little dissatisfied with that way of Proceeding against Him and did how reasonably upon their own Grounds I know not urge the Covenant for His Preservation But of their Behaviour in this Case I shall give only the Account of an Author who lived in those times when they had opportunities enough to have taken what account of Him themselves pleased His Words are these in a Book entituled A short View of the Life and Reign of King Charles the First Monarch of Great Britain pag. 94. The Presbyterians carried on this Tragedy to the very last Act from the first bringing in of the Scots to the beginning of the War and from the beginning of the War till they had brought Him Prisoner to Holmby-House and then quarrelled with the Independents for taking of the Work out of their hands and robbing them of the long expected fruit of their Plots and Practices They cried out against them in their Pulpits and clamoured against them in their Pamphlets for that of which themselves were at least parcel-guilty Et si non re at voto saltem Regicidae c. On the other side the Independents who washed their hands in the blood of the King seemed as desirous as the Presbyterians to wash their hands of it By them it was alleadged more calmly that they had put Charles Stuart to death against whom they proceeded as the Cause of so much bloodshed but that the King had been muthered a long time before by the Presbyterians when they deprived Him of His Crown His Sword His Scepter of His Crown by forcing from Him those Prerogatives which placed Him in a Throne of Eminency above His People of His Sword by wresting the Militia out of His hands by which He was made unable to protect them and of His Scepter in divesting Him of His Power of calling Parliaments and of His Negative Voyce in making those Laws by which He was to govern all Estates of Men under His Dominion And more than so they had deprived Him of His Natural Liberty as a Man of the Society of His Wife as he was a Husband of the Conversation of His Children as He was a Father of the Attendance of His Servants as He was a Master and in a word of all those Comforts which might make Life valued for a Blessing So that there was nothing left for the Independents to do but to put an end to those Calamities into which this miserable man this Vir dolorum as He might very well be called had been so accursedly plunged by the Presbyterians To which I shall only add this farther that notwithstanding all that Loyalty which the Covenanters have so often boasted of from the Obligation of the Covenant yet it is well known that the Covenant was placed by themselves as a bar between him and his Throne that without submitting to this they could not endure to think of His Restauration to that and this to so high a degree that even in Ianuary 1648. Notwithstanding the apparent danger which the King's Life was known to be in yet even then the General Assembly of Scotland did violently oppose all courses thought upon for His Relief and pressed earnestly That His Majestie 's Concessions and Offers concerning Religion may directly and positively be declared unsatisfactory to the Parliament and that there shall be no engagement for restoreing His Majesty to one of His Houses with Honour Freedom and Safety before Security and Assurance be had from His Majesty by His Solemn Oath under Hand and Seal that He shall for Himself and His Successors consent and agree to Acts of Parliament enjoyning the League and Covenant and fully establishing Presbyterian Government Directory of Worship and Confession of Faith in all his Majesties Dominions and that his Majesty shall never make opposition to any of these or endeavour any change thereof Vid. Declar. of Jan. 10. 1648. Now therefore seeing it is so plain a Case that in the Opinion of the Compilers and Enjoyners of the Covenant all the fore-mentioned Violences both might and ought to have been used against the King by vertue and in pursuance of the Covenant It thence follows unavoidably that His Majesty is not a little concerned to be very watchful over all those Persons who are so tender of the honour of the Covenant that they demand it as the Condition of their Admission into the Church that they may by no means be questioned concerning their Opinion about its Obligation ARTICLE 4. We shall with all faithfulness endeavour the discovery of all such as have been or shall be Incendiaries Malignants or evil Instruments by hindering the Reformation of Religion dividing the King from His People or one of the Kingdoms from another or making any Faction or Parties among the People contrary to this League and Covenant that they may be brought to publick trial and receive condign punishment as the degree of their offences shall require or deserve or the Supreme Iudicatories of both Kingdoms respectively or others having power from them for that effect shall judge convenient It is very well known what the meaning of Incendiaries and Malignants is in this Article And it is shrewdly to be suspected That those who are perswaded of the Obligation of this Oath are likewise perswaded that those Incendiaries and Malignants have not as yet been brought to condign punishment and whatever benefit the Covenanters themselves may receive by an Act of Oblivion it is much to be suspected that those who are covenanted against are looked upon as not capable of receiving any advantage by it And there is reason to believe that those who scruple the Validity of that Act of Parliament which declares against the Obligation of the Covenant are by no means to be trusted lest if opportunity should serve they would not likewise scruple the Validity of that Act of Parliament which gave them Indempnity For thus according to their own Grounds they may argue The Act of Oblivion is against the Covenant and then it followeth in the next place that it is against their Consciences It is against the Oath of God lying upon themselves and upon the whole Nation and upon all Posterity and no humane Act or Power can absolve them or any one else from it and every thing done against the Covenant is null and void the whole Nation being bound up by it to all Ages For therefore it was That the Covenant was hung up in the Parliament as a Compass whereby to steer their Debates and to dictate to all who shall succeed in that place and capacity what obligation doth before God lie upon the Body of this Nation as I have before observed Now upon these mens suppositions there is no Security to be had but that they who passed an Act of Oblivion to pardon any thing done against the Covenant are involved in guilt and liable to punishment for so doing and are upon those very accounts to expect when Providence shall put an opportunity into
Hearts no manner of zeal for or against any Form of Religion any farther than as theiâ— other Ends and Designs were carried on by it I shall readily grant it him â—ay I shall say this farther That besides Religion the Civil Rights of the Nation were but plausible Colours by which the Leading Men of that Party did set off their other Ends such as Revenge Humour Discontent Covetousness and Ambition And this they were told publickly by one whom they knew to be able to make it good in the excellent Declaration of Aug. 12. 1642. Themselves know what Overtures have been made by them and with what Importunity for Offices and Preferments what great Services should have been done for us and what other undertakings were even to the saving the Life of the Earl of Strafford if we would confer such Offices upon them But that Religion was the thing which they did make shew of and by which they drew abundance of well meaning but deluded People to their assistanâ—â— is so plain and known so publickly that it is no little wonder that any should offer to outsâ—â—â— the Nation in so noâ—â—â—ious a Case Did not every Press and every Pulpit declare against Episcopacy Liturgy and Cereâ—onies Did not the Lords and Commons by their Votes of March 12. 1642. resolve upon the Question That an Army be forthwith raised for the Safety of the Kings Person c. and PRESERVING THE TRUE RELIGION c. Did they not in Iuly following put forth a Delaration concerning the miserable Distractions and Grievances this Kingdom now lieth in by means of JESUITICAL and wicked Cousellours now about his Majesty wherein they tell us over and over again of the Protestant Religion a great Change of Religion That they should be for ever earnest to prevent â— Civil War and those miserable Effects which it must needs produce if they may be avoided without the Alteration of RELIGION c. And in their Resolutions to live and die with the Earl of Essex they tell us That their Army was raised for the MAINTENANCE of the TRUE PROTESTANT RELIGION The Plaâ—e Wedding-rings Thimbles and Bodkins had never been brought in if it had not been that the Cause was so often called the Cause of God Let any man read the Remonstrances and Declarations of the Two Houses and then see whether Religion was not one of those things which they all along declared their Zeal for and accordingly in all the Parliaments Quarters the poor Surplice the Organs and the Common Prayer-book were the first Objects of all their Fury But because this present Design of Comprehension is particularly intended to gratifie some Clergy-men let us enquire under what name they recommended the War unto the People Was it not under the name of Gods Cause the setting Christ on his Throne fighting the Lords Battels There is a Collection of their Sermons Printed which will not suffer any Man to doubt of this out of which there is enough gathered to this purpose in Evangelium Armatum And This Mr. Baxter hath in a late Book confessed as to himself When the Wars began though the Cause it self lay iâ— Controversies between King and Parliament yet the thoughts that the Church and Godliness it self was deeply in danger by Persecution and Arminiaâ—isâ— did much more to byass me to the Parliaments side than the Civil Interest which at the heart I little regarded This Author likewise confesseth That whatever was the Cause at the first it soon became a War for Religion And Mr. Love a Person mentioned by this Author as one of great Merit in his Sermon at the Vxbridge Treaty complains of the so long letting alone the Two Plague-sores of Episcopacy and Common Prayer-Book The Seventh Proposition is this That the Parliamentarians in the beginning of our Troubles declared to abhorr and detest all Designs of deposing and murthering his Late Sacred Majesty That they did declare against any such thing I readily grant and amongst other Reasons for this laid down by our Author That it had been else impossible for them to have gained the people as they did But that there were among the chief Contrivers of the Wars Those who had a design upon the Kings Crown and Life is a thing where of there is great Evidence If it be lawful to fight with a King why is it not lawful to kill him Swords and Bullets are Things which are by no means to be used against that Person which we think we ought not to destroy And of the great danger which his Majesties Person was in at the Battel at Edge-hill himself hath informed us in a Declaration on that Subject And in the Remonstrance of May 26. 1642. the Lords and Commons did plainly assume to themselves a Right to depose the King in these words If we should make the highest Precedents of former Parliaments our Patterns there would be no cause to complain of want of Modesty and Duty in us when we have not so much as suffered those things to enter into our thoughts which all the World knows they put in act In which words there is thus much plainly contained That whatever former Parliaments have done they take themselves to have a Right to do Now former Parliaments have been over-awed into the deposing of Kings Now that they had their Eyes upon those particular Proceedings of former Parliaments appears by those Words All the World knows what they put in act His Majesty in His Answer to that Declaration of theirs tells us of two Gentlemen who said publickly unreproved in the Parliament House one That the Hâ—ppiness of this Kingdom did not depend upon Him or upon any of the Royal Branches of that Root Another That He was not worthy to be King of England And as for the Royal Power it was plainly demanded from him in the Nineteen Propositions The Eighth Consideration is this That the Non-conforming Presbyteriâ—â—â— had both their hearts and hands in the Restauration of His Majesty to His Royal Throne for which Mr. Love and Mr. Gibbons lost their Heads Of all things I should least have eâ—pected that the Advocates for the Presbyterians should have insisted upon their Merits to His Majesty or the Royal Family for which their best Apology is the Act of Oblivion and if they would have insisted yet however methinks they should of all men not have made Mr. Love the Person to have insisted on As for that Party of the Scots which he corresponded with it is no Part of their Wisdom to remind His Majesty of the Usage which he found from them As to Mr. Love the Learned Author of Saâ—aritanism hath informed us p. 152. That at the Execution of Archbishop Laâ—d he uttered these Words with great Triumph Art thou come Little Will I am glad to see thee here and hope to see the nest of the Bishops here e're long and having dipped his Handkerchief in his blood he rode with it to Vxbridge and used these Words Here is the
Obligation of the Covenant in the first and second year immediately after the Restoration of his Majesty both from Press and Pulpit Parties were made in the City and endeavoured to be made in Parliament for the owning of that Obligation It was with great confidence urged that it was A Publick and National Oath binding all Persons of this Nation whether they did swear it personally or not and all Posterity after us in their particular places and all that shall succeed into the Publick Places and Politick Capacities of this Kingdom to pursue the things covenanted for And this Obligation is for ever to remain and abide and by no Humane Act or Power to be absolved or made void as amongst others Mr. Crofton hath endeavoured to prove at large in his famous Writings on that Subject And to speak the truth if we once admit the Grounds which this Party of Men do go upon what he doth alledge hath great reason in it it being very evident that those Clauses which he doth produce out of the Covenant do suppose all Posterity to be involved in them And this he urgeth not as his own single Opinion but as the Sence of his whole Party and besides the Evidence of the thing he alledgeth The Testimony to the Truth of Jesus Christ and the Covenant by the London Ministers Dec. 14. 1647. several of which are at this present Preachers to the separated Congregations In which it is plainly declared That it is not in the Power of any person or persons upon Earth to dispence with or absolve us from it Nay the Power of Parliaments which in other cases is allowed to be large enough is in this bound up as Mr. Cr. tells us p. 139. That the Parliament consisting of Lords and Commons and that in their Publick Capacity as a Parliament the House of Commons assembled in their House and in formality of the Body of the Nation with their Speaker before them went unto St. Margarets Church in Westminster with the greatest Solemnity imaginable did as the Representative Body of the Kingdom swear this Covenant which as a farther Testimony that it was a National Covenant they caused to be printed with their Names subscribed and to be hanged up in all Churches and in their own House as a Compass whereby in conformity to right Reason and Religion to steer their then Debates and to dictate TO ALL THAT SHOVLD SVCCEED IN THAT PLACE AND CAPACITY what obligation did before God ly upon the Body of this Nation Those who plead for the removal of the Renunciation of the Covenant either they do believe that the Covenant doth oblige at this time or that it doth not oblige if they do believe that it doth not oblige why may they not declare that they do believe it not to do so One Reason may indeed be given why the Preachers themselves may believe the Covenant not to oblige and yet that they should by all means avoid the declaring that they do thus believe and that is this that they would have the People believe it to have an Obligation although themselves believe it to have none A Perswasion this which in some juncture of Affairs or other they may chance to make very great use of and that this may not be altogether incredible their Procedure hath not been one jot honester than this amounts to in another part of the Controversie between us It is well known that there are among them and not among the meanest of them who have believed the Liturgy and Ceremonies to be very Innocent and yet could be never brought to say one word to the People of this their belief But on the other side now if they are really perswaded that the Covenant doth carry a lasting Obligation along with it In that Case I shall not during that Perswasion of theirs desire them to renounce it but withall I must crave their leave to add this further that during that Perswasion of theirs I think it but reasonable that the Government should cast a very watchful eye over them And of this I shall give an account from the Covenant it self wherein there are so many things and of such fatal and universal consequence covenanted for that the whole Nation is highly concerned that no considerable Part of it should look upon themselves and every Body else as lying under the Obligation of the Oath of God to watch all opportunities wherein they may accomplish such great and publick mischiefs as will appear by a particular Consideration of the Thing it self ARTICLE 1. That we shall sincerely really and constantly through the Grace of God endeavour in our several Places and Callings the preservation of the Reformed Religion in the Church of Scotland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government against our Common Enemies The Reformation of Religion in the Kingdoms of England and Ireland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government according to the Word of God and the Example of the best Reformed Churches And shall endeavour to bring the Churches of God in the three Kingdoms to the nearest Conjunction and Vniformity in Religion in Confession of Faith Form of Church-Government Directory for Worship and Catechizing That we and our Posterity after us may as Brethren live in Faith and Love and that the Lord may delight to dwell in the midst of us In which Article it is easie to observe many things lyable to very just and material Exceptions as first By what Authority can any private man in England if he keeps himself within his own Place and Calling intermeddle either in the Preservation or Alteration of the Religion and Government of the Church and Kingdom of Scotland Nay by what Authority can any Person in this Kingdom whatever be he in what Publick Capacity he will His Majesty only excepted or those who act by Commission from Him have any thing to do with the Concerns in that Kingdom And secondly this first Part of the Article may upon very good Grounds be supposed to be inconsistent with the remaining Parts of it For we are sworn to preserve the Doctrine Discipline c. of Scotland and withall to bring the three Kingdoms to the nearest Uniformity in Religion Confession of Faith form of Church-Government Directory for Worship and Catechizing So that Scotland must necessarily be our Pattern and yet in the same breath we are sworn to reform England and Ireland according to the Word of God and the Example of the best Reformed Churches And it is more than possible that our own Church as it is already by Law established or at least some other Church beyond the Seas may come altogether as near the Word of God as that of Scotland And what is to be done in that Case And in the third place all the other Dissenters whatever besides the Presbyterians are highly concerned to see that the Covenant is not looked upon as a thing of any obligation because that that is express for Uniformity and as such is
their private Affairs and of joyning Counsels against the Publick And do they not breed up their Children and Relations in the very same Principles with themselves Now the greater Numbers there are of such People so much the greater care there ought to be taken that they be not permitted to meet together The Meeting-place is very well fitted for a Religious Rendevouz and the Spiritual Master of the Camp may not only deliver out his Orders at the same time with but may stamp upon them the Authority of the Oracles of God But in the next Place if the Government would please but to own it self the Numbers of these men would presently appear to be very inconsiderable and this hath no oftner been tryed than it hath been found to have been accompanied with good effect In Queen Elizabeths Dayes these mens Predecessours were very troublesome made grat noise with their great Numbers and the great dangers which would arise by disobliging them and they had some great Favourers in Court upon some accounts which were not very Religious but when by reason of their Insolent Provocation in the Year 1588. When the Queen was in all her Fears from the Spanish Armado and in a condition as they thought to deny them Nothing they so far provoked Her as to alienate Her Mind for ever from them Their boasted of Numbers did immediately abate and the Laws were immediately submitted to as soon as ever they did perceive that it was but in vain to think of longer triffling with them So likewise it hapned in King Iames His Dayes their loud Clamours were presently silenced as soon as ever the King declared Himself resolute at the Conference at Hampton-Court Nor would the Act of Uniformity have had any less effect if it had not been accompanied with a general Discourse at the same time of a Toleration to follow immediately upon it And I appeal to the Consciences of several of the Preachers in the Separated Congregations whether they did not leave their Livings upon this very hope which without it they would have never done Besides the Numbers of the Dissenters ought by no means to be looked upon as an Argument for Toleration by any because it is not looked upon as such by themselves This very Point being a thing about which themselves are highly divided and would by no means if they could help it grant to one another But besides their Numbers they are now to be considered in point of Merit but this is a part of the Argument in which I do delight so very little as that I must gratifie my own temper so far as to say very little in it The Faults of other men are things which I by no means delight to dwell upon even when it is necessary I take it to be very irksome As they are particular Persons I have nothing to say to any one of them and whatever Degrees any of them have attained to in Piety and Virtue in any kind of Intellectual Moral and Religious Accomplishments I pray God that they may every day increase more and more in them and that both here and hereafter they may receive the comfort and reward of whatever is truly good in them But as they are a Party I take it to be very clear that their Merit hath not been very great either to the Crown or Nation and in this it were easie to be very large for one who delights in that which to me is a very ungrateful Employment In the Histories of Queen Elizabeth King Iames King Charles the First there is too much to be found on this Argument and His Majesty which now is when He was in the Hands of these men what Usage He did receive from them though His Royal Clemency hath been graciously pleased to pardon yet His Loyal Subjects have not quite forgot it As to the next Pretence that it is adviseable to grant these men an Indulgence at this time by reason of the great assistance which they are able to afford us against Popery This is such an Objection which the Regular Sons of the Church will scarce be able to refrain themselves from looking upon without some Indignation The Writings of the Bishops and Episcopal Divines have hitherto been had in great Esteem over all the Reformation no men thought to have had a better Cause to defend no men looked upon as better able to defend it Not to mention the many Worthies in Queen Elizabeth and King Iames His Dayes whose Names are both at home and abroad had in great and deserved Honour I shall only mention some few who since the beginning of the present Controversie have wrote against the Puritans as well as Papists and accordingly have fell under the Indignation of both Parties viz. Arch-Bishop Laud Arch-Bishop Bramhal Bishop Taylor Doctor Hammond and Mr. Chillingworth How many Ages will the Nonconformists take to breed up a man equal to any one of these Bishop Sanderson a Person of known Learning and Judgment in a Preface to a Body of Sermons Printed some Years before His Majesties Return takes occasion to declare his Opinion concerning the Controversie between the Church of England and Church of Rome as it useth to be handled by the Non-Conformists his Words are these That they preach against Popery I not at all mislike only I could wish that these two Cautions were better observed served than as far as I can conjecture of the Rest by the proportion of what hath come to my Knowledge I fear they usually are by the more zealous of that Party First that they do not through Ignorance Prejudice or Precipitancy call that Popery which is not and then under that name and notion preach against it and then Secondly that they would do it with less noyse and more weight c. Now it is well known that Bishop Sanderson was a Person of great Learning and Judgment and withall a Person of very great Humility and Modesty and who did very little delight in undervaluing the meanest Person living and yet he expresseth his Thoughts concerning the Writings of the Non-Conformists against the Church of Rome to be liable to these two not inconsiderable Defects First that they did not understand the Question Secondly that they did not know how to pitch upon such Arguments as were fit to be made use of And withall some Pages afterwards he adds this That even in these times of great Distraction and Consequently thereunto of so great advantage for the Factors for Rome none have stept into the Gap more readily nor appeared in the face of the Enemy more openly nor maintained the Fight with more stoutness and gallantry than the Episcopal Divines have done as their late Learned Writings testifie yea and some of them such as beside their other sufferings have layen as deep under the suspicion of being Popishly affected aâ— any other of their Brethren whatsoever That by the Endeavours of these Episcopal Divines some that were bred Papists have