Oxford Reasons Exceptions to the 3d. Article of the Covenant Sectio quinta p. 12 13 14. only they stumble at those words relating to the defence and preservation of the Kings Majesty Person and Authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and liberties of the Kingdom which they conceive to be a limitation of our absolute duty by a condition not allowable Though some endeavour to justifie these words as a condition put upon our duty by the power of Parliament who may limit the Prerogative of the King as well as extend it and think it will abide a Dispute I am not of their opinion for I do profess my self convinced that our allegiance and so the preservation of the Kings Person and Authority is an absolute duty founded in the Relation without Regard to the Quality Piety or Impiety of the Person who is bound also to His duty but not on the condition of the Subj cts duty both King and People owe a Reciprocal duty each to other and are bound to God to perform it but the duty of the one is no limiting condition to the other and therefore in all those contests for the Covenant in behalf of the King which not only I but other Ministers have undergone in the opposition of the late sinful Engagement Vid. The Exercitation concerning usurped powers Vindication of the Oath of Allegiance by the same Authour Lancashire and Cheshire Plea for non-subscribers to the late Engagement These words have been understood to be a predication of the capacity in which the Kingdom Parliament and People then were under the opposition of Malignants who divided the King from the People and so the meaning of it is thus We being in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and liberties of the Kingdoms shall endeavour to preserve the Kings Majesties Person and Authority I wish therefore that it may be observed That the words fall into a plain parenthesis and the sentence is entire without them and they are fixed at the end of the Obligation which relates unto the Rights and Priviledges of Parliament and liberties of the Subject as well as the preservation of the King and yet these cannot be limited and this sense is not only consonant to principles of right Reason and true Religion but also the Declaration of the Parliament in their then proceedings and the scope of this Covenant and this very Article which closeth with a most Solemn Appeal to the World to bear witness of our loyalty and that we have no thoughts to diminish His Majesties just power and greatnesse and I hope these serious Casuists will grant that where the words of an Oath seemingly doubtful may they must be understood in a good and just sense and then their exceptions to such a limitation in the Covenant do vanish with the Hypothesis on which they are built and inferred Unto the fourth Article of the Covenant these Masters and Scholars of Oxford do suggest something in Politicks which soundeth as strangely in my ears as their past Divinity indeed they determine it not but only desire it may be considered 1. Whether this Article lay not a necessity on the son to accuse his father and pursue him to destruction in case he should be an Incendiary Malignant or evil Instrument as is in this Article described which they conceive to be contrary to Religion Nature and Humanity 2. Whether the swearing this Article do not open a ready way to children and husbands that are sick of their fathers and w ves by appeaching them of Malignancy the letter to effectuate their unlawful intentions and designes To these I should have only desired it may be considered 1. Whether all penal Statutes in point of Treason and Felony open not as ready a way for children and husbands to be rid of their fathers and wives and the danger of concealment be not a very fair Apology for the same are they therefore contrary to Religion Nature and Humanity Have they never heard of such wickednesse know they not that there is an impossibility of fence against malicious accusations mischievously managed Must therefore these Statutes be voided as wicked and the like be prevented for time to come 2. Did not these learned men take the Oath of Allegiance and therein sware That they will to the best of their endeavour disclose and make known unto His Majesty His Heirs and Successors all Treasons and Trayterous Conspiracies which they should know or hear of to be against Him or any of Them May natural affection interdict this duty or are natural Relations exempt from this discovery may not mischievous men find open a ready way to appeal such as stand between them and their desires or did these Gentlemens learning and loyalty lead them to conclude the Oath of Allegiance is against Religion Nature and Humanity 3. May one time make contrary to Religion Nature and Humanity that kind of promise which at another time may be consistent therewithall These Gentlemen pleaded the protestation of the 5th of May 1641. as a bar to the swearing this Covenant and tell us often they sware that and therein they sware in this Form of words To my power and as far as lawfully I may I will oppose and by all good meanes endeavour to bring to condigne punishment all such as shall either by force practice counsels or conspiracies or otherwise do any thing to the contrary of any thing in this present protestation contained will they please to tell us whether these words be not as directly contrary to the fourth as the fore-going promise of this protestation was unto the first Article of this Covenant or doth not this Protestation lay as great necessity and give as fair an occasion for the son to accuse the Father and persue him to destruction and so appear as much against Religion Nature and Humanity as doth the Solemn League and Covenant 4. I should have prayed the judgment of these learned men on that Law prescribed by Moses to Israel in Deut. 13.6 7. 8 9 10. If thy brother the son of thy Mother or thy son or thy daughter or the wife of thy bosome or thy friend which is as thine own soul entice thee secretly saying Let us go and serve other gods c. thou shalt not consent unto him nor hearken unto him neither shall thine eye pity him neither shalt thou spare neither shalt thou conceal him but thou shalt surely kill him thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death and afterwards the hand of all the people c. and all Israel shall hear and fear and shall do no mere so wickedly did not this Law bind to the same act give the same occasion lay the same necessity which is laid by this Article of the Covenant And was it contrary to Religion Nature and Humanity Did these Gentlemen think we expect to be preferred by this notion of Policy or if they suggested this exception
assure and declare by my solemn Oath in the presence of the Almighty God my allowance and approbation of the National Covenant and of the solemn League and Covenant above-written and faithfully oblige my self to prosecute the ends thereof in my station and calling and that I for my self and successors shall consent and agree to all Acts and Ordinances enjoyning the National Covenant the solemn League and Covenant and fully establish Presbyterial Government the Directory for worship Confession of Faith and Catechism in the Kingdom of Scotland as they are approved by the General Assemblies of this Kirk and Kingdom and that I shall give my Royal assent to Acts and Ordinances of this Parliament passed or to be passed enjoyning the same in my other dominions and that I shall observe these in mine own practice and family and never make opposition to any of those or endeavour any change thereof In this Oath it is worth observation that the Royal assent is given unto the solemn League and Covenant and Directory for worship Confession of Faith and Catechism and Presbyterial Government as things done in pursuit thereof 2. That the Royal assent is declared unto and assured to be given in formality unto Acts and Ordinances of this Parliament supposed to be then in being in his other dominions passed by them for the Covenant and other things of Religion specified 3. That this he was pleased to do as King of Great Britain France and Ireland his most Royal and publick capacity and that for himself and his successors upon these considerations I could be glad to receive the judgment of the learned in the Law whether the Royal assent any way or by any expressions or Act publickly made known be not sufficient to make an Act of Parliament a perfect and compleat Law the equity of the statute of 33. Henrie the third 21. Rendring the Kings assent under his seal expressed to be as valid and effectual to all intents in Law as if he had been personally present doth suggest a ground for this enquiry for I conceive an assent by solemn Oath to be a more Real Royal political presence than the transubstantiation or his Real Presence under his Seal but that I may keep within my sphear I presume none will deny this to be Jure civili and divino before God and men an establishment of the Solemn League and Covenant to oblige the Subject and the rather if it be observed that it was done deliberately Declaration from Dunfirling Aug. 16. 1650. and so professed and enforced by a most pious Declaration of His Royal pleasure conjuring the enmity against the Covenant conceived in any His Subjects in any His Dominions to cease His Majesty being resolved to have no friends but the friends of the Covenant Grotius layeth us down two cases wherein the Act of the King doth bind His Subjects they both square with this our case in reference to the Covenant the one Contractus Regentium obligat subditos si probabilem habeant rationem if the Covenant carry a probable reason let such as plead His Majesty had no probable way to come to His right and be enjoyed by His Subjects but by yielding to the Covenant which God indeed hath used as the principal means to that effect now graciously accomplished tell us whether it was a most probable reason of good to the Nation The other case was this Grotius de jur bel pa. lib. 2. cap. 14. 235. si adsit populus ipse vult obligari quo casu sui juris esse inceperit successores ut populi capita obligabuntur nam quid populus liber contraxisset obligaretur is qui postea regnum plenissimo jure acciperet where the people are willing to be bound of which in our case let the agitations of both Parliaments in both Kingdoms witness It will Sir nothing relieve this Act of His Majesty to plead It was below His Royal Prerogative to Covenant with His own Subjects had it been with an enemy we admit and confess we were bound by His Act but by His Royal Power He may absolve Himself from so vile an Obligation made to His Subjects In this câ—se I must indeed confess His Royal Prerogative may priviledge His Majesty from a coaction unto performance of what He hath sworn the state of Subjects leaving them void of power to compel but jure civili and divino He is bound to performance and the Subject may by humble supplication pray and demand performance of the Covenant for the condescension voluntary hath left an obligation on the conscience before God and the world So Grotius tells us Dicimus ex promisso contracta Regis quam cum subditis iniit Grotius de jur belli pa. l. c. 14. p. 233. nasci veram ac propriam obligationem quae jus det ipsis subditis the Oath of a King covenanting with his Subjects hath God for its witness and he is more eminently engaged to avenge it because there is no humane power that may do it Nor is it of any more force to plead that His Majesty was in an exiled estate and not in the possession of the Kingdom and therefore could not as King make any Covenant for or against his people Unto this Plea the Answer is obvious and it is and must be acknowledged no case or place can destroy his Royal capacity for it abideth and the alteration of his seat of residence will not render his Family an individuum vagum as Lucan noteth of the Roman Senate Non unquam perdidit or do mutato sua jura loco and Grotius hath ruled this case Lib. 2. cap. 16. p. 257. and concludes the same Cum rege initum foedus manet etiamsi Rex idem aut successora subditis sit pulsus jus enim Regni penes ipsum manet utcunque possessionem amiserit I hope there is jure civili the same right and power to give as to receive and then let the King be where he will his Covenant binds for or against his Subjects and to the sworne form of Worship and Discipline in His Family Nor is it of any more strength or advantage to say His Majesty was under force and thorough the straits of His condition did condescend to such unworthy terms which He cannot with honour make good The which so much as once to suggest to the World is an high disservice and reproach unto His Majesty lessening His Royal Reputation and the apprehension of Piety amongst His Religious Subjects If Doctor Sanderson's notion be right Divinity as certainly it is Pius esse nequit qui non est fortis He cannot be godly who is cowardly and his esteem amongst men by the rule of the Heathen Poet. Justum ac tenacem propositi virum Non civium ardor prava jubentium Non vultus instantis tyranni Mente quatit solida Horace lib. 3. ode 3. Serious men will stoutly withstand the importunities of impudence
abide a question whether it do not binde But I presume none will be so childish as to say or think the Purity of Religion Honour and Authority of the King Priviledges of Parliament Liberty of the Subject and Vnity of the Kingdom are trifles than which no matters can be more weighty and needful to us as men or Christians Nor is it of any force to say These were secured by Laws and Profession of a lawful and Religious King whilst these did not expel the spirit of jealousie the matter was of that weight as to render an Oath and Covenant necessary Secondly An Oath is unlawful when the matter of it is impossible for ad impossibile Nemo teneatur whether the impossibility be in the nature of the thing or action conversant about it but our Solemne League and Covenant is free from any appearance of impossibility in the nature of the things covenanted I hope the Reformation of Religion and preservation of humane order peace and unity will be owned as possibilities beyond the Learning of an Asse Scruples and Doubts about taking the Covenant p. 7. 8. Very little ground is there for that Scruple which is urged by our Drs. Anonymous friend That Extirpation is the immediate work of God in the heart as if it were no way a humane Act within mens power in reference to the exercise and profession a principle or practice in the Kingdom Nor is there any impossibility chargeable on the Act which is all along limited unto an endeavour according to our several places and callings which might methinks have satisfied the same Questionists that though Banishment or Death be extirpating Acts yet they might be out of his place and calling and other Acts did to him particularly belong Let it here be noted that though the Law were as some suppose against something sworn in this Covenant yet this puts not a moral impossibility upon the same for that a National Oath is the most full and authentick Repeal and discharge of former Laws or the thing sworn may be effected by a meek and humble endeavour in our places and callings to have that Law voided and repealed And as to what impossibility did seem to lie upon the extirpation of some things in this Covenant sworn to be extirpated by reason of the Coronation Oath of His late conscientious Majesty it was greater in appearance than in reality For the Oath of a Prince may be vacated by the impossibility put on it by the contrary Oath of the people though tumultuously sworn as it was in the rescue of Jonathan from King Sauls Oath 1 Sam. 14.46 I justifie not nay I pray God prevent the insurrection of the natural against the political power but I cannot but take notice that God sometimes suffers it and produceth his own will by it as in this case and in the casting off Samuel and changing the government and amongst us Horresco referens in suffering the madness of the people to prevaile against His late Majesty not only to the contradiction of His Oath but cutting off His Royal person and so clearing the impossibility that did appear between this Covenant and his Coronation Oath and in bringing His Majesty that now is under the same Sacred Bonds to endeavour in His Royal place and calling to effect the same things And in this case it is to be remembred that the impossibility being removed the Oaih becomes obliging and the act sworne a duty Let such as pretend an impossibility on any part of the Covenant because of the prevalency of men affection of the people countenance of Authority and the like learn to distinguish between the effect and endeavour there may be an impossibility of effect and yet impossibility of endeavour and D. Saunderson concludes that the thing once sworne the covenanter must endeavour to make the affect possible Indeed we have in the Covenant sworne with very much Caution not to effect but in our places and balling to endeavour but this must not be by a wish for purity and then welcome corruption a consent to Reformation and then compliance in Superstition a faint refusal and then free reception of the estate to be extirpated No it must be a stout and strenuous endeavour with all force and fervor as Dr. Saunderson in this case well noteth Obligat hoc genus Juramenti non ad effectum quem supponimus esse impossibilem Saunderson de Juram praelect 3. Sect. 4. p. 64. sed ad conatam quamdiu superat spes ulla Imo quo plures majores objiciuntur difficultates eo obnixius conondum for tioribus animis obnitendam I wish Sir that our soft Covenanters Speedy compliants and Temporizing Turn-Coats would seriously study this lesson Thirdly An Oath is in respect of the matter unlawful when it is impious and expresly against Gods Word and Command being so in it self and nature of the thing and then the Rule must be admitted Pacta quae turpem causam continent non sunt observanda And Oath must be the Bond of iniquity Here Sir be pleased to observe that though I could not consant to the Drs. opposition of Truth Justice Reason Religion and duty to God or man as Iron Adamantine bonds unto the weak Wit hs Cords of an Oath which is directly contrary to the nature thereof yet I acknowledge in them such power as no Oath can bind against If he or any will assume and make good the assumption That the matter of the Covenant is of its self and own nature contrary to Truth Justice Reason Religion or duty to God and man I will admit the sequel and conclude it doth not oblige But I have yet found none that have herein charged it some indeed oppose to some part of the Covenant an Apostolical tradition but no divine institution or direction to any part thereof The unlawfulnesse which I find charg'd on the matter of the Covenant is usually accidental in some circumstances conversant about the Act more than the matter sw rne and hath been produced as a just barre to the taking of the Covenant but is in vain now produced to break its bonds laid upon us as I have before noted I easily grant that the Oath which is not sworne in truth in Justice and in judgment is very prophanely sworn yet affirm it may be strongly binding and so hereupon I might discharge this Section as running into the former but because simple men seem startled by that unlawfulness of matter in the Covenant which is suggested in the Oxford Reasons for their non-confederacy with the rest of the Nation and do commonly produce them as the present only plea to discharge the Oath of God I shall make bold to weigh the same and see what more strength is in their Scruples as to the matter promised than was in reference to the matter asserted and whether an intelligent Casuist would not have easily resolved their doubts and enlarged their consciences
the Preachers defended even in the University from censure for them nay these were Printed in several Books of the same Authors licensed and allowed by the Archbishop and his Chaplains and many of them asserted in the visitation Articles of some Bishops and yet were not established in the Church of England As in Doctrine so in worship many corruptions were innovated and exercised As Bowing at the Name of Jesus The turning Communion-Tables into Altars or Altarwise and Railing them in furnishing them with Candlesticks and Tapers Tying the Gospel the blessing and other parts of the publick service to that place enclosed and bowing to these Altars The making Crucifixes and Canopies pictures of God Christ the Holy Ghost Virgin Mary and other Saints in our Church-windows Consecration of Churches Fonts Bells and the like All which and many such were first innovated to the Chappel at Lambeth and ferried over to White-hall and so transmitted to all Cathedral and almost all Parish Churches and yet were not established by Law though enforced by the corruption of Discipline in the Visitation Articles of Bishop Wren Bishop Mountague Bishop Peircy Bishop Lindsey and Bishop Skinner and others in their several Diocesses and by the silencing suspension excommunication and imprisonment and High Commission vexation of Mr. Chauncey Vicar and Mr. Parker an Inhabitant of Ware Mr. Burros of Colchester and many others Nor was Government any more pure if we consider how it was exercised in the High Commission and Star-Chamber with all rigor cruelty and injustice and in Visitations Citations Probate of VVills Letters of Administration and Excommunication in the name and under the Seal of the Bishops themselves never authorized thereunto All which were evidently needful to be reformed as having been so publickly exercised and potently defended and might well enforce a covenanted endeavor to reform Religion in the Kingdom of England I well know Sir that the change of Religion makes a great sound in the world especially if established I cannot be insensible of the noise made by it against our first Reformation and must expect the Eccho to follow all after acts and degrees thereof for all changes are scandalous and many very dangerous If therefore these Masters and Scholars of Oxford could rationally conceive the Covenant to bind them to endeavor a change of Religion in the substance matter and essential parts and form thereof then I must confess their exception is very important for we cannot deny that our Bishops Martyrs and Learned Divines have by Suffering and Writing testified it to have been agreeable to the Word of God And that to resolve that into the power and pleasure of a Parliament who may direct and authorize the profession but not prescribe the matter or form were to make it a Parliamentary Religion and the change thereof must needs condemn our Laws and the punishment of Papists not joyning with us as unjust and so justifie Papist and Separatist the one in his recusancy and the other in his separation But Sir when I consider the Religion of Scotland to be preserved as the concomitant and provocation the VVord of God to be the Rule and the best reformed Churches professing the same substantial Religion though differing in administration and order propounded as the pattern I see not how right reason can render any such sence of it and the rather for that Reformation not alteration of Religion is the formal act which presupposeth the continuation of the subject about which it is conversant But Sir if they as they needs must by Religion understand the order and annexed Ceremonies appendant to Religion whether established as was the Cross in Baptism holinesse of dayes and order of the Liturgy and the like or only exercised and enforced by Prelates power and countenance as the corruptions before mentioned then we must say their exception is of no weight not the reason any thing worth for this change can be no such scandal as is conceived for we deny them to have been testified by our Bishops Martyrs and learned men by any Sufferings or Writings untill of late by the persons and such like before mentioned as agreeable to the Word of God and must put them to the proof of it we think we are able to produce Tindal Latimer Hooper Ridley Farrar and many other Martyrs by laying down their Bishopricks and other contests and sufferings to have testified against them and Mr. Cartwright Baines and many Devonshire Cornwal and Lincolnshire Ministers and others ever since the Reformation by Writing Petition Remonstrance Apology and Sufferings to have testified against not only the corruptions exercised against which our Jewel Fulk Whitaker Archbishop Parker Dr. Ward Dr. Brownrigge Dr. Bancroft and all sound and learned Divines not devoted to return to Rome have written but even the very Order and Ceremonies established as being not agreeable to the Word of God And if these learned Gentlemen had pleased to observe the Visitation and high Commission proceedings they might have found Prynn Burton Bastwick Layton Workman Langley Hind Nichols Ball and many others known learned men who were silenced suspended imprisoned stigmatized and in much Sufferings testified these appendants to our Religion whether established or exercised to be no way agreeable to the Word of God and I know not whom they can ment on as a Martyr for them unless it be Lawde the late Archbishop the grand Innovator of our Church 2. If therefore our Religion be by Papists or Prelates reproached as a Parliamentary Religion we will rejoyce in our reproach and bless God we had a Parliament that had zeal to improve their power about those things that were properly subject thereunto 3. Nor can this Reformation justifie the recusancy of the Papists because these things never became a Reason for their recusancy further than they occasioned their obduracy by assuring their hopes of Englands return to them Nor the Separation of the Separatists for that the corruptions established were never made such essential parts of worship as to make a sufficient ground for separation Witness Cartwrights defence of the Church service The Masters and Scholars of Oxford cannot have been so little observant as not to know that the sober zealous Non-conformists who groaned under the burden of these corruptions and for this Reformation were grieved by and greatly contended against the * Mr. Geree his Vindiciae ecclesiae Anglicanae shewing necessity of reformation not Separation And Mr. Balls two Books against Mr. Cann Separation as that which was without sufficient ground yet like Jesus Christ their Master kept Communion with a Church whose Doctrine and Worship was very much in need of Reformation and taught men so to do granting There was something in the Doctrine and Worship of the Church of England not agreeable to the Word of God and yet not enough to lay a ground for separation 4. Much less doth this endeavor judge the Law against and punishment of Papists as unjust which
he thus breaths against the Covenant Not to take advantage of the preposterous order in setting down the parts of this Covenant wherein he that runneth may read a double Solecism for in it the Church of Scotland precedeth the Church of England and the Liberty of the Subject is set before the Royal Prerogative and Imperial Dignity of the Prince Sir admit we this Is it not an high crime and bespeaks it not a sober serious spirit in Dr. Featly a Member of the Assembly of Divines who by a motion might have had this order inverted as easily as he obtained to have Prelacy specified in the second Article of the Covenant after it was past to pick a quarrel in the order of the words although we deny not That such a sacred and venerable evidence of fidelity is the Covenant that matter manner phrase and order ought to have as I presume they were been maturely advised yea I wish line and period word and syllable which might be the Printers Errata had been so scanned that a captious Momus might not find a Colon or Comma at which he might boggle and please his humour yet it is but a poor advantage from the punctilio's of order and honour to argue against matters of moment duties and exercises of Religion and by misplaced words to make an Oath or Solemn League illegal I but do I not run too fast he tells us he will not take the advantage an honest man is indeed as good as his word but I cannot trust him for his ninth Argument This Covenant is derogatory to the Honour of the Church and Kingdom of England Page 28. is thus proved The Church of Scotland is set before the Church of England I like not that mans grace that with the same breath will remit and retort an indiscretion yet Sir I cannot but enquire whether the preferring of the pompous gay-cloath'd Church of England before the poor Church of Scotland look not like a species of that impious partiality condemned by the Apostle James Chap. 2.1 2 3 4 5. Can we think this Dr. had the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ in respect of persons or was acted by such a spirit of contradiction No this language was spoken after he was dead 2. But these Solecisms are not to me so obvious I stand still and cannot read them though I read the Covenant with all observation and regard yet I confess I find the Church of Scotland set before the Church of England and the liberty of the Subject before the Prerogative of the King but they are propounded with Relation to different Acts the Reformed Religion of Scotland to be preserved of England to be Reformed I hope it is no Solecisme to put the factum before the fieri and to swear the preservation of good acquired before an endeavour to obtain the same or better or to prefix the pattern to what is to be thereunto confirmed when this Authors second thoughts had observed this salvo to his suggested * Page 29. Solecisme he grudges that Scotland should be propounded as a pattern of Reformation to England for which he had little Reason if venerable Beda speak true in that he reports That * Mira divinae factum constat dispensatione pietatis quod gens illa quae noverat scientiam divinae cognitionis libenter sine invidia populo Anglorum communicare curavit Bed Eccl. His Gen. Ang. l. 5. c. 23. that Nation did at first communicate the Science of Divine knowledge without grudge or envy unto the people of England I hope it is no Solecisme to propound them as a pattern of Reformation who have first obtained it and from whom Christianity it self was at first to us transmitted The second supposed Solecisme is no more visible than this first for if the liberty of the people be the end and excellency of the Prerogative of the King as all wise Statists and Politicians do affirm he sure will admit to be the first in intention and endeavour although the last in execution and enjoyment and the rather for that it is so directed and dictated by the Maxime of His late glorious Majesty declared at the passing of the Petition of Right The peoples liberty strengthens the Kings Prerogative and the Kings Prerogative is to defend the peoplâ—â— liberty I am sure more serious and publick Statesmen than he or I shall ever make have judged it a Solecisme in Parliaments to support the Kings Prerogative by supply of moneys before the oppressions and burdens of the people have been relieved and their liberties secured and I believe I could prove that this is not the first Covenant made in England preferring the Peoples liberty before the Kings Prerogative without which the King may Tyrannize over slaves not Rule over free-ment which last is and will be His greatest honour The second thing in respect of which the Covenant is blemished and reproached as to the manner of making it 2. The nature and name of the Covenant vindicated Oxford Reasons Sect. 2. pag. 3. relates unto the nature thereof and the name is the noration of its nature and it is called a Solemn League and Covenant against which the Masters and Scholars of Oxford do except stumbling at the name Covenant they were learned men and must a little stand on the propriety of words they therefore except against this denomination because imposed with a penalty which imposition say they is repugnant to the nature of a Covenant which being a contract implieth a voluntary mutual consent of the contracters whereunto men are to be induced by perswasion not compelled by power pactum est duorum pluriumve in idem placitum consensus To this Sir I grant that a Covenant in the strict acceptation of it must be an agreement by mutual consent yet I must enquire of these learned men whether the Magisterial imposing of absolute duty or actions otherwise indifferent by Superiours upon their Inferiours and that under a penalty may not be called a Covenant What think they of that injunction to Mankind in Adam Of the Tree of good and evil thou stalt not eat for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death we read not of any stipulation in Adam And Divines tell us it was neither necessary nor proper he being bound to accept the conditions his Creatour would put upon him I am sure this is generally judged a Covenant and that we commonly call the Covenant of Works Again In the Primitive Times of the Church adult persons did answer certain queftions propounded as bredis credo abrenuncias abrenuncio 1 Pet. 3.21 Beza in Loc. to which the Apostle Peter is though to refer his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Beza renders Stipulatio bâ—nae conscientiae apud Deum and from this order Tertullian concludes Anima non lavatione sed responsione sancitur Do these learned men as the Anabaptists think the Covenant of Grace is not passed between God and
serious surveigh of the Solemn League and Covenant I cannot but observe and see clearly that first the matter therein Covenanted is publike and national relating to the Kingdom under its Civil Religious and reformed consideration or capacity being the reformation and defence of Religion under a national profession and the honour and happinesse of the King priviledges of Parliament and liberties of the Subjects and the like concernments no way proper for personal and individual private Oaths 2. These matters and this form of security to them were consul ed agitated debated determined concluded and agreed unto by two distinct Nations agreeing in the general capacities which did relate unto the matter thereof and that in their most publike capacities and by the indisputable most full and formal collective bodies of both Kingdoms the Parliament though defective in that part which was most necessary to establish a Law then indent a Covenant which did most eminently consist in the consent of the people and body of the Nations 3. The termes shewing the capacity in which it was sworn are general and National as in the very words of the Preface We Noblemen Barons Knights Gentlemen Citizens Burgesses Ministers of the Gospel and Commons of all sorts of the Kingdome of England c. by the providence of God living under one King and being of one reformed Religion so that all ranks and orders of men however dignified or distinguished among themselves yet united in this publike capacity the subjects of one King and of one reformed Religion and in that union universally sware the Covenant 4. The end and scope of this Covenant was Real National and Publike and only Personal in relation thereunto as is evident by the professed grounds thereof as having before our eyes the true publique liberty peace and safety of the Kingdoms wherein every ones private condition is included a sence of the deplorable distressed dangerous estate in which the Kingdoms then were and by the ends propounded almost in every Article thereof which relate to the Kingdoms and our Posterity and cannot be secured if the Oath be not National as in Article the First that we and our Posterity after us may as Brethren live in faith and love in Article the Second that the Lord may be one and his Name one in the three Kingdoms In Article the Third that the two Kingdoms of England and Scotland may remain conjoyned in a firme peace and union to all Posterity And by the Sixth Article it is declared to contain in it a cause which much concerned the good of the Kingdoms and in the conclusion thereof is a profession of sence and sorrow for the sin of these Kingdoms distinct from our own sins the which do loudly proclaime the scope and intent thereof to have been Nationall and publique 5. This Covenant was sworn by the Nation or Kingdom 1. Collectively by the body of the Nations regularly assembled and constituted in the most full and compleat Assembly that could and ever did represent the same in all acts and agâ—tations truly Real and National viz. The Parliament consisting of Lords and Commons that in their publique capacity as a Parliament the House of Commons Assembled in their House in the formality of the body of the Nation with their speaker before them went unto St. Margarets Church in Westminster and there with the greatest solemnity imaginable Ordinance of Feb. 5. 1643. did as the representative body of the Kingdom swear this Covenant which as a further testimony that it was a National Covenant they caused to be printed with their names subscribed and to be hanged up in all Churches and in their own House as a compass whereby in conformity to right Reason and Religion to steer their then debates and to dictate to all that should succeed into that place and capacity what obligation did before God lie upon the body of this Nation 2. It was universally sworn by the people of this Kingdom solemnly Assembled in their particular places of convention all over the Kingdom all manner of persons from eighteen years old and upward and that not at their own will and giddy humour but at the Command and by the Authority of Parliament Vid. ordinance enjoyning the taking of the Covenant who in their place and in the behalf of this Nation having judged it a fit and excellent means to acquire the favour of God towards the three Kingdoms did order it to be universally sworne and certainly whosoever will but well weigh the directions given and duly executed in the tendring of the Covenant in all Counties and Parishes by every individual Minister to every individual Congregation and taken by all persons religious military or civil enforced with arguments which might convince conscience in the ingenuous or constraine the act from the peevish or perverse and accompained with the greatest extention concomitant imaginable he cannot but see a much more then the fourth part of the Nation did swear the Covenant If the several Rolls within the several Parishes and Precincts of this Kingdom in which the several Names of such as did swear the Solemn League and Covenant were engrossed may be produced It will be found notwithstanding the many singulars who may now renounce and say they did not take the Covenant it was sworn by the universality of the Nation And I hope we who have ever been judged a free people tied by no bonds but such as we lay upon our selves may be allowed to bind our selves by an Oath De jure bel ex par 256. and so make it Real and National according to that Rule and Reason of Grotius Si quidem populo liberto actum sit dubium non est quin quod promittitur sui natura reale sit 3. The solemn League and Covenant hath been ratified and rendred National by his most sacred Majesty unto all such who apprehend the constitution of this Nation to be merum imperium an absolute Monarchy wherin the King hath supremam protestatem whose professed loyalty leads them to subject themselves to all manner his Majesties concessions and conclusions and that by a series of multiplied acts as his Majesties agreement with the Scots at Breda where he graciously condescended to his Subjects by Solemn Oath to publish testifie his approbation of the solemn League Covenant and at his first arrival into Scotland was pleased to subject unto the same bond in which his Subjects were engaged and to swear the same solemn League and Covenant And again at his royal Coronation at Scoon in Scotland on the first of January 1651. was Graciously pleased over and above the ordinary and solemn Oath peculiarly belonging to him as King of Scotland in his most publique capacity The History of Charles the second 75 76 77. to swear the solemn League and Covenant and this Oath in behalf of himself and his successors I Charles King of great Brittain France and Ireland do
of Covenanting The particle Such seems to carry it to the quality of the Covenant in respect of the matter covenanted which afterward is particularly and in its proper place excepted against But the words of the Covenant suggested by this exception to be false do relate unto the act of covenanting as we have now at last for the preservation of our Religion determined to enter into a not such a mutual and Solemn League and Covenant And the place of this exception is in the beginning of their exceptions unto the Preface which may be said to be no part of the Covenant and therefore admits not an exception to the quality of such a Covenant Moreover the next exception puts it out of doubt that these words relate to the act of Covenanting in which they profess they finde not in our Histories any footsteps of a sworn Covenant on any occasion whatsoever So that it seems to be the Act of covenanting by Oath which they cannot conceive to be a lawful proper and probable means to preserve Religion from ruine Surely then Sir the weather was very misty about Oxford and made their minds very muddy that they could not conceive entring into Covenants and Solemn Leagues dictated by the light of nature and directed by the Law of God pursued and practised by all Nations and by Israel in the cases of their Religion as the utmost of humane policy and highest of security to their priviledges endangered as a method detecting concealed enmity debarring fraud expressing affection engaging conscience and animating resolution to be a lawful proper and probable meanes of security If it be good and safe as to our Civil I hope it is no less probable in our Religious concernments If Sir I had been to deale with one single student I must have told him That he started this exception more like a Sophistical Disputant than a conscientious Dubitant Fourthly They could not believe the entring into this Covenant to be according to the commendable practice of these Kingdoms 4th Exception in the Oxford Reasons or the example of Gods people in other Nations for that they found not the least footstep in our Histories of a sworne Covenant ever entred into by the people of this Kingdom upon any occasion whatsoever nor could they readily remember any commendable example of the like done in any other Nation but are rather told by the Defenders of the Covenant that the world never saw the like before Whither Sir Answer will not prejudice carry men I cannot but wonder to finde the Masters Students c. of Oxford so much unacquainted with Histories as neither to finde in our own or other Histories a commendable example of Entring into Covenant I may not mind them of the Covenant made by the Nobles and people of Scotland among themselves and with Queen Elizabeth of England under and against the Papal might executed by the then Queen Regent nor of the Netherlands confederacy and Covenant These will not seem commendable in their sight now though so judged when England became their protection and encouraged nay defended them in them Let me therefore enquire whether they knew Israel to have been Gods people of another Nation and that they entered into Covenant in the time of the Judges in the dayes of Joash Josiah Hezekiak and Nehemiah in times of danger and defection in their Civil and Religious concernments And was their practice commendable 2. Did our Gentlemen of Oxford never finde any footsteps in our Histories concerning the Barons of Stamford Anno 1225. assembled not only without but against the Kings consent and covenanted each with other to demand the restitution of their Liberties whereupon a Parliament was holden at Northampton to give them satisfaction And again did they never finde in our Histories how in Anno 1258. they Assembled at Oxford agreed on Articles viz. The confirmation of the Charter de Foresta 2. The establishing of a Lord Chief Justice who might judge them by Law 3. The driving Aliens and Strangers out of England and the like and that they confederated by Oath and gave their hands and mutual faith one to the other Matth. Paris Hist Aug. p. 940 941 952 653. that they would not desist to prosecute their purpose for loss of money or Lands nor love nor hate no nor yet for life of them or theirs till they had cleared England of Strangers and procured laudable Laws And under this Covenant they brought the Kings Brother Richard King of Romans and Earle of Cornwall and caused him to sweare upon the Holy Gospels this formal Covenant Hear all men that I Richard Earle of Cornwal swear upon the Holy Gosples to be faithful and forward with you to Reforme the Kingdom of England hitherto by the counsel of wicked men so much deformed and I will be an effectual coadjutor to expell the Rebels and troublers out of the same Both these our Histories say were in the time and without the consent of King Henry the 3d. Not to trouble our Reader with the like in the time of King John King Richard the 2d and other Princes I must desire the Gentlemen of Oxford to tell us whether these were not people of England and these be not visible foot-marks of some Covenant of the people of England on some occasion And if they shall question whether they be commendable examples let them please to observe the commendable Epethite our Historian gives upon the last of these Covenanters calling them Angliae Republicae Zelatores But the defenders of the Covenant told them that the world never saw the like before I but they did not tell them that there are no footsteps of any Covenant made on any occasion whatsoever And if they had were the Masters and Students in Oxford resolved into such an implicite Faith as to believe an Enemy But I wonder these Masters of Reason had so little Reason as to conclude a general from the concession of a special Their Margent explaineth the concession of the defenders of the Covenant in these termes Such an Oath for matter persons and other circumstances the like hath not been in any Age or Oath we reade of in Sacred or humane Stories Know they not that there is a vast difference between the general form of an Oath or Covenant and those special Qualifications which may circumstance it and that a dissimilitude in the last will not conclude that there never was a Sworn Covenant on any occasion but sit verbum sat sapienti Thus Sir notwithstanding these learned Suggestions of the falsehood of the Preface and in it of the assertory part of the Covenant it yet continueth lawful because true and is our encouragement and assurance that the promissory part will be answerable For as in rational conclusions so I hope in Religious resolutions we shall find à veris vera sequuntur Subsectio Tertia The promissory part of the Covenant is in these six Articles I. THat we shall sincerely
Subsectio quarta The Master Scholars and other Officers and Members of the University of Oxford in their Apology for not taking the Covenant urge their Reasons against the same as unlawful not in the matter it self simply considered but by accident in respect of some circumstances attending themselves and discapacitating them unto the Act and they offer their exceptions unto the Articles severally and distinctly Unto the first Article they except against the Preservation of the Reformed Religion of the Church of Scotland in Doctrine Oxford Reasons Sect. 3. pag. 4. and Worship Discipline and Government and then against the Reformation of England in those particulars Unto the first they tell us 1 Except They are not satisfied how they can in judgment swear to endeavour to preserve the Religion of another Kingdom To which I answer in General it is but reason they suspend the Act untill they can swear in judgment though such as have rashly in ignorance prophaned the Oath by swearing it must in sence of its Sacred Obligation inform their judgments that they may performe it and not cast it off but what hindreth their judgment in this required Act They urge four obstructive reasons As First As it did not conc rn them to have very much 1 Reason of this exception so they profess they had very little understanding thereof In which reason it is to be noted 1. They had some understanding of the Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government of the Church of Scotland and that little might so farre enlighten their judgment as lawfully to swear the preservation thereof I presume many Citizens have little and but general notion of the Liberties they swear to preserve yet are judged to swear in judgment 2. I wonder an Vniversity and Protestant Vniversity conversing in all Books and I must imagine meeting with the two Books of the Discipline of the Church of Scotland their Confession of Faith and Form of Worship entertaining Schoolmen and Bishops thence fled by reason of the same and openly oppugning and disputing against the same should profess they had thereof little understanding but it may be they minded not to study these things 3. Some understanding in the Religion of another Kingdom was necessary to them as Christians and Protestants by vertue of the Communion of the Church and some as an Vniversity and Protestant School of Learning where the true Religion of the Reformed Churches was to be defended duobts dissolved and errors oppugned and contradicted and some was necessary to them as Subjects required to swear the preservation thereof for the injunction could not but provoke an enquiry after the matter to be preserved I wonder therefore how these men could profess it did not concern them to have much who if I mistake not ought to know as much as all the Nation besides but from what they know they adde the next Reason viz. In three of the four specified particulars viz. Worship 2 Reason of this exception Discipline and Government it is much worse and in the fourth that of Doctrine not at all better than our own to be reformed I wonder Sir what account of the Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government of the Church of Scotland was by the occurrences of those unhappy times brought unto the knowledge of the University of Oxford I hope they were more wise and just than to take it from Mr. John Maxwel pretended Bishop of Ross a man excommunicated by the Church and censured by the State of that Kingdom a professed Enemy and enraged Delinquent cursing his very Judges whom I find about that time at Oxford writing his Issachars Burden a most railing reproachful discovery of the Discipline of the Church of Scotland and the rather for that the heat of expectation and ostentation of many in reference to that book was cooled by a providential fire which seiz'd on the Printing-House and burned the Copies ready to be published the next day as Mr. Baylie in his Vindication of the Government of that Church which these Gentlmen might have met with doth testifie Yet Sir had these men of reading regarded what more sober and impartial men have said and written they would have had another Character of this Church I may not mind them of the Apology to the Doctors of Oxford in the time of King James preferring the Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government of Scotland before that of England or of their Philadelphian purity Bright man on Apocalyps 3. who did not only keep the Doctrine of Salvation pure and free from corruption but doth also deliver it in writing and exercise in practice that sincere manner of government whereby men are made pertakers of Salvation mentioned by Mr. Brightman our Countreyman they will possibly tell us these were Seperatists to whom Scotland is no friend or Puritans Yet methinks * Magnum hoc Dei munus quod una religionem puram 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doctrinae viz. retinendae vinculum in Scotiam intulistis Sic obsecro obtesto haec duo simul rebinet ut uno amisso alterum diu permanere non posse semper memineritis Beza Epist 79. Beza may call for a little audience and respect from this Learned Assembly and he told us long since This is the great gift of God that you have brought into Scotland together pure Religion and good order which is the bond to hold fast the Doctrine and I heartily pray and beseech you for Gods sake hold fast these two together and alwayes remember that if one be lost the other cannot long remain And no less venerable I presume is the Corpus Confession the Harmony of Confessions of all the reformed Churches and yet therein they have an account of the Church of Scotland which might render it more acceptable and worthy to be preserved For thus it is reported by the Collector who much rejoyced in the providence that brought their Confession into his hand * Est illud ecclesiae Scoticanae privilegium rarum prae multis in quo etiam Nomen apud exteros suit celebre quod circiter aut nos plus minus 54. sine Schismate nedum Haeresi unitatem cum puritate doctrinae prevaverit retinuerit hujus unitatis adminiculum ex Dei misericordia maximum fuit quod paulatim cum doctrina Christi Apostolorum Disciplina sicut ex verbo Dei praescripta est una suit recepta quam proxime fieri potuit secundum eam totum ecclesiae regimen fuit administratum Dâ—t Dominus Deus pro immensa sua bonitate Regiae Majestati omnibusque Ecclesiarum gubernatoribus ut ex Dei verbo illam unitatem Doctrinae puritatem perpetuo conservat Corpus Confess p. 6. It is the rare priviledge of the Church of Scotlaod before many in which respect her name is famous even among strangers that about the space of fifty and four years without Schisme yea or Heresie she hath holden fast unity with
Resurrection and Ascension of our Lord and Saviour are all mysteries or matters of reverence esteem and admiration to the Church to be duly and distinctly considered yet under correction of better judgments the several holy dayes appointed to the memorial of them is in my thoughts no less irrational than irreligious I say irrational because though some of them be great Mysteries yet they are not simply and in themselves mercies to the Church but as they relate unto and center in the work of Mâ—â—â—â—edemption to which they do relate as several distinct actâ—â—â— that compleat and individual Blessing or Mercy and right reason doth direct commemoration of all the parts in the mercies by them perfected and compleated Irreligious it seems to me as without any divine Warrant nay redundant to Gods own institution who hath appointed the first day of the week as the day for the commemoration of the worlds Restitution by mans Redemption If this be the cause of the change of the Sabbath as we have been commonly taught doth it not supersede the appointment of the Church God doth not mediately what he doth immediately or by Commission what is done in his own person I well know some in their Contests for Holy-dayes make the Sabbath changeable at the Churches pleasure and if these several acts of Redemption be commemorated in their distinct holy-dayes I see not how we can avoid a return to the Jews Sabbath for the fourth command must needs be moral and this method takes away the reason of the alteration of the day Now Sir if the holy daies the foundation be Superstitious sure Oxford will not say the superstructure or Solemn Special service is agreeable to the Word of God! Fifthly Again Sir will the Masters and Scholars of Oxford say the very order and method of the Common Prayer is agreeable to the Word of God How do they ground their perswasion concerning the Versicles Popular Responds Intermixtures Abbreviations Abruptions and stops and present postings on again with a Let us pray wenn nothing but prayer is in hand that they are agreeable to the Word of God So do the very Papists Antiphonae responsoria versiculi ejusmodi minuta non videntur necessaria impediunt enim cursum piae utilis lectionis Spalat l. 17. c. 12. Art 96. Versiculos responsoria capitula omittere ideirco visum est quoniam legentes saepe morentur Card. Quignonius I observe the first Compilers of this Book to leave a blot on this method by taking away many Verses Responds Anthems and the like which did interrupt the duty of reading the Scriptures together and that for this very reason but à quatenus ad omne valet consequentia The number is not only to be abated but all things of this nature obstructive to and inconsistent with the Solemn and serious entire performance of any particular Act or Duty of Religion ought to be abolished Doth the VVord of God allow mute service or private devotion in the publick Assembly What warrant is there in the publick service of the Church for a silent space of time that the secret prayers of the people may be sent to heaven as is directed at the Ordination and Consecration of Priests and Bishops The reason therein declared is That Jesus Christ prayed all night before He sent out His Disciples and the Church of Antioch prayed when they sent out Paul and Barnabas but they do not tell us whether Christ were in an Assembly when he prayed alone or whether the Church of Antioch had a silent pace in which they secretly prayed nor whether the prayer of the one or of the other were mental or vocal but I observe it was joyned with Fasting in which our order agreeth not whilst any Sunday or Holy-day and a short space thereof will be an opportunity sufficient for such a work VVhat Text of either Old or New Testament allots to the people other portion of publick prayer save to say Amen 1 Cor. 14.15 In respect of which prayer is prescribed to be in a known tongue to their understanding How shall we make the peoples vocal responds salutation supplication for mercies deprecation of miseries meerly and only recited by the Ministers agreeable to the Word of God Exposition of the Liturgy p. 40. Must it be by the salutation of Boaz and his Reapers or Mary and Elizabeth to which Dr. Boyes referreth it it must then be proved that Boaz was in the publick Assembly and cele ' rating divine service and so for Mary and Elizabeth and that it was not a civil complement expressed in Religious words on an occasional meeting each with other as becomes Christian friends and that such pieces of civil respect witnesssing reciprocal affection are parts of Solemn Worship to pass between the Pastor and People in the celebration thereof I shall not deny sighs and short ejaculations to be ardent expressions of the mind and affection and find acceptance with God but question the suitableness thereof to standing solemn and publick Worship I yield to Dr. Boys that the Publican did affectionately dart out his Lord be merciful to me a sinner and the Woman of Canaan her Have mercy on me O Lord and blind Bartimeus O Son of David take pity on me But by his leave I must say these were personal not publick occasional not fixed ordinary Worship extemporary on the occasion not premeditated much less prescribed nay I will grant what he saith Augustine Reports of the Christians in Egypt and which History mentioneth of other Churches Yea I could be easily convinced that in the very first Age of the Gospel many Christians did in the Assembly utter their short expressions and darting prayers preces raptim quodammodo ejaculatas But yet it would be noted they were ejaculations personal expressed in a sacred rapture on the sudden ebolition of the Spirit which without doubt wrought in prayer as in Prophecy and in Psalmes the heat whereof required the Apostles restriction and regulation 1 Cor. 14. affection leading into confusion and so can be no warrant for such premeditated ejaculative expressions to be prescribed in set and publick prayer wherein all things by a Rule restraining this very method under the fervency of the Spirit Let all things be done decently and in order are to be regulated that therefore might be admitted and exercised in the Church and acceptable to God in private and personally expressed or on the immediate ebolition or boyling up of the Spirit and in the heat of affection in the infancy of the Church which will not be so in the publick and prescribed prayers of the Church in her Adult estate in which she must appear more serious and composed and so will not render this Order of Worship agreeable to the Word Sixthly Will the Masters and Scholars of Oxford say that the Rites and Ceremonies annexed to the Worship of God are agreeable to the Word of God viz. The Cross
and excommunicating of the best of men for meer trifles things indifferent so judged by themselves at the least nay many times for opposing profaness and superstition yea for performing their duties in praying and preaching and the like evils which did attend it though I should say but accidentally by the corruption of Montague Laude Wren Pierce and their Companions be written in such sensible Acts and legible Characters that England might feel and the World read them I think there need not be much of Reason offered to shew not only the expediency but necessity of extirpation of a Government though in it self good yet capable of such enormities unlesse it be of an immediate and undoubted divine right But Sir Had not Oxford their numbers in Parliament and did they not trust them with their understandings or must a Parliament offer Reasons of the necessity and expediency of every Act they impose on the Subject before the Subject yield obedience and yet the Vote of the House of Commons past the 10th of June 1641. viz. That this Government hath been found by long experience to be a great impediment to the perfect reformation and growth of Religion and very prejudicial to the Civil State together with the learned Speeches of many Members in the House printed to offer Reason without as well as within doors might have laid something before the judgments of these Gentlemen I presume Sir the Subjects obedience must not in the judgment of this University be suspended untill the Reasons of State producing the resolution be known to and and apprehended by every person and society 2. If this Prelacy judged thus evil were but contemporary with Popery Superstition Heresie Schisme and Prophaness though we should presume it good I hope it may be ranked amongst its fellows and taken upon suspition it may be a grief but no wrong to stay an honest man found in company with Thieves when he hath cleared himself justice will let him go But Sir if this Prelatical Government be in the formality of it a plain and clear Papacy as the deriving it from Rome and its standing on no basis but the constitutions of the Church when Popish and institution of the Pope not Christ or any Christian Magistrate nor General Assembly of the Ministers of the Church of God in this Kingdom the owning of Anselme Archbishop of Canterbury Papam alterius mundi the content all Papists find in the same could they but continue it in dependance on Rome for Consecration and Investiture pure circumstances not of the essence of the Government and principally its springing from the same principles standing on the same Basis the indulgence of Princes and being supported by the self-same Arguments and Authorities which are urged by Bellarmine and the Council of Trent History of the Council of Trent Edit 3. p. 589 590. to p. 616. for the defence of the Papacy in all which respects it must needs appear that the difference between an universal Metropolitan or Diocesan Bishop is in degrees and limits not in kind for is there not the same reason for Arch-bishops over Bishops to receive their Oath of Obedience as for Juridical Bishops over Presbyters and so the same for Cardinals over Arch-bishops and Popes over Cardinals do suggest it to be and if it were the Foot-stool or Stirrup of the Papacy as Salmasius doth at large demonstrate in his Apparatus ad Papatum and as Beza doth affirm when he tells us Episcopi Papam pepererunt Beza Epist 79. I hope it can be no great wrong to ranck it with Popery which might be its proper name though through use of a larger signification And if Sir its Rule whereby to square it and Reason of sustentation be that which is not more openly Canted by some then indeed generally practised viz. No Ceremonies no Bishop whereby the Cross in Baptism the Altar the Surplice and other matters innovated into the worship of God the use of which how edifying soever to the Church of God is a formal Superstition it cannot be much abused to call Superstition its companion And if it have been found to indulge Heresie by publishing and printing cum priveligio all Heretical Notions and silencing the Pulpit and stopping the Press from all possibility of Confutation or if by innovation of Superstition into worship and obtrusion of Error in Doctrine on the souls of men it hath provoked Schism I hope there is no great cause of complaint for putting these together with it And if it have been approved a protection and promotion of Revels Church-ales Clerks-ales The seventy two Ministers of Somersetshire in their unanimous consent to the continuance of Revels Church-ales c. Sports and Pastimes on the Lords day so that its Deans and Chapters or other Colledge and Conventions have proved like unto Bishop Pierce his Septuagint in their Agreement against Justice Richardson's order for suppressing of these and the like profaness certified in a letter to the late Arch-bishop dated the fifth of November 1633. and suppressing all Ministers that refuse to stir up such licentiousness as did the visitations of the Arch-bishop of Canterbury Bishop Pierce and others it sure can be no great wrong to rank it with profaness and intimate it to have in it some contrariety to the power of godlinesse to which whatever some few very few Bishops might do the current of Episcopacy did never yield much countenance or speak much amity Sir in these and the like respects the extirpation hereof must be endeavoured by all that will not partake of other mens sins and I must be free to tell them that in their Parallel case propounded which yet will not square the alteration yea extirpation of the Civil Government of the City capable of such proximity unto Treason Murder Advltery Theft Cousenage and the like would be by all ingenuous men judged both just and reasonable but I insist too long in abatement of their affection who offer Arguments by which they were perswaded to adhere unto their object let us therefore weigh them severally Subsectio Octava This Preface being past they proceed to the Reasons why they cannot Covenant an endeavour to extirpate Prelacy that is to say The Government by Arch-Bishops Bishops their Chancellours or Commissaries Deans Deans and Chapters Arch-deacons and all other Ecclesiastical Officers depending on that Hierarchy And they propound five Reasons two relate unto the Government the third and fifth unto their own capacity and the fourth unto the estate of the Church according to this order I shall consider them And 1. Oxford first and second exception to the extirpation of Prelacy They tell us They are not satisfied how they can with a good conscience swear to extirpate Episcopal Government which say they we think to be if not Jure Divino in the strictest sense by express command yet of Apostolical institution that is to say was established in the Churches by the Apostles according to the mind
their former Protestation if rightly understood in sundry the most material Branches of it Unto this Sir I must say that I know not what did appear to them to have been the power of the imposers and challenged in former times only unto me and many others it did appear not to he the meer natural Power of the People preposterously and in a tumultuous manner assembled who yet do appear to have a power to impose on themselves an Oath and to whom I find Soveraignty it self to speak it with due Reverence in some measure subjected and its obligation superseded if not made void clearly barred from execution if but by the impossibility put thereon as it was in the case of Jonathans Rescue which I shall only report in the words of Bishop Hall Saul hath sworn Jonathans death the people contrarily swear his preservation Halls Contem. p. 1038. his Kingdom was not so absolute yet more absolute than Englands that he could run away with so unmerciful a justice their Oath which savoured of disobedience prevailed against his Oath which savoured of too much cruelty and so long as his heart was not false to his Oath he could not be sorry Jonathan should live I do not in any case justifie the preposterous and tumultuous Assemblings and Assumptions of the People whereby they lay on themselves Bonds which must not be broken and cannot well without much difficulty be kept yet I cannot but observe many times whereby the Vox populi is Vox Dei as in the very change of the Government of Israel on which Dr. Hall Notes It was Gods ancient purp se to raise up a King to his People Page 10.24 how doth he take occasion to do it by the unruly desires of Israel but blessed be God this was not the case of the Covenant the imposers did not assemble on their own heads and by violence and disorder assume unto themselves an unusual power The power imposing this Covenant was a Parliament the Collective Body of the Kingdom Duly Summoned Regularly Elected and returned Rightly Constituted and Readily Embraced by King and Kingdom and animated with more than ordinary Parliamentary power by the Bill for their continuance against all Casualties so as not to be Prorogued Adjourned or Dissolved without their own consent And can any True-born English man in any measure acquainted with the constitution of this Kingdom or the Authority of the High Court of Parliament deny these to be a just and lawful Authority to resolve order and enjoyn yea and execute their Resolves Orders and Injunctions during the being of their power though not to establish Lawes to be executed when they were dissolved and gone Sir I cannot without sad thoughts remember the unhappy difference between His late Majesty and the late long Parliament which occasioned the unhappy opposition of the Peoples Liberty and the Kings Prerogative as I cannot but wish they had been acted so conjunctly that they might have seem'd to vulgar apprehension to have been but one so I cannot but judge it prudence that a period be put to the dispute thereof upon the now Happy Re-union of his most Sacred Majesty and these too long distracted Kingdomes I am clearly of opinion with Aristotle that Prince of Politians Aristot Polit. lib. 5. c. 10 11. That Regal Government is best established where the Princes and People do participate of it and that Theopompus the Spartan in transmitting some of his Prerogative to his Ephori Princes might well maintain the encrease of his Dominion whilst he made it longer by making it less I think therefore that the wisest men and best Subjects will rather think then assert a Prerogative in the King above His Parliament and I for my part should be content to find in the Parliament a sufficient power to impose an Oath on the Subject without the Kings consent rather than to assert their Superiority unto Him in all points and particulars And when Sir I consider the power even over and against their King in the Princes and the Collective Body of the People Recorded in Scripture as in making War Josh 22. Judg. 20. Changing the Government 1 Sam 8. Choosing and establishing not only their first but succeeding Kings though immediately appointed and sometimes anointed by God as in the case of David Solomon and Rehoboam and others in removing from the King Favourites and Counsellors as David was against the mind of Achish the King dismissed by the Princes of the Philistines 1 Sam. 29. in restraining the Kings purpose of destruction confirmed by an Oath once and again as in the case of Jonathan or of protection as in the case of Jeremiah the Prophet concerning whom Zedekiah the King said He is in your hands the King is not he that can do any thing against you Jer. 38.5 In these and the like cases Josephus tells us Joseph Antiq. Jud. lib. 4. cap. 18. the King might not do any thing without or against the sentence of the Senate or Congregation Methinks a divine defence may be well made for the power of the Parliament in this case acted and admitted though without and against the consent of the King And when I consider what is Dogmatically asserted by Polititians and no mean Lawyers in reference to the power of general Councils and Conventions of Kingdoms in general Foxe Acts and Monuments p. 616. as of Englands Parliaments in particular as in the Council of Basil against the Pope the whole Realm hath more Authority than the King The same asserted by Marius Salamonius who by many Arguments doth defend it De principatu lib. 1. p. 17 18. he was a Roman Lawyer and Philosopher Hollingshead and Vowel in their Description of England declare concerning the Parliament That this Court hath the most high and absolute power of the Realm and that not only without but against the King by it offenders are punished and corrupt Religion reformed or disannulled and that whatever the people of Rome might do centuriatis comitiis or tribunitiis Vot 1. cap. 1. p. 173. which I am sure was to impose an Oath the same is and may be done by Parliament unto which may be added what is spoken to the same effect and almost in the same words by Sir Thomas Smith Secretary of State to King Edward the sixth and Queen Elizabeth and a Doctor of the Law in his Common-wealth of England and Horne an Eminent Lawyer in Edward the first his Reign in his Mirrour of Justice cap. 1. p. 7 8 9. and Fortescue Lord Chancellor to Henry the sixth in his Book de Laud. Leg. Angl. cap. 9. and Bracton quoted by these learned men who certainly affirms more than they can approve Rex habet Superiorem Deum item legem per quam factus est Rex item curiaem suam viz. Comites Barones c. Et ideo si Rex fuerit sine fraeno debent ei fraenum imponere and above all the Soveraign Powers
can order determine direct and by Parliamentary Authority enforce a present execution of those Determinations and Orders directed to the Subject as we know is and ordinarily hath been practised without the consent of the King And whether the people are not subject to the same as being Parliamentary Authority before they formally pass into Laws or Acts to be established Rules when their being a Parliament ceaseth And so whether an Act done Sedente Parliamento at their Appointment and by their present Order being in its own nature permanent and abiding never to be discharged as is the Obligation of an Oath be not valid though it never pass into a Formal Act of Parliament and standing Statute 3. Whether an extraordinary and unusual Proclamation of the King against the Determinations of both Houses of Parliament be according to the constitutions of this Kingdom a full and formal supersedeas to any act required to be done by the authority of the Parliament then sitting 4. Whether his late Majesty in his Proclamation of the 9th of Octob. 19. Carol. did by his Royal Authority declare void and null the Obligation which should be laid on any of his people against his consent Or by his Parental care onely admonish his Subjects of its evil and the danger he conceived in it and so warn a forbearance of it For Parental Admonition and Authoritative Annulling Inhibition are distinct Acts and the last was in this case necessary because the Collective Body of the Kingdom had sworn this Covenant on the 25th of September before 5. Whether the Kings after-assent and admonition unto a right understanding and Religious keeping of the Covenant do not establish it and make its obligation unavoidable And whether after the interdiction of the Act his Majesties Declaration That as things now stand good men shall least offend God and Me by keeping their Covenant by honest and lawful ways since I have the Charity to believe the chief end of the Covenant in such mens intention was to preserve Religion in purity and the Kingdoms in peace Be not a subsequent allowance sutable to the equity of that Law in Numb 30. and sufficient to make the Covenant valid and an indispensable vow 6. Whether an endeavour in our places and callings be not so far sui Juris to the Subject that it may be safely sworn without the consent of the Soveraign and shall bind the conscience notwithstanding His declared dissent thereunto Lastly Whether the Approbation of His most Gracious Majesty that now is unto the Solemn League and Covenant and the Assent unto the Ordinances of Parliament enjoyning the same declared by Solemn Oath and Publick Declaration be not a full compleat and formal Authority supplying all supposed defect and fastning its obligation by a full Theological if not formally Political Act of Parliament And so hath varied the case and all fancy of the non-obligation of the Covenant occasioned by the unhappy dispute concerning the Authority conversant about it When Sir these enquiries are seriously and on solid Reasons resolved in the Negative we shall confess there may be some doubt of a discharge of the Obligation of the Covenant and untill then it lieth on our consciences and must be carefully regarded and performed lest the judgments of God come upon us and we fall under the guilt of perjury Now Sir the matter of the Covenant being just and possible the Authority establishing it full and sufficient and dispensation from the Obligation of an Oath concluded to be a Popish Vanity what can hinder our conclusion that the Obligation of the Solemn League and Covenant is permanent never to be discharged Yet Sir Dr John Gauden notwithstanding his ill success in loosing St. Peters Bonds hath made an Essay for his full release though not immediately by himself who can say no more then what he said at first and therefore saith it over again in his Epistle to the Doubts and Scruples before noted yet by his profound allowance and judicious testimony to the discourse of Mr. John Russel of Chinkford in Essex the which is made authentick and acceptable to the world as good Casuistical Divinity and a clear resolution of this case of conscience by this stamp on the Title page Attested by John Gauden D. D. So that Sir I should be dis-respective to my Antagonist if I make not a little stay to consider what is said by his learned Chaplain though I must confess it is so simple and shatter'd a discourse it is not worth reading much less the least of Answer but I remember my promise at the beginning That I would weigh what he could alledge to void the Covenant which is his aim and professed end and therefore his Title page affirmeth The Solemn League and Covenant discharged or St. Peters Bonds not onely loosed but annihilated An honourable design an high undertaking an hard enterprise to release the conscience from the bond of an Oath It is well if the attempt give us not cause to see Fronti nulla fides and that the Title is stuffed with proud swelling words of vanity yet he applieth himself to the work with some agility as if accustomed to evade holy Bonds and with ease to resolve the most weighty cases of consciences I will not say by a nimble profaneness to break Religious Prisons and therefore in page 2 of his Book he states the question and telleth us I shall grant by way of supposition we will be content with such a grant all that the most rigid Covenanters can desire of me excepting one point I shall suppose the same to be imposed by compleat and lawful Authority to be no ways defective in circumstances to be clear and free from ambiguity to be perfect in the form to be sound and lawful in the matter to be pious in the end fair in the manner of imposing that there was no fraud or violence used but that all men took it with due deliberation and free consent by all which means it became a very strong Bond and Obligation upon the consciences of men Sir This is I confess a very fair grant if notwithstanding all this he can discharge the Covenant by my consent he shall never more be brought into durance but what is that one point he denieth to grant us It is this That the Solemn League and Covenant is such a Bond on the consciences of men that it cannot be released by any humane act or power And in opposition thereto he affirmeth That the same specifical power or an higher than that which imposed this Vow upon us may release us from the same either tacitely or expresly This Sir is easily affirmed with confidence but so simply and slenderly proved that the Doctor hath shewed us little of judgment in his attestation to this work as in his own Analysis and must needs make men observe his desire of Release is so fervent as to allow and approve any thing that doth but pretend to discharge the
Covenant The first on-set in order to the proof of what is affirmed is by a kind of Preface with relation to the Ordinance enjoyning the taking of the Covenant which he supposeth laid aside and not enlivened into an Act and therefore he takes it to be dead in Law and shall hold himself free from the Bond of the same But Sir it will abide a Dispute against a stouter Polititian than I judge Mr. Russel to be whether His Majesties assent testified by publick Oath and Declaration to the Ordinance for taking the Covenant have not enlivened it into an Act. 2. The Ordinance may be dead in Law and yet the Oath enjoyned by it alive in conscience for the one hath done its work in laying that obligation which now abideth worketh will work and cannot be hindred and then nothing but ignorance of the nature of an Oath can lead a man to argue the Ordinance which brought me under it is dead Ergo I hold my self thenceforward free from the Bond of the same If St. Peter leap out at such Loop-holes he will be locked under heavy judgements Is the Prisoner released because the Warrant is of no more force than to bring him into Prison and secure the Jaylour for keeping him therein Having past this Preface he proceeds to his Argumentative part and makes a great pudder about the power of Superiours over their Subjects in private particular and promissory Oaths and with the instance of Abraham and his servant in the case of taking a wife unto Isaac wherein I shall grant unto him that in all particular promissory Oaths grounded on condition it is in the power of confederates whether Superiors or Equals to relax the Obligation by not exacting the performance only I would tell him he is mistaken in his instance of Abraham and his Servant for the Oath of the fervant was not released by any act of Authority in Abraham but if it had been released it had been by an impossibility of affecting the matter and therefore the servants quaery on the peradventure the woman will not be willing to follow me into this Land was not a supplicate for an Authoritative Release but a scrutiny into the Extent of the Oath how far he was herein bound which is plain by the quaery it self Must I needs bring thy son again into the Land from whence thou camest On which Paraeus noteth that this was in the servant Paraeus in Gen. 24.5 Prudentia singularis ne juret nisi de possibili and therefore I must tell him that I do not believe the father or husband who may establish the Vow of the Wife or Child can afterward make it void again and because he may be unwilling to learn of me I would commend Dr. Sanderson to be his Tutor he will teach him one Lesson which confuteth his whole Argument he would have managed and the Notion on which he doth bottom it Superiorem si expresso consensu suo sive Antecedente sive subsequente promissionem subditi semel confirmaverit De Juram Praelect septima sect sexta p. 223. non posse eandem irritam facere aut obligationem ejus tollere By this position concerning particular private promissory Oaths he pretends to pave his way to the grand question in hand and as by by Rules in Military Discipline to make his approach at a reasonable distance and make good his first ground on which he stands so sure that he advanceth not one step higher but as if at work in * A rude and rough pavement in Cheshire done in the night as tradition saith by the Devil who could not leave it till done Wakefield Pavement or hurried about by some Fairy Dance he traceth to and fro at all uncertainty but is still found in the same place unto the end of his Book one while he can find no publick Covenants whereto to compare ours which is of no moment let him make good his Position by Demonstrative Reason we will admit our Covenant to become the first publick President Another while he keeps a stir about the nature of the Covenant which he will needs have to be in the Form of it a civil and human Creature subject to infirmity to be taken away by men and that it is an Oath though the Heathen did ever make Juramentum and Religio to be synonimous in publick Contracts because an Oath was a most eminent Act of Religion at length he stumbles out his notion and fancy in a Parable and pursueth that forgetting Theologia Parabolica non est Argumentativa that Parables prove nothing but proving it to be versatilis materia ut huc illuc trahi imo duci possint pliable to any wild and quick fancy he endeavours to bend it to his purpose but so very dully that he cannot but lose his end He tells us that an Oath is a bringing a Trial into Gods Court wherein the Imposers are the Plantiffs the Covenanter or him who sweareth is the Defendant and God is the Judge the which makes as good Musick as Asinus ad Lyram all that I read did ever make not the swearing but the exaction of the performance of an Oath to be the Suit in Gods Court and the Oath or Covenant to be the cause and ground on which the Suit is brought and God as well as man to be the Plantiff and a Party as well as a Judge in every Oath by reason whereof the Oath can never be discharged because no man can release Gods Right and Interest in an Oath De Juram Praei sept Sect. 4. pag. 214. So Dr. Saunderson doth expresly teach In Juramento promissorio non tantum proximo fit obligatio sed Deo praesumptio igitur non ferenda esset si terra cinis assumeret potestatem tollendi obligationem qua homo obligatur Deo which quite overthroweth his drift and aim which is That if men will not exact the Oath or be content that it be not performed God the Witness and Avenger or Judge of it is tyed up and he will not expect it or punish for the neglect of it But Gods thoughts are not mens thoughts he that sweareth binds his soul unto the Lord and must perform the thing that cometh out of his mouth When his dull Genius had made a dark discovery of this nature of an Oath he pretends to resolve an Objection That when the Covenant was administred the Trial was finished he means founded for the Suit was not commenced till performance be exacted and a Bond was put upon the consciences of men by the immediate hand of God and therefore we say no human power can take off this Bond. Unto this he gives a most profound Answer which thwarts and overthroweth the whole scope of his Book and makes it appear he is rowling Sysiphus stone which still returns upon him and reneweth his labour his Answer is I say so too what would you have more Nothing for it is enough yet