which flows from any sinful Supremany but that he could not do His 5th supposes that they have accepted of the Instructions which is a false supposition and before refuted The paying of money to the Clerks in his Parenthesis pag. 106. was not worth the mentioning These Clerks seek it not by the Prelates Authority but upon the Councils appointment backed with charges of horning and whether it be rather eligible to pay a little mony or to be put to the horn and taken with caption let any sober person judge The scruples that the Author and some others have put in the peoples heads about paying of Stipends to the Conformists and Sessors have wasted some peoples Estates and tends to waste their Consciences for when they are quartered on and eaten up and plundered they are driven to do what they thought sinful and this disposes them to do things that are truly sinful upon temptations and when they are by necessity driven to pay they who wait for their halting alledge they have no Conscience and if they were put to it in other things they would do all that would be required of them Pag. 106. we have his 9th head of Arguments in which he undertakes to prove That the acceptance of the Indulgence is against our Covenants but he hath not proven either here or elsewhere That the Practice of the indulged Ministers was a breach of Covenant The Particulars which he brings to prove this charge have been all refuted above and it 's needless and would be tedious to the Reader to repeat the same things For what he saith page 107. in his fifth Section of the design of the Indulgers to divide though it were proven it would make nothing against the practice of the indulged Ministers for what they did did no ways tend to division They declared themselves before the Council to be of the same Judgment they were of before and they still preach the same Doctrine are for the same Worship Discipline Government They are against Popery Prelacy Error Schism c. as they were before the Indulgence The Covenant obliges to continue in adhering to the good things and opposing the evils mentioned in it but does not oblige the Covenanters that they shall accept of no favour or of a righting of any wrong done to them except they get all the same favour and right done to them at the same time but I remember I spoke of this before Pag. 107. We have his 10th head of Arguments where he undertakes to prove That the indulged Ministers condemn themselves His first particular to prove this is false the indulged Ministers acceptance of the relaxation of the Civil Restraint does not condemn either field or house-meetings In his second he grants That all the Indulged Ministers except one condemn the Supremacy as an usurpation but saith he they have accepted that which purely floweth from the Supremacy and refers to his third head of Arguments Ans 1. This one whom he excepts if he had been alive would have answered for himself but seeing he is at rest I am obliged to do him right in shewing what was his sense of the Supremacy and I shall the rather do it because the Author of the Cup of cold Water says He hath beat his brains to shape a beautiful Mask for the Supremacy and to put a sufferable sense upon it and seeks to seat the eyes of others The Author of the Cup of cold Water casts him as no Seer and not only rejects him from being the man of his Counsel but directs all the servants and people of God to stand aloof from him as one who stands not in the Counsel of God who will seduce pervert and insnare whose breath is contagious and whose speech bewrays him to have the botch of the Court-Creed running upon him Thus he Stigmatizes deposes and excommunicates him satis pro imperio quisquis es It seems the Author of the Cup of cold Water hath neither known that Minister nor yet his opinion concerning the Supremacy and so he hath ignorantly rushed into a multitude of absurdities The Minister whom he thus abuses was a godly able painful Minister of the Gospel and his memory is savoury to those who were acquainted with him he was well versed in Polemick Divinity a man who would not be affrighted or boasted with toome empty words I think I see how he would have smiled at the Author of the Cup of cold Waters Eccho alas it was not Eccho's but Ergo's which he regarded it was not empty sounds whether direct or reflex but sound Reason which would have prevailed with him As for his singular opinion it is true in his answer to the Countrymans Scruples he declares That he doth not think the Supremacy claimed by the Magistrate to be a spiritual Supremacy and gives several Reasons why he conceives it cannot be expounded in that sense but it 's as true that he is so far from putting a beautiful Mask upon the Supremacy That he declares this absolute power established in the King and his Successors to do what they will in Church-affairs without either Council or Parliament is and will be matter of astonishment and that the Act of establishing it is more dangerous than if it did establish Erastianism or the spiritual Supremacy And the Reason of this is clear because although Erastus ' did absurdly imagine That the Magistrate might himself exercise Ecclesiastical Functions or imploy others to exercise these Functions in his name yet he was so far from thinking that the Magistrate might dispose upon and order things sacred according to his pleasure that he hath often declared That he ought to order things sacred according to the prescription of the word of God In his answer to Beza pag. 125. of that Edition printed at Amsterdam Anno 1649. after he hath ascribed all the Government of the Church to the Magistrate he adds Yet as in taking the care of things profane it is not lawful to the Magistrate to pass the bounds of Equity Justice and Honesty that is the prescription of the Laws and Statutes of the Common-wealth so in disposing and ordering things sacred or things pertaining to the worship of God it is far less lawful for the Magistrate in any part to depart from the Prescription of the word of God which he ought to follow as a rule in all things and never to decline from it even in a hairs breadth Whereas by this Act of Supremacy saith the Minister who answered the Countrymans Scruples a King if he will may bring in Popery yea overturn all Religion without consent either of Council or Parliament as we may see in the example of Jeroboam who caused Israel to sin by setting up a Worship of his own devising Is this a beautiful mask shaped for the Supremamacy the Author of the Cup of cold Water should be ashamed and humbled for these absurdities that through misinformation he hath run into is it not strange that one
that right whom he had wronged before and besides is obliged to make reparation for the wrong done but much less could he be obliged by his silence or could his silence be interpreted to be a consent to it But the Indulged Ministers need not this Answer for they witnessed a good Confession before the Rulers If he had formed his similitude thus A Father restrains his Son from some external duty in Religion which the Son is called to of God and when he takes off the restraint takes upon him to give Rules of worshipping God to his Son which the Lord hath not given the similitude would have been more to the purpose And if the Son had accepted of the freedom from the former restraint and withal had told his Father he had full Prescriptions from God how to worship and that the matters of Divine worship are not to be ordered by the will and pleasure of Parents but by the Will of God none would imagine that the Son had accepted of these Instructions Pag. 90. He undertakes to shew how contrary the acceptance of the Indulgence is to Presbyterian Principles If he would have disputed against what the Indulged Ministers did he should have disputed against their use-making of the relaxation of the civil restraint as was said before But he still mistakes the question and plays in the general confused words of accepting of the Indulgence Veterator ludit in generalibus He hath wasted much time and Paper in vain in fighting against an imaginary accepting of the Indulgence which is a man of straw of his own making and he may use it as he pleaseth We have already spoken of the qualifications which he speaks of in his first Section and are not to weary our selves or the Reader with needless Repetitions In that same pag. Sect. 2. He alledgeth That the Magistrate did all which belongs to Church Judicatories in conveying Ministerially the Office and Power to persons qualified and in granting a potestative mission in sending the Indulged to such and such places and that the Council only clothed them with Authority for that effect An. 1. These are still his own fancies and dictates for he cannot prove from the words that the Council used that they did assume any such thing as a Power of potestative mission In the first Indulgence they appoint Ministers to preach and exercise the other Functions of the Ministry at such and such Kirks as he relates pag. 19. In the second Indulgence they appoint the Ministers to repair to such and such Parishes and to remain therein confined permitting and allowing them to preach and exercise the other parts of their Ministerial Function in the Parishes to which they are confined Now the words of appointing allowing permitting to preach import no potestative mission The Magistrate may in some cases not only permit allow appoint but compel Ministers to preach yea they may place them which is much more than appointing them to preach If any please to read the Book of the Discipline of the Church of Scotland they will find in the first Book of Discipline in the 4th head of that Book concerning Ministers and their lawful Election and under the title of Admission and toward the end of that title these words That their Honours they mean the great Council of Scotland to whom the Book was directed were bound by their Authority to compel such men as had gifts and graces able to edifie the Church of God to bestow them where there was greatest necessity And after we cannot prescribe unto your Honours how that ye shall distribute the Ministers and learned men which God hath already sent unto you And after they say and therefore of your Honours we require in Gods Name that by your Authority ye compel all men to whom God hath given any Talent to perswade by wholesome Doctrine to bestow the same if they be called by the Church to the advancement of Christs Glory And afterward they desire them to assign unto their chief workmen nâ—â— only Towns but Provinces And in the head of Superintendents they think it expedient in that necessity that their Honours by themselves nominate so many as may serve the forewritten Provinces and that the same Ministers being called in your presence shall be by you and such as your Honours pleases to call unto you for consultation in that case appointed to their Provinces And in the last Title of that Section they say Of one thing we must admonish your Lordships that in the appointing of the Superintendents for this present ye disappoint not your chief Towns and where Learning is exercised This first Book of Discipline was approven by the Assembly met at Edenburgh July 30. An. 1562. And in the second Book of Discipline which was often examined in several Assemblies and appointed by the Assembly at Glasgow April 24. 1581. to be registred among the Acts of the Assembly and to remain there ad perpetuam rei memoriam and the Copies thereof taken out by every Presbytery and every Minister was by the Assembly August 4th 1590. appointed to subscribe the said Book of Discipline in the first Chapter of that Book it 's said The Civil Power should command the Spiritual to exercise And Chap. 10. which is the Office of the Christian Magistrate it 's said That it pertains to the Office of the Christian Magistrate to see that the Kirk be not invaded nor hurt by false Teachers nor the rooms thereof occupied by dumb Dogs or idle Bellies and to make Laws and Constitutions agreeable to Gods Word for the Advancement of the Kirk and Polity thereof without usurping any thing that pertains not to the Civil Sword but belongs to the Offices that are meerly Ecclesiastical as is the Ministry of the Word and Sacraments using Ecclesiastick Discipline and the Spiritual Execution thereof or any part of the Power of the Spiritual Keys which our Master gave to the Apostles and their true Successors And although Kings and Princes that be godly sometimes by their own Authority when the Kâ—râ— is corrupted and all things out of order place Mâ—nisters and restore the true Service of the Lord after the example of some godly Kings of Judah and divers godly Kings and Emperours also in the light of the New Testament yet where the Ministry of the Kirk is once lawfully instituted and they that are placed do their Office faithfully all godly Princes and Magistrates ought to hear and obey their voice and reverence the Majesty of the Son of God speaking in them I shall but subjoyn one other Testimony which may be instead of many and that is the Testimony of that man of God Mr. Welsh who was very tender of Church-priviledges in his Epistle Dedicatory to King James prefixed to his Book against Mr. Gilbert Brown Priest he says to the King Follow these examples Sir send Pastors throughout all the Borders of your Kingdom to teach your Subjects the Law of the Lord and the
Gospel of their Salvation establish Religion and Justice in all the Cities of your Kingdom cause the waters of Life to run from the heart of your Kingdom unto the Borders thereof establish Pastors in all your Kingdom strengthen them in their Offices and speak to their hearts And afterward in the next page he saith to the King I have heard your Majestâ— gravely protest before God in two General Assemblies That it was one of your Majesties greatest desires and ye were even as it were ambitious of thâ— work to plant every Parish within your Kingdomâ— with a Pastor that the Posterity to come mighâ— say That King James the sixth had done such notable Work in his days Confirm your self Sir in that purpose for ye know who hath said I will honour them that honour me Thus we see Mr. Welsh makes use of the words sending and establishing Pastors and does not find fault with the Kings using the word of planting Parishes Mr. Welsh by the Kings sending doth not mean a potestative Mission he understood himself better than so He knew the King could not ordain Ministers but the Kings sending is his commanding his appointing Ministers to go and preach throughout the Kingdom but if the Council in the Acts of Indulgence had made use of the word of sending and other words in the Books of Discipline O what out-crying would some folk have made seeing they make the simple words of appointing and permitting to be no less than a potestative Mission which is a manifest abuse and perverting of Words It is well known that the Papists give Magistrates much less than they should in Church-matters yea they make them meer Executioners of Kirkmens Decrees yea some of their Writers have not been ashamed to compare Kings and Emperours to beasts in respect of their Kirkmen Let any read Prin's Preface to his Book called a Quenchcoal and he will see in that Preface which was directed to the late King Pag. 44 45 46. he will find that Becanâ—s calls the Pope a Shepherd and Kings and Emperours Dogs of this Shepherd and Gasper Sâ—iâ—â—pius calls the Bishops the men who are the Mulietiers and Ass-drivers and the Catholicks Asses and the Catholick Kings Asses with Bells and Charles the Great he says was a far greater and wiser Ass than these Kings who cast off the Popes yoak And yet though they make Kings and Emperours meer Servants to the Pope and Bishops implicitely and blindly to execute their Decrees yet they grant that the Magistrate may apply the Church-men to the use and exercise of their Office yea even the Jesuits who are most addicted to the Pope grant this as Becanus the Jesuit in his Manual of Controversies of the Time Book 5. Chap. 19. pag. 746. and withal shews that this is the common use among them hoc passim apud Catholicos in usu est From what hath been cited from the Books of Discipline we may see that the Church of Scotland did not look upon the Magistrates appointing and much less on their permitting Ministers to preach as a potestative mission or as any part of the power of the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven The Author of the History of the Indulgence mentions not that I remember what I have cited out of the first Book of Discipline he only pag. 116. objects in the 3d. objection what is cited out of the the second Book of Discipline Chap. 10. concerning Magistrates placing of Ministers when the Kirk is corrupted and all things are out of order and he answers That in such times Magistrates may do much more than at other times yet saith he I suppose none for shame can make use of such a Concession now I suspect the Author hath been gravelled and picked with this Objection and therefore he would shuffe it off with scorn and disdain but this is a piece of Art in some to seem to make nothing of these objections to which they see they can give no satisfactory answer but when any will without passion consider this passage in the second Book of Discipline they will see that the placing of Ministers implies more than permitting them or appointing them to preach for though the Magistrate appoint a Minister to preach in such a Parish if the Parish do not invite him or if the Invitation be not satisfactory to the Minister he may forbear to go to that Parish to preach but when a Minister is placed he is actually setled in a Parish and therefore the Book of Discipline allows of the Magistrates doing more than permitting and appointing Ministers to preach Again it appears from this That the Magistrates permitting or appointing Ministers to preach in a Parish is not in the Judgment of the Kirk of Scotland contrary to Presbyterian Principles for the Authors of the second Book of Discipline and the General Assembly of Scotland who examined that Book so carefully and appointed all the Ministers of the Church of Scotland to subscribe it understood what were the Principles of Presbyterian Government better than this Author did And these great Seers did see no abomination of desolation in Magistrates placing Ministers and much less did they or could they see it in their permitting them or appointing them to preach when the Church is corrupted and all things out of order but why thinks he that none can for shame make use of that Concession now He gives this Reason Seeing says he our Church was constituted and well ordered and had all her Rights and Privlledges But I wonder that he for shame could make use of this answer If he could have said Seeing our Church is constituted and well ordered and hath all her Rights it had been a pertinent answer if it had been true but when he says only our Church was constituted and well ordered and had all her Rights he grants that the Church now is not constituted nor ordered nor hath not her Rights he clearly yields the cause and acknowledges that our Church is in such a case as that is of which the second Book of Discipline speaks He might have considered that the Readers of his Book would be very sensless if they could not see a difference betwixt what once was and what now is but this was good enough to put off simple people who cannot distinguish betwixt wat is past and what is present But he adds When the Magistrates with their own hands have overturned all shall this Objection be made use of to countenance their after-practises that were indeed to teach Magistrates a way how to usurp and take to themselves all Church-power viz. let them once by Iniquity and Tyranny break the glorious Order of the Church and bring all into Confusion and then forsooth they may warrantably assume to themselves an exercise all Church-power according to their mind Ans He seems to insinuate that the second Book of Discipline yields that the Magistrate may assume all Church-power which is an insinuation very injurious to
sins beyond the bounds of Truth and Soberness But they must also magnifie and multiply them above the multitude of the great Mercies of God Who can limit the Sovereign grace of God who hath Mercy on whom he will have Mercy The example of Manasseh's Repentance might have restrained them from this bold encroaching upon the Sovereignty of Free Grace 12. It 's a terrible stretch that they say they have shewed their enmities against all Righteousness this is a part of the Description of Elimas the Sorcerer Acts 13.10 They cannot but be exceedingly blinded with prejudice against the Magistrate who sees not some Righteousness in the exercise of their Government 13. If Private Persons may take upon them because of the sins of their Superiours to disown their Authority and take Power to themselves and execute Judgment upon these who are their Parents Masters Magistrates this would overturn the Foundations of all Humane Society and fill the World with Confusion Though Saul was an ungodly man and Persecuted David without a cause and drove him out of the Land from the Ordinances and exposed him to the hazard of serving other gods Though he unjustly and very summarily slew eighty five Priests of the Lord and contrary to the manner of the Kingdom which obliged him to maintain Religion and Righteousness did put the Foundations of the Earth out of course yet David did not think himself obliged to disown Saul to be King nor did he think himself obliged to kill Saul when he had Power and Opportunity to do it he will not suffer his Men to do it 1 Sam. 24.6 7. 1 Sam. 26.8 9. He did not think that his killing of Saul was the way to free the Land from Guiltiness yea his heart smote him for cutting off the lap of his Garment He judged Abner worthy of Death because he had not been careful to preserve Saul's Life And though David was appointed of God to be a blessed Instrument of Reformation and Saul stood in his way yet he will not destroy him but waits Gods leisure There were many ill Kings in Judah but the Lord never directs private Persons to disown them and dethrone and kill them Ahaz is frequently called by the Lord King Ahaz notwithstanding of all the ill he had done and was doing Daniel calls Darius King after the Blasphemous Decree which he had Signed Christ directs to give Tribute to Caesar and gives it himself And Paul owns Nero's Judgment-seat and Appeals to Caesar and what Monsters Tiberius and Nero were is known to all who know the Histories of the Roman Emperours If this Device of nullifying the Authority of Rulers because of their faults real or alledged were put in practice it would quickly turn the World upside-down For though Magistrates as Gods Vicegerents be singularly obliged to represent the Holiness and Righteousness of God in the exercise of their Government yet if we consider that they have the same Corruption by nature which others have and that they have greater temptations than others and that there are often with them men who for their own ends will tempt them to sins which they would never have thought upon As for Example That abominable Decree which Daniel's Enemies cheatingly obtruded upon Darius as a great Complement and when they have gotten them to Enact any thing that is not right they will alledge they are in point of Honour bound to maintain their own deed And seeing there are many Flatterers who will praise all that great Persons do as if it were right And seeing faithful Counsellors who singly design the Glory of God and the true Happiness and Interest of Rulers are very rare Dum non vult alter timet alter dicere verum Regibus And considering how many provocations Rulers use to get by bitter invectives and scurrillous Pamphlets which tend to render them contemptible and by slighting and misconstruing their favours and by affronting of their Authority These things being considered I mean their inward Corruption and allurements to sin upon the one hand and irritating Provocations upon the other hand it 's like enough that they who will nullifie their Authority because of their faults will not want pretences and they who are of this humour of Deposing Rulers if they find not faults enough they will make where they want or they will magnifie their faults and make them worse than they are If Men of this disposition made Insurrection against Moses and alledged upon him who was the meekest man upon Earth and whom God had extraordinarily raised up That he lifted up himself above the Congregation of the Lord and that he had brought them out of a Land flowing with Milk and Honey to kill them in the Wilderness and made himself altogether a Prince over them and had not brought them unto a Land flowing with Milk and Honey nor given them Inheritance of Fields and Vineyards And that he would put out or bore out their Eyes If they found or made so many pretences against Moses who was so blameless O! how many faults would they find in the Persons and Government of the generality of Rulers through the World in these last times in which Iniquity does so much abound in Persons of all ranks Preach But if Kings and Rulers do not what they ought to do but do the contrary then the Subjects are free from any Oath of Allegiance and from any Covenant made to preserve their Persons and Authority In the National Covenant we swear to defend the Kings Person and Authority with our Goods Bodies and Lives in the defence of Christ his Evangel Liberties of the Countrey Ministration of Justice and Punishment of Iniquity against all Enemies within this Realm and without as we desire our God to be a strong and merciful defender to us in the day of our Death and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ And in the Solemn League and Covenant we swear to preserve and defend the Kings Majesties Person and Authority in the Preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms And thus our Promise to preserve and defend his Person and Authority is restricted and when he does not what is his part we are not bound to own or defend him and his Authority As when two agrees that the one shall pay so much money upon the others delivering so much Corn or Meal if the Victual be not delivered by the one the other is under no Obligation to pay the Money Min. That comparison may beguile simple People but it 's strange that any Preacher should be deceived with it for this is clear that there is no other ground upon which the one is obliged to pay the Money but the delivering of the Victual by the other according to their agreement But all Inferiours Servants Children Subjects are bound by the Law of God and Nations to honour their Superiours Masters Parents Magistrates although their Superiours be undutiful as appears from 1 Pet. 2.18 19
20. Servants be Subject to your Masters with all fear not only to the good but to the froward or perverse as it 's also rendered This Scripture is cited in the larger Catechism in explication of the fifth Commandment to shew what is the Honour that Inferiours owe to Superiours If the miscarriages of Magistrates Masters Parents or the miscarriages of Inferiours did dissolve the Relation and make it void And if the miscarriages of Married Persons did nullifie the Marriage-relation and loose the Party wronged from all Obligation towards the Party that 's injurious this would quickly dissolve the Bonds of all Humane Society and make Men like a multitude of loose Cartel If Subjects were not bound to give due Obedience to Magistrates except they did preserve the true Religion then all the Directions that Christ and his Apostles gave to Honour and be Subject to and pay Tribute to and pray for the Magistrates and Powers that then were did not oblige the People to whom they were first directed for all the Magistrates then were Infidels and Idolaters In the Confession of Faith Chap. 23. Art 4. It 's the Duty of People to pray for Magistrates to Honour their Persons to pay them Tribute and other dues to obey their Lawful Commands and to be Subject to their Authority for Conscience sake Infidelity or difference of Religion doth not make void the Magistrates just and Legal Authority nor free the People from their due obedience to him And the General Assembly Anno 1639. in their Supplication to the Commissioner and Council say We have Solemnly sworn and do swear not only our mutual Concurrence and Assistance for the cause of Religion and to the utmost of our Power with our Means and Lives to stand to the Defence of our dread Sovereign his Person and Authority in the Preservation of true Religion Liberties and Laws of this Kirk and Kingdom but also in every Cause which may concern His Majesties Honour shall concur with our Friends and followers as we shall be required Preach Subjects are not obliged to concur with and assist Rulers in doing ill Min. That 's true for to concur with them in assisting them to do evil were to partake of their sin But though we may not partake of their evil yet that will not follow that we must not maintain their Person and Authority Although the Israelites would not assist and concur with Saul in destroying Jonathan but rescued him yet they thought themselves bound to defend Saul's Person and Authority It 's one thing not to concur with Superiours in evil and another thing to destroy their Persons and their Power because they do evil But ye cannot deny but the Covenant obliges to defend and maintain the King in so far as he maintains the true Religion and Righteousness and I think ye will not deny that the King doth in part maintain the true Religion and Righteousness and therefore ye are bound to defend his Person and Authority and how can ye defend his Person and Authority in doing any good if ye destroy his Person and Power as is designed and sworn in this Band. There are many other Absurdities in that fourth Article of the Band which were tedious to repeat and refute In the fifth Article they say We then being made free by God and their own doings he giving the Law and they giving the transgression of that Law which is the cause that we are loosed from all Obligations Divine and Civil to them It 's strange that men who cry out against these who break other Articles of the Covenant should so boldly shake off the Obligation of the third Article of the Covenant and so increase the sin of the Nation by adding the breach of the Civil part of the Covenant to the breach of the Religious part of it To make out what they assert it 's not enough to prove that the Rulers have transgressed the Law of God for they must also shew from the Law that it is the will of God that Subjects should upon such and such transgressions shake off all Obligations towards such Rulers But this they have never attempted because they could not I would enquire at them doth every transgression loose these Obligations If not then how many and how great must these transgressions be And then shall a few private Persons who have very little Interest in the Nation determine this Question How many and how great transgressions makes Rulers no Rulers and Subjects no Subjects Then they promise to set up Government and Governours according to the Word of God especially Exod. 18.21 Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the People able Men such as fear God Men of Truth hating Covetousness c. I wish they had pondered Prov. 24.21 22. My Son fear thou the Lord and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change For their Calamity shall rise suddenly and who knoweth the ruine of them both The Dutch Interpreters expound it of these who are addicted to changes and novelties departing from the Obedience which they owe to God and their Lawful Magistrates and rising up in Rebellion against them Moses was King in Jesurun and his setting up subordinate Rulers is no pattern for their shaking off the Yoke of Subjection and setting up Usurpers and an unlawful Government The 16 of Numbers where Subjects do Seditiously exalt themselves against Moses and Aaron quadrats better with their case than the 18 of Exodus where Moses makes subordinate Rulers for his own and the Peoples ease And how could they in Reason expect that able men wise and prudent men fit for Government or men fearing God or men of Truth would undertake to be Governours over them For wise men would see the sin and snare and hazard in breaking down the hedge of Civil or Ecclesiastical Government Eccles 10.8 Men fearing God they also fear the King and fear an Oath and men of Truth will not deal falsely in the matter of their Covenant with God or Man And who but foolish rash Persons would take upon them to Rule such an unruly and disorderly People who had destroyed all Order Civil and Ecclesiastical It 's strange that they durst speak as they do of Kingly Government and Lineal Succession seeing the Lord established both among his People in the House of David the man after his own heart Kingly Government as established in these Nations in which King and Parliament make Laws is a form of Government so excellent that few except Persons byassed with prejudice will find fault with it The faults of Rulers should not be imputed to the form of Government They engage to set up the Judicial Law but they apprehend it would not reach far enough and they reject some parts of it but beside these things which they mention there are several other things which would not suit with us Some even of their Capital Laws have intimate connexion with their Ceremonial Law and derive much of
their strength and equity from it By that Law Fornication in the Priests Daughter was Capital and so was the gathering of sticks upon the Sabbath-day and this seems to be a lesser breach of the Sabbath than the mispending of a great part of the Lords day in drawing up Men and Horse and learning them how to handle their Arms as if the Lords day had been a day of Rendevouz or Weapon-shewing The restoring of four or five-fold would not sufficiently restrain Theft in this Nation The Judicial Law was not given to other Nations See Confes of Faith Chap. 19. Art 4. To them also as a Body Politick he gave sundry Judicial Laws which expired together with the Estate of that People nor obliging any other now further than the general equity thereof may require Our Saviour and the Apostles never offered to impose the Judicial Law upon the Gentiles The Apostle Paul submitted to be Judged by the Roman Law at Caesar's Judgment-Seat and exhorts Christians of all Nations to submit themselves to the Government and wholesom Laws of the Nations in which they lived There have been Hereticks who were for restoring of the Judicial and Ceremonial Law and some wild Persons in the Netherlands have of late written for this Error and there is the more need to take heed of restoring the Judicial Law because of its connexion with the Ceremonial Law This is a strange Age some are seeking to draw the World by Pelagianism and Quakerism to old Paganism and some seeking to draw men under the shadow and vail of Judaism They are not very much concerned though they be called Fifth-Monarchy-men But this contrivance of theirs is so strange that it is hard to find a name for it it 's rather an Anarchy and Confusion than a Government And it 's hoped that it will never have any such proportion to the four Monarchies as to get the name of a Fifth-Monarchy And it is fit that such a Monstrous thing die ere it get a Name I know nothing so like to it as the Insurrection of the Boors in Germany who believed Thomas Munster and Nicholas Stork that God was setting up a new Kingdom in which the Saints should Reign and that the present wicked Magistrates were to be killed and Godly Magistrates set up in their stead These Teachers pretended Revelations and Christian Liberty The poor People believed these delusions and rejected the wholesom Instructions of Luther and Melancthon and in their Fury which they imagined to be true Zeal they would needs fight but when it came to fighting they could neither fight nor flee and in one Summer fifty thousand of them were killed Munster at his Death confessed his Error and exhorted the Princes to use more clemency towards poor Men and so they needed not fear any such hazard and withal exhorted them to read diligently the Book of the Kings If they who contrived this Bond of Confusion had considered the Confession of Faith and the Questions in the larger Catechism which explain the fifth Commandment and the Scriptures confirming the Articles of the 23d Chapter of the Confession and the Answers of the fore-said Questions it might have prevented this furious and mad design Confes Chap. 23. Art 1. God the Supream Lord and King of all the World hath ordained Civil Magistrates c. Rom. 13.1 2 3. Let every Soul be subject to the Higher Powers for there is no Power but of God the Powers that be are ordained of God Whosoever therefore resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation c. 1 Pet. 2.13 14. Submit your selves to every Ordinance of Man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as Supream c. And Art 4. It 's the Duty of People to pray for Magistrates to Honour their Persons to pay them Tribute and other dues to Obey their Lawful Commands and to be Subject to their Authority for Conscience sake Infidelity or difference of Religion doth not make void the Magistrates Just and Legal Authority nor free the People from their due Obedience to him from which Ecclesiastical Persons are not exempted much less hath the Pope any Power or Jurisdiction over them in their Dominions or over any of their People and least of all to deprive them of their Dominions or Lives if he shall judge them to be Hereticks or upon any other pretence whatsoever 1 Tim. 2.1 2. I exhort therefore that first of all Supplications Prayers Intercessions and giving of Thanks be made for all Men for Kings and for all that are in Authority that we may lead a quiet and peaceable Life in all Godliness and Honesty 1 Pet. 2.17 Rom. 13.6 7. For this cause pay you Tribute also c. Titus 3.1 Put them in mind to be Subject to Principalities and Powers to Obey Magistrates 1 Pet. 2.13 14. 16. As free and not using your Liberty as a Cloak of maliciousness but as the Servants of God 1 Kings 2.35 Acts 25.9 10. Then said Paul I stand at Caesar's Judgment-seat where I ought to be judged I Appeal unto Caesar 2 Pet. 2.1.10 11. But there were false Prophets also among the People even as there shall be false Teachers among you But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the dust of Uncleanness and despise Government presumptuous are they self-willed they are not afraid to speak evil of Dignities whereas Angels who are greater in Power and might bring no railing accusation against them before God Jude 8 9 10 11. Likewise also these filthy Dreamers defile the Flesh despise Dominion and speak evil of Dignities Yet Michael the Arch-Angel when contending with the Devil about the Body of Moses durst not bring against him a railing accusation but said the Lord rebuke thee But these speak evil of these things which they know not but what they know naturally as brute Beasts in these things they corrupt themselves Woe unto them for they have gone in the way of Cain and run greedily after the Error of Balaam and perished in the gain-saying of Coâ—e 2 Thes 2.4 Rev. 13.15 16 17. In the larger Catechism Quest Who are meant by Father and Mother in the fifth Commandment Answ By Father and Mother in the fifth Commandment are meant not only Natural Parents but all Superiours in Age and Gifts and especially such as by Gods Ordinance are over us in place of Authority whether in Family Church or Common-wealth and they cite Isa 49.23 And Kings shall be thy Nursing-Fathers and Queens thy Nursing-Mothers Quest Why are Superiours stiled Father and Mother Answ Superiours are stiled Father and Mother both to teach them in all Duties towards their Inferiours like Natural Parents to express love and tenderness to them according to their several Relations and to work Inferiours to a greater willingness and chearfulness in performing their Duties towards their Superiours Quest What is the Honour that Inferiours owe to Superiours Answ The
no magistrate's sending ministers to preach c. doth make them no ministers of Christ Did Ezra cease to be a Scribe and minister of the Lord because Artaxerxes and his seven Councellers sent him to do the work of a Scribe in Judah and Jerusalem Ezr. 7.13 14. For as much as thou art sent of the King and of his seven Councellors Pr. If Artaxerxes had destroyed the Temple and the Worship of God Ezra would not have taken any benefit of such a Decree and Commission Min. What warrant have you for that if Nebuchadnezzar who destroyed the Temple had made a Decree That the Priests and Levites and people should return and worship God at Jerusalem would they have been such fools to refuse to return till Nebuchadnezzar were dead and some other King made such a Decree Did Jeremiah reject the favour which was appointed by Nebuchadnezzar Jer. 39.11 12. and conferred upon him by Nebuzaradan Jer. 40.4 who had burnt the House of the Lord 2 King 25.9 Pr. But these were Heathens who had never professed the true Religion and so had not backslidden Min. The backsliding of Rulers makes them not incapable of doing good afterward Manasseh had been Religiously educated and became monstrously wicked and yet was an instrument of Reformation afterward and Judah did not refuse to serve the Lord because Manasseh who had so fearfully fallen away did command them to serve the Lord 2 Chron. 33.16 Pr. Manasseh repented Minist But do ye think that if he had commanded Judah to serve God or the Lords Priests to sacrifice to the Lord before he repented that these commands should have been rejected because he was not truly penitent It 's the duty of all Kings whether they be penitent or not to command the Lords ministers and people to serve God The Orthodox ministers who had been banished in the time of the Arrian Persecution and Athanasius among the rest did not refuse to return to the exercise of their ministry upon the Edict of Julian the Apostate who had been a professed Christian and turned Pagan and a despiteful enemy and mocker of Christ and tho' he made that Edict for ill ends yet these godly zealous Servants of God made use of it Ye may read the History in Zozomens Church-History Book 5. Chap. 5. where he shews that he afflicted the Church in all things most bitterly and grievously except that he recalled the Bishops and Priests which were banished in the time of Constantius and that it was said he gave not that command out of mercy or pity but that either they by their mutual contentions might fight against the Church by an intestine War and so fall away from their own Laws and Institutions or that he might wrong the Estimation of Constantius and might raise up hatred against him through the whole Empire c. And Georgius Horsnius in his Ecclesiastick History Pag. 93. saith That Julian recalled Athanasius from Banishment to the place of one George an Arrian a most naughty man who had been slain a little before Athanasius's return There is no man more famous for Learning and Zeal and stedfastness in the Church-History than Athanasius and I am sure if ye have read the History of Julian the Apostate ye will be ashamed to say that any of our Rulers are so ill as he was and yet none of these holy and Learned ministers made any scruple to obey his command when he called them to the work of their ministry If many would compare their practices with the Scripture-rule and examples in Scripture and in Church-History they would find that what they take for light and zeal is but ignorance and an humourous peevishness who would have thought that ever any who had been members of the Church of Scotland that besides the obligation common to them with other Protestant Churches are by solemn Covenants obliged to extirpate Schism and maintain the Kings person and authority would have so far degenerate as to place their zeal and Religion in scarring at the Preaching and Hearing of the Gospel because the ministers who preach it are permitted and allowed to preach it by the magistrates who are bound as magistrates as Christians as Protestants to permit allow countenance protect by their authority the Preaching of the Gospel in this Kingdom Farm Sir I desire ye would return to answer what is said against the Ministers in that sixth Article of the Band. Min. As for what they say of Ministers submitting to the Magistrates censures and saying they would not have done the things they were charged with if they had thought it would have offended them it 's a confused charge and it is not easie to guess what they mean they cannot prove that any of those Ministers have done any thing that will import an acknowledgment that the Magistrate hath power of inflicting Ecclesiastick Censures or of making Ecclesiastick Canons And as for Civil Restraints of Imprisonment and Banishment if they condemn submission to these they will condemn all who have been imprisoned and banished and among the rest the Ministers who went to Holland who did not only passively submit to Banishment but also by their Subscription engaged not to return If any Minister hath done any thing which warrantably might have been forborn or which might have been done as conveniently or more conveniently at another time in another place in a way that would not have irritated or provoked the magistrate if such a person hath made the foresaid acknowledgment who can with reason condemn it for we owe thus much even to any private person whom we should not needlesly provoke to anger if we can conveniently help it but the contrivers of this bond and those who go their way are for needless provocations of the magistrate and if there be many ways of doing what is right upon the matter they will chuse the way that is irritating to the Rulers because it is irritating and shun that way which will not provoke the magistrate as if it were a duty to provoke the magistrate to wrath And if any have needlesly provoked them they will not allow him to give an innocent soft answer to turn away their wrath But it is no wonder that they who are for overthrowing the magistrate and the Government be against all things that make for peace with them or may tend to pacifie them when they are angry and be for grievous words and things which may stir up strife and put evil betwixt the magistrate and subjects What they add That these ministers have departed from the Courts of Christ and subjection to the ministry are meer calumnies Do they think that ministers appearing before the magistrate when called that by the magistrates Civil allowance of the peaceable exercise of the ministry they might without disturbance preach the Gospel in such or such places will prove that these ministers have departed from the Courts of Christ and have changed their Courts and so by common Law have changed