Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	great_a	king_n	majesty_n	3,331	5	6.0086	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67467	The life of Dr. Sanderson, late Bishop of Lincoln written by Izaak Walton ; to which is added, some short tracts or cases of conscience written by the said Bishop.	Walton, Izaak, 1593-1683.; Sanderson, Robert, 1587-1663. Judgment concerning submission to usurpers.; Sanderson, Robert, 1587-1663. Pax ecclesiae.; Hooker, Richard, 1553 or 4-1600. Sermon of Richard Hooker, author of those learned books of Ecclesiastical politie.; Sanderson, Robert, 1587-1663. Judgment in one view for the settlement of the church.; Sanderson, Robert, 1587-1663. Judicium Universitatis Oxoniensis. English.	1678 (1678)	Wing W667; ESTC R8226	137,878	542

extirpation of Prelacy as it is in the Article expounded or by subsequent practice evidenced will be fevered and cut off from the Crown to the great prejudice and damage thereof Whereunto as we ought not in common reason and in order to our Allegiance as Subjects yield our consent so having sworn expressly to maintain the King's Honour and Estate and to our power to assist and defend all Jurisdictions c. belonging to his Highness or united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of the Realm we cannot without manifest Perjury as we conceive consent thereunto 4. The Government of this Realm being confessedly an Empire or Monarchy and that of a most excellent temper and constitution we understand not how it can become us to desire or endeavour the extirpation of that Government in the Church which we conceive to be incomparably of all other the most agreeable and no way prejudicial to the state of so well a constituted Monarchy Insomuch as King Iames would often say what his long Experience had taught him No Bishop no King Which Aphorism though we find in sundry Pamphlets of late years to have been exploded with much confidence and scorn yet we must profess to have met with very little in the proceedings of the late times to weaken our belief of it And we hope we shall be the less blamed for our unwillingness to have any actual concurrence in the extirpating of Episcopal Government seeing of such extirpation there is no other use imaginable but either the alienation of their Revenues and Inheritances which how it can be severed from Sacriledge and Injustice we leave others to find out or to make way for the introducing of some other form of Church Government which whatsoever it shall be will as we think prove either destructive of and inconsistent with Monarchical Government or at leastwise more prejudicial to the peaceable orderly and effectual exercise thereof than a well-regulated Episcopacy can possibly be §. V. Of the other parts of the Covenant HAving insisted the more upon the two first Articles that concern Religion and the Church and wherein our selves have a more proper concernment we shall need to insist the less upon those that follow contenting our selves with a few the most obvious of those many great and as we conceive just exceptions that lie there against In the third Article we are not satisfied that our endeavour to preserve and defend the Kings Majestie 's Person and Authority is so limited as there it is by that addition In the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdom Forasmuch as 1. No such limitation of our duty in that behalf is to be found either in the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance which no Papist would refuse to take with such a limitation nor in the Protestation nor in the Word of God 2. Our endeavour to preserve the Rights and Priviledges of Parliaments and the Liberties of the Kingdoms is required to be sworn of us in the same Article without the like or any other limitation added thereunto 3. Such limitation leaveth the duty of the Subject at so much loosness and the safety of the King at so great uncertainty that whensoever the people shall have a mind to withdraw their obedience they cannot want a pretence from the same for so doing 4. After we should by the very last thing we did viz. swearing with such a limitation have made our selves guilty of an actual and real diminution as we conceive of his Majesties just power and greatness the obtestation would seem very unseasonable at the least with the same breath to call the world to bear witness with our Consciences that we had no thoughts or intentions to diminish the same 5. The swearing with such a limitation is a Testimony of the Subjects Loyalty to our seeming of a very strange nature which the Principles of their several Religions salved the Conscience of a most resolute Papist or Sectary may securely swallow and the Conscience of a good Protestant cannot but strain at In the fourth Article 1. We desire it may be considered whether the imposing of the Covenant in this Article do not lay a necessity upon the Son of accusing his own Father and pursuing him to destruction in case he should be an Incendiary Malignant or other evil Instrument such as in the Article is described A course which we conceive to be contrary to Religion Nature and Humanity 2. Whether the swearing according to this Article doth not rather open a ready way to Children that are sick of the Father Husbands that are weary of their Wives c. by appealing such as stand between them and their desires of Malignancy the better to effectuate their unlawful intentions and designs 3. Our selves having solemnly protested to maintain the Liberty of the Subject and the House of Commons having publickly declared against the exercise of an Arbitrary Power with Order that their said Declaration should be printed and published in all the Parish Churches and Chappels of the Kingdom there to stand and remain as a testimony of the clearness of their intentions whether the subjecting of our selves and brethren by Oath unto such punishments as shall be inflicted upon us without Law of Merit at the sole pleasure of such uncertain Judges as shall be upon any particular occasion deputed for that effect of what mean quality or abilities soever they be even to the taking away of our lives if they shall think it convenient so to do though the degree of our offences shall not require or deserve the same be not the betraying of our Liberty in the lowest and the setting up of an Arbitrary Power in the highest degree that can be imagined The Substance of the fifth Article being the settling and continuance of a firm peace and union between the three Kingdoms since it is our bounden duty to desire and according to our several places and interests by all lawful means to endeavour the same we should make no scruple at all to enter into a Covenant to that purpose were it not 1. That we do not see nor therefore can acknowledge the happiness of such a blessed Peace between the three Kingdoms for we hope Ireland is not forgotten as in the Article is mentioned so long as Ireland is at War within it self and both the other Kingdoms engaged in that War 2. That since no peace can be firm and well-grounded that is not bottom'd upon Justice the most proper and adequate act whereof is Ius suum cuique to let every one have that which of right belongeth unto him we cannot conceive how a firm and lasting Peace can be established in these Kingdoms unless the respective Authority Power and Liberty of King Parliament and Subject as well every one as other be preserved full and entire according to the known Laws and continued unquestioned customes of the several Kingdoms in former times and before the beginning of these

than that they are worth something and on the other side so little yet done toward the extirpation of Heresie Schism and Profaneness as things of less temporal advantage We cannot dissemble our suspicion that the Designers of this Covenant might have something else before their eyes besides what in the beginning of the Introduction is expressed and that there is something meant in this Article that looketh so like Sacriledge that we are afraid to venture thereon 3. In the third Article 1. Although we should not otherwise have apprehended any matter of danger or moment in the ordering of the particulars in the Article mentioned yet since M. Challoner in his Speech and others have made advantage thereof to infer from that very order that the defence of the King's Person and Authority ought to be with subordination to the preservation of the Rights and Priviledges of Parliaments and the Liberties of the Kingdom which are in the first place and before it to be endeavoured We hope we shall be excused if we dare not take the Covenant in this sense especially considering that if the Argument be of any force it will bind us at least as strongly to endeavour the maintenance of the King's Person Honour and Estate in the first place and the rest but subordinately thereunto because they are so ordered in the Protestation And then that Protestation having the advantage of preceding it will bind us more strongly as being the first Obligation 2. Whereas some have been the rather induced to take the Covenant in this particular by being told That that limitation in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms was not to be understood exclusively yet when we find that the House of Commons in their Answer to the Scotish Papers do often press that limitation as without which the endeavouring to preserve the King's Majestie 's Person and Authority ought not to be mentioned it cannot but deterr us from taking the Covenant in this particular so understood 3. Especially being told in a late Pamphlet That the King not having preserved the Liberties of the Kingdom c. as of duty he ought is thereby become a Tyrant and so ceaseth to be a King and consequently that his Subjects cease to be Subjects and owe him no longer subjection Which assertion since we heartily detest as false and scandalous in the supposition and in the inference seditious and divellish we dare not by subscribing this Article seem to give the least countenance thereunto 4. But it striketh us with horrour to think what use hath been made of this fourth Article concerning the punishment of Malignants c. as by others otherways so especial-by the Corrector of a Speech without doors written in the defence of M. Challoner's Speech who is so bold as to tell the Parliament That they are bound by their Covenant for the bringing of evil Instruments to condign punishment to destroy the King and his Posterity and that they cannot justifie the taking away of Strafford's and Canterbury's lives for Delinquency whilst they suffer the chief Delinquent to go unpunished §. VII Of the Salvo's THE Salvo's that we have usually met withal for the avoiding of the aforesaid Scruples either concerning the whole Covenant or some particulars therein of special importance we find upon examination to be no way satisfactory to our Consciences The first is that we may take the the Covenant in our own sense but this in a matter of this nature viz. an imposed promissory Oath in the performance whereof others also are presumed to be concerned seemeth to be 1. Contrary to the nature and end of an Oath which unless it be full of simplicity cannot be sworn in Truth and Righteousness nor serve to the ending of Controversies and Contradictions which was the use for which it was instituted Heb. 6. 2. Contrary to the end of Speech God having given us the use of Speech for this end that it might be the Interpreter of the mind it behoveth us as in all other our dealings and contracts so especially where there is the intervention of an Oath so to speak as that they whom it concerneth may clearly understand our meaning by our words 3. Contrary to the end of the Covenant it self which being the confirmation of a firm union among the Covenanters that by taking thereof they might have mutual assurance of mutual assistance and defence If one may be allowed to take it in one sense and another in a contrary the Covenanters shall have no more assurance of mutual assistance each from other after the taking of the Covenant than they had before 4. Contrary to the Solemn profession made by each Covenanter in express tearms in the conclusion thereof in the presence of Almighty God the searcher of all hearts that he taketh it with a true intention to perform the same as he shall answer it at the great day 2. This will bring a scandal upon our Religion 1. That we practice that our selves which we condemn in the Papist viz. Swearing with Jesuitical equivocations and mental reservations 2. That we take the glorious and dreadful Name of God in vain and play fast and loose with Oaths inasmuch as what we swear to day in one sense we may swear the direct contrary to morrow in another And 3. It will give strength to that charge which is laid to the Presbyterian party in special both by Iesuites and Sectaries that there is no faith to be given to Protestants whatever they swear because they may swear one thing in their words and in their own sense mean another 2. The second way is to take the Covenant with these or the like general Salvo's expressed viz. So far as lawfully I may So far as it is agreeable to the Word of God and the Laws of the Land Saving all Oaths by me formerly taken c. But 1. We believe this mocking of God would be so far from freeing us from the guilt of Perjury that thereby we should rather contract a new guilt of most vile and abominable Hypocrisie 2. It seemeth all one unto us the thing being otherwise supposed unlawful as if we should swear to kill steal commit adultery or forswear our selves so far as lawfully we may 3. If this would satisfie the Conscience we might with a good Conscience not only take the present Covenant but even subscribe to the Council of Trent also yea and to the Turkish Alcoran and swear to maintain and defend either of them viz. so far as lawfully we may or as they are agreeable to the Word of God Thirdly For the second Article in particular in the branch concerning the extirpation of Church Government we are told that it is to be understood of the whole Government taken collectively and in sensu composito so as if we do endeavour but the taking away of Apparitors only or of any other one kind of inferious Officers belonging to the

the use of indifferent things The Romans Corinthians and others to whom St. Paul wrote about these matters being not limited any way in the exercise of their liberty therein by any over-ruling Authority But where the Magistrates have interposed and thought good upon mature advice to impose Laws upon those that are under them whereby their liberty is not infringed as some unjustly complain in the inward judgment but only limited in the outward exercise of it there the Apostolical directions will not hold in the same absolute manner as they were delivered to those whom they then concerned but only in the equity of them so far forth as the cases are alike and with such meet qualifications and mitigations as the difference of the cases otherwise doth require So that a man ought not out of private fancy or meerly because he would not be observed for not doing as others do or for any the like weak respects to do that thing of the lawfulness whereof he is not competently perswaded where it is free for him to do otherwise which was the case of these weak ones among the Romans for whose sakes principally the Apostle gave these directions But the Authority of the Magistrates intervening so alters the case that such a forbearance as to them was necessary is to as many of us as are commanded to do this or that altogether unlawful in regard they were free and we are bound for the Reasons already shewn which I now rehearse not But you will yet say for in point of obedience men are very loath to yield so long as they can find any thing to plead those that lay these burdens upon us at leastwise should do well to satisfie our doubts and to inform our Consciences concerning the lawfulness of what they enjoyn that so we might render them obedience with better chearfulness How willing are we sinful men to leave the blame of our miscarriages any where rather than upon our selves But how is it not incongruous the while that those men should prescribe rules to their Governours who can scarcely brook their Governours should prescribe Laws to them It were good we should first learn how to obey ere we take upon us to teach our betters how to govern However what Governours are bound to do or what is fit for them to do in the point of information that is not now the question If they fail in any part of their bounden duty they shall be sure to reckon for it one day but their Iailing cannot in the mean time excuse thy disobedience Although I think it would prove a hard task for whosoever should undertake it to shew that Superiours are always bound to inform the Consciences of their Inferiours concerning the lawfulness of every thing they shall command If sometimes they do it where they see it expedient or needful sometimes again and that perhaps oftner it may be thought more expedient for them and more conducible for the publick peace and safety only to make known to the people what their pleasures are reserving to themselves the Reasons thereof I am sure in the point of Ecclesiastical Ceremonies and Constitutions in which case the aforesaid Allegations are usually most stood upon this hath been abundantly done in our Church not only in the learned writings of sundry private men but by the publick declaration also of Authority as is to be seen at large in the Preface commonly printed before the Book of Common Prayer concerning that Argument enough to satisfie those that are peaceable and not disposed to stretch their wits to cavil at things established And thus much of the second Question touching a doubting Conscience whereon I have insisted the longer because it is a point both so proper to the Text and whereat so many have stumbled There remaineth but one other Question and that of far smaller difficulty What is to be done when the Conscience is scrupulous I call that a scruple when a man is reasonably well perswaded of the lawfulness of a thing yet hath withal some jealousies and fears lest perhaps it should prove unlawful Such scruples are most incident to men of melancholy dispositions or of timorous Spirits especially if they be tender conscienced withal and they are much encreased by the false suggestions of Satan by reading the Books or hearing the Sermons or frequenting the company of men more strict precise and austere in sundry points than they need or ought to be and by sundry other means which I now mention not Of which scruples it behooveth every man first to be wary that he doth not at all admit them if he can choose Or if he cannot wholly avoid them that secondly he endeavour so far as may be to eject them speedily out of his thoughts as Satan's snares and things that may breed him worfer inconveniencies Or if he cannot be so rid of them that then thirdly he resolve to go on according to the more profitable perswasion of his mind and despise those scruples And this he may do with a good Conscience not only in things commanded him by lawful Authority but even in things indifferent and arbitrary and wherein he is left to his own liberty REASONS Of the present JUDGMENT OF THE University of OXFORD Concerning The Solemn League and Covenant The Negative Oath The Ordinances concerning Discipline and Worship Approved by general consent in a full Convocation Iune 1. 1647. And presented to Consideration LONDON Printed for Richard Marriott 1678. A Solemn League and Covenant for Reformation and Defence of Religion the honour and happiness of the King and the Peace and Safety of the three Kingdoms England Scotland and Ireland WE Noblemen Barons Knights Gentlemen Citizens Burgesses Ministers of the Gospel and Commmons 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 the advancement of the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ the honour and happiness of the King's Majesty and his Posterity and the true publick Liberty Safety and Peace of the Kingdoms wherein every ones private Devotion is included and calling to mind the treacherous and bloody Plots Conspiracies Attempts and Practices of the Enemies of God against the true Religion and how much their rage power and presumption are of late and at this time increased and exercised whereof the deplorable estate of the Church and Kingdom of Ireland the distressed estate of the Church and 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 Protestations and Sufferings for the 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 God's People in other Nations after mature deliberation resolved and determined to

or may hereafter concern us namely That in his last sad Sermon on the Scaffold at his death he having freely pardoned all his Enemies and humbly begg'd of God to Pardon them and besought those present to pardon and pray for him yet he seem'd to accuse the Magistrates of the City for suffering a sort of wretched people that could not known why he was condemned to go visibly up and down to gather hands to a Petition That the Parliament would hasten his Execution And having declar'd how unjustly he thought himself to be condemned and accus'd for endeavouring to bring in Popery for that was one of the Accusations for which he died he declar'd with sadness That the several Sects and Divisions then in England which he had laboured to prevent were like to bring the Pope a far greater harvest than he could ever have expected without them And said these Sects and Divisions introduce prophaneness under the cloak of an imaginary Religion and that we have lost the substance of Religion by changing it into Opinion and that by these means this Church which all the Iesuits machinations could not ruine was fall'n into apparent danger by those which were his Accusers To this purpose he spoke at his death for this more of which the Reader may view his last sad Sermon on the Scaffold And 't is here mentioned because his dear Friend Dr. Sanderson seems to demonstrate the same in his two large and remarkable Prefaces before his two Volumes of Sermons and seems also with much sorrow to say the same again in his last Will made when he apprehended himself to be very near his death And these Covenanters ought to take notice of it and to remember that by the late wicked War began by them Dr. Sanderson was ejected out of the Professors Chair in Oxford and that if he had continued in it for he lived 14 years after both the Learned of this and other Nations had been made happy by many remarkable Cases of Conscience so rationally stated and so briefly so clearly and so convincingly determin'd that Posterity might have joyed and boasted that Dr. Sanderson was born in this Nation for the ease and benefit of all the Learned that shall be born after him But this benefit is so like time past that they are both irrecoverably lost I should now return to Boothby Pannel where we left Dr. Hammond and Dr. Sanderson together but neither can be found there For the first was in his Journey to London and the second seiz'd upon the day after his Friends departure and carried Prisoner to Lincoln then a Garison of the Parliaments For the pretended reason of which Commitment I shall give this following account There was one Mr. Clarke the Minister of Alington a Town not many miles from Boothby Pannel who was an active man for the Parliament and Covenant one that when Belvoire Castle then a Garison for the Parliament was taken by a party of the King's Soldiers was taken in it made a Prisoner of War in Newark then a Garison of the Kings a man so active and useful for his party that they became so much concern'd for his inlargement that the Committee of Lincoln sent a Troop of Horse to seize and bring Dr. Sanderson a Prisoner to that Garison and they did so And there he had the happiness to meet with many that knew him so well as to treat him kindly but told him He must continue their Prisoner till he should purchase his own inlargement by procuring an Exchange for Mr. Clarke then Prisoner in the King's Garison of Newark There were many Reasons given by the Doctor of the Injustice of his Imprisonment and the Inequality of the Exchange but all were uneffectual For done it must be or he continue a Prisoner And in time done it was upon the following Conditions First that Dr. Sanderson and Mr. Clarke being Exchanged should live undisturb'd at their own Parishes and of either were injur'd by the Soldiers of the contrary party the other having notice of it should procure him a Redress by having satisfaction made for his loss or for any other injury or if not he to be us'd in the same kind by the other party Nevertheless Dr. Sanderson could neither live safe nor quietly being several times plundered and once wounded in three places but he apprehending the remedy might turn to a more intolerable burthen by impatience or complying forbore both and possess'd his Soul in a contented quietness without the least repining But though he could not enjoy the safety he expected by this Exchange yet by his Providence that can bring good out of evil it turn'd so much to his advantage that whereas his Living had been sequestred from the year 1644. and continued to be so till this time of his Imprisonment he by the Articles of War in this Exchange for Mr. Clarke procur'd his Sequestration to be recall'd and by that means injoy'd a poor but contented subsistence for himself wife and children till the happy Restoration of our King and Church In this time of his poor but contented privacy of life his Casuistical learning peaceful moderation and sincerity became so remarkable that there were many that apply'd themselves to him for Resolution in Cases of Conscience some known to him many not some requiring satisfaction by Conference others by Letters so many that his life became almost as restless as their minds yet he denied no man And if it be a truth which holy Mr. Herbert says That all worldly joys seem less when compared with shewing mercy or doing kindnesses then doubtless Dr. Sanderson might have boasted for relieving so many restless and wounded Consciences which as Solomon says are a burthen that none can bear though their fortitude may sustain their other Infirmities and if words cannot express the joy of a Conscience relieved from such restless Agonies then Dr. Sanderson might rejoyce that so many were by him so clearly and conscientiously satisfied for he denied none and would often praise God for that ability and as often for the occasion and that God had inclin'd his heart to do it to the meanest of any of those poor but precious Souls for which his Saviour vouchsafed to be crucified Some of those very many Cases that were resolved by Letters have been preserv'd and printed for the benefit of Posterity as namely 1. Of the Sabbath 2. Marrying with a Recusant 3. Of unlawful Love 4. Of a Military life 5. Of Scandal 6. Of a Bond taken in the King's Name 7. Of the Ingagement 8. Of a rash Vow But many more remain in private hands of which one is of Symony and I wish the World might see it that it might undeceive some Patrons who think they have discharg'd that great and dangerous trust both to God and man if they take no money for a Living though it may be parted with for other ends less justifiable And in this time of his retirement when the

was That he declin'd reading many but what he did read were well chosen and read so often that he became very familiar with them and said they were chiefly three Aristotle's Rhetorick Aquinas's Secunda Secundae and Tully but chiefly his Offices which he had not read over less than 20 times and could at this Age say without Book And told him also the learned Civilian Doctor Zouch who died lately had writ Elementa jurisprudentiae which was a Book that he could also say without Book and that no wise man could read it too often or love or commend too much and told him these had been his toyl But for himself he always had a natural love to Genealogies and Heraldry and that when his thoughts were harassed with any perplext Studies he left off and turned to them as a recreation and that his very recreation had made him so perfect in them that he could in a very short time give an account of the Descent Arms Antiquity of any Family of the Nobility or Gentry of this Nation Before I give an account of Dr. Sanderson's last sickness I desire to tell the Reader that he was of a healthful constitution chearful and mild of an even temper very moderate in his diet and had had little sickness till some few years before his death but was then every Winter punish'd with a Diarrhea which left him not till warm weather return'd and remov'd it And this distemper did as he grew elder seize him oftner and continue longer with him But though it weakned him yet it made him rather indispos'd than sick and did no way disable him from studying indeed too much In this decay of his strength but not of his memory or reason for this distemper works not upon the understanding he made his last Will of which I shall give some account for confirmation of what hath been said and what I think convenient to be known before I declare his death and burial He did in his last Will give an account of his Faith and Perswasion in point of Religion and Church Government in these very words I Robert Sanderson Dr. of Divinity an unworthy Minister of Iesus Christ and by the providence of God Bishop of Lincoln being by the long continuance of an habitual distemper brought to a great bodily weakness and faintness of spirits but by the great mercy of God without any bodily pain otherwise or decay of understanding do make this my Will and Testament written all with my own hand revoking all former Wills by me heretofore made if any such shall be found First I commend my Soul into the hands of Almighty God as of a faithful Creator which I humbly beseech him mercifully to accept looking upon it not as it is in it self infinitely polluted with sin but as it is redeemed and purged with the precious blood of his only beloved Son and my most sweet Saviour Iesus Christ in confidence of whose merits and mediation alone it is that I cast my self upon the mercy of God for the pardon of my sins and the hopes of eternal life And here I do profess that as I have lived so I desire and by the grace of God resolve to dye in the Communion of the Catholick Church of Christ and a true Son of the Church of England which as it stands by Law established to be both in Doctrine and Worship agreeable to the Word of God and in the most and most material Points of both conformable to the faith and practice of the godly Churches of Christ in the primitive and purer times I do firmly believe led so to do not so much from the force of custom and education to which the greatest part of mankind owe their particular different perswasions in point of Religion as upon the clear evidence of truth and reason after a serious and unpartial examination of the grounds as well of Popery as Puritanism according to that measure of understanding and those opportunities which God hath afforded me and herein I am abundantly satisfied that the Schism which the Papists on the one hand and the Superstition which the Puritan on the other hand lay to our charge are very justly chargeable upon themselves respectively Wherefore I humbly beseech Almighty God the Father of Mercies to preserve the Church by his power and providence in peace truth and godliness evermore to the worlds end which doubtless he will do if the wickedness and security of a sinful people and particularly those sins that are so rise and seem daily to increase among us of Unthankfulness Riot and Sacriledge do not tempt his patience to the contrary And I also farther humbly beseech him that it would please him to give unto our gracious Sovereign the Reverend Bishops and the Parliament timely to consider the great danger that visibly threatens this Church in point of Religion by the late great increase of Popery and in point of Revenue by sacrilegious enclosures and to provide such wholesome and effectual remedies as may prevent the same before it be too late And for a further manifestation of his humble thoughts and desires they may appear to the Reader by another part of his Will which follows As for my corruptible Body I bequeath it to the Earth whence it was taken to be decently buried in the Parish Church of Bugden towards the upper end of the Chancel upon the second or at the farthest the third day after my decease and that with as little noise pomp and charge as may be without the invitation of any person how near soever related unto me other than the Inhabitants of Bugden without the unnecessary expence of Escocheons Gloves Ribons c. and without any Blacks to be hung any where in or about the House or Church other than a Pulpit Cloth a Hearse Cloth and a Mourning Gown for the Preacher whereof the former after my Body shall be interred to be given to the Preacher of the Funeral Sermon and the latter to the Curat of the Parish for the time being And my will further is That the Funeral Sermon be preached by my own Houshold Chaplain containing some wholesome discourse concerning Mortality the Resurrection of the Dead and the last Iudgment and that he shall have for his pains 5 l. upon condition that he speak nothing at all concerning my person either good or ill other than I my self shall direct only signifying to the Auditory that it was my express will to have it so And it is my will that no costly Monument be erected for my memory but only a fair flot Marble stone to be laid over me with this Inscription in legible Roman Characters Depositum Roberti Sanderson nuper Lin●●lniencis Episcopi qui obiit Anno Domini MDCLXII aetatis suae septuagesimo sexto Hic requiescit in spe beatae resurrectionis This manner of burial although I cannot but foresee it will prove unsatisfactory to sundry my nearest Friends and Relations and be

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 I. THat we shall sincerely really and constantly through the Grace of God endeavour 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 endeavour 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 endeavour the extirpation of Popery Prelacy that is Church Government by Archbishops Bishops their Chancellours and Commissaries Deans Deans and Chapters Archdeacons and all other Ecclesiastical Officers depending on that Hierarchy Superstition Heresie Schism Profaneness and whatsoever shall be found to be contrary to sound Doctrine and the power of Godliness lest we partake in other mens sins and thereby be in danger to receive of their plagues and that the Lord may be one and his Name one in the three Kingdoms III. We shall with the same sincerity reality and constancy in our several Vocations endeavour 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 King's 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 Majestie 's just power and greatness IV. We shall also with all faithfulness endeavour 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 Progenitours is by the good Providence of God granted unto us and hath been lately concluded and settled by both Parliaments we shall each one of us according to our place and interest endeavour that they may remain conjoyned in a firm Peace and union to all Posterity And that Justice may be done upon the wilfull 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 Kingdoms 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 terrour to be divided and withdrawn from this blessed Union and Conjunction whether to make defection to the contrary part or to give our selves to a detestable indifferency or 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 days of our lives zealously and constantly continue therein against all opposition and promote the same according to our power against all lets and impediments whatsoever and what we are not able our selves to suppress 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 And because these Kingdoms are guilty of many sins and provocations against God and his Son Iesus Christ as is too manifest by our present distresses and dangers the fruits thereof We profess and declare before God and the world our unfeigned desire to be humbled for our own sins 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 nor to walk worthy of him in our lives which are the causes of our sins and transgressions so much abounding amongst 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 the example of 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 that 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 Antichristian tyranny to joyn in the same or like Association and Covenant to the glory of God the enlargement of the Kingdom of Iesus Christ and the peace and tranquillity of Christian Kingdoms and Commonwealths The Negatie Oath I A. B. do swear from my heart That I will not directly nor indirectly adhere unto or willingly assist the King in this War or in this Cause against the Parliament nor any Forces raised without the consent of the two Houses of Parliament in this Cause or War And I do likewise swear That my coming and submitting my self under the Power and Protection of the Parliament is without any manner of Design whatsoever to the prejudice of the proceedings of this present Parliament and without the direction privity or advice of the King or any of his Council or Officers other than what I have now made known So help me God and the Contents of this Book Reasons why the Vniversity of Oxford cannot submit to the Covenant the Negative Oath the Ordinance concerning Discipline and Directory mentioned in the late Ordinance of Parliament for the Visitation of that place WHereas by an Ordinance of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament for the Visitation and Reformation of the University