more facilitating of their purposes they advance the secular power of Princes and of all soveraigne Estates above all that themselves either crave or desire alone for this end that their clerks may ride upon the shoulders of Soveraignitie to tread under the feet of their domination first the Subjects and then the Soveraignes themselves The tyrannous usurpation of the Canterburians are as many and heavie as these of the Romist Clergie How much our men are behinde the greatest tyrants that ever were in Rome let any pronounce when they have considered these their following maximes They tell us first that the making of all Ecclesiastick constitutions doth belong alone to the Bishop of the Diocesse no lesse out of Synod then in Synod That some of the inferior clergie may bee called if the Bishops please to give their advice and deliberative voice That the Prince may lend his power for confirming and executing of the constitutions made but for the work of their making it is the Bishops priviledge belonging to them alone by Divine right (a) Samuel Hoards sermons pag. 7. By the Chruch I meane the Churches Pilots who sit at the sterne Heads members divide all bodies Ecclesiasticall and civill what ever is to bee done in matters of direction and government hath alwayes beene and must be the sole prerogative of the heads of these bodies unlesse wee will have all common-wealths and churches broken in picees Ibid. pag. 8. The key of jurisdiction which is a power of binding and lousing men in foro exteriori in the coutts of justice and of making lawes and orders for the government of Gods house is peculiar to the heads and bishops of the church Ibid. p. 31. what was Ignatius and Ambrose if we look at their authoritie more than other bishops of the church That libertie therfore which they had to make new orders when they saw cause have all other prelats in their churches Edward Boughanes serm Pag. 17. Submit your selves to those that are put in authoritie by kings so then to Bishops because they are put in authoritie by Kings if they had no other clame But blessed bee God they hold not only by this but by a higher tenor since all powers are of God from him they have their spirituall jurisdiction what ever it be S. Paul therfore you see assumes this power unto himselfe of setting things in order in the kirk before any Prince become Christian 1 Cor. 11.34 The like power hee acknowledgeth to be in Titus 1.5 and in all bishops Heb. 15.17 Ibid. pag. 18. Kings make lawes and bishops make canons This indeed it was of necessitie in the beginning of Christianitie Kings made lawes for the State and bishops for the kirk because then there was no Christian Kings either to authorize them to make such lawes or who would countenance them when they were made But after that Kings became nourishing fathers to the Church in these pious and regular times bishops made no Canons without the assent and confirmation of Christian Kings and such are our Canons so made so confirmed Chounei collect pag. 53. Reges membra quidem filios Eccesiae se esse habitos reiecisse contempsisse nonnunquam audivimus obediunt simulque regnant Iura quibus gubernari se permittunt sua sunt vitalitatem nativam ex praepositis Ecclesiae tanquam ex corde recipiunt vivacitatem ex ipsis tanquam ex capitibus derivant Samuel Hoards pag. 9. Nor did they exercise this power when they were in Counsell only but when they were asunder also Speaking of apostles as they are paterns to all bishops 2. That in a whole Kingdome the Bishops alone without the privitie of any of the clergie of any of the laitie may abolish all the Ecclesiastick judicatories which the standing and unrepealled lawes which the constant customes ever since the reformation had setled and put in their rowme new forraigne courts which the kingdome had never known scarce so much as by their name (b) Our Chrurch Sessions our weekly presbyteries our yearly generall Assemblies whereof by our standing lawes wee have beene in possession are closse put downe by our book of Canons and in their rowme Church-wardens officiall courts synods for Episcopall visitation and generall Assemblies to bee called when they will to be constitute of what members they please to name are put in their place That at one stroke they may annull all the Acts of three or fourscore National Afsemblies and set up in their roome a Book of Canons of their own devysing (c) So is their book entituled Canons and Constitutions Ecclesiasticall gathered and put in forme for the governement of the Church of Scotland and ordained to bee observed by the clergie and all others whom they concerne That they may abolish all the formes used in the worship of God without any question for threescore yeares and above both in the publicke prayers in the administration of the Sacraments in singing of Psalmes in preaching the Word in celebrating of Marriage in visiting the sicke and in ordination of Ministers Neither this alone but that it is in their hand to impose in place of these accustomed formes foure new Bookes of their owne of Service of Psalmes of Ordination of Homilies All this our Bishops in Scotland have done and to this day not any of them to our knowledge can be moved to confesse in that deed any faile against the rules either of equitie or justice what ever slips of imprudence there may bee therein And all this they have done at my lord of Canterburies direction as wee shall make good by his owne hand if ever we shall be so happy as to be permitted to produce his owne authentick autographs before the Parliament of England or any other Judicatorie that his Majestie will command to cognosce upon this our alleadgance Readily Rome it self can not be able in any one age to paralell this worke which our faction did bring foorth in one yeare It is a bundel of so many so various and so heavie acts of tyrannie Certainly England was never acquaint with the like wee see what great trouble it hath cost his Grace to get thorow there one poore ceremonie of setting the Communion table altar-wayes for there themselves dar not deny that it is repugnant to the established Lawes of their church and state for any Bishop yea for all the Bishops being joined to make the poorest Canon without the voices of their convocation-house or Nationall Assemblie yea without the Parliaments good pleasure (d) VVhites examination of the dialogue pag 22. By the lawes of our kingdome and Canons of our Church many learned persons are appointed to be assistants unto bishops and in our nationall Synods in which all weightie matters concerning religion are determined nothing is or may be concluded but by the common vote and counsell of the major part of the convocation which consisteth of many other learned Divines besides Bishops Andrews sermons
King before Starchamber speach having magnified the Kings mercie for saving the life of Bourtoun and his companions is bold to advise the King not alwayes to bee so mercifull in these words Yet this I shall bee bold to say that your Majestie may consider of it in your wisedome that one way of government is not alwayes either fit or safe when the humours of the people are in a continuall change especially when such men as those shall work upon your people and labour to infuse into them such malignant principles to introduce a paritie in the Church or Commonwealth Etsi non satis sua sponte insaniant instigare Heylen in his moderat answer pag. 187. hath many reasons and examples to prove that Burtoun and his like deserved no lesse than publick execution And yet these men are so gentle to Papists that they glory in their meeknesse towards them professing that to the bitterest of the Iesuits they have never given so much as a course word So Canterburie in his Epistle the other yeare to the King before the relation of the conference God forbid that I should ever offer to perswade a persecution in any kinde against the Iesuits or practice it in the least for to my rememberance I have not given him or his so much as course language But alasse it is gone now beyond boasts when they are the second time upon the very point to kill millions of the Kings best Subjects to dash together all his dominions in a bloody warre as pitchers one upon another for the confirmation of their intollerable tyrannie where long it hath beene tottering and the reerection of it where it s owne unsupportable weight hath caused it to fall As for the power of princes King Charles hates all tyranny the most of those this day who are Christians and especially our gracious Soveraigne are very well content to be limited within the bounds of the laws which themselves and their predecessors have setled in the church and state of their dominions to make the preservation of those laws and of their subjects liberties ecclesiastick and civill according to them the greatest glorie of their prerogative royall (o) His majesties speach in Parliament 28. p. 75. The peoples liberties strengthen the Kings prerogative and the Kings prerogative is to defend the peoples liberties To give assurance of their resolution never to abolish any old or bring in any new act either in church or state without the concurrence of Assemblies and Parliaments p Neither to impose any taxation on their subjects goods without their free consent there to given by their Commissioners in Parliament (q) Proclam at Yorck April 25. 1639. VVe heartily declare and faithfully promise that althogh we be now in armes they shall be no wayes used either to force upon that our native Kingdome any innovation of religion or to infringe any of the civill liberties or the laws thereof accounting it our glory to preserve libertie and freedome among them according to their laws Therefore wee do once again by this renew our former promises for the mantenance of religion and laws and this we do in all sinceritie of heart we take God the searcher of all hearts to witnesse that as we are defender of the true Protestant religion which we from our heart professe so we trust we shall by his goodnesse continue in the same and never shall permit any innovation to creep in this or any other of our kingdomes One of the articles of Dunce pacification is this VVe are further graciously pleased that according to the petitioners humble desires all matters ecclesiasticall shall be determined by the Assemblies of the Church and matters civill by the Parliament and other inferior Iudicatories established by law which accordingly shall be keeped once a year or so oft as the affairs of the Church and kingdome shall require the extending of the prerogative to the making of new laws or abolishing of old to the imposing of taxes by simple proclamation without Parliament our Prince doth so far abhorre that he condemned a certaine writ for importing his Majesties intertainment of such motions Yea his Majestie by his Atturney generall called the Earl of Bedfoord and other noble personages to censure for keeping such a writ wherein did ly so pernicious positions (r) The which seditious discourse and writting the authors thereof intended should be dispersed as if the same had been intertained by your Majestie with purpose to put it in execution and to alter the ancient laws of this kingdome and to draw all things to your Majesties absolute will and plessure and to dispose of your Subiects goods without their consent and to make and repeale laws by your Maiestise proclamation only with out consent of parliament which if it should be beleeved by your people could not but raise infinit discontentment amongst them the consequence whereof might bee of extreame and almost inevitable danger to your Maiesties person and to the whole frame of the kingdome Where some Princes misled through passion mis-information have deviat so far from the path of justice as to intend by violence and armes the overthrow of the true religion and ancient (q) Cant. relat p. 112. In some kingdome there are diverse businesses of greatest consequence which cannot be finally and binedingly ordered but in and by Parliament and particulary the statute laws which must bind all the Subjects can not be made or ratified but there the supreme Magistrate in the civill state may not abrogat laws made in Parliament though he may dispense with the penaltie of the law quoad hic nunc liberties of their subjects the opposition which the subjects are forced to make in this case against the oppression of their Prince our gracious Soveraigne hath been so far ever from counting of it rebellion of which crime the greatest royallists in England wont alway to absolve it (Å¿) Bilson of subjection pag. 280. Neither will I rashly pronounce all that resist to be rebells Cases may fall out even in Christian kingdomes where people may plead their right against the Prince and not be charged with rebellion As for example if a Prince should go about to subject his Kingdome to a forraine realme or change the forme of the common wealth from imperie to tyranny or neglect the laws established by common consent of Prince and people to execute his own pleasure In those and other cases which might be named if the nobles and commons ioine together to defend their ancient and accustomed libertie regiment and laws they may not well be counted rebels Ib. By superior powers ordained of God we do not mean the Princes privat will against his laws but his precepts derived from his laws and agreeing with his laws which though it be wicked yet may it not be resisted by any subject with armed violence but when Princes offer their subjects no justice but force and despise all laws to
articles of Parliament it is commanded to be subscribed by the hearts and hands of all in this Kingdome without exception So that new there stands at the back of that long blasphemed Covenant among the first and most conspicuous hands not onely Roxburgh Lawder-dale Southâ—ke and others of the prime Counsellours but also Traquair the Kings great Commissioner for that effect We hope then that you and your like if there remaine any sparke of reverence in your breast towards that authoritie which oft yee pretend to adore will not onely for ever hereafter bridle your very loose tongues but also eate in againe or at last cover so farre as ye can for hidding of your shame these most false lies and unchristian railings which these two yeares by-gone in word writ Print ye have vomitted out against our proceedings especially that most hatred slandered passage of them the renewing of our Covenant The fi st point wherein ye parallell us with Jesuites 1. paralel Wee are for Monarchie but against Monarchical tyranny is in our opposition to Monarchicall government By Monarchicall government yee expreslâ— enough declare that ye understand such an absolute and illimitate power as exeemeth the Prince from the tye of all Law and puts in his hand the full libertie to make what Lawes he wâ—ll withâ—ut the advice let bee consent of Parliament of Counsell or of any others and taketh absolutely all Liberty from his Subjects though met together in Parliament to defend them elves by Armes in any imaginable oppression even such a Mâ—narchie as the great Turke or the Mâ—gor of Iâ—dia or the Châ—m of Taâ—tarie this day doth enjoy over their slaves even that strange kinde of government which in my last Chapter I descrived in the words of your brethren We confesse freely that our heart is much opposite to such a Mâ—narchie yet no more then our gracious Prince king Charles his glorious Father king Iames give us expresse warrant The one in his fore-cited writ of his Atturney Suprâ— chap 8. Q.R. abhorring these injurious flatterers who would impute unto him the making of Lawes without his Parliament the other in his Parliamentary Speach Page 531. A king governing in a setled kingdome leaveth to bee a King degenerateth in to a tiraÌ„t as soone as hee leaveth off to rule according to his Lawes Therefore all Kings that are no tyrants or perjured will be glad to bound themselves within the limits of their Lawes They that perswade them the contrarie are vipers and posts both against them and the Common-wealth making that Prince a perjured tyrant who would not gladly bound himself within the limits of his laws and these men to be taken for vipers pests and common enemies to Princes and people who would assay by their flatteries to loose Princes from their pactions made with their people at their Coronation and the setled lawes of their Kingdome yea we show that your own great Bishop Laud possibly as great a Royalist as is needfull goeth before us with his own mouth what ever he directeth you and many other of his followers to the contrary to teach that no statute Supra Cap. â— Q Law can bee made any where but in Parliament even in England let bee â—cotland where to this day never any conquerour did dwell But as for true Monarchie so high as the lowable lawes any where do make it we are in nothing opposite thereto for what have we to doe to condemne the setled state Lawes of any other Nation Certainly the royall authority of our owne gratious Soveraigne so far as the lowable lawes of our Kingdome doe extend it we are sworne in our Covenant heartily to the uttermost of our power to maintaine As for the lawfulnesse The lawfulnesse of defensive Arms of resistance in the present case of our invasion I may not enter in this short postscript in any such question onely ye may if ye please understand that it hath been the tenet of our Church since the reformation it hath been the right and practice of our Kingdome since the first foundation a number of instances thereof are approved in our standing acts of Parliament unrepealed to this day it hath been the practice of all the reformed Churches abroad wherein by Queen Elizabeth King Iames King Charles they have been all allowed and the most of them countenanced with powerfull assistance of men and money Your self cannot deny but in the judgement of reformed Divines resistance in many cases is lawfull even in Kingdomes where the Prince is tyed in the fundamentall lawes by paction to his people That this is the State of the kingdome of Scotland though ye may deny it yet King James who is like to have as great understanding in the rights of the Crowne and Kingdome of Scotland as you or your like gives us assurance that by a fundamentall law the King of Scotland is obliged at his coronation to paction under his great oath the preservation of the established Religion of the Lawes of the Kingdome of the Liberties and priviledges of the Subjects P. 105 In the Coronation our Kings give their oath first to maintaine the Religion presently professed punish al those that should alter or disturbe the profession thereof and next to maintaine the lowable good lawes made by their predecessours lastly to maintain the whole Countrie and every state therein And this oath in the Coronation is the clearest civill fundamentall Law whereby the Kings office is properly defined However we love your ingenuity who doe not dissemble but professe openly your minde that when a faction about a Prince by divine providence is permitted to take courses for the evident overthrow both of the Religion of the Lawes of the Liberties of the goods of the lives and all that is deare to an whole kingdome that in those or any other imaginable cases of tyrannie whole Parliaments may not proceed for their defence one step beyond teares prayers and flight That what ever is done more by whole and consentient nations against a faction of Court misleading the Prince is simplie unlawfull Your scoffes about the questions of Bishops and Elders deserve no answer Our Tenets about bishops and ruling Elders the king hath approved nothing doe we maintaine in them but what the assemblies of our church at our first reformation ordained and was in peaceable practice among us ever till men of your coat by fraudulent and violent wayes for their owne ambition and avarice set up their novations We have no other minde in those questions then the Church of Holland and France All our tenets are so well cleared by that Learned Hollander Gersome Bucerus as none of your partie hath yet beene bold after 22. yeares advisement to make any reply yea we maintaine no more in these questions then that wherewith our gracious Prince by his Commissioner and act of Counsell in our last generall assemblie hath declared himselfe to be well pleased but ye are a
Tedders in his sermon at the visitation of the B. of Norwitch all subscribed by the hands of my L. of Canterburies Chaplane Bray Oliver Baker or some others THE PREFACE IT is fallen out much beside our expectation Wee did expect nothing lesse then warre that the storme of warre should now againe begin to blow when we did esteem that the mercy of GOD and justice of our Prince had setled our Land in a firme peace for many generations at least for many daies ever while some appearance of provocation should have arisen from us for the kindling of the wrath of our enraged enemies whose furie though we know well not to be quite extinguished yet we did surely think it would not breake forth in haste in any publick and open flame til some new matter had been furnished or some probable colour of a new quarrell could have beene alleadged against us When we have scattered that cloud of calumnies We have committed nothing that can bee pretended with any goodly colour for the breach of the late pacâ—fication which by their tongues and pens they had spread abroad of our rebellion many other odious crimes when by our frequent supplications informations remonstrances declarations and other writs wee have cleared aboundantly the justice of our cause the innocencie of our proceedings to all the ingenuous minde of the Yle and to so many of our neighbour nations as have beene desirous to cognosce of our affaires when our gracious and just Prince in the very heat of his wrath raised alone by their mis-informations even while armes were in his hand hath beene moved with the unanimous consent of all his English Counsell of all his Commanders and whole armie to acknowledge us good and loyall Subjects And after a full hearing of our cause in his Campe to professe his satisfaction to pronounce us free of those crimes which before were falsely blazed of us to send us all home in peace with the tokens of his favour with the heartie embracement of â—hat armie which came against us for our ruine When we in a generall Assembly of our Church with the knowledge and full consent of his Majesties high Commissioner whole Counsell have justified our opposition to the innovation of our Religion and Lawes by the Prelaâ—es our excommunication of them therefore the renewing of our Covenant and all the rest of our Ecclesiastâ—call proceedings when our States in Parliament were going on in a sweet harmonie to confirme the weaknesses set right the disorders of our Estate that no farther then clear equitie reason law yea the very words of the pacificatorie Edict did permit wheÌ„ our whole people were minding nothing but quietnesse having cast their neckes under the feet of our reconciled king put all their Castles Canons in his hand without any securitie but the royall Word and received heartily all those fugitives who had taken armes in the Prelates cause against their Countrie having no other minde but to sit down with joy gâ—e about our own long neglected businesse praising God and blessing the King The martiall mindes among us panting for languor to be imployed over sea for the honour of the Crowne in spending their bloud against the insolent enemies of his Majesties house While these are our only thoughts It was more then marveilous to us that first the dumbe and obscure whisperings and at once the loud blasts the open threats of a new more terrible and cruell warre then before should come to our eares that our Castles should be filled with straÌ„gers be provided with extra ordinarie victuals and munition as against a present assault or long siege Many of our Nobles tempted to leave our cause numbers of assayes made to breake the unitie of all our Estates and at last our Parliament commanded to arise the Commissioners thereof after a long and wearisome journey to Court for the clearing of some surmised mistakes about moods and formes of proceedings refused presence a Parliament in England indicted as the rumour goeth to perswade that Nation our dearest neighbours with whom our cause is common to imploy their meanes and armes against us that so our old nationall and immortall warres may be renewed to make sport to Prelates a bridge for the Spainyard or French to come over Sea and sit downe masters of the whole Yle when both Nations by mutuall wounds are disabled for defence against the force of an enemie so potent as either France or Spaine are this day of them selves without the assistance which too like shall bee made them by the Papists of the Yle and many more who will not faile to joyne for their owne ends with any apparent victory Wee admire how it is possible that intestine armes without any necessity should be takeÌ„ up at this season Compassion hope and all reason call now for peace at home that at last we may gett some order of our enemies abroad when all the Forces the whole Yle can spare are most earnestly called for by the tears of his Ma. only sister by the bloud long desolation of her most miserable Subjects by the captivitie and banishment of all her hopefull Children Prince Charles lying dayly under the hazard of the French hang man at Paris Prince Robert of the Austrian at Vienne the rest of that royall bloud lying so many yeares with their Mother banished in a strange Countrie Pietie would command us to put up all our homeward quarrels though they were both great and manie let be to forge any where none reall can be found Yea hope would allure us to try now if ever our Armes on those spitefull Nations the hereditary enemies of our Religion and of our Yle when God hath made them contemptible by the cleare successe hee giveth dayly to every one that riseth against them Banier with a wing of the Swedâ—sh Armie dwelling in spite of the Emperour all this yeare in the heart of his Countries a part of Weymers forces with a litle help froÌ„ France triumphing on the Rhene for all that Baviere Culen the Emperour or Spainiard can doe against them That very great and strong Armado all utterly crushed in our eyes by the Hollanders alone without the assistance of any The very French not the best sea men having lately beaten oftener then once the Spanish navies in the Mediterrian Shall we alone sit still for ever shal we send alwayes nought but base contemptible derided Supplications to these intractable Princes shall we feed our selves still with their scornfull promises which so oft wee have found to our great disgrace most false yea rather then to beate them by that aboundance of power which we have if God will give us an heart to imploy it rather then to pull downe those tyrants who have shed rivers of Protestants bloud who hath loÌ„g tred on the persons of our nearest friends and in them on our honour Is it now meet we should choose
the rest to our acerâ—st and sibbest sister of England as it were in a table divers of these errours which our partie first by craft and subtilitie but now by extreame violence of fire and Sword are labouring to bring upon us to the end that our deare Brethren understanding our sufferings in the defence of such a cause may bee the more willing at this time to contribute for our assistance from God the helpe of their earnest Prayers and for ever hereafter to condole with the more hearty compassion any misery which possibly may befall us in such a quarrell All our plea is but one cleare syllogisme Albeit truely our hopes are yet greater then our feares if we could become so happie as once to get our plea but entered before our Prince for we can hardlie conceave what in reason should hinder our full assurance of a favorable decision from that Sacred mouth whose naturall equitie the World knowes in all causes whereof hee is impartially informed since our whole action is â— uâ—ht but one formall argument whereof the Mâ—j r is â—he verdict of our judge the Minor shal be the open and â—â—â—wâ—d Testimonie of our partie need we feare thâ—â— either our judge or partie will bee so irrationall as to vâ—nture upon the denyall of a conclusion whereof both the premisses is their owne open profession Our Major is this The Major thereof VVho ever in the Kings Dominions spreads abroad Poperie or any Doctrine opposite to the Religion and Lawes of the Land now established ought not to bee countenanced but severely punished by the King This Major the King hath made certaine tâ— us in his frequent most solemne asseverations not onely at his coronation both here and in England in his proclamations both here and there (a) Neither shall we ever give way to the authorizing of any tâ—â—ng wherby any innovation many steal or creep into the Church but shall preserve that unitie of doctrine discâ—pline established â—n Q. Elizabeths reign wherby the Church of England have stood flouâ— sâ—ed since Proclam dissolving the Parl of England 1628. and therefore oâ—ce for all we have thought fit to declare and hereby to assure all our good people that we neitâ—er were are nor ever by the grace of God shall bee slained with popish superstition but by the conâ—tarie are resolved to maintain the true Protestant Christian religion already professed within this our ancient Kingdom We neither intend innovation in religion or lawes proclam â—une 8. 1638. to free al our good subjects of tâ—e least suâ—pition of any intent on in us to innovate any thing either in religion or lawes and to sati fie not onely their desires but even their doubts We have discharged c. proclam Septemb 22. 1638. and to give all his Maj. people full assurance that he never intended to admit any alâ—eration or change in the true religoÌ„ pofessed wiâ—â—in this kingdome and that they may be truely and fully satisfied of the realitie of his intentions and integritie of the same his Maj. hath been pleased to require command all his good Subjects to subscribe the confession of Faith formerly signed by his dear Father in anno 1580. and it is his Maj will that this be insert and registrat in the books of Assembly as a testimony to pâ—steritie not only of the sinceritie of his intentions to the said true religion but also of his resolution to maintaine and defend the same and his Subjects in the proâ—ession thereof proclam Decemb. 18. 1638. but also in his late large declaration oftimes giving out his resolution to live and die in the reformed protestant religion opposite to all Poperie to maintaine his established lawes and in nothing to permitt the enervating of them Yea this resolution of the king is so peremptor publickly avowed thâ—t Canterburie himselfe dare not but applaud thereto (b) If any Prelate would labour to bring in the superstitions of the Church of Rome I doe not onely leave him to Gods judgement but if his irreligious falshood can bee discovered also to shame and severe punishment from the State and in any just way no maÌ„s hands should bee sooner against him then mine in his Starre chamber speech who can seeme more foreward then he for the great equitie to punish condignlie all who would but mind to bring in any Poperie in this Isle or assay to make any innovation in Religion or Lawes Wee beleeve indeed that my Lord Canterburie doth but juggle with the world in his fair ambiguous generalities being content to invegh as much against poperie and innovation as we could wish upon hopes ever when it comes to any particular of the grossest poperie we can name by his subtile distinctions and disputations to slide out of our hands But wee are perswaded what ever may be the jugling of sophisticating Bishops yet the magnanimous ingenuitie the royall integritie of our gracious Soveraigne is not compatible with such fraudulent equivocations as to proclaime his detestation of poperie in generals and not thereby to give us a full assurance of his abhorring every particular which all the orthodox Preachers of this Isle since the reformation by Queene Elizabeth and King Iames allowance hath ever condemned as popish errours Our Major then wee trust may be past as unquestionable Wee subjoyne our Minor The Minor But so it is that Canterburie and his dependars men raised and yet maintained by him have openly in their printed bookes without any recantation or punishment to this day spread abroad in all the Kings Dominions doctrines opposite to our Religion and Lawes especially the most points of the grossest poperie In reason all our bickering ought to be here alone This Minor I offer to instruct and that by no other middes then the testimonie of their owne pens If J doe so to the full satisfaction of all who know what are the particular heads of the reformed Religion and what the Tenets of Poperie â—pposite thereto what are the Lawes standing in all the thrâ—e Dominions and what the contrarie maximes of the Turkish Empire wherewith Matchivelists this day every where are labouring to poyson the eares of all Christian Princes for enervating the Lawes and Liberties of their Kingdomes I hope that reason and justice which stand night and day attending on either side of King Charles Throne will not faile to perswade the chearfull embracement of the conclusion The conclusion which followes by a cleare and naturall necessitie from the forenamed premisses to witt that Canterburie and his dependars in all the three Dominions ought not to be countenanced by the King but severally punished Let be that for their pastime a bloodie hazardous warre should be raised in so unseasonable a time for the undoing of that countrie and church which God hath honoured with the birth and baptisme both of his Majesties owne person and of his renowned Father and to the which both of them as
though the remainder of the Nobilitie and Gentrie in the Land should be sent over by him some to worke in fetters in his Mines of Peru others in chayns to row all their dayes in his gallayes in the Mediterrane for all these or any other imaginable acts of tyrannie that could escape the wicked head of any mad Nero of any monstrous Caligula these men doe openly take upon them to perswade that no kinde of resistance for defence can bee made by the whole States of a Land though sitting in Parliament with a most harmonious consent no more then the Jewes might have done against Nabuchadnezar or the Christians of old against the Pagane Emperours or the Greeke Church this day against the grand Signieur in Constantinople that all our forbeares both English and Scots in their manifold bickerings against the misleaders of their Prince against the tyrannizing factions of Court were ever Traitours and Rebels and ought to have loosed their head and Lands for their presumption to defend their Liberties against the intollerable insolencies of a pack of runnigate Villanes for their boldnesse to fasten the tottering Crowne upon the head of their Kings all such Services of our Antecessours to King and Countrie were treacherous insurrections If for all these their crimes I make speake before you no other witnesses then our owne tongue Armes needlesse taken in so evill a cause can not but end in an untimeous repentance I trust they shall not remaine in your mindes the least shaddow of any scruple to beleeve my allegations nor in your wills the least inclination to joyne with the Counsells of so polluted and self-convicted persons And if to men whose open profession in their printed Bookes let be secret practises leads to so wicked ends so farre contrarie to the glorie of God to the honour and safetie of our King to the well of us all whether in Soule Body Estate Children or any thing that is deare to us yee would lead your armes against us we beleeve the Lord of Hosts the righteous judge would be opposite to you and make hundreds of your men in so evill a cause flee before ten of ours Or if it were the profound and unsearchable pleasure of the God of Armies to make you for a time a scourge to beate us for our manifold transgressions yet when ye had obtained all the Prelates intentions when wee for our others sins were tred under your feete wee would for all that hope to die with great comfort and courage as defenders of the truth of God of the Liberties and Lawes of our Countrie of the true good and honour of the Crown and Royall Familie All which as we take it one of the most wicked and unnaturall faction that ever this Isle did breed are manifestly oppugning yet certainly we could not but leave in our Testament to you our unjust oppressors the legacie of an untimous repentance for when ye have killed thousands of us banished the rest out of the isle when on the back of our departure your sweete Fosters the Bishops have brought the Pope upon you and your Children or when a French Spanish invasion doth threaten you with a slavish conquesh Wil ye not then all above all our gracious Prince regrate that Hee hath beene so evill advised as to have put so many of his brave Subjects to the cruell sword who were very able and most willing to have done him noble service against these forraine usurpers Would not at such a time that is too likely to be at hand if our Prelates advises now be followed both his Majestie and all of you who shall remaine in life bee most earnest recallers not onely of your owne Countrie-men many thousands whereof ye know have lately by Episcopall tyrannie beene cast out from their homes as farre as to the worlds end among the savadge Americans but also the reliques of our ruine from their banishment with as great diligence as in time of Fergus the second the inhabitants of this Land did recall our ancestors when by the fraud force of a wicked faction they were the most part killed and the rest sent over sea in banishment It were better by much before the remeedilesse stroke be given to be well advised then out of time to sigh when the millions of lost lives when the happinesse of our true Religion when the liberties of both the nations once throwen away by our owne hands can not againe be recovered To the end therefore that such lamentable inconveniences may be eshewed In this nick of time very poore wittes without presumption may venture to speake to Parliaments and your Honours the more animate to deny your power to those who now possiblie may crave to have it abused against us without cause beside numbers of pressing reasons wherewith I doubt not every wise man amongst you is come well enough instructed by his owne considerations and which I trust shall be further presented in plentie by these of our Nation who have ever beene at the head of our affaires whom God hath still enabled to cleare the justice and necessitie of all our proceedings hitherto to the mindes of all save our infatuat adversaries whom superstition and rage hath blinded If it might be your Honours pleasure when all the rest hath ended I could wish that even unto me a little audience were given my zeale to the truth of God to the peace of this Isle to the honour of our deare gracious Soveraigne imboldneth me to offer even my little myte of information This is a period of time when the obstinate silence of those who are most obliged by their places and guifts to speake must open the mouth of sundrie who are not by much so able verie babes yea stones must finde a tongue when Pharisees deny their testimonie to Christ Dumbe men will gett words when a Father when a King let be a whole Kingdome by the wickednesse of a few is putt in extreame perrill of ruine An Asse will finde language when the devouring Sword of an Angell is drawne against the Master Nothing more common then the speaches of very Oxen before any calamity of the Common-wealth The clâ—iking of Geese did at a time preserve the Capitoll Amicla was lost by too much silence The neglect of the voice of a Damosell the contempt of Cassandraes warning the casting of her in bands for her true but unpleasant Speach did bring the Troyane Horse within the walls and with it the quick ruine both of the Cittie and Kingdome I hope then that the greatnesse of my undertaking may purchase mee a little audience An offer deserving a little audience For I offer to make you all see with your own eyes and heare with your owne eares the Canterburians to declare by their owne tongues and write downe under their owne hands their cleare mindes to bring into our Church Arminianisme and compleet Poperie and in our State a slaverie no
without all occasion to keepe your selfe off the Irish oath â—ff these Scottish Ministers whom yee did banish from Ireland off the excessive praises of your patron the Deputie These and such other passages of your booke lift up your maske and lead any who will under the shaddow of the Jesuites hart to behold D. Leslies head that upon it without mistaking may be cast all the garlants of honour which the penning of so brave a piece in so necessary a time doth deserve But whoever you bee whether Leslie or Maxwell or Michell The laÌ„ds griefe is the CanterburiaÌ„s joy or who else of the faction certainly yee are a mirrie man in a very unseasonable time When the whole Yle is in sadnesse and dule in feare and trembling ye are upon your congratularie Epistles And why not These are the dayes yee have panted long for fire and Sword is your Element rather then Episcopall honour should lye in the dust fire water heaveÌ„ hel must all goe thorow other yet who knoweth but your singing in so foule weather may end in mourning to you and jot to all those who now are weeping for that black storme which ye his Grace your Prince have raised in our clemat If wee in one point our adversaries in an hundreth are Iesuited The onely point wherein yee make Covenanters draw neare to Iesuitisme is in their doctrine of the civill Magistrate which ye branch out in 16 particulars Is it not then your mind that whoever leaveth the Protestants in one head of doctrine doth give to the Iesuites matter of congratulation and a good ground to expect their totall apostasie to the popish religion This is the onely scope of your whole booke What then doe you thinke of your fellowes whom I have assayed to convince by their owne testimonies of a defection from the Protestantâ— to the worst of the Iesuites not in one head but so exceeding many that very few contraverted heads doe remaine wherein they are not joyned long agoe with the Jesuites Shall partialitie so farre predomine with you that we Covenanters for conformitie with Jesuites in one point alone must be reputed Apostates from the reformed church of Rome yet ye Canterburians though ye declare your conformitie with Rome in twentie in an hundreth yea well neare in all the contraverted heads of Doctrine yet no man without a great dash to a charitie may begin so much as to doubt of your full Protestanisme That one point wherein ye make us Iesuited is the doctrine of the Magistrate This to you is the head of the Protestant Faith and all their other teners but members following that head your practice is very consonant to this your profession for your new doctrine of the Magistrate is the first and most beloved article of your Creed which above all other ye preach and presse with extreame violence Your new stamped oath of alleadgeance and Supremacie whereby yee would set up the King in a place so farre above the ty of all Lawes divine and humane as his royall heart hath ever abhorred to be maâ—e such an idol Good Princes in this are like the Saints in glory all which giveth to them a degree of honour exceeding the Sphere of man and entrenshing upon Gods proper glorie they esteeme them as they are indeed nothing but flattering effronters of their sacred persons That which ye call the head of all Protestant Religion The bounds of Princes power and peoples subiectioÌ„ are points of state not oâ— Religion readily doth not concerne Religion at all Religion indeed doth oblige the conscience to give unto all Magistrates their due honour and obedience but the bounds and limits of that obedience which is the onely point ye speake off Religion meddleth not with them till the civill Lawes of States Empires have clearly defined them No Religion will oblige a Spaniard to be so farre subject to King Philip as a Grecian slave must be to the Great Turke neither doth any Religion equall the Polonish Subjection to their King with the Spanish to theirs Doth any Religion oblige the Electours of Germanie to be so much subiect to their Emperour as the Nobles in Pole are to their King or so little subject as the Venetian Senate is to their Duke or the States of Holland is to the Prince of Orange The civill Lawes and Customes set downe the limites both of the Soveraignes commanding and the subjects obedience Religion causeth these march-stones conscienciously to bee kept when once Policie hath fixed them It seemeth ye intend to make England quit their Priviledgâ— and burn their magna charta to make Scotland bury their Assemblies Parliaments that a blank may be put in Canterburies hand to write down what Lawes he will for the Church and State of both the Nations But thankes be to God that King Charles doth live to be judge betwixt you and us in so materiall a question Yee tell us further in your preambles The present danger of this Yle to fall in hands of the Pope Spaniard before ye come to your first paralell of Pope Vrbans hope to make Scotland return to Rome yee might have told us further from your companion Con who is more acquainted with Vrbans secrets then other men that the Pope hath a pretty confidence to joyne England to Scotland that so the reduction of the whole Yle your Iâ—eland with it to the Sea of Rome may be set up as an eternall trophee to the honour of this pâ—pes family Surely the ground-stones of this hope are laid on so deepe plots that except the hand of God and the king in this present Parliament pull them up Pope Vrban for all his age may yet live to putt the triumphall cope stone upon that building We grant you also that the Pope and Jesuites as yee say â—re hovering above the head of us all to fall upon the prey of â—ll Britaine when both parties which your mallice will compell to fight are wearied with mutuall wounds in this prophecie we thinke you but too true divines specially if ye will adde which all without the gift of prophecie may see to be consequent that when the Pope hath gotten the soules of those who out-live this warre for his part his Sons the French or Catholik King will not be quiet except for their share they gett the bodies The most hated of the covenanters proceedings their covenant it self is approved by the king the goods and liberties of all this poore Yle Your other gybes at the Covenanters proceedings yee might have holden in if the honour of the King had any wayes been deare unto you the worst of all our actions even that which ye were wont to proclaime our most vile and hellish rebellion Sedition Treason and what else ye could devise is now by our gracious Prince after a full search of it to the very bottome not onely absolved of all crime but so farre approved that by act of Assembly Counsell
of some Parliaments we did recognosce and that alone in their Ecclesiastick part with the good leave of the Kings Commissioner As for the civill sanction of Parliament according to the ordinary Ecclesiastick proceeding of our Church in all by gone times wee did appoint Commissioners from our Assembly to supplicate the Parliament for the abolition thereof Neither doe we meddle at all in our Synods with secular affaires remember what your selfe in your Canons doe pronounce to be the due and lawfull Subject of Ecclesiastick jurisdiction ye will finde that our generall Assemblies did never take in so much matter as ye appropriate to any of your officiall Courts Our act anent the going of Mills and Salt-pans upon the Sabbath-day was but a renovation and that with the Commissioners consent of an old act in a former Assemblie whereat King Iames was present It seemeth it grieveth you to see the Sabbath sanctified among us that yee are but like your brother to whom Sunday is no Sabbath but a day wherein games of all kinde also diverse kindes of Husband labour should publickly be allowed for the crossing of that Jewish Superstition whereby Puritanes abuse that Festivall What further here ye obiect of our unwillingnesse to subscribe at the Counsels direction the Covenant at it was dated in the yeare 1581. without the application of it to your later corruptions which addition we had sworne before yee will finde that we had good reason so to doe your selfe being judge for ye tell us that all these your corruptions even the Service-Booke it selfe are very consonant with that Covenant and that the main end why the Subscription thereof was urged was the cleane quiting of these additions formerly sworne and now by the mercy of God fully approved by the King by his Commissioner by his Counsell by the Assemblie by the articles of Parliament and all but men of your stuffe who resolve to die let all the world about you be never so fickle with the untainted glorie of constant obstinacie In your tenth Paralell Yee act the Iesuite so perfectly 10. Paralell Both out CovenaÌ„t and posteriour proceedings shew us no wayes to be opposite to the oath of alleageance that few hereafter will hope for the praise of going beyond you in their arts your pen drops so many Sentences so many cursed lyes so many blasphemous wrestings of mens words and writs Deny we the Oath of alleadgeance the words of our Covenant and mutuall defence whereupon yee would build that denyall let be that they are approved by our King as said is doe not they stand expresly in King James Covenant yea in the vesy first Confession of our Faitâ— Is not our late Covenant an expresse renewing of our oath of alleadgeance in so strict tearmes as is possible Did our armed defence in that desperate extremitie which your faction put us unto import any danger to the Kings person or Crowne Did we not then before all the world give a sufficient proofe of our humble loyaltie and practice of our Covenant At the very hight of all our advantages and your too well knowne unreadinesse at that time for fighting at the least appearance of his Majâ—sties minde to lay by armes to leave the prosecution of your bloudy desires were we not content to cast our selves at his feete to put our Munition in his hand and all our Castles in his power to be stockes to our feet and roaps to our neckes had our hearts been in the least measure so treasonable as you slander would these have been our actions What ye speake of our Forfathers actions in Queen Regent and Queen Maries dayes ye are into it but answerable to your name a true Jesuite The defence of the Religion and Liberties of the Kingdome against the Guisian usurpations in the minoritie of our Queen and our Queens voluntary dimission of the government to her Sonne King James after many unspeakable misaccidents These and such like proceedings of our Forfathers confirmed by our standing acts of Parliament Iesuites of old wont to blaspheme but all the reformed and none more then the Bishops of England especially Doctor Bilson doe vindicate from their wicked aspersions which yet ye have a stomach to resorbe to spew them out once againe upon our face But yeâ— are priviledged to speake all your pleasure for yee are here on a Stage under the maske of a furious phrentick Iesuite at the back of this curtaine yee may belch out what yee will all is conforme to the person yee sustaine In your eleventh twelve and thirteenth parellel 11. 12 13. Para. Blinde obedience to mens Lawes binding of the conscieÌ„â—e by them works of Supererogation are not ours but your tenets ye doe but toy the three faults ye object to us of blinde obedience of binding the conscience workes of Supererogation we are free of them all But see if ye can free your owne faction of any one thereof for your brethren teach that all men must give quicke obedience unto all their injunctions not only in the midst of their deepest ignorance of any reason for these injunctions but also in the midst of never so many doubts and perplexities and strong inclinations to thinke your acts most unlawfull Ye will admitt neither ignorance nor the greatest doubtings to bee any impediment to the present obedience of your Episcopall injunctions how farre is this from that yee pronounce in us blinde obedience Againe yee make all the commandements of the Church to be branches of the fift command and to be obeyed as the precepts of God which we suppose doe binde the conscience For the third yee teach more merite of workes then Bellarmine yea yee proclaime that the following of the counsels of perfection that the keeping of the three Monastick vowes doth deserve an augmentation as ye call it an Aureola above common happinesse In your fourteenth also yee cast upon us your owne domestick fault of Equivocation 14. Paralell No equivocation used by us in any of our proceedings Are you ignorant how your brethren the Bishops of Scotland did swear their famous caveats In the very time while they were dressing for our Church their Canons and Leiturgie which the large declaration tells us were alwayes in hand from the 16 yeare to the 38 how oft did they swear to many who proponed to them their feares of their underminding practices that they were utterly ignorant of all further novations to bee brought into our Church As for these matters wherein yee make us equivocators we were farre in any of them from that Crime We truely without any equivocation doe thinke our Covenant to be for the King and no wayes against either his persoâ— or authoritie we thinke in our minde that in some cases resistance to Princes is much better service and one day will be so acknowledged then present obedience How oft have Princes professed at last themselves much more beholden to those who with displayed banners hath come against their Campe then