Gospel was to subject themselves wholly to their Soveraigns and without any reservation but to suffer for righteousnesse sake rather than disobey God for hereby the principal hinderance was removed namely that shadow which the enemies of the Gospel made the Emperors to apprehend that this Doctrine which spread so fast would bring along with it an alteration in their Estates and that the Christians waâ—ted but the coming of a King that would break in pieces all other Kings and have for his possession the ends of the earth it 's that which Saint Peter had regard unto where he exhorteth Believers 1 Pet. 2 13 15. To submit themselves to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake that in all well-doing ye may put to silence the Ignorance of foolish men By this manner of subjection whole States were converted and in the end patience overcame For the Christians of the first Ages have made appear by their piety and moderation that the Kingdom whither they aspired was not of this world neither did in any thing diminish the rights of Monarchs but rather strengthened their authority binding their Subjects anew by Conscience yea so far as to make whole Armies of valiant mâ—n that had power in their hands to lay down their necks rather than to draw their swords against their Emperor so did the Christian Souldiers under Maximinian who would have constrained them to sacrifice to his Idols The Armies of the English and Scottish Covenanters are not capable of this Doctrine these Northern people are impatient Libertines and haughty they will form a Gospel according to the Ayr of their â—â—â—mate Their other crafty Evasion is not much better that Saint Paul forbids to disobey the power of the King but not to his person but the Text is formally against this for the Apostle by Power doth not understand a Quality without a Subject but fastens it to the Person saying in vers 6. That the Prince is the Minister of God and that he bears not the sword in vain and that they are ordained of God to do Justice And he speaks vers 6. of Princes in the plural number they are Gods Ministers attending continually upon this very thing 'T is the style of Saint Paul to call the Angels who excel in power Principalities and Powers When he speaks Eph. 3.10 That the manifold wisdom of God might be known to Principalities and Powers in heavenly places It appears that he speaks not of Accidents but of Persons for they are the Persons and not the Titles that are capable of knowledge Now I would fain know of these men what this Person is that it is lawful to resist If it be the person of the King or supream Magistrate whilst it is joyned to his power they resist the power in the person and if it be the person separated from the power they must needs before resist either the one or the other for to mâ—ke this violent separation And seeing that the Covenanters maintain that the authority of the King resides in their Chief those that draw the sword against them may return the same answer and say that they resist not their authority but their Persons but the Oath of Allegiance and that of supremacy which are imposed by Act of Parliament cause all these subtilties to vanish for men take these Oaths to the person of the King and not to his power or to his supremacy separated from him Moreover this distinction is contradicted by another which hath been frequent a long time in their mouths that they resisted not the King but his Armies which signifies in effect that they resisted not the person or King but his power for his power laid in his Armies and as it is the nature of a lie to enter far these people who say they are licensed by Saint Paul to oppose the person of the King and not his power were marvellously impatient when they were told they fought against the King and affirmed that they fought for him and defended his person which doubtless seems to be spoken to move laughter and indignation but God cannot be mocked nor Conscience wholly blinded by their impatience hereupon they testifie that their Conscience makes their process and dictates to them within that to bear Arms against the King is to sin against God and Nature It 's a notable Symptome of a desperate sick State where the reason of a people is smitten with astonishment whereof we have a most lamentable example for was there ever such a capricious madness to accuse the Royal Majesty of Treason to make Edicts by the King against the King to swear a Covenant for defence of the King which nevertheless obligeth them to make war against him and the King being alive to forge a Platonick Idea of the same King residing fifty miles from himself that so they might fight against the Person of the King There is no Cymera nor fantastical humour like this Behold the work of the Spirit that now works efficaciously in the children of disobedience Behold another Evasion The Apostle say they doth not teach us who is the Superiour Power but that it is the Superiour Power that we must obey and therefore they strive to form in the Kingdom a Superiour Power above the King a thing contrary to the Constitution of this Monarchy as I hope to make appear It 's easie to gather which is the Superiour Power which Saint Paul understands for he expresses it himself It s the Power which bears the Sword ver 3. And he to whom Tribute is paid Psal 7. Rights that appertain to the King alone and which were actually possessed by the Emperor where Saint Paul wrote this Epistle That which they alledge against this that the Emperor then was more absolute than the Kings at present is false but he was much more limited Suetonius that lived under Trajan puts amongst the enormities of Caligula to have been very near changing the form of Government which was a Principality into a Kingdom and to place the Diadem upon his head And the Learned called not the power of these Emperors Regnum but Principatus and were this allegation true yet it would be far from the purpose for be it that the Emperor should be more or less absolute than our Kings the command of Saint Paul is alwaies the same That we must not resist him that bears the Sword and to whom Custome is due because his Authority is of God This other starting hole is of the same stuffe they say that the defence not to resist Supream Powers obligeth only Particulars and not the States of a Kingdom this is to make another Gospel for the General than for the Particulars as if they should say the Commandments of God are directed to every one but not to all which is to overthrow common Sense since the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy are imposed upon all the States of England whereby they are bound also in General none sit
to obey the Laws until the same Authority that made them alters and changes them This Authority being that of the Prince sitting in Parliament we hold not our selves bound by that which passeth in any House or Councel without him and against him accounting that where the Princes Authority shines not their power is eclips'd above all since the Houses at Westminster were reduced to the fourth part of their number and the lesser part the major part being frighted away and filled their vacant places with persons of their own judgement without the Kings Authority if the Houses had ever any Power without him it was like the light of the Moon without the Sun Exiguum malignum Lumen as the Astrologers call it it was a little light which did nought but hurt Our great Lawyer Fortescue speaks well that as a Natural Body when the Head is cut off is not called a Body but a Trunck so in the Body Politick the Commonalty without a Head cannot any way incorporate or make a Body CHAP. VIII How the Covenanters will be Judges in their own Cause BUt was there ever any thing more unreasonable then this proceeding They would that the judgement of the Lesser part of the Two Houses without the King and against all former Parliaments should be received yea in their own Quarrel and that in the Controversie whether the King hath Authority above this Assembly or it above him this Assembly will be judge 't is for them they tell us to declare what is Law and to make the Law Now that Assembly declares that their Authority is above the King that their Arms are just and the Kings unjust and that the Representative Body of the State cannot erre in Law and that it 's your duty to stand to their judgement These people would be ashamed to confess where they have learned thus to reason Is it not of him who said Dic Ecclesiae hoc est tibi ipsi Tell it to the Church that is to say to thy self and truly to confute them we will do them the shame to employ the same words we make use of against him changing only the persons In the present Quarrel one of the Controversies is Whether the Two Houses at Westminster without the King are the Soveraign Judges in point of Law In this Controversie should the Two Houses be Judges they should then be Judges in their own Cause and should be assured to gain their process Item if it be disputed whether they can erre in this Controversie also they would judge they could not erre Should they be Infallible Judges of their Infallibility Who beholds not in this an evident contradiction That it must be that he that disputes whether the Two Houses can erre must address himself to the Two Houses as to Judges that cannot erre to judge this Question so likewise in the Question whether the Authority of the Two Houses be above the King it 's certain that the Two Houses cannot be Judges since by this same Question their Authority to Judge is called into doubt the one pretends that the difference hath been decided and judged by the Authority of a Soveraign and infallible Judge it 's certain that hereby he renders the wound incurable the quarrel eternal and beyond all terms of reconciliation It matters not to say that between two parties that pretend to the Soveraignty there can be no Judge but that the strongest must carry it for if the two parties desire peace they may choose Arbiters The King or Supreme being the Natural Soveraign of his Enemies and he who gives vigor to the Laws hath desired notwithstanding that the difference should be determined by the Laws he pretends not to infallibility He hath also often chosen his Neighbours for Arbiters and hath fully satisfied them by reasonable offers and such as are worthy of him witness the Report that the extraordinary Ambassadors of the States Generals made to their Lords for which the Parliament of London declared their great discontent in writings The King being to render account of his Actions to none but God alone submitted himself notwithstanding to Reason and Piety remitting himself wholly to the Ancient Laws and Constitutions of his Kingdome He hath often protested and oft-times published and in this difference taken all Christendome for Arbiters but what in the Question whether his Subjects can make a Law against him and whether they have right to make war on him and would also that he should remit himself to their Ordinances yea even those which they have made without him against his will and against himself and that he should acknowledge them for Supreme Judges in their own cause without other Arbiters then their will Now they have had their wills wholly and have been Judges and parties both together a priviledge that belongs to God alone to whose Supreme Court we appeal CHAP. IX That the most Noble and best part of the Parliament retired to the King being driven away by the worser THat which doth strongly perswade us to believe that the Priviledges of Parliament which they would extend even in infinitum have an ill foundation is because we have seen them opposed by the better part of the Parliament both in Quality and Dignity For besides the King an hundred seventy five of the House of Commons and the best qualified withdrew themselves from amongst them and of the Lords eighty three so that scarcely the third part remained at Westm Almost all the Gentry wholly followed the King and when we consider the persons the Condition and Revenues of those that withdrew themselves we cannot see that they had any need to fish in troubled waters or to warm themselves at the Great Fire that began to slame as those had that remained Without doubt that great Body of Lords and Gentlemen of the Kingdome loved their Liberty and would never have assisted the King to have obtained an unlimited power break their Priviledges and impose a perpetual yoak of slavery upon them and their posterity When need was these Members of Parliament assembled themselves and the King deferred to their Councels as much as their Priviledges required Whereupon those of the Parliament of London were extraordinarily vexed maintaining that the Name and Power of Parliament was from that time fastened to the place where they sate which is a point that we will not dispute how strange soever it be but we would have them remember that they have had their sitting in other places and have not for all that thought they had left their Authority at Westminster and we dare answer for them that if the Lords and Commons which held with the King had driven them away and taken their place they would soon have changed their Opinion Besides this strong consideration of numbers and persons all those who know that the King is the Fountain of Authority and that without him there is no more lawful Power then day without the sun would never make
they committed an execrable Murther 1 Sam. 11.12 And every Penny they levied upon them they committed Rapine employing their Robberies to maintain Murther and Rebellion If the Names of these crimes offend their ears the crimes themselves should much more afflict their Consciences these terms proceed not from passion but flow from the necessary consequence of this Truth That the war of the Covenanters is destitute of all Authority lawful and divine Oh that every Christian who hath drawn his sword in this sinful cause would seriously consider how he should answer it before God and man and that he may have horrour and dread in him for the evil he hath deserved and yet much more for that which he hath committed CHAP. XXII Of the Depraved and Evil Faith of the Covenanters BUT we cannot so slightly let them pass with their fore-alledged excuse for the War that they durst not trust the King The cause is evident which is because they had taken from him all the ground of reason that might be that he should trust them nothing being more to be distrusted than a Depraved and Ill Faith The King permitted them to perpetuate the Parliament as long as they pleased he committed himself wholly over to their Faith Affection and Conscience if any thing obligeth a man to be faithful it is to repose an entire and free confidence in him and there is nothing more odious and unworthy the name of man than to employ that assurance and confidence they have freely committed to us to deceive and ruine them They themselves after this signal favour without example often declared to the world that if they should abuse so great a trust to the dammage and detriment of his Majesty they should be unworthy to live upon the earth but this was before the Loyal Subjects had separated themselves from their company They are then condemned by their own confession for that most signal Act of Trust such as never King gave to his Subjects they returned him the most infamous and perfidious Acts and base ingratitude that ever Subjects rendred to their King He that said Fidelem si putaveris facies the means to make men faithful was to think them so was never known to these men In Conscience can ye believe that when the King committed to them this great power that he understood it thus That when he should refuse to do any thing they requested him he gave them liberty to force him to do it or to do it without him to take from him his Children to seize upon his Revenues to turn his Armies Navies and Forts against him to make a broad Seal and to break his to dispose of all the Offices of the Crown to levy Forreign Souldiers and bring them into his Kingdom to deprive his Subjects of their Goods and possessions to drive the Ministers of the Gospel from their flocks to rob the Church of her Revenues to overthrow the ancient Laws of the Land and to make a Religion all new After all this can any man wonder if they durst not trust the King For where is the Criminal or Malefactor that dares commit himself to or trust the Judge and where is the Cozener and Deceiver who being discovered dares trust him whom he hath cozened and deceived If by these vile actions they have violated the trust the King reposed in them and if by the Act for the continuance of the Parliament the King gave them a power to deal thus with him we refer our selves to the better part of the Parliament who withdrew themselves to the King abhorring such a prodigious violation of the publick faith and of the duty of Subjects and Christians unfaithfulness they committed the like to the people who deputed and committed to them the publick safety For doubtless in their choice it never enter'd into the Spirits of them who sent them to invest them with an absolute power over their goods and persons much less over their King for they could not give that which they had not nevertheless they have executed this power casting their fellow-Citizens out of their houses and possessions and gather'd together great treasure out of the rents of the King and his Subjects manifesting themselves very liberal of the goods of others But they defend these actions by a new Maxime of State invented upon this occasion Some of the principal Citizens of London being oppressed by their great and often Taxes came to the House and represented to them that it was their duties to maintain the Subjects in the propriety of their goods and beseeched them not to fall themselves into that inconvenience which they were bound to remedy The Gentlemen of the House of Commons answered them that in truth the Subjects might plead the propriety of their goods against the King but not against the Parliament to whom it appertained to dispose of all the goods of the Kingdom but to perswade the people to believe this is a very hard task who rather judged that the Parliament whom they had chosen had violated the publick faith and the trust committed to them and had taken that into their disposing which was never committed them Let these Gentlemen never hereafter speak so loud of their publick faith since they have lost it nor ever attempt to borrow more money upon so sorry a caution There were none in either Houses who had not often taken the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy by which they acknowledge the King their Soveraign depending of none and had sworn to him loyalty and obedience They moreover took the protestation made in the beginning of the Parliament and imposed upon the whole Kingdome wherein also they swear the same thing The Oath of the Covenant which was taken after renew'd the same promise and there they swore to defend the Person and Authority of the King and cause the world to behold their fidelity and that they would not in the least thing diminish his just power and greatnesse Consider here good Reader Oaths enough to binde them to perform and keep their promise But this multitude of oaths is a kind of proof of their ill faith for they that swear often manifest thereby that they think themselves unworthy to be believed and distrust that every one mistrusts them It had been better for them to have been faithful to their King without swearing for as in the Grammar Latine two Negatives make an Affirmative these on the contrary in stead thereof would seem to make two Affirmatives to make one Negative and that many oaths to be faithful to their Soveraign bound them to do the contrary for in effect these last oaths were solely imployed to ruine the antient Oath of Allegiance for if their intentions had been simply to be faithful to their Soveraign they needed have taken no other oath then the first Therefore after these two new oaths came the third which they called the Negative Oath in which they caused men to swear That they should neither
it was they made the people believe a long time that the occasion of their taking up Arms was to bring the King to his Parliament but the hypocrisie of protestation is now clearly manifested for when the King offered to return to his Parliament they utterly refused to receive him telling him plainly if he came he should come at his peril Forbidding all persons whatsoever under pain of death to receive or entertain him in their houses Let all good subjects who have taken this Oath open now at last their eyes and acknowledge that the intentions of their Guides was quite contrary to their professions The Sixth Article required every person to swear That this cause touched the Glory of God the happiness of the three Kingdomes and the Dignity of the King Indeed this cause touched the Glory of God with such fowl hands as have defiled it as much as possible men could and it touched the happiness of the three Kingdomes with such malignant claws as have torn them to pieces But if they will that we take them in their sense namely that their cause defends and advanceth the Glory of God the happiness of the Kingdomes and the Dignity of the King we behold and feel the contrary But grant that this should be true 't is not a thing for which we must swear Oaths are of two sorts the one sort are to affirm the truth of a thing present or past the other for to promise and oblige our will for the future these two sorts of Oaths cannot be taken together The Oath of the Covenant is of the latter and therefore it is very ill done of them to confound it with the first which is altogether of another nature and usage and in a promise for the future to thrust in an affirmation of a thing present yea of a thing false or at least doubtful and whereof they of their party are not accorded But suppose that this Oath were of the first sort the things which we should affirm upon Oath are such as require the testimony of the person who swears Such are all questions of fact But as for questions of right they ought not neither can they be decided by Oath and it is to want common sense to make his neighbour judge to know which is the true Religion and to judge whether the Cause of the Parliament is better then the Kings There the Oath loseth his use for it s made to perswade and give Authority to the thing by the witness of the person If the Cause of the Covenant be the Cause of God there is no need to swear it but to justifie it by reason and practice And although we should even believe that it searcheth and advanceth the Glory of God the happiness of the Kingdome and dignity of the King it were unjust and ridiculous to press us to swear it for moral truths and even also Theological ought to be believed not sworn Civil things only and those amongst them which are matters of fact ought only to be affirmed by oath we have a very firm belief of the truth of many points of Religion and of the honesty of divers persons and yet nevertheless for all the world we would not swear to them all who have any ingenuity or good sense acknowledge that to force us to affirm the goodness of the Covenant by Oath is an extreme tyranny and full of ignorance and absurdities And also seeing we are very ill satisfied of the goodness thereof it s another tyranny to make us swear to defend it and a most barbarous cruelty to confiscate our possessions and sequester our Ministers of their benefices because they refuse to take so unreasonable an Oath and yet all this was practised during the Presbyterian Reign The Articles of the Covenant were assisted with a Religious Prologue and Epilogue full of protestations of zeal and repentance and therefore it was almost impossible but the most part of them that took it should be perjured considering the generality of the people are evil And this should have prevented the Gentlemen to impose the Covenant indifferently upon all under such great penalties For as they will not suffer the Sacrament of the Lords Supper to be administred to the people for fear to encrease their condemnation They should have by the same reason according to their principles have withheld to administer these protestations of zeal and repentance to their consciences whose disposition they were ignorant of Now a great evidence of their depraved and evil Faith consists in their protestations of sanctity and superlative expressions of zeal in which the Independent party who rejected the Covenant without comparison fly higher then their Predecessors All their Ordinances and Declarations yea even their Letters of News were sallies of zeal All their murthers and robberies were to establish the purity of the Gospel to conquer a Kingdome for Jesus Christ and that godliness might reign and flourish If they speak of the abominable parricide committed against their Soveraign they say that God made bare the Arm of his Holiness that the Lord is on their right hand that he hath smote Kings in the day of his wrath and that they may wash their feet in the blood of the ungodly Thus they made their horrible crimes march disguised in terms of Scripture and the devil borrowed the language of the Spirit of God Whosoever shall well consider the use they made of the Scripture and whereto they imployed their great shew of holiness shall find an Answer to the Question in the 50 Psal 16. But to the wicked God saith what hast thou to do to declare my Statutes or that thou shouldest take my Covenant in thy mouth Behold here the work of the Covenanters they declare the Statutes of God and take his Covenant into their mouths to put on rebellion the mask of Religion and to invest themselves without trouble of the Authority and Revenues of the Crown the goods of the Church and without suspition to grope the purses of the people for the outward shew of devotion doth much amuse the assistants and gain their belief for who can fear any evil from those who so piously invite them to repentance and the advancement of the Glory of God who would not confide and trust in them that declare the Statutes of God and take his Covenant in their mouth Satan in all forms is dangerous but he is never so pernicious as when he clothes himself as an Angel of Light and it is ill going Procession when the Devil carries the Cross Moreover by their fruits ye shall know them How often abused they the credulity of the people when they conjured them to help to fetch the King from his evil Councellors and to bring him gloriously to his great and faithful Councel that is to say to themselves but their faithfulness appeared then when he departed from them whom they called his evil Councellors to yeeld himself up to them for then their terrible
change and abolish Ceremonies or Rites of the Church ordained onely by mans authoritie so that all things be done to edifying XXXV THe second Book of Homilies the severall titles whereof we have ioyned under this Article doth contain a godly and wholsome Doctrine and necessary for these times as doth the former book of Homilies which were set forth in the time of Edward the sixth and therefore we judge them to be read in Churches by the Ministers diligently and distinctly that they may be understanded of the people Of the Names of the Homilies 1 OF the right use of the Church 2 Against peril of Idolatry 3 Of repairing and keeping clean of Churches 4 Of good works first of Fasting 5 Against Gluttony and Drunkennesse 6 Against Excesse of Apparel 7 Of Prayer 8 Of the Place and Time of Prayer 9 That Common Prayers and Sacraments ought to be ministred in a known Tongue 10 Of the reverent estimation of Gods Word 11 Of Alms doing 12 Of the Nativity of Christ 13 Of the passion of Christ 14 Of the Resurrection of Christ 15 Of the worthy receiving of the Sacrament of the Body and Bloud of Christ 16 Of the Gifts of the holy Ghost 17 For the Rogation daies 18 Of the State of Matrimony 19 Of Repentance 20 Against Idlenesse 21 Against Rebellion XXXVI THe Book of Consecration of Archbishops and Bishops and ordering of Priests and Deacons lately set forth in the time of Edward the sixth and confirmed at the same time by authority of Parliament doth contain all things necessary to such Consecration and ordering neither hath it any thing that of it selfe is superstitious and ungodly And therefore whosoever are consecrated or ordered according to the Rites of that Book since the second year of the aforenamed King Edward unto this time or hereafter shall be consecrated or ordered according to the same Rites we decree all such to be rightly orderly and lawfully consecrated and ordered XXXVII THe Queens Majestie hath the chief power in this Realm of England and other her Dominions unto whom the chief government of all estates of this Realm whether they be Ecclesiasticall or Civil in all causes doth appertain and is not nor ought to be subject to any forreign Iurisdiction Where wee attribute to the Queenes Majestie the chiefe government by which titles we understand the mindes of some slanderous folkes to be oâ—fended we give not to our Princes the ministring either of Gods word or of the Sacraments the which thing the Injunctions also lately set forth by Elizabeth our Queen do most plainly testifie but that only prerogative which we see to have been given alwaies to all godly Princes in holy Scriptures by God himself that is that they should rule all estates and degrees committed to their charge by God whether they be Ecclesiasticall or Temporall and restraine with the Civil sword the stubborne and evil deers The Bishop of Rome hath no Iurisdiction in this Realm of England The Lawes of the Realm may punish Christian men with death for heinous and grievous offences It is lawful for Christian men at the Commandment of the Magistrate to weare weapons and serve in the warres XXXVIII THe Riches and goods of Christians are not common as touching the right title and possession of the same as certain Anabaptists do falsly boast Notwithstanding every man ought of such things as he possesseth liberally to give almes to the poore according to his ability XXXIX AS we confesse that vaine and rash swearing is forbidden Christian men by our Lord Iesus Christ and Iames his Apostle So we judge that Christian Religion doth not prohibite but that a man may sweare when the Magistrate requireth in a cause of faith and charitie so it be done according to the Prophets teaching in justice judgment and truth The Contents Chap. 1. OF the Seditious Liberty of the new Doctrines which hath been the principal means of the Covenant p. 1. Chap. 2. That the Covenanters are destitute of all Proofs for their war made against the King p. 12. Chap. 3. Express Texts of Scripture which commands Obedience and forbids Resistance to Soverigns p. 23. Chap. 4. The Evasions of the Covenanters upon the Texts of Saint Paul Rom. 13. and how in time they refuse the judgment of Scripture p. 28. Chap. 5. What Constitution of State the Covenanters forge and how they refuse the judgment of the Laws of the Kingdom p. 40. Chap. 6. What Examples in the Histories of England the Covenanters make use of to authorize their actions p. 46. Chap. 7. Declaring wherein the Legislative power of Parliament consists p. 50. Chap. 8. How the Covenanters will be Judges in their own cause p. 63. Chap. 9. That the most noble and best part of the Parliament retired to the King being driven away by the worser p. 65. Chap. 10. A Parallel of the Covenant with the holy League of France under Henry the Third Pag. 71. Chap. 11. The Doctrine of the English Covenanters parallel'd with the Doctrine of the Jesuits p. 72. Chap. 12. How the Covenanters wrong the Reformed Churches in inviting them to joyn with them with an Answer for the Churches of France p. 81. Chap. 13. The preceding Answer confirmed by Divines of the Reformed Religion with an Answer to some Objections of the Covenanters upon this Subject p. 101. Chap. 14. How the Covenanters have no reason to invite the Reformed Churches to their Alliance since they differ from them in many things of great importance p. 115. Chap. 15. Of abolishing the Lyturgy in doing of which the Covenanters oppose the Reformed Churches p. 122. Chap. 16. Of the great prudence and wisdom of the first English Reformers and of the Fool hardinesse of these at present p. 132. Chap. 17. How the Covenanters labour in vain to sow Sedition between the Churches of England and France upon the point of Discipline Of the Christian prudence of the French Reformers and of the nature of Discipline in general p. 145. Chap. 18. How the Discipline of the Covenanters is far from the practise of other Churches p. 156. Chap. 19. That the Covenanters ruine the Ministers of the Gospel under colour of Reformation p. 163. Chap. 20. Of the Corruption of Religion objected to the English Clergy and the waies that the Covenanters took to remedy them Pag. 167. Chap. 21. An Answer to the Objection That the King made War against the Parliament p. 176. Chap. 22. Of the Depraved and Evil Faith of the Covenanters p. 184. Chap. 23. Of the Instruments both Parties made use of and of the Irish Affairs p. 207 Chap. 24. How the different Factions of the Covenant agreed to ruine the King and contributed to put him to death p. 226. Chap. 25. Of the cruelty of the Covenanters towards the good Subjects of the King p. 232. CHAP. I. Of the seditious Liberty of New Doctrines which hath been the principal means of the Covenant A Compleat History of our Affairs since
directly nor indirectly assist the King in this war And thus behold in fine the mask taken off and the intention of their former oaths uncover'd There can be no greater symptome of a desperate sick State then the multiplication of oaths to form parties and factions and we may say after the Prophet Jeremy 23.10 The land mourns because of Oaths As for the principals who imposed the Oaths they made use of them to halter and intangle the consciences of the people for to serve their ambition practising the Doctrine of Lysander who taught that men ought to be amused with oaths as children with bables and as for the people upon whom the oaths were imposed for the most part they took them rather for imitation then knowledge or for fear or from a blind zeal or an implicit faith Moreover the multitude of Oaths do imbase the dignity and a people accustomed to them respect no more an oath then their old shoes Those also that swear often are often forsworn overthrowing one oath with another But the Oath of the Covenant hath this singular wherein it surpasseth all Chymera's Centaurs Hypogriffâ— in extravagance and contradiction for in taking it in the sense of the Covenanters they overthrow this Oath by the Oath it self and they forswear that which they had sworr for in sweaâ—ing that they would defend the Person and Authority of the King and make the world behold their fidelity according to their opinion they are bound to make war against him and by virtue of this Oath they persecuted rob'd and after all deposed him Oh supreme degree of perfidy and frantick blindness Have we not whereat to mourn and lament to behold these illuminated Reformers so plunged in the gall of bitterness and bonds of iniquity for to persecute their good King with all rage and violence because they had sworn to defend him and to be faithful to him This Oath was called Covenant that is to say Alliance or confederation because those that took it for at present its forbidden to be taken pretended to make an Alliance and Covenant with God This Oath is yet in vogue in Scotland It 's their New Covenant besides that of the New Testament and the modern Canonical Scripture which is Judge in all cases of conscience and from which there is no appeal Their ill faith is moreover evident in the composition of this Oath and certainly it 's the only thing evident in the third Article which is a discourse so twisted and interwoven composed expresly not to be understood There they swear to defend the Person and Authority of the King in defence of Religion and the publique Liberty It 's very hard to say what that signifies every good soul who suffer'd himself to be perswaded to take this Oath understood thereby that to defend the Person of the King was a necessary point both to preserve their Religion and Liberty and that they could not fear God as they ought without honouring the King and those that took the Oath in this sense were bound to fight against the Covenanters for the defence of their Religion and Soveraign But the unworthy companions of the Covenant interpreted it thus that they bind themselves to defend the Person and Authority of the King so far forth as it is compatible with the defence of Religion and Liberty Now say they we find that the defence of the Person and Authority of the King is incompatible with the defence of Religion and the Publique Liberty and therefore we are bound to oppose and ruine the King for the defence of Liberty and Religion And thus it appears that this malicious obscurity is a fold of the Serpent and a lurking hole of the evil spirit even the rather when we narrowly consider this construction to defend one thing in defence of another which signifies nothing and wants both true Logick and common sense The Oath being a profession before God and the strongest affirmation of all had need to have been clear and couched in such terms that every one might have understood it in the same sense they took it but to insert such equivocations was to abuse the Name of God whom they took to witness and the simplicity of the people He that takes a forked Oath and understands it not in the sense that he that gives it or understands it not at all swears not in Truth in Righteousness and Judgement which are the qualities required in an Oath for he calls God to witness his hypocrisie blindness and temerity The same Article makes profession of fidelity to the King and to diminish nothing of his just Authority and greatness It 's no new thing for Rebels to take the Oath of Allegiance to their Soveraign to combine a faction against him The Mutineers in the time of Richard the Second took an Oath to be faithful to the King and people and yet nevertheless made use of this Oath to stir up the people to ruine the King And these did the like and when hereupon we tax them with unfaithfulness and breach of their Oath they answer and pay us with a distinction betwixt the politick and personal capacity of the King and they tell us that it was against Charles they made the Warre and not against the King making the King a pure Idea an Accident without a Substance It 's very hard for them to say what became of the politick capacity of the King then when they beheaded him in his personal capacity for they so long honoured him in Idea that at last they massacred him in substance But they forget that in the same Article they had sworn to be faithful to the Person of the King and protested to defend his Person and Authority as things conjoyned and inseparable So strong is truth and respect due to Soveraignty so natural to Subjects that even in the Oath which they formed to confederate against him their duty is couched in express terms which will one day be produced in judgement against them But in good earnest have we not much to wonder at and to acknowledge the wrath of God in the blindness of these men that so many millions of men should think they were bound to persecute the King to all extremity and to take away his goods honour liberty safety and at last his life because they had sworn to defend the Person and Authority of the King and make the world behold their fidelity and that they would diminish nothing of his just Power and Authority Is it possible that their by-got zeal could so dislocate their brains and a-brutish their spirits as to make them commit so many crimes and enormities upon so unreasonable a consequence Oh Lord create in us a clean heart and renew a right spirit within us In the fourth Article of this Oath they promise to endeavour with all their power to bring to condigne punishment all those who were the cause of separating the King from his people and according to this
the beginning of these Commotions would be the best Apology for the Justice of our Cause but this let some brave Spirits labour that are furnished with Records and Intelligences and who are indued with a judicious Candor which may leave to after Age an accomplished portraicture of the wickednesse of this last Age but that we shall not undertake here Yet neverthelesse since the Question of Right depends upon that of Fact and that to judge of a Different we must know who began the Quarrel it is necessary that something be said of the occasions and beginning of this here for in regard of the progresse it is so notoriously and prodigiously wicked on our Enemies side that their neighbours that formerly had too good an opinion of their Cause acknowledge now that they have rendred it very evil It shall be our Task then to let the world see that it hath been Evil from the very beginning and that their first proceedings were contrary to the Word of God to the constitution of the Kingdom and to natural Equity Yea that all those fearfull prodigies of Iniquity which the world beholds with a just execration are the necessary consequences of their first avowed and published principles Ye must therefore know that the Parliament assembled in Novemb. 1640 was composed for the most part of Persons of Honour affectious to their Religion King and Country and of some others also whose designes aimed at a general overthrow of all things These finding themselves to be few in number labour to joyn to their Faction the numerous and meaner sort of people of London who being kept under a just and gracious Soveraign in their duty and in happy subjection could not be induced to mutiny by no other motive then that of Religion which is the handle by which the Politicians in all times have wound and turned about the Spirits of the people We will not neverthelesse deprive them of this Glory that it was they that first brought the Reformation of Religion upon the Stage but the Honour is due to them who since have suffered for their Loyalty towards God and the King that in this holy enterprise they only carried themselves vigorously and sincerely but their good Zeal by the Cunning of the Party was driven so far that labouring to reform the Clergie they served without thinking the design of them that would destroy them and to cause afterward Monarchy to stumble upon the Ruines of the Church This profession of the Parliament to Reform the Church fils the hearts of all good men with joy and hope for although that the excellent Order in the English Church deserves highly to be respected and admired the purity of the Gospel there being clothed with Honour and defended by an Episcopal Gravity yet is it of our Government and of all other in the world be they Ecclesiastical or Civil as with Watches that how good and excellent soever they be length of time disorders them that ever and anon they have need of mending and making clean It is almost an Age since the Doctrine and Discipline of our Church hath been renewed and it is a wonder both the one and the other have been so well conserved in so long a space Nevertheless the faults of some Particulars ought not to be imputed to the General The Church hath flourished under our Discipline and the Truth hath been preserved and the Good being put in the Ballance against the Evil the people had far more cause to glorifie God than to complain but we have to do with Spirits whose nature is like Lapwings which in a Garden full of fruits feed only on the Caterpillars There is nothing so well done that doth not displease some even the works of God displease the Devil because they are well done and in all those works wherein the spirit of man hath a part there is nothing so perfect which may not be amended Our Lyturgie so holy and so highly esteemed in all the Reformed Churches hath nevertheless given offence to many persons amongst us And although it was for a very small matter yet those who were affectionate to peace were content to change somthing and so to purchase Concord with their Dissenting Brethren at that price Whence this overture of Reformation opened a gate to the Liberty of them that desired a change and the Parliament being composed of persons of different inclinations in matters of Religion every one had liberty to say and write what he pleased and had a Party in the Assembly of Estates that protected and encouraged them The Germans never wrote so much upon Logick in a hundred years as the English wrote of the Designs of their Ecclesiastical Discipline in three moneths every week brought forth a thousand seditious pamphlets which supplied the scarcity of Coals every writer made a Platform of Reformation according to his humour and in this new building none would content himself to be a Mason but every one would be Architect and there was none of them who called not his reformation the only Kingdom of Jesus Christ out of which there was no salvation But these Kingdoms of Jesus Christ agreed one with another and with the nature of the thing as the Titles and Chapters of Montagues Essays The people are called a Beast with many Heads and when all these heads shall cry out at one time and every one with a different cry I leave you to gâ—esse what an odious discord they make in the ears both of God and man In the midst of this universal distraction it was appointed that a certain number of Divines differing in the point of Discipline should meet together to confer about Religion as well for the interiour as the exteriour part where many Bishops and other of the chief of the Clergy men the Bishop of Lincolne who afterward was Arch-Bishop of York made this Proposition to them That the Divines should in no wise touch upon the point of Discipline until such time as they were agreed about the points of Doctrine hoping thereby that their spirits being united by the bond of one common but holy Faith they would easily accord about the exteriour Government or Discipline This Counsel was embraced by all and so wisely managed by that great Person that in three Meetings the Divines accorded upon all the substance of Religion and formed hereupon divers Articles and with one consent condemned divers opinions This general consent in Doctrine filled them with hope that the points of Discipline would pass with the like sweetness and indeed there wanted not much to have made us happy But before the report of this good Agreement could be published abroad the Factious party of the State fearing above all things this accord in Religion suddenly raised a strong Quarrel against the Degree of Bishops as an appurtenance of Antichrist and another about their sitting in Parliament and did so exasperate the people against the Prelates that in stead of pursuing their design of
was under age caused the Father to be most cruelly put to death in prison yet the authority of the young K. must be made use of to make the resolution of the Parliament pass into an Act for without the King the Parliament can no more act than a Body without a Head But when the young King came to age he caused the Authors and Complices of his Fathers death to be executed and caused all the Acts of this Parliament to be broken by another And less than these to the purpose is which they alledg concerning the accord the Barons extorted from King John by which this unhappy and imprudent King being reduced to a straight promised to put himself into the power of twenty five of his Barons and submitted himself to divers other dishonorable Conditions and this accord was not made in Parliament but in the field by force of Arms there being no Parliament then sitting and therefore was of no force nor was ever kept These Articles of the Barons were much like those the two Houses sent the King to Beverly Oxford and New-Castle the Covenanters imitate these Barons in their affectation of Piety for they called their General the Marshal of the Lords Army and of his holy Church and these perswaded their Chiefs that they led the Battels of the Lord of Hoasts but these transferred not the Crown to another Prince as the Barons did but have taken away both his Crown and Life having long before declared by writing to their King that they dealt very favourably with him if they did not depose him and that if they did they should not exceed the Limits of Modesty nor of their Duty This Judgment was pronounced in the House of Commons without contradiction that The King might fall from his Office that the happiness of the Kingdom did not depend upon him nor the Royal Branches of his House and that he did not deserve to be King of England The Authors of these Opinions are declared in a Declaration of his Majesties In one point the Barons and Covenanters are very different for the Lords that remained with the Covenanters were without power all places of Honour and Trust being taken out of their hands by their Inferiours and at last their House abolished by the Commons so that in stead of producing this War of the Barons the Covenanters should rather have alledged the Seditions and Commotions of Watt Tyler and Jack Straw poor Artisans and followed with people of the same rank for these persons and the Cause of the Covenanters are far more alike Behold here with what authorities the Margins of their Books are stuffed Behold the Examples which the polititians of the times present to the Gentlemen of the Parliament for to teach them what they ought to do those infamous actions which were abhorred by the ages following them are become the supporters of ours and despair which makes men snatch up any sorts of weapons forceth our enemies to justifie their actions by the examples of Rebels and Paricides 't is not for nothing then that these Histories are so often alledged though nothing to the purpose and it 's not without cause that they print them apart for not being able to justifie their actions they have declared their intentions and made the King to see what he sholud trust to if he fell into their hands Certainly if there had not been a design laid to come to that both to prepare the people and intimidate the King those incendiaries who by these horrible examples and their Maximes of State grounded thereupon teaching the deposing of Kings should have been hanged long since with their Books about their necks For so many men which are studied in the Laws of the Kingdom and are at the helm of affairs cannot be ignorant of that which King James of happy and glorious memory marks in his Book of the Right of Kings that in the time of Edward the Third there was an Act of Parliament made which declared all them Traytors who imagined it's the word of the Law or conspired the death of the King â—on which Act the Judges grounding themselves have alwaies judged them for Traytors who dared but to speak of deposing the King because they believed that they could not take away the Crown from off the Kings Head without taking away his Life It was heretofore a crime worthy of death to speak yea to think evil against the King and moreover the Word of God which is to be obeyed forbids us to speak evil of the King no not in our thought but now it 's the exercise of devout Souls to write Meditations upon the deposing of their King CHAP. VII Declaring wherein the Legislative Powers of Parliament consists HAving no better Authorities in all the Examples of the Ages past they establish a New one which by the unlimited largeness supplies what it wants of length of time for when we require to be governed by the Laws they answer us that the Parliament is the Oracle of the Laws that it is for that great Court to declare what is Law and what is not to interpret the Laws to dispense with them or to make new ones That themselves are the Parliament excluding all others and that since they have declared that this War is according to Law and that such Maximes as they give us are fundamental Laws of the Kingdom we must remit our selves to them and receive for Law what they ordain But because strangers may read who have no knowledge of the Government of England for to examine this Imperious reason we are obliged to declare here what we know touching the present affairs We have learned to acknowledg the Parliament 〈◊〉 England for the Supream Court of the Kingdom that can make and unmake Laws and from whose Judgment there is no appeal But of this Court the King is the principal part and it 's he that renders it soveraign the two Houses in all their Legislative Acts acknowledg him their true and sole Soveraign the House of Lords only can evert the Judgment of the Courts of Justice but not their own without the consent of the King and the House of Commons the House of Commons is not a Judicial Court having not power to administer an Oath inflict a Fine or imprison any but those of theâ—r own House and these two neither apart nor together cannot make a Law but when they would enact any thing they both together present a Writing to the King in form of a request if the King approves of them the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal answers for the King in these French words Le Roy le veult and then it is made an Act but if the King refuseth it he returns answer Le Roy S'avisera and the business passeth no further Before the consent of the King the proposition of the two Houses contained in the Writing is like unto that which the Romans called Rogatio but when the King grants it
which a wild melancholy renders fearful superstitious suspitious and cruel and when all these ingredients meet together ignorance superstition presumption and wilfulness and a flitting and imperious humour all steeped in a black and hot melancholy they make the most malignant composition of the world pernicious to Church and State to families and all societies causing every where ruine and combustion like a Granado fired that makes all fly a pieces that is near it CHAP. XVII How the Covenanters labour in vain to sow dissention between the Churches of England and France upon the point of discipline Of the Christian prudence of the French Reformers and of the nature of discipline in general HItherto we have found no such conformity as might induce the Covenanters of England to invite the Reformed Churches to espouse their quarrel for they every where carefully administer the Lords Supper they take order that Infants be baptized they suffer none to be re-baptized they suppress heresies scandals the liberty of fanatique spirits they repeat to the people the ten Commandments of God the Articles of the Christian Faith they make use of certain forms of prayer in administring the Sacraments and other parts of the Divine Service They teach the people to submit to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake and not to resist Supreme Powers but to suffer for righteousness sake they are free from a capricious weakness in matters of indifferency which are peculiar to our enemies also these Churches approve of the English Liturgy and without scruple joyn with it in prayer when occasion serves what is there then which should oblige them to associate together The Reformed Churches say they have no Bishops but we demand of them whether all those Churches which have Bishops are not Reformed They incline doubtless to this opinion for in the title of their Epistle to the Reformed Churches they name but those of France the Low Countries and Switzerland they let the other pass under an c. If that be their opinion they have much forgot themselves in their Copies which they sent to particular States for they writ to the Churches of Hesse and those of Anhalt which are governed by Superintendents that is to say in our Language Bishops In all those Countries subject to the Crowns of Denmark and Sweden The Episcopal degree is kept so almost through all Germany this degree is preserved under the name of Superintendent and in some places as in Brene the name of Bishops remain although part of these Churches be Lutherans we will not refuse them the name of Reformed there wanting but a little charity in them to make both them and us to accord So likewise in the large Territories of Bohemia Polonia and Transylvania the Evangelical Churches are governed by Seniors as they call them who have Episcopal power They should not then boast of the consent of the Reformed Churches nor complain to them that the King would not admit a Reformation which pretends to abolish the Episcopal degree as an appurtenance of Antichrist which is in effect to condemn all Churches where there is any preheminence amongst the Clergy I forbear to speak of the Churches of Russia Grecia and India and of the rest of the world whose Doctrine is less known to us then the point of their Discipline which are all governed by Bishops But the Covenanters Magisterially prescribe their Discipline to all the World although they themselves have none vaunting themselves of a piety without pair and yet will not leave to other Churches any liberty Therefore their Declarations give all to understand that after they have planted it in England they will go and do as much beyond the Seas The Donatists shut up the Church within the confines of Africa which then was a small thing unfitly applying that Text of the Canticles Tell us where thou feedest where thou makest thy flocks to rest at noon Cant. 1.7 but the French translation reâ—deth to rest towards the south At present the Kingdom of Jesus Christ is in danger to be confined within England whither other Nations must come and search it saying Tell us where thou feedest where thou makest thy flocks to rest towards the North. It 's easie to make the consent of the Churches named in the title of the Epistle to sound high because they have no Bishops but to prove their agreement with the Covenanters in this point they should do well to make these two things to appear the one that these Churches condemn the Episcopal Order as unlawful and Antichristian the other that these Churches do conform to the discipline of the Covenanters things which they will find false As for the first we see not that the other Churches quarrel at the Church of England hereupon but pray God to bless them in the order against this it matters not to alledge the thirtieth Article of the Churches of France confession of Faith We believe that all true Pastors in what place soever they be have the same authority and equal power under one head Jesus Christ and that for this cause no Church ought to pretend any dominion or Lordship over the other He that speaks for the General expounds this Article Ye must know saith he that the equality of Pastors in that which is of Authority to declare the Gospel and administer the Sacraments and for the use of the keyes is held necessary amongst all for Baptism the Lords Supper and the declaring of the remission of sins is of equal dignity in the mouth of Pastors whether they be of great or little Authority But as for Ecclesiastical policy we do not hold the equality of Pastors absolutely necessary we do not account this Order a point of faith nor a Doctrine of salvation we live God be thanked in brotherly concord with our neighbour-Churches which follow another form and where the Bishops have superiority In his disputations of Divinity in the University of Sedam this is one of his Theses We maintain that the Bishops of England after their conversion to the faith and their abjuration of Papistry were faithful servants of God and ought not to forsake neither the name nor title of Bishops Calvin himself spake as much before in his Epistle to Cardinal Sadâ—let speaking of the Church of Rome Let them saith he establish such an Hierarchy where the Bishops having the dignity refuse not to submit themselves to Christ and depend of him as their onely Head and refer themselves to him and let them maintain amongst them such a brotherly society which is not entertained but by the bond of truth Then if there be found any persons who refuse to respect such an Hierarchy with reverence and Soveraign obedience I acknowledge and confess him worthy of al sorts of Anathema's This passage serves for the Episcopal degree in general This other of Jacobus Lectius Professor at Geneva hath a singular regard to the Bishops of England He saith That those Bishops only were