entry from tendering their propositions and before they were ever heard to stop his Majesties eares with grievous prejudice against all that possibly they could speak though the world sees that the onely apparent fountain of hope upon earth for the recovery of the wofully confounded affaires of the King is in the hands of that Anti-prelaticall Nation but it is the hope of these who love the welfare of the KING and the people of the Churches and Kingdomes of Britain that the hand of God which hath broken all the former devices of the Prelats shall crush this their engine also Our warner undertaketh to oppugne the Scots discipline in a way of his own none of the most rationall The irationall way of the Warners writing He does not so much as pretend to state a question nor in his whole Book to bring against any main position of his opposites either Scripture Father or reason nor so much as assay to answer any one of their arguments against Episcopacy only he culs out some of their by-tenets belonging little or nothing to the main questions and from them takes occasion to gather together in a heap all the calumnies which of old or of late their known enemies out of the forge of their malice and fraud did obtrude on the credulity of simple people also some decorted passages from the books of their friends to bring the way of that Church into detestation without any just reason The most of his stuffe is borrowed and â—ong ago confuted These practises in our Warner are the less pardonable that though he knows the chief of his allegations to bee but borrowed from his late much beloved Comrades Master Corbet in his Lysimachus Nicanor and Master Maxwel in his Issachart Burden yet he was neither deterred by the strange punishments which God from heaven inflicted visibly on both these Calumniators of their Mother Church nor was pleased in his repeating of their calumnious arguments to releeve any of them from the exceptions under the which they stand publickly confuted I suppose to his own distinct knowledge I know certainly to the open view of thousands in Scotland England and Ireland but it makes for the Warners design to dissemble here in Holland that ever he heard of such Books as Lysimachus Nicanor Issachars Burden much lesse of Master Baylies Answer to both Printed some years agoe at London Edenburg and Amsterdam without a rejoynder from any of that faction to this day The contumelions bitternes of the Warners spirit However let our Warner be heard In the very first page of his first chapter we may tast the sweetnesse of his meek Spirit at the very entry he concludeth but without any pretence to an argument there or else where the discipline of the Church of Scotland to be their own invention whereon they dote the Diana which themselves have canonized their own dreams the counterfeit image which they faine hath fallen down from Jupiter which they so much adore the very quintessence of refined Popery not only most injurious to the civil Magistrate most oppressive to the Subject most pernicious to both but also incensistent with all forms of civil Government destructive to all sorts of Policy a rack to the conscience the heaviest pressure that can fall on a people So much truth and sobernesse doth the Warner breath out in his very first page Though he had no regard at all to the cleer passages of Holy Scripture whereupon the Scots do build their Anti-Episcopall tenets nor any reference to the harmony of the reformed Churches which unanimously joyn with the Scots in the main of their Discipline especially in that which the Doctor hates most therein the rejection of Episcopacy yet methinks some little respect might have appeared in the man to the Authority of the Magistrate and civill Laws which are much more ingeminated by this worthy Divine over all his book then the holy Scriptures Can be so soon forget that the whole discipline of the Church of Scotland as it is there taught and practised The Warner stricks at the Scots Discipline through the Kings sides is established by Acts of Parliament and hath all the strength which the King and State can give to a civill Law the Warner may well be grieved but hardly can he be ignorant that the Kings Majesty at this day does not at all question the justice of these sanctions what ever therefore be the Doctors thoughts yet so long as he pretends to keep upon his face the mask of loyalty he must be content to eat his former words yea to burn his whole book otherwise he layes against his own professions a slander upon the King and His Royal Father of great ignorance or huge injustice the one having established the other offring to establish by their civil laws a Church Discipline for the whole Nation of Scotland which truly is the quintessence of Popery pernicious and destructive to all formes of civil Government and the heaviest pressures that can fall upon a people All the cause of of this choler which the Warner is pleased to speak out is the attempt of the Scots In the thresshold he stumbles on the Kings conscience to obtrude their Discipline upon the King contrary to the dictats of his own conscience and to compell forraign Churches to embrace the same Ans Is it not presumption in our warner so soon to tell the world in print what are the dictats of the Kings conscience as yet he is not his Majesties confessor and if the Clerk of the Closet had whispered somewhat in his care what he heard in secret he ought not to have proclaimed it without a warrant but we do altogether mistrust his reports of the Kings conscience for who will beleeve him that a knowing and a just King will ever be content to command and impose on a whole Nation by his laws a discipline contrary to the dictats of his own conscience This great stumble upon the Kings conscience in the first page must be an ominous cespitation on the threshold The other imputation hath no just ground The Scots never offered to impose any thing upon England the Scots did never meddle to impose upon forraign Churches there is question of none but the English and the Scots were never so presumptuous as to impose any thing of theirs upon that Church It was the Assembly of Divines at Westminster convocat by the Parliament of England which after long deliberation and much debate unanimously concluded the Presbyterian Discipline in all the parts therof to be agreable to the word of God it was the two Houses of the Parliament of England without a contrary voice who did ordaine the abolition of Episcopacy and the setting up of Presbyteries and the â—ynods in England and Ireland Can here the Scots be said to compell the English to dance after their pipe when their own Assembly of Divines begins the song when the Lords and Commons
for the Word and Sacraments so for discipline in this all who are Christians old and late the Prelaticall and Popish party as well as others go along with us to maintain in doctrin and practise a necessity even in times of persecution that the Church must meet for the worship of God and execution of Ecclesiastick discipline among their own Members In this the doctrine and practise of the Scots is according to their setled laws uncontroverted by his Majestie If the VVarner will maintain that in reason and conscience all the Churches of the world are obliged to dissolve and never more to meet when an erroneous Magistrate by his Tyrannous Edict commands them to do so let him call up Erastus from the dead to be disciplined in this new doctrine of the Prelats impious loyalty The third Principle is that the judgment of true and false doctrine The finall determination of all Ecclesiastick causes by the Laws of Scotland is in the generall Assembly of suspension and deprivation of Ministers belongeth to the Church Ans If this be a great heresie it is to be charged as much upon the State as upon the Church for the Acts of Parliament give all this power to the Church neither did the Laws of England or of any Christian State Popish or Protestant refuse to the Church the determination of such Eccclesiastick causes some indeed do debate upon the power of appeals from the Church but in Scotland by the Law as no appeal in things civil goes higher then the Parliament so in matters Ecclesiastick none goes above the Generall Assembly Complaints indeed may go to the King and Parliament for redresse of any wrong has been done in Ecclesiastick Courts who being Custodes Religionis may by their coercive power command Ecclesiastick Courts to rectifie any wrong done by them contary to Scripture or if they persist take order with them But that two or three Pâ—aelates should become a Court of delegates to receive appeals from a general assembly neither Law nor practice in Scotland did ever admit nor doth the word of God or any Equity require it In the Scots assemblies no causes are agitat but such as the Parliament hath agreed to be Ecclesiastick and of the Churches cognisance no process about any Church rent was ever cognosced upon in Scotland but in a civill Court it s very false that ever any Church censure much lesse the highest of excommunication did fall upon any for robbing the Church of its patrimony The divine right of discipline is the tenet of the most of Praelats Our fourth challenged principle is that we maintain Ecclesiastick jurisdiction by a divine right Ans Is this a huge crime is there divine right in the world either Papist or Protestant except a few praelatical Erastians but they doe so If the Warner will profess as it seems he must the contradiction of that which he ascribes to us his avowed tenet must be that all Ecclesiastick power flowes from the Magistrate that the Magistrate himself may execute all Church censures that all the Officers appointed by Christ for the government of his Church may be laid aside and such a kind of governors be put in their place as the Magistrate shall be pleased to appoint that the spiritual sword and Keyes of heaven belong to the Magistrate by vertue of his supremacy as wel as the temporal sword and Keyes of his earthly Kingdom our difference herefrom the Warner will not I hope be found the greatest heresie All the power of the Church in Scotland is legal and with the Magistrates consent Our last challenged principle is that we will have all our power against the Magistrate that is although he dissent Ans It is an evil commentary that all must be against the Magistrate which is done against his consent but in Scotland there is no such case for all jurisdiction which the Church there doth enjoy they have it with the consent of the Magistrate all is ratified to them by such acts of Parliament as his Majâ—stie doth not at all controvert Concerning that odious case the Warner intimates whither in time of persecution when the Magistrate classheth with the Church any Ecclesiastick discipline be then to be exercised himself can better answer it then we who with the ancient Christians do think that on all hazards even of life the Church may not be dissolved but meet in dens and in the caves and in the wilderness for the word and Sacraments and keeping it self pure by the divine ordinance of Discipline Having cleered all the pernicious practises and all the wicked Dâ—ctrines which the Warner layes upon us The Prelats rather then to lay aside their own interest will keep the King and his people in misery for ever I think it needless to insist upon these defences which he in his abundant charity brings for us but in his own way that he may with the greater advantage impugne them only I touch one passage whereupon he makes injurious exclamations that which Mr. Gilespie in his theoremes writes when the Magistrate abuses his power unto Tyranny and makes havock of all it is lawful to resist him by some extraordinary wayes and means which are not ordinarily to be allowed see the principles from which all our miseries and the loss of our Gratious Master hath flowed Ans We must here yeeld to the Warner the great equity and necessity that every doctrine of a Presbyter should be charged on the Presbytery it self and that any Presbyter teaching the lawfulness of a Parliaments defensive arms is tantamont to the Churches taking of armes against the King These smal inconsequences we must permit the Warner to swallow down without a stick however we do deny that the maxime in hand was the fountain of any of our miseries or the cause at all of the loss of our late Soveraign Did ever his Majesty or any of his advised Councellors declare it simply unlawful for a Parliament to take arms for defence in some extraordinary cases however the unhappiness of the Canterburian Praelats did put his Majesty upon these courses which did begin and promote all our miserie and to the very last these men were so wicked as to refuse the loosing of the bands which their hands had tyed about his misinformed conscience yea to this day they will not give their consent that his Majestie who now is should lay aside Episcopacy were it for the gaining of the peaceable possession of all his three Kingdoms but are urgers of him night and day to adhere to their errours upon the hazard of all the miseries that may come on his person on his family and all his people yet few of them to this day durst be so bold as to print with this Warner the unlawfulness of a Parliaments armes against the Tyranny of a Prince in any imaginable case how extraordinary soever CHAP. III. The Lawes and customes of Scotland admit of no appeal from the
zealous in their doctrine to presse upon the Magistrate as well as upon the people the true practice of piety the sanctification of the Sabbath day the suppression of heresy and schism and repentance for the sins of the time and place wherein they live I his is a crime whereof few of the Warners friends were wont to be guilty of their shamefull silence and flattery was one of the great causes of all the sins and calamities that have wracked the three Kingdoms the stream of their Sermons while they enjoyed the Pulpit was to encourage to superstition and contempt of piety to sing asleep by their ungracious way all that gave ear unto them The man is impatient to see the Pastors of Holland or any where to walk in another path then his own and for this cause would stirre up their Magistrates against them as it was his and his Brethrens custom to stir up the Magistrates of Britain and Ireland to imprison banish and heavily vex the most zealous servants of God only for their opposition to the Prelats profanity and errours The Warner I hope has not yet forgotten how Doctor Bramble and his neighbour Lesty of Down did cast out of the Ministry and made flee our of the Kingdom men most eminent for zeal piety and learning who in a short time had done more good in the house of God then all the Bishops that ever were in Ireland I mean Mr. Blair Mr. Levington Mr. Hamilton Mr. Cuningham and others The Warner needed not to have marked as a singularity of Geneva that there all the Ecclesiasticks quâ tales are punishable by the Magistrats for civil crimes for we know none of the reformed Churches who were ever following Rome in exempting the Clergy from saecular jurisdiction except it were the Canterburian Praelates who indeed did scare the most of Magistrats from medling with a canonical coat though defiled with drunkenness adultery scolding fighting and other evils which were too common of late to that order But how doth he prove The pretended declaration of King James was Bishop Adamsons lying libel that the Scots Ministers exempt themselves from civil jurisdiction first saith he by the declaration of King James 1584. Ans That declaration was not from King James as himself did testifie the year thereafter under his hand but from Mr. Patrike Adamson who did acknowledge it to be his own upon his death bed and professed his repentance for the lyes and slanders wherewith against his conscience he had fraughted that infamous libell His second proof is from the second book of disciplin Chapter II Though always in England yet never in Scotland had Commissaries any jurisdiction over Ministers It is absurd that Commissaries having no function in the Church should be judges to Ministers to depose them from their charges Ans Though in England the Commissary and officiall was the ordinary judge to depose and excommunicate all the Ministers of the diocese yet by the Laws of Scotland no Commissaries had ever any jurisdiction over Ministers But though the officials jurisdiction together with their Lords the Bishops were abolished yet doth it follow from this that no other jurisdiction remaineth whereby Ministers might be punished either by Church or State according to their demerits is not this strongly reasoned by the Warner His third proofe is the cause of James Gibson James Gibson was never absolved by the Church from his Process who had railed in Pulpit against the King and was only suspended yea thereaftâ—r was absolved from that fault Ans Upon the complaint of the Chancelor the alledged words were condemned by the generall Assembly but before the mans guiltiness of these words could be tryed hee did absent himselfe for which absence he was presently suspended from his Ministry in the next Assembly he did appeare and cleared the reason of his absence to have been just feare and no contumacy this he made appeare to the Assemblies satisfaction but before his processe could bee brought to any issue he fled away to England where he died a fugitive never restored to his charge though no tryal of his fault was perfected Mr. Blacks appeâ—â— froâ— the Councel cleered The fourth proof is Mr. Black his case hereupon the Warner makes a long and odious narration If we interrogate him about his ground of all these Stories he can produce no warrant but Spotswoods unprinted Book this is no an hâ—â—tick Râ—gistâ—r whereupon any understanding man can rely the Writer was a pâ—ofest enemy to his death of the Scotish Discipline he spent his life upon a Story for the dâ—sgrace of the Presbytery and the honour of Bishops no man who is acquainted with the life or death of that Authour will build his belief upon his words This whole narration is abundantly confuted in the historicall Vindication when the Warner is pleased to repeat the Challenge from Issachars burden he ought to have replyed something after three yeers advisement to the printed Answer The matter as our Registers bear was shortly thus In the yeer 1596. the Popish and Malignant Faction in King JAMES his Court grew so strong that the countenance of the King towards the Church was much changed and over all the Land great fears did daily encrease of the overthrow of the Church Discipline established by Law The Ministers in their Pulpits gave free warning thereof among others Mr. Black of S. Andrews a most gracious and faithfull pastor did apply his doctrine to the sins of the time some of his Enemies delated him at Court for words injurious to the King and Queen the words he did deny and all his honest hearers did absolve him by their testimony from these calumnies of himself he was most willing to be tryed to the uttermost before all the world but his Brethren finding the libelled calumnies to be onely a pretence and the true intention of the Courtiers therein was to stop the mouthes of Ministers that the crying sins of the times should no more be reproved in pulpits they advised him to decline the judgment of the councell and appeal to the general Assembly as the competent Judge according to the word of God and the Laws of Scotland in the cause of doctrine for the first instance they did never question but if any thing truely seditious had been preached by a Minister that he for this might be called before the civil Magistrate and accordingly punished but that every Minister for the application of his doctrine according to the rules of Scripture to the sins of his hearers for their reclaiming should be brought before a civil court at the first instance they thought it unreasonable and desired the King in the next Assembly might cognosce upon the equity of such a proceeding The Ministers had many a conference with his Majesty upon that subjâ—ct often the mat er was brought very near to an amicable conclusion but because the Ministers refused to subscibe a band for so great a silence
assembled in Parliament of England concurre without a disordering opinion when the King himself for perfecting the harmony offers to add his voice for three whole years together In the remainder of the Chapter the warner layes upon the Scots three other crimes First That they count it Erastianisme to put the Government of the Church in the hand of the Magistate Aâ—s The Doctors knowledg is greater then to be ignorant that all these goe under the name of tne Erastians The elder prelats of Englaâ—d were Erastians and more but the younger are as much anti-Erastian as the most rigid of the Presbytery who walking in Erastus ways of flattering the Magistrate to the prejudice of the just rights of the Church run yet out beyond Erastus personall tenets I doubt if that man went so far as the Doctor here and elsewhere to make all Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction but a part of the Magistrats civill power which for its Execution the supreme Governours of any state may derive out of the fountain of their supremacy to what ever hands civill or ecclesiastick themselves think fit to commit it Let the Doctor adde to this much knowledge but a little ingenuity and he shall confesse that his brethren the latter Bishops who claim Episcopacy by Divine Right are all as much against this Erastian Cesaro-papisme as any Presbyterian in Scotland The Elder Bishops indeed of England and all the Laws there for Episcopacy seem to be point blank according to the Erastian errors for they make the Crown and Royall Supremacy the originall root and fountain whence all the iscipline of the Church did flow as before the days of Henry the Eight it did out of the Popes headship of the Church â—under Christ However let the Doctor ingeniously speak out his sence and I am deceived if he shall not acknowledge that how grosse an Erastian so ever himself and the eldest Bishops of England might have been yet that long agoe the most of his prelaticall friends have become as much opposite to Erastianisme as the most rigid of the Presbyterians The other crime he layes to the charge of the * The Scots first and greatest crime is irreconciliablenesse with Rome Scots is that they admit no latitude in Religion but will have every opinion a fundamentall Article of Faith and are averse from the reconcialition of the Protestant Churches Ans If the Warner had found it seasonable to vent a little more of his true sense in this point he had charged this great crime far more home upon the head of the Scots for indeed though they were ever far from denying the true degrees of importance which do cleerly appear among the multitude of Christian truths yet the great quarrel here of the Warner and his friends against them is that they spoyled the Canterburian designe of reconciling the Protestant Churches not among themselves but with the Church of Rome When these good men were with all earnestness proclaiming the greatest controversies of Papists and Protestants to be upon no fundamentals but onely disputable opinions wherein belief on either side was safe enough and when they found that the Papists did stand punctually to the Tenets of the Church of Rome and were obstinately unwilling to come over to England their great labour was that the English and the rest of the Protestants casting aside their needless belief of problematick truths in piety charity and zeal to make up the breach and take away the schism should be at all the pains to make the journey to Rome While this designe is far advanced and furiously driven on in all the three Kingdoms and by none more in Ireland then the Bishop of Derry behold the rude and plain Blue-caps step in to the play and mar all the Game By no art by no terrour can these be gotten along to such a reconciliation This was the first and greatest crime of the Scots which the Doctor here glances at but is so wise and modest a man as not to bring it above board The last charge of the chapter is that the Scots The Scots were ever anti-episcopal keep not still that respect to the Bishops of England which they were wont of old in the beginning of Q. Elizabeth's Reign Ans In that Letter cited by the Warner from the general Assembly of Scotland 1566. Sess 3. there is no word of approbation to the Office of Episcopacy they speak to the Bishops of England in no other quality or relation but as Ministers of the word the highest stile they give them is Reverend Pastors and Brethren the tenour of the whole Epistle is a grave and brotherly admonition to beware of that fatall concomitant of the most moderate Episcopacy the troubling of the best and most zealous servants of Christ for idle and fruitless Ceremonies How great a reverence the Church of Scotland at that time carried to Prelacy may be seen in their Supplication to the secret Councel of Scotland in that same Assembly the very day and Session wherein they writ the Letter in hand to the Bishops of England The Arch-bishp of S. Andrews being then usurping jurisdiction over the Ministry by some warrant from the State the Assembly was grieved not only with the Popery of that Bishop but with his ancient jurisdiction which in all Bishops popish and protestant is one and the same That jurisdiction was the only matter of their present complaint and in relation thereto they assure the Councel in distinct terms that they would never be more subject unto that usurped Tyranny then they would be to the Divel himself So reverend an opinion had the Church of Scotland at that time of Episcopal Jurisdiction The Prelates lately were found in the act of introducing Popery into the Church and Tyranny into the Kingdom But suppone that some fourscore yeers ago the Scots before they had tasted the fruits of Protestant Bishops had judged them tolerable in England yet since that time by the long tract of mischiefs which constantly have accompanied the order of Prelacy they have been put upon a more accurate inspection of its nature and have found it not onely a needlesse but a noxious and poysonous weed necessary to be plucked up by the root and cast over the hedge Beside all its former malefices it hath been deprehended of late in the very act of everting the foundations both of Religion and Government of bringing in Popery and Tyranny in the Churches and States of all the three Kingdoms Canterburian self-conviction cap. 1. And for these crimes it was condemned killed and buried in Scotland by the unanimous consent of King Church and Kingdom when England thereafter both in their Assembly and Parliament without a discording voice had found it necessary to root out that unhappy plant as long ago with great wisdom it had been cast out of all the rest of the reformed Churches had not the Scots all the reason in the world to applaud such pious just and
general assembly IN this Chapter the challenge is that there are no appeals from the general Assembly to the King as in England from the Bishops Courts to the King in Chauncery Appeales in Scotland from a generall Assemâ—ly were no lesse irrational then illegall where a Commission uses to be given to delegats who discusse the appeals Ans The warner considers not the difference of the Government of the Church of Scotland from that which was in England what the Parliament is in the State that the general assembly is in the Church of Scotland both are the highest Courts in their own kinde There is no appeal any where in moderate Monarchies to the Kings person but to the King in certain legall Courts as the Warner here confesseth the appeal from Bishops lies not to the King in his person but to the King in his Court of Chancery As no man in Scotland is permitted to appeal in a civill cause from the Lords of Session much lesse from the Parliament so no man in an ecclesiastick cause is permitted by the very civil Law of Scotland to appeal from the general Assembly According to the Scots order and practice the King in person or else by his high Commissioner sits as usually in the generall Assembly as in Parliament But though it were not so yet an appeal from a generall Assembly to be discussed in a court of Delegats were unbeseeming and unreasonable the one court consisting of above two hundred all chosen men the best and most able of the Kingdom the other but of two or three often of very small either abilities or integrity who yet may be more fit to discern in an Ecclesiastick cause then a single Bishop or his Official the ordinary Trustee in all acts of Jurisdiction for the whole Dioces But the Scots way of managing Ecclesiastick causes is a great deal more just safe and Satisfactory to any rational man then that old Popish order of the English where all the spirituall Jurisdiction of the whole Dioces was in the hand of one mercenary Officiall without all relief from his Sentence except by an appeal as of old to the Pope and his Delegats so thereafter to the King though never to be cognosced upon by himself but as it was of old by two or three Delegats the weakest of all Courts often for the quality and ever for the number of the Judges The Churches â—â—st severity aâ—â—inst Montâ—â—mery Aâ—â—mson was â—proven by â—â—e King and â—â—e parties â—â—mselves Two Instances are brought by the Warner to prove the Church of Scotlands stopping of appeals from the generall Assembly to the King the cases of Montgomery and Adamson if the causes and events of the named cases had been well known to the Warner as he made this chapter disproportionably short so readily be might have deleted it altogether But these men were infamous not onely in their Ministeriall charges but in their life and conversation both became so insolent that contrary to the established order of the Church and Kingdom being suborned by wicked Statesmen who in that day of darkness had well neer brought ruine both to King and Countrey would needs take upon them the Office of Arch-Bishops While the Assembly was in Process with them for their manifold and high misdeameanors the King was moved by them and their evil Patrons to shew his high displeasure against the Assemblies of the Church they for his Majâ—sties satisfaction sent their Commissioners and had many conferences whereby the pride and contempt of these Prelats did so encrease that at last they drew the sentence of Excommunication upon their own heads the King after some time did acknowledge the equity of the Church proceedings and professed his contentment therewith both these unhappy men were brought to a humble confession of their crimes and such signs of repentance that both after a renunciation of their titulary Bishopricks were re-admitted to the function of the Ministry which they had deserted Never any other before or after in Scotland did appeal from the generall Assembly to the King the late Excommunicate Prelate in their declinator against the Assembly of Glasgow did not appeal as I remember to the King but to another Generall Assembly to be constitute according to their own Popish and Tyrannicall principles CHAP. IV. Faulty Ministers in Scotland are lesse exempted from punishment then any other men THe Warner in his fourth Chapter The pride of Prelats lately but never the Presbytery did exempt their fellows from punishment for their civill faults offers to prove that the Scotish Discipline doth exempt Ministers from punishment for any treason or sedition they can act in their Pulpits Answ This challenge is like the rest very false The rules of the Church Discipline in Scotland obliges Churchmen to be subject to punishment not only for every fault for which any other man is lyable to censure but ordains them to be punished for sundry things which in other men are not at all questionable and whatever is consuâ—able in any they appoint it to be much more so in a Minister It is very untruâ— that the Pulpits in Scotland are Sanctuaries for any crime much lesse for the grievous crimes of sedition and treason Let the Warner remember how short a time it is since an Episcopall Chaire or a Canonicall Coâ—t did priviledge in England and Ireland from all censure either of Church or State great numbers who were notoriously known to be guilty of the foulest crimes Was ever the Warâ—â—â—â— companion Bishop Aderton challenged for his Sodomy so long as their common Patron of Canterbury did rule the Court did the Warner never hear of a Prelate very sibb to Dâ—ctor Bramble who to this day was never called to any account for flagrant scandals of such crimes as in Scotland are punishable by the Gallows the Warner doth not well to insist upon the Scots Clergy exempting themselves from civill punishments no where in the world are Churchmen more free of crimes deserving civill Cognisance then in Scotland and if the ears and eyes of the World may be trusted the Popish Clergy this day in Italy and Spaine are not so challengeable as the Prelaâ—icall Divines in England and Ireland lately were for many grossâ— misdemeanors The Warner is injurious to the Ministers of Holland But why does the Warners anger run out so far as to the Preachers in Holland is it because he knoweth the Church D scipline in Holland to be really the same with that he oppugnes in the Scots and that all the Reformed Churches doe joyn cordially with Scotland in their rejection of Episcopacy is this a ground for him to slander our Brethren of Holland Is it charity for him a stranger to publish to the World in print that the Ministers in Holland are seditious Orators and that they saucily controll the Magistrates in their Pulpits Their crime seems to be that for the love of Christ their Master they are
as the Court required against his Majesties countenancing of treacherous Papists and favouring the enemies of Religion a severe Sentence was pronounced not only against Master Black but also all the Ministers of Edinburgh In the mean time The Tumult of the seventeenth day of December was harmless and no Minister guilty of it malcontented States-men did adde oyl to the flame and at the very instant while the Ministers and their friends are offering a Petition to his Majesty they suborn a villane to cry in one part of the Streets That the Ministers are slain and in another part of the Streets That the King was killed whereupon the People rush all out to the Streets in their Armes and for half an hour at most were in a tumult upon meer ignorance what the fray might be but without the hurt of any one man so soon as it was found that both the King and Ministers were safe the people went all peaceably to their houses This is the very truth of that innocent commotion whereupon the Warner here and his fellowes elsewhere make all their Tragedies None of the Ministry were the Authors or approvers thereof though divers of them suffered sore troubles for it CHAP. V. No Presbyterian ever intended to Excommunicate any Supream Magistrate THe Warner in his fifth Chapter The Prelats ordinarily but the Presbytery never were for rash Excommunications charges the Scots for subjecting the King to the censure of Excommunication and bringing upon Princes all the miseries which the Popes Excommunications of oâ—d were wont to bring upon Anathematised Emperours Ans It does not become the Warner and his fellowes to object to any the abuse of the dreadfull sentence of Excommunication no Church in the world was ever more guilty of that fault then the Prelats of England and Ireland did they ever censure their own Officials for the pronouncing of that terrible sentence most profanly against any they would had it been for the non-payment of the smallest sums of money As for the Scots their doctrine and practice in the point of Excommunication is as considerate as any other Church in the world that censure in Scotland is most rare and only in the case of obstinacy in a great sin what ever be their doctrine in generall with all other Christians and as I think with the P elaticall party themselves that the object of Christian doctrine Sacraments and Discipline is one and the same and that no member of Christ no son of the Church may plead a highness above admonitions and Church Censures yet I know they never thought it expedient so much as to intend any Processe of Câ—uâ—â—h aâ—â—â—â—dversion against their Soveraign To the worlds end I hope they shall not have again greater grievances and truer causes of â—â—ritation from their Princes th n they have had already It may be confidently believed that they who upon so pregnant occasioâ—s dâ—d never so much as intend the beginning of a Process against their King can never be supâ—osed in danger of any such proceeding for time to come The Prelates flatter Princes to their ruine However we love not the abused ground of the Warners flattering of Princes to their own great hur is it so indeed that all the sins of the Princes are only against God that all Kings are not only above all Laws of Church and State but when they fall into the greatest crimes that the worst of men have ever committed that even then their sins must not be against any man or against any Law such Episcopall Doctrine spurs on Princes to these unhappy precipices and oppressed people unto these out-rages that both fall into inextricable calamities CHAP. VI. It grieves the Prelates that Presbyterians are faithfull Watchmen to admonish Princes of their duty The Scots Ministers Preaching for Justice was just and necessary THE sixth Chapter is spent on an other crime of Presbytery it makes the Presbyters cry to the Magistrate for Justice upon capitall Offenders Ans What has Presbytery to doe with this matter were it never so great an offence will the Warner have all the faults of the Prelaticall Faction flow from the fountain of Episcopacy this unconsequentiall reasoning will not be permitted to men below the degrees of Doctors But was it a very great crime indeed for Ministers to plead the cause of the fatherlesse and widowes yea the cause of God their Maker and to preach unto Magistrates that according to Scriptures murtherers ought to die and the Land bee purged from the staine of innocent blood when the shamefull impunity of murther made Scotland by deadly feuds in time of peace a field of war and blood was it not time for the faithful servants of God to exhort the King to execute justice and to declare the danger of most frequent pardons drawn from his hand often against his heart by the opportunity and deceitfull information of powerful solicitors to the great offence of God against the whole Land to the unexpressible grief and wrong of the suffering party to the opening also of a new floodgate of more blood which by a legall revenge in time easily might have been stopped Too much pity in sparing the wilfull shedders of innocent blood ordinarily proves a great cruelty not only towards the disconsolate oppressed who cry to the vicegerents of God the avenger for justice in vain but also towards the soul of him who is spared and the life of many more who are friends either to the oppressor or oppressed As for the named case of Huntly let the world judge Huntleys notorious crymes whether the Ministers had reason often to give Warning against that wicked man and his complices Beside his apostasie and after-seeming repentance his frequent relapses into avowed Popery in Eighty eight he banded with the King of Spaine to overthrow the religion and government of the whole Island and after pardon from time to time did renew his treasonable plots for the ruine of Britain he did commit many murders he did invade under the nose of the King the house of his Cousin the Earl of Murray and most cruelly murdered that gallant Nobleman he appeared with displayed Banner against the King in person he killed thereafter many hundreds of the Kings good people when these multiplyed outrages did cry up to the God of heaven was it not time for the men of God to cry to the Judges of the earth to doe their duty according to the warrant of many Scriptures What a dangerous humor of flattery is this in our Prelates not onely to lull a sleep a Prince in a most sinful neglect of his charge but also to cry out upon others more faithful then themselves for assaying to break off their slumber Never any question in Scotland betwixt the King the Church for Tythes and Patronages by their wholsom and seasonable admonitions from the Word of God The next challenge of the Scots Presbyters is that they spoile the
two Presbyters who chance to be neer a Bishop the only pastor of the whole diocess and yet not bound to feed any flock either by Word or Sacrament or Government but having a free liberty to devolve all that service upon others and himself to wait at Court so many years as he shall think fit This is our English Bishop not only in practice but in Law and so was he defended by the great disputants for Prelacy in England The portion of Episcopaâ—y whiâ— yet is stu to cannot be kept upon any principle either of honor or conscience But now let the Warner speak out if any such Bishop can more be defehded or was ever known in Scripture or seen in any Christian Church for 800 years and above after the death of Christ I take it indeed to be Conscience that forces now at last the best of our Court-Divines to devest their Bishop of all civil employment in Parliament Court or Kingdom in denying his solitariness in ordination in removing his official and Commissary courts in taking away all his arches Arch-Bishopâ— Arch-Deacons Dean and Chapter c. in erecting Presbyteries for all ordinations and spiritual jurisdiction It is good that conscience moves our adversaries at last to come thus far towards us But why will they not yet come neerer to acknowledg that by these their too lately recanted errors they did too long trouble the world and that the little which yet they desire to keep of a Bishop is nothing less then that English Bishop but a new creature of their own devising never known in England which his Majesty in no honor is obliged to maintain for any respect either to the Laws or Customs of England and least of all for Conscience The smallest portion of the most moderate Episcopacy is contrary to Scripture While the Warner with such confidence avows that no text of Scripture can be alledged against Episcopacy which may not with more reason be applyed against the Presbytery behold I offer him here some few casting them in a couple of arguments which according to his great promises I wish he would answer at his leasure First I do reason from Ephes 4.11 all the officers that Christ hath appointed in his Church for the Ministry of the Word are either Apostles Evangelists Prophets pastors or Doctors but Bishops are none of these five Ergo they are none of the officers appointed by Christ for the Ministry of the Word The major is not wont to be questioned the minor thus I prove Bishops are not Apostles Evangelists nor prophets for it s confessed all these were extraordinary and temporary Officers but Bishops say you are ordinary and perpetual our adversaries pitch upon the fourth alledging the Episcopal office to be pastoral but I prove the Bishop no Pastor thus no Pastor is superior to other Pastors in any spiritual power but according to our adversary a Bishop is superior to all the Pastors of his Diocess in the power of ordination and jurisdiction Ergo The doubt here is onely of the major which I prove Argumento à paribus no Apostle is superior to an Apostle nor an Evangelist to an Evangelist nor Prophet to a Prophet nor a Doctor to a Doctor in any spiritual power according to Scripture Ergo no pastor to a pastor Again I reason from 1 Tim. 4.14 Mat. 18.15 1 Cor. 5.4 12 13. What takes the power of ordination and jurisdiction from Bishops destroys Bishops as the removal of the soul kills the man and the denyal of the form takes away the subject so the power of ordination and jurisdiction the essential form whereby the Bishop is constitute and distinguished from the Presbyter and every other Church officer being removed from him he must perish but the quoted places take away clearly these powers from the Bishop for the first puts the power of ordination in the Presbytery and a Bishop is not a Presbytery the second puts the power of jurisdiction in the Church and the third in a company of men which meet together but the Bishop is not the Church nor a company of men met together for these be many and he is but one person When the Doctors learning hath satified us in these two he shall receive more Scriptural arguments against Episcopacy The Prelats unable to answer their opposites But why do we expect answers from these men when after so long time for all their boasts of learning and their visible leasure none of their party has had the courage to offer one word of answer to the Scriptures and Fathers which in great plenty Mr Parker and Mr Didoclave of old and of late that miracle of learning most noble Somais and that Magazin of antiquity Mr Blondel have printed against them What in the end of the Chapter the Warner adds of our trouble at King James his fifty and five questions â—â—96 and of our yeelding the bucklers without any opposition till the late unhappy troubles we answer that in this as every where else the Warner proclaims his great and certain knowledg of our Ecclesiastick story the troubles of the Scots Divines at that time were very small for the matter of these questions all which they did answer so roundly that there was no more speech of them thereafter by the propounders but the manner and time of these questions did indeed perplex good men to see Erastian and Prelatical counsellors so far to prevail with our King as to make him by captious questions carp at these parts of Church-discipline which by Statutes of Parliament and Acts of Assemblies were fully established Our Church at that time was far from yeelding to Episcopacy Prelacy was ever grievous to Scotland great trouble indeed by some wicked States-men was then brought upon the persons of the most able and faithful Ministers but our Land was so far from receiving of Bishops at that time that the question was not so much as proposed to them for many years thereafter it was in Ann. 1606. that the English Prelates did move the King by great violence to cast many of the best and most learned Preachers of Scotland out of their charges and in An. 1610. that a kind of Episcopacy was set up in the corrupt Assembly of Glasgow under which the Church of ScotlaÌ„d did heavily groan till the year 1637. when their burthens was so much increased by the English Prelatical Tax-masters that all was shaken off together and divine Justice did so closely follow at the heels that oppressing Prelacy of England as to the great joy of the long oppressed Scots that evil root and all its branches was cast out of Britain where we trust no shadow of it shall ever again be seen CHAP. IX The Commonwealth is no monster when God is made Soveraign and the commands of men are subordinated to the clear will of God HAving cleared the vanity of these calumnious challenges wherewith the Warner did animate the King and all
know and bee assured that their calling and Ministery is null The words immediatly following are scraped out after their Printing for what cause the Author best knoweth but the purpose in hand makes it probable that the deletted words did expresse more of his minde then it was safe in this time and place to speake out it was the late Doctrine of Doctor Brambles prime friends that the want of Episcopall ordination did ot onely annull the calling of all the Ministers of France Holland Zwit-zerland and Germany but also did hinder all these Societies to bee true Churches for that popular Sophisme of the Jesuits our Prelats did greedily swallow where are no true Sacrament there is no true Church and where is no true Ministry there are no true Sacraments and where no true ordination there is no true Ministry and where no Bishops there in no true ordination and so in no reformed Country but in England and Ireland where were true Bishops is any true Church When Episcopacy comes to this height of elevation that the want of it must annull the Ministry yea the very being of all the Reformed Churches at one strock is it any marvell that all of them do concurre together for their own preservation to abolish this insolent abaddon and destroyer and notwithstanding all its ruine have yet no discomfort at all nor any the least doubt of their most lawfull ordination by the hands of the Presbytery The Prelats are so basely injurious to all the Reformed Churches that their selfes are ashamed of it After all this was written as here it stands another copy of the Warners book was brought to my hand wherin I found the deleted line stand Printed in these distinct termes and put it to a dangerous question whether it be within the payle of the Church the deciphering of these words puts it beyond all peradventure that what I did conjecture of the Warner and his Brethrens minde of the state of all the reformed Churches was no mis-take but that they do truely judge the want of Episcopall Ordination to exclude all the Ministers of other Reformed Churches and their flocks also from the lines of the true Church This indeed is a most dâ—ngerous question for it stricks at the root of all If the Warner out of remorse of conscience had blotted out of his booke that errour the Repentance had beene commendable But hee has left so much yet behind unscraped out as does shew his minde to continue what it was so that feare alone to provoke the reformed here at this unseasonable time seemes to have been the cause of deleting these too cleare expressions of the prelaticall tenent against the very being and subsistence of all the Protestant Churches which want Episcopacy where these men doe still stand upon the extreme pinacle of impudency and arrogance denying the Reformed to be true Churches and without scruple averring Rome as shee stands this day under the councell of Trent to be a Church most true wherin there is an easy way of salvation from which all separaion is needlesse and with which a re-union were much to be desired That gracious faction this day is willing enough to perswade or at least to rest content without any opposition that the King should of himselfe without and before a Parliament though contrary to many standing Lawes grant under his hand and saâ—â— a full liberty of Religion to the bloudy Irish and to put in their hands both armes Castles and prime Places of trust in the State that the King should give assurance of his endeavour to get all these ratified in the next Parliament of England these men can heare with all moderation and patience but behold their fu ious impatience their whole art and industry is wakned when they heare of any appearance of the Kings inclination towards covenanting Protestants night and day they beate in his Majesties head that all the mischiefes of the World doe lurke in that miserable Covenant that deâ—th and any misfortune that the ruine of all the Kingdomes ought much rather to be imbraced by His Majesty then that prodigious Monster that very hell of the Covenant because for sooth it doth oblige in plaine termes the taker to endeavour in his station the abolition of their great Goddesse Prelacy The next hurt of Ministers from the Presbytry is The generality of Episcopall Clergy have ever been covered with ignorance beggery and contempt that by it they are brought to ignorance contempt and beggery Ans Whither Episcopacy or Presbytry is the fittest instrumen to avert these evills let reason or experience teach men to judge The Pâ—esbyteriall discipline doth oblige to a great deale of severer tryalls in all sort of learning requisite in a divine before ordination then doth the Episcopall let either the rule or practise of Presbyterian and Episcopall ordination be compared or the weekly Exercises and monthly disputations in Latine upon the controverted heads be looked upon which the Presbytery exacts of every Minister after his ordination all the dayes of his life for experience let the French Dutch and Scots divines who have beene or yet are be compared with the ordinary Generation of the English Clergy and it will be found that the Prelates have not great reason so superciliously to looke downe with contempt upon their Brethrens learning I hope Cartwright Whitaker Perkins Reynolds Parker Ames and other Presbyterian English were inferior in learning to none of their opposits some of the English Bishops have not wanted good store of learning but the most of them I believe will be content to leave of boasting in this subject what does the Warner speak to us of ignorance contempt and Beggery does not all the World know that albeit some few scarce one of twenty did brooke good benefices yea plurality of them whereby to live in splendor at Court or where they listed in their non-residency neverthelesse it hath bin much complained that the greatest part of the Priests who have the cure of the soules thorow all the Kingdome of England were incomparably the most ignorant beggerly and contemptible Clergy that ever have bin seen in any of the reformed Churches neither did we ever heare of any great study in the Prelats to remedy these evills albeit some of them be provider t enough for their owne Families Doctor Bramble knowes who had the skill before they had sitten seven yeare in their chaire to purchase above fifteen hundred pounds a year for themselves and their heirs what some-ever The Prelats continue to hate preaching and prayer but to idolize a popish service The third evill which the Presbytery brings upon Ministers is that it makes them prate and pray nonsence everlastingly Ans It is indeed a great heartbreake unto ignorant lazy and unconsciencious Ministers to be put to the paines of Preaching and Prayer when a read service was wont to be all their exercise but we thought thâ—t all indifferently ingenuous men had long
need to be much better cautioned then here it is before it can stâ—nd for a major of a clear demonstration but how is the minor proved behold how much short the Warners proofes are of his great boastings His first argument is grounded upon an evident falshood that in the Covenant we sweare the lately devised discipline to be Christs institution Answ There is no such word nor any such matter in all the Covenant was the Warners hatred so great against that peece of write that being to make cleare demonstrations against iâ— he would not so much as cast his eye upon that which he was to oppugne Covenanters sweare to endeavour the reformation of England according to the word of God and the best reformed Churches but not a word of the Scots Presbytery nor of any thing in any Church even the best reformed unlesse it be found accorcording to the paterne of Gods holy word The second ground of his demonstration is also an evident errour The Warner unwittingly commends the Covenant that the covenant in hand is one and the same with that of King James Answ Such a fancy came never in the head of any man I know much lesse was it ever writen or spoken by any that the Covenant of King James in Scotlaâ—d 1580 should be one and the same with the Covenant of all the three Kingdomes 1643 whatsoever identit es may appeare in the matter and similitude in the ends of both but the grossest errors are solide enough grounds for praelaticall clear demonstrations Yet here the Warner understands not how hee is cutting his owne veines his friends in Scotland will give him small thanks for attributing unto the nationall Covenant of Scotland that Covenant of King James these three properties that it was issued out by the Kings authority that it was for the maintenance of the Lawes of the realme and for the maintenance of the established Religion time brings adversaries to confesse of their own accord long denyed truthes But the Characters which the Warner in prints upon the solemne league and Covenant of the three Kingdomes wee must bâ—â— pardoned to controvert till he have taken some leasure to prove his wilde assertions First that the league is against the authority of the King secondly that it is against the Law and thirdly that it is foâ— the overthrow of Religion The man cannot think thâ—t any should beleeve his dictats of this kinde without p oofe since the expresse words of that league doe flatly contradict him in all these three positions His gentle memento that Scotland when they sued for aid from the crowne of England had not the English discipline obtruded upon their Church might here have beene spared was not the English discipline and liturgy obtruded upon us by the praelats of England with all craft and force did we ever obtrude our disciplin upon the English but when they of their owne free and long deliberate choice had abolished Bishops and promised to set up Presbytery so far as they had found it agreeable to the word of God were wee not in all reason obliged to encourage and assist them in so pious a worke The King did not clame the sole and absolve possession of the militia In the next words the Warner for all his great boasts finding the weaknes of all the former grounds of his second demonstration he offers three new ones which doubtles will doe the deed for he avowes positively that his following grounds are demonstrative yet whosoever shall be pleased to gripe them with never so soft an hand shall finde them all to be but vanity and winde The first after a number of prosyllogismes rests upon these two foundations first that the right of the militia resides in the King alone secondly that by the covenant the militia is taken out of the Kings hands and that every covenanter by his covenant disposes of himselfe and of his armes against the right which the King hath unto him Answ The Warner will have much adoe to prove the second so that it may be a ground of a clear demonstration but for the first that the power of the militia of England doth reside in the King alone that the two houses of Parliâ—ment have nothing at all to doe with it and that their taking of armes for the defence of the liberties of England or any other imaginable cause against my party countenanced by the Kings presence against his lawes must â—e a together unlawfull if his demonstration be no clearer hen the ground whereupon he builds it I am sure it will not be visible to any of his opposits who are not like to be convinced of open rebellion by his naked assertion upon which alone he layes this his mighty ground Beleeve it he had neede to assay its reliefe with some colour of an argument for none of his owne friends will now take it of his hand for an indemonstrable principle since the King for a long time was willing to acknowledge the Parliaments joynt interest in the Militia yea to put the whole Militia in their hands alone for a good number of yeares to come so farre was his Majestie from the thoughts that the Parliaments medling with a part of the Militia in the time of evident dangers should be so certainly and clearely the crime of rebellion The Warners second demonstrative ground wee admit without question in the major that where the matter is evidently unlawfull the oath is not binding but the application of this in the minor is very false All that hee brings to make it appeare to be true is that the King is the supream Legislator that it is unlawfull for the subjects of England to change any thing established by Law especially to the prejudice of the Praelates without their own consent they being a third order of the Kingdome otherwise it would be a harder measure then the Friers and Abbots received from Henry the eight The change of lawes in England ordinarily begin by the two houses wâ—thout the King Ans May the Warner be pleased to consider how farre his dictates here are from all reason much more from evident demonstrations That the burden of Bishops and ceremonies was become so heavy to all the three Kingdomes that there was reason to endeavour their laying aside he does not offer to dispute but all his complaint runnes against the manner of their removall this say I was done in no other then the ordinary and high path-way whereby all burdensome Lawes and customes use to be removed Doth not the Houses of Parliament first begin with their Ordinance before the Kings consent be sought to a Law is not an Ordinance of the Lords and Commons a good warrant to change a former Law during the sitting of the Parliament The Lawes and customes of England permit not the King by his dissent to stoppe that change The King did really consent to the abolition of Bishops I grant for the turning an
Oâ—dinance to a standing Law the Kings consent is required but with what qualifications and exceptions wee need not here to debate since his Majesties consent to the present case of abolishing Bishops was obtained well neere to as farre as was desired and what it yet lacking wee are in a faire way to obtaine it for the Kings Majestie long agoe did agree to the rooting out of Episcopacy in Scotland hee was willing also in England and Ireland to put them out of the Parliament and all civil Courts and to divest them of all civill power and to joyne with them Presbyteries for Ordination and spirituall jurisdiction yea to abolish them totally name and thing not onely for three yeares but ever till he and his Parliament should agree upon some setled order for the Church was not this Tantamont to a pertuall abolition for all and every one in both houses having abjured Episopacy by solemne Oath and Covenant the Parliament was in no hazard of agreeing with the King to re-erect the fallen chaires of the Bishops so there remained no other but that either his Majestie should come over to their judgement or by his not agreeing with them yet really to agree with them in the perpetuall abolition of Episcopacy since the confession was for the laying Bishops aside for ever till hee and his houses had agreed upon a settled order for the Church If this be not a full and formall enough consent to the Ordinance of changing the former Lawes anent praelats his Majestie who now is easily may and readily would supply all such defects if some of the faction did not continually for their owne evil interests whisper in his eares pernicious counsell as our Warner in this place also doeth by frighting the King in conscience from any such consent The praelats would flâ—tter the King into a Tyranny for this end he casts out a discourse the sinews whereof are in these three Episcopall maximes First that the legislative power is soly in the King that is according to his Brethrens Commentary that the Parliament is but the Kings great councel of free choyce without or against whose votes hee may make or unmake what Lawes he thinkes expedient but for them to make any Ordinance for changing without his consent of any thing that has been instituting any new thing or for them to defend this their legall right and custome time out of minde against the armes of the Malignant party no man may deny it to be plaine rebellion II. The praelates take to themselves a negative voice in Parliament That the King and Parliament both together cannot make a Law to the prejudice of Bishops without their owne consent they being the third order of the Kindome for albeit it be sacriledge in the Lords and Commons to claime any the smallest share of the legislative power this in them were to pyck the chiefest jewel out of the Kings Crowne yet this must be the due priviledge of the Bishops they must be the third order of the Kingdome yea the first and most high of the three farre above the other two temporall States of Lords and Commons their share in the Legislative power must be so great that neither King nor Parliament can passe any Law without their consent so that according to their humble protestation all the Lawes and Acts which have been made by King and Parliament since they were expelled the house of Lords are cleerly void and null Wee must grant that the King and Parliament in divesting Bishops of their temporall honour and estates The praelats grieve that Monks and Friers the Pope and Cardinals were casten out of England by H. in abolishing their places in the Church doe sin more against conscience then did Henry the eight and his Paliament when they put down the Abbots and the Friers We must beleeve that Henry the eight his abolishing the order of Monks was one of the acts of his greatest Tyranny and greed we must not doubt but according to Law and reason Abbots and Priours ought to have kept still their vote in Parliament that the Monasteryes and Nunryes should have stood in their integrity that the King and Parliament did wrong in casting them downe and that now they ought in conscience to be set up againe yea that Henry the eight against all reason and conscience did renounce his due obedience to the Pope the Patriarch of the West the first Bishop of the universe to whom the superinspection and government of the whole Catholick Church in all reason doth belong Though all this be here glaunced at by the Warner and elsewhere wee prove it to be the declared mind of his Brethren yet we must be pardoned not to accept them as undenyable princâ—ples of cleare demonstrations The just supremacy of Kings is not prejudged by the Covenant The last ground of the Doctors demonstration is that the Covenant is an Oath to set up the Presbyterian government in England as it is in Scotland that this is contrary to the Oath of Supremacy for the Oath of Supremacy makes the â—ing the onely supreame head and Governour of the Church of England that is the civill head to see that every man doe his duty in his calling also it gives the King a supreame power over all persons in all causes but the Presbytery is a Politicall Papacie acknowledging no governour but only the Presbyters it gives the King power over all persons as Subjects but none at all in Ecclesiastick causes Ans Is there in all this reasoning any thing sound First what article of the Covenant beares the setting up of the Presbyterian government in England as it is in Scotland II. If the Oath of supremacy import no more then what the Warners expresse words are here that the King is a civill head to see every man doe his duty in his calling let him be assured that no Presbyterian in Scotland was ever contrary to that supremacy III. That the Presbytery is a Papacy and that a politicall one the Warner knowes it ought not to be granted upon his bare word IV. That In Scotland no other governors are acknowledged then Presbyters himselfe contradicts in the very next words where hee tells that the Scots Presbytery ascribs to the King a power over all persons as subjects V. That any Presbyterian in Scotland makes it sacriledge to give the King any power at all in any Ecclesiastick cause The Warnerâ— insolent Vanity it is a senselesse untruth The Warners arguments are not more idle and weake then his triumphing upon them is insolent for he concludes from these wife and strong demonstrations that the poore covenant is apparently deceitfull unvalide impious rebellious and what not yea that all the learned divines in Europe will conclude it so that all the Covenanters themselves who have any ingenuity must grant thus much and that no knowing English man can deny it but his own conscience will give him the lie