that if there were in you a sparke of the fear of God and of true loyaltie unto the King the rebellious proceedings of these men would put you out of love with their Religion For I perswade my self that when you were first leavned with their doctrine you did little think that their aim was Rebellion But did conceive as sometimes I my self did that they did all out of conscience and were men free from violence or the least thought of disloyalty But now behold their proceedings and judge them by their fruits You may perceive how that Sect since the first beginning of it which is not much above Fourscore yeers in the Raign of Q Mary of England hath proceeded from evill to worse by Six degrees At first they did only manifest a dislike of Episcopall government and some Ceremonies used in the Church of England as liking better of the government of Geneva which was devised by Master Calvin and that cunningly enough for the state of that Republick which being popular could not brook any other government of the Church but that which is popular also And yet I must tell you that Master Calvin wanted nothing of a Bishop but only the title For the Church of Geneva is not a Parochiall but Diocesan Church consisting of divers parishes which make up one great Presbytrie and he all the dayes of his life was moderator thereof without whose consent no Act neither of Ordination nor Jurisdiction was done And so likewise Mr. Beza for ten yeers after the others death held the same place of government untill Danaeus set him beside the cushion and procured the Presidency to go by turns In the next place from dislike they proceeded to contempt of Episcopall government and this if yâ— will beleeve St. Cyprian hath been the very beginning of all heresies and Schismes Ad Rogâ—â—ionum Initia Haere 〈…〉 saith he orâ—us Schismar corum haec sunt ut praepositum sâ—peâ—â—o tumâ—re contemnant And againe Vndâ— Schismata haereses ortae sunt nisi dum Episcopus qui unus est Ecclesiae praeest Ad Pâ—pianum superbâ quorundam presumptione contemnitur homo digratione Dei honoratus ab indignis hominibus judicatur In the third place from contempt they did proceed unto open disobedience unto all the Orders of the Church And like those of whom Nazianzen speakes would be pleased with nothing but what did proceed from their own devising esteeming him the holiest man who could find most faults From disobedience they did proceed unto Schisme and open separation accounting themselves only to be the brethren and Congregation of Christ and all others who are not of their faction to be the children of this world From Schisme they proceeded to heresie For it is most true which S â— Jerome did observe that Omne Schisma gignit sibi haeresin Every Schisme doth devise unto it self a heresie some false doctrine or other to maintain their separation And these men have devised not a few and some that have been condemned by ancient Councels and Fathers as namely Epiphanius reckons among the condemned heresies of Aerius that he maintained there was no differeÌ„ce between a Bishop and a Presbyter and that all set Fasts are unlawfull Jewish and Superstitious And is not this the doctrine of these men But lastly their disobedience Schisme and heresie have now drawne them into open Rebellion and I wonder whither will they go next For I am deceived if they have not yet a further ther journey to go and that they cannot subsist untill they arrive at pure Anabaptisme From which they now differ but a little And surely if any of you will read the History of the Anabaptists you will finde that their proceedings were a great deal more moderate and Christian like then these mens are This is the just judgement of God that they who run out of the Communion of the Church should likewise run out of their own wits I beseech you therefore to consider their wayes and how that if you do not break off company they will shortly lead you into Rebellion For mine own part I professe that the first thing that made me out of love with that Religion besides their grosse hypocrisie was their injurious dealing with Kings who are Gods Vice-gerents here upon Earth which I observed both by their doctrine and by their practice and I will now give you a briefe taste of both As for their Doctrine you know they take from the King all authority in causes Ecclesiasticall and will not allow him to do these things which the good Kings of Judah and the godly Emperours of the Primitive Church did Yea they will not allow them to present or nominate a Minister to a Benefice nor to give a Vote in a Generall Assembly except forsooth the King be a Lay-elder nor yet to make any Lawâ—s concerning matters of outward Order and Politie to be observed in the Church Nay They have gone further allowing Subjects to resist their Prince by force of Armes and in some cases to depose him yea and to take away his life if he be a Tyrant and though he be the godliest Prince in the world he must be esteemed a Tyrant if it please the Presbytery to declare him for to be such So that Kings should be in a farre worse case under the Presbytery then ever they were under the Pope For in stead of one Pope they must be subject unto a thousand This is their doctrine Now I will shew you their Practice And first how they dealt with that blessed King James while he was in Scotland They did persecute him in his mothers womb and when he came unto ripe yeers they suffer'd him not to enjoy one quiet day by their Seditious practices Of a great many I will cull out a few of their attempts which are most notorious First when as the Ring-leaders of that Faction had concluded the state of Bishops to be unlawfull they sent their Commissioners unto the King commanding him and his Councell under pain of Excommunication to put them downe Againe A French Ambassadour being in Scotland when he was to go away the King commanded the City of Edenburrough according to the ancient custome to entertaine him with a banquet This charge was given on the Saturday and the banquet to be on the Munday and upon Sunday morning some of the factious ministers hearing of it to crosse his Majesties designes proclaimed a publick Fast to be kept on that day and because that the Nobility the Kings Servants the Provost and chiefe Citizens of Edenburrough did by the Kings direction attend the Ambassadour they proceeded against them almost unto the sentence of ExcoÌ„munication Afterwards when his Majesty was taken prisoner at Reuthen by some of his treacherous Subjects intendig thereby to force his Majesty to their owne ends His Majesty being happily delivered did with the consent of his three Estates in Parliament declare that to be a
Ceremonies And indeed to make the Rites of the Church unchangeable were to confound matters of Doctrine and matters of Discipline matters of Faith and matters of Order The rule therefore of Tertullian is infallible Regula fidei immobilis irrefragabilis Caetera disciplinae admittunt novitatem correctionis 5 If they had sworne as these men would have it to maintaine their discipline which they then used without alteration or addition like the Laws of the Medes and Persians Then had they ascribed unto themselves an absolute perfection more then ever did the Pharisees in Christs dayes or the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after or the Popes of late since they established their own infallibility Surely the contrivers of the first Confession did manifest a great deal of more modesty in their Preface Protesting that if any man shall note in this our Confession any Article or Sentence repugnant to Gods holy Word and do admonish of the same in Writing we by Gods grace do promise unto him satisfaction from the mouth of God that is from his holy Scriptures or else reformation of that which he shall prove to be amisse And are these men become wiser then their Fathers to think that nothing which they did could be amended 6 That could not be the meaning of the first Oath to maintain their discipline in all points without alteration For they themselves during the days of the Presbytery did change many things and that as I beleeve without violation of their Oath Sometimes their Lay-elders had voyce in the Presbytery afterwards the Ministers perceiving the inconvenience restrained them to their Parish-sessions Sometimes it was made altogether unlawfull to bury in Churches afterwards they did permit it And if I had the inspection of the Book of the Acts of the generall Assembly which I have not seen these four and twenty yeers I would make it appear that every Assembly did either alter or adde something in matters of discipline Finally How could they Swear to maintain that discipline in all points when there are many things in their new found discipline whereof they were not agreed nor are to this day as namely Whether Pastors and Doctors be one office or distinct And if distinct Whether Doctors have any voyce in government What is the Office of Deacons and whether they may give a voyce in the consistory with the rest Whether their ruling Eldermen be Ecclesiasticall persons or Lay-men Whether their Office should be only annuall or during life Whether those Elders should have a voice in the election Ordination deprivation of ministers and in weilding of the keyes for Excommunication and Absolution By all which it is more then manifest that the meaning of these words in the former Oath We will continue in the obedience of the discipline of this Kirk is not that they would observe the same discipline then used in all particulars without alteration or addition for so their Oath must be contrary to their Confession of faith contrary to right reason to the practise of the Primitive Church to the opinion of all Divines yea contrary to their owne practice and indeed such an Oath as were both unlawfull and impossible to be observed And unlesse that Interpretation be allowed them that Oath makes nothing either against Episcopacy or the five Articles of Perth we must therefore finde out some other meaning of these words of the Covenant It is a rule in the civill Law Semper in dubijs benigniora sunt praeferendae And again Non sunt reyiciendae leges quae interpretatione aliquâ possunt convenire If any thing Fact writing or Law may in reasonable construction admit two interpretations the best and mildest is ever to be received But the words in the former Oath may admit a good interpretation namely they did sweare to continue in the discipline of that Kirk in regard of all substantials viz. for administration of the Sacraments and weilding of the Keyes for binding and loosing of sinners and that for the particular determination of person time place and outward forme of administration They would observe the discipline of that Kirk which should be from time to time lawfully established And therefore it is as I observed before that they did not say The present discipline of this Kirk And by this Interpretation which is the only reasonable sense of these words that can be given they are all bound by their nationall Oath as they terme it to submit themselves to Episcopall government and the Articles of Perth which were lawfully established and are now a part of the Discipline of that Church Thus have I shewed that this late Oath is substantially different from the former in that now they doe not sweare with the King but against him It containes a bond of mutuall defence of one another It inables Subjects to take Armes without lawfull Authority and containes such an interpretation of the Old covenant as is manifestly false In all which respects the Oath is unlawfull But yet to convince them further of perjury I will shew unto you that they have not observed any of these conditions which God himselfe requireth in an Oath In the fourth of Ieremy and second verse Thou shalt sweare the Lord liveth in trueth in iudgement and in righteousnesse In trueth and therefore not falsly In judgement and therefore not rashly In righteousnesse and therefore not lewdly nor to a bad end We must sweare in trueth and not falsly for the Lord himselfe saith Yee shall not sweare by my name falsly Levit. 19.12 The onely true matter of an Oath is trueth but all the grounds of this last Oath are notoriously false as namely that the Negative Confession is the Nationall confession of the church of Scotland And I have shewed that to be otherwise That this Oath is the very same that King Iames and his Family did sweare And I have proved that not to be so That Episcopacie and the five Articles of Perth are innovations abjured in the former Oath and I have manifested that to be evidently false Finally That what they doe is to avert The danger of the true reformed religion of the Kings honor and of the publick peace of the Kingdome When as indeed they could not have taken a course more to indanger the true Religion wound the Kings honour and disturbe the publick peace So that in this late Oath there is no trueth Againe We must sweare in judgement that is out of a certain knowledge of the thing which we sweare We finde in the fifth of Leviticus that when a man did sweare that which was hid from him It was a sin for which a Trespasse-offering was to be offered And now they have sworn unto many things which are hid from them and whereof they could have no certaine knowledge for they could not know that the Negative Confession is the National Confession of that Church nor that this Oath is the same with that which the King did sweare nor that Episcopacy and
the five Articles of Perths Assembly were abjured in the former Oath For I have evidently proved all these to be false Besides in the Catalogue of errors renounced there are many things wich common people cannot understand as namely I would gladly know how many amongst that multitude who have sworn this late Covenant doe know what is Opus operatum abjured in the Oath It is wisely provided in the civill Law that none should be admitted to sweare who are not of some reasonable understanding and therfore no Idiots nor mad men nor children are admitted to be witnesses But in this last Oath they have sworn many thousands who have not so much knowledge of an Oath of Religion or of the confession of Faith as a child of seven yeere old And therefore they doe not sweare in Iudicio Lastly as we must sweare in trueth and in judgement so also in righteousnesse As the matter of our Oath must be true and our knowledge of it certaine So we must sweare unto a good and lawfull end For to make the name of God a bond to doe evill is a sinne out of measure sinfull But the end of this last Oath is most unlawfull even to arme Subjects against their Prince and pull downe Orders established by Lawes wherby they make that which should be Sacramentum pietatis to be Vinculum iniquitatis These Oaths vve call Juramenta latronum such as theeves and robbers take to be true one to another For they doe not only joyne hand in hand as Solomon tells us but doe even also by Oath bind themselves to doe mischiefe Prov. 11.2 Nehem. 6.18 Tobiah the greatest hinderer of the Temple had many in Judah his sworne men Further as they have not sworne neither in trueth in judgement nor in righteousnesse So there are many who have sworne this Oath who before did receive the Oath of the Kings Supremacie and of Canonicall obedience and conformity to the Articles of Perth So that here is Oath against Oath Belike these men doe challenge a Papall power to dispence with Oathes All these things being considered I have discovered as much perjurie in their Oath as can be committed in a promissorie Oath And then wee know that the rule in Divinity is Paenitenda promissio non perficienda praesumptio And surely since this is a swearing age with them they may doe well to sweare once more that they will never sweare so againe When David had made a rash Oath to destroy Nabal in cold blood he did choose rather to breake his Oath then to keepe it And I think there is no Divine who will not say that Herod had better broken his rash oath then cut off Iohn Baptists head And yet I must tell you it is not altogether so haynous a crime to take a head from a Prophet as to pull a Crowne from a Kings head And now have I taken from them all pretence of Religion which is not fit to make a cloake for such knavery by shewing that the Negative confession is not the Nationall Confession of the Church of Scotland and that this Oath is not the same which was sworne An. 81. but an Oath in many respects altogether unlawfull And finally that Episcopall government and the Articles of Perth are not abjured in the Negative Confession I will now guesse what are the true causes that set them on work not using light conjectures but building upon more then probable grounds 1. That which sets the Clergie on work is Selfe-love De civit Dei Lib. 14. cap. 28. which as S. Austin sayes did build the Citie of the devill It is pride singularity ambition and the desire of popular applause They cannot endure to be subject to a Bishop esteeming themselves men of greater gifts and perfections then those who are appointed to be their Bishops and so They perish in the gaine-saying of Core You know that Core's sinne was disobedience he would not be subject unto Aaron appointed his Superiour by God nor to Moses either who swayed the Scepter So they by their good will will not be subject either to Bishop or King This pride hath beene the occasion of many heresies in the Church as will evidently appeare unto those who read the Histories of Arius coveting the Bishoprick of Alexandria of Donatus labouring to have beene Bishop of Carthage of Novatus desiring a Bishoprick in Italy and of Aerius contending with Eustathius for a Bishoprick in Pontus These men affecting these honorable places and receiving their severall foyles when through ambition they could not get the places they sought for in the Church they laboured to gaine honour another way in their severall Synagogues So I could tell you of a man who is now a ring-leader of the faction in Edenburgh and hath publickly preached the King to be a Papist and when his Majestie desired them to renounce their Covenant promising them all reasonable satisfaction in other things he in a Sermon compared his Majestie unto an Italian who promised mercy to his vanquished enemie upon a condition that he would renounce Christ which when the Caitiff had done presently stabb'd him to the heart saying I hope now I have killed you both soule and body Yet this man within these two yeeres was an earnest suter for the Bishoprick of Argyle M â— Henry Rollocke and was recommended for it by many of the Bishops of that Kingdome but missing thereof the same humor which possessed Arius Donatus and the rest doth now also work in him 2 That which sets the Lay-men on work is covetousnesse amongst whom not a few would gladly prey upon the Bishopricks as their Fathers did upon the Abbeyes This was observed by M. Cartwright and the Author of the Ecclesiasticall discipline of their Lay-followers in England And I must needs think that they of Scotland as they are of the same religion so they are of the same mind Whilest they heare us speak against Bishops and Cathedrall Churches Discipl Eccles saith the Author of the Ecclesiasticall discipline it tickleth their eares looking for the like prey they had before of Monasteries Yea they have in their hearts devoured already the Churches inheritance They care not for Religion so they may get the spoile They could be content to crucifie Christ so they might have his garments Our age is full of spoiling Souldiers and of wicked Dyonisians who will rob Christ of his golden coat as neither fit for him in Winter nor Summer They are Cormorants and seek to fill the bottomlesse sacks of their greedy appetites They doe yawne after a prey and would thereby to their perpetuall shame purchase to themselves a field of blood 3 I may more then probably conjecture that they have another ayme even such as was Ieroboams ayme When he had drawne away the ten Tribes from the house of David he said in his heart If the people goe up to Ierusalem to worship their heart will returne againe unto their Lord Rehoboam
A FULL CONFUTATION OF THE COVENANT Lately Sworne and Subscribed by many in Scotland Delivered in a Speech at the Visitation of Downe and Conner Held in Lisnegarvy the 26 th of September 1638. Published by Authority My sonne Feare the Lord and the King and â—…eddle â—oâ— with them that are Seditious Proverb 24.12 For Rebellion is as the sinne of Witchcraft 1 Sam. 15.23 LONDON Printed by John Raworth for George Thomason and Octavian Pullen and are to be sold at the Rose in St. Pauls Church-yard 1639. After the names of the Clergie were called the Visitor spake in this manner AND now my brethren of the Clergy and all you Gentlemen of the Laity I intreat your attention while I shall expresse my self in some things that concern my Pastorall charge Some things I have to say that concern the Clergie onely Some things that concern the Church-wardens And some what that doth concern both the Clergie and the Laity As for you of the Clergie There is generally a great fault in you in the neglect of Catechizing You know that you are bound to it by the Canons of the Church bound by an act in my first Visitation and though ye regard neither of these as I know many of you do not yet consider I beseech you that ye are bound to it in conscience for Catechizing is the easiest and most profitable way of instruction The Apostle calls it the doctrine of the beginnings of Christ Heb. 6.1 which must be layed before a man can be led forward unto perfection It is milk for babes whereas preaching is meat for men that are of age who have their wits exercised to discern both good and evill But you cannot abide to give milk Heb. 5.14 and are all for strong meat albeit there are many of you who are not well able to chew it This is the true cause of the ignorance of the people for they not having been instructed in the grounds of Religion are not able to understand any part of a Sermon It is one of the great stratagems of our adversary the devill that when he cannot draw men wholly from the service of God he makes them to single out some part of it and to magnifie that with a neglect of all other parts as namely Preaching amongst you which is grown to that esteem that it hath shuffled out of the Church both the publique prayers which is the immediate worship of God and this duty of Catechizing and is now accounted the sole and onely service of God the very Consummatum est of all Christianity as if all Religion consisted in the hearing of a Sermon Unto whom I may say in the words of the Apostle What Is all hearing Is the whole body an eare 1 Cor. 12. Or tell you in the words of a most Reverend prelate That if you be the sheep of Christ you have no mark of his sheep but the eare-mark And therefore to conclude this point If you will will not hereafter make conscience of this duty of Catechizing Then the conscience of my duty will inforce me to proceed against you according to the Canons of the Church As for the Church-wardens I have a double complaint against them One That whereas by their place they are to look unto the fabrick of the Church the greatest part of your Temples are kept no better then Hog-styes I know that it is one of the mysteries of iniquity in their Religion that God is most purely served when he is worshipped slovenly in a poor and homely cottage and that any cost is too much to be bestowed upon Gods service They are much like unto the officers of Julian the Apostate who when they saw the stately vessels of the Temple cryed out En qualibus vasis ministratur Mariae filâ—o what stately plate is this for the Carpenters sonne But my second complaint is yet greater They are bound by their Oath to present all known disorders within their Parish especially them who do not repair unto the Church to hear Divine service and to receive the Sacrament according to the orders of this Church Yet they present none at all And indeed the Church-wardens especially in the Aâ—ds and Claneboyes are of all others the most disorderly men the very ring-leaders of the separation and it is for that cause they are chosen that others may not be presented So that it seems unto me that too many of them in Scotland have entred in a mutuall bond to defend one another by Arms So their fellows in this Diocesse have entred in a mutuall bond to defend one another by their Oathes But here I tell them plainly that I will proceed against them First for the neglect of the repair of their Churches Next for their non-conformity Thirdly for not presenting notorious offenders And lastly for their perjury And if they think my authority too weak to overtake them in regard of the great Patronage and countenance they have I will deliver them over unto a Court that is able to deal with them My last complaint will hold me longer It strikes both against the Clergy and the Laity for their generall non-conformity and disobedience unto the Orders of this Church You of the Clergy have all Sworn subscribed and promised absolute conformity And yet when you come amongst your people you slide back and for a colour of obedience read some part of the Service it may be the Lessons and a few Collects as if it were left unto your power to mince the Service of God cutting and carving upon it as you please I must tell you that those who will not be tyed neither by oaths Subscriptions nor promises There is nothing will tye them but a coercive power But they of the Laity are yet worse they will hear no prayer at all While divine Service is reading they walke in the Church-yard and when prayer is ended they come rushing into the Church as it were into a Play-house to hear a Sermon But ere it be long I hope a course shall be taken that they who will hear no prayers shall hear no Sermon I know that the thing which doth encourage you in this your disobedience is the present Insurrection in Scotland You think and some of you do not stick for to speak it that they will inforce the King for to yeeld unto all their demands and amongst the rest procure unto you a liberty to live here as you list But deceive not your selves for howsoever in Scotland some thinke themselves strong enough to resist their Prince yet I thanke God you are not so many here but the Kings Laws and authority is well able to overtake you And be assured that their insolent opposition against our most Pious Prince will make you that are of their Faction to be more narrowly look'd unto here then otherwise you would have been for now that our neighbours house is on fire it is high time to look to our own And surely methinks
not abjured in the Negative confession nor so much as mentioned If any man shall say That Episcopacy is included under the Popes wicked Hierarchy which there is denied he will prove himself ridiculous for it is well known unto all that ever looked into the Ecclesiasticall history that the Church was governed by Bishops 600 yeers before the Popes wicked Hierarchy began And as that government was not abjured so neither is it any innovation at all for it is evident that in the yeere 81. they had Bishops and it is yet to be seen registrate in the Books of Councell and subscribed by the Commissioners for the time how that but a little time before the publishing of that Confession the generall Assembly did agree with his Majesties Regents in his minority Kings declaration that the estate of Bishops which is one of the estates of Parliament should be maintained and authorized But about foure or five yeeres after about the yeere 83. the generall Assembly tooke upon them contrary to their own subscriptions to discharge the estate of Bishops and to declare the same to be unlawfull commanding all the Bishops in the kingdome to dimit their places and Jurisdictions under paine of Excommunication and in like manner commanding the King and his Councell under the like payne not to choose any others in their place But when that wise King saw their proceedings and how they took more upon them then ever the Bishops had done and under the pretence of their new discipline trod upon his Scepter labouring to establish an Ecclesiasticall tyranny of infinite Jurisdiction and perceiving withall that their new erected government was the mother of all faction confusion and rebellion And that it tended to Anabaptisme and popularity and to the overthrow of his State Crowne and kingdome 1584 he called a Parliament and by the consent of all his States hee overthrew their Presbytries and restored againe the Bishops to their places But indeed at that time the Sonnes of Zerviah were too strong for him that hee could never invest the Bishops with their full power and authority untill that happy time that his Majesty came unto the Crowne of England And then not long after by a free Generall assembly held at Glasgow he did not erect but ratify and confirme the estate of Bishops The acts of which Assembly were immediately after confirmed by Act of Parliament So that Episcopacy is no Innovation as is pretended in this last Oath And as for the 5. Acts of Perth Assembly they were never intended to be abjured in the Negative confession for there is no mention of any of them neither can they be comprehended under popish rites Kneeling at the Communion is no popish rite for I have upon another occasion proved it to be the gesture used in the Primitive Church at the receiving of the Sacrament And that the first that ever did sit after their fashion was the Pope to expresse his state So that we may justly charge them that the gesture which they use is abjured in that confession amongst the rest of popish rits The Five Holy-dayes established by the Assembly of Perth are not Popish rites but such as were observed in the Church since the dayes of the Apostles as may appeare by that bitter contention between the Easterne and Westerne Churches about the observation of Easter And as for the other three Articles for private Baptisme the Communion of the sick and Confirmation of Children There is no man in his right wits who will not acknowledge that they were in use many hundred yeeres before Popery was hatched and are in themselves things not onely lawfull and expedient but in some cases necessary But yet they will say that these things are abjured in generall termes when they sweare to continue in the obedience of the doctrine and discipline of that Kirk For answer wherunto I shall desire you to consider First that they say not they will continue in the present discipline of this Kirk as these new men doe interpret it but indefinitely that they will continue in the discipline of this Kirk Secondly albeit they had said so yet by the discipline we must understand that discipline which was established by authority and Law And not that which was violently brought in by some factious Ministers and their adherents Now I have shewed that Episcopall government was ratified and confirmed by divers Acts of Parliament but never dissolved by any and that their Presbyteriall government was put down by act of Parliament but never established by any Thirdly say that by discipline we should yeeld to understand that discipline which then was used though brought in by private authority Yet certainly it â—â—s never their intent to sweare to maintaine that â—â—scipline in all particulars without alteration or adâ—â—tion for such an oath had been simply unlawfull because that thereby they should have made a perâ—â—â—uall Law concerning ceremonies and rites which 〈◊〉 themselves and must be changeable according 〈◊〉 the Exigency of the times And so if that interâ—â—â—tation which is now given of the words were â—â—…e it would follow 1 That their negative Confession were directly â—â—ntrary unto their positive Confession which is the â—nly true Nationall confession of the Church of Scotland For in that confession in the 20th Article touching matters of Policy and order they say Not that we thirk that one policy and one order in Ceremonies can be appointed for all ages times and places For â—s Ceremonies such as men have devised are but temporall â—o may and ought they to be changed when they rather suffer Supersition then that they edifie the Church using the â—ame So that by these mens Interpretation here is Confession against Confession The positive Confession declares matters of Policy and order to be alterable and such as upon occasion both may and ought to be changed But these men do so interpret the negative Confession and Covenant as if they were bound by an oath to preserve the same Orders that were used in the yeer 81. inviolably for ever 2 Such an Interpretation is against all right reason For the condition of the Church being changeable the same Orders cannot be convenient for her at all times As the same policy is not fit for the Church in all places so neither for one and the same Church at all times 3 Such an Interpretation shall condemne the practice of the ancient Church which did upon occasion often change her rites as namely dipping in Baptisme which she changed from once into thrice and again from thrice into once 4 It is contrary to the Judgement of all Divines Mr. Calvin tells us that In externall discipline and Ceremonies Christ would not particularly prescribe what we shoâ—… to follow Quod istud pendere a temporum varietate pravideret And again he saith That sometimes it profiteth and is expedient that there be a difference in these things lest men should think that Religion were tyed unto outward