devotion was among them by way of essayes as it were to frame the heart of the Son by the fingers of the dying Father to piety wisedome patience and every virtue but ever and anon to let fall so much of their owne ungracious dew as may irrigat the seeds of their prelaticall Errors and Church interest so farre as to charge him to presevere in the maintainance of Episcopall governement upon all hazards without the change of any thing except a little p. 278. and to assure that all Covenanters are of a faction engaged into a Religious rebellion who may never be trusted till they have repented of their Covenant and that till then never lesse loyalty justice or humanity may be expected from any then from them that if he stand in need of them hee is undone for they will devoure him as the Serpent does the dove These and the like pernicious maxims framed by an Episcopall hand of purpose to separate for ever the King from all his covenanted subjects how far they were from the heart language and writings of our late Soveraigne all who were aquainted with his cariage and most intime affections at New-Castle in the Isle of Wight and thereafter can testify But it is reason when the Prelates do frame an Image of a King that they should have liberty to place their owne image in its forehead as the statuary of old did his in the Boss of Pallas targe with such artifice that all her worshipers were necessitat to worship him and that no hand was able to destroy the one without the dissolution and breaking in peeces of the oâ—her yet our Prelats would know that in this age their be many excellent Engyneers whose witty practicks transcend the most skilfull experiments of our Auncestors and whatever may be the ignorance or weaknes of men wee trust the breath of our Lords mouth will not faile to blow out the Bishop from the Kings armes without any detriment at all to royalty Allwayes the wicked and impious cunning of these craftmen is much to be blamed who dare be bold to insert and engrave themselfes so deeply in the images of the Gods as the one cannot be intended to be picked out of the other more then the Aple from the eye unles the subsistence of both be But in hazard The other matter of his railing against us is the solemne league and covenant The only crime of the Covenant is that it extirpate prelacy when this nimble quick enough Doctor comes aflicted with all the reasons the whole University of Oxford can afford him to demonstrat it as he ptofesses in his last Chapter to be wicked false void and what not we find his most demonstrative proofs to be so poore and silly that they infer nothing of his conclusion To this day no man has shewed any errour in the matter of that covenant as for our framing and taking of it our adversaries drave us thereunto with a great deale of necessity and now being in it neither their fraud nor force may bring us from it againe for we feare the oath of God After much deliberation we found that covenant the soveraigne meanes to joyne and keep together the whole orthodox party in the three Kingdomes for the defence of their Religion and liberties which a popish prelaticall and malignant faction with al their might were overturning who still to this day are going on in the same designe without any visible change in the most of their former principles And why should any who loves the King hate this covenant which is the straytestry the world can devise to knit all to him and his posterity if so be his Majesty might be pleased to enter therein but by all meanes such a mischief must be averted for so the root of Episcopacy would quickly wither without any hope of repullulation an evill far greater in the thoughts of them who now mannage the conscience of the Court then the extirpation of Monarchy the eversion of all the three Kingdomes or any other earthly misery The Bishops are most justly cast out of England As for the third subject of the Warners fury against us our unkindnes to the late King if any truth were in this false challenge no other creature on earth could be supposed the true cause thereof but our unhappy Prelats all our grievances both of Church and Sate first and last came principally from them had they never been authors of any more mischief then what they occasioned to our late Soveraigne his person family and Dominions this last dozen of yeares there is abundant reason of burying that their praeter and Antiscripturall order in the grave of perpetuall infamy But the truth is beside more ancient quarrels since the dayes of our fathers the Albigenses this limb of Antichrist has ever been witnessed against Wicklise Huss and their followers were zealous in this charge till Luther and his disciples got it flung out of all the reformed world except England where the violence of the ill-advised princes did keep it up for the perpetuall trouble of that land till now at last it hath well neer kicked downe to the ground there both Church and Kingdome The Scots were never injurious to their King As for the point in hand we deny all unkindnes to our King whereof any reasonable complaint can be framed against us Our first contests stand justified this day by King and Parliament in both Kingdomes When his Majestie was so ill advised as to bring down upon our borders an English army for to punish our refusing of a world of novations in our Religioâ— contrary to the laws of God and of our country what could our land doe lesse then lie down in their armes upon Dunce law for their just and necessâ—ry defence when it was in their power with ease to have dissipat the opposite army they shew themselves most ready upon very easy conditions to goe home in peace and gladly would have rested there had not the furious Bishops moved his Majestie without all provocation to break the first peace and make for a second invasion of Scotland only to second their unreasonable rage was it not then necessary for the Scots to arme againe when they had defeat the Episcopall Army and taken New-castle though they found nothing considerable to stand in their way to London yet they were content to lie still in Northumberland and upon very meane tearms to return the second time in peace For all this the Prelats could not give it over but raised a new Army and filled England with fire and sword yea well neere subdued the Parliament and their followers and did almost accomplish their first designes upon the whole Isle The Scoâ—â— then with most earnest and pitifull entreaties were called upon by their Brethren of England for helpe where unwilling that their brethren should perish in their sight and a bridge should be made over their carcasses for a third warre upon
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
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
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
Scotland when after long triall they had found all their intercessions with the King for a modern and reasonable accomodation slighted and rejected they suffered themselves to be perswaded to enter covenant with their oppressed and fainting brethren for the mantainance of the common cause of Religion and liberty but with expresse Articles for the preservation of royalty in all its just rights in his Majestie and his posterity what unkindnes was here in the Scots to their King When by Gods blessing on the Scots helpe the opposite faction was fully subdued his Majestie left Oxford with a purpose for London The Scots selling of the King is a most false calumnie but by the severity of the ordinances against his receivers he diverted towards Linn to ship for Holland or France where by the way fearing a discovery and surprise he was necessitate to cast himselfe upon the Scots army at New-wark upon his promise to give satisfaction to the propositions of both Kingdomes he was received there and came with them to New-castle here his old oaths to adhaere unto Episcopacy hindred him to give the expected satisfaction At that time the prime leaders of the English army were seeking with all earnestnes occasion to fall upon the Scots much out of heart and reputation by Iames Grahame and his Irishes incursions most unhappy for the Kings affaires Scotland at that time was so full of divisions that if the King had gone thither they were in an evident hazard of a present war both within among themselfs and without from England our friends in the English Parliament whom we did and had reason to trust assured us that our taking the King with us to Scotland was the keeping of the Sectarian Army on foot for the wrack of the King of Scotland of the Presbyterian party in England as the sending of his Majestie to one of his houses neer London upon the faith of the Parliament of England was the onely way to get the Sectaryes disarmed the King and the people settled in a peace upon such tearmes as should be satisfactory both to the King and the Scots and all the wel-affected in England This being the true case was it any either unjustice unkindnes or imprudence in the Scots to leave the King with his Parliment of England was this a selling of him to his enemyes the monys the Scots received at their departure out of England had no relation at all to the King they were scarce the sixth parte of the arreares due to them for bygon service they were but the one halfe of the sum capitulat for not only without any reference to the King but by an act of the English Parliament excluding expresly from that Treaty of the armies departure all consideration of the disposall of the Kings person The unexpected evills that followed in the Armyes rebellion in their seasing on London destroying the Parliament murthering the King no mortall eye could have forseen The Scots were ever ready to the utmost of their power to have prevented all these mischiefes with the hazard of what was dearest to them notwithstanding of all the hard measure they had often received both from the King and the most of their friends in England That they did not in time and unanimously stur to purpose for these ends they are to answer it to God who were the true Authors the innocency of the Church is cleered in the following treatise Among the many causes of these miseries the prime fountaine was the venome of Episcopall principles which some serpents constantly did infuse by their speaches and letters in the cares and heart of the King â—o keep him off from giving that satisfaction to his good subjects which they found most necessary and due the very same cause which ties up this day the hands of covenanters from redressing all present misorders could they have the King to joyne with them in their covenant to quit his unhappy Bishops to lay aside his formall and dead Liturgie to cast himselfe upon the counsels of his Parliaments it were easy to prophecie what quickly would become of all his enemies but so long as Episcopall and malignant agents compasseth him about though al that comes neer may see him as lovely hopefull and promising a prince for all naturall endowements as this day breaths in Europe or for a long time has swayed a Scepter in Britaine yet while such unlucky birds nest in his Cabin and men so ungraciously principled doe daily besiege him what can his good people doe but sit downe with mournfull eyes and bleeding hearts till the Lord amend these otherwise remediles and insuperable evils but I hold here lest I transgresse to farr the bounds of an Epistle Thâ—â—eason off â—he dedication I count it an advantage to have you Lordship my judge in what here and in my following treatise I speak of Religion the liberties of our country and the Royall Family I know none fitter then your Lordship both to discerne and decerne in all these matters Me thinks I may say it without flattery which I never much loved either in my self or others that among all our Nobles for constancy in a zealous profession for exemplary practise in publick and privat duties the mercie of God has given to your Lordship a reputation second to none And for a rigid adhaerence to the Rights and Priviledges of your Country according to that auncient disposition of your Noble Family noted in our Historians especially that Prince of them George Buchanan the Tutor of your Grand-Father I know none in our Land who will pretend to go before you and for the affaires of the King your interest of blood in the Royall Family is so well known that it would be a strange impudency in me if in your audience I durst be bold wittingly to give finistrous information Praying to God that what in the candid ingenuity and true zeale of my spirit I present under your Lordships patrociny unto the eye of the World for the vindication of my mother Church and Country from the Sicophantick accusations of a Stigmatised incendiary may produce the intended effects I rest your Lordships in all Christian duty R. B. G. Hague this 28 May 7 June 1649. CHAP. I. The Prelaticall faction continue resolute that the King and all His People shall perish rather then the Prelats not restored to former places of Power for to set up Popery Profanity and Tyranny in all the three Kingdoms WHile the Commissioners of the Church and Kingdom of Scotland The unseasonablenesse of D. Brambles writing were on their way make their first addresses to his Majesty for to condole his most lamentable afflictions and to make offer of their best affections and services for his comfort in this time of his great distresse it was the wisdom and charity of the Prelaticall party to send out Doctor Bramble to meet them with his Faire Warning For what else but to discourage them in in the very
or Synode in Scotland did so much as assay to impede or repeale the proceedings of any the meanest civill Court I did never heare it so much as alledged by our adversaries Serious catechising is no Episcpall crimeâ— The next injurie is against all Masters and â—istresses of families whom the Presbytery will have to be personally examined in their knowledge once a yeare and to be excommunicate if grosly and willfully ignorant Answ If it be a crime for a Minister to call together parcels of his congregation to be instructed in the grounds of Religion that servants and children and where ignorance is suspected others also may be tryed in their knowledge of the Catechisme or if it be a crime that in family-visitations oftener then once a yeare the conversation of every member of the Church may be looked upon we confesse the Ministers of Scotland were guilty thereof and so farre as we know the generality of the Episcopall faction may purge themselves by oath of any such imputâ—tion for they had somewhat else to doe then to be at the paines of instructing or trying the Spirituall State of every sheep in their flocks we confesse likewise that it is both our order and practise to keepe off from the holy table whom we finde grosly and wilfully ignorant but that ever any for simple ignorance was excommunicate in Scotland Church sessions are not high commissiones none who knowes us will affirme it The last whom he will have to be wronged by the Presbyte y are the common people who must groane under a high commission in every parish where ignorant governors rule all without Law medling even in domesticall jarres betwixt man and wife Master and Servant Answ This is but a gybe of revenge for the overthrow of their Tyrannous high Commission-Court where they were wont to play the Rex at their pleasure above the highest subjects of the three Kingdomes and would never give over that their insolent domineering court till the King and Parliaments of both Kingdomes did agree to throw it downe about their eares The thing he jeâ—â—es at is the congregationall Eldership a jâ—dicatory which all the Reformed doen joy to their great comfort as much as Sâ—otland They are farre from all arbitrary judications their Lawes are the holy Scripture and acts of superior Church jâ—dicatories which rule so clearely the cases of their câ—gnisance that rarely any difficulty remaines therein or if it doe immediately by refâ—rence or appeale it is transmitted to the Classes or Synode The judges in the lowest Eldersâ—â—â— as we have said before are a dozen at least of the most able and pious who can be had in a whole congregation to joyne with the Pastors one or more as they fall to be but the Episcopall way is to have no discipline at all in any congregation only where there is hope of a fine the Bishops officiall will summon before his own learned and conscientious wisedome who ever within the whole dioces have fallen into such a fault as he pleaseth to take notice of as for domistick infirmities Presbyterians are most tender to meddle therein they come never before any judicatory but both where the fault is great and the scandal thereof flagrant and broken out beyond the wals of the family These are the great iniuries and hurts which the Church discipline has procured to all orders of men in the whole reformed world when Episcopacy has been such an innocent lambe or rather so holy an Angell upon earth that no harme at all has ever come by it to any mortall creature a misbeleeving Jew will nothing misdoubt this so evident a truth CHAP. ULT. The Warners exceptions against the Covenant are full of confidence but exceeding frivolous THough in the former Châ—pters the Warner has spewed out more venome and gall then the bagge of any one mans stomack could have beene supposed capable of yet as if he were but beginning to vomite in this last Chapter of the covenant a new flood of blackes poyson rusheth out of his penne His undertaking is great to demonstrate cleerâ—y that the covenant is meerly void wicked and impious His fiâ—st clear demonstration is that it was devised by strangers imposed by subjects who wanted requisite power and was extorted by just feare of unjust suffering so that many that tooke it with their lips never consented with their hearts Ans This cleer demonstration is but a poore and evill argument the Major if it were put in forme would hardly be granted but I stand on the minor as weake and false for the Covenant was not devised by strangers The Covenant was not dishonourable to union the Commissioners of the Parliament of England together with the Commissioers of the Parliament and generall assembly of Scotland were the first and onely framers thereof but they who gave the life and being to it in England were the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament at Westminster by the Kings call and at that time acknowledged by his Majestie without any question about the lawfulnesse of their constitution and authority these men and that Court were not I hope great strangers in England The Covenant was not imposed upon the King but the Parliament of both Kingdomes made it their earnest desire unto his Majestie that he would be pleased to joyne with them in that Covenant which they did judge to be a â—aine peece of their security for their Religion and liberties in all the three Kingdomes As for their imposing of it upon the subjects of England an ordinance of Parliament though the King consent not by the uncontroverted lawes of England is a sufficient authority to crave obedience of all the subjects of England during the continuance of that Parliament The last part of the demonstration is dishonourable indeed to the English Nation if it were true it was no dishonour to England to joyne with their brethren of Scâ—tland in a Covenant for maintainance of their Religion and Liberties but for many of the English to sweare a Covenant with their lippes from which their heart did dissent and upon this difference of heart and mouth to plead the nullity of the Oath and to advance this plea so high as to cleer demonstration this is such a dishonour and dishonesty that a greater cannot fall upon a man of reputed integrity especically when the ground of the lye and pe ju y is n evident falshood for the Covenant was not extorted from any flesh in England by feare of any unjust suffering so far wâ—s it from this that to this day it could never be obtained from the Parliament of England to enjoyne that Covenant upon any by the penalty of a two pence The Warners second demonstration is no better then the first the ground of it is Covenanters were not deceived but understood what they sware â—hat all oathes are void which have deceipt and errour of the substantiall conditions incident to them This ground had
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
Answ If the Warner with any seriousnesse hath weighed this part of his own write and if his minde go along with his pen I may without great presumption pronounce his judgement to be none of the most solide His following vapours being full of aire we let them evanish only while he mentioneth our charging the King with intentions of changing the Religion and government we answer that we have been most willing alwaies to ascribe to the King good intentions but withall we have long avowed that the praelaticall party have gone beyond intentions to manifest by printed declarations and publick actions their formed designe to bring Tyranny upon the States and popery upon the Churches of all the three Kingdomes and that this very write of the Warners makes it evident that this same minde yet remaines within them without the least shew of repentance So long as the conscience of the court is mannaged by men of such principles it is not possible to free the hearts of the most understanding from a great deale of Jealously and feare to have Religion and lawes still overturned by that faction But the Wa ner commands us to speake to his Dilemma The covenant is not for propagating of Religion by armes whither we thinke it lawfull or unlawfull for subjects to take armes against their prince meerely for Religion We answer that the reasons whereby he thinks to conclude against us on both sides are very poor If we shall say it is unlawfull then he makes us to condemne our selves because our covenant testifies to the world that we have taken up armes meerly to alter Religion and that we beare no alleagiance to our King but in order to Religion which in plaine terms is to our own humours and conceits Ans There be many untruths here in few words first how much reality and truth the Warner and some of his fellowes beleeves to be in that thing which they call Religion their own heart knownes but it can be no great charity in him to make the Religion of all covenanters to be nothing but their own humours and conceits Secondly it is not true that Covenanters beare no alleagiance to the King but only in order to Religion III. The Parliament of England denied that they took uâ— armes against their King though to defend themselves against the popish pralaticall and malignant faction who were about to destroy them with armes IV. They have declared that their purpose was not at all to alter Religion but to purge it from the corruption of Bishops and ceremonies that too long had beene noxious unto them V. They have oft professed that their rames were taken for the defence of their just liberties whereof the preservation and reformation of Religion was but one The other horne of his Dilemma is as blunt in pushing as the former If we make it lawfull saith he to take up armes for Religion we then justifie the independents and Anabaptists wee make way for any that will plant what ever they apprehend to be true Religion by force and to cut the throat of all Magistrates who are in a contrary opinion to them that it is a ridiculous partiality for any to priviledge their owne Religion as truth and Gospell The Warners black Atheisme Answ Whether will these men go at last the strength of this reason is black atheisme that there is no realty of truth in any Religion that no man may be permitted to take his Religion for any thing more but his owne apprehension which without ridiculous folly he must not preferre to any other mans apprehension of a contrary Religion this is much worse then the pagane Scepticisme which turned all reality of truth into a meer apprehension of truth wherein their was no certainty at all this not onely turnes the most certaine truths even these divine ones of Religion into meer uncertaine conceptions but which is worse it will have the most orthodoxe beleever so to think speake and act as if the opinions of Independents Anabaptists Turks Jewes Pagans or grosse Atheists were as good true and solide as the beleefe of Moses or Paul were of the truths revealed to them from heaven Secondly we say that subiects defence of their Religion and liberties established by Law against the violent usurpation of Papists Prelats or Malignants is not the planting of Religion by armes much lesse is it the cutting of the throats of all Magistrates who differ in any point of Religion * The Praelats condemne the defensive armes of the Dutch and French Protestants III. In the Iudgement of the prelaticall party the defensive armes of the Protestants in France Holland and Germany must be as much condemned as the offensive armes of the Anabaptists in Munster or of the sectaries this day in England Can these men dreame that the World for their pleasure will so farre divest themselves of all Religion and reason as to take from their hande so brutish and Atheisticall maximes * The Praelats decline the judgement of counsels The Praelats overthrow of the foundation of Protestant Religion He concludes with a wish of a generall councell at least of all protestant Churches for to condemne all breachers of seditious principles Ans All true covenanters goe before him in that desire being confident that he and his fellowes as they have declined already the most solemne assemblies of their own countries upon assurance of their condemnation so their tergiversation would be as great if they were to answer to an oecumenick Synod What I pray would the Warner say in a councell of protestant for the practise of his party pointed at in his last words I meane their purging the Pope of Antichristianisme of purpose to make way for a reconciliation yea for a returne to Rome as this day it lyes under the wings of the Pope and Cardinals * The Praelats are still peremptory to destroy the King and all his Kingdomes if they may not be restored Also what could they answer in a Christian councel unto this charge which is the drift of this whole Book that they are so farre from any remorse for all the blood and misery which their wickednesse most has brought on the former King and all his Kingdomes these eleven yeares that rather then they had not the Covenant and generall assembly in Scotland destroyed as an Idol and Antichrist they will chuse yet still to imbroyle all in new calamities This King also and his whole Family the remainder of the blood and Estates in all the three Kingdoms must be hazarded for the sowing together of the torne mytres and the rejecting of the fallen chayres of Praelats If Bishops must lie stil in their deserved ruines they persevere in their peremtory resolution to have their burials sprinckled with the ashes of the royall Family and all the three Kingdomes FINIS
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
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
Commons of a Kingdome who are oppressed by Episcopall officials have no other remedy but to goe attend a Committee of two or three civilians at London deputed for the discussing of such appeales The Presbyterian course is much more ready solide and equitable if any grievance arise from the sentence of a Presbytery a Synode twice a yeare doth sit in the bounds and attends for a weeke or if need be longer to determine all appeales and redresse all grievances now the Synode does consist of all the Ministers within the bounds which ordinarily are of diverse whole shires as that of Glasgow of the upper and nearer ward of Clidsedaile Baerranfrow Lennox Kile Carrick and Cunninghame also beside Ministers the constant Members who have decisive voyce in Synodes are the chiefe Noblemen Gentlemen and Burgesses of all these shires among whom their be such parts for judgement as are not to be found nor expected in any inferiour civill Court of the Kingdome yet if it fall out so that any party be grieved with the sentence of a Synode there is then a farther and finall appeale to a Generall assembly which consist of as many Burgesses and more Gentlemen from every shire of the Kingdome then come to any Parliament Besides the prime Nobility and choisest Ministry of the land having the Kings Majestie in person or in his absence his high Commissioner to be their praesident This meeting yeerly or oftner if need be sits ordinarily a month and if they thinke fit longer the number the wisedome the eminency of the members of this Court is so great that beside the unjustice it were a very needlesse labour to appeal from it to the Parliament for as we have said the King or his high Commissioner sits in both meetings albeit in a different capacity the number and qualification of Knights and Burgesses is ever large as great in the assembly as in Parliament onely the difference is that in Parliament all the Nobility in the Kingdome sit without any election and by vertue of their birth but in the Assembly onely who for age wisedome and pieâ—y are chosen by the Presbyteries as fittest to judge in Ecclesiastick affaires but to make up this odds of the absence of some Noblemen the assembly is alwaies adorned with above an hundred of the choisest Pastors of the whole land none whereof may sit in Parliament nothing that can conciliate authority to a Court which can be found in the Nation is wanting to the generall assembly how basely so ever our praelats are pleased to trample upon it The second alleadged hurt All questions about pattronages in Scotland are now ended which the Nobility have from the Presbytery is the losse of their partonages by congregations electing their Pastors Answ However the judgement of our Church about patâ—onages is no other then that of the Reformed divines abroad yet have our Presbyteries alwâ—ies with patience endured patrons to present unto vacant Churches till the Parliament now at last hath taken away that grievance The possessors of Church-lâ—nds were ever feared for Bishops but never for the Presbyâ—ery The Nobilities next hurt by the Presbytery is their losse of all their impropriations and Abey-lands Ans How Sycophantâ—ck an accusation is this for who knowes not how farre the whole generation of the praelaticke faction doe exceed the highest of the Presbyterians in zeale against that which they call Sacriledge never any of the Presbyterians did attempt either by violence or a course of Law to put out any of the Nâ—bility or Gentry from their possessions of the Chu ch-lands but very lately the threats and vigorous activity of the p aelats and their followers were so vehement in this kinde that all the Nobility and Gentry who had any interest were wackned to purpose to take heed of their rights In the last Parliament of Scotland when the power of the Church was as great as they expect to see it again though they obtained the abolition of patronages yet were the possessors of the Church-lands and tythes so little harmed that their rights thereto were more cleerly and strongly conformed then by any praeceding Parliament The fourth hurt is that every ordinary Presbyter will make himselfe a Noblemans fellow Ans No where in the World doe gracious Ministers though meane borne men receive more respect from the Nobility then in Scotland neither any where does the Nobility and Gentry receive more duely their honour then from the Ministers there That insolent speech fathered on Mr. Robert Bruce is demonstrat to be a fabulous calumny in the historicall vindication However the Warner may know that in all Europe where Bishops have place it has ever at least these 800 yeares beene their nature to trample under foot the hâ—ghest of the Nobility As the Pope must be above the Emperour so a little Cardinal Bellarmin can tell to King James that he may well he counted a companion of any Ilander King were the Bishops in Scotland ever content till they got in Parliament the right hand and the nearest seates to the throne and the doore of the greatest Earles Marquesses and Dukes was it not Episcopacy that did advance poore and capricious Pedants to strive for the white staves and great Seales of both Kingdomes with the prime Nobility and often overcome them in that strife In Scotland I know and the Warner will assure for England and Ireland that the basest borne of his Brethren has ruffled it in the secret councell in the royall Exchequer in the highest Courts of Justice with the greatest Lords of the Land it s not so long that yet it can be forgotten since a Bishop of Galloway had the modesty to give unto a Marquesse oâ— Aâ—gile tantum non a broad lye in his face at the Councell table The Warner shall do well to reckon no more with Presbyters for braving of Noblemen The nixt hee will have to be wronged by the Presbytery are the Orthodox Clergy The Prelatâ— continue to annull the being of all the Reformed Churches for their want of Episcopacy Ans All the Presbyterians to him it seemes are heterodoxe Episcopacy is so necessary a truth that who denies it must be stamped as for a grievous errour with the character of heterodox The following words cleere this to be his minde they lâ—se saith hee the comfortable assurance of undoubted succession by Episcopall ordination what sence can be made of these words but that all Ministers who are not ordained by Bishopâ— must lie under the comfortlesse uncertainty of any lawfull succession in their Ministeriall charge for want of this succession through the lineall descent of Bishops from the Apostles at least for want of ordination by the hands of Bishops as if unto them onely the power of mission and ordination to the Ministry were committed by Christ because of this defect the Presbyterian Ministers must not onely want the comfort of an assured and undoubted calling to the Ministery but may very well
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