CONCORDIA DISCORS OR THE DISSONANT HARMONY OF Sacred PUBLIqUE OATHES PROTESTATIONS LEAGUES COVENANTS INGAGEMENTS lately taken by many TIME-SERVING SAINTS Officers without scruple of Conscience making a very unpleasant Consort in the Ears of our most faithfull Oath-performing Covenant-keeping God and all Loyal consciencious Subjects sufficient to create a dolefull HELL and tormenting Horror in the awakned Consciences of all those who have taken and violated them too successively without any fear of God Men Devils or Hell By WILLIAM PRYNNE Esq a Bencher of Lincolns-Inne Numb. 30. 2. If a man vow a Vow unto the Lord or swear an Oath to bind his Soul with a Bond he shall not break his word he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his Mouth Gal. 3. 15. Brethren I speak after the manner of men though it be but a mans Covenant yet if it be confirmed no man disannulleth or addeth thereunto Jer. 23. 10. Because of Swearing the Land mourneth the pleasant places of the wilderness are dryed up their course is evil and their force is not right Augustin de verbis Apostoli Sermo 30. Falsa Juratio exitiosa est vera juratio periculosa est nulla iuratio secura est Tantum mali habet juratio ut qui lapides colunt timeant falsum jurare per lapides Tu non times Deum praesentem Deum viventem Deum sâ—ientem Deum movenâ—em Deum in contemptores vindicantem Vis ergò longè esse a perjurio Jurare noli Chrys. Hom. 12. in Mat. 5. Nisi juramentuÌ„ interdicatur non possunt amputari perjuria Nemo est enim qui frequenter jurat non aliquando perjuret London Printed for Edward Thomas at the Adam and Eve in Little Britain 1659. The dissonant Harmony or sacred publick Oaths Protestations Leagues Covenants Engagements lately taken c. MAny are the publick Oaths Protestations Leagues Covenants which all English Subjects especially Judges Justices Sheriffs Maiors Ministers Lawyers Graduates Members of the Commons House and all publick Officers whatsoever by the Laws and Statutes of the Land have formerly taken to their lawfull Hereditary Kings a their Heirs and Successors to bind their Souls Consciences to bear constant Faith Allegiance Obedience and dutifull subjection to them and to defend their Persons Crowns and just Royal Prerogatives with their Lives Members Fortunes against all Attempts Conspiracies and Innovations whatsoever Which being almost quite forgotten by those who have formerly taken and as frequently violated them over and over in the highest degree if not abjured them by contrary late Oaths and Ingagements I shall present them in order to their own and others view that they may conscienciously review consider them afresh and bewayle their perjurious atheistical violations of them to prevent those temporal and eternal Judgments which otherwise may and will most certainly fall upon them our Nation too for the same 1. I shall begin with the antient Oath of Fealty a which every Person above 14. years old and every Tithingman was obliged to take publickly at the Court Leet within which he lived and was antiently taken afresh every year by all the Subjects under Edward the Confessor and William the first in substance at least though not in precise words I A. B. do swear that from this day forwards I will be faithfull and loyal to our Lord the King and his Heirs and will bear * Faith and Allegiance to him of life and of Member and of terrene honour against all people which may live and die And that I shall neither know nor hear of any thing which may tend to their hurt or dammage which I shall not withstand to my power So God me help 2. The second is the antient usual b Oath of the Maiors of LONDON and other Cities and Townes throughout England and of Bayliffs or other Chief Officers where there were no Maiors You shall swear That you shall well and loyally serve the KING in the Office of Maior in the City of London and the same City shall keep surely and safely to the use of our Lord the KING of England and of his HEIRS Kings of England and that the profit of the KING you shall advance in all things which belong to you to do And shall loyally preserve the Rights of the King and whatsoever belongeth to the Crown in the said City and you shall not assent to the Distresse nor to the concealment of the Rights nor of the Franchises of the KING And where you shall know the Rights of the KING of his CROWN be it in Lands in Rents or in Franchises or in Sutes to be concealed or substracted you shall do your best endeavour to regain the same And that if you cannot do it you shall tell it to the King or to those of his Counsel of whom you are certain they will inform the KING thereof And that lawfully and rightfully you shall treat the People of your Bailywick and do right to every one as well to Strangers as to Prives as well to the Poor as to the Rich in that which appertains to you to do and that neither for Honour nor for Riches nor for Gift nor for Promise nor for favour nor for hatred you shall not do wrong to any one that you shall disturb no mans Right nor shall you take any thing by which the KING may suffer losse or any Right shall be disturbed And that in all things which appertain to the Maior of the said City so to do you shall well and lawfully demean your self So God you help c. The like c Oaths in substance were taken by all Privy Counsellors of State Sheriffs of Counties Recorders of Towns Escheators Constables and other publick Officers of Justice and by most Freemen of Corporations in relation to the King and his Heirs and the Rights of the Crown 3. The third is the d Oath of all the Judges Barons of the Exchequer and Justices of the Peace prescribed by several Acts thus formed Ye shall swear That well and lawfully ye shall serve our Soveraign Lord the King and his People in the Office of Justice and that lawfully ye shall counsell the King in his Business and that ye shall not counsel nor assent to any thing which may turn him to dammage or disherison by any manner way or colour and that ye shall not know the dammage or disherison of him whereof ye shall not do him to be warned by your self or by other and that ye shall do even Law and Execution of Right to all his Subjects Rich and Poor without having regard to any Person And that you take not by your self or by other privilie or apertly Gift or Reward of Gold or Silver nor of any other thing which may turn to your profit unlesse it be meat or drink and of small value of any man that shall have any Plea or Process hanging before you as long as the same Process shall be
praesumptione regnum arripiat nullus excitet mutuas seditiones civium nemo meditetur interitus regum sed desuncto in pace Principe Primates gentis cum sacerdotibus filium ejus Soccessorem Regni Constlio communi constituant ut dum unitatis concordia à nobis retinetur nullum patrâ—â—e gentisque dissidium per vim atque ambitum moliatur Quòd si haec admonitio mentes nostras non corrigit et aâ— salutem communem cor nostrum nequaquà m perducit audi sententiam nostram Quicunque ergò ex nobis vel totius Hispaniae populis qualibet conjuratione vel studio Sacramentum Fidel suae quod pro patriae gentisque Gotthorum 〈◊〉 vel conservatione Regiae salutis pollicitus est temeraverit aut Regem nece attrectaverit aut potestate Regni exuerit aut praesumptione tyrannica regni fastigium usurpaverit Anathema sic in conâ—pectu Dei Patris et Angelorum Christi 〈◊〉 Apostolorum ejus Spiritus Sancti et Martyrum Christi atque ab Ecclesia Catholica Quam perjurio prophanaverit efficiatur extraneus ab omni caetu Christianorum alienus cum omnibus impietatis suae sociis quia oportet ut una poena teneat obnoxios quos similis error invenerit implicatos Quod iterum secundo et tertio replicamus et acclamamus Qui contra hanc nostram definitionem praesumpserint Anathema Maranatha hoc est perditio in adventu Domini sint et cum Juda Scarioth partem habeant ipsi socii sui et cum Diabolo et Angelis ejus aeternis suppliciis condemnantur Amen FINIS A POSTSCRIPT MAny are the Presidents of Gods severe personal and National Judgements inflicted upon perfideous perjurious Infringers of their Oaths and Covenants to their lawfull Soveraigns and their Heirs a Both at home and abroad For domestique Presidents of this nature I haue presented you with some signal ones in the Second Part of my Legal and Historical Vindication of the Fundamental Liberties Rights and Laws of England London 1655. p. 29 to 37 44 46 47 56 57 60 to 65 79 80. Part 3. p. 23. 31 54 55 58 85 97 98 102 103 106 136 138 to 146 170 to 175 201 to 229 254 256 258. 260 266 267 322 to 327 333 to 370. before the Conquest The like Presidents since you may peruse in Henrici Huntindonensis Hist. l. 8. p. 291 292 293. Regeri de Hoveden Annalium pars prior p. 483. Holinshed vol. 3. p. 46. and Doctor Beards Theatre of Gods Iudgements Book 1. ch. 28. I shall instance only in two remarkable forein Examples of this kind The first is in the usurping b-c Emperour Rodulph Duke of Swethland Pope Hildebrand antichristanly Excommunicating his Soveraign the Emperour Henry the fourth and absolving his Subjects from their Allegiance to him profered the Empire to this Duke Rodulph who remembring his Oath of Allegiance sworn by him to this Emperor and how vile a part it would be for him to betray or supplant him he had sworn to obey and defend at first refused the Popes offer yet afterwards by the sophystry and perswasion of some Bishops he accepted and took upon him the Title of Emperour opposing his Liege Lord Henry in four several Battels fought between them for the Empire in the last whereof being vanquished he was sore wounded and lost his right hand When he was readie to die of his wounds one brought his right hand cut off in the Battel unto him which he beholding with much regret in detestation of his Perjury and Treachery through the Popes violence brake forth into these memorable words in the presence of many Bishops who had perswaded him to this rebellion Behold here the right hand wherewith I swore faith and allegiance to my Liege Lord the Emperor Henry this will be an argument of my breach of faith before God and of your Trayterous impulsion and advice thereunto Which having uttered he immediately expired of his wounds in a kinde of despairing manner as the just punishment of his Perjury and Treachery by his own confession magnumque mundo documentum datum est ut nemo contra Dominum suum censurgat Nam * abscissa Rudolphi dextera dignissimam perjurii vindictam demonstravit qui fidem Domino suo Regi juratam violare non timuit et tanquam alia vulnera non sufficerent ad mortem accessit etiam hujus membri poena ut per poenam agnosceretur et culpa as an c Historian of that age observes in the life of Henry the 4th Let those perjurious perfidious Army-Saints and other Grandees who have taken subscribed the precedent Oathes Protestation League Covenant with hands layd upon the Bible and lifted up to the most high God and yet have since taken subscribed with the self-same hands an Oath and Ingagement diametrically contrary thereunto to the destruction of our Kings Kingdoms Parliaments and their Privileges and are still stretching out their perjured hands against the lawfull Heir and Successor to the Crown remember this sad president of Rodulph with fear and trembling To which I shall annex another sadder and more tragicall Spectacle never to be forgotten d Vladislaus King of Hungary having made a Truce with Amurath the 2. the sixt King of the Turkes which he sealed and swore unto in the name of Christ by the command of Pope Eugenius and perswasions of his Legat Cardinal Julian and other Prelates who absolved him from this Oath he violated it in a most perfidious manner and soon after taking Amurath unprovided to fight gave him battle at Varna with a puissant Army and was likely to rout him upon the first encounter Upon which occasion Amurath being in extream fear and danger beholding the Crucifix in the displayed ensigns of the Christians pluckt the writing out of his bosome wherein the League was comprised and holding it in his hands with his eyes cast up to heaven used these words Behold thou crucified Christ This is the League thy Christians in thy Name have made with and sworn to me which yet they have without any cause on my part violated Now if thou be a God as they say thou art and as we dream Revenge the wrong now done unto thy Name and me and shew thy Power upon thy perjurious People who in their Deeds deny thee to be their God Upon the uttering of which words the Battel presently turned Huniades that valiant General and the Hungarians fled the whole Army was routed many thousands of them slain and taken Prisoners perjured King Vladislaus Cardinal Julian with most of the Prelates and Nobles who perswaded him to this breach of Faith slain in the field the greatest part of Hungary overrun gained and ever since possessed by the Turks Vdalislaus his head cut off in the Battel after was fixed on a poll carried through Grecia and Asia in triumph and shewed to the people as a monument of Gods justice on him for his perjury And will
not the blood of our beheaded King the disinheriting of his Heir and Successor the abjuration of Kingship it self the House of Lord the subvertion of all the Rights Freedoms Privileges of Parliament by those in late and present power against all the premised Oaths Protestations Solemn League and Covenant sworn by them in the name presence of God himself and the Lord Jesus Christ with hands laid on the Evangelists and listed up to Heaven and then subscribed for a perpetual Memorial cry aloud to God and Christ for the like avenging Justice from Heaven against the perjurious Infringers of them in a far higher degre than Vladislaus was guilty of if spread and held up before them by the disinherited King and Lords No doubt it will in Gods due time if not speedily really and deeply bewailed repented of by a plenarie satisfaction and restitution And cause God to shake out every man and his Posterity too from his House and from his labour and empty him and his of all present honours and enjoyments as Nehemiah shaked and emptied his lap that performeth not these Oaths Protestation League Covenant to which he and all the Congregation have said Amen Neh. 5. 12 13. Since the e very Pagan Graecians and Romanes insinuated as much in the Ceremonies of their sacred Oaths wherein they prayed That if they did not faithfully observe them without guile that Jove and the other Gods would smite and slay them as they did the lamb they then sacrificed to them and that they might be cast out and perish like the stone they threw out of their hands when they swore the Religion of an Oath being so great amongst the very Heathens that they thought all human Society abolished with its violation and those persons unworthy to live or breath amongst men who durst presume to infringe it though to their losse and prejudice And shall they not condemn us Christians and those most refined Saints of this Age who like the perfidious Atheistecal f Carthagenians Thessalonians and Parthians regard neither God nor Altars nor Covenants nor Oaths no farther than they serve their turnes to cheat and circumvent men to whom profit is more sacred than Faith or Oaths No doubt they will Ezech. 17. 18 19 20 21. Seeing he despised the Oath by breaking the Covenant when lo he had given his hand and hath done all these things he shall not escape Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD As I live surely mine Oath that he hath despised and my Covenant which he hath broken even it will I recompence upon his own head And I will spread my net upon him and he shall be taken in my Snare And I will bring him to Babilon and will plead with him there for his Trespasses that he hath trespassed against me And all his Fugitives with all his Bands shall fall by the sword and they that remain shall be scattered towards all Windes and ye shall know that I the LORD have spoken it FINIS ERRATA P. 13. l. 6. 1647. r. 1657. p. 16. l. 6. Justification r. Prevarication p. 18. l. 2. Meetings r. Mutinies Margin P. 23. l. 7. r. Sacramenti a Bracton l. 3. Tract. 2. c. 1. Britton c. 12. Lambardi Archaion LL. Edwardi Confessoris Lex 35. Spelmanni Glossarum p. 267 268. Cook 7 Repâ— Calvins case 1 Instit. f. 64 65 67 68. Tottles Magna Charta f. 164. Kitt f. 46. Exact Collection p. 370. Joh. Seldeni ad Eadmerum Notae p. 190 191. * See Gratian Caus. 22. â—u 5. De forma fidelitatis b Tottles Magna Charta f. 166. Iuramentum Majorum Ballivorum c Tottles Magna Charta f. 165 157. Claus. 35 E. 1. dors 7. Kitchin f. 46. 47. d 18 E. 3. stat 4. 20 E. 3. c. 1 2. Claus. 20 â— E. 1. pars 1. do s 13. 3 R. 2. Rot. Parl. n. 38 39 40 41. Rastall Iustices 2 Rot. Parl. 25 E. 3. n. 10. Cooks 3 Instit. p. 145. c See Exact Collection p. 278 296 337 340 342 361 367 491 498 522 523 666 770 828 839. * And have they not been so more since and now then ever before * As since and now by doubled illegal Taxes Excises High Courts of Justice Arbitrary Junctoes and their new Knacks * New quite sold and consumed * Have they not since that in 1648. and now again effected it f A Collection of Ordinances p 327 359 390 399 404 416 420 to 428. 458 459. 606. 690. 702. 751. 768 769. 798. 802 803. 806 807 808 878 879 889. Quaere whether this be not violated in every branch in the highest degree g Exact Collelection p. 769. Exact Abridgement of the Records in the Tower p. 157. 176. 454. See Oath in the Table h See my True and perfect Narrative p. 22 to 40. 92. i The true state of the case of the Common-wealth p. 9 11. ‖ Juramenta illicita jurari et jurata servari non debent Gratian Causa 22. qu. 4. throughout i St. Aug. de Verbis Apostoli Serm. 30. Gratian Caus. 22. qu. 1 2 5. Grotius de Jure Belli Pacis l. 2. c. 13. Jusjurandum habetur apud omnes ultimum atque firmissimum fidei mutuae veracitatis pignus Procopius Persiâ— corum l. 2. Ultima fides inter homines tum Gâ—aâ—cos tum Barbaro quam nulla delebit aetas est ea quam per jurata pacta sponseres adhâ—bet Deos. Dionys Hallicarnast Antiqu. Rom. Nullum Vinculum ad adstringendam fidem majores nestâ—i Juramento arctius esse voluerunt Ciceâ—â— Offic. l. 1. k S. Augustin Gratian Grotius ibidem Caelius Rhodiginus Lectionum Antiq. l. 21. c 15 * Qui perjurare compellit et qui compellitur utrique sunt perjuri homicidae Dominus quia praecepit Miles quia plus Dominum quam Deum animam suam dilexit Gratian Causa 12. qu. 5. Augustin Serm. 30. de verbis Apostoli * See vegetius de Re Militari 1. 2. Alexander ab Alexandero Genial Dierum l. 1. c. 21. l 6 c. 23. Calvini Lexicon Juridicum Tit. Juramentum Militare Fr. Connanus l. 5. c. 3. Grotius de Jure Belli l. 1. c. 2. * See Levit. 23. 41. * Littleson Firzh Brook Ash Tit. Warranty Covenant Obligation Condition Tenure m prov. 24. 20. 21. Rom. 13. 3. 4 5 6. 1 Tim 2. 2 3. 1 Pet. 2. 13. 14. n my True perfect Narrative p. 95. * Jesus pacem quam dederat revocandam non censuit quia firmata erat Sacramenti Religione ne dum alienam perfidiam arguit suam fidem solveret Ambrosius de Officiis l. 3. c. 10. * Archbishop vshers Annal. Vet. Testamenti Anno 2553. 2983. 2986. * See 7 Jac. c. 6. 17 Car. c. 7. here p. 7. q 1 Kings 15. 19. Cook 4 Instit. c. 26. p. 155 156. 4 II. 5. Rot. Parl. n. 24. â— E. 4. 2. See Br. Fith Tit. Corporation Abbie Cooks 1 Instit. f. 2. 94. 102 150. Grotius de Jute
Protector over their Infant Common-wealth much against their wills the Mock-Parliament under him whiles above 150 Members duly elected most confided in by the Country were forcibly secluded by their Additional Petition and Addresse the 26th of June 1647. imposed this new Oath on all Counsellors of State and Members of Parliament I A. B. do in the presence of God Almighty promise and swear That to the uttermost of my Power I will uphold and maintain the true reformed Protestant Religion in the purity thereof as it is contained in the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament and encourage the Profession and Professors of the same And that I will be true and faithfull to his Highnesse the Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England Scotland and Ireland and the Dominions thereunto belonging as chief Magistrate thereof And shall not contrive design or attempt any thing against the Person or lawfull Authority of the Lord Protector shall keep secret all matters that shall be treated of in Counsel and put under secrecy and not reveal them but by Command or consent of his Highnesse the Parliament or the Counsel and shall in all things faithfully perform the trust committed to me as a Counsellour according to the best of my understanding in order to the good Government peace and wellfare of these Natiions And shall endeavour as much as in me lyes as a Member of Parliament the preservation of the Rights and Liberties of the People These Oaths were sworn by many of those who had taken the premised Oaths Protestation Solemn League and Covenant and the Engagement too both to their Protector Oliver and his Son Richard with whom the Army-Officers Souldiers and sundry others in the name of most Counties and Corporations of England Scotland and Ireland in their special Addresses to Richard faithfully promised to live and die yet lo within few Months after notwithstanding these Oaths and Addresses by a miraculous Divine providence admirable in all considerate mens eyes they not only all deserted but degraded him from his Protectorship without one stroke or drop of blood spilt or Sword drawn in his quarrel after so much Christian bloud shed so many Millions of Treasure spent and many years travel care by his Father Oliver to establish his Posterity in this new-erected Supremacy Protectorship and that by his own Army-Officers and nearest most endeared Relations even in a moment beyond all probability or possibility in humane apprehension To accomplish this strange unexpected work the Army-Officers called in the old Vnparliamentary Iuncto sitting since the year 1648. till April 20. 1653. whom they formerly dissolved and unparliamented secluding all the rest of the old Parliament sitting till December 6. 1648. by force and armed guards with the whole House of Lords re-creating them alone for a Parliament who usurping to themselves the name and power of a Parliament against both Law Equity Reason dismounted his Son Richard from his Protectorship unlorded degraded his New other House of Mushrom Lords and new dubbed Knights cashiered some of the Army-Colonells and other Officers who helped to make them a Parliament him a Protector and may gratifie the rest in this kinde Commissioned some whom Oliver cashiered turned most of his Council Commissioners Judges Creatures out of their Offices and pulled down most of that he set up with force and blood Who now thinking themselves secure and forgetting all their former with these late sodain Revolutions Changes as the just rewards of perfidious breaches of Oaths Protestations Covenants to their lawfull Soveraigns they hav now afresh to make us a Freestate not only doubled our former Taxes in effect and more than trebled them by a most arbitrary new Militia on many but also by a New Bill appointed an Oath to be taken by their Iudges Iustices of the Peace and other Officers in form following You shall swear That you shall be true faithfull and constant to this Commonwealth without a single Person Kingship or House of Lords Which ‖ illegal Oath so diametrically contrary to the former it swallowed by their unarmed Judges Justices and other civil Officers out of fear will in time be imposed on the Army Officers Soldiers and all others as their former Ingagement was with as severe penalties Having presented you with these contradictory repugnant irreconcileable Oathes Protestations Covenants and Engagements I shall propose some few cases of conscience upon them in this age when Conscience is so much pretended and Liberty of Conscience so much pressed that tendernes of Conscience and Conscience it self are hardly to be found in the greatest pretenders to them 1. Whether all lawfull sacred Oaths Vowes Covenants Protestations doe not i firmly immutably inviolably bind the souls consciences of all that take them to an Absolute indispensible sincere faithful performance and strict observation of them to the uttermost of their power in all estates and conditions as is evident by Numb. 30. 2. to 14. Josh 9. 19 20. Gal. 3. 15. Deut. 23. 22 23. Judg. 11. 30. 39. Job 22. 27 Ps. 15. 4. Ps. 22. 25 Ps. 61. 8. Ps. 66. 13. Ps. 116 14 18. Ps. 132. 2 3 c. Eccles. 5. 4. Jer. 44. 25. Jonah 2 9. Isay 19. 21. Nah. 1. 15. Gen. 21. 23 24 31. c. 24. 3. to 10. 37. to 47. c 26. 3 31. c. 47. 31. c. 50. 5 6. Levit. 19. 12. Josh. 2. 12. 17. 20. Judg. 15. 12 13. Deut. 8. 12. Josh. 21. 43 44. 1 Kings 1. 13. 17. 29 30. 2 Chron. 36. 13. Ezra 10. 5. Neh. 13. 25. Jer. 4. 2. c 11. 5. Mat. 5. 33. 1 Kings 15. 3 4 5. 2 Chron. 21. 5 6 7. compared with Hebr 6. 16 17 18. An Oath for confirmation is to men an end of all strife wherfore God willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his Counsel confirmed it with an Oath that by two Immutable things his Oath and Covenant in which it is impossible for God to lie we might have strong consolation Ps. 89. 3. 34. I have made a Covenant with my chosen I have sworn unto David my Servant My Covenant will I not break nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lipps Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David Ps. 132. 11. The Lord hath sworn in truth unto David he will not turn from it Jer. 33. 20. 21. Thus saith the Lord If you can break my Covenant of the day and my Covenant of the night and that there should not be day and night in their season Then may also my Covenant be broken with David my Servant that he should not have a Son to reign upon his throne If Gods Oaths and Covenants to mortal sinful men be thus true constants sincere firme unalterable immutable then by like reason should mens Oaths and Covenants to God and their lawfull Kings be such as Psal. 15. 4. Eccles. 8. 2. Gal. 3. 15. Levit. 30. 2. to 14. and the
for it yet let them from this memorable President conclude for certain that God will sooner or later avenge it upon their Children and Posterity to their utter extirpation and on the whole Nation too as he hath done in a great measure already it may be 35 years after the Perjuries Treasons committed in this kind especially when not committed only once but perpetrated and acted over sundry times by a continued uninterrupted succession of New Perjuries Treasons and Violations of them in the highest degree from day to day without fear or shame as Exod. 20. 5. c 34. 7. Gen. 3. 14 15. 1 Kings 2. 33. 2 Kings 5. 27. Jer. 22. 30. c. 36. 31. Isay 14 20 21. Mich. 2. 2 3 4 5. Jer. 6. 15 c. 8. 12. may assure all our late and present Delinquents in this kind and their Posterity which texts they may do well most seriously to peruse with bleeding and relenting hearts 15. This their violation of their League Oath to the Gibeonites was never openly justified pleaded written preached printed for nor carried on with solemn Fasts and Humiliations most * detestable unto God when thus abused nor yet solemnly abjured by new contrary Oaths or Engagements forcibly imposed on all the Israelites by Saul and his Counsel of State to extirpate the Gibeonites yet it was thus severely punished by God himself on Sauls posterity and the Israelites O then what soarer overflowing desolating Judgements may our perjurious Fidifragus Grandees Saints Nations most justlie fear and expect will undoubtedly befall themselves their posterities and our Kingdoms now almost ripened for destruction in wise mens apprehensions who have not only infringed all our Oaths Covenants Protestations to our lawfull Kings their Heirs Successors and Posteritie over over in the highest degree but most impudently justified pleaded preached written for the lawfulness thereof yea kept manie Hypocritical Atheistical Mock-Fasts and Humiliations to promote our most detestable Perjuries Treacheries Abominations and publicklie abjured all our former loyal Oaths Protestations Covenants by new Treasonable enforced Oaths and Engagements diametrically repugnant to them Certainlie if this breach of Oath by Saul in slaying the Gibeonites could not be expiated nor the 〈◊〉 years famine inflicted on the whole Land for it removed by all King Davids and the Israelttes Fasts Prayers Tears Sacrifices till this sin of theirs was particularly be wailed repented removed and full satisfaction made to the murdered Gibeonites by David and his people by delivering up seven of Sauls Sonnes and Posteritie to be hanged up before the Lord in Gibeah of Saul for this perjurie and bloodshed committed so long before by Saul their Ancestor the principal Malefactor We may justlie fear and conclude that all our prayers tears fasts humiliations will never expiate the manifold open violations of these our Oaths Protestations Leagues Covenants by the murders of our late King and manie thousands of our Protestant Brethren of all sorts for adhering to him his heirs and posteritie the violations of the rights privileges of Parliament beyond all Presidents of former Ages and securing secluding the whole Peers House and Majoritie of the Commons heretofore and now again and trampling our fundamental Laws Liberties Properties Remonstrances Declarations as well as Oaths quite under foot by new Arbitrarie Tyranical Acts Impositions proceedings of all kinds exceeding the worst of our former Kings unlesse all these perjuries treacheries breaches of Oaths Protestations Covenants in this kind be particularly and publickly confessed bewayled reformed repented if not expiated with the like Justice and Executions upon the persons or Sons of some of the most capital Delinquents in this kind to appease Gods wrath and preserve our whole three Kingdomes from utter ruin our perjuries and breaches of all Oaths Faith Trusts being now so generallie and universally infamous throughout the world that FIDES ANGLICA is become as proverbial AS c FIDES PUNICA SCOTICA or HYBERNICA in former Ages to our perpetual infamie Which if this Publication may redresse reform for the future I shall bless God for it and have some hopes of better times things then yet we can possibly expect whiles under the guilt breach of so many contradictory Oathes Protestations Leagues Covenants Ingagements By the antient Oath of Fealty and Allegiance which both the Subjects of England and Kings Bishops Nobles and Subjects of Scotland made to the Kings of England and their heirs as supreme Lords of Scotland in these words Ero fidelis legalis fidemque legalitatem servabo Henrico Edwardo Regi Angliae et Haeredibus suis de vita membris terreno honore contra omnes qui possa it vivere mori Et nunquam pro aliquo portabo arma nec ero in consilio vel auxilio contra eum vel Haeredes suos in aliquo casu qui possit contingere sed fideliter recognoscam et fideliter faciam servitia quae pertinent ad tenementum quod de eo tenere clamito Sic me Deus adjuvet omnes Sanctos ejus Which Oath 1 William King of Scots and all his Nobles swore to King Henry the 2. et Haeredibus suis sicut ligio Domino suo And 2 Iohn Balliol Iohn Comyn with all the Nobles of Scotland to King Edward 1. and his heirs Anno 1293 1294 1297. they all in express terms obliged themselves and their heirs to be true and faithfull Subjects to the King and his heirs Which though valid obligatories in it self to our Kings postertie yet some of our Kings in their life-times made both the Scots and English Subjects to take a new Oath of Fealty and allegiance to their heir apparent and his heirs saving the fealty homage and allegiance done to themselves Thus c William King of Scots with all his Nobles Barons and Knights of Scotland did Fealty and Homage to king Henry the 2. and to Henry his son and his heirs as to his Liege Lords salva fide Domini Regis patris sui Anno 1175. Yea before this Anno 1128. by the commad of king Henry the 1. the Archbishops Bishos Abbots David King of Scots with all the Earls and Barons of England swore homage and sealtie to Maud his daughter and heir ut filiae suae Imperatrici Fide servata regnum Angliae Haereditario jure post dies suos sibi et haeredibus suis legitime procreatis servarent nisi sobolem virilis sexus ipse Rex in posterum procrearet The persidious violation of which Oath by them after King Henries death in crowning Stephen brought * exemplary judgements on the wilfull violaters therof and a bloudy long-lasting civil warr within the bowels of the Realm between Maud her son Henry and the Usurper Stephen to the great oppression devastation desolation of the publique peoples as our Historians observe all the good they hoped for by disinheriting Maud and crowning Stephen upon their own terms against his own and their Oathes becomming void
and null by his perfidiousness through divine Justice which will never permit any good things to spring out of such enormous evils as perjury and treachery which produced sundry judgments and civil wars never ceasing till Henry the right heir was restored to the Crown by a friendly agreement the only probable speedy way not now to end our present wars oppressions distractions Military Government and restore peace and prosperitie in our Nations After this An. 1191. upon the dejection of the insolent Bishop of Ely from his Vicegerentship under King Richard the first e all the Nobles of England assembling together swore Fealty to Richard King of England and to his heir against all men The Citizens of London swore the like Oath and that if King Richard should die without issue they would receive Earl John his Brother for their King and Lord juraverunt ei Fidelitatem contra omnes homines salva fidelitate Regis Richardi fratris sui as Hoveden relates In Claus. 24 H 3. m. 15. dorso soon after the birth of Edward the 1. son and heir apparent to King Henry the third I find this memorable writ issued to all the Sheriffes of England to summon all persons above 12. years old to swear Fealty to him as Heir to the King and to submit themselves faithfully to him as to their Liege Lord after his death Rex Vic. Eborum salutem Praecipimus tibi quod in fide qua nobis teneris et sicut teipsum et omnia tua diligis venire facias ad loca certa ad dies certos sicut commodius fiery potevit Omnes liberos homines de balliva tua aetatis 12. Annorum et supra et eos omnes coram te jurare facias ita quod haec sit forma juramenti sui scilicet Quod ipsi salvo Homagio et fidelitate nostra qua Nobis tenentur cui in vita nostra nullo mode renunciare volumus Fideles eritis Edwardo filio nostre primogenito ita quod side Nobis humanitus contigerit eidem tanquam hearedi nostro et Domino suo ligio erunt fideliter intendentes et eum pro Domino suo ligio habentes Et talem circa hoc exhibeas diligentiam ut inde merito debeatis commendari Teste meipso apud Westm. 24 die Febr. Ann. r. n. 24. Eodem modo scribitur omnibus Vicecomitibus and it appears by Dors. 12. they were summoned and sworn accordingly f In the Parliament of 5 H. 4. rot Parl. n. 13. 17. The Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons were sworn to bear faith and true allegiance to the King to the Prince and to his issue and to every one of his Sonnes severally sucéeding to the Crown of England and that of their own accord The like Oath was taken to the King Queen Prince Edward and the Heirs of the Kings body in the Parliament of 38 H. 6. rot Parl. n. 26. And to g Prince Edward Son and heir apparent to King Edward the 4th and his Heirs in the Parliament of 11 E. 4. entred in the Clause Roll of 11 E. 4. m. 1. dorso Yet in point of Law Conscience the first Oathes of Fealty and Allegiance to each of these Kings his heirs and successors * obliged all that took them as firmly to their heirs and successors as their Homages made by them to these Kings or other Lords which extend equally to their heires and shall not be h reiterated nor renewed to them upon this Account unless in some special cases and binde not only those that took them but their heirs and posteritie likewise although they never tooke these Oaths themselves at least to a religious conscientious observation though not to the actual legal penalties of Perjury as Angelus de Clavasio in his Summa Angelica tit. Juramentum 5. sect 24. 40. and other Canonists distinguish and the forecited Scriptures infallibly demonstrate especially being made for the publick good peace settlement of the Kingdom warranted by the policie presidents of all ages prescribed by our Lawes Parliaments for the safetie securitie settlement as well of our Religion Church Kingdoms Government as of our Kings and their posterities and so not o to be violated through fear menaces hopes of worldly gain or preferment nor dispensed with by any Papal or other human power whatsoever the i breach of Oaths Leagues Covenants being A GRAND VICKEDNESSE and high prophanation of the TRUTH FAITHFULNESSE NAME AND CONSTANCY OF GOD HIMSELF as well as transgression of his Law and Gospel deserving the highest temporal and Ecclesiastical censures in this world as well as eternal condemnation in the world to come Ezech. 17. 16 to 22. Jer. 34. Neh 5. 12. 13. 7. Whether the late illegal Oaths Ingagements to the New Republicans and Protectors enforced on the people against their Consciences without any lawfull Parliamentary Authority which only legally make prescribe impose new Oaths upon the Nation as the marginal k Statutes resolve past all dispute being directly contradictorie to their former lawfull Oaths to our Kings their Heirs and Successors be not absolutely void in conscience yea mere prophanings abuses of Gods sacred Name and if taken out of fear or weaknesse no wayes to be observed no more than Davids Oath resolution to slay Nabal with all his Family 1 Sam. 25. or Herods Oath to Herodias which he had more justly violated than observed in beheading John the Baptist Mat. 14. 6 to 13. or those Jews Vow who vowed they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul Acts 23. 21. c. Which sinful Oaths Vows were no wayes to be observed by shedding innocent blood as both the Fathers Councils Canonists Casuists and Scoolmen resolve as you may read at large in Gratian Caus. 22. quest 4. Summa Angelica Tit. Juramentum sect. 3. 45. Peter Lombard Sent. l. 3. distinct 29. most Schoolmen on his Text whose definitive Doctrine is this Si quis alicui juraverit contra fidem charitatem officium quod observatū pejorem vergat in exitum potius est mutandum quam implendum Qui enim sic jurat vehementer peccat cum autem mutat benèfacit Qui autem non mutat dupliciter peccat Et quia injuste juravit et quia facit quod non debet And l that when a man hath once obliged himself by a legal Oath to God and his Soveraign any latter Oath repugnant to or inconsistent with it is unlawfull Upon which account our m Lawbooks and Laws resolve that when ever any man swears Fealty or doth Homage to his Landlord for the Lands held of him it shall be with this special exception saving the Faith which I owe to our Lord the King who is the Soveraign Lord of all his Subjects principally sworn unto and to be obeyed in the first place before all or any others Hereupon n Walter Bishop of Exeter Anno 6 E. 1. for omitting