power to give him remedy and to see Justice done In Scotland this would be taken in great scorn as an high indignity upon the Commissioners of Christ to appeal from his Tribunal to the judgement of a mortal man In the year 1582 King James by his letter by his messenger the Master of Requests and by an Herald at Arms prohibited the Assembly at Saint Andrews to proceed in the case of one Mongomery and Mongomery himself appealed to Cesar or to King and Councel What did our new Masters upon this They sleighted the Kings letter his Messenger his Herald rejected the Appeal as made to an incompetent Judge and proceeded most violenlty in the cause About four years after this another Synod held at Saint Andrews proceeded in like manner against the Bishop of that See for Voting in Parliament according to his conscience and for being suspected to have penned a Declaration published by the King and Parliament at the end of the Statutes notwithstanding that he declined their judicature and appealed to the King and Parliament When did any Bishops dare to doe such acts There need no more instances their book of Discipline it self being so full in the case from the Kirk there is no reclamation or appellation to any Judge Civil or Ecclsiastical within the Realm CHAP. IV. That it exempts the Ministers from due punishment THirdly if Ecclesiastick persons in their Pulpits or Assemblies shall leave their text and proper work to turn incendiaries trumpeters of sedition stirring up the people to tumults and disloial attempts in all well ordered Kingdoms and Common-wealths they are punishable by the civil Magistrate whose proper office it is to take cognisaâ—…ce of treason and sedition It was well said by a King of France to some such seditious Shebas that if they would not let him alone in their Pulpits he would send them to preach in another climate In the united provinces there want not examples of seditious Oratours who for controlling their Magistrates too sawcily in the Pulpit have been turned both out of their Churches and Cities without any fear of wresting Christs Scepter out of his hand In Geneva it self the correction of Ecclesiastical persons qua tales is expresly reserved to the Signiory So much our Disciplinarians have out-done their pattern as the passionate writings of heady men out-do the calmer decrees of a stayed Senate But the Ministers of Scotland have exempted themselves in this case from all secular judgement as King James who knew them best of any man living wirnesseth They said he was an incompetent judge in such cases and that matters of the Pulpit ought to be exempted from the judgement and correction of Princes They themselves speak plain enough It is an absurd thing that sundry of them Commissaries having no function of the Kirk should be judges to Ministers and depose them from their rooms The reason holds as well against Magistrates as Commissaries To passe by the sawcy and seditious expressions of Mr. Dury Mr. Mellvill Mr. Ballcanquall and their impunity Mr. James Gibson in his sermon taxed the King for a persecutor and threatened him with a curse that he should die childlesse and be the last of his race for which being convented before the Assembly and not appearing he was onely suspended during the pleasure of his brethren he should have been suspended indeed that is hanged But at another Assembly in August following upon his allegation that his not appearing was out of his tender care of the rights of the Church he was purged from his contumacy without once so much as acquainting his Majesty The case is famous of Mr. David Blake Minister of St. Andrews who had said in his sermon that the King had discovered the treachery of his heart in admitting the Popish Lords into the countrie That all Kings were the devils barus that the devil was in the Court and in the guiders of it And in his prayer for the Queen he used these words we must pray for her for â—…ashion sake but we have no cause she will never do us any good He â—…aid that the Queen of Englanâ—… Queen Elisabeth was an 〈◊〉 eist that the Lords of the Session were miâ—…creants and bribers that the Nobility were degenerated godless dissemblers and enemies to the Church that the Councel were holly glasses cormorants and men of no Religion I ap eal to all the Estates in Europe what punishment could be evere enough for such audacious virulence The â—…ish Ambassadour complains of it Blake is cited before the Councel The Commissioneâ—…s of the Church plead that it will be ill taken to bring Mâ—…ers in question upon such trifling delations as inconsistent with the liberties of the Church They conclude that a Declinatour should be used and a Protestation made against those proceedings saying it was Gods cause wheâ—…ein they ought to stand to all hazards Accordingly a Declinatour was framed and presented Blake desires to be remitted to the Presbytery as his Oâ—…dinary The Commissioners send the copie of the Declinatour to all the Presbyteries requiring them for the greater corroboration of their doings to subscribe the same and to commend the cause in hand in their private and publick prayers to God using their best credit with their flocks for the maintenance thereof The King justly incensed herewith dischargeth the meeting of the Commissioners Notwithstanding this Injunction they stay still and send Delegates to the King to represent the inconveniences that might insue The King more desirous to decline their envy than they his judgement offers peace The Commissioners refuse it and present an insolent petition which the King rejects deservedly and the cause was heard the very day that the Princâ—…sse Elisabeth now Queen of Bohemia was Christened The witnesses were produced Mâ—… Robert Ponte in the name of the Church makes a Protestation Blake presents a second Decliâ—…atour The Councel decree that the cause being treasonable is cognoscible before them The good King still seeks peace sends messengers treats offers to remit But it is labour in vain The Ministers answer peremtorily by Mr. Robert Brace their Prolocutor that the liberty of Christs Kingdom had received such a wound by this usurpation of the rights of the Church that if the lives of Mr. Blake and twenty others had been taken it would not have grieved the hearts of good people so much as these injurious proceedings The King still woos and confers At last the matter is concluded that the King shall make a Declaration in favour of the Church that Mr. Blake shall onely make an acknowledgement to the Queen and be pardoned But Mr. Blake refuseth to confesse any fault or to acknowledge the King and Councel to be any judges of his Sermon Hereupon he is convicted and sentenced to be guilty of false and treasonable slanders and his punishment referred to the King Still the King treats makes propositions unbeseeming his Majesty once or twice The
to meet when an erroneous Magistrat by his Tyrannous edict commands them to doe so let him call up Erastus from the dead to be disciplined in this new doctrine of the praelats impious loyalty The third principle is that the judgment of true and false doctrine 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 lawes of England or of any Christian state popish or protestant refuse to the Church the determination of such Ecclesiastick causes some indeed doe debate upon the power of appeales from the Church but in Scotland by the law as no appeale in things civill goes higher then the Parliament so in matters Ecclesiastick none goes above the generall assembly Complaints indeed may goe 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 contraire to Scripture or if they persist take order with them But that two or three praelats should become a Court of delegats to receave appeales from a generall assembly neither Law nor practise in Scotland did ever admit nor can the word of God or any Equity require it In the Scotes assemblies no causes are agitat but such as the Parliament hath agreed to bee Ecclesiastick and of the Churches cognisance no Processe 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 Our fourth challenged principle is that wee maintain Ecclesiastick jurisdiction by a divine right Ans. Is this a huge crime is there divine in the world either Papist or Potestant except a few praelaticall Erastians but they doe so If the Warner will professe as it seemes hee must the contradiction of that which he ascribes to us his avowed tenet must bee that all Ecclesiastick power flowes from the Magistrat that the Magistrat himself may execute all Church censures that all the Officers appointed by Christ for the governement of his Church may bee laid aside and such a kind of governors bee put in their place as the Magistrate shal be pleased to appoint that the spirituall sword and Keies of heaven belong to the Magistrate by vertue of his supremacy al 's wel as the temporall sword and the Keies of his earthly Kingdome our difference heere from the Warner will not I hope be found the greatest heresie Our last challenged principle is that wee will have all our power against the Magistrat that is although hee dissent Ans. It is an evill comentare that al must be against the Magistrate which is done against his consent but in Scotland their is no such case for all the jurisdiction which the church there does enjoy they have it with the consent of the Magistrat all is ratified to them by such acts of Parliament as his Majestie doth not at all controvert Concerning that odious case the Warner intimats whither in time of persecutiō when the Magistrat classheth with the Church any Ecclesiastick disciplin be then to be exercised himselfe can better answer it then we who with the auncient Christians doe think that on all hazards even of life the church may not be dissolved but must meet in dens and caves and in the wildernes for the word and Sacraments and keeping it selfe pure by the divine ordinance of discipline Having cleered all the pernicious practises and all the wicked Doctrines which the Warner layes upon us I think it needles to insist upon these defenses which he in his aboundant charity brings for us but in his owne way that he may with the greater advantage impugne them only I touch one passage whereupon he make injurious exclamations that which Mr. Gilespie in his theoremes wryts when the Magistrate abuses his power unto Tyranny and makes havock of all it is lawfull to resist him by some extraordinary wayes and meanes which are not ordinarily to bee allowed see the principles from which all our miseryes and the losse of our gracious Master have flowed Ans. Wee must heere yeeld to the Warner the great equity and necessity that every doctrine of a Presbyter should be charged on the Presbytery it selfe and that any Presbyter teaching the lawfulnesse of a Parliaments defensive armes is tantamont to the Churches taking of armes against the king These small unconsequences wee must permit the Warner to swallow downe without any stick however wee doe deny that the maxime in hand was the fountaine of any our miseryes or the cause at all of the losse of our late Soveraigne Did ever his Majestie or any of his advised counsellers declare it simply unlawfull for a Parliament to take armes for defence in some extraordinary cases however the unhappines of the Canterburian Prelats did put his Majestie on these courses which did begin and promote all our misery and to the very last these men were so wicked as to refuse the lousing of these 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 say aside Episcopacy were it for the gayning the peaceable possession of all his three Kingdomes but are urgers of him night and day to adhaere 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 unlawfulnes 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 admitte of no appeal from the generall assembly IN this chapter the challenge is that there are no appeales from the generall Assembly to the King as in England from the Bishops Courts to the King in Chauncery where a Commission uses to be given to delegats who discusse the appeales Ans. The warner considers not the difference of the Government of the Church of Scotland from that which was in England what the Parliament is in the State that the generall assembly is in the Church of Scotland both are the highest courts in their owne kind There is no appeale any where in moderat Monarchies to the Kings person but to the King in certaine legall courts as the Warner here confesseth the appeale from Bishops lyes not to the King in his person but to the King in his court of Chauncery As no man in Scotland is permitted to appeale in a civil cause from the Lords of Session much lesse from the Parliament so no man in an Ecclesiastick cause is permitted by
good and the good both of the Church and Kingdome for their obedience to the Kings importunity they are heer railed upon by the wise Warner It is true Captaine Iames shortly after creept in againe into Court and obtained a sever revenge against the authors of that action before a Parliament could sit to approve it but within a few monthes the same Lords with some more did at Striveling chase againe that evill man from the Court whither he never more returned and this their action was ratified in the nixt Parliament and so stands to this day unquestioned by any but such as the Warner either out of ignorance or malice I am weary to follow the Warner in all his wandrings at the nixt loupe he jumps from the 1584 to the 1648 skipping over in a moment 64 yeares The articles of Striveling mentions that the promoving of the worke of Reformation in England and Ireland bee referred to the generall assembly upon this our friend does discharge a flood of his choler all the matter of his impatience heere is that Scotland when by fraud they had been long allured and at last by open violence invaded by the English Praelats that they might take on the yock of all their corruptions they were contented at the earnest desire of both the houses of Parliament and all the wel-affected in England to assist their Brethren to purge out the leaven of Episcopacy and the Service book with all the rest of the old corruptions of the English and Irish Churches with the mannaging of this so great and good an Ecclesiastick worke the Parliament of Scotland did intrust the generall assembly No mervaile that Doctor Bramble a zealous lover of all the Arminianisme Popery and Tyranny of which his great patron Doctor Lade stands convicted yet without an answer to have been bringing in upon the three nations should bee angry at the discoverers and dis-appointers of that most pious work as they wont to style it What heere the Warner repeats it is answered before as for the two Storyes in his conclusion which he takes out of his false Author Spots-wood adding his owne large amplifications I conceive there needs no more to be said to the first but that some of Iohn Knocks zealous hearers understanding of a Masse-Priest at their very side committing idolatry contrary to the Lawes did with violence break in upon him and sease upon his person and Masse-cloathes that they might present him to the ordinary Magistrat to receave justice according to the Law This act the Warner wil have to be a huge rebellion not only in the actors but also in Iohn Knocks who was not so much as present thereat What first he speaks of the Assemblies convocating the people in armes to be present at the tryall of the popish Lords and their avowing of that their deed to the King in his face we must be pardoned to mistrust the Warner heerin upon his bare word without the releefe of some witnes and that a more faithfull one then his Brother in evill Mr. Spotswood whom yet heere he does not professe to cite Against these popish Lords after their many treasons and bloody murders of the lieges the King himselfe at last was forced to arme the people but that the generall assembly did call any unto armes we require the Warners proofe that we may give it an answer CHAP. VIII The chiefe of the Praelats agree with the Presbyterians about the divine right of Church discipline THE Warners challenge in this chapter is that we mantaine our discipline by a Iure divino and for this he spewes out upon us a sea of such rhetorick as much better beseemed Ans. Mercurius Aulicus then either a Warner or a praelate In this challenge he is as unhappy as in the rest it is for a matter wherein the most of his owne Brethren though our Adversaries yet fully agree with us that the discipline of the Church is truely by divine right and that Jesus Christ holds out in scripture the substantials of that Governement whereby he will have his house to be ruled to the worlds end leaving the circumstantials to be determined by the judicatories of the Church according to the generall rules which are clear also in the word for matters of that nature In this neither Papists nor the learndest of the Praelats find any fault with us yet our Warner must spend a whole Chapter upon it It is true as we observed before the elder Praelats of England in Edwards Elizabeths dayes as the Erastians now did mantaine that no particular Governement of the Church was jure divino and if this be the Warners mind it were ingenuity in him to speake it out loud and to endeavour to perswade his friends about the King of the truth of this tenet he was never imployed about a better and more seasonable service for if the discipline of the Church be but humano jure then Episcopacy is keeped up upon no conscience conscience being bottomed only upon a divine right so Episcopacy wanting that bottom may well be laid aside at this time by the King for any thing that concernes conscience since no command of God nor warrant from scripture tyes him to keep it up This truely seemes to be the maine ground whereupon the whole discourse of this Chapter is builded Is it tolerable that such truthes should be concealed by our Warners against their conscience when the speaking of them out might be so advantagious to the King and all his Kingdomes how ever wee with all the reformed Churches doe beleeve in our heart the divine right of Synods and Presbyteries and for no possible inconvenient can be forced to deny or passe from this part of truth yet the Warner heere joynes with the elder Praelats who till Warner Banckrofts advancement to the sea of Canterburry did unanimously deny Episcopacy to be of divine right and by consequent affirmed it to be moveable and so lawfull to be laid aside by princes when so ever they found it expedient for their affaires to be quyte of it why does not the warner and his Brethren speake plainly their thoughts in his Majesties eares why do they longer dissemble their conscience only for the satisfaction of their ambition greed and revenge sundry of the Praelaticall divines come yet further to joyne fully with Erastus in denying not only Episcopacy and all other particular formes of Church government to be of divine institution but in avowing that no governement in the Church at all is to be imagined but such as is a part of the civill power of the Magistrat The Warner in the Chapter and in diverse other parts of his booke seemes to agree with this judgment and upon this ground if he had ingenuity he would offer his helping hand to untie the bonds of the Kings conscience if heere it were straytened by demonstrating from this his principle that very safely without any offence to God and nothing
only their Kingdome but their lives and estats and all they have for his Majesties service upon the grant of their few and easy demands but no misery either of King or people can overcome the desperat obstinacy ofPraelaticall hearts As for parents consent to the mariage of their children how tenderly it is provided for in Scotland it may be seen at length in the very place cited It was the Bishops who by their warrants for clandestine mariages and dispensations with mariages without warrant have spoiled many parents of their deare children with such abhominations the Presbytery was never acquainted all that is alleadged out of that place of our discipline is when a cruel parent or tutor abuses their authority over their children and against all reason for their owne evill ends perversely will crosse their children in their lawfull and every way honest desires of mariage that in that case the Magistrats and Ministers may be intreated by the grieved childe to deale with the unjust parent or tutor that by their mediation reason may be done I beleeve this advice is so full of equity that no Church nor State in the world will complaine of it but how ever it be this case is so rare in Scotland that I professe I never in my life did know nor did heare of any child before my dayes who did assay by the authoritative sentence of a Magistrate or Minister to force their parents consent to their marriage As for the Warners addition of the Ministers compelling parents to give portions to their children that the Church of Scotland haths any such canon or practise its an impudent lie but in the place alledged is a passage against the sparing of the life of adulterers contrary to the Law of God and for the excommunication of Adulterers when by the negligence of the Magistrat their life is spared this possibly may be the thorne in the side of some which makes them bite and spurne with the heele so furiously against the Authors and lovers of so severe a discipline The Presbyteries nixt injury is done to the Lawyers Synodes other Ecclesiastick Courts revoke their Sentences Ans. No such matter ever was attempted in Scotland frequent prohibitions have been obtained by curtisan Bishops against the highest civil judicatories in England but that ever a Presbitry or Synode in Scotland did so much as assay to impede or repeale the proceedings of any the meanest civil court I did never heare it so much as alleaged by our adversaries The nixt injury is against all Masters and Mistresses of families whom the Presbytery will have to be personally examined in their knowledge once a yeare and to be excommunicat if grosly and wilfully ignorant Ans. If it bee 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 bee 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 imputation for they had somewhat else to doe then to be at the pains 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 keep off from the holy table whom wee find groslly and wilfully ignorant but that ever any for simple ignorance was excommunicat in Scotland none who knowes us will affirme it The last whom he will have to be wronged by the Presbytery 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 be twixt man and wife Master and Servant Ans. This is but a gybe of revenge for the overthrow of their Tyrannous high commission-Commission-Court where they were wont to play the Rex at their pleasure above the highest subjects of the three Kingdoms and would never give over that their insolent domeneering court till the King and Parliaments of both Kingdomes did agree to throw it down about their eares The thing he jeares at is the congregationall Eldership a judicatory which all the Reformed doe enjoy to their great confort as much as Scotland They are farre from all arbitrary judications their Lawes are the holy Scripture and acts of superior Church-judicatories which rule so clearly the cases of their cognisance that rarely any difficulty remaines therein or if it doe immediatly by reference or appeal it is transmitted to the Classes or Synode The judges in the lowest Eldership as wee have said before are a doszen at least of the most able and pious who can bee hade in a whole congregation to joine 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 fyne the Bishops officiall will summon before his owne learned and conscientious wisedome who ever within the whole dioces have fallen into such a fault as hee pleaseth to take notice of as for domestick infirmities Presbyterians are most tender to medle 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 injuries 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 angel 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 considence but exceeding frivolous THough in the former Chapters the Warner has shewed out more venome and gall then the bagge of any one mans stomack could have been supposed capable of yet as if he were but beginning to vomite in this last Chapter of the covenant a new flood of blacker poyson rusheth out of his pen. His undertaking is great to demonstrat cleerly that the covenant is meerly void wicked and impious His first 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 took it with their lips never consented with their hearts Ans. This cleer demonstration is but a poor 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 Commissioners of the Parliament of England together with the Commissioners of the Parlia ment and generall assembly
of Scotland were the first and only framers thereof but they who gave the life and being to it in England were the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament at West-Minster by the Kings call and at that time acknowledged by his Majestie without any question about the lawfullnes 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 Parliaments 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 maine 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 dishonorable indeed to the English Nation if it were true it was no dishonour to England to joyne with their brethren of Scotland in a Covenant for mantainance 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 a cleer demonstration this is such a dishonour and dishonesty that a greater cannot fall upon a man of reputed integrity Especially when the ground of the lie and perjury is an evident falshood for the covenant was not extorted from any flesh in England by feare of any unjust suffering so far was 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 penulty of a two pence The Warners second demonstration is no better then the first the ground of it is that 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 heere it is before it can stand 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 Ans. 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 it hee 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 Scotes Presbytery nor of any thing in any Church even the best reformed unlesse it be found according to the paterne of Gods holy word The second ground of his demonstration is also an evident errour that the covenant in hand is one and the same with that of King Iames. Ans. 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 Iames in Scotland 1580 should bee one and the same with the Covenant of all the three Kingdomes 1643 whatsoever identities 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 heere the Warner understands not how hee is cutting his own vines his friends in Scotland will give him small thanks for attributing unto the nationall Covenant of Scotland that Covenant of King Iames 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 tyme brings adversaries to confesse of their own accord long denyed truthes But the Characters which the Warner inprints upon the solemne league and Covenant of the three Kingdomes wee must bee pardoned to controvert till he have taken some leasure to trie 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 for the overthrow of Religion The man cannot think that any should beleeve his dictats of this kind without proofe since the expresse words of that league do 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 heer have been spaired 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 agreable to the word of Cod were wee not in all reason obliged to encourage and assist them in so pious a work In the nixt words the Warner for all his great boasts finding the weaknes of all the former grounds of his seconde demonstration he offers three new ones which doubtles will doe the deid for he avowes positively that his following grounds are demonstrative yet whosoever shal be pleased to grip them with never so soft an hand shall find them all to be but vanity and wind 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 into him Ans. The Warner will have much adoe to prove this 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 Parliament 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 any party countenanced by the Kings presence against his lawes must be altogether unlawfull if his demonstration be no clearer then the ground where upon 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 need to assay its releefe with some colour of ane argument for none of his owne friends will now take it of his hand for ane indemonstrable principle since the King for
anomia ergapiria the very shops or Laboratories of rebellion The Church is not dissolv'd where dissipline's not executed if it were it should be where it is at the pleasure of the Magistrate suspended To imagine a final ineapacitie of meeting by perpetual succession of Tyrants hath litle either of reason or conscience it assaults the certitude of fayth in Gods promises advanceth infidelitie in his providence But to give you at length your passe from this paragraph Such as you in a schismatical Assemblie may have frequentlie in Scotland pinn'd the character of erroneous upon an upright Magistrate a Disciplinarian rebell to save his credit call'd a Royal moderate proclamation a tyrdnous edist The Bishops third allegation you finde too heavie therefore let fall halfe of it by the way You have too good a conceit of your Parliaments bountie though had they been as prodigal as you make them it litle becomes you to proclaime them bankrupts by their favour Their Acts were allwayes ratified by your Princes any which whom tell me one wherein this right Royal was renounc'd of suspending seditious Ministers from their office or if cause were depriving them of their places It were a senselesse thing to suppose that the Bishop would denie to the Church a proprietie to consult determine about religion doctrine haeresie c. Yet its likelie His Lordship allowes it not in that mode which makes her power so absolute as to define consummate authorize the whole businesse by her selfe He hath heard the King to be somewhere accounted a mixt person thinkes it may be that the holie oyle of his unction is not onelie to swime on the top be sleeted off at the pleasure of a peevish Disciplinarian Assemblie but to incorporate with their power The lawes of England have not been hitherto so indulgent of libertie to our Convocation but that the King in the cases alledged did ever praedominate by his supremacie And the Parliament hath stood so much upon priviledge that if Religion fetch'd not her billet from West-minster the could have but a cold lodging at St. Pauls The booke of Statutes is no portable manual for us whom your good brethren have sent to wander in the world yet I can helpe you to one An. 1. Eliz. that restor'd the title of supreme to the Queen withall provided that none should have authoritie newlie to judge any thing to be haeresie not formerlie so judged but the High Court of Parliament with the assent of the Clergie in their Convocation Where the Convocations assent by the sound should not be so determinative as the Parliaments judgement which right or wrong here it assumes As touching appeales because you will have somewhat here sayd though it must be otherwhere handled No law of Scotland denies an appeale in things Civile or Ecclesiastike to the King One yet in force enjoines subjection unto them the Act of Parliament in May 1584. which was That any persons either spiritual or Temporal praesuming to decline the judgement of His Majestie His Councel shall incurre the paine of treason What you call a complaint is in our case an appeale what taking order is executing a definitive judgement without traversing backe the businesse to Ecclesiastike Courts or holding over the rod of a coercive power to awe them into due regular proceedings I confesse this the Presbyters in Scotland never made good by their practice Their appeales were still retrograde from the supreme Magistrate his Councel to a faction of Nobles or a seditious partie of the people Such is that of Knox printed at large Or which in effect is the same The Scotish Assemblies when they had no power appeald to providence when they had whereupon they might relie unto the sword In case of Religion or doctrine if the General Assemblie which is not infallible erre in judgement determîne any thing contrarie to the word of God the sense of Catholike Antiquitie the King may by a court of Orthodoxe Delegates consisting of no more then two or three Prelates if he please receive better information of truth establish that in his Church Or which often hapens in Scotland If the Presbyters frame Assemblie Acts derogatorie to the rights of his Crowne prejudicial to the peace of his people the King may personallie justifie his owne praerogative and keep the mischiefe they invented from becoming a praecedent in law This doth not the word of God nor any aequitie prohibite The judgement of causes concerning deprivations of Ministers in the yeare 1584 you would have had come by way of appellation to the General Assemblie there take final end but this you could not make good within yourselves nor doe I finde upon your proponing craving it was then or at any time granted you by the King Two yeares before you adventurd not onelie for your priviledge in that … but against the Magistrates puting preachers to silence…hindering staying or disannulling the censures of the Church in examining any offender Rev. In the Scotes Assemblies no causes are agitated but such as the Parliament hath agreed to be Ecclesiastike c. Ans If any Parliament have agreed all causes of what nature soever to be Ecclesiastike by reduction so of the Church cognizance you have that colour for your pragmatical Assemblies but if you admit of any exception you have for certaine transgressed yourlimits there being no crime nor praetended irregularitie whatsoever that stood in view or came to the knowledge of the world that hath escaped your discussion censure not been serv'd up in your supplicates to be punished Rev. … No processe about any Church rent was ever cognosced upon in Scotland but in a Civile Court Ans. Your imperious though supplicatorie prohibition 1576. I allreadie mention'd In the Assemblie at Edenburgh April 24. 1576. You concluded…That you might proceed against unjust possessours of the patrimonie of the Church…by doctrine admonition last of all if no remedie be with the censures of the Church In that at Montrosse June 24. 1595. About setting Benefices with diminution of the rental c. you appointed Commissioners with power to take oaths call an-inquest of men of best knowledge in the Countrey about to proceed against the Ministrie with sentence of deposition Master Tho. Craig the Solicitour for the Church to pursue the Pensiionars in Caitnes for reduction of their pensions If in no particular you actuallie proceeded to Church censures It was because you foresaw they would not restraine the corruption no more of the laitie then the Clergie then your menasing petitions sometime obtein'd strength from some partial or pusillanimous Parliament or when you praevail'd not you wrapt this up with the rest of your discipline put all to the processe of a warre And this was you know the mysterious sense of Knox's method upon good experience praescrib'd on his death bed First
office and function And the scepter and sword are the badges of that power Yet the new praeface compared with other parts of these new propositions takes away the Kings negative voice and cuts off all Royall power and right in the making of lawes contrarie to the constant practice of this and all other Kingdomes For the legislative power in some Monarchies is penes Principem solum … in other … by compact between the Prince and the People … In the last the power of the King is least but best regulated where neither the King alone without his Parliament nor the Parliament without the King can make lawes … which likewise is cleare by the expressions of the Kings answers Le Royle vent and Le Roys ' avisera So as it is cleare from the words of assent when Statutes are made and from the words of dissent that the Kings power in the making of lawes is one of the chiefest jewels of the cronne and an essential part of Soveraignitie … somet mes the Kings denial had been beter then his assent to the desires of the Houses of Parliament … If I had transscribed all the Reader had found the argument more full Out of this compared with what you write he may rest assured that in declaring at that time against the Parliaments debate which in truth was vindicating the Kings negative voice you were resolved against Regal Government And whatsoever since you have publish'd in a mocke proclamation had your Covenanting brethren kept their station in England the Crowne and Scepter if not condemn'd to the coyning house had been kept perpetual prisoners in Edenburgh Castle whither with funeral solemnitie you have caried them nor had there been any Royal head or hand kept above ground for their investment while your Rebells could catch them and procure sword or axe to cut them off But to follow you in your tracke If your lawes admitted not absolute reprobation by a negative voice they did praeterition by a privative silence which was all together as damnable to your Parliament bills they being made Acts by His Majesties touch with the top of his Scepter and those irrefragablie null'd which he pass'd by In what followes you shew more ingenuitie then prudence by acknowledging the ground whereupon you built your censure of this debate in Parliament as needlesse and impertinent because of the power it might put in the hand of the King to denie your covenanted propositions But alasse you graspe the wind in your fist and embrace an anie cloud within your armes and like some fond Platonike are jealous over that jewel you never had The King of blessed memorie told you when he spake it to your brethren He would never foregoe his reason as man his Royaltie as King Though with Samson he consented to binde his hands and cut off his haire he would not put out his eyet himselfe to make you sport much lesse cut out his tongue to give you the legislative priviledge of this voice That you at best sit in Parliament as his subjects not superiours were call'd to be his Counsellers not Dictatours summond to recommend your advice not to command his dutie And what pretie puppets thinke you have you made your selves for so many yeares together to the scorne of all nations when you so formallie propounded to His Majestie to grant what you professe he had never any power to denie What comes next is one of the many springes you set to catch cockes but your lucke is bad or you mistaken in your sport I see if you were to make an harmonie of confessions you would be as liberal of other mens faith as of your own What the beliefe is of the warner and his faction about the absolute affirmative voice of any King you had heard more at large if you had fetchd your authoritie from any line in His Ld. booke for that demand Yet to keep up your credit that you may not mount to no purpose I will bring one who in spiritualibus at least shall take off this sublimate from your hands and pay you with more mysterie of reason then you have it may be found in any other of the faction Nulla in re magis ciucescit vis summi Imperii quà m quod in ejus sit arbitrio quaenam religio publicè exerceatur idque praecipuum inter Majestatis jura ponunt omnes qui politica scripserunt Docet idem experientia Si enim quaeras cur in Anglia Maria regnante Romanae Religio Elizabetha verò Imâ—…rante Evangelica viguerit causa proxima reddi non poterit nisi ex arbitrio Reginarum Going on in the Religion of the Spaniard Dane Swede he tells you ad voluntatem dominantium recurretur Though I shall onelie give you this quaestion in exchange for your language of concluding and impeding If Parliaments have power ad placitum to conclude or impede any thing by their votes what part of making or refusing lawes is to the King If the Bishop had challeng'd you for nominating officers of the armie you are not without some such parrot-praters abroad as can tattle more truth then that out of your Assemblies Nor need you be so nice in a mater so often exemplified in Knox his spiritual brethren who as appeares manifestlie by their leters c. Were the chiese modellers of all the militia in their time and His Ldp. having shewed you when your pulpit Ardelios incourag'd the seditious to send for though in vaine L. Hamilton by name and Robert Bruce dispatched an Expresse for him to be their head You are here charged onelie with not allowing such as the Parliament had named because not so qualified as you praetended That the State ever sent the officers they had chosen to doe over all the postures of their soules to discipline either their men or affections before you and to have your Consistorian judgement of their several qualifications and abilities is more I confesse then hitherto I have heard of That you put it to the last part of your answer relating to no part of the quaeltion was but to shew what you beare in your armes That as plaine as you looke the crosse on the top of the crowne is the proper embleme of your Assemblie whom no civile mater can escape having a birthright from Christ or deputation at least to overrule both his Kingdomes upon the earth Your Ifs And 's about the necessitie of a warre in that moment of time when the British Monarchie Lay gasping for life demonstrates what good meaning you had to praeserve the Person or Government of Kings The constant proofe of that integritie you required in the officers must have been the covenant-proofe of their rebellion and wickednesse which if blemished from the beginning of the warres with no religious nor loyal impression no sincere pietie toward God nor real dutie to the King had marck'd them out for your Mammon Champions and Goliahs
their negligence is inexcusable and their dulnesse pitiable yet that your act of cruel jurisdiction is justified by no divine command nor Catholike example If never any for simple ignorance were excommunicated in Scotland You must be rebuk'd for transgressing your rule and failing in your dutie as your Kirke pleaseth thus to declare it In sufferable we judge it that men be permitted to live and continue in ignorance as Members of the Kirke Whether greater tyrannie were exerciz'd in the High Commission Courts or your Consistories your aequitable comparers by this time are not to seeke What excesse on your side hath been evidenc'd is here resumed onelie to aggravate your floud of boundlesse crueltie by the many heads from which it issues and the cataracts it powres upon the poor people in every parish The Bishops playd indeed the Rex in that their Court because they acted in it by authoritie and deputation from the King But you and your Brethren playd the Rebells to the purpose when you first rioted then rebell'd and covenanted before er you supplicated to suppresse it K. Ch. 1. by his grace and too fluent charitie praevented the violence intended by your Parliament though he found no thankes nor yet acceptance at your hands His proclamation being rudelie encountred with a rebellious protestation read by Iohnston The King Anticlerical Parliament in England that alasse joind hands in a maner yet searce agreed to throw downe the other about their eares without which the Praelates had no power lesse then no reason if it might be to let it fall have not onelie covered the poor Bishops with the ruine of that Court but since hands and hearts were divided the laborious Lords and Commons without him have pull'd the Fabrike of both Houses and of Monarchie upon themselves The Congregational Eldership a thing wheresoever more to be jeerd at and lesse endured then a Commission is enjoy'd with so much more comfort among other of the Reformed then in Scotland as we are eye witnesses of lesse authoritie rigour in it And while I am writing this Replie one of the Reformed Presbyters your Countreyman ingenuouslie confesseth to me that he thinkes in his conscience the present Kirke tyranniem Scotland he speakes it indeed rather of the practice then rule ofâ—…se â—…se Scotish Elderships taken out of Holie scripture can not be very Particâ—… 〈◊〉 many cases Their Acts of superiour judicatories doe not can nâ—… 〈◊〉 â—…pecific interpretative Scandals nor in all occurring pofsibiâ—… proportion corporal punishments or pecuniarie mulcts in the arbitrement of which lies the tyrannie of this petie Aristocratie and most ridiculouslie many times used in cutting haifethe haire shaving beards c. as before now hath been objected by others that having I beleeve seen it better know it In the abuses by such censures and difficultie of some cases when appeale is made to a Synod the Biâ—…op tells you which you observe not that the shortnesse of its continuance can afford the condition of the persons will afford litle reliefe Your dozen of the most able pious plow men in many parishes with an unexperienc'd illiterate Pastour praesiding in their Councel are no very reverend Iudges in many cases Aud what pitifull creatures they must be of necessitie in some places may be guessed untill this quaestion be answer'd which is sent you from another Countreyman of yours an honest able Divine Whether you have not heard of Câ—…untres Churches in Scotland especiallie amongst the Saints of Argiâ—…e where not three hapâ—…e not one in the whole parish could reade Amphictyonum consessus A very honourable bench A Senate that no doubt would strike greater amazement but upon other reasons then the Romane if any foraigner should behold them In that you say the Episcopal way is to have no discipline at all in any congregation you are somewhat more hard hearted then your brethren Who acknowledge some of the functional rubbish of your Temple building Elders and Deacons upon the shoulders of our Church wardens Sidemen and Collectours part of whose charge is to observe maners inquire out ill livers admonish the scandalous and praesent them to the ordinarie To direct them in this dutie the Bishops articles are disspersed and an Audit held of their account at every visitation The officials pleasure regulates not their information which is to be as impartial as an oath can make it His conscience commonlie is not to large though his learning and wisdome be of greater extension then the Elders What power he exerciseth is by law and custome In correctionis negotijs alia quidem sacient omnia excommunication is more niselie and conscientiouslie excepted quae de jure possunt solent fieri Constit. 1571 To the Presbyterian tendernesse of medling with domestike infirmities some what is sayd allreadie which the Answerer by leter thus avoucheth It is certaine that a foolish man revealing foolishlic his faults to his wise the zealous wife upon some quarelling betwixt her and her husband hath gone to a good Minister revealed what was told her and the honest impertial Minister hath convented the man charged him with his sinne and made him confesse satisfie and doe penance publikelie Here the flagrant scandal was onelie the fire or furie that broke out of a weake womans breast into a pragmatical Presbyters eares whose heade is no sanctuarie for spiritual secrecies but his curiositie the mine that under workes the foundation of private families and palaces too where of that of Mary Queen of Scots may be a formidable and lamentable example and when jealousies faile of materiall truth in the discoverie to blow them up with malicious calumnies what they can For suits and differences incident between Pastour and flocke Lay Elder and his neighbour the passion upon which perverts blindes the eyes of the wisest men that are your Congregational or Classical Iudges you passe quietlie by it as having nothing to say for it These are the great injuries and hurts which make the Scotish Discipline Scandalous to all the Reformed world being prov'd destructive to the just praerogative of Kings the power of Parliaments the libertie of subjects enslaving all orders of men where it takes place to the arbitrarie jurisdiction of a corrupt Synod and that commonlie moderated by the usurped Papacie of a Knox a Buchanan a Melvin an Henderson such meeke lambes as no misbeleeving Iew can misdoubt them to be fore runners of his Messias who hath prae-inspired this good principle into their heads To bring their Kings rather then goe themselves to the slaughter And wheresoe'r they get power to teare out the throat of the thearers and make them dumbe never more able to open their mouthes against the know'n Deitie of their Presbyterie CHAPTER XIII The Bishops exceptions against the Covenant made good and this proved That no man is obliged to keep it who hath taken it IF I had not found the Reviewer a
that can not constitute can abrogate no lawes But they will tell you in constituting the King can not be excluded And we inferre that no more he can be in repealing If your minde serve you to engage farther in this dispute you were best answer the learned Grotius 8. chap. De Imper. Sum. Pot. to which I promise you my replie In the next place as if you were moderating a matachin dance from seting the King and Parliament atoddes you turne both their faces and powers agaâ—…nst the Praelates whom I doe not finde His Lordship puting in competition with the King about the right of making lawes but aggravating the injurie done them by your partie in the Parliament and appealing to their conjcience with what justice they could covenant against the rights of a third order of the Kingdome without either their satisfaction or consent If the whole Repraesentative of the Kingdome have thus priviledg'd the Bishops one lame part can not deprive them of it Their prioritie and superioritie hath been so ancient that no Lords no Commons would scruple at it but such as likewise at the original supremacie of their King And therefore you may know the bill against their priviledges was five times rejected in the upper House the beter Court of honour of the two and when the sixt time it was caried by a few voyces it was when the most honourable persons were forced to be absent Their share in the Legislative power hath been so great that since any was allotted them your forefathers never heard of a law made in Parliament without them The King may passe what he pleaseth and what he doth so is a â—…an The two Temporal States with his baâ—…e name without his power can make none nor yet having it as they account it derived from his Regalitie not his person Ius enim serendarum legum sive generalium sive spâ—…ciaiium samma poteslas communicare alteri potest a se abdicare non potest What one orth ' other passe to the injurie of persons fundamentallie concern'd be it law can not be justified in conscience which is all J take to be urged by the Bishop But what would you have sayd if there had been such a law in behalfe of Episcopacie in England as there hath been in spaine That no King could reigneâ—… which is more then a Parliament sit and vote without the suffrage of the Bishops Which made Ervigius upon the resignation of Bamba that turn'd Monke call a Councel of them at Toledo to have a confirmation of his crowne And the time hath been in England when a difference fell between Edward and Ethelred about succession to K. Edgar a devolution of it unto the arbitrement of the Bishops The humble protestation of the twelve Bishops rudelie menaced and affronted did not pronounce the lawes acts after their recesse null and of none effect in derogation to the praerogative of the King either solitarie or in conjunction with what persons soever he pleas'd to make his Legislative Councel but in saving to themselves their rights and interests of siting and voting in the House of Peeres the violation of which they conceived to invalidate a Parliament at least without the Kings passing a rescissorie Act and an Act of new constitution Because in law and practice it is usual to any who conceive themselves praejudg'd even in those things where Acts of Parliament passe against them to protest Which if you remember were the words and part of a long plea to another purpose though upon the same advantage of the Bishops right in Scotland used by those your Countreymen that alike intended their ruine but could not colourablie offer at it without the Act anext the constitution of the Parliament Whether the Bishops being a third order of the Kingdome and by that craving their share in the Legislative power be more humble then the Presbyters who take themselves to be absolute without King and two states in making all Ecclestastike lawes and against King two states in abrogating all civile statutes Ordinances concerning Ecclestastical maters that are sound noysome and unprofitable and agree not with the time … And censuring punishing all persons King and Parliament not excepted I file up with the other references to your aequitable comparers let them be the Lords and Commons you here pleade for You may chuse whether you will grant what the Bishop takes as demonstrable That his brethren had harder measure from the thing call'd King and Parliament then the Abbots and Friars from Henry 8. When he devested them of their estates Your consecutorie Beleese hath no article made up out of any of the Bishops words Who though he could not keepe intruder out of his palace and possessions meanes to have no such troublesome inmates in his minde And since you have sequestred him from his gardens keepes out of your reach a Tarasse to exspatiate in his thoughts He commends your eyes that can see so distinctlie such Platonical Idea's as never had existence yet when you draw too neare commands you to your distance with the same answer that Bacchus did Hercules in the Comoedie for all his club Meton â—…mon oikei noun echeis gar oikeian The Bishops last reasoning is as sound as those before and in all is there a connexion of those parts which any demonstrative integral can require To your first impeachment by quaestion I answer That article of the Covenant beares the seting up of the Scotish Presbyterian government in England which is for a uniformitie in both Kingdomes if taken with the next that extirpates praelacie viz. Church government by Bishops For when Praelacie is downe I pray what remaines according to your principles but Presbyterie to set up As for Scotish Presbyterie you have often told us 't is the same with that of all Reformed Churches And if alltogether be not according to the Word of God after so many yeares Synods Conferences and Letters what blinde Covenanters you are to sweare a league of life death upon the like or more uncertanitie of future discoverie by a few unskilfull persons whose petie phantastike lights put together must be made a new imaginarie milkie way surpassing in a fermed singularitie of splendour any among the greater truer luminaries in the firmament of the Church But I have allreadie shewed how in vaine you aequivocate about that clause which hath cost your friend Rutherford and others so much paines What the oath of supremacie imports is evident by the words in it The varietie of sences to catch advantages like side windes in paper sailes which are subject to rend in pieces being the poor policie of Presbyters that dare not stand to the adventure of plaine dealing supreme Governer of this Realme c. Aswell in all spiritual or Ecclesiastical things or causes as temporal Which the Bishops you see conceald not though you gratâ—…e your selfe with the observation
change the whole Ecclesiastical pollicy of a Common-wealth to alter the Doctrine and Religion established to take away the legall rights and privileges of the Subjects to erect new tribunalls and courts of Justice to which Sovereigns themselves must submit and all this of their own heads â—…ue of a pretended power given them from heaven contrary to kâ—…own laws and lawfull customs the Supreme Magistrate dissenting disclaiming Synods ought to be called by the supreme Magistrate if he be a Christian c. And either by himself or by such as he shall please to choose for that purpose he ought to preside over them This power the Emperours of old did challenge over General Councels Christian Monarchs in the blindnesse of Popery over National Synods the Kings of England over their great Councels of old and their Convocation of later times The Estates of the united Provinces in the Synod of Dort this power neither Roman Catholick or Protestant in France dare denie to his King None have been more punctual in this case then the State of Geneva where it is expressely provided that no Synod or Presbytery shall alter the Ecclesiastical pollicy or adde any thing to it without the consent of the civil Magistrate Their elders do not challenge an uncontrolable power as the Commissioners of Christ but ate still called the Commissioners of the Signiory The lesser Councel names them with the advise of the Ministery their consent is not necessary The great Councel of 200 doth approve them or reject them At the end of the year they are presented to the Signiory who continue them or discharge them as they see cause At their admission they take an oath to keâ—…p the Ecclesiastical Ordinances of the civil Magistâ—…ate The finall determination of doctrinal differences in Religion after conference of and with the Ecclesiasticks is referred to the Magistrate The proclamations published with the sound of trumpet registered in the same book do plainly shew that the ordering of all Ecclesiastical affairs is assumed by the Signiory But in Scotland all things are quite contrarie the civil Magistrate hath no more to doe with the placing or displacing of Ecclesiastical Elders than he hath in the Electoral Colledge about the Election of an Emperor The King hath no more legislative Power in Ecclesiastical causes than a Cobler that is a single Vote in case he be chosen an Elder other wiâ—…e none at all In Scotland Ecclesiastical persons make repeal alter their Sanctions eyery day without consent of King or Councel King Jonâ—…s proclaimed a Parliament to be held at Edenburgh and a little before by his letter required the Assembly to abstain from making any Innovatioâ—…s in the Policy of the Church and from prejudging the decisions of the States by their conclusions and to suffer all things to continue in the condition they were until the approcâ—…ing Parliamâ—…nt What did they hereupon They neglected the Kings letter by their own Authority they determined all things positively questioned the Arch-Bishop of St. Andrews upon their own Canons For collating to benefices and Voting in Parliament according to the undoubted Laws of the Land Yea to that degâ—…ee of sawcines they arrived and into that contempt they reduced Sovereign power that twenty Presbyters no more at the highest sometimes but thirteen sometimes but seven or eight dared to hold and maintain a General Assembly as they miscalled it after it was discharged by the King against his Authority an Insolence which never any Parliament durst yet attempt By their own Authority long before there was any Statute made to that purpose they abolished all the Festivals of the Church even those which were observed in memory of the Birth Circumcision Resurrection and Ascension of our Saviour By their own Authority they decreed the abolition of Bishops requiring them to resign their offices as not having any calling from Gods word under pain of Excommunication And to desist from preacbing until they had a new admission from the General Assembly And to compleat their own folly added further that they would dispose of their possessions as the Churches Patrimony in the next Assembly which ridiculous Ordinance was maintained stifly by the succeeding Synods notwithstanding the Statute that it should be Treason to impugn the Authority of the three Estates or to procure the innovation or diminution of any of them Which was made on purpose to control their vain presumption Notwithstanding that themselves had formerly approved and as much as in them lay established Superintendents to endure for term of life with their numbers bounds salaries larger than those of other Ministers indewed with Episcopal power to plant Churches ordain Ministers assign Stipends preside in Synods direct the censures of the Church without whom there was no Excommunication The world is much mistaken concerning Episcopacie in Scotland for though the King and Parliament were compelled by the clamours and impetuous violence of the Presbyters to annex the temporalities of Bishops to the crown yet the Function it self was never taken away in Scotland from their first conversion to Christianity until these unhappy troubles And these very temporalities were restored by the Act of restitution and their full power was first established Synodically and afterwards confirmed by the three Estates of the Kingdom in Parliament By their own Authority when they saw they could not prevail with all their iterated indeavours and attempts to have their book of discipline ratified they obtruded it upon the Church themselves ordaining that all those who had born or did then bear any office in the Church should subscribe it under pain of Excommuication By their own Authority or rather by the like unwarrantable boldnesse they adopted themselves to be heirs of the Prelates and other dignities and orders of the Church suppressed by their tumultuous violence and decreed that all tythes rents lands oblations yea whatsoever had been given in former times or should be given in future times to the service of God was the patrimonie of the Church and ought to be collected and distributed by the Deasons as the Word of God appoints That to convert any of this to their particular or profane use of any person is detestable Sacriledge before God And elsewhere Gentle-men Barons Earls Lords and others must be content to live upon their just rents and suffer the Kirk to be restored to her libertie What this libertie is follows in the same place all things given in hospitalitie all rents pertaining to Priests Chanteries Colledges Chappelries Frieries of all orders the Sisters of the Seens all which ought to be retained still in the use of the Kiâ—…k Give them but leave to take their breath and expect the rest The whole revenues of the temporalities of Bishops Deans and Arch-Deans lands and all rents pertaining to Cathedrall Kirks Then supposing an objection that the Possessours had Leases and Estates
as well Noble-men as Barons and those of other estates to meet and give their personal appearance at Edenburgh the 20 of Iuly ensuing for giving their advise and concurrence in matters then to be proponed especially for purging the Realm of Popery establishing the policy of the Church and restoring the patrimony thereof to the just possessours Assuring such as did absent themselves that they should be esteemed dissimulate professours unworthy of the fellowship of Christs flock who thinks your Scotish Disciplinarians know not how to ruffle it Upon this ground they assume a power to abrogate and invalidate Laws and Acts of Parliament if they seem disadvantagious to the Church Church Assemblies have power to abrogate and abolish all statutes and ordinances concerning Ecclesiastical matters that are found noysom and unprofitable and agree not with the times or are abused by the people So the Acts of Parliament 1584. at the very same time that they were proclaimed were protested against at the market crosse of Edenburgh by the Ministers in the name of the Kirk of Scotland And a little before whatsoever be the Treason of impugning the authority of Parliament it can be no Treason to obey God rather than man Neither did the General assembly of Glasgow 1638 c. commit any treason when they impugned Episcopacy and Perth-Articles although ratified by Acts of Parliament and standing laws then unrepealed He saith so far true that we ought rather to obey God than man that is to suffer when we cannot act but to impugn the authority of a lawfull Magistrate is neither to obey God nor man God commands us to die innocent rather than live nocent they teach us rather to live nocent than die innocent Away with these seeds of sedition these rebellious principles Our Master Christ hath left us no such warrant and the unsound practise of an obscure Conventicle is no safe patern The King was surprized at Ruthen by a company of Lords and other conspirators this fact was as plain Treason as could be imagined and so it was declared I say declared not made in Parliament Yet an Assembly Generall no man gain-saying did justify that Treason in order to Religion as good and acceptable service to God their Soveraign and native Countrey requiring the Ministers in all their Churches to commend it to the people and exhort all men to concurre with the actors as they tendred the glory of God the full deliverance of the Church and perfect reformation of the Common-wealth threatning all those who subscribed not to their judgement with Excommunication We see this is not the first time that Disciplinarian Spectacles have made abominable Treason to seem Religion if it serve for the advancement of the good Cause And it were well if they could rest here or their zeale to advance their Ecclesiasticall Soveraignty by force of Armes and effusion of Christian blood would confine it self within the limits of Scotland No those bounds are too narrow for their pragmaticall spirits And for busie Bishops in other mens Diocesses see the Articles of Sterling That the securing and setling Religion at home and promoting the work of Reformation abroad in England and Ireland be referred to the determination of the General Assembly of the Kirk or their Commissioners What is old Edenburgh turned new Rome and the old Presbyters young Cardinals and their Consistory a Conclave and their Committees a Juncto for propagating the faith Themselves stand most in need of Reformation If there be a more in the eye of our Church there is a beam in theirs Neither want we at home God be praised those who are a thousand times fitter for learning for piety for discretion to be reformers then a few giddy innovators This I am sure since they undertook our cure against our wills they have made many fat Church-yards in England Nothing is more civill or essentiall to the Crowne then the Militia or power of raising Armes Yet we have seen in the attempt at Ruthen in their Letter to the Lord Hamilton in their Sermons what is their opinion They insinuate as much in their Theorems It is lawfull to resist the Magistrate by certain extraordinary wayes or meanes not to be ordinarily allowed It were no difficult task out of their private Authors to justifie the barbarous acts that have been committed in England But I shall hold my selfe to their publike actions and records A mutinous company of Citizens forced the gates of Halyrood-house to search for a Priest and plundâ—…r at their pleasure Mr. Knox was charged by the Councell to have bin the author of the sedition and further to have convocated his Majesties Subjects by Letters missive when he pleased He answered that he was no preacher of Rebellion but taught people to obey their Princes in the Lord I fear he taught them likewise that he and they were the competent judges what is obedience in the Lord. He confessed his convocating of the Subjects by vertue of a command from the Church to advertise the brethren when he saw a necessity of their meeting especially if he perceived Religion to be in peril Take another instance The Assembly having received an answer from the King about the tryall of the Popish Lords not to their contentment resolve all to convene in Armes at the place appointed for the tryall whereupon some were left at Edenburgh to give timely advertisement to the rest The King at his return gets notioe of it calls the Ministers before him shewes them what an undutifull part it was in them to levy Forces and draw his Subjects into Armes without his Warrant The Ministers pleaded That it was the cause of God in defence whereof they could not be defieient This is the Presbyterian wont to subject all causes and persons to their Consistories to ratifie and abolish civill Lawes to confirm and pull down Parliaments to levy Forces to invade other Kingdoms to do any thing respectively to the advancement of the good cause and in order to Religion CHAP. VIII That the Disciplinarians challenge this exorbitant Power by Divine Right BEhold both Swords spirituall and temporall in the hands of the Presbytery the one ordinarily by common right the other extraordinarily the one belonging directly to the Church the other indirectly the one of the Kingdome of Christ the other for his Kingdom in order to the propagation of Religion See how these hocas pâ—…cases with stripping up their sleeves and professions of plain-dealing with declaiming against the tyranny of Prelates under the pretense of humility and Ministeriall duty have wrested the Scepter out of the hand of Majesty and jugled themselves into as absolute a Papacy as ever was within the walls of Rome O Saviour behold thy Vicars and see whither the pride of the servants of thy servants is ascended Now their Consistories are become the Tribunalls of Christ. That were strange indeed Christ hath but one Tribunall his Kingdome is
of the Holy Ghost with an associate were sent Ambassadours from France into Scotland The Ministers of Edenburgh approving not his Message though meerly Civill inveigh in their Pulpits bitterly against him calling his White Crosse the badge of Antichrist and himself the Ambassadour of a Murtherer The King was ashamed but did not know how to help it The Ambassadours were discontented and desired to be gone The King willing to preserve the ancient Amity between the two Crownes and to dismisse the Ambassadours with content requires the Magistrates of Edenburgh to feast them at their departure so they did But to hinder this feast upon the Sunday preceding the Ministers proclame a Fast to be kept the same day the Feast was appointed and to deteine the people all day at Church the three Preachers make three Sermons one after another without intermission thundring out curses against the Magistrates and Noblemen which waited upon the Ambassadors by the Kings appointment Neither stayed they here but pursued the Magistrates with the censures of the Church for not observing the Fast by them proclaimed and with much difficulty were wrought to abstaine from Excommunicating of them which censure how heavy it falls in Scotland you shall see by and by To come yet neerer the late Parliament in Scotland injoyned men to take up Armes for delivery of their King out of prison The Commissioners for the Assembly disallowed it and at this present how many are chased out of their Country How many are put to publike repentance in sackeloth how many are excommunicated for being obedient to the Supreme Ludicatory of the Kingdom that is King and Parliament Miserable is the condition of that people where there is such clashing and interfereing of Suprem Judicatories and Authorities If they shall pretend that this was no free Parliament First they affirm that which is not true either that Parliament was free or what will become of the rest Secondly this plea will advantage them nothing for which is all one with the former thus they make themselves Judges of the validity or invalidity of Parliaments CHAP. X. That this Discipline is most prejudiciall to the Parliament FRom the Essentiallbody of the Kingdom we are to proceed to the repraesentative body which is the Parliament We have already seen how it attributes a power to Nationall Synods to restrain Parliaments and to abrogate their Acts if they shall judge them prejudiciall to the Church We need no other instance to shew what small account Presbyteries do make of Parliaments then the late Parliament in Scotland Notwithstanding that the Parliament had declared their resolution to levy forces vigorously aâ—…d that they did expect as well from the Synods and Presbyteries as from all other his Majesties good Subiects aready obedience to the commands of Parliament and Committee of Estates The Commissioners of the Assembly not satisfied herewith do not onely make their proposalls that the grounds of the Warre and the breaches of the Peace might be cleared that the union of the Kingdomes might be preserved that the popish and prelaticall party might bee suppressed that his Majesties offers concerning Religion might be declared unsatisfactory that before his Majesties restitution to the exercise of his Royall power he shall first engage himself by folemn Oath under his hand and Seal to passe Acts for the settlement of the Covenant and Presbyterian Government in all his Dominions c. And never to oppose them or endeavour the Change of them An usurer will trust a bankrupt upon easier tearms then they will do their Soveraign and lastly that such persons onely might be intrusted as had given them no cause of jealousie which had been too much and more then any estates in Europe will take in good part from half a dozen Ministers But afterwards by their publick Declaration to the whole Kirk and Kingdom set forth that not being satisfied in these particulars they do plainly dissent and disagree and declare that they are clearly perswaded in their consciences that the Engagement is of dangerous consequence to true Religion prejudiciall to the Liberty of the Kirk favourable to the Malignant party inconsistent with the union of the Kingdom Contrary to the word of God and the Covenant wherefore they cannot allow either Ministers or any other whatsoever to concuâ—… and cooperate in it and trust that they will keep themselves free in this businesse and choose affliction rather then iniquitie And to say the Truth they made their word good For by their power over the Church-men and by their influence upon the people and by threatening all those who engaged in that action with the censures of the Church they retarded the Levies they deterred all preachers from accompanying the Army to do divine offices And when Saint Peters keyes would not serve the turn they made use of Saint Pauls sword and gathered the countrey together in arms at Machleene-Moore to oppose the expedition So if the high court of Parliament will set up Presbytery they must resolve to introduce an higher court then themselves which will overtop them for eminency of authority for extent of power and greatnesse of priviledges that is a Nationall Synod First for authority the one being acknowledged to be but an humain convention the other affirmed confidently to be a divine instistution The one sitting by vertue of the Kings writ the other by vertue of Gods writ The one as Councellers of the Prince the other as Ambassadours and Vicars of the sonne of God The one as Burgesses of Corporations the other as Commissioners of Iesus Christ. The one judging by the law of the land the other by the holy Scriptures The one taking care for this temporall life the other for eternall life Secondly for power as Curtius saith ubi multitudo vana religione capta est melius vatibus suit quam ducibus paret where the multitude is led with superstition they do more readily obey their Prophets then their Magistrates Have they not reason Pardon us O Magistrate thou threatenst us with prison they threaten us with hell fire Thy sentence deprives us of civill prorection and the benefit of the law so doth theirs indirectly and withall makes us strangers to the common-wealth of Israel Thou canst out-law us or horn us and confiscate our estates their keyes do the same also by consequence and moreover deprive us of the prayers of the Church and the comfortable use of the blessed Sacraments Thou canst deliver us to a Pursevant or commit us to the Black Rod they can deliver uâ—… over to Sathan and commit us to the prince of darknesse Thirdly for priviledges the priviledges of Parliament extend not to treason selony or breach of peace but they may talke treason and act treason in their pulpits and Synods without controlment They may securely commit not onely petilarciny but Burglary and force the dores of the pallace Royall They may not onely break the peace but convocate
by any legal right therefore for eluding the Law they did effectuate that some Ministers should have the title of this or that Bishopricke and the revenues were gathered in the name of this titulare or tulchan Bishop albeit hee had but little part e. g. Robert Montgomerie Minister at Sterline was called Arch-Bishop of Glasgow and so it can bee instanced in other Bishop-rickes and abbacies Now this kind of praelats pretended no right to any part of the Episcopall 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 generall assembly discharged them being Ministers to practise any more such illegall insolencies with this ordinance of the Church after a little debate King James at that time did shew his good satisfaction But the Warner heere jumps over nolesse then twenty seven years time from the assembly at Edinburgh 1579 to that at Aberdeen 1605 then was King James by the English Bishops perswasion resolved to put down the generall assemblies of Scotland contrary to the Lawes and constant practise of that Church from the first reformation to that day The act of Parliament did bear that once at least a yeare the assembly should meet and after their busines was ended they should name time place for the next assembly When they had met in the yeare 1602 they were moved to adjourne without doing any thing for two whole yeares 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 againe to adjourne to the nixt yeare 1605 at Aberdeen when that dyet came his Majesties Commissioner offered them a Letter To the end they might be an Assembly and so in a Capacity to receave his Majesties Letter with the Commissioners good pleasure they sate downe they named their Moderator and Clark they received and read the Kings letter commanding them to rise which they obeyed without any farther action at all but naming a dyet for the nixt meeting according to the Lawes and constant practise of Scotland hereupon by the pernicious counsel of Arch-Bishop Banckroft at London the King was stirred up to bring sore trouble upon a number of gracious Ministers This is the whole matter which to the Warner heir is so tragick an insolence that never any Parliament durst attempt the like See more of this in the Historicall vindication The nixt instance of our Presbiteryes usurpation upon the Magistrat is their abolition before any statute of Parliament thereupon of the Church festivals in their first book of discipline Ans. Consider the grievousnesse of this crime in the intervall of Parliaments the great counsel of Scotland in the minority of the Prince entrusted by Parliament to rule the Kingdome did charge the Church to give them in wryte their judgement about matters Ecclesiasticall in obedience to this charge the Church did present the counsel with a wryte named since the first book of disciplin which the Lords of counsel did approve subscribe and ratify by an Act of State a part of the first head in that wryte was that Christmas Epiphany purification and other fond feasts of the virgin Mary as not warranted by the holy Scriptures should bee laid aside Was it any encroachment upon the Magistrate for the Church to give this advice to the privy counsell 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 Magistrat is 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 Kingdome Ans. The Warner seemes to have no more knowledge of the affairs of Scotland then of Japan or Utopia the Law hee speakes of was not in being some yeares after 1580 how ever all the generall assemblyes of Scotland are authorised by act of Parliament to determine finally without an appeale in all Ecclesiastick affaires in the named assembly Lundie the Kings Commissioner did sit and consent in his Majesties name to that act of abolition as in the nixt assembly 1581 the Kings Comissioner Caprinton did erect in his Majesties name the Presbiteryes in all the Land it is true three yeares thereafter a wicked Courtier Captaine James Stuart in a shadow of a closse and not summoned Parliament did procure an act to abolish Presbiteries and erect Bishops but for this and all the rest of his crimes that evill man was quickly rewarded by God before the world in a terrible destruction these acts of his Parliament the very nixt yeare were disclaimed by the King the Bishops were put downe and the Presbitry 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 Scotes story what ever be the Episcopall boastings of other Nations yet it is evident that from the first entrance of Christian Religion into Scotland Presbiters alone without Bishops for some hundred yeares did governe that Church and after the reformation their was no Bishop in that Land but in tittle and benefice till the yeare 1610 when Bancroft did consecrat three Scotes Ministers all of them men of evill report whom that violent Commissioner the Earle of Dunbar in the corrupt and null assembly of Glasgow got authorised in some pairt of a Bishops office which part only and no more was ratified in a posterior Parliament Superintendents are no where the same with Bishops much lesse in Scotland where for a time only till 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 fourth instance is the Churches obtruding the second book of discipline without the ratification of the State Ans. For the Ecclesiastick enjoining of a generall assemblyes decrees a particular ratification of Parliament is unnecessary generall acts of Parliament 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 generall assembly 1590 his consent was obtained unto it for in that assembly where unanimously the subscription of the second book of disciplin by all the ministers of the Kingdome was decried his Majestie some time in person and alwayes 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 praesent did consent among
for great sins and after a long processe yet certainly their execution is very farre from all cruelty as they who know the proceedings of that land will beare witnes What he objects about fugitives it is true when a proces is begunne a fugitive may have it concluded and sent after him but we count not that man a fugitive from discipline or contumacious as the Warner quarrels us who upon just feare to hazard his life does not compear CHAP. XII The Presbytery is hurtfull to no order of men PRaelaticall malice is exorbitant beyond the bounds of all shew of moderation was it not enough to have calumniat the Presbytery to Kings Princes and Soveraignes to Parliaments and all Courts of Justice to people and all particular persons but yet a new chapter must be made to shew in it the hurtfullnes of Presbytery to all orders of men wee must have patience to stand a little in the unsavoury aire of this vomite also Unto the nobility and gentry the Presbitery must be hurtfull because it subjecteth them to the censures of a raw heady novice and a few ignorant artificers Ans. It s good that our praelats are now turned pleaders against the oppression of the Nobility and gentry it s not long since the praelatical clergy were accustomed to set their foule feet on the necks of the greatest peeres of the three Kingdomes with to high a pride and pressure that to shake of their yock no suffering no hazard has been refused by the best of the Nobility and gentry of Britaine but natures and principles are so easy to be changed that no man now needs feare any more oppression from the praelats though they were set downe again and wel warned in their repaired throns But to the challenge we answer that the meanest Eldership of a small Congregation in Scotland consists of the Pastor and a dozen at least of the most wise pious and learned that are to be found in the whole flock which yet the Warner heer makes to be judges but of the common people in matters of smallest moment But for the classicall Presbytery to which he referres the Ecclesiasticall causes of the Nobility and gentry and before whom indeed every Church processe of any considerable weight or difficulty does come though it concerne the persons of the meanest of the people this Presbytery does consist ordinarly of fifeteen Ministers at least and fifeteen of the most qualified noblemen gentlemen and Burgesses which the circuit of fifteen parishes can affoord these I hope may make up a judicatory of a great deale more worth then any officiall court which consists but of one judge a petty mercenary lawyer to whose care alone the whole Ecclesiastick jurisdiction over all the Nobility and gentry of diverse shyres is committed and that without appeale as the Warner has told us except it be to a Court of delegats a miserable releefe that all the Nobility gentry and Commons of a Kingdome who are oppressed by Episcopall officials have no other remedie but to goe attende a Committee of two or three civilians at London deputed for the discussing of such appeales The Presbyterian course is much more ready solide and equitable if any grievance arise from the sentence of a Presbytery a Synode twice a yeare doth sit in the bounds and attends for a week or if need be longer to determine all appeales and redresse all grievances now the Synode does consist of all the Ministers within the bounds which ordinarly are of diverse whole shyres as that of Glasgow of the upper and neather ward of Clidsedaile Baerranfrow Lennox Kile Carrick and Cunninghame also beside Ministers the constant members who have decisive voice in Synodes are the chiefe Noblemen Gentlemen and Burgesses of all these shyres among whom their be such parts for judgment as are not to be found nor expected in any inferiour civil Court of the Kingdom yet if it fall out so that any party be grieved with the sentence of a Synode there is then a farther and finall appeale in a Generall assembly which consists of as many Burgesses and more Gentlemen from every shire of the Kingdome then come to any Parliament beside the prime Nobility and choisest Ministry of the land having the Kings Majestie in persone or in his absence his high Commissioner to be their praesident This meeting yeerly or oftner if need be sits ordinarly a month and if they think fit longer the number the wisedome the eminency of the members of this Court is so great that beside the unjustice it were a very needlesse labour to appeal from it to the Parliament for as we have said the King or his high Commissioner sits in both meetings albeit in a differēt capacity the number and qualification of knights and Burgesses is ever large as great in the assembly as in the Parliament only the difference is that in the Parliament all the Nobility in the Kingdom sit without any election and by virtue of their birth but in the Assembly only who for age wisedome and piety are chosen by the Presbyteries as fittest to judge in Ecclesiastick affairs but to make up this oddes of the absence of some Noblemen the Assembly is alwayes adorned with above ane hundred of the choisest Pastors of the whole land none where of may sit in Parliament nothing that can conciliate authority to a Court or can be found in the Nation is wanting to the generall assembly how basely so ever our praelats are pleased to trample upon it The second alledged hurt which the Nobility have from the Presbytery is the losse of their patronages by congregations electing their Pastors Ans. Howsoever the judgment of our Church about patronages is no other then that of the Reformed divines abroad yet have our Presbyteries alwayes with patience endured patrons to present unto vacant Churches till the Parliament now at last hath taken away that grievance The Nobilities last hurt by the Presbytry is their losse of all their impropriations and Abey-lands Ans. How Sycophantick an accusation is this for who knowes not how farre the whole generation of the praelaticke faction doe exceed the highest of the Presbyterians in zeale against that which they call Sacriledge never any of the Presbyterians did attempt either by violence or a course of Law to put out any of the Nobility or gentry from their possessions of the Church-lands but very lately the threats and vigorous activity of the praelats and their followers were so vehement in this kinde that all the Nobility and gentry who had any interest were wackned to purpose to take heed of their rights In the last Parliament of Scotland when the power of the Church was as great as they expect to see it againe though they obtained the abolition of patronages yet were the possessors of the Church-lands and tythes so little harmed that their rights therto were more cleerly and strongly confirmed then by any praeceding Parliament
a long time was willing to acknowledge the Parliaments jointe 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 parte of the militia in the time of evident dangers should be so certainly and clearly 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 supreame Legislator that it is unlawfull for the subjects of England to change any thing established by Law especially to the prejudice of the Praelats without their own consent they being a third order of the Kingdom otherwise it would be a harder measure then the Friers and Abbots received from Henry the eight Ans. May the Warner be pleased to consider how farre his dictats heere 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 complanit 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 I grant for the turning an ordinance to a standing Law the Kings consent is required but with what qualifications and exceptions wee need not heere to debate since his Majesties consent to the present case of abolishing Bishops was obtained well neere as farre as was desired and what is 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 he was willing also in England and Ireland to put them out of the Parliament and all civil courts and to divest them of all civil power and to joyne with them Presbyteries for ordination and spirituall jurisdiction yea to abolish them totally name and thing not only 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 perpetuall abolition for all and every one in both houses having abjured Episcopacy by solemne oath and Covenant the Parliament was in no hazard of agreing 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 agreing with them yet really to agree with them in the perpetuall abolition of Episcopacy since the concession was for the laying Bishops aside 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 own evill interests whisper in his eares pernicious counsel as our Warner in this place also doeth by frighting the King in conscience from any such consent for this end he casts out a discourse the sinshews whereof are in these three Episcopall maximes First that the legislative power is sollie in the King that is according to his Brethrens Cōmentary that the Parliament is but the Kings great counsel of free choyce without or against whose votes hee may make or unmake what Lawes he thinks expedient but for them to make any ordinance for changing without his consent of any thing that has been or instituting any new thing or for them to defend this their legall right and custome time out of mind against the armes of the Malignant party no man may deny it to be plaine rebellion II. That the King and Parliament both together cannot make a Law to the praejudice of Bishops without their own consent they being the third order of the Kingdome for albeit it be sacriledge in the Lords and Commons to clame any the smallest share of the legislative power this i◅ 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 far 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 voide and null That the King and Parliament in divesting Bishops of their temporall honour and estats in abolishing their places in the Church doe sin more against conscience then did Henry the eight and his Parliament when they put down the Abbots and the Fryers Wee must beleeve that Henry the eight his abolishing the order of Monks was one of the acts of his greatest Tyranny and greed wee 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 down 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 heere glaunced at by the Warner and elsewhere hee prove it to be the declared mind of his Brethren yet we must be pardoned not to accept them as undenyable principles of cleare demonstrations The last ground of the Doctors demonstration is that the covenant is ane oath to set up the Presbyterian government in England at it is in Scotland and that this is contrary ◅o the oath of Supremacy for the oath of Supremacy makes the King the only supreame head and governour of the Church of England that is the civil 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 governours but
too lavish then close handed and promis'd more upon the necessitie then thought on then some conceived in justice or conscience could he performed Securitie upon oath under hand and seale the Bishop tells you were harder termes then an Vsurers to a Bankrupt and it may be you tooke His Majestie for no other having goten though by no morgage his kingdomeâ—… in your possession And knowing what he had contracted with God before you would not part with them but upon the surest interest of his soul. If the quaestion were not for the thing that it should seeme you tooke for granted And then what methodical and scrupulous traytours doe you blazon your selves to be to leave him languishing in a gaole while the order and some particle of the securitie must be thought an The qualification of the persons to have the managing of the warre being approved by the Parliament the highest Court in the Kingdome no law intimates an Assemblie or Indicatorie competent to reverseit So that the Bishop hath sufficientlie inform'd himselfe that the knot of the differtnce lies onelie in some bulrush which you looke for to litle purpose And having attentivelie read your publike declarations drawes out of them no groundlesse conjecture but an infallible assurance that no Historie mentions such Pharisaical Rebells upon the earth The Warner knowes very well that what you call the libertie of the Church is in truer language the license of the many schismatical hypocrites that disturbe it who by long custome of blaspheming God in guilded rhetorike and a spiritual figure translating his holie word but perverting the sense to sinfull ends in publike declarations have withdraw'n poor people from their dutie to their King into such feares confoederacies as the prophet Esai had in the place that you cite warning from the Lord with a strong hand instructions not to walke in The three Graces you bragge of had too many snakes dangling about their eares to be mistaken for other then the thre infernalfuries which they were Your humilitie was pride and arrogancie to the height attributing more to your private fancies then to the publike counsels of a free parliament the undenied repraesentative of the Kingdome Your pietie was but the will worship of your owne imaginations that you chaileng'd And your wisdome craftinesse wherin you will be taken in the end by your froward counsel caried headlong to your destruction The visibilitie of this might encourage the Engagers to run any adventure rather then to follow you in your wayes Such of them as since the disaster have crouched to an acknowledgement of their loyaltie for an errour are poore Spirited fooles that have their eyes onelie in the ends of the earth are never likelie to be in the number of them who obteind a good report through fayth in their sufferings nor receive the promise of some beter thing that God had pro vided for them Did an Angel from heaven blow his trumpet and proclaime God speaking in your declarations the Warner and his partie were bound to stop their eares Or if the Prince of the power of the aire should clothe such wicked language in lightning or pervert some Boanerges to speake it in thunder by terrour to worke in children of disobedience we have Saint Pauls praescript to pronounce a double anathema against him Accursed Accursed let him be and in submission to God in his messenger the Apostle such men of gallant spirits should we be as in a Christian constancie or Romane if you will have it rather to perish with this last breath in our mouthes then by hearkening to counsels or walking in wayes so palpablie pernicious to Church and state with the ruine of both let the breath of our nostrils the Anoynted of the Lord be taken in their pits If the margin and text of your following paragraph were not so neare neighbours in my hast I might chance to have made no comparison and so escaped the contradiction between them No offer to stopthe leavic in the one and opposition so coldrife and small in the other will I thinke be reconciled by no logike but that which makes degrees varie species or argues from the third to the second adjectand according to the vulgar proverbe makes that not to be at all which is litle or nothing to the purpose To the substance of your answer By enquirie I finde your oppsition as hot as your fervent zeale and abilities could make it and if your actions drew in the same yoke with your words you that sweated it out in earnest beseechments exhortations and threats sate not still to see the effects of your papers but armed your selves to the worke of retardment if not to the retracting the designe Some few lines in a Declaration and warning from the Commission of your General Assemblie are enough to keep the Bishop from ignorance a transscript of them as they lie to discharge him from the malice you impute… We doe earnestlie beseech and exhort all who live in this land that as they tender their solemne obligation and oath both by the National Covenant and by the solemne league Covenant as they love the honour of Iesus Christ and the Gospell…Nay as they wish to eschew the heavie wrath and indignation of the Lord That they doe not give any countenance nor connivence to these wicked men in their wicked way much lesse to joyne with them in counsel or in armes And because it lies upon us to be faythfull in our station therefore as we have allreadie given warning unto these men that unlesse they doe speedilie destst from their evil way and repent that we will proceed aganist them with the dreadfull sentence of excommunication…if any shall hereafter joine with them we will be necessitated impartiallie to proceed against them with the highest censures of the Kirke… If this be coldrife and small opposition what tall fellowes are you when you are warme I Know nothing you could well doe beyond it unlesse with C. Caesar you would be so mad as in Homers language challenge Iupiter to an encounter em ' anaeir ' e ego se which you are likelie enough to doe if it succeeded with him as Seneca Supposed Non puto parum momenti haue ejus vocem ad incitandum conjuratorum anlmos addidisse The Armie gotten up so numerous and strong which the Commanders thought sooner expedient and had sooner levied but for you was probablie able to have done what service they professed but the aversion of the hearts of the Church declaring it selfe in diabolical curses and supercilious discouragement divided the hearts and enfeebled the hands of a faint people It was a strange sympathie in the hearts of your yeomen that in the midst of their fright made them flee to the same corner of the land Their consciences are not commonlie of such a tender touch but when scarified by their Clergie So that it will be
no calumnie to conjecture what spirit gave them wings and directed their flight to the rebellious meeting at Mauchlin moor Their growing number and abiding there in a bodie for the securitie of their persons made no partie for nothing toward the deliverance of the Kings and their danger being onelie to be forced by the Parliament to goe souldiers into England for that purpose the quaestion is what violence was therein offered to their conscience and if any by what law or praecept divine or humane the Assembliecan countenance them in armes though but in a defensive posture to withstand it In which had that part of the Armie that sodainly came upon them cut them off it might have stood for an act of civile justice more then militarie furie kept the rest in peace and much conduc'd toward an after securitie to themselves The communion at Mauchlin layd to the publike Fast appointed in termiuis for the apostacie of the Parliament might occasion some of your Ministers coming thither to as good a purpose as his to the Kirke of St. Andro who pray'd to Allmightie God that he would carie through the good cause against all his enemies especiallie against Kings Devills and Parliaments Coloured clothes and pistols were no proper accoutrement for your Kirke-men wherein to celebrate the Sacrament of Christian charitie and peace Nor were they the good instruments with the people to goe away to run away they might be afterward that had lead them in bands and troupes into the battail For Presbyterian Scotish Ministers to protest against any rebellion wherein they act needes no eagle ey'd Parliament man to discover it at the bottome as a peice of effronterie very common among them and proper to their profession which is very ridiculouslie diss mbled in this case when diverse of them were taken prisoners fighting desperatelie for the cause complain'd of to the Commissioners of the Kirke who were so farre from inflicting any censure or giving them admonition that they approved what they had done and justified them in the fact Which I see here you dare not ex professo but fawlter in your iudgement about the meeting pleading the securitie of their persons as a faire apologie for the yeomens a biding in a bodie and yet mentioning the Ministers protestation which is litle beter then a condemnation of their convening fighting in the field The Bishops parallel betwixt the Generall Assemblie and Parliament casts the cloake of maliciousnesse upon your owne shoulders in the abuse of your libertie whereby you refuse to submit your selfe to the ordinance of manâ—… sor the Lordssake otherwise then as it is ratified in your Synods for when the Presbyterians lay the authoritie of both Courts upon a divine foundation they make themselves the chiefe corner stone usurping the proper place of Jesus Christ in the one and of his anoynted in the other telling him and all Magistrates among whom Parliaments are to be numbred he ought to be subject to the Kirke spirituallie and in Ecclesiasticall government… that be ought to submit himselfe to the discipline of the Kirke if he transgresse in maters of conscience and Religion So that when they talke of obedience sor conscience sake to their lawfull commands they take cognizance what is conscience and law and at their owne arbitrement many times oblige subjects on the same principles to rebell calling this the justifiable revenge of the Magistrates contempt against the authorite of God resident in them The Bishop mockes not at Ministers that carie themselves at the Ambassadours of Christ that deliver not more then is in the Commission or instructions they receiv'd but thinkes they have no priviledge above the Angels who are not dominantes but ministrantes spiritus That they are a flame rather to warme indiscreet zeale and devotion then consume in the fervour of violence and passion That God rarelie tempers brimstone with the breath of his messengers That he sets the time names the extraordinarie case when his words shall be fire in the mouthes of his prophets his people wo d that it should devoure them He likes you should judge according to the rule of Scripture so you follow that rule and keepe in subjection to good lawes He commends your caring for life aeternal not your leaguing and covenanting in order to that for the death temporal of your brethren He judgeth you according to the rule of Scripture to be shamelcsselie impious that counterfeit a care of life aeternal whither bloodthirstie Presbyters are never likelie to enter but have a portion with their fellow hypocrites otherwhere That make holie Sripture not onelie of private but perverse interpretation and God the authour of all the wickednesse you act by the authoritie of his word who boast of an Ambassie from Christ when who so blinde as these servants who so dease as these messengers you say he sent who are lead by a Spirit that doth the workes of the flesh from top to botome mention'd by St. Paul Galat. 4. Who would gull the world out of all but a forme or propertie of religion who make your selves not Ministers but Masters of Christ commanding imperiouslie the spirit he sends downe who make a trade of Scripture and for wordlie gaine parsel out eternal life to whom you please The second part of the Bishops parallel I see puts you to a stand and the quaestion What shall be made … argues you some what suspended in your thoughts whether as much should be made of it as you meane and the people commended for obeying their Ministers how seditious soever more then their Magistrates that command them If all the power such Ministers have with the people be built on their love to God what pitie is it that rebellious structure should have such a religious foundation When it riseth high he is no good states man that doth not demolish it knowing that what God and conscience constraine not but perswade to imploy to his good the Divel without any or with one that 's erroneous may tempt them to aedifie to his ruine It is not amisse sayd applied by him that writ of the spanish Monarchie Priâ—…um instrumentum bone imperandi lingua est secundum vero gladius The sword is but the left hand instrument in the governing Kingdomes The tongue of the preacher is dextra terribilis that of the right hand that teacheth terrible things that by the menace of death which the sword can not reach to keepes subjects in obedience to their Soveraignes Therefore when once it hath a power with the people such as that of St. Bernard it had need be endued with the spirit of Saint Bernard sor there is a tongue Quae conterit spiritum the perversenesse wherein is a breach in the spirit Prov. 1. 5. 4. And the proud men in the Psalmist promise themselves a victorie over Princes by the tongue We will praevaile Who
because they are the men that ought to speake just like you denie all supremacie Their first language is this Quis dominus Who is Lord over use The Politician I spake of hath a discourse worth your reading wherein he shewes you how Maliomet stirred up the people against Heraclius the Emperour He sayth as much for Calvin your protoplast which whatsoever may be apologiz'd for him I am sure is inexcusable in Knox and you that are the workemanship of his hands This made Charles the good so prudent and resolute who being become too unhapie in nothing more then in suffering your Babel building to be finished in Scotland when he beheld the like worke of your fellow Rebell Architects in England would not exclude himselfe out of doores nor part with that power whereby he might best restraine the seditious exorbitances of Ministers tongues who with the keyes of heaven have so farre the keyes of the peoples hearts as they praevaile much by their oratorie to shut in and let out both peace and loyaltie While the Warner scosfes at your threats his meaning is to have deluded people to scorne them and know in your words that the thundrings of the Scotish aswell as that Roman Anti-Christ are but vanitie and â—…inde To tell them in a figure that hell and death are no more in your keeping then the gaole in the prisoners that walkes abroad in the streetes with his shakels about him but must render himselfe at the end of his covenant The Praelates proclamation of such Atheisme as this is a printed copie out of the original writ by the fingar of God in the 10. S. Matth. Whereby is to be banished out of the hearts of the people all feare of them which kill the bodie but are not able to kill the soul for all their kirke-bulls and censures that threaten it To the quaestion you close with I answer That Satan hath driven allreadie the first instruments of his Republike in Britaine into a very narow roome in the North where Cromwell and other his more usefull instruments at praesent are likelie to keep them till if God neither convert nor by a miracle otherwise confound them his worke being done he may lash them with whips of their owne making topt ' with Serpents heads and Scorpions tailes and at last deliver them to the worme that shall not die cast them into the fire that shall not be quenched and make their stinking memorie an abhorring unto all slesh The third part of the parallel hath been in every particular justified and were more instances requisite to evidence the truth they might be a numberlesse number of such imputations as you are never able to refute The charge which the Bishop subjoines is not so poore but that it enricheth his proofe with the best argument of your spiritual supremacie The daylie practice of the Parliaments of Scotland such as have been of late and heretofore when your Reformation tooke place constitutes no right confirmes no power os nominating commitees for intervalls Nor is there any inhaerent right in Courts to nominate interreigning Commissioners but by Royal favour in such as except their intertearming vacations are perpetual and standing not call'd by fits ad placitum Domini Regis no not in the Parliament it selfe Which to omit other proofes was the ground of this clause in their Act of oblivion 1641. That the peace to be now established may be inviolablie observed in all time to come It is agreed that some shall be appointed by His Majestie and the Parliaments of both Kingdomes who in the interim betwixt the sitting of the Parâ—…ments may be carefull that the peace now hapilie concluded may be tontinued c. … And it is declared that the power of the Commission shall be restrained to the articles of peace in this treatie As likewise of that fatal Act for perpetuating the last blacke Parliament in England which had probablie neâ—…r been required if it might have nominated a Committe of state that idol to which it now sacrificeth in bloud to sit till the next summons upon any inhaerent right in that Court. For the Iudicatories of your Church I am tired with telling you that no law of the Kingdome doth privativé authorize them to meet their Assemblie being illegal without the King or his Commissioner neither of which are to come upon course or at call And their power of appointing Committees hath as often been quaestion'd and how often is that as it ever was executed without or against the positive consent or command of the King or Queen for the time And trulie the committees in the times os your late troubles were the Ambuscado wherein you lay closelie in wait to disturbe both Church and state while your armed bodie in Parliament retired Whose frequent meetings were forced no otherwse then by the incessant zeale in their Members to persecute Religion and loyaltie Whose diversion from their particular charges for attendance on the publike rebellion was join'd with so great fascherie and expense to fullfill their lusts at other mens cost Which with all their heart they will in Sempiternum continue if feare of their neckes make them not at length slip out of the collar or their grey haires and withered carkasses after many a surfeit call them not to some other account or their Chiefe in whose service they made these necessarie meetings pay them not their necessarie wages in pertusum sactulum into a bag full of holes which shall never be filled no more then was the measure of the iniquitie they acted CHAPTER XI The Presbyterie cruel to particular persons IF King and Parliament be as they may very well incenced against the Presbyterie at sight of the Bishops reason more then out of sympathie with him in his anger his warning hath taken in part the effect that he wished and aim'd at Yet in vaine shall they vindicate all just authoritie to themselves if the people be kept in a servile observance of a tyrannous discipline pay their blinde obedience to the Kirke Therefore the Warner excedes no bounds in his rage but en largeth his bowels of pitie to them who for the most part having disarmed their soules of that judgement which should dictate their freedome from Church censures upon acts indifferent or sinfull in an inferiour degree their due submission to an arraignment of thoughts onelie in the Court of a poenitent conscience or hereafter before the tribunal of heaven where sits the onelie Iudge of hearts the discerner of perverse inclinations expose themselves naked to the boundlesse furie of mercilesse Reviewers to the sharpe scrutinie of malicious Inquisitours to the arbitrarie sentence of most sinful Iudges and therefore most suspicious surmisers The Bishop mentions no faults but such as toward which your Discipline mentions no favour limited to the privacie of the care Nor yet doe all those give occasion for that which you take to shew
general your judicial Vsurpations are censur'd by the Authour of Episcopacie and Presbyterie considered Whereof he brings no particulars because he sayth no bodie can be ignorant that hath look'd into the knowen stories of this last age Some what to this purpose is in him that writ the Trojan Horse… unbowelled K. Iames's Declaration against you in the case of the Aberdene Ministers is in print Beside many other of this nature that I have not seen or doe not thinke on Where Master Baylie hath slept out all this noyse J can not guesse if above ground So that a lasse the Curtisan Bishops may pasle away unquaestion'd with a few innocent prohibitions in their pockets when the Traverse is draw'n and the Palliard Presbyters discovered in multitudes at the businesse heaping up such loades of repeales and protestations as crush all iniquitie into scandal make Civile Courts Parliaments Councel and King responsable for their sentences to the Synods The next injurie against Masters and Mistresses of families as it stands in your discipline not as you subtilie yet vainlie advantage it is criminal at least so farre as it is a transgression of Saint Pauls rule which requires all things to be done euschemonoos cata taxin decentlie and in order 1. Cor. 14. 50. Whereas for them to be brought to such a publike account who at all other times without personal exception are constituted instructours of their children and servants is not eushemonoot it caries litle decencie with it it too much discountenanceth their authoritie it levels their natural and politike Dominion for the time nor have those different lines as they are draw'n in your Discipline such a just symmetrie as to produce an handsome feature of one person It is not cata taxin taâ—…e it in what sense you will no man will say there is a due order observed nor any such praescription in Christs Holy Catholike Church The same Apostle that gave particular directions in the case made no canon for this An antecedent examination he appointed but the Ancients interpret it more of the will and affection then the understanding mind Or â—…f he meant it of both he made every man judge of himselfe as you doe when he is praesent at the ministration of baptisme that had before renderd a reason of his sayth to the Church neither Presbyter and inquisitour of course nor parishoner a witnesse of his unworthinesse and ignorance Ourh heteros ton hetecon…all ' aâ—…tos beauton sayth Oecumenius which put Cajetan upon the thought that confession was not at this time required for which he is taken up by Catharinus And Chrysostom referres us to a text in St. Pauls second epistle which tells us what discoverie may put the examination to an end Examine your selves whether ye be in the sayth Omnem prolationem quaerendi inveniendi credendo fixisti hunc tibi modum statuit sructusipse quaerendi is intended I beleeve as a glosse upon it by Tertullian So that the knowledge how to pray was no praerequisite of St. Pauls Nor can we heare from him that the ignorance of other your disciplinarian articles exclude a man more from the Sacrament of the Lords supper then from the communion of Saints Christianitie he professeth in his Creed Beside 't is easie to conceive what discouragement it brings upon such good Christians as hunger and thirst after this spiritual nourishment of their soules and how much it derogates from that reverence Antiquitie render'd to this Sacrament and the high degree of necessitie they held often to participate hereof by such clauses as this All Ministers must be admonished to be more carefull to instruct the ignorant then readie to serve their appetite and to use more sharpe examination then indulgence in admitting c. Which hath a different sound from the earnest crie of the Euangelical Prophet Isai 55. 1. and the free invitation made by the High Priest of our profession in the Gospell S. Luk. 14 you accounting profanelie the losse hereof no more then the misse of a meale and the disappointment no other then depriving an hungrie appetite of a diner Our Fathers of old were otherwise minded and excommunicated those that were peevishlie averse not those that being engag'd in no penance humblie desir'd the benefit hereof Aposlrephomenous tea metalephin tes cucharistias cata fina ataxian toutous apobletons ginesthaites ecclestas was part of a canen at the Councel of Antioch A. 341. I could adde That you declare not what may passe among you in the Master and Mistresses answers for the summe of the law what for the knowledge wherein their rightcousnesse stands without which you say they ought not to be admitted So that the sharpnesse of your examen and acceptance of their answer being arbitrarie much roome is left for private spleen antipathie and passion no justifiable causes of separation from this communitie of Christians and therefore made the ground of enquirie and cognizance in every halfe yeares Synod by the Nicene Father that such partialitie might not be tolerated in the Bishops But whereas you excommunicate the parent and Masters for negligence when their children and servants are suffered to continue in wilfultignorance Why not aswell the God Fathers and Pastours whose subsidiarie care should not onelie be restaurative but praeventive Why not such aged women as are not teachers of goodthings That the yong women be sober love their husbands and children c. Tit. 2 3 Why not all those in whom the word of Christ should dwell richlie in all wisdome and they teach and admonish one another Col. 3. 16. Which being a like duties of the Text alike require your inspection nor doth it appeare any more that you are left to a libertie of discrimination in your censure then that for any of these defaults you may exercise it at all Your familie visitations if sincerelie intended for the inspection of maners and conversations is commendable if done with the spirit of discretion moderation meeknesse When this was practiz'd by the most conscientious Priests of the Episcopal partie your knowledge whereof to denie by oath would looke litle beter then perjurie it was calumniated by many of your brood for gadding and gossiping defam'd by some for more sinfull conversing And when the generalitie of them the Episcopal Clergie remitted the frequencie of preaching the studie for which they found inconsistent with this more necessarie more beneficial catechizing the people it was nicknam'd suppressing the word And when at such times as the sacramental solemnities they entred into any private spiritual communication though advised by the Church they were put to purge themselves from the imputation of Poperie in practizing auricular confession and injunction of penance Your order and practice is to keep off from the holie Table not such onelie as conjunctive are grosselic and willfulle but divisive intoo strict a sense grosselie or willfullie ignorant Touching which allthough
onelie of the other title supreme head and accept his explication of it which yeilding you in your contracted sense that might securetie afford him more capital priviledges without encroachment upon Christ or his Holie Curch supreme Governer takes in what your Presbyterie will never grant him all power imperative Legislative judicial coactive all but functional imediate and proper to the ordination or office of the Minister which for ought J know if he finde an internal call 〈◊〉 a supposition drawing neare a possibilitie then likelihood and assurance to have a double portion of Gods gracious power and assistance in both administrations he not onelie may but must exercise as did Moses and Melchisedech saving that without a divine institution in this spiritual function his supremacie exempts him not from submitting his head under the hands of holie Church and taking our Saviours commission with the benediction from her month That Scotish Presbyterie is a Papacie the Bishop requires not to be granted upon his word but to be taken before Publike notaries upon your owne the political part whereof consists in the civile primacie which at least by reduction you very considentlie assume The Bishops contradiction which is searce so much as verbal will be easilie reconciled by the words of the oath which he reflects on and his argument good against you untill without reserves limitations or distinctions you simplie acknowledge the King supreme over all persons in all causes which would be a contradiction to this clause in your booke of Discipline The poâ—…er Ecclesiastical stoweth immediatelie from God and the Mediatour Iesus Christ and is spiritual not having a temporal head in the earth but onelie Christ the onelie spiritual King and Governer of his Kirke Lasthe No Presbâ—…terian is there in Scotland but counts it sacriledge to give the King what belongeth unto the Church And whatsoeu'rit is they quit in Ecclesiastike causes is not unto the King but to King and Parliament and the power in both when it informes an Act or statute call'd but accessorie by the Aderdene Assemblers and that we may no longer doubt whom they account supreme dutie and subjection from the Prime which though spoken by them but of their meeting must be meant of all causes consultable in their Synods and is as sensibie a truth as words without ambiguitie can render it Our of all which hath been sayd it must necessarilie follow that your Covenant hath all the good qualities computed which needs no arithmetical proofe by weight or measure the praemises over being coextended with and counterpoiz'd by the conclusion What you rathlie if not praesumtuouslie pronounce of the Bishops judgement doth but vilisie your owne Qui citò deliberant sacile pronunâ—…iant Had you brought a judgement to the contrarie of any learned Casuist to whom his Lordship appeales or any Divine of note in Europe which he calls for your answer had been somewhat more serious and solide But here your oracles of learning are all silent We sinde it not avowed by your especial brethren of Holland and France by no approbatorie suftrages of Leyden and â—…trecht…Omnium flagitiosorum aâ—…que facinorosorum circum se tanquant stipatorum catevâ—… habet A guard is hath but a blake one such as Catilines league and how can it have beter wherein is sworne a conspiracie as bad The Bishops following vapours meeting with no suneshine of law or reason to dissipate them will not so vanish upon a litle blast of your breath but that they 'll returne in showers of confusion upon your head Your secret will to asteribe good intentions to the King hath by some of your packe been very straâ—…gelie revealed in their expressions touching Kings whoss very nature they have declared originallie antipathetical to Christ. This Didoclave avowes as planilie as he can And when objected by His Grace of Saint Andrewes with your proverbial yet mystical appendix of their obligation to the Creatuor not to Christ the Redecmer for their crownes is so slovenlie answered by Philadelphs Vindicatour as any man may reade your good wil in his words measure the sense of your Synods by his lines your good opiniâ—…n of the intentions of K. Charles 1. Beside what you imputed to his Praelates may be guested by what sometimes in print you have assiribâ—… unto his person An unworthie fellow your Countrey man that comes runing in hast with the message of your good meaning in his mouth sayth His infamous Barbarous intentions were executed by â—…eathing his sword in the bowels of his people And this not onctic himselve not impeding conniving at and giving full Commission for in Scotland and Ireland but in England looking upon with much delight while it was done And that so faire were negotiations and treaties from retracting him that it was in publike declared he sayth not byany Praelatical partie that he would never defist from this enterprise of persecuting Church and Commonwealthso long as he had power to pursue it Concerning the good intentions of Charles the second beside what jealousies you expresse by the scrupulous conditions in your proclaemation your Haghe papers are instancies of your willing asseriptions which call his answer strange whereby the distance is made greater then before and farre lesse offered for religion the Covenant and the lawes and liberties of your Kingdome then was by his Royal Father even at that time when the difference between him and you was greatest…So that it will constraine you in such an extremitie to doe what is incumbent to you I have allreadie told you the usual consequences of that cursed word and what good intentions you are in hand with when you utter it Tyrannie and poperie are twinnes engendred between your jealousie malice to which Independencâ—…e is more likelie to be the midwife then Praelacie and if by that hand they get deliverie at last will besure to pay Presbytesie their dutie when they can speake The painted declarations caries beter sense to them that rightlie understand them which I am sure is not prajudicâ—…d by any paraphrase of the Bishops Though agere pocniuntiam Be good councel where well placed ' yet egisse non paniundum requires it not If the conâ—…ience of the Court continue to be managed by the principles of the Prâ—…lates the hearts of the mist understanding shall if they will be satisfied withall moral and siducial assurance to have that Religion praeserved which shall by reason and authoritie aswell divine as humane in every particular justifie it selse against all right or left handed sects and factions guiltie of superstition or prosanâ—…sse those lawes observed which appeare now to have constituted the most indifferent mnoâ—…uous government in the world Whereas if the conscience of the Court be deluded once into Presbyters hands it will need none of our angrie wishes to be made sensible of the change when to be sure it must take religion like a desperate patient from a sullen physician
the verie civil Law of Scotland to appeale from the general assembly According to the Scots order practise the King in person or else by his high Commissioner sits al 's usually in the generall assembly as in Parliament But though it were not so yet an appeale from a generall assembly to be discussed in a Court of delegats were unbeseeming and unreasonable the one Court consisting of above two hundred all chosen men the best and most able of the Kingdome the other but of two or three often of very small either abilities or integrity who yet may be more fitt to decerne in an Ecclesiastick cause then a single Bishop over his officiall the ordinary trusted in all acts of jurisdiction for the whole dioces But the Scots way of managing Ecclesiastick causes is a great deale more just safe and Satisfactory to any rationall man then that old popish order of the English where all the spirituall jurisdiction of the whole dioces was in the hand of one mercenary officiall without all reliefe from his sentence except by an appeale as of old to the pope and his delegats so therafter to the King though never to be cognosced-upon by himselfe but as it was of old by two or three delegats the weakest of all courts often for the quality and ever for the number of the judges Two instances are brought by the Warner to prove the Church of Scotlands stopping of appeals from the generall Assembly to the King the cases of Montgomery and Adamson if the causes and events of the named cases had been wel knowne to the Warner as he made this chapter disproportionally short so readily he might have deleted it al together Both these men were infamous not only in their Ministeriall charges but in their life conversation both became so insolent that contrary to the established order of the Church Kingdome being suborned by wicked statesmen who in that day of darknes had wel neer brought ruine both to King and country would needs take upon them the office of Arch-Bishops While the assembly was in proces with them for their manifold and high misdeameanors the King was moved by them and their evill patrons to shew his high displeasure against the assemblyes of the Church they for his Majesties satisfaction sent their Commissioners and had many conferences whereby the pride and contempt of these prelats did so encrease that at last they drew the sentence of excommunication upon their own heads the King after some time did acknowledge the equity of the Church proceedings and professed his contentment their with both these unhappy men were brought to a humble confession of their crimes and such signes of repentance that both after a renunciation of their titulare Bishopriks were readmitted to the function of the ministry which they had deserted Never any other before or after in Scotland did appeale from the generall assembly to the King the late excommunicat praelats in their declinatour against the assembly of Glasgow did not appeale as I remember to the King but to another generall assembly to bee constitute according to their own Popish and Tyrannical principles CHAP. IV. Faulty Ministers in Scotland are lesse exempted from punishment then any other men THE Warner in his fourth Chapter offers to prove that the Scottish discipline doth exempt Ministers from punishment for any treason or sedition they can act in their pulpits Ans. This challenge is like the rest very false The rules of the Church discipline in Scotland obliges Churchmen to bee subject to punishment not only for every fault for which any other man is lyable to censure but ordaines them to bee punished for sundrie things which in other men are not at all questionable and what ever is censurable in any they appoint it to be much more so in a Minister It is very untrue that the pulpits in Scotland are Sanctuaries for any crime much lesse for the grievous crimes of sedition and treason Let the Warner remember how short a time it is since an Episcopall chayre or a canonicall coate did priviledge in England and Ireland from all censure either of Church or State great numbers who were notoriously knowne to be guilty of the foulest crimes Was ever the Warners companion Bishop Aderton challenged for his Sodomy so long as their commune patrone of Canterbury did rule the court did the warner never heare of a prelate very sibb to Doctour Bramble who to this day was never called to any account for flagrant scandals of such crimes as in Scotland are punishable by the gallows the Warner doth not well to insist upon the Scots Clergie exempting themselfe from civill punishments no where in the world are Churchmen more free of crimes deserving civil cognisance then in Scotland and if the ears and eyes of the world may be trusted the popish clergy this day in Italy and Spaine are not so challengeable as the praelaticall divines in England and Ireland lately were for many grosse misdemeanors But why does the Warners anger run out so farre as to the preachers in Holland is it because he knoweth the Church disciplin in Holland to be really the same with that he oppugnes in the Scots and that all the reformed Churches doejoyne cordially with Scotland in their rejection of Episcopacy is this a ground for him to slander our Brethren of Holland Is it charity for him a stranger to publish to the world in print that the ministers in Holland are seditious oratours and that they saucily controll the Magistrats in their pulpits Their crime seemes to be that for the love of Christ their master they are zealous in their doctrin to presse upon the Magistrat as well as upon the people the true practise of piety the sanctification of the sabbath day the suppression of heresy and shisme and repentance for the sins of the time place wherein they live This 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 Kingdomes the streame of their sermons while the enjoyed the pulpit was to encourage to superstition and contempt of piety to sing asleepe by their ungracious way all that gave eare unto them The man is impatien t 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 Magistrats against them as it was his and his Brethrens custome to stirre up the Magistrats of Britan and Ireland to imprison banish and heavily vex the most zealous servants of God only for their opposition to the praelats profanity and errours The Warner I hope has not yet forgotten how Doctor Bramble and his neighbour Lesly of Down did cast out of the Ministry and made flee out of the Kingdome men most eminent for zeale piety and learning who in a short time had