State nor anxiously to enquire into the reason which moved the first contrivers and projectors of this League to set it on foot at this present and presse it with all earnestness I am perswaded that none will denie that their main scope and aime therein was to engage our brethren of Scotland in the present quarrell for pulling down Episcopacie and setting up the Presbyterie and by this National and solemne league to strengthen their partie and foment this unnaturall war which hath already drained the wealth of the Kingdome and is like to draw out the life-blood also Nemo tenetur divinare say the Canonists neither will I take upon me the office of a Prophet to foretell the Catastrophe of these Tragedies Yet sure I am this Queen of all Islands never received such prejudiced and wrong nor ever was so near the brink of destructions when she drew in forain Forces to defend her self against homebred Enemies and I pray God we experimentally interpret not the mysterie of Pharaohs dream concerning the lean kine which eat up the fat and yet were never a whit the fatter If there be a decree of Heaven that these two Nations shall be drowned one in anothers blood for the crimsons sins of both not yet repented of yet let not us draw this most fearfull judgement upon both Kingdomes by the cord of an oath But to argue syllogistically No Subjects living under a Christian Prince who is a professor of the true Religion and a Defender of the orthodox faith may enter into a publick and solemne covenant for the reformation of religion without the consent much lesse against the expresse command of their Soveraign For such disobedience and sleighting of their King cannot stand with the duty we ow him of fear and loyalty injoyned Prov. 24. 21. My son fear the Lord and the King Eccles. 8. 2. I advise thee to take heed to the mouth of the King and to the word of the oath of God Rom. 13. 1. Let every soul be subject to the higher powers whosoever resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation V. 4. If thou do evil fear for he beareth not the sword in vain Prov. 16. 14. The wrath of the King is the messenger of death Prov. 19. 12. The Kings wrath is like the roaring of a Lion 1 Pet. 2. 13. Submit your selves to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as supreme v. 17. Fear God honour the King Nor with the prayers of the Church made for him that we may serve honour and humbly obey him in God and for God Nor with the principles of right Reason for the King is the supreme head of the Church and Common-wealth under Christ and all his Subjects conjunctim in Parliament or divisim are but Members of the same Body politick and how should the members enter into a covenant or frame and devise it without the head But the King is so far from yielding his royall assent to this Covenant that he strictly forbids it and that under the pain of Treasonin his Proclamation printed at Oxford Ergo we may not enter into this Covenant nor entangle our consciences with this new Oath This Covenant we make with God and in all things especially the things appertaining to God we must obey God rather then man We have the Kings vertua consent l thereunto for though he be not present in person at the Parliament nor hath given his royall assent under his hand yet this Parliament is called and continued by his authority and his consent is vertually contained in the Votes of both Houses It is a ruled case in Divinity That we must obey God rather then man when God commandeth one thing and man another but when the commands of God and of his Vicegerent upon earth clash not one against another St. Bernards doctrine is most true We must obey him as God who is in the place of God in those things which are not against God When St. Peter and St. John returned this answer to the Councell the Councell forbad that which God commanded God commanded the Apostles to preach Christs resurrection and the Assembly of Priests and Elders forbad them This is not the Covenanters case for where doth God command the English to sweare to preserve the Scotch Discipline and Liturgie which they themselves have often varied Or to abjure Episcopacie which was the only government of the Church for more then 1500 years and under whose shade Christian Religion most flourished and the Church stretched forth her branches to the Rivers and her boughs to the ends of the earth Where doth the Scripture warrant much less command the association of two Kingdomes and joyntly taking up armes in the quarrell of the Gospell and defending and propagating religion by the sword The calling of the Parliament by the Kings authority doth not conclude his assent to all the Ordinances of both the Houses for if it were so why did this Parliament after they had voted the Militia and the extirpation of Prelacie and Pluralities send to his Majesty and humbly intreat his royall assent nay why in all Parliaments since the first even till this day after both Houses had past bills did still the Lords and Commons lay them at his Majesties feet beseeching him in humblest manner to take them up and signe them with his royall hand and if he liked them his answer hath been Le Roy vieut if he distasted them Le Roy s'avisera Did the calling of a Parliament in the Kings name and by his authority vertually include or conclude his Royall assent to all the Acts King Richard the 2d had given his consent to his own deposing for that Parliament wherein he was deposed was called in his name and by his Authority 4. No Covenant especially publike and solemn between two Nations for reformation of Religion may be taken without warrant from Gods word for in every such Covenant God is a partie and his consent must be both had and known which cannot be but from his word Beside this Covenant is bound with an Oath which is an Act of Religion and cultus latriae that is a part of divine worship and if it be not commanded by God it is forbidden in Scripture under the name of will-worship Moreover that golden rule of the Apostle applyed by by him to the use of things indifferent stretcheth also to this case of conscience Whatsoever Oath we take or Covenant we enter into not perswaded in Conscience that we have good ground for what we doe in scripture is sinne to us But this Covenant hath no warrant for it in holy Scripture for from the Alpha of Genesis to the Omega of the Apocalypse there is no vola nor vestigium of such a Covenant as this Ergo this Covenant must not be taken by any who desire to walk exactly before God according to the
charitutes patria complectitur But this Covenant is many wayes derogatory to the honour of England For the Church of Scotland is not only set before the Church of England in it but is also propounded as a pattern of a Church intirely reformed not only in Doctrine but in Discipline also and Worship and therefore to be preserved in all three But the Church of England as an imperfect draught of a Church defective in all and consequently to be reformed in all according to Gods Word and the pattern of other reformed Churches whereas in truth the Church of England as it was reformed before the Church of Scotland so it was more exactly and perfectly Reformed priùs tempore dic honore And no marvel sith the Church of England was reformed by the authority of the Prince and the wisdom of the State but the Church of Scotland by the zeal of private men The Church of England was reformed not only in Dâ—ctrine but also in Discipline and Liturgy conformably to the ancient and best Churches whereas the Church of Stotland though it imbraced Apostolical doctrine yet it had not the exercise of Apostolical discipline since the Reformation till King James of blessed memory restored Episcopal Government there where they before writing after the copie set by Calvin they had set up the Presbytery or government by Lay Elders unknown to any Elder age of the Church But howsoever the glory of the English Church of late hath been eclipsed in the eyes of many yet by the testimonies of the best Reformed Churches beyond the Seas in the Reign of Qu Elizabeth and King James it may appear that she shined among all the Golden Candlesticks set in the Western and Northern parts of Christendom velut interâ—ignes Luna minores She supported all other Reformed Churches and the Church of Scotland by name as their own Chronicles relate And howsoever some thing hath been questioned in the Discipline and Liturgie of the Church of England by the Scholars of Aerius the Heretick opposing all Ecclesiastical Hierarchy and Liturgie yet the doctrine of the Church of England hath been alwayes kept sarta tecta and held sound and Orthodox by all that carryed the name of Protestants and the Articles of Religion together with the Apology of Bishop Jewell wherein the whole Doctrine of the Church of England is comprised are inserted into the harmony of Protestant Confessions and approved by the suffrage of all Orthodox Churches To swear therefore to endeavour the reforming of the Church of England in Doctrine according to the Word of God is either to swear actum agere to do that which is done already and so to swear vainly or to swear to pervert it it being straight already which is to swear impiously No solemn Covenant especially confirmed by millions of Oaths between two Kingdomes ought to be made without necessary and urgent occasion for otherwise in such a solemn and publick manner to call God as it were from heaven to attest with us would be a taking of his Name in vain Such Covenanting is like the casting the holy anchor among the Athenians and the creating a Dictator among the Romans never to be acted or attempted but in some great exigent of state to preserve it from imminent ruine and destruction But there is no such necessity at this time of engaging both Kingdoms and locking them fast in such a League for the Popish party is at a lower ebb now in England then it hath been heretofore and his Majesty hath bound himself by many Oaths even signed with the blood of his Redeemer at the holy Communion to maintain the Protestant Religion and not only to enliven the Acts formerly made against Seminary Priests Jesuits and Popish Recusants but also to give his royall Assent to any such further Acts as the wisdom of the Parliament and State should offer unto him for the advancement of the Protestant and suppressing of the Romish Religion And as for the Priviledges of Parliament and Liberties of the Subject there needs no entring into this New League for their ratification and confirmation For they are sufficiently established by former Acts of Parliament unrepealed and by the late Protestation generally made by all the Subjects of this Kingdom May 5. 1641. The Reasons alleadged in the preface of the Covenant have scarce any colour of truth and not so much as a shadow of necessity Reas. 1 The first is That other means of Supplications Remonstrances Protestations c. have proved uneffectual and therefore no remedy for a desperate cure but this uniting of minds and swords with the strongest tie of a National Covenant Answ Whereunto I answer That to all those Supplications Remonstrances and Protestations his Majesty hath given gracious answers and hath often heretofore and of late offered honorable conditions of Peace which have been refused Reas. 2 The second is That for the preservation of themselves and their Religion from utter ruine and destruction they were constrained to make this League Answ Whereunto I answer That Religion and the Church are in danger of ruine and destruction as well by the Anabaptists Brownists and other Sectaries who take this Covenant and have grown most insolent upon this new League as by the Papists and that the greatest fear of utterly ruining and destroying this Kingdom is from the continuance of this Civill and unnatural War which is fomented by it Reas. 3 The third is The commendable practise of these Kingdoms in former times Answ In this reason they plead Obsignatis tabulis they avouch that which never hath been nor can be produced and the contrary hath been proved before Reas. 4 The last reason is The example of Gods people in other Nations Whom they mean by these other Nations is expressed in the exhortation to the taking of this Solemn League and Covenant p. 5. namely the Netherlands and Rochellers But as he in Plato's Dialogue said Exemplum ô holpes eget exemplo so we may say of these these are examples without example late practises in our age and memory without any Precedent in former ages and the best times of the Church Neither yet are they parallel to this For the King of Spain against whom the Netherlands and the French King against whom the Rochellers entred into a League Defensive and Offensive with us were persecuters of the true Protestant Religion and oppressors of their known Liberty whereas our gracious Soveraign is a Professor of the Gospell and a Defender of the Orthodox Protestant Faith and a maintainer of the Priviledges of Parliament and Liberties of Subjects as appeareth by his Royal Assent to the Petition of Right Every one that sweareth must have an eye to the conditions of a sacred Oath set down by the Prophet Jerem. 4. 2. He must swear in truth judgement and righteousness in truth not falsly in judgement not rashly in righteousness not wickedly But no man can take this Oath in righteousness for not
Intendents and Super-intendents in Germany Presidents in the Reformed Synods in France and Masters Provosts and Heads of Colledges and Hals in our Universities who have a kind of Prelacy and Authority over the Fellows and Students whereof the major part are Divines and in holy Orders Here I conceive it will be said That none of these are aimed at but only Diocesan Bishops already banished out of Scotland And Prelates indeed they are in a more eminent degree and if Prelacy be restrained to them it is Episcopacy that is principally shot at to the Extirpation whereof I dare not yield my Vote or Suffrage lest this New Oath intangle me in perjury For both my self and all who have received Orders in this Kingdom by the Imposition of Episcopal hands have freely Engaged our selves by Oath to obey our Ordinary and to submit to his godly Judgement and in all things lawful and honest to receive his Commands If then we now swear to endeavour the Abolishing of Episcopacy we Swear to Renounce our Canonical Obedience that is as I apprehend we swear to forswear our selves It is true that the Dr. was furnished with many other Reasons for Episcopacy besides these and of some he gave a hint in the Assembly it self upon other occasions as namely these that follow Dr. Featley's Sixteen Reasons FOR Episcopal Government Which he intended to have delivered in the Assembly immediately after his precedent Speech but was not permitted 1. THat the name of Episcopacy even as it signifieth a degree of Eminency in the Church is a Sacred and Venerable Title first in holy Scripture ascribed to our blessed Redeemer who as he is Dominus Dominantium Lord of Lords so also Episcopus Episcoporum Bishop of Bishops the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls next to the Apostles whose office in the Church is styled by the holy Ghost Episcope a Bishoprick Let another take his Bishoprick though it be translated Let another take his Office yet the Original signifies not an Office at large but an Episcopal function that Office which Judas lost and Matthias was elected into which was the Office and Dignity of an Apostle * lastly to those whom the Apostles set over the Churches as namely to Timothy and Titus who in the Subscription of the Apostles Letters Divinely inspired are styled Bishops in the restrained sense of the word 2 Tim. 4. written from Rome to Timotheus the first Bishop elected of the Church of Ephesus and to Titus the first elect Bishop of the Church of the Cretians How ancient these Subscriptions are it is not certain among the Learned If they bear not the same date with the Epistles themselves the contrary whereof neither is nor can be Demonstrated yet they are undoubtedly very ancient and of great Authority And in them the word Bishop cannot be taken at large for any Minister or Presbyter but for a singular person in Place or Dignity above other Pastors for there were many other Presbyters in Ephesus both before and besides Timothy Act. 20. 27 28. and in the Island of Creet or Candie there must of necessity be more then one Pastor or Minister Besides St. Paul investeth Timothy in Episcopal power making him a Judge of Presbyters both to rebuke them 1 Tim. 5. 1 and to prefer and reward them vers. 17. and to censure them ver. 19. Against an Elder receive no accusation but under two or three witnesses and giveth to Titus expâ—esly both potestatem ordinis jurisdictionis of Oâ—der and Jurisdiction of Order in these words Chap. 1. 5. That thou shouldst ordain Elders in every City and of Jurisdiction I left thee in Creet that thou shouldst continue {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to correct or red esse the things that remained or those things which the Apostle before intended to amend but had not redressed 2. The Angels of the seven Churches Apoc. 10. 20. were no other in the judgement of the best Learned * Commentators both Ancient and Later then the Bishops of those Sees for in those Provinces or Territories there cannot be conceived to be lesse then many hundred ordinary Preachers and Pastors yet there were but seven precisely answering to the seven golden Candlesticks Seven Candlesticks seven lights burning in them these can be no other then seven prime Pastors who had the oversight of the rest for the Errors and Abuses in all those Churches are imputed to them and they reproved for not redressing them Chap. 2. 14. Thou hast them that maintain the Doctrine of Balaam and vers 20. Thou sufferest the * woman Jezebel to teach c. 3. It is confessed by Molinaeus and other Learned Patrons of Presbyterial Government themselves that Episcopacy is a plant either set in the Church by the Apostles themselves or their immediate Successors in the first and best ages of the Church and is it agreeable to Piety to swear the Extirpation of such a plant 4. It cannot be denyed that when the Church most flourished and was of far larger extent then now it is over the face of the Christian World there was no * other Government then Episcopacy regulated by Divine precepts and Ecclesiastical Canons and shall we swear to Extirpate that Government under the which the Church most thrived and slourished Shall we swear against our Prayers viz. for the rooting out of that upon which we are enjoyned to pray God to pour down the dew of his blessing Surely the dew of heaven burns not the root of any Plant upon earth but waters it and makes it grow 5. They were Bishops who had the chiefest hand first in the plantation of Christian Religion in the dayes of Lutius King of Britan and after in the restitution in the dayes of Etheldred King of Kent and in the Reformation of it in the Reign of Edward the sixth and Queen Elizabeth and is it a Religious act to eradicate that Government and Power which both planted and pruned Religion it self 6. Christ died not intestate he made his last Will and Testament and by it bequeathed many Legacies to his Church and among them not onely Catholike Doctrine but Discipline also This Discipline if it be not Episcopal Government moderated by Evangelical and Apostolical Rules the whole Church is guilty of the losse of a Sacred and Precious Jewel for certain it is out of Records of all ages of the Church that no other was ever retained or can be found save this before the Religious Reformer and Magistrates of Geneva having banished their Popish Bishops were after a sort necessitated to draw a new Plat-forme of Ecclesiasticall Discipline by Lay-Elders Christ as the Apostle teacheth us was faithfull in the house of God as Moses and if Moses after his forty dayes speech with God on the Mount received a Patern from God and delivered it to the Jewes not only of Doctrine but of Dicipline also which continued till Christs coming in the flesh it cannot be conceived
Nay * Luther himself who of all men most bitterly inveighed against the Antichristian Hierarchy yet puts water into his wine adding Let no man hereby conceive that I speak any thing against the state of Bishops but only against Romish Wolves and Tyrants Neither are the Lutherans of another minde at this day witness their every-way accomplished †Gerard None of us saith he affirmeth That there is no difference between a Bishop or Presbyter or Priest but we acknowledge a difference of Degrees for good Order sake and to preserve Concord in the Church Here me-thinks I see the Smectimnuans bend their brows and answer with some indignation What have we to do with Lutherans who have Images in their Churches and Auricular confession and maintain Consubstantiation and Ubiquity and intercision of grace and many other Errors We are of Calvin and hold with the Doctrine and Discipline of Geneva which hath no allay at all of Error and Superstition but is like the pure Angel-gold Here though I might as many have done crave leave to put in a Legal Exception against the authority of Calvin and Beza in matter of Discipline because they had a hand in thrusting out the Bishop of Geneva and the Lay Presbyterian Government was the issue of their brain and we know it is natural for Parents to dote upon their own Children and accompt them far fairer and more beautiful then indeed they are yet such was the ingenuity of those worthy Reformers and such is the evidence and strength of Truth that in this point concerning the Abolition of Episcopacy in the Church of England I dare chuse them as Umpires First let * Calvin speak in his exquisite Treatise concerning the Necessity of Reforming the Church the most proper place if any were clearly to deliver his judgement in this Controversie where having â—ipt up the abuses of the Romish Hierarchy in the end thus he resolves Let them shew us such an Hierarchy in which the Bishops may have such preheminency that yet they refuse not themselves to be subject to Christ that they depend upon him as the only Head and refer all to him and so embrace brotherly society that they are knit together by no other means then his truth and I will confess they deserve any curse if there be any who will not observe such an Hierarchy with reverence and greatest obedience After him let us hear †Bezae in that very Book which he wrote against Saravia a Prebend of Canterbury concerning different Degrees in the Clergy but saith he if the Reformed Churches of England remain still supported with the authority of their Archbishops and Bishops as it hath come to passe in our memory that they have had men of that rank not only famous Martyrs but most excellent Doctors and Pastours which happiness I for my part wish that they may continually enjoy c. Surely he that so highly extolled our Bishops and wished that that Order might like the tree in the Poet continually bring forth such golden boughs and fruit would not readily swear to endeavour the utter Extirpation thereof THE END BY THE KING His Majesties Proclamation forbidding the Tendring or Taking of the late Vow or Covenant devised by some Members of both Houses to Engage His Majesties good Subjects in the Maintenance of this odious Rebellion WHEREAS We have lately seen a Vow or Covenant pretended to be taken by some Members of both Houses of Parliament whereby after the taking notice of a Popish and Traiterous Plot for the subversion of the true Reformed Prote stant Religion and the Liberty of the Subiect and to surprize the Cities of London and Westminstr They do promise and covenant according to their utmost power to assist the Forces pretended to be raised and continued by both Houses of Parliament against the Forces raised by Vs and to assist all other persons that shall take the said Oath in what they shall do in pursuance thereof which Oath as the same hath been taken without the least colour or ground the Contrivers thereof well knowing that there is no popish Army within this Kingdom that We are so far from giving countenance to that Religion that We have alwayes given and alwayes offered Our consent to any Act for the suppression of Popery and the growth thereof and that the Army raised by Vs is in truth for the necessary defence of the true Reformed Protestant Religion established by Law the Liberty and Property of the Subiect and Our own Iust Rights according to Law all which being setled and submitted to or such a free and peaceable Convention in Parliament being provided for that the same might be setled We have offered and are still ready to Disband our Armies and as the said Oath was devised only to prevent Peace and to pre-engage the Votes of the Members of both Houses directly contrary to the Freedom and Liberty of Parliament and to engage them and Our good Subiects in the maintenance of this horrid and odious Rebellion so it is directly contrary as well to their natural Duty as to the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy established by Law which obliges them to bear to Vs Truth and Faith of Life Members and Earthly Honour and to defend Vs to the utmost of their powers against all Conspiracies and Attempts whatsoever which shall be made against Our Person Our Crown and Dignity and to do their best endeavours to disclose and make known to Vs all Treasons and Traiterous Conspiracies which shall be against Vs and to their power to assist and defend all Iurisdictions Priviledges Preheminences and Authority belonging to Vs or united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm And whereas We are informed that some desperate seditious persons do endeavour to perswade and seduce others of Our good Subiects to take the saith Oath thereby to engage them and this Kingdom into a continuanee of these miserable and bloudy distempers We do therefore out of Grace and Compassion to our people and that they may not by any craft or violence suffer themselves to be seduced against their Duty and Conscience warn them of their natural Allegiance and their Obligations by Oaths lawfully administred to them and wish them to remember the great Blessings of God in peace and plenty which the whole Kingdom hath received whilst that Duty and those Oaths were carefully observed and the unspeakable miseries and calamities they have suffered in the breaking and violation thereof And we do straitly Charge and Command Our loving Subiects of what degree and quality soever upon their Allegiance that they presume not to take the said Seditious and Traiterous Vow or Covenant which endeavours to withdraw them from their natural Allegiance which they owe unto Vs and to which they are or ought to be sworn and are bound by the known Laws of the Land albeit they are not sworn and engages them in Acts of High Treason by the express letter of
the maintaining and pursuance thereof whereas it is known by their dayly practise that they levie arms against the King seize upon his Forts Ships Magazens and Revenues How can a man take away the Kings Munition and Castles and yet not weaken his power How can a man forcibly incounter and discomfit an Army raised by the Kings power and yet not diminish his power How can a man take away his Revenues Houses Parks c. and not diminish his greatness how can he give him battle and yet defend his Person Therefore before we enter into this Covenant to make up all the breaches in the Church and Common-wealth we must make up the breaches in the Covenant it self before we reconcile and unite the three Kingdoms we must endeavour to reconcile the contradictions in this our Oath and Solemn League Either this League and Covenant confirmed by oath is free and voluntary or forced and compulsory If it be free and voluntary why is there annexed a most severe penalty to be inflicted upon all those who refuse to enter into it before the first of March If it be forced and compulsory how is it a Covenant especially with God who respecteth not our words but our hearts If it be a constrained Oath imposed upon us whether we will or no then it is a heavy yoke laid upon the Conscience inconsistent with our Christian Liberty and the requiring it of us is not like to procure a blessing from Heaven to the Land but to pull down the vials of Gods vengeance upon it If Tertullian could say Non est Religionis Religionem cogere it is no religious act to force Religion we may swear that such a constrained Oath is no way acceptable to God Well it may be tearmed in our language a League or Covenant but in the language of Canaan it is not so For Berith a Covenant comes from Bara which signifieth eligere saith Buxtorfius that is to chuse Neither is it any act of vertue in Aristotles School for virtus est habitus electivus a habit whereby we exercise our free choice None ought to swear to that he knoweth not for an oath must be taken in judgement truth and righteousness Jer. 4 2. A man cannot swear in judgement or judiciously who knoweth not that to be true in an assertory Oath and honest and righteous in a promissary which he sweareth unto For if that be false to which he sweareth he is perjured and if it be a dishonest thing which he promiseth to do he is unrighteous Besides it is great precipitancy and rashness to enter into a Covenant blind-folded and to swear to maintain that we understand not But the subjects of England at least for the major part know not what the Scotch Discipline Government or Worship is which notwithstanding by this Covenant they are bound to preserve even with the hazard of their fortunes and lives We do not swear to observe that Discipline but to preserve it I may preserve that which in point of conscience I cannot observe or at least not swear to observe The wives sons and daughters in Nehemiah's time took a Covenant who yet knew not in particular what that Covenant did bind them to Students in the University take an Oath to observe the Statutes Apprentices in London to maintain the priviledges of the City and all of us in our late Protestation the Liberty of the Subject and yet neither Scholars nor Apprentices nor we know in particular all the Statutes and priviledges we swear to observe and defend These Answers yield no stay at all to support a weak and doubting conscience for such as our Oath is such must be our knowledge what we swear to in general we must know in general whatwe swear to in particular we must know in particular But in this Covenant we are sworn to preserve the reformed Religion in Scotland not only in general so far as it is Protestaut but in the particulars therenamed Doctrine Discipline Government and Worship which we cannot do if we know not what they are unless as the Papists believe so we swear fide implicitâ Mr. Case gives us a Rhetorical Agnomination for a Logical Solution a Jingle for a Distinction It is true that to preserve and observe is not all one A thief that observes a Port-manteau or a cap-case behind a Traveller doth not intend to preserve it for him yet as a man cannot observe that he sees not so he cannot in judgement swear to preserve what he knows not The wives sons and daughters in Nehemiahs time who entered into that Covenant knew in particular what it was namely to put away their strange wives and the Text saith expressely that none took the Covenant but such as understood it and therefore I confess I understand not how this example is to the purpose The case is far different between the Statute Liberties of this Kingdom and the Discipline and Government of another Kingdom Our Statute Liberties and Priviledges are in continual use we know most of them and concerning those we know not we may easily inform our selves out of the Books of Statutes and Records But for the Scotch Government of the Church and Liturgie not one of a hundred among the learned nor one of a thousand of the illiterate vulgar are instructed in it neither can we know certainly where to find it For the Scotch have no Book of Canons or set Form of Prayer ordered by their Church and ratified at this day by the Royal assent as we have I cannot conceive any reason why the Subjects of England should be bound by Oath to preserve the Discipline and Liturgy of Scotland whereas the Subjects of Scotland are not at all bound nor to be bound to preserve the Discipline and Liturgy of the Church of England It seems altogether unreasonable that we of this Realm should be bound by Oath to preserve that Government and Form of Worship in Scotland which Scotch themselves are not necessarily bound to observe For they have often and may still change it at their pleasure In the 18. year of Queen Elizabeths reign they conformed to the Church of England as Buchanan relateth in his Scotch story after they conformed to the Church of Geneva upon which occasion Bancroft wrote the Book entituled English-Scottizing and Scottish-Genevating In King James his Reign of blessed memory they returned in part to the English Form of Government but since of late to the French To swear then to preserve them in their Discipline Government and Worship is to swear to keep a Camaelion in one colour which changeth colour every hour No English man ought to enter into a Covenant which is derogatory to the honour of the Church and Kingdom of England For he deserves not to enjoy the singular priviledges and commodities of this Land nor so much as breathe English air who will not stand up for the honour of this Nation Omnes omnium
inconveniency and mischief in the Church hath grown from the corrupt and ill execution of the Laws which may be removed by a Reformation of the Bishops and inferiour Officers without any change of the Law No man is prohibited from indeavouring the abolition of any Law by lawful means But this entring into Covenant and swearing the extirpation of Bishops themselves and abrogation of the Laws made in favour of them without and against the Kings Command will never be proved a lawfull means of alteration of Laws either by the Law of God or the Land Whereas they lispe but dare not speak out That the Oaths which Ministers take at their Ordination and Institution are unlawful and call for Repentance I demand of them Whether they are yet unresolved concerning the unlawfulness of their Oaths taken at their Ordination If they are not resolved will they take a contrary Oath and so run the hazard of Perjury If their belief of the lawfulness of that Oath be pendulous and wavering so must needs be their belief of the lawfulness of their Ordination and entring into the Ministery For they hang both upon the same string if the one slip the other fals down to the ground Have they not subscribed the Articles of Religion whereof one is The justification of the forme of Consecration of Archbishops and Bishops and of the Ordination of Priests and Deacons Is it not an expresse Canon of the Apostle Obey them that have oversight of you in the Lord and is there any colour of pretence to question the lawfulness of obeying them in licitis honestis that is in things lawful and honest Let us hear what they can say to this Dilemma Either the form of Consecration of Archbishops and Bishops and Ordination of Priests and Deacons confirmed together with the Articles of Religion by Act of Parliament is a lawful form and agreable to Gods word or not If lawful and agreable to Scripture then the Oath they take at their Ordination to Obey their ordinary and submit to his godly Admonitions and just Censures God being their helper bindeth their conscience from taking this in which they vow their utter extirpation If it be an unlawful form and repugnant to holy Scriptures then no Bishops or Ministers have been lawfully made or by a lawful form since the first Reformation in England which to aver were to cast such a fowl blurre upon the Church as cannot be fetched out with the tears no nor with the bloud of those who so slander the Queen of all the reformed Churches This Dilemma with the two horns of it wounds them which way so ever they go Some flie to an extraordinary Calling but there they are stopt with a counter demand viz. What miracles do they whereby they may prove their extraordinary Calling for an extraordinary Calling must be extraordinarily proved Others say That Oath was tyrannically imposed upon them by the Bishops and therefore bindeth not their Conscience But they cannot escape this way neither for Oaths imposed by a lawful Authority though tyrannically abused binde the conscience if the thing promised be lawful not because such an Oath is imposed but because Gods name is interposed by whom they ingage themselves to the performance of what they have sworn so it be not malum in se Besides it is not true that this Oath was imposed by Bishops for it was appointed by Act of Parliament in which the Articles are confirmed neither are any Ministers inforced to take Orders but they offer themselves to the Bishop and humbly desire him to lay his holy hands on them and freely and voluntarily submit to the taking of this Oath of Obedience to their Ordinary A third sort answer That indeed they took the Oath of Canonical obedience to their Bishops but they have long ago repented of such an Oath But these are crushed in their flight and driven to the wall For if they repent of that Oath taken at their Ordination they must repent also of their Orders given them by Bishops For their Orders were given them upon the undertaking to perform that and other Conditions assented to by them with this clause so God help me or God being my helper Again To repent of a lawful Oath taken and such I have proved it to be even now is in plain English and down right terms To confesse themseves perjured And if such an answer might passe for currant no Oath would be any tie upon the conscience for they might say as these Ministers do That they indeed took such an Oath but they repent the taking it A fourth sort answer with some more colour of probability That the Oath made to Bishops expired with them and that Bishops now if they are not dead yet they are dying and breathing out their last gaspe for both Houses have voted them down But these Brethren should have weighed with themselves and communed with their own hearts before they put their hands to this new Covenant Whether the present Votes of both houses can dispense with a lawfull and solemn Oath taken at their Ordination and signed with Christs bloud at the Communion which they immediately receive from the hands of the Bishop after he hath laid hands on them 2. Dalo et non concesso granting that in regard of those precedent votes and this new Covenant taken by both Houses for the extirpation of Episcopacie Bishops might be said to be dying What then doth this discharge them of their Oath No more then it will a Wife for withdrawing her duty and loyaltie from her Husband while he is a dying and looking for a good houre The Ceremonial Law was dying as soon as Christ was born yet till it was dead and buried too both he and his Apostles observed it Therefore till Episcopacie is dead and buried this Oath may not be lawfully taken by any ordained by them Nay nor then neither by their leave for how know they whether it may not be revived and raised up again by future Acts of Parliament in times as well affected to the Clergie as these are ill And if it be so the wounds of their Consciences will bleed afresh No man can doubt but that Episcopacie better sorteth with Monarchie then Presbytery or Independency and it is certain that Episcopacie concurring with Royal Majesty and the Authority of the Peers first constituted Parliaments and it hath likewise been confirmed by Parliaments in all succeeding Ages It is a plant which either Christ himself planted or his Apostles as is demonstratively proved in Bilson his perpetuall government of the Church Downams answer to Paul Bains Dr. Reynolds his letter commented upon by the Primate of Armagh and Bishop Andrews his Opusc. It sprung up together with the gospell in this Nation and hath ever since growne by it as a succour They were Arch-bishops and Bishops who had a hand in platting the Garland of our peace and safety by uniting first the two Roses
but that Christ left a Pattern of Government to his Church to continue till the end of the world and doubtlesse his Apostles with whom he conversed forty dayes after his Resurection speaking of those things which appertain to the kingdom of God Act. 3. 1. delivered that to the Church which they received from their Master What Government or Discipline was that There can be conceived but three formes of Government Episcopal most conformable to Monarchy Presbyterial to Aristocracy and Independent as they tearm it to Democracy Presbyterial or Independent it could not be for Presbyterial is no Elder then the Reformation in Geneva and the Independent no Elder then New-England whereas Episcopal Government hath been time out of mind not in one but in all Churches A and sith it was not first constituted by any Sanction of a General Counsel it follows necessarily according to St. Augustins observation that it must needs be an Apostolical Institution For what not one Church but all Churches not in one age but all ages hath uniformly observed and practised and no man can define who after the Apostles were the beginners of it must needs be supposed to be done by Order or Tradition from them 7. This form of Government was not only generally received and embraced by Catholicks but even by Hereticks and Schismaticks who though they severed from the Communion of the Church in Doctrine yet not in Discipline For the Novatians and Donatists had Bishops of their own from whom they took their names only * Aerius who stood for a Bishoprick and missed it out of discontent broached that new Doctrine wherewith the heads of our Schismaticks are so much intoxicated viz. That there ought to be no distinction in the Church between a Bishop and a Presbyter and for this confounding those Sacred Orders was himself ranked among Hereticks and stands upon record in the Bedrolls of them made by Epiphanius Angustin and Philastrius It is true he had other brands on him but this was the proper mark put upon him by those ancient Fathers who mention this Tenet of his as Erroneous and Heretical I grant some of the ancient Doctors affirm That in the beginning till the prevention of Schism made this distinction between Bishops and Presbyters they were all one in name as now they are in those essential parts of their function viz. Preaching of the Word and administration of the Sacraments But Aerius was the first who professedly oppugned the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy maintaining That there ought to be no difference and distinction between Bishops and Elders 8. This assertion of Aërius as in the Doctrine thereof it was defined by the Doctors of the Church to be Heresie so in the practise thereof it is condemned by the great Councel of Chalcedon to be Sacriledge To confound say they the Ranks of Bishops and Elders and to bring down a Bishop to the inferior degree of an Elder is no lesse then Sacriledge Now I would fain know how that comes to be truth now which was condemned for Heresie and to be Piety now which was branded for Sacriledge above 1200 agoe 9. Neither were the Fathers of the Councel of Chalcedon only zealous in this cause which so much concerned the honour of the Church but the other three also whose authority St. Gregory held to be the next to the four Evangelists and the Doctrine thereof is after a sort incorporated into our Acts of Parliament Eliz. 1. In these Councels which all consisted of Bishops Episcopacy it self is almost in every Canon and Sanction either Asserted or Regulated 10. Next to the Primitive Church we owe a reverend respect to the Reformed Churches beyond the Seas who either have Bishops as in Poland Transilvania Denmark and Swethland or the same function is in Nature though not in Name to wit Intendents and Super-intendents as they would have them if they could as I understood from many Ministers in France or at least approve of them as appeareth by the testimony of Beza Sadiel Scultetus and others 11. What should I speak of the Articles of Religion ratified by a Sequence of Religious Princes succeeding one the other and confirmed by Act of Parliament to which all Beneficed men are required under pain of losse of their livings within a moneth to professe their assent and consent in which both the Power and Consecration of Bishops and Ministers is expresly asserted and their distinction from Presbyters or of the Statute of Carlile the 15. of Edw. 2. and the first of Qu. Eliz. with very many other unrepealed Acts in which Episcopall Government is either related unto or regulated and confirmed in such sort that quite to abolish and extirpate it would bring a confusion and make a stop as well in Secular as Ecclesiastical Courts And therefore our zealous Reformers if they think themselves not too good to be advised by the Great Counsellor ought to take heed how they rashly and unadvisedly pluck up the tares as they esteem them of holy Canons and Ecclesiastical Laws ne simul eradicent triticum lest together with those tares as they count them they pluck up by the roots the good wheat of many profitable and wholesome Laws of the Common-wealth and Acts of Parliament 12. But if the Authority of both Houses could soon cure these sores in precedent Acts of Parliament yet how will they make up the breaches in the Consciences of all those who in the late Protestation and this New Covenant have taken a Solemn Oath to maintain the Priviledges of the Members of Parliament and the Liberties of the Subject The most Authentical evidence whereof are Charta Magna and the Petitionof Right in both which the Rights of the Church and Priviledges of Episcopal Sees are set down in the Fore-front in Capital Letters 13. To strain this string a little higher the power of granting Congedeliers together with the investitute of Archbishops Bishops and Collation of Deanries and Prebends with a setled Revenue from the First-fruits and Tenths there is one of the fairest flowers in the Kings Crown and to rob the imperial Diadem of it considering the King is a Person most Sacred is Sacriledge in a high degree and not Sacriledge only but Perjury also in all those who attempt it For all Graduates in the University and men of Ranck and Quality in the Common-wealth who are admitted to any place of eminent Authority or Trust take the Oath of Supremacy whereby they are bound to defend and Propugne all Preeminences Authorities and Prerogatives annexed to the Imperial Crown whereof this is known to be one inherent in the King as he is Supreme head of the Church within his Realms and Defender of the Faith 14. Yet for all this admit that Reason of State should inforce the Extirpation of Episcopacy thus rooted as it hath been said both in the Royal Prerogative and Priviledge of the Subject and in the Laws of the Land it is a golden Maxim of Law