A SPEECH DELIVERED AT THE VISITATION OF Downe and Conner Held in Lisnegarvy the 26 th of September 1638. Wherein for the convincing of the Nonconformists there is a full Confutation of the COVENANT Lately sworne and subscribed by many in Scotland Published by Authority My sonne Feare the Lord and the King and meddle not with them that are Seditious Proverb 24.21 For Rebellion is as the sinne of Witchcraft 1 Sam. 15.23 LONDON Printed by John Raworth for George Thomason and Octavian Pullen and are to be sold at the Rose in St. Pauls Church-yard 1639. After the names of the Clergie were called the Visitor spake in this manner AND now my brethren of the Clergy and all you Gentlemen of the Laity I intreat your attention while I shall expresse my self in some things that concern my Pastorall charge Some things I have to say that concern the Clergie onely Some things that concern the Church-wardens And somewhat that doth concern both the Clergie and the Laity As for you of the Clergie There is generally a great fault in you in the neglect of Catechizing You know that you are bound to it by the Canons of the Church bound by an act in my first Visitation and though ye regard neither of these as I know many of you do not yet consider I beseech you that ye are bound to it in conscience for Catechizing is the easiest and most profitable way of instruction The Apostle calls it the doctrine of the beginnings of Christ Heb. 6.1 which must be layed before a man can be led forward unto perfection It is milk for babes whereas preaching is meat for men that are of age who have their wits exercised to discern both good and evill But you cannot abide to give milk Heb. 5.14 and are all for strong meat albeit there are many of you who are not well able to chew it This is the true cause of the ignorance of the people for they not having been instructed in the grounds of Religion are not able to understand any part of a Sermon It is one of the great stratagems of our adversary the devill thâ—t when he cannot draw men wholly from the service of God he makes them to single out some part of it and to magnifie that with a neglect of all other parts as namely Preaching amongst you which is grown to that esteem that it hath shuffled out of the Church both the publique prayers which is the immediate worship of God and this duty of Catechizing and is now accounted the sole and onely service of God the very Consummatâ—â—â—eâ—â— of all Christianity as if all Religion consisted in the hearing of a Sermon Unto whom I may say in the words of the Apostle What Is all hearing Is the whole body an eare 1 Cor. 12. Or tell you in the words of a most Reverend prelate That if you be the sheep of Christ you have no mark of his sheep but the eare-mark And therefore to conclude this point If you will will not hereafter make conscience of this duty of Catechizing Then the conscience of my duty will inforce me to proceed against you according to the Canons of the Church As for the Church-wardens I have a double complaint against them One That whereas by their place they are to look unto the fabrick of the Church the greatest part of your Temples are kept no better then Hog-styes I know that it is one of the mysteries of iniquity in their Religion that God is most purely served when he is worshipped slovenly in a poor and homely cottage and that any cost is too much to be bestowed upon Gods service They are much like unto the officers of Julian the Apostate who when they saw the stately vessels of the Temple cryed out En qualibus vasis ministratur Mariae filio what stately plate is this for the Carpenters sonne But my second complaint is yet greater They are bound by their Oath to present all known disorders within their Parish especially them who do not repair unto the Church to hear Divine service and to receive the Sacrament according to the orders of this Church Yet they present none at all And indeed the Church-wardens especially in the Ards and Claneboyes are of all others the most disorderly men the very ring-leaders of the separation and it is for that cause they are chosen that others may not be presented So that it seems unto me that too many of them in Scotland have entred in a mutuall bond to defend one another by Arms So their fellows in this Diocesse have entred in a mutuall bond to defend one another by their Oathes But here I tell them plainly that I will proceed against them First for the neglect of the repair of their Churches Next for their non-conformity Thirdly for not presenting notorious offenders And lastly for their perjury And if they think my authority too weak to overtake them in regard of the great Patronage and countenance they have I will deliver them over unto a Court that is able to deal with them My last complaint will hold me longer It strikes both against the Clergy and the Laity for their generall non-conformity and disobedience unto the Orders of this Church You of the Clergy have all Sworn subscribed and promised absolute conformity And yet when you come amongst your people you slide back and for a colour of obedience read some part of the Service it may be the Lessons and a few Collects as if it were left unto your power to mince the Service of God cutting and carving upon it as you please I must tell you that those who will not be tyed neither by oaths Subscriptions nor promises There is nothing will tye them but a coercive power But they of the Laity are yet worse they will hear no prayer at all While divine Service is reading they walke in the Church-yard and when prayer is ended they come rushing into the Church as it were into a Play-house to hear a Sermon But ere it be long I hope a course shall be taken that they who will hear no prayers shall hear no Sermon I know that the thing which doth encourage you in this your disobedience is the present Insurrection in Scotland You think and some of you do not stick for to speak it that they will inforce the King for to yeeld unto all their demands and amongst the rest procure unto you a liberty to live here as you list But deceive not your selves for howsoever in Scotland some thinke themselves strong enough to resist their Prince yet I thanke God you are not so many here but the Kings Laws and authority is well able to overtake you And be assured that their insolent opposition against our most Pious Prince will make you that are of their Faction to be more narrowly look'd unto here then otherwise you would have been for now that our neighbours house is on fire it is high time to
look to our own And surely methinks that if there were in you a sparke of the sear of God and of true loyaltie unto the King the rebellious proceedings of these men would put you out of love with their Religion For I perswade my self that when you were first leavned with their doctrine you did little think that their aim was Rebellion But did conceive as sometimes I my self did that they did all out of conscience and were men free from violence or the least thought of disloyalty But now behold their proceedings and judge them by their fruits You may perceive how that Sect since the first beginning of it which is not much above Fourscore yeers in the Raign of Q. Mary of England hath proceeded from evill to worse by Six degrees At first they did only manifest a dislike of Episcopall government and some Ceremonies used in the Church of England as liking better of the government of Geneva which was devised by Master Calvin and that cunningly enough for the state of that Republick which being popular could not brook any other government of the Church but that which is popular also And yet I must tell you that Master Calvin wanted nothing of a Bishop but only the title For the Church of Geneva is not a Parochiall but Diocesan Church consisting of divers parishes which make up one great Presbytrie and he all the dayes of his life was moderator thereof without whose consent no Act neither of Ordination nor Jurisdiction was done And so likewise Mr. Beza for ten yeers after the others death held the same place of government untill Danaeus set him beside the cushion and procured the Presidency to go by turns In the next place from dislike they proceeded to contempt of Episcopall government and this if ye will beleeve St. Cyprian hath been the very beginning of all heresies and Schismes Ad Rogarionum Initia Haereticorum saith he ortus Schismaticorum haec sunt ut praepositum superbo tumore contemnant And againe Vnde Schismata â—aereses ortae sunt nisi â—um Episcopus qui unus est Ecclesiae praeest Ad Pupianum superbâ quorundam presumptione contemnâ—tur homo digâ—atâ—â—ne Dei â—ororatus ab indâ—gnis hominibus judicatur In the third place from contempt they did proceed unto open disobedience unto all the Orders of the Church And like those of whom Naziaâ—zen speakes would be pleased with nothing but what did proceed from their own devising esteeming him the holiest man who could find most faults From disobedience they did proceed unto Schisme and open separation accounting themselves only to be the brethren and Congregation of Christ and all others who are not of their faction to be the children of this world From Schisme they proceeded to heresie For it is most true which S Jerome did observe that Omne Schisma gignit sibi â—aresin Every Schisme doth devise unto it self a heresie some false doctrine or other to maintain their separation And these men have devised not a few and some that have been condemned by ancient Councels and Fathers as namely Epiphanius reckons among the condemned heresies of Acrius that he maintained there was no differeÌ„ce between a Bishop and a Presbyter and that all set Fasts are unlawfull Jewish and Superstitious And is not this the doctrine of these men But lastly their disobedience Schisme and heresie have now drawne them into open Rebellion and I wonder whither will they go next For I am deceived if they have not yet a further journey to go and that they cannot subsist untill they arrive at pure Anabaptisme From which they now differ but a little And surely if any of you will read the History of the Anabaptists you will finde that their proceedings were a great deal more moderate and Christian like then these mensâ—re This is the just judgement of God that they who run out of the Communion of the Church should likewise run out of their own wits I beseech you therefore to consider their wayes and how that if you do not break off company they will shortly lead you into Rebellion For mine own part I professe that the first thing that made me out of love with that Religion besides their grosse hypocrisie was their injurious dealing with Kings who are Gods Vice-gerents here upon Earth which I observed both by their doctrine and by their practice and I will now give you a briefe taste of both As for their Doctrine you know they take from the King all authority in causes Ecclesiasticall and will not allow him to do these things which the good Kings of Judah and the godly Emperours of the Primitive Church did Yea they will not allow them to present or nominate a Minister to a Benefice nor to give a Vote in a Generall Assembly except forsooth the King be a Lay-elder nor yet to make any Lawâ—s concerning matters of outward Order and Politie to be observed in the Church Nay They have gone further allowing Subjects to resist their Prince by force of Armes and in some cases to depose him yea and to take away his life if he be a Tyrant and though he be the godliest Prince in the world he must be esteemed a Tyrant if it please the Presbytery to declare him for to be such So that Kings should be in a farre worse case under the Presbytery then ever they were under the Pope For in stead of one Pope they must be subject unto a thousand This is their doctrine Now I will shew you their Practice And first how they dealt with that blessed King James while he was in Scotland They did persecute him in his mothers womb and when he came unto ripe yeers they suffer'd him not to enjoy one quiet day by their Seditious practices Of a great many I will cull out a few of their attempts which are most notorious First when as the Ring-leaders of that Faction had concluded the state of Bishops to be unlawfull they sent their Commissioners unto the King commanding him and his Councell under pain of Excommunication to put them downe Againe A French Ambassadour being in Scotland when he was to go away the King commanded the City of Edenburrough according to the ancient custome to entertaine him with a banquet This charge was given on the Saturday and the banquet to be on the Munday and upon Sunday morning some of the factious ministers hearing of it to crosse his Majefties designes proclaimed a publick Fast to be kept on that day and because that the Nobility the Kings Servants the Provost and chiefe Citizens of Edenburrough did by the Kings direction attend the Ambassadour they proceeded against them almost unto the sentence of ExcoÌ„munication Afterwards when his Majesty was taken prisoner at Reuthen by some of his treacherous Subjects intendig thereby to force his Majesty to their owne ends His Majesty being happily delivered did with the consent of his three Estates in Parliament declare
that to be a treasonable fact But the seditious ministers being assembled in Synod and taking themselves to be the Supreame Judicatory did pronounce that Treasonable fact to be most just and lawfull threatning with all the sentence of Excommunication against all who did not subscribe unto their judgement therein They did usually inveigh against the King in their Sermons and rayle at him io his face for to bring him in hatred with his owne Subjects And when some of them were convented before the Councell-boord for so doing they declined his Majesties authority alleadging that he was no Judge over them in Church-matters They used ordinarily to proclaime Fasts without the Kings privity especially when some factioners were about to attempt some great enterprize against the King And then the Ministers were taught all to sing one song crying out upon the abuses of the Court and State whereby they set the people a madding All this you may read more at large in the Kings declaration printed Anno 1585. I will now adde some other of their practises that come within the compasse of my own remembrance When the Earle of Bothwell was in the act of Rebellion against the King and had divers times attempted to take away his Majesties life there were great gatherings in Scotland for the relief of Geneva then straitly besieged by the Duke of Savoy The Ministers who were the Collectors gave a great part of it to maintain the Earle in his rebellion against the King Afterwards when the Gawries conspired against his Majesty and he miraculously rescued by the valour of his Servants his Majesty desired that there might be a publick thanksgiving in all Churches within the Realme for his deliverance But divers of the ministers the ringleaders of that faction did refuse and did plainly insinuate that they did neither beleeve the King nor his Nobles nor his Servants who were witnesses that ever there was such a conspiracy But that it was a plot of the King to murder the Gawries I shall not need to tell you of the 17th day of December There is none of you who hath not heard in what feare and danger of life the King was then by an insurrection which was raised by the seditious Sermons of some of these fiery preachers One thing I cannot omit how that they called a Nationall Assembly to be held in Aberdeen the King suspecting the event as he had good cause and having long before by Act of Parliament all Authority in causes Ecclesiasticall and particularly for calling of Assemblies declared to belong to his Royall Person He sent to inhibit them by open Proclamation but they would not desist whereupon being questioned they declined the Kings authority contrary to the Lawes of that Kingdome for which they were indited found guilty and condemned of Treason Yet that mercifull Prince did neither take life nor goods from them But only banished six of them And when some of these could not live abroad upon the acknowledgment of their offence he not only gave them leave for to returne but also provided livings for them And yet one of these who holds both his life and his living by the Kings mercy Dr. Sharp is at this day a principall Firebrand in this Rebellion And thus they used King JAMES which occasioned him in that golden Treatise intituled ΒΑΣΙΑΙΚΟΠΔΩΡΟΠto protest that he had found more truth and honesty in the barbarous high-land-men and bloody borderers then ever he did in the men of that Faction Thus have I given you a brief taste both of their Doctrine and Practice concerning the opposing of Princes But here lest this should be thought a Nationall sinne and so Jerusalem upbraid her sister Samaria I will shew unto you that they of this faction in England had been as deep in this condemnation but that God be praised they had not so much power And besides that some there have suffered death for their seditious practises against authority in seeking to bring in their new Discipline as Hacket Coppinger and others You may judge of the intentions and desires of the rest by their writings One of them who wrote a Book intituled A Dialogue of white Devils which was a most fit Title for these mens Books for if ever there were white Devils or Devils transformed into Angels of light it is in their persons who under the pretence of Sanctity labour to bring in all manner of disorder into the Church and confusion into the Common wealth That Author sayes expresly that If Princes do hinder the bringing in of their Discipline they are Tyrants and being Tyrants they maybe deposed by their Subjects Another who calls himself Stephanus Junius Miles c. saith It is lawfall for the people by force of Arms to resist the Prince if he hinder the building of the Church A third railes at Queen Elisabeth for exercising that lawfull Authority in causes Ecclesiasticall which was united unto her Crown resembling her unto all the wicked Kings and others who took upon them unlawfully as unto Saul for his offering of sacrifice unto Ozias for his burning of incense Yea and to Nadab and Abihu for their offering of strange fire It is well known how that Martin in his first Book threatned fists And the Authour of the second Admonition sayes plainly that There is many a thousand that desire the same that he doth and that great troubles will come of it if it be not provided for Another of that crew directing his speech unto the Bishops saith that The Presbytery must prevail Demonst of disciplin in the Preface And if it come to passe by that means that will make your hearts to ake then blame your selves I could present unto you a great deal more of such stuffe but I will onely alledge one passage of Master Cartwright whom for his learning I honour far above all that ever were of that faction he saith that the Church is not in the Common wealth but the Common wealth in the Church and therefore as a wise man will not frame his house to his hangings but his hangings to his house So the Church is not to be fitted unto the Common wealth but the Common wealth unto the Church Whereupon it will evidently follow that as in his opinion there ought to be a parity in the Church so likewise a parity in the Common wealth so that it is more then manifest that the thing which they aime at is to have no King at all And therefore it is remarkable how that the Traitour Calderwood in his blasphemous Book called Altare Damascenum doth not onely rail against King James charging him with perjury persecution but also doth inveigh against all Kings whatsoever saying Naturâ insitum est onnibu◠regibus in Christum odium It seemes this mad dog did not remember Gods promise made unto his Church That Kings should be her Nursing-fathers and Queens her Nursing-mothers And God who is never worse then his
word hath made his promise good for never were there so great Instruments for the propagation of the Gospel the inlargement of Christs kingdom and the procuring of the peace of the Church as Christian Kings have been and amongst them all never any more then our most gracious King that now is and his most renowned Father whom those men did so much oppose and traduce But what do I need to remember matters of old for the Children are worse then the fathers and their present practise now in Scotland doth surpasse all the iniquities of their Fathers and will make them to bee forgotten Now Bishops and conformable Ministers whose persons had wont to be esteemed sacred are stoned beaten wounded and drag'd out of their Pulpits a thing which was never used by the Heathens against their Priests of what lewd condition or quality whatsoever And yet those are they who sweare to be good examples to others of all godlynesse sobernesse and of every duty they owe to God and man Now what Godlynesse Sobernesse or righteousnesse hath been in such proceedings the like whereof hath not been heard amongst the heathen Let all the world judge Before they had wont to assault us onely with their tongues which are sharper then arrowes and with their pens which are as light as Ceâ—se-quils But now they are come as Tertullian sayes A stilo ad machaeram from words to blowes That we may say with Bernard Leones evasimus sed incidimus in Dracones We escapd the mouthes of Lyons but have fallen into a den of Dragons for these sure are Cerastes Fiery flying Dragons But would to God their madnesse had stayed here They have not onely done wrong unto Gods Prophets but also touched his annointed entring into a mutuall league and covenant against him arming his Subjects taking Oathes of them to maintain their cause blocking up his Castles refusing all his Majesties most gracious offers for peace and indeed proclaiming a plain defiance unto him Good Goâ— Can they be Christians that do these things Or have they any warrant for this out of Gods word which commands us to be subject to Superiour powers and that for conscience sake even then when all Kings were enemies unto Christian Religion Or have they any example for those proceedings out of Pious antiquity The Christians in the Primitive Church when they were led as sheep to the slaughter all the day long and suffered the most exquisite torments that could be devised Yet would never take Armes for to resist the Prince but put on this resolution Arma nostra preces Lachrymae Yea when these persecuting Emperors had occasion of warre against the barbarous nations the Christians were the Emperours best and most faithfull Souldiers so terrible unto their enemies that they were called the thundering Legions And S. Austin doth highly commend them for their faithfull service unto the heathen Emperours who did most cruelly spill their blood onely for their profession of Christ And let no man say it was for want of power that they did not defend themselves by armes for it is well known that if they had thought it lawfull to resist the Emperour by Armes they were of that number power and resolution that they had been able to have shaken the foundations of the Empire But now it seemes that these men of whom I speak have learned another Divinity and think that they are bound to stand to the defence of their dread Soveraigne the Kings Majesty his person and authority in the defence and preservation of the true religion as they have expressed in their late Printed confession of faith wherunto they have sworn so that they do plainly insinuate that they are no further bound to defend the Kings person and authority then he doth stand in the defence of the true Religion And that onely must be accounted the true Religion which they themselves do best like of If the King will not maintain that then for all this last Oath they are freed from their Alleigance wherein they have more then justified the Iesuites in all their rebellious practises and the Iesuites can well tell how to take advantage thereof for it is not long since a Iesuite wrote a Book in the defence of the Loyalty of their Order alledging that Protestants had allowed the rebellion of Subjects against Princes as much as any of their Order had done and gives instance in Buchanan Knox and Goodman But Andreas Rivetus a Professor of Leiden answering the Iesuite doth professe that all Protestants do condemne that doctrine and ascribes the rashnesse of Buchanan and Knox Praeferbido Scotorum ingenio ad audendum promptoâ— And now it feares me that ere it be long another Iesuite shall publish a Book to prove that the present insurrection in Scotland is a greater rebellion then was the Papists Gun-powder-plot in regard that the Gun-powder-Treason was but the act of a few discontented Gentlemen and the thousand Papist in England not guilty of it but in the present Rebellion of the Puritanes they have ingaged a great part of that Kingdome and many who indeed know not what the matter meanes and so that this may be called the common sinne of that Sect whereas the other cannot be charged upon the Religion of the Papists But you will say it is Religion that moveth them What did ever the true Religion allow of rebellion Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum I know they pretend the defence of the nationall confession of their Church and the Oath received by their forefathers in the Yeere 1581 by the Kings example and commandement But if it be so I will subscribe their Covenant also which is the greatest curse I can lay upon my mortall enemy Therfore to take away that vaine pretence wherewith they blind you and many other simple people I will here make it evidently appeare First that that negative Confession wherunto they did swear in the yeere 81 is not the nationall Confession of the Church of Scotland and Secondly that the Oath which they have now administred is not the same which the King his Family States and Subjects did sweare at that time But Substantially different from it in many points And first that Negative Confession is not the nationall Confession of the Church of Scotland But the nationall Confession is that which twenty yeeres before being penned by Mr. Knox and his fellow-ministers and contayning the positive grounds of Divinity was approved by the Parliament held in the yeere 1560 and afterwards was ratified by a Parliament in the yeere 1567 and registred in the body of that Act of Parliament and so confirmed by a number of Parliaments since that time The same is likewise received into the body of the Confessions of all the reformed Churches and acknowledged for the Confession of the Church of Scotland But as for that Negative Confession consisting in the abjuring of Popish errors and penned by Mr. Craig for the detecting of some disguised
Papists who by Equivocation or out of hope of Papall dispensation did for feare of the Laws subscribe unto the former confession That negative confession I say was never confirmed by any Parliament What Confirmation it had was onely from the Kings mandate whom they procured not only himselfe to sweare and subscribe but also to command all his Subjects to do so But here I pray you to consider first What age the King was of then not full Fifteen yeeres by foure moneths And how easie a matter was it to abuse his tender youth Let us therfore appeale from K. Iames a minor unto himselfe when he was of riper yeeres And we shall find that he did utterly disallow of that fact insomuch that in the Parliament held the yeere 84. he procured the first confession to be confirmed but without any mention of the latter and so in divers Parliaments following And in the Conference at Hampton Court he did fully manifest his dislike of that Negative confession saying that Mr. Craig with his I renounce and I detest did multiply so many particulars that simple people were not able to conceive And so being amazed did either fall backe into Popery or remaine still in their ignorance And saith he If I should hold my selfe to that forme the confession of my faith must bee in my Table-booke and not in my head So that it hath no civill confirmation at all But you will say that a Sinodicall confirmation by a generall Assembly held at Edenburgh another at Glasgow wherunto I answer that the act of the Synod had onely relation unto the Kings mandate For thus the words runne Forasmuch as the Kings Majestie hath set forth and proclaimed a Godly Confession of faith This present Assembly doth appoint that all Ministers shall conforme themselves therunto under paine of deprivation So that whatsoever strength is in the Synodicall confirmation depenes upon the force and vigor of the Kings mandate while that was in force the confirmation of the Synod was in force and that being expired the confirmation of the Synod is likewise expired But the Kings mandate is expired because upon mature judgment hee did retract and disallow it in his life time and though he had not yet the same being a personall act of the Kings without the consent of the States of Parliament is now certainly expired with his royall breath For Mortuo mandatore expirat mandatum So that indeed this Confession which they now urge so violently upon the Kings Subjects hath no legall confirmation at all And as it hath no confirmation So it never had the honour to be received into the body of the Confessions of reformed Churches as was the former Confession neither indeed was it worthy for it is not a Confession of faith at all but a Confession of unbeleese The author tels us not what he doth beleeve but what he doth not beleeve And I hope you will all confesse that faith consist in assenting to revealed truths and not in dissenting from errâ—rs Besides is it not more fit for a Minister to teach his people positive truths of Christian Doctrine then to spend his time in telling them of unknown heresies And as that Negative Confession is not the nationall confession of that Church so the Oath that is now ministred is not the same with that which was received by the Kings Majesty and his Subjects in the yeere 81 as is pretenâ—ed But is substantially different from it in many respects 1 In the former Oath or Covenant they did swear with the King and by his commandement and their is no doubt but it is most lawfull for Subjects if the matter of the Oath be true and Lawfull to swear by the commandement of the king to whom primarily and Originally belongs the power to minister an Oath and to others only by Commission and power delegated from him But this new Oath is not only without the King but against him and flat contrary to his commandement For since the time that his Majesty manifested his Royall pleasure requiring them to renounce their covenant they have proceeded and sworn many thousands of people So that I am sure by the Lawes of our Kingdome they are in a great Premunire 2. In the first Oath or Covenant there is no bond of mutuall defence But in this new Oath there is a bond of mutuall defence of one another Against all persons whatsoever the King himselfe not excepted 3. Although there had been such a bond of mutuall defence in the former Covenant yet ought it not to be in this for Subjects may lawfully make a Covenant of mutuall defence by Armes by the consent of the King who only hath the power of the Sword within his dominions But they who made this late Covenant had not the Kings consent but did it contrary to the Kings expresse will and pleasure wherein they have violated the lawes of their own kingdome which they were bound to maintaine for by an act of Parliament Anno 1585 all leagues or bonds of mutuall defence made without the privity and consent of the King are expresly forbidden And as in this respect their Covenant is contrary to the Lawes of their kingdome So I am sure it is contrary unto the Law of God for I never knew any Divine who doth not maintain that unto the undertaking of a just warre there is required not only a good cause but also lawfull authority A just cause of warre doth not warrant every man to undertake warre though against a stranger much lesse against the King against whom no cause though never so just can make a warre undertaken by his Subjects warrantable But a just cause doth only warrant the King or supreme Magistrate in whom authority is originally and Primarily and without whose commission the Warres undertaken by private men are no better then robbery and murther That rash and heady adventure of the Israelits against the Canaanites Num. cap. 14. v. 44. was without authority for neither Moses nor the Arke went up with them and therfore Moses doth call their attempt a presumption and they prospered accordingly for they were smitten unto Hormah a name answerable unto the event namely destruction Lastly this Oath is not the same with the former because it contains not only the old Covenant or confession but also their owne interpretation of it For they do plainly insinuate that Episcopall government and the 5. Articles of Perth are abjured in that Confession Now it is reasonable that a few factious spirits who are the Authors of this conspiracy should take upon them to interpret a Nationall confession and obtrude their interpretation upon the whole Church forcing all men to sweare unto it This were too much though their interpretation were true because it wants publique authority and approbation But indeed the interpretation is most notoriously false and like the glosse of Orleance which destroyes the Text. Episcopall government is not abjured in the Negative confession nor
Church unchangeable were to confound matters of Doctrine and matters of Discipline matters of Faith and matters of Order The rule therefore of Tertullian is infallible Regula fidei immobilis irrefragabilis Caetera disciplinae admittunt novitatem correctionis 5 If they had sworne as these men would have it to maintaine their discipline which they then used without alteration or addition like the Laws of the Medes and Persians Then had they ascribed unto themselves an absolute perfection more then ever did the Pharisees in Christs dayes or the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after or the Popes of late since they established their own infallibility Surely the contrivers of the first Confession did manifest a great deal of more modesty in their Preface Protesting that if any man shall note in this our Confession any Article or Sentence repugnant to Gods holy Word and do admonish of the same in Writing we by Gods grace do promise unto him satisfaction from the mouth of God that is from his holy Scriptures or else reformation of that which he shall prove to be amisse And are these men become wiser then their Fathers to think that nothing which they did could be amended 6 That could not be the meaning of the first Oath to maintain their discipline in all points without alteration For they themselves during the days of the Presbytery did change many things and that as I beleeve without violation of their Oath Sometimes their Lay-elders had voyce in the Presbytery afâ—erwards the Ministers perceiving the inconvenience restrained them to their Parish-sessions Sometimes it was made altogether unlawfull to bury in Churches afterwards they did permit it And if I had the inspection of the Book of the Acts of the generall Assembly which I have not seen these four and twenty yeers I would make it appear that every Assembly did either alter or adde something in matters of discipline Finally How could they Swear to maintain that discipline in all points when there are many things in their new found discipline whereof they were not agreed nor are to this day as namely Whether Pastors and Doctors be one office or distinct And if distinct Whether Doctors have any voyce in government What is the Office of Deacons and whether they may give a voyce in the consistory with the rest Whether their ruling Eldermen be Ecclesisticall persons or Lay-men Whether their Office should be only annuall or during life Whether those Elders should have a voice in the election Ordination deprivation of ministers and in weilding of the keyes for Excommunication and Absolution By all which it is more then manifest that the meaning of these words in the former Oath We will continue in the obedience of the discipline of this Kirk is not that they would observe the same discipline then used in all particulars without alteration or addition for so their Oath must be contrary to their Confession of faith contrary to right reason to the practise of the Primitive Church to the opinion of all Divines yea contrary to their owne practice and indeed such an Oath as were both unlawfull and impossible to be observed And unlesse that Interpretation be allowed them that Oath makes nothing either against Episcopacy or the five Articles of Perth we must therefore finde out some other meaning of these words of the Covenant It is a rule in the civill Law Semper in dubijs benigniora sunt praeferendae And again Non sunt rejiciendae leges quae interpretatione aliquâ possunt convenire If any thing Fact writing or Law may in reasonable construction admit two interpretations the best and mildest is ever to be received But the words in the former Oath may admit a good interpretation namely they did sweare to continue in the discipline of that Kirk in regard of all substantials viz. for administration of the Sacraments and weilding of the Keyes for binding and loosing of sinners and that for the particular determination of person time place and outward forme of administration They would observe the discipline of that Kirk which should be from time to time lawfuâ—ly established And therefore it is as I observed before that they did not say The present discipline of this Kirk And by this Interpretation which is the only reasonable sense of these words that can be given they are all bound by their nationall Oath as they terme it to submit themselves to Episcopall government and the Articles of Perth which were lawfully established and are now a part of the Discipline of that Church Thus have I shewed that this late Oath is substantially different from the former in that now they doe not sweare with the King but against him It containes a bond of mutuall defence of one another It inables Subjects to take Armes without lawfull Authority and containes such an interpretation of the Old covenant as is manifestly false In all which respects the Oath is unlawfull But yet to convince them further of perjury I will shew unto you that they have not observed any of these conditions which God himselfe requireth in an Oath In the fourth of Ieremy and second verse Thou shalt sweare the Lord liveth in trueth in iudgement and in righteousnesse In trueth and therefore not falsly In judgement and therefore not rashly In righteousnesse and therefore not lewdly nor to a bad end We must sweare in trueth and not falsly for the Lord himselfe saith Yee shall not sweare by my name falsly Levit. 19.12 The onely true matter of an Oath is trueth but all the grounds of this last Oath are notoriously false as namely that the Negative Confession is the Nationall confession of the church of Scotland And I have shewed that to be otherwise That this Oath is the very same that King Iames and his Family did sweare And I have proved that not to be so That Episcopacie and the five Articles of Perth are innovations abjured in the former Oath and I have manifested that to be evidently false Finally That what they doe is to avert The danger of the true reformed religion of the Kings honor and of the publick peace of the Kingdome When as indeed they could not have taken a course more to indanger the true Religion wound the Kings honour and disturbe the publick peace So that in this late Oath there is no trueth Againe We must sweare in judgement that is out of a certain knowledge of the thing which we sweare We finde in the fifth of Leviticus that when a man did sweare that which was hid from him It was a sin for which a Trespasse-offering was to be offered And now they have sworn unto many things which are hid from them and whereof they could have no certaine knowledge for they could not know that the Negative Confession is the National Confession of that Church nor that this Oath is the same with that which the King did sweare nor that Episcopacy and the five Articles of Perths Assembly were