their former Protestation if rightly understood in sundry the most material Branches of it Unto this Sir I must say that I know not what did appear to them to have been the power of the imposers and challenged in former times only unto me and many others it did appear not to he the meer natural Power of the People preposterously and in a tumultuous manner assembled who yet do appear to have a power to impose on themselves an Oath and to whom I find Soveraignty it self to speak it with due Reverence in some measure subjected and its obligation superseded if not made void clearly barred from execution if but by the impossibility put thereon as it was in the case of Jonathans Rescue which I shall only report in the words of Bishop Hall Saul hath sworn Jonathans death the people contrarily swear his preservation Halls Contem. p. 1038. his Kingdom was not so absolute yet more absolute than Englands that he could run away with so unmerciful a justice their Oath which savoured of disobedience prevailed against his Oath which savoured of too much cruelty and so long as his heart was not false to his Oath he could not be sorry Jonathan should live I do not in any case justifie the preposterous and tumultuous Assemblings and Assumptions of the People whereby they lay on themselves Bonds which must not be broken and cannot well without much difficulty be kept yet I cannot but observe many times whereby the Vox populi is Vox Dei as in the very change of the Government of Israel on which Dr. Hall Notes It was Gods ancient purp se to raise up a King to his People Page 10.24 how doth he take occasion to do it by the unruly desires of Israel but blessed be God this was not the case of the Covenant the imposers did not assemble on their own heads and by violence and disorder assume unto themselves an unusual power The power imposing this Covenant was a Parliament the Collective Body of the Kingdom Duly Summoned Regularly Elected and returned Rightly Constituted and Readily Embraced by King and Kingdom and animated with more than ordinary Parliamentary power by the Bill for their continuance against all Casualties so as not to be Prorogued Adjourned or Dissolved without their own consent And can any True-born English man in any measure acquainted with the constitution of this Kingdom or the Authority of the High Court of Parliament deny these to be a just and lawful Authority to resolve order and enjoyn yea and execute their Resolves Orders and Injunctions during the being of their power though not to establish Lawes to be executed when they were dissolved and gone Sir I cannot without sad thoughts remember the unhappy difference between His late Majesty and the late long Parliament which occasioned the unhappy opposition of the Peoples Liberty and the Kings Prerogative as I cannot but wish they had been acted so conjunctly that they might have seem'd to vulgar apprehension to have been but one so I cannot but judge it prudence that a period be put to the dispute thereof upon the now Happy Re-union of his most Sacred Majesty and these too long distracted Kingdomes I am clearly of opinion with Aristotle that Prince of Politians Aristot Polit. lib. 5. c. 10 11. That Regal Government is best established where the Princes and People do participate of it and that Theopompus the Spartan in transmitting some of his Prerogative to his Ephori Princes might well maintain the encrease of his Dominion whilst he made it longer by making it less I think therefore that the wisest men and best Subjects will rather think then assert a Prerogative in the King above His Parliament and I for my part should be content to find in the Parliament a sufficient power to impose an Oath on the Subject without the Kings consent rather than to assert their Superiority unto Him in all points and particulars And when Sir I consider the power even over and against their King in the Princes and the Collective Body of the People Recorded in Scripture as in making War Josh 22. Judg. 20. Changing the Government 1 Sam 8. Choosing and establishing not only their first but succeeding Kings though immediately appointed and sometimes anointed by God as in the case of David Solomon and Rehoboam and others in removing from the King Favourites and Counsellors as David was against the mind of Achish the King dismissed by the Princes of the Philistines 1 Sam. 29. in restraining the Kings purpose of destruction confirmed by an Oath once and again as in the case of Jonathan or of protection as in the case of Jeremiah the Prophet concerning whom Zedekiah the King said He is in your hands the King is not he that can do any thing against you Jer. 38.5 In these and the like cases Josephus tells us Joseph Antiq. Jud. lib. 4. cap. 18. the King might not do any thing without or against the sentence of the Senate or Congregation Methinks a divine defence may be well made for the power of the Parliament in this case acted and admitted though without and against the consent of the King And when I consider what is Dogmatically asserted by Polititians and no mean Lawyers in reference to the power of general Councils and Conventions of Kingdoms in general Foxe Acts and Monuments p. 616. as of Englands Parliaments in particular as in the Council of Basil against the Pope the whole Realm hath more Authority than the King The same asserted by Marius Salamonius who by many Arguments doth defend it De principatu lib. 1. p. 17 18. he was a Roman Lawyer and Philosopher Hollingshead and Vowel in their Description of England declare concerning the Parliament That this Court hath the most high and absolute power of the Realm and that not only without but against the King by it offenders are punished and corrupt Religion reformed or disannulled and that whatever the people of Rome might do centuriatis comitiis or tribunitiis Vot 1. cap. 1. p. 173. which I am sure was to impose an Oath the same is and may be done by Parliament unto which may be added what is spoken to the same effect and almost in the same words by Sir Thomas Smith Secretary of State to King Edward the sixth and Queen Elizabeth and a Doctor of the Law in his Common-wealth of England and Horne an Eminent Lawyer in Edward the first his Reign in his Mirrour of Justice cap. 1. p. 7 8 9. and Fortescue Lord Chancellor to Henry the sixth in his Book de Laud. Leg. Angl. cap. 9. and Bracton quoted by these learned men who certainly affirms more than they can approve Rex habet Superiorem Deum item legem per quam factus est Rex item curiaem suam viz. Comites Barones c. Et ideo si Rex fuerit sine fraeno debent ei fraenum imponere and above all the Soveraign Powers
serious surveigh of the Solemn League and Covenant I cannot but observe and see clearly that first the matter therein Covenanted is publike and national relating to the Kingdom under its Civil Religious and reformed consideration or capacity being the reformation and defence of Religion under a national profession and the honour and happinesse of the King priviledges of Parliament and liberties of the Subjects and the like concernments no way proper for personal and individual private Oaths 2. These matters and this form of security to them were consul ed agitated debated determined concluded and agreed unto by two distinct Nations agreeing in the general capacities which did relate unto the matter thereof and that in their most publike capacities and by the indisputable most full and formal collective bodies of both Kingdoms the Parliament though defective in that part which was most necessary to establish a Law then indent a Covenant which did most eminently consist in the consent of the people and body of the Nations 3. The termes shewing the capacity in which it was sworn are general and National as in the very words of the Preface We Noblemen Barons Knights Gentlemen Citizens Burgesses Ministers of the Gospel and Commons of all sorts of the Kingdome of England c. by the providence of God living under one King and being of one reformed Religion so that all ranks and orders of men however dignified or distinguished among themselves yet united in this publike capacity the subjects of one King and of one reformed Religion and in that union universally sware the Covenant 4. The end and scope of this Covenant was Real National and Publike and only Personal in relation thereunto as is evident by the professed grounds thereof as having before our eyes the true publique liberty peace and safety of the Kingdoms wherein every ones private condition is included a sence of the deplorable distressed dangerous estate in which the Kingdoms then were and by the ends propounded almost in every Article thereof which relate to the Kingdoms and our Posterity and cannot be secured if the Oath be not National as in Article the First that we and our Posterity after us may as Brethren live in faith and love in Article the Second that the Lord may be one and his Name one in the three Kingdoms In Article the Third that the two Kingdoms of England and Scotland may remain conjoyned in a firme peace and union to all Posterity And by the Sixth Article it is declared to contain in it a cause which much concerned the good of the Kingdoms and in the conclusion thereof is a profession of sence and sorrow for the sin of these Kingdoms distinct from our own sins the which do loudly proclaime the scope and intent thereof to have been Nationall and publique 5. This Covenant was sworn by the Nation or Kingdom 1. Collectively by the body of the Nations regularly assembled and constituted in the most full and compleat Assembly that could and ever did represent the same in all acts and agâ—tations truly Real and National viz. The Parliament consisting of Lords and Commons that in their publique capacity as a Parliament the House of Commons Assembled in their House in the formality of the body of the Nation with their speaker before them went unto St. Margarets Church in Westminster and there with the greatest solemnity imaginable Ordinance of Feb. 5. 1643. did as the representative body of the Kingdom swear this Covenant which as a further testimony that it was a National Covenant they caused to be printed with their names subscribed and to be hanged up in all Churches and in their own House as a compass whereby in conformity to right Reason and Religion to steer their then debates and to dictate to all that should succeed into that place and capacity what obligation did before God lie upon the body of this Nation 2. It was universally sworn by the people of this Kingdom solemnly Assembled in their particular places of convention all over the Kingdom all manner of persons from eighteen years old and upward and that not at their own will and giddy humour but at the Command and by the Authority of Parliament Vid. ordinance enjoyning the taking of the Covenant who in their place and in the behalf of this Nation having judged it a fit and excellent means to acquire the favour of God towards the three Kingdoms did order it to be universally sworne and certainly whosoever will but well weigh the directions given and duly executed in the tendring of the Covenant in all Counties and Parishes by every individual Minister to every individual Congregation and taken by all persons religious military or civil enforced with arguments which might convince conscience in the ingenuous or constraine the act from the peevish or perverse and accompained with the greatest extention concomitant imaginable he cannot but see a much more then the fourth part of the Nation did swear the Covenant If the several Rolls within the several Parishes and Precincts of this Kingdom in which the several Names of such as did swear the Solemn League and Covenant were engrossed may be produced It will be found notwithstanding the many singulars who may now renounce and say they did not take the Covenant it was sworn by the universality of the Nation And I hope we who have ever been judged a free people tied by no bonds but such as we lay upon our selves may be allowed to bind our selves by an Oath De jure bel ex par 256. and so make it Real and National according to that Rule and Reason of Grotius Si quidem populo liberto actum sit dubium non est quin quod promittitur sui natura reale sit 3. The solemn League and Covenant hath been ratified and rendred National by his most sacred Majesty unto all such who apprehend the constitution of this Nation to be merum imperium an absolute Monarchy wherin the King hath supremam protestatem whose professed loyalty leads them to subject themselves to all manner his Majesties concessions and conclusions and that by a series of multiplied acts as his Majesties agreement with the Scots at Breda where he graciously condescended to his Subjects by Solemn Oath to publish testifie his approbation of the solemn League Covenant and at his first arrival into Scotland was pleased to subject unto the same bond in which his Subjects were engaged and to swear the same solemn League and Covenant And again at his royal Coronation at Scoon in Scotland on the first of January 1651. was Graciously pleased over and above the ordinary and solemn Oath peculiarly belonging to him as King of Scotland in his most publique capacity The History of Charles the second 75 76 77. to swear the solemn League and Covenant and this Oath in behalf of himself and his successors I Charles King of great Brittain France and Ireland do
the Act of taking the Covenant yet they be of no force at all to weaken or dissolve its bond Let me therefore say Sir to these who offer to your and my consideration their doubts and scruples against taking the Covenant and scatter abroad papers of this nature that they manifest their malice and profane enmity against the Covenant by subjecting it to vulgar scorn and laying open their own nakednesse as if it were the nakedness of the Covenant and run away railing against the Covenant as of no force or obligation as void and null on a meer Petitio principii base-begging the question and taking it for granted That what makes the act of swearing sinful makes the Oath void And supposing a weight which is very little in their exceptions to words method form order of the Covenant and the imposing it on the people which might have kept some men from swearing to be sufficient to discharge all that are sworn If they will indeed batter the Covenant they should pierce into the body of it and prove the matter of it unlawful and then will I also shake off the Covenant for ever Till then I answer in the Negative to my own enquiry in Saint Peters bonds abide pag. 13. to make the worst of it a tumultuous Assembly come before us with Sword and Scepter say they are a Parliament and have lawful constant and compleat Authority and therefore will put an Oath and Covenant upon us And silly inconsiderate we are not so well-skill'd in Politicks or acquainted with the Constitutions of our Country to detect their fallacy but think all Authority is within those walls and obedience must be yielded to what is there commanded and so we are beguiled into the Oath nor are we so hardy as to endure their violence but by fear are forced into the Covenant is it therefore void for we have opened our mouthes unto the Lord and cannot go back Sectio Tertia Proposition 3. The matter sworn in the Solemn League and Covenant is just and lawful to be maintained and pursued THat we may discover the lawfulness of the matter of this Covenant we must observe that in respect thereof it is partly Assertory and partly Promissory Assertory in the Preface of it viz. We Noblemen Barons The Assertory part of the Covenant Knights Gentlemen Citizens Burgesses Ministers of the Gospel and Commons of all sorts in the Kingdoms 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 advancement of the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ the honour and happiness of the Kings Majesty and His Posterity and the true publick Liberty Safety and Peace of the Kingdoms wherein every ones private condition is included and calling to mind the treacherous plots conspiracies attempts and practices of the enemies of God against the true religion and professors thereof in all places especially in these three Kingdoms ever since the reformation 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 Kingdom of England and the dangerous estate of the Church and Kingdom of Scotland are present and publick testimonies We have now at last after other means of Supplication Remonstrance Protestation and Sufferings for preservation of our selves and our Religion from utter ruine and destruction according to the commendable practice of these Kingdoms in former times and the example of the people of God in other Nations after mature deliberation resolved and determined to enter into a mutual and Solemn 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 Though this Preface may seem and be said to be no part of the Covenant yet it being a Solemn profession of the grounds and reasons on which the Covenant was made and was declared in the very Act of swearing the Covenant by all that swore it we shall own it as a part thereof The Covenant is further assertory in the Conclusion viz. And because these Kingdoms are guilty of many sins and provocations against God and His Sonne Jesus Christ as 't is manifest by our present distresses and dangers the fruits thereof We professe and declare before God and the world our unfeigned desire to be humbled for our own sin and for the sins of these Kingdoms especially that we have not as we ought valued the inestimable benefit of the Gospel that we have not laboured for the purity and power thereof and that we have not endeavoured to receive Christ in our hearts and to walk worthy of Him in our lives which are the causes of other sinnes and transgressions so much abounding among us And our true and unfeigned purpose desire and endeavour for our selves and all others under our power and charge both in publick and in private in all duties we owe to God and man to amend our lives and each one to go before another in a real Reformation that the Lord may turn away His wrath and heavy indignation and establish these Churches and Kingdoms in truth and peace And this Covenant we make in the presence of Almighty God the searcher of all hearts with a true intention to perform the same as we shall answer at the great day when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed Most humbly beseeching the Lord to strengthen us by His Holy Spirit for this end and to bless our desires and proceedings with such success as may be deliverance and safety to his people and encouragement to other Christian Churches groaning under or in danger of the Yoke of Anti-christian tyranny to joyn in the same or like Association and Covenant to the glory of God and enlargement of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ and the peace and tranquillity of Christian Kingdoms and Common-Wealths The Covenant is promissory in the six Articles thereof Concerning the assertory part of the Covenant it must be noted That although it should have been unlawful because untrue in the grounds or reasons pretendedly inducing to it and so hypocritical and fallacious in the humility zeal and resolution in the Conclusion protested whereby the takers in deceiving others may have deceived their own souls and bound themselves under a certain expectation of the wrath of that God of truth and jealousie who hath been called as a Witness of such wickedness Falshood in the Preface bars not the obligation of the promise Yet this fallacy will not discharge the obligation of the Covenant For an Oath binds according to expression not the takers reserved intention And therefore Grotius telleth us That if a man in his assertory Oath do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 swear falsly this will be no warrant for his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for not
abide a question whether it do not binde But I presume none will be so childish as to say or think the Purity of Religion Honour and Authority of the King Priviledges of Parliament Liberty of the Subject and Vnity of the Kingdom are trifles than which no matters can be more weighty and needful to us as men or Christians Nor is it of any force to say These were secured by Laws and Profession of a lawful and Religious King whilst these did not expel the spirit of jealousie the matter was of that weight as to render an Oath and Covenant necessary Secondly An Oath is unlawful when the matter of it is impossible for ad impossibile Nemo teneatur whether the impossibility be in the nature of the thing or action conversant about it but our Solemne League and Covenant is free from any appearance of impossibility in the nature of the things covenanted I hope the Reformation of Religion and preservation of humane order peace and unity will be owned as possibilities beyond the Learning of an Asse Scruples and Doubts about taking the Covenant p. 7. 8. Very little ground is there for that Scruple which is urged by our Drs. Anonymous friend That Extirpation is the immediate work of God in the heart as if it were no way a humane Act within mens power in reference to the exercise and profession a principle or practice in the Kingdom Nor is there any impossibility chargeable on the Act which is all along limited unto an endeavour according to our several places and callings which might methinks have satisfied the same Questionists that though Banishment or Death be extirpating Acts yet they might be out of his place and calling and other Acts did to him particularly belong Let it here be noted that though the Law were as some suppose against something sworn in this Covenant yet this puts not a moral impossibility upon the same for that a National Oath is the most full and authentick Repeal and discharge of former Laws or the thing sworn may be effected by a meek and humble endeavour in our places and callings to have that Law voided and repealed And as to what impossibility did seem to lie upon the extirpation of some things in this Covenant sworn to be extirpated by reason of the Coronation Oath of His late conscientious Majesty it was greater in appearance than in reality For the Oath of a Prince may be vacated by the impossibility put on it by the contrary Oath of the people though tumultuously sworn as it was in the rescue of Jonathan from King Sauls Oath 1 Sam. 14.46 I justifie not nay I pray God prevent the insurrection of the natural against the political power but I cannot but take notice that God sometimes suffers it and produceth his own will by it as in this case and in the casting off Samuel and changing the government and amongst us Horresco referens in suffering the madness of the people to prevaile against His late Majesty not only to the contradiction of His Oath but cutting off His Royal person and so clearing the impossibility that did appear between this Covenant and his Coronation Oath and in bringing His Majesty that now is under the same Sacred Bonds to endeavour in His Royal place and calling to effect the same things And in this case it is to be remembred that the impossibility being removed the Oaih becomes obliging and the act sworne a duty Let such as pretend an impossibility on any part of the Covenant because of the prevalency of men affection of the people countenance of Authority and the like learn to distinguish between the effect and endeavour there may be an impossibility of effect and yet impossibility of endeavour and D. Saunderson concludes that the thing once sworne the covenanter must endeavour to make the affect possible Indeed we have in the Covenant sworne with very much Caution not to effect but in our places and balling to endeavour but this must not be by a wish for purity and then welcome corruption a consent to Reformation and then compliance in Superstition a faint refusal and then free reception of the estate to be extirpated No it must be a stout and strenuous endeavour with all force and fervor as Dr. Saunderson in this case well noteth Obligat hoc genus Juramenti non ad effectum quem supponimus esse impossibilem Saunderson de Juram praelect 3. Sect. 4. p. 64. sed ad conatam quamdiu superat spes ulla Imo quo plures majores objiciuntur difficultates eo obnixius conondum for tioribus animis obnitendam I wish Sir that our soft Covenanters Speedy compliants and Temporizing Turn-Coats would seriously study this lesson Thirdly An Oath is in respect of the matter unlawful when it is impious and expresly against Gods Word and Command being so in it self and nature of the thing and then the Rule must be admitted Pacta quae turpem causam continent non sunt observanda And Oath must be the Bond of iniquity Here Sir be pleased to observe that though I could not consant to the Drs. opposition of Truth Justice Reason Religion and duty to God or man as Iron Adamantine bonds unto the weak Wit hs Cords of an Oath which is directly contrary to the nature thereof yet I acknowledge in them such power as no Oath can bind against If he or any will assume and make good the assumption That the matter of the Covenant is of its self and own nature contrary to Truth Justice Reason Religion or duty to God and man I will admit the sequel and conclude it doth not oblige But I have yet found none that have herein charged it some indeed oppose to some part of the Covenant an Apostolical tradition but no divine institution or direction to any part thereof The unlawfulnesse which I find charg'd on the matter of the Covenant is usually accidental in some circumstances conversant about the Act more than the matter sw rne and hath been produced as a just barre to the taking of the Covenant but is in vain now produced to break its bonds laid upon us as I have before noted I easily grant that the Oath which is not sworne in truth in Justice and in judgment is very prophanely sworn yet affirm it may be strongly binding and so hereupon I might discharge this Section as running into the former but because simple men seem startled by that unlawfulness of matter in the Covenant which is suggested in the Oxford Reasons for their non-confederacy with the rest of the Nation and do commonly produce them as the present only plea to discharge the Oath of God I shall make bold to weigh the same and see what more strength is in their Scruples as to the matter promised than was in reference to the matter asserted and whether an intelligent Casuist would not have easily resolved their doubts and enlarged their consciences
the Preachers defended even in the University from censure for them nay these were Printed in several Books of the same Authors licensed and allowed by the Archbishop and his Chaplains and many of them asserted in the visitation Articles of some Bishops and yet were not established in the Church of England As in Doctrine so in worship many corruptions were innovated and exercised As Bowing at the Name of Jesus The turning Communion-Tables into Altars or Altarwise and Railing them in furnishing them with Candlesticks and Tapers Tying the Gospel the blessing and other parts of the publick service to that place enclosed and bowing to these Altars The making Crucifixes and Canopies pictures of God Christ the Holy Ghost Virgin Mary and other Saints in our Church-windows Consecration of Churches Fonts Bells and the like All which and many such were first innovated to the Chappel at Lambeth and ferried over to White-hall and so transmitted to all Cathedral and almost all Parish Churches and yet were not established by Law though enforced by the corruption of Discipline in the Visitation Articles of Bishop Wren Bishop Mountague Bishop Peircy Bishop Lindsey and Bishop Skinner and others in their several Diocesses and by the silencing suspension excommunication and imprisonment and High Commission vexation of Mr. Chauncey Vicar and Mr. Parker an Inhabitant of Ware Mr. Burros of Colchester and many others Nor was Government any more pure if we consider how it was exercised in the High Commission and Star-Chamber with all rigor cruelty and injustice and in Visitations Citations Probate of VVills Letters of Administration and Excommunication in the name and under the Seal of the Bishops themselves never authorized thereunto All which were evidently needful to be reformed as having been so publickly exercised and potently defended and might well enforce a covenanted endeavor to reform Religion in the Kingdom of England I well know Sir that the change of Religion makes a great sound in the world especially if established I cannot be insensible of the noise made by it against our first Reformation and must expect the Eccho to follow all after acts and degrees thereof for all changes are scandalous and many very dangerous If therefore these Masters and Scholars of Oxford could rationally conceive the Covenant to bind them to endeavor a change of Religion in the substance matter and essential parts and form thereof then I must confess their exception is very important for we cannot deny that our Bishops Martyrs and Learned Divines have by Suffering and Writing testified it to have been agreeable to the Word of God And that to resolve that into the power and pleasure of a Parliament who may direct and authorize the profession but not prescribe the matter or form were to make it a Parliamentary Religion and the change thereof must needs condemn our Laws and the punishment of Papists not joyning with us as unjust and so justifie Papist and Separatist the one in his recusancy and the other in his separation But Sir when I consider the Religion of Scotland to be preserved as the concomitant and provocation the VVord of God to be the Rule and the best reformed Churches professing the same substantial Religion though differing in administration and order propounded as the pattern I see not how right reason can render any such sence of it and the rather for that Reformation not alteration of Religion is the formal act which presupposeth the continuation of the subject about which it is conversant But Sir if they as they needs must by Religion understand the order and annexed Ceremonies appendant to Religion whether established as was the Cross in Baptism holinesse of dayes and order of the Liturgy and the like or only exercised and enforced by Prelates power and countenance as the corruptions before mentioned then we must say their exception is of no weight not the reason any thing worth for this change can be no such scandal as is conceived for we deny them to have been testified by our Bishops Martyrs and learned men by any Sufferings or Writings untill of late by the persons and such like before mentioned as agreeable to the Word of God and must put them to the proof of it we think we are able to produce Tindal Latimer Hooper Ridley Farrar and many other Martyrs by laying down their Bishopricks and other contests and sufferings to have testified against them and Mr. Cartwright Baines and many Devonshire Cornwal and Lincolnshire Ministers and others ever since the Reformation by Writing Petition Remonstrance Apology and Sufferings to have testified against not only the corruptions exercised against which our Jewel Fulk Whitaker Archbishop Parker Dr. Ward Dr. Brownrigge Dr. Bancroft and all sound and learned Divines not devoted to return to Rome have written but even the very Order and Ceremonies established as being not agreeable to the Word of God And if these learned Gentlemen had pleased to observe the Visitation and high Commission proceedings they might have found Prynn Burton Bastwick Layton Workman Langley Hind Nichols Ball and many others known learned men who were silenced suspended imprisoned stigmatized and in much Sufferings testified these appendants to our Religion whether established or exercised to be no way agreeable to the Word of God and I know not whom they can ment on as a Martyr for them unless it be Lawde the late Archbishop the grand Innovator of our Church 2. If therefore our Religion be by Papists or Prelates reproached as a Parliamentary Religion we will rejoyce in our reproach and bless God we had a Parliament that had zeal to improve their power about those things that were properly subject thereunto 3. Nor can this Reformation justifie the recusancy of the Papists because these things never became a Reason for their recusancy further than they occasioned their obduracy by assuring their hopes of Englands return to them Nor the Separation of the Separatists for that the corruptions established were never made such essential parts of worship as to make a sufficient ground for separation Witness Cartwrights defence of the Church service The Masters and Scholars of Oxford cannot have been so little observant as not to know that the sober zealous Non-conformists who groaned under the burden of these corruptions and for this Reformation were grieved by and greatly contended against the * Mr. Geree his Vindiciae ecclesiae Anglicanae shewing necessity of reformation not Separation And Mr. Balls two Books against Mr. Cann Separation as that which was without sufficient ground yet like Jesus Christ their Master kept Communion with a Church whose Doctrine and Worship was very much in need of Reformation and taught men so to do granting There was something in the Doctrine and Worship of the Church of England not agreeable to the Word of God and yet not enough to lay a ground for separation 4. Much less doth this endeavor judge the Law against and punishment of Papists as unjust which
Oxford Reasons Exceptions to the 3d. Article of the Covenant Sectio quinta p. 12 13 14. only they stumble at those words relating to the defence and preservation of the Kings Majesty Person and Authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and liberties of the Kingdom which they conceive to be a limitation of our absolute duty by a condition not allowable Though some endeavour to justifie these words as a condition put upon our duty by the power of Parliament who may limit the Prerogative of the King as well as extend it and think it will abide a Dispute I am not of their opinion for I do profess my self convinced that our allegiance and so the preservation of the Kings Person and Authority is an absolute duty founded in the Relation without Regard to the Quality Piety or Impiety of the Person who is bound also to His duty but not on the condition of the Subj cts duty both King and People owe a Reciprocal duty each to other and are bound to God to perform it but the duty of the one is no limiting condition to the other and therefore in all those contests for the Covenant in behalf of the King which not only I but other Ministers have undergone in the opposition of the late sinful Engagement Vid. The Exercitation concerning usurped powers Vindication of the Oath of Allegiance by the same Authour Lancashire and Cheshire Plea for non-subscribers to the late Engagement These words have been understood to be a predication of the capacity in which the Kingdom Parliament and People then were under the opposition of Malignants who divided the King from the People and so the meaning of it is thus We being in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and liberties of the Kingdoms shall endeavour to preserve the Kings Majesties Person and Authority I wish therefore that it may be observed That the words fall into a plain parenthesis and the sentence is entire without them and they are fixed at the end of the Obligation which relates unto the Rights and Priviledges of Parliament and liberties of the Subject as well as the preservation of the King and yet these cannot be limited and this sense is not only consonant to principles of right Reason and true Religion but also the Declaration of the Parliament in their then proceedings and the scope of this Covenant and this very Article which closeth with a most Solemn Appeal to the World to bear witness of our loyalty and that we have no thoughts to diminish His Majesties just power and greatnesse and I hope these serious Casuists will grant that where the words of an Oath seemingly doubtful may they must be understood in a good and just sense and then their exceptions to such a limitation in the Covenant do vanish with the Hypothesis on which they are built and inferred Unto the fourth Article of the Covenant these Masters and Scholars of Oxford do suggest something in Politicks which soundeth as strangely in my ears as their past Divinity indeed they determine it not but only desire it may be considered 1. Whether this Article lay not a necessity on the son to accuse his father and pursue him to destruction in case he should be an Incendiary Malignant or evil Instrument as is in this Article described which they conceive to be contrary to Religion Nature and Humanity 2. Whether the swearing this Article do not open a ready way to children and husbands that are sick of their fathers and w ves by appeaching them of Malignancy the letter to effectuate their unlawful intentions and designes To these I should have only desired it may be considered 1. Whether all penal Statutes in point of Treason and Felony open not as ready a way for children and husbands to be rid of their fathers and wives and the danger of concealment be not a very fair Apology for the same are they therefore contrary to Religion Nature and Humanity Have they never heard of such wickednesse know they not that there is an impossibility of fence against malicious accusations mischievously managed Must therefore these Statutes be voided as wicked and the like be prevented for time to come 2. Did not these learned men take the Oath of Allegiance and therein sware That they will to the best of their endeavour disclose and make known unto His Majesty His Heirs and Successors all Treasons and Trayterous Conspiracies which they should know or hear of to be against Him or any of Them May natural affection interdict this duty or are natural Relations exempt from this discovery may not mischievous men find open a ready way to appeal such as stand between them and their desires or did these Gentlemens learning and loyalty lead them to conclude the Oath of Allegiance is against Religion Nature and Humanity 3. May one time make contrary to Religion Nature and Humanity that kind of promise which at another time may be consistent therewithall These Gentlemen pleaded the protestation of the 5th of May 1641. as a bar to the swearing this Covenant and tell us often they sware that and therein they sware in this Form of words To my power and as far as lawfully I may I will oppose and by all good meanes endeavour to bring to condigne punishment all such as shall either by force practice counsels or conspiracies or otherwise do any thing to the contrary of any thing in this present protestation contained will they please to tell us whether these words be not as directly contrary to the fourth as the fore-going promise of this protestation was unto the first Article of this Covenant or doth not this Protestation lay as great necessity and give as fair an occasion for the son to accuse the Father and persue him to destruction and so appear as much against Religion Nature and Humanity as doth the Solemn League and Covenant 4. I should have prayed the judgment of these learned men on that Law prescribed by Moses to Israel in Deut. 13.6 7. 8 9 10. If thy brother the son of thy Mother or thy son or thy daughter or the wife of thy bosome or thy friend which is as thine own soul entice thee secretly saying Let us go and serve other gods c. thou shalt not consent unto him nor hearken unto him neither shall thine eye pity him neither shalt thou spare neither shalt thou conceal him but thou shalt surely kill him thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death and afterwards the hand of all the people c. and all Israel shall hear and fear and shall do no mere so wickedly did not this Law bind to the same act give the same occasion lay the same necessity which is laid by this Article of the Covenant And was it contrary to Religion Nature and Humanity Did these Gentlemen think we expect to be preferred by this notion of Policy or if they suggested this exception
he thus breaths against the Covenant Not to take advantage of the preposterous order in setting down the parts of this Covenant wherein he that runneth may read a double Solecism for in it the Church of Scotland precedeth the Church of England and the Liberty of the Subject is set before the Royal Prerogative and Imperial Dignity of the Prince Sir admit we this Is it not an high crime and bespeaks it not a sober serious spirit in Dr. Featly a Member of the Assembly of Divines who by a motion might have had this order inverted as easily as he obtained to have Prelacy specified in the second Article of the Covenant after it was past to pick a quarrel in the order of the words although we deny not That such a sacred and venerable evidence of fidelity is the Covenant that matter manner phrase and order ought to have as I presume they were been maturely advised yea I wish line and period word and syllable which might be the Printers Errata had been so scanned that a captious Momus might not find a Colon or Comma at which he might boggle and please his humour yet it is but a poor advantage from the punctilio's of order and honour to argue against matters of moment duties and exercises of Religion and by misplaced words to make an Oath or Solemn League illegal I but do I not run too fast he tells us he will not take the advantage an honest man is indeed as good as his word but I cannot trust him for his ninth Argument This Covenant is derogatory to the Honour of the Church and Kingdom of England Page 28. is thus proved The Church of Scotland is set before the Church of England I like not that mans grace that with the same breath will remit and retort an indiscretion yet Sir I cannot but enquire whether the preferring of the pompous gay-cloath'd Church of England before the poor Church of Scotland look not like a species of that impious partiality condemned by the Apostle James Chap. 2.1 2 3 4 5. Can we think this Dr. had the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ in respect of persons or was acted by such a spirit of contradiction No this language was spoken after he was dead 2. But these Solecisms are not to me so obvious I stand still and cannot read them though I read the Covenant with all observation and regard yet I confess I find the Church of Scotland set before the Church of England and the liberty of the Subject before the Prerogative of the King but they are propounded with Relation to different Acts the Reformed Religion of Scotland to be preserved of England to be Reformed I hope it is no Solecisme to put the factum before the fieri and to swear the preservation of good acquired before an endeavour to obtain the same or better or to prefix the pattern to what is to be thereunto confirmed when this Authors second thoughts had observed this salvo to his suggested * Page 29. Solecisme he grudges that Scotland should be propounded as a pattern of Reformation to England for which he had little Reason if venerable Beda speak true in that he reports That * Mira divinae factum constat dispensatione pietatis quod gens illa quae noverat scientiam divinae cognitionis libenter sine invidia populo Anglorum communicare curavit Bed Eccl. His Gen. Ang. l. 5. c. 23. that Nation did at first communicate the Science of Divine knowledge without grudge or envy unto the people of England I hope it is no Solecisme to propound them as a pattern of Reformation who have first obtained it and from whom Christianity it self was at first to us transmitted The second supposed Solecisme is no more visible than this first for if the liberty of the people be the end and excellency of the Prerogative of the King as all wise Statists and Politicians do affirm he sure will admit to be the first in intention and endeavour although the last in execution and enjoyment and the rather for that it is so directed and dictated by the Maxime of His late glorious Majesty declared at the passing of the Petition of Right The peoples liberty strengthens the Kings Prerogative and the Kings Prerogative is to defend the peoplâ—â— liberty I am sure more serious and publick Statesmen than he or I shall ever make have judged it a Solecisme in Parliaments to support the Kings Prerogative by supply of moneys before the oppressions and burdens of the people have been relieved and their liberties secured and I believe I could prove that this is not the first Covenant made in England preferring the Peoples liberty before the Kings Prerogative without which the King may Tyrannize over slaves not Rule over free-ment which last is and will be His greatest honour The second thing in respect of which the Covenant is blemished and reproached as to the manner of making it 2. The nature and name of the Covenant vindicated Oxford Reasons Sect. 2. pag. 3. relates unto the nature thereof and the name is the noration of its nature and it is called a Solemn League and Covenant against which the Masters and Scholars of Oxford do except stumbling at the name Covenant they were learned men and must a little stand on the propriety of words they therefore except against this denomination because imposed with a penalty which imposition say they is repugnant to the nature of a Covenant which being a contract implieth a voluntary mutual consent of the contracters whereunto men are to be induced by perswasion not compelled by power pactum est duorum pluriumve in idem placitum consensus To this Sir I grant that a Covenant in the strict acceptation of it must be an agreement by mutual consent yet I must enquire of these learned men whether the Magisterial imposing of absolute duty or actions otherwise indifferent by Superiours upon their Inferiours and that under a penalty may not be called a Covenant What think they of that injunction to Mankind in Adam Of the Tree of good and evil thou stalt not eat for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death we read not of any stipulation in Adam And Divines tell us it was neither necessary nor proper he being bound to accept the conditions his Creatour would put upon him I am sure this is generally judged a Covenant and that we commonly call the Covenant of Works Again In the Primitive Times of the Church adult persons did answer certain queftions propounded as bredis credo abrenuncias abrenuncio 1 Pet. 3.21 Beza in Loc. to which the Apostle Peter is though to refer his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Beza renders Stipulatio bâ—nae conscientiae apud Deum and from this order Tertullian concludes Anima non lavatione sed responsione sancitur Do these learned men as the Anabaptists think the Covenant of Grace is not passed between God and
very manner of making this Covenant is no less justifiable than the matter therein sworn and being seriously considered will not avail to reproach much less to discharge the Solemn League and Covenant Sectio Quinta Fifth Prop. The Ambiguities and Contradictions in the words of the Solemn League and Covenant are imagined not real SO Sacred is the nature of an Oath and so strict the obligation thereof that I freely confess simplicity of expression and sincerity of intention should continually attend it and ambiguous or contradictory terms do destroy the very nature thereof deceive men and blaspheme God in making him the Witness of a fallacy yet these ambiguities and contradictions must be real and in the very words of the Covenant not in the fancy or imagination of such as in prejudice do decline the Oath nor in the intention of him that sweareth not willing to be bound for if the words be clear and plain in their proper signification or vulgar acceptation the apprehension of the confederates or the due drift and scope of the Oath the Oath obligeth De juram prael 6. Sect. 22.11 p. 173 195. and must be carefully observed as Dr Sanderson Grotius and many others in this case do teach Some there are who charge the Solemn League and Covenant with ambiguities and contradiction in its terms and therefore have declined to swear it these having had a care to their passion and prejudice I cannot but commend confessing that whilst they but seem such to their imagination they might well be a remora to their act of swearing and spur unto the study of the Oath to be sworne but others plead them as an Argument to make void the Oath and such had need to see that there is no possibility of understanding the terms in a sound sence and making them to agree among themselves lest they be found Students unto perjury Forasmuch as the last have recourse unto the first let us consider what seemed to the one and are since alledged by the other to be ambiguous and contradictory that the one may be justified and the other acquitted if found real or both condemned if found imagined 1. Ambiguity Oxford Reasons Sect. 6 p. 17. League Illegal p. 27. The ambiguities that are urged are these 1. Those words in the first Article of the Covenant the common enemies the Masters and Scholars of Oxford do charge with ambiguity but assign no cause or reason for the same and Dr. Featley his ghost following their exception enquireth whether by common enemies are meant the world the flesh or the devil enemies to all true Religion or Papists and Independents enemies to the Discipline of the Scotch Church Unto this exception Sir I answer The words common enemies are words in their own nature and signification plain and cleer to be understood nor do I know them to be darkned by any variety of acceptation they are indeed relative terms to be specified or particularly assigned by their objects things or persons so that the Kingdom of England or professors of true Religion being annexed to common enemies as objects of that enmity doth make its sence plain and obvious to every capacity If then common enemies had been mentioned in the Covenant without an object assigned it might have been an individuum vagum and so ambiguous as not to be understood But they are not left so general for they are limited with this possessive our The words run thus The preservation of the Reformed Religion of the Church of Scotland in doctrine worship discipline and government against OVR COMMON enemies This Relative OVR doth limit and explâ—in COMMON ENEMIES and if they will consider the antecedent which can be no other than the Noblemen Barons Knights Gentlemen Citizens Burgesses and Commons of all sorts c. living under one King being of one reformed religion having before our eyes c. and men described by these and the like qualities and in special by one that is fully exegetical to these terms in the Preface of the Covenant and discharge all imaginable ambiguity in them viz. Calling to mind the treacherous and bloody plots and conspiracies attempts and practices of the enemies of God against the true religion and professors thereof in all places but especially in these three Kingdoms ever since the reformation they will find that an ordinary Grammarian would easily read this Riddle and tell them common enemies limited by this possessive OUR must mean the enemies of England Scotland and Ireland as living under one King in the profession of one reformed Religion wherein some had made a progress to be preserved others were in pursuit of a greater degree of reformation but all opposed by the plots conspiracies c. of known enemies to true religion especially the professors thereof in these three Kingdoms Now whilst this enmity was not seen by the Masters and Scholars of Oxford it is no wonder if they imagined an ambiguity in these words Common Enemies and Dr. Featley his Ghost might hereby have assured himself that both the flesh the world and the devil are enemies to all true religion and so to reformation and Papists professed enemies to the reformed Religion were here intended and Independents though scarcely then known by that name by their enmity to the discipline and government of Scotland parts of the true reformed Religion might be accidentally accounted into the number of the Common enemies so far as the qualifications before mentioned in reference to the antecedent objects of this common enmity will include them And so Sir the words can be of no very dark or doubtful construction to the one or to the other there being no real ambiguity in them 2. The next words charged with Ambiguity The second Ambiguity charged on the Covenant are in the same Article the best Reformed Churches concerning which the Masters and Scholars of Oxford enquire which they be but by their leave that is not necessary to be resolved in or before the taking of the Covenant yet the words are of a plain and clear construction making this sence obvious to the meanest capacity in endeavouring the Reformation of the Church of England the Word of God shall be our Rule and forasmuch as many Churches are reformed some more and better some worse and less the best Reformed Churches shall be our pattern so that the Covenant asserts not which are the best reformed Churches but binds the Covenanter to the observation of whatever Church shall appear and be found the best Reformed as the example to which he shall endeavour England may be conformed The next words imagined to be so ambiguous as to impede the swearing the Covenant in judgement are in the second Article The third Ambiguity charged on the Covenant League Illegal p. 27. and profoundly stated by Dr. Featley's Ghost who enquires what is meant by Church-Government by Arch-bishops Bishops Deans c. as if it were not so particularly specified that every ordinary
his train but will melt his feathers soon after the Fabrick must needs come tumbling down whose foundation is laid in perjury Surely Sir such as affectionately believe this doctrine cannot but passionately apply it to cry aloud and not spare Remember the Covenant I grow Sir not a little suspicious that the last stratagem of the Propogators of the Catholick Cause is by their Jesuitical Sophistry to strike England into the guilt of perjury and then to blaspheme our Religion and deride our Nation as did Agesilaus the Grecian Captain in his answer to Tissaphernes the Persian breaking the League he had made with him I give you no small thanks for that by your perjury you have made the gods angry with the Persians and favourable to the Grecians Sectio Secunda Second Propos The irregularities in the first making the Covenant will not discharge its obligation now it is made and sworn VVHilst we consent unto the common conclusion of the Canonists That Juramentum non est vinculum iniquitatis An Oath must not be the bond of iniquity and commend to all men their counsel as indeed a duty In malis promissis rescinde fidem In promises of evil make no conscience to keep nay make confcience to break your faith Yet we must consider and warily distinguish between the rem juratam and actum jurandi the act of swearing and the matter sworn For in respect of the last of these the Rule is to be understood and the obligation to performance doth thereon depend Such is the reverence of an Oath to all men Heathen or Christian that rashness and irregularities in obtaining and actually passing the Oath would never be admitted as sufficient to discharge its force The Rule of the School-men received by all Casuists and Civilians must here be observed Tho. Aquin par 22 ae quaest 89. Art 9. Juramentum promissorium non potest dispensari secundum se sed tantum ratione materiae indebitae A promissory Oath cannot be discharged by any reason but the unlawful matter of it And hereupon it is agreed on by all Divines That the ground on which an Oath shall lose its force must be intrinsecal of the body substance and matter of the Oath not extrinsecal and accessory to the Oath It must be the sinfulness of the thing and matter sworn not the circumstances conversant about the act of swearing which may be sinful and must be shunned Scnderson de Juramento but avail not to discharge the Oath when taken Well doth the Oxford Professor distinguish and tell us They are two several questions to be distinctly resolved according to the condition into which a man is cast The one is an hoc vel illudi juramentum sit licitum whether the Oath be lawful And the other an Juramentum hoc vel illud obligat whether the Oath do bind For that Oath may be unlawfully sworn which must everlastingly bind when sworn That sin is to be avoided in entring into a Covenant or Oath which may be repented of without retraction of the Oath when sworn The Name of God too many times is though it ought not to be taken in vain by rash swearing yet must not be blasphemed by forswearing An Oath is an obligation so sacred and permanent that many conditions are required unto a regular acting of it At first it should be the act of a deliberate not distempered mind not the effect of a distressed condition clearly propounded and rationally received not obtained by fraud nor imposed by force But where in any or all these and the l ke there is a defect and disorder or miscarriage that men with Jeptha rashly swear such a general Oath as may rob them of the dearest of their delights when it comes to performance Or with Zedekiah be besieged by Warres without and Tumults within to covenant and confirm by Oath conditions dishonorable and burdensome Or with Joshua and the Princes of Israel to the Gibeonites swear beyond their intention and almost the import of their expressions there being an apparent fallacy in the foundation and procuring cause of the contract yet in these and many the like cases the rule is most certainly to be admitted Quod fieri non debuit factum valet these things ought not to have been done but being done do bind the conscience I wonder how men can press this Rule in case of Baptism by Women or Children and Lay-persons in whom I humbly conceive it cannot hold and not regard it in an Oath whose nature is such as administreth a Reason for this Rule and makes it necessary Many instances in story might be given to amplifie this position but lest I should seem to leave the Road without Reason I shall onely offer the example of the Covenant with the Gibeonites for the clearness of its demonstration commonly produced by all Casuists in this very case Grotius out of Ambrose noting the surreptitious fraudulent obtainment thereof Gnotius de Jure belli pacis lib. 2. cap. 13. p. 220. doth note Decepti erant à Gabaonitis à regione longinqua se venire fingentibus Josua tamen pacem quam dederat revocandam non cenfuit quia formata erat sacramenti Religione ne dum alienam perfidiam arguit suamfide n solveret The Translation of which I shall offer by a reverend Bishop most acceptable to our Anti-covenanters who chargeth this deceit to have been the just effect of their sinful neglect to consult the Oracles of God and saith Josh Hall Bishop of Norwich Halls Contemp. p 918. The facility of Israel led them into a League and Oath for the safety of the Gibeonites and now within three days their neighbourhood and dece t. Joshua might have taken advantage of their own words to dissolve this League and have said Ye are come from a far Country these Cities are near these are not therefore the people to whom we engaged by our promise or oath and Israel had put in a direct Caveat of their vicinity so that it might seem questionable whether Joshua needed to hold himself bound to this Oath yet dare not Joshua and the Princes trust to shifts for the eluding of this Oath but must faithfully perform what they had rashly promised Joshua's heart was clear from any intention of a League with a Canaanite he gave his Oath to these disguised strangers yet he durst neither Repeal it himself neither do I hear him sue to Eleazer the High Priest to dispence with it but taketh himself tied to the strict words of his Oath not to his own purpose his tongue had bound his heart and hands so as neither might stir lest whilst he was curious of fulfilling the Will of God he should violate the Oath of God But Sir how dissonant to these dictates of this Reverend Father are those sons of the Church who strive for a Bishoprick by sinful casting off the Covenant on a protended inadvertency in swearing it at first and
performing what he promised and concludes Siquis volens jurare obligare se noluerit non eo minus obligatur None but Jesuites will say that a man swearing Grotius de jure belli pacis l. 2. p. 218. and in the act purposing not to bind his soul and thereof make a secret appeal to God is free and not bound by his Oath For this is expresly against the nature of an Oath whose obligation is inseparable from its Act. Saunders de Iuramento lec 5. p. 160. And therefore the same Author saith Siquis deliberato protulerit verba jurantia animo tamen non jurandi obligatur And this is no other than Oxford Divinity Siquis ex aliqua dolosa intentione velit putari jurasse habebit apud ipsum omnem obligandi effectum a man is bound by the action of swearing even beyond and contrary to his own intention And this is evident in Joshua and his Oath with the Gibeonites obtained by fraud and founded in falshood against which they had entred an express Caveat it being far from his intention to make a League with a Canaanite yet he and all Israel were bound by it as in the former Proposition it hath been cleared But why do I stand to establish the obligation of the promissory part of the Covenant against the falshood of the assertory part of it whilst no such falshood appears As for the Conclusive protest it lieth out of human cognizance and is onely obvious to the Searcher of hearts And to me he must be strangely blinded by passion or prejudice that seeth and subscribeth not to every part of the Preface as true yet some there are who though they could not speak out are willing to suggest a lie chargeable on the same and therefore the Covenant must be in this point vindicated against their exceptions pretended doubts and scruples urged against the taking of the Covenant Give me leave a little to weigh them The first I shall take notice of The Assertory part of the Covenant vindicated is the Anonymus Doubts and Scruples recommended to the world by Dr. Gauden and offered Sir to your and my consideration and his Quarrel I should say Scruple is against the Title of the Covenant which is certainly no part of it which he thus frameth I have not met with any Declaration to assure us Exception of Doubts and Scruples that Commissioners of each Kingdom respectively and especially of Ireland have been chosen and assembled together had power or did agree upon this League and Covenant without which or some such equivalent proceedings we cannot possibly know that it was the joynt consent resolution and desires of the three Kingdoms to enter into such a League c. Answer Whoever Sir were the Author of these Scruples he sure was of a very tender conscience that must be satisfied in the very Title and Denomination of the Covenant and cannot do his own duty or a just act enjoyned him by the Superiors of the Kingdom of which he is a member and subject untill he be assured that all to whom it may extend do desire and consent thereunto 2. There might be such a declaration though he met not with it Must private persons suspend required duties untill they meet with Declarations of the regular agitation of State affairs Must all the arcana imperii which relate to other Kingdoms be opened before the Subject give his faith to keep the conditions concluded by their Governors 3. Did he meet with any Declaration which told him Ireland was in a general Rebellion against the Crown of England to which it had been subjugated and was wholly dependent on the English interest for its rescue and reduction And must England stay its Covenant till Irelands Rebells send Commissioners and consent Or may they not without their consent covenant for the good of their vassal Kingdom which they must again recover by force 4. But the Title of the Covenant gives no ground for this Doubt for though it be entituled A Covenant for the peace and safety of the three Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland yet is it not entituled A Solemn League and Covenant of the three Kingdoms And I hope they may be the Objects who are not Authors or Abettors of an Oath And if they be offended for our intention and endeavours of good to them let them bear it Charity will not always stay for the consent or desire of its object His next scruple is like unto this occasioned by those words Second exception out of Doubts and Scruples Of one Religion which he doubts the Irish Papists open Rebels against whom it was made and Popish party in England and Independents may not be of one Religion yet by the seventh Instruction it is to be proffered to all inhabitants Answer But Sir it doth not appear that it is to be proffered to the Irish Papists 2. Because proffered is it therefore taken The words are professed by them that take the Covenant may it not be a test and note of discrimination for discovery of the Popish party which lay lurking among us and none as Papists or indeed as Independents could take the Covenant 3. May not the majority denominate the whole The Protestant Religion is the onely one Religion owned and professed in these Nations nor doth he deny the Independents to be professors of it Sir must not Dr. Gauden commend his discretion in commending to the world such perplexing Scruples as have not a Scruple of Reason in them and shall not I appear as wise to spend time to consider them if of weight after the Covenant hath been taken but he affirms them as agreeable to the Oxford-Reasons which is a just Chius ad Choum Harp and Harrow yet hereby he puts us on the consideration of them which have passed thus long unanswered partly for the dread of their name no private person being a fit Antagonist or proper Casuist to sesolve the Doubts of an University and partly for that they were presented Apologetically as private grounds of dissatisfaction and for excuse from the Act required not as interdictions or condemnation of other mens Act as themselves profess much less as Arguments for absolution from the bond of the Covenant now it hath bin generally taken by Prince and People to which end they are now re-printed and by every foolish Pamphlet are anew urged and therefore necessitate the consideration of their weight which I confess I in reference to their name was willing to decline but by the worth of truth and weight of the Oath of God upon our Land am though a private obscure and unfit person constrained thereunto Subsectio secunda Their exceptions to the Preface of the Covenant maketh no positive charge yet suggesteth sundry falshoods therein asserted which they witness they could not acknowledge As First 1 Exception by Oxford Reason They were not able to say that the rage power and presumption of the enemies
of God in the sense there intended is at this time encreased To which Sir I should have then answered 1. Answer Their ability to say it is of little moment nor could we well judge it for whether they were under any natural wilfull violent or judicial incapacity is not our part to determine Others were able to say it and if these reverend Fathers and Students did know it though they were not able to say it it was for us sufficient And therefore may I be bold further to enquire 2. Whether they were able to read the whole Sentence expressing the sense Of the enemies of God whose rage power and presumption was at this time encreased here intended and calling to mind the treacherous and bloody plots conspiracies attempts and practices of the enemies of God against the true Religion and Professors thereof in all places especially in these three Kingdoms ever sinte the Reformation of Religion and how much their rage power and presumption are of late and at this time encreased whereof the deplorable estate of the Church and Kingdom of Ireland the distressed estate of the Church and Kingdom of England and the dangerous estate of the Church and Kingdom of Scotland are present and publick testimonies Are not these full expressions of the sense in which the enemies of God whose raâ—â— power and presumption were encreased are to be understood And is it rational or religious to enquire after and suspend a duty on jealousie of a sense intended when we have the sense plainly expressed Is not this repugnant to the end of Speech the Interpreter of the mind 3. Were the Masters Scholars and other Members and Officers of the University of Oxford such strangers in the Protestant Israel as not to know the Papists and Popishly affected were enemies of God against true Religion and the Professors thereof in all places Or so unacquainted at home as not to know their plots conspiracies attempts and practices were especially against these three Kingdoms the most publick and potent professors of true Religion ever since the Reformation Had they no notion of the Rebellions against King Edward the sixth Of the Treasons Plots Conspiracies Roaring Bulls and Raging Spanish Armado against Queen Elizabeth Of the Gunpowder-Treason and other plots against King James Of the Colledge of Propagators of the Catholick cause erected in Rome under the Government of Cardinal Barbarin and designed against these Kingdoms Or of the grand Plot agitated by Con or Cuneus the Popes Nuncio in England discovered by Andreas ab Habernefield first to Sir William Boswel His Majesties Resident in Flanders and by him unto Laud late Archbishop of Canterbury and since fully cleared and laid open by Mr. William Prynn in his Romes Master-piece published in 1643. four years before their reasons and might have been profitable to their eye-sight 4. Did not this learned University judge it to be an high encrease of their Rage Power and Presumption to distribute their Jesuits into such several Orders as should be capable in any place or profession to propagate their plots To press upon the late King and Archbishop for a publick profession of union with Rome To boast openly of Englands returning to Popery To tender a Cardinals Hat to the late Archbishop To poison our Fountains the Universities and our very people with Arminian and Popish doctrines publickly preached and printed and Popish pictures publickly sold and bound up with our Testaments and Bibles To provoke the High-Commission cruelties and Puritans discontents To plot a plain Popish Service-book with very little variation oâ— from the Mass-book and procure it to be by force and violence imposed on the Church and Kingdom of Scotland to the raising Mutinies and stirring up the Bellum Episcopale with pretence to yoke them and intention to destroy the King and Protestant cause To rebell openly in Ireland and with rage and cruelty to murder and massacre the Protestants To divide between King and Parliament in England and possess themselves of his Majesties Garrisons and Armies as under their command To abet advise and effect the most barbarous murther of his late Majesty and our since confusions All which and many the like to have been the atchievements and accomplishments of these enemies of God to true Religion He that is in any measure observant of our affairs can run and read And are not these expressions of rage power and presumption let right reason judge 2. Oxford Reasons second exception They cannot truly affirm that they had used or given consent to any supplication or remonstrance to the purposes therein expressed To this Sir consider That although they cannot affirm it yet others can do it in truth and with joy 2. What are the purposes therein expressed not as before intended shall we judge it from the Preface It is the glory of God and the advancement of the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ the honor and happiness of the Kings Majesty and His Posterity the publick liberty peace and safety of the Kingdoms wherein every ones private condition is included For the End is the Argument which is urged to enforce the constancy to the Covenant and in Article the sixth it is expressed to be the glory of God good of the Kingdoms and the honour of the King and these are the onely purposes expressed in these particular acts propounded for the production of them and shall we be so uncharitable as to think the Gentlemen of Oxford to have been so void of piety towards God love to their Country or loyalty toward their King as not to have used or given consent to Supplication or Remonstrance to these purposes therein expressed Must we think them so speechless as not to pray to God nor speak to men for the effecting of these purposes expressed No! I will rather presume them modest and not willing to publish their piety and zeal to good purposes or passionately prejudiced against some one expedient propounded to the effecting of these purposes expressed and thereby acted to confound the purpose and pursuing meanes But 3. Had not the University of Oxford Representees in Parliament If they did not sit were they violently excluded Or did they give their No to the Supplications or Remonstrances to the purposes expressed in the Covenant and if they did were not these Supplications and Remonstrances carried by the Majority of Votes And is not the Negative so swallowed therein that all persons and bodies corporate through the Nation did thereunto consent When we finde Oxford excepted we will say they could not truly affirme they gave consent But 3dly Oxford Reasons third exception they did not conceive the entring into such a League and Covenant to be a lawful proper and probable means to preserve our selves and our Religion from ruine and destruction To this Sir we must enquire into the conceipt of these Gentlemen and desire to know whether it relate unto the quality of the Covenant or the act
Containing exceptions to the first Article of the Covenant really and constantly through the Grace of God endeavor in our several 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 the 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 endeavor to bring the Churches of God in the three Kingdoms to the nearest conjunction and uniformity in Religion Confession of Faith Form of Church-Government Directory for Worship and Catechizing That we and our posterity after us may as Brethren live in Faith and Love and the Lord may delight to dwell in the midst of us II. That we shall in like manner without respect of persons endeavor the extirpation of Popery Prelacy that is Church-Government by Archbishops Bishops their Chancellors and Commissaries Deans Deans and Chapters Archdeacons and all other Ecclesiastical Officers depending on that Hierarchy Superstition Heresie Schisme Profaneness and whatsoever shall be found to be contrary to sound Doctrine and the power of Godliness lest we pertake 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 reallity and constancy in our several Vocations endeavor 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 Liberties of the Kingdoms that the world may bear witness with our Consciences of our Loyalty and that we have no thoughts or intentions to diminish His Majesties just power and greatness IV. We shall also with all faithfulness endeavrr the discovery of all such as have been or shall be Incendiaries Malignants or evil Instruments by hindring 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 publick trial and receive condign punishment as the degree of their offences shall require or deserve or the supream Judicatories of both Kingdoms respectively or others having power from them for that effect shall judge convenient V. And whereas the happiness of a blessed Peace between these Kingdoms denied in former times to our progenitors is by the good providence of God granted unto us and hath been lately concluded and setled by both Parliaments we shall each one of us according to our place and interest endeavor that they may remaine conjoyned in a firm Peace and Vnion to all posterity And that Justice may be done upon the wilful opposers thereof in manner expressed in the precedent Articles VI. We shall also according to our places and callings in this common cause of Religion Liberty and Peace of the Kingdom 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 perswasion or terror to be divided and withdrawn from this blessed Vnion and Conjunction whether to make defection to the contrary part or to give our selves to a detestable indifferency or neutrality in this cause which so much concerneth the glory of God the good of the Kingdoms and the honour of the King but shall all the dayes of our lives zealously and constantly continue therein against all lets and impediments whatsoever and what we are not able our selves to suppresse or overcome we shall reveal and make known that it may be timely prevented or removed All which we shall do as in the sight of God When I consider the matter of these several promises to have been propounded by a Parliament on advice had with an Assembly of Grave Learned and Judicions Divines who were to discover sin and make men to discerne between good and evil I cannot but retain a strong conjecture that it is all good and lawful And when I consider His late Majesties dissatisfaction expressed in His Contemplations to be more in respect of the manner than the matter my conjecture is much confirmed And when I observe His most Sacred Majesty at His late Coronation to have by Solemn Oath testified His allowance and approbation of the Solemn League and Covenant and by His Royal Declaration from Dumfirmling to have professed That on mature deliberation and being fully satisfied of the lawfulnesse and equity of the Solemn League and Covenant and every the Articles thereof Himself had sworn it and conjureth all his Subjects to lay aside their opposition to it Loyalty leads my conjecture unto a conclusion For such serious scrutiny by so sage and conscientious persons and that under the afflicting hand of that God who will not be mocked could not but have described the sinfulnesse of the matter if it be found But when I weigh the particulars promised and find them to be the Preservation of Religion and Reformation wherein it is corrupted and removal of what is thereunto obstructive as to the religious part of it and the preservation of the Kings Prerogative and peoples liberty and Nations unity and removal of the enemies thereof as to the civil part of it my conclusion is established and I find it so farre from unlawful that it binds us not to any thing which in the nature of it is not on us a positive duty though not bound by this most Sacred Bond and so farre is this Covenant from a repugnancie to our baptismal Covenant as our Dr. hath suggested in his * Page 12. Analysis that as I have in my * Page 22. Analepsis noted It is no hard matter to resolve it into the three heads of our baptismal promise taught by our Church For if I must believe the Articles of the Creed I must preserve sound Doctrine and reform to my power what is corrupt If I must keep Gods Commandments I must pursue pure worship and Religion towards God and Loyalty Love and unity towards men And if I must renounce the Divel and all his works I must extirpate Popery and Papal Prelacy Superstition Heresie Schisme will all incendiaries and evil instruments hinderers of Reformation And now I shall pray Dr. Gauden will shew us wherein this Covenant is so vastly different from the Covenant made in Baptisme Yet I shall consider once more the matter of the Covenant by those Rules which resolve the matter of an Oath unlawful and if it be therein chargeable I shall consent to the discharge of this Holy Bond. An Oath is in reference to the matter of it determined unlawful when it is unnecessary and about trifles and that is the prophaning of an Oath yet will
Subsectio quarta The Master Scholars and other Officers and Members of the University of Oxford in their Apology for not taking the Covenant urge their Reasons against the same as unlawful not in the matter it self simply considered but by accident in respect of some circumstances attending themselves and discapacitating them unto the Act and they offer their exceptions unto the Articles severally and distinctly Unto the first Article they except against the Preservation of the Reformed Religion of the Church of Scotland in Doctrine Oxford Reasons Sect. 3. pag. 4. and Worship Discipline and Government and then against the Reformation of England in those particulars Unto the first they tell us 1 Except They are not satisfied how they can in judgment swear to endeavour to preserve the Religion of another Kingdom To which I answer in General it is but reason they suspend the Act untill they can swear in judgment though such as have rashly in ignorance prophaned the Oath by swearing it must in sence of its Sacred Obligation inform their judgments that they may performe it and not cast it off but what hindreth their judgment in this required Act They urge four obstructive reasons As First As it did not conc rn them to have very much 1 Reason of this exception so they profess they had very little understanding thereof In which reason it is to be noted 1. They had some understanding of the Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government of the Church of Scotland and that little might so farre enlighten their judgment as lawfully to swear the preservation thereof I presume many Citizens have little and but general notion of the Liberties they swear to preserve yet are judged to swear in judgment 2. I wonder an Vniversity and Protestant Vniversity conversing in all Books and I must imagine meeting with the two Books of the Discipline of the Church of Scotland their Confession of Faith and Form of Worship entertaining Schoolmen and Bishops thence fled by reason of the same and openly oppugning and disputing against the same should profess they had thereof little understanding but it may be they minded not to study these things 3. Some understanding in the Religion of another Kingdom was necessary to them as Christians and Protestants by vertue of the Communion of the Church and some as an Vniversity and Protestant School of Learning where the true Religion of the Reformed Churches was to be defended duobts dissolved and errors oppugned and contradicted and some was necessary to them as Subjects required to swear the preservation thereof for the injunction could not but provoke an enquiry after the matter to be preserved I wonder therefore how these men could profess it did not concern them to have much who if I mistake not ought to know as much as all the Nation besides but from what they know they adde the next Reason viz. In three of the four specified particulars viz. Worship 2 Reason of this exception Discipline and Government it is much worse and in the fourth that of Doctrine not at all better than our own to be reformed I wonder Sir what account of the Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government of the Church of Scotland was by the occurrences of those unhappy times brought unto the knowledge of the University of Oxford I hope they were more wise and just than to take it from Mr. John Maxwel pretended Bishop of Ross a man excommunicated by the Church and censured by the State of that Kingdom a professed Enemy and enraged Delinquent cursing his very Judges whom I find about that time at Oxford writing his Issachars Burden a most railing reproachful discovery of the Discipline of the Church of Scotland and the rather for that the heat of expectation and ostentation of many in reference to that book was cooled by a providential fire which seiz'd on the Printing-House and burned the Copies ready to be published the next day as Mr. Baylie in his Vindication of the Government of that Church which these Gentlmen might have met with doth testifie Yet Sir had these men of reading regarded what more sober and impartial men have said and written they would have had another Character of this Church I may not mind them of the Apology to the Doctors of Oxford in the time of King James preferring the Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government of Scotland before that of England or of their Philadelphian purity Bright man on Apocalyps 3. who did not only keep the Doctrine of Salvation pure and free from corruption but doth also deliver it in writing and exercise in practice that sincere manner of government whereby men are made pertakers of Salvation mentioned by Mr. Brightman our Countreyman they will possibly tell us these were Seperatists to whom Scotland is no friend or Puritans Yet methinks * Magnum hoc Dei munus quod una religionem puram 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doctrinae viz. retinendae vinculum in Scotiam intulistis Sic obsecro obtesto haec duo simul rebinet ut uno amisso alterum diu permanere non posse semper memineritis Beza Epist 79. Beza may call for a little audience and respect from this Learned Assembly and he told us long since This is the great gift of God that you have brought into Scotland together pure Religion and good order which is the bond to hold fast the Doctrine and I heartily pray and beseech you for Gods sake hold fast these two together and alwayes remember that if one be lost the other cannot long remain And no less venerable I presume is the Corpus Confession the Harmony of Confessions of all the reformed Churches and yet therein they have an account of the Church of Scotland which might render it more acceptable and worthy to be preserved For thus it is reported by the Collector who much rejoyced in the providence that brought their Confession into his hand * Est illud ecclesiae Scoticanae privilegium rarum prae multis in quo etiam Nomen apud exteros suit celebre quod circiter aut nos plus minus 54. sine Schismate nedum Haeresi unitatem cum puritate doctrinae prevaverit retinuerit hujus unitatis adminiculum ex Dei misericordia maximum fuit quod paulatim cum doctrina Christi Apostolorum Disciplina sicut ex verbo Dei praescripta est una suit recepta quam proxime fieri potuit secundum eam totum ecclesiae regimen fuit administratum Dâ—t Dominus Deus pro immensa sua bonitate Regiae Majestati omnibusque Ecclesiarum gubernatoribus ut ex Dei verbo illam unitatem Doctrinae puritatem perpetuo conservat Corpus Confess p. 6. It is the rare priviledge of the Church of Scotlaod before many in which respect her name is famous even among strangers that about the space of fifty and four years without Schisme yea or Heresie she hath holden fast unity with
Word of God should say De specie It is the sign of a true that is a pure Church best Reformed because the erecting of the Throne of Christ doth it not tend more to provoke Reformation of Churches truly constituted but not compleated than to stirre up Schism For they do ot nor ever did deny communion with Churches herein defective and under male-administration of Discipline and Government Subsectio quinta We see Sir very little ground to stumble at the preservation of the Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government of the Church of Scotland let us try the strength of their exceptions against the endeavor of the Reformation of these in the Kingdom of England And to this they tell us They are not satisfied how they can swear to endeavour the Reformation of Religion in Doctrine Oxford exceptions to Reformation of England Worship Discipline and Government which without making a change therein cannot be done For this they urge three grounds or reasons which seem to be of weight The first whereof 1 Reason for this exception is Without giving manifest scandal to the Papist and Seperatist By Yielding the cause which our godly Bishops and Martyrs and all our learned Divines ever since the Reformation have both by their Writings and Sufferings maintained who have justified against them both the Religion established in the Church of England to be agreeable to the Word of God 2. Justifying the Papists reproach and scorne We know not where to stay what is our Religion and that it is a Parliamentary Religion 3. A tacite acknowledgement that there is something both in Doctrine and Worship whereunto their conformity hath been required not agreeable to the Word of God and so justifying the recusancy of the one and separation of the other 4. An implyed Confession that the laws and punishments of Papists for not joyning in that form of Worship which our selves as well as they do not approve of were unjust A very fair and specious exception To which Sir I say 1. That it is well Scandal is at length become an Argument of any force Had it been regarded when rightly pleaded by the Nonconformists enemies to separation as well as Popery there might not have been a Solemn League and Covenant to constrain its plea in a case wherein under correction it seems to have lost its force For if Sir we have through ignorance practised or wilfulness persisted in any sinful Superstitious course concerning which we have been admonished by some and declined by others and yet being armed with power did constrain a compliance with us so that a Recession from the same must be our shame and their scandal to whom we would not hearken I hope we must not for fear thereof go on in sin and refuse so much as to endeavour a Reformation If in this case scandal had been of any force how or when had Protestant Religion been effected by such who had burned for Hereticks all that were but suspected of inclining to it Were not the Papists then as much and more scandaâ—ized as now Is Scandal of any more force in the following degrees of Reformation than in the first act thereof Though it is a stop to sin and stay of violence in imposing things indifferent must it be of any strength to barre duty in the endeavors of Reformation I believe Sir professors of Physick and Chirurgery will not consent ill humors to go unpurged or festred incurable members uncut off because some will be scandalized that their advice was not sooner minded and others at the past real and now-seeming cruelty acted by the present change 2. It is to me strange to see Papists and Separatists conjoyned as objects of the same scandal I am sure the reason and ground must be directly contrary Continuance of corruption to the one and Removal thereof to the other the Separatist is offended that there were so many Popish Ceremonies retained and that so long when by him too rigidly resisted The Papist that there were so few and likely to be gone so soon But I presume they are supposed in aliquo tertio convenire to agree in some other capacity The things are now to be Reformed for non-observance of which they were both afflicted and then Sir 3. The Scandal seems to be a meer fancy springing from a fallacy in these words The Religion established in the Church of England which these serious Casuists with reverence may I note it do to me seem sophistically to understand in a sence different from the words of the Covenant which are these The Reformation of Religion in the Kingdom of England in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government It must therefore be observed that Religion as it denoteth the matter sabstantial parts and essential form of divine Worship is different from the Circumstances Ord r and Ceremonies annexed thereunto and only as appendants thereof deemed Religious which are conversant about and separable from Religion liable to alteration as the prudence of men doth direct and none but ignorant Idiots will deem the change of them a charge of Religion for these are different in the Reformed Churches whom yet I hope the Universitie of Oxford will own to be of the same Protestant Religion with the Church of England agreeing in the same faith though not subscribing the same formal individual Articles administring the same worship though not in the same order and with the same Ceremonies Again Sir we must distinguish between what is established and what is exercised in the Kingdom of England Though we do not justifie nay believe a necessity of Reformation in many particulars in the Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government established yet we know in all these particulars many gross and absurd corruptions brought in and continued by a strong hand were exercised in the Kingdom of England and that in reference to all these particulars 1. For Doctrine as that auricular confession and pennance was necessary and profitable for Christian men and in Christs Church That Christians must have Altars and bow to them as towards Gods mercy-seat and the place of Christ his real presence on earth That Jesus Christ and his passion are offered up as a Sacrifice in the Sacrament of the Altar That Crucifixes Images and Pictures of Christ God and Saints may be lawfully and profitably used and set up in Churches That the Pope or Papacy is not Antichrist That there are Canonical houres of prayer which ought to be observed That Churches Altars Chalices and Church-yards ought to be consecrated That men had free-will of themselves to believe and repent That men might totally and finally fall from grace That Sunday is no Sabbath That Bishops have a Superiority of Order and Jurisdiction above other Ministers and that by Divine Right Nor can there be a true Church where there are not such Bishops These and many such like it is well known were publickly preached by Mountague Cozens Pocklington Shelford Dowe Reeves Adams and others and
Throne of Christ as things tending towards Superstition and Schisme and the worst things in the Church of Scotland which called for Reformation rather than Preservation Lastly the Hazard of their estates doth seem indeed to be their great stumbling block in their way to the Covenant All Clerks are by the Lawes yet in force required to give their assent unto what by this Covenant is required to be reformed and that on pain of losing their Benefice Which Sir we shall admit though it would admit a dispute in reference to many if not all the particulars mentioned yet how should this demurre to the taking of the Covenant Because the Law requires our assent it will not therefore follow they need not reformation nor it is not lawful for us to endeavour their reformation Many men have assented to the Law who could never give the assent required by the Law and by suffering shewed that the Law is their burden binding them to suffer whilst it requireth what they in truth and good Conscience cannot yield But must good men continue under this burden and take no care to ease themselves Is it a sin for men to covenant in their places to endeavour the removal of a burdensom Law Or might not the Reformation covenanted be so endeavoured Nay Sir on the consideration of the whole Reason can such endeavour be any wrong to mens consciences reputation or estate and then there is no strength in this 2d Reason of Oxford against the covenanting such an endeavour But we proceed to their 3d. Reason of this Exception The third Reason on which the Masters 3d. Reason of this exception Scholars c. of Oxford stand dissatisfied concerning the Covenant or Reformation of England in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government is indeed the most weighty and considerable if but clearly proved and it is Their manifest danger of perjury the Covenant in this point seeming directly contrary to the former Solemn Protestation I presume they mean that of May 5. 1641. which they had sworn neither for hope or fear or other respect ever to relinquish or the Oath of Supremacy which according to the Laws of this Realm and the Statutes of this University they had sworn Unto this Reason I easily grant that contradictory Oaths do run the soul on manifest perjury and if the first were lawful the last must needs be sinful neither to be sworn at first nor obliging at last if it be sworn 2. But the contradiction must be manifest and clear not seeming and conjectural which may spring by passion and prejudice to the fancy of such as are willing to suppose it as all things look yellow to Jaundies eyes and is not in reality such to impartial Readers It seems this contradiction between this Covenant and those Oaths was to the men of Oxford but seeming though to their best understandings in their then capacity I presume and it must pass into a certainty before it discharge the bond to such as are under it though seeming so to be might suspend the act of them to whom it so seemed 3. But let us see wherein seems this contradiction It is well if it amount not to as much as the Scotch Notions before specified which seemed to tend to Superstition and Schisme First then of the contradiction to their protestation which I imagine can be no other but that of May 5. 1641. and so far as it concernes Religion runneth thus I A. B. do in the presence of Almighty God vow and protest to maintain and defend as farre as lawfully I may with my life power and estate the true Reformed Protestant Religion expressed in the doctrine of the Church of England against all Popery and Popish Innovations within this Realm contrary to the same Doctrine The Solemn League and Covenant in the Article under consideration runneth thus That we shall sincerely really and constantly through the grace of God endeavor in our several places and callings the Reformation of Religion in the Kingdom of England in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government according to the Word of God and example of the best reformed Churches Contraria contrariis juxta opposita magis elucescunt Let any impartial eye reade these two Oaths thus opposed and shew me wherein seeme the contradiction to lie They may indeed seem different in their sound and manner of expression but Oxford well knoweth that all diversa are not opposita all difference amounts not to a contradiction diversa opposita aeque dissentanea sunt sed non aeque dissentiunt they differ indeed but not with the same difference I wish that on second thoughts they will please to tell us whether the difference be Re or Ratione only the same thing being protested in the first though not in the same words and after the manner which was covenanted in the last But they specifie the contradiction viz. The Doctrine they vowed to maintain by the name of the true Protestant Religion expressed in the Doctrine of the Church of England they took to be the same now to be reformed and altered But Sir were they not in taking it so to be much mistaken The Covenant binds to Reforme Doctrine in the Kingdom of England was there no such Doctrine openly divulged in the Court Sermons and Printed books of Mountague Reive Heylen Dowe Cozens Pocklington and others before mentioned In Mountague Apello ad Caesarem originum Ecclesiasticorum 2 parts Anti-diatribae Pocklingtons Sunday no Sabbath Altare Christianum Heylens Coal from the Altar History of the Sabbath Sales his introduction to a devout life Shelfords five Treatises Dowe against Mr. Burton Cozens his houres of Prayer and many other licensed books publickly sold in the Kingdom and in the Visitation Articles of Bishop Mountague Bishop Peirce and Bishop Wren on which many good men were vexed which was distinct and different if I may not say expresly contrary to the Protestant Religion expressed in the Doctrine of the Church of England And did not these need Reformation And is it not the duty of every good Subject and Protestant in maintenance of this Religion to endeavor a Reformation alteration and total expunction of such Doctrine and so to Covenant And then Sir where is the contradiction In this sense the Protestation and Covenant do plainly coincidere and agree in one and the same thing But Sir let us allow them their sence That the Doctrine protested to be maintained is the same covenanted to be reformed Are Maintenance and Reformation incompetible is there not a possbility of some adjuncts unto the substance of the Doctrine of the Church of England expressing the true Reformed Protestant Religion and seperable without the destruction thereof Or may not the Doctrine of the Church of England be reformed as to the scant general dubious and difficult manner of expression and yet the matter thereof be maintained and defended Are those Articles which concern the Government of the Church and Consecration of the Bishops
viz. That Ancient form of Church-government under which our Religion was at first so orderly Oxford Commendation of Prelacy considered without violence or tumult and so happily reformed and hath since so long flourished with truth and peace to the honour and happiness of our own and envy and admiration of other Nations But Sir good wine needs no bush it is well if the Arguments be as cogent to the mind as this glorious description of Englands Church-government is captivating to the affections I hope Sir serious Casuists in stating their Scruples do not set a lustre on the object by glorious Epithites o engage the admiration of the vulgar But Sir 1. Antiquity may be no Argument of its glory verity or goodnesse these learned men know this is the loud and common cry of Pagans for their Idolatry and Papists for their Superstition and Papacy which will in point of Age appear the Elder Brother to Englands Prelacy Pope Gregory being before Austin the Monk the first Arch-bishop of Canterbury and yet is not owned as any addition to their glory or demonstration of their verity for as true Religion is first received so it is after corruption reformed by the Redeemed from the vain Conversation received by tradition from their fathers 2. Order is indeed very amiable in any Act but what they mean by the orderly proceeding of the first Reformation I know not sure I am that the precedency of the Laity unto the Clergy in a work of this nature in which they should have been Dictators was more just than regular And when I consider the first step of Reformation in the expulsion of the Popes Supremacy supported by all the Bishops unto a premunire to have sprung in Henery the eighth from discontent at the Popes dealing in the business of Queen Katharine rather than conscience of its sinfulness to have been steered by policy not piety to stand consistent with a retention and fiery inforcement of Popish Doctrine and Worship unto the persecution and burning of Tyndal Lambert and others and imposing of the six Articles in which I must confess Cranmer quit himself like a faithful Bishop but others I find not opposing And when I observe the Line which first ruled in Henery the eighth his dayes to be retained and run-through the Reformation of King Edward the sixth and was too much regarded in the time of Queen Elizabeth who both acted from a more pious principle had but their Counsellors captivated their policy and the little knowledge of those reforming dayes given them to see and set up in its lustre and power the square and right Rule of Reformation I cannot but say Gods power is much more manifest in the first Reformation of England than was mans order and yet what order was History witnesseth to have been though under yet without yea against the Bishops Foxe Acts and Monuments p. 959. The hundred and eighteen thousand eight hundred and forty pounds paid by the Bishops of the two Provinces Canterbury and York for their pardon from the praemunire doth proclaim their opposition at the first The thirty persons chosen out of the Parliament to consider and conclude Articles of Religion and Cranmer and Ridleys Politick plea against pious Prince Edward the sixth for the Mass of his Sister Mary and the after-conclusions in their Convocations do not speak much of forwardness at the last whilst in the one or in the other they went not any faster than driven by the Kings injunctions 3. No marvel that they who could not see in this Reformation any disorder could not hear any noise of tumults attend it and yet if I mistake not the Tarratantara-murmur of the Lincoln-shire and York-shire men in their rebellious holy pilgrimage headed by Dr. Makeree denominated Captain Cobler and abetted by many of the Clergy not that I find resisted or quieted by any Episcopal influence in the time of Henry the eighth and the like insurrections of Suffolk York-shire Oxford-shire Devon-shire Cornwal and other Counties against the Reformation by King Edward the sixth doth signifie unto me that the Reformation was not at first more preposterouss than violent and tumultuous though not in the Authors yet in the opposition and reluctancy of its subjects occasioning this note to be left upon it Tantae molis erat Romanum evertere sedem Yet I must not by reason of the one or other deny it to have been happy but I desire freely to acknowledge that this Reformed Religion in the degree attained hath since happily flourished unto the honour of our own and envy of other Nations only I see not wherein this Government the extirpation of which is Covenanted to be endeavoured did either occasion or add unto the happiness and honour thereof I am sure it is noted by others and were I the first observe of it I durst undertake to make it good That Religion had sparkled and flourish'd with more honor and happiness in an higher degree of Reformation than it yet doth if not retarded and sometimes retrogaded by Englands Episcopal Prelates who have made it so much pompous unto sense and the Worlds admiration but so little powerful to the spirit But Sir I love not to recriminate or reproach things or persons I shall therefore pass this applause of our late Prelacy with this Request That the Masters and Scholars of Oxford or any other will please to tell us what there is in this Government so special and peculiar for its efficacie to the order and quiet of Reformation that may not be sound in another Form of Government for that only is of the essence and so must be the Emphasis of this Episcopacy Subsectio Septima The apprehension of the worth of this Government had Sir its full influence on the affections of these learned men they therefore profess themselves 1. Affected with grief and amazement to see it endeavoured to be extirpated without any reasons offered to their understanding for which it should be thought necessary or expedient so to do 2. Ranked with Popery Superstition Heresie and Profaness 3. Intimated to be some way or other contrary to sound Doctrine or the power of godliness Unto all this I shall say in brief 1. That if the constant struglings of this Government Their grounds of affection and amazement at Extirparion of Prelacy examined with the Civil power and encroachment on the Royal Authority in all Ages having not kept its bounds but hy exercising absolute independent Authority in their own Names and under their own Seals in a Legislative Declaration of what is Treason and by an Imperial power to prescribe Oaths to be sworne as in the Canons of 1640. the Bishops of both Provinces did presume to do if its innovation defence and propagation of erroneous Doctrines and Superstition if its suppression of Truth and true Religion by silencing suspending faithful Preachers if its violence irregularity and injustice in High Commission Censures banishing imprisoning confiscating stigmatizing
Remonstrance they had declared to be so oppressive and dangerous if they will evade the influence compass and danger of the fourth Article of this Covenant in the first case I dare secure them from it in reference to the second 5. But the main thing which concerneth the Church of England is her foundation which if it be removed what shall the Righteous do And these serious Casuists do tell us That the holy Church of England was founded in the state of Prelacy within the Realm of England and they proved it by the Law for Gospel without doubt they had none to prove it that laying the Prophets and Apostles for the foundation and Christ an enemy to Prelacy the corner stone and in their Margin they cite the Statute of Carlile 25. Ed. 1. Recited 25. Ed 3. on which they profess They dare not by extirpation of Prelacy strike at the foundation of the Church which they are bound to uphold Truly Sir their care of the Church and its foundation is commendable but how comes it to pass that this Form of Government must be made the foundation of the Church without any danger of Schism by them to whom Scotlands making their Discipline and Government the mark of a true Church did seem so much tending to Schism Must the Government of England be a fundamental point of Religion the very esse of the Church and may not Scotland make her Government a note of distinction Turpe est doctori c. Sir we cannot deny the proofs cited and declaring the holy Church of England to be founded in the estate of Prelacy but I cannot but stand amazed to find men making Apologies propounding doubts professing a serious desire to have conscience satisfied so much to content themselves and cozen their Readers with plain fallacies such Sophisme as better beseems the Logick than Divinity Schools and common Halls than the Regent house Two things are to be explained What they mean by holy Church and what foundation this is to which the Statutes relate These learned men wel know that by holy Church in the acceptation of that Age and of those very Acts the Statute of Edward the first at Carlile and the Statute of Edward the third was meant the Pompous Popish Ecclesiastical State whereof Abbies and Priories were no small Members as in Magna Charta and other Grants of Kings which had then such influence on the Civil State as that no Act of Parliament could bind or be deemed valid without the ratifying censure of holy Church whose manner was by her authority to curse all that should not keep such Lawes as were agreed I wish the Masters and Scholars would speak out and tell us whether they think they are bound to uphold this holy Church or that the Church of Christ may not yea do not subsist in England now holy Church is driven out the Church simply Christian is very different from the pompous popish holy Church Again Sir the foundation mentioned in these Statutes is sutable to the Fabrick Foxe his Acts and Monuments p. 22. holy Churches viz. the temporal endowments whereby she was made so pompous the Lands Mannors and large Revenues given by the King or Nobles of the Land as the question occasioning the same doth plainly evidence which was Whether the exactions of the first fruits of Churches and Abbies and all Benefices in England and the profit of vacancies by Pope Clement were just and as the very words and scope of the Statute of 25. Edward 3d. doth plainly declare providing for the advousance and disposal of all Benefices and the profits thereof in manner as the founders that is first donors had established and so the Prelacy in which it was founded is an Independency as to Rome and a sole Power and Prerogative which England had free and within her self in respect of which in the very words of the Statutes themselves it is said The Bishop of Rome usurping the Seigniores of such Possessions and Benefices doth give and grant the same to Aliens which did not and Cardinals which might not dwel in England as if he had been Patron or Advowe of the said Benefices as he was not of right after the Law of England so that this Prelacy is purely Political and the foundation more profitable than pious could these learned men be so absurd as to make the very being of the Church to stand on such a foundation were there not Churches of Christ before Patrons Possessons and Presentations and may they not be when these large endowments are taken away from the places to which they are affixed This Prelacy will determine the Church of England by the fall of Monasteries to have been shaken in the foundation and by vertue of this Political Prelacy the Kings of England have given the possessions of Bishopricks to their Chancellours Treasurers Secretaries Kinsmen meer Lay-persons for increase of their means Pryns Catalogue of Testimonies for the parity of Presbyters and Bishops p. 16 17 18. and have kept the Episcopal and Archiepiscopal Seas void for 2 3 4 5 6 7 10 15 20. and sometimes 30. years together by what loadstone do these learned men think the holy Church did subsist when her Prelates her foundation in their sense was wanting or can they make us believe Denmark or Scotland have lost or the Reformed Churches never had the being of a Church of Christ because they never had or have expelled their Episcopal Prelacy Ecclesiastical Prelacy like the Petrae and Rupes as in the time of King Henery the third have ever been such swelling foundations to the Church and in the State that they have constrained the Kings and Parliament of England as of all other Nations in all Ages to exercise an high Prelacy over them by strict Laws and severe exactions to keep them within their bounds and at last to Covenant the extirpation thereof wherein the Oxford Reasons would make us believe we not only pull an old house about our ears but destroy the very Church if we have not wit enough to see how they would cosen us by the Law of man instead of the Law of God and a false gloss on fair words Having found so little weight in what is urged from the Government by Episcopacy of the estate of the Church of England we shall not expect much in what is incumbent upon themselves against their Covenanting to endeavour to extirpate this kind of Government yet that little we shall consider and it relates unto their personal capacities in their third exception or more publick Obigations in their fifth exception In reference to their personal capacities they say They are not satisfied how it can stand with justice ingenuity or humanity to require the extirpation of this Government Oxford Reasons third exception against extirpation of Prelacy unless it had been proved unlawful what Sir if it had been proved inexpedient it would have been consistent with Saint Pauls Justice Humanity and
capacity may run and read it if he know any thing of the late Hierarchy in this Church Dr. Gauden hath appeared no less willing to suppose and suggest the same Ambiguities in his Analysis to which I have before Answered in my Analepsis and he that hath but half an eye cannot but see that the very and whole frame of Government by Arch-deacons Prebends Chapters Deans Bishops and Arch-bishops whereby all Government which belongs to Presbyters in Common was engrossed by a few pretended Ministers to Cathedral Churches and a Superiority of Office and Order above Presbyters not ordained by God or consented to by themselves was exercised is utterly to be abolished the which is so clearly expressed that it can admit of no evasive Salvoes The next Ambiguity is imagined by the Masters and Scholars of Oxford to be in the fourth Article in the word Malignants The Fourth Ambiguity charged on the Covenant and they enquire who are to be accounted Malignants as if it were left in its latitude to be understood by every mans private fancy whilst it is expressely limited and explained in the Article it self such as have been or shall be Malignants by hindring Reformation of Religion dividing the King from his people or one Kingdom from another so that the Malignity predicated is described and specified by the formality of it but those learned men know not how farre the hindring Reformation of Religion may be extended To which I say it matters not unto the discovery of a Malignant for they will not deny both these to admit majus and minus if Reformation be hindred it is Malignity which is in degree more or less according to the measure of that obstruction which is made Again they know not what are meant by the Supream Judicatories of both Kingdoms sure they will not pretend to ignorance in the signification they know well what a Judicatory is and wherein Supream almost every Englishman knoweth the sence of these Roman terms I believe their doubt was which be the Supream Judicatories and the words can be construed no otherwise than to mean those to which the other Courts of Judgement are subject and from which there is no appeal if they please to ask Lawyers I presume they will tell them it is the Parliament yet this is not necessary to be known to the expounding of the words of the Covenant These are Oxford Reasons sect 6. p. 17 18. Sir the ambiguous terms which in the judgment of these learned men are of a dark and doubtful construction whether really and in themselves let rational men judge others they do stick at but profess the use men have made thereof doth occasion it they well know false glosses male interpretations and a strained sence may by wicked men be put on the plainest text yet it doth not lose its genuine and proper signification especially in an Oath wherein some men are willing to wrest it with rigour beyond its scope others to writh themselves out of its just obligation I shall be free to tell them that no Rules of right Reason will justifie the rigorous sence put on the third Article in the Case of the King by Mr. Challoner though in a speech in Parliament nor the Laxe sence put on the second Article in the Case of Prelacy by Dr. John Gauden though unto the Loosing of St. Peters bonds nor will the words of the Covenant warrant the one or the other But such ambiguities are made according to mens wills minds fancies and lusts not found in the words which are clear and plain to every common capacity These supposed ambiguities are not more visible to have been imagined without any real ground in the words of the Covenant than the suggested contradictions in it self the learned men of Oxford do charge the Covenant to be an Oath in which one part is contradictory to another but with Reverence may I tell them one part is confined to their breasts or to such to whom they shew it Oxford Reasons sect 6. p. 16. for it goeth not abroad with the Covenant as will appear in the very naming of their supposed suggested contradictions which are these 1. To preserve as it is without change 1. Contradiction charged on the Covenant and yet to reform and alter and not to preserve one and the same Reformed Religion In what Articles of the Covenant this contradiction lieth they do not tell us nor can I see it the Reformed Religion in Scotland is to be preserved and Reformation of Religion in England endeavored Are these opposites and contraries were there not Doctrins Worship Discipline and Government in England which were no part of the Reformed Religion and cannot these be altered and abolished whilst that is preserved where then is the contradiction 2. Absolutely and without exception to preserve 2 Contradiction charged on the Covenant and yet upon supposition to extirpate the self-same thing viz. the present Religion of the Church of Scotland I want Sir their eyes to read this contradiction the first part to preserve is legible in the Covenant but to extirpate the present Religion in the Church of Scotland I read not Oh but they tell us it is on a supposition but I suppose that supposition must be expressed in plain terms in the Covenant to make a contradictory part thereof The Extirpation covenanted relates to Popery Prelacy Errour Heresie Schisme c. which of those can we suppose the present Religion of Scotland to be they will bring good Compurgators for every of them I know the University did suppose * Reason sect 4 p. 4. there were some things in the Church of Scotland which to their thinking did tend to schism and superstition yet they dare not charge it do but suppose it and that not to be but tend toward superstition and schism and they do not affirm them neither to be the Religion of Scotland such supposed extirpation may suppose a contradiction justly deserving to be charged to be a suppositum non supponendum Their next Contradiction is as clear a supposition as this 3. Contradiction charged on the Covenant to reform Church-Government in England and Ireland according to the Word of God and yet to extirpate that we are perswaded is according to the Word of God here it is visible the contradiction is between the Covenant and their perswasion not one part against another part of it self how well-grounded their perswasion is we have before enquired I shall therefore only tell them it is not fair play to beg the question and on their own perswasion to arraign the Covenant as an Oath contradictory to it self yet The next is of the very same nature 4. Contradiction charged on the Covenant to extirpate heresie schismes and prophaneness and yet to extirpate the Government we conceive the want of which is the chief cause of all evils and the restoring and continuance of which the proper and effectual remedy Sure
and the exactions of furious Tyrants And I say it cannot avail unto the least voiding of the Covenant the matter whereof is found just lawful and possible for all Casuists have concluded Juramentum metu extortum doth bind And the Heathen have amplified the force of an Oath by Regulus his return to his Enemies to be slain when he had been forced to make it on which Cicero asserteth Temporibus illis jusjurandum valebat Sanderson de juram prael 5. Sect. 15. p. 126. then Oaths were binding And Doctor Sanderson hath concluded that an Oath made not only on light fear but a just and grievous fear Qualis est metus captivitatis amissionis omnium bonorum inmiae cruciatus quod est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ipsius mortis of imprisonment loss of goods yea most dreadful loss of life which all men must confess to be a most strait condition yet it binds unto performance for which he Renders many Reasons among which these two are of weight in our case * Videtur non posse honeste recusari quod fuit prudenter electum he chose what then seemed best and so it was an Act of will and * Quod ob certum finem promissum est a promittente debet praestaripostquam consecutas est suum finem he received the end proposed as the condition of his entring into that Covenant Moreover as I have before noted Zedekiah was besieged into the Oath made with the King of Babylon with the greatest force and fury imaginable yet the Prophet was not afraid to cry to the King Shall he break the Covenant and be delivered and both King and people perished by that breach of Covenant Sir I cannot without sad thoughts reflect on their sin and horrid wickedness by whom his most Sacred Majesty was reduced into those straits of condition nor shall I acquit them of indiscretion and overmuch boldness who being subjects could dare to take the advantage of a strait condition to put such terms on Majesty yet I dare not but adore the providence of God who bringeth good out of evil and maketh the rage of men to work unto his praise and many times by wayes to us preposterous effecteth his own holy purpose that did bring his most Sacred Majesty by these straits into this Sacred Bond which it is more than probable in an estate of liberty he had never subjected to and being now sworn they cannot they must not be slighted or violated but I hope his Majesty shall never want a good Angel to be his Monitor to pay the vows he made to God in the day of his distress Now Sir I say when I have considered the Covenant under these publick considerations and find such palpable engagements made by the people of England as a Kingdom and Political Body professing the Reformed Religion I cannot but adhere to my former conjecture that it looks something like a National Obligation nay the confluence of publick assent and authority by the people collectively and distributively considered and the access of Royal assent and concurrence the defect of which rendered it at first less acceptable to many leads my conjecture unto a full conclusion that it is a publick National Covenant binding all the persons of this Nation that swear or swear not personally and our posterity after us in their particular places and all that shall succeed into the publick places and politick capacities of this Kingdom to preserve and pursue the things therein promised so long as it remains a Kingdom under one King and in the profession of one Reformed Religion which I pray and hope will be till Jesus Christ shall come to judgment Give me leave Sir to enforce this with what I observed to be asserted by the Lord Chief Baron in his learned Speech unto the late condemned Traytors at the Old Baily You were bound to bear Allegiance to your King yea though you may not have taken the Oath of Allegiance your selves yet you were bound by the Recognition of King James and His Posterity made at His first coming to the Crown of this Realm by the whole Parliament being the whole collective body of the Kingdom Certainly they then and their posterities must needs be bound who themselves have universally by the appointment and authority of such who were entrusted for them engaged the Faith of the Nation though it had been sufficient if the Parliament in that publick capacity had only done it for I say still I see not how they can give away our Estates or take pardons in the name and to the security of the Nation if they may not in our name make Oaths Promises and Covenants to bind us and our succeeding Governors and Posterities in sense whereof I cannot but desire all that wish well to England to consider the Covenant the Solemn League and Covenant for Sir as it was no little support and satisfaction to my spirit under the late contempt and horrid violations of the Covenant to observe they were the preposterous Acts of Self-created Powers and Usurpers on the Peoples consent as well as His Majesties Crown and therefore could not involve the Nation in the guilt of their perjury which our eyes have seen to fall upon their own heads so it is now the greatest perplexity in my jealousie that the Covenant is like to be slighted if not contradicted that the Nation is in danger to be plunged under the guilt and made liable to the punishment thereof by that Just God who will certainly avenge the quarrel of the Covenant which God forbid God forbid I say again God forbid To conclude Sir this Section lest you or any others should think this quality of the Solemn League and Covenant as Publick and National to be my own notion and private particular fancy give me leave to tell you and them I can produce more than 600. Ministers most of whom are yet living in the Kingdom of England who under their hands have testified their apprehensions thereof under the same notion Such as will please to take a strict view of this Cloud of Witnesses may at their leasure survey the Publick Testimonies to the Truths of Jesus Christ and to the Solemn League and Covenant and they shall find the same attested by the names of 52 Ministers of London 41 in the County Palatine of Lancaster 59 in the County Palatine of Chester 41 Ministers in the West Riding of the County of York who in their Title-page and throughout their Testimony do denominate it the National Covenant 39 in the County of Norfolk 82 in the County of Wilts 36 in the County of Stafford 69 in the County of Somerset which I presume may make a better Septuagint than Bishop Pierces Certificants of this County for Revels Clerks-ales and Church-ales on the Lords-day though they want three of the number 68 in the County of Northampton 71 in the County of Essex 43 in the County of Warwick 62 in the County of
never had these pieces of Religion for their ground or reason You see Sir that the first ground of these learned mens dissatisfaction as to the covenanted endeavor of Reformation of Religion in England in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government is clearly groundless supposing a change and suggesting a scandal not to be rupposed Let us try the strength of their second reason for this exception And that is They could not covenant this Reformation without wrong to themselves 2 Reason for this exception their consciences reputation and estates in bearing false witness against themselves and sundry other wayes swearing to endeavor to reform that as corrupt and vitious which they had by their personal subscription approved as agreeable to the Word of God and for which they had not been condemned of their own hearts nor convinced by their brethren that therein they did amiss 2. Which they are in conscience perswaded were not against the Word of God as they stand established by law 3. Which they believe to be in sundry respects much better more agreeable to the Word of God and pactice of the Catholick Church than that to be preserved in Scotland 4. To which all Clerks admitted to any Benefice are required to assent To these reasons Sir I should have answered 1. Credit is indeed a matter of concerment and Reputation is to be regarded and our Estate by all just prudent meanes duely preserved but they are not equivalent to the purity of Gospel administrations nor must be admitted barres to duy or stays from the endeavour of a necessary Reformation when called for 2. We are at a loss to understand their terms the establishment by Law is not expressed in the Covenant and many corruptions we have noted were exercised not established The endeavour of a Reformation of them though not them only was and is required and it is very doubtful how or where to find and prove an establishment by law to which they so much cleave yet I hope the defect in proof thereof will be no just demurre to the endeavour of a Reformation of what is really vitious and corrupt whether established or only exercised We must also entreat a comment on these words the practice of the Catholick Church It is well known that Rome doth engross and monopolize this Epithite nor can the Worship Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England admit it to be predicated of any so well as that for all reformed Churches do in their practice differ and I presume it will be hard to prove the agreement of the Primitive Churches in these particulars which were first derived from Apostate Rome and have ever since continued as the dregs of their Catholick practices not more to the grief of the Reformed Churches abroad and Non-conformists at home then joy and exultation of the Children of that Church as a plain evidence of their continued possession and encouragement to expect and endeavor a full recovery of England into her bosom But as to their Argument 3 The Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government might be vitious and corrupt notwithstanding their apprehension and assent to the contrary or the subscription of others required by the Law We well know that the Reformation of the Church in England was begun on more * Henry the 8th his discontent at the Pope Political than pious principles which did easily consent to a retaining of what was justly discharged in other Rerormed Churches embracing the administration of the Gospel in its simplicity for the sake of its naked self might consist with those Publick ends which did provoke it and Policy being the principle predominant in the first hath strugled against piety unto this last act and is not yet mastered and I presume the Scholars and Masters of Oxford will not plead an immunity from policy passion and prejudice when they are to pass judgment against their credits reputation and estates as in the case of this Covenant they apprehend they were to do and that these prirciples will provoke us to yield our own and exact from others an assent to things as agreeable to the Word of God which in themselves are vitious and corrupt no serious man or Christian can or will deny It is wel if we find this Reason stated under a more cautious vigilant and pious frame of spirit 4. But I must confess I wonder not so much to hear these Gentlemen to profess They had by their personal subscription approved the Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government of the Church of England as agreeable to the Word of God which might be an act of rashness an effect of ignorance an event of some distressed condition or distemper of mind fear of losing or hope of gaining preferment as to hear them say That this was enjoyned by law to them and all that were admitted to benefices That the Doctrine of the Church was to be assented unto I grant is by Law established but the assent to Worship Discipline and Government I observe not to be enjoyned by any full and formal Law I find indeed something relating to Discipline in the ordering of Deacons and Priests Bishops and Archbishops and the Churches power about traditions and Rites or Ceremonies inserted into the 39. Articles but how or by what Law they are established 13. Eliz 12. I know not The Statute requiring Ministers assent doth not specifie the Articles particulary and the general Note whereby to know them laid down in the Statute is this Articles of Religion which ONLY concern the Confession of the true Christian Faith and Doctrine of the Sacraments This particle ONLY is in my judgment exclusive to Discipline and Government and how these came into the Articles I know not only I find the Epistle to His late Majesty before the * A Book supposed to have be on written by Mr. William Frynn Quench-Coal to charge corruption and forgery to have been acted about these Articles and earnestly implores justice against the Forgers and Obtruders thereof and untill the Legality of the Canons of 1603. and sence thereof be clearly asserted and fully vindicated from the * Necessity for Reformation p. 56 57 58 59. exceptions which are urged against them we must be at a loss for their establishment for if the King had not authority by vertue of the Statute pretended or the matter of them be repugnant to standing Statutes as is suggested the establishment of Worship Discipline and Government by law must abide very doubtful but the University of Oxford might make a Law unto themselves to which these Gentlemen might refer But 5. Whether established or exercised I think it very strange to see these learned men on serious thoughts to profess their own hearts did not condemn them nor had their brethren convinced their judgements they had done amiss by their personal subscription to approve the Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government of the Church of England to be agreeable to the Word of GOD but
and Archbishops of the essence and formality of the true Reformed Protestant Religion Will not the assertion thereof tend more to Schism than Scotlands supposed making their Discipline and Government the mark of a true Church As denying the Reformed Churches beyond the Sea to have attained to the true Reformed Protestant Religion which yet they handed over to us But what reason had these Gentlemen of Oxford to understand the Doctrine of the Church of England in such a latitude when the sence of it is limited by them who were then known to be Legislators and a power sufficient to prescribe an Oath unto which themselves subjected and were the best expositors thereof viz. the House of Commons who thus declared Whereas some doubts have been raised concerning the meaning of these words The true Reformed Protestant Religion expressed in the Doctrine of the Church of England against all Popery and Popish innovations within this Realm contrary to the same Doctrine This House doth declare that by these words was and is meant only the publick Doctrine professed in the said Church so far as it is opposite to Popery and Popish innovations And that the said words are not to be extended to the maintaining of any form of Worship Discipline and Government nor of any the Rites and Ceremonies of the said Church of England By which these Gentlemen might have understood 1. The Realm and Church of England were two different Subjects the one professing Doctrine in the other wherein also there was Doctrine tending to Popery and Popish Innovation 2. There were in the Doctrines professed by the Church of England some adjuncts of Rites Ceremonies Government or some special order of Worship which might need Reformation and were not view'd to be maintained So that according to this sence of them who prescribed both there is more of consistency than contradiction between the Protestation and Solemn League and Covenant So that the manifest perjury they feared hath not so much as a seeming ground And as for the supposed contradiction of this Branch of the Covenant unto the Oath of Supremacy it will on examination vanish as an apparition a thing which so seemed but cannot be so proved For if they will not hiss me out of their Schools I will grant them their Proposition in the Oath and assumption in the Statute by them quoted and yet find a way to avoid the conclusion because a meer non sequitur on their premises and this if they will have the Argument logically resolved by denying the consequence of their major Proposition for I will grant unto them that the Oath of Supremacy doth bind us to our power to assist and defend all Jurisdictions Priviledges Preheminences and Authorities granted and belonging to the Kings Highness his heirs and successors or united and annexed unto the Imperial Crown of this Realm And assume with them That the King had the whole power and Authority for Reformation Order and Correction of all manner of Errors Heresies Schisms c. and yet deny the sequel viz. That we may not endeavour in our places and callings to reform Religion For the defence of the Kings power is no way repugnant with the duty of our particular capacity I hope a Minister may by his preaching or a Divine by his disputation in the Schools endeavour the correction and Reformation of Error and Heresie Schism or Superstition and yet not intrench on his Majesties Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and so interfer with their Oath of Supremacy Yea in reference to judicial and authoritative Correction and Reformation which we will suppose can only be done by the King mens endeavor may be in their places and callings by Counsel Proposal Remonstrance Petition Supplication and the like to procure His Majesties consent and authority to reform Religion in the Kingdom of England in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government and then Sir where is the Contradiction Yet Sir if I were to dispute with a single though Senior Sophister of Oxford I would deny both Propositions the major as to its sequel or consequence as before and the assumption as that which the Statute doth not prove viz. The whole power of Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction for Correction and Reformation is annexed to the King and Imperial Crown of this Realm For the power by that Statute is special and particular not general and universal as themselves have cited it is viz. such Jurisdictions Priviledges Superiorities and Preheminences Spiritual or Ecclesiastical as by any c. and as the Statute proceeds Spiritual or Ecclesiastical power or authority hath heretofore been or may lawfully be exercised or used for Visitation of any Ecclesiastical State or Persons and for Reformation c. So that the power given to the King is such a powor as Bishops Cardinals or Popes had used not such as Parliaments who ever retained a Jurisdicton in themselves over both Church and Crown enjoyed and exercised This power was purely executive not Legislative over persons and particular Societies not over the Kingdom and whole Realm I presume the Gentlemen of Oxford were not ignoront of the power and Legislative Authority which the Parliaments of England ever held over their Bishops and the Spiritual or Ecclesiastical estate of this Land tying them in all their administrations of Discipline and Government to the Customs and Statutes of this Realme as they may read at large in the Statute of the Submission of the Clergy 25. Hen. 8.19 wherein they confess many of their Canons and Constitutions be repugnant to the Laws and Statutes of this Realm whereby they did not only Restrain the exorbitancies and from time to time Reform the abuses of the Church but also extend the Prerogative and Jurisdiction of the King as in that Statute 1 Elizab. and Limit Restrain and Repeal it as in the case of this individual specifical power granted in the words of the Statute quoted by the Statute 17 Caroli entituled An Act for repeal of a branch of a Statute 10 Elizab. concerning Commissioners for causes Ecclesiastical which clause repealed is part of this very recited Paragraph and immediately annexed unto and dependent on this very grant of power and authority Nor are these Masters and Scholars of Oxford insensible that there is a vast difference between Executive and Legislative power and authority and that as no Ecclesiastical persons did ever enjoy however the Pope and his Bishops did contend for it so no King of England did ever pretend or lay claim unto the Legislative power further than allowed by Act of Parliaments who were ever Dictators of a general Reformation in the Land Church and Kingdom as at this time in the Reformation covenanted Nor can they be ignorant that it is very bad Logick from such Jurisdictions and Specifical Executive Authority to infer that the whole power of Reformation is so in the King that the Parliament may not propose or the people covenant in their places and callings to endeavor a Reformation