imposing the Service-book and book of Canons c. the Lord in Mercy remembered His people and surprised them with a sudden unexpected Deliverance by very despicable means even the opposition of a few weak women at the beginning of that Contest which ere it was quashed made the Tyrant tumble headless off his throne The zeal against the English popish Ceremonies obtruded on Edinburgh did first inflame some feminine hearts to witness their detestation of them but afterwards was followed out with more Masculine fervor accosting King Council with Petitions Remonstrances Protestations Testimonies against the Innovations and resolving upon a mutual Conjunction to defend Religion Lives Liberties against all that would innovate or invade them To fortifie which and conciliate the favour both of God man in the Resolution All the Lovers of God and friends to the Liberty of the Nation did solemnly Renew the National Covenant wherein they were signally countenanced of the Lord vvhich though in it self obliging to the Condemnation of Prelatical Hierarchie and clearly enough confirming Presbyterial Government yet they ingaged into it vvith an inlargment to suspend the practice of Novations already introduced and the approbation of the Corruptions of the present Government vvith the late places povver of Church men till they be tried in a free General Assembly Which vvas obtaineâ— that same year and indicted at Glasgow and there not vvith standing all the opposition that the Kings Commissioner could make by Protestations Proclamations to dissolve it the six preceeding Assemblies establishing Prelacy vvere annulled The Service-Book and high Commission vvere condemned All the Bishops vvere deposed and their Government declared to be abjured in that National Covenant though many had through the Commissioners persvvasions subscribed it in another sense vvithout that application As also the five Articles of Perth vvere there discovered to have been inconsistent vvith that Covenant Confession and the Civil places povver of Church men vvere disproved rejected on the other hand Presbyterial Government vvas Justified Approved and an Act vvas passed for their keeping yearly General Assemblies This was a bold begining into which they were animated with more than humane resolution against more than humane opposition Hell as well as the powers of the earth being set against them But when the Lord gave the Call they considered not their oun deadness nor were daunted with Discouragments nor staggered at the promise through unbelief but gave Glory to God out braving all difficulties Which in the following year were much increased by the Prelats and their Popish Partakers rendevouzing their forces under the Kings Personal Standart and menacing nothing but misery to the zealous Covenanters yet when they found them prepared to resist were forced to yeeld to a Pacification concluding that an Assembly Parliament should be held for healing all grievances of Church and State. In which Assembly at Edinburgh the Covenant is ratified subscribed by the Earle of Traquair Commissioner and enjoined to be subscribed by the body of the whole Land with an explication expressly condemning the five Articles of Perth the Government of Bishops the Civil places power of Church men But the sons of Belial cannot be taken with hands nor bound with bonds of faith humanity or honour For in the year following King Prelats with their Popish Abettors go to arms again but were fain to accommodate the matter by a new Pacification whereby all Civil Religious Liberties were ratified And in the folowing year 1641 by Lawes Oaths Promises subscriptions of King Parliament fully confirmed The King Charles the I. being present and consenting to all though in the mean time he was treacherously encouraging the Irish murderers who by his Authority made a Massacre of many thousand Innocent Protestants in Ireland But in Scotland things vvent vvell the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus vvas greatly advanced the Gospel flourished and the Glory of the Lord did shine upon us vvith such a splendor that it avvaked England and animated the Lords People there then groaning under those Grievances from vvhich Scotland vvas delivered to aspire to the like Reformation For advice in vvhich because though all aggreed to cast off the yoke of Prelacy yet sundry forms of Church Government vvere projected to be set up in the room thereof chiefly the Independent order determining all Acts of Church Government as Election ordination and deposition of officers vvith Admission Excommunication Absolution of members to be done decided by the voices of every Particular Congregation vvithout any Authoritative Concurrence or interposition of any other condemning all imperative decisive povver of Classes c. as a meer usurpation Therefore the Brethren in England vvrote to the Assembly then fitting at Edinburgh vvho gave them ansvver That they vvere grieved that any of the Godly should be found not aggreeing vvith other Reformed Churches in point of Government as well as Doctrine and that it was to be feared where the edge of Discipline Government is different the Doctrine Worship shall not long continue the same without change That the Government of the Church by Compound Presbytries Synods is a help strength and not a hinderance to particular Congregations Elderships in all the parts of Government and are not an extrinsecal Power set over Particular Churches but the intrinsecal power where with Christ hath invested His Officers who may not exercise it Independently but with subordination unto Presbytries c. Which as they are Representative of particular Churches conjoined together in one under their Government so their determination when they proceed orderly whether in Causes common to all or brought before them by reference in case of aberration is to the several Congregations Authoritative not Consultatory only And this subordination is not only warranted by the light of nature but grounded upon the Word of God and conforme to the Pattern of the Primitive Apostolick Church for the Preservation of verity unity against Schisme Heresie Tyrannie which is the fruit of this Government where soever it hath place So from henceforth the Assembly did incessantly urge uniformity in Reformation with their Brethren in England as the chiefest of their Desires Prayers Cares And in the year 1643. prevailed so far that the English Parliament did first desire that the two Nations might be strictly united for their mutual defence against the Papists Prelatical faction and their Adherents in both Kingdoms and not to lay down Armes till these implacable Enemies should be brought in subjection and did instantly urge for the help assistance from Scotland Which being sent did return with an Olive branch of Peace and not without some beginings of a Reformation in England And afterwards a bloody War begining between the King Parliament with great success on the Kings side whence the Papists at the time got great advantage witness the cessation of Armes concluded in Ireland
he is not nor can not be our Crouned King and therefore we must not be his Liege subjects ouning fealty obedience to him For according to the National Covenant as all Lieges are to maintain the Kings Authority consistent with the subjects Liberties which if they be innovated or prejudged such Confusion would ensue as this realme could be no more a free Monarchy So for the Preservation of true Religion Lawes Liberties of this Kingdom it is statute by the 8 Act. Parl. 1 repeated in the 99 Act. Parl. 7. ratified in the 23. Act. Parl. 11. and 114 Act. Parl. 12. of King Iames 6. and 4 Act of K. Charles 1. that all Kings Princes â— at their coronation reception of their Princely Authority shall make their faithful Promise by their solemn Oath in the presence of the Eternal God That enduring the whole time of their lives they shall serve the same Eternal God to the utter-most of their power according as He hath required in His most holy Word contained in the Old new Testaments and according to the same Word shall maintain the true Religion of Christ Jesus the preaching of His holy Word the due right Ministration of the Sacraments now received Preached within this realme according to the Confession of faith immediatly preceding and shall abolish gainstand all false religion contrary to the same And shall rule the people committed to their charge according to the will Command of God revealed in His fore-said Word and according to the Laudable Lawes Constitutions received in this realme no wayes repugnant to the said Will of the Eternal God And shal procure to the uttermost of their power to the Kirk of God whole Christian people true perfect peace in all time coming And that they shall be careful to root out of their Empire all Hereticks Enemies to the true Worship of God who shall be convicted by the true Kirk of God of the foresaid Crimes Now this Coronation Oath he hath not taken he will not he cannot take and therefore cannot be our Crouned King according to Law. As there be also many other Lawes incapacitating his admission to the Croun being a Professed Papist and no Law for it at all but one of his oun making by a Pacqued Cabal of his oun Complices a Parliament wherein himself presided as Commissioner enacting matterially his succession and rescinding all these Ancient Lawes which Act of Succession which is all the legal right he can pretend to in Scotland because it cannot be justified therefore his right cannot be ouned which is founded upon the subversion of our Ancient Lawes But as he cannot be our Legally Crouned King so he is not so much as formally Crouned And therfore before his Inauguration whatever right to be King whom the Representatives may admit to the Government he may pretend to by hereditary Succession yet he cannot formally bemade King till the people make a Compact with him upon termes for the safety of their dearest nearst Liberties even though he were not disabled by Law. He might as they say pretend to some jus ad rem but he could have no jus in re The Kings of Scotland while uncrouned can exerce no Royal Government for the Coronation in Concret according to the substance of the Act is no Ceremonie as they who make Conscience it self but a Ceremony call it nor an accidental ingredient in the Constitution of a King but as it is distinctive so it is Constitutive it distinguished Saul from all Israel and made him from no King to be a King it is dative not only Declarative it puts some honour upon him that he had not before 3. Though the Lawes should not strike against his Coronation And though the Representatives Legally should take the same measures with him that they took with his brother and admit him upon the termes of the Covenant yet after such doleful experiences of such transactions with these Sons of Belial who must not be taken with hands nor by the hand it were hard to trust or entrust them with the Government even though they should make the fairest Professions Since they whose Principle is to keep no faith to Hereticks as they call us and who will be as absolute in their promises as they are in their power have deservedly forefeited all Credit Trust with honest men so that none could rationally refer the determination of a half Croun reckoning to any of them far less oune them their Government in the Managment of the weightiest affairs of State since their Male-versations are written in such bloody Characters as he that runs may read them At least it were wisdom is our duty to take our Measures from the General Assemblies Procedure with the other Brother before his admission to the Government to suspend our Allegiance to him until Authority be Legally devolved upon him and founded upon bounded by termes giving all security for Religion Liberty 12. As I said before wary Prudence in waving such an impertinent Ticklish Question cannot be condemned since what ever he may be in conscience no man in Law can be obliged so far to surrender the common Priviledge of all Mankind to give an account of all his inward thoughts which are alwise said to be free And as in nothing they are more various so in nothing they can be more violented than to have our opinion sentiments of the current Government extorted from us a declining of which Declaration of thoughts where no overt Act in project or practice can be proven against it cannot be Treason in any Law in the world So a Cautelous Answer in such a ticklish entrapping imposition cannot be censured in point of Lawfullnesse of expediency even though much be concedded to stop the Mouths of these bloody Butchers gaping greedily after the blood of the Answerer if he do not really oune but give them to understand he cannot approve of this Tyranny But as these poor faithful Witnesses who were helped to be most free have alwise been honoured with the most signal Countenance of the Lord in a happy issue of their Testimony So those that used their Prudentials most in seeking shifts to shâ—n severity and studying to satisfie these Inquisitors with their stretched Concessions were ordinarly more exposed to snares and found less satisfaction in their Sufferings even though they could say much to justify or at least extenuate their Shiftings I knew one who had proof of this who afterwards was ashamed of this kind of Prudence A short account of whose managing of Answers to this Question because it may conduce somewhat to the explication of it may here be hinted The question moved after the usual forme was Do ye onne the Authority of King Iames the 7 In answer to which he pleaded first for the immunity of his thoughts which he said were not subject to theirs or any Tribunal When this could
Lawless licence to oppress whom they please Then when they turn Tyrants and arrogate a Lawless Absoluteness and cross the Rules transgress the Bounds prescribed by Gods Law mans Law and make their oun lust a Law and execute the same arbitrarly They must be Resisted by force when a legal resistence cannot be had in defence of Religion and Liberty But all Princes are limited c. Ergo The Minor is proved Head. 2. And the Connexion may be thus confirmed in short That power which is not the Ordinance of God may be resisted But an absolute illimited power crossing the Rules and transgressing the bounds prescribed by Gods Law and mans is not the Ordinance of God Ergo it may be Resisted 8. Further from the Rule of Government it may be argued several wayes 1. That power which is contrary to Law evil Tyrannical can tye none to subjection but if it oblige to anything it tyes to Resistence But the power of a King against Law Religion and the Interests of the subjects is a power contrary to Law evil Tyrannical Ergo The Major is plain for Wickedness can tye no man but to resist it That power which is contrary to Law evil Tyrannical is Wickedness 2. That power and those Acts which neither King can exerce nor command nor others execute nor any obey must certainly be Resisted But such is the power and Acts that oppress the subjects and overturn Religion Liberty Ergo The Minor is evident from Scriptures condemning oppression violence both in them that command and in them that execute the same and also them that obey such wicked commands The Major is clear from Reason both because such power such Acts as cannot be commanded cannot be executed cannot be obeyed Lawfully are sinful wicked and because it cannot be a Magistratical power for that may alwayes be exerced executed Lawfully And what a man cannot command the resisting of that he cannot punish But acts of oppression against Law Religion Liberty a man cannot command Ergo the Resisting of these he cannot punish 3. That Government or Administration which is not subordinate to the Law Will of God who hath appointed it must be Resisted But that Government or Administration which undermines or overturnes Religion Liberty is not subordinate to the Law Will of God Ergo The Major is clear for nothing but what is the Ordinance of God subordinate to His Law Will is irresistible Rom. 13. 2. The Assumption is undenyable 9. From the Ends of Government which must be acknowledged by all to be the Glory of God and the Good of Mankind yea all that have been either wise or honest have alwayes held that Salus Populi est Suprema Lex The Arguments may run thus in short 1. That Doctrine which makes the Holy one to cross His oun ends in giving Governours must be absurd Unchristian as well as irrational But such is the Doctrine that makes all Kings Tyrants irresistible upon any pretence whatsoever Ergo The minor I prove That Doctrine which makes God intending His oun Glory the peoples good to give Governours both as Fathers to preserve and as Murderers to destroy them must make the Holy one to cross His oun ends for these are Contradictory But the Doctrine that makes all Kings Tyrants irresistible c. is such For by Office they are Fathers to preserve and by Office also they must be Murderers vested with such a power from God actu primo if they be irresistible when they do so seeing every power that is irresistible is the Ordinance of God. Hence also when a Blessing turns a Curse it is no more the Ordinance of God but to be resisted But when a King turns a Tyrant overturning Religion Liberty then a Blessing turns a Curse Ergo 2. Means are to be Resisted when they are not useful for but destructive to the ends they were appointed for But Governours overturning Religion Liberty are Means not useful for but destructive to the ends for which they were appointed Seeing then they are neither for the Glory of God nor the good of Mankind Ergo 3. If all powers Prerogatives of men are only means appointed for and should vaile unto the Supreme Law of the peoples Safety and all Laws be subordinate to and corroborative of this Law and when cross to it are eatenus null no Laws and all Law-formalities in Competition with it are to be laid aside and all Parliamentary priviledges must yeeld to this and King Parliament both conspiring have no power against it and no Soveraign power by virtue of any resignation from the people can comprize any Authority to act against it Then it is duty to obey this Supreme Law in Resisting all powers Prerogatives all Laws Law-formalities and all conspiracies whatsoever against this Supreme Law the Safety of the people But the former is true as was proven Head. 2. Ergo 4. That power which is obliged appointed to command rule Justly Religiously for the good of the people and is only set over them on these conditions and for that end cannot tye them to subjection without Resistence when the power is abused to destruction of Laws Religion and people But all power is so obliged appointed Therefore whensoever it is so abused it cannot tye people to subjection but rather oblige them to Rejection of it 10. From the Obedience required to Government It may be argued thus 1. If we may flee from Tyrants then we may Resist them But we may flee from Tyrants Ergo we may Resist them The Connexion I prove 1 If all grounds of Justice will warrand the one as well as the other then if the one be duty so is the other But the former is true For the same justice equity that warrands declining a Tyrants unjust violence by flight will warrand Resistence when flight will not do it The same Principle of self defence that makes flight duty when Resistence is not possible will aso make Resistence duty when flight is not possible The same Principle of Charity to Wives Children that makes flight Lawful when by Resistence they cannot avoid Tyranny will make Resistence duty when by flight they cannot evite it The same Principle of Conscience to keep Religion free that prompts to flight when Resistence will not save it will also prompt to Resist when flight is not practicable 2 If to flee from a just power when in Justice we are obnoxious to its sword be to resist the Ordinance of God and so sin then to flee from an unjust power must be also a Resisting of the abusing of it and so duty for the one is Resistence as the other but the difference of the power resisted makes the one Lawful the other not Again if Royal power may be resisted by interposing seas and miles why not also by interposing walls armes both is resistence
Generall Assembly under the pain of excomunication Hereby they were awakened animated to a more vigorous Prosecution of the establishment of the House of God in its due Government In pursuance whereof the Assemblies from that time untill the year 1581. Did with much painfulness faithfulness attend the work untill by perfecting of the Second Book of Discipline they compleated their work in the exact Model of Presbyterial Government in all its Courts Officers Which was Confirmed Covenanted to be kept inviolate in the National Covenant subscribed that year by the King his Court Council and afterwards by all ranks of People in the Land. Whence it may be doubted whether the impudence of the succeeding Prelats that denyed this or their perjury in breaking of it be greater This was but the first brush a brisker assault followes Wherein for the better establishment of Prelacy that what it wants of Divine right might be supplyed by the accession of humane Prerogative and not only Diocesan but also Erastian Prelacy might be set up to destroy Christs Kingdom advance Sathans the Earle of Arran his wicked Complices move the King contrary both to the Word Oath of God to usurp the prerogative of Jesus Christ and assume to himself a blasphemous Monster of Supremacy over all Persons in all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Civil But this also the faithful Servants of God did worthily valiantly resist and at the very first appearance of it gave in a Grievance to the King anno 1582. That he had taken upon him a spiritual Power which properly belongs to Christ as only King Head of the Church the Ministerie execution whereof is only given to such as bear office in the Ecclesiastical Government in the same so that in the Kings Person some men press to erect a new Popedome as though he could not be full King of this Commonwealth unless as well the spiritual as temporal Sword be put in his hand unless Christ be rest of His Authority and the two Jurisdictions confounded which God hath divided which directly tendeth to the wrack of all true Religion Which being presented by the Commissioners of the General Assembly the Earle of Arran asked with a frouning Countenance who dare subscribe these treasonable Articles Mr Andrew Melvin answered we dare will subscribe render our Lives in the Cause And afterward that same Assembly presented Articles shewing that seeing the spiritual Jurisdiction of the Church is granted by Christ and given only to them that by preaching teaching overseeing bear Office within the same to be exercised not by the injunctions of men but by the only Rule of Gods Word hereafter no other of whatsomever degree or under whatsomever pretence have any colour to ascribe or to take upon them any part thereof either in placing or displacing of Ministers without the Churches admission or in stopping the mouths of Preachers or puting them to silence or take upon them the judgment of tryal of Doctrine c. But in contempt contradiction to this and to prosecute exert this new usurped Power Mr Andrew Melvin was summoned before the secret Council for a Sermon of his applying his doctrine to the Times Corruptions whereupon he gave in his declinature against them as incompetent Judges and told them they were too bold in a Constitute Christian Church to pass by the Pastors Prophets Doctors and to take upon them to judge the Doctrine and to control the Ambassadors of a Greater then was there which they neither ought nor can do There are saith he Loosing a litle Hebrew Bible from his girdle my Instructions Warrant see if any of you can control me that I have past my injunctions For this he was decerned to be warded in the Castle of Edinbrugh but he being informed that if he entered in ward he would not be released unless it were for the scaffold he conveyed himself secretly out of the Countrey Hereafter when the Parliament 1584. had enacted this Supremacy and submission to Prelacy to be subscribed by all Ministers the faithful first directed Mr David Lindsey to the King desiring that nothing be done in Parliament prejudicial to the Churches Liberty who got the Prison of Blackness for his Pains And then when they could not get access for shut doors to Protest before the Parliament yet when the Acts were proclaimed at the Cross of Edinburgh they took publick Documents in name of the Church of Scotland though they were but two that they protested against the said Acts and fled to England leaving behind them reasons that moved them to do so And Mr Iames Melvin wrote against the subscribers at that time very pertinently Proving first that they had not only set up a new Pope so become Traitors to Christ and condiscended to that chief error of Papistrie whereupon all the rest depend but further in so doing they had granted more to the King than ever the Popes of Rome peaceably obtained c. And in the end as for those that Lamented their oun weakness feebleness he adviseth them to remove the publick slander by going boldly to the King Lords and shew them how they had fallen through weakness but by Gods power are risen again and there by publick note witness taken free themselves from that subscription and to will the same to be delete renouncing detesting it plainly and thereafter publickly in their Sermons and by their Declaration retractation in writ presented to the faithful manifest the same let them do with stipend benefice Life it self what they list This I insert because this Counsel is now condemned and when poor people offended with Ministers subscriptions of Bonds other Complyances desire acknowledgments of the offence they reject it as an impertinent imposition and plead they are not obliged to manifest any retractation but to an Ecclesiastical Judicatory To which I shall say nothing here but this is no novelty After this it is known what bickerings the faithful witnesses of Christ had in their Conflicts with this supremacy upon the account of Mr David Blacks Declinature which they both advised him to approved when he gave it in against the King Conncil as Judges of his Doctrine And the Commissioners of the General Assembly ordained all to deal mightily with the power of the word against the Councils encroachments for which they were charged to depart forth of Edinburgh After which he added a second Declinature Declaring there are two Jurisdictions in this realme the one Spiritual the other Civil the one respecting the Conscience the other externals c. Therefore in so far as he was one of the spiritual office-bearers and had discharged his spiritual Calling in some measure of grace sincerity should not nor could not be Lawfully judged for preaching and applying the word by any Civil power he being an Ambassadour Messenger of the Lord Jesus having his Commission from
the King of Kings and all his instructions set doun limited in the book of God that cannot be extended abridged or altered by any mortal wight King or Emperour And seeing he was sent to all sorts his Commission discharge of it should not nor cannot be Lawfuly judged by them to whom he was sent they being sheep not Pastors to be judged by the Word and â—â—t to be judges thereof in a judicial way The Interloquutor being past against him for this the Brethren thought it duty that the Doctrine of the Preachers should be directed against the said Interloquutor as against a strong mighty hold set up against the Lord Jesus and the freedom of the Gospel and praised God for the force unity of the Spirit that was among themselves And being charged to depart out of Toun they leave a faithful Declaration at Large shewing how the Liberties of the Church were invaded robbed But all this was nothing in comparison of their wrestlings for the Royalties of their Princely Master and Priviledges of His Kingdom against that Tyrants Insolencies after he obtained he Croun of England For then he would not suffer the Church to indict her oun Assemblies And when the faithful thought themselves obliged to counteract his Encroachments and therefore conveened in an Assembly at Aberdeen anno 1605. they were forced to dissolve and thereafter the most eminent of the Ministers there assembled were transported Prisoners to Black-ness Whence being cited befor the Council they decline their Judicatory And one of their Brethren Mr Robert Youngson who had formerly succumbed being moved in Conscience returned and when the rest were standing before the Council desired to be heard and acknowledged his fault and therefore howbeit not summoned by the Lords was charged by the Living God and compelled to compear that day to justifie that Assembly to the great astonishment of the Lords and comfort of His brethren He subscribed the Declinature with the rest And for this they were arraigned and condemned as guilty of Treason and banished Before the execution of which sentence Mr Welsh wrote to the Lady Fleming to this effect What am I that He should first have called me and then constituted me a Minister of glad things of the Gospel of Salvation these fifteen years already and now last of all to be a sufferer for His Cause Kingdom To witness that good Confession that Jesus Christ is the King of Saints and that His Church is a most free Kingdom yea as free as any Kingdom under Heaven not only to convocate hold keep her Meetings Conventions Assemblies But also to judge of all her affairs in all her Meetings Conventions among His members and Subjects These two points 1 That Christ is the Head of His Church 2 That she is free in her Government from all other jurisdiction except Christs are the special Cause of our imprisonment being now convict as Traitors for maintaining thereof We have now been waiting with joyfulness to give the last Testimonie of our blood in confirmation thereof If it would please our God to be so favourable as to honour us with that dignity After this the King resolving by Parliament to advance the estate of Bishops again as in the time of Popery without Cautions as before and further to establish not only that Antichristian Hierarchie but an Erastian Supremacy The faithful Ministers of Christ thought themselves bound in Conscience to protest And accordingly they offered a faithful Protestation to the Parliament Iulij 1606. obtesting that they would reserve into the Lords own hands that Glory which He will communicate neither with man nor Angel to wit to prescribe from His holy Mountain a Lively pattern according to which His oun Tabernacle should be formed Remembring alwise that there is no absolute undoubted Anthority in this world except the soveraigne Authority of Christ the King to vvhom it belongeth as properly to rule the Church according to the good pleasure of His oun vvill as it belongeth to Him to save His Church by the Merit of His oun Sufferings All other anthority is so intrenched vvithin the marches of Divine Command that the least overpassing of the bounds set by God Himself bring men under the fearful expectation of Temporal Eternal judgements If ye should authorize Bishops ye should bring into the Church the ordinance of man vvhich experience hath found to have been the ground of that Antichristian Hierarchie vvhich mounted up on the steps of Bishops preeminence until that man of sin came forth as the ripe fruit of mans vvisedome vvhom God shall consume vvith the breath of His oun mouth Let the svvord of God pierce that belly vvhich brought forth such a monster And let the staff of God crush that egg vvhich hath hatched such a Cockatrice And let not only that Roman Antichrist be thrown down from the high bench of his usurped authority but also let all the steps whereby he mounted up to that unlawful preeminence be cut down utterly abolished in this Land And beware to strive against God with an open displayed banner by building up again the walls of Iericho which the Lord hath not only cast down but also hath laid them under an horrible Interdiction execration so that the building of them again must needs stand to greater charges to the builders then the reedifying of Iericho to Hiel the Bethelite in the days of Ahab Yet notwithstanding of all opposition Prelacy was again restored in Parliament And to bring all to a Complyance with the same Presbytries Synods universally charged under highest pains to admit a constant Moderator without change which many refused resolutely as being the first step of Prelacy Upon this followed a great Persecution of the faithful for their Nonconformity managed by that Mongrel Monstrous kind of Court made up of Clergy-men Statesmen called the High Commission Court erected anno 1610. whereby many honest men were put violently from their charges habitations the Generality were involved in a great fearful Defection But the Copestone of the wickedness of that Period was the Ratification of the five Articles of Perth kneeling at the Communion private Communion to be given to the sick private Baptisme and Confirmation of Children by the Bishop and observation of festival dayes Which were much opposed testified against by the faithful from their first hatching anno 1618. to the year 1621. when they were ratified in Parliament at what time they were also witnessed against from Heaven by extraordinary Lightenings Tempest And against this the Testimony of the faithful continued till the Revolution anno 1638. Here we see how the Cause was stated in this Period and may gather also wherein it aggress and how far it differs from the present Testimony now suffered for under all rage reproach I. The matter of the Testimony was one with that that we are suffering for against Popery Prelacy Supremacy
now for refusing such compelled imposed Devotion to pray or praise for the King poor people are much condemned I know it is alleadged that these faithful sufferers in those days were not so strict as they are now in submitting to unjust Sentences and obeying keeping their Confinements I shall grant there was much of this and much might be tollerate in their circumstances when the Court procedure against them was not so illegal their Authority was not so Tyrannical nor so necessary to be disouned and they were so stated that they were afrayed to take guilt upon them in making their escapes whereas it is not so with us Yet we find very faithful men broke their Confinements As Mr Iohn Murray confined about Dumfreis perceiving there was no end of the Bishops malice and that he would be in no worse case than he was he resolved without Licence either of King or Council to transport himself So did also Mr Robert Bruce III. For resistence of Superior Powers we have in this Period first the practice of some Noblemen an Ruthven anno 1582. who took the King and seised on that Arrant Traitor Enemy to the Church Countrey the Earle of Arran declaring to the world the Causes of it the Kings Correspondence with Papists his usurping the Supremacy over the Church and oppressing the Ministers all by means of his wicked Councellors whom therefore they removed from him The King himself emitted a Declaration allowing this deed The General Assembly approved of it and perswaded to a Concurrence with it and nothing was wanting to ratifie it as a most Lawfull laudable action At length the Fox escapes changes all and retracts his former Declaration The Lords again rallie and interprise the taking of the Castle of Stirling and gain it but afterward surrender it after which the Earle of Gowrie is executed and Ministers are commanded to retract the Approbation of Ruthven business but they refused and many were forced to flee to England and the Lords were banished But in the year 1585. they return with more success and take the Castle of Stirling The cowardly King does again acknowledge justify their Enterprise that they needed no Apology of words Weapons had spoken well enough and gotten them audience to clear their own Cause but his after carriage declared him as crafty false as he was cowardly fearful Again we have the advice of the General Assembly for resisting when the Ministers were troubled upon Mr Blacks bussiness and there was an intention to pull them out of their Pulpits They advised them to stand to the discharge of their Calling if their flocks would save them from violence and yet this violence was expected from the King and his Emissaries As to that point then there can be no dispute IV. There was litle occasion for the Question about the Kings Authority in this Period but generally all acknowledged it because they were not sensible of his usurpation and his cowardice made him incapable of attempting any thing that might raise commotions in civil things Yet we remark that whatsoever Authority he usurped beyond his sphere that was disouned declined by all the Faithful as the Supremacy Next that they resented represented very harshly any aspiring to Absoluteness as Mr Andrew Melvin could give it no better name nor intertain no better notion of it then to terme it The bloodie Guillie as he inveighs against it in the Assembly 1582. And next in this same Period we have a very good description of that Authority which the King himself allowes not to be ouned which out of a Kings mouth abundantly justifies the disouning of the present Tyrannie This same King Iames in a speech to the Parliament in the year 1609. sayth A King degenerateth into a Tyrant when he leaveth to rule by 〈◊〉 much more when he beginneth to invade his Subjects Persons Rights Liberties to set up an Arbitrary Power impose unlawful taxes raise forces make War upon his Subjects to pillage plunder wast and spoil his Kingdoms PERIOD V. Containing the Testimony for the last Reformation from Prelacy in all its steps from the year 1638 to 1660. THe following Period from the year 1638. to 1660 continues advances the Testimony to the greatest hight of Purity Power that either this Church or any other did ever arrive unto with a Gradation Succession Complication of wonders of Divine Wisdom Power Justice Mercy signally singularly ouning sealing it to the Confusion of His Enemies Comfort of His People Conviction of Indifferent Neutrals and Consternation of All. Now after a long winter and night of Deadness Darkness the sun returns with an amiable approach of Light Life now the winter was past the rain was over gone the flowers appear on the earth and the time of singing of birds is come and the voice of the turtle is heard in our Land. Now the second time the Testimony comes to be managed in an Active manner as before it was Passive As the one hath been alwayes observed to follow interchangably upon the other especially in Scotland and the Last alwayes the Greatest which gives ground to hope though it be now our turn to suffer that when the summer comes again after this winter and the day after this night the next Active Testimony shall be more notable than any that went before The matter of the Testimony was the same as before for the Concerns of Christs Kingly Prerogative but with some more increase as to its opposites for these grew successively in every Period the Last alwayes including all that went before The first Period had Gentilisme principally to deal with the second Poperie The third Poperie Tyrannie the fourth Prelacy Supremacy this fifth hath all together and Sectarianisme also to contend against The former had alwayes the opposites on one hand but this hath them in extremes on both hands both fighting against one another and both fighting together against the Church of Scotland and she against both till at length one of her opposites prevailed viz. the Secterian Party and that prevailing brought in the other to wit the Malignant which now domineers over all together Wherefore because this Period is in it self of so great importance the Revolutions therein emergent so eminent the Reformation therein prosecuted wanting litle of its perfect Complement the Deformation succeeding in its Deviation from the Pattern being so destructive to the end it may be seen from whence we have fallen and whether or not the present reproached Sufferers have lost or left their ground we must give a short deduction of the Rise Progress End of the Contendings of that Period In the midst of the forementioned Miseries Mischiefs that the pride of Prelacy and Tyrannical Supremacy had multiplied beyond measure upon this Church Nation and at the hight of all their haughtiness when they were setting up their Dagon and erecting Altars for him
imposed upon consulted again vvhat to do and in end being oversvvayed more vvith respect to their oun credite vvhich they thought should be impeached if they should retract their oun Plenipotentiary Instructions to conclude the Treaty upon the Kings assent to their Conditions than to their reclamant consciences they resolved to bring home that pest and thereby Precipitated themselves us into ineluctable miserie Yet they thought to mend the Matter by binding him vvith all Cords and puting him to all most explicite Engagments before he should receive the Imperial Croun Well upon these termes home he comes and before he set his foot on British ground he takes the Covenant And thereafter because the Commission of the General Assembly by the Act oâ— the West Kirk August 13. 1650. Precluded his Admittance unto the Croun if he should refuse the then required satifaction before his Coronation he emits that Declaration at Dumferling wherein Professing appearing in the full perswasion love of the Truth he repenteth as having to do with in the sight of God his Fathers opposition to the Covenant work of God his oun reluctances against the same hoping for Mercy through the blood of Jesus Christ and obtesting the prayers of the faithful to God for his stedfastness and than protesteth his Truth sincerity in entering into the Oath of God resolving to prosecute the ends of the Covenant to his utmost and to have with it the same Common friends Enemies exhorting all to lay doun their enmity against the cause of God and not to prefer mans Interest to Gods which will prove an Idol of Jealousie to provoke the Lord and he himself accounteth to be but selfish flatterie A declaration so full of heart Professions high Attestations of God that none considering what followed can reflect thereon without horror trembling from the holy Jealousie of the Lord either for the then deep dissimulation or the after unparalelled Apostacy I know it is objected by Court parasites that the King was then compelled to do these things To which I shall only say It would have cost any of them their head at that time to have asserted that he did upon deliberation choise mock God man and entered into these Engagments only with a purpose to be thereby in better Capacity to destroy what he swore to maintain only because he could not have the Croun without this way which in the Confession of the objectors themselves was only deliberate premeditate Perjurie Next if it should be granted he was Compelled let it be also considered who Compelled him and these will be found to be the deceitful Courtiers For let it be adverted what Mr Gilespie declares of the Case who put the pen in his hand when he subscribed that Declaration He perceiving there was sufficient ground to Jealouse his reality and seeing evidently that the Courtiers prevailed with the King on a sudden to offer to subscribe the Declaration when they observed that the Commissioners of Churh State were resolute ready to go away in a fixedness to leave out the puting of his Interest in the state of the quarrel and being afrayed of the sad Consequences of it spoke his mind plainly to the King That if he was not satisfied in his Soul Conscience beyond all hesitation of the righteousness of the subscription he was so far from overdriving him to run upon that for which he had no light as he obtested him yea he charged him in his Masters name and in the name of these who sent him not to subscribe this Declaration no not for the three Kingdoms Whereupon the King answered Mr Gillespie Mr Gillespie I am satisfied I am satisfied with the Declaration and therefore will subscribe it Upon which some of the Courtiers swore that Mr Gillespie intended simply to disswade the King from subscribing it that so Church and State might professedly lay aside his Inetrest which would have defeat their hopes to make up themselves as now they have done upon the then designed ruine of the Interest of Truth Then at his Coronation we have his again reiterated confirmations of that Covenant first he is desired in name of the people to accept the Crown and maintain Religion according to the National Solemn League Covenant whereunto he gave his apparently Cordial consent the words are in the forme order of the Coronation with the whole Action Then next a Sermon being Preached upon 2 King. 11. 12 17. the action commenceth with his most solemn renewing of the National and solemn League Covenant by Oath Then he is presented to the people and their willingness demanded to have him for their King on these termes At the same time in the next place he took the Coronation Oath Then on these termes he accepted the Sword. And after the Crown is set upon his head the peoples obligatory Oath is proclaimed on the termes foresaid otherwise he is not that King to whom they swore subjection Then being set upon the Throne he was by the Minister put in mind of his Engagments from 1 Chron. 29. 33. And then the Nobles of the Land came one by one kneeling and lifting up their hands between his hands swore the same Oath These things done the whole Action was closed with a most solid severe exhortation from several instances Neh. 5. 13. Ier. 34. 18 19 20 c. There after in the year 1651. followed the Ratification of all these preceeding Treaties Transactions Engagments concluded enacted by the King and the Parliament then fully freely conveened whereby the same did pass into a Perpetual Law. And this Covenant which from the begining was is the most sure indispensible Oath of God became at length the very fundamental Law of the Kingdom whereon all the rights or priviledges either of King or people are principally bottomed secured This might seem security sufficient but considering the former discoveries experiences they had of his Treachery and the visible appearances in the mean time of his Refusalls visible Reluctances manifest Resilings open Counter actings and continued prejudices against the Covenant and his following unprecedented avowed perjurie every thing doth indelebly fasten upon them the weakness at least of an overweening Credulity and upon him the wickedness of a perfidious Policy in all these Condiscensions After this it came to pass that zeal for the Cause rightly stated was suddenly contracted to a few and the flame thereof extinguished in many and Court wild fire substitute in its place whereby a plain defection was violently carried on by the Publick Resolutioners who relapsing into that most sinful Conjunction with the People of these abominations so solemnly repented for resolved against did notwithstanding bring in Notorious Malignants into places of power Trust in Judicatories Armies in a more Politick than Pious way of requiring of them a constrained dissembled Repentance to the mocking
Witnesses did gradually ascend to the pitch it is novv arrived at I. These Enemies of God having once got footing again with the favour and the fawnings of the foolish Nation went on fervently to further and promote their wicked design and meeting with no opposition at first did encourage themelves to begin boldly Wherefore hearing of some Ministers peaceably Assembled to draw up a Monitory Letter to the King minding him of his Covenant Engagments promises which was though weak yet the first witness warning against that Heaven-daring wickedness then begun they cruelly incarcerate them Having hereby much daunted the Ministry from their duty in that day for fear of the like unusual outragious usage The Parliament conveens Ianuar. 1. 1661. without so much as a Protestation for Religion Liberty given in to them And there in the first place they frame take the Oath of Supremacy Exauctorating Christ and investing His usurping Enemy with the spoils of his robbed Prerogative acknowledging the King only supreme Governour over all persons in all Causes and that his power Iurisdiction must not be declined Whereby under all persons all Causeâ— All Church Officers in their most properly Ecclesiastick Affairs Concerns of Christ are comprehended And if the King shall take upon him to judge their Doctrine Worship Discipline or Government he must not be declined as an incompetent Judge Which did at once enervate all the Testimony of the 4th Period above declared and laid the foundation for all this Babel they have built since and of all this war that hath been waged against the Son of God and did introduce all this Tyrannie absolute power which hath been since carried to its Complement and made the Kings Throne the foundation of all the succeeding perjurie Apostasie Yet though then our Synods Presbytries were not discharged but might have had access in some Concurrence to witness against this horrid Invasion upon Christs Prerogative and the Churches Priviledge no joint Testimony was given against it except that some were found witnessing against it in their singular Capacity by themselves As faithful Mr Iames Guthrie for declining this usurped Authority in prejudice of the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus suffered death and got the Martyrs Crown upon his head And some others for refusing that Oath arbitrarly imposed were Banished or Confined when they had gained this Bulwark of Christs Kingdom Then they waxed more insolent and set up their Ensigns for signs and broke doun the carved Work of Reformation with axes hammers In this Parliament 1661. They past an Act Rescissorie whereby they annulled declared void the National Covenant the Solemn League Covenant Presbytrial Government and all Lawes made in favours of the Work of Reformation since the year 1633. O horrid wickedness both in its nature so attrocious to condemn rescind what God did so signally seal as His oun Work to the conviction of the world and for which He will rescind the Rescinders and overturn these Overturners of His Work and make the curse of that broken Covenant bind them to the punishment vvhom its bond could not oblige to the duty Covenanted And in its design end so base detestable for nothing but to flatter the King in making way for Prelacy Tyranny Popery and to indulge the licenciousness of some debauched Nobles who could not endure the yoke of Christs Government and to suppress Religion Righteousness under the ruines of that Reformation But O holy astonishing Justice thus to recompense our way upon our own head to suffer this work cause to be ruined under our unhappy hands who suffered this Destroyer to come in before it was so effectually secured as it should not have been in the power of his hand whatever had been in his heart swelled with enmity against Christ to have razed ruined that Work as now most wickedly he did and drew in so many into the guilt of the same deed that almost the whole Land not only consented unto it but applauded it by approving countenancing another wicked Act framed at the same time by that same perfidious Parliament for an Anniversary Thanksgiving commemorating every 29. of May that Blasphemy against the Spirit Work of God and celebrating that unhappy Restauration of the Rescinder of the Reformation which had not only the concurrence of the universality of the Nation But alas for shame that it should be told in Gath c even of some Ministers who afterwards accepted the Indulgence one of which a Pillar among them was seen scandalously dancing about the bonefires And others who should have alarmed the whole Nation quasi pro aris focis to rise for Religion Liberty to resist such wickedness did wink at it O how Righteous is the Lord now in turning our Harps into mourning Though alas we will not suffer our selves to this day to see the shining Righteousness of this Retribution And though we be scourged with Scorpions brayed in a Mortar our madness our folly in these irreligious frolicks is not yet acknowledged let be lamented Yet albeit neither in this day when the Covenant was not only broken but Cassed declared of no obligation nor afterward when it was burnt for which Turks Pagans would have been ashamed afraid at such a terrible sight and for which the Lords Anger is burning against these bold burners and against them who suffered it and did not witness against it was there any publick Testimony by protestation or Remonstrance or an publick witness though the Lord had some then and some who came out afterward with the Trumpet at their mouth whose heart then sorrowed at the sight And some suffered for the sense they shewed of that Anniversary abomination for not keeping which they lost both Church Liberty It s true the ordinary Meetings of Presbytries Synods were about that time discharged to make way for the exercise of the new power conferred on the four Prelats who were at Court reordained Consecrated thereby renouncing their former Title to the Ministry But this could not give a discharge from a Necessary Testimony then called for from faithful Watchmen However the Reformation being thus rescinded razed and the House of the Lord pulled doun then they begin to build their Babel In the Parliament anno 1662. by their first Act they restore reestablish Prelacy upon such a foundation as they might by the same Law bring in Poperie which was then designed and so settled its Harbinger Diocesan Erastiar Prelacy by fuller Enlargment of the Supremacy The very Act beginneth thus For as much as the ordering disposal of the external Government of the Church doth properly belong to his Maj. as an Inherent right of the Croun by virtue of his Royal Prerogative Supremacy in Causes Ecclesiastick what ever shall be determined by his Maj. with advice of the Arch Bishops and such of the
they were or to some other Paroches where they may be ordinary hearers and to declare condiscend upon the Paroches where they intend to have their Residence After this they assumed a Power to Dispose of these their Curats as they pleased and transport them from place to place whereof the only ground was a simple Act of Council the Instructions alwayes going along with them as the constant Companion of the Indulgence By all which it is apparent what ever these Ministers alledge in vindication of it to cover its deformity in their Balmes to take away its Stink and in their Surveyes to gather Plaisters to scurf over its Scurveyness viz. that it was but the removal of the Civil restraint And that they entered into their places by the Call of the People a meer mock pretence for a Prelimited imposition whereby that Ordinance of Christ was basely prostituted abused And that their Testimony Protestation was a Salvo for their conscience a meer Outopian fancy that the Indulgers with whom they bargained never heard of otherwise as they did with some who were faithful in testifying against their Encroachments they would soon have given them a Bill of Ease It cannot be denyed that that doleful Indulgeâ—â—e both in its Rise Contrivance Conveyance Grant Acceptance End Effects was a Grievous Encroachment upon the Princely Prerogative of Jesus Christ the only Head of the Church whereby the usurpers Supremacy was Homologated bowed to complyed with strengthened established the Cause Kingdom of Christ betrayed His Churches Priviledges surrendered His Enemies hardened His Friends stumbled and the Remnant rent ruined in that it was granted deduced from the Kings Supremacy and conveyed by the Council in that according to his pleasure he gave and they received a Licence warrant to such as he nominated Elected and judged fit qualified for it and fixed them in what particular Paroch he pleased to assign under the notion of a Confinment in that he imposed and they submitted to restrictions in the exercise of their Ministry in these particular Paroches inhibiting to Preach elswhere in the Church And with these restrictions he gave and they received instructions to regulate direct them in their functions All which was done without Advice or Consent of the Church And thereupon they have frequentlie been called coveened before the Counciâ— to give acâ—ount of their Ministerial exercise and some of them sentenced silenced deposed for alledged disobedience This was a manifest Treason against Christ which involved many in the actual guilt of it that day and many others who gaped after it could not obtain it and for more at that time since in the guilt of Misprision of Treason in passing this also without a witness Thus in holy judgement because of our Indulging Conniving at the usurper of Christs Throne He left a great part of the Ministers to take that wretched Indulgence and another part instead of remonstrating the wickedness of that deed have been left to palliate plaister Patronize it in keeping up the Credit of the King Councils Curats wherein they have shewed more zeal than ever against that wicked Indulgence Yet the Lord had some Witnesses who prettie early did give significations of their resentment of this dishonour done to Christ as Mr William Weer who having got the Legal Call of the People and discharging his duty honestly was turned out And Mr Iohn Burnet who wrote a Testimony directed to the Council shewing why he could not submit to that Indulgence inserted at large in the History of the Indulgence Where also we have the Testimony of other ten Ministers who drew up their Reasons of Non-Complyance with such a snare And Mr Alexander Blair who upon occasion of a Citation before the Council for not observing the 29 of Maij having with others made his appearance and got new Copies of Instructions presented to them being moved with zeal and remembering whose Ambassadour he was told the Council plainly that he could receive no Instructions from them in the exercise of his Ministry otherwise he should not be Christs Ambassadour but theirs and herewith lets their Instructions drop out of his hand knowing of no other Salvâ— or manner of Testifying for the Truth in the CaseØ› for which he was imprisoned died under Confinement But afterwards the Lord raised up some more explicite Witnesses against that defection All this Trouble was before the year 1673. About which time finding this device of Indulgences proved so steadable for his Service in Scotland he was induced to try it also in England which he did almost with the same or like success producing the same effects of defection security unfaithfulness The Occasion was upon his wars with the Dutch Which gave another demonstrative discovery of his Treacherie Popish perfidie in breaking League with them and entering into one with the French to destroy Religion Liberty in Britain Wherein the King of France assures him an Absolute Authority over his Parliaments and to reestablish the Catholick Religion in his Kingdoms of England Scotland Ireland to Compass which it was necessary first to abate the pride power of the Dutch and to reduce them to the sole Province of Holland by which means the King of England should have Zeland for a retreat in case of need and that the rest of the Low Countries should remain to the King of France if he could render himself Master of it But to return to Scotland While by the forementioned Device he thought he had utterly suppressed the Gospel in house field Meetings he was so far disappointed that these very means Machins by which he thought to bury it did chiefly contribute to its revival For when by Persecution many Ministers had been chased away by illegal Law-Sentences many had been banished away and by their ensnaring Indulgences many had been drawen away from their duty and others were now sentenced with Confinements Restraints if they should not choose fix their residence where they could not keep their Quiet Conscience both they were forced to wander and disperse through the Country and the People being tired of the cold dead Curats and wanting long the Ministrie of their old Pastors so longed hungered after the Word that they behoved to have it at any rate cost what it would which made them entertain the dispersed Ministers more earnestly and encouraged them more to their duty By whose Endeavours through the mighty power presence of God and the Light of His Countenance now shining through the Cloud after so fatal fearful a darkness that had over-clouded the Land for a while with such a resplendent brightness that it darkened the Prelatick Locusts and made them hisse and gnash their tongues for pain and dazeled the eyes of all Onlookers the Word of God grew exceedingly and went through at least the Southern borders of the Kingdom
Party of the Enemies in which they slew the Captain and about 12 or some moe of his men and afterwards they dispersed themselves also The Enemies searching the Country gleaned up the E. of Argyle himself Col. Rumbol an Englishman Mr Thomas Archer Minister Gawin Russel an David Law who were all condemned execute at Edinburgh and many others who were banished to America and about some 20 in the Highlands who were hanged at Inerarie In England the D. of Monmouths expedition though it had more action yet terminated in the same success the loss of many hundred lives many killed in Battel And afterwas by the mercy of the Duke of York several hunderds in the West of England were carried about and hanged before the door of their oun habitations and to make his Captains sport by the way according to the number of the hours of the day when the murdering humour came in their head so many of the poor Captives were hanged as a prodigious monument of monstrous Crueltie This was the Comencement of the present Tyrants Government In the mean time the Wanderers in Scotland thô they did not associate with this Expedition upon the account of the too promiscuous admittence of persons to trust in that Partie who were then and since have discovered themselves to be Enemies to the Cause and because they could not espouse their Declaration as the State of their Quarrel being not concerted according to the constant Plea of the Scots Covenanters and for other reasons given in their late Vindication yet against this Usurpation of a bloody Papist advancing himself to the Throne in such a manner they published another Declaration at Sanquhair May 28. 1685. Wherein Approving adhering unto all their former Declarations And considering that Iames Duke of York a Profest Excommunicate Papist was proclaimed To testify their resentment of that deed And to make it appear unto the world that they were free thereof by concurrence or connivance They Protest against the foresaid Proclamation of Iames Duke of York as King In regard that it is the choosing of a Murtherer to be a Governour who hath shed the blood of the Saints that it is the hight of Confederacy with an Idolater for bidden by the Law of God contrarie to the Declaration of the Gen. Ass. of the Church Iulij 27. 1649. And contrary to many wholesome laudable Acts of Parliament and inconsistent with the safety faith Conscience Christian Libertie of a Christian People to chuse a subject of Antichrist to be their Supreme Magistrate and to entrust an Enemy to the Work People of God with the Interests of both And upon many important grounds reasons which there they express they Protest against the validity Constitution of that Parliament approving ratifying the foresaid Proclamation And against all kind of Poperie in General Particular heads as abjured by the National Covenant and abrogated by Acts of Parliament and against its entrie again into this Land And every thing that doth or may directly or indirectly make way for the same Disclaiming likewise all Sectarianisme Malignancy and any Confederacy therewith This was their Testimony against Poperie in the season thereof which thô it was not so much condemned as any former Declarations yet neither in this had they the Concurrence of any Ministers or Professors who as they had been silent and omitted a seasonable Testimony against Prelacy and the Supremacy when these were introduced so now also even when this wicked Mysterie Conspiracie of Poperie Tyrannie twisted together in the present designe of Antichrist had made so great a progress and was evidently brought above board they were left to let â—lip this opportunity of a Testimony also to the reproach of the declining far degenerate Church of Scotland Yea to their shame the very rabble of ignorant People may be brought as a witness against the body of Presbyterian Ministers in Scotland in that they testified their detestation of the first Erection of the Idolatrous Mass and some of the souldierie and such as had no Profession of Religion suffered unto death for speaking against Poperie and the designs of the King while the Ministers were silent And some of the Curats and members of the late Parliament 1686. made some stickling against the taking away of the penal Statutes against Papists while Presbyterians from whom might have been expected greater opposition were sleeping in a profound submission I cannot without Confusion of Spirit touch these obvious dolorous reflections and yet in candor cannot forbear them However the Persecution against the Wanderers went on and more cruel Edicts were given forth against them while a relenting abatement of severity was pretended against other Dissenters At length what could not be obtained by Law at the late Parliament for taking off the Statutes against Papists was effectuated by Prerogative and to make it pass with the greater approbation it was convoyed in a channel of pretended Clemency offering a sort of Liberty but really introducing a licencious Latitude for bringing in all future snares by taking off some former as arbitrarly as before they were imposed in a Proclamation dated Feb. 12. 1687. Granting by the Kings Soveraign Authority Prerogative Royal and absolute power which all Subjects are to obey without reserve a Royal Toleration to the several Professors of the Christian Religion afternamed with under the several Conditions restrictions limitations aftermentioned In the first place tolerating the Moderate Presbyterians to meet in their private houses and there to hear all such Ministers as either have or are willing to accept of the Indulgence allanerly and none other And that there be nothing said or done contrare to the wel peace of his reign seditious or treasonable under the highest pains these Crimes will import nor are they to presume to build Meeting houses or to use out-houses or barns In the mean time it s his Royal will pleasure that Field Conventicles and such as Preach at them or who shall any way assist or connive at them shall be prosecute according to the utmost severity of Lawes made against them In like manner tolerating the Quakers to meet exercise in their forme in any place or places appointed for their Worship And by the same absolute power foresaid suspending stoping disabling all Lawes or Acts of Parliament Customs or Constitutions against any Roman Catholick subjects So that they shall in all things be as free in all respects as any Protestant subjects whatsoever not only to exercise their Religion but to enjoy all Offices benefices c. which he shall think fit to bestow upon them in all time coming And cassing annulling discharging all Oaths whatsoever and Tests and Lawes enjoyning them And in place of them this Oath only is to be taken I A. B. do ackowledge testifie declare that Iames the Seventh c. is rightful King Supreme Governour of these Realms and
their Curats have entered into officiate fixedly in this Church without her Authority Consent Ergo The Major is manifest for if this Church have a just right power of Electing Calling of Ministers then they who enter into officiate fixedly in this Church without her Authority Consent have no just Authority or right so to do But this Church hath a just right power of Electing Calling of Ministers as all true Churches have And if it were not evident from what is said above might be easily demonstrated from Scripture The minor to wit that the Prelats their Curats have entered into officiate fixedly in this Church without her Authority consent is evident from matter of fact for there was no Church Judicatory called or convocated for bringing of Prelats in to this Church but on the contrary her Judicatories were all cashiered discharged and all her officers turned out to let them in And all was done immediatly by the King Acts of Parliament without the Church A practice wanting a Precedent in this and for any thing we know in all other Churches All that the Curats can say is that they came in by the Bishop Patron who are not the Church nor have any power from her for what they do all their right power is founded upon derived from the Supremacy whereby the Diocesan Erastian Prelat is made the Kings Delegate substitute only impowered thereto by his Law. This is Mr Smiths 1 st 6 Argum. If we suppose a particular Congregation acknowledging their oun Lawful Pastor and a few violent Persons arise and bring in a Minister by plain force and cast out their Lawful Pastor Are not the faithful in that Church obliged to relinquish the Intruder and not only Discountenance him but endeavour his ejection This is our case Napth Pag. 106. § 5. Prior Edit 2. If we cannot submit to these Curats without consenting to the great Encroachments made upon the Priviledges of this Church then we cannot submit to them without sin But we cannot submit to them without consenting to the great Encroachments made upon the Priviledges of this Church Therefore we cannot submit to them without sin The Minor is all the question but instances will make it out As first The robbing of the Church of the Priviledge of Election of her Pastors and substituting the bondage of Patrons presentations is a great Encroachment upon the Priviledge of this Church But accepting of Curats as Ministers Lawfully called notwithstanding that they want the Election of the people and have nothing for their warrant but a presentation from the Patron were a Consenting to that Robberie and wicked Substitution It will be of no force to say our forefathers did submit to this and to a Ministry who had no other Call. This is answered above in the Narrative It s a poor Consequence to say the posterity may return backward because their forefathers could not advance further forward Secondly the thrusting out of Lawfull Ministers without any Cause but their adhering to the Covenanted work of Reformation and the thrusting in others in their rooms who denyed the same is a great Encroachment on the Churches Priviledges But embracing encouraging Curats by countenancing their pretended Ministry were a consenting to this violent extrusion intrusion The minor is proven thus They who leave the extruded countenance the Intruded they consent to the extrusion intrusion and declare they confess the Intruded his right is better than his who is extruded But they who embrace encourage Curats by countenancing their pretended Ministry do leave the extruded to wit their old Ministers and countenance the intruded Ergo To say that people in this case should protest against these Encroachments is frivolous for withdrawing is the best protestation And if after their protestation they still countenance the Encroachment they should undo their oun protestation The same Argument will militate against countenancing the Indulged or any that obtained Authority to Preach in any place by a power encroaching on the Churches Liberties There is an objection to be removed here from Math. 23. 2 3. The Scribes Pharisees sit in Moses Chair therefore whatever they bid yow observe that observe do therefore they who without a title usurpe the office may be heard Ans. 1. The case is no wayes alike for then the Lord had no other Church in the world but that which was confined in its Solemnities of worship to that place where they intruded themselves He had not yet instituted the New Testament forme of Administration in its ordinances Officers Therefore the Head of the Church being present might give a Toleration Durante beneplacito But it is not so now But 2. Our Lords words bears no command for the people to hear them at all but only not to reject sound Doctrine because it came from them Surely he would not bid them hear such as He calls Plants that His Father had never planted whom He bids let alone Math. 15. 13 14. and who were Thieves Robbers whom His Sheep should not hear V. They must not only be Ministers acknowledged as such then and there when where we joine with them but they must be such as we can oune Church Communion with in the Ordinances administrated by them as to the matter of them Otherwise if they pervert corrupt their Ministrie by preaching maintaining errors either in Doctrine Worship Discipline or Government contrare to the Scriptures our Confessions principles of our Covenanted Reformation and contradictory to our Testimony founded thereupon aggreable thereunto maintaining errors condemned thereby or condemning Truths maintained thereby we must withdraw from them For if any seek to turn us away from the Lord our God we most put away that evil not consent nor hearken to them Deut. 13. 5 8. We must cease to hear the instruction that causeth to erre from the words of knowledge Prov. 19. 27. we must have a care of these Leaders that will cause us to erre lest we be destroyed with them Isa. 9. 16. we must mark these who contradict the Doctrine that we have Learned avoid them Rom. 16. 17. If any man teach otherwise we must withdraw our selves from such 1 Tim. 6. 3 5. If there come any bring not this Doctrine we must not receive him nor bid him God speed in that work of his preaching or practising against any of the Truths we have received from the word 2 Iohn 10 11. Hence we most not hear false Teachers who in preaching prayer bring forth false Doctrine contrary to the principles of our Reformation But the Curats are false Teachers who in preaching prayer bring forth salse Doctrine c. Therefore we must not hear them The Minor is certain in that not only many of them are tainted with points of Poperie Arâ—inianisme but all of them do teach false Doctrine
have acquired do seek the praise of Justice by injury of Liberality by robbery So he can make some shew of a Civil mind but so much the less assurance gives he of it that it is manifest he intends not thereby the subjects good but the greater security of his oun lusts and stability of empire over posterity having some what Mitigated the peoples hatred which when he hath done he will turn back again to his old manners for the fruit which is to follow may easily be known both by the seed and by the sower thereof An exact Copy of this we have seen within these tuo years as oft before in the rule of the other Brother After God hath been robbed of His prerogatives the Church of her Priviledges the State of its Lawes the Subjects of their Libertie property he is now affecting the praise captating the Applause of tenderness to conscience and Love of Peace by offering now Liberty after all his Cruelties wherein all the thinking part of men do discern he is prosecuting that hellish Project introducing Popery slaverie and overturning Religion Law Liberty 3. Regium imperium secundum Naturam est Tyrannicum contra Regium Liberi inter Liberos est Principatus Tyrannus domini in servas c. Tyranny is against Nature and a Masterly Principality over slaves Can he be called a father who accounts his subjects slaves or a Shepherd who does not feed but devours his flock or a Pilot who doth allwise study to make shipwrack of the goods and strikes a leak in the very ship where he sails what is he then that bears Command not for the peoples advantage but studies only himself who leadeth his subjects into manifest snares he shall not verily be accounted by me either Commander Emperour or Governour King Iames the 6 th also in a speech to the Parliament anno 1609. makes this one Character of a Tyrant when he begins to invade his subjects rights Liberties And if this be true then we have not had a King these many years the foregoing deduction will demonstrate what a slavery we have been under 4. Quid qui non de virtute certet câ—m bonis c. What is he then who doth not contend for vertue with the good but to exceed the most flagitious in vices If yow see then any usurping the Royal name and not excelling in any virtue but striving to exceed all in baseness not tendering his subjects good with native affection but pressing them with proud domination esteeming the people committed to his trust not for their safegaurd but for his oun gain will yow imagine this man is truly a King albeit he vapours with a numerous Lieveguard and makes an ostentation of gorgeous Pomp The learned Althusius likewise in his Politicks cap. 38. Num. 15. as He is cited by Ius Populi chap. 16. Pag. 347. makes this one Character of a Tyrant that liveing in Luxury whoredome greed idleness he neglecteth or is unfit for his office How these suite our times we need not express what effrontry of impudence is it for such monsters to pretend to rule by virtue of any Authority derived from God who pollute the world with their Adulteries Incests and Live in open defyance of all the Lawes of the universal King with whom to exceed in all villanies is the way to purchase the Countenance of the Court and to aspire to preferment No Heliogabulus c. could ever come up the length in wickedness that our Rulers have professed 5. Omnium vim Legum in se transferre c. He can transfer unto himself the strength of all Lawes and abrogate them when he pleases King Iames the 6. in that fore-cited speech saith a King degenerateth into a Tyrant when he leaveth to rule by Law. Althusius also loc cit saith there is one kind of Tyranny which consisteth in violating changing or removing of fundamental Lawes specially such as concern Religion such saith he Philip the King of Spain who contrare to the fundamental Belgick Lawes did erect an administration of Justice by force of armes and such was Charles the 9 th of France that thought to overturn the Salicque Law. All that knoweth what hath been done in Britain these 27 years can attest our Lawes have been subverted the Reformation of Religion overturned and all our best Lawes rescinded and now the Penal Statuts against Papists disabled stopped without against Law. 6. Ad suum eum unius nutum omnia c. He can revoke all things to his nod at his pleasure This is also one part of King Iames the 6 his Character of a Tyrant when he sets upon arbitrary power And of Althusius loc cit when he makes use of an absolute Power and so breaks all bonds for the good of humane Society We allow a King an absolute power taken in a good sense that is he is not subaltern nor subordinate to any other Prince but supreme in his oun dominions or if by absolute be meant Perfect he is most absolute that governs best according to the word of God. But if it be to be Legibus solutus loosed from all Lawes we thinke it blasphemy to ascribe it to any Creature Where was there ever such an arbitrary absolute power arrogated by any Mortal as hath been claimed by our Rulers these years past especially by the present Usurper who in this Liberty of conscience now granted to Scotland assumes to himself an absolute power which all are to obey without reserve which carries the subjects slavery many stages beyond what ever the Grand Seigneur did attempt 7. Tyranno ad cives opprumendos c. For by a Tyrant strangers are imployed to oppress the subjects They place the establishment of ther Authority in the peoples weakness and think that a Kingdom is not a Procuration concredited to them by God but rather a prey fallen into their hands Such are not joined to us by any Civil bond or any bond of humanity but should be accounted the most Capital enemies of God and of all men King Iames ub supra sayes he is a Tyrant that imposes un Lawful Taxes raises forces makes war upon his subjects to Pillage Plnnder wast spoil his Kingdoms Althusins ubi supra makes a Tyrant who by immoderate exactions and the like exhausts the subjects and cites Scripture Ier. 22. 13. 14. Ezek. 34. 1 King. 12. 19. Psal. 14. 4. It is a famous saying of Bracton He is no longer King then dum bene regit while he rules well but a Tyrant when-soever he oppresseth the people that are trusted to his Care Government And Cicero sayes amittitis omne exceritus imperit jiu qui eo imperio exercitâ— Rempublicans oppugnat He loseth all legal power in over an Army or Empire who by that Government army does obstruct the wel-fare of that republick What oppressions exactions by armed force our Nation hath been wasted with in part is
not one the same Tribute It s a question for whom by whom that of Math. 17. was gathered it s most likely it was gathered by the officers of the Temple for its service however the payment was made with such caution tacitely declining the strict right to exact it from him but to avoid offence in an act in it self unobliging that their claim is left as much in the dark as if the question had never been moved The other Math. 22. was exacted for Cesar but to that captious question our Lord returns such an Answer as might both solve it and evade the snare of the proponders giving a general Rule of giving to God to Cesar each their oun without defining which of them had the right to the payment in question whether Cesar should have it or whether it should be payed only for the Temples use Upon which they marvelled which they needed not do if they had understood in His words an express positive declaration of an obligation to make that payment to Cesar for then they would have obtained one of their ends in making Him odious to the people who were not satisfied with the payment of it But however the knot is loosed by considering that they were now Lawfully subject to the Roman Emperours as their Governours to whom they were obliged I do not say Christ was to pay tribute For they had yeelded themselves unto ouned the Roman Dominion in Pompey Cesar Augustus Tiberius ere this question about Tribute paying was proposed to our Saviour and therfore they who stuck at the payment of it were a seditious party dissenting from the body of the Nation Else it is not supposable readily that their Dominion in Iudea could have been exercised long without some consent sufficient to legitimate it to the present Rulers And this is the more likely if we consider the confession of the Iewes themselves disavowing the power of Capital punishment It is not Lawful for us to put any man to death And ouning Cesar as their King with an exclusive a brenounciation of all other we have no King but Cesar As Paul also acknowleeges he ought to be judged at Cesars bar in his appeal to Cesar. It is also acknowledged by very good Authors that this was the tribute which Iudas the Galilean stood up to free the people from and that the sedition of those Iewes that folowed him mentioned Act. 5. 37. who mutinied upon this occasion was according to Gamaliels speech disallowed by that Sanhedrin or Council of the Iewes And it may be gathered out of Iosephus that the Iewes of Hircanus his party came under the Roman power by consent dedition while they of Aristobalus his party looked upon the Romans as Usurpers Which difference continued till our Saviours time when some part of them acknowledged the Cesarean Authority some part looked upon it as an Usurpation and of this generally were the Pharisees To confirm this Calvins Testimony may be adduced upon Math. 22. who sayeth the Authority of the Roman Emperours was by common use approved and received among the Iewes whence it was manifest that the Iewes had now of their oun accord imposed on themselves a Law of paying the tribute because they had passed over to the Romans the power of the sword And Chamiers Panstrat Tom. 2. lib. 15. cap. 16. pag. 635. what then if Cesars Authority were from bad beginings did therefore Christ untruly say it was from above Can no power at first unjust afterward become just if that were so then either none or very few Kingâ—oms would be just 10. As Tyranny is a destructive plague to all the Interests of men Christians So Anarchy the usual product of it is no less pernicious bringing a Community into a Paroxysme as deadly dangerous We must oune Government to be absolutely necessary for the constitution conservation of all Societies I shall not enter into a disquisition let be determination of the Species or Kind of Magistracy whether Monarchy Aristocracy or Democracy be preferable My dispute at present is not levelled against Monarchy but the present Monarch Not against the Institution of the Species though I beleeve except we betake our selves to the Divine allowance permission we shal be as pusled to find out the Divine Original of it as Cosmographers are in their search of the Spring of Nilus or Theologues of the Father of Melchizedeck but the constitution of this Individual Monarchy established among us which in its root branch Spring streams in its Original Nature ends effects is Diametrically opposite to Religion Liberty And because its Contagion universally perverting corrupting all the ends Orders of Magistracy doth affect infect all the subordinate officers deriving their power from such a filthy fountain we must also substract deny their demanded ackowledgments as any way due so long as they serve the pride projects of such a wicked power And do not reckon our selves obliged by Covenant or any otherways though in the third Article of the Solemn League we are bound to preserve the rights priviledges of our Parliaments consequently the honour deference that 's due to our Peers or other Parliament men acting according to the trust committed to them but not when they turn Traitors ingaged in a Conspiracy with the Tyrant to oune or defend a Soul-less shadow of a Court Cabal made up of persons who have sold themselves to work wickedness in conspiring with this throne of iniquity against the Lord which is all we have for a Parliament whom we can in no ways oune as our Representatives but must look upon them as perjured perfidious Traitors to God their Countrey which they have betrayed into the hands of a Tyrant And therefore divested of that power Authority which they had of the people as their Representatives which now is returned to the fountain And therefore we must act as we can against them and also what is necessary for securing of our selves Religion Liberty without them We would think Nobles ennobled with virtue a great Mercy encouragment And if they would concur in the Testimony for Religion Liberty we would be glad that they should lead the van and prove themselves to be powers appointed by God in acting for Him His Interest But for the want of their Conduct we must not surcease from that duty that they abandon nor think that the Concurrence of Peers is so necessary to legitimate our actions as that without that formality our resolutions to maintain the Truth of God on all hazards in a private Capacity were unlawful in the Court of God Nature But on the contrare must judge that their relinquishing or opposing their duty which before God they are obliged to maintain preserve promove is so far from loosing our obligation or eximing us from our duty that is should rather press us to prosecute it with
conveen to ask a King 1 Sam. 8. And without any head or superior they convene make David King notwithstanding of Isbosheths hereditary right Without against Tyrannous Athaliah her consent they convene make Ioash King and cared not for her Treason Treason 2 King. 11. But now the king alone challenges the Prerogative-power of calling dessolving Parliaments as he pleases and condemns all meetings of Estates without his warrant which is purely Tyrannical for in cases of necessity by the very Law of nature they may must convene The Power is given to the king only by a positive Law for orders sake but otherwise they have an intrinsical Power to assemble themselves All the forecited Commands Admonitions Certifications to execute Iudgement must necessarly involve imply Power to convene without which they could not be in a Capacity for it Not only unjust Judgement but no Iâ—dgement in a time when Truth is fallen in the streets equity cannot enter is charged as the sin of the State therefore they must convene to prevent this sin and the wrath of God for it God hath committed the keeping of the Common-wealth not to the king only but also to the peoples Representatives heads And if the king have Power to break up all Conventions of this nature then he hath Power to hinder Judgement to proceed which the Lord Commands And this would be an excuse when God threatens vengeance for it we could not execute Iudgement because ehe King forbad us Yet many of these forementioned reproofs threatenings certifications were given in the time of Tyrannous Idolatrous kings who no doubt would inhibite discharge the doing of their duty yet we see that was no excuse but the Lord denounces wrath for the omission 4 They had Power to execute Judgement against the will of the Prince Samuel killed Agag against Sauls will but according to the Command of God 1 Sam. 15. 32. Against Ahabs will mind Elijah caused kill the Priests of Baal according to Gods express Law 1 King. 18. 40. It is true it was extraordinary but no otherwise than it is this day when there is no Magistrate that will execute the Judgment of the Lord then they who have Power to make the Magistrate may ought to execute it when wicked men make the Law of God of none effect So the Princes of Iudah had power against the kings will to put Ieremiah to death which the king supposes when he directs him what to say to them Ier. 38. 25. They had really such a Power though in Ieremiahs case it would have been wickedly perverted See Lex Rex Q. 19. 20. 5 They had a power to execute Judgement upon the king himself as in the case of Amaziah Uzziah as shall be cleared afterwards I conclude with repeating the Argument If the king be accountable whensoever this Account shall be taken we are confident our disouning him for the present will be justified and all will be obliged to imitate it If he be not then we cannot oune his Authority that so presumptously exalts himself above the People 10. If we will further consider the nature of Magistracy it will appear what Authority can conscienciously be ouned to wit that which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Potestas not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Potentia Authorized Power not Might or force Moral Power not merely Natural There is a great difference betwixt these two Natural Power is common to brutes Moral Power is peculiar to men Narural Power is more in the Subjects because they have more strength force Moral Power is in the Magistrate they can never meet adequately in the same subject Natural power can Moral only may warrantably exercise rule Natural power is opposed to impotency weakness Moral to illicitness or unlawfulness Natural power consists in strength Moral in righteousness Natural power may be in a Reut of Rogues making an uproar Moral only in the Rulers they cannot be distinguished by their acts but by the Principle from which the acts proceed in the one from meer force in the other from Authority The Principle of Natural power is its oun might will and the end only self Moral hath its rise from positive Constitution and its end publick safety The strength of Natural power lies in the Sword whereby its might gives Law the strength of Moral power is in its Word whereby reason gives Law unto which the Sword is added for punishment of Contraveners Natural power takes the Sword Math. 26. 52. Moral bears the Sword Rom. 13. 4. In Natural power the Sword is the Cause in Moral it is only the Consequent of Authority In Natural power the Sword legitimates the Scepter in Moral the Scepter legitimates the Sword The Sword of the Natural is only backed with Metal the Sword of the Moral power is backed with Gods warrant Natural power involves men in passive subjection as a traveller is made to yeeld to a Robber Moral power reduces to Consciencious subordination Hence the power that is only Natural not Moral Potentia not Potestas cannot be ouned But the power of Tyrants Usurpers is only Natural not Moral Potentia not Potestas Ergo it cannot be ouned The Major cannot be denied for it is only the Moral Power that is ordained of God unto which we must be subject for Conscience sake The Minor also for the Power of Tyrants is not Moral because not Authorized nor warranted nor ordained of God by His preceptive Ordinance and therefore no Lawful Magistratical Power For the clearer understanding of this let it be observed there are four things required to the making of a Moral or Lawful Power the matter of it must be Lawful the Person Lawful the Title Lawful and the Use Lawful 1. The matter of it about which it is exerted or the work to be done by it must be Lawful warranted by God and if it be unlawful it destroyes its Moral being As the Popes power in dispensing with Divine Laws is null no Moral Power And so also the Kings power in dispensing with both Divine humane Laws is null Hence that power which is in regard of matter unlawful and never warranted by God cannot be ouned But absolute power which is the power of Tyrants Usurpers particularly of this of ours is in regard of matter unlawful never warranted by God Ergo 2. The Person holding the power must be such as not only is capable of but competent to the tenure of it and to whom the holding of it is allowed and if it be prohibited it evacuates the Morality of the power Korah his Company arrogated to themselves the Office of the Priesthood this power was prohibited to them their power then was a nullity As therefore a person that should not be a Minister when he usurps that office is no Minister So a person that should not be a Magistrate when he usurps that Office is no
Peers and had it before they erected and constituted Peers or Primores There is no distinction of quality in interests of Nature though ther be in Civil order but self defence is not an act of Civil order In such Interests people must not depend upon the priority of their superiours nor suspend the duties they owe to themselves and their neighbours upon the manuduction of other mens greatness The Law of Nature allowing self defence or the defence of our Brethren against unjust violence addeth no such restriction that it must only be done by the conduct or concurrence of the Primores or Parliaments 2. The people have as great Interest to defend their Religion as the Peers and more because they have more souls to care for than they who are far fewer And to be violented in their Consciences which are as free to them as to the Peers is as unsupportable to them yea both are equally concerned to maintain Truth and rescue their Brethren suffering for it which are the chief grounds of war and if the ground of the defensive war be the same with them and without them what reason can be given making their Resistence in the one case Lawful and not in the other Both are alike obliged to concur and both are equally obnoxious to Gods threatened Judgments for suffering Religion to be ruined and not relieving rescuing Innocents It will be but a poor excuse for people to plead they had no Peers to head them What if both King Nobles turn enemies to Religion as they are at this day shall people do nothing for the defence of it then Many times the Lord hath begun a Work of Reformation by foolish things and hath made the least of the flock to draw them out Ier. 49. 2. and 50. 45. and did not think fit to begin with Nobles but began it when powers Peers were in opposition to it and when He blessed it so at length as to engage the publick Representatives to oune it what was done by private persons before they never condenmed 3. The people are injured without the Nobles therefore they may resist without them if they be able for there can be no Argument adduced to make it unlawful to resist without them which will not equally make it unlawful to do it with them 4. It s true the Primores are obliged beyond others and have Authority more than others to concur but Separately they cannot act as Representatives judicially They have a Magistratical power but limited to their particular Precincts where they have Interest and cannot extend it beyond these bounds And so if they should concur they are still in the capacity of subjects for out of a Parliamentary Capacity they are not Representatives 5. All the power they can have is Cumulative not Privative for deterior conditio Domini per Procurationem fieri non debet Why then shall the Representatives betraying their Trust wrong the Cause of the people whose Trustees they are Nay if it were not Lawful for people to defend their Religion Lives Liberties without the concurrence of Parliaments then their case should be worse with them than without them for they have done it before they had them and so they had better be without them still 6. People may defend themselves against the Tyranny of a Parliament or Primores or Nobles Ergo they may do it without them for if it be Lawful to resist them its Lawful to wave them when they are in a Conspiracy with the King against them 5. We disallow all war without real indeclinable Necessity and great grievous wrongs sustained and do not maintain it is to be declared or undertaken upon supposed Grounds or pretended Causes And so the Question is impertinently stated by our Adversaries Whether or not it be Lawful for Subjects or a party of them when they think themselves injured or to be in a capacity to Resist or Oppose the Supreme power of a Nation For the Question is not if when they think themselves injured they may Resist but when the injuries are real Neither is it every realitie of injuries will justify their Resistence but when their dearest nearest Liberties are invaded especially when such an invasion is made as threatens inâ—luctable subversion of them Next we do not say that a parties esteeming themselves in a Capacity or their being really in a Capacity doth make Resistence a duty except caeteris Paribus they have a Call as well as a Capacity which requires real Necessity and a right to the action and the things contended for to be real legal Rights really illegally encroached upon their Capacity gives them only a Conveniency to go about the duty that is previously Lawful upon a Moral ground No man needs to say who shall be Judge the Magistrate or people For. 1. All who have eyes in their head may judge whether the sun shine or not and all who have common sense may judge in this case For when it comes to a Necessity of Resistence it is to be supposed that the Grievances complained of and sought to be redressed by armes are not hid but manifest it cannot be so with any party only pretending their suffering wrong 2. There is no need of the formality of a Judge in things evident to Natures eye as Grassant Tyranny undermining overturning Religion Liberty must be Nature in the acts of necessitated Resistence in such a case is Judge party Accuser Witness all Neither is it an act of Judgement for people to defend their oun Defence is no act of jurisdiction but a priviledge of Nature Hence these common sayings vim vi repellere omnia jura permittunt And defendere se est juris Naturae Defensio vitae necessaria est a jure Naturali profluit 3. Be Judge who will the Tyrant cannot be Judge in the case for in these Tyrannical Acts that force the people to that Resistence he cannot be acknowledged as King and therefore no Judge for it s supposed the Judge is absent when he is the party that does the wrong And he that does the wrong as such is inferior to the innocent 4. Let God be Judge and all the World taking cognizance of the evidence of their respective Manifesto's of the State of their Cause 6. We condemn Resing to revenge private injuries whereby the Land may be involved in blood for some petty wrongs done to some persons great or small And abhor revengful Usurping of the Magistrats sword to avenge our selves for personal injuries As Davids killing of Saul would have been 1 Sam. 24. 10 12 13. 1 Sam. 26. 9 10. To Object which in this case were very impertinent for it would have been an act of offence in a remote defence if Saul had been immediatly asaulting him it could not be denied to be Lawful and it would have been an act of private revenge for a personal injurie and a sinful preventing of Gods promise of Davids
Liberties he giveth us cause enough to resist him with a good conscience The matter standing as it doth we may say they Resist as may be shewed both by Sacred Profane Histories And so they undertooke and stated the war upon the account of Religion Liberty 9. If we but cast an eye over to the Hollanders we will find how much they stand obliged to this practice of Defensive Armes having thereby recovered both Religion Liberty and established themselves into a fiourishing State. We find even in the time of D. de Alva's Persecution they began to defend Haerlem and Valenciennes in Henault and went on till under the conduct of William of Nassaw Prince of Orange they declared the King of Spain to have fallen from the Government of those Countries and so effectually shook off the yoke of Spanish Tyrannie 10. If we go to the French Hugenots we will find many Instances among them and many brave Heroes raised up to maintain the principle and prosecute the practice thereof of older later date The History of the Civil wars of France is stored with their Trophees and the Memories of Condie Coligni will ever be fragrant There were many Resistences there both before since the Parisian Massacre It is sad that the present Protestants there are so far degenerate from the Spirit of their Ancestors 11. The many practices of the Hungarians Resisting the encroachments of the house of Austria prove the same And when Mathias denyed the free exercise of Religion unto the Protestants of Austria they took up Armes in their oun defence and sent a Protestation unto the Estates of Hungarie requiring their Assistence conforme to their League And now this present war there founded upon this plea. 12. The Polonians have often times levied war against their Kings and we are furnished by Clark in his Martyrol with a late Instance of their Resistence against the Soveraign Powers at Lesita in Poland anno 1655. 13. The Danes Swedes have not been wanting for their parts in taking course with their Christierns Kings of that name whom they resisted punished And generally wherever the Reformation was received we find this principle espoused and the practice of it prosecuted Nay there hath been no Nation in the world but it will be found they have either resisted or killed Tyrants 14. The most Deserving Celebrated Monarchs in the world have espoused the quarrel of oppressed Subjects Not only such as Tamerlanc whose observable Saying is noted when he advanced against Bajazet I go sayes he to chastise his Tyrannie and to deliver the afflicted people And Philip Lewis of France who assisted the Barons of England against King Iohn And Charles the Great who upon this ground undertook a war against the Lombards in Italie But even Constantine the Great hath it recorded for his honour that he employed his power force against Lâ—cinius upon no other Motive but because he banished tortur'd destroyed those Christians in his Dominions that would not abandon their Religion And Q. Elizabeth is commended for assisting the Dutch to maintain their Religion by force when they could not enjoy it by favour And King Iames the 6. gave publick aid to the Protestants in Germany Bohemia against the Emperour Against whom also Gustavus Adolphus marched that he might deliver the oppressed Cities from the bondage that Ferdinand had brought them into Yea King Charles the first this mans Father pretended at least to help the Protestants in France at Ree and Rochel And though he himself was avowedly Resisted by the Parliaments of both Ringdoms yet he was forced to Declare in his Acts of Oblivion Pacification The Scots late taking up Armes against him in defence of their Religion Laws Priviledges to be no Treason nor Rebellion See Apol. Relat. Sect. 11. pag. 149. And thô the late Charles the Second condemned all the Risings of the people of Scotland for defence of Religion Liberty and their lives priviledges which his oun Tyrannie forced them into yet he justified the present Revolt of Heathens Mahumetan Subjects from the young King of Bantam in Iava Major in the East Indies who when he got the Government in his hands by his Fathers Resignation killed his subjects and caused them to be killed without any cause which was the reason of their revolt ftom him and defending the Father against the son This defensive war of these Subjects was justied by the said Charles in his sending Amunition c. for their relief These and many moe Instances that might be adduced are sufficient evidences of the Righteousness and Reason of such Resistences when the Greatest of Princes have undertakent he Patrocinie of them III. From Scripture-Proofs I shall but briefly gather some of the many that might be pressed which being put together to me seem impregnable I shall reduce them to these heads 1. I shall aduce some practices of the Lords people frequently reiterated never condemned alwayes approven confirming this Point 2. Some severe Reprehensions for their omission of this duty in the season thereof 3. Some promises both of Spiriting for the duty and of Countenancing it when undertaken 4. Some precepts commanding such Atchievments 5. Some prayers supplicating for them All which put together will make a strong Argument First For practices of this kind there is nothing more common in Scripture Historie 1. I shall begin at the first war that is recorded in the World wherein some loss fell to the Godly at first but afterwards by the virtue valour of their Brethren they were vindicated and the victory recovered with honour Lot his family living in Sodom was taken Prisoner by Chedarlaomer and his Confederates Gen. 14. 12. but Abraham hearing of it armed his trained servants and pursued them to Dan and rescued him vers 14-16 thereby justifying that Rebellion of the Cities of the plain by taking part vindicating the Rebells Hence he that may rescue subjects from the violence of any Tyrannizing Domination by armes may also rise with these subjects to oppose that violence But here is an example of that in Abraham Ergo 2. After the Lords people were possessed of Canaan and forgetting the Lord did enter into affinity with these interdicted Nations some of them were left to prove Israel that the Generations of the Children of Israel might know to teach them war. Iudg. 3. 1 2. And when they did evil in the sight of the Lord He sold them into the hand of Chushan-rishathaim King of Mesopotamia whom they served and were subject to eight years ver 8. but when they cried unto the Lord their Rebellion shaking off that yoke was successful under the Conduct of Othniel ver 10. And after a relapse unto the like defection they became subject to Eglon King of Moab whom they served eighteen years vers 14. but attempting the same remedy by armes under the Conduct of Ehud they recovered their Liberty And after his
fictionibus sese liceat involvere i. e. Whither the confiscation of goods can be sought back again from a Prince in the name and behalf of these who are forfaulted for Religion to which he Answers that it is certain it cannot be done without sin for the new right or the de novo damus as we call it granted by the Prince doeth really contain open blasphemies against the glory of God because therein mention is made of errors crims divine lese-Majestie whereof the condemned are found guilty which new right most in Law be exhibited by him who intendeth to use the same and that is a certain kind of approbation no ways to be tolerat Wherfore I see not that it is Lawfull for a Godly man rightly instructed in the Gospel to involve himself into such fictions 2. From the Fountain Conveyance whence they proceed the iniquity of these payments might be concluded which is nothing else than that Arbitrary Power domineering over us and oppressing overpressing the Kingdoms with intolerable Exactions which to pay is all the consent Concurrence required of us to entail slaverie on the posterity I mean to pay it out of submission only to the Moral force of its Imposition which is all the justification required of that absolute Tyranny imposing it For we have the Testimony of a King for it K. Iames Speech to the Parliament anno 1609. that a King degenerateth into a Tyrant when he leaveth to rule by Law much more when he begins to set up an Arbitrary Power impose unlawful Taxes c. It can be denyed by none that know either Religion or Liberty and are not enemies to both that these Impositions under consideration upon such accounts for such ends are as unlawful Taxes and as illegally and arbitrarily imposed as ever could demonstrate the most Despotical Absoluteness Paramount to all Law or precedent but that of Benhadad of a very Tyrannical strain Thus saith Benhadad thy silver thy gold is mine yet I will send my Servants and they shall search thine house and it shall be that whatsoever is pleasant in thine eyes they shall put in their hand take it away 1 King. 20. 3 6. which even an Ahab and his Elders would not hearken to nor consent But from an Exotick Dominator this were not so intollerable as from such as pretend an hereditary right to Govern who should remove violence spoyl and take away their Exactions from the Lords people as the Lord saith Ezek. 45. 9. but instead of that that they may do evil with both hands earnestly the Prince asketh and the Iudge asketh for a reward and the great man uttereth his mischievous desire so they wrap it up Mic. 7. 3. The easie Complyance with which makes Zion as the grape gleanings of the vintage If those Exactions be wicked then Complyance with them must be iniquity For it justifies the Court that enacts exacts them a paâ—qued Iunctâ— of a prevalent faction made up of perjured Traitors in a Course of enmity against God and the Country who to prosecute the War against the Almighty and root out all His people out of the Land condescend upon these Cesses Fynes c. as a fit adapted Medium thereunto Wherefore of necessity all that would not oune that Conclusion as their oun deed in these Representatives and oune them as their Representatives in that deed must bear witness against the same by a Refusal to oune the debt or pay the same But I shall conclude this with observing 1 The holy remarkable righteousness of the Lord that we who would not contend earnestly for the Liberty of the Gospel who would not acquit our selves like men in witnessing our Loyaltie to Christ were not fixed in our Engagements nor stedfast in holding the Liberties wherewith Christ hath made us free did not reclaim nor reluctate when we saw our Royal Masters Prerogative invaded should be trode upon in all Civills and treated as Slaves even by these whom we had gratified with a base sinful forbearance to plead for God and preserve from their violence these things these precious invaluable things which we should have kept more tenderly than the apple of our eye O the relucency of this Righteousness in making the Gods whom we have served smite us and in making them whose interest we minded with a misregard Perjury-involving neglect of the Interest of Christ thus to destroy our poor pitiful Interests And thus having taught them to be Captains over us we must now sit in the house of bondage in our Land. 2 Who will not adore admire the Righteousness of the Lord particularly in leaving some of these to be designedly trode upon who not only were involved in the common guilt of not with-standing these Encroachments but first went a great way in concuring to the making of these wicked Laws And now have been made to lye under the load laid upon their loyns by the hands of such to whom they gave the hand in overturning the Work of God Why should not they be spoyled Why should not the young Lyons roar upon them and make their Land wast Why should not men of the same mettal soul with the Children of Noph Tahapanes break the Crown of their head or feed upon their Crown who have sold set the Crown of Christ upon anothers head and concured to crush His faithful Remnant O let us learn to read revere Let us not be wheedled with we know not what out of our good old Principles into the espousing the Interest or embarquing into the same bottom with men of such Principles Practices And whoso is wise and will observe these things even they shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord Great loving kindness that He hath shewed to his poor Remnant in delivering us from deliverances by such Deliverers whereby the work had been more really and more shamefully ruined and the hope of the posterity more certainly razed 3. From the declared Ends of all of them declared either verbally or virtually and indisputably universally known To wit that by such Exactions they might be enabled to maintain prosecute the National Rebellion against Christ and root out His Gospel and all the faithful Preachers Professors thereof These designs being notour and the Impositions demanded being the best expedients and most adapted means to attain them it cannot but be manifest that whosoever complyes with the means do cooperate with the ends Which if any thing will involve the Complyers in the Contrivers sin and make the Payers obnoxious to the Enacters judgments If they that take rewards to slay Innocents be lyable to a Curse Deut. 27. 25. they cannot be free who give them They cannot say Amen to it who so cooperate to the effectuating the slaughter If any thing make Zion lyable to be plowed as a field when the heads thereof judge for reward Mic. 3. 11 11. it must be
not Gods Ordinance and there is no hazard of damnation for refusing to obey their unjust commands but rather the hazard of that is in walking willingly after the Commandment when the Statutes of Omri are kept So that what is objected from Eccles. 8. 2-4 I counsell thee to keep the Kings Commandment c. is answered on Head. 2. And is to be unsterstood only of the Lawful commands of Lawful Kings 2. Rebellion is a damnable sin except where the word is taken in a laxe sense as Israel is said to have Rebelled against Rehoboam and Hezekias against Sennacherib which was a good Rebellion and clear duty being taken there for Resistence Revolt In that sense indeed some of our Risings in Armes might be called Rebellions for it is Lawful to Rebel against Tyrants But because the word is usually taken in an evil sense therefore would have been offensive to acknowledge that before the Inquisitors except it had been explained But Rebellion against Lawful Magistrats is a damnable sin exemplarly punished in Korah and his Companâ— who rebelled against Moses and in Shebah and Absalom who rebelled against David for to punish the Just is not good nor to strike Princes for equity Prov. 17. 26. And they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation Rom. 13. 2. So that this Objection brought from this place as if the Apostle were commanding there subjection without Resistence to Nero and such Tyrants as it is very impertinent It is fully answered above Head. 2. Here it will be sufficient to reply 1. He is hereby vindicating Christianity from that reproach of casting off or refusing subjection to all Magistrats as if Christian Liberty had destroyed that Relation or that they were not to be subject to Heathen Magistrats Whereupon he binds this duty of subjection to Magistrats for conscience sake in general And it is very considerable what Buchanan sayes in his book de jure regni that Paul did not write to the Kings themselves because they were not Christians and therefore the more might be born with from them tho they should not understand the duty of Magistrats But imagine that there had been some Christian King who had turned Tyrant and Apostate to the Scandal of Religion what would he have written then Sure if he had been like himself he would have denyed that he should be ouned for a King and would have interdicted all Christians Communion with him and that they should account him no King but such as they were to have no fellowship with according to the Law of the Gospel 2. He speaks of Lawful Rulers here not Tyrants but of all such as are defined qualified here being powers ordained of God terrours to evil works Ministers of God for good Yea but says Prelats and their Malignant Adherents these are only Motives of subjection to all powers not qualifications of the powers I answer they are indeed Motives but such as can be extended to none but to these powers that are so qualified 3. He speaks of Lawful powers indefinitely in the plural number not specifying any Kind or degree of them as if only Kings Emperours were here meant It cannot be proven that the power of the sword is only in them Neither was there a plurality of Kings or Emperours at Rome to be subject to if he meant the Roman Emperour he would have designed him in the singular number All the reasons of the Text aggree to inferiour Judges also for they are Ordained of God they are called Rulers in Scripture and Gods Ministers revengers by Office who judge not for man but for the Lord And inferiour Magistrats also are not to be resisted when doing their duty 1 Pet. 2. 13. yet all will grant when they go beyond their bounds and turns litle Tyrants they may be with-stood 4. He does not speak of Nero concerning whom it cannot be proven that at this time he had the Soveraign power as the learned Mr Prin shewes Or if he had that he was a Tyrant at this time and if he meant him at all it was only as he was obliged to be de jure not as he was de facto All men know and none condemns the fact of the Senate that resisted Nero at length without transgressing this precept Yea I should rather think the Senate is the power that the Apostle applies this Text to if he applied it to any in particular 5. The subjection here required is the same with the honour in the fifth Command whereof this is an exposition and is opposite to the Contraordinatness here condemned Now subjection takes in all the duties we owe to Magistrates and Resistence all the contraries forbidden but unlimited obedience is not here required so neither unlimited subjection 3. We may allow Passive subjection in some cases even to Tyrants when the Lord layes on that yoke and in effect sayes He will have us to lie under it a while as He Commanded the Jewes to be subject to Nebuchadnezzar of which passage adduced to prove subjection to Tyrants Universally Buchanan ubi supra infers that if all Tyrants be to be subjected to because God by His Prephet Commanded His people to be subject to one Tyrant Then it must be likewise concluded that all Tyrants ought to be killed because Ahabs house was Commanded to be destroyed by Iehu But passive subjection when people are not in capacity to resist is necessary I do not say Passive obedience which is a meer Chimaera invented in the brains of such Sycophants as would make the world slaves to Tyrants Whosoever suffereth if he can shun it is an enemy to his oun being for every natural thing must strive to preserve it self against what annoyeth it and also he sins against the order of God Who in vain hath ordained so many Lawful means for preservation of our being if we must suffer it to be destroyed having power to help it 4. We abhor all war of subjects professedly declared against a Lawful King as such all war against Lawful Authority founded upon or designed for maintaining Principles inconsistent with Government or against Policy Piety Yea all war without Authority Yes when all Authority of Magistrates supreme subordinate is perverted and abused contrary to the ends thereof to the oppressing of the people and overturning of their Laws Liberties people must not suspend their Resistence upon the Concurrence of men of Authority and forbear the Duty in case of necessity because they have noâ— the peers or Primores to lead them for if the ground be Lawful the call clear the necessity cogent the capacity probable they that have the Law of Nature the Law of God and the fundamental Laws of the Land on their side cannot want Authority though they may want Parâ—iaments to espouse their quarrel This is cleared above Head. 2. Yet here I shall adde 1. The people have this priviledge of nature to defend themselves and their Rights Liberties as well as