a Circa quodcunque est Dei permissio circa idem etiam est actualis volitio Th. de Bradward volition then surely those futuritions or positive events determined by him and welpleasing to him come not to pass without his special efficiency this Doctrine some of us have taken in from the Schools and in whatever Series of events God manifests this his special concurrence or appearing that cause he owns hence it may be said of our change the thing is of God and those Powers in being over us ordained of him yea by his special appointment speciall procurement and we hope out of special grace and favor Object But the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say some signifie lawful powers a power of right contradistinguished to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a power of might Answ To this we Answer VVhat men mean by a power of Right or how far they will extend it we do not very well know we conceive our present Powers may fall within that compass but as for the word it signifies any power the devil hath no lawful power to give and yet this word is used for that power over the Kingdoms of the world which he offered unto Christ Luke 4.6 what shall we think of Pilates power to crucifie the Lord of Life Joh. 19.10 Here the word is used again was that a lawful power Secondly we cannot easily understand how any powers should take the denomination of lawful or unlawful from their Form Constitution or Mould for then onely some one frame of Government would be lawful as it is in Gospel Discipline and all other unlawful but rather from the efflux of peoples wils into the Being of such Powers over them or from their agency in commanding things lawful or unlawful under God Those that command unlawful things in such exorbitances swerving from the Rule of their Office they retain no stamp of * Malus princeps non est princeps quemadmodum spiritus impurus qui invasit corpus hominis non est animus Eras Authority or Power on them at all For upon this account we are disobliged from consciencious obedience in such cases because there men act as disrob'd of Magistracy God never giving any man Commission to do evil He is the Minister of God to thee for good saith the Apostle Rom. 13.4 1 Pet. 2.14 Object Kingly power is by this Plea proved a lawful power and a power ordained of God why then was the King resisted rejected and that Government laid aside Answ To this we say 1. That Kingly power with its just limits and boundaries was a lawful power amongst us and ordained of God and is so where ever it is lawfully exercised Kings are lawful powers but not exclusively The Kings of England were so the States of Holland are so so are the Emperors Princes and Cantons of Germany the Senate and Capi of Venice the great Dukes of Muscovy the Vaivods of Transilvania and the Parliaments of England 2. Why that Government is laid aside the Parliament hath given most unbyassed men very good satisfaction both for the equity and necessity of it in their Declaration of March 17. 1648. published in several Languages unto which we refer the Objectors 3. The King was rejected upon the matter of his Charge See the Kings Case resisted because of his illegal commands and usurpations upon Liberties and * If a Villain work on Sunday by his Lords command he shall be free Sir H. Spillman Concil Consciences Neither was the King though a lawful power the sole power amongst us no nor the Soveraign power neither if Mr. Prynne be not mistaken who intitles several Volumns of his The Soveraign Power of Parliaments and Kingdoms and that learned Scotchman in his Lex Rex opposed to all Prerogative and Royal Advocates overthrowing and exauctorating the Pleas of Maxwel Barclay Grotius Spalatensis the Doctors of Aberdeen Dr. Fern E. Simmons c. tending to assert the Royal Prerogative of Christian Kings We conceive all powers as to their form are lawful yet all changeable The Royal Scepter was lawful though not everlasting the laying it aside speaks not its absolute illegality but its temporal inexpediency And we wish that Parliaments in their present Constitution may not be so long liv'd as the Norman Scepter if they be less expedient we judg them both lawful powers but neither irresistible nor unchangeable 4. The Lord by his Providence hath largely commented upon those Texts which confirm the lawfulness of our powers in Being yea their very constitution as from him Grotius of the truth of Christian Religion l. 1. sect 11. Where it pleaseth God to change the form of Government those men whom he useth as instruments for the effecting of that matter as being determined for him Suppose they be like to Cyrus Alexander or Caesar the Dictator to them all things even those which are above the reach of mans prudence do succeed more beyond their desires and wishes then the diversity of humane casualties ordinarily doth permit c. They are the words of H. Grotius a man not very Orthodox touching Magistracy neither and remarkable under this head by all those who have taken notice of the gracious conduct of Providence towards and the Lords presence with those who have been instruments in his hands for effecting this change of Government amongst us And truly he that considers the works done in our days pondering them well and yet confesseth not Digitum Dei hîc hîc the Arm of the Almighty made bare for us we cannot but think he is more deeply baptized into the spirit of Atheism then the Egyptian sorcerers which withstood Moses were Exod. 8.19 If the falling of a Sparrow to the ground though worth but half a farthing hath something of providence in it much more those wonderful appearings of God antecedent concomitant and subsequent to our change of Government Psal 97.5 Have not the hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord at the presence of the Lord of the whole Earth See the Lord Generals Letter from Ireland Decemb. 1649. Isai 26.11 God will surely curse that man and his house who saith it was an arm of flesh that did what was done in England as making way for this change or what hath been done in Ireland since Those who will not see when the Lords hand is lifted up they shall see and be ashamed c. The Almighties smoothing that roughness and becalming those tumultuous ragings of peoples spirits by the greatness of his arm Exod. 15 16. making them as still as a stone just upon this change His breaking their powerful conspiracies and dissipating those numerous bodies spirited with influence from the Royal Head before this change and his preventing those hideous confusions and garments rolling in blood which by the Catholike out cry of the vulgar and the ominous presages of some graver heads threatned to attend this change All these ioyntly pondered together
Dangerous limitation how could that be if the Covenant according to the letter of it might not be kept and yet the Kings person endangered And surely if by any Covenant we had unwarily tied our selves to priviledg his person so as thereby to overthrow the use or end of b See Junius Brut. p. 84. Magistracy amongst us that Covenant could not be binding because sinful God will have no man lift up above his c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Naz. Orat. 27. Ordinance but this is done by setting up an unaccountable Magistrate Covenanting to priviledg his person absolutely or without limitation which must needs give him liberty to play d Quilibet impune facere hoc scilicet regium est Salust Rex and to make what God ordains for peoples good to become a snare to them and their chief endamagement no such discommode in the world as a man that may do what his list and his life notwithstanding must be accounted the choisest treason that can be well then if the Kings preservation was conditional we must leave it to the determination of those who are chosen to Judg and conclude what is consistent with our liberties and what not whether the things mainly Covenanted for or the condition could have been obtained and preserved with the preservation of this Kings person yea or no if not the case is e Enuntiatio hypothetica si conditio sit impossibilis aequivalet negativae Fr. Burgers loq clear and truly we cannot but think as the Parliament and Kirk of Scotland thought viz. That the Kings Concessions were unsatisfactory yea destructive to Religion and the Nations safety and that he should be ever kept on treating being thereby set in ballance with the whole Nation and with the advantage of creating everlasting war and trouble to the ruine of all honest people especially being a man guilty of most enormous crimes and of an implacable spirit we thought our Covenant never bound us to 2. Whereas divers amongst us will needs bring Monarchy within the compass of the Covenant and conceive themselves bound thereby to maintain Kingly Government sure 't is a Gourd they are very fond of we cannot see how they can possibly hedge this in there being no mention made of Kingly Government or the Kings posterity at all in it his just Rights and power there spoken of and Covenanted for were his personal Rights and Power as may appear by the last Clause of that Article We have no thoughts of diminishing his Majesties just power and greatness all which was to stand or fall with performance or non-performance of that grand condition in the Preservation of c. touching this condition the Scots speak very well though in the extent of the Covenant we conceive them mistaken in their Declaration of August last containing the grounds why they could not admit the late Kings Son to the exercise of Royal Power over them The duty of defending and preserving the Kings Majesties Person and Authority say they is joyned with and subordinate unto the duty of preserving and defending the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms and therefore his Majesty standing in opposition to the just and necessary publike desires concerning Religion and Liberties it were a manifest breach of Covenant and a preferring of the Kings Interest to the Interest of Jesus Christ to bring him to the exercise of his Royal Power which he walking in a contrary way and being compassed about with Malignant Counsels cannot but employ to the prejudice and ruine of both Object But the Declaration of the Houses of April 1646. and other Declarations abundantly cleer the extent of the Covenant to Kingly Government and bear witness to their meaning in it Answ 1. We conceive not our selves bound by the Covenant to maintain any thing besides the letter of it and the most obvious sense 't is wholly beside the purpose and unreasonable to fasten any postnate or occasional Declarations upon mens consciences in this case since what the Parliament did without or beside the Covenant neither reacheth us nor comes within our compass to scan or pass verdict on the Covenant pointing or referring us to no such considerations 2. The same unalterable tenor of politick administrations cannot suit the various exigency of a Nations Affairs what the Parliament therefore declared at one time Declaration of March 17. 1648. p. 21. Ames de Consc l. 5. c. 25. Ibidem they might see necessary cause for altering at another and did as appears by that Declaration where Answer is made to this present Objection the Intention or Obligation of a Law or a Promise ought not to be extended beyond the reason or foundation of it so that the Reason or ground ceasing the Obligation must needs cease too as it doth likewise upon this account viz. if the state of things and persons be so changed as that in the judgment of wise men those who promised or declared ought cannot be thought to have willed the including such or such an event in the promise Now this event in the Parliaments Case was the Kings implacability and inexorableness after seven addresses made unto him and the strong inclinations of the House of Lords to his beloved Interest neither of which events the Parliament can be judged to have included in their former Declarations viz. that they should resolve thereby and declare to maintain the Government in that manner let the King or Lords do what they pleased or carry themselves as they listed 3. And lastly as to those breaches of Parliament Priviledges which we Covenanted to preserve by forcing the House excluding the members c we have this to say 1. This Engagement concludes not our approbation nor wraps us up in the guilt of any miscariages infringing the Covenant if any such were committed neither doth our Covenant binde us to any things impossible whatsoever irregularity have been charged upon the Army of this kinde in our places and callings we could neither prevent nor can remedy See that Declaration Feb. 17. 1648. Page 12 13. 2. We hear of no Covenantiers in Scotland who scruple their submitting to that power in Being over them nor their owning it though those who now govern affairs there were brought in by a greater force then ever our Parliament groaned under another Parliament being there called while the former was by adjournment continued And the imprisoning some of our Parliament Members is alleadged by the Army to be amongst other things for Confederacies and Correspondencies with that party in Scotland which our Brethren there found themselves necessitated to trample under foot yet no man saith unto them why do you so This makes us think that Parliament-priviledges may be sometimes looked at as Formalities rather then sacred and indispensable Rights viz. When the greater number of Parliament men set themselves in a way of utter ruining rather then of building up and establishing a Nation on the sure Foundations
of Peace and Righteousness Thus we leave what hath been said to the Consciences of those men who set the Covenant as a partition wall betwixt themselves and the Engagement We come now to the oath of Allegeance and shall draw out our sense touching that as briefly as may be 1. The ground of that Oath we conceive to be our actuall protection and not meerly the Kings obligation to protect us as some would have it for miserable is that people like to be See the Oxford Reasons c. Rom. 13.4 whose welfare is no otherwise provided for then thus Kings having got a knack to disoblige themselves of their duty towards their subjects when they list Men do not swear Allegeance to Magistrates as dropping from heaven over them like poor Earthlings created meerly to bear up their trains but as Ministers ordained and chosen for their service and good We ever thought that the Stipulations betwixt a Prince and people were * Junius Brutus p. 97 c. Ames Med. de Jurament de Consc l. 4. c. 2â— mutual and always held it a safe rule That if he who promiseth mutually will not perform what he promiseth our Obligation is not binding But how well the late King performed his part we shall have reason to remember Again the formal Cause of a promissory Oath ceasing the Obligation it self ceaseth but the formal Cause as we said of Allegeance a Protection This needs no proof the Arguments against it being non-suited over and over in the Court of Reason and Truth therefore we conceive our selves loosed from Allegeance according to that Oath its correlate and foundation being taken away Thus the Portugals plead in our case The Kings of Castile say they Histor Liberat. Lucit l. 2. Though admitted the Kings of Portugal yet may be rejected 1. Because they have not kept those Covenants which they were sworn to at their entrance on the Crown cap. 3. 2. By reason of their male-administration of Government to the destruction of the Common-wealth without hope of remedy cap. 4. 3. By reason of their tyranny cap. 5. 4. By the Law of nature which enables a people to defend themselves against all such as seek their ruine and extinction cap. 7. 5. Neither did they conceive their Oath of Allegeance hindered this Praeclaro facinori non obstitit juramentum praesâ—itum regi Castellano l. 3. c. 4. Did we not cut our own throats and were we not accessory to our own undoing if by the servile abasing our selves to a tyrants will we should give him the advantage of ruining us This were a palpable yielding up that which most Kings reach out their hands for Even that we are made for them and not they for us and for our good 2. When we swear homage and obedience to our Lord and Superior who afterwards ceaseth to be our Lord and Superior the * Quum aufertur ratio formalis juramenti juramentum cessat ratione evenâ—us qui casus est eorum qui jurarunt se obedituros Domino aut Principi alicui qui postea cessat esse talis Amâ—â— de Consc l 4. c. 22. Obligation ceaseth This Rule Henderson makes use of in his first Paper to the King at Newcastle and will be irrefragable by all the Reason in the world Can this Oath therefore binde us now our Superior is not However taken away by might or right cavent actor Well but we hear many say The King cannot die it is to be supposed they mean it of a death in Law not a natural death and then being our Law is called the Soul of Reason it would be known what Reason can be given of that maxime Surely a King dethroned is dead in Law and this may perswade plain men to question the universal and holding verity of it If he may die as King we doubt not but his person may die but a King laid aside or dead dies as King otherwise there could be no such thing as an Interregnum of which we read frequently in all Chronicles Again we ever thought that a Kings Coronation was his actual investiture with Power or his Constitution as King and sure it will be accepted and excuse us if when we hear of any such King amongst us we grutch him not our Allegeance if we swear Homage to the Kings Successors they must either succeed him before we can perform it or else our Oath ties us to his Children or Heirs while he lives as well and fully as when he is dead If any of the late Kings Children do de facto succeed him as King or Heir his Power we shall be their Liege people but for a Succession de jure as we are made no judges of any such thing so we know not what it means We swear Allegeance not to Kingly power as we conceive but to our Royal Protectors and he that is not actually our Liege Lord we cannot be termed his Liege Subjects for Relations stand and fall together We know little of the mysteries in Law for the greatest part of us neither do we conceive it necessary for the approving our hearts unto God that we apply our selves to the search of them If there be any thing hid in the Laws which prejudiceth our Rights and Just Liberty as this Maxime That the King cannot die according as it useth to be urged seems to do we shall thank the Parliament for calling us to subscribe if our subscription may work its abolition But if men when they say The King cannot die mean this viz. That that Legislative or Executive Power Fundamental to a Nations Being cannot die we are ready to kiss their lips and grant it true Thus that power which the Spaniard had by Law in the Netherlands still lives in the States of those United Provinces though he be rejected and thus the Kings power lives in our present Parliament else we were all but dead men Having thus cleared our grounds for subscription and shewed its consistencie with those sacred ties which fall not asunder of themselves We shall conclude with a request to our dissenting neighbors that they would not confidently or magisterially sleight what is capable of their serious consideration in this our plea Men that study an impartial search of truth and conscientious satisfaction in the crowd of different perswasions must not be resolved to maintain any * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Non est pudor ad meliora transire Ambros Hypothesis of their own however their understandings have been educated He that gratifies his affection at so high a rate as to make it umpire in any contest cheapens the Jewel of truth so faintly as if he intended not to buy it and basely prostitutes the soveraignty of his Judgment We cannot weigh things by affection and reason too divers weights are an abomination to the Lord Prov. 20.23 and a false ballance is not good a few grains of affection will overpoize many drams of reason and we are all apt to overween our habituated perswasions and to set them up as the first second and third argument against contrariety in Judgment to us however bottomed we are apt to think them yea and call them impregnable and invincible as Montanus overvaluing his two poor parishes in Asia Euseb Eccles hist li. 5. Pepusa and Tymium called them Jerusalem Hence commonly ariseth that confidence which makes men dictators rather then disputers and is no competent testimony of truth being but like a wager which according to the proverb Is a fools argument Two Franciscan Fryars would needs be burnt at a stake to prove Savanarola an Heretick Phil. de Comm. li. 8. and a Jacobine Fryar offers himself to the flames to prove he was no Heretick yet these premises were not demonstrative or of power to espouse the judgment of any impartiall seeker to the conclusion they inferred Savanarola might hold the truth notwithstanding that argument the Franciscans brought against him and an error notwithstanding the Jacobines confidence videtur quod sic and videtur quod non sic had better becomed them both Truly this is the temper of many dissenters amongst us as to the engagement they will seem rather to offer themselves to an outlary banishment imprisonment and what not out of prepossession and prejudice then shew any face of reason at all to prove the unlawfulness of subscribing to the present Authority Others that have their conscientious reasons are as shie of propounding them as if those who differ from them were not men to be argued with as denying some common principle that carries its evidence in it self It is not here * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athan. undertaken but essay'd to perswade their consciences and briefly to lay down some of those grounds on which our engagement with the Parliament out of conscience is built that it may not be presumed or concluded as commonly it useth to be that there is little conscience in any saving in those who put themselves on the suffering side We shall not apologize much in the behalf of this our Plea onely thus we live far from the scene of action and information and have little acquaintance with great mens spirits and tempers being of the smaller people we know not how this controversie is dignosc't and scand or what â—hapes it puts on amongst those larger heads and men of greatned expeâ—iences by reason of their higher callings relations and imployments who â—appily as 't is said of Berengarius may know all things knowable we have search't onely to finde out duties and must be excused as ignoâ—ant of their several Pleas if we touch not upon all mens gravamina or â—hose scruples which make them contrary in perswasion and action to us Yea if sometimes we strike unwittingly besides the nail if we be less exact or full in our Salvo's then the nature of such a business may require Yea if happily we mistake in any thing of moment we speak but our own sense which at so great a distance from Authentique informers may be easily deceived Sed non pigebit nos sâ—oubi haesitamus quaerere nec pudebit nos sicubi erramus nâ—â— corrigare August De Trinit Li. 1. cap. 1. FINIS
with his uninterrupted goodness towards us ever since make up an evidence of Gods signal owning that power in Being over us which is the product of these wonders If Providence can speak any thing of his minde or ever did in any age of the world Psalm 19.2 If the Lords workings be not dumb shews if there be any language in them it is that of Shemaiah to all that would lift up themselves against our present Authority 1 Kings 12.24 Return every man to his house for this thing is from the Lord not from him onely as an overseer of things doing and an orderer of things done for his glory but as an efficatious worker in producing this very change according as he useth to shew himself in all those events and those onely which are of special complacency to him Isaiah 23.9 The Lord of hosts hath purposed to stain the pride of all glory and to bring into contempt all the honorable of the Earth Surely this word is come to the birth we beleeve and therefore we speak The anointed of the Lord will certainly make Monarchy and Monarchs Psalm 2.9 c. the present pride and glory of many Nations as infamous as ever they have been famous If Kings be not wise if they serve him not with fear if they set themselves against the Lord Apoc. 21.24 and comply not with his interest in the world if they bring not their glory and honor to the New Jerusalem he will pour shameful spuing upon their glory yea though they bear themselves up in their port and pride Isaiah 60.15 as Behemoth in the waters of Jordan he will dash their Scepters in pieces like a potters vessel and make them bow to the soles of their feet whom he hath promised to make an eternal Excellency even the Saints of the most high God Dan. 7.28 Heb. 12.28 who shall receive a Kingdom which cannot be shaken The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this Having thus cleered our first Argument as the main foundation upon which we build our obedience being of most powerful and direct influence upon our consciences From this holding Plea we pass to a second Argument The mutual relation of Protection and Allegiance every benefit requiring Argum. 2 some duty presseth us to a cheerful owning the Parliament and to a re-alliance with them as our actual Protectors in subscribing to be true and faithful c. This Argument is hinted in the Act for Subscription Act. Jan. 2. 1649. and not without special reason considering how ready men are to forget themselves and to trip up the heels of such as support them We need not labor in specifying or aggravating the benefits of Protection they being of so obvious a sense to all who prize Religion Life Liberty or Property And we understand not what duties answer the nature and claim of such benefits If a thankful owning of those persons and powers through whose hands they are dispenced to us and a cheerful submission to them be denied If we give not that which God requires will our offering be accepted and wherewith shall we make an atonement for our ingratitude Here again many interpose as not willing to be thought undutiful we Object 1 can cheerfully submit to the Authority say they And that out of Conscience in things lawful but to acknowledg and approve of them as lawful powers we cannot Answ There may be wisdom which we see not or rather policy in this but to our sense the objectors seem rather nice then wise We never knew how to divide the hair or distinguish betwixt a conscientious subjection to any powers over us and an owning them as full and lawful powers ordained of God Conscientious submission consignifies a conscientious owning the powers and presumes or implies their lawfulness otherwise Conscience would not interpose so far All the tribute of duty which Conscience exacts being paid as to God will be ill performed if we pay them in to a wrong hand The case indeed is changed when a man submits upon another account then Conscience as from Policy Fear c. But Conscientious obedience hath no such flaw in it as a mental reservation of so strange and implicatory a purport as this I obey out of Conscience and yet I judg the powers so unlawful as that their commands have no influence upon my Conscience at all Object 2 Others say Their self-seeking and oppression make us we cannot own them so heartily as otherwise we might Answ 1. Many cry out against self-seeking who love themselves and their interests as impatiently as any Member of the Councel of State whatsoever can do his and thousands amongsts us make a noise about oppression who pay them not a groat a quarter yea our quondam Publicans exclaim heavily Burdens Burdens Dic mihi si fueris tu leo qualis eris Deut. 32.6 But Do ye thus requite the Lord O foolish people and unwise 2. Those men rather sought themselves who sought the Kings favor and tackt about to his interest who would plead his cause rather then not kiss his hand as that man who blushed not to aver That the Kings Concessions were the largest the safest and the beneficiallest that ever were granted by any King to his Subjects since the Creation Did they seek themselves who to the apparent jeopardy of them and their posterities durst take such a Lion by the beard as they did Neither have they yet divided his inheritance by line amongst them nor voted an everlasting Parliament as many ad invidiam suggest to make their houses great or themselves Princes over us But to proceed We shall mention but one Argument more viz. Argum. 3 We know not how to approve our hearts before God if we should put our selves out of a capacity of serving his Providence while he offers us opportunity thereunto as we should do by refusing this Engagement Now every man almost cries out Isai 3.6 7. Let me not meddle make me not a ruler to this people let not this breach be under my hand We think it most seasonable standing up in the gap as our callings may require and offering our services to the God of our lives and comforts This we have spoken to already in the beginning of our Plea And truly we are much pressed in our spirits and cannot but wait upon the Lord going forwards while he leads us When Israel sate still they were ever hankering after Egypt therefore said the Lord sometime unto Moses Speak to the people that they go forward And that which many call Back-sliding we doubt not to take for Progression If God leads a people beyond their non-ultra or the limits of their own prefixt thoughts or expectations they usually grutch him their company Israel would go willingly out of Egypt the place of their bondage but when they met with any staggering difficulties or amuzing providences in their journeys they fell to chiding with God
Princes in any civil Record shall not justice therefore be done must the law of God be enfeebled and fall to the ground for want of an humane ordinance to back and enforce it Judg we pray you may this be but we are fearful of swelling our paper beyond the bulk of a brief Plea this also we conceive may be approved by men honest and conscientious But the great matter is yet behind the grand question or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not what a people may do of this nature being free from all bonds obligations but what they may do who lye under Covenants and Engagements to maintain such and such a Government or such and such governors in their power and Soveraignty Here say our dissenting neighbors the water sticks as to our present case and in particular they cry out amain of the contrariety and utter inconsistency of the Covenant and Oath of Allegeance with this present Engagement this leads us therefore to the second thing propounded in the beginning of our Plea viz. that we should make answer to and remove those serious objections which way-lay many conscientious men so that the cannot come up to the subscription We shall take leave here to lay down two or three preparatory Rules touching the obligatory power of Covenants in general which may be-friend us in this our following essay viz. 1. Rule All Covenants binding unto sin are ipso facto voyd because the matter of a Covenant being an essential part of it is res licita and for want of that due matter any Covenant fals to pieces as that vow which ties any man to a condition that is impossible signifies nothing upon this this account Mark 6.23 Acts 23 14. 1 Sam. 25 22. because a man cannot keep it de facto so that vow or Covenant by which one is put upon any thing unlawful signifies as little because a man cannot performe it de jure The sin is in making such Covenants not in breaking them a man overtaken with any such Oaths needs no absolution they fall asunder of themselves 2. Rule That Covenant may be lawfully entered into which the state of things and persons being changed may not be kept without sin Put the case I have engaged my self to this woman never to marry any other but her after a while this woman fals distracted mischeifs all she can come nigh is fit for no place but Bedlam where now she lies bound in chains and so is like to do while her dying day but I must either marry or burn am I now notwithstanding my engagement to her free for another woman or no We conceive conscience would give in its verdict Yes 3. Rule When any men by a promissory Oath engage themselves to some duty or performance for the benefit and advantage of another if he in whose behalf the promise is made shall take away that foundation upon which the promise was built the Covenantiers are become free 1 King 1.52 2.23 24 37 38 42 43. there the case is cleared Suppose any people by covenant pay unto their Prince as their publike shield or Protector such and such Annual Subsidies This Prince regardless of his duty is to the people as a wall broken down he prostitutes their safety to bruitish destroyers their liberties to encroachments their trade and goods to Piracies and Harrasings They become sensible of the defalcation of their properties and the debauchment of the publike interest and deny him the encovenanted tribute the Prince sues them upon an action of debt and though prerogative be the foreman of the Jury the people are acquitted and justified What are Kings but vassals to the State who if they turn tyrants Lex Rex p. 404. in Answer to an Objection of Amisaeus fall from their Rights Is Master Rutherfords question in his dispute for the just prerogative of King and people These Rules we finde very useful for the descrupling and disobliging our consciences of those ties in the objection and being of very easie and obvious application we shall pass to more particular Salvo's 1. To the Covenant and to that clause in it for preserving the Kings person we answer it is conditional and that article for bringing all Delinquents to condign punishment is positive and absolute for if this limitation in the preservation of Religion c. be not a condition then either these two articles mentioned contradict one another and so the Covenant ties us to impossibilities or else the King was no Delinquent If the former then the Covenant as to both those articles is null If the latter why did the Assembly of the Church of Scotland in a declaration sent to the King charge him with being guilty of shedding the blood of many thousands of his best subjects Yea why did their Commissioners concurring with the Houses of Parliament See the Parl. Declarat of March 4. 1647. in their answer of the thirteenth of January to the Kings letter of December 1645. amongst other things make it their first and chief reason why they could not consent to the Kings coming to London and to a Personal Treaty desired by Him untill satisfaction and security were given to both his Kingdoms because so much blood of his good subjects had been shed in this war by his commands and his Commissions Here we see the Parliament and Scotch Commissioners charging the King with deep Delinquency how comes it to be expiated in 1048 Or shall we think it was a groundless charge Is it fit to strike Princes for equity Nay sure we should prejudg their wisdome and integrity too much in saying so they tell us how he became guilty viz. The blood being shed by his commands and Commissions he shed it for the Author is more guilty then the * Semper is dicitur facere cui praeministratur Tertul. * Opera magis pertinent ad imperantem quam ad exequâ—ntem Actor The Prophet Nathan tels David that he shed the blood of Vriah 2 Sam. 12.9 though Vriah was slain by the sword of the children of Ammon and not by Davids Commission neither but by his indirect procurement but the Kings Commissions to kill c. at the bar of justice abundantly testified his palpable guilt and Delinquency Therefore we conceive to avoid a manifest contradiction in our solemn Covenant that clause must needs be acknowledged conditional which concerned the Kings person for as touching his power the dispute is not so hot though by the Covenant the one be as sacred as the other The * The reasons of the present Judgment c. p. 27. Oxford Convocation saw this condition clearly enough from the Parliaments Declarations in answer to the Scottish Papers and therefore were deterr d as they say from taking the Covenant Nay the a Royal Pourtraicture King himself if men may believe it upon the Covenant tells us that the clause in the Covenant referring to his person was of a