A BRIEFE DISCOVRSE DECLARING The impiety and unlawfulnesse of the new COVENANT with the SCOTS Together with the Covenant it selfe Printed Anno Dom. 1643. The new League and Covenant with the SCOTS WE Noblemen Barons Knights Gentlemen Citizens Burgesses Ministers of the Gospell and Commons of all sorts in the Kingdom of England Scotland and Ireland by the providence of God living under one King and being of one Reformed Religion having before our Eyes the Glory of God and the Advancement of the Kingdome of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ the Honour and Happinesse of the Kings Majesty and His Posteritie and the true publike Liberty Safety and Peace of the Kingdomes wherein every ones private Condition is included And calling to minde the Treacherous and Bloody Plots Conspiracies Attempts and Practises of the Enemies of God against the true Religion and Professors thereof in all places especially in these three Kingdomes ever since the Reformation of Religion And how much their Rage Power and Presumption are of late and at this time increased and exercised whereof the deplorable Estate of the Church and Kingdom of Ireland the distressed Estate of the Church and Kingdome of England and the dangerous Estate of the Church and Kingdome of Scotland are present and publike Testimonies We have now at last after other meanes of Supplication Remonstrance Protestations and Sufferings for the Preservation of our selves and our Religion from utter ruine and destruction according to the commendable practise of these Kingdomes in former times and the example of Gods People in other Nations after mature deliberation resolved and determined to enter into a mutuall and solemne League and Covenant wherein we all subscribe and each one of us for himself with our hands lifted up to the most High God do swear I. THat we shall sincerely really and constantly through the grace of God indeavour in our severall Places and Callings The preservation of the Reformed Religion in the Church of Scotland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government against our common Enemies the Reformation of Religion in Kingdoms of England and Ireland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government according to the Word of God and the example of the best Reformed Churches And shall indeavour to bring the Churches of God in the three Kingdomes to the neerest Conjunction and Uniformity in Religion Confession of Faith Forme of Church Government Directory for Worship and Catechising That we and our posteritie after us may as Brethren live in Faith and Love the Lord may delight to dwell in the midst of us II. That we shall in like manner without respect of Persons indeavour the exterpation of Popery Prelacy that is Church-Government by Archbishops Bishops their Chancellours and Commissaries Deanes Deanes and Chapters Archdeacons and all other Ecclesiasticall Officers depending on that Hierarchy Superstition Heresie Schisme Prophanesse and whatsoever shall be found to be contrary to sound Doctrine and the Power of Godlinesse lest we partake in other mens sins and thereby be in danger to receive of their Plagues and that the Lord may be one and his Name one in the three Kingdoms III. We shall with the same sincerity reality and constancy in our severall Vocations indeavour with our Estates and Lives mutually to preserve the Rights and Priviledges of the Parliaments and the Liberties of the Kingdoms and to preserve and defend the Kings Majesties Person and Authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberries of the Kingdomes That the World may bear Witnesse with our Consciences of our Loyalty and that we have no Thoughts or Intentions to diminish His Majesties just Power and Greatnesse IV. We shall also with all faithfulnesse indeavour the discovery of all such as have beene or shall be Incendiaries Malignants or evill Instruments by hindering the Reformation of Religion dividing the King from his People or one of the Kingdoms from another or making any faction or parties amongst the People contrary to this League and Covenant That they may be brought to publike Tryall and receive condigne punishment as the degree of their offences shall require or deserve or the supreame Judicatories of both Kingdoms respectively or others having power from them for that effect shall judge convenient V. And whereas the happynesse of a blessed Peace between these Kingdoms denyed in former times to our Progenitours is by the good providence of God granted unto us and hath beene lately concluded and setled by both Parliaments We shall each one of us according to our Place and Interest indeavour That they may remaine conjoyned in a firm Peace and Union to all Posteritie and that Justice may be done upon the wilfull opposers thereof in manner expressed in the precedent Article VI. We shall also according to our Places and Callings in this common Cause of Religion Libertie and Peace of the Kingdomes assist and defend all those that enter into this League and Covenant in the maintaining and pursuing thereof and shall not suffer our selves directly or indirectly by whatsoever combination perswation or terrour to be devided and withdrawn from this blessed Union and Conjunction Whether to make defection to the contrary part or to give our selves to a detestable indifferency or neutralitie in this Cause which so much concerneth the glory of God the good of the Kingdoms and honour of the King but shall all the dayes of our lives zealously and constantly continue therein against all opposition and promote the same according to our Power against all Lets and Impediments whatsoever And what we are not able to suppresse or overcome we shall reveale and make known that it may be timely prevented or removed All which we shall do as in the sight of God And because these Kingdomes are guilty of many sinnes and provocations against God and His Son lesus Christ as is too manifest by our present distresses and dangers the fruits thereof We professe and declare before God and the World our unfained desire to be humbled for our owne sinnes and for the sinnes of these Kingdomes especially that we have not as we ought valued the inestimable benefit of the Gospell That we have not laboured for the Purity and Power thereof and that we have not endeavoured to receive Christ in our Hearts nor to walke worthy of him in our lives which are the causes of other sinnes and Transgressions so much abounding amongst us And our true and unfained purpose desire and endeavour for our selves and all others under our Power and Charge both in publike and in private in all duties we owe to God and man to amend our lives and each one to goe before another in the example of a reall Reformation That the Lord may turne away his wrath and heavy indignation and establish these Churches and Kingdomes in Truth and Peace And this Covenant we make in the presence of Almightie God the searcher of all Hearts with a true intention to performe the same as we shall answer
at that great day when the secrets of all hearts shal be disclosed most humbly beseeching the Lord to strengthen us by his holy Spirit for this end And to blesse our desires and proceedings with such successe as may be deliverance safety to his People and incouragement to the Christian Churches groaning under or in danger of the yoak of Antichristian Tyranny to joyne in the same or like Association and Covenant To the glory of God the Inlargement of the Kingdom of Iesus Christ and the Peace and Tranquility of Christian Kingdomes and Common-Wealths A briefe Discourse declaring the impiety and unlawfulnesse of the new COVENANT with the Scots Keepe not thou silence O God hold not thy peace and be not still O God For lo thine enemies make a tumult and they that hate thee have lift up the head They have taken crafty counsell against thy people and consulted against thy hidden ones They have said come and let us cut them off from being a nation that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance For they have consulted together with one consent they are confederate against thee Mine enemies reproach me all the day and they that are mad are sworne against me For they speake against thee wickedly and thine enemies take thy name in vaine THese were once the complaints of the Psalmist against Gods enemies and his in those times But now they may be justly alas too justly taken up by the King and His faithfull Subject in these times against the contrivers and prosecutors of that monstrous Rebellion which hath beene the deformed and unnaturall issue that the hellish copulation of Satan with this wicked and adulterous generation the very lees and dreggs of almost exhausted time hath brought forth It is a monster indeed made up of many monsters every limbe or part of it is as it were a severall portent presaging without the great mercy of God a generall ruine to this poore nation in all that it can stile good lawes lives religion soules government order plenty safety honour and that in the ruines whereof if not the substance yet the beauty and comfort of all the rest must needs be buried the happy peace of this Kingdome A monster every day almost growing more and more monstrous ever and anon contracting not onely more stature but wherein it out-does all the most grosse errours of nature if I may so call them new limbes new organs and members of confusion and I would it did not out strip them in one thing more Nature doth seldome use to maintaine her errours and therefore though I know not how she brings them forth yet she is not wont to give them a long life which may seeme a kind of recantation of nature she makes hast to scrape out those blots which she hath made If they be long-lived it is as it were another wonder and so another multiplyed errour of nature when I speake of the errour of nature I meane the misapplication or disordered working of second causes But this oh it hath lived too too long already and yet it appeares to be still too youthfull since it is not yet come unto its full stature It is of so strange a continuance as well as of sad and uncouth importance that we could scarce tell whether it were a Comet or a Starre but that wee discover it by it's low region wherein it moves and by its irregular motion and by that blazing traine of mischiefes at the tayle of it to have no place amongst the heavenly bodies as some mad Astronomers of our age would perswade us but that as it is raised from those foggy and unwholsome vapours that not the earth or water but even hell it selfe hath belcht forth to the confusion and destruction of mankinde so we are sure it will not still continue but will at length wast and consume it selfe and fall downe though with such a stench and evill influence that may perhaps suffocate many thousands that are about it Much hath beene done and by skilfull hands towards the anatomy and description of this monster and no wonder if some have met with damps from it in endeavour like those that open fowle and corrupted bodies which many times send out those maligne vapours that are ready to poyson those that have attempted it I my selfe have had my share of this mischiefe and yet when the common good calls for it in the care we must have for the preservation of publique dangers though to the perill of our particular safeties wee must not desist from the worke I dare not undertake to expose unto your view all the deformities of this strange prodigie I doubt it hath not yet all its parts and members whilest it still lives we can never say we have fully decyphered it And though we would very faine kill it by dissection yet as it is in the usuall practise of those that anatomize bodies to do it when they are dead so you must looke for the perfect worke in the dissection of this when it is dead too it is too unquiet a monster to suffer it before and too increasing to be capable of it Besides the horrible composure of it is so various and perplexed that it is very hard to undertake it That which I have to doe at this present is to set forth unto you the strange language of this beast We reade of a monstrous beast in the Revelation that had a mouth given unto it speaking great things and blasphemies Revel 13.5 And surely such is the language of this monster especially in this strange and horrid Covenant and Oath which they have of late taken upon them and commended unto others for can there be any greater blasphemy then to offer God for security unto Sathan to forge his hand and counterfeit his seale as it were to an obligation to binde men over to the Devill We reade of it as a great aggravation of sinne that men frame iniquity by a Law This they have done too as farre as in them lyes but not content with this they have now proceeded farther to frame iniquity by an Oath and Covenant That as they kill mens bodies on the one side so they may destroy soules too on the other as if they would goe about to confute our Saviour where he telleth us that men are able onely to destroy the body and doe no more and shew that they can in some sense destroy both body and soule in hell My desire is to lay open this mischiefe before the people that they may take heed how they are entrapped in so dangerous a snare wherein you must not looke for so exact a discovery as might have beene made but such as I was able in great hast to make of it being desirous to apply a speedy prevention though with lesse serious composition unto so dangerous an evill and that plainly to the capacity of the meanest of the people not doubting but that those that have judgement
one another Oh my brethren I beseech you remember God is not mocked you may muffle your selves and others but you cannot blind the Lord. Thirdly and lastly it is against conscience since if the one halfe of those that joyne in other things no more warrantable shall or have joyned in the taking of this Covenant it is not probable that they have or can do it as they are disposed with the consent or to the satisfaction of their consciences Or I would gladly know of those various Sectaries as opposite unto one another as they are both unto the truth Whether they all like the Scotch Discipline and Government which they sweare to maintaine in that Nation or no let them now lay their hands upon their hearts and feele how it beates if they do like it why durst they not sweare to introduce it here as well as to defend it there but that they must be pleased and deceaved at once with these Generall Termes according to the best reformed Churches And with that limitation as neere as may be unto the Discipline and Government of Scotland Oh fy upon this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this fond Glozing and humouring of men in things of so sacred a nature But if it be so that they do not approve of it as it is well knowne they do not many of them with what conscience can they sweare to maintaine that in another Nation which they themselves in in their judgements disapprove and condemne as unlawfull and disagreable to the word of God Let our independent Brethren and others answere me this question If any say that the Discipline and Government of Scotland may be best for that Nation and yet not so convenient for ours I confesse it might so be that one kind of Discipline in some things or circumstances might fit one Nation and yet be inconvenient for another But away with these refuges Speake your consciences speake plainely and do not complement in Covenants Do you beleeve I meane all you independents Anabaptists c that have or shall be called to take this holy bond Do you all beleeve that the Scotch Discipline and Government is the best for that action or do you not beleeve it is in it selfe defective if not contrary to the word of God in your sense I am confident you cannot deny but you do With what conscience then could you if you have or can you if you have not enter into an oath to maintaine that Discipline and Government any where which your consciences perswade you is not the best not good not agreeable to the word and the will of God Is not this to pertake with other mens sinnes and to joyne with others against that which you call the Kingdome of Christ But here you may see the crafty dealing of these men that had the framing and contriving of this covenant They knew well enough with whom they had to do And whom they are to depend on for the pursuance of their designes The Scots on the one side much woed and Courted by them The various sectaries and disagreeing humorists on the other side These both must be pleased Though God be never so much displeased And therefore to satisfy the Scots and to draw them into this Covenant the Scottish discipline and government must be maintained in Scotland and all must sweare to that there though conscience deny it alas it is but to comply with their loving brethren and yet to leave roome for the fond and enterteining hopes of their severall Chimera's which the Sectaries here have dream't of They must be satisfied with more Generall termes here There shall be no particular Government or discipline set downe but according to the best Reformed Churches which the Anabaptist may still conceive to be for him the Brownist for him the Lutherane for him The Scottish for him yea and the Papist for him too were it not that they have dasht his hopes in another clause onely indeed to please the Scotts a little more as those from whom they looke for much benefit This reformation of England according to the best Reformed Churches must be framed as nere as may be to the Scots were it not so sad a businesse as it is sure a man would even laugh to see what is behind the Curtaine And yet this is the holy Covenant The last of all good covenants is the glory of God This you see palpably is to please and engage men The intermediate aime of a good Covenant should be the peace of Gods people This is like to breede no peace amongst them that take it since in that latitude which is allowed them they are like to finde roome enough when they have done slaughtering others to draw their swords upon one another in the asserting of their severall best reformations against one another And God helpe the poore Church of England if it must never have peace till they shall be agreed And indeed God helpe it howsoever But alas this is not all it is most cleare that the end of this covenant is so farre from peace that it is purposely undertaken for the maintenance of a most horrid civill warre and rebellion and for the engageing of a forraigne nation to helpe to butcher the poore people of this land So grosse and palpable an impiety and deceiving of the trust that the King and people placed in those that have the maine sway of the businesses That I wonder they should any longer doate upon so open and profeined a designe for their ruine an enterprise that if it should proceed would make the Authors and Contrivers of it infamous amongst the most barbarous Cannibals for exposing their owne Prince and people to be a prey to be devoured by an externall fire rather then they should any of them survive to see the defeate of their ambitious purposes Surely I can thinke upon no better a Motto for this bloudy Covenant and the designe that hangs upon it Then that verse of the Poet. Flectere si nequeo superos Acheronta movebo And yet they sweare too to discover all those that shall divide betweene the Prince and the people But does any man beleeve that they meane to accuse their owne fellow or to arrayne themselves at the barre of Justice I had like to have overseene one feature of this beutifull Covenant And that is one excellent and necessary limitation that they have annexed unto that part of the oath wherein they ty themselves to defend the person and authority of the King A man would thinke and reade no farther that some strange fit were come on them of being good Subjects to their Prince But they 'll be sure of a Gap to get out at there The Liberties of Subjects and Priviledges of Parliament must be absolutely and peremptorily maintained though with the Ruine of Religion and all not a syllable of limitation there But the Kings person and his authority must be maintained in preservation and defence of the true Religion and in the Liberties of the Kingdome not a word of the Law in the whole oath You may see by that how they meane to governe and what doe you thinke is the meaning of this Surely 't is no riddle that needs no O Edipus to interpret it 'T is too cleere the purpose is to leave the people at liberty to kill the Kings person and to trample on his authority whensoever they shall conceive that he opposeth that religion which they shall conceive to be true or that be intrencheth upon any the least liberty of the Subjects So that every errour in a Sectary may upon the point bring a Religious Kings life into question And every mistake in policy of the ignorant people or misinterpration of the Kings Actions by the malicious may for all this Covenant pull His Crowne off His head and let His royall bloud out of his heart too Oh what an excellent Provision is this and yet they will have the world to beare witnesse of their loyalty Here 's fuell for an eternall fire if it were possible of an everlasting succession of divisions and mischeifes betweene the King and the people Christianity teacheth us to submit unto Tyrants Yea unto heathens if in authority in respect of Gods ordinances but these men are wiser and holier then God they are not such fooles as the Apostles and Primitive Christistians to submit upon the meere command of Christ unto those that opprest them and sought their ruine But I pray God make us such fooles as they were The wisedome of this world is foolishnesse with God I had rather be a foole with Saint Paul then wise with the best of them I commend unto them the saying of Tertullian Sapiens Deo non eris nisi stultus saeculo fucris Much more might be said but I hope this may suffice And so these hasty observations I Commend unto the Reader for his caution and conversion upon these impressions that a single reading of this covenant left with mee with these two rules If thou art not snared keepe thy selfe free If thou hast taken an unlawfull Vow Thou hadst better breake it with David then keepe it with Herod Thy Corban will never salue thy disobedience to thy Common-father which is thy Prince and so I pray God direct all our hearts for the glory of his name and good of his Church and people And discover and defeate all contrary designes FINIS