p See their Reasons p. 15 16. To pray say those reverend persons to the purpose in the conclusion of the Covenant seemeth to us all one in effect as to beseech Almighty God the God of love and peace 1. To take all love and peace out of the hearts of Christians and to set the whole Christian world in a combustion 2. To render the Reformed Religion and all Protestants odious to all the world Mark the third To provoke the Princes of Europe ☞ to use more severity towards those of the Reformed Religion if not for their own security to root them quite out of their several Dominions 4. The tyranny and yoke of Antichrist if laid upon the subjects necks by their lawful Sovereigns is to be thrown off by Christian boldness in confessing the truth and patient suffering for it not by taking up arms or violent resistance of the higher Powers and yet forsooth this is that sacred Covenant that must be so strictly kept to set the whole Christian world in a combustion This is that League which must be so zealously continued in to render the true Protestant Religion and professors thereof odious and detestable to all the world yes and for the enlargement of the kingdom of Jesus Christ too they tell us I remember a very good observation of one upon this very account q See the Right Rebel p. 145. That as none of the Disciples denyed cursed and forswore his Master but Peter onely who alone without his leave drew a sword in his defence so neither is it said of the rest that they forsook him and sted till after that Peter had rashly attempted to defend him by force as if the Holy Ghost would have Christians observe That fighting for Christ without warrant from him is the next fore-runner of forsaking him That * Pag 139 if there be any one thing above others which The Antichrist may properly challenge as peculiar to himself it is the professed practise of Rebellion of purpose to promote pretended Religion for nothing can be more directly opposite both unto the Doctrine and Practise of Christ himself and his Apostles of Orthodox Christians in the times of the Primitive Church and of all genuine Protestants since the Reformation and yet that was the absolute tenour of the Covenant to resist King Charles to fight with a pretence for the advancement of King Jesus which how contrary to his Will Practise and Command may very well be gathered out of what hath been already set down as well as what Croftons profound Lawyer Mr. Prynne himself hath said upon that subject in his True and perfect Narrative Pag. 68 74 75 76. In which last page he sets down one of the express affirmations of the Jesuits plainly declaring the great union between them and our English Leaguers in that unchristian Practise That their Gospel and Religion is to be propagated set up the Heroticks and Evangelical Sectaries who resist them Refuted how Extirpated Abolished with Fire Sword and War like holy Leaguers and therefore upon all that hath been said in my Animadversions upon the several Articles of the Sacred Covenant so called I hope there is no man of any ingenuity or understanding but will conclude with me the damnable sinfulness thereof both in the Form and matter of it and so according to the Leaguers own Assertions in the number of those unlawful Oathes which must at no hand be kept by any takers of them § 14. Having thus dispatcht my Animadversions on this illegal League I shall now proceed to set down their own words to prove the unlawfulness and sin of keeping of their so much idolized Diana and so the necessity of repentance from all its takers Their words are these in their exhortation to take the Covenant That if there should any oath be found into which any Ministers or others have entred not warranted by the Laws of God and the land in this case they must teach themselves and others that such oathes call for repentance not pertinacy in them which words being suitable to what the Reverend Dr. Hardy said I shall here adjoyn his words That r See his Pious Votary p. 16. those Covenants which ingages men instead of keeping the Laws of God injuriously to violate both the Laws of God and perfidiously to break their own former oaths are no better then Leagues with hell and Covenants with the Devil Now mark will the Law of God warrant any persons whatsoever in the swearing a Reformation against their Kings consent will that Law which commands me to yeild obedience to the King as Supream warrant me in my disobedience and rebellion against him for to carry on my work of reformation Can that Law which enjoyns me to be subject to Principalities and Powers warrant my throwing that subjection off because I have the face to affirm and pretend it is for the fulfilling of it That this is the tenour of this impious Covenant we need no other witness then it self which plainly testifyeth to all the world that the swearers thereof took up arms meerly to alter Religion And that disobedience to God in the rebellion against the King was the very matter and subject of the Covenant is exceeding plain to any who consider the famous assertion of the now most learned Primate of Armagh one of whose words weighs more in the judgement of any understanding person then ten thousand of of such bablings as our wily factious Presbiters keep such a chatting in the Nation with s See his fair warning p. 30. Subjects saith that most accomplished Speaker vow to God and swear one to another to change the Laws of the Realm to abolish the discipline of the Church and the Liturgy lawfully established by the sword which was never committed to their hands by God or man without the King against the King which no man can deny in earnest to be plain Rebellion So that unless they can make the Law of God to warrant that which it no where commands but severely condemns Their League and Covenant according to the exhorters own affirmation calls for repentance and not continuance in the keeping of that which the several takers had either the confidence at first rebelliously to swear or through the horrible seductions or threats and menaces of the Delinquent Imposers took it not considering the venom in it without and against the Carolian Martyrs consent in perfect defiance of his legal sworn onely supream authority And as for its being warranted by the Laws of the Land hear in the first place what the reverend Judge Jenkins saith in general It is an oath saith t See his Lex Terrae p. 158. that famous Lawyer against the Laws of the Land against the Petition of Right and he gives us a reason for it presently after thus No man saith he by the Law can give an oath in a new case without an act of Parliament and therefore saith he again the
the times of Popish Egyptian darkness shall any pretending to true Protestantism which severely declaims all such perfidious Antichristian courses be found to be so far approvers of such infamous actions as to commend them for examples to others to tread in the same steps Can Subjects combining and swearing together to extirpate the legal established Church-Government of a Nation as Bishops were and are still here though the leg exercise of their Coercive power in the Star-Chamber and High Commission Courts was taken away by the Act in 1641. to prevent the subsequent Rebellion and Jesuitical-Combinations of Leaguing Presbyters and vowing to assist one another in their Covenanted Rebellion with their lives and fortunes against the express command of the supream Governor for the attaining of their Leaguing ends be called and stiled Commendable by any one pretending some affinity to Loyalty or Christianity which are inseparable and the constant attendants upon a true fearer of the Lord It 's a brave time with Rebels when their Treason and disloyalty are enrolled amongst the Records of Fame and Honour and their obedient opposites to the commands of their lawful Prince are in the very act of Loyalty tearmed and Recorded for terrible Delinquents against the thing which Nick-named it self so often A Parliament Halcyon daies for Sacrilegious Schismaticks when that which is condemned by the word of God nothing more shall be garnished forth with an Epethite of Commendable though what the Prophet by God's express command said so long ago that do I say now unto these strangers to Truth and Loyalty b Isaiah 5. 20. Wo unto them that call evil good and good evil § 2. They tell us too It was according to the practice of Gods people in other Nations Aha! What Gods people and Covenanting Rebels too What Reformers and swearing Extirpaters of the Episcopal promoters of the Reformation Saints and yet Schismaticks Christians and yet Traytors Surely our Covenanters were put to extream hard straits to make lies their refuge for their carrying on of their extirpating Reformation No other way to catch people into the black Road with them but by blinding their eyes with Errors and Contradictions A sad geneneration of Merozians It s true indeed the Guisian Leaguers in France went directly in the same impious courses before them unless they be their Gods people I know none for they alone were the Monsters that our Leaguers could properly say they were imitators of because they went to their hellish work with an Oath like ours and yet Guise himself like ours too had the face to tell his Prince That he was his faithful subject for all that Who as the Translator of a Parisians Work tells us living under c See the right of Kings and duty of subjects Pref. a milde and peaceable Prince slandered their King that he was an enemy to the Roman Catholick Religion as our Covenanters did the late Carolian Martyr to be an enemy to the Protestant and under the fair pretence of Religion screwed themselves into the favour of the Common people who are usually deceived by such pretences raising a strong party against the King by the name of the holy League which caused much confusion in that kingdom as by too sad and lamentable experience we have found to be the effects of our English Leaguers in this And now I appeal to the conscience of any man living whether they that can first Rebel against their d For so they swore the King was only Supream Governour and then have the confidence to tell us of a thing which never was like that of the man in the Moon and set it down with such a positive Asseveration as making it a pattern for their illegal traitorous undertakings and stile that Commendable which if any such thing had ever been ought to be abhorred as much as hell by him that desires the Rules of Christianity I say I appeal to the Conscience of any man living who desires not to be ensnared and kept so with the e See Mr. Reynell's Panegyrik intituled The unfortunate Change Caledonian Boar which was the cause of our distempers whether they that speak these lies and juglings these palpable falshoods and deceits could possibly have according to their assertion Before their eyes the glory of God and the advancement of the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ whose f See Mr. Quarrel 's Loyal Convert P. 5. glory will not be vindicated by such unlawful means and unwarrantable proceedings and whose kingdom is endeavoured to be pulled down by such a peerless Covenant But what 's it they swear that must have a juggling Preface to set it forth Why they tell us in their first Article That they will sincerely really and constantly through the grace of God as though that would ever square with such proceedings endeavour in their severall places and callings the Preservation of the Reformed Religion in the Church of Scotland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government according to the word of God and the example of the best Reformed Churches § 3. What have I to do with the reglement of Foreign Churches * See his Fair warning P. 1 said the Reverend Primate and so say I too What had English men to do to swear to preserve the Doctrine and Discipline of another Countrey Let them stand or fall to their own Master Ay but here was the Mystery We have an earnest longing desire to have Bishops extirpated and we having followed the pattern of our dear Scottish Brethren in rising up in arms against our King for that purpose and being not well able and sufficient of our selves to carry on our design against them we must call in the other to our aid and they will not come to us unless we will swear to set up their Church-way amongst us and therefore rather then Bishops shall stand we will do it For as the late Martyr said upon the Covenant nothing will induce them to engage till those that called them in have pawned thier souls to them by a solemn League and Covenant I am verily perswaded that there was not one amongst a hundred that swore that League to preserve the Scottish Discipline that knew no more what their Discipline was then a horse and so they swore with a blinde implicite faith to preserve they knew not what themselves Pure good swearing is it not Was this sworn in Truth Judgement and Righteousness as the Prophet saith an Oath should Jer. 4. 2. If not as it was not Is not therefore such mens swearing unlawful and so to be renounced and repented of Is it not an abominable wickedness in any one to swear to preserve the Scottish Discipline or when sworn to keep such a wicked Oath when the Reverend Primate hath made it appear by such cogent and undeniable Arguments of truth and sound Divinity beyond the reach and power of a Crofton or any Presbyterian adversary to answer without palpable
the one is the intention of the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance and the other the purpose of the Covenant needs not to be demonstrated with any illustration seeing the doubters may be satisfied in the Oaths themselves And therefore I conclude the contrariety between the one and the other in the words of the learned Paraphrast when he set down his minde with a Neither can that limitation in the Covenant wherein they oblige Page 8. themselves to the preservation of the King in the maintenance of the true Protestant Religion the Priviledges of Parliament and the Liberty of the subject limit or abate the force of those absolute obligations whereby all subjects are obliged to the King and his lawful Heirs and Successors which are upon them by the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance but as such limitations look very unhandsomly so they have not at all any force of abatement in them but ought to be abhorred disclaimed and rejected by all honest Subjects and Christians as an evil gapp opened to Rebellion and Sedition to those that have a minde to make such an evil use thereof under pretence that the King doth that which indeed he ought not to do either depart in any thing from the true Religion or violate the Priviledges of Parliament or the Liberties of the subject § 17. Lastly For this League and Covenants contrariety to the Protestation I shall first set down in general the words of a Right Reverend person upon it who hath told us That b See the Imaâ—e unbroken the Protestation was confined to established Law but the Covenant to destroy Law and what was established by it the Protestation to defend the Doctrine the Covenant to destroy the Government which is comprehended in the Doctrine How do these two hang together Reconcile them and it will be as easie to make light and darkness order and confusion vertue and wickedness lawful unlawful acts to appear one the same thing to every persons eye and ear And therefore how shallow and weak soever my judgement is in every thing yet I hope those that are judicious will excuse me though I presume for once to commend what I say now to their and every mans serious consideration because if I am erroneous it s not through wilfulness or obstinacy but meerly for want of understanding to discern that which is better upon supposition that I am in an errour which I cannot say till I be convinced of it and that which I have to say upon this account shall come dressed to peoples eyes in no other terms then these which I have now subjoyned Every one that took this Protestation did Vow and Protest to maintain and defend as far as lawfully he might observe that well Sir John with his life power and estate the true Reformed Protestant Religion expressed in the Doctrine of the Church of England Now minde the Thirty nine Articles as they are usually called have been alwaies hitherto wont to be accounted The Doctrine of the Church of England the Thirty sixth Article whereof is so far from speaking against the Bishops for the advancing and promoting of a dogged surly Anti-Monarchical Scottish Discipline that the very book of Consecration of Arch-Bishops and Bishops and ordering of Priests and Deacons which had the Royal Civil sanction at the making thereof is affirmed there to have nothing in it that is superstitious or ungodly and this is a part of that which in this Protestation was termed The true Protestant Religion Nay and this must not be defended neither but as far as lawfully I may so that if there had not been the least mention of Episcopacy in any of the Articles yet confining themselves in their Protestation to the rules and orders of the Laws the Supremacy of the King over all persons Clergy and Lay in all causes Ecclesiastical and Civil and Episcopacy its stout propp and defender both undermined subverted and destroyed by a Scottish Discipline stand as safe and firm by the very Protestation as they were before that was ever made or taken Now comes a Solemn League and Covenant and bindes its takers by force of Arms to beat down Episcopacy comprehended in that very doctrine which the Presbyters had sworn to maintain and defend with their lives powers and estates and established by Law to turn their neighbours as the Revered Primate See his Fair Warning page 2. saith out of a possession of above one thousand four hundred years to make room for their Trojan horse of Ecclesiastical Discipline a practise never justified in the world but either by the Turk or by the Pope I and do this too not as far as lawfully they may but any way in the world by hook or by crook per fas aut ne fas so that they can but attain at the ends aimed at in their extirpating noddles to beat down the firm brazen walls of Episcopacy to rear up the muddy noisom ones of an unwholsom factious Presbytery in their rooms And therefore once again I Quaere Can that Protestation whereby I A. B. do promise vow and protest to maintain and desend as far as lawfully I may with my life power and estate the true Reformed Protestant Religion expressed in the Doctrine of the Church of England wherein the lawfulness of Bishops is expresly comprehended any way agree with an illegal League which bindes me to extirpate Bishops in direct opposition to that Doctrine as contrary unto the power of godliness Our Leaguers I know would fain be accounted true and good Protestants and yet swear to extirpate that which is a main propp of the true Protestant Religion and therefore in this case the definition holds very firm and true which was long since given of such at the Conference at Hampton Court That they are * Pag. 38. Protestants frayed out of their wits Again part of that doctrine which by the Protestation the takers vowed to defend is that †The Kings Majesty hath the chief power in his Realm of England and other his dominions unto whom the chief Government of all states of this Realm whether they be Ecclesiastical or Civil in all causes doth appertain And by the Covenant the takers swore to preserve and maintain all the days of their lives the thing called the Scottish discipline Now nothing can be more opposite to the Supremacy of the King asserted in the Article and vowed to be defended with life power and estate in the Protestation then this very Scottish discipline which our Baal-Berithists by an after oath swore to preserve Yea light and darkness God and the Devil heaven and hell the serving of Christ and the worshipping of Baal will assoon be brought to agree with each other as the Scottish Presbytery will with Monarchy King James told us it by a sad doleful experience as the discipline of Scotland wil accord with the Regal Supremacy over all persons in all causes as well Ecclesiastical as Civil he that
in the wise experienced judgement of King James m See the Conference at Hampt Court p. 81. as well agreeth as God and the devil Superstition Heresie Schism Profaneness and whatsoever shall be found contrary to sound Doctrine and the power of godliness A good hearing I like this part of the Article extreamly well and the better for that hereby they must endeavour to extirpate as much as possibly they can under the danger of perjury their very Extirpation Down Covenant down What dost thou hold up thy head for Thy Fathers that begot thee have knock'd thy brains out and have sworn to do it by their Sacred Covenant as they call it in swearing to extirpate Heresie Schism and Profaneness this I will make appear by their own confession and let them deny it if they are able which they unanimously set forth to the view of all the world no less then 52 of the party n See the Testimony to the truth of J. C. subscribed by the Ministers within the Province of London p. 30. p. 29. p. 30 p. 26. That in stead of true Piety and power of Godliness they had opened the very flood-gates to all Impiety and Profaneness and after they had removed the Prelatical yoke mark from their shoulders by their covenanted endeavors i. i. by vertue of their League Well! what then What followed their extirpating Oath against the Prelacy They tell us There was a rueful deplorable and deformed face of the Affairs of Religion swarming with noisom Errors Heresies and Blasphemies in stead of Faith and Truth torn in pieces with destructive Schisms Separations Divisions and Sub-divisions in stead of Vnity and Vniformity * page 31. That in stead of a Reformation they might say with sighs what their enemies said in scorn they had a Deformation in Religion and in stead of extirpation of Heresie Schism Prosaneness c. they had an impudent and general inundation of all those Evils A fair Confession and an ingenuous self-condemnation Observe Reader what these Changers of our times and deforming Leagueing-Reformers have publickly confessed to the shame and disgrace both of themselves and their graceless Covenant Here they tell us that they have opened the very flood-gates to all Impiety and Profaneness by vertue of that very Covenant whereby they were sworn to extirpate it and that after they had removed the Bishops Religion swarmed with noisom Errors Heresies and Blasphemies torn in pieces with Schisms and Divisions Very good Was not this very Covenant by force whereof these mad exploits have been done and the terrible effects thereof are so sadly complained of taken and sworn without yea against the consent and express Command of the onely Supream Governor and so by consequence absolute rebellion to whom these Swearers before by a legal established Oath had solemnly swore to bear true faith and allegiance Is not then that League which was the Instrument and Means for the producing of these horrible Impieties and sad Effects both in the form and matter of it extreamly unlawful naught and wicked and therefore not to be kept but damned eternally Our blessed Savior saith o Matth. 7. 18. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit And can this Covenant whereby the Swearers thereof have acknowledged for that was it they were speaking of when they confessed they have opened the very flood-gates to all impiety and profaneness be a good tree that hath brought forth such venemous deadly fruit or not rather a very corrupt tree that cannot bring forth that which is good Certainly that League must be a League and Covenant with hell and death that shall produce such hellish fruits and effects as by the printed Confession of the Swearers themselves was too evident and palpable it seems to be with any truth denied What remains then but that it should have the deserved fate of a corrupt tree even to be * ver 19. hewn down and cast into the fire by the hands of the common Hang-man The blessed Apostle St Paul told his Romans that he would have them to p Rom. 16. 17 18. mark them which caused divisions contrary to the doctrine they had learned and avoid them for they that are such saith he serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly and by good words and fair speeches like our unsacred Leaguers with their According to the word of God and the example of the best Reformed Churches deceive the hearts of the simple who are not able to see into the depth of their delusive Cheats And in another place asked his Corinthians that q 1 Cor. 3. 3 4. whereas there was among them divisions and what they were he tells us other where * 1 Cor. 1. 12 13. were they not carnal and walked as men And therefore again I Quaere Can this League from whence such destructive Separations Schisms Divisions and Sub-divisions have naturally flown be any other then extreamly abominable and wicked when the very causers of such divisions by what wayes or means soever are branded by the Apostle with this black mark of not being spiritual but carnal of serving not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly Qui vult decipi decipiatur He that will be deceived let him But it s impossible to catch any other with their destructive schismatical courses then those who are either ignorant or wilfully shut their eyes that they might not be enabled to see the mischiefs and villanies of their solemn League and Covenant which being so extreamly sinful both in the form and matter of it and by filling Religion with noisom errors heresies and blasphemies in stead of faith and truth and causing an impudent and general inundation of all those evils to be vehemently contrary to sound doctrine on the one hand and by opening the flood-gates to all impiety and profaneness to be notoriously opposite to the power of godliness on the other hand for there were none of these things heard or to be complained of in the Bishops time till r Isaiah 14. 29. out of the serpents root this Cockatrice the Covenant came forth whose fruits have proved no better to us then a fiery flying serpent I do here warn and conjure them in the presence of God Angels and men and as they will answer it before the Judgement-seat of Christ not onely to renounce but as much as in them lie to endeavor to extirpate such an impious profane and faithless Covenant for extirpation of the Prelacy the noble Hedge against all those Schisms Separations Divisions and Sub-divisions so much complained of by them according to the reality of the last Clause of this their second Article which they swore Return return O sacred Covenanter return return into those ways of truth plainness and loyalty toward God and your King which by your peerless Covenant you have so deeply apostatized from into the ungodly ways of falshood and