discover the way and means of attaining salvation in this Non deficit so omits not any thing of that which is needfull to acquire this End But on the other side Non redundant in superfluis for although there be scattered up and down some general precepts concerning Magistrates and all Relations yet it being not the end of Scripture to write Politicks we may boldly say that all that is good in Government cannot be learned out of the Book of God much might be said to this but because I mean to make short work with him I shall choak him with an Authority drawn from a Patriarch of his own King-lessening Doctrine Buchanan in his Book De jure Regni when he comes to answer the Objection De jure Regni apud Scotos Pag. 47. That however Idolatrous the Kings of Israel were yet the Prophets never exhorted the people to take up Arms and to set things right by such crooked means Possum saith he apud multas Nationes plurimas saluberrimasque recensere Leges quorum in Sacris literis nullum est exemplum The Government is by Lawes Lawes there are and good ones too it may be besides what are there something it seems by him not only for Government but for governing him that hath the Government that yet there is no Scripture for And he did very ingeniously to confesse they had no Scripture for it for all their practises in that are besides the Text Kings must govern by Scripture but they think they may govern them without He is pleased a little after to commend the Testimonies of God for the best Councellours we deny it not but why are they so Because they will tell the Kings freely both their Sin and their Duty Why who should if they should not God speaks by them but sure I am he likes them the better for their freedom with Kings but let me tell you since the Scriptures are so free you might be a little modester then you are and let something else then railing be the Character of a good Preacher amongst you Page 6 Much troubled he is Page 6. with anointing of Kings and after he hath granted that one of he Cases in which the Jews used it viz in the Case of Interruption by Vsurpation which he confesseth was their Case in the present Coronation yet then he flies to this that it was Typical and taken from the Jewes without warrant They make what they please typicall but though they were anointed and Christ were yet thence to infer it was a type is no sound consequence The Jews used Baptisme before Christ Christ makes use of it also will they say this is a typicall action if so why do they not cast that off the sick were anointed with Oyl James 5.14 was that typicall as for his other that it was taken from the Jews without warrant I must look upon it as affirmed Gratis For in these things where we have not directions in the New Testament why may we not have respect to the Old especially when the action doth not deny Christ come so will not lay any Jewish bondage upon us Now to make it more odious he tells us how that this anointing was Most in use with the Bishops of Rome who to keep Kings and Emperours subject to themselves did swear them to the Pope when they were anointed and yet the Jewish Priests did never swear Kings to themselves as for England although the Pope was cast off yet the subjection of Kings to Bishops was still reteined for they anointed the King and swore him to the maintenance of their Prelaticall Dignity Very good Turpe est Doctori cùm culpa redarguit ipsum What art thou O man that condemnest another and yet dost the same things Sure you were asleep when you delivered this I am sure you forgot your self much look into Page 2 in the Chancellors Speech and see what he moves to the King so soon as he had delivered the desires of the people for his Coronation That he would maintain Religion conform to the National Covenant League and Covenant so in Pa. 10. after the Sermon was done they put him to renew the Covenant they had urged him to take it before this was but a renewing for notwithstanding their Articles at Breda they knew well how they had used him in this particular both before he landed and after contrary to their first agreement for no Coronation nor nothing to be done for him without this and who is this to Engage him too but their Presbytery that is themselves and yet they complain of the Pope and the English Bishops that they swear Kings to themselves Accordingly they fashion the people Page 21 to bear Truth and Faith to him and live and die with him with this limitation In your service according to the Nationall Covenant and Solemn League and Covenant So Page 23. the Lords one by one did promise Truth and Faith to him against all manner of Polkes whatsoever in your service according to the Nationall Covenant and Solemn League and Covenant So no Covenant no Obedience no King Yet they doe not as the Pope or the Bishops of England good men they are guilty of no such practises indeed they are not but of worse they are Where was your reason when you say that in England although the Pope was cast off yet the Subjection of Kings to Bishops was still reteined wherein or how is the King of England subject to the Bishops speak it out Man do they meet without his Order but with the danger of a premunire have any of them opposed him or railed against him in their Sermons or have they undertaken at their Assemblies to order the King to order the Army to direct them when they shall Fight when not whom they shall employ whom cast out how they shall keep their King lockt up as a Prisoner when he shall appear and when 't is fit to take him from the Army lest by being seen he prove too popular and give a Check to the Kirk All which things and many more we know who have done that pretend to nothing but the sword of the spirit Do the Bishops at any time use so much as a bold Expression to him do they not acknowledge though not their calling yet the exercise of it in this or that Precinct to him do they in their Synods offer to oblige the people by their determinations till the things agreed upon have received the Stamp of Royall Authority and so made currant can you say that at any time they have held their Resolution firm in any thing without the King's Confirmation do they not acknowledge him and pray for him as supreme in all causes as well Ecclesiasticall as Civill do you give him so much or do you so pray for him Lastly have the Bishops in England since the Reformation ever used any violent meanes to bring the King to their bow who have you known and let them bear the
charge of subjecting Kings to their modell But you go on to tell us how Subjection of Kings to Bishops is still reteined in England now let the Auditor look for some rare reasons for which he may prepare either his laughter or pity or both For the anointed the King ergo he is subject to them Hear as good an Argument the Marquis of Argyle the grand Patron of the Covenant set the Crown upon the Kings Head Page 21. will you say therefore the King was subject to him I will not say what he and you would have made him but a better Providenc hath delivered him out of those storms and a little time will discover the hidden things of that mischievous League The latter part is as good and to the same tune And swear him to the maintenance of their Prelaticall Dignity you are much out for they present nothing but what his Ancestors ever voluntarily engaged themselves too by Oath and do not force an Oath upon him of their own devising The Oath is not of their imposing but of his own free taking and thereby he engageth himself to nothing but what is by Law established not urged by violence and threats and arms And what if he doth engage by Oath to preserve the Rights of the Church is the matter so hainous Yes Bishops are Limbs of Antichrist You say much but you prove little will you make the Apostles Limbs of Antichrist Nam Alexandriae à Marco Evangelista usque ad Heraclam Dionysium Episcopos Presbyteri semper unum ex se electum in excelsiori gradu collocatum Episcopum nominabant Hieronymus ad Evagrium Epist 85 was Mark Bishop of Alexandria a Limb of Antichrist or Peter at Antioch or Rome or James at Jerusalem or Polycarp at Smyrna what have all Ecclesiastical Writers agreed together to lye in a matter of Fact delivering to us the succession of Bishops in the most principal Sees I will not say much to this the Cause hath been handled by many Learned Pens which either you have not read or if which prejudice St Hierom to whom you attribute more then all the Fathers because you think he doth least to Bishops yet if he might determine the Controversie in his Epistle to Evagrius he would give it against you Et ut sciamus traditiones Apostolicus sumptus de Veteri Testamento quod Aaron filii ejus atque Levitae in Templo suerunt hoc sibi Episcopi Presbyteri Diacani vindicent in Ecclesia Epist 85. I will add no more but look beyond Calvin yet anointing and Bishops must Be put together to the door never to come in again Yes they may and never ask a Scotch Minister leave you must not alwayes think to reign as Kings and censure as you please coupling Popery and Prelacy together without any distinction on purpose to make all that be of that judgement in the same condemnation with the Papists and so fit for your Sequestration and Violence But though he cast out the Ceremony of anointing yet he undertakes to tell us presently after how they are anointed of the Lord Because by the Ordinance of the Lord their Authority is sacred and inviolable Take heed you break not the Ordinance of the Lord for we shall have occasion afterwards to see how sacred and inviolable you make it in your opinion and practise Then you commend unto us in the same Page The spirituall Vnction which you say is common to Believers and then That few Kings are so anointed There are but few Kings therefore there cannot be many so anointed when the whole number is so small but let me tell you there are many Rebels and not one of them is so anointed Anon after you come to reckon up the Enemies to the Authority of Kings and we could enlarge your Catalogue with another name to the third sort who you say are such Who rise against Kings in open Rebellion as Absolom and Sheba who said what have we to doe with David the Son of Jesse To your Tents O Israell For at the first beginning of Rebellion amongst us by Tumults a Treatise bearing this very Title wast cast into his Majesties Coach and by whom they were excited to this is evident so they are Rebels open Rebels and Enemies to the Authority of Kings by their own Description Page 7 Page 7. You say the Photinians allow Kings in Profession but they are against the Exercise of their Power in the administration of Justice I have heard of a Northern People that crowned their King and so allowed Kings in Profession but would suffer him to doe nothing so they denied the Exercise of his Power in the Administration of Justice Are not these Photinians in Mr. Robert Douglas judgement A few lines following he makes a profession That they are far from cutting off a lap of that just power and greatnesse which God hath allowed to the King and we have bound our selves by Covenant not to diminish You mean I suppose not to diminish id est more then the Covenant doth Now in the next place when he comes to the principal Verb the Covenant that Covenant which was between God and the King he refers you to the sum of it 2 Kings 23 3. which conteins nothing we can except against But what is this to their Covenant he after mentions and the particulars of it In Josiahs you meet with none of this muster of Popery Prelacy Superstition Heresie Schisme and Prophanenesse nothing of Incendiaries Malignants or the like or engaging to alter other Nations and reform them These Men if they meet with but the word Covenant they think it is a Blank which they may fill up with what they please and then Christen it with the title of a Scripture Covenant I shall refer him for this to Oxford Reasons which when my Scotch Minister can solidly answer we will take it into further consideration and till then lay it by Now then let him boast what he will how much Scotland hath preference before other Nations for their making a Covenant if they get but as much more by it as they have already gotten a blew Bonnet will buy all Page 8 The 8. Page is such a bundle of Calumnies that I am willing quickly to skip over this Dunghill for the scent is very offensive to any good Subject or modest temper Nothing here but of Dissembling Kings the sins of his Fathers House the House of our King hath been much defiled with Idolatry Complaints of a prophane Court in England If this be to preach there is none of our Tub-men that will not doe it as well for they can make any thing idolatrous or prophane as well as he I even Learning too and I doubt if they had their minds it would be Idolatry for some men to eat their meat Page 9 But in the close of this Page and in the 9. he comes to the Covenant between the King and the People in which he saith
ANIMADVERSIONS ON THE Scotch Covenant WHEREIN All may receive satisfaction as to the Illegality of it and be easily perswaded to the Renunciation thereof By J. L. Ezek. 16.61 Then thou shalt remember thy wayes and be ashamed when thou shalt receive thy sisters thine elder and thy younger and I will give them unto thee for daughters but not according to thy Covenant LONDON Printed for Nath. Brook at the Angel in 〈◊〉 1662. Animadversions c. AS soon as I viewed this Sermon and the passages annex'd to it though I have no itch to the Presse which I wish were more narrowly lookt to yet Facit indignatio versum I could not forbear putting pen to paper that I might Vindicate my Soveraigne and the Church of England And though I could wish rather any should have done it then my self yet better it is that it should be done by one that is Minimus sacerdotum then not at all Indeed I was once in the mind to let it passe with a private Deleatur to the whole conceiving that scarse any would be found willing to feed on such sowr Grapes the greatest part of those who have any Ecclesiastical Function amongst us being weary of hearing a Charge and therefore call for a Retreat to be Sounded desiring a composure of Church Differences yet because there are some bad Stomacks that delight in green Fruit and Trash and others Weak who require some greater satisfaction to the particulars herein contained then they can give themselves I hoped that it might have some good success if not to the former yet to these latter And if any thing seem sharp let the Reader blame him Qui laesit prior It will be superfluous to Exercise any Charity in raising a doubt of the Author of this paper since the Title page bears his name or of his willingness to have it made publick since we are there told that it was Printed according to the Authors own Copy to prevent any counterfeit against which surely that care could not make a sufficient provision since it will be evident that the whole at best is no other But we may well Quaere and easily be resolved of the Reasons of issuing it out at this time of his Sacred Majesties coming to England that they were no other then either to ingage him to the same here and so give an Allay to the Affections of those that had imbarqued themselves in his and his Fathers Cause or else upon a refusall to be a Foundation of Clamor against him by their handful of Associates in England If these suffice not why may we not think that it was proposed as a pattern to some rigid and refractory Spirits to hold him to the same hard meat here which they had so liberally fed him with in Scotland It is plain that as Malice was the Mother so Mischief is the intended Daughter Others of a contrary Judgement to them have been willing to Lute up their Mouths and Acquiesce in the Royall determination with the advice of his great Council but these Men will never cease to cast in Firebrands amongst us to put all in Flames what can we not be a Church unlesse we be a Kirk or is all the World oblig'd to Dance after the Scotch Bagg-pipe is either England so Low or themselves in so High and Potent Condition that they should impose upon us or is our Peace and Settlement the onely object of their Envy or if they must needs be attemping a Disunion amongst us in such a juncture of Affairs wherein all sober minded men labour to make up our many Breaches had they no other expedient but this paper to do it as if they were resolved that his Sacred Majesty should never be free from Afflictions whether with them or us or had they no better Sermon for a Coronation or to plead their interest then this pitiful crude piece Believe it if the Author were chosen for so great a work by ability not faction we may well pitty them with whom the work of Preaching Runs so Low and let me add so full of Dreggs It is not agreeable to the more modest and civil Genius of our Nation to be so bold in the Pulpit with private men how mean soever as to name them much lesse with a KING we have learned Parcere personis dicere de vitiis it is sufficient that we give the Thesis let the Auditors Conscience make the application or where we think that necessary we cannot but account it absurd to direct it to any particular Person a course more fit to blast then instruct him nor shall any man ever find this rude way advantageous for the attaining that end which is or should be designed by Preachers the Benefit of the Auditors for who is there so publikely reproved whose corruption will not hatch a dislike of the froward and imprudent instructer and where this dislike takes place his Doctrine is like to find but a mean Reception We know well the Charge of the Apostle Those that sin rebuke before all that others also may fear 1 Tim. 5.20 But who doth not know that this is not to be understood of all offences but those that are primae magnitudinis and those sins without Controversie and publickly known and that after a Fruitlesse Tryall of all fair and gentle means and private admonitions and when ever used or if ever to God's Vice gerent in silken words But for every Minister since he will be called so so soon as he hears of any Affairs of State which dislikes his Fancy or corresponds not with his Interest immediately to flie in the Face of Majesty and by a satyricall bawling and barbarous Discourse to render it mean in the eyes of the Subjects which are of themselves too apt to entertain such thoughts and discover the bad fruits of them is neither agreeable to the Ingenuity of a Schollar the Prudence of a Christian or the Gravity of a Divine I could muster up here a Troop of practises of this nature but that I have no intent to provoke my Reader to laughter by repeating those things which were never fit to be spoken once much less in a Pulpit and yet which is the mischief of it for this only they are thought godly and faithfull And our Author tells us as much pag. 10. For They spared not saith he to tell the King his fault to his Face Yet this may seem to be a small matter in respect of another usage they have which is not only to rebuke I had almost said rail against then Coram but in their Countrey Pulpits before a few walking Clods to censure all the actions of the Court and rip up all the imagined faults of the absent King who can never be informed by such discourses so that any intelligent person must needs conclude that their proper tendency is to stir up seditious spirits to resist the lawfull Magistrate for maintenance of their new Modell And though you will think
great import But I must pray you not to call them the Proceedings of the Kingdome For it was but the proceedings of a Faction in that Kingdom a Multitude being driven in to them meerly out of Fear to secure themselves from their Violences and how much you and your Brethren here have sinned in violating Mens Consciences by your imposing upon them the Covenant you have reason to know in part already and will one day know more when you shall come before an impartiall Judge That the late King as you call him but the blessed MARTYR you might did in a hostile way set himself to over throw Religion Parliaments Laws and Liberties is most false For all the world knows he died for their Preservation You go on to shew us next that For every Breach of Covenant Subjects should not lay aside a King That is to speak plain depose him Except the Breaches be such as overthrow the Fundamentals of the Covenant with the People Why what then you doe not say in terms they may depose him in that case but you imply it For you say Except the Breaches be such So if they be such or you judge them such it seems they may Yet afterwards you think you make amends by charging private persons To be very circumspect about that which they doe in relation to the Authority of Kings It seems they may doe something only they must be circumspect in it Yet Page 24. so inconstant is he to himself that he honestly saith the Conspiracy of Subjects against their Kings is a wicked Course And he thinks he acquits them very highly that those Godly Pastors as he calls them in King James his time did not intermedle in shewing their judgement that the King should be suspended from the exercise of his Royall Power though they suffered persecution for their Honesty and Freedome That is for their bold and unreasonable Discourses before the King But what the judgment was both of them and of their Master before them J. Knox is to be seen in his Writings and theirs I will not spend time in transcribing many passages out of Knox his Treatises are to be had and in them it is to be seen that he is for more then Deposing but for that plain in his History Page 37â— Princes saith he for just Causes may be Deposed but what those just Causes are he keeps close in his own breast for an angry Assembly they conceive may determine that Knox to England and Scotland Fol. 78. If Princes be Tyrants against God and his Truth their Subjects are free from their Oaths of Obedience which if then they as well as the Estates may suspend and what not Buchanan de jure Regni pag. 61. Populus Rege est praestantior melior Populo jus est ut imperium cui velit deferat And Viretus complains much in his third Dialogue of white Divels Fol. 252. That so much Power is put into the civill Magistrates hands whereupon he calls them Temporall Popes Why doth he complain of these Men amongst us for the practice of Regicide when they and their Masters have given them the Principle These are wayes to set all the world in combustion for when ever any discontented Party shall say the King is a Tyrant to God and his Truth then they may fall upon him and Depose him and we know there was never much time between the Deposition of Kings and their being Murdered Pag. 11 In the top of the 11. Page you are to be minded that you recite a Text against Resisting the lawfull Power and in the 10. you are expresly For resisting by Arms. You complain that the Sectaries cover their Destroying of Kings with Christ's Interest And we complain some Sectaries cover their keeping under and resisting of Kings with Christs Interest The Author of the Ecclesiastical Discipline J. C. and generally all of them divide the Church into two Moyeties viz those that are to govern as Pastors Doctors and Elders and those which are to obey as Magistrates of all sorts and the people And Beza against Erastus speaks plainly and tells us that Princes have no more to doe with matters of the Church then Ministers have with the Affairs of the Commonwealth Briefly Submittere Sceptra Christo is with the Romane Catholick Ponitifici with these Men as the Learned Bishop in his Tortura Torti Page 34 observes Presbyterio which Beza is bold to call Tribunal Christi and this Author Page 24. The Kingdome of Christ more then once Pag. 12 Prayers you say Are to be made for Kings that are not in Covenant I and active Obedience to All in all lawful things is to be performed where that cannot be passive must be yielded You say you do not count these Enemies who professe Repentance and declare themselves for the Cause and Covenant Are the Cause and Covenant two distinct things you should have said for the Cause of the Covenant though indeed there be no cause for the Covenant It is strange you should commend to Christians Repentance for doing their Duty Pag. 14 For the Malignants he tells them Little Good is to be expected from them well and how much good have the Covenanters done Every one can tell you they have begger'd three Kingdoms and are not yet quiet but would quite destroy them though they find their Discipline and Government of this Nation as incurrent as Parallels Pag. 15 Prayers saith he are not much in request at Court He cannot forbear a fling at King or Court for ought I know there are the best Prayers where are the best Subjects For never tell us of Obedience to God whom you have not seen if you be deficient in the Expression of it to Men whom you have seen He sayes They deceive Kings that make them believe Presbyteriall Government cannot suit with Monarchy King James who knew these Men Intus in cute was wont to say No BISHOP no KING and we have seen the sad Truth of the Apothegme in our days so soon as they had gotten out One they sought to destroy the Other Pag. 16 You confound things so strangely that it is hard where to take you but yet it is plain that you would have Kings to have Nothing to doe in the Government of the Kirk in this true Romanists yet for a shift you can decline them to For your Brethren at the Conference at Hampton Court complained of the Bishops that they were not Friends to the Kings Supremacy yet I believe none Greater none have maintained it more stoutly Indeed we do not allow to Kings Sacerdotalia Officia but the ordering the establishing of all things that concern Religion must proceed from Him He is mixta Persona cum Sacerdote and so we see that Moses gives the Ceremonies not Aaron David orders the courses of the Priests Levites and Singers by those Councils were called Edicts made about Religion and the Affairs of the Church You tell the King he is