Rights Liberties 5. As the people have had power before they made Peers and have done much without them So these Primores could never do without them therefore in acts of common Interest the Peers depend more upon the people than the people does upon them 6. All these primeve rights that gave rise to Societies are equal to both People Peers whereof the Liberty to repress reject Tyranny is a chief one The People as well as Peers have a hard in making the King and other Judges also as is clear from Deut. 17. 14. Iudg. 9. 6. 1 Sam. 11. 15. 2 King. 14. 21. therefore they may unmake them as well as they To seek to preserve the ends of Government when they are over-turned is essentially requisite to all Societies and therefore common competent to all Constituents of these Societies Superiours or inferiours The Glory of God Security of Religion the end of all Christian Government doth concern all equally As every one equally is bound to obey God rather than man so violence in this case destroyes both the Commonwealth maketh the end the means of Government and the injured persons obligation thereto to cease and this equally to every man of Private or publick Capacity In the Concern of Religion at least We must not think because we are not Nobles or in Authority that the care of it or Reformation thereof does nothing pertain to us Nay in that and carrying on the work thereof there is an equality As in the erection of the Old Testament Tabernacle all the people were to contribute a like half a shekel Exod. 30. that it might be for a rememberance before the Lord. Hence it followes if we disoune the Supreme Ruler and the inferior confederate with him and cannot have the Concurrence of others Now through the manifest notorious Perversion of the great ends of Societie Government the bond thereof being dissolved we Liberated there-from do relapse into our Primeve Liberty Priviledge and accordingly as the similitude of our Case exigence of our
Government none of the Community having any legal Claim to Soveraignity more than the rest When therfore they were forced to conclude upon Association for their Mutual Preservation they must be thought to act rationally and not to make their condition worse but rather better by that conclusion and if they found it worse to resume their radical Right which they had conferred upon men subject to Law not to Tyrannize over them And in this case certainly they had the power of choosing what Kind of Government suited most to their advantage and would best preserve their Liberties and how far this should be extended and who should be assumed into this Combination still with a reservation of the Priviledge to their oun safety if their Associates should not do their duty And so they might also reserve to themselves a Liberty to alter the forme when they found it productive of more prejudice than advantage and never to leave their condition remedieless And to pitch upon this way of succession and not another the way of free election of every successor or of definite election limited to one line or to the nearest in line And e contra with a reserve still of their primeve Priviledges to secure themselves from the inconveniences of that determination or to change it And to make choise of such a family line and not another and whether the eldest alwise of that family or the fittest is to be chosen And however it be yet still by the peoples consent And in all this to have respect to some good great Necessary Ends which if they should be disappointed of and find these means useless or destructive to they were to be loosed from their obligation to use or to oune them See Ius populi vindicat ch 5. pag. 80. c. 2. If we consider how Nature determines the peoples Interest in the constitution of Governours whence comes it that this man and not that man this race family and not that is invested with that Title It will be found there is no Title on earth now to the Crowns to families to persons but the peoples suffrage for the Institution of Magistracy in general does not make Iames Stewart a King no more than Iohn Chamberlain Neither do qualifications make one otherwise there might be many better than is this day extant for there are many men better qualified And there is no Prophetical or immediate Callings to Kingdoms now And as for Conquest without consent and having no more for a Title it is no better than Royal Latrocinie It is certain God would not Command us to obey Kings and leave us in the Dark that we should not know him that hath a reall call to 〈◊〉 And if he have not the peoples Call where shall we find another It remains therefore they must have it from the people who have it to give Radically virtually having a power to preserve themselves and to put it in the hands of one or more Rulers that they may preserve themselves by them All men are born alike as to Civil power no man being born with a Croun on his head and yet men united in Society may give it to this man not to that man therefore they must have it virtually for they can not give what they have not And as Cities have power to choose their Magistrats so many Cities have power to creat an Universal Ruler over them all The people also have power to Limit the Magistrats power with conditions so that the present Ruler shall not have so much prerogative as his predecessor as Royalists cannot deny therefore they must have given that power which they can Limit See Lex Rex Quest. 4. pag. 10. c. Secondly the Scripture also gives Light in this particular 1. In giving directions Rules about their Orderly calling their Governours Impowering them to take wise men understanding known among their tribes to be made Rulers Dâ—ut 1. 13. To make Judges Officers in all their gates Deut. 16. 18. To set one among their brethren King over them and not a stranger Deut. 17. 15. To what purpose are these Rules given them if they had no interest to choose their Magistrats Would God command them to set a King over them if they had not power to do it And to set such a man over them and not such an one if they had no influence in making one at all And accordingly that wise Statist sayes very well 2 Sam. 16. 18. Hushai to Aâ—salem Nay but whom the Lard this people and all the men of Israel choose his will I be and with him will I abide Which will also hold in the Negative whom the Lord the people and all the men of the Kingdom do not choose his we will not be nor with him will we abide 2. The Scripture expressly attributeth the making of Kings to the people All the people of Iuda took Azariah and made him King instead of his Father Amaziah whom they had executed 2 King. 14. 21. They came with a perfect heart to make David King in Hebron 1 Chron. 12. 38. So they made Ioash King 2 Chron. 23. 11. 3. Even these that were particularly designed of God chosen to be Rulers yet were not formally invested with power before the people conferred it upon them Gideon was called of God to it but was not Judge till the people said Rule thow over us both thow thy Son giving him an hereditary right for his Children Iudg. 8. 12. Saal was appointed to be King and therefore Samuel honoured him because he was marked out of God to be King 1 Sam. 9. 24. and anointed him with oyl 1 Sam. 10. 1. after which he was gifted qualified for Government God gave him another heart vers 9. yet all this did not make him King till the people met for his inauguration vers 17. c. and Crowned him made him King in Gilgal 1 Sam. 11. ult David was anointed by Samuel and yet was a persecuted fugitive for several years and never acknowledged formally King till the men of Iudah came anointed him 2 Sam. 2. 4. for if he had been King before then there were two Kings in Israel at one time and David failed of his Royal duty in not punishing the Murderer Saul whereas himself sayes he would not touch the Lords 〈◊〉 Therefore the people made all these Kings and that by choise consent without which they were no Kings Hence I argue If the consent choise of the people be so essentially necessary to the making of Kings then they who set up themselves against the consent of the body of the Land and without the choise of any must be Usurpers not to be acknowledged for Lawful Kings But the former is true as is proven above Ergo Now Plain it is that this Duke set up himself against the consent of the body being excluded from the Government by the Representatives of
therefore established in Davids family for Typical reasons that cannot be now alledged 12. We find in the disposal of Government among brethren this birth-order was not seldom inverted as when Iacoh was preferred before Esaw Iudah before all the elder sons of Iacob Ephraim before Manasseh Solomon before Adonijah Hence if this Gentleman now regnant have no better pretences than these now confuted we cannot recognosce his right to reign yea though this last were valid yet he cannot plead it it being expressly provided in our Laws against the succession of a Papist But there is one Grand Objection against all this The Jewes and other Nations are commanded to bring their necks under the yoke of the King of Babilon and to serve him and yet he had no other right to these Kingdom then the Lords Providential disposal because the Lord had given all these Lands into his hand Ier. 27. 6 7 12. Ans. 1. He was indeed an unjust Usurper and had no right but the Lord providential gifâ— which sometimes makes the tabernacles of Robbers prosper into whose hand God bringeth abundantly Iob. 12. 6. and gives Iacoh sometimes for a spoil and Israel to the Robbers Isai. 42. 24. and giveth power to the Beast to continue forty two Moneths and to have power over all kindreds tongues Nations Revel 13. 5 7. His Tyranny also was very great extensively in respect of his oppressions usurpations by Conquest but it was not so great intensively as our Robbers Spoilers may be charged with he was never such a Perverter of all the ends of Government nor a treachrous overturner of all Conditions he was never a Persecuter of the Iewish Religion he never oppressed them upon that account nor endeavoured its extirpation he never enacted such mischiefs by Law. The Lord only made use of him to bring about the holy ends of the Glory of His Justice Wisdom in which respect alone he is called His Servant as else where His â—od hammer having given him a charge against an Hypocritical Nation to trample them doun in His holy Providence and accordingly there was no resistence could prevail they must be trampled upon no help for it but no subjection was required acknowledging his Magistratical right by divine Ordinance but only a submissive stooping to the holy disposal of divine Providence no ouning was exacted either of the equity of that power or of fealtie to the administrator 2. This behoved to be a particular Command by Positive Revelation given at that time not binding to others in the like Condition which I refer to the judgment of the objectors put the case and make it run paralel If the King of England were in league with the King of France and breaking that league should provoke that aspiring Prince growing potent by many Conquests to discover his designs make preparations and give out threatenings for the Conquest of England all Brittain were the people of England bound to surrender themselves as Servants tributaries to him for 70 years or for ever under pain of destruction if they should not This were one of the most ridiculous inferences that ever was pleaded nay it would make all refusal of subjection to invaders unlawful 3. I will draw an Argument from this to confirm my Plea for these Commands of subjection to Babilon were not delivered until after the King of Iudah had surrendered to Nebuchadnezzar and entered into Covenant with him to be subject to him 2. King. 24. chap. in keeping which Covenant the Kingdom might have stood and after he had Rebelled against him and broken that Covenant when lo he had given his hand after which he could not prosper or escape or be delivered Ezek. 17. 14 15 18 2 Chron. 36. 13. Then the Commandment came that they should disoune their oune King Zedekiah now forefeiting his right by breach of Covenant and be subject to Nebuchadnezzar Whence I argue If people are commanded to disoune their Covenant-breaking Rulers and subject themselves to Conquerours then I have all I plead for But the former is true by the truth of this objection Ergo also the Latter There is a 2 Obj. from Rom. 13. 1. let every soul be subject to the higher powers the powers that be are ordained of God yet the Roman Emperour to which they were to be subject was an usurper Ans. 1. It cannot be proven that the Apostle intendeth here the Roman Emperour as the higher power There were at this time several Competitions for the Empire about which Christians might have their oun scruples whom to oune the Apostle does not determine their litigations nor interest himself in parties but gives the General Standart of Gods Ordinance they had to go by And the best Expositors of the place do alleâ—ge the question doubt of Christians then was not so much in whom the Supremacy was as whether Christians were at all bound to obey Civil power especially Pagan which the Apostle resolves in giving general directions to Christians to obey the ordinance of Magistracy conforme to its original and as it respects the end for which he had would set it up but no respect is there had to Tyrants 2. It cannot be proven that the Supreme power then in being was usurpative there being then a Supreme Senate which was a Lawful power nor that Nero was then an usurper who came in by choise consent and with the good liking of the people 3. The Text means of Lawful powers not unlawful force that are ordained of God by His Preceptive will not meerly by His Providential disposal and of consciencious subjection to Magistracy not to Tyranny describing characterizing the powers there by such qualifications as Tyrants Usurpers are not capable of But I mind to improve this Text more fully hereafter to prove the quite contrary to what is here objected 8. From the Right of Magistracy flowes the Magistratical Relation which is necessary to have a bottom before we can build the relative duties thereof This brings it under the fifth Commandment which is the Rule of all relative duties between Inferiours Superiours requiring honour to be given to Fathers Masters Husbands c. and to rightful Magistrates who are under such political relations as do infer the same duties and prohibiting not only the omission of these duties but also the committing of contrary sins which may be done not only by contrary acts as dishonouring rebelling against Fathers Magistrats c. but also by performing them to contrary objects as by giving the Fathers due to the Fathers opposite and the Magistrats due to Tyrants who are their opposites Certainly this Command prescribing honour doth regulate to whom it should be given And must be understood in a consistency with that duty and Character of one that hath a mind to be an inhabitant of the Lords holy Hill Psal. 15. 4. in whose eyes a vile person is contemned but he honoureth them that fear
conveen to ask a King 1 Sam. 8. And without any head or superior they convene make David King notwithstanding of Isbosheths hereditary right Without against Tyrannous Athaliah her consent they convene make Ioash King and cared not for her Treason Treason 2 King. 11. But now the king alone challenges the Prerogative-power of calling dessolving Parliaments as he pleases and condemns all meetings of Estates without his warrant which is purely Tyrannical for in cases of necessity by the very Law of nature they may must convene The Power is given to the king only by a positive Law for orders sake but otherwise they have an intrinsical Power to assemble themselves All the forecited Commands Admonitions Certifications to execute Iudgement must necessarly involve imply Power to convene without which they could not be in a Capacity for it Not only unjust Judgement but no Iâ—dgement in a time when Truth is fallen in the streets equity cannot enter is charged as the sin of the State therefore they must convene to prevent this sin and the wrath of God for it God hath committed the keeping of the Common-wealth not to the king only but also to the peoples Representatives heads And if the king have Power to break up all Conventions of this nature then he hath Power to hinder Judgement to proceed which the Lord Commands And this would be an excuse when God threatens vengeance for it we could not execute Iudgement because ehe King forbad us Yet many of these forementioned reproofs threatenings certifications were given in the time of Tyrannous Idolatrous kings who no doubt would inhibite discharge the doing of their duty yet we see that was no excuse but the Lord denounces wrath for the omission 4 They had Power to execute Judgement against the will of the Prince Samuel killed Agag against Sauls will but according to the Command of God 1 Sam. 15. 32. Against Ahabs will mind Elijah caused kill the Priests of Baal according to Gods express Law 1 King. 18. 40. It is true it was extraordinary but no otherwise than it is this day when there is no Magistrate that will execute the Judgment of the Lord then they who have Power to make the Magistrate may ought to execute it when wicked men make the Law of God of none effect So the Princes of Iudah had power against the kings will to put Ieremiah to death which the king supposes when he directs him what to say to them Ier. 38. 25. They had really such a Power though in Ieremiahs case it would have been wickedly perverted See Lex Rex Q. 19. 20. 5 They had a power to execute Judgement upon the king himself as in the case of Amaziah Uzziah as shall be cleared afterwards I conclude with repeating the Argument If the king be accountable whensoever this Account shall be taken we are confident our disouning him for the present will be justified and all will be obliged to imitate it If he be not then we cannot oune his Authority that so presumptously exalts himself above the People 10. If we will further consider the nature of Magistracy it will appear what Authority can conscienciously be ouned to wit that which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Potestas not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Potentia Authorized Power not Might or force Moral Power not merely Natural There is a great difference betwixt these two Natural Power is common to brutes Moral Power is peculiar to men Narural Power is more in the Subjects because they have more strength force Moral Power is in the Magistrate they can never meet adequately in the same subject Natural power can Moral only may warrantably exercise rule Natural power is opposed to impotency weakness Moral to illicitness or unlawfulness Natural power consists in strength Moral in righteousness Natural power may be in a Reut of Rogues making an uproar Moral only in the Rulers they cannot be distinguished by their acts but by the Principle from which the acts proceed in the one from meer force in the other from Authority The Principle of Natural power is its oun might will and the end only self Moral hath its rise from positive Constitution and its end publick safety The strength of Natural power lies in the Sword whereby its might gives Law the strength of Moral power is in its Word whereby reason gives Law unto which the Sword is added for punishment of Contraveners Natural power takes the Sword Math. 26. 52. Moral bears the Sword Rom. 13. 4. In Natural power the Sword is the Cause in Moral it is only the Consequent of Authority In Natural power the Sword legitimates the Scepter in Moral the Scepter legitimates the Sword The Sword of the Natural is only backed with Metal the Sword of the Moral power is backed with Gods warrant Natural power involves men in passive subjection as a traveller is made to yeeld to a Robber Moral power reduces to Consciencious subordination Hence the power that is only Natural not Moral Potentia not Potestas cannot be ouned But the power of Tyrants Usurpers is only Natural not Moral Potentia not Potestas Ergo it cannot be ouned The Major cannot be denied for it is only the Moral Power that is ordained of God unto which we must be subject for Conscience sake The Minor also for the Power of Tyrants is not Moral because not Authorized nor warranted nor ordained of God by His preceptive Ordinance and therefore no Lawful Magistratical Power For the clearer understanding of this let it be observed there are four things required to the making of a Moral or Lawful Power the matter of it must be Lawful the Person Lawful the Title Lawful and the Use Lawful 1. The matter of it about which it is exerted or the work to be done by it must be Lawful warranted by God and if it be unlawful it destroyes its Moral being As the Popes power in dispensing with Divine Laws is null no Moral Power And so also the Kings power in dispensing with both Divine humane Laws is null Hence that power which is in regard of matter unlawful and never warranted by God cannot be ouned But absolute power which is the power of Tyrants Usurpers particularly of this of ours is in regard of matter unlawful never warranted by God Ergo 2. The Person holding the power must be such as not only is capable of but competent to the tenure of it and to whom the holding of it is allowed and if it be prohibited it evacuates the Morality of the power Korah his Company arrogated to themselves the Office of the Priesthood this power was prohibited to them their power then was a nullity As therefore a person that should not be a Minister when he usurps that office is no Minister So a person that should not be a Magistrate when he usurps that Office is no
Magistrate Hence a person that is incapable incompetent for Government cannot be ouned for a Governour But the D. of Y. is such a person not only not qualified as the Word of God requires a Magistrate to be but by the Laws of the Land declared incapable of Rule because he is a Papist a Murderer an Adulterer c. 3. There must be in Moral Power a Lawful Title Investure as is shewed above which if it be wanting the Power is null and the person but a Scenical King like Iohn of Leyden This is essentially necessary to the being of a Magistrate which only properly distinguishes him from a private man for when a person becomes a Magistrate what is the change that is wrought in him what new habit or endewment is produced in him he hath no more natural power than he had before only now he hath the Moral Power right Authority to Rule Legally impowering him to Govern. Let it be Considered what makes a subordinate Magistrate whom we may oune as such It must be only his Commission from a Superior Power otherwise we reject him If one come to us of his oun head taking upon him the style office of a Bailif Sheriff or Judge and command our Persons demand our purses or exact our Oaths we think we may deny him not taking our selves to owe him any subjection not ouning any bond of conscience to him why because he hath no lawful Commission Now if we require this qualification in the subordinate why not in the Supreme Hence that Magistrate that cannot produce his Legal Investure cannot be ouned But the D. of Y. cannot produce his Legal Investure his admission to the Crown upon Oath Compact and with the consent of the subjects according to the Laws of the Land as is shewed above Ergo 4. There must also be the Lawful Use of the Power which must be not only legal for its composure but right for its practice its Course Process in Government must be just Governing according to Law otherwise it is meer Tyranny for what is Government but the subjecting of the Community to the rule of Governours for Peace Orders sake and the security of all their precious Interests and for what end was it ordained and continued among men but that the stronger may not domineer over the weaker And what is Anarchy but the playing the Rex of the Natural power over the Moral Hence that Power which is contrary to Law evil Tyrannical can tye none to subjection But the power of the King abused to the destruction of Laws Religion Liberties giving his power strength unto the beast making war with the Lamb Revel 17. 13 14. is a power contrary to Law evil Tyrannical Ergo it can tye none to subjection wickedness by no imaginable reason can oblige any man. It is Objected by some from Rom. 13. 1. There is no power but of God The Usurping power is a power Therefore it is of God and consequently we owe subjection to it Ans. 1. The Original reading is not Universal but thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for there is no power if not from God which confirms what I plead for that we are not to oune any Authority if it be not Authorized by God. The words are only relative to higher powers in a restricted sense and at most are but indefinite to be determined according to the matter not all power simply but all Lawful power 2. It is a fallacia a dicto secundum quid There is no power but of God that is no Moral Power as Universal negatives use to be understood Heb. 5. 4. no man taketh this honour unto himself but he that is called of God which is clear must not be understood for the negation of the fact as if no man at all doth or ever did take unto himself that honour for Korah did it c. but no man taketh it warrantably with a Moral right and Gods allowance without Gods call So also the universal imperative in that same Text must not be taken absolutely without restriction for if every soul without exception were to be subject there could be none left to be the higher powers but it is understood with restriction to the relation of a subject So here no Power but of God to be understood with restriction to the relation of a Lawful Magistrate It it also to be understood indiscriminately in reference to the diverse species sorts degrees of Lawful Power Supreme subordinate whether to the King as Supreme or to Governours c. as Peter expresses it Or whether they be Christian or Pagan It cannot be meant of all universally that may pretend to power and may attain to prevailing Potency for then by this Text we must subject our selves to the Papacy now intended to be introduced and indeed if we subject our selves to this Papist the next thing he will require will be that 3. To the Minor proposition I Answer The usurping power is a power It is Potentia I grant that it is Potestas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Authority I deny Therefore it is of God by His Providence I concede by His Ordinance I deny Consequently we owe subjection to it I deny We may be subject passively I grant Actively out of conscience I deny But some will Object 2. Though the Power be Usurped and so not Morally Lawful in all these respects yet it may do good its Laws administrations may be good Ans. I grant all is good that ends well and hath a good begining That cannot be good which hath a bad principle bonum ex integra causa Some Government for constitution good may in some acts be bad but a Government for constitution bad cannot for the acts it puts forth be good These good acts may be good for matter but formally they are not good as done by the Usurper They may be comparatively good that is better so then worse but they cannot be absolutely and in a Moral sense good for to make a Politick action good not only the matter must be warrantable but the Call also It may indeed induce subjects to bear improve to the best what cannot be remedied but cannot oblige to oune a Magistratical Relation II. The Nature of the power thus discovered lets us see the Nature of that relative duty which we owe must oune as due to Magistrates and what sort of ouning we must give them which to inquire a litle into will give light to the question All the duty deference the Lord requires of us towards them whom we must oune as Magistrates is comprehended in these two expressions honour required in the fifth Command and subjection required in Rom. 13. 1. c. 1 Pet. 2. 13. c. Whomsoever then we oune as Magistrates we must oune honour subjection as due to them And if so be we cannot upon a consciencious ground give them honour subjection we cannot
may lead a quiet peaceable life in all godlyness honesty 1 Tim. 2. 2. And they must needs be a blessing because to have no Ruler is a Miserie for when Israel had no King every man did that which was right in his oun eyes Iudg. 17. 6. and the Lord threatens it ar a Curse to take away the stay the staff the mighty man and the man of war the Iudge the Prophet c. Isai. 3. 1 2 c. and that the Children of Israel shall abide many dayes without a King and without a Prince Hos. 2. 4. But on the other hand Tyrants Usurpers are alwayes a Curse and given as such It is threatened among the Curses of the Covenant that the stranger shall get up above Israel very high and that they shall serve their enemies which the Lord shall send against them and He shall put a yoke of iron upon their neck until He hath destroyed them Deut. 28. 43 48. As a roaring lyon and a ranging bear so is a wicked Ruler over the poor people Prov. 28. 15. and therefore when the wicked beareth rule the people mourn Prov. 29. 2. The Lord threatens it as a Curse that he will give Children to be their Princes and babes shall rule over them Isai. 3. 4. and if unqualified Rulers be a curse much more Tyrants They are the rod of His anger and the staff in their hand is His indignation His axe saw rod Isai. 10. 5 15. It is one thing to call a man Gods instrument His rod axe sword or hammer another thing to call him Gods Minister there is a wide difference betwixt the instruments of Gods Providence and the Ministers of His Ordinance those fulfill His Purposes only these do His precepts Such Kings are given in the Lords anger Hos. 13. 11. therefore they cannot be ouned to be Ministers of God for good 6. He beareth not the sword in vain for he is the Minister of God a revenger to execute wrath upon â—im that doeth evil vers 4. The Apostle doth not say he that beareth the sword is the Ruler but he is the Ruler that beareth the sword This is not every sword for there is the sword of an enemy the sword of a robber the sword of a common traveller but this as a faculty of Political rule Authoritative judgement It is not said he takes the sword as the Lord expresses the Usurpation of that power Math. 26. 52. but he beareth the sword hath it delivered him into his hand by God by Gods warrant allowance not in vain to no end or without reason or without a Commission as Pareus upon the place expones it He is a revenger to execute wrath not by private revenge for that is condemned Paulo ante Rom. 12. 19. not by providential recompense for when a private person so revengeth it is the providential repayment of God but as Gods Mâ—nister by Him Authorized commissionated warranted to this work Now this cannot agree with a Tyrant or Usurper whose sword only legitimates his scepter and not his scepter his sword who takes the sword rather then bears it uses it without reason or warrant from God in the execution of his lustful rage upon him that doth well and hath no right to it from God. Hence he that beareth the sword no other way but as it may be said of a Murderer cannot be a Magistrate bearing the sword But a Tyrant Usurper beareth the sword no other way but as it may be said of a Murderer Ergo So much for the Characters of a Magistrate which are every way inapplicable to Tyrants Usurpers and as inapplicable to this of ours as to any in the world 2. If we consider the Scripture Resemblanceâ— importing the duty of Magistrates and the Contrary Comparisons holding forth the sin vileness villany of Tyrants Usurpers we may infer that we cannot oune the last to be the first First from the benefite they bring to the Common wealth Magistrates are styled 1. Saviours as Othniel the son of Kenaz is called Iudg. 3. 9. and Iehoâ—haz in his younger years 2. King. 13. 5. and all good Judges Magistrates Neh. 9. 27. But Tyrants Usurpers cannot be such for they are destroyers whom the Lord promises to make go forth from His people Isa. 49. 17. The Chaldeaâ— Tyrant is called the destroyer of the Gentiles Ier. 4. 7. and the destroyer of the Lords heritage Ier. 50. 11. wherefore they can no more be ouned to be Magistrates than Abaddon or Apollyon can be ouned to be a Saviour 2. From their Paterâ—al love to the people they are styled fathers and therefore to be honoured according to the fifth Command So Deborah was raised up a Mother in Israel Iudg. 5. 7. Kings are nursing fathers by office Isai. 49. 23. But that Tyrants cannot be such I have proved already for they can no more be accounted fathers than he that abuseth or forceth our mother 3. From the Protection shelter that people find under their Conduct they are called Shields Psal. 47. Ult. The Princes of the people the Shields of the earth belong unto God. But Tyrants cannot be such because they are the subverters of the earth 4. From the Comfort that attends them they are resembled to the morning light fruitful shours of rain 2 Sam. 23. 4. They waited for me as for the rain saith Iob. 29. 23. But Tyrants cannot be resembled to these but rather to darkness and to the blast of the terrible ones Isai. 25. 4. as a storm against the wall If darkness cannot be ouned to be light then cannot Tyrants be ouned to be Magistrats 5. From their Pastoral Care Conduct and duty they are feeders The Judges of Israel are commanded to feed the Lords people 1 Chron. 17. 6. David was brought to feed Jacob His people and Israel His Inheritance Psal. 78. 71. But Tyrants are wolves not Shepherds 6. By office they are physicians or healers Isai. 3. 7. That Tyrants cannot be such is proven above Secondly on the other hand the vileness villany violence of Tyrants Usurpers are held forth by fit resemblances being Compared to these unclean creatures 1. Tyrants are wicked Dogs as they who compass about Christ Psal. 22. 16 20. Saul is called Dog there and in that Golden Psalm Psal. 59. 4. Saul his Complices watching the house to kill David make a noyse like a dog go round about the City 2. They are pushing Bulls Psal. 22. 12. and crushing Kain of Bashan that oppress the poor Amos. 4. 1. they have need then to have their horns cut sâ—ort 3. They are roaring Lyons that are wicked Rulers over the poor People Prov. 28. 15. Zeph. 3. 3. So Paul calls Nero the Lyon out of whose mouth he was delivered 2 Tim. 4. 17. 4. They are ranging bears Prov. 28. 15. So the Persian Monarch is emblemized Dan. 7. 5 5. They are Leviathan the peercing
punishment inflicted be in a Judicial way and of what measures it pleases the Judge to determine I shall not controvert here Only I plead that Idolatrous Tyrants are not excepted from this Law and infer that if they ought to be punished they ought to be deposed And if they ought to be deposed they cannot be ouned when undenyably guilty of this Capital Crime as was urged above To this I may adde that part of that Prophetical Kings Testament who being about to leave the world under some Challenges of Mal-administration in his oun Government for which he took himself to the well ordered everlasting Covenant for pardon encouragment after he had shown what Rulers should be he threatens by Antithesis Tyrannicalâ—pretenders in these severe words which do also imply a precept and a direction how to deal with them 2 Sam 23. 6 7. But they of Belial shall be all of them as thorns thrust away because they cannot be taken with hands but the man that shall touch them must be fenced with iron the staff of a spear and they shall be utterly burnt with fire in the same place Let these words be understood as a threatening against all the wicked in general who ars to bequenched as the fire of thorns or particularly of the Promoters of Antichrists Kingdom in opposition to Christs as some Interpreters judge it will not weaken but confirm my Argument if Kings who are ringleaders of that gang be not excepted I know some do understand this of Rebells against righteous Rulers which though indeed it be a truth that they that are such should be so served and roughly handled with iron and the staff of a spear yet it is not so consonant to the scope connexion of this place shewing the Characters of righteous Rulers and of usurping Tyrants making an opposition between Rulers that are just ruling in the fear of God and those that are Rulers of Belial promising blessings upon the Government of the one contempt Rejection to the other and shewing how both should be carried towards Neither does it aggree with the words themselves where the supplement in our translation is redundant for it is not in the Hebrw the sons of Belial only They of Belial clearly relative to the Rulers of whom he was speaking before And indeed the word Belial in its Etymology is not more applicable to any than to Tyrants for it comes from beli non and Hhall supra because they will have none above them or from beli non and Hhol jugum because they cannot suffer a yoke but cast away the yoke of Laws and the yoke of Christ saying let us burst His bands c. Nor is it alwayes aggreeable to truth to understand it only of Rebells against righteous Rulers that they can never be taken with hands For as very rarely righteous Rulers have any Rebells to be the objects of their rigour rage So when there are any discreet wise Rulers will find many wayes to take touch them and quash or quiet them But it is alwise true of Tyrants for they can never be taken with hands neither in a friendly manner taken by the hand and transacted with in any bargain as other men for they that would do so will find them like pricking jagging bryers which a man cannot handle without hurt to himself Nor can they be any other way repressed or restrained or touched but by hands fenced with iron that is with the sword of necessity or ax of Justice And this is insinuated as duty so to endeavour to exstirpate eradicate such thorns as pester the Common-wealth but if it cannot be done it must be duty wisdom both not to medle with them nor oune them no more than Iotham who would not subject himself nor come under the shaddow of the bastard bramble I confess it is commonly taken as a threatening of the Lords Judgement against these Sons of Belial And so it is But it teacheth also what men are called to when they have to do with such to wit to take the same course with them as they would to clear the ground of thorns bryars And that it is restricted to the Lords immediate way of taking them off is not credible For it can have no tollerable sense to say they shall be thrust away because they cannot be taken with the Lords hands Neither is there need that He should be fenced with iron c. And let iron c. be taken tropically for the Lords sword of vengeance yet how can it be understood that He must be fenced there with or that He will trust them away as a man must be fenced against thorns What defence needs the Lord against Tyrants It is only then intelligible that the Lord in His righteous Judgement will make use of men legal means and of those who cannot take them with hands in His Judicial procedure against them Hence I argue If Tyrants are to be dealt with as thorns that cannot be taken with hands but to be thrust away by violence Then when we are not in case to thrust them away we must let them alone and not medle nor make with them and so must not oune them for we cannot oune them withount medling and without being pricked to our hurt But the former is true Ergo Of this same nature another threatening confuting the pretence of Princes impunity may be subjoined out of Psal. 82. 6 7. I have said ye are Gods and all of yow are Children of the most High but ye shall die like men fall as one of the Princes From which words the learned Author of the History of the Douglasses Mr David Hume of Gods craft in his discourse upon Mr Craigs Sermon upon the words doth strongly prove that the Scope is to beat off all Kings Princes Rulers from the conceit of impunity for their Tyrannical Dominations that they must not think to Domineer and do what they list and overturn the foundations or fundamental Laws of Kingdoms because they are gods as if they were thereby incontrolable and above all Law punishment no they must know that if they be guilty of the same transgressions of the Law as other Capital offenders they shall die like other men fall as Princes who have been formerly punished It is not to be restricted to a threatening of Mortality for that is unavoidable whether they Judge justly or unjustly and the fear thereof usually hath litle efficacy to deter men from Crimes punishable by Law Neither can it be understood only of the Lords immediate hand taking them away exclusive of mens legal punishment for expresly they are threatened to die like Common men and to be lyable to the like punishment with them Now common men are not only lyabl to the Lords immediate Judgement but also to mens punishment Hence if Tyrants and overturners of the foundations of the earth must be punished as other men then when
they are such they cannot be looked upon as righteous Rulers for righteous Rulers must not be punished But the former is true Ergo According to these Scriptures which either express or imply a precept to have no respect to Princes in Judgement when turning Criminalls we find examples of the peoples punishing Amazia c. which is recorded without a challenge and likewise Athalia 2. There is a Precept given to a humbled people that have groaned long under the yoke of Tyranny oppression enjoining them as a proof of their sincerity in humiliation to bestir themselves in shaking off those evils they had procured by their sin Isai. 58. 6. Is not this the fast that I have châ—sen to loose the bands of wickedness to undo the heavy burdens and to let the oppressed go free and that ye break every yoke which are all good works of Justice Mercy and more acceptable to God than high flown pretences of humiliation under a stupid submission and hanging doun the head as a bulrush We see it then a duty to relieve the oppressed and to repress Tyranny and break its yoke If it be Objected 1 That these are Spiritual bonds yokes that are here commanded to be loosed broken or if any external be meant they are only the yokes of their exactions usuries For Ans. I grant that it is the great duty of a people humbling themselves before the Lord to break off their sins by righteousness and their iniquity by shewing mercy to the poor Dan. 4. 27. but that this is the only duty I deny or that this is the genuine only sense of this place cannot be proved or approved by the Scope which is to press them to those duties they omitted whereby the poor oppressed people of God might be freed from the yokes of them that made them to houl and to bring them to the conviction of those sins for which the Lord was contending with them whereof this was one that they exacted all their Labours or things wherewith others were grieved as the Margent reads or suffered the poor to be oppressed 2 If it be alledged that this is the duty proper to Rulers to relieve the oppressed c. I Answer It is so but not peculiar to them yet most commonly they are the oppressors themselves and cast out the poor which others must take in to their houses But the duty here is pressed upon all the people whose sins are here cryed out against vers 1. upon all who professed the service of God asked the ordinances of Justice vers 2 upon all who were fasting humbling themselves and complained they had no success vers 3. the reasons whereof the Lord discovers vers 4. 5. whereof this was one that they did not loose those bands nor breake these yokes nor relieved the oppessed And those works of Justice vers 6. are pressed upon the same grounds that the works of mercy are pressed upon vers 7. sure these are not all nor only Rulers Hence I argue If it be a duty to break every yoke of oppression Tyranny then it is a duty to come out from under their subjection But the former is true therefore aso the latter 3. In answer to that grand objection of the Iewes subjection to Nebuchadnezzar I shew what litle weight or force there is in it And here I shall take an Argument from that same Passage The Lord commands His people there to desert disoune zedekiah who was the possessor of the Government at present and sayes it was the way of life to fall to the Chaldeans Ier. 21. 8 9. which was a falling away from the present King. Either this commanded subjection to the Chaldeans is an universal precept or it is only particular at that time If it be universal obliging people to subject themselves to every Conqueror then it is also universal obliging people to renounce disoune every Covenant-breaking tyrant as here they were to fall away from Zedekiah If it be only particular then the ouners of of Tyranny have no advantage from this passage And I have advantage so far as the ground of the precept is as moral as the reason of that punishment of zedekias which was his perfidie perjurie Hence if the Lord hath commanded to disoune a King breaking Covenant then at least it is not insolent or unprecedented to do so But here the Lord hath commanded to disoune a King Ergo Fourthly we may have many Confirmations of this truth from Scripture practices approven 1. I was but hinting before how that after the death of that brave Captain Judge Gideon when Abimelech the son of his whore did first aspire into a Monarchy which he perswaded the silly Schechemites to consent to by the same Argument which Royalists make so much of for asserting the necessity of an Hereditary Monarchy whether is it better for yow either that all the sons of Jerubbaaâ— reign over yow or that one reign over yow by bloody cruelty did usurp a Monarchical or rather Tyrannical Throne of Domination founded upon the blood of his seventy brethren as we know whose Throne is founded upon the blood of all the brethren he had Jotham who escaped sâ—â—rned to put his trust under the shadow of such a bramble and they that did submit â—ound his parable verified a muâ—â—al fire reciprocally consuming both the usurping King and his traiterous subjects Neither did all the Godly in Israel submit to him See Pool Synops. Critic on the place Iud. 9. Here is one express example of disouning a Tyrant Usurper 2. I shew before how after the Period of that Theocracy which the Lord had maintained managed for some time in great mercy Majesty in over His people they itching after novelties and affecting to be neighbour-like rejected the Lord in desiring a King And the Lord permiting it gave them a King in His wrath the true Original only Sanction of Tyrannical Monarchy when the Characters of his Tyranny presaged by Samuel were verified in his aspiring into a great deal of absoluteness especially in his cruel persecuting of David not only the 600 men that were Davids followers stood out in open opposition to him but in the end being weary of his Government many brave valiant men whom the Spirit of God commends describes very honourably fell off from Saul even while he was actually Tyrannising before he was dead 1 Chron. 12. 1. c. They came to David to Ziklag while he yet kept himself closs because of Saul the son of Kish N. B. now he is not honoured with the name of King they were armed with bows and could use both the right hand the left And of the Gadites there separated themselves unto David men of might fit for the battel that could handle shield buckler whose â—aces were as the faces of lyons vers 8. And the Spirit came upon Amasai chief of the Captains saying Thine are we
Kings are to be honoured that are ouned to be Kings really It may be alledged by some that Elisha was an extraordinary man and this was an extraordinary action and therefore not imitable I shall grant it so far extraordinary that it is not Usual to carry so to persons of that figure and that indeed there are few Elisha's now not only for his Prophetick Spirit which now is ceased but even in respect of his Gracious Spirit of zeal which in a great measure is now extinguished He was indeed an extraordinary man and this Action did demonstrate much of the Spirit of Elias to have been abiding with him But that this was unimitable these reasons induce me to deny 1 Prophets were subject to Kings as well as others as Nathan was to David 1 King. 1. 32 33. every soul must be subject to the higher powers that are of God 2 All the Actions of Prophets were not extraordinary nor did they every thing by extraordinary inspiration that was peculiar to Christ that He could Prophecy do extraordinary acts when He pleased because He received the Spirit not by measure and it rested upon Him. 3 this particular Action carriage was before he called for the Minstrel and before the hand of the Lord came upon him vers 15. Ergo this was not by inspiration 4 The ground of this was Moral Ordinary for hereby he only shewed himself to be a person fit to abide in the Lords Tabernacle and an upright walker in whose eyes a vile person is contemned Psal. 15. 4. and a just man to whom the unjust is an abomination Prov. 29. 27. What further can be aledged against this instance I see not And I need draw no Argument by Consequence it is so plain 7. This same Jehoram after many signal demonstrations of the power of God exerted in the Ministry of His Servant Elisha which sometimes did extort his acknowledgment and made him call the Prophet his father 2 King. 6. 21. yet when in the strait siege of Samaria he was plagued with famine for his Idolatry in so much that the pitiful Mothers were made to eat their oun tender Children became so insolent a Tyrant that being incensed into a madness of outragious malice against the Prophet Elisah that he sware God do so to him more also if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat should stand on him that day accordingly he sent a messenger to execute it But the Prophet from a Principle of Nature Reason Law as well as Grace and by the Spirit of a man as well as of a Prophet stood upon his defence and encouraged those that were with him to keep out the house against him saying See ye how this son of a Murderer a proper style for such a Monster of a King hath sent to take away mine head ... 2 King. 6. 32. This is a strong Argument for self defence but I improve it thus If Tyrants may be opposed as sons of Murderers Murderers themselves and no otherwise to be accounted then under such a vile Character then can they not be ouned as Kings But here is an example for the first Ergo 8. This mans brother in Law of the same name Iehoram the son of Iehoshaphat who had the Daughter of Ahab to wife and therefore walked in the way of the house of Ahab gives us another instance He turned Apostate Tyrant and Abimelech-like or if yow will Yorklike slew his brethren and diverse also of the Princes of Israel Moreover he made high places in the Mountains of Iudah and caused the Inhabitants of Ierusalem to commit â—ornication and compelled Iudah thereto For which Cause of his intollerable insolency in wickedness Libnah one of the Cities of Priests in Iudah Revolted from him 2 King. 8. 22. because he had forsaken the Lord God of his fathers 2 Chron. 21. 10. which was the motive impulsive Cause of their disouning him and is not to be detorted to that restricted Cavil of Royalists understanding it only as the Meritorous or procuring Cause of his punishment loss sustained thereby for it is not so said of the Edomites who revolted at the same time as it is mentioned in another Paragraph Neither of the Philistims Arabians Ethiopians whose spirit the Lord stirred up against him These were also a punishment to him Nor would it found very suitably to be said that they opposed him because he had forsaken the Lord God of his fathers for that would insinuate some influence that his Apostasie had on them as certainly it could not but have on the Lords Priests that dwelt in Libnah who understood by the Law of God what was their duty to do with Intycers or Drawers or Drivers to Idolatry And when they were not in capacity to execute the Judgement of the Lord this was the least they could do to Revolt Here then is an example of a Peoples Revolt from a Prince and disouning Allegiance to him because of Apostasie Tyranny 9. In this Kingdom of Iudah after long experience of a Succession of Hereditary Tyranny in many wicked Kings the people after they had long smarted for their lazie Loyaltie in their stupid abandoning forgetting foregoing this Priviledge of disouning Tyrants and keeping them in order began at length to bestir themselves in their endeavours to recover their lost Liberties and repress Tyrants Insolencies on several occasions Wherein though sometimes there were extravagances when Circumstances did mar the Justice of the Action and some did go beyond their sphere in tumultuary precipitations yet upon the matter it was Justice and in conformity to a Moral Command One impregnable witness of this we have in the pious Plot of Iehojada the Priest who being but a Subject as all Priests were as the deposition of Abiathar by King Solomon 1 King. 2. 27. proveth entered into an Association with the inferior Rulers to choose make a new King and notwithstanding that the Idolatress She-Tyrant Athaliab who had the Possession of the Government cried Treason Treason at the fact they had her forth without the ranges slew her 2 King. 11. 14-16 This was according to the Law Deut. 13. And approven by all Interpreters even Mr Pool in his Synopsis Critic though alias Superlatively Loyal yet approves of this and sayes she was an incurable Idolatress and therefore deserved to be deposed by the Nobles of the Kingdom And quotes Grotius in Loc. saying she reigned by meer force no right and therefore justly repressed by force for the Hebrewes were to have Brethren for their Kings but not Sisters Deut. 17. 15. Hence if Tyrants may be forcibly repressed then may they peaceably be disouned But this example comfirms that Ergo 10. The Sacred History proceeds in the Relation how this same Joash the Son of Ahaziah after he degenerated into Murdering Tyranny was slain by Jozachar Jehozabad 2 King. 12. 20 21. But that was by his oun Servants in
Declaration he refused to swear it till it was altered and corrected And the Word pretended put in the stead of it which done before he subscribed it he protested it might be constructed in no other sense than the genuine meaning of the words he delivered in and that it might not be reckoned a Complyance for fear of his life yet not withstanding of all this he lost the Jewel of inward peace and knew the terror of the Lord for many dayes Therefore I shall chiefly insist on discovering the iniquities of this last Oath called the Abjuration Oath both because it is the smoothest and more generally taken than any other and approven by many that condemns the rest and the refusing it hath been punished by death and most illegally pressed upon all under the penalty thereof as none of the rest was And because as all other Oaths successively imposed were so contrived that the last did alwise imply involve the substance of the former So it will appear that the iniquity of none of the preceding Oaths was altogether wanting in this But to the end both the Complication of the iniquities of this Oath may be evidenced and the Continued strain of all the Oaths which have also been heads of suffering though not to this degree may be discovered I shall touch somewhat of all the sorts of them And shew that their iniquity cleaves to this last Oath And then come to canvass this Oath it self After I have premitted some General Concessions First In a few Words some General Concessory propositions may be premitted 1. That Oaths both Assertory and promissory are Lawful will not be denyed but by Quakers c. It is clear Swearing is a Moral duty and so material that oftentimes it is used for the whole Worship of God Deut. 6. 13. Thow shalt fear the Lord thy God and shall serve Him and Swear by His Name Deut. 10. 20. To Him shalt thow cleave Swear by His Name The reason is because by whomsoever we swear Him we profess to be our God and invocate Him as witness of our hearts uprightness honest meaning in the thing sworn according as it is understood by both parties and as aveanger if we prove false Hence every Oath which doth not bind us faster to serve cleave to Him is but a breach of the Third Command Again it is not only Commanded as a duty but qualified how it should be performed Ier. 4. 1 2. Where it is required of a people returning to the Lord to Swear in Truth in Iudgement and in Righteousness Hence every Oath which is not so qualified and does not consist with a penitent frame is sin It is likewise promised in the Covenant that Beleevers shall speak the language of Canaan swear to the Lord Isai 19. 18. every Oath then that is not in the language of Canaan is unsuitable to Beleevers that is to say Consentaneous to the Word of God and Confession of our faith Again He that sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God of Truth Isai. 65. 16. and therefore that Oath which is not according to Truth is dishonourable to the God of Truth If all the Oaths imposed upon Scotland these many years were examined by these Touch-stones they would be found all naught So giving Bands for security which for obligation are equivalent to promissory Oaths are also Lawful materially but with the same qualifications otherwise they are sinful 2. This duty when suitably discharged truely judiciously righteously in the fear of God according to His. Will is in many cases very necessary Not onely in vowes in which God is the party in matters morally necessary to keep the righteous Iudgements of God Psal. 119. 106. Nor only in National Covenants for Reformation and promoting the Interest of Christ whereof we find many Instances in Scripture in Moses Ioshua Asa Hezekiah Iosiah Ezra Nehemiah their making renewing such Covenants by Oath coming under the dreadful Curse of it if they should break it And this may make our hearts meditate Terror for the universal unparalelled Breach of Solemn Covenants with God that exposes the Nation to the Curse of it But also in humane Transactions whereunto God is invocated as a Witness as in National Transactions at choosing inaugurating their Magistrates for security of Religion Liberties as we have many examples in Scripture Seldome indeed do such bonds hold Tyrants but it is this Generations indeleble brand bane that without this they have come under the yoke of ineluctable slavery and have entailed it upon posterity As likewise in Contracts mutuà l Compacts of Friendship or stricter Association when Edification or other Saâ—faction or security Calls for it as Iacob sware to Laban David to Ionathan c. In which the matter must be clear mutually understood honestly meant without equivocation mental Reservation and all ambiguity as also possible likely to continue so for otherwise it were but a mocking of God man to swear a thing we either cannot or will not perform according to the meaning of him in whose favours the Oath is given But withall we ought to be sparing in such things except where the matter of the Oath or Band is weighty necessary not multiply them needlessly upon formality or Custom for if there were suitable Confidence in one another there would not be need for so many of these securities And specially in Relative stipulations betwixt man wife c. Where an indissolvable relation is entered into And in a particular manner even in things Civil when we are called thereunto by a Lawful maigstrate for deciding of Contraversies or our oun vindication or to Confirm our Obligation to some duty An Oath for Confirmation is an end of all strifâ— Heb. 6. 16. But alwise in this the matter must be Lawful according to the will of God and true certainly known and also necessary weighty useful worthy of such Confirmation for the Glory of God and the good of our Neighbour that His Holy Name be not â—aken in vain for otherwise if the matter be false God is made Witness of a lie if uncertain Conscience Condeâ—ns us that we know not nor care not what we call God Witness to if unlawful then God is called to approve what He hath comdemned and so to contradict Himself which is horrid Blasphemy With all which Cases if we compare examine all these Delusory Oaths hell-devised Impositions on Consciences in these dayes obtruded to debauch insnare them Not one of them levelling all at one design how smoothly soever conceived can be taken without a wound wramp to the Conscience 3. Of all these Cases only two are applicable to our imposed Transactions with our wicked Rulers to wit in the matter of friendly Contracts or in the matter of Judicial Appearances before them and Swearing and Banding before them and to them In both which there must be a sort of
half Civil half Ecclesiastick which have no Warrand in the Word 3 By this many palpable intollerable encroachments made upon the Liberties priviledges of the Church of Christ are yeelded unto as that there must be no Church Judicatories or Assemblies without the Magistrates consent but that the power of convocating indicting Assemblies do belong only to him and the power of delegating constituting the members thereof that he may dissolve them when he pleases that his presence or his Commissioners is necessary unto each Nationall Assembly that Ministers have no proper decisive suffrage in Synods but only of advice that the Church Judicatories be prelimited and nothing musâ— be treated there which may be interpreted grating upon the prerogative nor any thing whatsoever but what he shall allow approve without which it can have no force nor validity yea by this a door should be opened unto the utter destruction overthrow of all Church Judicatories seeing he is made the fountain of all Church power 4 By this the Magistrate is made a Church member as he is a Magistrate and so all Magistrats as such are Church members even heathens And yet 5 By this he is exempted from subjection to the Ministry because they are made accountable to him in their administrations and in the discharge of their function are under him as Supreme Yea 6 By this the Magistrate is made a Church Officer having the disposal of the Churches Government And not only so but 7 By this he is made a Church Officer of the highest degree being supreme in all Causes to whom Ministers in the discharge of their Ministrie are subordinate And so 8 By this the Church of the new Testament is made imperfect so long as she wanted a Christian Magistrate wanting hereby a Chief Officer yea and the Apostles did amiss in robbing the Magistrate of his power 9 By this the Magistrate might exerce all Acts of jurisdiction immediately by himself seeing he can do it as supreme by his Commissioners in Ecclesiastick affairs 10 Finally By this Oath the King is made the head of the Church being supreme over all persons in all Causes unto whom all Appeals references must ultimately be reduced even from Church Judicatories Those things are only here touched they are more apodeictically confirmed above and may be seen made out at large in Apol. Relat. Sect. 12. But I proceed 6. It is contrary unto the Solemn League Covenant into whose place after it was broken burnt buryed rescinded since they have remitted the subjects allegiance by annulling the Bond of it they substitute surrogate this in its place And therefore none can comply with the surrogation of the second except he consent to the abrogation of the first Oath All the Allegiance we can oune according to the Covenant stands perpetually expressly thus qualified viz. in defence of Religon Liberty according to our first second Covenants and in its oun nature must be indispensably thus restricted Therefore to renew the same or take an Oath of Allegiance simply purposely omitting the former restriction when the powers are in manifest Rebellion against the Lord is in effect a disouning of that limitation and of the Soveraign prerogative of the Great God which is thereby reserved and as much as to say whatever Authority command us to do we shall not only stupidly endure it but actively concur with assist in all this Tyranny See Naph Prior edit Pag. 177. 178. Vindicated at length by Ius Populi chap. 11. By all this the iniquity of the Scots Oath of Allegiance Supremacy may appear and also that of the English Oath of Allegiance even abstract from the Supremacy is in some measure discovered though it is not my purpose particularly to speak to that yet this I will say that they that plead for its precision from the Supremacy annexed seem not to consider the full import of its terms for under the dignities superiorities Authorities there engaged to be upheld the Ecclesiastical Supremacy must be included for that is declared to be one of the dignities of the Crown there as well as here and hither it was brought from thence And therefore those Scots men that took that Oath there and plead that though the Oath of Allegiance in Scotland be a sin yet it is duty to take the Oath in England seem to me to be in a great deceit for the object is the same the subject is the same the duty expected required engaged into is the same and every thing equal in both Yet all this iniquity here Couched is some way Comprehended in implyed by the Oath of Abjuration for the Civil part is imported in abjuring a Declaration for its declaring war against the King Where it is clear he is ouned as King and all part with them that declare war against him being renounced it is evident the Abjurers must take part with him in that war and so assist defend him for being subjects they must not be neutral therefore if they be not against him they must be for him and so under the bond of allegiance to him The Ecclesiastical Supremacy is inferred from that expression of it where some are said to serve him in Church as well as in State which implies an Ecclesiastical subordination to him as Supreme over the Church III. The Tenor of some other Bonds was more smooth subtil as that of the Bond of Peace several times renewed imposed and under several forms but alwayes after one strain engaging to Live Peaceably Whereby many were caught cheated with the seeming saiâ—ness of these general terms but others discerning their faâ—laciousness refused and suffered for it This in the General is capable of a good sense for no Christian will refuse â—o Live Peaceably but will endeavour if it be possible as much as lieth in them to Live Peaceably with all men Rom. 12. 18. that is so far to follow Peace with all men as may consist with the pursuit of holiness 〈◊〉 12. 14. But if we more narrowly consider such Bonds we shall find them Bonds of iniquity for 1. They are Covenants of Peace or Confederacies with Gods enemies whom we should count our enemies and hate them because they hate Him Psal. 139. 21. It is more suitable to answer as Iehu did to Ioram 2 King. 9. 22. What Peace so long as the whoredomes of thy Mother Iezebel and her witchcrafts are so many than to engage to be at Peace with those who are carrying on Babylons Interest the Mother of harlots witchcrafts 2. This cannot be taken in Truth Iudgement Righteousness because of the fallacy ambiguity of the terms for there are diverse sorts of Peace Peaceableness some kind is duty some never It must then be rightly qualified for we can profess pursue no Peace of Confederacy with the enemies of God not consistent with the fear of the Lord otherwise
Plainly declaring they intended no hurt to them if they would hold up their hands they would repute them as enemies to God the Reformation and punish them as such according to their power and the degree of their offence Withall leaving room for Civil Ecclesiastical satisfaction before Lawful settled Judicatories for the offences of such persons as their power may not reach c. And as unwilling to be necessitated to such severe Courses and earnestly desirous they be prevented they admonish them with sorrow seriousness of the sin hazard of their wicked Courses and protest that only Necessity of self preservation and zeal to Religion lest it should be totally rooted out by their insolency did drive them to this threatening Declaration and not because they were acted by any sinful spirit of revange This is all that is contained in that Declaration And if here be any thing there so odious execrable to be so solemnly abjured renounced abhorred in the persence of God for the pleasure of and in obedience to the will of His our enemies let all unbyassed Considerers impartially weigh or any awakened Conscience speak and I doubt not but the swearing subscribing this Oath will be cast condemned I shall say nothing of the necessity or conveniency or expediency or formality of this Declaration but the Lawfulness of the matter complexely taken is so undeniable that it cannot be renounced without condemning many very Material Principles of our Reformation Only Success Incapacity is wanting to justify the manner whole proceedure formality and all the Circumstances of the business If either the Declarers themselves or any other iâ— powered with strength and countenanced with success to make good the undertaking had issued out such a Declaration in the same terms and had prevailed prospered in the Project many that have now abjured it would approve applaud it But passing these things that are extrinsick to the consideration in hand it is the matter that they required to be abjured condemned it is that the enemies quarrelled at and not the inexpediency or informalities of it And it must be taken as they propound it and abjured renounced by Oath as they represent it And therefore the iniquity of this subscription will appear to be great in two respects First in denying the Truth Secondly in subscribing to swearing a Lie. 1. They that have taken that Oath have denied renounced the matter of that Declaration which is Truth duty and a Testimony to the Cause of Christ as it is this day Stated Circumstantiate in the Nation founded upon former among us uncontroverted precedents Principles of Defensive Wars disouning Tyranny repressing the insolency of Tyrants their Accomplices the whole matter being reducible to these two Points Declaring a resolved endeavour of breaking the Tyrants yoke from off our neck thereby asserting our oun the posterities Liberty freedom from his insupportable entailed slavery And a just Threatening to curb restrain the insolency of Murderers or to bring them to condign punishment Whereof as the first is no wayes repugnant but very consonant to the Third Article So the Second is the very duty obliged unto in the Fourth Article of our Solemn League Covenant But all this they have denied by taking that Oath 2. By taking that Oath they have sworn subscribed to a Lie taking it as they represent it abjuring it in so far as it declares c. asserts it is Lawful to kill all imployed in the service of the King in Church State Army or Country which is a manifest Lie for it asserts no such thing Neither will any other sense put upon the words in so far as salve the matter for as thereby the Takers of the Oath shall deal deceitfully in frustrating the end of the Oath and the design of the Tenderers thereof And to take an Oath quatenus eatenus in so far will not satisfie as Voetius Judgeth de Pol. Eccl. P. 213. So let them be taken which way they can either for in quantum or quatenus or si modo it is either a denying the Truth or subscribing a Lie And Consequently these poor people suffered for Righteousness that Refused it HEAD IV. The Sufferings of people for frequenting Field Meetings Vindicated HItherto the Negative Heads of Sufferings have been vindicated now follow the Positive founded upon Positive duties for doing and not denying and not promising engaging to relinquish which many have suffered severely The first both in order of nature and of time that which was first and last and most frequently most constantly most universally and most signally sealed by Sufferings was that which is the clearest of all being in some respect the Testimony of all Ages and which clears all the rest being the Rise Root Cause Occasion of all the rest to wit the Necessary duty of hearing the Gospel following the pure powerful faithfully dispensed Ordinances of Christ banished out of the Churches to private houses and persecuted out of houses to the Open Fields and there pursued opposed and sought to be suppressed by all the fury force rigour rage Cruelty Craft policy power that ever wicked men madded into a Monstrous Malice against the Mediator Christ and the Coming of His Kingdom could contrive or exert yet still followed frequented ouned adhered to by the Lovers of Christ serious seekers of God even when for the same they were killed all day long and counted as sheep for the slaughter and continually oppressed harrassed hunted and cruelly handled dragged to Prisons banished sold for slaves tortured Murdered And after by their fraudulent favours of ensnaring Indulgences Indemnities and a Continued tract of Impositions Exactions and many Oaths Bonds they had prevailed with many and even the most part both of Ministers Professors to abandon that necessary duty And even when it was declared Criminal by Act of Parliament and interdicted under pain of death to be found at any Field Meetings they nevertheless persisted in an undaunted endeavour to keep up the Standart of Christ in following the Word of the Lord wherever they could have it faithfully preached though at the greatest of hazards And so much the more that it was prosecuted by the rage of enemies and the reproach oblequies of pretended friends that had turned their back on the Testimony and preferred their oun ease Interests to the cause of Christ and with the greater fervor that the Labourers in that Work were few and like to faint under so many difficulties What the first Occasion was that constrained them to go to the fields is declared at length in the Historical Deduction of the Testimony of the Sixt Period to wit finding themselves bound in duty to Testifie their Adherence to Continuance in their Covenanted profession their Abhorrence of Abjured Prelacy and
the Remnant that He may get a lodging among the afflicted poor people that trust in the Name of the Lord that they may feed Lie doun none make them afraid Zeph. 3. 12 13. that the poor of the flock that wait on Him may know that it is the Word of the Lord Zech. 11. 11. they will lay out themselves to strengthen their hands This is the Work of the publick spirited Lovers of the Gospel which hath been and yet is the great work of this our day to carry the Gospel and follow it and keep it up through the Land as the Standart of Christ against all opposition from mountain to hill when now Zion hath been Labouring to bring forth as a woman in travel and made to go forth out of the City and to dwell in the field Mic. 4. 10. Therefore seeing it is the publick Work of the day and all its followers must have such a publick spirit it followes that the Meetings to promote it must be as publick as is possible 4. The Interest priviledge of the Gospel to have it in freedom purty power plenty is the publick Concern of all the Lords people preferable to all other Interests and therefore more publickly peremptorly and zealously to be contended for than any other Interest whatsoever It is the Glory of the Land 1 Sam. 4. 21. without which Ichabod may be the name of every thing and every Land though never so pleasant will be but a dry parched Land where no water is in the esteem of them that have seen the Lords Glory power in the Sanctuary Psal. 63. 1. Where as its name is Hephzibah Beulah Isai. 62. 4. and Iehovah-Shammah Ezek. 48. ult where God is enjoyed in His Gospel Ordinances And the want reproach of the Solemn Assemblies is a matter of the saddest mourning to the Lords people Zeph. 3. 18. Therefore while the Ark abode in Kerjath-jearim the time was thought very Long and all the house of Israel Lamented after the Lord 1 Sam. 7. 2. then they heard of it at Ephratah and found it in the fields of the Wood Psal. 132. 6. But it hath been longer than twenty years in our fields of the Woods and therefore we should be Lamenting after it with greater concernedness especially remembering how we were priviledged with the Gospel which was somtimes publickly embraced countenanced by Authority and ensured to us by Laws Statutes Declarations Proclamations Oaths Vowes Covenant-engagments whereby the Land was dedicated devoted unto the Son of God whose Conquest it was And now are not all the people of God obliged to do what they can to hinder the recalling of this dedication and the giving up of the Land as an offering unto Satan Antichrist And how shall this be but by a publick Contending for this priviledge and a resolving they shall sooner bereave us of our hearts blood than of the Gospel in its freedom purity But this we cannot contend for publickly if our Meetings be not publick 5. The nature business of the Gospel Ministrie is such that it obliges them that exercise it to endeavour all publickness without which they cannot discharge the extent of their Instructions their very names titles do insinuate so much They are Witnesses for Christ and therefore their Testimony should be publick though their Lot oftentimes be to Witness in Sackcloth They are Heraulds and therefore they should Proclaim their Masters Will though their Lot be often to be a voice crying in the Wilderness as Iohn the Baptist was in his field Preachings They are Ambassadours and therefore they should maintain their Masters Majestie in the Publick port of His Ambassadours and be wholly taken up about their Soveraigns business They are Watchmen and therefore they should keep maintain their post their Masters hath placed them at Nay they are Lights Candles and therefore cannot be hid Math. 5. 14 15. The Commands Instructions given them infer the necâ—ssity of this They must cry aloud and not spare and left up their voice like a Trumpet and shew the Lords People their transgressions sins Isai. 58. 1. They are Watchmen upon Ierusalems walls which must not hold their peace day nor night nor keep silence nor give the Lord rest till He establish and till He make Ierusalem a praise in the earth Isai. 62. 6 7. They are Watchmen that must command all to hearken to the sound of the Trumpet Ier. 6. 17. They must be valiant for the Truth upon the earth Ier. 9. 3. They must say thus saith the Lord even to a rebellious Nation whether they will hear or forbear and not be afraid of them Ezek. 2. 5 6. They must cause the people to know their abominations Ezek. 16. 2. and the abominations of their Fathers Ezek. 20. 4. And what their Master tells them in darkness that they must speak in the Light and what they hear in the ear that they must Preach upon the house tops Math 10. 27. These things cannot be done in a Clandestine way And therefore now when there is so much necessity it is the duty of all faithful Ministers to be laying out themselves to the utmost in their Pastoral function for the suppreffing of all the evils of the time not withstanding of any prohibition to the contrary in the most publick manner according to the examples of all the faithful servants of the Lord both in the Old New Testaments Though it be most impiously Tyrannically interdicted yet the Laws of God stand unrepealed and therefore all who have a Trumpet a Mouth should set the Trumpet to their Mouth and sound a certain sound not in secret for that will not alarme the people but in in the most publick manner they can have access to And it is the duty of all to come hear obey their Warnings Witnessings command who will the contrary It was for mocking despising His Words misusing His Prophets that the wrath of the Lord arose against His people the Iewes until there was no remedy 2 Chron. 36 16. Therefore from all that is said it must be Concluded that Meetings for Gospel Ordinances must be as publick as can be And if so then that they should be in houses safety will not permit to us to go to the streets or Mercat places neither safety nor prudence will admit Therefore we must go to the fields with it cost what it will. 4. Seeing then there must be Meettngs publick Meetings And seeing we cannot and dare not in Conscience countenance the Curats Meetings we must hear oune embrace follow such faithful Ministers as are cloathed with Christ Commission Righteousness salvation and do keep the Words of the Lords patience and the Testimony of the Church of Scotland in particular This I think will not or dare not be denyed by any that oune the Authority of Christ which none can deny or instruct the contrary
gifts graces were useless in that case which notwithstanding are given for the good of the Church 7. Yea by this when his fixed relation cannot be kept it would follow that he ceased to be a Minister and his Commission expired so that he should stand in no other relation to Christ than any private person so qualified which were absurd for by Commission he is absolutely set apart for the work of the Ministrie so long as Christ hath work for him if he continue faithful 8. This hath been the practice of all the Propogators of the Gospel from the begining and of our Reformers in particular without which they could never have propogated it so far And it was never accounted the Characteristick of Apostles to preach unfixedly because in times of persecution Pastors Doctors also might have Preached wherever they came as the Officers of the Church of Ierusalem did when scattered upon the persecution of Stephen Act. 8. 1. did go every where preaching the Word ver 4. Since therefore they may must Preach in this unfixed manner they must in this broken State look upon all the Godly in the Nation that will oune hear them to be their Congregation and embrace them all and consult their conveniency universal advantage in such a way as all equally may be admitted and none excluded from the benefit of their Ministrie And therefore they must go to the fields with it 6. The Lord hath so signally ouned successfully countenanced and singularly sealed Field-Preaching in these unfixed exercises that both Ministers people have been much encouraged against all opposition to prosecute them as having experienced much of the Lords power presence in them and of the breathings of the enlivening enlarging enlightening and strengthening Influences of the Spirit of God upon them The people are hereby called in this case of defection to seek after those waters that they have been so often refreshed by For in this case of defection God being pleased to seal with a palpable Blessing on their Souls the Word from Ministers adhering to their principles they may safely look on this as a Call from God to hear them and follow after them so ouned of the Lord. And it being beyond all doubt that the Assemblies of the Lords people to partake of pure Ordinances with full freedom of Conscience in the fields hath been signally ouned blessed of the Lord and hath proven a mean to spread the knowledge of God beyond any thing that appeared in our best times And in despight of this â—ignal Appearance of God and envy at the good done in these Meetings all endeavours being used by wicked men to suppress utterly all these Rendevouzes of the Lords Militia both by open force cunning Midianitish wiles Ministers cannot but look upon it as their duty and that the Lord hath been preaching from Heaven to all who would hear understand it that this way of preaching even this way was that wherein His Soul took pleasure and to which He hath been is calling all who would be co-workers with Him this day to help forward the Interest of His Crown Kingdom Many hundreds of persecuted people can witness this and all the Martyrs have sealed it with their blood and remembered it particularly on the Scaffolds that they found the Lord there and that He did lead them thither where He made them to ride upon the high places of the earth and to eat the increase of the fields and to suck honey out of the rock and that in their experience under the Spirits pouring out from on high they found the wilderness to be a fruitful field and in their esteem their feet were beautiful upon the Mountains that brought good tidings that published peace that brought good tidings of good that published salvation that said unto Zion thy God reigneth And all the Ministers that followed this way while they were faithful and had but litle strength and kept His Word and did not deny His Name found that verified in their experience which is said of Philadelphia Revel 3. 8. that they had an open door which no man could shut The Characters whereof as they are expounded by Mr Durham were all verified in these Meetings where 1. The Ministers had a door of utterance upon the one side opened to them and the peoples ears were opened to welcome the same in love to edification simplicity diligence on the other 2. This had real changes following many being made humble serious tender fruitful c. 3. The Devil raged set himself to oppose traduce some way to blast the Ministrie of the most faithful more than any others just as when Paul had a greater door effectual opened to him there were many adversaries 1 Cor. 16. 9. 4. Yet the Lord hath been observably defeating the Devil Profanity in every place where the Gospel came and made him fall like lightening from Heaven by the preaching of the Word 5. And the most experimental proof of all was that hereby ground was gained upon the Kingdom of the Devil and many Prisoners brought off to Jesus Christ. And therefore seeing it is so this mnst certainly be a Call to them who are yet labouring in that Work which others have left off to endeavour to keep this door open with all diligence and reap the corn when it is ripe and when the Sun shines make hay and with all watchfulness lest the wicked one sow his tares if they should fall remiss 7. As for the Circumstance of the place of this unfixed manner of celebrating the Solemn Ordinances of the Worship of God in a time of persecution This cannot be quarrelled at by any but such as will quarrel at any thing But even that is better warranted than to be weakened with their quarrels For before the Law Mountain-Worship was the first Worship of the World as Abrams Iehovah-jireh Gen. 22. 14. Iacâ—bs Bethel or House of God in the open fields Gen. 28. 17 19. his Peniel Gen. 32. 30. his El-Elohe-Israel Gen. 33. ult do witness Under the Law they heard of it at Ephratah they found it in the fields of the Wood Psal. 132. 6. After the Law field-preaching was the first that we read of in the New Testament both in Iohn his preaching in the wilderness of Iudea being the voice of one crying in the wilderness and the Master Usher of Christ Math. 3. 1 3. and in His Ambassadours afterwasds who on the Sabbath sometimes went out to a river side were prayer was wont to be made As Lydia was converted at Pauls field preaching Act. 16. 13 14. And chiefly the Prince of Preachers Christ Himself preached many a time by the syds of the Mountains and the the sea side That Preaching Math. 5. was on a Mountain vers 1. And this is the more to be considered that our Lord had Liberty of the Synagogâ—es to Preach in yet he frequently left them and preached either in
it shall be then the Watchmen must not hold their peace and they that make mention of the Name of the Lord must not keep silence Isai. 62. 6 7. especially when His Name Glory is blasphemed baffled and afronted as at this day with a Witness 8. When Ministers generally are involved in a course of defection and do not give faithful warning but daub over the peoples and their oun defections then the Prophets must Prophesie against the Prophets Ezek. 13. 2 10. c. As alas this day there is a necessity for it 9. When publick Worship is interdicted by Law as it was by that Edict prohibiting publick Prayer for thirty dayes in Daniels time They could not interdict all Prayer to God for they could forbid nothing by that Law but that which they might hinder punish for contraveening but mental Prayer at least could not be so restrained And certain it is they intended only such Prayer should be discharged as might discover Daniel But might not the wisdom of Daniel have eluded this interdiction by praying only secretly or mentally No whatever Carnal wisdom might Meeâ—te his honesty did oblige him in that case of Confâ—â—re parâ—hen he knew the writing was signed to go into hie clossly â—d to open his windowes and to kneel upon his knâ— to cleatimes a day as he did aforetime Dan. 6. 10. Nowny agaireason can be given for his opening his windowes Was it only to let in the air or was it to see Ierusalem out at these windowes The Temple he could look toward as well when they were shut No other reason can be assigned but that it was necessary then to avouch the Testimony for that indispensable Duty then interdicted And is not publick preaching indispensable Duty too which is declared Criminal except it be confined to the mode their wicked Law tolerates which we can no more homologate than omitt the duty 10. When it is an evil time the evil of sin is incumbent and the evil of wrath is impendent over a Land then the Lyon hath roared who will not fear the Lord God hath spoken who can but Prophesie Amos. 3. 8. There is no contradiction here to that word whiâ—e hath been miserably perverted in our day to palliâ—use or â—il silence of time-servers Amos. 5. 13. The prudent shall keepâ— silence in that time for it is an evil time Whereby we cannot understand a wylie withdrawing our witness against the times evils for there they are commanded to bestir themselves actively in seeking good hating the evil loving the goâ—d and establishing Iudgement in the gate vers 14 15. but we understand by it a submissive silence to God without fretting according to that Word Ier. 8. 14. for the Lord our God hath put us to silence and Mic. 7. 9. Calvin upon the place expounds it The prudent shall be affirighted at the terrible vengeance of God Or they shall be compelled to silence not willingly for that were unworthy of men of courage to be silent at such wickedness but by the force of Tyrants giving them no leave to speak Sure then this is such a time wherein it is prudence to be silent to God but not to be silent for God but to gâ—ve publick witness against the evils of sin abounding and publick warning of the evils of punishment imminent 11. Then is the 〈◊〉 of it when worldly wisdom thinks it unseasonable 〈◊〉 men cannot endure â—ound Doctrine but after 〈…〉 lusts they heap to themselves teachers haâ—in◠〈…〉 and turn away their eaâ—s from the Truth◠〈…〉 â—each the Word and be instant is indeed in it 〈…〉 because profitable necessary but it is out of season as to the Preachers or Hearers external interest and in the esteem of Worldly Wiselings 2 Tim. 4. 2 3 4. See Pool Synops. Critic in Locum So in our day men cannot endure free faithful dealing against the sins of the times but would have smooth things deceits spoken unto them like those Isai. 30. 10. And nothing can be more 〈…〉 to speak plainly so as to give every thing its 〈…〉 either of the sins of the times or of the snares of the times or of the miseries evils of the times or of the duties of the times or of the dangers and the present Crisis of the times Which no faithful Minister can forbear Therefore so much the more is it seasonable that it is generally thought unseasonable 12. In a word whenever 〈…〉 Testimony of the Church or any part of it is 〈…〉 then is the season to keep it and contend for it and to hold it fast as our Crown Revel 3. 10 11. It must be then a word spoken in due season and good necessary Prov. 15. 23. at this time to give a publick Testimony against all wrongs done to our blessed Lord Jesus all the encroachments upon His prerogatives all the invasions of the Churches priviledges all the overturnings of our Covenanted Reformation and this openly designed introduction of Poperie Slaverie But now how shall this Testimony be given by us conveniently or how can it be given at all at this time in our Circumstances so as both â—he matter and manner of it may be a most significant Witness-bearing to the merit of it except we go to the fields Who can witness significantly against Poperie Tyrannie and all the evils to be spoken against this day under the protection of a Papist Tyrant as house-Meetings under the Covert oâ— this Tolâ—eration are stated for if these Meetings be private secret then the Testimony is not known if they be publick then they are exposed to a Prey Now by all these general Hypothâ—sâ—s it is already in some measure evident that Field-Meetings are very expedient But I shall adde some more particular Considerations to inculcate the same more clossly In the Third Place besides what is said to clear the Lawfulness necessity of a publick Testimony against the evils of the present time Some Considerations may be added to prove the Expediency of this way manner of giving a Testimony by maintaining Field-Meetings in our present Circumstances 1. The keeping of Field-Meetings now is not only most convenient for Testifying but a very significant Testimony in it self against this Popish Toleration the wickedness of whose Spring Original and of its Nature and Terms Channel Conveyance End design is shewed in the Historical Narrative thereof and cannot be denyed by any Presbyterian whose constant principle is that there should be no Toleration of Poperie Idolatrie or Heresie in this Reformed Covenanted Church Reason Religion both will conclude that this is to be witnessed against by all that will adhere to the Cause or Reformation overturned hereby and resolve to stand in the Gap against Poperie to be introduced hereby and that will approve themselves as honest Patriots in defending the Laws Libertys of the Country subverted hereby And besides if it be considered with respect to
not Gods Ordinance and there is no hazard of damnation for refusing to obey their unjust commands but rather the hazard of that is in walking willingly after the Commandment when the Statutes of Omri are kept So that what is objected from Eccles. 8. 2-4 I counsell thee to keep the Kings Commandment c. is answered on Head. 2. And is to be unsterstood only of the Lawful commands of Lawful Kings 2. Rebellion is a damnable sin except where the word is taken in a laxe sense as Israel is said to have Rebelled against Rehoboam and Hezekias against Sennacherib which was a good Rebellion and clear duty being taken there for Resistence Revolt In that sense indeed some of our Risings in Armes might be called Rebellions for it is Lawful to Rebel against Tyrants But because the word is usually taken in an evil sense therefore would have been offensive to acknowledge that before the Inquisitors except it had been explained But Rebellion against Lawful Magistrats is a damnable sin exemplarly punished in Korah and his Companâ— who rebelled against Moses and in Shebah and Absalom who rebelled against David for to punish the Just is not good nor to strike Princes for equity Prov. 17. 26. And they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation Rom. 13. 2. So that this Objection brought from this place as if the Apostle were commanding there subjection without Resistence to Nero and such Tyrants as it is very impertinent It is fully answered above Head. 2. Here it will be sufficient to reply 1. He is hereby vindicating Christianity from that reproach of casting off or refusing subjection to all Magistrats as if Christian Liberty had destroyed that Relation or that they were not to be subject to Heathen Magistrats Whereupon he binds this duty of subjection to Magistrats for conscience sake in general And it is very considerable what Buchanan sayes in his book de jure regni that Paul did not write to the Kings themselves because they were not Christians and therefore the more might be born with from them tho they should not understand the duty of Magistrats But imagine that there had been some Christian King who had turned Tyrant and Apostate to the Scandal of Religion what would he have written then Sure if he had been like himself he would have denyed that he should be ouned for a King and would have interdicted all Christians Communion with him and that they should account him no King but such as they were to have no fellowship with according to the Law of the Gospel 2. He speaks of Lawful Rulers here not Tyrants but of all such as are defined qualified here being powers ordained of God terrours to evil works Ministers of God for good Yea but says Prelats and their Malignant Adherents these are only Motives of subjection to all powers not qualifications of the powers I answer they are indeed Motives but such as can be extended to none but to these powers that are so qualified 3. He speaks of Lawful powers indefinitely in the plural number not specifying any Kind or degree of them as if only Kings Emperours were here meant It cannot be proven that the power of the sword is only in them Neither was there a plurality of Kings or Emperours at Rome to be subject to if he meant the Roman Emperour he would have designed him in the singular number All the reasons of the Text aggree to inferiour Judges also for they are Ordained of God they are called Rulers in Scripture and Gods Ministers revengers by Office who judge not for man but for the Lord And inferiour Magistrats also are not to be resisted when doing their duty 1 Pet. 2. 13. yet all will grant when they go beyond their bounds and turns litle Tyrants they may be with-stood 4. He does not speak of Nero concerning whom it cannot be proven that at this time he had the Soveraign power as the learned Mr Prin shewes Or if he had that he was a Tyrant at this time and if he meant him at all it was only as he was obliged to be de jure not as he was de facto All men know and none condemns the fact of the Senate that resisted Nero at length without transgressing this precept Yea I should rather think the Senate is the power that the Apostle applies this Text to if he applied it to any in particular 5. The subjection here required is the same with the honour in the fifth Command whereof this is an exposition and is opposite to the Contraordinatness here condemned Now subjection takes in all the duties we owe to Magistrates and Resistence all the contraries forbidden but unlimited obedience is not here required so neither unlimited subjection 3. We may allow Passive subjection in some cases even to Tyrants when the Lord layes on that yoke and in effect sayes He will have us to lie under it a while as He Commanded the Jewes to be subject to Nebuchadnezzar of which passage adduced to prove subjection to Tyrants Universally Buchanan ubi supra infers that if all Tyrants be to be subjected to because God by His Prephet Commanded His people to be subject to one Tyrant Then it must be likewise concluded that all Tyrants ought to be killed because Ahabs house was Commanded to be destroyed by Iehu But passive subjection when people are not in capacity to resist is necessary I do not say Passive obedience which is a meer Chimaera invented in the brains of such Sycophants as would make the world slaves to Tyrants Whosoever suffereth if he can shun it is an enemy to his oun being for every natural thing must strive to preserve it self against what annoyeth it and also he sins against the order of God Who in vain hath ordained so many Lawful means for preservation of our being if we must suffer it to be destroyed having power to help it 4. We abhor all war of subjects professedly declared against a Lawful King as such all war against Lawful Authority founded upon or designed for maintaining Principles inconsistent with Government or against Policy Piety Yea all war without Authority Yes when all Authority of Magistrates supreme subordinate is perverted and abused contrary to the ends thereof to the oppressing of the people and overturning of their Laws Liberties people must not suspend their Resistence upon the Concurrence of men of Authority and forbear the Duty in case of necessity because they have noâ— the peers or Primores to lead them for if the ground be Lawful the call clear the necessity cogent the capacity probable they that have the Law of Nature the Law of God and the fundamental Laws of the Land on their side cannot want Authority though they may want Parâ—iaments to espouse their quarrel This is cleared above Head. 2. Yet here I shall adde 1. The people have this priviledge of nature to defend themselves and their Rights Liberties as well as
succession by a scandalous Assassination But it is clear then David was Resisting him and that is enough for us and he supposes he might descend into battel perish 1 Sam. 26. 10. not excluding but that he might perish in battel against himself resisting him We are commanded indeed not to resist evil but whosoever shall smite us on the one check to turn to him the other also Math. 5. 39. and to recompense to no man evil for evil Rom. 12. 17. But this doth not condemn self defence or Resisting Tyrants violently endangering our Lives Laws Religion Liberties but only resistence by way of private revenge retaliation and enjoins patience when the clear call dispensation do inevitably call into suffering but not to give way to all violence Sacriledge to the subverting of Religion Righteousness These Texts do no more condemn private persons retaliating the Magistrate than Magistrats retaliating private persons unless Magistrats be exempted from this precept and consequently be not among Christs followers Yea they do no more forbid private persons to resist the unjust violence of Magistrats than to resist the unjust violence of private persons That Objection from our Lords reproving Peter Math. 26. 52. Put up thy sword for all they that take the sword shall perish by the sword hath no weight here for this condemns only making use of the sword either by way of private revenge or usurping the use of it without Authority and so condemns all Tyrants which private subjects do not want to defend themselves their Religion Liberty or using it without necessity which was not in Peters case tum quia valebat Christus se ipsum defendere tum quia volebat se ipsum tradere Pool Synops. Critic in Locum Christ could easily have defended himself but he would not and therefore there was no necessity for Peters rashness it condemns also a rash precipitating and preventing the Call of God to acts of Resistence But otherwise it is plain it was not Peters fault to defend his Master but a necessary duty The reason our Lord gives for that inhibition at that time was two fold one expressed Math. 26. 52. for they that take the sword c. Which do not belong to Peter as if Peter were hereby threatened but to those that were coming to take Christ they usurped the sword of Tyrannical violence and therefore are threatened with destruction by the sword of the Romans so is that commination to be understood of Antichrist and the Tyrants that serve him Rev. 13. 10. he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword which is a terrible word against persecuters The other reason is Iohn 18. 11. The Cup which my Father hath given me shall I not drink Which clearly resells that Objection of Christs non-resistence To which it is answered that suffering was the end of His voluntary suscepted humiliation and His errand to the World appointed by the Father and undertaken by Himself which is not the Rule of our practice Thô it be true that even in His Sufferings He left us an ensample that we should follow His steps 1 Pet. 2. 21. In many things as He was a Martyr His Sufferings were the purest Rule Example for us to follow both for the matter and frame of Spirit submission patience constancy meekness c. but not as He was our Sponsor and after the same manner for then it were unlawful for us to flee as well as to resist because He would not flee at that time 7. As we are not for Rising in Armes for triffles of our oun things or small injuries done to our selves but in a case of necessity for the preservation of our Lives Religion Laws Liberties when all that are dear to us as men and as Christians are in hazard So we are not for Rising up in Armes to force the Magistrate to be of our Religion but to defend our Religion against his force We do not think it the way that Christ hath appointed to propogate Religion by Armes Let Persecuters Limbs of Antichrist take that to them but we think it a Priviledge which Christ hath allowed us to defend preserve our Religion by Armes especially when it hath been established by the Laws of the Land and become a Land-right and the dearest and most precious Right Interest we have to contend for It is true Christ saith Iohn 18. 36. My Kingdom is not of this world if my Kingdom were of this world then would my Servants fight that I should not be delivered to the Iewes But this Objection will not conclude that Christs Kingdom is not to be defended preserved even by Resistence of all that would impiously sacrilegiously spoil us of it in this world because it is not of this world for then all were obliged to suffer it to be run doun by slaves of Hell and Satan and Antichrists vassals Papists Malignants Yea Magistrats were not to fight for it for they are among His Servants if they be Christians But the good Confession He Witnesses here before Pilat is that He hath a Kingdom which as it is not in opposition to any Cesarean Majestie So it must not be usurped upon by any King of Clay but is specifically distinct from all the Kingdoms of the world and subordinate to no earthly power being of a Spiritual Nature whereof this is a demonstration and sufficient security for earthly Kingdoms that His Servants as such that is as Christians and as Ministers were not appointed by Him to propogate it by Armes nor to deliver Him their King at that time because He would not suffer His Glorious design of Redemption to be any longer retarded but this doth not say but thô they are not to propogate it as Christians and as Ministers by carnal weapons yet they may preserve it with such weapons as men Hence that old saying may be vindicated preces lachrimae sunt arma Ecclesiae Prayers and tears are the Armes of the Church I grant they are so the only best prevailing Armes and without which all others would be ineffectual and that they together with Preaching Church Discipline c. are the only Ecclesiastical or Spiritual Armes of a Church as a Church but the Members thereof are also Men and as men they may use the same weapons that others do And ye my flock the flock of my Pasture are men saith the Lord Ezek. 33. 31. Yea from this I shall take an Argument It it be Lawful for private Subjects without the concurrence of Parliaments to resist a Tyrant by Prayers and tears Then it is Lawful also to resist him by violence But the former is true as our Adversaries grant by this Objection and I have proved it to be duty to pray against Tyrants Head 2. Ergo The Connexion is founded upon these reasons 1. This personal Resistence by violence is as consistent with that Command Rom. 13. 1 2. Let
City they strengthened their hands for that good work against very much opposition And when challenged by Sanâ—allat the Horonite Tobiah the Servant the Ammonite and Geshâ—m the Arabian Great Kings-men all of them who despise â—oasted them what is this that ye do will ye rebeli against the King say they He would not plead Authority thô in the general he had the Kings warrant for it Yet he would not give them any other satisfaction than to intimate whether they had that or not having the Call of God to the Work they would go on in the duty and God would prosper them against their opposition Nehem. 2. 19 20. And accordingly not withstanding of all Scoffs Plots Conspiracies to hinder the building yet they went on and were encouraged to remember the Lord fight for their Brethren c. and to build with weapons in their hands Nâ—h 4. and brought it to an end notwithstanding of all their Practices to fright them from it chap. 6. Hence If neither Challenges of Rebellion nor Practices of Malignant Enemies who pretend Authority nor any discouragements whatsoever should deter people from a duty which they have a Call Capacity from God to prosecute and if they may promove it against all opposition by defensive armes Then when a people are oppressed treated as Rebells for a necessary duty they may must defend themselves and maintain their duty notwithstanding of all Pretences of Authority against them 18. I shall adde one Instance more which is vindicated by jus populi from the Historie of Esther Because Mordecai refused to do homage to a Hangman Haman I should say a cruel Edict was procured from Ahasuerus to destroy all the Jewes written sealled with the Kings ring according to the Laws of the Medes Persians becoming a Law irrevocable irreversible Esther 3. 12 13. Yet the Lords Providence always propitious to His People brought it about so that Haman being hanged Mordecai advanced the Jewes were Called Capacitated as well as Necessitated to resist that armed Authority that decreed to Massacre them and that by the Kings oun Allowance Esther 9. When his former decree drew near to be put in execution in the day that the Enemies of the Jewes hoped to have power over them it was turned to the Contrary that no man could withstand them Here they had the allowance of Authority to resist Authority And this was not a Gift of a new right by that Grant which they had not before only it was corroborative of their radical right to defend themselves which is not the Donative of Princes And which they had power to exerce use without this thô may be not the same Capacity for the Kings warrand could not make it Lawful in point of Conscience if it had not been so before Hence If people may have the Allowance of well advised Authority to resist the decree force of unlawful Authority then may a people maintain right Authority in defending themselves against the injuries of pretended Authority But by this Instance we see the Jewes had Ahasuerus his Allowance to resist the decree force of his oun ill-advised Authority thô irreversible And hence we see that Distinction in this Point is not groundless between resisting the Authority of Supreme powers and the abuses of the same Secundly We have in the Scripture both tacite express Reproofs for lying by from this duty in the season thereof 1. In Jacobs Swan-Song or Prophetical Testament wherein he foretells what should be the fate future condition of each of the Tribes and what should be remarked in their carriage influencing their after Lot in their generations for which they should be commended or discommended approved or reproved Coming to Issachar he Prophetically exprobates his future Ass-like stupiditie that indulging himself in his lazie ease and lukewarm security he should mancipate himself his Interests into a servile subjection unto his Oppressors Imposâ—itions even when he should be in a Capacity to shake them off and free himself by Resistence Gen. 49. 14 15. Issachar is a strong Ass couching doun between two burdens This is set doun by the Holy Ghost as the brand bane not of the person of Issachar Jacobs Son but of the Tribe to be inured upon them when they should be in such a concition by their oun silliness Hence I argue If the Holy Ghost exprobrate a people for their stupid subjection to prevailing Tyranny when they do not improve their Ability Capacity Right to maintain defend their Liberties Priviledges Then this implies a Commanded duty to defend them according to their Capacity from all unjust invasion But the former is true here Therefore also the later 2. In Deborahs Song after their victorious Resistence the people are severely upbraided for not concurring in that Expedition Iudg. 5. 16 17 23. and Meroz is particularly cursed for not coming to the help of the Lord to the help of the Lord against the Mighty This is Recorded as a resting Reproof against all that will withdraw their helping hand from the Lords people when necessitate to appear in defensive Armes for the preservation of their lives Liberties On the other hand Zebulon Naphtali are commended for jeoparding their lives in the high places of the fields and are approved in that practice of fighting against the Kings of Canaan that then ruled over them vers 18 19. Hence if people be Reproved Cursed for staying at home to look to their oun Interests when others jeopard their lives for their Countries defence freedom from Tyrannie Oppression Then this implies its a duty to concur in so venturing But here Rubeen Dan Asher Meroz are Reproved Cursed for staying at home when Zebulon Naphtali jeoparded their lives c. Ergo. Thirdly we have in the Scriptures many promises of the Lords approving countenancing the duty of Defensive Armes even against their Oppressing Rulers 1. In that forecited Testament of the Patriarch Iacob in that part of it which concerns Gad he Prophecies that Tribe should have a lot in the world answering his name and be engaged in many Conflicts with Oppressing Dominators who at first should prevail over him but at length God should so bless his endeavours to free himself from their oppressions that he should overcome There is an excellent Elegancy in the Original answering to the Etymology of the name Gad which signifies a Troop reading thus in the Hebrew Gad a Troop shall overtroup him but he shall ouertroup them at the last Gen. 49. 19. And Moses homologating the same Testimony in his blessing the Tribes before his death shewes that he should make a very forcible successful Resistence and should execute the Justice of the Lord over his Oppressors Deut. 33. 20. 21. Wherein is implied a promise of Resistence to be made against Oppressing Conquerours who should acquire the supreme rule over them for a
time And the success of that Resistence for overcoming necessarly supposes Resistence Hence where there is a promise of success at last to a peoples Conflicts against prevailing Tyrannie there is implied an Approbation of the duty and also a promise of its performance wrapped up in that promise But here is a promise c. Ergo 2. In that Threatening against Tyrants shewing how they shall be thrust away burnt up with fire there is couched a promise and also an implyed Precept of Resisting them 2 Sam 23. 6. The Sons of Belial shall be all of them as thorns thrust away with hands fenced with iron c. which clearly implies Resistence and more than that Rejection Repression Hence If it be threatened as a Curse against Rulers of Belial and promised as a Blessing that they shall be so roughly handled then this implies a duty to resist them who cannot be otherwayes taken But here this is threatened c. 3. When the Lord shall have mercy on Iacob choose Israel It is promised Isai. 14. 2 3. that they shall take them Captives whose Captives they were And they shall rule over their Oppressors This necessarly implies infers a Promise of Resistence against these Oppressing Rulers in the time off their Domineering as well as revenge after their yoke should be broken And some thing of mens action as wel as Gods Judgement in breaking that yoke for they could not take them Captives nor Rule over them except first they had resisted them whose Captives they were There is Resisting of the Supreme Power subjection whereunto was the bondage wherein they were made to serve Hence If it be promised that a Captivated subjugated people shall break the yoke free themselves of the bondage of them that had them in subjection then it is promised in that case they must resist the Supreme Powers for such were they whose Captives they were The Antecedent is here express 4. There are promises that the Lords people when those that rule over them are incensed against the Holy Covenant and when many of their Brethren that should concur with them shall be frighted from their duty by fear o r corrupted with flatterie shall be made strong to do exploits thô in such Enterprizes they may want success for some time and fall by the sword flame and by captivity spoyl many dayes Dan. 11. 30-34 Which is very near Paralel to the case of the Covenanted people of Scotland their appearing in Defensive exploits against their Covenant-breaking Rulers these many years bygone This was very eminently fulfilled in the Historie of the Maccabees before râ—hearsed Hence If it be promised that a people shall be strong to do exploits in Resisting the Armes of their Rulers opposing their Covenant and overturning their Religion Liberties Then it must be approven that such a Resistence is Lawful even thô it want success But this is here promised To the same purpose it is promised that after the Lords people have been long kept as Prisoners under the bondage of Oppressing Rulers they shall by a vigorous Resistence be saved from their Tyrannie Zech. 9. 13-17 when the Lord shall bend Iudah for him and raise up Zions Sons against the Sons of Greece So it was in their Resistences victories against the Successors of Alexander who had the rule over them for a time And so it may be again when the Lord shall so bend His people for Him. Hence If the Lord promises to fit Spirit His people for Action against their Oppressing Rulers and to Crown their Atchievements when so fited Spirited with Glorious success Then it is their duty and also their honour to Resist them But here that is plainly promised 5. There are promises of the Lords making use of His people and strengthening them to break in pieces the power of His their Enemies and His defending maintaining them against all their power projects when they think most to prevail over them As is promised in the threatened Catastrophe of the Babylonian Usurpation Ier. 51. 20-24 Thow art sayes He to Israel of whom He speaks as the rod of His Inheritance in the preceeding verse my battle ax weapons of war and with thee will I break in pieces c. Whensoever this hath been or shall be accomplished as it may relate to the vengeance to be execute upon the New Testament Babylon it clearly implies their breaking in pieces Powers that were Supreme over them Hence If the Lord will make use of His peoples vindictive Armes against Babylon ruling over them then He will Justifie their Defensive Armes against Babylon Oppressing them Here it is promised c. So Mic. 4 11. to the end Many Nations shall be gathered to defile look upon Zion and then the Lord shall give Allowance Commission to His people to arise thresh c. What time the accomplishment of this is referred to is not my concern to inquire It seems to look to the New Testament times wherein the Lords people shall be first in great straits and then enlarged But to restrict it to the Spiritual Conquest over the Nations by the Ministrie of the Word thô I will not deny but that may be included seems too great a straitening of the Scope and not so apposite to the Expressions which certainly seem to import some forcible action of men and more than the Peaceable Propagation of the Gospel It is usually referred to the latter dayes of that Dispensation when both the Iewish Gentile Zion shall be totally finally delivered from Babylon or Antichristian Tyrannie before or about which Period the Enemies of Christ and of His people shall attempt their Ultimus Conatus to destroy the Church groaning under their bondage but when they are all well mustered in a General Randezvous the Lords people shall have a gallant game at the chase But whensoever the time be of fulfilling the promise it ensures to the people of God the success of their Defensive Armes against them that pretended a Domination over them And it looks to a time when they should have no Rulers of their oun but them under whose subjection they had been long groaning and now brought to a very low pass yet here they should not only resist but thresh them Hence If in the latter dayes the people of God are to be honoured and acted forth with such a Spirit Capacity to thresh beat doun these powers under which they have been long groaning Then when the Lord puts them in such Capacity to attempt it they should be ambitious of such a honour But here it is promised c. The same may be inferred from the Prophets vision Zech. 1. 19 20. He sees four Carpenters Resisting the four hornes the hornes scattered Iudah so that no man did lift up his head but the Carpenters came to fray them to cast out the hornes of the Gentiles which lifted up their horn over
the Land of Iudah These hornes had the Supreme power over Iudah for a time while they were in no Capacity to resist them But as soon as the Lord furnishes them with Capacity Instruments impowered to resist them they do it effectually The Carpenters are certainly the Lords people themselves for here they are opposite to the Gentiles which all were except the Lords people Hence If the Lord promises when reconciled to His people to furnish them with Instruments to fray scatter the power of Tyrants who have long born doun their head Then when they are so furnished they may resist them But the Lord here promises that c. This is more plainly promised also Zech. 10. 5. c. Then they shall be as mighty men which shall tread doun their Enemies And the pride of Assyria shall be brought doun Hence If the Lord when He shall have Mercy on His people will bless their Resistence so as to bring doun the pride Scepter of them that had the Supreme power over them Then in hope of such a blessing they may attempt such a duty when the Call is clear Fourthly we have also Precepts from whence we may consequentially conclude the Approven duty of Defensive Armes against Oppressing Rulers 1. The Children of Israel are Commanded to vexe the Midianites sinite them for saith the Lord they vexe yow with their Wyles Numb 25. 17 18. And to avenge themselves Numb 31. 2. Which did not only oblige the people when they had Moses for their Magistrate to lead them forth but in the dayes of Gideon when they were under their rule whom they were to avenge themselves upon Hence If people must vexe their Enemies avenge themselves of them by a war offensive when ensnared by their Craftiness much more may they resist them by a war Defensive when invaded by their Cruelty 2. There is a Command to puâ—ish every City or party making Apostasie into Idolatry Deut. 13. 12-15 Upon this Moral Ground was Israels war against Benjamin Iudg. 20. And their bringing Amaziah into Condign punishment which is vindicated by Mr Knox. See above Per. 3. pag. 41 42. Hence If people are to bring to condign punishment Idolatrous Apostates seeking to Intyce them Then much more ought they to resist such Tyrants seeking to Inforce them to such Apostasie 3. There is a precept not only to defend but also to rescue deliver our Brethren when in hazard Prov. 30. 11 12. We must not for bear to deliver them when drawen to death which will at least infer the duty of assisting them when forced to defend themselves for If it be a duty to to rescue them from any prevailing power that would take their lives unjustly much more is it duty to defend them and our selves both against their Murdering violence But it is duty to rescue them c. 4. All that would learn to do well are commanded Isai. 1. 17. to relieve the Oppressed which is not spoken to Magistrates only many of whom were the Oppressors the Princes were rebellious Companions of thieves vers 23. So also Isai. 58. 6. It is required of a people that would be accepted of God in their humiliations to let the Oppressed go free and to break every yoke Hence If it be duty to relieve the Oppressed by breaking the yoke of them that Oppress them Then it is duty to defend them and our selves both against them that would oppress us more But the former is here commanded Therefore c 5. There is a Command for a spoyled Oppressed people when the Lord is reconciled to them and Sympathises with them to deliver themselves from their Rulers servitude Zech. 2. 7. Deliver thy self O Zion which dwellest with the daughter of Babylon Which comprehends all the ordinary Active means of peoples delivering themselves from oppressing powers that rule over them And consequently Defensive Resistence for it cannot only be restricted to flight included vers 6. the promise annexed vers 9. imports more when they that spoyled them shall be a spoyl to their servants Whereby it is insinuated they were so to deliver themselves as not only to free themselves from their servitude but to bring their Masters under subjection Hence If the Lords people being subject to Tyrants ruling over them for the time may deliver themselves from their Oppressing Masters then may they resist them Defend themselves The Antecedent is express here in the Command 6. There is a Command given by Christ to His Disciples to provide themselves with Defensive weapens necessary for their Defence against them that would pursue after their lives as well as with other things necessary for their sustenance Luk. 22. 36 Now he that hath a purse let him take it and likewise his scrip and he that hath no sword let him sell his garment buy one Before when he had sent them out upon an extraordinary Commission as it were to serve their Apprentship in the Work of the Gospel He did not allow them such sollicitous care to provide themselves because He would give them a proof of His sufficiency to sustain protect them without the ordinary means of their oun Diligence But now when He was about to withdraw His bodily presence from them and would warn them of the Discouragements they were to expect in the Prosecution of their more continued Work which they had a Commission for not to be retracted He would not have them to expect Provision Protection by a Course of Miracles but to provide themselves with means for their sustenance and also for their Defence against the violence of men which chiefly was to be expected from their Rulers who would persecute them under the notion of Transgressors of the Laws of their Kingdoms Countries He was not indeed to make much use of them at that time for Himself Who was then to finish the Work of Redemption by Suffering Only that what was written might be accomplished in Him He would make so much use of them as voluntarely to be involved under the censure reproach of Rebellion being taken among men in Armes that He might be reckoned among Transgressours vers 37. Therefore when they told him they had two swords He said It is enough vers 38. I need not stand upon that Impertinency of a Conceit that these were Spiritual swords Which deserves no Confutation being fitter to be put among Quakers delirious distractions than to be numbered among the notions of men of understanding for then the Purse and the Scrip must be Spiritual too And these Spritual things must be bought by sellings of Garments And yet they would be such Spiritual tools as would have a sharp edge for cutting off of Carnal ears and such as would be both visible sensible And two of them would be enough They were then ordinary Material swords which the Lord Commands His Followers to provide themselves with for their defence as Men in cases of necessity and
when they should be in a Capacity to improve them against their Murdering Persecuters against whom He gives His Royal Grant of Resistence that the world may know His Subjects thô they have more Priviledges Spiritual yet they have no less humane Priviledges than other men Albeit at that Period of His determined Suffering He would not allow the present use of them Hence If the Lords people should provide themselves with Armes of defence thô they should be reputed Transgressors for so doing Then may they use these Armes of Defence against them that Persecute them under that Notion But the Antecedent is clear Therefore c. Fifthly We may infer the same Truth from some of the Prayers of the Saints wherein they glory in the confident expectation of the Lords strengthening them favouring approving their helpers in the experience of the Lord Assisting them while in the mean time constitute in a formed Appearance of Resistence I shall only hint these 1. In that prayer Psal. 44. 5. They glory in hope that through the Lord they will push doun their enemies c. yet now they were under the power of Tyrannizing Dominators which they were Resisting for vers 9. they complain they were put to shame because the Lord went not forth with their Armies they which hated them spoyled them And for His Sake were killed all day long Hence they plead that the Lord would awake and not forget their affliction oppression Whereby it is evident they were under the yoke of Tyrannizing powers and Resisting according to their might Which by whomsoever or upon what occasion soever the Psalm was compiled shewes that no want of Success in Resisting Tyrants can mar the Saints faith in pleading for the Lords Assistence Approbation of the Duty Hence they that in faith may pray for boast of their treading doun their Tyrannizing powers that rise up against them may also in faith attempt the Resisting of them in their oun defence But here the Lords people did the former 2. We find David under Sauls persecution while he had a party of 600. men to defend himself against his rage in the Psalmes which he composed upon that occasion not only complaining of Oppressors but encouraging himself in the faith that God would be with them that assisted him in his essay of defending himself and imprecating destruction to Saul his Complices that the Lord would cut them off in His Truth and let him see his desire upon them Psal. 54. 4 5. ult And Psal. 57. 4. And Psal 57. throughout And Psal. 140. 7 9. He imprecates against the head of them that compassed him about and consequently against Saul Whence I argue 1. If the Lords people conflicting with encompassed with Oppressing Rulers as so many Lyons Dogs may pray praise for the help of those that assist them in their endeavours of Self-preservation from them then may they make use of their help for their Defence for which they pray praise But here we see the Lords people did the former Therefore they may do the latter 2. If we may pray against Kings and for preservation from them Then may we Defend our selves against them and endeavour the means of that preservation for which we pray The Connexion is before cleared yet here I adde That which will give a Dispensation from our duty of praying for them will also dispense from the duty of being passively subject to their will And consequently will allow defending our selves from their violence But here we see Tyrannie Treacherie and designed Mischief will give a Dispensation from our duty of praying for them thô that be duty as indispensable as subjection Again if any thing demur us from Resisting of Princes it must be respect to their Majestie and the Character of the Lords anointing upon them But we see no respect to that will demur a Believer from praying in faith against them Therefore no such respect will hinder but that he may defend himself against his violence And indeed if we consider it right if the impression of any Majestie God hath put upon Princes should bind up our hands from any Resistence it will restrain from prayer-resistence for if that impression have any force at any time it must be when a man is most solemnly stated before God and speaking to God as a Christian rather than when he is acting as a man with a man like himself And as prayer-resistence is the more formidable forcible Resistence than any other as this Saul and many other Kings have found by their woful experience so it is more restricted than other Resistence for we may defend our selves against many whom we must not pray against to wit our private enemies for whom we are commanded to pray yet no body will deny but we may resist their violence And likewise we are commanded to pray for Kings when invested with Gods Authority But when their degeneration looses us from that obligation to pray for them and allowes us to pray against them when they turn Enemies to God as we see in the prayers of the Psalmist Then also we may more warrantably resist them by Defensive Armes 3. Among the Halle-luyahs in the end of Psalmes there is one Calculaâ—e for the prevailing time of the Church when the Lord shall take pleasure in His people In that time of the Saints being joyful in Glory when they may glory in the rest security the Lord will vouchafe upon them they are Prophetically very Pathetically excited to praise prayer-wise Psal. 149. 6. to the end Let the high praises of God be in their mouth and a two edged sword in their hand to bind their Kings with chains to execute upon them the Iudgement written this hâ—nour have all the Saints Halle-lujah This was their praise honour when they were brought in to execute vengeance upon the Kings Nobles of 〈◊〉 This also in Davids time was the ambition and also the attainment of the Saints in their Triumphant victories over many of their Oppressors round about them But it looks to a further more famous execution of vengeance upon the Tyrants of the earth when they shall have long kept under the Church of God at length the Lord shall give His people a Capacity to break their yoke which when ever it shall be shall be their honour Hence If it be the honour of the Saints when the Lord puts them in Capacity to execute vengeance upon their Enemies thô they be Kings that Oppress them Then it may be their ambition to seek it at least they may resist them Thus from several Scripture Practices Reproofs Promises Precepts prayers this Truth may be proven from which Scriptures though other precious Truths are more Natively deduced yet this Truth by unstrained unconstrained Consequence may be also clearly inferred HEAD VI. The Sufferings of Some upon the account of Extraordinary executing of Iudgement upon Notorious Incendiaries
that cryed Crucifie Iesus were Murderers of Christ Or by procuring it as Haman was guilty of the intended murder of the Iewes Or Concurring therein as Ioab was guilty of Uriahs death as well as David and Iudas of Christs by betraying him Or by the Patrocinie thereof defending sparing the Murderers when called by Office to punish them as David was guilty in not punishing Ioab Ahab in patronizing the Murder of Naboth Or by Consenting thereunto as Saul consented to the death of Stephen or by knowing permitting conniving at it as is condemned Prov. 24. 11 12. Whether this be done under colour of Law as Pilate Murdered our Lord Herod killed Iames or without all colour by Absolute power as Herod the Ascalonite murdered the Infants or whether it be done by purpose as Ioab murdered Abner Amasa or without previous purpose yet with knowledge of the Action in the perpetrating of it as men may do in passion when provoked beside their purpose or in a Tumult without intending it before hand yet that is Murder Barabas committed Murder in the Insurection For as for Casual killing contrary to intention without knowledge that 's no breach of the Command And whatever may be said of necessitated delivering up the Innocent pursued by a potent Enemy to deliver the City from his fury or of prefering our oun life to our innocent neighbour in a case when both cannot be preserved and by preserving the one Lawfully the other happens to lose his life I do not medle with these Cases But since this is taken for granted by Casuists I infer if it be Lawful that an innocent man die in case of necessity that others may be preserved Then much more is it Lawful that the nocent wo are guilty of murdering the Righteous all these wayes above specified and actually prosecuting their murdering designs by these methods should rather be made to die than the Righteous be destroyed But of this sort of Murder taking away the life of the Righteous none hath the impudence to accuse that Reproached people 2. Thô a man kill an innocent unwittingly unwillingly besides his knowledge and against his will yet he may be guilty of sinful homicide if he was obliged to know that he was in hazard of it and neglected to consider lest a man might be killed by what he was doing as if a man should shoot at random when he doth not know but some may be killed thereby or if one were hewing with an axe which he either knew or might have known to be loose and the head not well fastened to the helve did not advertise those about him of it if by flying off it happened to kill any person he were not innocent but if he knew not without any inadvertency then he were guiltless Deut. 19. 5. See Durham on 6. Com. So if a man built a house without battlements he should bring blood upon his house if any man fell from thence Deut. 22. 8. But of this the question is not 3. Thô a person be not altogether innocent nor to be reckoned among the Rigtheous but suppose him wicked profane and engaged in an evil Course dishonourable to God prejudicial to the Church Kingdom and very injurious to us Yet it may be Murder to kill him if he be not guilty of Crimes that deserve death by the Law of God for the life of man is not subjected to the arbitrement of any but His who is the Author of life death It s necessary to all to obey the Law Thow shalt not kill without exception but such killing as is approven by the Author of the Law as saith Amesâ—de Consciencia cap 31. quest 2 Hence this people so much reproached with extravagant Actions do abundantly clear themselves of that imputation of being of the mind to kill all that differ from them which was the impudent forgerie of the father of lies in their Informatory Vindication Head. 2. Pag. 54. We positively disoune say they as horrid Murder the killing of any because of a different perswasion or opinion from us albeit some have invidiously cast this odious Calumny upon us And it is as clear they that took the Oath of Abjuration swore a lie when they abjured the Apologetical Declaration in so far as it asserted it was Lawful to kill all imployed in the Kings service when it asserted no such thing as is shewed above Head. 3. To think so much let be to declare it far more to practise such a thing against all that served the King or any meerly because they served him or because they are in a wicked Course or because they have oppressed us were abominable for these things simply do not make men guilty of death to be punished Capitally by men according to the Law of God. But when they are stated in such opposition to us and serve the Tyrants Murdering Mandats by all those wayes above specified then we may by the Law of God and Nature and Nations destroy slay and cause to perish and avenge our selves on them that would assault us and are seeking our destruction as it was Lawful for the Iewes to do with Hamans Emissaries Esther 8. 11 13. 9. 1 2 5. This Charge then cannot reach the Case 4. Thô Murderers and such as are guilty of death by the Law of God must be punished by death for he that sheddeth mans blood by man must his blood be shed Yet it may be Murder for a man to kill another because he thought him so Criminal and because he thought it his duty being moved by a pretended Enthusiastical Impulse in imitation of the extraordinary Actions of such as were really moved by the Spirit of God. As when Iames Iohn would have commanded fire to come doun to consume the Samaritans the Lord rebuked them saying ye know not what manner of Spirit ye are of for the Son of man is not come to destroy mens lives but to save them Luk. 9. 54-56 Such impulses had need to be well examined for ordinarly they will be found not consistent with a Gospel Spirit which is alwayes averse from act of Cruelty Blind zeal sometimes may incite men to fearful work yea the persecuters have often most of that Spirit as our Lord foretells the time cometh that whosoever killeth yow shall think that â—e doth God service Iohn 16. 2. Paul in his Pharisaical zeal breathed out slaughter against the disciples And Satan can drive men under several colours to act such things as he did the Bours in Germany and Iohn of Leyden and his followers whose practices are deservedly detested by all that have any spark of Christianity or humanity for if this were espoused as a Principle there would be no security for mens lives But hence it cannot be concluded that God may not animate some to some rare Enterprises for the cutting off of Tyrants and their bloody Emissaries Incendiaries Destroyers of innocent people and puting an end to and
stoping the Career of their Murders in a time of real extreame necessity the matter of the action being unquestionably Lawful their ends intentions really good commendable there being also a deficiency of others to do the work and themselves in some probable Capacity for it See Ius Popul Cap. 20. Pag. 410. Neither can it be denyed but true zeal may sometimes incite people to such exploits for the preservation of Religion Liberty their oun lives and Brethren all like to be destroyed by the impunity of beasts of prey This will be found very consistent with a Gospel Spirit And though this Principle be asserted and also put in practice all persons notwithstanding thereof would have sufficient securitie for their life except such as hath really forefeited their lives by all Law of God man. Those that are led by Impulses may pretend the imitation of extraordinary examples and abuse them yet hence it will not follow that in no case these extraordinary Examples may be imitated Shall the examples of good Magistrats executing Justice on Idolaters Murderers be altogether unimitable because Tyrants abuse them in persecuting the innocent If this arguing were good it would make all vertuous Actions in the world unimitable for these may be abused by pretenders See Ius Popul ubi supra Pag. 412. But it cannot be charged upon the Sufferers upon this head that they had nothing to give as the reasons of their Actions but pretexts of Enthusiasmes 5. Thô a man be really so Criminal as thaâ— he deserves death by the Law of God man yet it may be murder to kill him if we do not certainly know it and can prove it and convict him of it upon Tryal for no man must be killed indictâ or incognitâ causâ Thus even Magistrats may Murder Murderers when they proceed against them without probation or cognition according to Law far more private persons Thus the Abiezrites would have murdered Gideon not only unjustly for his duty of throwing doun the Altar of Baal but illegally because they would had him brought out that he might die without any further Tryal Iudg. 6. 29 30. So likewise the Iewes that banded bound themselves under a curse to kill Paul before he was tried would have Murdered him not only unjustly for his duty but illegally before he was tried Act. 23. 12. But this doth not condemn the Actions of those Sufferers in maintaining the necessary execution of Judgement upon persons who are Notorious Murderers yea professing a trade and prosecuting habitually a tract of continued Murdering the people of the Lord. 6. Thô it should be certainly known and sufficiently proven that a man is a Murderer c. Yet it were Murder for an inferiour under a relation of subjection to him to kill him as long as that subjection were acknowledged for whensoever the common mutual right or relation either Natural Moral Civil or Religious to the prejudice or scandal of the Church or State or particular persons is broken by killing any person that is Murder thô the person killed deserve to die As if a Subject should kill an acknowled King a Son by Nature or in Law should kill his Natural or legal father a Servant should kill his Master breaking these relations while their right tye were acknowledged as some of them must still be acknowledged as long as the Correlates continue in being to wit that of a father is not broken by his becoming a Murderer and to the danger detriment scandal of the Church State That were properly Assassination for Assassines are they who being subject to others either out of their oun head for their oun ends or by command of their Superiours kill their Superiours or such as they command them to kill as Alstedius describes them Theolog. Cas. cap. 18. de homicid reg 55. Therefore David would not kill Saul because he acknowledged him to be the Lords Anointed to whom he was under a relation of subjection and because he was his Master and Father in Law And because it would have tended to the hurt of the Kingdom and involved it in Combustions Contentions about the succession and prejudged his oun right as well as to the scandal of the people of God thô Saul deserved otherwise to be capitally punished So Ishbosheth was killed by Baanah Rehab 2 Sam. 4. 7. So Iozachar Iehozabad who killed Ioash 2 King. 12. 21. were punished as Murderers chap. 14. 6. because they were his servants and did assassinate him to whom they were subject So the servants of Amon were punished by the people as Conspirators against their King Master 2 King. 21. 23 24. though Amon deserved to have been punished as well as Amaziah was Hence generally it is observed by some that thô right be given to equals or Superiours to bring their nearest relations to condign punishment when they turn entycers to Idolatry Deut. 13. 6. Yet no right or jus upon any cause or occasion whatsoever is given to inferiours as Children c. to punish their fathers See Pool Synop. Critie in Locum However it be this cannot condemn the taking off of Notorious Murderers by the hand of such as were no way subject nor related to them but as enemies who in extreame necessity executed righteous Judgement upon them without prejudice of the true necessary chief good of the Church Commonwealth or of any particular persons just right security as Napthali qualifies it Pag. 22. 23. Prior edit 7. Thô the matter of the Action were just and the Murderer such a person as we might punish without any breach of relative obligations or duties Yet the manner may aggravate it to some degree of Murder if it be done Secretly when it may be execute publickly or suddenly precipitantly when it may be done deliberately without rushing upon such an Action or hurrying the Murderer to eternity as this also might have had some weight with David not to murder Saul secretly suddenly in the Cave or when he was sleeping So Ishbosheth and Ioâ—sh and Amoa were murdered Or if it be done subtilly when it may be performed in more plain fair dealing or teacherously under colour of friendship or cruelly without regard to humanity and especially when the Actors are at peace with the person whose blood they shed as Ioab shed the blood of war in peace 1 King. 2. 5. in killing Abner Amasa so craftily cruelly and Absalom made his servants Assassinate Amnon 2 Sam 13. 28 29. But this cannot be charged upon them who executed righteous Judgement as publickly deliberately and calmely as the extraordinary exigence of pressing necessity in extremity of danger could allow upon notorious Murderers with whom they were in open and avowed terms of hostility 8. Thô the manner also be inculpable yet if the principle and motive of killing even those that deserve to die be out of malice hatred rage or revenge for private
Plague was stayed And the Lord spake unto Moses saying Phinehas hath turned my wrath away from the Children of Israel while he was zealous for my sake among them I give unto him my Covenant of Peace because he was zealous for his God and made an atonement for the Children of Israel Numb 25. 3 13. This Action is here much commended and recorded to his commendation Psal. 106. 30 31. Then stood up Phinehas executed Iudgement and so the Plague was stayed and that was counted unto him for righteousness unto all generations that is in justitiam facti coram hominibus qui alios potuissent hoc factum pessime interpretari tanquam temerarium intempestiâ—um a privato contra Magistratum patratum crudele nimis ab negatum poenitentiae spatium Deus tamen aestimavit tanquam insigniter justum Pool Synops. Critic in Locum It is certain this Action was some way extraordinary because Phinehas was not a Magistrate nor one of the Judges whom Moses commanded to slay every one his men vers 5. Otherwise if this had been only an ordinary execution of Judgement by the Authority of Moses Phinehas his Action would not have been so much taken notice of nor so signally rewarded but here it is noted as a singular act of zeal which it could not have been if it was only an ordinary execution of the Magistrats command yet thô this action was signally Heroical proceeding from a Principle of pure zeal for God and prompted by a powerful motion of the Spirit of God to that extraordinary execution of Judgement It is notwithstanding imitable in the like Circumstances For the matter is ordinary being neither preternatural nor supernatural but just necessary The end was ordinary to turn away the wrath of God which all were obliged to endeavour The principle was ordinary thô at the time he had an extraordinary measure of it being zealous for the Lord as all were obliged to be The rule was ordinary to wit the Command of slaying every man that was joined to Baal-Peor vers 5. only this was extraordinary that the zeal of God called him to this Heroical Action thô he was not a magistrate in this extraordinary exigent to avert the wrath of God which was neither by Moses his command noâ— by the Judges their obedience turned away onely by Phinehas's act of another nature and his zeal appearing therein prompting him thereto the Lord was appeaseâ— the plague stayed In which fervour of zeal transporting him to the omission off the ordinary solemnities of Judgement the Spirit of the Lord places the righteousness praise of the Action Yet the same Call Motion of zeal might have impowered others to do the like the Text speaks of no other Call he had but that of zeal vers 11 12 13. yeâ— another was obliged to do the same upon the ground of that Moral Command Deut. 13. 6 9. having the ground of Gods ordinary Judgement which commandeth the Idolater to die the death and therefore to be imitate of all that prefer the true honour Glory of God to the affection of flesh wicked Princes as Mr Knox affirmeth in his conference with Lithingtoun rehearsed before Per. 3. Further let it be inquired what makes it unimitable Certainly it was not so because he had the motion direction of Gods Spirit for men have that to all duties It was not because he was raised stired up of God to do it for God may raise up Spirits to imitable actions It was not because he had an extraordinary Call for men have an extraordinary Call to imitable actions as the Apostles had to Preach We grant these Actions are extraordinary unimitable which first do deviate from the rule of com mon virtue and transcend all rules of common reason Divine Word but this was not such but an heroick Act of zeal fortitude Next these Actions which are contrary to a Moral ordinary Command are unimitable as the Israelites robbing the Egyptians borrowing not paying again Abrahams offering his son Isaac but this was not such Next those Actions which are done upon some special Mandate of God and are not within the compass of ordinary obedience to the ordinary rule are unimitable but this is not such As also Miraculous Actions and such as are done by the extraordinary inspiration of the Spirit of God as Elias his killing the Captains with their fifties by fire from Heaven but none can reckon this among these See Ius populi at length discussing this point and pleading for the imitableness of this Action cap. 20. If therefore the Lord did not only raise up this Phinehas to that particular act of Justice but also warrant accept him therein reward him therefore upon the account of his zeal when there was a Godly zealous Magistrate able and whom we cannot without breach of charity presume but also willing to execute Justice how much more may it be pleaded that the Lord who is the same yesterday to day for ever will not only pour out of that same Spirit upon others but also when He gives it both allow them thô they be but private persons also call them being otherwise in a Physical Probable Capacity to do these things in an extreamely necessiâ—ous and otherwise irrecoverable state of the Church to which in a more intire condition He doth not call them And particularly when there is not only the like or worse provocations the like necessity of execution of Justice of Reformation for the turning away of wrath removing of Judgments that was in Phinehas's case but also when the Supreme Civil Magistrate the Primores regni other inferiour Rulers are not only unwilling to do their duty but so far corrupted perverted that they are become the Authors Patronizers of these abominations Naph Prior Edit Pag. 23. 3. When the Children of Israel served Eglon the King of Moab and they cried unto the Lord He raised them up a Deliverer Ehud the son of Gera who made a dagger brought a present unto Eglon and put forth his left hand and took the dagger from his right thigh and thrust it into his belly Iudg. 3. 21. That this Action was approven will not be doubted since the Lord raised him up as a Deliverer who by this Heroical Action commented it and since it was a Message from God. And that it was extraordinary were ridiculous to deny for sure this was not the judicial Action of a Magistrate Neither was Ehud a Magistrate at this time but only the Messenger of the people sent with a present Yet it is imitable in the like case as from hence many grave Authors concluded the Lawfulness of killing a Tyrant without a Title 4. When the Lord discomfiâ—ed the host of Iabin and Sisera his Captain fled into the house of Heber the Kenite Iael Hebers wife took a nail of the tent and went softly â—nto him and smote
Lord will cause the Prophâ—ts and the unclean Spirits to pass out of the Land And it shall come to pass that when any shall yet Prophesie then his father his mother that begat him shall say unto him thow shalt not live and shall thrust him through when he Prophesieth Zech. 13. 3. Which cannot be meant of a Spiritual penetration of the heart for it is said he shall not live and the wounds of such as might escape by resistence or flight are visible in his hands vers 6. It is therefore to be understood of Corporal killing Intycers to Idolatrie according to the Law Deut. 13. 9. either by delivering them up to the Judges as Piscator on the place sayes Or as Grotius saith transfodient ut Phineas Zimri Numb 25. hoc intellige de Pseudo-propheta populum volente abducere ad cultum falsorum deorum nam in tales quemvis Iudaeum Lex armabat Deut. 13. quae Lex expresse addit in tali crimine nec filio parcendum From all which I conclude If people are to bring to condign punishment Idolatrous Apostates seeking to intyce them Then may oppressed people dayly in hazard of the death of their Souls by Complyance or of their bodys by their Constancy in Duty put forth their hand to execute Judgement in case of necessity upon Idolatrous Apostates Incendiaries and the principal Murdering Emissaries of Tyrants that seek to destroy people or enforce them to the same Apostasie But the former is true Therefore c. 4. The same may be inferred from that Command of Rescuing Delivering our Brother when in hazard of his life for omitting which duty no pretence even of ignorance will excuse us Prov. 24. 11 12. If thow forbear to deliver them that are drawen unto death and those that are ready to be slain if thow sayest behold we knew it not doth not He that pondereth the heart consider it and He that keepeth thy Soul doth not He know it and shall not He render to every man according to his works eripe h. e. ex manu invasoris latronis injusti Magistratus c. idque vel manu vel lingua defendente vel quovis alio modo licito Solent homines multas excusationes nectere se nescire illius vel periculum vel innocentiam non tanta authoritate valere ut eum liberent rerum suarum satagere alienis nolle se ingerere c. hic unam excusationem reliquas omnes complectentem exempli causâ proponit refellit as Commentators say Pool Synops. Critic in locum This precept is indefinitely given to all Principally indeed belonging to righteous Magistrates But in case of their omission And if instead of detending them they be the persons that draw or send out their destroying Emissaries to draw them to death then the precept is no more to be restricted to them than that vers 2. not to be envious against evil men or that vers 10. If thow faint in the day of Adversity thy strength is small can be said to be spoken only to Magistrates Hence If it be a Duty to Rescue our Brethren from any prevailing power that would take their lives unjustly and no pretence even of ignorance will excuse the forbearance of it Then it must be Lawful in some extraordinary cases to prevent the Murdering violence of publick Incendiaries by killing them rather than to suffer our selves or our Brethren to be killed when there is no other way in probability either of saving our selves or Rescuing them But here the former is Commanded as a duty Therefore the Later also must be justified when the duty cannot otherwise be discharged Now having thus at some length endeavoured to discuss this some way odd esteemed odious Head to which Task I have been as unwillingly drawn as the Actors here pleaded for were driven to the occasion thereof whom only the necessity of danger did force to such Atchievements to preserve their oun and Brethrens lives in prosecuting the Cause and nothing but the necessity of duty did force me to this Undertaking to defend their Name from Reproach and the Cause from Calumnies I shall Conclude with a humble Protestation that what I have said be not stretched further than my obvious declared Design doth aim at which is not to press a practice from these precedents but to vindicate a Scripture Truth from invidious or ignorant Obloquies and not to specify what may or must be done in such Cases hereafter but to justify what hath been done in such Circumstances before Wherein I acknowledge that thô the Truth be certain such things may be done yet the duty is most difficult to be done with Approbation Such is the fury of corrupt passion far more fierce in all than the pure zeal of God is to be found fervent in any that too much Caution Tenderness Fear can scarce be adhibite in a Subject wherein even the most warrantable provocation of holy zeal is ordinarly attended with such a concurrence of Self-interest and other carnal Tentations as it is impossible without the signal Assistance of special Grace to have its exercise in any notable Measure or Manner without the Mixture of sinful allay as the True Non-conformist doth truly observe ubi supra Pag. 391. Yet this Doctrine thô in its defined and uncautioned Latitude be obnoxious to accidental abuses as all Doctrines may be abused by mens corruption or ignorance misapplying the same is nevertheless built upon such Foundations that Religion will oune to be firme and Reason will ratify their force And I hope it is here so circumscribed with Scripture-boundaries and restricted in the narrow Circumstantiation of the Case that as the Ungodly cannot captate advantage from it to encourage themselves in their Murdering villanies seeing they never were never can be so Circumstantiate as the Exigence here defined requires So as for the Godly I may presume upon their tenderness and the Conduct of that Spirit that is promised to lead them and the zeal they have for the honour of Holiness with which all real Cruelty is inconsistent to promise in their Name that if their Enemies will repent of their wickedness and so far at least Reforme themselves as to surcease from their cruel Murdering violence in persecuting them to the death and devouring them as a prey then they shall not need to fear from them the danger of this Doctrine but as saith the proverb of the Ancients Wickedness proceedeth from the Wicked but their hand shall not be upon them But if they shall still proceed to Murder the Innocent they must understand they that hold this Truth in Theorie will also reduce it to practice And bloody Papists must know that Christians now are more Men than either stupidly to surrender their throats to their Murdering swords or supinely to suffer their villanie to pass unpunished and thô their favours have flattered many and their sury hath forced others into a faint succumbing superceding from
all Action against them Yet all are not asleep and I hope there are some who will never enter in any terms of peace with them against whom the Mediator hath declared and will prosecute a war for ever but will still oune aim at this as the highest pitch of their ambition to be found among His chosen called faithful ones who maintain a constant opposition against them However thô the Lord seems in His providence to put a bar upon all publick Appearances under a display of open war against them and it is not the design of what is said here on this and the foregoing Head to incite or invite to any Yet Certainly even at this present all that have the zeal of God and love to His righteous Cause rightly stated in their hearts will find themselves called not to supercede altogether from all Actions of avowed and even violent opposition against them whom we are all bound both by the Morality of the duty and the Formality of Solemn Sacred Covenants to hold out from a violent intrusion into and peaceable possession of this Land devoted to God and to put them out when they are got in either by their fraud or force And this plea now brought to an end will oblige all the Loyal Lovers of Christ to an Endeavour of these 1. To take Alarms and to be fore-warned and fore-armed resolute ready to withstand the invasion of Poperie that it be neither established by Law through the supineness of such who should stand in the Gap and resolve rather to be sacrificed in the spot by a valiant resisting than see such an Abomination set up again Nor introduced by this Liberty through the wyles of such whose chiefest principle of policy is perfidie who design by this wide Gate and in the womb of the wooden horse of this Toleration to bring it in peaceably Nor intruded by force fury fire sword if they shall fall upon their old game of Murders Massacres It concerns all to be upon their Guard and not only to come out of Babylon but to be making ready to go against it when the Lord shall give the Call. 2. To resist the beginings of their Invasions before they be past remeady And for this effect to oppose their gradual erections of their Idolatrous Monuments and not suffer them to set up the Idol of the Mass in City or Country without attempting if they have any force to overthrow the same 3. In the mean time to defend themselves and the Gospel against all their Assaults and to Rescue any out of their hands upon all occasions that for the Cause of Christ they have caught as a prey to oppose prevent their oun the Nations ruine slaverie But to Conclude As it will be now expected in Justice Charity that all the Vassals Votaries Subjects and Servants of the One Common Lord King Christ Jesus every where through out His Dominions who may see this Representation of the case and Vindication of the cause of a poor wasted wounded persecuted reproached Remnant of the now declining sometimes Renouned Church of Scotland will be so far from standing Esaw-like on the other side either as Enemies rejoicing to look on their Affliction in the day of their Calamity or as Neutral unconcerned with their distressed Condition or as Strangers without the knowledge or sense of their Sorrowes Difficulties Or as Gallio's caring for none of these things or thinking their case not worthy of Compassion or their cause of Consideration or possibly condemning their Sufferings as at best but Stated upon slender subtile nice Points that are odd odious and invidiously represented It is now expected I say that Christians not possessed with Prejudice which is very improper for any that bear that Holy honourable Signature and not willing to be imposed upon by Misinformations will be so far from that Unchristian temper towards them as to be easily byassed with all Reports Reproaches to their disadvantage that if they weigh what is in this Treatise offered and truly I may say candidely Represented without any design of prevarication or painting or daubing to make the Matter either better or worse than it will seem to any impartial Observer they will admit intertain a more charitable Construction of them and not deny them Brotherly Sympathie and Christian Compassion nor be wanting in the duty of Prayer Suppltcation for them that at length the Lord would turn His hand upon the litle Ones and bring at least a thrid Part a Remnant of Mourners through the fire So to that litle Flock the poor of the Flock that wait upon the Lord and desire to keep His way I shall only say Though I judged Necessity was laid upon me in stead of a better to essay this Vindication of your cause as stated betwixt yow and your and your Lords Enemies the men that now ride over your heads that say to your Soul bow doun that we may go over yow I desire not that yow should yea I obtest that yow may not lay any Stress on the strength of what I have said but let its weight lie where it must be laid on that firm Foundation that will bear yow and it both that Stone that tried Stone that Precious Corner Stone that sure Foundation Christ Jesus And search the Scriptures of Truth to see whether these things be so or not And I doubt not but by that Touchstone if these Precious Truths be tried they will be found neither hay nor stubble that cannot abide the fire but as silver tried in a furnace of earth purified seven times Do not offend that they are contemned as small and contradicted as odious but look to the importance of His Glory whose Truths Concerns they are and from Whom they are seeking to draw or drive yow who oppose and oppugu these Truths Stand fast therefore in the Liberty where with Christ hath made yow free and hold fast every Word of His patience that yow may be kept in this hour of tentation Let no man take your Crown or pull yow doun from your excellency which is alwayes the design of your wicked Enemies in all their several shapes shewes both of force fraud craft cruelty Beware of their snares and of their tender Mercies for they are cruel and when they speak fair beleeve them not for there are seven abominations in their hearts Say ye not a Confederacy to all them to whom this people shall say a Confederacy neither fear ye their fear nor be afraied Sanctify the Lord of Hosts Himself and let Him be your fear and let Him be your dread And He shall be for a Sanctuary but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel for a gin for a snare to the Inhabitants of Ierusalem Wait upon the Lord who hideth His face from the House of Iacob and look
lost as a prey in the Dragons Mouth Yet Christ having such undoubted manifold right to it will not so easily quit or forego His possession But also because He hath so constantly continued His possession maintained His Title by a long course of Contendings by the Testimonies of His witnesses against the Invaders thereof through all the Periods of the Church from the very infancy of this new Dispensation And because Scotlands conversion into the Christian Faith was among the first fruits of the Gentiles of the oldest date that any standing Church holding the head Christ this day can deduce its original from For it is clear from Ancient Records the Christian Faith was imbraced here a few years after the Ascension of our Saviour being taught by the Disciples of Iohn the Apostle received afterwards great increment from the Brittons flying to Scotland to escape the Persecution of the Emperour Domitian was long promoted by the ancient Culdees or Cultores Dei men whose memory is still fragrant for piety purity of faith life who continued some hundreds of years under various vicissitudes of Providence before either Prelacy or Poperie was known in Scotland They were first universally encouraged by King Cratilinth in the time of the last Persecution under Dioclesian which brought many of Christs witnesses hither for Shelter who were very helpful for the setling of Truth the total extirpation of the Idolatry of the Druides the Heathen Priests whereby the pure Doctrine Worship Government also of Christs Institution was established continued many years while these Witnesses of Christ had no other emulation but of well doing to advance Pietie In this Period these ancient first Confessors Witnesses of Christ did wrestle strenously according to their strength light for the Truths words of Christs patience controverted in their day both against professed Enemies Pagan Persecutors 〈◊〉 pretended friends corrupters of the Faith. Their Testimony was stated in a peculiar manner for the verity value vertue of Christs Natures Offices in 〈…〉 relâ—â—ive to either against the Malignants Sectaries of their time particularly for the concerns of His Prâ—phetical Office. And though we be at a loss that for the most art their witness is buried in oblivion through the darkness of the times succeeding yet the scraps fragments that are left do furnish us with these few Remarks I. They maintained the verity of the Christian Doctrine against both Pagan Persecutors Heretical perverters And the purity of His instituted worship without the vanity of humane inventions or conformity with either the Druides on the one hand or the Hereticks on the other with which sometime befor the end of that Period they were inâ—ested Chiefly the Pelagians with whom the faithful would have no communion but abstracted themselves in a Monastical life liveing exercising their Religion in Cells from whence many places in the Countrey yet retain the name as Kilmarnock Kil-Patrick c. that is the Cells of these eminent men among the Culdees And their Government also was that of the primitive order without Bishops with litle vanity but great simplicity holyness Many Authors do testity that near about 400 years the Church of Scotland knew nothing of the Episcopal Hierarchy untill Paâ—adius brought it in not without great opposition II. In these Recesses they had the advantage both of outward peace when others were in trouble of inward peace of conscience when others were debauched with many conjurations abjurations combinations confederacies imposed exacted by them that prevailed for the time whereby they might both keep themselves free of insnaring Oaths perfidious complyances Associations with the wicked also intertain incourage the oppressed for equity who fled unto their sanctuary for safety We find they refused to enter into League with malignant Enemies One memorable passage I shall insert though strictly it belong not to this Period as I distinguish it yet falling out within 80 years thereafter in the time of the Culdees it will not obscurely evidence the truth of this Goranus the 45 King of Scots earnestly dissuaded Lothus King of Picts to entertain the League with the Saxons not only because they were treacherous cruel but because they were Enemies to the Countreâ— to the Religion they professed concluding thus Homiâ—i vero Christiano id longe omnium videri c. But to a Christian nothing must seem more grievous than to consent to such a Covenant as will extinguish the Christian Religion reduce the profane Customes of the Heathen arme wicked Tyrants the enemies of all humanity piety against God His Law whereupon Lothus was perswaded to relinquish the Saxons Buchan Histor. rer Scotic III. Though they were not for partaking in wicked unnecessary Wars without authority or against it yet we have ground to conclude they were for War did maintain the principle of resisting Tyrannie since there was never more of the pactice of it nor more happy resistances in any age than in that Where we find that as their Ancestors had frequently done before so they also followed their footsteps in resisting reduceing to order repressing bringing to condign punishment Tyrant Usurpers And thought those actions which their Fathers did by the light of nature dictates of reason worthy of imitation when they had the advantage of the light of Revelation dictates of Faith the one being indeed moderate directed but no ways contradicted by the other Therefore we read that as their Predecessors had done with Thereus the 8 th King of Scotland whom they banished in the year before Christs Incarnation 173. With Durstus the II King whom they slew in Battel in the year befor Christ 107. Evenus 3. who was imprisoned dyed there in the year befor Christ 12. Dardanus the 20 th King who was taken in Battel beheaded by his oun Subjects his head exposed to Mockage his body cast into a sink Anno Christi 72. Luctatus the 22. King who was slain for his Leachery Tyranny anno 110. Mogaldus the 23. King slain anno 113. Conarus the 24. King a Leacherous tyrant dyed in Prison anno 149. Satrael the 26. King hanged anno 159. So after the Christian Faith was publickly professed they pursued Athirco the 29. King when degenerate into Tyranny who was forced to kill himself anno 231. They slew Nathalocus the 30. King cast him into a privy anno 242. They beheaded Romachus the 36. King and caryed about his head for a show anno 348. As they did with many others afterwards as witnesseth Buchan lib. 4. Histor. Scotic IV. Whence it is evident that as they attained even in these primitive times maintained the purity freedom of their Ministery independent on Pope Prelate or any humane Supremacy that Antichristian Hierarchy Erastian blasphemie not being known in those dayes so they contended for the order
boundaries of the Magistracy according to Gods appointment the fundamental constitutions of their Government thought it their duty to shake off the yoke disoune the Authority of these Tyrants that destroyed the same Yea we find that even for incapacity stupidity folly they disouned the Relation of a Magistrate disposed of the Government another way as they did with Ethodius 2. whose authority they did oune but Titulo tenus See Buchan loco Citato PERIOD II. Comprehending the Testimonie of the same Culdees with that of the Lollards THe following Period was that fatal one that brought in universal Darkness on the face of the whole Church of Christ and on Scotland with the first of them which as it received very early Christianity so it was with the first corrupted with Antichristianisme For that Mystorie of iniquity that had been long working till he who letted was taken out of the way found Scotland ripe for it when it came which while the Dragon did persecute the woman in the wilderness did vallantly repell his Assaults but when the Beast did arise to whom he gave his power he prevailed more by his subtiltie than his rampant Predecessor could do by his rage Scotland could Resist the Roman Legions while heathenish but not the Roman Locusts when Antichristian At his very first appearance in the world under the Character of Antichrist his harbinger Palladius brought in Prelacy to Scotland by that conveyance the contagion of Popery which hath always been as every where so especially in Scotland both the Mother Daughter cause effect occasion consequence of Popery These rose stood lived together sometimes did also fall together we have ground to hope that they shall fall again their final fatal fall is not faâ— off Whatever difficulty Authors do make in calculating the Epocha of the 42 moneths of Antichrists duration in the world because of the obscurity of his first rise yet there needs not be much perplexity in finding out that Epocha in Scotland nor so much discouragment from the fancyed permanency of that Kingdom of wickedness For if it be certain as it will not be much disputed that Popery Prelacy came in by Palladius sent Legate by Pope Celestine about the year 450. then if we adde 42 Moneths or 1260 Prophetical dâ—yes that is years we may have a comfortable prospect of their Tragical conclusion And though both clashings combinations oppositions conjunctions this day may seem to have a terrible aspect portending a darker hour befor the Dawning yet all these â—eelings revolutions though they be Symptoms of wrath incumbent upon us for our sins they may be looked upon through a prospect of faith as presages prognosticks of Mercy impendent for His Names Sake encouraging us when we see these dreadful things come to pass in our day to lift up our heads for the day of our Redemption draweth nigh This dark Period continued â—igh about 1100 years in which though Christs witnesses were very few yet He had some witnessing Prophecieing in sackcloth all the while Their Testimony was the same with that of the Waldenses Albingenses slated upon the grounds of their secession or rather abstraction from that Mystery Babylon Motâ—â—â—r of harlots Popery Prelacy for their corruption in Doctrine worship Discipline Government And did more particularly relate to the concerns of Christs Priestly Office which was transmitted from the Culdees to the Lollards And by them handed doun to the Instruments of Reformation in the following Period Their Testimony indeed was not Active by way of forcible resistance against the Soveraign Powers but passive by way of Confession Martyrdom sufferings verbal contendings witnessings against the prevailing corruptions of the time And no wonder it should be so in this some way different from ours because that was a dispensation of suffering when Antichrist was on the Ascendant they had no call nor capacity to oppose him any other way and were novv spirited for this passive Testimony in which circumstances they are an excellent pattern for imitation but not an example for confutation of that principle of defensive resistence which they never contradicted had never occasion to confirm by their practice But as in their manageing their Testimony their manner was somevvay different from ours on this respect so they had far the advantage of us that their cause was so clearly stated upon the greatest of heads of sufferings having the clearest connexion with the fundamentals of Religion Yet we shall find in this Period our Heads of suffering someway homologated if we consider I. That as they did faithfully keep contend for the word of Christs patience under that dispensation in asserting maintaniâ—g both the verity of Christs Doctrin the purity of His Worship by testifieing against the corruptions errors Idolatries Superstitions of Popery so they did constantly bear witness against the usurpation Tyrannical domination of the Antichristian Prelats And as the Culdees did vigorously oppose their first introduction and after aspiring domination as well as the corruptions of their Doctrine As we have the contendings of Eminent witnesses recorded from age to age in the fourth fifth Age Columbe Libthac Ethernan Kintogerne or Mungo in the Sexth seventh Age Colmanus Câ—emens Samson with others in the Eight ninth Age Alcuin Rabanus Maurus Ioannes Scotus Acrigena are noted in Historie And the Lollards by their Examinations Testimonies are found to have witnessed against the exercise of their power sometimes against the very Nature of their power it selfe so in their practise they condemned Prelacy as well as Popery in that their Ministers did in much painfullness poverty simplicity Humility Equality observe the Institution of our Lord. And so far as their light served had occasion to inquire into this point they acknowledged no officer in the House of God superior to a preaching Minister according to this standart they rejected craved Reformation of exorbitant Prelacy And it is plain that they were frequently discovered by discountinanceing withdrawing from their superstitions Idolatrous worship for all which when they could not escape nor repell their violence they cheerfuly embraced endured the flames II. That their Adversaries did manage their cruel craft crafty cruelty in murdering those Servants of God much after the same methods that ours do except that they are many stages outdone by their successors as much as perfect Artists do outstrip the rude beginings of Apprentices But on the other hand the Suffeâ—ers in our day that would follow the example of those Worthyes under Popery would be much condemned by this generation even by them that commend the matter of their Testimony though they will not allow the manner of it to be imitated in this day The Adversaries of Christ in this that generation are more like then his Confeâ—sors witnesses