their strength and equity from it By that Law Fornication in the Priests Daughter was Capital and so was the gathering of sticks upon the Sabbath-day and this seems to be a lesser breach of the Sabbath than the mispending of a great part of the Lords day in drawing up Men and Horse and learning them how to handle their Arms as if the Lords day had been a day of Rendevouz or Weapon-shewing The restoring of four or five-fold would not sufficiently restrain Theft in this Nation The Judicial Law was not given to other Nations See Confes of Faith Chap. 19. Art 4. To them also as a Body Politick he gave sundry Judicial Laws which expired together with the Estate of that People nor obliging any other now further than the general equity thereof may require Our Saviour and the Apostles never offered to impose the Judicial Law upon the Gentiles The Apostle Paul submitted to be Judged by the Roman Law at Caesar's Judgment-Seat and exhorts Christians of all Nations to submit themselves to the Government and wholesom Laws of the Nations in which they lived There have been Hereticks who were for restoring of the Judicial and Ceremonial Law and some wild Persons in the Netherlands have of late written for this Error and there is the more need to take heed of restoring the Judicial Law because of its connexion with the Ceremonial Law This is a strange Age some are seeking to draw the World by Pelagianism and Quakerism to old Paganism and some seeking to draw men under the shadow and vail of Judaism They are not very much concerned though they be called Fifth-Monarchy-men But this contrivance of theirs is so strange that it is hard to find a name for it it 's rather an Anarchy and Confusion than a Government And it 's hoped that it will never have any such proportion to the four Monarchies as to get the name of a Fifth-Monarchy And it is fit that such a Monstrous thing die ere it get a Name I know nothing so like to it as the Insurrection of the Boors in Germany who believed Thomas Munster and Nicholas Stork that God was setting up a new Kingdom in which the Saints should Reign and that the present wicked Magistrates were to be killed and Godly Magistrates set up in their stead These Teachers pretended Revelations and Christian Liberty The poor People believed these delusions and rejected the wholesom Instructions of Luther and Melancthon and in their Fury which they imagined to be true Zeal they would needs fight but when it came to fighting they could neither fight nor flee and in one Summer fifty thousand of them were killed Munster at his Death confessed his Error and exhorted the Princes to use more clemency towards poor Men and so they needed not fear any such hazard and withal exhorted them to read diligently the Book of the Kings If they who contrived this Bond of Confusion had considered the Confession of Faith and the Questions in the larger Catechism which explain the fifth Commandment and the Scriptures confirming the Articles of the 23d Chapter of the Confession and the Answers of the fore-said Questions it might have prevented this furious and mad design Confes Chap. 23. Art 1. God the Supream Lord and King of all the World hath ordained Civil Magistrates c. Rom. 13.1 2 3. Let every Soul be subject to the Higher Powers for there is no Power but of God the Powers that be are ordained of God Whosoever therefore resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation c. 1 Pet. 2.13 14. Submit your selves to every Ordinance of Man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as Supream c. And Art 4. It 's the Duty of People to pray for Magistrates to Honour their Persons to pay them Tribute and other dues to Obey their Lawful Commands and to be Subject to their Authority for Conscience sake Infidelity or difference of Religion doth not make void the Magistrates Just and Legal Authority nor free the People from their due Obedience to him from which Ecclesiastical Persons are not exempted much less hath the Pope any Power or Jurisdiction over them in their Dominions or over any of their People and least of all to deprive them of their Dominions or Lives if he shall judge them to be Hereticks or upon any other pretence whatsoever 1 Tim. 2.1 2. I exhort therefore that first of all Supplications Prayers Intercessions and giving of Thanks be made for all Men for Kings and for all that are in Authority that we may lead a quiet and peaceable Life in all Godliness and Honesty 1 Pet. 2.17 Rom. 13.6 7. For this cause pay you Tribute also c. Titus 3.1 Put them in mind to be Subject to Principalities and Powers to Obey Magistrates 1 Pet. 2.13 14. 16. As free and not using your Liberty as a Cloak of maliciousness but as the Servants of God 1 Kings 2.35 Acts 25.9 10. Then said Paul I stand at Caesar's Judgment-seat where I ought to be judged I Appeal unto Caesar 2 Pet. 2.1.10 11. But there were false Prophets also among the People even as there shall be false Teachers among you But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the dust of Uncleanness and despise Government presumptuous are they self-willed they are not afraid to speak evil of Dignities whereas Angels who are greater in Power and might bring no railing accusation against them before God Jude 8 9 10 11. Likewise also these filthy Dreamers defile the Flesh despise Dominion and speak evil of Dignities Yet Michael the Arch-Angel when contending with the Devil about the Body of Moses durst not bring against him a railing accusation but said the Lord rebuke thee But these speak evil of these things which they know not but what they know naturally as brute Beasts in these things they corrupt themselves Woe unto them for they have gone in the way of Cain and run greedily after the Error of Balaam and perished in the gain-saying of Coâ—e 2 Thes 2.4 Rev. 13.15 16 17. In the larger Catechism Quest Who are meant by Father and Mother in the fifth Commandment Answ By Father and Mother in the fifth Commandment are meant not only Natural Parents but all Superiours in Age and Gifts and especially such as by Gods Ordinance are over us in place of Authority whether in Family Church or Common-wealth and they cite Isa 49.23 And Kings shall be thy Nursing-Fathers and Queens thy Nursing-Mothers Quest Why are Superiours stiled Father and Mother Answ Superiours are stiled Father and Mother both to teach them in all Duties towards their Inferiours like Natural Parents to express love and tenderness to them according to their several Relations and to work Inferiours to a greater willingness and chearfulness in performing their Duties towards their Superiours Quest What is the Honour that Inferiours owe to Superiours Answ The
would not be eligible though we are obliged to nothing jussu ejus or upon the intuition of his Command yet we may do many things eo jubente he commanding and should do eo premente he inforcing them and we have many things to do ipso seu volente seu nolente whether he will or forbid the doing of them c. By which passages it appears That those godly learned Presbyterians in those Treatises which they wrote of purpose to maintain the Kings Authority when he was thrust from it and to shew that the Subject might do nothing which might prejudge his right or which might be interpreted to be an owning of the title of the then Usurpers who had forced the King out of his Dominions yet they shew that Taxes might be paid to the Usurpers and that they who payed it were not accountable for the abuse that the Usurpers made of it which lets us see how far they would have been from refusig to pay Tribute to the rightful Magistrate though imposed for some wrong end And I cannot but here take notice how constantly and courageously Presbyterians owned the Kings Authority when he was thrust from the exercise of it and how careful they were that Subjects might do nothing which might be prejudicial to his Title when he was violently disposessed of his Kingdoms I shall not speak of the Testimonies they gave in preaching and in print against the Usurpers upon the account of their usurpation and for asserting of the Kings Title I wish their Loyalty had been better remembred but any suffering they have met with since will not make them repent of their constant adherence from a principle of Conscience to their Allegiance and covenanted Duty to their rightful Sovereign If any will but look to the frontispiece of Mr. Gee's Book where there is an empty Chair of State and the Scepter and Crown lying upon the ground and below the King standing and above his head non est potestas nisi a Deo Rom. 13. and under his feet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and opposite to him upon the other side an Armed-Soldier with his hand in the handle of his Sword meaning the Parliament and under his feet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and below Absolom hanging upon a tree and Joab darting him 2 Sam. 18. and the Woman of Abel casting Sheba's head over the wall 2 Sam. 20. They may see Presbyterians Loyalty and courage in a time of hazard when others who afterward would have engrossed all Loyalty to themselves were very calm and some of them speaking in another Dialect Mr. Rutherford used to keep Family-fasts to pray for the King in his distress There is no Loyalty comparable to that which is founded upon the word and Covenant and the Principle of Conscience bound by the Word and Oath of God The late King advised those who were desirous to befriend him in his straits to preach the Obligation of the Covenant which binds to maintain his Person and Authority The new Principles of Confusion which are opposite to the Magistrates Authority and to the paying of Tribute to Rulers are directly opposite to and inconsistent with the Principles and Practices of Presbyterians and seem to have been devised by Jesuits and then craftily conveyed into the heads of weak people distmepered with sad suffering or having Zeal without Knowledge that they might at once render those people ridiculous and expose their possessions as a prey and their lives to the Sword and their profession of Religion to contempt and scorn as if it made men frantick and deprived them of the use of common Reason and sense I heard from a godly and learned Minister That he heard a great Zealot against the paying of the Sess say That whatever was unlawful for a man to do voluntarily was unlawful for him to do upon Legal or Physical constraint and another said If men on constraint might pay Sess which they should not voluntarily do without Legal and Physical constraint feared to follow then the three Children might have worshipped Nebuchadnezars Image because they were under constraint And when it was answered that there were some actions in the substance of the fact sinful that no constraint could make lawful such as Idolatry and some which outward Circumstances made lawful or unlawful that distinction was denied such is the ignorance of some of those Teachers Another made the paying of the Sess like the offering of Children to Moloch It 's a great pity that well-meaning people who from a Principle of Conscience are willing rather to suffer than to sin should be misguided by ignorant men and drawn into needless calamities to the ruin of their Families and the reproach of Religion They add That these Ministers advised the Prisoners to take the Bond c. Ans Those Prisoners being taken at Bothwel-bridge were pressed to bind themselves not to take up Arms against the Kings Person and Authority under the Certification of no less punishment than Death Now as we heard from the larger Catechism It 's the duty of inferiors to defend and maintain the Persons and Authority of their Superiors which imports much more than the not taking up Arms against them and their Authority 2. Though they had not been Subjects but only Prisoners of war in the victors power to deprive them of life or liberty for ever I suppose they could not have been blamed for the preservation of their life to have given in such a Bond some who were taken Prisoners by Cromwel for their liberty engaged not to carry Arms against him and I do not remember that any censured them for it what they say in a Parenthesis that hazard will not make a moral change in actions is a palpable error if there were twenty with drawn-swords waiting at the Church-door to kill a Minister if he should come to preach it were rash furious self-destroying self-murdering Zeal for a Minister to venture to go to preach at that time in despite of the hazard so certain visible and unavoidable and yet it were his duty at another time to preach where there were no such hazard for a Merchant to cast his Wares in the Sea in a calm were wicked folly contrary to the 8th Command a stealing from his Family and himself and yet in a storm Paul and the Passengers and Mariners thought it their duty to cast out both Goods and Tackling of the Ship This Subscription would have no ways condemned innocent self-defence against the unjust violence of Papists which the Reformed Churches made use of when they did cast off the yoke of the Whore David and his men had Arms but they were not taken up against Sauls Person and Authority as appears by Davids practice who would neither himself kill nor suffer his men to kill Saul and that upon the account of his Authority being the Lords Anointed and though Saul in his distemper calls David his enemy yet in his lucide intervals he calls him his Son
20. Servants be Subject to your Masters with all fear not only to the good but to the froward or perverse as it 's also rendered This Scripture is cited in the larger Catechism in explication of the fifth Commandment to shew what is the Honour that Inferiours owe to Superiours If the miscarriages of Magistrates Masters Parents or the miscarriages of Inferiours did dissolve the Relation and make it void And if the miscarriages of Married Persons did nullifie the Marriage-relation and loose the Party wronged from all Obligation towards the Party that 's injurious this would quickly dissolve the Bonds of all Humane Society and make Men like a multitude of loose Cartel If Subjects were not bound to give due Obedience to Magistrates except they did preserve the true Religion then all the Directions that Christ and his Apostles gave to Honour and be Subject to and pay Tribute to and pray for the Magistrates and Powers that then were did not oblige the People to whom they were first directed for all the Magistrates then were Infidels and Idolaters In the Confession of Faith Chap. 23. Art 4. It 's the Duty of People to pray for Magistrates to Honour their Persons to pay them Tribute and other dues to obey their Lawful Commands and to be Subject to their Authority for Conscience sake Infidelity or difference of Religion doth not make void the Magistrates just and Legal Authority nor free the People from their due obedience to him And the General Assembly Anno 1639. in their Supplication to the Commissioner and Council say We have Solemnly sworn and do swear not only our mutual Concurrence and Assistance for the cause of Religion and to the utmost of our Power with our Means and Lives to stand to the Defence of our dread Sovereign his Person and Authority in the Preservation of true Religion Liberties and Laws of this Kirk and Kingdom but also in every Cause which may concern His Majesties Honour shall concur with our Friends and followers as we shall be required Preach Subjects are not obliged to concur with and assist Rulers in doing ill Min. That 's true for to concur with them in assisting them to do evil were to partake of their sin But though we may not partake of their evil yet that will not follow that we must not maintain their Person and Authority Although the Israelites would not assist and concur with Saul in destroying Jonathan but rescued him yet they thought themselves bound to defend Saul's Person and Authority It 's one thing not to concur with Superiours in evil and another thing to destroy their Persons and their Power because they do evil But ye cannot deny but the Covenant obliges to defend and maintain the King in so far as he maintains the true Religion and Righteousness and I think ye will not deny that the King doth in part maintain the true Religion and Righteousness and therefore ye are bound to defend his Person and Authority and how can ye defend his Person and Authority in doing any good if ye destroy his Person and Power as is designed and sworn in this Band. There are many other Absurdities in that fourth Article of the Band which were tedious to repeat and refute In the fifth Article they say We then being made free by God and their own doings he giving the Law and they giving the transgression of that Law which is the cause that we are loosed from all Obligations Divine and Civil to them It 's strange that men who cry out against these who break other Articles of the Covenant should so boldly shake off the Obligation of the third Article of the Covenant and so increase the sin of the Nation by adding the breach of the Civil part of the Covenant to the breach of the Religious part of it To make out what they assert it 's not enough to prove that the Rulers have transgressed the Law of God for they must also shew from the Law that it is the will of God that Subjects should upon such and such transgressions shake off all Obligations towards such Rulers But this they have never attempted because they could not I would enquire at them doth every transgression loose these Obligations If not then how many and how great must these transgressions be And then shall a few private Persons who have very little Interest in the Nation determine this Question How many and how great transgressions makes Rulers no Rulers and Subjects no Subjects Then they promise to set up Government and Governours according to the Word of God especially Exod. 18.21 Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the People able Men such as fear God Men of Truth hating Covetousness c. I wish they had pondered Prov. 24.21 22. My Son fear thou the Lord and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change For their Calamity shall rise suddenly and who knoweth the ruine of them both The Dutch Interpreters expound it of these who are addicted to changes and novelties departing from the Obedience which they owe to God and their Lawful Magistrates and rising up in Rebellion against them Moses was King in Jesurun and his setting up subordinate Rulers is no pattern for their shaking off the Yoke of Subjection and setting up Usurpers and an unlawful Government The 16 of Numbers where Subjects do Seditiously exalt themselves against Moses and Aaron quadrats better with their case than the 18 of Exodus where Moses makes subordinate Rulers for his own and the Peoples ease And how could they in Reason expect that able men wise and prudent men fit for Government or men fearing God or men of Truth would undertake to be Governours over them For wise men would see the sin and snare and hazard in breaking down the hedge of Civil or Ecclesiastical Government Eccles 10.8 Men fearing God they also fear the King and fear an Oath and men of Truth will not deal falsely in the matter of their Covenant with God or Man And who but foolish rash Persons would take upon them to Rule such an unruly and disorderly People who had destroyed all Order Civil and Ecclesiastical It 's strange that they durst speak as they do of Kingly Government and Lineal Succession seeing the Lord established both among his People in the House of David the man after his own heart Kingly Government as established in these Nations in which King and Parliament make Laws is a form of Government so excellent that few except Persons byassed with prejudice will find fault with it The faults of Rulers should not be imputed to the form of Government They engage to set up the Judicial Law but they apprehend it would not reach far enough and they reject some parts of it but beside these things which they mention there are several other things which would not suit with us Some even of their Capital Laws have intimate connexion with their Ceremonial Law and derive much of
6. Some things become necessary or the more necessary to be done because of those who urge the forbearance of them out of some erroneous principle or for establishing of some error And thus Mr. Rutherford sheweth in the forecited Treatise That to forbear the cating of Swines-flesh before a Jew who alledges that it is a sin or breach of the Commandment of God to do so to forbear it now when we are fully possessed in that liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free were to harden the Jew in his Judaism and the way to bring us again under the yoke of the Ceremonial Law Now 1. seeing God hath ordained Magistracy for protection of his servants and people and for protecting them in the exercise of his worship it was expedient and necessary to accept of this Protection when offered and not to refuse it for the acceptance of the effect and product of the exercise of that Authority which is Gods Ordinance was an acknowledgment and owning the Ordinance of God a honouring of those to whom by Divine appointment honour is due And this was a contributing to render the Ordinance of God effectual for that end for which he had instituted and ordained it and upon the contrary the refusing of this relaxation and of the protection of lawful Authority would have been a slighting and despising of the Ordinance of God and a doing of that which tended to render the Ordinance of God ineffectual for that end and use for which God ordained it Now the relaxation of this restraint which had been long upon the publick exercise of their Ministry and the protection of lawful Authority which Mr. H. accepted of was the very exercise of that Authority which is the Ordinance of God 2. Seeing the Magistrate in loosing that restraint which hindred the peaceable exercise of the Ministry did his duty he did somewhat of that which he was obliged to do it was necessary that the Ministers whom they were willing to loose from the restraint formerly laid on and whom they were willing to protect in the exexcise of their Ministry should in their place and station further and promove the Magistrate in any good which he was willing to do as when a Minister is willing to do his duty in preaching and Catechising the people should be willing to hear and be Catechised so when a Magistrate is willing to permit or allow Ministers to preach in his Dominions and to protect them in the exercise of their Ministry it 's the duty of Ministers who have the access to the peaceable exercise of their Ministry under the protection of lawful Authority to accept of the peaceable exercise of their Ministry and to refuse this offer were the way to mar and stifle the good which the Magistrate was willing to do Now when the Magistrate is willing to do any thing which is right and his duty it 's a sin to mar impede and stifle any good that he is willing to do 3. Seeing peace and the protection of lawful Authority and the peaceable exercise of the Ministry under the protection of lawful Authority are great blessings of God and God promises and gives them to his people as great benefits and his people are obliged to pray for them Isa 48.18 Isa 60.15 16 17 18. Isa 11.6 7 8 9. 1 Tim. 2.1 2. Therefore it 's necessary to accept these mercies and benefits when the Lord in his Providence offers and gives them and to refuse them when they are offered were to slight the mercies of God and to refuse what we are bound to seek and to be thankful for when we get it 4. Seeing the fixed setled and peaceable exercise of the Ministry is so necessary as appears from the Lords taking care that Ministers might be setled in Cities and Churches and from the many conveniencies of a setled Ministry which are wanting in an unfixed Ministry for they who may not stay among a people cannot so know their state and case and so cannot apply their Doctrine sutable to their case and cannot make full proof of their Ministry among them in laying the foundation in all the principles of the doctrine of God and then leading the people forward unto greater perfection in knowledge in declaring the whole Counsel of God and they have not access to Catechise and visit c. as those who have the setled and fixed exercise of their Ministry have and then peace and quietness in preaching and hearing the Gospel hath many conveniences people not only know whither they shall go to hear but they may come seasonably without hazard by the way and without fear of disturbance when they are come so that they may more compose themselves for hearing than they can who are in a continual apprehension of a hostile Invasion and often alarmed with hearing or seeing some noise or appearance of armed soldiers These fears and confusions are great Impediments of the sanctification of the Sabbath Now the setled and peaceable exercise of the Ministry which is so many ways expedient and necessary cannot be had but by the Magistrate and therefore to have refused to make any use of the Indulgence had been to refuse the setled and peaceable exercise of the Ministry 5. This acceptance was useful for preventing many evils of sin and calamity The indulged Ministers could not see how they could without sin refuse to make any use of the Indulgence and they conceived their refusal to take the benefit of the peaceable exercise of their Ministry would have given occasion of offence and provocation to the Magistrate and to the destitute Congregations who desired their help the desire of a people who are wandring as sheep without a Shepherd had a cry that they could not see how they could slight without sin The acceptance prevented the filling of the Kirk with a Conformist whom the people would not have heard and freed those Parishes of the quarterings plunderings imprisonments which they were formerly obnoxious unto it prevented their uncertain wandrings on the Sabbath their disquieting and confounding fears their running and fleeing on the Sabbath which is such a calamity that our Saviour directs the Jews to pray that their flight might not be in the winter neither on the Sabbath-day Matth. 24. and prevented rendevousing and fighting and mingling blood with Sacrifices on the Lords day The many disorders and confusions and sad sufferings the imprisonments and finings and banishments and the great effusion of the blood of the people of God which have followed upon the hostile clashings betwixt Magistrates and people may teach us how necessary the peaceable exercise of the Ministry under lawful Authority is and how necessary it is to take and seek and follow after peace with all men especially with the Magistrate The Indulged Ministers cannot nor could not see how a refusing to have any making or medling with the Magistrate which these Authors urge could consist with the respect due to Authority or with
show that those of the outed Ministers to whom the Magistrate had granted the peaceable publick exercise of their Office in some Parishes in their returning to those Parishes where they were formerly ordained Ministers or not having access to the peaceable exercise of their Ministry in their own Parishes upon the â—nvitation of destitute Congregations with the consent of Presbyterian Ministers concerned going to exercise their Office in those destitute Congregations till they might have access to return â—o their own Parishes That these Ministers in so doing did sin Of what Law of God is this practice of theirs a Transgression Is it a sin for Ministers whom God hath called to the work of the Ministry to exercise their Office in the Parishes where they were ordained Ministers or to help destitute Congregations who desire them to come and help them Is it a sin because the Magistrate permits them to preach The Author himself dare not say this as appears from his first Answer to the first Objection A Minister â—ins not in preaching the Gospel though an Uâ—urper a Robber permit him to preach and much â—ess doth the Permission of the lawful Magistrate render his preaching sinful Object The Magistrate appoints them to preach and to preach in such or such a parish and therefore it 's sinful Ans 1. If it were a sin in the Magistrate to appoint a Minister to preach in such or such a place and a sin for the Minister to preach because the Magistrate appointed him to preach in such a place then the Ministers who wrote the first Book of Discipline and the Church of Scotland who approved it did sin in desiring the Magistrate to appoint Ministers to preach in such and such Parishes We did shew from the first Book of Discipline That they desired the Magistrate to do this and more too even to compel them to preach 2. This Author grants in his Answer to the third Objection That the Magistrate may place Ministers when the Church is corrupt and all things are out of order the vanity of his evasion by which he seeks to elude that Argument taken from the 10th Chapter of the second Book of Discipline is before discovered 3. Suppose it were unlawful for the Magistrate to appoint a Minister to exercise the Office of the Ministry in a particular Parish yet it would not be sinful for that Minister to preach in that Parish if the Parish were vacant and earnestly desired him to exercise his Ministry among them and if his preaching there were not injurious to any if the Magistrates appointing a Minister to preach c. in a Parish render the Ministers preaching in that Parish sinful then the Magistrate by such appointments might make the exercise of the Ministry in any Parish or in all Parishes in his Dominions sinful which is a most absurd Conceit Or is it sinful to accept of the peaceable exercise of their Ministry in such or such Parishes because the Magistrate gives them Injunctions and Rules to regulate them in the exercise of their Ministry But 1. These Injunctions were the Magistrates Acts and not the Ministers 2. The Ministers accepted not of these Injunctions but declared they could receive no such Ecclesiastick Rules from the Magistrate and that they had full Prescriptions from Christ which they behoved to observe as they would be answerable to him of whom they had received their Ministry 3. The Act of Instructions as it was distinct from the Act of Indulgence in which the publick peaceable exercise of their Ministry was granted and came not to the Ministers hands for a considerable time after they had received the Act of Indulgence so there was a great difference in the nature of the Acts and the Indulged Ministers did right in making use of what was good and refusing what was evil 4. If the Magistrates sending Injunctions to Ministers renders the exercise of their Ministry sinful then the Magistrate may render the exercise of the Ministry in any place in every place of his Dominions sinful by sending Instructions to all the Ministers in his Dominions which is another absurd Conceit which if it were received would make it easie for an ill-disposed Magistrate to mar all preaching by writing and sending Acts of Instructions to all the Ministers in his Dominions Object The Act of Indulgence flowed from a sinful Supremacy and therefore it was sinful to make any use of it Ans To say nothing of the making use of a Pass given by a Captain of Robbers or of a Covenant of peaceable commerce made with an Usurper who hath no just title which Casuists do not condemn I answer That that Act which indeed was the Act of Indulgence and which the Indulged Ministers made use of viz. The Relaxation of the Civil Restraint which hindred the peaceable exercise of their Ministry or the granting of the publick peaceable exercise of Ministry was no Act of any sinful Supremacy but the exercise of that power which the Magistrate hath from God for doing good As from the right stating of the question it evidently appears That this accepting of the publick peaceable exercise of the Ministry was not sinful so it evidently appears That it was lawful and commendable and a duty to which they were obliged as the work of the Ministry is a good work so the peaceable setled exercise of it under the protection of lawful Authority is a great mercy that hath many blessings and advantages in it it 's a promised blessing it 's a blessing for which the people of God should pray and because the peaceable setled exercise of the Ministry cannot be where Magistrates are without their allowance or permission therefore it 's duty to pray That the Lord would incline the heart of Rulers to grant the peaceable publick exercise of Religion in their Dominions and when the Lord inclines the hearts of Rulers to this we should not slight such a promised Mercy nor refuse the return of our Prayers but thankfully receive this blessing of God conveyed by the hand of the Magistrate and make use of this Talent to the Glory of God and edification of his Church I remember I have spoken before of the advantages of the peaceable setled exercise of the Ministry and of the necessity of accepting of it especially in answering the last head of the Authors Arguments and shall say no more of the state of the question but this That they who but understand the terms of the question will see that all the Arguments which the Author brings to prove the accepting of the Indulgence sinful do evanish as smoke and lose all colour when they compere before the light of naked Truth And they will see that what these Ministers did in exercising their Ministry in these desolate Congregations when the Lord in his good Providence had given them peaceable access thereto was so evidently a religious work a labour of love a work of mercy a seasonable expedient necessary work
this it appears that the People are none of the best Guides in the matter of hearing seeing they have been so far from breaking the Ice in the right Foord that they have broken it above Whirlpools and have plunged themselves so palpably that the Historian himself could not follow them And I am so far from seeing sufficient Evidences of the Peoples good guiding of their Guides that I am very hopeful that all sober People will upon serious consideration of the Errors and Confusions that some People who would needs guide matters have run unto will acknowledge that it is the good and acceptable will of God that every one should keep within the bounds of their own vocation and not take upon them that which the Lord hath not called them to and that the sheep should not lead the Shepherds but be led by them And I suppose that several Ministers have by sad experience found that they have been indeed led upon the Ice by following the humours of some head-strong leading People who were fitter to break themselves and the hearts of their Ministers than to break the Ice to make safe passage for their followers The 5th Object Now when we are in hazard to be over-run with Popery is it seasonable that such Questions should be started to break the remnant in pieces and thereby to make all a Prey to the man of sin Were it not better that we were all united as one to withstand the Inundation He Answereth That he fears that the Lord by Popery and Blood will avenge the quarrel of his Covenant and the contempt of the Gospel I Reply He should have remembred that we did covenant to extirpate Schism which he endeavours to plant and water in this History And hath he not exposed the Gospel to contempt in tempting the People to cast off all the Indulged Ministers as no Ministers of Christ and all almost who are not Indulged as acted by the spirit of Supremacy the spirit of Anti-christ He could not have taken a more compendious way to render the Preaching of the Gospel contemptible than to render the Ministers of the Gospel contemptible Then he Advises That we should acknowledge our selves the basest of sinners This Advice is good but his Schismatick directions are contrary to it A Schismatick Spirit is a proud and self-conceited Spirit They who see themselves the basest of sinners would if they could rather separate from themselves than others they will in lowliness of mind esteem others better than themselves they will acknowledge themselves less than the least of mercies unworthy of any remnant of the Lords Ordinances unworthy to whom the Lord should send any of his Messengers such will be far from casting at any of the Lords Servants or Ordinances Then he says Union so long as the accursed thing is amongst us is a Conspiracy I suppose the Indulgence is the accursed thing which he means but the Magistrates permitting and allowing the peaceable exercise of the Ministry is a good thing This is a curse of his own making a causeless curse this is one of the tricks of the Devil to divert People from taking notice of the sins they are really guilty of by bogling them with imaginary sins alledging that there is sin wrapped up in hearing the Ministers of the Gospel Preach the Gospel and so he turns Duty to sin and by making them take up the peaceable exercise of the Ministry under the protection of Lawful Authority as if it were a curse or cursed thing and so flegging poor People that they flee from and forsake their own mercies and it 's a dreadful delusion to mistake blessings as if they were curses He adds If we be not tender of Christs headship and of what depends thereupon and of the least pin of his Tabernacle pitched among us I Answer If he had been more tender of Christ as head of his Church he would have been more tender of the Union of the Members of his Body and would have been afraid to have rent the members of that Body asunder His divisive Doctrine looses all the pins of the Tabernacle he hath cast fire into the Lords Tabernacle which if the Lord prevent not may burn up the Synagogues of God in the Land His Doctrine tends to dissolve all Meetings for the publick Worship of God except these who meet at the Separate Meetings moulded after his conceit He Prophesieth That they who follow his way shall find a shelter and a Chamber of Protection But he hath been so far mistaken in taking up things past and present they are not wise who will believe him when he Prophesies of things to come a false Historian is not an Infallible Prophet He is so far wrong in his Precepts for Direction that I have no Faith to believe his promises of Protection He recommends Union upon the old grounds of our received and sworn Principles and Maximes But they who know these old grounds see his grounds to be the grounds of the English Brownists which were solidly refuted by the old Non-Conformists Next He threatneth That if there be not an Union in the way that he prescribes that is if there be not a Separation from these Congregations where Indulged Ministers are and also from these Meetings where Non-indulged Ministers who are for hearing Indulged Ministers Preach for he Reproaches these Ministers also as Acted by the Spirit of Supremacy the Spirit of Anti-christ that then this Division from his Separated party will be the certain fore-runner of a dark and dismal Dispensation And then he Advises every man that would have Peace in the day of Gods contending against these back-sliders and revolters to mourn for this Abomination of the Indulgence among other Abominations and to adhere to the Lord and to our Principles which the Lord hath owned and countenanced though he should be in a manner left alone Answ This Division and Schismatick renting of the Lords People this driving of them away from the Lords Ordinances is more than a fore-runner of a dark and dismal Dispensation it 's an Evidence of the continuance of the Lords Anger and that his hand is stretched out still Schism is a grievous sin a dreadful plague which uses to end in ruine and desolation and they who drive on this vile and destructive Schism and scare the Lords People from joyning together in the Worship of God they are back-sliders and revolters from the Principles and Covenant of true Presbyterians They adhere not to the Lord who hath commanded his People not to forsake the Assembling of themselves together and hath promised to be with them when met in his Name and to come and bless them where he Records his Name and to be with his Servants Preaching and Baptizing in his Name to the end of the World They who forsake the Ordinances in which the Lord hath trysted a meeting betwixt himself and his People they who will not come where the Lord comes they who will be
Honour which Inferiours owe to Superiours is all due Reverence in Heart Word and Behaviour Prayer and Thanksgiving for them imitating their Virtues and Graces willing Obedience to their Lawful Commands and Counsels due Submission to their Corrections Fidelity to defence and maintenance of their Persons and Authority according to their several Ranks and Nature of their places bearing with their Infirmities and covering them in love that so they may be an Honour to them and to their Government And for confirming this Answer beside places cited in the Confession they cite Ephes 6.5 6 7. 1 Pet. 2.18 19 20. Servants be Subject to your Masters with all fear not only to the good but to the froward for this is thank-worthy if a Man for Conscience toward God endure grief suffering wrongfully for what glory is it if when ye be buffetted for your faults ye shall take it patiently But if when ye do well and suffer for it ye take it patiently this is acceptable with God Titus 2.9 10. 1 Sam. 26.15 16. Wherefore hast thou not kept thy Lord the King This thing is not good which thou hast done as the Lord liveth ye are worthy to die because ye have not kept your Master the Lords anointed 2 Sam. 18.3 But now thou art worth ten thousand of us Esther 6.2 Matth. 22.21 Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the things which are Gods Rom. 13.6 7. Gen. 9.23 And Shem and Japhet took a Garment and laid it upon their shoulders and went backward and covered the nakedness of their Father and their faces were backward and they saw not their Fathers nakedness If we compare this Band with the Confession of Faith and Catechisms and the Covenants and the Scriptures which are cited in the Confession of Faith and larger Catechism we may see if we will not shut our eyes that this Band cannot be reconciled with these but manifestly clasheth with them and therefore they who adhere to this Band are a party who by their tenets and practices distinguish themselves from these who do adhere to the Confession of Faith Catechisms and Covenants I had forgot that they also design themselves Persons whom the Magistrate hath declared no Lawful Subjects which shews that their number is not great and yet there are many who fall under the lash of these Declarations who think themselves bound by the Covenants to maintain the Kings Person and Authority and who disclaimed Ruglen Declaration and would undergo a thousand Deaths ere they subscribed this Band And it 's hoped that the Magistrates will think it true Policy to put a difference betwixt these who own their Authority and these who disown it This shews how inconsiderable the number of these who own this Band are and how unfit they are to make a Representative of the true Presbyterian Church and Covenanted Nation of Scotland Very ordinarily they who are for destroying Magistrates are no great friends to Ministers Having rejected the Magistrates in the preceding Articles they fall upon the Ministers in the sixth Article at least the greater part of them as being defective in preaching and testifying against the Acts of the Rulers c. and then for hindring others who were willing to have testified c. It was a long time a mystery to many what some people meant by a testimony which they were always calling for because although Ministers plainly preached as their Text led them against Prelacy and Erastianism and did shew the people from the Scripture that God hath given the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven to Ministers and not to Magistrates and that the things of the House of God Ecclesiastical matters must be done according to the will of the God of Heaven and not according to the will of the Magistrate And though they with grief regrated the breaches made in the Order and Government of the Church yet these people would still exclaim against them as not bearing testimony against the ills of the time but at length it appeared what was the testimony which they meant for if one instead of preaching the Gospel had made an invective discourse against the Rulers and treated them at the rate that they are treated in this band and so rendred them and their Authority despicable and hateful O! that was a preaching of the whole counsel of God though they brought neither Scripture nor Reason for what they said and they made nothing of what was brought from Scripture and Reason against Prelacy and Erastianism by other Ministers because they also did preach the duty which subjects owed to the Magistrate and maintained their lawful Authority as Gods Ordinance and prayed for the King and subordinate Magistrates The Testimony which some of these people who were upon the secret which hath now broken out were seeking was something which might render the Magistrate hateful and cast him out of the affections of the subjects and so make way for driving on the design which is now discovered in this band and declaration viz. the rejection of the King and Kingly Government and all subordinate Magistrates deriving their Authority from the King They are highly injurious to Presbyterian Ministers in alledging that they have not born testimony to that truth which Christ witnessed before Pontius Pilate viz. That Christ is a King for they declare it privately and publickly in their places and stations That Christ is a King and that he hath a spiritual Kingdom distinct from the Kingdoms of this world but no ways prejudicial to earthly Kingdoms but where it comes into any Kingdom of this world it is if it be received the establishment of that Kingdom Not to repeat what is said in several Papers which do shew the several sorts of testimonies both verbal and real given by Presbyterian Ministers I shall only say That their testimony concerning the Church and the Government thereof and the power of the Magistrate in reference to Church-matters is in the Confession of their Faith and Catechisms Directory for Worship and Government and as it could hardly be expected that these Ministers being so scattered could meet to agree upon new Confessions so though they had met they could not readily have fallen upon a better confession than what is already extant and to which they add here In chap. 25. of the Confession of Faith Art 2. it is asserted That the visible Church is the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ the House and Family of God Art 3. Unto this Catholick visible Church Christ hath given the Ministry Oracles and Ordinances of God for gathering and perfecting of the Saints Art 6. There is no other head of the Church but the Lord Jesus Christ Chap 30. The Lord Jesus as King and Head of his Church hath therein appointed a government in the hand of Church-Officers distinct from the Civil Magistrate Art 2. To these Officers the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven are committed Chap. 31. Art 3. It belongs to Synods and
it if such youths blown up with the wind of popular applause fall into many snares and take courses that tend to bring all things sacred and civil into confusion They add For which together with other causes c. we may say God hath left them to do worse things This is among their rash sayings it was the duty of Presbyterians to censure such unruly youths They add But also have voted in that meeting which they are pleased to call an Assembly of Ministers but how justly let men judg an acceptation of that liberty founded upon and given by virtue of that blasphemously arrogated and usurped power Their alledgance that that meeting is not to be called an Assembly of Ministers will beget no prejudice against it in the minds of men who have any sound judgment in matters of that nature And sober and judicious men would have suspected that meeting if it had pleased their banders or any of such principles as they maintain And none except ignorants or persons blinded with prejudice will say that the liberty of the peaceable exercise of the Ministry granted by the Magistrate is founded upon any unlawful powor or supremacy The Magistrates granting liberty of the peaceable exercise of the Ministry is the exercise of that power which the Magistrate hath from God That which the Magistrate ought to do doth not flow from any unlawful power but the Magistrate ought to grant to the Ministers of the Gospel liberty to exercise their Ministry peaceably and therefore such a grant of liberty c. or such liberty granted doth not flow from nor is founded upon any unlawful or usurped power or supremacy They add And hath appeared before their Courts to accept of that liberty and to be Enacted and authorized there as Ministers and so hath willingly for this is an elicite act of the will and not an act of force and constraint translated the power of sending out ordering censuring for as they accept of their liberty from them so they submit to their censures and restraints at least all of them who were yet tried with it and others of them appeared and acknowledged before their Courts that they would not have done these things that they were charged with if they had thought it would have offended them Ministers departing from the Court of Christ and subjection to the Ministry to the Courts of men and subjection to the Magistrate which had been impious and injurious to Christ and his Church though they had been righteous and lawful rulers and by their changing of Courts according to common Law hath changed their masters and of the Ministers of Christ are become the Ministers of men and bound to answer to them as oft as they will and as by the acceptation of this liberty in such manner they have translated the power so they have given up and utterly quit the Government and a succession of a Presbyterian Ministry for as these were not granted them of their masters so they exercise their Ministry without them and so by this as the Ecclesiastical Government is swallowed up in the Civil if the rest had followed them the Ministry should have also been extinct with themselves and the whole work of Reformation had been buried in oblivion not so much as the remembrance of it kept up Ans If the Magistrates will see these Ministers for whom the people supplicate why should they refuse to appear what solid reason can be given for such a refusal and what ill is there in the Councils recording in their Act that upon such a day such a Minister for whom such a Parish had supplicated was allowed to Preach in such a Parish That they appeared to be authorized as Ministers if they mean as it seems they do that they appeared to receive their Ministerial authority from the Council or that they appeared to be made Ministers of the Gospel it is a manifest slander for as they had their Ministerial authority before their appearance before the Council so the Council did not pretend to make them Ministers but presupposed that they were Ministers by enquiring where they were Ordained Ministers and the Council cannot well be blamed to inform themselves concerning the persons whom they permit to Preach that they may not allow they know not whom but may be assured that they are Ministers and that they are not seditious turbulent persons But if by authorizing they mean the Magistrates Civil allowance maintetenance protection it 's the Magistrates duty thus to authorize those who are Ordained Ministers of the Gospel in the publick exercise of the Spiritual power and authority of their Office as all Orthodox Anti-Erastian Divines grant And because the Authors of this Band seem to have been unacquainted with the judgment of Presbyterian Divines in these matters I shall for their information and the information of others who are bold to speak of things which they do not understand set down the judgment of Presbyterian Divines in this matter as it is holden forth in that famous Book The Divine right of Church-Government Chap. 6. Pag. 55. 2. The power or authority of Church-Government is a derived power for clearing of this note there is a Magisterial primitive supreme power which is peculiar to Jesus Christ our Mediator as hath been proved Chap. 3. 5 and there is a Ministerial derivative subordinate power which the Scripture declares to be in Church-guides Mat. 16.19 18.18 Joh. 20 21 23. Mat. 28.19 20. 2 Cor. 10.8 13.10 and often elsewhere this is abundantly testified but whence is this power originally derived to them here we are carefully to consider and distinguish three things touching this power and authority from one another viz. 1. The Donation of the authority it self and of the Offices whereunto this power doth properly belong 2. The designation of particular persons unto such Offices as are vested with such power 3. The publick protection countenancing authorizing defending maintaining of such Officers in the publick exercise of such power within such and such Realms and Dominions this being premised we may clearly thus resolve according to Scripture-warrant viz. the designation or setting apart of particular individual persons to those Offices in the Church that have power and authority engraven upon them is from the Church nominating electing and ordaining of such persons thereunto See Act. 13.1 2 3. 1 Tim. 4.4 5.22 Tit. 1.5 Act. 4.22 The publick defence maintenance c. of such Officers in the publick exercise of the power and authority of their Office in such and such Dominions is from the Civil Magistrate as the nursing Father of the Church Isa 49.23 For it is by his authority and sanction that such publick places shall be set apart for publick Ministry that such maintenance and reward shall be legally performed for such Ministry that all such persons of such and such Congregations shall be in case they neglect their duty to such Ministry punished with such Political penalties
c. But the donation of the Office and spiritual authority annexed thereunto is only derived from Jesus Christ our Mediator he alone gives all Church-Officers and therefore none may devise or superadd any new Officers Ephes 4.7 8 10 11. 1 Cor. 12.28 And he alone derives all authority and power Spiritual to these Officers for dispensing the Word Sacraments Censures and all Ordinances Mat. 16.19 28.18 19 20. Joh. 20.21 22 23. 2 Cor. 10.8 13.10 and therefore it is not safe for any creature to intrude upon this Prerogative Royal of Christ to give any power to any Officer of the Church And thus we see that these Learned and Godly Ministers who solidly in that same Book refute Erastianism yet assert that it belongs to the Magistrate to protect countenance authorize defend maintain Ministers in the publick exercise of their Ministry which they have received from the Lord Jesus But it 's the ignorance of the solid writings of Presbyterians which makes some folks so confident that they are true Presbyterians and adhering to Presbyterian Principles when in the mean time they are publishing to the world that they are strangers to the solid writings of sound Presbyterians And there is no Orthodox Divine who would find fault with these Ministers who when they appeared before the Council did give humble thanks to the Kings Majesty and the Lords of his Majesties Council for the peaceable exercise of the Ministry which they had received from the Lord Jesus The elicite act of the Will is too Philosophical for common people to subscribe or swear to for they can hardly be made to understand it And what they say concerning it is not Philosophical enough to be approven by those who understand what an elicite act is for elicite acts of the Will are such as immediately flow from the Will as love or hatred volition or nolition Now translation of power from Ministers to Magistrates is not made by these inward acts of the Will but by some external imperate acts as speaking writing c. Politick acts of surrender or translation of power are not effectuate by meer elicite internal acts of the Will But their ignorance of the nature of an elicite act of the Will and their opposing acts of force and constraint to elicite acts whereas elicite acts use to be contra-distinguished from imperate acts and their insinuating That if an act be not an elicite act of the Will it is an act of force and constraint whereas the imperate acts of the Will are not elicite acts and yet being commanded by the Will they are not acts of force and constraint these are more harmless mistakes But it is a very injurious calumny that those Ministers who appeared before the Council translated the power of sending out ordering and censuring Ministers to the Magistrate It 's a ridiculous ignorant conceit to imagine that what these Ministers did in appearing before the Council was a translation of the power of order of Potestative mission or else such censuring to the Magistrate or changing their Master and making themselves the Ministers of men and a quitting of the Government and succession of a Presbyterian Ministry These are meer calumnies and ridiculous fopperies that none who understand any thing in these matters will think worthy of any answer They were very injurious to the poor people many of whom are simple and ready through prejudice to believe any ill word spoken against indulged Ministers who in their Papers and Pamphlets abused them with such slanders But they are more injurious to them who would have them to subscribe and swear such injurious calumnies and ridiculous fopperies which are not only far from truth but from any appearance of truth And so much hath been said in several Papers written in vindication of the practice of the Indulged Ministers that it were to waste time and paper to answer any more to these Calumniators and the best answer to them is to pray that the Lord would give them repentance for these abominable reproaches whereby they have very actively driven on the design of Satan and his instruments the Papists and Quakers c. which is to render the Ministry contemptible And it was seen and told long ago that they would not rest satisfied with the reproachieg of a few Ministers but would proceed to render all contemptible The contrivers of this Bond have made a great progress in this Devilish work of rendering Ministers contemptible and useless for they have casten all except some few who for any thing known did not exceed the number of four and some think that they were but three at most and one of them was casten by the other two It is strange that any person who had the use of reason could be so far blinded with prejudice as to think that these Ministers did translate the power of sending out Ministers or the power of Potestative mission to the Magistrate for as was said the Magistrate supposed them to be Ordained ministers and so to have a Potestative mission to Preach the Gospel already for ministers are potestatively sent to preach the Gospel when they are Ordained ministers this clearly appeared by the Councils inquiring if they were and where or by whom they were Ordained ministers if the Council had called some persons who were not Ordained and sent them to Preach and Baptize c. then they might have alledged that the Magistrate did assume the power of sending out ministers or of a Potestative mission but they never pretended to any thing like that Preacher But Sir did not the Council send these ministers to these Congregations Minist 1. The Council did not so much as use the word of sending 2. Suppose they had used the word of sending that would not have imported a Potestative mission because the Magistrate did suppose that they were already Ordained Ye heard also that Mr. Welsh in his Preface to King James desires the King to send ministers throughout the Land it were great ignorance and perverseness to gather from that word that he translated to the King the power of a Potestative mission 3. Suppose the Magistrate had said nothing concerning their being Ordained Ministers before it had been great perverseness to have concluded from the Magistrates sending of them that they ceased to be the Ministers of Christ and became the Ministers of men Will any be so perverse as to conclude because Jehoshaphat 2 Chron. 17.8 9. sent Priests and Levites through all the Cities of Judah to teach the people that therefore these Priests and Levites ceased to be the Lords Ministers and became the ministers of the King Preach But Jehoshaphet was a godly reforming King Minist That is nothing to the purpose in hand Ye might have remembred that Mr. Rutherford shews that the magistratical power in reference to the Church is the same in Nero and in a Christian magistrate and if a godly King 's sending ministers does not annul their ministry then