of this Church never departed fully from Rome And in this last Petition they begin to make their grievances swell adding their dislike of the Booke of Canons to their former distaste of the Service Book the occasion of Our authorising of which Booke of Canons was this As Wee were desirous to settle one uniforme forme of publike Prayer and Divine Service throughout that Our Kingdom and for that purpose authorized the Service Book so We conceived that it was not only expedient but necessary that there should be one uniforme forme of Church government throughout the same and because there was no booke extant containing any rules of such governement so that neither the Clergie nor Laity had any certaine rule either of the ones power or of the others practise and obedience and considering that the Acts of their generall Assemblies were but written and not printed and so large and voluminous as it is impossible that so many copies of them should be transcribed as that they may come to the use and knowledge of many and so Apocryphall as that few or none of themselves can tell which of them are authenticall and so unsafely and uncertainely kept that they do not know whither to addresse themselves for finding of them Wee could not imagine but that it should have beene acknowledged and received with all thankfulnesse that We had reduced their numerous Acts and those not knowne to them to such a paucitie of Canons and those published that none could be insnared through ignorance nor complaine that they were over-charged with the multiplicitie of them For it may be averred with unquestionable certaintie that not one in that Our Kingdome did either live under the obedience of the Acts of the generall Assemblies or did know what they were or where certainely to have them And yet these men have interpreted Our furthering their knowledge and facilitating and conveniencing their obedience for one of the most grievous burthens was ever laid upon them But no wonder it is if when mens minds are once out of taste with government nothing tending to order relisheth well with them Their petition was sent up to Us by Our Councell But Wee seeing no signe of repentance for or disavowing of their late tumults untill some order might be taken for the finding out and punishment of the authors of them resolved to delay the answering of their petition but in the meane time commanded Our Councell to signifie to all Our good subjects Our aversnesse from Poperie and detestation of Superstition the contrarie suggestions whereof We found the heads of this Rebellion had used for abusing of Our loyall subjects and so accordingly Our Councell caused a Proclamation to be made at Lithgow which was this Apud Linlithgow septimo Decemb. 1637. FOr as much as the Kings Majestie having seene the Petition presented to the Lords of his Majesties privie Councell and by them sent up to his Majestie concerning the Service Book determined to have taken the same into his Royall consideration and to have given his gracious answer thereanent with all conveniencie Like as his Majestie by his letters to his Councell of the date of the ninth of October last did signifie his gracious resolution to the effect aforesaid But since that time his Majestie finding farre contrarie to his expectation that such disorderly tumultuous and barbarous insolenceis have beene committed within the Citie of Edinburgh upon the eighteenth of October last to the great contempt of his Majesties Royall authoritie by abusing his Majesties Councellors and Officers of State with others bearing charge and authoritie under his Majestie within the said Citie His Majestie in a just resentment of that foule indignitie wherein his Majesties Honour did so much suffer hath beene mooved to delay the signification of his Majesties gracious intention in giving to his subjects such satisfactorie answers to their Petitions as in equitie might have been expected from so just and religious a Prince But yet his Majestie being unwilling that his Loyall and faithfull subjects should be possessed with groundlesse and uncessarie doubts and feares His Majestie is pleased out of his goodnesse to declare like as by these presents hee declareth That as he abhorreth all Superstition of Poperie so he will be most carefull that nothing be allowed within his Majesties Dominions but that which shall tend to the advancement of the true Religion as it is presently professed within his most ancient Kingdome of Scotland And that nothing is or was intended to be done therein against the laudable lawes of this his Majesties native Kingdome And ordaineth publication to bee made hereof in forme as a foresaid AT this time We sent into Scotland the Earle of Roxburgh Lord privie Seale with certaine instructions to Our Councell for ordering these disordered affaires according to which they appointed the Councell to sit at Dalkeith being not above foure miles from Edinburgh that so they might the more easily know what passed in that place now become the seat of the Rebellion and they removed the Session or Terme from Lithgow to Sterlin a place of 24. miles distance from Edinburgh that so the huge disorderly multitudes there assembled might be dispersed by the necessitie of the attendance of such as had any Law-businesse At the same time the Earle of Traquair Lord Treasurer of that Kingdome whom Wee had sent for hither was returned back with directions from Us He with Our Lord privie Seale other principall Councellers repaired to Sterlin where by Our commandement they caused a Proclamation to be made for the dispersing of the huge and dangerous multitudes there assembled and the assuring of Our subjects of Our sinceritie towards the Religion established in that Our Kingdom And there first the Nobilitie Gentrie Ministers and Burgesses did the same thing which they themselves called the uproare of Rascalls at the first reading of the Service Book in the Churches of Edinburgh and which they condemned but in milder tearmes by the name of an unjustifiable act in that great sedition at Edinburgh on the eighteenth of October 1637 For by them first at Sterlin then at Lithgow and last at Edinburgh was made the first avowed affront to Us Our authoritie and Lawes For at Sterlin Our Proclamation being made the Earle of Hume and the Lord Lindsey assisted with many others of all ranks made a Protestation against the same which Protestation was afterward repeated at Lithgow and last at Edinburgh where when upon the Crosse Our Proclamation was made by Our Officers with sound of Trumpets and assisted with Our Heralds with Our coats of Armes upon their backs it was received while it was in reading with jeering and laughing and after it was ended with a Protestation against it made by many Earles Lords Ministers and Burgesses and the conflux of all other sorts of people who were all of them so malapert as not to suffer Our Heralds and Officers to come off the Crosse but forced them to stay and heare
consciences will not suffer us to imbrace and practise this urged Service VVe have this long time past winked at some former alterations being put in hope that no further novations should follow But now we being oppressed with our just feares to see our selves deprived of that libertie in serving God which ever hath beene approved by Church and Kingdome In place whereof we are now like to be constrained to imbrace another which hath neither been agitated nor received either by generall Assemblie or Parliament In such extremitie we are most humbly to supplicate your Lordship to consider our present estate and that this businesse is a matter of so great weight and consequence as should not appeare to bee a needlesse noyse of simple women but it is the absolute desire of all our hearts for preservation of true Religion amongst us which is dearer to us then either estate or life And therefore we do humbly crave that as the rest of the Kingdome so we may have a time to advise and that your Lordship may find out some way whereby wee may be delivered from the feare of this and all other innovations of this kinde and have the happinesse to injoy the true Religion as it hath beene by the great mercie of God reformed in this land and authorised by his Majestie who may long and prosperously Reigne over us And your Lordships answer Their Petition to the Councell followes My Lords of Secret Councell UNto your Lordships humbly shews VVe Noblemen Barons Ministers Burgesses and Commons That whereas we were in humble and quiet manner attending a gracious answer of our former supplications against the Service Book imposed upon us and readie to shew the great inconveniences which upon the introduction thereof must ensue we are without any knowne desert farre by our expectation surprised and charged by publike Proclamation to depart out of the town within twentie foure houres thereafter under paine of Rebellion by which peremptorie and unusuall charge our feares of a more severe and strict course of proceeding are augmented and course of our supplication interrupted wherefore we are constrained out of the deep griefe of our hearts humbly to remonstrate that whereas the Arch-bishops and Bishops of this Realme being intrusted by his Majestie with the government of the affaires of the Church of Scotland have drawne up and set forth and caused to be drawne up and set forth and injoyned upon the subjects two Books In the one whereof called the Book of Common prayer not onely are sowne the seeds of divers Superstitions Idolatrie and false doctrine contrarie to the true Religion established within this Realme by divers Acts of Parliament But also the Service Booke of England is abused especially in the matter of Communion by additions subtractions interchanging of words and sentences falsifying of titles and misplacing of Collects to the disadvantage of Reformation as the Romish Masse is in the more substantiall points made up therein as we offer to instruct in time and place convenient quite contrarie unto and for reversing the gracious intention of the blessed Reformers of Religion in England In the other book called Canons and Constitutions for the government of the Church of Scotland they have ordained That whosoever shall affirme that the forme of worship inserted in the Booke of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments whereof heretofore and now we most justly complaine doth containe any thing repugnant to the Scriptures or are corrupt superstitious or unlawfull in the service and worship of God shall be excommunicated and not be restored but by the Bishop of the place or Archbishop of the Province after his repentance and publicke revocation of this his wicked errour Besides one hundred Canons moe many of them tending to the reviving and fostering of abolished superstitions and errours and to the overthrow of our Church Discipline established by Acts of Parliament opening a doore for what further invention of Religion they please to make and stopping the way which Law before did allow unto us for suppressing of errour and superstition And ordaining That where in any of the Canons there is no penalty expresly set down the punishment shall be arbitrary as the Bishop shall think fittest All which Canons were never seen nor allowed in any Generall Assembly but are imposed contrary to order of law appointed in this Realm for establishing Constitutions Ecclesiasticall unto which two books the foresaid Prelates have under trust procured his Majesties Royall hand and Letters Patents for pressing the same upon his loyall subjects and are the Contrivers and Devisers of the same as doth clearly appear by the Frontispice of the Book of Common Prayer and have begun to urge the acceptance of the same not onely by injunctions given in Provinciall Assemblies but also by open Proclamation and charge of Horning whereby we are driven in such straites as we must either by Processe of Excommunication and Horning suffer the ruine of our estates and fortunes or else by breach of our Covenant with God and forsaking the way of true Religion fall under the wrath of God which unto us is more grievous then death VVherefore we being perswaded that these their proceedings are contrary to our gracious Soveraign hispious intention who out of his zeale and Princely care of the preservation of true Religion established in this his ancient Kingdome hath ratified the same in his Highnesse Parliament 1633 And so his Majestie to be highly wronged by the said Prelates who have so farre abused their credit with so good a King as thus to insnare his subjects rend our Church undermine Religion in Doctrine Sacraments and Discipline move discontent between the King and his subjects and discord between subject and subject contrary to severall Acts of Parliament VVe out of bound duty to God our King and native Countrey complain of the foresaid Prelates humbly craving that this matter may be put to tryall and these our parties taken order with according to the lawes of the Realm And that they be not suffered to sit any more as Judges untill the cause be tryed and decided according to Justice And if this shall seeme to bee to you a matter of higher importance then you will condescend unto before his Majesty bee acquainted therewith Then wee humbly supplicate that this our grievance and complaint may be fully represented to his Majestie That from the influence of his Gracious Soveraigntie and Justice these wrongs may bee redressed and wee have the happinesse to injoy the Religion as it hath beene reformed in this Land IN this Petition it is worthy the observing that they complaine of the mangling of the English Service Booke and of the abuses offered unto it and the wronging of the intentions of the blessed Reformers of Religion here in this Kingdome whereas in their Sermons and ordinarie discourse they doe usually inveigh against the Service Booke here for being stuffed with Superstition and Poperie and that the first Reformers
State excuseth our uncessant and importune calling for these present remedies Doth insinuate the continuance and execution of any pretended Lawes for these innovations of worship and corruptions of Church government and civill places of Church-men which by our Covenant wee have obliged our selves to forbeare and the re-establishment of these evils in an Assembly and Parliament which hee will call in his best convenience to wit for that and this other end of satisfying his subjects judgements anent the Service Booke and Book of Canons Doth condemne all our former proceedings even our supplicating complaining protesting subscribing of our Covenant together and our continuall meetings as great disorders increase of disorders deserving justly a powerfull rather then a perswasive way a running headlong into ruine a perishing in our faults a blind disobedience under pretext of Religion and doth threaten denounce Now once for all If we be not heartily satisfied and give testimony of our obedience after this Declaration but continue as by our former proceedings to draw on our owne ruine that albeit unwillingly he must make use of that power which God hath indued him with for reclaiming of so disobedient people THerefore we in our own name and in name of all who will adhere to the Confession of Faith and reformation of Religion within this Land are forced and compelled out of our bound duty to God our King native Country our selves and our posterity lest our silence should be prejudiciall to so important a cause as concernes Gods glory and worship our Religion and salvation the Lawes and Liberties of this Church and Kingdome or derogatory to our former supplications complaints protestations Articles and proceedings or unanswerable to the solemne oath of our nation covenant with God To declare before God and man and to protest Primo That we doe and will constantly adhere according to our vocation and power to the said Reformation in doctrine use of Sacraments and discipline And that notwithstanding of any innovations introduced therein either of old or of late Secundo we potest That we adhere to the grievances supplications and protestations given in at Assemblies and Parliaments and to our late supplications complaints protestations and other lawfull proceedings against the same and particularly against the Service book and booke of Canons as maine innovations of Religion and Lawes and full of Popish superstition and so directly contrary to the Kings Declaration And against the High Commission as a judicatory established contrary to the Lawes and Liberties of this Church and Kingdome and destructive of other lawfull judicatories which both in respect of the nature of it and manner of introduction without consent of the three Estates of Parliament cannot be any wayes rectified but absolutely discharged Tertio we protest That we adhere with our hearts to our Oath and subscription of the Confession of Faith the solemne Covenant betweene God this Church and Kingdome and the clauses particularly therein expressed and generally contained and to our last Articles for the peace of this Kirke and Kingdome drawne out of it and to all the matters therein contained and manner of remedy therein desired Quarto We protest that this Proclamation or act of Councell or any other act or Proclamation or Declaration or ratification thereof By subscription or act or letter or any other manner of way whatsoever or any precondemnation of our cause or carriage before the same be lawfully heard and tryed in the supreme judicatories of this Kirk and Kingdome the onely proper judges to nationall causes and proceedings or any certification or threatning therein denounced shall no waies be prejudiciall to the Confession of Faith lawes and liberties of this Kingdome nor to our supplications complaints protestations articles lawfull meetings proceedings pursuits mutuall defences nor to our persons and Estates and shall no wayes be disgracefull either in reality or opinion at home or abroad to us or any of us But on the contrary that any act or letter or subscription of the Councell carrying the approbation of the declaration and condemnation of our proceedings indicta causa is and ought to be repute esteemed unjust illegall null as here before God and man we offer to clear to verifie both the justice of our cause and carriage and the injustice of such acts against us in the face of the first generall Assembly of the Church Parliament of the Estates unto whom with all solemnities requisite we do publikly appeal Quinto We protest that seeing our former supplications last Articles our last desire and petition to his Majesties Commissioner which petitioned for the present indiction of a free general Assembly Parliament according to the law and custome of all nations of this nation in the like case to hear the desires ease the grievances settle the fears of the body of the Church Kingdome are thus delayed in effect refused to wit Once for all till his Majesties conveniency for the end contained in this Proclamation that We continue by thir presents to supplicate his Majesty again and again for the granting of the same And whatsoever trouble or inconvenience fall out in this land in the mean time for want of these ordinary remedies and by the practice of any of these innovations evils contrary to our supplications articles confession it be not imputed unto us who most humbly beg these lawfull remedies but also that it is shall be lawfull unto us to defend and maintain the Religion lawes and liberties of this Kingdome the Kings Authority in defence thereof every one of us one another in that cause of maintaining the Religion and the Kings foresaid Authority according to our power vocation and Covenant with our best counsel bodies lives means whole strength against all persons whatsoever against all externall or internall invasions menaced in this Proclamation Like as that in the great exigencie of the Church necessitating the use of this ordinary and lawfull remedies for settling the commotions thereof it is and shall be leasome unto us to appoint hold and use the ordinary means our lawfull meetings and Assemblies of the Church agreeble to the Law of God and practice of the primitive Church the Acts of the generall Assemblies and Parliaments and the example of our Worthy Reformers in the like case Sexto We protest that our former Supplications Complaints Protestations Confessions meetings proceedings and mutuall defences of every one another in this cause as they are and were in themselves most necessary and orderly meanes agreeable to the lawes practice of this Church and Kingdome to be commended as reall duties of faithfull Christians loyall Subjects and sensible members of the body of the Church and Kingdome and no wise to be stiled nor accounted great disorders misdemeanors blind disobedience under pretext of Religion and running headlong into ruine c. So they proceeded only from conscience of our duty to God our King native
would expect his returne and Our answer by that time he would doe both These holy men resolve to expect that time before any election shall be actually made but give order that it shall be made the next day after before it could be knowne in most parts of the kingdome whether he were returned or in any part of the kingdome or by any person of the kingdome what answer he had returned from Us The insinceritie of which proceedings condemned by many Covenanting Ministers at their meeting at Edinburgh for a most desperate equivocation We are confident every man will detest especially in those men who boast themselves to be the onely sincere Professours of these times Besides Our Commissioner found that these men who would not so much as hear him speak of any precedent conference of any thing concerning the Assembly nor of any directions to be agreed upon for the more orderly proceeding in it but cried out against them as unsufferable prelimitations and prejudgings of the liberties of Christ and his Church had in the time of his absence at their Tables agreeed upon certaine directions comprehended in eight Articles which they had dispersed through the whole kingdome and commanded to be observed by the severall Presbyteries thereof in their elections the true copie whereof here followeth A direction for Presbyteries THat every Presbyterie have a copie of the Act made at Dundie the seventh of March 1597. concerning the number of Commissioners the tenour whereof followeth Because there hath beene no order hitherto anent the number of Commissioners to be directed from everie Presbyterie to the Generall Assemblie therefore it is statuted and ordained that in all time comming three of the wisest and gravest of the Brethren shall be directed from everie Presbyterie at the most as Commissioners to everie Assemblie and that none presume to come without Commission And likewise that one bee directed from everie Presbyterie in name of the Barons and one out of everie Burgh except Edinburgh which shall have power to direct two Commissioners to the Generall Assemblie That everie Presbyterie have a copie of the Commission to be given to the Commissioners the tenour thereof followes T.T. the day of The which day after calling upon the name of God We the members of the Presbyterie of having diligently considered the manifold corruptions innovations and disorders disturbing our peace and tending to the overthrow of our Religion and Liberties of the reformed Church within this Realme which hath come to passe especially through the want of the necessarie remedie of Generall Assemblies as well ordinarie as pro re nata injoyed by this Church for many yeares and ratified by Act of Parliament And now expecting shortly by the mercie of God the benefit of a free Generall Assemblie do by these presents nominate and appoint Minister of as also in name of the Burrowes conjunctly and severally our lawfull Commissioners giving and granting unto them our full power Commission and expresse charge to repaire to the said Assemblie at the day and place when and where it shall happen to sit in any safe and commodious place within this Kingdome and there with the rest who shall be authorised with lawfull Commission in our name to propone treat reason vote and conclude according to the word of God and confession of faith approved by sundrie Generall Assemblies and received throughout the whole Kingdome in all Ecclesiasticall matters competent to a free Generall Assemblie and tending to the advancement of the Kingdome of Christ and the good of Religion as they will answer to God and his Church thereupon and to report to us their diligence therein In testification of this our Commission and charge we have subscribed these presents with our hands and which they have accepted with the lifting up of their hands That everie Church Session send one of the most qualified Elders unto the Presbyterie the day of chusing Commissioners to the Generall Assemblie That by common consent of the Ministers and those Elders present in the Presbyterie there may bee chosen both the Commissioners for the Ministers and also some well affected and qualified Nobleman or speciall Gentleman being an Elder of some particular Church Session within that Presbyterie in name of the Barons For this is the constitution of the Presbyteries otherwise called Elderships appointed by the Church in the books of discipline Acts of the Generall Assemblie practised for many yeares after the reformation and ratified in the Parliament the twelfth of King James the 6. and never since altered nor rescinded neither can be with reason altered seeing that same is the constitution of the supreme and Generall Assemblies and of the inferiour and Church Sessions as is at more length cleared by some reasons That such as are erroneous in doctrine or scandalous in life be presently processed that they be not chosen Commissioners and if they shall happen to be chosen by the greater part that all the best affected both Ministers and Elders protest and come to the Assemblie to testifie the same To send to everie Presbyterie a copie of the printed reasons for an Assemblie That Moderators by vertue of their office bee not Commissioners to the Assemblie except they be chosen That the Presbyteries in one of the ordinarie meetings appoint to conveene solemnely after the twentieth of September either upon the 21.22.23.24 or 25. for chusing of their Commissioners to the Assemblie and for to send them hither to Edinburgh before the first of October or so soone as they can that with common consent they may receive the Kings last answer and advise upon the next lawfull remedies in their extreme necessities of Church and State That in the Fast to bee observed on the sixteenth day of September the second day preceding their election they may crave Gods direction therein TO these eight Articles they joyned by way of information a verie impertinent long and tedious discourse of Ruling Elders too long and too simple to be here inserted which was added no doubt onely to perswade the Ministers to admit Lay-men to have voyces in their Presbyteries at the election of the Ministers who were to be Commissioners for the Assemblie or in case of their refusall to perswade the Lay-men to put themselves in possession and give their voyces in these elections whether the Ministers would or no as shall appeare afterwards both by that intrusion which these Lay Elders used in many Presbyteries where the Ministers refused to admit them and by some of the Tables more private instructions by which they were ordered so to do Now We desire the Reader to consider whether the conference which Our Commissioner desired for debating of what members the Assemblie was to be constituted and the matters which were principally to be discussed there with so much bitternes exclaimed against by them could in any construction or sense be taken for such a prelimitation of the Assemblie either in the members matter or manner of it as
they conceived them to bee the true and authenticall Acts of the generall Assemblies of the Church of Scotland The day before this these Committees had made their report that they had perused them and had found them to bee true and authenticall Records and delivered in writing some reasons of this their opinion which made the impartiall auditors wonder how in two daies men could peruse and make a judgement of such volumes which other men who tooke themselves to be no fooles thought could hardly be done in one yeere but that was all one the Moderatour this day put it to the question and voices Whether they would allow the copies of those Bookes of Assembly which the Committees the day before had reported to bee good and faithfull copies to bee reputed ever hereafter for the authenticall Records and Registers of the Church of Scotland Our Commissioner prayed them to forbeare doing any thing suddenly in a businesse of so great importance that nothing especially if it were doubtfull could bee made a publique Record of any Judicatorie which was to oblige Our subjects unlesse We first by Our Advocate and learned Councell were satisfied of the authenticall authoritie of that Record and therefore wished them to stay untill that course might bee taken and before that time not to put it to voices But all in vaine for presently they of the Assembly without one contrarie voice concluded these Bookes to be authenticall Registers and so to bee held and reputed for ever without knowing what was in them They were foure Bookes and very large and confessed not to be the Originals but copies Our Commissioner then remembring that at Our Palace at Holy-rood-house hee was denied the sight of the Bookes of the Assembly the Covenanters having threatned the former Clerke of the Assembly if hee should let Our Commissioner have the perusall of them begun now to thinke that there might be stuffe enough in them against Our Regall authoritie and perhaps a great deale of it of their own devising which caused Our Commissioner to enter into Our Clerke of Registers hands a solemn Protestation against the validitie of these Records and against any of Our subjects being obliged by them untill such time as they should be perused and allowed by such as We should authorize by Commission for that purpose Next the Moderatour desired the Clerke to reade certaine answers which upon the sudden had been drawne up as he said by certaine Brethren to the reasons contained in the Bishops Declinator which had been read the day before And indeed so soone as they were heard it was easily beleeved that they were drawne up upon a sudden without either feare or wit being very poore and silly stuffed full of cytations out of their own bookes of Discipline which did allow lay-Elders and by these testimonies concluded the exception of the Bishops against Lay-Elders Ministers Commissioners chosen by them for having voice in the Assembly to bee invalid which made some admire by what consequence it could be inferred that because there had been Lay-Elders in particular Church-Sessions nay and perhaps in Presbyteries that therefore these Lay-Elders either had or must now have voices in the generall Assembly or in chusing the Ministers Commissioners to it Yet the Moderatour caused another paper to bee read in defence of Lay-Elders of the very same tedious stuffe with the former And to magnifie those Bookes of Discipline so often cyted in both these papers the Moderatour desired the whole Assembly to heare himself reade a long Latine testimonie given in the Syntagma of the confessions of the Reformed Churches to the puritie of the discipline of the Church of Scotland Our Commissioner called for the Book desired to see what he had read and found it to be a private testimonie of one unknowne inserted by the Printer or setter out of that Syntagma to make it sell the better because it had some new thing in it which made a good many laugh at that so much magnified testimonie Then the Moderator to take away that exception in the Bishops Declinator that the Assembly was a declared partie and therefore could not be their Judge alledged that the Remonstrants had made the same objection against the Synod of Dort but that it was repelled by all the Divines there present and the invaliditie of that exception declared by none better then by the Divines of great Britaine whose judgement against that exception he then out of the publique Acts of that Synod did reade Our Commissioner told the Moderatour that he should have done well to have translated into Scottish that passage which he last read and the former out of the Syntagma that so many of the Lay-Elders who were to judge of the fitnesse of these cytations might understand him and them which the Moderatour passed over with a smile ONE who stood by Our Commissioner and had been present at the Synod of Dort asked leave first of Our Commissioner and then of the Moderatour to speake which being granted him by both hee answered the Moderatours answer to the Bishops objection thus That the Bishops exception against them of the Assembly as pars adversa differed from that of the Remonstrants against the Synod of Dort two waies First in regard of the matter of it For the Synod consisting of Divines the matters controverted being points of Divinitie and by some men thought to bee fundamentall points of faith though they were not so in which Schollers use not to be neutrall it was impossible for the Remonstrants to find Divines to be their Judges if they would except against such Divines as had declared themselves to bee of the one opinion or the other But it was not so with Episcopacie in the judgement of the members of this Assembly for they could not hold the allowing or rejecting of Episcopacie to bee a point of doctrine because points of doctrine are not alterable but the Church of Scotland in her positive confession Article 21. did hold Church policie or government alterable at the will of the Church which opinion whether he did allow or not hee was not then and there to declare but sure in such points which they themselves held alterable and indifferent at the will of the Church being no points of doctrine there was no necessitie of pre-declaring their judgement especially after they meant to bee Judges Nay there was a necessitie of not pre-declaring their judgement against Episcopall government considering it stood now in force by Acts both of Church and Parliament and therefore that the declaration of their judgement against it even since they intended to be Judges of it but before they were actually so did barre them from being Judges of it at all But secondly and that upon which he principally insisted was this That the Bishops case in their exception against this Assembly differed from that of the Remonstrants against the other Synod in the manner of the members of that Synods
them containing prelimitations and such as are repugnant not onely to that which they called the freedome but to that which is indeed the freedome of an Assembly Two of these papers were such as they were content should be communicated to all their associates viz. that larger paper sent abroad to all Presbyteries before or about the time of Our indiction of the Assembly and that lesser paper for their meeting first at Edinburgh then at Glasgow some few daies before the Assembly and for chusing of assessors These two papers Our Commissioner delivered not into the assembly because they did publiquely avow them But their other two papers of secret instructions were directed not from the Table publiquely but under-hand from such as were the prime Leaders of the rest The one of them was delivered or sent onely to one Minister of every Presbyterie whom they trusted most and was onely to be communicated to such as hee might be confident of and was quite concealed from the rest of the Ministers although Covenanters The other paper was directed onely to one lay-Elder of every Presbyterie to be communicated as hee should see cause and to be quite concealed from all others These are the two papers which before you heard were delivered by Our Commissioner into the assembly and they did containe directions which being followed as they were did banish all freedome from this assembly as doth appeare before by the reading of the papers themselves The second Some Presbyteries did chuse their Commissioners before the assembly was indicted and therefore those Commissioners could not lawfully have any voice there The third Neither lay-Elder nor Minister chosen Commissioner by lay-Elders could have voice in the assembly because such elections are not warranted by the lawes of that Church and Kingdome nor by the practice and custome of either for even that little which seemeth to make for their lay-Elders is onely to be found in these bookes which they call the bookes of Discipline which were penned by some private men but never confirmed either by Act of Parliament or Act of generall assembly and therefore are of no authoritie And yet in these elections they did transgresse even the rules of these bookes there being more lay-Elders who gave voices at every one of these elections then there were Ministers contrarie to their bookes of Discipline which require that the lay-Elders should alwaies be fewer But say there were an Ecclesiasticall order or law for these lay-Elders yet the interruption of that order for above fortie yeeres maketh so strong a prescription in that Our Kingdome against it as that without a new reviving of that law by some new order from the generall assembly it ought not againe to have been put in practice For if We should put in practice and take the penalties of many dis-used lawes without new intimation of them it would bee thought by Our subjects hard usage The fourth In many Presbyteries these lay-Elders disagreed wholly in their election from chusing those Ministers whom their owne fellow-Ministers did chuse and carried it from them by number of voices although in all reason the Ministers should best know the abilities and fitnesse of their brethren The fifth These men elected as lay-Elders to have voices in this assembly could not be thought able and fit men since they were never Elders before all or most of them being newly chosen some of them were chosen lay-Elders the very day before the election of the Commissioners to the assembly which sheweth plainly they were chosen onely to serve their associates turne The sixth Since the institution of lay-Elders by their own principles is to watch over the manners of that people in that Parish wherein they live how can any man bee chosen a Ruling-Elder from a Presbyterie who is not an inhabitant within any Parish of the precinct of that Presbyterie And yet divers such especially Noblemen were chosen as lay-Elders Commissioners from Presbyteries within the precincts whereof they never were inhabitants against all sense or reason even upon their owne grounds The seventh They can shew neither law nor practice for chusing assessors to the Ruling-Elders without whose consent they were not to give voice to any thing in the assembly The eight The introducing of lay-Elders is a burthen so grievous to the Ministers as that many Presbyteries did protest and supplicate against them and many Presbyteries though they were in a manner forced to yeeld to it then yet did protest against it for the time to come The ninth In the election of Commissioners to this assembly for the most part the fittest men were passed by and few chosen who ever were Commissioners at any assembly before the reason was they conceived that new men would not stand much for their owne libertie in an assembly of the liberties whereof they were utterly ignorant Besides some were chosen who were under the censures of the Church some who were deprived by the Church some who had been expelled out of the Universitie for reading to their Scholars against Monarchicall government some who had been banished out of that Kingdome for their seditious Sermons and behaviour some who for the like offences had been banished out of Ireland some who were then lying under the sentence of excommunication some who then had no ordination or imposition of hands some who had lately been admitted to the Ministerie contrarie to the standing lawes of that Church and Kingdome and all of them were chosen by lay-Elders Now what a scandall were it to the Reformed Churches to allow this to be an assembly which did consist of such members and so irregularly chosen The tenth Divers members of this Assembly even whilst they sate there were Rebels and at Our Horne and so by the lawes of that Our Kingdome uncapable of sitting as Judges in any Judicatorie The eleventh Three oathes were to bee taken by every member of this Assembly the oath to the confession of faith lately renewed by Our commandement the oath of Allegeance the oath of Supremacie any of which three oathes whosoever shall refuse cannot sit as a Judge in any Court of that Kingdome and yet none of all these three oathes were sworne by any member of this Assembly Besides these nullities of this Assembly what indecencie and rudenesse was to be discerned in it not so much as the face of an Ecclesiasticall meeting to bee seen not a gowne worne by any member of it unlesse it were by one or two Ministers who lived in the Towne the appearance in a manner wholly Laicall amongst the members of it were seven Earles ten Lords fortie Gentlemen one and fiftie Burgesses many of them in coloured clothes and swords by their sides all which did give voices not onely in very high points of controversie which We are sure very many of them did not understand but also in the sentences of excommunication pronounced against the Bishops and others Nay and more all things in the Assembly carried by the
servants to rescue him who got the Bishop almost breathlesse into his lodging The same morning the Service Book was read in the next Church to Saint Gyles Church not without noise and tumult yet the furie was not so great as in the other Church In the Gray Friers Church the Elect Bishop of Argyle being Colleague to Master Ramsey who refused to read it begun to read the Book but he was so cursed and exclaimed against and threatned to be pulled downe that after the reading of the Confession and Absolution he was forced to give over In the Colledge Church Rollock one of the Preachers there who the Sunday before at the intimation of the reading of it had so much commended the Book and had undertaken this day to read it though hee had the Book ready to be carried to the Church with him yet very wisely resolved to halt a little untill he might know how it was entertained at Saint Gyles Church that so his conscience might comply with the carriage of the multitude whose rudenesse being reported to him he notwithstanding his commendations of the Book and his faithfull promise to read it thought it the safer course to leave himselfe to the censure of all men for his levitie and breach of promise then offend the multitude whose favour is the onely aire in which he taketh delight to breath and live And thus that morning passed Betweene the two Sermons such of Our Councell as were in the Towne assembled at the Lord Chancellour his lodging where the Lord Provost and Bailiffs of Edinburgh being called undertooke to doe their uttermost endevours for the quiet and peaceable reading of the Service Booke in the afternoon which accordingly they did and so the Service Booke in Saint Gyles and some other Churches that afternoone was read without any such tumult or insurrection as it encountred with in the morning yet the furious multitude who stayed in the streets and little regarded the service of God in the Churches intermitted nothing of their madnesse For the Lord Privie Seale Earle of Roxborough returning home to his lodging and having with him in his Coach the Bishop of Edinburgh was neare suffering the death of the first Martyr St. Stephen his Coach and Coachman for having the Bishop in it being so pelted with stones and hooted at with execrations and pressed upon by the eager and mad multitude that if the Lord Privie Seale his Footmen had not with their swords kept them off they in the Coach had been brought in danger of their lives having after long and continuall bickerings much adoe to recover their lodgings And now We desire all men to consider what blessing and successe from heaven may be expected upon this grand and important reformation of Religion as they call it the begetter and beginner whereof was the horrible profanation of the Lords owne day and that in the Lords owne Houses and Temples and all this attended with the contempt and treading under foot the sacred Authoritie and Lawes of Us the Lords Anointed as also with the violation of the persons of the Lords Priests and Prophets his Bishops and Ministers and all these practised by a base multitude disavowed and disclaimed at that time by all Magistrates and persons put in authoritie and all others of any ranke or qualitie who branded that multitude with the names of the scum and froth of the people and offered themselves to the uttermost of their diligence and assistance for the finding of them out and bringing them to highest and condigne punishment as shall presently appeare by the demeanour of the Magistrates when they were called before Our Councell for that purpose For the next day being the 24. of July 1637. Our Councell assembled and sent forth a Proclamation in detestation of the uproare and tumult the day before and discharged all concourses of people and tumultuous meetings in Edinburgh under paine of death at which time the Magistrates of Edinburgh being then present at Our Councell Table professed their utter abhorring and detesting of the last tumult and apprehended some suspected to be most forward in it and thereupon were commanded and ordered by an Act of Our Councell of the 26. of July to assemble the Councell of the Citie the next morning by eight of the clocke and then and there to resolve what course they thought fittest to be held for the finding out of the movers of and chiefe actors in the late seditious uproare and immediately after to report their diligence and resolutions herein Which report they accordingly made to Our Councell not onely with a detestation of that tumult and promises of their best diligence for finding out the authors and abettors of it but also with large proffers of their best assistance for the quiet and peaceable establishing and reading of the Service Booke in all their Churches But the Ministers of that Citie being loath to undertake the reading of it without some securitie given for the safetie of their persons the Lords of Our Councell by their Act of the 28. of July 1637. ordered the Provost Bailiffes and Councell of Edinburgh to advise amongst themselves concerning some obligatorie Act to be made by them for a reall performance of what they had undertaken and should further undertake for the peaceable exercise of the Service Book which they accorded unto and promised that since the former Readers in their severall Churches had refused to read the Booke if in the meane time the Ministers themselves would read it they would take order for their safetie and when new Readers should be provided they would take order both for their securitie and settled maintenance and allowance In pursuance whereof an obligatorie Act was drawne up by Our Advocate and read before Our Councell to the Magistrates of Edinburgh the sixt of August 1637. to which they humbly consented and on the tenth of the same moneth the said Act of indemnitie being exhibited before Our Councell was allowed by them and accordingly passed and entred in Our Councell booke as an Act of Councell And so now this late tumult in all appearance being settled and not onely fathered upon the scumme and dregges of the people but cryed downe by all men either of place or qualitie and by none more then by the Magistrates and Ministers of Edinburgh Our Councell not fearing any new outrage proceeded to these two things First to the exemplarie punishing of such of the heads of the late tumult as they should discover And next to the settling of the practice of the Service Booke and appointing a new day for renewing the exercise of it to which the Bishops Magistrates and Ministers of Edinburgh agreed And this their forwardnesse the Magistrates of that Citie were not onely contented to expresse before Our Councell both by their verball promises and protestations as also their obligatorie Act remaining upon record and registred in Our bookes of Councell but likewise by two particular Letters sent by them
sworn to be an everlasting Covenant never to be forgotten it shall be never more remembred the one shall be cryed up and the other drowned in the noise thereof And thus the new subscription now urged although in a different way shall prove equivalent to the rendring of the Covenant or what of that kind hath before been assayed Like as the reasons against the rendring of the Covenant doe militate directly against this new motion 2. If we should now enter upon this new Subscription we would think our selves guilty of mocking God taking his Name in vain for the tears that began to be poured forth at the solemnizing of the Covenant are not yet dryed up wiped away and the joyfull noise which then began to sound hath not yet ceased and there can be no new necessity from us and upon our part pretended for a ground of of urging this new subscription at first intended to be an abjuration of Popery upon us who are known to hate poperie with an unfained hatred and have all this yeere bygone given large testimonie of our zeale against it As we are not to multiply miracles on Gods part so ought we not to multiply solemne oathes and Covenants upon our part and thus to play with oathes as children doe with their toyes without necessitie 3. Neither would we in giving way to this new subscription think our selves free of perjurie for as we were driven by an undeclinable necessitie to enter into a mutuall Covenant so are we bound not onely by the law of God and nature but by our solemn oath and subscription against all divisive motions to promove and observe the same without violation and it is most manifest that having already refused to render alter or destroy our Covenant nothing can be more contrarie and adverse to our pious intentions and sincere resolutions than to consent to such a subscription and oath as both in the intention of the urgers and in the nature and condition of the matter urged is the ready way to extinguish and to drowne in oblivion the Band of our union and conjunction that they be no more remembred In this case we are called to lay seriously to our hearts 1 That we have sworne that we shall neither directly nor indirectly suffer our selves to be divided and withdrawne from this blessed and loyall conjunction which consisteth not only in the generall Confession but also in our explanation application thereof but on the contrary shal by all lawfull means labour to further and promove the same 2. That our union and conjunction may be observed without violation and so without mutilation of our application we call the living LORD to witnesse as we shall answer to Christ in the great Day c. 4. This new subscription in stead of performing our vows would be a reall testimonie and confession before the World That we have been transgressours in making rash vows that we repent our selves of former zeal and forwardnesse against the particulars exprest first in our Supplications Complaints and Protestations and next abjured in our Covenant that we in our judgement prefer the generall Confession unto this which necessarily was now made more speciall and that we are now under the faire pretext and honest cover of a new oath recanting and undoing that which upon so mature deliberation we have been doing before This beside all other evils were to make way and open a door to the re-entry of the particulars abjured and to repent our selves of our chiefest consolations and to lie both against God and our owne soules 5. It hath been often objected that our Confession of Faith Covenant was unlawfull because it wanted the warrants of publick authority and it hath been answered by us that we were not destitute of the warrant civill and ecclesiasticall which authorized the former Covenant And although we could have wished that his Maty had added both his subscription authority unto it yet the lesse cōstraint from authority and the more libertie the lesse hypocrisie and more sincerity hath appeared But by this new subscription urged by authority we both condemn our former subscription as unlawfull because alleadged to be done without authority and precondemn also the like laudable course in the like necessity to be taken by the posterity 6. What is the use of merch-stones upon borders of Lands the like use hath Confessions of Faith in the Kirk to disterminate and divide betwixt Truth and errour and the renewing and applying of Confessions of Faith to the present errors and corruptions are not unlike ryding of merches And therefore to content our selves with the generall and to return to it from the particular application of the Confession necessarily made upon the invasion or creeping in of errors within the borders of the Kirk if it be not a removing of the merch stone from the own place it is at least the hiding of the merch in the ground that it be not seen which at this time were very unseasonable for two causes One is because Poperie is so pregnant and powerful in this land as we have learned of late The other because the Papists who upon the urging of the Service book Canons have presumed of our return to Rome will upon this our subscription arise frō their dispareing of us unto their wonted presumption None of us will deny but the large Confession of Faith registrated in the Acts of Parliament doth by consequence contain this short confession and abjuration Yet were it not sufficient against Poperie to subscribe the one without the other how then shall we think that the more general Confession abjuration at this time when the urging of such Popish books hath extorted frō us so necessary an application and doth still call for a testimony to be compleat enough without it 7. The Papists shall hereby be occasioned to renew their old objection against us Annuas menstruas fides de Deo decernūt That our Faith changeth with the Moon or once in the yeere Other reformed Kirks might justly wonder at our inconstancie in changing our Confession without any reall necessity and that in one and the same yeer it cometh forth larger more particular then shorter more general and our Adversaries will not fail to traduce us as troublers of the peace of the Kirk kingdom without any necessar cause 8. It will likewise prove a confirmation of their errour who think they may both subscribe the Confession of Faith and receive the Service book and Canons which is not only a direct scandaling of them but also a ready way to put a weapon in their hands against our selves who maintain and professe that these and such other evils are abjured in the Confession of Faith 9. If we should now sweare this Confession we should be obliged by our oath to maintain Perth articles which are the innovations already introduced in the worship of God and to maintain Episcopacie with the civill places
disconsolated Subjects of this nation who though unjustly branded with many calumnies yet never have nor ever shall swerve from our loyalty due to the Lords anoynted But would readily imbrace any occasion to imploy our lives and fortunes for his Majesties service and honour who we heartily pray God may long and happily ring over us There is annexed to this Declaration a quotation of sundry acts of Parliament to prove that Episcopall government was not abolished in the yeare 1580. whereunto albeit there is no necessity of answer seeing the meaning of the Kirk of Scotland in her Confession of Faith is onely to be sought from her self and the registers of her Assemblies and not from the Parliament yet the same shall be specially answered in the order that they are alleadged after these two generals are offered to the Reader his consideration 1. After the reformation of this Kingdome the Kirk was still wrestling against all corruptions and especially against Episcopacie But though they clearly and frequently condemned the same yet the power of the enemies of reformation withstood them long so that her owne policy could not be obtained ratified expresly specifice in Parliament till the yeare of God 1592. which abrogateth all those proceeding acts alledged in the contrare 2. That acts of Parliament can no more make Ecclesiasticall offices nor give Ecclesiasticall priviledges nor the acts of Assembly can establish civill offices of Estate or grant to them civill priviledges each Judicatorie being properly confined within their owne spheres But before the acts of Parliament be particularly marked and cited there be two reasons prefixed the one taken from some acts of Parliament 1567. cap. 2.3.6 and cap. 68. Par. 1579. The other from the oath ministred to the King at his coronation for the act of Parliament 1567. Bearing that no Bishop nor other Prelate in this Realme use any jurisdiction in time comming by the Bishop of Romes authority It is evident hereby that Episcopacy is altogether condemned as all other Prelacie was for before that time they had no jurisdiction but from the Pope and therefore being discharged to execute that they are discharged by the act to execute any at all That this is the true meaning and scope of that act is manifest because the Kirk in the book of common order and in the first book of discipline at that same time acknowledgeth no other ordinary office bearers appointed by Christ in Ecclesia constituta But the Pastor Doctour Elder and Deacon and in her Assemblies at that same time was still censuring these who were called or designed Bishops by reason of their benefices as is instructed by the acts printed before the book of discipline And therefore in the act of Councell 1560. made in the same yeare by these same persons ratifying the first book of discipline they provided only that Bishops Abbots Pryors c. Being protestants brook their revenewes during their life-times they sustaining Ministers in the meane time 2. In the yeare 1566. which precedes that Parliament the Kirk of this Kingdome approved the Confession of Helvetia wherein the parity of Ministers is preferred as Gods ordinance warranded by his word to Episcopacy as an humane consuetude 3. Because at that time the Queene had restored the Archbishop of S. Andrews therefore the Kirk supplicated the Nobility of the Kingdome against that restitution which they condemne as the curing of the head of the beast once wounded within this land Wherein they expresly ground themselves upon the said act of Parliament being before made in the year 1560. as a certaine abrogation of the Arch-bishops authority 4. In the 2. book of discipline chap. 11. the Kirk useth the same act of Parliament as an abrogation of the Papisticall Kirk and Papisticall jurisdiction and thereby of Episcopall jurisdiction and power 5. The Kirk thereafter in the same chapter declareth their uniformity of this meaning by urging the act of Parliament 1567. printed amongst the black acts and renewed in the Parliament holden 1579. which immediately followeth the act here cited declaring that no other Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction shall be used within this Realme but that which is and shall be in the reformed Kirk and floweth therefrom and they urge that none under the abused titles in Papistry of Prelates c. attempt to claime the benefite of any act of Parliament having no commission of the reformed Kirk within this Realme Whereby our Kirk declared all Episcopall jurisdiction to be Papisticall Which is the true meaning of the word his Hirarchie in the short confession For their jurisdiction could flow from none other but from the Pope Seeing it flows not from the Kirk but was abolished and condemned by them as is cleare by the Registers of the Assembly 6. The acts doe abolish all Papisticall jurisdiction And therefore all Episcopall jurisdiction because Episcopall policy and jurisdiction is Papisticall as is acknowledged by many and specially by Doctor Poklingtun Chaplaine to the Bishop of Canterbury who deduceth a continuall lineall succession from Peter through the whole Popes unto the present Arch bishop of Canterbury and by the quotter himselfe who alledgeth albeit falsly that this Kirk retained the Papisticall Policy and government 6. Where it is said in the reason that our Kirk did not innovate any thing in that Policy which they found in the Kirk before the reformation the same is controlled by the book of Common prayer first book of Discipline and acts of the Assemblies And for the 6. act 1567. and the 68. act 1579. The same doth not only not mention Bishops but declareth the true Kirk to consist only of Ministers of the Gospell then living and these who thereafter should rise agreeing with them in doctrine and administration of the Sacraments and the people as the members thereof which directly excludeth Bishops against whom the doctrine and practise of this Kirk continually sounded especially at that time For in the government of this Kirk by weekly meeting of Ministers Elders and reformed townes from the yeare 1560. to the yeare 1576. except the interim of the pretended convention at Leeth 1572. and from the yeare 1575. to the year 1581. The Assemblies for the most part were imployed in abolishing the corruptions of Episcopacy and in establishing the setled Policy which was agreed upon 1578. In the second book of Discipline In the which acts of Assembly and book of Discipline is set down at large the doctrine of the Kirk of Scotland anent that discipline as grounded and well warranded in the word of God and against Episcopall jurisdiction as an unlawfull humane invention So that Episcopacy being contrary to the doctrine of the Kirk of Scotland 1579. The Bishops disagreeing from the Ministers of the Evangel then living in doctrine and in the use and administration of the Sacraments are declared by the said acts to be no members of this Kirk and the same acts cited for them doe sufficiently evince that
sharpest warre was rather to be endured then the least errour in doctrine or discipline Another in his Sermon wished That hee and all the Bishops in that Kingdome were in a bottomlesse boat at sea together for he could bee well content to lose his life so they might lose theirs Thousands more such beastly barbarous and profane speeches were delivered by them not onely in their Pulpits but in their Sermons For the Reader must know that in these times of tumult where the Churches were not able to containe the great multitudes they did usually preach in common and profane places in roomes which are yet in building and not finished intended for Lawyers to plead in in the Halls of the Taylors and other mechanicall tradesmen of Edinburgh in some private houses in the Hall of the Colledge of Edinburgh where one Sunday Rollock being to preach but finding the crowds of people to be too great for that place mounted upon the top of a paire of staires which went up to an upper ground in an open place which was onely covered by the heavens and from thence preached to a great troupe or multitude whose breath is the onely aire hee desireth to live in being shot quite through the head with popularitie Others preached in the free-Schoole at Edinburgh where boyes use to play and bee punished If these speeches and many as bad or worse then these and delivered in such places be fit to perswade the people that their Covenant comes from God the Reader may easily discerne The second meanes which they used for blind-folding the eyes of the people were their many false reports which both in their Pulpits and out of their Pulpits they vented amongst the people which their Leaders knew in their owne consciences to be most false They gave it out that We intended to bring in Poperie in all Our Kingdomes or at least a toleration of it It was preached that the Service Book was framed at Rome and brought over by a country-man of theirs when they doe know that every Papist by the Popes Bull is prohibited to heare the Service Booke read Others preached that all England was of their opinion and judgement and that they had good intelligence from hence that no man would adhere to Us against them Another preached that no man would have protested against the generall Assembly but for money and that none had protested but they who had received some when they did know that many had protested who had received none It is true indeed that some poore Ministers being thrust out of their Benefices by them for adhering to Us were petitioners to Our Commissioner for relieving the necessities of them and their families some of those who were most necessitated he did a little relieve but some of that number were none of the protesters and many who were protesters were none of that number It was preached ordinarily in their Pulpits that neither We nor Our Commissioner in Our name did ever intend to hold the generall Assembly or if We did hold it did never intend to performe any thing which We had promised in Our gracious Declaration though they now know that We have performed both Within these few daies some desired the people publiquely in their Pulpits to give thankes to God for that overthrow which the Hollanders had given to the Spanish Fleet before Dunkirke assuring their auditours that it was no lesse to be celebrated by them then their deliverance from the Spanish Invasion in 88. because all that Fleet was prepared at Our charge for their ruine and subversion Besides many thousands more such reports and counterfeited letters scattered by them of which some no doubt were devised by themselves whereby they kept Our people in that ignorance in which at the very first they had resolved to involve them Now what a fearfull and terrible thing is it for men in the house of God and in those places of these houses of God which they call the chaires of truth to deliver such things as either they doe not know to be true or doe know to be false Besides these dictates of the Ministers the lay-Elders since they came to thinke themselves Ecclesiasticall persons for so now they doe and will not be called lay but ruling-Elders they have found new inspirations and delivered doctrines as like their Divines as may be one of them We cannot chuse but rehearse An ancient Knight and a lay-Elder intruded himselfe and his fellowes upon a Presbyterie for chusing the Ministers Commissioners for the Assembly and the Ministers of that Presbyterie not being able to keep them out though they earnestly desired it fell to intreat these lay-Elders that if they would needs intrude themselves in their election they would have a speciall care to chuse the ablest Ministers and who were most inclined to moderation and peaceable courses because the Church at this time stood in great need of such Commissioners The old Knight in great zeale replyed That whosoever at this time gave his voice to a moderate or peaceable minded Minister hee was a betrayer of Christ and his cause because these times required no luke-warme Commissioners which barbarous and unchristian speech of his being related by way of complaint to the Tables at Edinburgh was so far from being censured as it was approved for a high and heroicall ejaculation The third meanes whereby they have perverted Our people and continued them in their disobedience to Us and Our Lawes have been their strange and damnable positions whereby they have impoysoned Our subjects some whereof We shall now declare unto you First What subjects doe of their owne heads is much better then what they doe in obedience to Authoritie the one savouring of constraint but the other being voluntarie and cheerfull obedience This proposition is delivered in their Protestation bearing date the 22. of September 1638. made against Our gracious Declaration it is in their fifth reason against the subscription to the Confession of faith urged by Us. A second The Parliaments power doth no more reach to the placing of Officers originally in the Church then the Church hath power to make States-men in the Common-wealth This position is in their answer to Our Commissioners Declaration concerning Our sense and meaning in commanding the Confession of faith to bee subscribed Where they have added the word Originally onely to puzzle the Reader For certainly their meaning must bee That the Parliament hath no power for confirming of Officers placed in the Church by the Church it selfe for no Act of Parliament in that Kingdome doth make any Officers in the Church originally but onely ratifieth and confirmeth such as were established by the Church in her generall Assemblies A third position is this The Parliament can make no law at all concerning the Church but onely ratifie what the Church decreeth and after it hath ratified it yet if the Assembly of the Church shall prohibit it and repeale that decree of the Church all
none of these things were so yet Wee would be satisfied in this point Whether Our refusing of the intrusion of lay-Elders and the extrusion of Episcopall government can bee to the conscience of any man a sufficient warrant or ground for his taking armes against his lawfull King and Soveraigne for now their very Leaders acknowledging that We have given them satisfaction in the rest make these two the onely ground of all their armes And Wee appeale to the consciences of most of Our subjects Covenanters if when they entered into that Covenant at the first they did ever imagine that they should be perswaded to take armes against Us for these two points of lay-Elders and Episcopall government if they should receive satisfaction from Us in their other grievances and feared innovations as We have before declared Wee are confident that no such matter was then within the compasse of their thoughts We then having fully removed those pretended feares which occasioned their Covenant Wee cannot but hope that Our seduced subjects will returne to their former obedience but for their seducers Wee know that some of them from the very first were resolved never to receive any satisfaction This grand imposture and calumnie with the other three being removed We will now declare fully and freely to all Our subjects of Our three Kingdomes and to all forrainers besides the true and onely causes which doe inforce Us at this time to use force for the repressing of the insolencies of such of Our subjects in that Kingdome as shall stand out against Us first protesting that none of the causes before mentioned suggested by their Leaders have settled in Us this resolution but onely these causes which now follow First We will never endure that any of Our subjects nay that all Our subjects if they could possibly bee all of one mind out of Parliament shall ever abolish or destroy any Act of Parliament especially not Noblemen and others assembled in an Ecclesiasticall Assembly for to hold that any Assembly of subjects out of Parliament or in Parliament without Our consent may abolish any Act of Parliament destroyeth the very foundation of government and justice in all Monarchies and the doing of it by Ecclesiasticall persons in their Councells and Synods hath been the cause of infinite calamities and miserable wars and devastation of Kingdomes in the Christian World since the Pope and his Conclave did usurp that unlawfull and unlimited power which being in that Our Kingdome in all these late troubles practised against the expresse lawes of the same Wee are resolved to punish unlesse the offenders betake themselves to Our mercie Secondly We are resolved not to endure that any of Our subjects without Our consent and the consent of the Parliament shall destroy any of the three Estates of Parliament which they in their late pretended Assembly have gone about to doe Thirdly We are resolved not to endure that any generall Assembly shall be called but by Our indiction according to an expresse Act of Parliament in that case provided or that it shall continue after that Wee by Our authority have dissolved it and are resolved to punish them who shall doe so as Our Royall Father punished those who did the like at Aberdene Fourthly We are resolved to punish those who have imposed taxes upon Our subjects levied men or armes raised any fortifications in that Our Kingdome without Our leave and first blocked up and then taken Our Castles and Forts and by violence dispossessed Our loyall subjects of their houses and castles detaining them by force for all these by the expresse Lawes of that Our Kingdome are acts of treason and rebellion Fifthly We are resolved not to endure that the Protestations of subjects against Us Our Councell Our Judges and Lawes shall discharge the obedience of the protesters unto these Lawes unlesse they be admitted before the competent Judges and legally discussed before them the contrarie whereof hath been practised by the Covenanters all the time of these tumults Sixthly We are resolved not to endure that Our subjects shall enter into any covenant or band of mutuall defence without Our leave asked and obtained it being expresly forbidden by divers Acts of Parliament of that Our Kingdome for this hath been and still is the ground of all this Rebellion Seventhly and principally We are resolved not to endure that any of Our subjects under the name of a Table or Committees of the generall Assembly or under any other name title or pretence whatsoever shall sit without Our consent and authoritie and order businesse of the Church and Kingdome at their pleasure and if they shall be called in question for the same by Us Our Councell or Judges shall appeale from Us and them and refuse to be judged by either alledging that they will be judged by none but by the generall Assembly which is Christs owne immediate Councell and therefore hath no dependencie from or subordination either to Our Councell or Judges or Our Parliament which is the Councell of Our Kingdome and so that both Church-men and lay-men under Ecclesiasticall names shall exempt themselves from the authoritie of Us and Our Lawes and the Assembly it selfe shall hold the members of it free from being judged in all matters of Assembly by any but by it selfe which by the Lawes of that Our Kingdome is treason as appeareth by the Act cyted in the bodie of this narration Now all this hath been practised and is practised by those which call themselves of the Table From all which We hope it is evident that the offences which We resolve to punish in some of Our subjects doe not concerne Religion So that the question is not Whether there shall be a Service Booke Booke of Canons high Commission nay nor whether there shall be no lay-Elders in Assemblies or no Episcopall government though We are resolved to reject the one and retaine the other But the question indeed is neither more nor lesse then this Whether We and Our Successours shall be any more Kings of that Kingdome for if these traiterous positions shall bee maintained and made good by force of armes then We and Our Successours can bee no more Kings there Our Parliament Councell and Judges have no more authoritie there So that unlesse We will give over to be King and so betray and desert that charge wherewith God hath intrusted Us We must use that power which God hath put in Our hands and by faire just and legall waies to Our great griefe force them to obedience These are the true reasons which have forced Us to undertake this journey and to make use of the armes and aide of Our loyall subjects here for the securitie of this Kingdome and safeguard of Our person as likewise of the armes and aide of Our subjects of that Kingdome for the same purposes And here first We call God to witnesse what an unwelcome journey this is unto Us and how unwillingly We doe undertake it Secondly We