great import But I must pray you not to call them the Proceedings of the Kingdome For it was but the proceedings of a Faction in that Kingdom a Multitude being driven in to them meerly out of Fear to secure themselves from their Violences and how much you and your Brethren here have sinned in violating Mens Consciences by your imposing upon them the Covenant you have reason to know in part already and will one day know more when you shall come before an impartiall Judge That the late King as you call him but the blessed MARTYR you might did in a hostile way set himself to over throw Religion Parliaments Laws and Liberties is most false For all the world knows he died for their Preservation You go on to shew us next that For every Breach of Covenant Subjects should not lay aside a King That is to speak plain depose him Except the Breaches be such as overthrow the Fundamentals of the Covenant with the People Why what then you doe not say in terms they may depose him in that case but you imply it For you say Except the Breaches be such So if they be such or you judge them such it seems they may Yet afterwards you think you make amends by charging private persons To be very circumspect about that which they doe in relation to the Authority of Kings It seems they may doe something only they must be circumspect in it Yet Page 24. so inconstant is he to himself that he honestly saith the Conspiracy of Subjects against their Kings is a wicked Course And he thinks he acquits them very highly that those Godly Pastors as he calls them in King James his time did not intermedle in shewing their judgement that the King should be suspended from the exercise of his Royall Power though they suffered persecution for their Honesty and Freedome That is for their bold and unreasonable Discourses before the King But what the judgment was both of them and of their Master before them J. Knox is to be seen in his Writings and theirs I will not spend time in transcribing many passages out of Knox his Treatises are to be had and in them it is to be seen that he is for more then Deposing but for that plain in his History Page 37â— Princes saith he for just Causes may be Deposed but what those just Causes are he keeps close in his own breast for an angry Assembly they conceive may determine that Knox to England and Scotland Fol. 78. If Princes be Tyrants against God and his Truth their Subjects are free from their Oaths of Obedience which if then they as well as the Estates may suspend and what not Buchanan de jure Regni pag. 61. Populus Rege est praestantior melior Populo jus est ut imperium cui velit deferat And Viretus complains much in his third Dialogue of white Divels Fol. 252. That so much Power is put into the civill Magistrates hands whereupon he calls them Temporall Popes Why doth he complain of these Men amongst us for the practice of Regicide when they and their Masters have given them the Principle These are wayes to set all the world in combustion for when ever any discontented Party shall say the King is a Tyrant to God and his Truth then they may fall upon him and Depose him and we know there was never much time between the Deposition of Kings and their being Murdered Pag. 11 In the top of the 11. Page you are to be minded that you recite a Text against Resisting the lawfull Power and in the 10. you are expresly For resisting by Arms. You complain that the Sectaries cover their Destroying of Kings with Christ's Interest And we complain some Sectaries cover their keeping under and resisting of Kings with Christs Interest The Author of the Ecclesiastical Discipline J. C. and generally all of them divide the Church into two Moyeties viz those that are to govern as Pastors Doctors and Elders and those which are to obey as Magistrates of all sorts and the people And Beza against Erastus speaks plainly and tells us that Princes have no more to doe with matters of the Church then Ministers have with the Affairs of the Commonwealth Briefly Submittere Sceptra Christo is with the Romane Catholick Ponitifici with these Men as the Learned Bishop in his Tortura Torti Page 34 observes Presbyterio which Beza is bold to call Tribunal Christi and this Author Page 24. The Kingdome of Christ more then once Pag. 12 Prayers you say Are to be made for Kings that are not in Covenant I and active Obedience to All in all lawful things is to be performed where that cannot be passive must be yielded You say you do not count these Enemies who professe Repentance and declare themselves for the Cause and Covenant Are the Cause and Covenant two distinct things you should have said for the Cause of the Covenant though indeed there be no cause for the Covenant It is strange you should commend to Christians Repentance for doing their Duty Pag. 14 For the Malignants he tells them Little Good is to be expected from them well and how much good have the Covenanters done Every one can tell you they have begger'd three Kingdoms and are not yet quiet but would quite destroy them though they find their Discipline and Government of this Nation as incurrent as Parallels Pag. 15 Prayers saith he are not much in request at Court He cannot forbear a fling at King or Court for ought I know there are the best Prayers where are the best Subjects For never tell us of Obedience to God whom you have not seen if you be deficient in the Expression of it to Men whom you have seen He sayes They deceive Kings that make them believe Presbyteriall Government cannot suit with Monarchy King James who knew these Men Intus in cute was wont to say No BISHOP no KING and we have seen the sad Truth of the Apothegme in our days so soon as they had gotten out One they sought to destroy the Other Pag. 16 You confound things so strangely that it is hard where to take you but yet it is plain that you would have Kings to have Nothing to doe in the Government of the Kirk in this true Romanists yet for a shift you can decline them to For your Brethren at the Conference at Hampton Court complained of the Bishops that they were not Friends to the Kings Supremacy yet I believe none Greater none have maintained it more stoutly Indeed we do not allow to Kings Sacerdotalia Officia but the ordering the establishing of all things that concern Religion must proceed from Him He is mixta Persona cum Sacerdote and so we see that Moses gives the Ceremonies not Aaron David orders the courses of the Priests Levites and Singers by those Councils were called Edicts made about Religion and the Affairs of the Church You tell the King he is
this enough and too much yet they rest not here for they are so accustomed to revile the living both present and absent that they spare not the very Dead as you may see in this Author page 4. There are many sins upon our King and his Family a little after I desire the King be truly humbled for his own sins c. the sins of his Fathers House which have been great Page 19. He accuses King James of making a foul defection and in a few lines after sayes that He laid the Foundation whereupon his Son our late King did build much mischief to Religion all the dayes of his life Os impudens was there none that had loyalty enough to stop that black mouth or is it so customary with you that it is to be esteemed a Scotch Elegancy In good earnest that blessed Saint shall hear a Martyr when the Name of such railing Rabshakaes shall either be forgotten or remembred with abhorrency Again Page 22. Sir There is too much iniquity upon the Throne by your Predecessors who framed mischief by a Law And Page 24 I may say freely that the chief cause of the Judgement upon the Kings House hath been the Grandfathers breach of Covenant with God the Fathers following steps in opposing the work of God his Kirk within these Kingdoms What will you disturb the Grave and arraign sentence the Ashes of the Kings how can we expect any Piety where there is a want of that Charity which covereth the multitude of Offences nay where there is that radicated malice that makes offences where there are none and that is not satisfied with a verbal aspersing the Dead but by the Presse indeavours the transmitting these Calumnies to Posterity Aut hoc non est Evangelium aut hi non sunt Christiani 't is the Apostles rule Titus 3. v 2. To speak evill of no man you have not the Authority of the Writers of the Canon of Scripture in censuring the Lives of your KING' 's though you take it Page 2 In the Circumstances of Coronation prefixed to the Sermon you may take notice that assoon as ever the Lord Chancellor had signified their desire of his being Crowned with the same breath he desires the Maintenance of Religion conforme to the Nationall Covenant League and Covenant So it seems Religion must conform to that not that to Religion this is that which they make the top of the Crown its Crosse and then if this be done what will they doe he tells you that They will bestow Land Life and what else is in their power for the maintenance of Religion and the safety of his Majesties person I like well that God should be set above the King and so doth his Majesty too But what the aim of these Men is in prefixing of Religion to the safety of his Majesties sacred Person we know by sad experience and find here in their words Religion conform to the Nationall Govenant would you understand what Religion is in their sense the sum totall is the National Covenant the League and Covenant which being their own device and an unwarrantable composure how little reason there is that either that should be the comprehensive of Religion or Religion under that Notion stand before his Majesty let all sober and discreet Men judge Page 3 In the Sermon to let alone his Conjectures about Joash when he comes to make the Parallell betwixt him and the King he tells you Pa. 3. That the wicked Men have risen up and usurped the Kingdom And who were these wicked men were they not all or most of them Covenanters did they not all swarm out of the Hive of Presbytery and what did your own Country men doe in the dayes of his great Grandmother and by what Principles were they acted and who set them a work and what were the Pretences we are well pleased you should condemn these amongst us as much as you will but desire that you would passe the same Censure upon all that lie under the same Guilt what ever covering they throw over it For we agree fully with you That who ever rises up and Usurps the Kingdome deserves the Title of wicked and as you say in the words following we say also that They put to Death the last King most unnatually but who brought him low and made the way for his Murder who did unnaturally murder him in his Repute and good Name and so prepared him for their Cruelty If you be not able to answer these Questions every Child can with us for the vail is taken off and you must never think these many Ages to deceive so much as the Plebeians with the NAME of RELIGION in your sense before mentioned Page 4 You say Page 4. That there are many sins upon the King and his Family the unhandsomnesse of this expression is took notice of before and now must add that which is proper as it lies here what so young and yet so many sins what are they personal can they see so many and all the world besides admire they can find so few What were they sins in Government why he never yet came to it here when these words were spoken and how long had he governed with you or how much did he govern though you put away most of his Friends from him yet we are not ignorant He that will charge others so Magisterially should look a little into himself and those that side with him and shall we find him or their Assembly spotlesse So much hath been printed so much is known of your wayes and proceedings that you had need to bewail your own Trible ere you charge his Majesty so rudely and violently and if we may trace you in your own way of censuring I think we may say The Event hath shewed that the Lord hath had a Controversie with you as well as you say he hath with the Royall Family Page 5 Page 5 He is not content to strike at the present King and his dead Ancestors but he must discover their wonted dissafection to Kings in Generall for there he gives them this lash Kings use to be so taken up with their Crowns that they despise their People They are alwayes engrafting in the stock of the people a bad opinion of Kings which with the heat of their Sermons they can at pleasure make sprout out into a Rebellion and therefore I shall only tell him to this Passage that He and his Faction are so taken up with their novell Discipline that they despise Crowns and speak evill of Dignities and encourage the People to doe the like as thinking it very safe to speak the Pulpit language That which followes in the same Page is to me very strange when he so confidently affirms I know nothing that is good in Government but a King may learn it out of the Book of God It is a great sign you know not much The end which the Scripture proposeth as to us is to
Is a Contract between Him and them containing conditions mutually to be observed This he saith but doth not prove nor ever can that there was any such Contract between Joash and the people he may state it how he pleases but if he put more into it then that he should govern them and they be obedient I conceive it is his own Fancy for nothing is expressed and we never find their Kings under any Conditions but what they owed to God As for those other two which you mention In regard of Lawes and in regard of Government you only say it For first those Lawes that are received may be altered and it may be good that they be altered when they prove inconvenient and who can alter them but the King Others may Legem rogare but he only doth Legem ferre and if he do make a Law contrary to what was in use at such a time of his Oath will you say he is a Breaker of his Oath by enacting the contrary that is more advantageous how is he then limited by them any longer then he shall find them beneficial to the People And in a word for all you blurt out against Arbitrary Power and Government it is impossible to place the Supreme Power either in one or few or many but it must be Arbitrary therefore all Arbitrary Government is not Tyrannicall though you jumble them together and make them all one in the Latter end of the 9. Page Is it not Arbitrary with that Supreme Power whether this shall continue a Law or not but if you mean by Arbitrary an Arbitrary administration of justice in the Execution of the Law already made therein I suppose no King will assume to himself an Arbitrary Power for not to act by that Rule which was at first the act of his own will is to contradict himself yet withall you cannot deny but that the King may dispence with the Execution of the Law by Pardon and so moderate the rigour of it What you say of Limitation in regard of Government is little to the purpose for though the KING govern not alone yet all else besides are to use the Apostles phrase sent by him and their power they have from him as the Fountain of all power What the Author of Defensio Regia hath written I suppose he is able to make good against a greater Gyant then your self and therefore I shall not meddle with what you asperse him till you have answered his Arguments which will be long enough In the close of this Page you tell us That Kings are deceived who think the People are ordeined for the King and not the King for the People And I affirm that those Ministers are deceived that think they are not ordeined mutually for each other the King to govern the people and the people to be governed by their King Pag. 10 Now in the 10. Page after you have been as bold as blind Bayard with the King and with Kings you wipe your lips and come out with a pretence of Modesty that You desire not to speak much of this subject and afterward you break out into more then yet you have said You tell us also that Men have been very tender in medling with the Power of Kings I am sure you nor the rest of your Brethren are not of those Men that have been so tender for you undertake in the same Paragraph to advise how Subjects you name them in this general term should keep within the bounds of this Covenant in regulating that Power that is the Kingly Power Where is the sacrednesse and inviolableness of their Authority which you talked of in the 6. Page for now here you give liberty to the Estates to control to oppose Him and to resist Him by Arms and this you make a Duty for you say not only that they may doe it but that they ought to doe it when the King overthrows Religion Laws and Liberty But yet you know this was done constantly by the Kings of Israell and sometimes by the Kings of Judah yet to speak your own language a little after I think you cannot shew that the Prophet ever taught such Doctrine or the Apostles though under Heathen Emperours that the Estates might oppose with Arms nor any Churches but those that Scotize and the Jesuits how they agree I will give you a Taste for others have given you a full Meal Bellarmine in his 5 lib De Romano Pontifice c. 7 saith that the Christians obeyed Nero Dioclesian Julian the Apostate and Valens the Arrian Quia deâ—â—ant vires temporales Christianis So the Author of the Book De justâ— abdicatione Regis Henrici 3. saith upon the same occasion Non est eadem ratio instituendae Ecclesiae atque institutae adde quod id tum non licuit dum impiorum mu titudo superior esset And to obey with him in another place is Laudabile tantùm cum resistere nequeas And he that shall read Buchanan De jure Regni apud Scotos Pag. 50.55 shall find the same Doctrine For though they look several wayes yet like Sampson's Foxes they are tyed together by the tayls he hath there the same sense Paul saith he wrote of obedience in the infancy of the Church when there were but few Christians and not many of them rich or of ability or ripe for such a purpose And a little after as if a Man should write to such Christians as are under the Turk poor and feeble would he not write as Paul did see the Apostle as he takes upon him to instruct him respected sayes he the Men he wrote too and his words are not to be extended to a whole Commonwealth or City Prodigious Divinity which the Church was never acquainted with till the Jesuits and these Men broached it Tertullian who lived in the latter end of the second Century teacheth us another Lesson in his Apologeticus Num plures Mauri aut Marco munici ipsique Parthi cui Bello non idonei qui tam libentèr trucidamur were it weaknesse only that kept the Christians in subjection which is most untrue Christians would be the worst Subjects and most dangerous to be suffered in any Nation as those who would obey no longer then till they were strong enough to resist but when they ceased to be weak would cease to be subject also no pretence of Religion should make us irreligious If you give this Power to the Estates you advance their power above the Kings and then how is he sacred and inviolable in his Authority when another Authority under him may resist him by Arms and those who though they are higher then others yet are Subjects having all their Honours and Places which sets them above the Common people from Him But all this will not justifie the proceeding of the Kingdome as you say it will against the late King for you have only said so much having given nothing of reason to satisfie the Conscience in a matter of so
obliged to maintain Presbyteriall Government but however he should maintain that I doubt he would sadly find that that will never maintain him He cannot leave his Boldnesse in undertaking to tell the particular causes of God's Judgements which he is often at Some endeavour to make you reproach that for which God hath punished your Predecessors Judicia Dei abyssus magna you are very confident in such Speeches and shew little of a Divine But no marvail for he pretends to prophesie For he is so enamoured with this Government that he saith Who ever meddles to overturn it it shall be as heavy to him as the burthensome stone to the Enemies of the Kirk Is it not so to them who submit to it a heavy dull burthen and we have not yet seen his Prophesie fulfilled for we have found that this Covenant hath ruin'd as many of its Servants as Enemies Pag. 17 You shew there plainly how jealous you are of Kings and how loth they should govern for fear their Government should prove prejudiciall to the Cause that is Presbytery For though you say before How well Kingly Government and that agree you scarce dare venter them together It was with much Debate that you yielded to it notwithstanding you sent for him You are free in your advice to the King in your story of Modus but never practise it your selves for such Hot-spurs the world affords not who know no moderation and think they have no zeal unless it put the Nation into Flames Pag. 18 All the charge you lay upon King James amounts to nothing for you never left him till you had gotten him to Covenant when he was young and what he said then of England or Geneva is as of little consequence as the rest But what if he never said it but you for him or what if the Church of England do retain some Ceremonies must they needs be Popish eo nomine because Ceremonies Away with these trivial complaints the Church of England neither retains so many as may hinder her Sons from attending to the substantiall part of Religion nor any so unproper as that they cannot procure the End for which they were commanded As for Geneva if they have any Holy dayes they may perhaps answer you in the Apostles phrase Judge no man in respect of a Holy day But these hot Northern Heads judge and condemn all the world but themselves And all the world besides thinks them scarce worth seeing or condemning What King James did when he came to riper years and more experience doth give a Testimony that he was under Force in his younger time And the Foundation he laid and upon which his Son built was not To mischief Religion but to bring the Church to its ancient splendor and to keep underneath malipert and disorderly Sectaries as Mas Robert who when he had done his Sermon and the Action of Coronation is over and that he hath given the King his Benediction being conscious to themselves by what means they had extorted this from him he falls to his threatnings Page 23. Pag. 23 And to scare both King and Nobles from declining the Covenant As if nothing else were able to hold the Crown but that we have heard of righteousness that it will stablish a Throne but never that a forced Covenant would work such strange Feats But he tells us then afterward that If they keep the Covenant it may be expected that God will keep you out of their hands viz Cromwell and his Party We know not that any thing was broken of it for all was in their hands till Worcester Fight yet they fell into their Hands and the Covenant did not save them Pag. 24 You say freely indeed that the chief Cause of the Judgements upon the Kings House hath been the Grandfathers breach of Covenant with God and the Fathers following steps in opposing the work of God and his Kirk within these Kingdomes Do you know it was Judgements to him who was so unnaturally murdered to the Nation I am sure it was a Judgement but to him a Mercy to be taken away in such a Cause and by such Hands as no bad Man could suffer from and from such a people the Tide of whose affections if it had not turned they had neither been worth living amongst nor ruling And with the like rare confidence you charge him in Christ's Name to Keep this Covenant in all points and if he break it and come against this Cause I assure you the controversie is not ended between God and your Family but will be carried on to the further weakning if not the overthrow of it How dare you charge a King in Christ's Name to keep that which was made in your own name and for your own interest upon what ground can you assure him that the Controversie is not ended with his Family but that it shall continue still to the weakning or overthrow of it Yes now I have found the Reason For if he doe not you and your Party I do believe will do your utmost for effecting what you threatned You doe as the Rebells did here in England before the War predict great Troubles which themselves were resolved to raise For though it becomes us to conceive that all Afflictions are just and so suppose some Default in us yet for any Man to say either of himself or others that such a Lash is for such a Fault is more then we have Warrant for and a presumptious intruding into the secrets of God's justice which such a Boldnesse may bring at last upon us You know who said That neither this Man hath sinned or his Parents that he was born blind yet perhaps had you been there you would have given a REASON why he had been born blind You promise much that if he Befriend the Kingdome of Christ that is the Covenant It may be God from this day shall begin to doe you good Now you are not so confident as before but if you break the Covenant then he is not upon his may bee's but is very positons But ye that Support and he that is supported will fall together You give us that which is very rare in your Writings most of them being an Ipse dixit a reason why you urge this because it is a rare thing you say to see a King and great Men for Christ This being for Christ is a canting Phrase which every Sect takes up at pleasure For whoever is for the Interest of that side is for Christ Sect. and then Ipsum esse illic est pro mereri as Tertullian with you not to doe the Duties of a Christian but to be for the Covenant that is to be for Christ and all you are for Christ and no Body else Pure Donatists ubicunque ipsi ibi Ecclesia The Church is where ever they are and no where else to be found At last for a close of all you tell the King That he is the only Covenanted King with God and