the use of indifferent things The Romans Corinthians and others to whom St. Paul wrote about these matters being not limited any way in the exercise of their liberty therein by any over-ruling Authority But where the Magistrates have interposed and thought good upon mature advice to impose Laws upon those that are under them whereby their liberty is not infringed as some unjustly complain in the inward judgment but only limited in the outward exercise of it there the Apostolical directions will not hold in the same absolute manner as they were delivered to those whom they then concerned but only in the equity of them so far forth as the cases are alike and with such meet qualifications and mitigations as the difference of the cases otherwise doth require So that a man ought not out of private fancy or meerly because he would not be observed for not doing as others do or for any the like weak respects to do that thing of the lawfulness whereof he is not competently perswaded where it is free for him to do otherwise which was the case of these weak ones among the Romans for whose sakes principally the Apostle gave these directions But the Authority of the Magistrates intervening so alters the case that such a forbearance as to them was necessary is to as many of us as are commanded to do this or that altogether unlawful in regard they were free and we are bound for the Reasons already shewn which I now rehearse not But you will yet say for in point of obedience men are very loath to yield so long as they can find any thing to plead those that lay these burdens upon us at leastwise should do well to satisfie our doubts and to inform our Consciences concerning the lawfulness of what they enjoyn that so we might render them obedience with better chearfulness How willing are we sinful men to leave the blame of our miscarriages any where rather than upon our selves But how is it not incongruous the while that those men should prescribe rules to their Governours who can scarcely brook their Governours should prescribe Laws to them It were good we should first learn how to obey ere we take upon us to teach our betters how to govern However what Governours are bound to do or what is fit for them to do in the point of information that is not now the question If they fail in any part of their bounden duty they shall be sure to reckon for it one day but their Iailing cannot in the mean time excuse thy disobedience Although I think it would prove a hard task for whosoever should undertake it to shew that Superiours are always bound to inform the Consciences of their Inferiours concerning the lawfulness of every thing they shall command If sometimes they do it where they see it expedient or needful sometimes again and that perhaps oftner it may be thought more expedient for them and more conducible for the publick peace and safety only to make known to the people what their pleasures are reserving to themselves the Reasons thereof I am sure in the point of Ecclesiastical Ceremonies and Constitutions in which case the aforesaid Allegations are usually most stood upon this hath been abundantly done in our Church not only in the learned writings of sundry private men but by the publick declaration also of Authority as is to be seen at large in the Preface commonly printed before the Book of Common Prayer concerning that Argument enough to satisfie those that are peaceable and not disposed to stretch their wits to cavil at things established And thus much of the second Question touching a doubting Conscience whereon I have insisted the longer because it is a point both so proper to the Text and whereat so many have stumbled There remaineth but one other Question and that of far smaller difficulty What is to be done when the Conscience is scrupulous I call that a scruple when a man is reasonably well perswaded of the lawfulness of a thing yet hath withal some jealousies and fears lest perhaps it should prove unlawful Such scruples are most incident to men of melancholy dispositions or of timorous Spirits especially if they be tender conscienced withal and they are much encreased by the false suggestions of Satan by reading the Books or hearing the Sermons or frequenting the company of men more strict precise and austere in sundry points than they need or ought to be and by sundry other means which I now mention not Of which scruples it behooveth every man first to be wary that he doth not at all admit them if he can choose Or if he cannot wholly avoid them that secondly he endeavour so far as may be to eject them speedily out of his thoughts as Satan's snares and things that may breed him worfer inconveniencies Or if he cannot be so rid of them that then thirdly he resolve to go on according to the more profitable perswasion of his mind and despise those scruples And this he may do with a good Conscience not only in things commanded him by lawful Authority but even in things indifferent and arbitrary and wherein he is left to his own liberty REASONS Of the present JUDGMENT OF THE University of OXFORD Concerning The Solemn League and Covenant The Negative Oath The Ordinances concerning Discipline and Worship Approved by general consent in a full Convocation Iune 1. 1647. And presented to Consideration LONDON Printed for Richard Marriott 1678. A Solemn League and Covenant for Reformation and Defence of Religion the honour and happiness of the King and the Peace and Safety of the three Kingdoms England Scotland and Ireland WE Noblemen Barons Knights Gentlemen Citizens Burgesses Ministers of the Gospel and Commmons of all sorts in the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland by the Providence of God living under one King and being of one Reformed Religion having before our eyes the glory of God and the advancement of the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ the honour and happiness of the King's Majesty and his Posterity and the true publick Liberty Safety and Peace of the Kingdoms wherein every ones private Devotion is included and calling to mind the treacherous and bloody Plots Conspiracies Attempts and Practices of the Enemies of God against the true Religion and how much their rage power and presumption are of late and at this time increased and exercised whereof the deplorable estate of the Church and Kingdom of Ireland the distressed estate of the Church and Kingdom of England and the dangerous estate of the Church and Kingdom of Scotland are present and publick Testimonies We have now at last after other means of Supplication Remonstrance Protestations and Sufferings for the preservation of our selves and our Religion from utter ruine and destruction according to the commendable practice of these Kingdoms in former times and the Example of God's People in other Nations after mature deliberation resolved and determined to
enter into a mutual and solemn League and Covenant wherein we all subscribe and each one of us for himself with our hands lifted up to the most high God do swear I. THat we shall sincerely really and constantly through the Grace of God endeavour in our several places and callings the preservation of the Reformed Religion in the Church of Scotland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government against our common Enemies The Reformation of Religion in the Kingdoms of England and Ireland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government according to the Word of God and the example of the best Reformed Churches And shall endeavour to bring the Churches of God in the three Kingdoms to the nearest conjunction and uniformity in Religion Confession of Faith Form of Church Government Directory for Worship and Catechizing That we and our Posterity after us may as Brethren live in Faith and Love and the Lord may delight to dwell in the midst of us II. That we shall in like manner without respect of persons endeavour the extirpation of Popery Prelacy that is Church Government by Archbishops Bishops their Chancellours and Commissaries Deans Deans and Chapters Archdeacons and all other Ecclesiastical Officers depending on that Hierarchy Superstition Heresie Schism Profaneness and whatsoever shall be found to be contrary to sound Doctrine and the power of Godliness lest we partake in other mens sins and thereby be in danger to receive of their plagues and that the Lord may be one and his Name one in the three Kingdoms III. We shall with the same sincerity reality and constancy in our several Vocations endeavour with our Estates and Lives mutually to preserve the Rights and Priviledges of the Parliaments and the Liberties of the Kingdoms and to preserve and defend the King's Majesties person and authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms that the world may bear witness with our Consciences of our Loyalty and that we have no thoughts or intentions to diminish his Majestie 's just power and greatness IV. We shall also with all faithfulness endeavour the discovery of all such as have been or shall be Incendiaries Malignants or evil Instruments by hindring the Reformation of Religion dividing the King from his people or one of the Kingdoms from another or making any faction or parties amongst the people contrary to this League and Covenant that they may be brought to publick Trial and receive condign punishment as the degree of their offences shall require or deserve or the Supream Judicatories of both Kingdoms respectively or others having power from them for that effect shall judge convenient V. And whereas the happiness of a blessed Peace between these Kingdoms denied in former times to our Progenitours is by the good Providence of God granted unto us and hath been lately concluded and settled by both Parliaments we shall each one of us according to our place and interest endeavour that they may remain conjoyned in a firm Peace and union to all Posterity And that Justice may be done upon the wilfull opposers thereof in manner expressed in the precedent Articles VI. We shall also according to our places and callings in this common cause of Religion Liberty and Peace of the Kingdoms assist and defend all those that enter into this League and Covenant in the maintaining and pursuing thereof and shall not suffer our selves directly or indirectly by whatsoever combination perswasion or terrour to be divided and withdrawn from this blessed Union and Conjunction whether to make defection to the contrary part or to give our selves to a detestable indifferency or neutrality in this cause which so much concerneth the glory of God the good of the Kingdoms and the honour of the King but shall all the days of our lives zealously and constantly continue therein against all opposition and promote the same according to our power against all lets and impediments whatsoever and what we are not able our selves to suppress or overcome we shall reveal and make known that it may be timely prevented or removed All which we shall do as in the sight of God And because these Kingdoms are guilty of many sins and provocations against God and his Son Iesus Christ as is too manifest by our present distresses and dangers the fruits thereof We profess and declare before God and the world our unfeigned desire to be humbled for our own sins and for the sins of these Kingdoms especially that we have not as we ought valued the inestimable benefit of the Gospel that we have not laboured for the purity and power thereof and that we have not endeavoured to receive Christ in our hearts nor to walk worthy of him in our lives which are the causes of our sins and transgressions so much abounding amongst us And our true and unfeigned purpose desire and endeavour for our selves and all others under our power and charge both in publick and in private in all duties we owe to God and man to amend our lives and each one to go before another in the example of a real Reformation that the Lord may turn away his wrath and heavy indignation and establish these Churches and Kingdoms in truth and peace And this Covenant we make in the presence of Almighty God the searcher of all hearts with a true intention to perform the same as we shall answer at that great day when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed most humbly beseeching the Lord to strengthen us by his holy Spirit for this end and to bless our desires and proceedings with such success as may be deliverance and safety to his people and encouragement to other Christian Churches groaning under or in danger of the yoke of Antichristian tyranny to joyn in the same or like Association and Covenant to the glory of God the enlargement of the Kingdom of Iesus Christ and the peace and tranquillity of Christian Kingdoms and Commonwealths The Negatie Oath I A. B. do swear from my heart That I will not directly nor indirectly adhere unto or willingly assist the King in this War or in this Cause against the Parliament nor any Forces raised without the consent of the two Houses of Parliament in this Cause or War And I do likewise swear That my coming and submitting my self under the Power and Protection of the Parliament is without any manner of Design whatsoever to the prejudice of the proceedings of this present Parliament and without the direction privity or advice of the King or any of his Council or Officers other than what I have now made known So help me God and the Contents of this Book Reasons why the Vniversity of Oxford cannot submit to the Covenant the Negative Oath the Ordinance concerning Discipline and Directory mentioned in the late Ordinance of Parliament for the Visitation of that place WHereas by an Ordinance of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament for the Visitation and Reformation of the University
extirpation of Prelacy as it is in the Article expounded or by subsequent practice evidenced will be fevered and cut off from the Crown to the great prejudice and damage thereof Whereunto as we ought not in common reason and in order to our Allegiance as Subjects yield our consent so having sworn expressly to maintain the King's Honour and Estate and to our power to assist and defend all Jurisdictions c. belonging to his Highness or united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of the Realm we cannot without manifest Perjury as we conceive consent thereunto 4. The Government of this Realm being confessedly an Empire or Monarchy and that of a most excellent temper and constitution we understand not how it can become us to desire or endeavour the extirpation of that Government in the Church which we conceive to be incomparably of all other the most agreeable and no way prejudicial to the state of so well a constituted Monarchy Insomuch as King Iames would often say what his long Experience had taught him No Bishop no King Which Aphorism though we find in sundry Pamphlets of late years to have been exploded with much confidence and scorn yet we must profess to have met with very little in the proceedings of the late times to weaken our belief of it And we hope we shall be the less blamed for our unwillingness to have any actual concurrence in the extirpating of Episcopal Government seeing of such extirpation there is no other use imaginable but either the alienation of their Revenues and Inheritances which how it can be severed from Sacriledge and Injustice we leave others to find out or to make way for the introducing of some other form of Church Government which whatsoever it shall be will as we think prove either destructive of and inconsistent with Monarchical Government or at leastwise more prejudicial to the peaceable orderly and effectual exercise thereof than a well-regulated Episcopacy can possibly be §. V. Of the other parts of the Covenant HAving insisted the more upon the two first Articles that concern Religion and the Church and wherein our selves have a more proper concernment we shall need to insist the less upon those that follow contenting our selves with a few the most obvious of those many great and as we conceive just exceptions that lie there against In the third Article we are not satisfied that our endeavour to preserve and defend the Kings Majestie 's Person and Authority is so limited as there it is by that addition In the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdom Forasmuch as 1. No such limitation of our duty in that behalf is to be found either in the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance which no Papist would refuse to take with such a limitation nor in the Protestation nor in the Word of God 2. Our endeavour to preserve the Rights and Priviledges of Parliaments and the Liberties of the Kingdoms is required to be sworn of us in the same Article without the like or any other limitation added thereunto 3. Such limitation leaveth the duty of the Subject at so much loosness and the safety of the King at so great uncertainty that whensoever the people shall have a mind to withdraw their obedience they cannot want a pretence from the same for so doing 4. After we should by the very last thing we did viz. swearing with such a limitation have made our selves guilty of an actual and real diminution as we conceive of his Majesties just power and greatness the obtestation would seem very unseasonable at the least with the same breath to call the world to bear witness with our Consciences that we had no thoughts or intentions to diminish the same 5. The swearing with such a limitation is a Testimony of the Subjects Loyalty to our seeming of a very strange nature which the Principles of their several Religions salved the Conscience of a most resolute Papist or Sectary may securely swallow and the Conscience of a good Protestant cannot but strain at In the fourth Article 1. We desire it may be considered whether the imposing of the Covenant in this Article do not lay a necessity upon the Son of accusing his own Father and pursuing him to destruction in case he should be an Incendiary Malignant or other evil Instrument such as in the Article is described A course which we conceive to be contrary to Religion Nature and Humanity 2. Whether the swearing according to this Article doth not rather open a ready way to Children that are sick of the Father Husbands that are weary of their Wives c. by appealing such as stand between them and their desires of Malignancy the better to effectuate their unlawful intentions and designs 3. Our selves having solemnly protested to maintain the Liberty of the Subject and the House of Commons having publickly declared against the exercise of an Arbitrary Power with Order that their said Declaration should be printed and published in all the Parish Churches and Chappels of the Kingdom there to stand and remain as a testimony of the clearness of their intentions whether the subjecting of our selves and brethren by Oath unto such punishments as shall be inflicted upon us without Law of Merit at the sole pleasure of such uncertain Judges as shall be upon any particular occasion deputed for that effect of what mean quality or abilities soever they be even to the taking away of our lives if they shall think it convenient so to do though the degree of our offences shall not require or deserve the same be not the betraying of our Liberty in the lowest and the setting up of an Arbitrary Power in the highest degree that can be imagined The Substance of the fifth Article being the settling and continuance of a firm peace and union between the three Kingdoms since it is our bounden duty to desire and according to our several places and interests by all lawful means to endeavour the same we should make no scruple at all to enter into a Covenant to that purpose were it not 1. That we do not see nor therefore can acknowledge the happiness of such a blessed Peace between the three Kingdoms for we hope Ireland is not forgotten as in the Article is mentioned so long as Ireland is at War within it self and both the other Kingdoms engaged in that War 2. That since no peace can be firm and well-grounded that is not bottom'd upon Justice the most proper and adequate act whereof is Ius suum cuique to let every one have that which of right belongeth unto him we cannot conceive how a firm and lasting Peace can be established in these Kingdoms unless the respective Authority Power and Liberty of King Parliament and Subject as well every one as other be preserved full and entire according to the known Laws and continued unquestioned customes of the several Kingdoms in former times and before the beginning of these
sad distractions In the sixth Article we are altogether unsatisfied 1. The whole Article being grounded upon a supposition which hath not yet been evidenced to us viz. that this Cause meaning thereby or else we understand it not the joyning in this Covenant of mutual defence for the prosecution of the late War was the Cause of Religion Liberty and Peace of the Kingdoms and that it so much concerned the glory of God and the good of the Kingdoms and the honour of the King 2. If all the Premisses were so clear that we durst yield our free assent thereunto yet were they not sufficient to warrant to our Consciences what in this Article is required to be sworn of us unless we were as clearly satisfied concerning the lawfulness of the means to be used for the supporting of such a Cause For since evil may not be done that good may come thereof we cannot yet be perswaded That the Cause of Religion Liberty and Peace may be supported or the Glory of God the Good of the Kingdoms and the Honour of the King sought to be advanced by such means as to our best understandings are both improper for those Ends and destitute of all warrant from the Laws either of God or of this Realm Lastly in the Conclusion our hearts tremble to think that we should be required to pray that other Christian Churches might be encouraged by our example to joyn in the like Association and Covenant to free themselves from the Antichristian yoke c. Wherein 1. To omit that we do not know any Antichristian yoke under which we were held in these Kingdoms and from which we owe to this either War or Covenant our freedom unless by the Antichristian yoke be meant Episcopal Government which we hope no man that pretendeth to Truth and Charity will affirm 2. We do not yet see in the fruits of this Association or Covenant among our selves any thing so lovely as to invite us to desire much less to pray that other Christian Churches should follow our example herein 3. To pray to the purpose in the conclusion of the Covenant expressed seemeth to us all one in effect as to beseech Almighty God the God of Love and Peace 1. To take all love and peace out of the hearts of Christians and to set the whole Christian world in a combustion 2. To render the Reformed Religion and all Protestants odious to all the world 3. To provoke the Princes of Europe to use more severity towards those of the Reformed Religion if not for their own security to root them quite out of their several Dominions 4. The tyranny and yoke of Antichrist if laid upon the nooks of Subjects by their lawful Sovereigns is to be thrown off by Christian boldness in confessing the Truth and patient suffering for it not by taking up Arms or violent resisting of the Higher Powers §. VI. Some considerations concerning the meaning of the Covenant OUR aforesaid Scruples are much strengthened by these ensuing Considerations First That whereas no Oath which is contradictory to it self can be taken without Perjury because the one part of every contradiction must needs be false this Covenant either indeed containeth or at leastwise which to the point of Conscience is not much less effectual seemeth to us to contain sundry Contradictions as namely amongst others these 1. To preserve as it is without change and yet to reform and alter and not to preserve one and the same Reformed Religion 2. Absolutely and without exception to preserve and yet upon supposition to extirpate the self-same thing viz the present Religion of the Church of Scotland 3. To reform Church Government established in England and Ireland according to the Word of God and yet to extirpate that Government which we are perswaded to be according thereunto for the introducing of another whereof we are not so perswaded 4. To endeavour really the extirpation of Heresies Schisms and Prophaneness and yet withal to extirpate that Government in the Church the want of the due exercise whereof we conceive to have been one chief cause of the growth of the said evils and do believe the restoring and continuance thereof would be the most proper and effectual remedy 5. To preserve with our estates and lives the liberties of the Kingdom that is as in the Protestation is explained of the Subject and yet contrary to these liberties to submit to the imposition of this Covenant and of the Negative Oath not yet established by Laws and to put our lives and estates under the arbitrary power of such as may take away both from us when they please not only without but even against Law if they shall judge it convenient so to do Secondly We find in the Covenant sundry expressions of dark or doubtful construction whereunto we cannot swear in judgment till their sense be cleared and agreed upon As Who are the Common Enemies and which be the best Reformed Churches mentioned in the first Article Who in the fourth Article are to be accounted Malignants How far that phrase of hindring Reformation may be extended What is meant by the supreme Iudicatory of both the Kingdoms and sundry other Thirdly By the use that hath been made of this Covenant sometimes to purposes of dangerous consequence we are brought into some fears and jealousies lest by taking the same we should cast our selves into more snares than we are yet aware of For in the first Article 1. Whereas we are to endeavour the Reformation of Religion in this Kingdom in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government according to the Word of God and the example of the best Reformed Churches 1. The Reformation in Worship whereby we could not suppose any more was intended according to their former Declaration than a review of the Service-book that the translations might be in some places amended some alterations made in the Offices and Rubricks or at most some of the Ceremonies laid aside for the reasons of expediency and condescension hath produced an utter abolition of the whole form established without substituting any other certain form in the room thereof 2. The Reformation in point of Discipline and Government intended so far as by the overtures hitherto made we are able to judge is such as we conceive not to be according to the Word of God nor for any thing we know according to the example of any Church that ever was in the World best or worst since the Creation 2. In the second Article our grief and fears had been less if we could have observed the extirpation of Popery Heresie Schism and Prophaneness to have been as really intended and set on with as much speed and animosity as the extirpation of Prelacy and that which some call Superstition But when we see under the notions of rooting out Prelacy and Superstition so much quickness used to fetch in the Revenues of the Church and the sacred Utensils no otherwise guilty of Superstition for ought we know
and therefore they are not called the King's Judges but the King's Council and they have their several proper rights and interests peculiar and distinct both between themselves and from that of the Kings by reason whereof they become distinct Orders or as of late times they have been styled in this sense we conceive three distinct Estates Each of which being supposed to be the best Conservators of their own proper interest if the power of any one Estate should be presumed to be virtually present in the other two that Estate must needs be inevitably liable to suffer in the proper interests thereof which might quickly prove destructive to the whole Kingdom the safety and prospetity of the whole consisting in the conservation of the just rights and proper interests of the main parts viz. The King Lords and Commons inviolate and entire 3. The Judges of other Courts forasmuch as their power is but Ministerial and meerly Judicial are bounded by the present Laws and limited also by their own Acts so as they may neither swerve from the Laws in giving Judgment nor reverse their own Judgments after they are given But the high Court of Parliament having by reason of the King 's Supream Power presiding therein a Power Legislative as well as Judicial are not so limited by any earthly Power but that they may change and over-rule the Laws and their own Acts at their pleasure The King 's Personal assent therefore is not needful in those other Courts which are bounded by those Laws whereunto the King hath already given his personal assent but unto any Act of Power beside beyond above or against the Laws already established we have been informed it seems to us very agreeable to reason that the King 's Personal Assent should be absolutely necessary Forasmuch as every such Act is the exercise of a Legislative rather than of a Judicial power and no Act of Legislative power in any Community by consent of all Nations can be valid unless it be confirmed by such person or persons as the Sovereignty of that Community resideth in Which Sovereignty with us so undoubtedly resideth in the person of the King that his ordinary style runneth Our Sovereign Lord the King And he is in the Oath of Supremacy expresly acknowledged to be the only Supream Governour within his Realms And we leave it to the wisdom of others to consider what misery and mischief might come to the Kingdom if the power of any of these three Estates should be swallowed up by any one or both the other and if then under the name of a Judicial there should be yet really exercised a Legislative power 4. Since all Judicial Power is radically and originally in the King who is for that cause styled by the Laws The Fountain of Iustice and not in any other Person or Persons but by derivation from him it seemeth to us evident that neither the Judges of Inferiour Courts of Ministerial Justice nor the Lords and Commons assembled in the High Court of Parliament may of right exercise any other Power over the Subjects of this Realm than such as by their respective Patents and Writs issued from the King or by the known established Laws of the Land formerly assented unto by the Kings of this Realm doth appear to have been from him derived unto them Which Laws Patents and Writs being the exact boundary of their several Powers it hath not yet been made appear to our understandings either from the Laws of the Realm or from the tenour of those Writs by which the Parliament is called that the two Houses of Parliament have any power without the King to order command or transact but with him to treat consult and advise concerning the great affairs of the Kingdom In which respect they have sundry times in their Declarations to his Majesty called themselves by the Name of his Great Council And those Laws and Writs are as we conceive the proper Topick from which the just power of the Honourable Houses can be convincingly deduced and not such frail Collections as the wits of men may raise from seeming Analogies and Proportions §. VIII Of the Negative Oath WE are not satisfied how we can submit to the taking of the Negative Oath 1. Without forseiture of that liberty which we have sworn and are bound to preserve With which liberty we conceive it to be inconsistent that any Obligation should be laid upon the Subject by an Oath not established by Act of Parliament 2. Without abjuring our natural Allegiance and violating the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance by us formerly taken By all which being bound to our power to assist the King we are by this Negative Oath required to swear from our heart not to assist him 3. Without diminution of his Majesties just Power and Greatness contrary to the third Article of the Covenant by acknowledging a Power in the two Houses of Parliament in opposition to the King's Power Whereas we profess our selves unable to understand how there can be any lawful power exercised within this Realm which is not subordinate to the power of the King §. IX Of the Ordinances concerning the Discipline and Directory 1. First Concerning them altogether we are not satisfied how we can submit to such Ordinances of the two Houses of Parliament not having the Royal Assent 1. As are contrary to the established Laws of this Realm contained in such Acts of Parliament as were made by the joint consent of King Lords and Commons 2. Nor so only but also pretend by Repeal to abrogate such Act of Acts. For since Ejusdem est potestatis destruere cujus est constituere it will not sink with us that a letter power can have a just right to cancel and annul the Act of a greater 3. Especially the whole power of ordering all matters Ecclesiastical being by the Laws in express words for ever annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm And upon what head that Crown ought to stand none can be ignorant As to the particular Ordinances those that concern the Discipline first 1. If under that Title be comprehended the Government also we cannot submit thereunto without consenting to the eradiction of a Government of reverend Antiquity in the Church Which notwithstanding the several changes of Religion within this Realm hath yet from time to time been continued and confirmed by the publick Laws and great Charters of the Kingdom than which there cannot be a more ample testimony that it was ever held agreeable to the Civil Government and the Subjects Liberty Which also the successive Kings of this Realm at their several Coronations have solemnly sworn to preserve And the continuance whereof for sundry Reasons before upon the second Article of the Covenant specified we heartily wish and desire 2. But if the word Discipline be taken as it is in the first Article of the Covenant as contra-distinguished unto the Government there is something even
he will grant keep and confirm the Laws Customs and Franchises granted to the Clergy by the glorious King S. Edward And that he will grant and preserve unto the Bishops and to the Churches committed to their charge all Canonical Priviledges and due Law and Iustices and that he will protect and defend them as every good King in his Kingdom ought to be Protector and Defender of the Bishops and the Churches under their Government Vide Exact Col. Pag. 290 291. †See Stat. 25 H. 8.20 1 E. 6.2 ‖ See Stat. 39 Eliz. 8. * Stat. 14 E. 3.4 5. 17 E. 3.14 †Stat. 26 H. 8.3 1 Eliz. 4. * Supremam potestatem merum imperium apud nos habet Rex Cambden Whereas by sundry divers old authentick Histories and Chronicles it is manifestly declared and expressed that this Realm of England is an Empire and so hath been accepted in the world governed by one Supream Head and King having the Dignity and Royal Estate of the Imperial Crown of the same Stat. 24 H. 8.12 See also 1 Eliz. 3. †The Lords and Commons do declare That they intend a due and necessary Reformation of the Liturgy of the Church and to take away nothing therein but what shall be evil and justly often five or at least unnecessary burthensom Dec. 9 Apr. 1642. Exact Col. p. 135. * From whence it is most evident That the Rights and Privileges of Parliaments and Liberties of the Kingdom are in the first place to be preserved Answer to Scotish Papers 18 Nov. 1546 pag. 21 †We observe you mention the defence of the King twice from the Covenant yet in both places leave out In the preservation and c. p. 39 46. a main clause without which the other part ought never to be mentioned p. 56. * Heretici nec Deo nec hominibus servant fidem Speciatim hoc addo Calvinistas in hac re deteriores esse quá Lutheranos Num Calviniste nullem servant fidem Iura perjura Lutherani moderationes sunt Becan 5. Manual Controv. 14. n. 4. 6. †Invent Oaeths and Covenants for the Kingdom dispense with them when he pleaseth swear and forsweae as the wind turneth like a godly Presbyter Arraign of Persec in Epist. Ded. * By the Covenant both Houses of Parliament and many thousands of other his Majesties Subjects of England and Ireland stand bound as well as we to hinder the setting up of the Church Government by Bishops in the Kingdom of Scotland And that we as well as they stand bound to endeavour the extirpation thereof in England and Ireland Scots Declaration to the States of the United Provinces 5 Aug 1645. recited in Answer to the Scot's Papers pag. 23 †The old forms of Acts of Parliament were The King willeth provideth ordaineth establisheth granteth c. by the assent of Parliament c. See Statutes till 1 H. 4. After that The King of the assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and at the special instance and request of the Commons of this Realm hath ordained c. See Statutes 1 H. 4. till 1 H. 7. A form of such Petition of the Commons see 1 R. 3. 6. Prayen the Commons in this present Parliament assembled that where c. Please it therefore your Highness by the advice and assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in this your present Parliament assembled and by the Authority of the same to ordain c. No Bill is an Act of Parliament Ordinance or Edict of Law although both the Houses agree unanimously in it till it hath the Royal Assent Ancient Customes pag. 54. Assemblee de ceux troys Estats est appellee un Act de Parliament car sans touts troys n'est ascun Act de Parl. Finch Nomotech sol 21. We admit that no Acts of Parliament are compleat or formally binding without the King's assent H. P. Answer to David Ienkins pag. 6. * which if your Majesty shall be pleased to adorn with your Majesties Royal assent without which it can neither be compleat and perfect nor Stat. 1 Jac. 1. †Stat. 33 H. 3. 21. * Dominus Rex habet ordinariam jurisdictionem dignitatem potestatem super omnes qui in regno suo sunt Ea quae jurisdictionis sunt paecis ad nullum pertinent nisi ad coronam dignitatem Regiam nec à corona sebarari possunt Bracton cited by Stamford lib. 2. cap. 2. * For in our Laws the Clergy Nobility and Commonalty are the three Estates we your said most loving faithful and obedient Subjects viz. the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons representing your three Estates of your Realm of England 1 Eliz. 3. the State of the Clergy being one of the greatest States of this Realm 8 Eliz. 1. †See Finch supra ad lit d †The Crown of England hath been so free at all times that it hath been in no earthly subjection but immediately to God in all things touching the Regality of the said Crown 16 R. 2. 5. Omnis sub so est ipsi sub nallo nisi tantum sub Deo Parem autem non habet Rex in Regno suo quia Item nec multo fortius superiorem aut potentiorem habere dibet quia sic esset inferior suis subjectis Bracton conten 1. Rubr. 36. Cui 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 legibus ipsis legum vim imponendi potestatem Deus dedit Finch Nomotech in Epist. Dedic to King Iames. * Fons Iustitiae Bracton By War to intend the alteration of the Laws in any part of them is to levy war against the King and consequently Treason by the Statute of 25 E. 3. because they are the King's Laws He is the Fountain from whence in their several Channels they are derived to the Subject Master Saint Iohn's Speech concerning the Earl of Strafford pag. 12. * Et ibidem vobiscum colloquium habere tractare super dictia negotiis tract vestrumque consilium impensur Writ to the Lords †Every Subject by the duty of his Allegiance is bounden to serve and assist his Prince and Sovereign Lord at all seasons when need shall re quire 11 H. 7. 18. St. 1 El. 1. 1 Cor. 5.1 c. 1 Cor. 11. 28 c. 1 Eliz. * Stat. 23. Eliz. 1. 29 Eliz. 6. 35 El. 1. 2. 3 Iac. 4. 5.
stands obliged to him for these and his following Lectures de Conscientia I shall not attempt to declare as being very sensible that the best Pens must needs fall short in the commendation of them So that I shall only add That they continue to this day and will do for ever as a compleat standard for the resolution of the most material doubts in Casuistical Divinity And therefore I proceed to tell the Reader That about the time of his reading those Lectures the King being then Prisoner in the Isle of Wight the Parliament had sent the Covenant the Negative Oath and I know not what more to be taken by the Doctor of the Chair and all Heads of Houses and all other inferiour Scholars of what degree soever were all to take these Oaths by a sixed day and those that did not to abandon their Colledge and the University too within 24 hours after the beating of a Drum for if they remain'd longer they were to be proceeded against as Spies Dr. Laud then Archbishop of Canterbury the Earl of Strafford and many others had been formerly murthered by this wicked Parliament but the King yet was not and the University had yet some faint hopes that in a Treaty then in being or pretended to be suddenly there might be such an Agreement made between King and Parliament that the dissenters in the University might both preserve their Consciences and Subsistance which they then enjoyed by their Colledges And being possess'd of this mistaken hope That the Parliament were not yet grown so merciless as not to allow manifest reason for their not submitting to the enjoyn'd Oaths the University appointed twenty Delegates to meet consider and draw up a Manifesto to the Parliament why they could not take those Oaths but by violation of their Consciences And of these Delegates Dr. Sheldon late Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Hammond Dr. Sanderson Dr. Morley now Bishop of Winchester and that most honest and as judicious Civil Lawyer Dr. Zouch were a part the rest I cannot now name but the whole number of the Delegates requested Dr. Zouch to draw up the Law part and give it to Dr. Sanderson and he was requested to methodize and add what referr'd to reason and conscience and put it into form He yielded to their desires and did so And then after they had been read in a full Convocation and allow'd of they were printed in Latin that the Parliaments proceedings and the Universities sufferings might he manifested to all Nations and the Imposers of these Oaths might repent or answer them But they were past the first and for the latter I might swear they neither can nor ever will And these reasons were also suddenly turn'd into English by Dr. Sanderson that those of these three Kingdoms might the better judge of the Loyal Parties sufferings About this time the Independants who were then grown to be the most powerful part of the Army had taken the King from a close to a more large imprisonment and by their own pretences to liberty of Conscience were obliged to allow somewhat of that to the King who had in the year 1646. sent for Dr. Sanderson Dr. Hammond Dr. Sheldon the late Archbishop of Canterbury and Dr. Morley the now Bishop of Winchester to attend him in order to advise with them how far he might with a good Conscience comply with the Proposals of the Parliament for a Peace in Church and State but these having been then denied him by the Presbyterian Parliament were now allow'd him by those in present power And as those other Divines so Dr. Sanderson gave his attendance on his Majesty also in the Isle of Wight preach'd there before him and had in that attendance many both publick and private Conferences with him to his Majesties great satisfaction At which time he desir'd Dr. Sanderson that being the Parliament had propos'd to him the abolishing of Episcopal Government in the Church as inconsistent with Monarchy that he would consider of it and declare his judgment He undertook to do so and did it but it might not be printed till our King 's happy Restoration and then it was And at Dr. Sanderson's taking his leave of his Majesty in this last attendance on him the King requested him to betake himself to the writing Cases of Conscience for the good of Posterity To which his answer was That he was now grown old and unfit to write Cases of Conscience But the King was so bold with him as to say It was the simplest answer be ever heard from Dr. Sanderson for no young man was fit to be a Judge or write Cases of Conscience And let me here take occasion to tell the Reader this truth not commonly known that in one of these Conferences this conscientious King told Dr. Sanderson or one of them that then waited with him That the remembrance of two Erroâ—â— did much afflict him which were his assent to the Earl of Strafford's death and the abolishing Episcopacy in Scotland and that if God ever restored him to be in a peaceable possession of his Crown he would demonstrate his Repentance by a publick Confession and a voluntary Penance I think barefoot from the Tower of London or Whitehall to St. Paul's Church and desire the people to intercede with God for his pardon I am sure one of them told it me lives still and will witness it And it ought to be observ'd that Dr. Sanderson's Lectures de Juramento were so approv'd and valu'd by the King that in this time of his imprisonment and solitude he translated them into exact English desiring Dr. Iuxson then Bishop of London Dr. Hammond and Sir Thomas Herbert who then attended him to compare them with the Original The last still lives and has declared it with some other of that King's excellencies in a Letter under his own hand which was lately shew'd me by Sir William Dugdale King at Arms. The Book was design'd to be put into the King's Library at St Iames's but I doubt not now to be found there I thought the honour of the Author and the Translator to be both so much concern'd in this Relation that it ought not to be conceal'd from the Reader and 't is therefore here inserted I now return to Dr. Sanderson in the Chair in Oxford where they that comply'd not in taking the Covenant Negative Oath and Parliament Ordinance for Church Discipline and Worship were under a sad and daily apprehension of Expulsion for the Visiters were daily expected and both City and University full of Souldiers and a party of Presbyterian Divines that were as greedy and ready to possess as the ignorant and ill-natur'd Visiters were to eject the dissenters out of their Colledges and Livelyhoods But notwithstanding Dr. Sanderson did still continue to read his Lecture and did to the very faces of those Presbyterian Divines and Souldiers read with so much reason and with a calm fortitude make such applications as if they were not
his Separation 4. By an implied Confession That the Laws formerly made against Papists in this Kingdom and all punishments by virtue thereof inflicted upon them were unjust in punishing them for refusing to joyn with us in that form of Worship which our selves as well as they do not approve of 2. Without manifest wrong unto our selves our Consciences Reputation and Estates in bearing false witness against our selves and sundry other ways by swearing to endeavour to reform that as corrupt and vicious 1. Which we have formerly by our Personal Subscriptions approved as agreeable to God's Word and have not been since either condemned by our own hearts for so doing or convinced in our Judgements by any of our Brethren that therein we did amiss 2. Which in our Consciences we are perswaded not to be in any of the four specified Particulars as it standeth by Law established much less in the whole four against the Word of God 3. Which we verily believe and as we think upon good grounds to be in sundry respects much better and more agreeable to the Word of God and the practice of the Catholick Church than that which we should by the former words of this Article swear to preserve 4. Whereunto the Laws yet in force require of all such Clerks as shall be admitted to any Benefice the signification of their hearty assent to be attested openly in the time of Divine Service before the whole Congregation there present within a limited time and that un-under pain upon default made of the loss of every such Benefice 3. Without manifest danger of Perjury This branch of the Article to our best understandings seeming directly contrary 1. To our former solemn Protestation which we have bound our selves neither for hope fear or other respect ever to relinquish Wherein the Doctrine which we have vowed to maintain by the name of the true Protestant Religion expressed in the Doctrine of the Church of England we take to be the same which now we are required to endeavour to reform and alter 2. To the Oath of Supremacy by us also taken according to the Laws of the Realm and the Statutes of our University in that behalf Wherein having first testified and declared in our Consciences That the King's Highness is the only Supreme Governour of this Realm we do after swear to our power to assist and defend all Iurisdictions Priviledges Preheminences and Authorities granted or belonging to the King's Highness his Heirs and Successors or united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm One of the which Priviledges and Preheminences by an express Statute so annexed and that even interminis in the self-same words in a manner with those used in the Oath is the whole power of Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction for the correction and reformation of all manner of errors and abuses in matters Ecclesiastical as by the words of the said Statute more at large appeareth The Oath affording the Proposition and the Statute the Assumption we find no way how to avoid the Conclusion § IV. Of the second Article of the Covenant FIrst It cannot but affect us with some grief and amazement to see that ancient form of Church Government which we heartily and as we hope worthily honour as under which our Religion was at first so orderly without violence or tumult and so happily reformed and hath since so long flourished with Truth and Peace to the honour and happiness of our own and the envy and admiration of other Nations not only 1. Endeavoured to be extirpated without any reason offered to our Understandings for which it should be thought necessary or but so much as expedient so to do But also 2. Ranked with Popery Superstion Heresie Schism and Prophaneness which we unfeignedly profess our selves to detest as much as any others whatsoever 3. And that with some intimation also as if that Government were some way or other so contrary to sound Doctrine or the power of godliness that whosoever should not endeavour the extirpation thereof must of necessity partake in other mens sins which we cannot yet be perswaded to believe 4. And we desire it may be considered in case a Covenant of like form should be tender'd to the Citizens of London wherein they should be required to swear they would sincerely really and constantly without respect of persons endeavour the extirpation of Treason the City Government by a Lord Mayor Aldermen Sheriffs Common Council and other Officers depending thereon Murther Adultery Theft Cosenage and whatsoever shall be c. lest they should partake in other mens sins whether such a tendry could be looked upon by any Citizen that had the least spirit of freedome in him as an act of Justice Meekness and Reason Secondly for Episcopal Government we are not satisfied how we can with a good Conscience swear to endeavour the extirpation thereof 1. In respect of the thing it self Concerning which Government we think we have reason to believe 1. That it is if not Iure Divino in the strictest sense that is to say expresly commanded by God in his Word yet of Apostolical Institution that is to say was established in the Churches by the Apostles according to the mind and after the Example of their Master Iesus Christ and that by virtue of their ordinary Power and Authority derived from him as deputed by him Governours of his Church 2. Or at least that Episcopal Aristocracy hath a fairer pretension and may lay a juster title and claim to a Divine Institution than any of the other Forms of Church Government can do all which yet do pretend thereunto viz. that of the Papal Monarchy that of the Presbyterian Democracy and that of the Independents by particular Congregations or gathered Churches 2. But we are assured by the undoubted Testimony of ancient Records and later Histories that this Form of Government hath been continued with such an universal uninterrupted unquestioned succession in all the Churches of God and in all Kingdoms that have been called Christian throughout the whole world for fifteen hundred years together that there never was in all that time any considerable opposition made there against That of Aerius was the greatest wherein yet there was little of consideration beside these two things That it grew at the first but out of discontent and gained him at the last but the reputation of an Heretick From which antiquity and continuance we have just cause to fear that to endeavour the extirpation thereof 1. Would give such advantage to the Papists who usually object against us and our Religion the contempt of Antiquity and the love of Novelty that we should not be able to wipe off the aspersion 2. Would so diminish the just Authority due to the consentient judgment and practice of the Universal Church the best Interpreter of Scripture in things not clearly exprest for Lex currit cum praxi that without it we should be at a loss in sundry points both of
than that they are worth something and on the other side so little yet done toward the extirpation of Heresie Schism and Profaneness as things of less temporal advantage We cannot dissemble our suspicion that the Designers of this Covenant might have something else before their eyes besides what in the beginning of the Introduction is expressed and that there is something meant in this Article that looketh so like Sacriledge that we are afraid to venture thereon 3. In the third Article 1. Although we should not otherwise have apprehended any matter of danger or moment in the ordering of the particulars in the Article mentioned yet since M. Challoner in his Speech and others have made advantage thereof to infer from that very order that the defence of the King's Person and Authority ought to be with subordination to the preservation of the Rights and Priviledges of Parliaments and the Liberties of the Kingdom which are in the first place and before it to be endeavoured We hope we shall be excused if we dare not take the Covenant in this sense especially considering that if the Argument be of any force it will bind us at least as strongly to endeavour the maintenance of the King's Person Honour and Estate in the first place and the rest but subordinately thereunto because they are so ordered in the Protestation And then that Protestation having the advantage of preceding it will bind us more strongly as being the first Obligation 2. Whereas some have been the rather induced to take the Covenant in this particular by being told That that limitation in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms was not to be understood exclusively yet when we find that the House of Commons in their Answer to the Scotish Papers do often press that limitation as without which the endeavouring to preserve the King's Majestie 's Person and Authority ought not to be mentioned it cannot but deterr us from taking the Covenant in this particular so understood 3. Especially being told in a late Pamphlet That the King not having preserved the Liberties of the Kingdom c. as of duty he ought is thereby become a Tyrant and so ceaseth to be a King and consequently that his Subjects cease to be Subjects and owe him no longer subjection Which assertion since we heartily detest as false and scandalous in the supposition and in the inference seditious and divellish we dare not by subscribing this Article seem to give the least countenance thereunto 4. But it striketh us with horrour to think what use hath been made of this fourth Article concerning the punishment of Malignants c. as by others otherways so especial-by the Corrector of a Speech without doors written in the defence of M. Challoner's Speech who is so bold as to tell the Parliament That they are bound by their Covenant for the bringing of evil Instruments to condign punishment to destroy the King and his Posterity and that they cannot justifie the taking away of Strafford's and Canterbury's lives for Delinquency whilst they suffer the chief Delinquent to go unpunished §. VII Of the Salvo's THE Salvo's that we have usually met withal for the avoiding of the aforesaid Scruples either concerning the whole Covenant or some particulars therein of special importance we find upon examination to be no way satisfactory to our Consciences The first is that we may take the the Covenant in our own sense but this in a matter of this nature viz. an imposed promissory Oath in the performance whereof others also are presumed to be concerned seemeth to be 1. Contrary to the nature and end of an Oath which unless it be full of simplicity cannot be sworn in Truth and Righteousness nor serve to the ending of Controversies and Contradictions which was the use for which it was instituted Heb. 6. 2. Contrary to the end of Speech God having given us the use of Speech for this end that it might be the Interpreter of the mind it behoveth us as in all other our dealings and contracts so especially where there is the intervention of an Oath so to speak as that they whom it concerneth may clearly understand our meaning by our words 3. Contrary to the end of the Covenant it self which being the confirmation of a firm union among the Covenanters that by taking thereof they might have mutual assurance of mutual assistance and defence If one may be allowed to take it in one sense and another in a contrary the Covenanters shall have no more assurance of mutual assistance each from other after the taking of the Covenant than they had before 4. Contrary to the Solemn profession made by each Covenanter in express tearms in the conclusion thereof in the presence of Almighty God the searcher of all hearts that he taketh it with a true intention to perform the same as he shall answer it at the great day 2. This will bring a scandal upon our Religion 1. That we practice that our selves which we condemn in the Papist viz. Swearing with Jesuitical equivocations and mental reservations 2. That we take the glorious and dreadful Name of God in vain and play fast and loose with Oaths inasmuch as what we swear to day in one sense we may swear the direct contrary to morrow in another And 3. It will give strength to that charge which is laid to the Presbyterian party in special both by Iesuites and Sectaries that there is no faith to be given to Protestants whatever they swear because they may swear one thing in their words and in their own sense mean another 2. The second way is to take the Covenant with these or the like general Salvo's expressed viz. So far as lawfully I may So far as it is agreeable to the Word of God and the Laws of the Land Saving all Oaths by me formerly taken c. But 1. We believe this mocking of God would be so far from freeing us from the guilt of Perjury that thereby we should rather contract a new guilt of most vile and abominable Hypocrisie 2. It seemeth all one unto us the thing being otherwise supposed unlawful as if we should swear to kill steal commit adultery or forswear our selves so far as lawfully we may 3. If this would satisfie the Conscience we might with a good Conscience not only take the present Covenant but even subscribe to the Council of Trent also yea and to the Turkish Alcoran and swear to maintain and defend either of them viz. so far as lawfully we may or as they are agreeable to the Word of God Thirdly For the second Article in particular in the branch concerning the extirpation of Church Government we are told that it is to be understood of the whole Government taken collectively and in sensu composito so as if we do endeavour but the taking away of Apparitors only or of any other one kind of inferious Officers belonging to the
Ecclesiastical Hierarchy we shall have sufficiently discharged our whole promise in that particular without any prejudice done to Episcopacy But 1. Neither the Composers of the Covenant by their words nor the Imposers of it by their actions have given us the least signification that they meant no more 2. Yea rather if we may judge either by the cause or the effects we may well think there was a meaning to extirpate the whole Government and every part thereof in the Article expressed For 1. The Covenant being as we have no cause to doubt framed at the instance of the Scots and for the easier procuring of their assistance in the late War was therefore in all reason so to be framed and understood as to give them satisfaction and considering what themselves have declared against Episcopacy we have little reason to believe the taking away Apparitors or any thing less than the rooting out of Episcopacy it self would have satisfied them 2. The proceedings also since the entring of this Covenant in endeavouring by Ordinance of Parliament to take away the Name Power and Revenues of Bishops do sadly give us to understand what was their meaning therein Fourthly As to the Scruples that arise from the Sovereignty of the King and the Duty of Allegiance as Subjects we find two several ways of answering but little satisfaction in either 1. The former by saying which seemeth to us a piece of unreasonable and strange Divinity that Protection and Subjection standing in relation either to other the King being now disabled to give us protection we are thereby freed from our bond of Subjection Whereas 1. The Subjects Obligation Ius subjectionis doth not spring from nor relate unto the actual exercise of Kingly protection but from and unto the Prince's obligation to protect Ius protectionis Which obligation lying upon him as a duty which he is bound in Conscience to perform when it is in his power so to do the relative Obligation thereunto lieth upon us as a duty which we are bound in Conscience to perform when it is in our power so to do His inability therefore to perform his duty doth not discharge us from the necessity of performing ours so long as we are able to do it 2. If the King should not protect us but neglect his part though having power and ability to perform it his voluntary neglect ought not to free us from the faithful performance of what is to be done on our part How much less then ought we to think our selves disobliged from our subjection when the Non-protection on his part is not from the want of will but of power 2. The later wherein yet some have triumphed by saying that the Parliament being the Supreme Judicatory of the Kingdom the King wheresoever in person is ever present there in his power as in all other Courts of Justice and that therefore whatsoever is done by them is not done without the King but by him But craving pardon first if in things without our proper sphere we hap to speak unproperly or amiss We must next crave leave to be still of the same mind we were till it shall be made evident to our understandings that the King is there in his power as it is evident to our senses that he is not there in his Person Which so far as our natural reason and small experience will serve us to judge all that hath been said to that purpose can never do For first to the point of presence 1. We have been brought up in a belief that for the making of Laws the actual Royal assent was simply necessary and not only a virtual assent supposed to be included in the Votes of the two Houses otherwise what use can be made of his Negative voice or what need to desire his Royal assent to that which may be done as well without it 2. The Statute providing that the King's assent to any Bill signified under his Great Seal shall be to all intents of Law as valid and effectual as if he were personally present doth clearly import that as to the effect of making a Law the Kings Power is not otherwise really present with the two Houses than it appeareth either in his Person or under his Seal Any other real presence is to us a riddle not much unlike to that of Transubstantion an imaginary thing rather devised to serve turns than believed by those that are content to make use of it 3. Such presence of the King there when it shall be made appear to us either from the Writs whereby the Members of both Houses are called together or by the standing Laws of the Land or by the acknowledged judgment and continued practice of former and later Ages or by any express from the King himself clearly declaring his mind to that purpose we shall then as becometh us acknowledge the same and willingly submit thereunto And as for the Argument drawn from the Analogy of other Courts wherein the King's Power is always supposed to be virtually present under submission we conceive it is of no consequence 1. The Arguments à minore and à majore are subject to many fallacies and unless there be a parity of reason in every requisite respect between the things compared will not hold good A petty Constable they say may do something which a Justice of Peace cannot do And the Steward of a petty Mannor hath power to administer an Oath which as we are told the House of Commons it self hath no power to do 2. That the High Court of Parliament is the Supream Judicatory we have been told it is by virtue of the King 's right of presiding there he being the Supream Iudge and the Members of both Houses his Council which being so the reason of difference is plain between that and other Judicatories in sundry respects 1. The Judges in other Courts are deputed by him and do all in his Name and by his Authority and therefore the presence of his power in those Courts of Ministerial Jurisdiction is sufficient his Personal presence not necessary neither hath he any Personal vote therein at all But in the high Court of Parliament where the King himself is the Supream Judge judging in his own Name and by his own Authority his Power cannot be presumed to be really present without either the actual presence of his person or some virtual representation thereof signified under his Great Seal 2. The Judges in Inferiour Courts because they are to act all in his Name and by his Authority do therefore take Oaths of fidelity for the right exercising of Judicature in their several places sitting there not by any proper interest of their own but only in right of the King whose Judges they are and therefore they are called the King's Judges and his Ministers But in the high Court of Parliament the Lords and Commons sit there in Council with the King as Supream Judge for the good of the whole Realm