CERTAIN DISQUISITIONS AND CONSIDERATIONS Representing to the Conscience the unlawfulnesse of the Oath entituled A solemn League and Covenant for Reformation c. As also the insufficiency of the Arguments used in the Exhortation for taking the said Covenant Published by command OXFORD Printed by LEONARD LICHFIELD Printer to the University 1644. CERTAIN DISQUISITIONS AND CONSIDERATIONS Representing to the Conscience the unlawfulnesse of the Oath entituled A solemn League and Covenant for Reformation c. We Noblemen Barons Knights Gentlemen Citizens Burgesses Ministers of the Gospell and Commons of all sorts in the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland by the providence of God living under one King and being of one reformed Religion having before our eyes the glory of God and the advancement of the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ the honour and happinesse of the Kings Majesty and His Posterity and the true publique Liberty Safety and Peace of the Kingdoms wherein every ones private condition is included and calling to mind the treacherous and bloody plots conspiracies attempts and practices of the enemies of God against the true Religion and professours thereof in all places especially in these three Kingdomes 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 Church and Kingdome of Ireland the distressed estate of the Church and Kingdome of England and the dangerous estate of the Church and Kingdome of Scotland are present and publique testimonies We have now at last after other meanes of Supplication Remonstrance Protestations and Sufferings for the preservation of our selves and our Religion from utter ruine and destruction according to the commendable practice of these Kingdomes in former times and the example of Gods people in other Nations after mature deliberation resolved and determined to enter into a mutuall 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 doe swear SEeing it hath pleased the composers of this Covenant to set it forth with an Introduction which containes that which it seems prevailed with them and they expect should work upon the three Kingdomes to take the following Covenant it will be behoofefull in the first place to reduce the conscience to a cleare and strict examination upon the contents of this Introduction and then if it shall find that all things therein be true and withall sufficient to that end for which they were premised viz. to inferre a necessity of swearing to all things contained in the following Articles the conscience will be directed to follow that dictate But if it fail in either of those we must betake our selves to other considerations to be guided by We will therefore sincerely propound the contents of the Preface as neer as may be according to its method joyning together matters of the same kind And then we shall find the discourse of the Preface to be resolved into these principles 1. The glory of God the advancement of the Kingdome of Iesus Christ the honour and happinesse of the King c. are to be aimed at and endeavoured 2. Especially when they are endangered 3. The meanes therefore necessary towards those ends are to be used which are either Supplication Remonstrance c. or making warre 4. The former are first to be used but if they faile then the latter These are the universall Maximes whereon by application to the present condition the taking of the Covenant is enforced The three first then being granted they subsume that having used the former and failing of successe we are all necessitated to use the latter viz. To swear to joyn with the Scots in Armes which is the generall and to those particulars after mentioned in the Articles That such joyning in armes is the generall end of the Covenant will appeare by comparing the sixt Article of the Covenant for mutuall assistance and defence of one another with the 14 Article of the Instructions wherein the imposers of this Oath appoint to be read publiquely at the time when the Covenant is read the Declaration of the Kingdomes of England and Scotland joyned in Armes for the vindication c. In which Declaration the taking this Covenant is made one of the grounds both of their confidence as they say that this warre wherein they are so deeply engaged is of God and of their resolution which they professe with courage and constancy unto the end to doe their part Whosoever therefore is not perswaded in his conscience either that all these meanes mentioned and all other such like have been used and have been rejected or upon supposition that they had yet doubts of the consequence viz. that such an Army may be leavied and such a warre managed cannot without deadly sinne though disengaged from oaths for any of the following particulars upon the former principles take this Covenant But not to insist hereon we will briefly run over the severall places of the Preface and consider the naturall intimations from them onely supposing for example the end of this Covenant to be the assistance or at least consent in this present joyning in armes applying it to men of the Church of England I A. B. living under the King This cannot reasonably be a motive to warre but obedience to him nor a motive to enter into a publique League Oath and Covenant not prescribed by Law without him much lesse against his expresse Proclamation forasmuch as an Oath for confirmation either assertory or promissory is to men for an end of all strife And a publique Oath propounded to a Nation or Nations is for the ending of publique strife and divisions and of any publique strife of a Nation or Nations under one King properly so called the King is the supreame Iudge in all causes as well Ecclesiasticall as civill as is evident by the Law of God 1 Pet. 2. And to us moreover by the Law of the Land 24 H. 8. c. 12. by the doctrine of the Church of England Art 37. the book of Homilies and establishâ—d Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy And therefore such an Oath and Covenant may not be entered into without and against the allowance of the King who is the supream Judge even in the supream Judicatory it selfe Being of the Reformed Religion established in the Church of England the very marke and Character of which as differenced from Popery and other Sects hath been chiefly that it hath alwaies maintained That it is not lawfull in any case not in the danger of their Religion for subjects to take up Armes against their lawfull Soveraign Having before my eyes the glory of God and the advancement of the kingdome of Iesus Christ Here the consideration of the mind requisite towards the judgement of conscience will be this whether by this warre considered with its circumstances the glory of God c. is more
have determined but seeing there hath not it must run over the Chronicles In the meane time in such cases as are found it may anticipate instances to the contrary as in Queen Maries dayes and those of Henry the 8. when there was more just reason in respect of Religion if there might be any then now is alleaged and other Arguments such as the Doctrine of the Church of England ever since the Reformation and the like to equipoize this which is asserted gratis and if after disquisition this be not found true the conclusion of the conscience will be according to those premisses According to the example of Gods people c. This is of the same nature with the former warrant and therefore the conscience upon this may proceed as upon that seeing they have not set downe which of Gods people in any age or place upon the like causes have taken the like course till this be represented to the conscience the safest way will be to examine what our Saviour himself and the Apostles and primitive Christians who were assuredly Gods people did hold and practice for doctrine and example in the like if there have ever been or a worse case them is proved or pretended And if they have not resisted or held it lawfull their Princes in the greatest persecutions and utmost danger of Religion and all that could be dear unto them it may raise a conclusion till some stronger reasons can be presented or the errour of these be cleared and taken off what is to be done when we are required to assist a warlike entrance of Subjects with all the other circumstances which attend this action of the Scots made onely upon a beleeved charity of helping their neighbours The summe of all is That if all and every of the materials of this Preface in as much as concernes the Premisses were true our consciences cannot assent to the consequence that it is lawfull for us as Subjects of the Church England though we had not sworn or subscribed to some particulars against which some of the Articles are contrived to assist the Scots or consent to them in this warre which assistance is the generall end of this Covenant Secondly there is not any one member which doth conclude any thing to our consciences to move us to take it neither in the complication doe they conclude Thirdly there is not any particular member of it which doth not either directly or by considerations naturally suggested by them and altogether unforced prevaile with us to the contrary So that till every one of these obstacles and scruples be taken off we cannot without violence to our consciences take this Oath That we shall sincerely really and constantly through the grace of God endeavour in our severall places and callings the preservation of the Reformed Religion in the Church of Scotland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government against our common Enemies the Reformation of Religion in the Kingdoms of England and Ireland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government according to the Word of God and the Example of the best Reformed Churches And shall endeavour to bring the Churches of God in the three Kingdoms to the neerest 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 In the first Article are we to be sworne to endeavour the preservation of the Doctrine Worship and Discipline of the Church of Scotland absolutely or with this added as a restriction against our common Enemies By whom doe we not rightly conceive to be meant the common Enemies to the Churches of England Scotland and Ireland That those words against our common enemies are to be taken restrictively it may be thought because they otherwise should have been vainly added and that by common Enemies those are meant the necessity of the Grammaticall sense implies there having preceded no other division to which this community can referre besides that of England Scotland and Ireland in the Preface So that the word Our must referre to We in the beginning of the Preface whose onely distribution which can referre to common here is that of the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland Is not therefore the true sense of this part of the Article this viz. I will sincerely really constantly through the grace of God in my calling against those who are enemies for example both to the Articles of the Church of England and those of Scotland both to our Liturgy and their directory for worship both to our Church-Government and to Presbyteriall Government endeavour to preserve their Articles manner of worship and Presbytery If thus it be these things are to be considered If the imposers of this Oath are assured in their Conscience that the Doctrine Worship c. of the Church of Scotland can infallibly be proved out of the Word of God why would they have us sweare to endeavour in our calling of the Ministery to preserve it with a restriction against some men onely and not absolutely and indefinitely Whether is this so free from the scandall of respect of Persons as an oath for the impartiall defence of Truth doth require If they doubt it cannot be infallibly proved how can our Brethren of Scotland without spirituall Tyranny desire an Oath to be imposed upon us Ministers of the Gospell of another Church to endeavour sincerely really c. in our calling viz. by preaching disputing or otherwise the preservation of it thus far Secondly how can we take an Oath to endeavour the preservation of that Doctrine which we neither know what it is as it now stands nor are told in any Declaration or Exhortation to us nor were bound to know or search no opportunity offering it self How then can this Oath be by us taken in judgement Or since we doubt thus though in generall how can it not being of Faith be other then Sinne Whether are we not if any thing shall be by us hereafter found in the Doctrine of Scotland contrary to sound Doctrine bound to endeavour by the second Article to extirpate it and by the first to preserve it As for their Discipline and Government so much as we understand of it though otherwise we never interposed yet being now called to give our consent to it or reason to the contrary we professe it to be such as that we dare not binde our selves by Oath to endeavour its preservation constantly and indefinitely for all time to come till it be evidenced unto us that it hath been in any time before untill this our last age If it shall here be replyed that we are required to endeavour the preservation of their Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government onely against our common enemies that is of us of the Churches of England Scotland and Ireland and so the preservation of it onely so
thought necessary long within the Apostles times even as early as it was said by some I am of Paul I am of Apollo c. and therefore saith in his Dialogue Adversus Luciferian Ecclesiae salus in summi Sacerdotis dignitate pendet cui si non exors quaedam ab omnibus eminens detur potestas tot in Ecclesiis efficientur schismata quot Sacerdotes S. Cyprian also Epist. 55. Non aliunde haereses obortae sunt aut nata sunt schismata quam c. and so also lib. 4. epist. 9. Unde enim Schismata Haereses obortae sunt oriuntur nisi dum Episcopus qui unus est praesumptione contemnitur c. Master Calvin also himself upon Philipp 1. 1. Fateor quidem ut sunt hominum ingenia mores non posse ordinem stare inter verbi Ministros quin reliquis praesit unus So that we cannot apprehend the abjuration of Episcopacy to be a meane to that unity in this Article mentioned That the Lord may be one and his Name one amongst us but rather the continuation thereof according to the counsell of the holy Martyr S. Cyprian Unus Deus unus Dominus unus Episcopus and that of Ignatius ad magnes b Subjecti estote Episcope vobis mutuè ut Christus Patri ut inter vos divina quaedam sit unio Next Prophanenesse is here also to be cast out with Episcopacy yet who may not fear Gods Judgements if he deny the detestable growth of prophanenesse since the contempt of that Apostolicall institution of Episcopacy So that this Article as to Bishops extirpation we must refuse upon that close upon which others take it lest as it is said we should partake in others sin and consequently in their plagues Thirdly because neither can we swear to endeavour the extirpation of that part of this Church-government by Archbishops an Ecclesiasticall constitution so confessedly ancient nor that part of this Church-government by Deanes and Chapters that is a society of grave Divines of Presbyters joyned to the Bishop in his see of residence as assistants in Councell and Government as James Bishop of Ierusalem had his resident Presbyters Acts 21. 18. and consulted with them vers. 20. According also to the ancient generall and continued custom of the Church of God ever since the first Christian Emperours time and moreover endowed with means given to them by the last Wils and Testaments of many which it is not lawfull for us to endeavour to annull Hebr. 9. 17. and by the gifts of many other Donors who had true propriety in their goods and might and did transfer the undoubted property to those to be enjoyed by the right and liberty of the Subject especially such endowments having been consecrated and devoted unto God for pious uses and which may not therefore by us as we conceive be endeavoured to be alienated Prov. 20. 25. Numb. 16. 38. And as to the exercises of piety so also to the encouragement of the most excellent part of learning the study of divinity and of holy Scripture We shall with the same sincerity reality and constancy in our severall 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 beare witnesse with our Consciences of our loyalty and that we have no thoughts or intentions to diminish His Majesties just power and greatnesse Because in the third Article whereas we are required and that in the first place to binde our selves absolutely without limitation expressed To preserve the Rights and Priviledges of Parliaments and the Liberties of the Kingdoms and were likewise tied simply and indefinitely to defend the Kings Person State and Honour by the Oath of Allegiance and the late Protestation here when we are bidden to swear to defend his Majesties Person and Authority it is added In the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms therefore this manner of swearing we dare not admit till it be publikely declared by the Imposers that the meaning of those words is not as to some it may sound that I binde my selfe to preserve and defend his Majesties Person and Authority so farre forth as he shall preserve and defend true Religion and the Liberties of the Kingdoms Since by the holy Scriptures of the old and new Testament by the Law of Nature and Nations by the Oath of God and by true Religion we are bound to endeavour the preservation and defence of his Person and Authority though he were a persecutor of the true Religion and an abridger of our Liberties such as were Saul and Nero in their times And surely a larger Declaration of our endeavours simply to defend his Person is at this time necessary when through the divisions of the Kingdom his sacred Majestie is so endangered and that his Majesty hath often complained of affronts offered to his person and hath complained also that some have endeavoured to kill his Person in two set battails and that there is nothing more frequent in the minds and mouths of some Shimei's then that the King is popishly affected A Papist in his heart and therefore some furious Zelot may not onely upon these surmises conclude himselfe exempted in case from the duty of preservation and defence of his Royall Person but also mistake it as a debt to this Covenant even to offer violence to his sacred Majestie May not therefore some such fuller Declaration and explication of our duty when we will by Oath professe it seem necessary to the end here proposed That the world may bear witnesse with our Consciences of our loyalty We shall also with all faithfulnesse endeavour 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 publike triall and receive condign punishment as the degree of their offences shall require or deserve or the supream Indicatories of both Kingdoms respectively or others having power from them for that effect shall judge convenient Whether are not all those to be accounted to us as Malignants c. by hindring reformation of Religion and consequently to be discovered that they may receive condign punishment whom we know to endeavour in their places and callings the continuation of Church-government by Bishops and the preservation of the whole frame of government as it now stands by the known Laws of this Kingdom established administred according to the right intent of those Laws against all alteration till it be by act of Parliament enacted by his Majesties
Covenant bound to offer violence to their persons we pray may be observed by those who have taken this Covenant or shall hereafter enter into it for us who are so perswaded as we have expressed it would have been a greater satisfaction if we should have been to swear to bring the persons of any who have offended to a just and legal triall so that their Office might have been continued then to extirpate the Office with an intimation only that we are not necessitated to offer violence to their persons That which follows is to take off the onely scruple which they would suppose to remain the oath of Canonicall obedience wherein Clergy-men have sworn to obey the Bishops in licitis honestis we will propound their Arguments 1. They which have sworn obedience to the Laws of the Land may yet endeavour their abolition in a lawfull way Therefore they which have sworn to obey the Bishops may endeavour the abolition of Bishops We do not see this consequence from the Law to the Law-giver or the Authority it self from whence the Law is derived It follows upon this Hypothesis that they who have sworn to obey the injunctions of Bishops may endeavour in a lawfull way the alteration or abolition of those injunctions but to infer their conclusion the Hypothosis must have been that notwithstanding our Oath made to obey the Laws made by the King and the two Houses of Parliament we may endeavour to abolish the King and both Houses of Parliament Their second Argument is this 2. If Ministers or others have entred into any Oath not warranted by Gods Word and the Laws of the Land such Oaths call for repentance not pertinacy in them Ergo notwithstanding the Oath of Canoxicall obedience Ministers may endeavour the extirpation of Bishops We believe that to have cleared this consequence they ought to have proved that the Oath of Canonicall obedience is not warranted by the Word of God or the Laws of the Land which seeing they have not done the scruple notwithstanding this Argument will still remain Having thus done with Episcopacy they proceed to such scruples of conscience as they suppose may arise from that which concerns His Majesty And there the design is to prove that this Covenant may be taken notwithstanding the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance already taken and notwithstanding the want of His Majesties consent 1. This Oath binds all and more strongly engageth them to preserve and defend the Kings Majesties Person and Authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and liberties of the Kingdoms therefore It doth not crosse the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance We answer 1. The Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance were ordained against those who would not have denied to swear in these very words To preserve and defend His Majesties Person and Authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and liberties of the Kingdoms Therefore notwithstanding this Argument this Covenant may crosse the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance 2. That this Oath may be taken without His Majesties consent they would prove by examples either Modern or out of Scripture as 1. The Protestation May 5. was taken without His Majesties consent We did not think we took it without his Majesties consent and one reason we will expresse in their words of the same Paragraph Because His Majesty did not except against it or give any stop to the taking of it albeit he was then resident in person at Whitehall 2. Ezra and Nehemiah Ezra 10. Nehem. 9. Neh. 1. being vassals and one of them meniall servant to Artaxerxes drew all the people into a Covenant without the speciall Commission of the Persian Monarchs The Covenant into which Ezra drew the people is expressed Ezra 10. 3. to have been to put away all the strange wives and such as were born of them according to the counsell of the Lord and of those that tremble at the Commandement of God and that according to the Law And that of Nehemiah Nehem. 9. 10. 29. is expressed to have been a Curse and an Oath to walk in Gods Law which was given by Moses the servant of God and to observe and do all the Commandements of the Lord and his Iudgements and his Statutes The Commission of Nehemiah besides what is mentioned Nehemiah 2. cannot be denied to be the same which Ezra had obtained which is expressed Ezra the 7. In the 7 of Ezra v. 26. we find this as a part of his Commission Whosoever will not do the Law of thy God and the Law of the King let judgement be executed speedily upon him whether it be unto death or banishment or to confiscation of goods or to imprisonment Wherefore we cannot but extreamly wonder that these Covenants here mentioned should be said to have been entered into without the consent of the Persian Monarchs an Assertion to us so exceedingly inconsiderate that our apprehension of the failings in it cannot in a few words be expressed As for that of Hezekiah which follows at some distance we might answer that it is not nor can it be proved out of the Scripture that the keeping of the Passover was not consented to by Hoshea King of Irael However if the revolt of the ten Tribes were indeed a rebellion as it is believed by many of the most famous Divines a then why might not Hezekiah justly send Proclamations to them to joyn with him in a Covenant although the King of Israel should positively have dissented But not to insist upon negative Answers or any thing which may be controverted we answer 1. That act of Hezekiah was a bare invitation 2. That to which he invited them was not a League or Covenant but that which the Law of God enjoyned the observation of the Passover which was some yeeres after the Covenant mentioned 2 Chro. 29. 3 That it was at that time when Israel had not the face of a Kingdom their King being in captivity under the King of Assyria Which two latter answers are joyntly proved by this following Discourse The Covenant was made in 1mo Hezekiae 2 Chron. 29. the Passover was not celebrated till after the captivity 2 Chron. 30. 6. There was no captivity mentioned till after this first yeer of Hezekiah Therefore the Covenant and Passover were not kept in the same yeer and therefore also Hoshea was in captivity before this invitation of Hezekiah The last of the premisses which onely can be doubted is thus proved because the first time expressed which we read in Scripture of Salmanasers comming up against Israel is the fourth yeer of King Hezekiah 2 King 18. 9. It no wise followeth therefore from this act of Hezekiah and the men of Israel that it is lawfull to impose or enter a Covenant without the consent of the King Now after these instances of Scripture they betake themselves to modern examples from whence they would infer more then a bare lawfulnes to enter a Covenant
so far as lawfully we may then so to swear it He that so swears swears with judgement against his judgement and to unrighteousnesse without truth and condemneth himself in that which he alloweth Thirdly to swear saving all former Oaths to what we judge to be opposite to our former lawfull Oaths is to delude both our former and present Oath to warrant that we may without scandall abjure in words not in heart what we have sworn before to keep because we have sworn before to keep and never to abjure it to make vain as far as in us lies the great and dreadfull name of God the wholsome end and use of Oaths and particularly to destroy the end of this present Covenant if the takers intend not what the Oath intendâ— and may also hereafter saving this present Oath swear to the contrary For the present be it considered that whereas this Oath is a League for unity if each may take it in their own sense its end will be none and we as far from joynt union of assistance as before For swearing to assist all who enter into this League if we think our selves bound to assist oâ—ely the takers in our own sense then we may happily be tied to assist none hereby for perhaps our own sense is peculiar and different from all others and probably from most for most take it in the common sense of the words Lastly if one end of this Covenant be that if it succeed it may be encouragement to other Christian Churches in like case to joyn in the same or like Association and Covenant we judge it necessary to admonish our selves and others that if in this we offend we also lay a stumbling-block of offence before the faces of so many Christian Churches now and hereafter who are here invited to follow our example Should we not therefore sadly consider whose example in this action we follow before we give and invite others to follow our example Ought we not wisely to fear lest by this we expose our brethren of the reformed Churches beyond the Seas to the jealousie of their severall Princes under whom they live and become guilty of the provocation of all those evils wherewith Princes in prevention of what is here suggested to their Subjects if not declared against by them may aggrieve our brethren of the reformed Religion And also have we not cause to question with our selves how the example of entring a covenant mutually to assist and defend one another when there is declared a joyning in Armes without and against the consent of the supream Magistrate how this example we say will make as is here said to the Peace and Tranquillity of Christian Kingdoms and Common-wealths Now the Lord of Peace himself give unto us and to all the Churches of God Peace alwaies by all means Amen An Exhortation to the taking of the solemn League and Covenant c. IF the power of religion or solid reason if loyalty to the King c. IF it had not been intimated that the Authors of this Exhortation were the Assembly of Divines as they are stiled in the 14 Article of the Instructions and expressed that the end of it was the satisfying of such scruples as may arise and that by the same Authority by which the Covenant it selfe is to be imposed it could not have given the conscience of any man either so much licence to examine the discourse with strictnesse and severity or so much satisfaction one way or other in the examination seeing there is scarce any other end of writing which necessarily obliges to a discovery of all the consequences and the principles of a discourse and there is no such outward encouragement to the conscience towards satisfaction as when it shall consider that it is examining an Exhortation and a Defence the Authors of which have been chosen the worke appointed and after the performance twice publiquely read and considered and lastly ordered to be published by them who are the managers of the Cause for which this Exhortation and Defence is made But this being the declared end and those the Authors it will not stand with the opinion of the faithfulnesse of those men towards the Cause it self to imagine that they reserve to themselves clearer and firmer principles upon which they are able to enforce the taking of the Covenant then those they have here expressed And consequently if upon just examination it shall appear that all the truth that is by them laid down is not sufficient to infer their Conclusion they may be more tender of those who are of different perswasion from themselves though they shall notwithstanding their endeavours persist in their opinion nay though they should hereby gain a degree of adhesion to it The conclusion which they would infer is the taking of the Covenant and the generall end of that as expressed in the Covenant it selfe and in all the Declarations which concern the same is in our calling the assistance of those of the Kingdoms of England and Scotland joyned in Arms c. against the Popish Prelaticall and Malignant party in a word to assist or comply with those English and Scottish Forces against the Forces raised by the Kings personall command This being the case wherein the scruples by them spoken of are supposed to be removed that their Arguments to that end might be effectuall it was necessary to their end that the present case should have been clearly and particularly laid down considering that the discovery of strong and not doubting presumption and supposall of that part which is defended though it might produce a degree of confirmation in those who are though not so strongly of the same opinion yet can it not in reason be reputed a means to take off scruple from a rationall adversary This being necessary in it self for a true and thorough resolution of conscience in the case it cannot be denied but their discourse is imperfect in it selfe and consequently they may as well have erred in assuming to themselves all that is holy and perfect and esteeming of the adverse party as of people bewitched and besotted hoodwink't and blinded c. nay as the dregs and scum of the people and in affirming the name and countenance of His sacred Majesty to be captivated and prostituted to serve all the lusts of such men and in setting in opposition the King and those that be faithfull in the Land But seeing that it is possible that a case may be so clear and plain to all men that it may without any great damage be omitted in a discourse made for the resolution of the conscience it will concern the conscience however impartially to set before its eyes the present question and then to examine the discourse of this Exhortation upon which the determination of conscience will naturally follow To propound the State of the question impartially though not according to the utmost truth of the case it will be enough if it be made