enter into a mutual and solemn League and Covenant wherein we all subscribe and each one of us for himself with our hands lifted up to the most high God do swear I. THat we shall sincerely really and constantly through the Grace of God endeavour in our several places and callings the preservation of the Reformed Religion in the Church of Scotland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government against our common Enemies The Reformation of Religion in the Kingdoms of England and Ireland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government according to the Word of God and the example of the best Reformed Churches And shall endeavour to bring the Churches of God in the three Kingdoms to the nearest conjunction and uniformity in Religion Confession of Faith Form of Church Government Directory for Worship and Catechizing That we and our Posterity after us may as Brethren live in Faith and Love and the Lord may delight to dwell in the midst of us II. That we shall in like manner without respect of persons endeavour the extirpation of Popery Prelacy that is Church Government by Archbishops Bishops their Chancellours and Commissaries Deans Deans and Chapters Archdeacons and all other Ecclesiastical Officers depending on that Hierarchy Superstition Heresie Schism Profaneness and whatsoever shall be found to be contrary to sound Doctrine and the power of Godliness lest we partake in other mens sins and thereby be in danger to receive of their plagues and that the Lord may be one and his Name one in the three Kingdoms III. We shall with the same sincerity reality and constancy in our several Vocations endeavour with our Estates and Lives mutually to preserve the Rights and Priviledges of the Parliaments and the Liberties of the Kingdoms and to preserve and defend the King's Majesties person and authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms that the world may bear witness with our Consciences of our Loyalty and that we have no thoughts or intentions to diminish his Majestie 's just power and greatness IV. We shall also with all faithfulness endeavour the discovery of all such as have been or shall be Incendiaries Malignants or evil Instruments by hindring the Reformation of Religion dividing the King from his people or one of the Kingdoms from another or making any faction or parties amongst the people contrary to this League and Covenant that they may be brought to publick Trial and receive condign punishment as the degree of their offences shall require or deserve or the Supream Judicatories of both Kingdoms respectively or others having power from them for that effect shall judge convenient V. And whereas the happiness of a blessed Peace between these Kingdoms denied in former times to our Progenitours is by the good Providence of God granted unto us and hath been lately concluded and settled by both Parliaments we shall each one of us according to our place and interest endeavour that they may remain conjoyned in a firm Peace and union to all Posterity And that Justice may be done upon the wilfull opposers thereof in manner expressed in the precedent Articles VI. We shall also according to our places and callings in this common cause of Religion Liberty and Peace of the Kingdoms assist and defend all those that enter into this League and Covenant in the maintaining and pursuing thereof and shall not suffer our selves directly or indirectly by whatsoever combination perswasion or terrour to be divided and withdrawn from this blessed Union and Conjunction whether to make defection to the contrary part or to give our selves to a detestable indifferency or neutrality in this cause which so much concerneth the glory of God the good of the Kingdoms and the honour of the King but shall all the days of our lives zealously and constantly continue therein against all opposition and promote the same according to our power against all lets and impediments whatsoever and what we are not able our selves to suppress or overcome we shall reveal and make known that it may be timely prevented or removed All which we shall do as in the sight of God And because these Kingdoms are guilty of many sins and provocations against God and his Son Iesus Christ as is too manifest by our present distresses and dangers the fruits thereof We profess and declare before God and the world our unfeigned desire to be humbled for our own sins and for the sins of these Kingdoms especially that we have not as we ought valued the inestimable benefit of the Gospel that we have not laboured for the purity and power thereof and that we have not endeavoured to receive Christ in our hearts nor to walk worthy of him in our lives which are the causes of our sins and transgressions so much abounding amongst us And our true and unfeigned purpose desire and endeavour for our selves and all others under our power and charge both in publick and in private in all duties we owe to God and man to amend our lives and each one to go before another in the example of a real Reformation that the Lord may turn away his wrath and heavy indignation and establish these Churches and Kingdoms in truth and peace And this Covenant we make in the presence of Almighty God the searcher of all hearts with a true intention to perform the same as we shall answer at that great day when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed most humbly beseeching the Lord to strengthen us by his holy Spirit for this end and to bless our desires and proceedings with such success as may be deliverance and safety to his people and encouragement to other Christian Churches groaning under or in danger of the yoke of Antichristian tyranny to joyn in the same or like Association and Covenant to the glory of God the enlargement of the Kingdom of Iesus Christ and the peace and tranquillity of Christian Kingdoms and Commonwealths The Negatie Oath I A. B. do swear from my heart That I will not directly nor indirectly adhere unto or willingly assist the King in this War or in this Cause against the Parliament nor any Forces raised without the consent of the two Houses of Parliament in this Cause or War And I do likewise swear That my coming and submitting my self under the Power and Protection of the Parliament is without any manner of Design whatsoever to the prejudice of the proceedings of this present Parliament and without the direction privity or advice of the King or any of his Council or Officers other than what I have now made known So help me God and the Contents of this Book Reasons why the Vniversity of Oxford cannot submit to the Covenant the Negative Oath the Ordinance concerning Discipline and Directory mentioned in the late Ordinance of Parliament for the Visitation of that place WHereas by an Ordinance of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament for the Visitation and Reformation of the University
Ecclesiastical Hierarchy we shall have sufficiently discharged our whole promise in that particular without any prejudice done to Episcopacy But 1. Neither the Composers of the Covenant by their words nor the Imposers of it by their actions have given us the least signification that they meant no more 2. Yea rather if we may judge either by the cause or the effects we may well think there was a meaning to extirpate the whole Government and every part thereof in the Article expressed For 1. The Covenant being as we have no cause to doubt framed at the instance of the Scots and for the easier procuring of their assistance in the late War was therefore in all reason so to be framed and understood as to give them satisfaction and considering what themselves have declared against Episcopacy we have little reason to believe the taking away Apparitors or any thing less than the rooting out of Episcopacy it self would have satisfied them 2. The proceedings also since the entring of this Covenant in endeavouring by Ordinance of Parliament to take away the Name Power and Revenues of Bishops do sadly give us to understand what was their meaning therein Fourthly As to the Scruples that arise from the Sovereignty of the King and the Duty of Allegiance as Subjects we find two several ways of answering but little satisfaction in either 1. The former by saying which seemeth to us a piece of unreasonable and strange Divinity that Protection and Subjection standing in relation either to other the King being now disabled to give us protection we are thereby freed from our bond of Subjection Whereas 1. The Subjects Obligation Ius subjectionis doth not spring from nor relate unto the actual exercise of Kingly protection but from and unto the Prince's obligation to protect Ius protectionis Which obligation lying upon him as a duty which he is bound in Conscience to perform when it is in his power so to do the relative Obligation thereunto lieth upon us as a duty which we are bound in Conscience to perform when it is in our power so to do His inability therefore to perform his duty doth not discharge us from the necessity of performing ours so long as we are able to do it 2. If the King should not protect us but neglect his part though having power and ability to perform it his voluntary neglect ought not to free us from the faithful performance of what is to be done on our part How much less then ought we to think our selves disobliged from our subjection when the Non-protection on his part is not from the want of will but of power 2. The later wherein yet some have triumphed by saying that the Parliament being the Supreme Judicatory of the Kingdom the King wheresoever in person is ever present there in his power as in all other Courts of Justice and that therefore whatsoever is done by them is not done without the King but by him But craving pardon first if in things without our proper sphere we hap to speak unproperly or amiss We must next crave leave to be still of the same mind we were till it shall be made evident to our understandings that the King is there in his power as it is evident to our senses that he is not there in his Person Which so far as our natural reason and small experience will serve us to judge all that hath been said to that purpose can never do For first to the point of presence 1. We have been brought up in a belief that for the making of Laws the actual Royal assent was simply necessary and not only a virtual assent supposed to be included in the Votes of the two Houses otherwise what use can be made of his Negative voice or what need to desire his Royal assent to that which may be done as well without it 2. The Statute providing that the King's assent to any Bill signified under his Great Seal shall be to all intents of Law as valid and effectual as if he were personally present doth clearly import that as to the effect of making a Law the Kings Power is not otherwise really present with the two Houses than it appeareth either in his Person or under his Seal Any other real presence is to us a riddle not much unlike to that of Transubstantion an imaginary thing rather devised to serve turns than believed by those that are content to make use of it 3. Such presence of the King there when it shall be made appear to us either from the Writs whereby the Members of both Houses are called together or by the standing Laws of the Land or by the acknowledged judgment and continued practice of former and later Ages or by any express from the King himself clearly declaring his mind to that purpose we shall then as becometh us acknowledge the same and willingly submit thereunto And as for the Argument drawn from the Analogy of other Courts wherein the King's Power is always supposed to be virtually present under submission we conceive it is of no consequence 1. The Arguments à minore and à majore are subject to many fallacies and unless there be a parity of reason in every requisite respect between the things compared will not hold good A petty Constable they say may do something which a Justice of Peace cannot do And the Steward of a petty Mannor hath power to administer an Oath which as we are told the House of Commons it self hath no power to do 2. That the High Court of Parliament is the Supream Judicatory we have been told it is by virtue of the King 's right of presiding there he being the Supream Iudge and the Members of both Houses his Council which being so the reason of difference is plain between that and other Judicatories in sundry respects 1. The Judges in other Courts are deputed by him and do all in his Name and by his Authority and therefore the presence of his power in those Courts of Ministerial Jurisdiction is sufficient his Personal presence not necessary neither hath he any Personal vote therein at all But in the high Court of Parliament where the King himself is the Supream Judge judging in his own Name and by his own Authority his Power cannot be presumed to be really present without either the actual presence of his person or some virtual representation thereof signified under his Great Seal 2. The Judges in Inferiour Courts because they are to act all in his Name and by his Authority do therefore take Oaths of fidelity for the right exercising of Judicature in their several places sitting there not by any proper interest of their own but only in right of the King whose Judges they are and therefore they are called the King's Judges and his Ministers But in the high Court of Parliament the Lords and Commons sit there in Council with the King as Supream Judge for the good of the whole Realm
and therefore they are not called the King's Judges but the King's Council and they have their several proper rights and interests peculiar and distinct both between themselves and from that of the Kings by reason whereof they become distinct Orders or as of late times they have been styled in this sense we conceive three distinct Estates Each of which being supposed to be the best Conservators of their own proper interest if the power of any one Estate should be presumed to be virtually present in the other two that Estate must needs be inevitably liable to suffer in the proper interests thereof which might quickly prove destructive to the whole Kingdom the safety and prospetity of the whole consisting in the conservation of the just rights and proper interests of the main parts viz. The King Lords and Commons inviolate and entire 3. The Judges of other Courts forasmuch as their power is but Ministerial and meerly Judicial are bounded by the present Laws and limited also by their own Acts so as they may neither swerve from the Laws in giving Judgment nor reverse their own Judgments after they are given But the high Court of Parliament having by reason of the King 's Supream Power presiding therein a Power Legislative as well as Judicial are not so limited by any earthly Power but that they may change and over-rule the Laws and their own Acts at their pleasure The King 's Personal assent therefore is not needful in those other Courts which are bounded by those Laws whereunto the King hath already given his personal assent but unto any Act of Power beside beyond above or against the Laws already established we have been informed it seems to us very agreeable to reason that the King 's Personal Assent should be absolutely necessary Forasmuch as every such Act is the exercise of a Legislative rather than of a Judicial power and no Act of Legislative power in any Community by consent of all Nations can be valid unless it be confirmed by such person or persons as the Sovereignty of that Community resideth in Which Sovereignty with us so undoubtedly resideth in the person of the King that his ordinary style runneth Our Sovereign Lord the King And he is in the Oath of Supremacy expresly acknowledged to be the only Supream Governour within his Realms And we leave it to the wisdom of others to consider what misery and mischief might come to the Kingdom if the power of any of these three Estates should be swallowed up by any one or both the other and if then under the name of a Judicial there should be yet really exercised a Legislative power 4. Since all Judicial Power is radically and originally in the King who is for that cause styled by the Laws The Fountain of Iustice and not in any other Person or Persons but by derivation from him it seemeth to us evident that neither the Judges of Inferiour Courts of Ministerial Justice nor the Lords and Commons assembled in the High Court of Parliament may of right exercise any other Power over the Subjects of this Realm than such as by their respective Patents and Writs issued from the King or by the known established Laws of the Land formerly assented unto by the Kings of this Realm doth appear to have been from him derived unto them Which Laws Patents and Writs being the exact boundary of their several Powers it hath not yet been made appear to our understandings either from the Laws of the Realm or from the tenour of those Writs by which the Parliament is called that the two Houses of Parliament have any power without the King to order command or transact but with him to treat consult and advise concerning the great affairs of the Kingdom In which respect they have sundry times in their Declarations to his Majesty called themselves by the Name of his Great Council And those Laws and Writs are as we conceive the proper Topick from which the just power of the Honourable Houses can be convincingly deduced and not such frail Collections as the wits of men may raise from seeming Analogies and Proportions §. VIII Of the Negative Oath WE are not satisfied how we can submit to the taking of the Negative Oath 1. Without forseiture of that liberty which we have sworn and are bound to preserve With which liberty we conceive it to be inconsistent that any Obligation should be laid upon the Subject by an Oath not established by Act of Parliament 2. Without abjuring our natural Allegiance and violating the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance by us formerly taken By all which being bound to our power to assist the King we are by this Negative Oath required to swear from our heart not to assist him 3. Without diminution of his Majesties just Power and Greatness contrary to the third Article of the Covenant by acknowledging a Power in the two Houses of Parliament in opposition to the King's Power Whereas we profess our selves unable to understand how there can be any lawful power exercised within this Realm which is not subordinate to the power of the King §. IX Of the Ordinances concerning the Discipline and Directory 1. First Concerning them altogether we are not satisfied how we can submit to such Ordinances of the two Houses of Parliament not having the Royal Assent 1. As are contrary to the established Laws of this Realm contained in such Acts of Parliament as were made by the joint consent of King Lords and Commons 2. Nor so only but also pretend by Repeal to abrogate such Act of Acts. For since Ejusdem est potestatis destruere cujus est constituere it will not sink with us that a letter power can have a just right to cancel and annul the Act of a greater 3. Especially the whole power of ordering all matters Ecclesiastical being by the Laws in express words for ever annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm And upon what head that Crown ought to stand none can be ignorant As to the particular Ordinances those that concern the Discipline first 1. If under that Title be comprehended the Government also we cannot submit thereunto without consenting to the eradiction of a Government of reverend Antiquity in the Church Which notwithstanding the several changes of Religion within this Realm hath yet from time to time been continued and confirmed by the publick Laws and great Charters of the Kingdom than which there cannot be a more ample testimony that it was ever held agreeable to the Civil Government and the Subjects Liberty Which also the successive Kings of this Realm at their several Coronations have solemnly sworn to preserve And the continuance whereof for sundry Reasons before upon the second Article of the Covenant specified we heartily wish and desire 2. But if the word Discipline be taken as it is in the first Article of the Covenant as contra-distinguished unto the Government there is something even
poor dejected Neighbour that complain'd he had taken a Meadow the Rent of which was 9 l. a year and when the Hay was made ready to be carried into his Barn several days constant rain had so raised the water that a sudden Flood carried all away and his rich Landlord would bate him no rent and that unless he had half abated he and seven children were utterly undone It may be noted That in this Age there are a sort of people so unlike the God of mercy so void of the bowels of pity that they love only themselves and children love them so as not to be concern'd whether the rest of mankind waste their days in sorrow or shame People that are curst with riches and a mistake that nothing but riches can make them and theirs happy But 't was not so with Dr. Sanderson for he was concern'd and spoke comfortably to the poor dejected man bade him go home and pray and not load himself with sorrow for he would go to his Landlord next morning and if his Landlord would not abate what he desired he and a Friend would pay it for him To the Landlord he went the next day and in a conference the Doctor presented to him the sad condition of his poor dejected Tenant telling him how much God is pleas'd when men compassionate the poor and told him That though God loves Sacrifice yet he loves Mercy so much better that he is pleas'd when call'd the God of mercy And told him the riches he was possest of were given him by that God of mercy who would not be pleas'd if he that had so much given yea and forgiven him too should prove like the rich Steward in the Gospel that took his fellow servant by the throat to make him pay the utmost farthing This he told him And told him That the Law of this Nation by which Law he claims his Rent does not undertake to make men honest or merciful but does what it can to restrain men from being dishonest or unmerciful and yet was defective in both and that taking any Rent from his poor Tenant for what God suffered him not to enjoy though the Law allowed him to do so yet if he did so he was too like that rich Steward which he had mentioned to him and told him that riches so gotten and added to his great Estate would as Iob says prove like gravel in his teeth would in time so corrode his Conscience or become so nauseous when he lay upon his Death-bed that he would then labour to vomit it up and not be able and therefore advis'd him being very rich to make Friends of his unrighteous Mammon before that evil day come upon him But however neither for his own sake nor for God's sake to take any Rent of his poor dejected sad Tenant for that were to gain a temporal and lose his eternal happiness These and other such reasons were urg'd with so grave and so compassionate an earnestness that the Landlord forgave his Tenant the whole Rent The Reader will easily believe that Dr. Sanderson who was himself so meek merciful did suddenly and gladly carry this comfortable news to the dejected Tenant and will believe that at the telling of it there was a mutual rejoycing 'T was one of Iob's boasts That he had seen none perish for want of clothing and that he had often made the heart of the widow to rejoyce And doubtless Dr. Sanderson might have made the same religious boast of this and very many like occasions But since he did not I rejoyce that I have this just occasion to do it for him and that I can tell the Reader I might tire my self and him in telling how like the whole course of Dr. Sanderson's life was to this which I have now related Thus he went on in an obscure and quiet privacy doing good daily both by word and by deed as often as any occasion offer'd it self yet not so obscurely but that his very great learning prudence and piety were much noted and valued by the Bishop of his Diocese and by most of the Nobility and Gentrey of that Country By the first of which he was often summon'd to preach many Visitation Sermons and by the latter at many Assizes Which Sermons though they were much esteemed by them that procur'd and were fit to judge them yet they were the less valued because he read them which he was forc'd to do for though he had an extraordinary memory even the Art of it yet he had such an inmate invincible fear and bashfulness that his memory was wholly useless as to the repetition of his Sermons as he had writ them which gave occasion to say when they were first printed and expos'd to censure which was in the year 1632 That the best Sermons that were ever read were never preach'd In this contented obscurity he continued till the learned and good Archbishop Laud who knew him well in Oxford for he was his contemporary there told the King 't was the knowing and conscientious King Charles the I. that there was one Mr. Sanderson an obscure Countrey Minister that was of such sincerity and so excellent in all Casuistical learning that he desir'd his Majesty would make him his Chaplain The King granted it most willingly gave the Bishop charge to hasten it for he long'd to discourse with a man that had dedicated his Studies to that useful part of learning The Bishop forgot not the King's desire and Mr. Sanderson was made his Chaplain in Ordinary in November following 1631. And when they became known to each other the King did put many Cases of Conscience to him and receiv'd from him such deliberate safe and clear solutions as gave him great content in conversing with him so that at the end of his months attendance the King told him He should long for the next November for he resolv'd to have a more inward acquaintance with him when that month and he return'd And when the month and he did return the good King was never absent from his Sermons and would usually say I carry my ears to hear other Preachers but I carry my conscience to hear Mr. Sanderson and to act accordingly And this ought not to be conceal'd from Posterity That the King thought what he spake For he took him to be his Adviser in that quiet part of his life and he prov'd to be his Comforter in those days of his affliction when he apprehended himself to be in danger of Death or Deposing Of which more hereafter In the first Parliament of this good King which was 1625. he was chosen to be a Clerk of the Convocation for the Diocese of Lincoln which I here mention because about that time did arise many disputes about Predestination and the many Critical Points that depend upon or are interwoven in it occasioned as was said by a disquisition of new Principles of Mr. Calvin's though others say they were before his time
But of these Dr. Sanderson then drew up for his own satisfaction such a Scheme he call'd it Pax Ecclesia as then gave himself and hath since given others such satisfaction that it still remains to be of great estimation among the most learned He was also chosen Clerk of all the Convocations during that good Kings reign Which I here tell my Reader because I shall hereafter have occasion to mention that Convocation in 1640. the unhappy long Parliament and some debates of the Predestination Points as they have been since charitably handled betwixt him the learned Dr. Hammond and Dr. Pierce the now reverend Dean of Salisbury In the year 1636. his Majesty then in his Progress took a fair occasion to visit Oxford and to take an entertainment for two days for himself and honourable Attendants which the Reader ought to believe was sutable to their dignities But this is mentioned because at the King 's coming thither Dr. Sanderson did attend him and was then the 31 of August created Doctor of Divinity which honour had an addition to it by having many of the Nobility of this Nation then made Doctors and Masters of Art with him Some of whose names shall be recorded and live with his and none shall out-live it First Dr. Curle and Dr. Wren who were then Bishops of Winton and of Norwich and had formerly taken their degrees in Cambridge were with him created Doctors of Divinity in his University So was Merick the Son of the learned Izaak Causabon and Prince Rupert who still lives the then Duke of Lenox Earl of Hereford Earl of Essex of Barkshire and very many others of noble birth too many to be named were then created Masters of Arts. Some years before the unhappy long Parliament this Nation being then happy and in peace though inwardly sick of being well namely in the year 1639. a discontented party of the Scots Church were zealously restless for another Reformation of their Kirk Government and to that end created a new Covenant for the general taking of which they pretended to petition the King for his assent and that he would injoyn the taking of it by all of that Nation but this Petition was not to be presenred to him by a Committee of eight or ten men of their Fraternity but by so many thousands and they so arm'd as seem'd to force an assent to what they seem'd to request so that though forbidden by the King yet they entred England and in their heat of Zeal took and plunder'd New-Castle where the King was forc'd to meet them with an Army but upon a Treaty and some concessions he sent them back though not so rich as they intended yet for that time without blood-shed But oh this Peace and this Covenant were but the forerunners of War and the many miseries that followed For in the year following there were so many chosen into the long Parliament that were of a conjunct Council with these very zealous and as factious Reformes as begot such a confusion by the several desires and designs in many of the Members of that Parliament and at last in the very common people of this Nation that they were so lost by contrary designs fears and confusions as to believe the Scots and their Covenant would restore them to their former tranquillity And to that end the Presbyterian party of this Nation did again in the year 1643. invite the Scotch Covenanters back into England and hither they came marching with it gloriously upon their Pikes and in their Hats with this Motto For the Crown and Covenant of both Kingdoms This I saw and suffer'd by it But when I look back upon the ruine of Families the bloodshed the decay of common honesty and how the former piety and plain dealing of this now sinful Nation is turned into cruelty and cunning I praise God that he prevented me from being of that party which help'd to bring in this Covenant and those sad Confusions that have follow'd it And I have been the bolder to say this of my self because in a sad discourse with Dr. Sanderson I heard him make the like grateful acknowledgement This digression is intended for the better information of the Reader in what will follow concerning Dr. Sanderson And first That the Covenanters of this Nation and their party in Parliament made many Exceptions against the Common Prayer and Ceremonies of the Church and seem'd restless for a Reformation And though their desires seem'd not reasonable to the King and the learned Dr. Laud then Archbishop of Canterbury yet to quiet their Consciences and prevent future confusion they did in the year 1641. desire Dr. Sanderson to call two more of the Convocation to advise with him and that he would then draw up some such safe alterations as he thought fit in the Service Book and abate some of the Ceremonies that were least material for satisfying their consciences and to this end they did meet together privately twice a week at the Dean of Westminster's House for the space of 3 months or more But not long after that time when Dr. Sanderson had made the Reformation ready for a view the Church and State were both fall'n into such a confusion that Dr. Sanderson's Model for Reformation became then useless Nevertheless his Reputation was such that he was in the year 1642. propos'd by both Houses of Parliament to the King then in Oxford to be one of their Trustees for the settling of Church affairs and was allowed of by the King to be so but that Treaty came to nothing In the year 1643. the 2 Houses of Parliament took upon them to make an Ordinance and call an Assembly of Divines to debate and settle some Church controversies of which many were very unfit to judges in which Dr. Sanderson was also named but did not appear I suppose for the same reason that many other worthy and learned men did forbear the Summons wanting the King's Authority And here I must look back and tell the Reader that in the year 1642. he was Iuly 21. named by a more undoubted Authority to a more noble imployment which was to be Professor Regius of Divinity in Oxford but though knowledge be said to puff up yet his modesty and too mean an opinion of his great Abilities and some other real or pretended reasons exprest in his Speech when he first appeared in the Chair and since printed kept him from entring into it till Octobor 1646. He did for about a years time continue to read his matchless Lectures which were first de Iuramento a Point very difficult and at that time very dangerous to be handled as it ought to be But this learned man as he was eminently furnished with Abilities to satisfie the consciences of men upon that important Subject so he wanted not courage to assert the true obligation of Oaths in a degenerate Age when men had made perjury a main part of their Religion How much the learned world
stands obliged to him for these and his following Lectures de Conscientia I shall not attempt to declare as being very sensible that the best Pens must needs fall short in the commendation of them So that I shall only add That they continue to this day and will do for ever as a compleat standard for the resolution of the most material doubts in Casuistical Divinity And therefore I proceed to tell the Reader That about the time of his reading those Lectures the King being then Prisoner in the Isle of Wight the Parliament had sent the Covenant the Negative Oath and I know not what more to be taken by the Doctor of the Chair and all Heads of Houses and all other inferiour Scholars of what degree soever were all to take these Oaths by a sixed day and those that did not to abandon their Colledge and the University too within 24 hours after the beating of a Drum for if they remain'd longer they were to be proceeded against as Spies Dr. Laud then Archbishop of Canterbury the Earl of Strafford and many others had been formerly murthered by this wicked Parliament but the King yet was not and the University had yet some faint hopes that in a Treaty then in being or pretended to be suddenly there might be such an Agreement made between King and Parliament that the dissenters in the University might both preserve their Consciences and Subsistance which they then enjoyed by their Colledges And being possess'd of this mistaken hope That the Parliament were not yet grown so merciless as not to allow manifest reason for their not submitting to the enjoyn'd Oaths the University appointed twenty Delegates to meet consider and draw up a Manifesto to the Parliament why they could not take those Oaths but by violation of their Consciences And of these Delegates Dr. Sheldon late Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Hammond Dr. Sanderson Dr. Morley now Bishop of Winchester and that most honest and as judicious Civil Lawyer Dr. Zouch were a part the rest I cannot now name but the whole number of the Delegates requested Dr. Zouch to draw up the Law part and give it to Dr. Sanderson and he was requested to methodize and add what referr'd to reason and conscience and put it into form He yielded to their desires and did so And then after they had been read in a full Convocation and allow'd of they were printed in Latin that the Parliaments proceedings and the Universities sufferings might he manifested to all Nations and the Imposers of these Oaths might repent or answer them But they were past the first and for the latter I might swear they neither can nor ever will And these reasons were also suddenly turn'd into English by Dr. Sanderson that those of these three Kingdoms might the better judge of the Loyal Parties sufferings About this time the Independants who were then grown to be the most powerful part of the Army had taken the King from a close to a more large imprisonment and by their own pretences to liberty of Conscience were obliged to allow somewhat of that to the King who had in the year 1646. sent for Dr. Sanderson Dr. Hammond Dr. Sheldon the late Archbishop of Canterbury and Dr. Morley the now Bishop of Winchester to attend him in order to advise with them how far he might with a good Conscience comply with the Proposals of the Parliament for a Peace in Church and State but these having been then denied him by the Presbyterian Parliament were now allow'd him by those in present power And as those other Divines so Dr. Sanderson gave his attendance on his Majesty also in the Isle of Wight preach'd there before him and had in that attendance many both publick and private Conferences with him to his Majesties great satisfaction At which time he desir'd Dr. Sanderson that being the Parliament had propos'd to him the abolishing of Episcopal Government in the Church as inconsistent with Monarchy that he would consider of it and declare his judgment He undertook to do so and did it but it might not be printed till our King 's happy Restoration and then it was And at Dr. Sanderson's taking his leave of his Majesty in this last attendance on him the King requested him to betake himself to the writing Cases of Conscience for the good of Posterity To which his answer was That he was now grown old and unfit to write Cases of Conscience But the King was so bold with him as to say It was the simplest answer be ever heard from Dr. Sanderson for no young man was fit to be a Judge or write Cases of Conscience And let me here take occasion to tell the Reader this truth not commonly known that in one of these Conferences this conscientious King told Dr. Sanderson or one of them that then waited with him That the remembrance of two Erroâ—â— did much afflict him which were his assent to the Earl of Strafford's death and the abolishing Episcopacy in Scotland and that if God ever restored him to be in a peaceable possession of his Crown he would demonstrate his Repentance by a publick Confession and a voluntary Penance I think barefoot from the Tower of London or Whitehall to St. Paul's Church and desire the people to intercede with God for his pardon I am sure one of them told it me lives still and will witness it And it ought to be observ'd that Dr. Sanderson's Lectures de Juramento were so approv'd and valu'd by the King that in this time of his imprisonment and solitude he translated them into exact English desiring Dr. Iuxson then Bishop of London Dr. Hammond and Sir Thomas Herbert who then attended him to compare them with the Original The last still lives and has declared it with some other of that King's excellencies in a Letter under his own hand which was lately shew'd me by Sir William Dugdale King at Arms. The Book was design'd to be put into the King's Library at St Iames's but I doubt not now to be found there I thought the honour of the Author and the Translator to be both so much concern'd in this Relation that it ought not to be conceal'd from the Reader and 't is therefore here inserted I now return to Dr. Sanderson in the Chair in Oxford where they that comply'd not in taking the Covenant Negative Oath and Parliament Ordinance for Church Discipline and Worship were under a sad and daily apprehension of Expulsion for the Visiters were daily expected and both City and University full of Souldiers and a party of Presbyterian Divines that were as greedy and ready to possess as the ignorant and ill-natur'd Visiters were to eject the dissenters out of their Colledges and Livelyhoods But notwithstanding Dr. Sanderson did still continue to read his Lecture and did to the very faces of those Presbyterian Divines and Souldiers read with so much reason and with a calm fortitude make such applications as if they were not
ignorance herein by conceiting as if there were some difference to be made between Civil and Ecclesiastical Things and Laws and Persons in this behalf The truth is our liberty is equal in both the power of Superiours for restraint equal in both and the necessity of obedience in Inferiours equal to both No man hath yet been able to shew nor I think ever shall be a real and substantial difference indeed between them to make an inequality But that still as Civil Magistrates have sometimes for just politick respects prohibited some Trades and Manufactures and Commodities and enjoyned other some and done well in both so Church Governours may upon good considerations say it be but for order and uniformities sake prescribe the times places vestments gestures and other ceremonial circumstances to be used in Ecclesiastical Offices and Assemblies As the Apostles in the first Council holden at Ierusalem in Acts 15. laid upon the Churches of the Gentiles for a time a restraint from the eating of blood and things sacrificed to Idols and strangled Thus we see our Christian liberty unto the Creatures may without prejudice admit of some restraints in the outward exercise of it and namely from the three respects of Christian Sobriety of Christian Charity and of Christian Duty and Obedience But now in the comparing of these together when there seemeth to be a repugnancy between one and another of them there may be some difficulty and the greatest difficulty and which hath bred most trouble is in comparing the cases of scandal and disobedience together when there seemeth to be a repugnancy between Charity and Duty As for example Suppose in a thing which simply and in it self we may lawfully according to the Liberty we have in Christ either use or forbear Charity seemeth to lay restraint upon us one way our weak brother expecting we should forbear and Duty a quite contrary way Authority requiring the use in such a case what are we to do It is against charity to offend a brother and it is against Duty to disobey a superiour And yet something must be done either we must use or not use forbear or not forbear For the untying of this knot which if we will but lay things rightly together hath not in it so much hardness as it seemeth to have let this be our seventh Position In the use of the Creatures and all indifferent things we ought to bear a greater regard to our publick Governours than to our private Brethren and be more careful to obey them than to satisfie these if the same course will not in some mediocrity satisfie both Alas that our Brethren who are contrary minded would but with the spirit of sobriety admit common Reason to be umpire in this case Alas that they would but consider what a world of contradictions would follow upon the contrary opinion and what a world of confusions upon the contrary practice Say what can be said in the behalf of a brother all the same and more may be said for a Governour For a Governour is a Brother too and something more and Duty is Charity too and something more If then I may not offend my Brother then certainly not my Governour because he is my brother too being a man And a christian as well as the other is And the same charity that bindeth me to satisfie another Brother equally bindeth me to satisfie this So that if we go no farther but even to the common bond of charity and relation of brotherhood that maketh them equal at the least and therefore no reason why I should satisfie one that is but a private brother rather than the publick magistrate who that publick respect set aside is my brother also When the Scales hang thus even shall not the accession of magistracy to common brotherhood in him and of Duty to common charity in me be enough to cast it clear for the magistrate Shall a servant in a Family rather than offend his fellow-servant disobey his Master And is not a double scandal against charity and duty both for duty implieth charity greater than a single scandal against charity alone If private men will be offended at our obedience to publick Governours we can but be sorry for it We may not redeem their offence by our disobedience He that taketh offence where none is given sustaineth a double person and must answer for it both as the giver and the taker If offence be taken at us there is no wo to us for it if it do not come by us Wo to the man by whom the offence cometh And it doth not come by us if we do but what is our duty to do The Rule is certain and equitable The respect of private scandal ceaseth where lawful authority determineth our liberty and that restraint which proceedeth from special duty is of superiour reason to that which proceedeth but from common charity Quest. Whether the King and Parliament ought to impose any more upon us in matters of Religion than is imposed in the Scripture or whether every one ought not to be left to serve God according to his best apprehensions out of the Scripture Answ. The Opinion is that to do any thing at all without direction from the Scripture is unlawful and sinful Which if they would understand only of the substantials of Gods worship and of the exercises of Spiritual and supernatural graces the assertion were true and sound but as they extend it to all the actions of common life whatsoever whether natural or civil even so far as to the taking up of a straw so it is altogether false and indefensible I marvel what warrant they that so teach have from the Scripture for that very Doctrine or where they are commanded so to believe or teach One of their chiefest refuges is the Text we now have in hand but I shall anon drive them from this shelter The other places usually alledged speak only either of divine and supernatural truths to be believed or else of works of grace or worship to be performed as of necessity unto salvation which is not to the point in issue For it is freely conscised that in things of such nature the holy Scripture is and so we are to account it a most absolute sufficient direction Upon which ground we heartily reject all humane traditions devised and intended as supplements to the doctrine of faith contained in the Bible and annexed as Codicils to the holy Testament of Christ for to supply the defects thereof The question is wholly about things in their nature indifferent such as are the use of our food raiment and the like about which the common actions of life are chiefly conversant Whether in the choice and use of such things we may not be sometimes sufficiently guided by the light of reason and the common rules of discretion but that we must be able and are so bound to do or else we sin for every thing we do in such matters to deduce
new ones whiles they that are in the wrong out of obstinacy will not and they that stand for the truth out of Conscience dare not may not yield and so still the war goeth on And as to the publick peace of the Church so is there also thirdly by this means great prejudice done to the peace and tranquillity of private mens Consciences when by the peremptory Doctrines of some strict and rigid masters the Souls of many a well-meaning man are miserably disquieted with a thousand unnecessary scruples and driven sometimes into very woful perplexities Surely it can be no light matter thus to lay heavy burdens upon other mens shoulders and to cast a snare upon their Consciences by making the narrow way to Heaven narrower than ever God meant it Fourthly Hereby Christian Governours come to be robbed of a great part of that honour that is due unto them from their people both in their affections and subjection For when they shall see cause to exercise over us that power that God hath left them in indifferent things by commanding such or such thing to be done as namely wearing of a Surplice kneeling at the Communion and the like if now we in our own thoughts have already prejudged any of the things so commanded to be unlawful it cannot be Quest. If these things be so how comes it to pass that so many godly men should incline so much to this way Answ. But you will say if these things were so how should it then come to pass that so many men pretending to godliness and thousands of them doubtless such as they pretend for it were an uncharitable thing to charge them all with hypocrisie should so often and so grievously offend this way To omit those two more universal causes Almighty God's permission first whose good pleasure it is for sundry wise and gracious ends to exercise his Church during her warfare here with heresies and scandals And then the wiliness of Satan who cunningly observeth whether way our hearts incline most to loosness or to strictness and then frameth his temptations thereafter So he can but put us out of the way it is no great matter to him on whether hand it be he hath his end howsoever Nor to insist upon sundry more particular causes as namely a natural proneness in all men to superstition in many an affectation of singularity to go beyond the ordinary sort of people in something or other the difficulty of shunning one without running into the contrary extreme the great force of education and custome besides manifold abuses offences and provocations arising from the carriage of others and the rest I shall note but these two only as the two great fountains of Errour to which also most of the other may be reduced Ignorance and Partiality from neither of which God 's dearest Servants and Children are in this life wholly exempted Ignorance first is a fruitful Mother of Errours Ye err not knowing the Scriptures Matth. 22. Yet not so much gross ignorance neither I mean not that For your meer Ignaro's what they err they err for company they judge not at all neither according to the appearance nor yet righteous judgment They only run on with the herd and follow as they are led be it right or wrong and never trouble themselves farther But by Ignorance I mean weakness of judgment which consisteth in a disproportion between the affections and the understanding when a man is very earnest but withal very shallow readeth much and heareth much and thinketh that he knoweth much but hath not the judgment to sever truth from falshood nor to discern between a sound argument and a captious fallacy And so for want of ability to examine the soundness and strength of those principles from whence he fetcheth his conclusions he is easily carried away as our Apostle elsewhere speaketh with vain words and empty arguments As St. Augustine said of Donatus Rationes arripuit he catcheth hold of some reasons as wranglers will catch at a small thing rather than yield from their opinions quas considerantes verisimiles esse potius quam veras invenimus which saith he we found to have more shew of probability at the first appearance than substance of truth after they were well considered of And I dare say whosoever shall peruse with a judicious and unpartial eye most of those Pamphlets that in this daring Age have been thrust into the world against the Ceremonies of the Church against Episcopal Government to pass by things of lesser regard and usefulness and more open to exception and abuse yet so far as I can understand unjustly condemned as things utterly unlawful such as are lusorious lots dancing Stage-plays and some other things of like nature when he shall have drained out the bitter invectives unmannerly jeers petulant girding at those that are in authority impertinent digressions but above all those most bold and perverse wrestings of holy Scripture wherewith such Books are infinitely stuffed he shall find that little poor remainder that is left behind to contain nothing but vain words and empty arguments For when these great Undertakers have snatch'd up the Bucklers as if they would make it good against all comers that such and such things are utterly unlawful and therefore ought in all reason and conscience to bring such proofs as will come up to that conclusion Quid dignum tanto very seldome shall you hear from them any other Arguments than such as will conclude but an inexpediency at the most As that they are apt to give scandal that they carry with them an appearance of evil that they are often occasions of sin that they are not commanded in the Word and such like Which Objections even where they are just are not of force no not taken altogether much less any of them singly to prove a thing to be utterly unlawful And yet are they glad many times rather than sit out to play very small Game and to make use of Arguments yet weaker than these and such as will not reach so far as to prove a bare inexpediency As that they were invented by Heathens that they have been abused in Popery and other such like which to my understanding is a very strong presumption that they have taken a very weak cause in hand and such as is wholly destitute of sound proof Quest. Whether what the King and Parliament have determined may be altered to satisfie private men Answ. While things are in agitation private men may if any thing seem to them inexpedient modestly tender their thoughts together with the reason thereof to the consideration of those that are in authority to whose care and wisdom it belongeth in prescribing any thing concerning indifferent things to proceed with all just advisedness and moderation that so the Subject may be encouraged to perform that obedience with chearfulness which of necessity he must perform howsoever It concerneth Superiours therefore to look well to the expediency and
extirpation of Prelacy as it is in the Article expounded or by subsequent practice evidenced will be fevered and cut off from the Crown to the great prejudice and damage thereof Whereunto as we ought not in common reason and in order to our Allegiance as Subjects yield our consent so having sworn expressly to maintain the King's Honour and Estate and to our power to assist and defend all Jurisdictions c. belonging to his Highness or united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of the Realm we cannot without manifest Perjury as we conceive consent thereunto 4. The Government of this Realm being confessedly an Empire or Monarchy and that of a most excellent temper and constitution we understand not how it can become us to desire or endeavour the extirpation of that Government in the Church which we conceive to be incomparably of all other the most agreeable and no way prejudicial to the state of so well a constituted Monarchy Insomuch as King Iames would often say what his long Experience had taught him No Bishop no King Which Aphorism though we find in sundry Pamphlets of late years to have been exploded with much confidence and scorn yet we must profess to have met with very little in the proceedings of the late times to weaken our belief of it And we hope we shall be the less blamed for our unwillingness to have any actual concurrence in the extirpating of Episcopal Government seeing of such extirpation there is no other use imaginable but either the alienation of their Revenues and Inheritances which how it can be severed from Sacriledge and Injustice we leave others to find out or to make way for the introducing of some other form of Church Government which whatsoever it shall be will as we think prove either destructive of and inconsistent with Monarchical Government or at leastwise more prejudicial to the peaceable orderly and effectual exercise thereof than a well-regulated Episcopacy can possibly be §. V. Of the other parts of the Covenant HAving insisted the more upon the two first Articles that concern Religion and the Church and wherein our selves have a more proper concernment we shall need to insist the less upon those that follow contenting our selves with a few the most obvious of those many great and as we conceive just exceptions that lie there against In the third Article we are not satisfied that our endeavour to preserve and defend the Kings Majestie 's Person and Authority is so limited as there it is by that addition In the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdom Forasmuch as 1. No such limitation of our duty in that behalf is to be found either in the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance which no Papist would refuse to take with such a limitation nor in the Protestation nor in the Word of God 2. Our endeavour to preserve the Rights and Priviledges of Parliaments and the Liberties of the Kingdoms is required to be sworn of us in the same Article without the like or any other limitation added thereunto 3. Such limitation leaveth the duty of the Subject at so much loosness and the safety of the King at so great uncertainty that whensoever the people shall have a mind to withdraw their obedience they cannot want a pretence from the same for so doing 4. After we should by the very last thing we did viz. swearing with such a limitation have made our selves guilty of an actual and real diminution as we conceive of his Majesties just power and greatness the obtestation would seem very unseasonable at the least with the same breath to call the world to bear witness with our Consciences that we had no thoughts or intentions to diminish the same 5. The swearing with such a limitation is a Testimony of the Subjects Loyalty to our seeming of a very strange nature which the Principles of their several Religions salved the Conscience of a most resolute Papist or Sectary may securely swallow and the Conscience of a good Protestant cannot but strain at In the fourth Article 1. We desire it may be considered whether the imposing of the Covenant in this Article do not lay a necessity upon the Son of accusing his own Father and pursuing him to destruction in case he should be an Incendiary Malignant or other evil Instrument such as in the Article is described A course which we conceive to be contrary to Religion Nature and Humanity 2. Whether the swearing according to this Article doth not rather open a ready way to Children that are sick of the Father Husbands that are weary of their Wives c. by appealing such as stand between them and their desires of Malignancy the better to effectuate their unlawful intentions and designs 3. Our selves having solemnly protested to maintain the Liberty of the Subject and the House of Commons having publickly declared against the exercise of an Arbitrary Power with Order that their said Declaration should be printed and published in all the Parish Churches and Chappels of the Kingdom there to stand and remain as a testimony of the clearness of their intentions whether the subjecting of our selves and brethren by Oath unto such punishments as shall be inflicted upon us without Law of Merit at the sole pleasure of such uncertain Judges as shall be upon any particular occasion deputed for that effect of what mean quality or abilities soever they be even to the taking away of our lives if they shall think it convenient so to do though the degree of our offences shall not require or deserve the same be not the betraying of our Liberty in the lowest and the setting up of an Arbitrary Power in the highest degree that can be imagined The Substance of the fifth Article being the settling and continuance of a firm peace and union between the three Kingdoms since it is our bounden duty to desire and according to our several places and interests by all lawful means to endeavour the same we should make no scruple at all to enter into a Covenant to that purpose were it not 1. That we do not see nor therefore can acknowledge the happiness of such a blessed Peace between the three Kingdoms for we hope Ireland is not forgotten as in the Article is mentioned so long as Ireland is at War within it self and both the other Kingdoms engaged in that War 2. That since no peace can be firm and well-grounded that is not bottom'd upon Justice the most proper and adequate act whereof is Ius suum cuique to let every one have that which of right belongeth unto him we cannot conceive how a firm and lasting Peace can be established in these Kingdoms unless the respective Authority Power and Liberty of King Parliament and Subject as well every one as other be preserved full and entire according to the known Laws and continued unquestioned customes of the several Kingdoms in former times and before the beginning of these
than that they are worth something and on the other side so little yet done toward the extirpation of Heresie Schism and Profaneness as things of less temporal advantage We cannot dissemble our suspicion that the Designers of this Covenant might have something else before their eyes besides what in the beginning of the Introduction is expressed and that there is something meant in this Article that looketh so like Sacriledge that we are afraid to venture thereon 3. In the third Article 1. Although we should not otherwise have apprehended any matter of danger or moment in the ordering of the particulars in the Article mentioned yet since M. Challoner in his Speech and others have made advantage thereof to infer from that very order that the defence of the King's Person and Authority ought to be with subordination to the preservation of the Rights and Priviledges of Parliaments and the Liberties of the Kingdom which are in the first place and before it to be endeavoured We hope we shall be excused if we dare not take the Covenant in this sense especially considering that if the Argument be of any force it will bind us at least as strongly to endeavour the maintenance of the King's Person Honour and Estate in the first place and the rest but subordinately thereunto because they are so ordered in the Protestation And then that Protestation having the advantage of preceding it will bind us more strongly as being the first Obligation 2. Whereas some have been the rather induced to take the Covenant in this particular by being told That that limitation in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms was not to be understood exclusively yet when we find that the House of Commons in their Answer to the Scotish Papers do often press that limitation as without which the endeavouring to preserve the King's Majestie 's Person and Authority ought not to be mentioned it cannot but deterr us from taking the Covenant in this particular so understood 3. Especially being told in a late Pamphlet That the King not having preserved the Liberties of the Kingdom c. as of duty he ought is thereby become a Tyrant and so ceaseth to be a King and consequently that his Subjects cease to be Subjects and owe him no longer subjection Which assertion since we heartily detest as false and scandalous in the supposition and in the inference seditious and divellish we dare not by subscribing this Article seem to give the least countenance thereunto 4. But it striketh us with horrour to think what use hath been made of this fourth Article concerning the punishment of Malignants c. as by others otherways so especial-by the Corrector of a Speech without doors written in the defence of M. Challoner's Speech who is so bold as to tell the Parliament That they are bound by their Covenant for the bringing of evil Instruments to condign punishment to destroy the King and his Posterity and that they cannot justifie the taking away of Strafford's and Canterbury's lives for Delinquency whilst they suffer the chief Delinquent to go unpunished §. VII Of the Salvo's THE Salvo's that we have usually met withal for the avoiding of the aforesaid Scruples either concerning the whole Covenant or some particulars therein of special importance we find upon examination to be no way satisfactory to our Consciences The first is that we may take the the Covenant in our own sense but this in a matter of this nature viz. an imposed promissory Oath in the performance whereof others also are presumed to be concerned seemeth to be 1. Contrary to the nature and end of an Oath which unless it be full of simplicity cannot be sworn in Truth and Righteousness nor serve to the ending of Controversies and Contradictions which was the use for which it was instituted Heb. 6. 2. Contrary to the end of Speech God having given us the use of Speech for this end that it might be the Interpreter of the mind it behoveth us as in all other our dealings and contracts so especially where there is the intervention of an Oath so to speak as that they whom it concerneth may clearly understand our meaning by our words 3. Contrary to the end of the Covenant it self which being the confirmation of a firm union among the Covenanters that by taking thereof they might have mutual assurance of mutual assistance and defence If one may be allowed to take it in one sense and another in a contrary the Covenanters shall have no more assurance of mutual assistance each from other after the taking of the Covenant than they had before 4. Contrary to the Solemn profession made by each Covenanter in express tearms in the conclusion thereof in the presence of Almighty God the searcher of all hearts that he taketh it with a true intention to perform the same as he shall answer it at the great day 2. This will bring a scandal upon our Religion 1. That we practice that our selves which we condemn in the Papist viz. Swearing with Jesuitical equivocations and mental reservations 2. That we take the glorious and dreadful Name of God in vain and play fast and loose with Oaths inasmuch as what we swear to day in one sense we may swear the direct contrary to morrow in another And 3. It will give strength to that charge which is laid to the Presbyterian party in special both by Iesuites and Sectaries that there is no faith to be given to Protestants whatever they swear because they may swear one thing in their words and in their own sense mean another 2. The second way is to take the Covenant with these or the like general Salvo's expressed viz. So far as lawfully I may So far as it is agreeable to the Word of God and the Laws of the Land Saving all Oaths by me formerly taken c. But 1. We believe this mocking of God would be so far from freeing us from the guilt of Perjury that thereby we should rather contract a new guilt of most vile and abominable Hypocrisie 2. It seemeth all one unto us the thing being otherwise supposed unlawful as if we should swear to kill steal commit adultery or forswear our selves so far as lawfully we may 3. If this would satisfie the Conscience we might with a good Conscience not only take the present Covenant but even subscribe to the Council of Trent also yea and to the Turkish Alcoran and swear to maintain and defend either of them viz. so far as lawfully we may or as they are agreeable to the Word of God Thirdly For the second Article in particular in the branch concerning the extirpation of Church Government we are told that it is to be understood of the whole Government taken collectively and in sensu composito so as if we do endeavour but the taking away of Apparitors only or of any other one kind of inferious Officers belonging to the
hoc quisque est pessimus quo optimus si hoc ipsum quo est optimus ascribat sibi the more blest the more curst if we make his graces our own glory without imputation of all to him whatsoever we have we steal and the multiplication of Gods favours doth but aggravate the crime of our Sacriledge He knowing how prone we are to unthankfulness in this kind tempereth accordingly the means whereby it is his pleasure to do us good This is the reason why God would neither have Gideon to conquer without any Army nor yet to be furnish'd with too great an host This is the cause why as none of the promises of God do fail so the most are in such sort brought to pass that if we after consider the circuit wherein the steps of his Providence have gone the due consideration thereof cannot choose but draw from us the very self same words of astonishment which the blessed Apostle hath O the depth of the riches of the wisdom of God! How unsearchable are his counsels and his ways past finding out Let it therefore content us always to have his word for an absolute warrant we shall receive and find in the end it shall at length be opened unto you however or by what means leave it to God 3. Now our Lord groundeth every mans particular assurance touching this point upon the general Rule and Axiom of his Providence which hath ordained these effects to flow and issue out of these causes gifts of suits finding out of seeking help out of knocking a principle so generally true that on his part it never faileth For why it is the glory of God to give his very nature delighteth in it his mercies in the current through which they would pass may be dried up but at the head they never fail Men are soon weary both of granting and of hearing suits because our own insufficiency maketh us still affraid lest by benefiting of others we impoverish our selves We read of large and great proffers which Princes in their fond and vainglorious moods have poured forth as that of Herod and the like of Ahasuerus in the Book of Hester Ask what thou wilt though it reach to the half of my Kingdom I will give it thee which very words of profusion do argue that the ocean of no estate in this world doth so flow but it may be emptied He that promiseth half of his Kingdom foreseeth how that being gone the remainder is but a a moiety of that which was What we give we leave but what God bestoweth benefiteth us and from him it taketh nothing wherefore in his propositions there are no such fearful restraints his terms are general in regard of making Whatsoever ye ask the Father in my Name and general also in respect of persons whosoever asketh whosoever seeketh It is true St. Iames saith Ye ask and yet ye receive not because you ask amiss ye crave to the end ye might have to spend upon your own lusts The rich man sought Heaven but it was then when he felt Hell The Virgins knocked in vain because they overslipped their opportunity and when the time was to knock they slept But quaerite Dominum dum inveniri potest perform these duties in their due time and due sort Let there on our part be no stop and the bounty of God we know is such that he granteth over and above our desires Saul sought an Ass and found a Kingdom Solomon named wisdom and God gave Solomon wealth also by way of surpassing Thou hast prevented thy servant with blessings saith the Prophet David He asked life and thou gavest him long life even for ever and ever God a giver He giveth liberally and upbraideth none in any wise And therefore he better knoweth than we the best times and the best means and the best things wherein the good of our Souls consisteth FINIS Phil. 1.6 Chap. 3.17 Psal. 34.11 Psal. 1 30. Colos. 1.24 Ga. 6.2 Iob 31. * Theucidides Psal. 119. 147. Psal. 32.2 * Sir I pray note That all that follows in the Italian Character are Dr. Sanderson's own words excellently worthy but no where else extant and commend him as much as any thing you can say of him T.P. †Arriba †Rob. Boyle Esq. 1. Law Object 1. Answ. Object 2. Scandal 1 Sam. 2. 17.22 Exod. 21. 33 34. Object 3. Schism 1 Thess. 5. * Such an Oath as for Matter Persons and other Circumstances the like hath not been in any Age or Oath we read of in sacred or humane stories M. Nye Covenant with Narrative pag. 12. †Pactum est duorum pluriúmvs in idem placitum consensus L. 1. ff de Pactis * Whereas many of them have had an Oath administered unto them not warrantable by the Laws and Statutes of this Realm They do humbly pray that no man hereafter be compelled to take such an Oath All which they most humbly pray as their Rights and Liberties according to the Laws and Statutes of this Realm Petit. of Right 3. Carol. †It is declared 16 Jan. 1642. That the King cannot compell men to be sworn without an Act of Parliament Exact Collect. pag. 859 860. * Proclam of 9. Octob. 19 Car. †Viz. In accounting Bishops Antichristian and indifferent Ceremonies unlawful * Viz. In making their Discipline and Government a mark of the true Church and the setting up thereof the erecting of the Throne of Christ. †Let us not be blamed if we call it Parliament Religion Parliament Gospel Parliament Faith Warding confut of Apology Part 6. Chap. 2 †Stat. 13. Eliz. 12. * Such Iurisdictions Priviledges Superiorities and Preheminences Spiritual and Ecclesiastical as by any c. for the Visitation of the Ecclesiastical State and Persons and for Reformation Order and Correction of the same and of all manner of Errours Heresies Schisms Abuses Offences contempts and Enormities shall for ever by Authority of this present Parliament be united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm An Act restoring to the Crown the ancient Jurisdiction c. 1 Eliz. 1. †Art 36. * give advantage to this Malignant party to traduce our Proceedings They infuse into the people that we mean to abolish all Church Government Remonst 15 Dec. 1641. Exact Collect. p. 19. The Lords and Commons do delare That they intend a due and necessary Reformation of the Government and Liturgy of the Church and to take away nothing in the one or in the other but what shall be evil and justly offensive or at least unnecessary and barthensome Declar. 9 Apr. 1642. Exact Coll. p. 135. †Statute of Carlisle 25 E. 1. recited 25 E. 3. †They infuse into the people that we mean to leave every man to his own fancy absolving him of that Obedience which he owes under God unto his Majesty whom we know to be entrusted with the Ecclesiastical Law as well as with the Temporal Exact Collect. ubi supra pag. 19. * That
he will grant keep and confirm the Laws Customs and Franchises granted to the Clergy by the glorious King S. Edward And that he will grant and preserve unto the Bishops and to the Churches committed to their charge all Canonical Priviledges and due Law and Iustices and that he will protect and defend them as every good King in his Kingdom ought to be Protector and Defender of the Bishops and the Churches under their Government Vide Exact Col. Pag. 290 291. †See Stat. 25 H. 8.20 1 E. 6.2 ‖ See Stat. 39 Eliz. 8. * Stat. 14 E. 3.4 5. 17 E. 3.14 †Stat. 26 H. 8.3 1 Eliz. 4. * Supremam potestatem merum imperium apud nos habet Rex Cambden Whereas by sundry divers old authentick Histories and Chronicles it is manifestly declared and expressed that this Realm of England is an Empire and so hath been accepted in the world governed by one Supream Head and King having the Dignity and Royal Estate of the Imperial Crown of the same Stat. 24 H. 8.12 See also 1 Eliz. 3. †The Lords and Commons do declare That they intend a due and necessary Reformation of the Liturgy of the Church and to take away nothing therein but what shall be evil and justly often five or at least unnecessary burthensom Dec. 9 Apr. 1642. Exact Col. p. 135. * From whence it is most evident That the Rights and Privileges of Parliaments and Liberties of the Kingdom are in the first place to be preserved Answer to Scotish Papers 18 Nov. 1546 pag. 21 †We observe you mention the defence of the King twice from the Covenant yet in both places leave out In the preservation and c. p. 39 46. a main clause without which the other part ought never to be mentioned p. 56. * Heretici nec Deo nec hominibus servant fidem Speciatim hoc addo Calvinistas in hac re deteriores esse quá Lutheranos Num Calviniste nullem servant fidem Iura perjura Lutherani moderationes sunt Becan 5. Manual Controv. 14. n. 4. 6. †Invent Oaeths and Covenants for the Kingdom dispense with them when he pleaseth swear and forsweae as the wind turneth like a godly Presbyter Arraign of Persec in Epist. Ded. * By the Covenant both Houses of Parliament and many thousands of other his Majesties Subjects of England and Ireland stand bound as well as we to hinder the setting up of the Church Government by Bishops in the Kingdom of Scotland And that we as well as they stand bound to endeavour the extirpation thereof in England and Ireland Scots Declaration to the States of the United Provinces 5 Aug 1645. recited in Answer to the Scot's Papers pag. 23 †The old forms of Acts of Parliament were The King willeth provideth ordaineth establisheth granteth c. by the assent of Parliament c. See Statutes till 1 H. 4. After that The King of the assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and at the special instance and request of the Commons of this Realm hath ordained c. See Statutes 1 H. 4. till 1 H. 7. A form of such Petition of the Commons see 1 R. 3. 6. Prayen the Commons in this present Parliament assembled that where c. Please it therefore your Highness by the advice and assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in this your present Parliament assembled and by the Authority of the same to ordain c. No Bill is an Act of Parliament Ordinance or Edict of Law although both the Houses agree unanimously in it till it hath the Royal Assent Ancient Customes pag. 54. Assemblee de ceux troys Estats est appellee un Act de Parliament car sans touts troys n'est ascun Act de Parl. Finch Nomotech sol 21. We admit that no Acts of Parliament are compleat or formally binding without the King's assent H. P. Answer to David Ienkins pag. 6. * which if your Majesty shall be pleased to adorn with your Majesties Royal assent without which it can neither be compleat and perfect nor Stat. 1 Jac. 1. †Stat. 33 H. 3. 21. * Dominus Rex habet ordinariam jurisdictionem dignitatem potestatem super omnes qui in regno suo sunt Ea quae jurisdictionis sunt paecis ad nullum pertinent nisi ad coronam dignitatem Regiam nec à corona sebarari possunt Bracton cited by Stamford lib. 2. cap. 2. * For in our Laws the Clergy Nobility and Commonalty are the three Estates we your said most loving faithful and obedient Subjects viz. the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons representing your three Estates of your Realm of England 1 Eliz. 3. the State of the Clergy being one of the greatest States of this Realm 8 Eliz. 1. †See Finch supra ad lit d †The Crown of England hath been so free at all times that it hath been in no earthly subjection but immediately to God in all things touching the Regality of the said Crown 16 R. 2. 5. Omnis sub so est ipsi sub nallo nisi tantum sub Deo Parem autem non habet Rex in Regno suo quia Item nec multo fortius superiorem aut potentiorem habere dibet quia sic esset inferior suis subjectis Bracton conten 1. Rubr. 36. Cui 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 legibus ipsis legum vim imponendi potestatem Deus dedit Finch Nomotech in Epist. Dedic to King Iames. * Fons Iustitiae Bracton By War to intend the alteration of the Laws in any part of them is to levy war against the King and consequently Treason by the Statute of 25 E. 3. because they are the King's Laws He is the Fountain from whence in their several Channels they are derived to the Subject Master Saint Iohn's Speech concerning the Earl of Strafford pag. 12. * Et ibidem vobiscum colloquium habere tractare super dictia negotiis tract vestrumque consilium impensur Writ to the Lords †Every Subject by the duty of his Allegiance is bounden to serve and assist his Prince and Sovereign Lord at all seasons when need shall re quire 11 H. 7. 18. St. 1 El. 1. 1 Cor. 5.1 c. 1 Cor. 11. 28 c. 1 Eliz. * Stat. 23. Eliz. 1. 29 Eliz. 6. 35 El. 1. 2. 3 Iac. 4. 5.