Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	kingdom_n	majesty_n	subject_n	3,349	5	6.8187	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77478	A review of the seditious pamphlet lately pnblished [sic] in Holland by Dr. Bramhell, pretended Bishop of London-Derry; entitled, His faire warning against the Scots discipline. In which, his malicious and most lying reports, to the great scandall of that government, are fully and clearly refuted. As also, the Solemne League and Covenant of the three nations justified and maintained. / By Robert Baylie, minister at Glasgow, and one of the commissioners from the Church of Scotland, attending the King at the Hague.	Baillie, Robert, 1599-1662.	1649 (1649)	Wing B467; Thomason E563_1; ESTC R10643	69,798	84

or Synode in Scotland did so much as assay to impede or repeale the proceedings of any the meanest civill Court I did never heare it so much as alledged by our adversaries Serious catechising is no Episcpall crime● The next injurie is against all Masters and ●istresses of families whom the Presbytery will have to be personally examined in their knowledge once a yeare and to be excommunicate if grosly and willfully ignorant Answ If it be a crime for a Minister to call together parcels of his congregation to be instructed in the grounds of Religion that servants and children and where ignorance is suspected others also may be tryed in their knowledge of the Catechisme or if it be a crime that in family-visitations oftener then once a yeare the conversation of every member of the Church may be looked upon we confesse the Ministers of Scotland were guilty thereof and so farre as we know the generality of the Episcopall faction may purge themselves by oath of any such imput●tion for they had somewhat else to doe then to be at the paines of instructing or trying the Spirituall State of every sheep in their flocks we confesse likewise that it is both our order and practise to keepe off from the holy table whom we finde grosly and wilfully ignorant but that ever any for simple ignorance was excommunicate in Scotland Church sessions are not high commissiones none who knowes us will affirme it The last whom he will have to be wronged by the Presbyte y are the common people who must groane under a high commission in every parish where ignorant governors rule all without Law medling even in domesticall jarres betwixt man and wife Master and Servant Answ This is but a gybe of revenge for the overthrow of their Tyrannous high Commission-Court where they were wont to play the Rex at their pleasure above the highest subjects of the three Kingdomes and would never give over that their insolent domineering court till the King and Parliaments of both Kingdomes did agree to throw it downe about their eares The thing he je●●es at is the congregationall Eldership a j●dicatory which all the Reformed doen joy to their great comfort as much as S●otland They are farre from all arbitrary judications their Lawes are the holy Scripture and acts of superior Church j●dicatories which rule so clearely the cases of their c●gnisance that rarely any difficulty remaines therein or if it doe immediately by ref●rence or appeale it is transmitted to the Classes or Synode The judges in the lowest Elders●●● as we have said before are a dozen at least of the most able and pious who can be had in a whole congregation to joyne with the Pastors one or more as they fall to be but the Episcopall way is to have no discipline at all in any congregation only where there is hope of a fine the Bishops officiall will summon before his own learned and conscientious wisedome who ever within the whole dioces have fallen into such a fault as he pleaseth to take notice of as for domistick infirmities Presbyterians are most tender to meddle therein they come never before any judicatory but both where the fault is great and the scandal thereof flagrant and broken out beyond the wals of the family These are the great iniuries and hurts which the Church discipline has procured to all orders of men in the whole reformed world when Episcopacy has been such an innocent lambe or rather so holy an Angell upon earth that no harme at all has ever come by it to any mortall creature a misbeleeving Jew will nothing misdoubt this so evident a truth CHAP. ULT. The Warners exceptions against the Covenant are full of confidence but exceeding frivolous THough in the former Ch●pters the Warner has spewed out more venome and gall then the bagge of any one mans stomack could have beene supposed capable of yet as if he were but beginning to vomite in this last Chapter of the covenant a new flood of blackes poyson rusheth out of his penne His undertaking is great to demonstrate cleer●y that the covenant is meerly void wicked and impious His fi●st clear demonstration is that it was devised by strangers imposed by subjects who wanted requisite power and was extorted by just feare of unjust suffering so that many that tooke it with their lips never consented with their hearts Ans This cleer demonstration is but a poore and evill argument the Major if it were put in forme would hardly be granted but I stand on the minor as weake and false for the Covenant was not devised by strangers The Covenant was not dishonourable to union the Commissioners of the Parliament of England together with the Commissioers of the Parliament and generall assembly of Scotland were the first and onely framers thereof but they who gave the life and being to it in England were the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament at Westminster by the Kings call and at that time acknowledged by his Majestie without any question about the lawfulnesse of their constitution and authority these men and that Court were not I hope great strangers in England The Covenant was not imposed upon the King but the Parliament of both Kingdomes made it their earnest desire unto his Majestie that he would be pleased to joyne with them in that Covenant which they did judge to be a ●aine peece of their security for their Religion and liberties in all the three Kingdomes As for their imposing of it upon the subjects of England an ordinance of Parliament though the King consent not by the uncontroverted lawes of England is a sufficient authority to crave obedience of all the subjects of England during the continuance of that Parliament The last part of the demonstration is dishonourable indeed to the English Nation if it were true it was no dishonour to England to joyne with their brethren of Sc●tland in a Covenant for maintainance of their Religion and Liberties but for many of the English to sweare a Covenant with their lippes from which their heart did dissent and upon this difference of heart and mouth to plead the nullity of the Oath and to advance this plea so high as to cleer demonstration this is such a dishonour and dishonesty that a greater cannot fall upon a man of reputed integrity especically when the ground of the lye and pe ju y is n evident falshood for the Covenant was not extorted from any flesh in England by feare of any unjust suffering so far w●s it from this that to this day it could never be obtained from the Parliament of England to enjoyne that Covenant upon any by the penalty of a two pence The Warners second demonstration is no better then the first the ground of it is Covenanters were not deceived but understood what they sware ●hat all oathes are void which have deceipt and errour of the substantiall conditions incident to them This ground had

devotion was among them by way of essayes as it were to frame the heart of the Son by the fingers of the dying Father to piety wisedome patience and every virtue but ever and anon to let fall so much of their owne ungracious dew as may irrigat the seeds of their prelaticall Errors and Church interest so farre as to charge him to presevere in the maintainance of Episcopall governement upon all hazards without the change of any thing except a little p. 278. and to assure that all Covenanters are of a faction engaged into a Religious rebellion who may never be trusted till they have repented of their Covenant and that till then never lesse loyalty justice or humanity may be expected from any then from them that if he stand in need of them hee is undone for they will devoure him as the Serpent does the dove These and the like pernicious maxims framed by an Episcopall hand of purpose to separate for ever the King from all his covenanted subjects how far they were from the heart language and writings of our late Soveraigne all who were aquainted with his cariage and most intime affections at New-Castle in the Isle of Wight and thereafter can testify But it is reason when the Prelates do frame an Image of a King that they should have liberty to place their owne image in its forehead as the statuary of old did his in the Boss of Pallas targe with such artifice that all her worshipers were necessitat to worship him and that no hand was able to destroy the one without the dissolution and breaking in peeces of the o●her yet our Prelats would know that in this age their be many excellent Engyneers whose witty practicks transcend the most skilfull experiments of our Auncestors and whatever may be the ignorance or weaknes of men wee trust the breath of our Lords mouth will not faile to blow out the Bishop from the Kings armes without any detriment at all to royalty Allwayes the wicked and impious cunning of these craftmen is much to be blamed who dare be bold to insert and engrave themselfes so deeply in the images of the Gods as the one cannot be intended to be picked out of the other more then the Aple from the eye unles the subsistence of both be But in hazard The other matter of his railing against us is the solemne league and covenant The only crime of the Covenant is that it extirpate prelacy when this nimble quick enough Doctor comes aflicted with all the reasons the whole University of Oxford can afford him to demonstrat it as he ptofesses in his last Chapter to be wicked false void and what not we find his most demonstrative proofs to be so poore and silly that they infer nothing of his conclusion To this day no man has shewed any errour in the matter of that covenant as for our framing and taking of it our adversaries drave us thereunto with a great deale of necessity and now being in it neither their fraud nor force may bring us from it againe for we feare the oath of God After much deliberation we found that covenant the soveraigne meanes to joyne and keep together the whole orthodox party in the three Kingdomes for the defence of their Religion and liberties which a popish prelaticall and malignant faction with al their might were overturning who still to this day are going on in the same designe without any visible change in the most of their former principles And why should any who loves the King hate this covenant which is the straytestry the world can devise to knit all to him and his posterity if so be his Majesty might be pleased to enter therein but by all meanes such a mischief must be averted for so the root of Episcopacy would quickly wither without any hope of repullulation an evill far greater in the thoughts of them who now mannage the conscience of the Court then the extirpation of Monarchy the eversion of all the three Kingdomes or any other earthly misery The Bishops are most justly cast out of England As for the third subject of the Warners fury against us our unkindnes to the late King if any truth were in this false challenge no other creature on earth could be supposed the true cause thereof but our unhappy Prelats all our grievances both of Church and Sate first and last came principally from them had they never been authors of any more mischief then what they occasioned to our late Soveraigne his person family and Dominions this last dozen of yeares there is abundant reason of burying that their praeter and Antiscripturall order in the grave of perpetuall infamy But the truth is beside more ancient quarrels since the dayes of our fathers the Albigenses this limb of Antichrist has ever been witnessed against Wicklise Huss and their followers were zealous in this charge till Luther and his disciples got it flung out of all the reformed world except England where the violence of the ill-advised princes did keep it up for the perpetuall trouble of that land till now at last it hath well neer kicked downe to the ground there both Church and Kingdome The Scots were never injurious to their King As for the point in hand we deny all unkindnes to our King whereof any reasonable complaint can be framed against us Our first contests stand justified this day by King and Parliament in both Kingdomes When his Majestie was so ill advised as to bring down upon our borders an English army for to punish our refusing of a world of novations in our Religio● contrary to the laws of God and of our country what could our land doe lesse then lie down in their armes upon Dunce law for their just and necess●ry defence when it was in their power with ease to have dissipat the opposite army they shew themselves most ready upon very easy conditions to goe home in peace and gladly would have rested there had not the furious Bishops moved his Majestie without all provocation to break the first peace and make for a second invasion of Scotland only to second their unreasonable rage was it not then necessary for the Scots to arme againe when they had defeat the Episcopall Army and taken New-castle though they found nothing considerable to stand in their way to London yet they were content to lie still in Northumberland and upon very meane tearms to return the second time in peace For all this the Prelats could not give it over but raised a new Army and filled England with fire and sword yea well neere subdued the Parliament and their followers and did almost accomplish their first designes upon the whole Isle The Sco●● then with most earnest and pitifull entreaties were called upon by their Brethren of England for helpe where unwilling that their brethren should perish in their sight and a bridge should be made over their carcasses for a third warre upon

about it Ans Must it be Jesuitisme and a drawing of all the civill affaires to the Churches bar in ordine ad Spiritualia for an Assembly to give their advice in a most eminent and important case of conscience when earnestly called upon in a multitude of supplications from the most of the Congregations under their charge yea when required by the States of the Kingdom in severall express messages for that end It seems it s our Warners conclusion if the Magistrate would draw all the Churches in his jurisdiction to a most unlawful war for the advancement of the greatest impiety and unjustice possible wherein nothing could be expected by all who were engaged therein but the curse of God if in this case a doubting Souldier should desire the Assemblies counsell for the state of his soul or if the Magistrate would put the Church to declare what were lawfull or unlawfull according to the Word of God that it were necessary here for the servants of God to be altogether silent because indeed war is so civill a business that nothing in it concerns the soul and nothing about it may be cleared by any light from the Word of God The truth is the Ch●rch in their publick papers to the Parliament declared oftner then once that they were not against but for an engagement if so that Christian and friendly treaties could not have obtained reason and all the good people in Scotland were willing enough to have hazarded their lives and estates for vindicating the wrongs do●e not by the Kingdom of England but by the Sectarian Party there against God the King Covenant and both Kingdoms but to the great grief of their hearts their hands were bound and they forced to sit still and by the over great cunning of some the erronious mis-perswasions of others and the rash precipitancy of it that engagement was so spoyled in the stating and mannaging that the most religious with peace of conscience could not go along nor encourage any other to take part therein The Warner touches on three of their reasons but who will look upon their publick declarations shall find many more which with all faithfulness were then propounded by the Church for the rectifying of that action which as it stood in the state and management was cleerly foretold to be exceeding like to destroy the King and his friends of all sorts in all the three Kingdoms The irrepairable losses and unutterable calamities which quickly did follow at the heels the mis-belief and contempt of the Lords servants and the great danger Religion is now brought unto in all these Kingdoms hath I suppose long agoe brought grief enough to the heart of them whose unadvised rashness intemperate fervor did contribute most for the spoiling of that designe The first desire about that engagement which the Warner gives to us concerns the security of Religion In all the debate of that matter it was agreed without question upon all hands that the Sectarian Party deserved punishment for their wicked attempts upon the Kings person contrary to the directions of the Parliaments of both Kingdoms and that the King ought to be rescued out of their hands and brought to one of his Houses for perfecting the Treaty of Peace which often had been begun but here was the question Whether the Parliament and Army of Scotland ought to declare their resolutions to bring his Majesty to London with honor freedome and safety before he did promise any security for establishing Religion The Parliaments of both Kingdoms in all their former Treaties had ever pressed upon the King a number of Propositions to be signed by his Majesty before at all he came to London was it then any fault in the Church of Scotland to desire the granting but of one of these propositions concerning Religion the Covenant before the King were brought by the new hazard of the lives and estates of all the Scotish Nation to sit in his Parliament in that honor and freedom which himself did desire There was no complaint when many of thirty propositions were pressed to be signed by his Majesty for satisfaction and security to his people after so great and long desolations how then is an out-cry made when all other propositions are postponed and only one for Religion is stuck upon and that not before his Majesties rescue and deliverance from the hands of the Sectaries but only before his bringing to London in honor freedom and safety This demand to the Warner is a crime and may be so to all of his belief who takes it for a high unjustice to restraine in any King the absolute power by any condition for they do maintain that the administration of al things both of Church and State doth reside so freely and absolutely in the meer wil of a Soveraign that no case at any time can fall out which ought to bound that absoluteness with any limitation The second particular the Warner pitches upon is the Kings negative voyce behold how criminous we were in the point When some most needlesly would needs bring into debate the Kings negative voice in the Parliament of England as one of the royall Prerogatives to be maintained by our engagement it was said that all discourse of that kind might be laid aside as impertinent for us if any debate should chance to fall upon it the proper place of it was in a free Parliament of England that our Laws did not admit of a negative voice to the King in a Parliament of Scotland and to press it now as a Prerogative of all Kings besides the reflection it might have upon the rights of our Kingdom it might put in the hand of the King a power to deny all and every one of these things which the Parliaments of both Kingdoms had found necessary for the setling the peace in all the three Dominions We marvel not that the Warner here should tax us of a great error seeing it is the belief of his faction that every King hath not only a negative but an absolute affirmative voice in all their Parliaments as if they were nothing but their arbitrary counsels for to perswade by their reasons but not to conclude nor impede any thing by their Votes the whole and intire power of making or refusing Laws being in the Prince alone no part of it in the Parliament The Warners third challenge against us about the ingagement is as if the Church had taken upon it to nominate the Officers of the Army and upon this he makes his invectives Answ The Church was far from seeking power to nominate any one Officer but the matter was thus When the State did require of them what in their judgement would give satisfaction to the people and what would encourage them to go along in the ingagement one and the last part of their answer was that they conceived if a War shall be found necessary much of the peoples encouragement would depend upon the qualification

of the Commanders to whom the managing of that great trust should be committed for after the right stating of the War the next would be the carying on of it by such men who had given constant proof of their integrity To put all the power of the Kingdom in their hand whose by-past miscariages had given just occasion to suspect their designes and firmness to the interest of God before their own or any other mans would fill the hearts of the people with jealousies and fears and how wholsome an advice this was experience hath now too clearly demonstrated To make the world know our further resolutions to meddle with civill affaires the Warner is pleased to bring out against us above 80 years old stories and all the stuff which our malicious enemy Spotswood can furnish to him from this good Author he alledges that our Church discharged Merchants to traffique with Spaine and commanded the Change of the market-dayes in Edenburgh Ans Both these calumnies are taken off at length in the Historical Vindication After the Spanish Invasion in the year 88 many in Scotland kept correspondence with Spaine for treacherous designs the Inquisitors did seduce some and persecute others of our Merchants in their traffique the Church did deale with his Majesty to intercede with the Spanish King for more liberty to our Countrey men in their trading and in the mean time while an answer was returned from Madril they advertized the people to be wary how they hazarded their souls for any worldly gaine which they could find about the Inquisitors feet The Church me●led not with the Munday Mar●et bu● by way of supplication in Parliament As for the Market days I grant it was a great grief to the Church to see the Sabbath day profaned by handy labor and journeying by occasion of the Munday-markets in the most of the great Towns for remedy hereof many supplications have been made by the Assembly to the Parliament but so long as our Bishops sate there these petitions of the Church were alwaies eluded for the Prelates labor in the whole Island was to have the sunday no Sabbath and to procure by their Doctrine and example the profanation of that day by all sorts of playes to the end people might be brought back to their old licentiousness and ignorance by which the Episcopall Kingdom was advanced It was visible in Scotland that the most eminent Bishops were usual players on the Sabbath even in time of divine Service And so soon as they were cast out of the Parliament the Churches supplications were granted and acts obtained for the carefull sanctification of the Lords day and removing of the Markets in all the Land from the Munday to other days of the week The Church once for safty of the infant Kings life with the concurrence of the cret Counsel did call an extraordinary meeting The Warners next challenge of our usurpation is the Assembly at Edenburgh 1567 their ratifying of Acts of Parliament and summoning of all the Countrey to appeare at the next Assembly Ans If the Warner had known the History of that time he would have chosen rathet to have omitted this challenge then to have proclaimed to the world the great rottenness of his own heart At that time the condition of the Church and Kingdom of Scotland was lamentable the Queen was declared for Popery King James his Father was cruelly without any cause murthered by the Earl of Bothwel King James himself in his infancy was very neare to have been destroyed by the murtherer of his Father there was no other way conceivable of safety for Religion for the Infant King for the Kingdom but that the Protestants should joyn together for the defence of King James against these Popish murtherers For this end the general Assembly did crave conference of the secret Counsel and they with mutual advice did call for a meeting of the whole Protestant Party which did convene at the time appointed most frequently in an extraordinary and mixed assembly of al the considerable persons of the Religion Earls Lords Barons Gentlemen Burgesses and Ministers and subscribed a bond for the revenge of King Henries death and the defence of King James his life This mixed and extraordinary Assembly made it one of the chiefe Articles in their bond to defend these Acts of the Parliament 1560. concerning Religion and to endeavour the ratification of them in the next ensuing Parliament As for the Assemblies letter to their Brethren for so frequent a meetting at the next extraordinary Assembly it had the Authority of the secret Counsel it was in a time of the greatest necessity when the Religion and liberties of the land were in evident hazard from the potent and wicked counsels of the Popish Party both at home and abroad when the life of the young King was dayly in visible danger from the hands of them who had murthered his Father and ravished his Mother Lesse could not have been done in such a juncture of time by men of wisdom and courage who had any love to their Religion King and Countrey but the resolution of our Prelates is to the contrary when a most wicked villain had obtained the connivance of a Queen to kill her husband and to make way for the killing of her Son in his Cradle and after these murders to draw a Nation and Church from the true Religion established by Law into Popery and a free Kingdom to an illegal Tyranny in this case there may be no meeting either of Church or State to provide remedies against such extraordinary mischiefs Beleeve it the Scots were never of this opinion What is subjoyned to the next Paragraph of our Churches presumption to abolish Acts of Parliament By the laws customs of Scotland the assembly procedes the Parliament in the ●fo●mation of Ecclesiastical abuses is but a repetition of what is spoken before Not only the laws of Scotland but equity and necessity refers the ordinary Reformation of errors and abuses in Religion to the Ecclesiasticall Assemblies what they find wrong in the Church though ratified by acts of Parliament they rectifie it from the word of God and thereafter by Petition obtaines their rectification to be ratified in a following Parliament and all former Acts to the contrary to be annulled This is the ordinary Method of proceeding in Scotland and as I take it in all other States and Kingdoms Were Christians of old hindred to leave Paganisme and embrace the Gospel till the Emperial Laws for Paganisme and against Christianity were revoked did the Oecumenical and Nationall Synods of the Ancients stay their reformation of heresies and corruptions in Religion till the laws of State which did countenance these errors were cancelled Was not Popery in Germany France and Britaine so firmly established as Civill Laws could do it It seems the Warner here doth joyn with his brother Issachar to proclaim all our Reformers in Britaine France and Germany to be Rebels

need to be much better cautioned then here it is before it can st●nd for a major of a clear demonstration but how is the minor proved behold how much short the Warners proofes are of his great boastings His first argument is grounded upon an evident falshood that in the Covenant we sweare the lately devised discipline to be Christs institution Answ There is no such word nor any such matter in all the Covenant was the Warners hatred so great against that peece of write that being to make cleare demonstrations against i● he would not so much as cast his eye upon that which he was to oppugne Covenanters sweare to endeavour the reformation of England according to the word of God and the best reformed Churches but not a word of the Scots Presbytery nor of any thing in any Church even the best reformed unlesse it be found accorcording to the paterne of Gods holy word The second ground of his demonstration is also an evident errour The Warner unwittingly commends the Covenant that the covenant in hand is one and the same with that of King James Answ Such a fancy came never in the head of any man I know much lesse was it ever writen or spoken by any that the Covenant of King James in Scotla●d 1580 should be one and the same with the Covenant of all the three Kingdomes 1643 whatsoever identit es may appeare in the matter and similitude in the ends of both but the grossest errors are solide enough grounds for praelaticall clear demonstrations Yet here the Warner understands not how hee is cutting his owne veines his friends in Scotland will give him small thanks for attributing unto the nationall Covenant of Scotland that Covenant of King James these three properties that it was issued out by the Kings authority that it was for the maintenance of the Lawes of the realme and for the maintenance of the established Religion time brings adversaries to confesse of their own accord long denyed truthes But the Characters which the Warner in prints upon the solemne league and Covenant of the three Kingdomes wee must b●● pardoned to controvert till he have taken some leasure to prove his wilde assertions First that the league is against the authority of the King secondly that it is against the Law and thirdly that it is fo● the overthrow of Religion The man cannot think th●t any should beleeve his dictats of this kinde without p oofe since the expresse words of that league doe flatly contradict him in all these three positions His gentle memento that Scotland when they sued for aid from the crowne of England had not the English discipline obtruded upon their Church might here have beene spared was not the English discipline and liturgy obtruded upon us by the praelats of England with all craft and force did we ever obtrude our disciplin upon the English but when they of their owne free and long deliberate choice had abolished Bishops and promised to set up Presbytery so far as they had found it agreeable to the word of God were wee not in all reason obliged to encourage and assist them in so pious a worke The King did not clame the sole and absolve possession of the militia In the next words the Warner for all his great boasts finding the weaknes of all the former grounds of his second demonstration he offers three new ones which doubtles will doe the deed for he avowes positively that his following grounds are demonstrative yet whosoever shall be pleased to gripe them with never so soft an hand shall finde them all to be but vanity and winde The first after a number of prosyllogismes rests upon these two foundations first that the right of the militia resides in the King alone secondly that by the covenant the militia is taken out of the Kings hands and that every covenanter by his covenant disposes of himselfe and of his armes against the right which the King hath unto him Answ The Warner will have much adoe to prove the second so that it may be a ground of a clear demonstration but for the first that the power of the militia of England doth reside in the King alone that the two houses of Parli●ment have nothing at all to doe with it and that their taking of armes for the defence of the liberties of England or any other imaginable cause against my party countenanced by the Kings presence against his lawes must ●e a together unlawfull if his demonstration be no clearer hen the ground whereupon he builds it I am sure it will not be visible to any of his opposits who are not like to be convinced of open rebellion by his naked assertion upon which alone he layes this his mighty ground Beleeve it he had neede to assay its reliefe with some colour of an argument for none of his owne friends will now take it of his hand for an indemonstrable principle since the King for a long time was willing to acknowledge the Parliaments joynt interest in the Militia yea to put the whole Militia in their hands alone for a good number of yeares to come so farre was his Majestie from the thoughts that the Parliaments medling with a part of the Militia in the time of evident dangers should be so certainly and clearely the crime of rebellion The Warners second demonstrative ground wee admit without question in the major that where the matter is evidently unlawfull the oath is not binding but the application of this in the minor is very false All that hee brings to make it appeare to be true is that the King is the supream Legislator that it is unlawfull for the subjects of England to change any thing established by Law especially to the prejudice of the Praelates without their own consent they being a third order of the Kingdome otherwise it would be a harder measure then the Friers and Abbots received from Henry the eight The change of lawes in England ordinarily begin by the two houses w●thout the King Ans May the Warner be pleased to consider how farre his dictates here are from all reason much more from evident demonstrations That the burden of Bishops and ceremonies was become so heavy to all the three Kingdomes that there was reason to endeavour their laying aside he does not offer to dispute but all his complaint runnes against the manner of their removall this say I was done in no other then the ordinary and high path-way whereby all burdensome Lawes and customes use to be removed Doth not the Houses of Parliament first begin with their Ordinance before the Kings consent be sought to a Law is not an Ordinance of the Lords and Commons a good warrant to change a former Law during the sitting of the Parliament The Lawes and customes of England permit not the King by his dissent to stoppe that change The King did really consent to the abolition of Bishops I grant for the turning an

Answ If the Warner with any seriousnesse hath weighed this part of his own write and if his minde go along with his pen I may without great presumption pronounce his judgement to be none of the most solide His following vapours being full of aire we let them evanish only while he mentioneth our charging the King with intentions of changing the Religion and government we answer that we have been most willing alwaies to ascribe to the King good intentions but withall we have long avowed that the praelaticall party have gone beyond intentions to manifest by printed declarations and publick actions their formed designe to bring Tyranny upon the States and popery upon the Churches of all the three Kingdomes and that this very write of the Warners makes it evident that this same minde yet remaines within them without the least shew of repentance So long as the conscience of the court is mannaged by men of such principles it is not possible to free the hearts of the most understanding from a great deale of Jealously and feare to have Religion and lawes still overturned by that faction But the Wa ner commands us to speake to his Dilemma The covenant is not for propagating of Religion by armes whither we thinke it lawfull or unlawfull for subjects to take armes against their prince meerely for Religion We answer that the reasons whereby he thinks to conclude against us on both sides are very poor If we shall say it is unlawfull then he makes us to condemne our selves because our covenant testifies to the world that we have taken up armes meerly to alter Religion and that we beare no alleagiance to our King but in order to Religion which in plaine terms is to our own humours and conceits Ans There be many untruths here in few words first how much reality and truth the Warner and some of his fellowes beleeves to be in that thing which they call Religion their own heart knownes but it can be no great charity in him to make the Religion of all covenanters to be nothing but their own humours and conceits Secondly it is not true that Covenanters beare no alleagiance to the King but only in order to Religion III. The Parliament of England denied that they took u● armes against their King though to defend themselves against the popish pralaticall and malignant faction who were about to destroy them with armes IV. They have declared that their purpose was not at all to alter Religion but to purge it from the corruption of Bishops and ceremonies that too long had beene noxious unto them V. They have oft professed that their rames were taken for the defence of their just liberties whereof the preservation and reformation of Religion was but one The other horne of his Dilemma is as blunt in pushing as the former If we make it lawfull saith he to take up armes for Religion we then justifie the independents and Anabaptists wee make way for any that will plant what ever they apprehend to be true Religion by force and to cut the throat of all Magistrates who are in a contrary opinion to them that it is a ridiculous partiality for any to priviledge their owne Religion as truth and Gospell The Warners black Atheisme Answ Whether will these men go at last the strength of this reason is black atheisme that there is no realty of truth in any Religion that no man may be permitted to take his Religion for any thing more but his owne apprehension which without ridiculous folly he must not preferre to any other mans apprehension of a contrary Religion this is much worse then the pagane Scepticisme which turned all reality of truth into a meer apprehension of truth wherein their was no certainty at all this not onely turnes the most certaine truths even these divine ones of Religion into meer uncertaine conceptions but which is worse it will have the most orthodoxe beleever so to think speake and act as if the opinions of Independents Anabaptists Turks Jewes Pagans or grosse Atheists were as good true and solide as the beleefe of Moses or Paul were of the truths revealed to them from heaven Secondly we say that subiects defence of their Religion and liberties established by Law against the violent usurpation of Papists Prelats or Malignants is not the planting of Religion by armes much lesse is it the cutting of the throats of all Magistrates who differ in any point of Religion * The Praelats condemne the defensive armes of the Dutch and French Protestants III. In the Iudgement of the prelaticall party the defensive armes of the Protestants in France Holland and Germany must be as much condemned as the offensive armes of the Anabaptists in Munster or of the sectaries this day in England Can these men dreame that the World for their pleasure will so farre divest themselves of all Religion and reason as to take from their hande so brutish and Atheisticall maximes * The Praelats decline the judgement of counsels The Praelats overthrow of the foundation of Protestant Religion He concludes with a wish of a generall councell at least of all protestant Churches for to condemne all breachers of seditious principles Ans All true covenanters goe before him in that desire being confident that he and his fellowes as they have declined already the most solemne assemblies of their own countries upon assurance of their condemnation so their tergiversation would be as great if they were to answer to an oecumenick Synod What I pray would the Warner say in a councell of protestant for the practise of his party pointed at in his last words I meane their purging the Pope of Antichristianisme of purpose to make way for a reconciliation yea for a returne to Rome as this day it lyes under the wings of the Pope and Cardinals * The Praelats are still peremptory to destroy the King and all his Kingdomes if they may not be restored Also what could they answer in a Christian councel unto this charge which is the drift of this whole Book that they are so farre from any remorse for all the blood and misery which their wickednesse most has brought on the former King and all his Kingdomes these eleven yeares that rather then they had not the Covenant and generall assembly in Scotland destroyed as an Idol and Antichrist they will chuse yet still to imbroyle all in new calamities This King also and his whole Family the remainder of the blood and Estates in all the three Kingdoms must be hazarded for the sowing together of the torne mytres and the rejecting of the fallen chayres of Praelats If Bishops must lie stil in their deserved ruines they persevere in their peremtory resolution to have their burials sprinckled with the ashes of the royall Family and all the three Kingdomes FINIS