about it Ans Must it be Jesuitisme and a drawing of all the civill affaires to the Churches bar in ordine ad Spiritualia for an Assembly to give their advice in a most eminent and important case of conscience when earnestly called upon in a multitude of supplications from the most of the Congregations under their charge yea when required by the States of the Kingdom in severall express messages for that end It seems it s our Warners conclusion if the Magistrate would draw all the Churches in his jurisdiction to a most unlawful war for the advancement of the greatest impiety and unjustice possible wherein nothing could be expected by all who were engaged therein but the curse of God if in this case a doubting Souldier should desire the Assemblies counsell for the state of his soul or if the Magistrate would put the Church to declare what were lawfull or unlawfull according to the Word of God that it were necessary here for the servants of God to be altogether silent because indeed war is so civill a business that nothing in it concerns the soul and nothing about it may be cleared by any light from the Word of God The truth is the Châ—rch in their publick papers to the Parliament declared oftner then once that they were not against but for an engagement if so that Christian and friendly treaties could not have obtained reason and all the good people in Scotland were willing enough to have hazarded their lives and estates for vindicating the wrongs doâ—e not by the Kingdom of England but by the Sectarian Party there against God the King Covenant and both Kingdoms but to the great grief of their hearts their hands were bound and they forced to sit still and by the over great cunning of some the erronious mis-perswasions of others and the rash precipitancy of it that engagement was so spoyled in the stating and mannaging that the most religious with peace of conscience could not go along nor encourage any other to take part therein The Warner touches on three of their reasons but who will look upon their publick declarations shall find many more which with all faithfulness were then propounded by the Church for the rectifying of that action which as it stood in the state and management was cleerly foretold to be exceeding like to destroy the King and his friends of all sorts in all the three Kingdoms The irrepairable losses and unutterable calamities which quickly did follow at the heels the mis-belief and contempt of the Lords servants and the great danger Religion is now brought unto in all these Kingdoms hath I suppose long agoe brought grief enough to the heart of them whose unadvised rashness intemperate fervor did contribute most for the spoiling of that designe The first desire about that engagement which the Warner gives to us concerns the security of Religion In all the debate of that matter it was agreed without question upon all hands that the Sectarian Party deserved punishment for their wicked attempts upon the Kings person contrary to the directions of the Parliaments of both Kingdoms and that the King ought to be rescued out of their hands and brought to one of his Houses for perfecting the Treaty of Peace which often had been begun but here was the question Whether the Parliament and Army of Scotland ought to declare their resolutions to bring his Majesty to London with honor freedome and safety before he did promise any security for establishing Religion The Parliaments of both Kingdoms in all their former Treaties had ever pressed upon the King a number of Propositions to be signed by his Majesty before at all he came to London was it then any fault in the Church of Scotland to desire the granting but of one of these propositions concerning Religion the Covenant before the King were brought by the new hazard of the lives and estates of all the Scotish Nation to sit in his Parliament in that honor and freedom which himself did desire There was no complaint when many of thirty propositions were pressed to be signed by his Majesty for satisfaction and security to his people after so great and long desolations how then is an out-cry made when all other propositions are postponed and only one for Religion is stuck upon and that not before his Majesties rescue and deliverance from the hands of the Sectaries but only before his bringing to London in honor freedom and safety This demand to the Warner is a crime and may be so to all of his belief who takes it for a high unjustice to restraine in any King the absolute power by any condition for they do maintain that the administration of al things both of Church and State doth reside so freely and absolutely in the meer wil of a Soveraign that no case at any time can fall out which ought to bound that absoluteness with any limitation The second particular the Warner pitches upon is the Kings negative voyce behold how criminous we were in the point When some most needlesly would needs bring into debate the Kings negative voice in the Parliament of England as one of the royall Prerogatives to be maintained by our engagement it was said that all discourse of that kind might be laid aside as impertinent for us if any debate should chance to fall upon it the proper place of it was in a free Parliament of England that our Laws did not admit of a negative voice to the King in a Parliament of Scotland and to press it now as a Prerogative of all Kings besides the reflection it might have upon the rights of our Kingdom it might put in the hand of the King a power to deny all and every one of these things which the Parliaments of both Kingdoms had found necessary for the setling the peace in all the three Dominions We marvel not that the Warner here should tax us of a great error seeing it is the belief of his faction that every King hath not only a negative but an absolute affirmative voice in all their Parliaments as if they were nothing but their arbitrary counsels for to perswade by their reasons but not to conclude nor impede any thing by their Votes the whole and intire power of making or refusing Laws being in the Prince alone no part of it in the Parliament The Warners third challenge against us about the ingagement is as if the Church had taken upon it to nominate the Officers of the Army and upon this he makes his invectives Answ The Church was far from seeking power to nominate any one Officer but the matter was thus When the State did require of them what in their judgement would give satisfaction to the people and what would encourage them to go along in the ingagement one and the last part of their answer was that they conceived if a War shall be found necessary much of the peoples encouragement would depend upon the qualification
or Synode in Scotland did so much as assay to impede or repeale the proceedings of any the meanest civill Court I did never heare it so much as alledged by our adversaries Serious catechising is no Episcpall crimeâ— The next injurie is against all Masters and â—istresses of families whom the Presbytery will have to be personally examined in their knowledge once a yeare and to be excommunicate if grosly and willfully ignorant Answ If it be a crime for a Minister to call together parcels of his congregation to be instructed in the grounds of Religion that servants and children and where ignorance is suspected others also may be tryed in their knowledge of the Catechisme or if it be a crime that in family-visitations oftener then once a yeare the conversation of every member of the Church may be looked upon we confesse the Ministers of Scotland were guilty thereof and so farre as we know the generality of the Episcopall faction may purge themselves by oath of any such imputâ—tion for they had somewhat else to doe then to be at the paines of instructing or trying the Spirituall State of every sheep in their flocks we confesse likewise that it is both our order and practise to keepe off from the holy table whom we finde grosly and wilfully ignorant but that ever any for simple ignorance was excommunicate in Scotland Church sessions are not high commissiones none who knowes us will affirme it The last whom he will have to be wronged by the Presbyte y are the common people who must groane under a high commission in every parish where ignorant governors rule all without Law medling even in domesticall jarres betwixt man and wife Master and Servant Answ This is but a gybe of revenge for the overthrow of their Tyrannous high Commission-Court where they were wont to play the Rex at their pleasure above the highest subjects of the three Kingdomes and would never give over that their insolent domineering court till the King and Parliaments of both Kingdomes did agree to throw it downe about their eares The thing he jeâ—â—es at is the congregationall Eldership a jâ—dicatory which all the Reformed doen joy to their great comfort as much as Sâ—otland They are farre from all arbitrary judications their Lawes are the holy Scripture and acts of superior Church jâ—dicatories which rule so clearely the cases of their câ—gnisance that rarely any difficulty remaines therein or if it doe immediately by refâ—rence or appeale it is transmitted to the Classes or Synode The judges in the lowest Eldersâ—â—â— as we have said before are a dozen at least of the most able and pious who can be had in a whole congregation to joyne with the Pastors one or more as they fall to be but the Episcopall way is to have no discipline at all in any congregation only where there is hope of a fine the Bishops officiall will summon before his own learned and conscientious wisedome who ever within the whole dioces have fallen into such a fault as he pleaseth to take notice of as for domistick infirmities Presbyterians are most tender to meddle therein they come never before any judicatory but both where the fault is great and the scandal thereof flagrant and broken out beyond the wals of the family These are the great iniuries and hurts which the Church discipline has procured to all orders of men in the whole reformed world when Episcopacy has been such an innocent lambe or rather so holy an Angell upon earth that no harme at all has ever come by it to any mortall creature a misbeleeving Jew will nothing misdoubt this so evident a truth CHAP. ULT. The Warners exceptions against the Covenant are full of confidence but exceeding frivolous THough in the former Châ—pters the Warner has spewed out more venome and gall then the bagge of any one mans stomack could have beene supposed capable of yet as if he were but beginning to vomite in this last Chapter of the covenant a new flood of blackes poyson rusheth out of his penne His undertaking is great to demonstrate cleerâ—y that the covenant is meerly void wicked and impious His fiâ—st clear demonstration is that it was devised by strangers imposed by subjects who wanted requisite power and was extorted by just feare of unjust suffering so that many that tooke it with their lips never consented with their hearts Ans This cleer demonstration is but a poore and evill argument the Major if it were put in forme would hardly be granted but I stand on the minor as weake and false for the Covenant was not devised by strangers The Covenant was not dishonourable to union the Commissioners of the Parliament of England together with the Commissioers of the Parliament and generall assembly of Scotland were the first and onely framers thereof but they who gave the life and being to it in England were the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament at Westminster by the Kings call and at that time acknowledged by his Majestie without any question about the lawfulnesse of their constitution and authority these men and that Court were not I hope great strangers in England The Covenant was not imposed upon the King but the Parliament of both Kingdomes made it their earnest desire unto his Majestie that he would be pleased to joyne with them in that Covenant which they did judge to be a â—aine peece of their security for their Religion and liberties in all the three Kingdomes As for their imposing of it upon the subjects of England an ordinance of Parliament though the King consent not by the uncontroverted lawes of England is a sufficient authority to crave obedience of all the subjects of England during the continuance of that Parliament The last part of the demonstration is dishonourable indeed to the English Nation if it were true it was no dishonour to England to joyne with their brethren of Scâ—tland in a Covenant for maintainance of their Religion and Liberties but for many of the English to sweare a Covenant with their lippes from which their heart did dissent and upon this difference of heart and mouth to plead the nullity of the Oath and to advance this plea so high as to cleer demonstration this is such a dishonour and dishonesty that a greater cannot fall upon a man of reputed integrity especically when the ground of the lye and pe ju y is n evident falshood for the Covenant was not extorted from any flesh in England by feare of any unjust suffering so far wâ—s it from this that to this day it could never be obtained from the Parliament of England to enjoyne that Covenant upon any by the penalty of a two pence The Warners second demonstration is no better then the first the ground of it is Covenanters were not deceived but understood what they sware â—hat all oathes are void which have deceipt and errour of the substantiall conditions incident to them This ground had
need to be much better cautioned then here it is before it can stâ—nd for a major of a clear demonstration but how is the minor proved behold how much short the Warners proofes are of his great boastings His first argument is grounded upon an evident falshood that in the Covenant we sweare the lately devised discipline to be Christs institution Answ There is no such word nor any such matter in all the Covenant was the Warners hatred so great against that peece of write that being to make cleare demonstrations against iâ— he would not so much as cast his eye upon that which he was to oppugne Covenanters sweare to endeavour the reformation of England according to the word of God and the best reformed Churches but not a word of the Scots Presbytery nor of any thing in any Church even the best reformed unlesse it be found accorcording to the paterne of Gods holy word The second ground of his demonstration is also an evident errour The Warner unwittingly commends the Covenant that the covenant in hand is one and the same with that of King James Answ Such a fancy came never in the head of any man I know much lesse was it ever writen or spoken by any that the Covenant of King James in Scotlaâ—d 1580 should be one and the same with the Covenant of all the three Kingdomes 1643 whatsoever identit es may appeare in the matter and similitude in the ends of both but the grossest errors are solide enough grounds for praelaticall clear demonstrations Yet here the Warner understands not how hee is cutting his owne veines his friends in Scotland will give him small thanks for attributing unto the nationall Covenant of Scotland that Covenant of King James these three properties that it was issued out by the Kings authority that it was for the maintenance of the Lawes of the realme and for the maintenance of the established Religion time brings adversaries to confesse of their own accord long denyed truthes But the Characters which the Warner in prints upon the solemne league and Covenant of the three Kingdomes wee must bâ—â— pardoned to controvert till he have taken some leasure to prove his wilde assertions First that the league is against the authority of the King secondly that it is against the Law and thirdly that it is foâ— the overthrow of Religion The man cannot think thâ—t any should beleeve his dictats of this kinde without p oofe since the expresse words of that league doe flatly contradict him in all these three positions His gentle memento that Scotland when they sued for aid from the crowne of England had not the English discipline obtruded upon their Church might here have beene spared was not the English discipline and liturgy obtruded upon us by the praelats of England with all craft and force did we ever obtrude our disciplin upon the English but when they of their owne free and long deliberate choice had abolished Bishops and promised to set up Presbytery so far as they had found it agreeable to the word of God were wee not in all reason obliged to encourage and assist them in so pious a worke The King did not clame the sole and absolve possession of the militia In the next words the Warner for all his great boasts finding the weaknes of all the former grounds of his second demonstration he offers three new ones which doubtles will doe the deed for he avowes positively that his following grounds are demonstrative yet whosoever shall be pleased to gripe them with never so soft an hand shall finde them all to be but vanity and winde The first after a number of prosyllogismes rests upon these two foundations first that the right of the militia resides in the King alone secondly that by the covenant the militia is taken out of the Kings hands and that every covenanter by his covenant disposes of himselfe and of his armes against the right which the King hath unto him Answ The Warner will have much adoe to prove the second so that it may be a ground of a clear demonstration but for the first that the power of the militia of England doth reside in the King alone that the two houses of Parliâ—ment have nothing at all to doe with it and that their taking of armes for the defence of the liberties of England or any other imaginable cause against my party countenanced by the Kings presence against his lawes must â—e a together unlawfull if his demonstration be no clearer hen the ground whereupon he builds it I am sure it will not be visible to any of his opposits who are not like to be convinced of open rebellion by his naked assertion upon which alone he layes this his mighty ground Beleeve it he had neede to assay its reliefe with some colour of an argument for none of his owne friends will now take it of his hand for an indemonstrable principle since the King for a long time was willing to acknowledge the Parliaments joynt interest in the Militia yea to put the whole Militia in their hands alone for a good number of yeares to come so farre was his Majestie from the thoughts that the Parliaments medling with a part of the Militia in the time of evident dangers should be so certainly and clearely the crime of rebellion The Warners second demonstrative ground wee admit without question in the major that where the matter is evidently unlawfull the oath is not binding but the application of this in the minor is very false All that hee brings to make it appeare to be true is that the King is the supream Legislator that it is unlawfull for the subjects of England to change any thing established by Law especially to the prejudice of the Praelates without their own consent they being a third order of the Kingdome otherwise it would be a harder measure then the Friers and Abbots received from Henry the eight The change of lawes in England ordinarily begin by the two houses wâ—thout the King Ans May the Warner be pleased to consider how farre his dictates here are from all reason much more from evident demonstrations That the burden of Bishops and ceremonies was become so heavy to all the three Kingdomes that there was reason to endeavour their laying aside he does not offer to dispute but all his complaint runnes against the manner of their removall this say I was done in no other then the ordinary and high path-way whereby all burdensome Lawes and customes use to be removed Doth not the Houses of Parliament first begin with their Ordinance before the Kings consent be sought to a Law is not an Ordinance of the Lords and Commons a good warrant to change a former Law during the sitting of the Parliament The Lawes and customes of England permit not the King by his dissent to stoppe that change The King did really consent to the abolition of Bishops I grant for the turning an
it for in that assembly where unanimously the subscription of the second book of disciplin by all the ministers of the Kingdom was decryed his Majestie some time in person always by the Chancelor his Commissioner was present and in the act for subscription Sess 10 Augusti 8. it is expresly said that not only all the Ministers but also all the Commissioners present did consent among which Commissioners the chancelor his Majesties Commissioner was chief But neither the King nor the Church could get it to passe the Parliament in regard of the opposition which some States-men did make unto these parts thereof which touched on their own interest of unjust advantage this was the only stick The Warners hypocrisy calling that a crime which himself counts a vertue The next instance of the Churches encroachment is their usurpation of all the old rents of the clergy as the Churches patrimony and their decerning in an assembly that nothing in the next Parliament should passe before the Church were fully restored to her rents Ans Consider here the Warners hypocrisie and unjustice he challenges the Presbyterians for that which no Prelate in the world did ever esteem a fault a meer declaration of their judgment that the Church had a just right to such rents as by Law and long possession were theirs and not taken away from them by any lawfull means What if here they had gone on with the most of the prelatical party to advance that right to a jus divinum what if they had put themselves by a command from Court into the possession of that right without a processe as divers of the Warners friends were begun lately to do in all the three Kingdoms But all that he can here challenge the Scots for is a meer declaration of their simple right with a supplication to the Regent his Grace that he would indeavour in the next Parliament to procure a ninth part of the Churches patrimony for the maintenance of the ministry and the poor of the Country for all the rent that the Churches then could obtain or did petition was but a third of the Thirds of the Benefices or Tithes That ever any Assembly in Scotland did make any other addresse to the Parliament for stipends then by way of humble supplication it is a great untruth The last instance is the erecting of Presbyteries through all the Kingdom by an Act of the Church alone Answ I have shewn already the untruth of this Allegation the proof here brought for it is grounded only upon an ambiguous word which the Warners ignorance in the Scotish Discipline and Presbytery though the main subject of his Book permits him not to understand The Presbyteries were set up by the King after the Assembly 1580 but the second Book of Discipline of which alone the citation speaks how-ever injoyned by many Assemblies yet it could never be gotten ratified in any parliament only because of those parts of it which did speak for the patrimony of the Church and oppugne the right of patronage How well the Warner hath proved the Presbyterian practices to be injurious to the Magistrate we have considered The Warner a gross Erastian possibly he will be more happy in his next undertaking in his demonstrations that their doctrinal principles do trample on the Magistrates Supremacy and Laws Their first principle he takes out of the second book of Discipline Chap. 7. That no Magistrate nor any but Ecclesiastick persons may vote in Synods Ans Though I finde nothing of this in the place cited yet there is nothing in it that crosseth either the Laws or the Kings Supremacy for according to the Acts of Parliament of Scotland both old and late and the constant practice of that Church the onely members of Presbyteries are Ministers and ruling Elders Is it the Warners minde to vent here his super-Erastianism that all Ecclesiastick Assemblies Classical Provincial National are but the arbitrary courts of the Magistrate for to advise him in the execution of his inherent power about matters Ecclesiastical and for this cause that it is in his arbitrement to give a decisive voice in all Church Assembles to whom and how many soever he will Though this may be the Warners minde as it hath been some of his friends yet the most of the prelatical party will not maintain him herein How-ever such principles are contrary to the Laws of Scotland to the professions also and practices of all the Princes and Magistrates that ever have lived there Prelaticall principles impossibilitate all solid peace betwixt the King and his Kingdoms But the Warner here may possibly glance at another principle of his good friends who have been willing lately to vent before all Brittain in print their elevating the supremacy of Soveraigns so far above Laws that whatever people have obtained to be established by never so many Assemblies and Parliaments and confirmed with never so many great seals of ratification and peaceably enjoyed by never so long a possession yet it is nothing but commendable wisdom and justice for the same Prince who made the first Concessions or any of his successors whenever they find themselves strong enough to cancel all and make void what ever Parliaments Assemblies Royall ratifications and the longest possession made foolish people beleeve to be most firm and unquestionable To this purpose Bishop Maxwel from whom much of this VVarning is borrowed doth speak in his Sacro-Sancta regum Majestas Though this had bin the Cabin-divinity of our Prelats yet what can be their intentions in speaking of it out in these times of confusion themselves must declare for the clear consequent of such doctrine seems to be a necessity either of such Warners perpetuall banishment from the Courts and ears of Soveraigns or else that subjects be kept up for ever in a strong jealousie and fear that they can never be secure of their Liberties though never so well ratified by Lawes and promises of Princes any longer then the sword and power remains in their own hand to preserve what they have obtained Such Warners so long as they are possessed with such maximes of state are clear everters of the first fundations of trust betwixt Soveraigne and Subjects they take away any possibility of any solid peace of any confident settlement in any troubled State before both parties be totally ruined or one become so strong that they need no more to feare the others malecontentment in any time to come Our second challenged principle is that we teach the whole power of convocating assemblies to be in the Church Erastian Prelats evert the legal foundations of all Government Ans The Warners citations prove not that we maintain any such assertion our doctrin and constant practise hath been to ascribe to the King a power of calling Synods when and wheresoever he thought fit but that which the Warner seems to point at is our tenet of an intrinsicall power in the Church to meet as
Oâ—dinance to a standing Law the Kings consent is required but with what qualifications and exceptions wee need not here to debate since his Majesties consent to the present case of abolishing Bishops was obtained well neere to as farre as was desired and what it yet lacking wee are in a faire way to obtaine it for the Kings Majestie long agoe did agree to the rooting out of Episcopacy in Scotland hee was willing also in England and Ireland to put them out of the Parliament and all civil Courts and to divest them of all civill power and to joyne with them Presbyteries for Ordination and spirituall jurisdiction yea to abolish them totally name and thing not onely for three yeares but ever till he and his Parliament should agree upon some setled order for the Church was not this Tantamont to a pertuall abolition for all and every one in both houses having abjured Episopacy by solemne Oath and Covenant the Parliament was in no hazard of agreeing with the King to re-erect the fallen chaires of the Bishops so there remained no other but that either his Majestie should come over to their judgement or by his not agreeing with them yet really to agree with them in the perpetuall abolition of Episcopacy since the confession was for the laying Bishops aside for ever till hee and his houses had agreed upon a settled order for the Church If this be not a full and formall enough consent to the Ordinance of changing the former Lawes anent praelats his Majestie who now is easily may and readily would supply all such defects if some of the faction did not continually for their owne evil interests whisper in his eares pernicious counsell as our Warner in this place also doeth by frighting the King in conscience from any such consent The praelats would flâ—tter the King into a Tyranny for this end he casts out a discourse the sinews whereof are in these three Episcopall maximes First that the legislative power is soly in the King that is according to his Brethrens Commentary that the Parliament is but the Kings great councel of free choyce without or against whose votes hee may make or unmake what Lawes he thinkes expedient but for them to make any Ordinance for changing without his consent of any thing that has been instituting any new thing or for them to defend this their legall right and custome time out of minde against the armes of the Malignant party no man may deny it to be plaine rebellion II. The praelates take to themselves a negative voice in Parliament That the King and Parliament both together cannot make a Law to the prejudice of Bishops without their owne consent they being the third order of the Kindome for albeit it be sacriledge in the Lords and Commons to claime any the smallest share of the legislative power this in them were to pyck the chiefest jewel out of the Kings Crowne yet this must be the due priviledge of the Bishops they must be the third order of the Kingdome yea the first and most high of the three farre above the other two temporall States of Lords and Commons their share in the Legislative power must be so great that neither King nor Parliament can passe any Law without their consent so that according to their humble protestation all the Lawes and Acts which have been made by King and Parliament since they were expelled the house of Lords are cleerly void and null Wee must grant that the King and Parliament in divesting Bishops of their temporall honour and estates The praelats grieve that Monks and Friers the Pope and Cardinals were casten out of England by H. in abolishing their places in the Church doe sin more against conscience then did Henry the eight and his Paliament when they put down the Abbots and the Friers We must beleeve that Henry the eight his abolishing the order of Monks was one of the acts of his greatest Tyranny and greed we must not doubt but according to Law and reason Abbots and Priours ought to have kept still their vote in Parliament that the Monasteryes and Nunryes should have stood in their integrity that the King and Parliament did wrong in casting them downe and that now they ought in conscience to be set up againe yea that Henry the eight against all reason and conscience did renounce his due obedience to the Pope the Patriarch of the West the first Bishop of the universe to whom the superinspection and government of the whole Catholick Church in all reason doth belong Though all this be here glaunced at by the Warner and elsewhere wee prove it to be the declared mind of his Brethren yet we must be pardoned not to accept them as undenyable princâ—ples of cleare demonstrations The just supremacy of Kings is not prejudged by the Covenant The last ground of the Doctors demonstration is that the Covenant is an Oath to set up the Presbyterian government in England as it is in Scotland that this is contrary to the Oath of Supremacy for the Oath of Supremacy makes the â—ing the onely supreame head and Governour of the Church of England that is the civill head to see that every man doe his duty in his calling also it gives the King a supreame power over all persons in all causes but the Presbytery is a Politicall Papacie acknowledging no governour but only the Presbyters it gives the King power over all persons as Subjects but none at all in Ecclesiastick causes Ans Is there in all this reasoning any thing sound First what article of the Covenant beares the setting up of the Presbyterian government in England as it is in Scotland II. If the Oath of supremacy import no more then what the Warners expresse words are here that the King is a civill head to see every man doe his duty in his calling let him be assured that no Presbyterian in Scotland was ever contrary to that supremacy III. That the Presbytery is a Papacy and that a politicall one the Warner knowes it ought not to be granted upon his bare word IV. That In Scotland no other governors are acknowledged then Presbyters himselfe contradicts in the very next words where hee tells that the Scots Presbytery ascribs to the King a power over all persons as subjects V. That any Presbyterian in Scotland makes it sacriledge to give the King any power at all in any Ecclesiastick cause The Warnerâ— insolent Vanity it is a senselesse untruth The Warners arguments are not more idle and weake then his triumphing upon them is insolent for he concludes from these wife and strong demonstrations that the poore covenant is apparently deceitfull unvalide impious rebellious and what not yea that all the learned divines in Europe will conclude it so that all the Covenanters themselves who have any ingenuity must grant thus much and that no knowing English man can deny it but his own conscience will give him the lie
assembled in Parliament of England concurre without a disordering opinion when the King himself for perfecting the harmony offers to add his voice for three whole years together In the remainder of the Chapter the warner layes upon the Scots three other crimes First That they count it Erastianisme to put the Government of the Church in the hand of the Magistate Aâ—s The Doctors knowledg is greater then to be ignorant that all these goe under the name of tne Erastians The elder prelats of Englaâ—d were Erastians and more but the younger are as much anti-Erastian as the most rigid of the Presbytery who walking in Erastus ways of flattering the Magistrate to the prejudice of the just rights of the Church run yet out beyond Erastus personall tenets I doubt if that man went so far as the Doctor here and elsewhere to make all Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction but a part of the Magistrats civill power which for its Execution the supreme Governours of any state may derive out of the fountain of their supremacy to what ever hands civill or ecclesiastick themselves think fit to commit it Let the Doctor adde to this much knowledge but a little ingenuity and he shall confesse that his brethren the latter Bishops who claim Episcopacy by Divine Right are all as much against this Erastian Cesaro-papisme as any Presbyterian in Scotland The Elder Bishops indeed of England and all the Laws there for Episcopacy seem to be point blank according to the Erastian errors for they make the Crown and Royall Supremacy the originall root and fountain whence all the iscipline of the Church did flow as before the days of Henry the Eight it did out of the Popes headship of the Church â—under Christ However let the Doctor ingeniously speak out his sence and I am deceived if he shall not acknowledge that how grosse an Erastian so ever himself and the eldest Bishops of England might have been yet that long agoe the most of his prelaticall friends have become as much opposite to Erastianisme as the most rigid of the Presbyterians The other crime he layes to the charge of the * The Scots first and greatest crime is irreconciliablenesse with Rome Scots is that they admit no latitude in Religion but will have every opinion a fundamentall Article of Faith and are averse from the reconcialition of the Protestant Churches Ans If the Warner had found it seasonable to vent a little more of his true sense in this point he had charged this great crime far more home upon the head of the Scots for indeed though they were ever far from denying the true degrees of importance which do cleerly appear among the multitude of Christian truths yet the great quarrel here of the Warner and his friends against them is that they spoyled the Canterburian designe of reconciling the Protestant Churches not among themselves but with the Church of Rome When these good men were with all earnestness proclaiming the greatest controversies of Papists and Protestants to be upon no fundamentals but onely disputable opinions wherein belief on either side was safe enough and when they found that the Papists did stand punctually to the Tenets of the Church of Rome and were obstinately unwilling to come over to England their great labour was that the English and the rest of the Protestants casting aside their needless belief of problematick truths in piety charity and zeal to make up the breach and take away the schism should be at all the pains to make the journey to Rome While this designe is far advanced and furiously driven on in all the three Kingdoms and by none more in Ireland then the Bishop of Derry behold the rude and plain Blue-caps step in to the play and mar all the Game By no art by no terrour can these be gotten along to such a reconciliation This was the first and greatest crime of the Scots which the Doctor here glances at but is so wise and modest a man as not to bring it above board The last charge of the chapter is that the Scots The Scots were ever anti-episcopal keep not still that respect to the Bishops of England which they were wont of old in the beginning of Q. Elizabeth's Reign Ans In that Letter cited by the Warner from the general Assembly of Scotland 1566. Sess 3. there is no word of approbation to the Office of Episcopacy they speak to the Bishops of England in no other quality or relation but as Ministers of the word the highest stile they give them is Reverend Pastors and Brethren the tenour of the whole Epistle is a grave and brotherly admonition to beware of that fatall concomitant of the most moderate Episcopacy the troubling of the best and most zealous servants of Christ for idle and fruitless Ceremonies How great a reverence the Church of Scotland at that time carried to Prelacy may be seen in their Supplication to the secret Councel of Scotland in that same Assembly the very day and Session wherein they writ the Letter in hand to the Bishops of England The Arch-bishp of S. Andrews being then usurping jurisdiction over the Ministry by some warrant from the State the Assembly was grieved not only with the Popery of that Bishop but with his ancient jurisdiction which in all Bishops popish and protestant is one and the same That jurisdiction was the only matter of their present complaint and in relation thereto they assure the Councel in distinct terms that they would never be more subject unto that usurped Tyranny then they would be to the Divel himself So reverend an opinion had the Church of Scotland at that time of Episcopal Jurisdiction The Prelates lately were found in the act of introducing Popery into the Church and Tyranny into the Kingdom But suppone that some fourscore yeers ago the Scots before they had tasted the fruits of Protestant Bishops had judged them tolerable in England yet since that time by the long tract of mischiefs which constantly have accompanied the order of Prelacy they have been put upon a more accurate inspection of its nature and have found it not onely a needlesse but a noxious and poysonous weed necessary to be plucked up by the root and cast over the hedge Beside all its former malefices it hath been deprehended of late in the very act of everting the foundations both of Religion and Government of bringing in Popery and Tyranny in the Churches and States of all the three Kingdoms Canterburian self-conviction cap. 1. And for these crimes it was condemned killed and buried in Scotland by the unanimous consent of King Church and Kingdom when England thereafter both in their Assembly and Parliament without a discording voice had found it necessary to root out that unhappy plant as long ago with great wisdom it had been cast out of all the rest of the reformed Churches had not the Scots all the reason in the world to applaud such pious just and
attempt of the royal authority About that time some noble men had got the revenues of the Bishop-ricks for their private use and because they could not enjoy them by any legal right therefore for eluding the Law they did effectuate that some Ministers should have the title of this or that Bishoprick and the revenues were gathered in the name of this titulare or tulchan Bishop albeit he had but little part e. g. Robert Montgomery Minister at Sterline was called Arch-Bishop of Glasgow and so it can be instanced in other Bishop-ricks and Abbacies Now this kind of praelats pretended no right to any part of the Episcopal office either in ordination or jurisdiction when some of these men began to creep in to vote for the Church in Parliament without any Law of the State without any commission from the Church the General assembly discharged them being Ministers to practise any more such illegal insolencies with this ordinance of the Church after a little debate King James at that time did shew his good satisfaction The innocency of the much maligned assembly of Aberdeen But the Warner here jumps over no less then twenty seven years time from the assembly at Edingburgh 1579. to that at Aberdeen 1605. then was King James by the English Bishops perswasion resolved to put down the general assemblies of Scotland contrary to the Lawes and constant practice of that Church from the first reformation to that day The act of Parliament did bear that once at least a year the assembly should meet and after their business was ended they should name time and place for the next assembly When they had met in the yeer 1602 they were moved to adjurn without doing any thing for two whole years to 1604 when then they were conveened at the time and place agreed to by his Majestie they were content upon his Majesties desire without doing any thing to adjourn to the next year 1605 at Aberdeen when that dyet came his Majesties Commissioner offered him a Letter To the end they might be an Assembly and so in a Capacity to receive his Majesties Letter with the Commissioners good pleasure they sate down they named their Moderator and Clark they received and read the Kings letter commanding them to rise which they obeyed without any further action at all but naming a dyet for the next meeting according to the constant practise of Scotland hereupon by the pernicious counsel of the Arch-Bishop Banckroft at London the King was stirred up to bring sore troubles upon a number of gratious Ministers This is the whole matter which to the Warner here is so tragick an insolence that never any Parliament durst attempt the like See more of this in the Historicall vindication * Christmas and other superstitious festivals abolished in Scotland both by Church and State The next instance of our Presbiteryes usurpation upon the Magistrate is their abolition before any statute of Parliament thereupon of the Church festivals in their first book of discipline Ans Consider the griveousness of this crime in the intervall of Parliaments the great Councel of Scotland in the minority of the Prince entrusted by Parliament to rule the Kingdom did charge the Church to give them in write their judgement about matters Ecclesiasticall in obedience to this charge the Church did present the councel with a write named since the first book of discipline a which the Lords of councel did approve subscribe and ratifie by an Act of State a part of the first head in that write was that Christmas Epiphany Purification and other fond feasts of the Virgin Mary as not warrented by the holy Scriptures should be laid aside Was it any encroachment upon the Magistrate for the Church to give this advice to the privy councel when earnestly they did crave it the people of Scotland ever since have shewed their ready obedience to that direction of the Church founded upon Scripture and backed from the beginning with an injunction of the State His third instance of the Church of Scotlands usurpation upon the Magistrate is The friends of Episcopacy thryves not in Scotland their abolition of Episcopacy in the assembly 1580 when the Law made it treason to impugne the Authority of Bishops being the third estate of the Kingdom Ans The Warner seems to have no more knowledge of the affaires of Scotland then of Japan or Utopia the Law he speaks of was not in being some years after 1580 however all the general assemblies of Scotland are authorised by Act of Parliament to determin finally without an appeal in all Eclesiastick affairs in the named assembly Lundie the Kings Commissioner did sit and consent in his Majesties name to that act of abolition as in the next assembly 1581 the Kings Commissioner Caprinton did erect in his Majesties name the Presbyteries in all the Land it is true three years thereafter a wicked Courtier Captain James Stuart in a shadow of a close and not summoned Parliament did procure an act to abolish Presbyterie and erect Bishops but for this and all other crimes that evil man was quickly rewarded by God before the world in a terrible destruction these acts of this Parliament the very â—â—â—t year were disclaimed by the King the Bishops were put down and the Presbytery was set up again and never more removed to this day The Warners digression to the perpetuity of Bishops in Scotland to the acts of the Church and State for their restitution is but to shew his ignorance in the Scots story what ever be the Episcopall boasting of other Nations yet it is evident that from the first entrance of Christian Religion into Scotland Presbyters alone without Bishops for some hundred years did govern the Church and after the reformation there was no Bishop in that Land but in tittle and benefice till the year 1610 when Bancroft did consecrate three Scots Ministers all of them men of evil report whom that violent Commissioner the Earl of Dunbar in the corrupt and nul assembly of Glasgow got authorised in some part of a Bishops office which part only and no more was ratified in a posterior Parliament Superintendents are nowhere the same with Bishops much less in Scotland where for a time only til the Churches were planted they were used as ambulatory Commissioners and visitors to preach the word and administer the Sacraments for the supply of vacant and unsetled congregations The second book of discipline why not at all ratified in Parliament The fourth instance is the Churches obtruding the second book of discipline without the ratification of the State Ans For the Ecclesiastick enjoyning of a general assemblies decrees a particular ratification of Parliament is unnecessâ—ry general acts of Paâ—liament commanding obedience to the acts of the Church are a sufficient warrant from the State beside that second book of disciplin was much debated with the King and at last in the General assembly 1590 his consent was obtained unto
for the Word and Sacraments so for discipline in this all who are Christians old and late the Prelaticall and Popish party as well as others go along with us to maintain in doctrin and practise a necessity even in times of persecution that the Church must meet for the worship of God and execution of Ecclesiastick discipline among their own Members In this the doctrine and practise of the Scots is according to their setled laws uncontroverted by his Majestie If the VVarner will maintain that in reason and conscience all the Churches of the world are obliged to dissolve and never more to meet when an erroneous Magistrate by his Tyrannous Edict commands them to do so let him call up Erastus from the dead to be disciplined in this new doctrine of the Prelats impious loyalty The third Principle is that the judgment of true and false doctrine The finall determination of all Ecclesiastick causes by the Laws of Scotland is in the generall Assembly of suspension and deprivation of Ministers belongeth to the Church Ans If this be a great heresie it is to be charged as much upon the State as upon the Church for the Acts of Parliament give all this power to the Church neither did the Laws of England or of any Christian State Popish or Protestant refuse to the Church the determination of such Eccclesiastick causes some indeed do debate upon the power of appeals from the Church but in Scotland by the Law as no appeal in things civil goes higher then the Parliament so in matters Ecclesiastick none goes above the Generall Assembly Complaints indeed may go to the King and Parliament for redresse of any wrong has been done in Ecclesiastick Courts who being Custodes Religionis may by their coercive power command Ecclesiastick Courts to rectifie any wrong done by them contary to Scripture or if they persist take order with them But that two or three Pâ—aelates should become a Court of delegates to receive appeals from a general assembly neither Law nor practice in Scotland did ever admit nor doth the word of God or any Equity require it In the Scots assemblies no causes are agitat but such as the Parliament hath agreed to be Ecclesiastick and of the Churches cognisance no process about any Church rent was ever cognosced upon in Scotland but in a civill Court it s very false that ever any Church censure much lesse the highest of excommunication did fall upon any for robbing the Church of its patrimony The divine right of discipline is the tenet of the most of Praelats Our fourth challenged principle is that we maintain Ecclesiastick jurisdiction by a divine right Ans Is this a huge crime is there divine right in the world either Papist or Protestant except a few praelatical Erastians but they doe so If the Warner will profess as it seems he must the contradiction of that which he ascribes to us his avowed tenet must be that all Ecclesiastick power flowes from the Magistrate that the Magistrate himself may execute all Church censures that all the Officers appointed by Christ for the government of his Church may be laid aside and such a kind of governors be put in their place as the Magistrate shall be pleased to appoint that the spiritual sword and Keyes of heaven belong to the Magistrate by vertue of his supremacy as wel as the temporal sword and Keyes of his earthly Kingdom our difference herefrom the Warner will not I hope be found the greatest heresie All the power of the Church in Scotland is legal and with the Magistrates consent Our last challenged principle is that we will have all our power against the Magistrate that is although he dissent Ans It is an evil commentary that all must be against the Magistrate which is done against his consent but in Scotland there is no such case for all jurisdiction which the Church there doth enjoy they have it with the consent of the Magistrate all is ratified to them by such acts of Parliament as his Majâ—stie doth not at all controvert Concerning that odious case the Warner intimates whither in time of persecution when the Magistrate classheth with the Church any Ecclesiastick discipline be then to be exercised himself can better answer it then we who with the ancient Christians do think that on all hazards even of life the Church may not be dissolved but meet in dens and in the caves and in the wilderness for the word and Sacraments and keeping it self pure by the divine ordinance of Discipline Having cleered all the pernicious practises and all the wicked Dâ—ctrines which the Warner layes upon us The Prelats rather then to lay aside their own interest will keep the King and his people in misery for ever I think it needless to insist upon these defences which he in his abundant charity brings for us but in his own way that he may with the greater advantage impugne them only I touch one passage whereupon he makes injurious exclamations that which Mr. Gilespie in his theoremes writes when the Magistrate abuses his power unto Tyranny and makes havock of all it is lawful to resist him by some extraordinary wayes and means which are not ordinarily to be allowed see the principles from which all our miseries and the loss of our Gratious Master hath flowed Ans We must here yeeld to the Warner the great equity and necessity that every doctrine of a Presbyter should be charged on the Presbytery it self and that any Presbyter teaching the lawfulness of a Parliaments defensive arms is tantamont to the Churches taking of armes against the King These smal inconsequences we must permit the Warner to swallow down without a stick however we do deny that the maxime in hand was the fountain of any of our miseries or the cause at all of the loss of our late Soveraign Did ever his Majesty or any of his advised Councellors declare it simply unlawful for a Parliament to take arms for defence in some extraordinary cases however the unhappiness of the Canterburian Praelats did put his Majesty upon these courses which did begin and promote all our miserie and to the very last these men were so wicked as to refuse the loosing of the bands which their hands had tyed about his misinformed conscience yea to this day they will not give their consent that his Majestie who now is should lay aside Episcopacy were it for the gaining of the peaceable possession of all his three Kingdoms but are urgers of him night and day to adhere to their errours upon the hazard of all the miseries that may come on his person on his family and all his people yet few of them to this day durst be so bold as to print with this Warner the unlawfulness of a Parliaments armes against the Tyranny of a Prince in any imaginable case how extraordinary soever CHAP. III. The Lawes and customes of Scotland admit of no appeal from the
zealous in their doctrine to presse upon the Magistrate as well as upon the people the true practice of piety the sanctification of the Sabbath day the suppression of heresy and schism and repentance for the sins of the time and place wherein they live I his is a crime whereof few of the Warners friends were wont to be guilty of their shamefull silence and flattery was one of the great causes of all the sins and calamities that have wracked the three Kingdoms the stream of their Sermons while they enjoyed the Pulpit was to encourage to superstition and contempt of piety to sing asleep by their ungracious way all that gave ear unto them The man is impatient to see the Pastors of Holland or any where to walk in another path then his own and for this cause would stirre up their Magistrates against them as it was his and his Brethrens custom to stir up the Magistrates of Britain and Ireland to imprison banish and heavily vex the most zealous servants of God only for their opposition to the Prelats profanity and errours The Warner I hope has not yet forgotten how Doctor Bramble and his neighbour Lesty of Down did cast out of the Ministry and made flee our of the Kingdom men most eminent for zeal piety and learning who in a short time had done more good in the house of God then all the Bishops that ever were in Ireland I mean Mr. Blair Mr. Levington Mr. Hamilton Mr. Cuningham and others The Warner needed not to have marked as a singularity of Geneva that there all the Ecclesiasticks quâ tales are punishable by the Magistrats for civil crimes for we know none of the reformed Churches who were ever following Rome in exempting the Clergy from saecular jurisdiction except it were the Canterburian Praelates who indeed did scare the most of Magistrats from medling with a canonical coat though defiled with drunkenness adultery scolding fighting and other evils which were too common of late to that order But how doth he prove The pretended declaration of King James was Bishop Adamsons lying libel that the Scots Ministers exempt themselves from civil jurisdiction first saith he by the declaration of King James 1584. Ans That declaration was not from King James as himself did testifie the year thereafter under his hand but from Mr. Patrike Adamson who did acknowledge it to be his own upon his death bed and professed his repentance for the lyes and slanders wherewith against his conscience he had fraughted that infamous libell His second proof is from the second book of disciplin Chapter II Though always in England yet never in Scotland had Commissaries any jurisdiction over Ministers It is absurd that Commissaries having no function in the Church should be judges to Ministers to depose them from their charges Ans Though in England the Commissary and officiall was the ordinary judge to depose and excommunicate all the Ministers of the diocese yet by the Laws of Scotland no Commissaries had ever any jurisdiction over Ministers But though the officials jurisdiction together with their Lords the Bishops were abolished yet doth it follow from this that no other jurisdiction remaineth whereby Ministers might be punished either by Church or State according to their demerits is not this strongly reasoned by the Warner His third proofe is the cause of James Gibson James Gibson was never absolved by the Church from his Process who had railed in Pulpit against the King and was only suspended yea thereaftâ—r was absolved from that fault Ans Upon the complaint of the Chancelor the alledged words were condemned by the generall Assembly but before the mans guiltiness of these words could be tryed hee did absent himselfe for which absence he was presently suspended from his Ministry in the next Assembly he did appeare and cleared the reason of his absence to have been just feare and no contumacy this he made appeare to the Assemblies satisfaction but before his processe could bee brought to any issue he fled away to England where he died a fugitive never restored to his charge though no tryal of his fault was perfected Mr. Blacks appeâ—â— froâ— the Councel cleered The fourth proof is Mr. Black his case hereupon the Warner makes a long and odious narration If we interrogate him about his ground of all these Stories he can produce no warrant but Spotswoods unprinted Book this is no an hâ—â—tick Râ—gistâ—r whereupon any understanding man can rely the Writer was a pâ—ofest enemy to his death of the Scotish Discipline he spent his life upon a Story for the dâ—sgrace of the Presbytery and the honour of Bishops no man who is acquainted with the life or death of that Authour will build his belief upon his words This whole narration is abundantly confuted in the historicall Vindication when the Warner is pleased to repeat the Challenge from Issachars burden he ought to have replyed something after three yeers advisement to the printed Answer The matter as our Registers bear was shortly thus In the yeer 1596. the Popish and Malignant Faction in King JAMES his Court grew so strong that the countenance of the King towards the Church was much changed and over all the Land great fears did daily encrease of the overthrow of the Church Discipline established by Law The Ministers in their Pulpits gave free warning thereof among others Mr. Black of S. Andrews a most gracious and faithfull pastor did apply his doctrine to the sins of the time some of his Enemies delated him at Court for words injurious to the King and Queen the words he did deny and all his honest hearers did absolve him by their testimony from these calumnies of himself he was most willing to be tryed to the uttermost before all the world but his Brethren finding the libelled calumnies to be onely a pretence and the true intention of the Courtiers therein was to stop the mouthes of Ministers that the crying sins of the times should no more be reproved in pulpits they advised him to decline the judgment of the councell and appeal to the general Assembly as the competent Judge according to the word of God and the Laws of Scotland in the cause of doctrine for the first instance they did never question but if any thing truely seditious had been preached by a Minister that he for this might be called before the civil Magistrate and accordingly punished but that every Minister for the application of his doctrine according to the rules of Scripture to the sins of his hearers for their reclaiming should be brought before a civil court at the first instance they thought it unreasonable and desired the King in the next Assembly might cognosce upon the equity of such a proceeding The Ministers had many a conference with his Majesty upon that subjâ—ct often the mat er was brought very near to an amicable conclusion but because the Ministers refused to subscibe a band for so great a silence
of the Commanders to whom the managing of that great trust should be committed for after the right stating of the War the next would be the carying on of it by such men who had given constant proof of their integrity To put all the power of the Kingdom in their hand whose by-past miscariages had given just occasion to suspect their designes and firmness to the interest of God before their own or any other mans would fill the hearts of the people with jealousies and fears and how wholsome an advice this was experience hath now too clearly demonstrated To make the world know our further resolutions to meddle with civill affaires the Warner is pleased to bring out against us above 80 years old stories and all the stuff which our malicious enemy Spotswood can furnish to him from this good Author he alledges that our Church discharged Merchants to traffique with Spaine and commanded the Change of the market-dayes in Edenburgh Ans Both these calumnies are taken off at length in the Historical Vindication After the Spanish Invasion in the year 88 many in Scotland kept correspondence with Spaine for treacherous designs the Inquisitors did seduce some and persecute others of our Merchants in their traffique the Church did deale with his Majesty to intercede with the Spanish King for more liberty to our Countrey men in their trading and in the mean time while an answer was returned from Madril they advertized the people to be wary how they hazarded their souls for any worldly gaine which they could find about the Inquisitors feet The Church meâ—led not with the Munday Marâ—et buâ— by way of supplication in Parliament As for the Market days I grant it was a great grief to the Church to see the Sabbath day profaned by handy labor and journeying by occasion of the Munday-markets in the most of the great Towns for remedy hereof many supplications have been made by the Assembly to the Parliament but so long as our Bishops sate there these petitions of the Church were alwaies eluded for the Prelates labor in the whole Island was to have the sunday no Sabbath and to procure by their Doctrine and example the profanation of that day by all sorts of playes to the end people might be brought back to their old licentiousness and ignorance by which the Episcopall Kingdom was advanced It was visible in Scotland that the most eminent Bishops were usual players on the Sabbath even in time of divine Service And so soon as they were cast out of the Parliament the Churches supplications were granted and acts obtained for the carefull sanctification of the Lords day and removing of the Markets in all the Land from the Munday to other days of the week The Church once for safty of the infant Kings life with the concurrence of the cret Counsel did call an extraordinary meeting The Warners next challenge of our usurpation is the Assembly at Edenburgh 1567 their ratifying of Acts of Parliament and summoning of all the Countrey to appeare at the next Assembly Ans If the Warner had known the History of that time he would have chosen rathet to have omitted this challenge then to have proclaimed to the world the great rottenness of his own heart At that time the condition of the Church and Kingdom of Scotland was lamentable the Queen was declared for Popery King James his Father was cruelly without any cause murthered by the Earl of Bothwel King James himself in his infancy was very neare to have been destroyed by the murtherer of his Father there was no other way conceivable of safety for Religion for the Infant King for the Kingdom but that the Protestants should joyn together for the defence of King James against these Popish murtherers For this end the general Assembly did crave conference of the secret Counsel and they with mutual advice did call for a meeting of the whole Protestant Party which did convene at the time appointed most frequently in an extraordinary and mixed assembly of al the considerable persons of the Religion Earls Lords Barons Gentlemen Burgesses and Ministers and subscribed a bond for the revenge of King Henries death and the defence of King James his life This mixed and extraordinary Assembly made it one of the chiefe Articles in their bond to defend these Acts of the Parliament 1560. concerning Religion and to endeavour the ratification of them in the next ensuing Parliament As for the Assemblies letter to their Brethren for so frequent a meetting at the next extraordinary Assembly it had the Authority of the secret Counsel it was in a time of the greatest necessity when the Religion and liberties of the land were in evident hazard from the potent and wicked counsels of the Popish Party both at home and abroad when the life of the young King was dayly in visible danger from the hands of them who had murthered his Father and ravished his Mother Lesse could not have been done in such a juncture of time by men of wisdom and courage who had any love to their Religion King and Countrey but the resolution of our Prelates is to the contrary when a most wicked villain had obtained the connivance of a Queen to kill her husband and to make way for the killing of her Son in his Cradle and after these murders to draw a Nation and Church from the true Religion established by Law into Popery and a free Kingdom to an illegal Tyranny in this case there may be no meeting either of Church or State to provide remedies against such extraordinary mischiefs Beleeve it the Scots were never of this opinion What is subjoyned to the next Paragraph of our Churches presumption to abolish Acts of Parliament By the laws customs of Scotland the assembly procedes the Parliament in the â—foâ—mation of Ecclesiastical abuses is but a repetition of what is spoken before Not only the laws of Scotland but equity and necessity refers the ordinary Reformation of errors and abuses in Religion to the Ecclesiasticall Assemblies what they find wrong in the Church though ratified by acts of Parliament they rectifie it from the word of God and thereafter by Petition obtaines their rectification to be ratified in a following Parliament and all former Acts to the contrary to be annulled This is the ordinary Method of proceeding in Scotland and as I take it in all other States and Kingdoms Were Christians of old hindred to leave Paganisme and embrace the Gospel till the Emperial Laws for Paganisme and against Christianity were revoked did the Oecumenical and Nationall Synods of the Ancients stay their reformation of heresies and corruptions in Religion till the laws of State which did countenance these errors were cancelled Was not Popery in Germany France and Britaine so firmly established as Civill Laws could do it It seems the Warner here doth joyn with his brother Issachar to proclaim all our Reformers in Britaine France and Germany to be Rebels
two Presbyters who chance to be neer a Bishop the only pastor of the whole diocess and yet not bound to feed any flock either by Word or Sacrament or Government but having a free liberty to devolve all that service upon others and himself to wait at Court so many years as he shall think fit This is our English Bishop not only in practice but in Law and so was he defended by the great disputants for Prelacy in England The portion of Episcopaâ—y whiâ— yet is stu to cannot be kept upon any principle either of honor or conscience But now let the Warner speak out if any such Bishop can more be defehded or was ever known in Scripture or seen in any Christian Church for 800 years and above after the death of Christ I take it indeed to be Conscience that forces now at last the best of our Court-Divines to devest their Bishop of all civil employment in Parliament Court or Kingdom in denying his solitariness in ordination in removing his official and Commissary courts in taking away all his arches Arch-Bishopâ— Arch-Deacons Dean and Chapter c. in erecting Presbyteries for all ordinations and spiritual jurisdiction It is good that conscience moves our adversaries at last to come thus far towards us But why will they not yet come neerer to acknowledg that by these their too lately recanted errors they did too long trouble the world and that the little which yet they desire to keep of a Bishop is nothing less then that English Bishop but a new creature of their own devising never known in England which his Majesty in no honor is obliged to maintain for any respect either to the Laws or Customs of England and least of all for Conscience The smallest portion of the most moderate Episcopacy is contrary to Scripture While the Warner with such confidence avows that no text of Scripture can be alledged against Episcopacy which may not with more reason be applyed against the Presbytery behold I offer him here some few casting them in a couple of arguments which according to his great promises I wish he would answer at his leasure First I do reason from Ephes 4.11 all the officers that Christ hath appointed in his Church for the Ministry of the Word are either Apostles Evangelists Prophets pastors or Doctors but Bishops are none of these five Ergo they are none of the officers appointed by Christ for the Ministry of the Word The major is not wont to be questioned the minor thus I prove Bishops are not Apostles Evangelists nor prophets for it s confessed all these were extraordinary and temporary Officers but Bishops say you are ordinary and perpetual our adversaries pitch upon the fourth alledging the Episcopal office to be pastoral but I prove the Bishop no Pastor thus no Pastor is superior to other Pastors in any spiritual power but according to our adversary a Bishop is superior to all the Pastors of his Diocess in the power of ordination and jurisdiction Ergo The doubt here is onely of the major which I prove Argumento à paribus no Apostle is superior to an Apostle nor an Evangelist to an Evangelist nor Prophet to a Prophet nor a Doctor to a Doctor in any spiritual power according to Scripture Ergo no pastor to a pastor Again I reason from 1 Tim. 4.14 Mat. 18.15 1 Cor. 5.4 12 13. What takes the power of ordination and jurisdiction from Bishops destroys Bishops as the removal of the soul kills the man and the denyal of the form takes away the subject so the power of ordination and jurisdiction the essential form whereby the Bishop is constitute and distinguished from the Presbyter and every other Church officer being removed from him he must perish but the quoted places take away clearly these powers from the Bishop for the first puts the power of ordination in the Presbytery and a Bishop is not a Presbytery the second puts the power of jurisdiction in the Church and the third in a company of men which meet together but the Bishop is not the Church nor a company of men met together for these be many and he is but one person When the Doctors learning hath satified us in these two he shall receive more Scriptural arguments against Episcopacy The Prelats unable to answer their opposites But why do we expect answers from these men when after so long time for all their boasts of learning and their visible leasure none of their party has had the courage to offer one word of answer to the Scriptures and Fathers which in great plenty Mr Parker and Mr Didoclave of old and of late that miracle of learning most noble Somais and that Magazin of antiquity Mr Blondel have printed against them What in the end of the Chapter the Warner adds of our trouble at King James his fifty and five questions â—â—96 and of our yeelding the bucklers without any opposition till the late unhappy troubles we answer that in this as every where else the Warner proclaims his great and certain knowledg of our Ecclesiastick story the troubles of the Scots Divines at that time were very small for the matter of these questions all which they did answer so roundly that there was no more speech of them thereafter by the propounders but the manner and time of these questions did indeed perplex good men to see Erastian and Prelatical counsellors so far to prevail with our King as to make him by captious questions carp at these parts of Church-discipline which by Statutes of Parliament and Acts of Assemblies were fully established Our Church at that time was far from yeelding to Episcopacy Prelacy was ever grievous to Scotland great trouble indeed by some wicked States-men was then brought upon the persons of the most able and faithful Ministers but our Land was so far from receiving of Bishops at that time that the question was not so much as proposed to them for many years thereafter it was in Ann. 1606. that the English Prelates did move the King by great violence to cast many of the best and most learned Preachers of Scotland out of their charges and in An. 1610. that a kind of Episcopacy was set up in the corrupt Assembly of Glasgow under which the Church of ScotlaÌ„d did heavily groan till the year 1637. when their burthens was so much increased by the English Prelatical Tax-masters that all was shaken off together and divine Justice did so closely follow at the heels that oppressing Prelacy of England as to the great joy of the long oppressed Scots that evil root and all its branches was cast out of Britain where we trust no shadow of it shall ever again be seen CHAP. IX The Commonwealth is no monster when God is made Soveraign and the commands of men are subordinated to the clear will of God HAving cleared the vanity of these calumnious challenges wherewith the Warner did animate the King and all
of Jealousie no man did question but all who were to have the managing of that war should be free of all just causes of Jealousie which could be made appear not to half a dozen of Ministers but to any competent judicatory according to the laws of the Kingdom The Warner hath not been careful to inform himself where the knot of the difference lay and so gives out his own groundless conjectures for true Historical narrations which he might easily have helped by a more attentive reading of our publick Declarations The second fault he finds with our Church is that they proclaim in print their dis-satisfaction with that ingagement It is one of the liberties of the Church of Scotland to publish declarations as favourable to the malignant Party c. Ans The Warner knows not that it is one of the liberties of the Church of Scotland established by law and long custom to keep the people by publick Declarations in their duty to God when men are like to draw them away to sin according to that of Esay 8. v. 12 13. What in great humility piety and wisdom was spoken to the world in the declaration of the Church concerning that undertaking was visible enough for the time to any who were not peremptory to follow their own ways and the lamentable event since hath opened the eyes of many who before would not see to acknowledge their former erors but if God should speak never so loud from heaven the Warner and his Party will stop their ears for they are men of such gallant Spirits as scorn to submit either to God or men but in a Roman constancy they will be ever the same though their counsels and ways be found never so palpably pernicious The third thing the Warner lays to the charge of our Church is The leavy was never off red to be stopped by the Church that they retarded the leavies Ans In this also the Warner shews his ignorance or malice for how sore soever the leavy as then stated and mannaged was against the hearts of the Church yet their opposition to it was so cold-rife and smal that no complaint needs be made of any retardment from them So soon as the Commanders thought it expedient there was an Army gotten up so numerous and strong that with the ordinary blessing of God was abundantly able to have done all the professed service but where the aversion of the hearts of the Church and the want of their prayers is superciliously contemned what marvell that the strongest arm of flesh be quickly broken in pieces The Church was not the cause of the gathering at Mauchlin-Moor The fourth Charge is most calumnious That the Church gathered the Country together in Arms at Mauchlin-Moor to expose the Expedition Ans No Church-man was the cause of that meeting a number of Yeomen being frighted from their houses did fly away to that corner of the Land that they might not be forced against their conscience to go as Souldiers to England while their number did grow and they did abide in a Body for the security of their persons upon a sudden a part of the Army came upon them some Ministers being near by occasion of the Communion at Mauchlin the day before were good Instruments with the people to go away in peace And when the matter was tryed to the bottom by the most Eagle-eyed of the Parliament nothing could be found contrary to the Ministers Protestation that they were no ways the cause of the peoples convening or fighting at Mauchlin The Assembly is helpful and not hurtful to the Parliament The paralel that the Warner makes betwixt the general Assembly and Parliament is malicious in all its parts For the first though the one Court be Civil and the other Spiritual yet the Presbyterians lay the Authority of both upon a divine Foundation that for conscience sake the Courts Civil must be obeyed in all their lawful Commands as well as the Assemblies of the Church God being the Author of the politick Order as well as the Ecclesiastick and the revenger of the contempt of the one as well as the other But what doth the Warner mean to mock at Ministers for carrying themselves as the Embassadors of Christ for judging according to the rule of Scripture for caring for life eternal Is he become so shamefully impious as to perswade Ministers to give over the care of life eternal to lay aside the holy Scripture and deny their embassage from Jesus Christ Behold what Spirit leads our Prelates while they jeer the World out of all Relâ—gion and chase away Ministers from Christ from Scripture from eternal Life Of the second part of the Paralel That people are more ready to obey their Ministers then their Magistrates what shall be made All the power which Ministers have with the people is builded on their love to God and Religion how much soever it is a good Statesman will not envy it for he knows that God and Conscience constrain Ministers to employ all the power they have with the people to the good of the Magistrate as the Deputy and Servant of God for the peoples true good The Warner here understands best his own meaning while he scoffs at Ministers for their threatning of men with hells fire Are our Prelates come to such open Proclamations of their Atheism as to print their desires to banish out of the hearts of people all fear not only of Church-Censures but even of hell it self Whither may not Satan drive at last the Instruments of his Kingdom The third part of the Paralel consists of a number of unjust and false Imputations before particularly refuted What he subjoyns of the power of the general Assembly to name Committees to sit in the Intervals of Assemblies The appointment of Committees is a right of every Court as well Ecclesiastick as Civil it is but a poor Charge Is it not the dayly practise of the Parliaments of Scotland to nominate their Committees of State for the Intervals of Parliament Is it not one inherent right to every Court to name some of their number to cognosce upon things within their own sphere at what ever times the Court it self finds expedient however the Judicatories of the Church by the Laws of the Kingdom being authorized to meet when themselves think fit both ordinarily and pro renata their power of appointing Committees for their own Affairs was never questioned and truly these Committees in the times of our late troubles when many were lying in wait to disturb both Church and State have been forced to meet oftner then otherwise any of their Members did desire whose diversion from their particular Charges though for attendance on the publick is joyned with so great fashery and expence that with all their heart they could be glad to decline it if fear of detriment to the Church made not these meetings very necessary CHAP. XI The Presbytery is no burden to