Majesties Proclamation bearing date the ninth of September in their ninth reason against the subscription urged by his Majestie do plainely averre that this Oath urged by his Majestie doth oblige the takers of it to maintaine Perth Articles and to maintaine Episcopacie Why therefore some men swearing the same words and syllables should have their words taken to another sense and bee thought to abjure Episcopall government more then others who have taken the same oath in the same words must needs passe the capacitie of an ordinarie understanding It is a received maxime and it cannot be denied but that oaths ministred unto us must either bee refused or else taken according to the knowne minde professed intention and expresse command of Authoritie urging the same A proposition not onely received in all Schooles but positively set down by the adherers to the said protestation totidem verbis in the place above cited But it is notoriously knowne even unto those who subscribed the Confession of Faith by his Majesties commandment that his Majestie not onely in his Kingdomes of England and Ireland is a maintainer and upholder of Episcopall government according to the laws of the said Churches and Kingdomes but that likewaies he is a defender and intends to continue a defender of the same government in his Kingdome of Scotland both before the time and at the time when hee urged this oath as is evident by that which is in my Lord Commissioner his Preface both concerning his Majesties instructions to his Grace and his Graces expressing his Majesties minde both to the Lords of Councell and to the Lords of Session and the same likewayes is plainly expressed and acknowledged by the adherers to the said protestation in the place above cited their words being these And it is most manifest that his Majesties minde intention and commandment is no other but that the Confession be sworne for the maintenance of Religion as it is already or presently professed these two being co-incident altogether one and the same not onely in our common forme of speaking but in all his Majesties Proclamations and thus as it includeth and continueth within the compasse thereof the foresaids novations and Episcopacie which under that name were also ratified in the first Parliament holden by his Majestie From whence it is plaine that Episcopacie not being taken away or suspended by any of his Majesties declarations as these other things were which they call novations it must needs both in deed and in the judgement of the said protesters no wayes bee intended by his Majestie to be abjured by the said oath Now both the major and that part of the minor which concerneth Episcopall government in the Church of Scotland being clearly acknowledged by the Protesters and the other part of the minor concerning that government in his other two Kingdomes being notoriously knowne not onely to them but to all others who know his Majestie how it can be imagined that his Majestie by that oath should command Episcopacie to be abjured or how could any one to whom his Majesties minde concerning Episcopall government was known honestly or safely abjure it let it be left to the whole world to judge especially considering that the Protesters themselves in that place above cited by a dilemma which we leave to themselves to answer have averred that when that Act of Councell should come out yet that it could not be inferred from thence that any such thing was abjured Fifthly and lastly If the explanation in that Act of Councell be taken in that not onely rigid but unreasonable and senslesse sense which they urge yet they can never make it appeare that Episcopall government at the first time of the administring of that oath was abolished The very words of that Confession of Faith immediatly after the beginning of it being these Received beleeved defended by many and sundrie notable Kirks and Realmes but chiefly by the Kirk of Scotland the Kings Majestie and three Estates of this Realme as Gods eternall truth and onely ground of our salvation c. By which it is evident that the subscription to this Confession of Faith is to be urged in no other sense then as it was then beleeved and received by the Kings Majestie and the three Estates of this Realme at that time in being and it is well knowne that at that time Bishops Abbats and Priors made up a third Estate of this Realme which gave approbation to this Confession of Faith and therefore it is not to bee conceived that this third Estate did then abjure Episcopacie or that Episcopacie was at the first swearing of that Confession abolished But say that at that time it was abolished by Acts of generall Assemblie yet was it not so by any Act of Parliament nay by many Acts of Parliament it was in force because none of them was repealed some whereof are annexed in the sheet immediatly after these reasons which wee pray the Reader carefully to peruse and ponder and at the very time of the taking of this oath and after Bishops whose names are well knowne were in being Now it is to bee hoped that in a Monarchie or any other well constituted republick that damnable Jesuiticall position shall never take place That what is once enacted by a Monarch and his three Estates in Parliament shall ever be held repealed or repealable by any Ecclesiasticall nationall Synod By all which it is evident that the explanation of that Act of Councell so groundlesly urged can induce no man to imagine that by the Confession of Faith lately sworne by his Majesties commandment Episcopall government which then did and yet doth stand established by Acts of this Church and Kingdome either was or possibly could be abjured And having now good Reader heard his Majesties minde in his instructions to us our minde in requiring in his Majesties name this oath to be taken and these few reasons of many which doe evidently evince the inconsequence of that sense which without any shew of inference is put upon it by those who would go on in making men still beleeve that all which they doe or say is grounded upon Authority though they themselves doe well know the contrary wee suppose that all they who have taken this oath will rest satisfied that they have not abjured Episcopall government and that they who shall take it will take it in no other sense Which timely warning of ours we are the more willing to give because we are given to understand that even they who were wont to call the takers of this oath notwithstanding of that explanation by act of councell perjured and damned persons and in their pulpits called the urging of it the depth of sathan doe now meane to take it themselves and urge others to take it in that sense which they make men beleeve though wrongfully that act of councell makes advantageous to their ends But we doe in his Majesties name require that none presume to take the said oath
sharpest warre was rather to be endured then the least errour in doctrine or discipline Another in his Sermon wished That hee and all the Bishops in that Kingdome were in a bottomlesse boat at sea together for he could bee well content to lose his life so they might lose theirs Thousands more such beastly barbarous and profane speeches were delivered by them not onely in their Pulpits but in their Sermons For the Reader must know that in these times of tumult where the Churches were not able to containe the great multitudes they did usually preach in common and profane places in roomes which are yet in building and not finished intended for Lawyers to plead in in the Halls of the Taylors and other mechanicall tradesmen of Edinburgh in some private houses in the Hall of the Colledge of Edinburgh where one Sunday Rollock being to preach but finding the crowds of people to be too great for that place mounted upon the top of a paire of staires which went up to an upper ground in an open place which was onely covered by the heavens and from thence preached to a great troupe or multitude whose breath is the onely aire hee desireth to live in being shot quite through the head with popularitie Others preached in the free-Schoole at Edinburgh where boyes use to play and bee punished If these speeches and many as bad or worse then these and delivered in such places be fit to perswade the people that their Covenant comes from God the Reader may easily discerne The second meanes which they used for blind-folding the eyes of the people were their many false reports which both in their Pulpits and out of their Pulpits they vented amongst the people which their Leaders knew in their owne consciences to be most false They gave it out that We intended to bring in Poperie in all Our Kingdomes or at least a toleration of it It was preached that the Service Book was framed at Rome and brought over by a country-man of theirs when they doe know that every Papist by the Popes Bull is prohibited to heare the Service Booke read Others preached that all England was of their opinion and judgement and that they had good intelligence from hence that no man would adhere to Us against them Another preached that no man would have protested against the generall Assembly but for money and that none had protested but they who had received some when they did know that many had protested who had received none It is true indeed that some poore Ministers being thrust out of their Benefices by them for adhering to Us were petitioners to Our Commissioner for relieving the necessities of them and their families some of those who were most necessitated he did a little relieve but some of that number were none of the protesters and many who were protesters were none of that number It was preached ordinarily in their Pulpits that neither We nor Our Commissioner in Our name did ever intend to hold the generall Assembly or if We did hold it did never intend to performe any thing which We had promised in Our gracious Declaration though they now know that We have performed both Within these few daies some desired the people publiquely in their Pulpits to give thankes to God for that overthrow which the Hollanders had given to the Spanish Fleet before Dunkirke assuring their auditours that it was no lesse to be celebrated by them then their deliverance from the Spanish Invasion in 88. because all that Fleet was prepared at Our charge for their ruine and subversion Besides many thousands more such reports and counterfeited letters scattered by them of which some no doubt were devised by themselves whereby they kept Our people in that ignorance in which at the very first they had resolved to involve them Now what a fearfull and terrible thing is it for men in the house of God and in those places of these houses of God which they call the chaires of truth to deliver such things as either they doe not know to be true or doe know to be false Besides these dictates of the Ministers the lay-Elders since they came to thinke themselves Ecclesiasticall persons for so now they doe and will not be called lay but ruling-Elders they have found new inspirations and delivered doctrines as like their Divines as may be one of them We cannot chuse but rehearse An ancient Knight and a lay-Elder intruded himselfe and his fellowes upon a Presbyterie for chusing the Ministers Commissioners for the Assembly and the Ministers of that Presbyterie not being able to keep them out though they earnestly desired it fell to intreat these lay-Elders that if they would needs intrude themselves in their election they would have a speciall care to chuse the ablest Ministers and who were most inclined to moderation and peaceable courses because the Church at this time stood in great need of such Commissioners The old Knight in great zeale replyed That whosoever at this time gave his voice to a moderate or peaceable minded Minister hee was a betrayer of Christ and his cause because these times required no luke-warme Commissioners which barbarous and unchristian speech of his being related by way of complaint to the Tables at Edinburgh was so far from being censured as it was approved for a high and heroicall ejaculation The third meanes whereby they have perverted Our people and continued them in their disobedience to Us and Our Lawes have been their strange and damnable positions whereby they have impoysoned Our subjects some whereof We shall now declare unto you First What subjects doe of their owne heads is much better then what they doe in obedience to Authoritie the one savouring of constraint but the other being voluntarie and cheerfull obedience This proposition is delivered in their Protestation bearing date the 22. of September 1638. made against Our gracious Declaration it is in their fifth reason against the subscription to the Confession of faith urged by Us. A second The Parliaments power doth no more reach to the placing of Officers originally in the Church then the Church hath power to make States-men in the Common-wealth This position is in their answer to Our Commissioners Declaration concerning Our sense and meaning in commanding the Confession of faith to bee subscribed Where they have added the word Originally onely to puzzle the Reader For certainly their meaning must bee That the Parliament hath no power for confirming of Officers placed in the Church by the Church it selfe for no Act of Parliament in that Kingdome doth make any Officers in the Church originally but onely ratifieth and confirmeth such as were established by the Church in her generall Assemblies A third position is this The Parliament can make no law at all concerning the Church but onely ratifie what the Church decreeth and after it hath ratified it yet if the Assembly of the Church shall prohibit it and repeale that decree of the Church all
Our Commissioner acknowledged so much is all of equall untruth with the former for neither have they satisfied the Bishops reasons propounded in their Declinator nor gave they any satisfaction to Our Commissioner his eleven Articles or Demands and that Our Commissioner acknowledged that hee had received satisfaction to them is so manifest an untruth as they themselves doe know there is no colour for it They affirme within a few lines after that Our Commissioner did know before the indiction of the Assembly that ruling Elders were to have voices in the election of Commissioners from Presbyteries He did know it indeed but could not tell how to helpe it and so soone as he did know it which was immediately before the indiction of the Assembly he did sharply expostulate it with them and assured them that it would induce a nullitie upon the elections made to the Assembly That We would never allow any for members of the Assembly who were so chosen That he had notice of this their intention by the complaints of many covenanting Ministers who were resolved to protest against all such elections but that he did know of any such elections with approbation of them cannot be charged upon him And whereas they say that these elections are agreeable to the Acts and practice of that Church they have received already a sufficient challenge to make that good which undoubtedly they cannot And where they adde that not one of the Assembly doubted thereof it is well knowne that some of the Ministers of Edinburgh and many more Ministers of the Assembly did grieve at it but did not know how to remedy it The whole third Section is so derogatorie to Our Royall authoritie and indeed doth so unworthily debase the authoritie of Monarchs as it is not to be answered any way but by justice for it giveth no more power to Us if We had beene present and sitting at the Assembly at Glasgow then Thomas Patterson a Taylor of Edinburgh had who sate Commissioner there After they subjoine some reasons for their Protestation In the first they affirme that the Assembly was constituted by the word of God but they doe not prove it and sure never will Then they affirme that Our Commissioner acknowledged the lawfulnesse of their Assembly by assisting therein seven dayes but they conceale that he solemnely protested and entred his particular Protestation against every thing they said or did in it and if hee who protesteth against a thing may be said to acknowledge the lawfulnesse of it then it may be that they themselves doe acknowledge the justice and equitie of all Our Proclamations and Our power and authoritie in discharging of this Assembly notwithstanding all their Protestations made against these And for Our Commissioner his exhibition of Our Royall Declaration to be registred in the Bookes of this Assembly let the Reader remember the Protestation before mentioned which Our Commissioner made when he did so and that scruple is quickly removed Their second and third reasons are of their owne fancies They have lately sworne so and to that sense they have explicated their Covenant therefore it must be so But they did wrong in both and therefore none must follow them in either for every Oath unlawfully taken is unlawfully kept Their fourth reason hath not one true word in it for there is Law for Our authoritie to dissolve the Assembly there being an expresse Act of Parliament which giveth Us the sole power of indicting of an Assembly viz. the first act of the 21. Parliament of Our Royall Father and sure ejusdem est destituere cujus est instituere whosoever hath the power of indicting hath the power of dissolving They adde that there is no preceding practice for it We wonder they can or dare affirme it Did not Our Royall Father discharge that Assembly at Aberdene and when some few turbulent Ministers did notwithstanding hold it were they not convented before the Lords of his Councell for it who undoubtedly had punished them most severely if by their declining of the Councells authoritie and appealing to a Generall Assemblie they had not falne into an act of treason and so by Our Councell were turned over to the Judges in criminall causes before whom by a Jurie or Assise they were found guiltie of treason for that act of declining Our Royall Father and his Councells authoritie all which we touched a little before And that by clayming Our power to indict or dissolve the Assemblies of the Church We doe infringe the priviledge and liberties of the Church or doe any act not consistent with the Oath which We took at Our Coronation in that Kingdome as is suggested in this fourth reason is most falsly and most seditiously affirmed onely for drawing away of the hearts of Our good subjects from Us and our government The Act of Parliament for Our sole power of indicting Assemblies here followeth A ratification of the Acts and conclusions set down and agreed upon in the generall Assembly of the Church kept in Glasgow in the month of June 1610. together with an explanation made by the Estates of some of the Articles of the same CHAP. I. The act is long and hath many branches We only recite two First it confirmes that Act of the Assembly which acknowledgeth the indiction of the general Assemblie of the Church to appertaine to his Majestie by the prerogative of his Royall Crowne and in the last branch of the act Our Royall Father and the three Estates doe annull and rescind the 114. Act of the Parliament held in Anno 1592 which did give some power to the generall Assemblie in some cases of themselves to indict a new Assemblie Their fifth reason conteineth an instance of an Assemblie that would not stay a Processe which they had intended against Archbishop Montgomerie the Archbishop of Glasgow nor yet dissolve it selfe notwithstanding they were charged by Our Royall Father and his Councell with Letters of Horning and Rebellion to doe one of the two An excellent argument Because one Assembly did wickedly and that which they could not doe we must doe so likewise as if many yeeres hence an Assembly being charged by one of Our Successours to dissolve should not obey but alledge for their defence That this Assembly of Glasgow would not dissolve it selfe notwithstanding the members thereof were charged by Us to doe so under paine of treason as if one unjust act could justifie another But they should doe well to remember that those who did but offer to hold an Assembly at Aberdene after it was discharged by Our Royall Father were first convented before his Councell and afterwards severely punished for it In their sixth reason there is no Reason to be found In their seventh reason they alledge that they cannot rise untill they have found Our Covenant and theirs to be all one If by their Covenant they meane the Confession of Faith and Covenant annexed which was first injoyned by Our Royall Father and twice
could wee have any other intention or meaning being clearely warranted and expresly commanded by his Majesties instructions to exact the said Oath and take order that it should bee sworne throughout the Kingdome in that faire and lawfull sense and none other Neither in this point did we deliver our owne words or his Majesties minde ambiguously or doubtfully so as any other sense to our thinking could bee picked or wrung out of either the one or the other for we do attest the Lords of the Councell whether wee did not to manie or all of them upon severall occasions in conference with them ever since our comming into this Kingdome constantly declare unto them that his Majesties resolution was not to suffer Episcopall government to be abolished Wee attest all the Lords of Session whether before our tendering of that Oath to them or their Lordships taking of it wee did not fully and freely declare to them that his Majesties minde in commanding us to see this Oath taken and our own minde in requiring them to take it was onely to settle and secure the Religion and Faith professed in this Kingdome but was not to bee extended to the abjuring of Episcopall government or any other thing now in force by the Lawes of this Church and State at the time of administring this Oath which their Lordships being the reverend and learned Judges of the Lawes knew well could not bee abjured after which perspicuous predeclaration of our minde their Lordships undoubtedly in that same sense and none other took the said Oath And now good Reader having heard his Majesties minde and intention and in pursuance of them the minde of his Majesties High Commissioner concerning this Oath the reasons to repell the former objection seeme to bee needlesse the knowne minde of the supreme Magistrate who urgeth an Oath being to be taken for the undoubted sense of it yet for as much as that objection hath of late beene mainly urged for alienating the mindes of many of his Majesties good subjects and well affected to that government from adhering unto it be pleased to know that the former objection hath neither shew nor force of reason in it and that by the said Oath and that explanation set down in the Act of Councell Episcopall government neither was nor possibly could bee abjured and that for many reasons but especially these five which we having seen and approved have caused to bee here inserted and leave them to thine impartiall consideration First God forbid it should be imagined that his Majestie should command his subjects to take an Oath which in it selfe is absolutely unlawfull but for a man to sweare against a thing which is established by the Lawes of Church and Kingdome in which he liveth unlesse that thing be repugnant to the Law of God is absolutely unlawfull untill such time as that Kingdome and Church do first repeale these Lawes and therefore Episcopall government not being repugnant to the Law of God nay being consonant unto it as being of Apostolicall institution which shall be demonstrated if any man please to argue it and standding fully established both by Acts of Parliament and Acts of generall Assemblie at the time when this Oath was administred to abjure it before these Acts be repealed is absolutely unlawfull and against the word of God and it is to be hoped no man will conceive that his Majestie meaned to command a thing absolutely unlawfull And if it should be said as it is said by some who not being able to avoid the force of reason do betake themselves to pitifull shifts and evasions that these Acts of Parliament and Assembly establishing Episcopall government were unlawfully and unduly obtained certainely if they have any reasons for this their bold assertion which is of a more dangerous consequence then that it ought to be endured in any well setled Church or Common-wealth these reasons may bee presented lawfully to these judicatories to entreat them to reduce the saids Acts if there shall be strength and validitie found in them But to hold that untill such time as these judicatories shall repeale the saids Lawes they either ought to bee or can possibly bee abjured is a wicked position and destructive of the verie foundation of justice both in Church and Common-wealth Secondly it cannot bee imagined that this Oath should oblige the now takers of it farther then it did oblige the takers of it at first for doctrine and points of faith it did oblige them then and so doth it us now perpetually because these points in themselves are perpetuall immutable and eternall But for points of discipline and government and policie of the Church that Oath could binde the first takers of it no longer then that discipline and government should stand in force by the Lawes of this Church and Kingdome which our Church in her positive Confession of Faith printed amongst the Acts of Parliament Artic 20.21 declareth to bee alterable at the will of the Church it selfe and so repealable by succeeding Acts if the Câ—â—rch shall see cause When a King at his Coronation taketh an Oath to rule according to the Lawes of his Kingdom or a Judge at his admission sweareth to give judgement according to these Lawes the meaning of their Oaths cannot be that they shall rule or judge according to them longer then they continue to be Lawes but if any of them shall come afterwards to bee lawfully repealed both King and Judge are free from ruling and judging according to such of them as are thus lawfully repealed notwithstanding their originall Oath Since therefore if the first takers of that Oath were now alive they could not bee said to have abjured Episcopall government which hath been since establshed by Lawes of this Church and Kingdom especially considering that this Church in her Confession holdeth Church government to bee alterable at the will of the Church certainely we repeating but their Oath cannot be said to abjure that government now more then they could be said to do it if they were now alive and repeating the same Oath Thirdly how can it be thought that the verie Act of his Majesties commanding this Oath should make Episcopall government to bee abjured by it more then the Covenanters requiring it of their associats in both Covenants the words and syllables of the Confession of Faith being the same Now it is well knowne that many were brought in to subscribe their Covenant by the solemne protestations of the contrivers and urgers of it that they might subscribe it without abjuring of Episcopacie and other such things as were established by Law since the time that this Oath was first invented and made and the three Ministers in their first answers to the Aberdene Quaeres have fully and clearely expressed themselves to that sense holding these things for the present not to bee abjured but onely referred to the tryall of a free generall Assemblie And likewise the adherers to the last Protestation against his
subiects complaint respected or the offenders punished with consent of Authority and so by casting the Kirke and Estate loose and desolate would abandon both to ruine Seventhly it was most necessary to continue this Assembly for preveening the preiudices which might ensue upon the pretence of two Covenants whereas indeed there is but one that first subscribed in 1580. and 1590. being a nationall Covenant and oath to God which is lately renewed by us with that necessary explanation which the corruptions introduced since that time contrary to the same inforced which is also acknowledged in the Act of Councell in September last declaring the same to be subscribed as it was meaned the time of the first subscription and therefore for removing that shame and all prejudices which may follow upon the shew of two different Covenants and Confessions of Faith in one Nation the Assembly could not dissolve before it had tryed found and determined that both these Covenants are but one and the selfe same Covenant The latter renewed by us agreeing to the true genuine sense and meaning of the first as it was subscribed in anno 1580. And further in the said Proclamation the straine of our Protestation is taxed because we have thereby presumed to cite those of his Majesties Councell who have procured subscribed or ratified this Proclamation to bee responsall to his Majestie and three Estates of Parliament whereas the same cannot be justly quarrelled because it it is grounded upon the Law of the Kingdome and warranted by the act of Parliament therein cited 12. act Par. 2. James 4. which act is grounded upon good reason for it were strange to thinke that Councellours giving bad counsell to the evident prejudice and ruine of the Countrey and publick detriment of the good Subjects should not be countable therefore to his Majestie and his Estates and it is not without instance in our Lawes that perverse counsell hath beene given in misguiding the Kings and common good of this Realme Act 6. Par. 1. James 4. which is also acknowledged by the reduction of grants made by Kings to these perverse Councellours act 3. Par. 4. and act 5. Par. 1. James 4. The perversenesse of which misguiding counsell hath been assuredly the cause why in the next Parliament in the yeere immediately subsequent the Kings Councell was chosen in Parliament and sworne in presence of the King and three Estates and ordained to be responsall and accusable to the King and three Estates for their counsell Which cleareth that both evill counsell may bee given and that the Councell may be accused before the King and Parliament for malversation in their charge Like as his Maiestie in the Proclamation makes all persons lyable to the Parliament and generall Assembly and so giveth way to this previous cytation which may serve for a forewarning and intimation that they may bee accused if they bee guilty as wee know all are not and wish that none were All which heavie objections and imputations are premitted in the Proclamation to the conclusion and command thereof which resolveth into two heads the first discharging obedience to the acts of Assembly and liberating all who shall disobey from censure and promising Protection to the disobeyers and inhibiting all Presbyteries Sessions of Kirks Ministers within this Realme in their Sermons Sessions and meetings or any otherwaies to authorize approve or allow the Assembly at Glasgow or doe any deed which may countenance the same under paine to be punished with all rigour And commanding all who shall heare them to delate the same under paine of the like punishments likewaies straitly charging and commanding all Judges within this Realme Clerks and Writers not to grant or passe a bill summond or letters or any other execution whatsoever upon any act or deed proceeding from the said Assembly and all keepers of the Signet from Signeting thereof under all highest paine And the second head commanding all Subiects to subscribe and sweare the Confession commanded by his Majestie conforme to the sense and meaning of the declaration published by the Commissioner whereunto we need not here make any answer but remits the same to a speciall answer published in print made to that Declaration But for the first the same is so farre repugnant to the word of God practice of the primitive Kirke the Lawes Civill and Canonicall the custome of all Nations the constitutions of our generall Assemblies acts of Parliament practice of other judicatories within this Kingdome to the Confession of Faith and discipline of this Kirke as we cannot believe any such commandments to proceed from our gracious King but from the malice and mis-information of our adversaries the conscience of whose guiltinesse affrighteth them to undergoe their deserved censure which is cleare first That the same is contrary to the Law of God from that place of Scripture Mat. 18. wherein the Kirke is commanded absolutely to inflict censures 1. Cor. 5. wherein the Kirke did execute that commandment And the Kirks of Pergamus and Thyatira are reproved for not executing Ecclesiasticall censures against those who held the doctrine of Balaam or of Jezebel 2. Rev. So that the power of the keys in Ecclesiasticall censures is so intrinsecally and so essentially competent to the Kirk and generall Assembly jure divino as obedience to her decreets and executions thereof cannot be suspended far lesse taken away and discharged by humane authority more nor the power of preaching and administration of the Sacraments Secondly it is contrary to the practice of the Apostolike and Primitive Kirks whose constant practice was to execute the spirituall functions and censures and notwithstanding humane prohibitions to obey God rather then man Thirdly It is contrary to the civill Law si contra jus vel utilitatem publicam vel per mendacium fuerit aliquid postulatum vel impetratum ab Imperatore Et titulo de diversis rescriptis pragmaticis sanctionibus Fourthly the same is contrary to the Cannon Law decret decretal extravagan titulo de rescriptis Fifthly it is contrary to the universall custome in all Nations ordaining their Judicatories to doe justice notwithstanding their Princes prohibition as is cleare by Convarnvia in Spaine Pappon in France Suedwyne in Germanie c. upon the title de rescriptis aut constitutionibus principum Sixthly to the constitutions of generall Assemblies because in sundry generall Assemblies upon complaints made that the Kings Majestie and his Councell by their letters offered some stop to the Kirk from going on in her Ecclesiasticall censures especially by act of the generall Assembly conveened in the new Colledge of Sanctandrows 20. April 1582. it is ordained that none being received to any Ecclesiastical function office or benefice seek any way by the civill power to exeeme and withdraw themselves from the jurisdiction of the Kirk or procure obtain or use any letters or charges either by themselves or any other in their name or at their
the subjects are discharged from yeelding obedience to the Act of Parliament which either made any such law or ratified any such decree of the Church This position they deliver in their answer to the 5. reasons in the said Declaration and would be well weighed A fourth position is this The Assembly hath power to discharge all subscription to the confession of faith commanded to be subscribed by Us and as it is interpreted by Us or Our Commissioner so leaving Us no power at all in Ecclesiasticall causes which all Reformed Churches give their Princes according to Gods Law This position is in the same place in their conclusion of their answers to the five reasons A fifth position is this The Assembly without Us is the Church and the onely Judge competent fit to interpret and explaine all doubts arising upon the confession of faith commanded by Us which they put in practice by explicating Our confession of faith against Our owne meaning and after We had dissolved the assembly This position is set downe in the beginning of their conclusion after their answers to the five reasons A sixth position is this Though the Law be interpreted yet if it be interpreted in a sense disliked by most of the Kingdome the body of the Kingdome for whose good the Law was made may crave the lawfull redresse of the grievances sustained by that Law This position is in the fifth of their ten Articles propounded before the indiction of the assembly A strange position that they shall crave redresse of a Law and before a Parliament which onely can redresse it and though they call it a craving to redresse it yet they meane an actuall redressing of it for they before a Parliament was at this time indicted have actually done many things against Acts of Parliament and stand upon their justification that they may lawfully doe so The seventh position is this The Assembly is independant either from King or Parliament in matters Ecclesiasticall This position is in their Protestation against Our Proclamation of the 18. of December 1638. in their third reason against Our gracious offers delivered into the Assembly by Our Commissioner and is a position delivered not onely in the sense but in the very words of the Jesuites The other positions following generally dispersed throughout their Protestations and Pamphlets are so obvious to any one who hath read them as the particular cytation of them may bee forborne such as are these following An eight position is That in all matters determined in an assembly We are to receive them as the son of the Church and have no further interest in them though they be not matters of faith but matters of government and those concluded by them against Acts of Parliament established by Us and Our three Estates nay though they concerne secular businesse as making of Salt and fishing for Salmons on Sundaies changing of Markets from one day in the weeke to another and such like for in their late pretended Assembly they have determined of many such things as doth appeare by the Index of their Acts. They will not find many Papists who have said so much for the Church of Rome nor any Jesuites which have said more A ninth position is this It is lawfull for subjects to make a Covenant and combination without the King and to enter into a band of mutuall defence against the King and all persons whatsoever though by two Acts of Parliament before cyted all such persons as shall be found either contrivers of or adherers to any such league are punishable with death A tenth position is this That it is lawfull for themselves sitting in an assembly to indict a new assembly without Our consent as they have now indicted a new assembly to bee held in July next or out of the assembly when they please as they professed that now they would have done if We had not indicted one though this be directly and expresly against two Acts of Parliament before cyted An eleventh position is this If subjects bee called before Us and Our Councell for any misdemeanour if they who are called doe any way conceive that the matter for which they are called doth concerne the glory of God or the good of the Church and a wonder it is if any cause can be found which doth not concerne one of these two then they may appeale from Us and Our Councell to the next generall Assembly and Parliament and in the meane time before these appeales be either heard or discussed they may disobey Us and Our Councell although by an Act of Parliament before cyted it is expresly made treason and the Ministers who appealed from Our Royall Father and his Councell were upon that Act arraigned and found guilty of treason The twelfth position is this That when We are intreated to indict a generall Assembly it is not that there is any need of Our indiction but rather to doe Us honour and to beget some countenance to their proceedings alledging that the power of indiction is in Us but cumulativè not privativè which if We shall refuse then that power is suppletivè in the collective bodie of the people as it is alwaies say they in all other cases if the Prince shall either neglect or refuse to doe his dutie Nor are they ashamed to averre that all Soveraigne authoritie was originally in the collective bodie of the people by them conferred with their owne consent upon the Prince and therefore if the Prince shall omit to doe his dutie he either falls from his right or his right is interrupted untill he returne to his dutie but that in the meane time the Soveraigne right and authoritie doth returne to and remaine with the people from whom it was at the first derived upon the Prince A prettie matter it were if Princes Crownes and Soveraignties should depend upon such notionall and pedanticall distinctions and wonder it is that these men who professe themselves to be the greatest enemies to Poperie in all the World should borrow the very words and termes of this ridiculous distinction from the Jesuites which distinction if it had ever been used in those primitive and purest Councels of the Church all of which were onely called by the Emperours and in which all matters were ordered and disposed by their Presidents and Deputies it would have made those Emperours out of love with the Councels and Assemblies of the Church But they were never robbed of that speciall prerogative of their Crowne untill the Bishops of Rome by their tyrannie and usurpation and by animating and arming their owne subjects against them dispossessed them of it And now We and Our Successors being repossessed of it againe by the Lawes of that Our Kingdome and the usurpation of the Pope in that very particular being by many of Our Acts of Parliament excluded wonder it is to see these men take upon themselves that usurped and cashiered Papall authoritie The thirteenth position is this If We or
for them to doe that yet it were the more tolerable if they did as they say but they doe make good what they say by telling the world what they meane by things Ecclesiasticall and their meaning they doe expresse in the very termes of the Jesuites for by Ecclesiasticall they meane as their practice sheweth any thing which is in ordine ad Ecclesiastica nay more in ordine ad Spiritualia whatsoever may bee thought conducible to the good of the Church or to any spirituall good and yet more vastly to the glorie of God by which latitude of the word Ecclesiasticall We would know what they have left without the compasse of their cognisance Just nothing For in this sense they may set the price on victuals they may censure the actions of all men in what kind soever because Saint Paul biddeth us Whether we eate or drinke or whatsoever we doe doe it all to the glory of God And truly from this false and Jesuiticall interpretation of this word Ecclesiasticall have issued most of all their acts of sedition and rebellion They have provided armes for Our subjects they first blocked up all Our Forts Castles and since have taken them stopped Our Officers from carrying victualls or ammunition into them they have raised Forts taxed Our subjects levied souldiers against Us not onely turned Us out of the possession of Our Castles but so farre as in them lies defeated Our title to them by declaring that they are not Our Castles but the Kingdomes they have incroached upon the undoubted bounds and markes of Our Soveraigntie by sending warrants to Our Sheriffes for chusing Commissioners for the Shires for the next Parliament they have discharged Our own Printer for printing any thing which concerneth these troubles or may make against them though commanded by Us and by Our Councell so that if We have any thing to print there We must first be a suiter to Jhonston their Clerke for his hand to it else it cannot passe they have injoyned or at least suffered the Preachers of their owne side to pray and preach most bitterly against Us and Our authoritie those Preachers who continued in their loyaltie towards Us they have most unjustly against Our lawes deprived of their Benefices and most unmercifully and unchristianlike exposed them to miserie and beggerie they have most contemptuously and rebelliously used Our Councellours and Judges When they are asked why they doe these things and by what authoritie they doe them To the first they answer onely That they doe them for the good of the Church and the glorie of God that Religion may bee preserved the honour of God maintained and his glorie increased Who would thinke that there should bee men found in the world who call themselves after the name of Christ and invocate the name of God and yet dare profane and abuse the names of Religion God and his glorie and to intitle those glorious names to such lewd actions of treason and rebellion as can proceed from none but the Devill To the second By what authoritie they doe these things which are expresly against the Acts of Parliament Acts of Councell and Acts of generall Assemblies They answer that these Acts of Assembly were unduely obtained and that now they have rescinded them For Acts of Parliament and Acts of Councell they expresse great wonder and admiration that any man should question their authoritie over them For that question they use to answer with another of their owne viz. Whether any man doth hold Christ or Us to be supreme and being answered that Christ is supreme then they conclude That they being his Councell must likewise be supreme That the Parliament is but the Councell of the Kingdome That Our Privie Councellours and Judges are but the Councell and Judges of the King but that they themselves are the immediate and independent Councellours of and Judges under Christ who is the King of all kings and kingdomes and that therefore in all causes which they conceive to concerne Christ and his Kingdome which is his Church they are supreme and independent above Us Our Parliament Our Councell Our Judges And that if Our Councellours or Judges doe not obey their commandements they will proceed to the sentence of Excommunication against them and by the same reason though as yet they have not said it they may proceed against Us with the same sentence for We acknowledge Christ to bee the supreme King as much as Our Councellours and Judges doe acknowledge him to be the supreme Lord and Judge These furious frensies have not been heard of in the world since the Anabaptists madnesse reigned in Germanie in Charles the fifth his time which was most strongly and vehemently opposed by the Protestant Princes who adhered to the Augustan confession and if Luther and Melancthon whom God used as the chiefe instruments in reforming the abuses of the Church of Rome had not shewed themselves in their Sermons Lectures in the Universities and publique writings which they published stout Champions against them and thereby had drawne all Protestants to detest and persecute them undoubtedly the Reformation of the Church falling out to bee about the same time when these Anabaptists raged most in their madnesse had laboured and suffered extremely under the scandall of their frensies in the opinion of all those who were attending and looking after the issue of that Reformation And yet these same fooleries and frensies are daily acted by these who call themselves Commissioners of the Table and presented to the Readers of their Pamphlets and Protestations with the titles of irrefragable undeniable convincing unquestionable Sun-shine truths and twenty more such false impudent epithets as one would wonder from whence they fetch the faces that can beare them out in saying so when the whole Christian World who shall read them upon the very first view or reading must discerne that there is not the least step or shadow of truth to be found in them We confesse We were amazed at and aggrieved with their horrible impudence expressed in their last Petition sent unto Us in which they did invocate the name of God calling him not onely as a witnesse but as an approver of their actions at their pretended assurance of Our justification of them all when they undoubtedly know that We doe abhorre and detest them all as rebellious and treasonable at their shamelesse asseveration of their confidence that their neighbour Churches will approve all their proceedings that they are affraid they should bee thought to have offended in nothing so much as in lenitie when they have proceeded to the deposition and excommunication of the Bishops and others their opposers which is the utmost of that power which ever any Church did yet challenge to it selfe and many more such audacious untruths which after We once heard read We resolved never to answer and now doe answer it onely thus That in the maine points of it there is not one true word To say nothing