things the one that our orders condemned by them we ought to abolish the other that theirs wee are bound to accept in stead thereof And the other he that would bring in the use of the surplice into the reformed Kirkes where iâ— hath no place cannot be excused from schisme and superstition whatsoever hee alledge for his excuse As he speakes of one so hee speakes of all The drierie lamentations heavie complaints of the unsupportable burthen of the ceremonial yoke powred out in all ages by the holy men of God may provoke the compassion of the hardest hearts Augustine in his time complained that the Kirke was pressed contrarie to Christs mercifull institution with such a servile burthen of ceremonies that the state of the Iewes under the law was more tollerable then the condition of Christians seeing they were subject onely to Gods ordinances not to humane presumptions as Christians are How would hee at this time have mourned for the case of other Kirks and for the perill that I am in Erasmus Polidorus Virgilius c. â—ing the same ditta It is a certaine truth many ceremonies little faith Look how much is added to the midding of rites as much is withdrawen not onely from Christian liberty but from Christ himself and his faith while the multitude seeketh for that in rites which they should seek in the onely sonne of God Iesus Christ. The greater bulk of bodily ceremonies the lesse spirit of true devotion The true worshippers under the Gospel shall not say The Ark of the Lord they shall forget all those outward ceremonies and never revive them Moses his vaile farre more all other things that neither were nor are froÌ„ God is removed and now may we with open face behold the glory of God Then the sea about the altar was of brasse and could not be pierced with the sharpest sight but now our sea about the throne is glasse clearly convoying the knowledge of God unto our minds The Amphiscij can tell that the more shadow the lesse light The shadow alwayes accompanies the body sometimes it followes behinde but sometimes also it comes before Ye may be sure the dark body of error is not farre off when the shadowes of ceremonies are at hand and iustly may feare that they are the harbingers sent before by Satan whatsoever be mans intention to make place for their owne substance Oh if the Lord would open your eyes to see the subtill working of that mystery of iniquity The web may be divided in mens intentions who possibly mind no more for time to come then they urge for the present But in the iustice of God punishing the world for the contempt of the truth and in respect of Satans malice bringing in his lye it is all of one threed And that which is begun by one may be wrought out by another entring upon the preceeding labours Ye see not this weed growing but it will be perceived to have growen The seeds of Popery were secretly sowen in the Primitive Kirke and by degenerating ages grew up to that monstrous height which now the world wonders at But alas all our countrey wit is Mâ—tanoia after wit My people are like the Athenians who as Demades objected to them never intreated for peace but in mourning gowns that is after they had suffered great calamitie in battell When afterward ye are poysoned with errour and over laden with crosses ye and your children after you shall be forced to cry out upon your owne madnesse and folly that would not see and resist the beginnings of so great evils The remanent sparkles of natures light looking upon the common providence of God may let your Honours see that it serves most for the prosperity of Kirkes and Kingdomes that ilk constitution and order in a societie should sort with the nature disposition and condition of the people My people have from the liberal hand of their God externall abundance for the honest sustentation of their bodies with a substantial sound and simple religion for the salvation of their soules Yet farre from the artificial fulnes whereby the Tyrian spirits of the world do disquiet their neighbour nations striving to subject all to their formes that they may reigne over all as Queenes against the protestations made in all the confessions of faith of other Kirkes A single forme of policie is more fit for a plain people and mean provisions then the gorgeous shew of a pompous port necessarily requiring rents complements and carriage that neither this land may beare neither wee nor our fathers have learned Rites must have rents their service is both cumbersome costly they scorne the assignations of our plotted povertie they strive with Statesmen Earles and Lords for place precedencie they loath the preaching of the Gospell and like better the chief places of estate The restitution of the Kirk to her wonted possessions to her worldly dignities must goe on together with equall speed Neither can so long experience be denied but that ordinarily the estate of the common wealth accompanies the constitution of the kirk as the morning starre goes with the Sunne which Constantine acknowledged in his grant to the Kirkes of Africa thus beginning his Epistle Considering that the due observation of things pertaining to true religion and the worship of God brings great happinesse to the whole estate and common wealth of the Empire of Rome and Charles the 8. of France lamentably experienced For when he had faire occasions to reforme the Kirke of Rome at his pleasure and to help the Kirk of God he neglected both wherefore shortly after striken with a sudden sicknesse he died according to the forewarning of Savanarola who told him plainly that he should have great successe in his voyage to Italy for reforming the corrupt state of the Kirk which if hee did not he should returne with dishonour and God would reserve the honour of that work unto some other All the policie of Achitophel and wisdome of Salomon cannot establish a kingdome wherein the kingdome of Christ is misregarded His true worship is the pillar and wall of policies If the Lord remove his truth from you hee will deprive you also of your civill liberties and give you over into the hands of mercilesse enemies If he spare not his own strength and glory but give over the one to captivity and the other to the hands of his enemies he shall respect you no more theÌ„ the mire in the street The nation and kingdome that will not serve the Lord shal perish and these nations shall be utterly destroyed My faithfull ministers and obedient children to the meanest are all Gods people and his majesties loyal subjects and faithfull servants The testimonies of his love belong to them all for their comfort in this world and safe conduct to the world to come As they feare God they honour his highnesse they pray for him and his children and all
fountaine yee sustaine a common cause with all the Saints who in any age have opponed themselves to the current corruptions of the Kirk Kirkmen in their time such as Basil Ierome c. The Albigenses contemptuously stiled Apostolickes the Waldenses called Puritans c. 6 In consideration of the change brought upon me and of the course of my declining from my former perfection my errors now may bee smaller and yet my case is worse then in my growing dayes when I was wrastling against greater infirmities My lukewarmnesse then was a way to and a degree of heate but now after my zeale I am become Laodicean waxing colder frō day to day And increase with Vincentius I love but defections changes I loath Our bodies sayth he albeit in processe of time they grow yet they change not The same members the same joynts are in children which are in men though in the one stronger and greater in the other smaller and weaker But if the shape bee turned into another kinde or any thing be added to the number of the members or taken from them then either the body perisheth or becometh monstrous or at the least becomes weak It is right so in religion if we begin to make chāges wherof the kirk of Christ should be a diligent keeper changing nothing diminishing nothing adding nothing I admit no alteration for indifferent that tends to Apostasie and not to accretion 7 Considered in themselves not in relation to other things more necessary A leg or an arm is necessary for a mans body yet not in that degree that it is necessary for the life as the soule I may live be the kirk of God so long as Christ by his spirit breathes faith into my soule Yet wanting the least thing which God hath ordained and receiving supply of a leg of wood from mens artifice I can never bee beautifull in Gods fight nor cheerfull in performing my own actiōs but pines dwines away til at last nothing be left but a stinking carkasse unfit both for the habitation celebration of the majesty of my God 8 Whatsoever they be in thēselves and in their own nature yet falling under our use and practise they become to us either good or evill and consequently either sin or acceptable service wherin Scandall beares so great sway that for avoyding of offence arising upō weaknes or ignorance all actions albeit never so lawfull and profitable which are not necessary to salvation are either to bee left off or kept up or at least to bee put off till another time Woe bee to them not onely who give offences but by whom offences come 9 The Fathers in the primitive times partly preferring the Vernish of the Iewes religion and the pompe of Paganisme to Christian simplicitie And partly with greater zeale then knowledge desirous to enlarge the boundes of Christs kingdome by drawing both Iewes and Gentiles unto their profession did change sacraments into sacrififices Pastors into Priests Tables into Altars Prayers into Liturgies Saturnals into Christmasse c. And pestered the Kirk then with heapes of their ceremonies Quod consilium specie prudens re anceps eventu infelix hodieque lugendum luendum est Ecclesiae sayth Tilenus whatsoever some talke now of his Palinod in particulars It was not lawfull for the heathen Poets to borrow matter from traditions of Scripture and in their allegorizing veine to persue them for their purposes of profanity Lesse tollerable for the spouse of Christ to begg ornaments from enemies whether at Ierusalem or Athens But farrest from indifferencie and most intollerable in you who ought to bee wise by the dolefull experience of others to walk again upon the same snares after yee have escaped twice to make shipwrack to lick up your own vomit and to make your sins once of a simple die now to bee of a scarlet colour 10 By reason of the warrant which they seek without the boūds of the law and testimony Yee have no other Ephod no other Vrim and Thūmim but the light of scripture Herein as in the breast of your high Priest may yee see and read the will of God for your direction in all your actions as they are actions of a Christian even your naturall and civill actions farre more your religious duties So that albeit yee can neither conclude affirmatively nor negatively frō the words of mē yet were your knowledge as ample as the Scriptures and could your faith adequat the largenes of the revelation therof ye might inferre a conclusion both wayes from them In all these considerations they can bee no indifferent judges that call them indifferent When it was objected by Mauritius the Emperour to Gregorie that he busied the Kirke with a needlesse contention when the question was about the name of universall Bishop hee answered That some things are frivovolous and not hurtfull other things frivolous and hurtfull albeit indeed there be nothing frivolous in the matters of God Carnall men have coinzed with their wit a new Category of indifferent things and have made the Genus summum their own wil. The prophetical princely office of Christ is no lesse perfect then his priesthood And he that either addeth to his word or discipline or yeeldes not obedience to them in every poynt can have no comfortable hope of full redemption by his sacrifice It is a fearfull judgement and a wide doore to finall excecation hardnes of heart first to revolt and peevishly to rebell against the light once received and now to be guiltie of affected ignorance closing your eyes against ingyring knowledge Albeit Pastors who are to teach others in respect of their office and place be bound to know many things which others of another condition and vocation are not yet considering the occasions and means offring things to your particular consideration even secular persons and privat men are bound to know beleeve that whereof Pastors themselves not observing it may bee safely ignorant Refuse not resist not the least truth of God for pleasing of your selves or others Albeit any of my ministers might with Ambrose speaking to Theodosius Valentinian say touching his majesty that it is neither imperial to refuse the liberty of speking nor pastorall not to speak that which he thinks In Gods cause whō shal ye heare if yee heare not Gods minister by whose greater danger sin is comitted Who dare be bold to speak the truth unto you if the minister be not bold Yet far be in frō them to utter any thing that may exulcerat his meeknes or provoke their dread soveraigne to wrath As Emperours know saith Tertullian who gave them the Empire they know that it was even the same God who gaue unto them to bee men and to have humane soules they will perceive that hee onely is God in whose onely power they are so with him My children acknowledge that after God Kings are in order the second and
our God set upon your heades that they have made you the meath of ther religious wishes they haue with vehement desires longed to see the things that ye have seene And have not spared to profess that in your case they would rather suffer themselves to be dissolved then that one pinne of that holy Tabernacle so divinelie compacted should be loosed Within and amongst your selves that puritie of profession received universallie with so full consent that Prince and Peeres Pastors and people were all for Christ one heart one soule of these who beleeved with such evidences of Gods favour that the windowes gates of heaven seemed to be opened to raine downe upon this Land spirituall gifts to save you as sometime they had beene readie to powre downe raine to destroy the world every hand almost received some gift and every head crowned with some grace with such successe that it brought a rare unitie prosperitie peace upon Kirk cōmon wealth With such power and presence of the spirit of God in converting comforting confirming his people that Satan was seene fall like lightening from heaven the infidel and unbeleever casting himselfe downe on his face and confessing that undoubtedlie God was amōgst yow and in the middest of your meetings as the soules of his own secret ones can best beare witnesse who have beene most submitted to that holie and happie simplicitie the effectes whereof yet remayning in the harts of many all worldly power be it never so violent sall not be able to remove it And with such terrour from God and the Kings Lawes that ye wanted not your Theodosians publikly humbling themselves The hardest hearted and haughtiest were made to stoup The Atheist either changed in heart or in countenance and forced to play the hypocrite the proudest papist eyther made like you or made to leave you Heresie never hatched within your walles and the Babylonish brood of schisme in the infancie till this tyme was dashed against the stōes Ye sought not then my dere children with Iohn and Iames like great Princes one to sitt on the right hand another on the left nor to be busked with earthly glorie and Persian pompe better beseeming the kings of the world then the kingdome of Christ. The Carbuncles the Saphyres the Emeraulds the Chrysolites the gold the precious stones wherewith my foundation walles windowes gates were set and adorned were out of the Lords own thesaurie Your ambition was then set upon spirituall glorie the cōquest of syn and Satan by the powerfull puritie of the Word Sacraments and discipline The joy of your soules was to see Christ reigning in the middest of his enemies his sword dividing the father from the sonne and the sonne from the father yea a man frō himself parting the soule and the spirit the joynts and the marrow and ending in glorie to God and peace upon earth Then were the tabernacles of God amiable then provoked ye one another with cheerefulnes to go up to the mountaine of the Lord to the house of the God of Iacob ye were sure there to learne his wayes and how to walke in his pathes Then found ye the Lord his glorie filling his Sanctuarie and one of the largest springs of the blood of Christ from Eden watring the citie of God and glaiding your soules wearied with sinne This was my beautie so truelie glorious in the sight of God and his Angels that all the glorie of this lyfe is unworthie to enter in comparison with it Better to you to have this glorie under a crowne of thornes with our Saviour in a chaine with Paul in the Lyons den with Daniel then all the splendor of Tiberius of Nero of Darius wherewith the weak eyes of the world are dazled and pitifullie to my great griefe bewitched And surely your forgetfull ingratitude were inexpiable if with the mater ye remembered not the finger of God wonderfully working in the meanes of that glorious reformation We have to regrate that the Atheisme of these dreggs of tymes and manners is become so gross that all events now are sacrilegiously ascribed to second causes If Naaman his cure or Anna her fruitfulnes or the Egyptiā or Babylonian libertie had fallen out in these godles tymes it had beene counted foolishnes and simplicitie of men over religious upon the ignorance of alterations wroght by nature or policie to attribute them to God Yet God is the Lord Of him and through him and for him are all things Ezrah Nehemiah and the godly of that time acknowledge no less the wonderfull working of God in their redemption from the bondage of Babylon then their fathers did their deliverance out of Egypt Although the power of God was not so miraculous in the one as in the other Consider a little and mark the constitution of the tyme before this reformation was wrought the grandeur pride insolencies of my office bearers thē the averse disposition induration of the personages both at home abroade upon whom in mans eyes it did depend the heathenish darknes of idolatrie and palpable blindnes of superstition wherin the multitude was wrapped and ye shal be forced to say that he who would have intended a change of religiō might have received that desparing answer which a man of great spirit and place an enemie of Romish pride and a desirer of reformation gave concerning Luthers purpose Brother brother goe to your cloyster and say have mercy on me ô God All seene second causes were posting on in a contrarie course or if any possibilitie of alteration could haue beene imagined what hope could there have beene therof except it had beene wrought with the edge of the sword bathed in blood as Grostead the hammer of Rome said a little before his death Yet to the endles praise and wonderfull goodnes and wisdome of our God be it remembred the great worke was so singularly brought about and perfected that almost without blood except the blood of a few martyres wherein through the same wisdome and goodnes for commending and ratifying the truth the mouth of the sword of persecutors was dipped the whole bodie and shadow substance and ceremonies roote and branches of Romish Idolatrie were at once cut off Thus by reason of the wonderfull manner of Gods working of my own feeling and yours of the wonders wrought amongst you and of the testimonie of others both friends and foes about us may not ye with one voice say and sing with the Kirk Psal. 126. When the Lord turned againe the captivitie of Sion we were like them that dreamed then was our mouth filled with laughter and our tongue with singing Then sayd they among the heathen the Lord hath done great things for them the Lord hath done great things for us wherof we are glad And would God as your deliverāce was in many things like that of Israel so your infidelitie and unthankfulnes were not like theirs there arose an other
caveats sworne unto by their owne mouthes 4. Whether in the sight of God they thinke the maintainers of the reformed religion or the late formalists more faithfull in their callings and consâ—ientious in their conversation And therefore if it be not Pharisaisme to pronounce of the fidelity of my pastors by their conforming to ceremonies and extreme malice to think that men in all other things studying to approve themselves to God and the King durst be bold to resist in these without conscience for respect to any popular opinion 5 Whether that meeting of Perth be one of my lawfull Assemblies justificable in the sight of my Lord and Saviour and the constitutions thereof concluded for Canons to bee urged upon pain of deprivation whereupon Ministers are removed from their charges and many soules famished for whom he gave his life for not conforming to a platforme blank as yet and scarcely drawen in the Idea of their own imaginations 6 What warrant from Christ my King and me can be pretended for bringing my ministery and me under this new bondage in the persons of intrants forced at their admission to sweare and subscribe 1. That they shall not onely maintaine his Maiesties prerogative in causes ecclesiasticall which what it is or what is the extent thereof they doe not well understand but also the present governement of the Kirk and jurisdiction Episcopall in all places where they shall have opportunity either of privat conference or publick preaching and that they shall bee carefull by reading to informe themselves to the end they may be the more able to withstand all adversaries opposite to the same 2. That they shall bee obedient to their Ordinary and all other superiours in the Kirk speak of them reverently and in all their prayers privat and publick commend to Gods protection their estate not allowed by me 3. That they shal subject theÌ„selves to the present orders pretended to bee the ordinances of the Kirk and to the orders which shall be established by consent of the sayd Kirk meaning assemblies framed and over ruled by Prelates and to procure due reverence to the same at the hands of others by all the means which they caÌ„ use 4. That if they coÌ„travene any of these poynts they shall be content without making any contradiction to bee deprived of their ministery and to be reputed perjured and infamous persons for ever And by these oathes and subscriptions that they would consider what mischiefes may bee wrought in the after ages when they are dead and gone 7 Whether it were more pertinent to deale with their brethren by reason or authority Ye are made shepheards and not strikers This is a new and uncouth sort of preaching which will inforce faith by strokes Pride effectuates one thing and discipline another Favour should be more used then severitie exhortations more then threatnings love more then law But by such forms it is easie to disoern who are they that seeke their owne and who the things of Iesus Christ sayth the Canon law their owne paterne 8 By what conscience reason or law they have deserted their flocks and pastorall charges entred into civil place and pompe breaking the caveats and contrary to their alledged commission for keeping of ministers in quietnesse and peace and vindicating the Kirk from poverty and contempt have they taken upon them the power of both swords against the whole subjects of the kingdome and summarily to confine ward imprison discharge silence suspend deprive autorize and exauctor at my ministers at their pleasure If the Lord should cause a terrible finger to come forth and write these and a thousand other their presumptuous dittaes upon the wall over against them where they use to sit Balthazar-like in their sacrilegious pompe abusing the furniture of his house their brightnes would change their thoughts would trouble them so that the joynts of their loynes would loose and their knees would smite one a-another I have borne them but to my griefe and shame They have given me cause to pronounce the curses of Iob upon the day of their birth For they neither care to bee esteemed bastards themselves nor to brand me with the marke of an harlot They prove Loammi and would have me to prove Apostaticall Had these my forlorne hopes but one sparkle of true love to my spouse or me they would resolve with Nazianzen to undergo Ionas punishment for stilling of this tempest and to preferre my peace to their own preferment What can I doe but mourne intreat protest rebuke expostulate I call therefore heaven and earth their owne soules the testimonies of al who have been acquaint with them and their proceedings to beare witnesse against them Beseeking exhorting them by the salvation of their own souls by the tender mercies of Christ by the precious drops of his blood by that excellent price of their redemption if there be any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the spirit if any love to his glory to his blood to his Gospell and if there be any pitty in their hearts to the breasts which they have sucked to this sinfull land and their owne native kingdome to returne to God to repent them of their course to leave off to allow to defend to urge that yea and persecute for that which of late they were wont to condemne and even now almost could hardly have tollerated Let them forbeare any longer as it is to be feared they have peevishly been doing to fight against God to kick against the pricke to vaunt themselves proudly in the glory of their munition Their craft is knowen can they dance naked in a net and think not to be seen The seams of their black policies are sewed with white threed If they shall persist to stop their eares against all admonitions to harden themselves in rebellion against God still to proceed in their truculent breathings Thrasonicall boasts and tyrannous executions and shall for their backes and bellies and the making up of their houses make havock of the puritie of Gods truth and the liberty of the kingdom of his sonne As the Lord lives that sees them he shal yet harden their hearts more and at last shall tread them in the wine-presse of his wrath and there shal be none to deliver them Now my petitioÌ„ backed with the authority of a mother to your honors is that for the glory of Christs kingdom in this land the adorning of his majesties crowne quietnes of his loyal subjects the endles praise of your selves and flourishing of your honorable estate and the particular comfort of the Ministers and congregations within this realme in this time of distresse felt and feared I may by your timous intercession at his gracious majesties hands and uttermost endevours debtfull to God from your place obtaine how soone occasion may be offered 1 A sufficient and ready execution of former actes of Parliament made against the fearful blasphemy of Gods