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 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 one private condition is included and calling to mind the treacherous and bloudy Plots Conspiracies Attempts and practises of the Enemies of God against the true Religion and professors thereof in all places especially in these three Kingdoms ever since the Reformation of Religion and how much their rage power and presumption are of late and at this time increased and exercised whereof the deplorable estate of the Charch 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 ruin and destruction according to the commendable practise of these Kingdoms in former times and the Example of Gods People 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 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 endevour 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 Schisme 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 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 endevour the discovery of all such as have been or shall be Incendiaries Malignants or evill 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 triall 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 betweene 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 remain conjoyned in a firm Peace and Union to all posterity And that Justice may be done upon the wilful opposers thereof in mannr 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 terror 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 honor 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 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 Jesus Christ as is too manifest by our present distresses and dangers the fruits thereof We professe and declare before God and the world our unfained desire to be humbled for our 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 other sins and transgressions so much abounding amongst us And our true and unfained purpose desire and endeavour for our selves and all others under our power and charge both in 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 reall 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 blesse our desires and proceedings with such successe as may be deliverance and safety to his people and encouragement to other Christian Churches groaning under or in danger of the
State nor anxiously to enquire into the reason which moved the first contrivers and projectors of this League to set it on foot at this present and presse it with all earnestness I am perswaded that none will denie that their main scope and aime therein was to engage our brethren of Scotland in the present quarrell for pulling down Episcopacie and setting up the Presbyterie and by this National and solemne league to strengthen their partie and foment this unnaturall war which hath already drained the wealth of the Kingdome and is like to draw out the life-blood also Nemo tenetur divinare say the Canonists neither will I take upon me the office of a Prophet to foretell the Catastrophe of these Tragedies Yet sure I am this Queen of all Islands never received such prejudiced and wrong nor ever was so near the brink of destructions when she drew in forain Forces to defend her self against homebred Enemies and I pray God we experimentally interpret not the mysterie of Pharaohs dream concerning the lean kine which eat up the fat and yet were never a whit the fatter If there be a decree of Heaven that these two Nations shall be drowned one in anothers blood for the crimsons sins of both not yet repented of yet let not us draw this most fearfull judgement upon both Kingdomes by the cord of an oath But to argue syllogistically No Subjects living under a Christian Prince who is a professor of the true Religion and a Defender of the orthodox faith may enter into a publick and solemne covenant for the reformation of religion without the consent much lesse against the expresse command of their Soveraign For such disobedience and sleighting of their King cannot stand with the duty we ow him of fear and loyalty injoyned Prov. 24. 21. My son fear the Lord and the King Eccles. 8. 2. I advise thee to take heed to the mouth of the King and to the word of the oath of God Rom. 13. 1. Let every soul be subject to the higher powers whosoever resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation V. 4. If thou do evil fear for he beareth not the sword in vain Prov. 16. 14. The wrath of the King is the messenger of death Prov. 19. 12. The Kings wrath is like the roaring of a Lion 1 Pet. 2. 13. Submit your selves to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as supreme v. 17. Fear God honour the King Nor with the prayers of the Church made for him that we may serve honour and humbly obey him in God and for God Nor with the principles of right Reason for the King is the supreme head of the Church and Common-wealth under Christ and all his Subjects conjunctim in Parliament or divisim are but Members of the same Body politick and how should the members enter into a covenant or frame and devise it without the head But the King is so far from yielding his royall assent to this Covenant that he strictly forbids it and that under the pain of Treasonin his Proclamation printed at Oxford Ergo we may not enter into this Covenant nor entangle our consciences with this new Oath This Covenant we make with God and in all things especially the things appertaining to God we must obey God rather then man We have the Kings vertua consent l thereunto for though he be not present in person at the Parliament nor hath given his royall assent under his hand yet this Parliament is called and continued by his authority and his consent is vertually contained in the Votes of both Houses It is a ruled case in Divinity That we must obey God rather then man when God commandeth one thing and man another but when the commands of God and of his Vicegerent upon earth clash not one against another St. Bernards doctrine is most true We must obey him as God who is in the place of God in those things which are not against God When St. Peter and St. John returned this answer to the Councell the Councell forbad that which God commanded God commanded the Apostles to preach Christs resurrection and the Assembly of Priests and Elders forbad them This is not the Covenanters case for where doth God command the English to sweare to preserve the Scotch Discipline and Liturgie which they themselves have often varied Or to abjure Episcopacie which was the only government of the Church for more then 1500 years and under whose shade Christian Religion most flourished and the Church stretched forth her branches to the Rivers and her boughs to the ends of the earth Where doth the Scripture warrant much less command the association of two Kingdomes and joyntly taking up armes in the quarrell of the Gospell and defending and propagating religion by the sword The calling of the Parliament by the Kings authority doth not conclude his assent to all the Ordinances of both the Houses for if it were so why did this Parliament after they had voted the Militia and the extirpation of Prelacie and Pluralities send to his Majesty and humbly intreat his royall assent nay why in all Parliaments since the first even till this day after both Houses had past bills did still the Lords and Commons lay them at his Majesties feet beseeching him in humblest manner to take them up and signe them with his royall hand and if he liked them his answer hath been Le Roy vieut if he distasted them Le Roy s'avisera Did the calling of a Parliament in the Kings name and by his authority vertually include or conclude his Royall assent to all the Acts King Richard the 2d had given his consent to his own deposing for that Parliament wherein he was deposed was called in his name and by his Authority 4. No Covenant especially publike and solemn between two Nations for reformation of Religion may be taken without warrant from Gods word for in every such Covenant God is a partie and his consent must be both had and known which cannot be but from his word Beside this Covenant is bound with an Oath which is an Act of Religion and cultus latriae that is a part of divine worship and if it be not commanded by God it is forbidden in Scripture under the name of will-worship Moreover that golden rule of the Apostle applyed by by him to the use of things indifferent stretcheth also to this case of conscience Whatsoever Oath we take or Covenant we enter into not perswaded in Conscience that we have good ground for what we doe in scripture is sinne to us But this Covenant hath no warrant for it in holy Scripture for from the Alpha of Genesis to the Omega of the Apocalypse there is no vola nor vestigium of such a Covenant as this Ergo this Covenant must not be taken by any who desire to walk exactly before God according to the
charitutes patria complectitur But this Covenant is many wayes derogatory to the honour of England For the Church of Scotland is not only set before the Church of England in it but is also propounded as a pattern of a Church intirely reformed not only in Doctrine but in Discipline also and Worship and therefore to be preserved in all three But the Church of England as an imperfect draught of a Church defective in all and consequently to be reformed in all according to Gods Word and the pattern of other reformed Churches whereas in truth the Church of England as it was reformed before the Church of Scotland so it was more exactly and perfectly Reformed priùs tempore dic honore And no marvel sith the Church of England was reformed by the authority of the Prince and the wisdom of the State but the Church of Scotland by the zeal of private men The Church of England was reformed not only in Dâ—ctrine but also in Discipline and Liturgy conformably to the ancient and best Churches whereas the Church of Stotland though it imbraced Apostolical doctrine yet it had not the exercise of Apostolical discipline since the Reformation till King James of blessed memory restored Episcopal Government there where they before writing after the copie set by Calvin they had set up the Presbytery or government by Lay Elders unknown to any Elder age of the Church But howsoever the glory of the English Church of late hath been eclipsed in the eyes of many yet by the testimonies of the best Reformed Churches beyond the Seas in the Reign of Qu Elizabeth and King James it may appear that she shined among all the Golden Candlesticks set in the Western and Northern parts of Christendom velut interâ—ignes Luna minores She supported all other Reformed Churches and the Church of Scotland by name as their own Chronicles relate And howsoever some thing hath been questioned in the Discipline and Liturgie of the Church of England by the Scholars of Aerius the Heretick opposing all Ecclesiastical Hierarchy and Liturgie yet the doctrine of the Church of England hath been alwayes kept sarta tecta and held sound and Orthodox by all that carryed the name of Protestants and the Articles of Religion together with the Apology of Bishop Jewell wherein the whole Doctrine of the Church of England is comprised are inserted into the harmony of Protestant Confessions and approved by the suffrage of all Orthodox Churches To swear therefore to endeavour the reforming of the Church of England in Doctrine according to the Word of God is either to swear actum agere to do that which is done already and so to swear vainly or to swear to pervert it it being straight already which is to swear impiously No solemn Covenant especially confirmed by millions of Oaths between two Kingdomes ought to be made without necessary and urgent occasion for otherwise in such a solemn and publick manner to call God as it were from heaven to attest with us would be a taking of his Name in vain Such Covenanting is like the casting the holy anchor among the Athenians and the creating a Dictator among the Romans never to be acted or attempted but in some great exigent of state to preserve it from imminent ruine and destruction But there is no such necessity at this time of engaging both Kingdoms and locking them fast in such a League for the Popish party is at a lower ebb now in England then it hath been heretofore and his Majesty hath bound himself by many Oaths even signed with the blood of his Redeemer at the holy Communion to maintain the Protestant Religion and not only to enliven the Acts formerly made against Seminary Priests Jesuits and Popish Recusants but also to give his royall Assent to any such further Acts as the wisdom of the Parliament and State should offer unto him for the advancement of the Protestant and suppressing of the Romish Religion And as for the Priviledges of Parliament and Liberties of the Subject there needs no entring into this New League for their ratification and confirmation For they are sufficiently established by former Acts of Parliament unrepealed and by the late Protestation generally made by all the Subjects of this Kingdom May 5. 1641. The Reasons alleadged in the preface of the Covenant have scarce any colour of truth and not so much as a shadow of necessity Reas. 1 The first is That other means of Supplications Remonstrances Protestations c. have proved uneffectual and therefore no remedy for a desperate cure but this uniting of minds and swords with the strongest tie of a National Covenant Answ Whereunto I answer That to all those Supplications Remonstrances and Protestations his Majesty hath given gracious answers and hath often heretofore and of late offered honorable conditions of Peace which have been refused Reas. 2 The second is That for the preservation of themselves and their Religion from utter ruine and destruction they were constrained to make this League Answ Whereunto I answer That Religion and the Church are in danger of ruine and destruction as well by the Anabaptists Brownists and other Sectaries who take this Covenant and have grown most insolent upon this new League as by the Papists and that the greatest fear of utterly ruining and destroying this Kingdom is from the continuance of this Civill and unnatural War which is fomented by it Reas. 3 The third is The commendable practise of these Kingdoms in former times Answ In this reason they plead Obsignatis tabulis they avouch that which never hath been nor can be produced and the contrary hath been proved before Reas. 4 The last reason is The example of Gods people in other Nations Whom they mean by these other Nations is expressed in the exhortation to the taking of this Solemn League and Covenant p. 5. namely the Netherlands and Rochellers But as he in Plato's Dialogue said Exemplum ô holpes eget exemplo so we may say of these these are examples without example late practises in our age and memory without any Precedent in former ages and the best times of the Church Neither yet are they parallel to this For the King of Spain against whom the Netherlands and the French King against whom the Rochellers entred into a League Defensive and Offensive with us were persecuters of the true Protestant Religion and oppressors of their known Liberty whereas our gracious Soveraign is a Professor of the Gospell and a Defender of the Orthodox Protestant Faith and a maintainer of the Priviledges of Parliament and Liberties of Subjects as appeareth by his Royal Assent to the Petition of Right Every one that sweareth must have an eye to the conditions of a sacred Oath set down by the Prophet Jerem. 4. 2. He must swear in truth judgement and righteousness in truth not falsly in judgement not rashly in righteousness not wickedly But no man can take this Oath in righteousness for not
in the Atheism Blasphemy Epicurism and Liberty of those looser times But Undè hoc repentè commentum Whence arose this suddain fury Whence sprang this Epidemical Madness Apostacy and Ruine Perditio tua ex te ô Israel saith God by his Prophet O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self And most true it is for as in general our crying sins pulled down the Vengeance and justifyed the Revenger so there was something in particular of Covetousness Ambition and cunning Malice which contrived and managed our Civil Wars but cannot justifie the Contrivers Not to touch upon those State affairs which were meerly such it may well become us now as Christians in the pleasant bowres of our quiet solitude to sit down and re-view that pretence of Divinity and regulating of our Consciences which plotted and fomented our Rebellion and put a glosse upon our Insurrections To this purpose we finde in the Preface to the Covenant That the Noblemen Barons Knights Gentlemen Citizens Ministers of the Gospel and Commons of all sorts in the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland called to minde the treacherous and bloudy Plots Conspiracies Attempts and Practices of the enemies of God against the true Religion and Professors thereof c. especially in these three Kingdoms c. and how much their Rage Power and Presumptions were of late and at that time increased and exercised But who were these enemies Papists 't is granted But were these the only enemies Suppose they were which yet cannot be yielded how must they be suppressed By a National and Solemn League and Covenant for thus we were taught by our Neighbour Nation I need not therefore enquire Who composed our Covenant or By what Authority it was Imposed and pressed Let it suffice that This Covenant was concluded to be the way and the only way to advance the glory of God and the Kingdom of Christ the honour and happiness of the King and his Posterity and the true publick Liberty Safety and Peace of these Kingdoms Here were indeed specious Pretences and fair hopes as full of confidence as the simple people could be hugged and dandled with Virgo formosa supernè But did the Physick work as the Physicians promised and the Patients expected Did it produce any of those saving effects which the grave Dictators assured us it would Surely no It may well therefore now become us their Patients who suffered many things of many Physicians and spent all that we had and were nothing bettered but rather grew worse to enter into a serious consultation about that which they contrived to be the Methodus medendi and since it pretends to Divinity to enquire whether it were indeed either lawful or proper If we truly desire a Sober Judicious and Solid Resolution I presume that the ensuing Book will answer our doubts and inform our Consciences I confesse that this Book might have slept still in private and should not have grown publick especially at this time if the spirit of contradiction were not now so prevalent and malice so industrious The troublers of our Israel enter upon the stage again and furious men whom nothing will satisfie joyn in a new and lawless Corporation and send up their Burgesses upon the errand of scurrilous and factious Libelling Is this their Divinity to be thus unthankful Malè collata malè debentur faith the quaint and Divine Philosopher Hath our God of peace so lately beaten our Swords into Plough-shares and our Spears into Pruning-hooks and must we go to the uncircumcised Philistines for a Smith to reduce them into weapons again Hath he not once again sent us a King in mercy and fitted an incomparable head to the shoulders of our Kingdoms Are not our Scorpion scourges gently removed our Sequestrations taken off our Religion restored our good old Lawes revived and our propriety and just liberty recovered and enjoyed Do we not seem to be blessed with a well-grounded hope that both King and People Church and Common-wealth will peaceably repose and solace themselves in those glorious and mutuall tyes of a righteous Government and a dutiful Obedience a Religion pure and undefiled and such Love and Loyalty as may never be interrupted What meaneth then this bleating and lowing of these sheep and oxen and the hideous braying of unclean beasts in our Christian ears Must our Musick stop upon a fret and our Harmonie be disturbed by such harsh and unwelcome discords Are we already sick of our ease and weary of our mercies Will Jeshurun kick as soon as ever he waxeth fat Alas alas the moth endeavours to eat into our Garments again and the canker into our purest Gold We daily see how these discontents of ungrateful and irreligious Spirits endeavour to blast our fairest hopes by disturbing our Peace and renewing our contentions The ambitious are discontented and want promotion the malitious are troubled and want revenge The needy sufferers are impatient and want preferment the heretical are vexed and fear a Curb and the schismatical are unquiet and suspect a settlement Too many forget the miseries of war too few are thankfull for peace and truth and the full soul loaths the honey-combe That foolish fowl which saved the Capitol hath moulted her sicker quils and the unwise turn them into gaping penns to scrible sedition I have therefore awaked this book that it may tell the deluded world how unsafely we formerly credited the croaking of such Egyptian Frogs and hope that are-view of our former contentions grounded upon the Covenant will make us repent and be Wise Deliberandum est diù quod statuendum est semel saith Seneca We should seriously consider before we certainly decree and with good advice should make war Those that sowed in our tears by their hasty Covenanting may thank themselves if they reap not in our joy If their League was Illegal and made their grapes so sowre certainly to revive it except in their sorrow is the way to continue their teeth on edge Juravit David temerè saith the Father sed non implevit Jurationem majore pietate David was a grievous sinner when he became so rash a swearer but he shewed more piety when he broke his Oath Although some few do seek our disturbance and those none of the best yet we see and rejoyce that many Learned and Conscientious Covenanters retract their Errours Some there are whose judgements are convinced by the syllogisme of Conscience some who are calmed by the gentleness of Remission and some also who are reclaimed by the Royal care and indulgent tenderness of our most gracious Soveraign who maketh the Children of the Bond-woman Heirs with those of the Free-woman I presume that I need not to commend the ensuing Book to any of these unless to confirm them in their conversion by strength of Arguments that as their repentance is visible so their resolves may be constant But I greatly suspect the inflexibility and pertinacious obstinacy of some few of our dissenting
precise rule of his word There is warrant in Gods word both for the matter of this Covenant and the form and manner of taking the oath For the matter we have a pattern of a Covenant taken for the reformation of the false and preservation of the true worship of God and the uniting of Kingdoms in the truth thus reformed 1 Sam. 18. 3. 4. 2 Kings 23. 5. 2 Chr. 25. 8. 9. 2 Chro. 30. Ezra 10. 2. And for the form and manner of taking it by lifting up the hand we have a precedent Apoc. 10. 50. None of these instances are ad Rhombum all those Covenants were made against idolatrie and other sins expresly forbidden by the law of God but this Covenant is against Prelacie and such a form of worship practised in the Church of England as hath been justified by the word of God and unanswerable arguments drawn from Scripture by Whitgift and Hooker in their answer to Cartwright Câ—vell to Barrow and Browne Burges to Ames and Ball to Can and many others In all those Covenants the King had the main stroak but in this none at all 1. For the Covenant mentioned 1 Sam. 18. 3 4 it comes not home to our case for that was a private Covenant between two intimate friends for the safety of both their lives sought after by a bloudy Tyrant this is a National Covenant between two Kingdoms for the Reforming Religion and setling Peace that was made by the true King appointed by God and anointed before this by Samuel against him who indeed held the Crown but was rejected by God himself this is a Covenant made by Subjects against the Commands of a most gracious Prince 2. For the Covenant mentioned 2 King 23. 5. the text saith King Josiah made this Covenant that they should walk after the Lord and keep his Commandements and his Testimonies and his Statutes with all their heart c. And that he put down the Chemarims c. There the King makes a Covenant and reforms a Church and not the People here the People enter into a Covenant without the King and they take upon them against his command to Reform or rather Deform the Church by overthrowing the Hierarchy and abolishing Episcopacy Chius ad Choum these things agree as well as Harp and Harrow 3. For the Covenant mentioned 2 Chr. 15. 8 9. King Asa gathered all Judah and Benjamin together to Jerusalem where they offered to the Lord of the spoyles and made this Covenant and in performance of this Oath or Covenant v. 16. he deposed Maacah his mother from her Regency because she had made an Idoll in a grove and Asa brake down her Idoll and stampt it and burned it at the brook Kidron 4. For the example of Israel 2 Chron. 30. who in the dayes of Hezekiah though they were under another King yet joyned with the men of Judah in keeping the Passover it yeilds no support at all to their tottering cause For 1. They entred not into any solemn League with the men of Judah though for the present they joyned with them in a Religious duty commanded by the Law 2. What they did they were invited to do by King Hezekiah whereas the Scotch are not invited to this League with the English by the King 3. The King of Asshur forbad not the Israelites to joyn with their Brethren of Judah in keeping the Passover but the King forbids any of his Subjects to enter into this Covenant 4 The King who Reigned over the Israelites was an Idolater but our King is a worshiper of the true God And albeit in some case and quarrel the worshipers of the true God may joyn with their Brethren of the same Religion in another Kingdom in a Defensive League though the King being an Idolater should forbid it yet it follows not that they may do so without the consent and against the command of a Christian Prince who is a professor of the true Religion Lastly The Israelites besides the invitation of King Hezekiah to keep a solemn Passeover with the Jews had the express command of God himself whereas neither English nor Scotch have any command from God expresly or implicitly to enter into this League for the Defence of the Protestant Religion against Papist without the King the King himself undertaking and that by most solemn Oathes and Protestations to defend the same 5. For the Covenant mentioned Ezra 10. 3. that was meerly to remove a Scandal from the Jews and to fulfil the express command of God for putting away strange wives set down in the Law of Moses in which case no man doubteth but a Covenant may be made not only without but against the commandement of a Prince Yet here the Jews besides the command of Nehemiah the Viceroy had the approbation of the Prince for making this Covenant for the King of Persia at this time favoured the Jews and contributed largely to the reedifying of the Temple and gave order to Ezra the Priest to adorn the house of God and perform all things in his service according to the Law Ezra 7. 10. The last example Rev. 10. 5. is least to our present purpose for the Angel there made no Covenant but only sware by the living God that time should be no more It is true he lifted up his hand yet that no way helpeth the Covenanters cause for that might be a fit gesture in an Angel menacing a fatal doom to the world and the outdating of all time which yet may not be thought so fit a gesture for men entring into a holy League for the preservation of two Kingdoms If they can as the Angel did stand upon the earth and the sea at the same time let them also further imitate the Angel in lifting up their hands to heaven when they make their Covenant Howsoever for the gesture we will not contend with them I think it fitter in taking this Oath then after the usuall manner to lay the hand upon the Bible for this Oath and Covenant hath no ground or foundation at all in that book and the lifting up of the hand very well expresseth the purport of this Covenant which is a lifting up of their hands against the Lords anointed and his Church yet under pretence of defence of the Kings person never so much endangered as by their Armies and of Religion never so profaned as by their Reformadoes and of the liberties of Subjects never so much infringed as by arbitrary votes Before we take this Oath of reformation we must desire a reformation of the Oath for it is full of ambiguities and contradictions whence I thus frame a fifth argument 5. No ambiguous Oath ought to be taken or Covenant signed for here one of Pythagoras golden Precepts taketh place Loquere cum lumine all Ambiguities Equivocations or mental reservations especially in Leagues and Oathes are abominated by all Protestants He that sweareth ambiguously sweareth not in simplicity of heart nor can
keep his Oath sincerely and intirely But in this Covenant and Oath there are many Ambiguities For what is meant in the first clause by common enemies Either the world the flesh and the Divel which indeed are as it were sworn enemies to all true Religion or Papists or Independents who are both enemies to the Discipline and Government of the Scotch Church In the second clause what is meant by Church government by Archbishops Bishops c either all government by Bishops or the present Government only with the late Innovations and abuses thereof If all government by Bishops then in taking this Oath we condemn not only the perpetual Government of the Church from the Apostles time till the reformation of Religion in the dayes of Hen. 8. but also the reformed Churches in England Ireland Denmark Swethland Poland Saxonie and other parts of Germany where either they have Archbishops and Bishops or tantmount Intendents and Superintendents If the present government only with innovations and abuses let them explain what are the innovations and abuses we swear against else we cannot swear in judgement What is meant by Hierarchy the word signifieth holy Government being derived from {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} holy and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} rule or government And is it fit crudely without any glosse to forswear all holy Government In the third clause what is meant by defending the Kings person in the defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms Is it a limitation or not If it be no limitation what doth it there There ought to be no idle and if I may so speak hang-by words in an Oath for the Wiseman teacheth us when we speak to God our words must be few If it be a limitation how doth this Covenant agree with the Oathes of Supremacy and Allegiance by which we are absolutely bound to defend the Kings person royal Dignities and Prerogatives of the Crown without any if or of restriction or qualification In the fourth clause what is meant by Malignants or evill instruments a word never used till of late in any Statute Law or Ordinance and never so much abused as at this day In the sixth clause how far extend these words I will assist and defend all those that enter into this League and Covenant in the maintaining and persuance thereof Doth it reach to giving battle to the King Sequestring Estates plundering houses and trampling all Laws under foot and to the justifying all the outrages committed in the maintaining and pursuing this League If not why is it not circumscribed with that limitation in the first Protestation By all good and lawful means or so far as lawfully I may There being so many Amphibologies Ambiguities and riddles in this Oath we must have some Oedipus of the Synod to read and clearly expound them before we can safely engage our conscience by Oath to perform them No Covenant may be made or Oath taken which implyeth in it contradictions for in such an Oath or Covenant we play fast and loose say and unsay and overthrow the nature of an Oath and take Gods name in vain The Schools and ancient Doctors constantly maintain that it exceedeth even Divine Omnipotency to reconcile Contradictions which are amongst those many things St. Augustine speaketh of which God therefore cannot do because he is Omnipotent But there are apparent contradictions in this Covenant and Gordian knots which cannot be untied For First It is said in the Preface that the Noblemen Barons c. enter into this Covenant according to the commendable practice of these Kingdoms in former times and yet Mr. Nye in his Speech published by special order of the House upon the very day the Covenant was read and sworn unto and subscribed by the Honorable House of Commons and Reverend Assembly of Divines Sept. 25. saith p. 12. That such an Oath for matter persons and other circumstances hath not been in any age or oath we read of in sacred or humane stories And Mr. Coleman in his Sermon commanded to be printed by the Commons of the House of Parliament Sept. ult. 1643. p. 18. Ask your Fathers consult with the aged of our times whether ever such a thing were done in their dayes or in the dayes of their Fathers before them And in his Epistle Dedicatory An Oath if vain makes the Land to mourn an Oath if weighty makes it rejoyce This is a new thing and not done in our Land before and I hope will have a new effect not seen by our people before We are to swear in the first branch That we will really and constantly endeavour the preservation of the reformed Religion in the Church of Scotland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government and yet in the same branch we swear to endeavour to bring the Churches of God in these three Kingdoms of which Scotland is one to the nearest conjunction and uniformity in form of Church Government according to the Word of God and the example of the best reformed Churches But this cannot be done if Scotland be preserved in her present Directory for Worship Discipline and Government for the Government in the Church of England Ireland Denmark Swethland Poland Saxony and in all the Churches of the East not subject to the Pope is Episcopal and that is proved to be most conformable to the Word of God by the writings of Bilson Downham Armagh never yet answered by any We swear in the same branch That we will endeavour to reform the Doctrine of the Church of England according to Gods Word and yet preserve the reformed Religion in Scotland in Doctrine whereas the Doctrine of the Church of England and Scotland is all one as appears by the Confession of the one and Articles of the other All the difference between the Church of England and Scotland is concerning Discipline and Liturgie not Doctrine as it is distinguished from them We swear in the second branch That we will endeavour the extirpation of Prelacy and Schisms whereas Prelacy hath been ever and is the special if not only means to extirpate Schisme If Prelacy be taken away saith St. Jerome ad Luc. and the preeminencie of one Presbyter above another tot Schismata erunt quot Sacerdotes That is to extirpate Church-government by Archbishops Bishops c. and yet in the third branch we swear to preserve the rights and priviledges of the Parliament and liberties of the Kingdoms among which liberties of the Kingdom of England and priviledges of the Parliament are the contents of Magna Charta and Petition of Right in which the Government of Archbishops and Bishops and the rights and priviledges of the Church are comprised In the third branch we swear to preserve and defend his Majesties Person and Authority without any diminution of his just power and greatness and yet in the sixth Article we swear to assist and defend all those that enter into this League and Covenant in
inconveniency and mischief in the Church hath grown from the corrupt and ill execution of the Laws which may be removed by a Reformation of the Bishops and inferiour Officers without any change of the Law No man is prohibited from indeavouring the abolition of any Law by lawful means But this entring into Covenant and swearing the extirpation of Bishops themselves and abrogation of the Laws made in favour of them without and against the Kings Command will never be proved a lawfull means of alteration of Laws either by the Law of God or the Land Whereas they lispe but dare not speak out That the Oaths which Ministers take at their Ordination and Institution are unlawful and call for Repentance I demand of them Whether they are yet unresolved concerning the unlawfulness of their Oaths taken at their Ordination If they are not resolved will they take a contrary Oath and so run the hazard of Perjury If their belief of the lawfulness of that Oath be pendulous and wavering so must needs be their belief of the lawfulness of their Ordination and entring into the Ministery For they hang both upon the same string if the one slip the other fals down to the ground Have they not subscribed the Articles of Religion whereof one is The justification of the forme of Consecration of Archbishops and Bishops and of the Ordination of Priests and Deacons Is it not an expresse Canon of the Apostle Obey them that have oversight of you in the Lord and is there any colour of pretence to question the lawfulness of obeying them in licitis honestis that is in things lawful and honest Let us hear what they can say to this Dilemma Either the form of Consecration of Archbishops and Bishops and Ordination of Priests and Deacons confirmed together with the Articles of Religion by Act of Parliament is a lawful form and agreable to Gods word or not If lawful and agreable to Scripture then the Oath they take at their Ordination to Obey their ordinary and submit to his godly Admonitions and just Censures God being their helper bindeth their conscience from taking this in which they vow their utter extirpation If it be an unlawful form and repugnant to holy Scriptures then no Bishops or Ministers have been lawfully made or by a lawful form since the first Reformation in England which to aver were to cast such a fowl blurre upon the Church as cannot be fetched out with the tears no nor with the bloud of those who so slander the Queen of all the reformed Churches This Dilemma with the two horns of it wounds them which way so ever they go Some flie to an extraordinary Calling but there they are stopt with a counter demand viz. What miracles do they whereby they may prove their extraordinary Calling for an extraordinary Calling must be extraordinarily proved Others say That Oath was tyrannically imposed upon them by the Bishops and therefore bindeth not their Conscience But they cannot escape this way neither for Oaths imposed by a lawful Authority though tyrannically abused binde the conscience if the thing promised be lawful not because such an Oath is imposed but because Gods name is interposed by whom they ingage themselves to the performance of what they have sworn so it be not malum in se Besides it is not true that this Oath was imposed by Bishops for it was appointed by Act of Parliament in which the Articles are confirmed neither are any Ministers inforced to take Orders but they offer themselves to the Bishop and humbly desire him to lay his holy hands on them and freely and voluntarily submit to the taking of this Oath of Obedience to their Ordinary A third sort answer That indeed they took the Oath of Canonical obedience to their Bishops but they have long ago repented of such an Oath But these are crushed in their flight and driven to the wall For if they repent of that Oath taken at their Ordination they must repent also of their Orders given them by Bishops For their Orders were given them upon the undertaking to perform that and other Conditions assented to by them with this clause so God help me or God being my helper Again To repent of a lawful Oath taken and such I have proved it to be even now is in plain English and down right terms To confesse themseves perjured And if such an answer might passe for currant no Oath would be any tie upon the conscience for they might say as these Ministers do That they indeed took such an Oath but they repent the taking it A fourth sort answer with some more colour of probability That the Oath made to Bishops expired with them and that Bishops now if they are not dead yet they are dying and breathing out their last gaspe for both Houses have voted them down But these Brethren should have weighed with themselves and communed with their own hearts before they put their hands to this new Covenant Whether the present Votes of both houses can dispense with a lawfull and solemn Oath taken at their Ordination and signed with Christs bloud at the Communion which they immediately receive from the hands of the Bishop after he hath laid hands on them 2. Dalo et non concesso granting that in regard of those precedent votes and this new Covenant taken by both Houses for the extirpation of Episcopacie Bishops might be said to be dying What then doth this discharge them of their Oath No more then it will a Wife for withdrawing her duty and loyaltie from her Husband while he is a dying and looking for a good houre The Ceremonial Law was dying as soon as Christ was born yet till it was dead and buried too both he and his Apostles observed it Therefore till Episcopacie is dead and buried this Oath may not be lawfully taken by any ordained by them Nay nor then neither by their leave for how know they whether it may not be revived and raised up again by future Acts of Parliament in times as well affected to the Clergie as these are ill And if it be so the wounds of their Consciences will bleed afresh No man can doubt but that Episcopacie better sorteth with Monarchie then Presbytery or Independency and it is certain that Episcopacie concurring with Royal Majesty and the Authority of the Peers first constituted Parliaments and it hath likewise been confirmed by Parliaments in all succeeding Ages It is a plant which either Christ himself planted or his Apostles as is demonstratively proved in Bilson his perpetuall government of the Church Downams answer to Paul Bains Dr. Reynolds his letter commented upon by the Primate of Armagh and Bishop Andrews his Opusc. It sprung up together with the gospell in this Nation and hath ever since growne by it as a succour They were Arch-bishops and Bishops who had a hand in platting the Garland of our peace and safety by uniting first the two Roses
and after adding the thistle unto them Nay they had the chief hands in planting the reformed Religion in this Kingdome and some of them watered it with their bloud If in this Covenant the Wow had been to endeavour the removall of all Antichristian Prelates Popish Archbishops and Bishops corrupt Chancellours Arch-deacons and Officialls that would have been no more then as it were pulling off some withered buds from the rod of Aaron But simply to abjure Prelacie with an English glosse far worse then the Scotch Text that is Church Government by Archbishops Bishops c. is either to blast with a poysoned breath or to pluck up that rod which ever since the reformation hath happily budded in this Church and to deprive us soe farr as in them lyeth for ever of the goodly and fair Almonds it hath heretofore and no doubt will in succceding Ages bear if they be not nipt in the bud Many glorious Martyres such as were Cranmer Ridley Latimer Hooper Farrar Philpot Many noble Champions of the reformed religion as B Jewell Bilson Andrews Abbot Fr. White Dr. Reynolds Nowel Sutcliffe Field Many eminnet Preachers B. Mathews King Babbington Felton Lake Party Dr. Sinnewes Thompson Goodwin Eedes Boyse Many munificent Patrons of Learning and Religion Founders of or Benefactours to Vniversities Schools Colledges Halls and Hospitalls as Merton Chichley Waiâ—fleete Wickham Kemp Leichfield Fox Oldham Grindall Whitgift G. Abbot and divers others Here if they cast in our dish some Beckets and Gardiners and Bonuers which were indeed bitter Almonds we can easily rid our hands of them For it was not Prelacie but Popery that imbittered or rather poysoned them Which poyson since the reformation is drawn out and taken away from Episcopacie in England by the Oath at their Consecration which cutteth off all their dependencie from the Pope and since that none have given him a more deadly Wound then our learned and every way accomplished Vshers Mortons Halls and Prideauxes Howsoever was there not a Saul among the Prophets a Julian among the Emperours a Judas among the Apostles a Diotrophes among the Elders and a Nicholas among the Deacons and must these most sacred and divine Callings like so many trees of Paradise planted by God himself be extirpated for here and there some rotten or perished fruit found at some times upon the branches Desine paucorum diffundere crimen in omnes Yea but manifold abuses have crept into the ecclesiasticall Courts Commutations delays and excessive fees And have not the like or as bad in secular Shall we then have no Consistories or Courts at all The Bishops as it is objected but not proved have corrupted the Gospell and have not some Judges the Laws Shall we then have no more Judges upon the Bench A Synod of Priests and Elders condemned our Saviour and divers Councels have defined heresies for Doctrines Defide and set up Idolatry and Superstition shall we then have no more Aslembltes of Divines Nay truth cannot be concealed Rupto jecore exibit caprificus There have been strange passages in former Parliaments at which our Archives and Records blush must we therefore vâ—te down all Votes and take away all Parliaments God forbid Let all those who are now most exasperated against the reverend Fathers of the Church and others as they tearm them of the prelaticall Clergie coole their heat and put water into their Wine either with that precept of our Saviour Judge not that ye be not judged condemn not that ye be not condemned or that Item of the Apostle Devoure not lâ—st ye be devoured one of another or of that modest and ingenuous confessiou of a devout Father Toleramus toleramur we must bear with some things in the Clergie for they must bear with more in the Laitie Tolerari non tolerare est intolerabile He is of a most intolerable nature and disposition who expects that others should tolerate him in all things and he tolerate others in nothing for such a disposition is diametrically opposite to the Apostles precept Bear ye one anothers Burdens and so fulfil the Law of Christ Noe Oath ought to be taken or Covenant made which is against Charity For Covenants and Leagues are made to confirm and strengthen not to weaken or any way loosen those natural and civill tyes whereby we are bound one to another Charitie is the end of the Law and summe of the Gospell and bond of perfection it self As whatsoever is not done out of faith so whatsoever is not done in Charity is sin But this Covenant is against Charity and offers violence to Humanity it self For by it we are bound to loose and untie all Bonds whatsoever whether of affinytie or consanguinity or of intimate friendship cum qua mariuntur et pro qua moriuntur verae amiciliae candidat If our brother or our sonne and daughter or the wife that lyes in our bosome or our friend that is as our own soul be a malignant we are sworn by this Covenant to detect them and betray them to the seveâ—itie of the close Committee and barbarous cruelty of the Sequestrators and their instruments And Malignants in the sense of them who tender this Oath are all such without exception who swim against the streame or rather torrent that bears all down before it all who comply not with the times all who complain of the Liberties of Subject trencht upon and their propriety invaded of Churches prophaned monuments of the dead defaced of hundreds of able and learned and orthodox divines of irreprovable life and carriage turned out of their benefices and illeterate Ignonoramus's and zealous beautifeux's set in their rooms who preach as familiarly blasphemie and treason as they pray Non-sense Lastly who make scruple of the managing of this present warr whereby the Kings person and life is endangered It is tâ—ue they professe to fight for King and Parliament To rescue the one and preserve the other But as in the Civill broyles in Italie a great Commander sometimes said My sword though it have a keen edge and can divide between the bone and marrow yet it cannot distinguish a Guelf from a Gibbeline So it is most certain that the Canon or musquet bullet distinguisheth not between King and Subject much lesse between the King his Head and his Crown his Person and his power The primitive Christians though they desired nothing more then to glorifie Christ by their death who saved them by his and therefore ran with as much alacrity to Martyrdome as to silver games wherein prizes of infinite value were to be wonne yet they could never be brought by any tortures or torments to discover any Christian to the heathen persecutors that sought to bereave them of their estate liberty or life But here by vertue of this new Covenant not only a Christian Brother is bound by a strict Oath to detect another but the son his Father the Wife her Husband the Daughter her
Intendents and Super-intendents in Germany Presidents in the Reformed Synods in France and Masters Provosts and Heads of Colledges and Hals in our Universities who have a kind of Prelacy and Authority over the Fellows and Students whereof the major part are Divines and in holy Orders Here I conceive it will be said That none of these are aimed at but only Diocesan Bishops already banished out of Scotland And Prelates indeed they are in a more eminent degree and if Prelacy be restrained to them it is Episcopacy that is principally shot at to the Extirpation whereof I dare not yield my Vote or Suffrage lest this New Oath intangle me in perjury For both my self and all who have received Orders in this Kingdom by the Imposition of Episcopal hands have freely Engaged our selves by Oath to obey our Ordinary and to submit to his godly Judgement and in all things lawful and honest to receive his Commands If then we now swear to endeavour the Abolishing of Episcopacy we Swear to Renounce our Canonical Obedience that is as I apprehend we swear to forswear our selves It is true that the Dr. was furnished with many other Reasons for Episcopacy besides these and of some he gave a hint in the Assembly it self upon other occasions as namely these that follow Dr. Featley's Sixteen Reasons FOR Episcopal Government Which he intended to have delivered in the Assembly immediately after his precedent Speech but was not permitted 1. THat the name of Episcopacy even as it signifieth a degree of Eminency in the Church is a Sacred and Venerable Title first in holy Scripture ascribed to our blessed Redeemer who as he is Dominus Dominantium Lord of Lords so also Episcopus Episcoporum Bishop of Bishops the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls next to the Apostles whose office in the Church is styled by the holy Ghost Episcope a Bishoprick Let another take his Bishoprick though it be translated Let another take his Office yet the Original signifies not an Office at large but an Episcopal function that Office which Judas lost and Matthias was elected into which was the Office and Dignity of an Apostle * lastly to those whom the Apostles set over the Churches as namely to Timothy and Titus who in the Subscription of the Apostles Letters Divinely inspired are styled Bishops in the restrained sense of the word 2 Tim. 4. written from Rome to Timotheus the first Bishop elected of the Church of Ephesus and to Titus the first elect Bishop of the Church of the Cretians How ancient these Subscriptions are it is not certain among the Learned If they bear not the same date with the Epistles themselves the contrary whereof neither is nor can be Demonstrated yet they are undoubtedly very ancient and of great Authority And in them the word Bishop cannot be taken at large for any Minister or Presbyter but for a singular person in Place or Dignity above other Pastors for there were many other Presbyters in Ephesus both before and besides Timothy Act. 20. 27 28. and in the Island of Creet or Candie there must of necessity be more then one Pastor or Minister Besides St. Paul investeth Timothy in Episcopal power making him a Judge of Presbyters both to rebuke them 1 Tim. 5. 1 and to prefer and reward them vers. 17. and to censure them ver. 19. Against an Elder receive no accusation but under two or three witnesses and giveth to Titus expâ—esly both potestatem ordinis jurisdictionis of Oâ—der and Jurisdiction of Order in these words Chap. 1. 5. That thou shouldst ordain Elders in every City and of Jurisdiction I left thee in Creet that thou shouldst continue {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to correct or red esse the things that remained or those things which the Apostle before intended to amend but had not redressed 2. The Angels of the seven Churches Apoc. 10. 20. were no other in the judgement of the best Learned * Commentators both Ancient and Later then the Bishops of those Sees for in those Provinces or Territories there cannot be conceived to be lesse then many hundred ordinary Preachers and Pastors yet there were but seven precisely answering to the seven golden Candlesticks Seven Candlesticks seven lights burning in them these can be no other then seven prime Pastors who had the oversight of the rest for the Errors and Abuses in all those Churches are imputed to them and they reproved for not redressing them Chap. 2. 14. Thou hast them that maintain the Doctrine of Balaam and vers 20. Thou sufferest the * woman Jezebel to teach c. 3. It is confessed by Molinaeus and other Learned Patrons of Presbyterial Government themselves that Episcopacy is a plant either set in the Church by the Apostles themselves or their immediate Successors in the first and best ages of the Church and is it agreeable to Piety to swear the Extirpation of such a plant 4. It cannot be denyed that when the Church most flourished and was of far larger extent then now it is over the face of the Christian World there was no * other Government then Episcopacy regulated by Divine precepts and Ecclesiastical Canons and shall we swear to Extirpate that Government under the which the Church most thrived and slourished Shall we swear against our Prayers viz. for the rooting out of that upon which we are enjoyned to pray God to pour down the dew of his blessing Surely the dew of heaven burns not the root of any Plant upon earth but waters it and makes it grow 5. They were Bishops who had the chiefest hand first in the plantation of Christian Religion in the dayes of Lutius King of Britan and after in the restitution in the dayes of Etheldred King of Kent and in the Reformation of it in the Reign of Edward the sixth and Queen Elizabeth and is it a Religious act to eradicate that Government and Power which both planted and pruned Religion it self 6. Christ died not intestate he made his last Will and Testament and by it bequeathed many Legacies to his Church and among them not onely Catholike Doctrine but Discipline also This Discipline if it be not Episcopal Government moderated by Evangelical and Apostolical Rules the whole Church is guilty of the losse of a Sacred and Precious Jewel for certain it is out of Records of all ages of the Church that no other was ever retained or can be found save this before the Religious Reformer and Magistrates of Geneva having banished their Popish Bishops were after a sort necessitated to draw a new Plat-forme of Ecclesiasticall Discipline by Lay-Elders Christ as the Apostle teacheth us was faithfull in the house of God as Moses and if Moses after his forty dayes speech with God on the Mount received a Patern from God and delivered it to the Jewes not only of Doctrine but of Dicipline also which continued till Christs coming in the flesh it cannot be conceived
but that Christ left a Pattern of Government to his Church to continue till the end of the world and doubtlesse his Apostles with whom he conversed forty dayes after his Resurection speaking of those things which appertain to the kingdom of God Act. 3. 1. delivered that to the Church which they received from their Master What Government or Discipline was that There can be conceived but three formes of Government Episcopal most conformable to Monarchy Presbyterial to Aristocracy and Independent as they tearm it to Democracy Presbyterial or Independent it could not be for Presbyterial is no Elder then the Reformation in Geneva and the Independent no Elder then New-England whereas Episcopal Government hath been time out of mind not in one but in all Churches A and sith it was not first constituted by any Sanction of a General Counsel it follows necessarily according to St. Augustins observation that it must needs be an Apostolical Institution For what not one Church but all Churches not in one age but all ages hath uniformly observed and practised and no man can define who after the Apostles were the beginners of it must needs be supposed to be done by Order or Tradition from them 7. This form of Government was not only generally received and embraced by Catholicks but even by Hereticks and Schismaticks who though they severed from the Communion of the Church in Doctrine yet not in Discipline For the Novatians and Donatists had Bishops of their own from whom they took their names only * Aerius who stood for a Bishoprick and missed it out of discontent broached that new Doctrine wherewith the heads of our Schismaticks are so much intoxicated viz. That there ought to be no distinction in the Church between a Bishop and a Presbyter and for this confounding those Sacred Orders was himself ranked among Hereticks and stands upon record in the Bedrolls of them made by Epiphanius Angustin and Philastrius It is true he had other brands on him but this was the proper mark put upon him by those ancient Fathers who mention this Tenet of his as Erroneous and Heretical I grant some of the ancient Doctors affirm That in the beginning till the prevention of Schism made this distinction between Bishops and Presbyters they were all one in name as now they are in those essential parts of their function viz. Preaching of the Word and administration of the Sacraments But Aerius was the first who professedly oppugned the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy maintaining That there ought to be no difference and distinction between Bishops and Elders 8. This assertion of Aërius as in the Doctrine thereof it was defined by the Doctors of the Church to be Heresie so in the practise thereof it is condemned by the great Councel of Chalcedon to be Sacriledge To confound say they the Ranks of Bishops and Elders and to bring down a Bishop to the inferior degree of an Elder is no lesse then Sacriledge Now I would fain know how that comes to be truth now which was condemned for Heresie and to be Piety now which was branded for Sacriledge above 1200 agoe 9. Neither were the Fathers of the Councel of Chalcedon only zealous in this cause which so much concerned the honour of the Church but the other three also whose authority St. Gregory held to be the next to the four Evangelists and the Doctrine thereof is after a sort incorporated into our Acts of Parliament Eliz. 1. In these Councels which all consisted of Bishops Episcopacy it self is almost in every Canon and Sanction either Asserted or Regulated 10. Next to the Primitive Church we owe a reverend respect to the Reformed Churches beyond the Seas who either have Bishops as in Poland Transilvania Denmark and Swethland or the same function is in Nature though not in Name to wit Intendents and Super-intendents as they would have them if they could as I understood from many Ministers in France or at least approve of them as appeareth by the testimony of Beza Sadiel Scultetus and others 11. What should I speak of the Articles of Religion ratified by a Sequence of Religious Princes succeeding one the other and confirmed by Act of Parliament to which all Beneficed men are required under pain of losse of their livings within a moneth to professe their assent and consent in which both the Power and Consecration of Bishops and Ministers is expresly asserted and their distinction from Presbyters or of the Statute of Carlile the 15. of Edw. 2. and the first of Qu. Eliz. with very many other unrepealed Acts in which Episcopall Government is either related unto or regulated and confirmed in such sort that quite to abolish and extirpate it would bring a confusion and make a stop as well in Secular as Ecclesiastical Courts And therefore our zealous Reformers if they think themselves not too good to be advised by the Great Counsellor ought to take heed how they rashly and unadvisedly pluck up the tares as they esteem them of holy Canons and Ecclesiastical Laws ne simul eradicent triticum lest together with those tares as they count them they pluck up by the roots the good wheat of many profitable and wholesome Laws of the Common-wealth and Acts of Parliament 12. But if the Authority of both Houses could soon cure these sores in precedent Acts of Parliament yet how will they make up the breaches in the Consciences of all those who in the late Protestation and this New Covenant have taken a Solemn Oath to maintain the Priviledges of the Members of Parliament and the Liberties of the Subject The most Authentical evidence whereof are Charta Magna and the Petitionof Right in both which the Rights of the Church and Priviledges of Episcopal Sees are set down in the Fore-front in Capital Letters 13. To strain this string a little higher the power of granting Congedeliers together with the investitute of Archbishops Bishops and Collation of Deanries and Prebends with a setled Revenue from the First-fruits and Tenths there is one of the fairest flowers in the Kings Crown and to rob the imperial Diadem of it considering the King is a Person most Sacred is Sacriledge in a high degree and not Sacriledge only but Perjury also in all those who attempt it For all Graduates in the University and men of Ranck and Quality in the Common-wealth who are admitted to any place of eminent Authority or Trust take the Oath of Supremacy whereby they are bound to defend and Propugne all Preeminences Authorities and Prerogatives annexed to the Imperial Crown whereof this is known to be one inherent in the King as he is Supreme head of the Church within his Realms and Defender of the Faith 14. Yet for all this admit that Reason of State should inforce the Extirpation of Episcopacy thus rooted as it hath been said both in the Royal Prerogative and Priviledge of the Subject and in the Laws of the Land it is a golden Maxim of Law
Nay * Luther himself who of all men most bitterly inveighed against the Antichristian Hierarchy yet puts water into his wine adding Let no man hereby conceive that I speak any thing against the state of Bishops but only against Romish Wolves and Tyrants Neither are the Lutherans of another minde at this day witness their every-way accomplished †Gerard None of us saith he affirmeth That there is no difference between a Bishop or Presbyter or Priest but we acknowledge a difference of Degrees for good Order sake and to preserve Concord in the Church Here me-thinks I see the Smectimnuans bend their brows and answer with some indignation What have we to do with Lutherans who have Images in their Churches and Auricular confession and maintain Consubstantiation and Ubiquity and intercision of grace and many other Errors We are of Calvin and hold with the Doctrine and Discipline of Geneva which hath no allay at all of Error and Superstition but is like the pure Angel-gold Here though I might as many have done crave leave to put in a Legal Exception against the authority of Calvin and Beza in matter of Discipline because they had a hand in thrusting out the Bishop of Geneva and the Lay Presbyterian Government was the issue of their brain and we know it is natural for Parents to dote upon their own Children and accompt them far fairer and more beautiful then indeed they are yet such was the ingenuity of those worthy Reformers and such is the evidence and strength of Truth that in this point concerning the Abolition of Episcopacy in the Church of England I dare chuse them as Umpires First let * Calvin speak in his exquisite Treatise concerning the Necessity of Reforming the Church the most proper place if any were clearly to deliver his judgement in this Controversie where having â—ipt up the abuses of the Romish Hierarchy in the end thus he resolves Let them shew us such an Hierarchy in which the Bishops may have such preheminency that yet they refuse not themselves to be subject to Christ that they depend upon him as the only Head and refer all to him and so embrace brotherly society that they are knit together by no other means then his truth and I will confess they deserve any curse if there be any who will not observe such an Hierarchy with reverence and greatest obedience After him let us hear †Bezae in that very Book which he wrote against Saravia a Prebend of Canterbury concerning different Degrees in the Clergy but saith he if the Reformed Churches of England remain still supported with the authority of their Archbishops and Bishops as it hath come to passe in our memory that they have had men of that rank not only famous Martyrs but most excellent Doctors and Pastours which happiness I for my part wish that they may continually enjoy c. Surely he that so highly extolled our Bishops and wished that that Order might like the tree in the Poet continually bring forth such golden boughs and fruit would not readily swear to endeavour the utter Extirpation thereof THE END BY THE KING His Majesties Proclamation forbidding the Tendring or Taking of the late Vow or Covenant devised by some Members of both Houses to Engage His Majesties good Subjects in the Maintenance of this odious Rebellion WHEREAS We have lately seen a Vow or Covenant pretended to be taken by some Members of both Houses of Parliament whereby after the taking notice of a Popish and Traiterous Plot for the subversion of the true Reformed Prote stant Religion and the Liberty of the Subiect and to surprize the Cities of London and Westminstr They do promise and covenant according to their utmost power to assist the Forces pretended to be raised and continued by both Houses of Parliament against the Forces raised by Vs and to assist all other persons that shall take the said Oath in what they shall do in pursuance thereof which Oath as the same hath been taken without the least colour or ground the Contrivers thereof well knowing that there is no popish Army within this Kingdom that We are so far from giving countenance to that Religion that We have alwayes given and alwayes offered Our consent to any Act for the suppression of Popery and the growth thereof and that the Army raised by Vs is in truth for the necessary defence of the true Reformed Protestant Religion established by Law the Liberty and Property of the Subiect and Our own Iust Rights according to Law all which being setled and submitted to or such a free and peaceable Convention in Parliament being provided for that the same might be setled We have offered and are still ready to Disband our Armies and as the said Oath was devised only to prevent Peace and to pre-engage the Votes of the Members of both Houses directly contrary to the Freedom and Liberty of Parliament and to engage them and Our good Subiects in the maintenance of this horrid and odious Rebellion so it is directly contrary as well to their natural Duty as to the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy established by Law which obliges them to bear to Vs Truth and Faith of Life Members and Earthly Honour and to defend Vs to the utmost of their powers against all Conspiracies and Attempts whatsoever which shall be made against Our Person Our Crown and Dignity and to do their best endeavours to disclose and make known to Vs all Treasons and Traiterous Conspiracies which shall be against Vs and to their power to assist and defend all Iurisdictions Priviledges Preheminences and Authority belonging to Vs or united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm And whereas We are informed that some desperate seditious persons do endeavour to perswade and seduce others of Our good Subiects to take the saith Oath thereby to engage them and this Kingdom into a continuanee of these miserable and bloudy distempers We do therefore out of Grace and Compassion to our people and that they may not by any craft or violence suffer themselves to be seduced against their Duty and Conscience warn them of their natural Allegiance and their Obligations by Oaths lawfully administred to them and wish them to remember the great Blessings of God in peace and plenty which the whole Kingdom hath received whilst that Duty and those Oaths were carefully observed and the unspeakable miseries and calamities they have suffered in the breaking and violation thereof And we do straitly Charge and Command Our loving Subiects of what degree and quality soever upon their Allegiance that they presume not to take the said Seditious and Traiterous Vow or Covenant which endeavours to withdraw them from their natural Allegiance which they owe unto Vs and to which they are or ought to be sworn and are bound by the known Laws of the Land albeit they are not sworn and engages them in Acts of High Treason by the express letter of
Brethren whom peradventure nothing will content but an illimited Power to Lord it in their Parishes and assisted with their Confederates to make their Consistories as well the Benches for secular Cases as the Tribunals for Ecclesiastical and all under a notion of The Power of the Keyes To these in particular if such there are I do friendly recommend this following work hoping that when they feel the force of Argument in their strong convictions they will not be ashamed to confess their mistakes and study to be quiet The Author of this Book was known to be a burning and a shining light untill malice and mischief shut him up in a Prison and put out his Lamp His Speech in the Assembly against this Covenant was at that time so distasted that his impatient and too zealous Brethren suffered him not to render those his Reasons in defence of Episcopacy which are added to this Work When they therefore hastened to swear the League he retired to his house to grieve and to pray Y from that time forward he was neither secure in his study nor safe in his house It was his seeming sin that he so freely delivered his conscience and his punishment was Plundring Sequestring Imprisonment and Death While he continued a Prisoner he composed this Book at the request of a friend and the importunity of his Letter wherewith it begins I suppose that none will gain-say the observation of the Father Conflictatio in adversis probatio est veritatis He was not ashamed of his chain because he endured those pressures as a faithful Son of that true Church whereof Cassiod in Psal. 1. saith Novit Ecclesia beneficia Domini triumphat de suis cladibus afflictione semper augetur sanguine martyrum irrigatur tristitiâ magis erigitur angustiâ dilatatur fletibus pascitur jejuniis reficitur indè potius crescit undè mundus deficit Let the judicious and impartial Reader censure it as he pleaseth I shall end this Introduction with the words of Horace Si quid novisti rectius istis Candidus imperti si non his utere mecum TO My Reverend and much esteemed Friend D. F. SIR THE Winde is stormy and the Sea troubled and we are to cut a way through a narrow passage between two dangerous Rocks wherein if we steer not warily and evenly it cannot be avoided but we shall make shipwrack on the one side or on the other on the one side of Loyalty and a good Conscience on the other of Liberty and our Estate In this case to whom should we rather have recourse then to an antient and skilful Pilot who hath sounded the depths of Theological Controversies and heretofore hazarded his life to save others from drowning in the Sea of Errors Moreover none in my judgement so fit to resolve a Case of Conscience and that of greatest importance as a faithful Minister of the Gospel who hath suffered for Conscience I pray Sir be not shie of your best advice for if we miscarry through want of your Direction all your excuses will prove unexcusable before God What though you have resolved to conceal your self and you lie hid at this present in the dark Yet like a Chrysolite or Carbuncle glowing with Divine fire you shine the brighter I intreat you therefore of all loves to cast a careful eye upon the late Covenant and in the sieve of the refined judgements of the subtilest Casuists to sift it to the bran and send the result of your thoughts upon it to Your Ancient And true affectionate Friend E. G. From London this 12. of February 1643. TO My Noble and much Honored Friend E. G. Worthy Sir IN this tempestuous season like that in Rome when as Livie relateth it rained bloud for many dayes the best counsell I can give is That you and all who are like you from whose Prayers offered up with strong cryes heaven suffereth violence would cry aloud with the Disciples when the ship was covered with waves Save us Master we perish that so he being awaked by our watchful devotion may rebuke the winds and the Seas and restore unto us our former calm and Halcyonian dayes For particular directions how to steer your course between the Rocks you mention upon which you are in danger to split either your Conscience if you enter into this New Covenant or your Estate if you enter not into it you cannot expect them from me For though I have for many years studied the Compass of Gods word yet I am no Pilot. I have ever lived under the hatches and never sate at helm in Church or Common-wealth And if I should take upon me the office of a Steerman and you following my advice should miscary and be dasht in pieces or sunk in your fortunes in stead of thanks from you I were like to receive curses from your family and posterity Yea but I am say you a dispenser of the mysteries of salvation and it is required of a Steward that he be found faithful and I have suffered already for the testimony of a good Conscience and therefore ought not for any fear or terrour conceal my judgement or stifle the truth I cannot deny my function neither will I betray my innocency neither am I afraid of any thing so much herein as this That if you make me your Casuist your case will be soon like mine and by gaining the truth you will be a loser But I check my self in these thoughts with the words of our Saviour What will it advantage a man to win the whole world and lose his own soul What will it avail the master of a Ship to save his whole fraight if he lose that pretious pearl which the rich Merchant sold all that he had to buy This peerless pearl no plunderer can rob us of this affordeth me a comfortable light in the thickest darkness of melancholy thoughts Save for this I account my self nothing worth at all No carbuncle as your love overpriseth me but a dead coal now resolving into ashes and as I lie hid in the dark so I desire from this obscure state to steal into heaven and in the mean while Ita vivere ut nemo me vixisse sentiat so to passe through these angry and working seas that none may discern the print of my Keel Notwithstanding because you charge me so deeply by all the ties of Christian charity which is the bond of perfection I will freely open my self concerning the Engagement of our Conscience in the New Covenant and return you not so much a punctual as a poignant resolution Yours to serve you in the Lord D. F. THE COVENANT Which caused these Scruples of Conscience Here followeth 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 Commons of all