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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	king_n	power_n	supremacy_n	2,252	5	10.5244	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A94141	Reasons of the present judgement of the Vniversity of Oxford, concerning [brace] The Solemne League and Covenant. The Negative Oath. The Ordinances concerning discipline and vvorship. Approved by generall consent in a full convocation, 1. Jun. 1647. and presented to consideration.	University of Oxford. Convocation.; Zouch, Richard, 1590-1661.; Langbaine, Gerard, 1609-1658.; Sanderson, Robert, 1587-1663.	1647 (1647)	Wing S623; Thomason E391_15; ESTC R18621	29,824	43

much worse and in the fourth that of Doctrine not at all better then our own which we are in the next passage of the Article required to reforme 3. Wherein if hereafter we shall find any thing as upon farther understanding thereof it is not impossible we may that may seem to us favouring of Popery Superstition Heresie or Schisme or contrary to sound doctrine or the power of godlinesse we shall be bound by the next Article to endeavour the extirpation after we have bound our selves by this first Article to the preservation thereof 4. Wherein we already find some things to our thinking so far tending towards a Superstition and b Schisme that it seemeth to us more reasonable that we should call upon them to reforme the same then that they should call upon us to preserue it Secondly we are not satisfied in the next branch concerning the Reformation of Religion in our own Kingdome in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government How we can sweare to endeavour the same which without making a change therein cannot be done 1. Without manifest scandall to the Papist and Separatist 1. By yeelding the cause which our godly Bishops and Martyrs and all our learned Divines ever since the Reformation have both by their writings and sufferings maintained who have justified against them both the Religion established in the Church of England to be agreeable to the Word of God 2. By justifying the Papists in the reproaches and scorne by them cast upon our Religion whose usuall objection it hath been and is that we know not what our Religion is that since we left them we cannot tell where to stay and that our Religion is a c Parliamentary Religion 3. By a tacite acknowledgement that there is something both in the doctrine and worship whereunto their conformity hath been required not agreeable to the Word of God and consequently justifying them both the one in his Recusancy the other in his Separation 4. By an implied Confession that the Lawes formerly made against Papists in this Kingdome and all punishments by virtue thereof inflicted upon them were unjust in punishing them for refusing to joyne with us in that forme of Worship which our selves as well as they doe not approve of 2. Without manifest wrong unto our selves our Consciences Reputation and Estates in bearing false witnesse against our selves and sundry other wayes by swearing to endeavour to reforme that as corrupt and vicious 1. Which we have formerly by our Personall Subscriptions approved as agreeable to Gods Word and have not been since either condemned by our own hearts for so doing or convinced in our judgements by any of our Brethren that therein we did amisse 2. Which in our Consciences we are perswaded not to be in any of the foure specified particulars as it standeth by Law established much lesse in the whole foure against the Word of God 3. Which we verily believe and as we think upon good grounds to be in sundry respects much better and more agreeable to the Word of God the practice of the Catholique Church then that which we should by the former words of this Article sweare to preserve 4. Whereunto the d Lawes yet in force require of all such Clerks as shall be admitted to any Benefi●e the signification of their hearty assent to be attested openly in the time of Divine Service before the whole congregation there present within a limited time and that under pain upon default made of the losse of every such Benefice 3. Without manifest danger of Perjury This branch of the Article to our best understandings seeming directly contrary 1. To our former solemne Protestation which we have bound our selves neither for hope feare or other respect ever to relinquish Wherein the Doctrine which we have vowed to maintaine by the name of the true Protestant Religion expressed in the Doctrine of the Church of England we take to be the ●ame which now we are required to endeavour to reform and alter 2. To the Oath of Supremacy by us also taken according to the Lawes of the Realme and the Statutes of our University in that behalfe Wherein having first testified and declared in our Consciences that the Kings Highnesse is the only supreme Governour of this Realme we doe after swear to our power to assist and d●fend all Jurisdictions Privileges Preheminences and Authorities granted or belonging to the Kings Highnesse His Heires and Successors or united and annexed to the Imperia●● Crow●● of this Realm● One of the which Privileges and Preheminences by an expresse Statute so annexed and that even in termi●● in the selfe-same words in a manner with those used in the Oath is the whole power of Spirituall or Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction for the correction and reformation of all manner of errors and abuses in matters Ecclesiasticall as by the e words of the said Statute more at large appeareth The Oath affording the Proposition and the Statute the Assumption we find no way how to avoyd the Conclusion §. IV. Of the Second Article of the Covenant FIrst it cannot but affect us with some griefe and Amazement to see that antient forme of Church-Government which we heartily and as we hope worthily honour as under which our Religion was at first so orderly without violence or tumuk and so happily reformed and hath since so long flourished with Truth and Peace to the honour and happinesse of our owne and the envy and admiration of other Nations not only 1. Endeavoured to be extirpated without any reason offered to our understandings for which it should be thought necessary or but so much as expedient so to doe But also 2. Ranked with Popery Superstition Heresie Schisme and Prophanesse which we unfainedly professe our selves to detest as much as any others whatsoever 3. And that with some intimation also as if that Government were some way or other so contrary to sound doctrine or the power of godlinesse that whosoever should not endeavour the extirpation thereof must of necesssity partake in other mens sins which we cannot yet be perswaded to believe 4. And we desire it may be considered in case a Covenant of like forme should be tender'd to the Citizens of London wherein they should be required to sweare they would sincerely really and constantly without respect of persons endeavour the extirpation of Treason the City Government by a Lord Major Aldermen Sheriffes Common-Councel and other officers depending thereon Murther Adultery Theft Cosenage and whatsoever shall be c. lest they should partake in other mens sinnes whether such a tendry could be looked upon by any Citizen that had the least spirit of freedome in him as an act of Justice Meeknesse and Reason Secondly for Episcopall Government we are not satisfied how we can with a good Conscience sweare to endeavour the extirpation thereof 1. in respect of the thing it selfe Concerning which government we thinke we have reason to believe 1. That it is if not

we can swear to endeavour the extirpation of the Church-Government by Law established without forfeiture of those Obligations 1. Having in the Oath of Supremacie acknowledged the King to be the onely Supreme Governour in all Ecclesiasticall Causes and over all Ecclesiasticall Persons and having bound our selves both in that Oath and by our Protestation To maintain the Kings Honour Estate Jurisdictions and all manner of Rights it is cleare to our understandings that we cannot without disloyalty and injury to Him and double Perjury to our selves take upon us without his consent to make any alteration in the Ecclesiasticall Lawes or Government much lesse to endeavour the extirpation thereof Unlesse the imposers of this Covenant had a power and meaning which they have openly d disclaimed to absolve us of that Obedience which under God we owe unto His Majesty whom they know to be intrusted with the Ecclesiasticall Law 2. We cannot sincerely and really endeavour the extirpation of this Government without a sincere desire and reall endeavour that His Majesty would grant His Royall Assent to such extirpation Which we are so far from desiring and endeavouring that we hold it our bounden duty by our daily prayers to beg at the hands of Almighty God that he would not for our sins suffer the King to doe an act so prejudiciall to his honour and conscience as to consent to the rooting out of that estate which by so many branches of his e Coronation Oath he hath in such a solemne manner sworn by the assistance of God to his power to maintain and preserve 3. By the Lawes of this Land f the Collation of Bishopricks and g Deanries the h fruits and profits of their Lands and Revenues during their vacancies the i first fruits and yearly tenths out of all Ecclesiasticall Promotions and sundry other Privileges Profits and Emoluments arising out of the State Ecclesiasticall are established in the Crown and are a considerable part of the Revenues thereof which by the extirpation of Prelacy as it is in the Article expounded or by subsequent practice evidenced will be severed and cut off from the Crown to the great prejudice and damage thereof Whereunto as we ought not in common reason and in order to our Allegiance as Subjects yeeld our consent so having sworn expresly to maintain the Kings honour and estate and to our power to assist and defend all Jurisdictions c. belonging to His Highnesse or united and annexed to the Imperiall Crown of the Realm we cannot without manifest Perjury as we conceive consent thereunto 4. The Government of this Realm being confessedly an Empire or k Monarchy and that of a most excellent temper and constitution we understand not how it can become us to desire or endeavour the extirpation of that Government in the Church which we conceive to be incomparably of all other the most agreeable and no way prejudiciall to the state of so well a constituted Monarchy In so much as King JAMES would often say what his long experience had taught him No Bishop no King Which Aphorisme though we find in sundry Pamphlets of late yeares to have been exploded with much confidence and scorn yet we must professe to have met with very little in the proceedings of the late times to weaken our belief of it And we hope we shall be the lesse blamed for our unwillingnesse to have any actuall concurrence in the extirpating of Episcopall Government seeing of such extirpation there is no other use imaginable but either the alienation of their Revenues and Inheritances which how it can be severed from Sacrilege and Injustice we leave others to find out or to make way for the introducing of some other form of Church-Government which whatsoever it shall be will as we think prove either destructive of and inconsistent with Monarchicall Government or at least-wise more prejudiciall to the peaceable orderly and effectuall exercise thereof then a well-regulated Episcopacy can possibly be §. V. Of the other parts of the Covenant HAving insisted the more upon the two first Articles that concern Religion and the Church and wherein our selves have a more proper concernment We shall need to insist the lesse upon those that follow contenting our selves with a few the most obvious of those many great and as we conceive just exceptions that lye there against In the third Article we are not satisfied that our endeavour to preserve and defend the Kings Majesties Person and Authority is so limited as there it is by that addition In the Preservation and defence of the true Religion and Libertyes of the Kingdome Forasmuch as 1. No such limitation of our duty in that behalf is to be found either in the Oathes of Supremacy and Alleagiance which no Papist would refuse to take with such a limitation nor in the Protestation nor in the Word of God 2. Our endeavour to preserve the Rights and Privileges of Parliaments and the Libertyes of the Kingdomes is required to be sworn of us in the same Article without the like or any other limitation added thereunto 3. Such limitation leaveth the duty of the Subject at so much loosenesse and the safety of the King at so great uncertainty that whensoever the People shall have a mind to withdraw their obedience they cannot want a pretence from the same for so doing 4. After we should by the very last thing we did viz. swea●ing with such a limitation have made our selves guilty of an actuall and reall dimi●●tion as we conceive of His Majesties just power and greatnesse the obtestation would seem very unseasonable at the least with the same breath to call the world to bear witnesse with our Consciences that we had no thoughts or intentions to diminish the same 5. The swearing with such a limitation is a Testimony of the Subjects Loyaltie to our seeming of a very strange nature which the Principles of their severall Religions salved the Conscience of a most resolute Papist or Sectary may securely swallow and the Conscience of a good Protestant cannot but str●in at In the fourth Article 1. We desire it may be considered whether the imposing of the Covenant in this Article do not lay a necessity upon the Son of accusing his own Father and pursuing him to destruction in case he should be an Incendiary Malignant or other evill Instrument such as in the Article is described A course which we conceive to be contrary to Religion Nature and Humanity 2. Whether the swearing according to this Article doth not rather open a ready way to Children that are sick of the Father Husbands that are weary of their Wives c. by appealing such as stand between them and their desires of Malignancy the better to effectuate their unlawfull intentions and designes 3. Our selves having solemnly protested to maintain the Liberty of the Subject and the House of Commons having publiquely declared against the exercise of an Arbitrary Power with Order that

the Argument drawn from the Analogie of other Courts wherein the Kings Power is alwayes supposed to be virtually present under submission we conceive it is of no consequence 1. The Arguments à minore and ȧ majore are subject to many fallacies and unlesse there be a parity of reason in every requisite respect between the things compared will not hold good A Pety Constable they say may doe something which a Justice of Peace cannot doe And the Steward of a pety Mannour hath power to adminster an Oath which as we are told the House of Commons it self hath no power to doe 2. That the high Court of Parliament is the supream Judicatory we have been told it is by vertue of the Kings right of presiding there he being g the Supream Judge and the Members of both Houses his Councell Which being so the reason of difference is plaine between that and other Judicatories in sundry respects 1. The Judges in other Courts are deputed by him and doe all in his name and by his authority and therefore the presence of his power in those Courts of ministeriall Jurisdiction is sufficient his personall presence not necessary neither hath he any personall vote therein at all But in the high Court of Parliament where the King himself is the Supreme Judge judging in his own name and by his own authority his Power cannot be presumed to be really present without either the actuall presence of his person or some virtuall representation thereof signified under his great Seal 2. The Judges in inferiour Courts because they are to act all in his name and by his Authority doe therefore take Oathes of fidelity for the right exercising of Judicature in their severall places sitting there not by any proper interest of their owne but only in right of the King whose Judges they are and therefore they are called the Kings Judges and his Ministers But in the high Court of Parliament the Lords and Commons sit there in Councell with the King as Supreme Judge for the good of the whole Realm and therefore they are not called the Kings Judges but the Kings Councell and they have their severall proper rights and interests peculiar and distinct both between themselves from that of the Kings by reason whereof they become distinct h Orders or as of late times they have been stiled in this sense as we conceive i three distinct Estates Each of which being supposed to be the best Conservators of their own proper interest if the power of any one Estate should be presumed to be virtually present in the other two that Estate must needs be in inevitably liable to suffer in the proper Interests thereof Which might quickly prove destructive to the whole Kingdome The safety and prosperity of the whole consisting in the conservation of the just rights and proper interests of the maine parts viz. The King Lords and Commons inviolate and entire 3. The Judges of other Courts for as much as their power is but ministeriall and meerly Judiciall are bounded by the present Lawes and limited also by their owne Acts so as they may neither swerve from the Laws in giving Judgement nor reverse their owne Judgements after they are given But the High Court of Parliament having by reason of the Kings Supreme Power presiding therein a Power Legislative as well as Judiciall are not so limited by any earthly Power but that they may change and over-rule the Lawes and their own Acts at their pleasure The Kings Personall assent therefore is not needfull in those other Courts which are bounded by those Lawes whereunto the King hath already given his personall assent but unto any Act of Power beside beyond above or against the Lawes already established we have been informed and it seems to us very agreeable to reason that the Kings Personall Assent should be absolutely necessary Forasmuch as every such Act is the exercise of a Legislative rather then of a Judiciall power and no Act of Legislative power in any Community by consent of all Nations can be valid unlesse it be confirmed by such person or persons as the Soveraignty of that Community resideth in Which Soveraignty with us so undoubtedly resideth in the person of the King that his ordinary style runneth Our k Soveraign Lord the King And he is in the Oath of Supremacie expresly acknowledged to be the onely Supreme Governour within his Realmes And we leave it to the wisdome of others to consider what misery and mischief might come to the Kingdome if the power of any of these three Estates should be swallowed up by any one or both the other and if then under the name of a Judiciall there should be yee really exercised a Legislative power 4. Since all Judiciall Power is radically and originally in the King who is for that cause styled by the Lawes l The Fountaine of Justice and not in any other Person or Persons but by derivation from him it seemeth to us evident that neither the Judges of inferiour Courts of ministeriall Justice nor the Lords and Commons assembled in the High Court of Parliament may of right exercise any other power over the Subjects of this Realm then such as by their respective Patents and Writs issued from the King or by the known established Laws of the Land formerly assented unto by the Kings of this Realm doth appear to have been from him derived unto them Which Lawes Patents and Writs being the exact boundary of their severall Powers it hath not yet been made appeare to our understandings either from the Lawes of the Realme or from the tenour of those Writs by which the Parliament is called that the two Houses of Parliament have any power without the King to order command or transact but with him m to treat consult and advise concerning the great affairs of the Kingdome In which respect they have sundry times in their Declarations to His Majesty called themselves by the name of His great Councell And those Lawes and Writs are as we conceive the proper Topick from which the just power of the Honourable Houses can be convincingly deduced and not such fraile Collections as the wits of men may raise from seeming Analogies and Proportions VIII Of the Negative Oath WE are not satisfied how we can submit to the taking of the Negative Oath 1. Without forfeiture of that liberty which we have sworne and are bound to preserve With which liberty we conceive it to be inconsistent that any obligation should be laid upon the Subject by an oath not established by Act of Parliament 2 Without abjuring our a naturall Allegiance and violating the Oathes of Supremacy and Allegiance by us formerly taken By all which being bound to our power to assist the King we are by this Negative Oath required to swear from our heart not to assist him 3. Without diminution of His Majesties just Power and greatnesse contrary to the third Article of the

REASONS Of the present judgement of the Vniversity of OXFORD CONCERNING The Solemne League and Covenant The Negative Oath The Ordinances concerning Discipline and VVorship Approved by generall consent in a full Convocation 1. Jun. 1647. AND Presented to Consideration ACADEMIA OXONIENSIS Printed in the Yeare 1647. A Solemn League and Covenant for Reformation and defence of Religion the honour and happinesse of the King and the Peace and Safety of the three Kingdomes England Scotland and Jreland WE Noblemen Barons Knights Gentlemen Citizens Burgesses Ministers of the Gospell and Commons of all sorts in the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland by the Providence of God living under one King and being of one Reformed Religion having before our eyes the glory of God and the advancement of the Kingdome of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ the honour and happinesse of the Kings Majestie and His Posterity and the true publick Lybertie Safetie and Peace of the Kingdoms wherein every ones private condition is included and calling to mind the treacherous and bloudy plots Conspiracies Attempts and practices of the Enemies of God against the true Religion and Professors thereof in all places especially in these three Kingdomes ever since the Reformation of Religion and how much their rage power and presumption are of late and at this time increased and exercised whereof the deplorable estate of the Church and Kingdom of Ireland the distressed estate of the Church and Kingdome of England and the dangerous estate of the Church and Kingdome of Scotland are present and publick Testimonies We have now at last after other meanes of supplication Remonstrance Protestations and Sufferings for the preservation of our selves and our Religion from utter ruine and destruction according to the commendable practice of these Kingdomes in former times and the Example of Gods People in other Nations after mature deliberation resolved and determined to enter into a mutuall and solemne League and Covenant wherein we all subscribe and each one of us for himselfe with our hands lifted up to the most High God do swear I. THat we shall sincerely really and constantly through the Grace of God endeavour in our severall places and callings the preservation of the Reformed Religion in the Church of Scotland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government against our common Enemies The Reformation of Religion in the Kingdoms of England and Ireland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government according to the Word of God and the example of the best reformed Churches And shall endeavour to bring the Churches of God in the three Kingdomes to the nearest conjunction and uniformity in Religion Confession of Faith Form of C●urch Government Directory for Worship and Catechizing That we and our posterity after us may as Brethren live in Faith and Love and the Lord may delight to dwell in the midst of us II. That we shall in like manner without respect of persons endeavour the extirpation of Popery Prelacy that is Church Government by Archbishops Bishops their Chancellours and Commissaries Deans Deans and Chapters Archdeacons and all other Ecclesiasticall Officers depending on that Hierarchy Superstition Heresie Schisme Profanenesse and whatsoever shall be found to be contrary to sound Doctrine and the power of Godlinesse lest we partake in other mens sinnes and thereby be in danger to receive of their plagues and that the Lord may be one and his Name one in the three Kingdomes III. We shall with the same sincerity reallity and constancy in our severall Vocations endeavour with our estates and lives mutually to preserve the Rights and Privileges of the Parliaments and the Liberties of the Kingdomes and to preserve and defend the Kings Majesties person and authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdomes that the world may bear witnesse with our consciences of our Loyaltie and that we have no thoughts or intentions to diminish His Majesties just power and greatness IIII. We shall also with all faithfullnesse endeavour the discovery of all such as have been or shall be Incendiaries Malignants or evill Instruments by hindring the Reformation of Religion dividing the King from his people or one of the Kingdomes from another or making any faction or parties amongst the people contrary to this League and Covenant that they may be brought to publick triall and receive condigne punishment as the degree of their offences shall require or deserve or the supream Judicatories of both Kingdomes respectively or others having power from them for that effect shall judge convenient V. And whereas the happinesse of a blessed Peace between these Kingdomes denied in former times to our progenitours is by the good providence of God granted unto us and hath been lately concluded and setled by both Parliaments we shall each one of us according to our place and interest endeavour that they may remain conjoyned in a firm Peace and Union to all posterity And that Justice may be done upon the wilfull opposers thereof in manner expressed in the precedent Articles VI We shall also according to our places and callings in this common cause of Religion Liberty and Peace of the Kingdomes assist and defend all those that enter into this League and Covenant in the maintaining and pursuing thereof and shall not suffer our selves directly or indirectly by whatsoever combination perswasion or terrour to be divided and withdrawn from this blessed Union and Conjunction whether to make defection to the contrary part or to give our selves to a detestable indifferencie or neutrality i● this caus● which so much concerneth the glory of God the good of the Kingdoms and the honour of the King but shall all the dayes of our lives zealously and constantly continue therei● against all opposition promote th esame according to our power against all lets and impediments whatsoever and what we are not able our selves to suppress or overcome we shall reveal make known that it may be timely prevented or removed All which we shall do as in the sight of God And because these Kingdoms are guilty of many sinnes and provocations against God and his Son Jesus Christ as is too manifest by our present distresses and dangers the fruits thereof We professe and declare before God and the world our unfained desire to be humbled for our owne sins and for the sins of these Kingdoms especially that we have not as we ought valued the inestimable benefit of the Gospel that we have not laboured for the puritie and power thereof and that we have not endeavoured to receive Christ in our hearts nor to walke worthy of him in our lives which are the causes of other sinnes and transgressions so much abounding amongst us And our true and unfained purpose desire and endeavour for our selves and all others under our power and charge both in publick and in private in all duties we owe to God and man to amend our lives and each one to goe before another in the

in the first Article Who in the fourth Article are to be accounted Malignants How far that phrase of hindring Reformation may be extended What is meant by the supreme Judicatory of both Kingdomes and sundry other Thirdly by the use that hath been made of this Covenant sometimes to purposes of dangerous consequence we are brought into some fears and jealousies lest by taking the same we should cast our selves into more snares then we are yet aware of For in the first Article 1. Whereas we are to endeavour the Reformation of Religion in this Kingdome in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government according to the Word of God and the example of the best Reformed Churches 1. The Reformation in Worship whereby we could not suppose any more was intended according to their former a Declaration then a review of the Service-book that the translations might be in some places amended some alterations made in the Offices and Rubricks or at most some of the Ceremonies laid aside for the reasons of expediency and condescension hath produced an utter abolition of the whole form established without substituting any other certain form in the room thereof 2. The Reformation in point of Discipline and Government intended so far as by the overtures hitherto made we are able to judge is such as we conceive not to be according to the Word of God nor for any thing we know according to the example of any Church that ever was in the world best or worst since the Creation 2. In the second Article our griefe and fears had been lesse if we could have observed the extirpation of Popery Heresie Schisme and Profanenesse to have been as really intended and set on with as much speed and animosity as the extirpation of Prelacy and that which some call Superstition But when we see under the notions of rooting out Prelacy and Superstition so much quicknesse used to fetch in the Revenues of the Church and the sacred Utensils no otherwise guilty of Superstition for ought we know then that they are worth something and on the other side so little yet done toward the extirpation of Heresie Schisme and Profanenesse as things of lesse temporall advantage We cannot dissemble our suspicion that the designers of this Covenant might have something else before their eyes besides what in the begining of the Introduction is expressed and that there is something meant in this Article that looketh so like Sacrilege that we are afraid to venture thereon 3. In the third Article 1. Although we should not otherwise have apprehended any matter of danger or moment in the ordering of the particulars in the Article mentioned yet since M. Challoner in his Speech and others have made advantage thereof to infer from that very order that the defence of the Kings Person and Authority ought to be with subordination to the preservation of the Rights and Privileges of Parliaments and the Liberties of the Kingdome which are in the first place and before it to be endeavoured We hope we shall be excused if we dare not take the Covenant in this sense especially considering that if the Argument be of any force it will bind us at least as strongly to endeavour the maintenance of the Kings Person Honour and Estate in the first place and the rest but subordinately thereunto because they are so ordered in the Protestation And then that Protestation having the advantage of preceding it will bind us more strongly as being the first obligation 2. Whereas some have been the rather induced to take the Covenant in this particular by being told that that limitation in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdomes was not to be understood exclusively yet when we finde that the House of Commons in their answer to the Scottish Papers doe d often presse that limitation as without which the endeavouring to preserve the Kings Majesties Person and Authority ought not to be mentioned it cannot but deter us from taking the Covenant in this particular so understood 3. Especially being told in a late pamphlet that the King not having preserved the Liberties of the Kingdome c. as of duty he ought is thereby become a Tyrant and so ceaseth to be a King and consequently that his subjects cease to be Subjects and owe him no longer subjection Which assertion since we heartily detest as false and scandalous in the supposition and in the inference seditious and divelish we dare not by subscribing this Article seeme to give the least countenance thereunto 4. But it striketh us with horror to think what use hath been made of this fourth Article concerning the punishment of Malignants c. as by others otherwayes so especially by the Corrector of a speech without dores written in the defence of M. Challoners Speech Who is so bold as to tell the Parliament that they are bound by their Covenant for the bringing of evill instruments to condigne punishment to destroy the King and his Posterity and that they cannot justifie the taking away of Straffords and Canterburies lives for Delinquency whilst they suffer the cheif Delinquent to goe unpunished §. VII Of the Salvo's THe Salvo's that we have usually met withall for the avoyding of the aforesaid scruples either concerning the whole Covenant or some particulars therein of speciall importance We find upon examination to be no way satisfactory to our Consciences The first is that we may take the Covenant in our own sense but this in a matter of this nature viz. an imposed promisory Oath in the performance whereof others also are presumed to be concerned seemeth to be 1. Contrary to the Nature and end of an Oath which unlesse it be full of simplicity cannot be Sworn in Truth and Righteousnesse nor serve to the ending of controversies and contradictions which was the use for which it was instituted Heb. 6. 2. Contrary to the end of Speech God having given us the use of Speech for this end that it might be the interpreter of the minde it behoveth us as in all other our dealings and contracts so especially where there is the intervention of an Oath so to speak as that they whom it concerneth may clearly understand our meaning by our words 3. Contrary to the end of the Covenant it self Which being the confirmation of a firm union among the Covenanters that by taking thereof they might have mutuall assurance of mutuall assistance defence If one may be allowed to take it in one sense another in a contrary the Covenanters shall have no more assurance of mutuall assistance each from other after the taking of the Covenant then they had before 4. Contrary to the Solemne profession made by each Covevanter in expresse termes in the conclusion thereof in the presence of Almighty God the searcher of all hearts that he taketh it with a true intention to perform the same as he shall answer it at the great day 2 This will bring