if any conjecture that he was a flat Papist I believe him not but he was the head of the Grotian Papists and he himself boasted of it ubi supra Now if any would know how far Grotius and consequently the King was a Papist he says He i. e. Grotius was a more arrant Papist than Cassander who dyed in that Communion and was one that owned the Council of Trent and such I think are flat Papists But if Mr. B. did not believe the King to be a flat Papist then his iniquity was the greater to give so many though frivolous instances by way of proof that others might believe what Mr. B. did not Did not Mr. B. know that the fear of introducing Popery was made a chief ground of the War against the King And may he not as well make it a ground of another War against the present King because he adheres to his Bishops whom Mr. B. calls Popish Clergie-men And he says that the Parliament whom they were bound to believe made it their great argument and advantage against the King that he favoured the Papists and on this supposition saith he thousands came in to fight for their Cause And they made one Article against the Archbishop of Canterbury that he endeavoured to introduce Popery whose life on that account they took away though he were indeed one of their greatest adversaries which as it appears by the discovery of the Plot of the Jesuits to take away his life mentioned in the relation of Andreas ab Habernfield and printed by Mr. Prynne wherein because of his constancy to the Established Religion from which he could not be tempted by the offer of a Cardinals Cap made to him from the then Pope by Con his Nuncio they plotted his death so it will appear to be a gross slander by that which followeth And first it shall not be denied that his promoting of decent Ceremonies and some Executions on Seditious persons procured him that ill report among the Fanaticks But he refuted it sufficiently by declaring openly at the Council-Table against the great resort of Papists to Denmark-house of which also he complained to the King with passion as a thing of dangerous consequence and particularly against Sir Toby Matthews and Walter Mountague two active Papists mentioned in Habernfields Discovery And before that time he published his Conference with Fisher the Jesuit one of the best discourses yet extant against them After which time though he could not wipe off the aspersion among the Fanaticks yet he was lookt on by the Papists as their greatest enemy He prevailed to banish both Matthews and Mountague from the Court whereat the Queen shewed some displeasure against him but knowing how able and faithful a Minister he was for the Kings service He reconciled the Queen to him again His Conference with Fisher was for the satisfaction of some persons of Quality on whom the Jesuits had practised Sir Edward Deeâ—ing his professed Adversary says That by â— the Bishop had muzled the Jesuit and struck the Papist under the fifth Rib. In his Preface 〈◊〉 King Charles he says God forbid your Majesty should let the Laws and Discipline sleep for feâ—â— of the name of Persecution and suffer Mr. Fisher and his fellows to angle in all parts of your Dominions for your Subjects Let us have 〈◊〉 dissolving of Oaths of Allegiance no deposâ—â—â— of Kings and blowing up of States for 〈◊〉 their Religion were as good as they pretend they cannot compass it by good means I am 〈◊〉 they ought not to attempt it by bad for if theâ— will do evil that good may come of it theâ— damnation is just He complains there thaâ— the Church was between two Factions as between two Milstones wherefore he thought it his duâ—â— to deliver her from both for he tells the King that no one thing did make conscientious men to waver more in their minds and to be drawn from the sincerity of Religion professed in the Church of England than the want of uniform and decent Order the Romanist being apt to say the Houses of God could not be suffered to lye so nastily were the true Worship of God observed in them the external worship of God in his Church being the great witness to the world that our hearts stand right in that Service And to deal clearly with your Majesty these thoughts and no other made me labour so much for decency and an orderly settlement of the external Worship of God To this I add that the Archbishop did no other than what was practised with good success upon the Papists in Queen Elizabeths days of which I have taken notice before to be acknowledged by our present Dissenters This most Reverend Archbishop was not more averse from the Doctrine of the Papists than from any acquaintance or correspondence with them Panzani and Con two of the Popes Nuncio's often endeavoured some Conference with him but he still put them off though some persons of Quality sollicited it He suppressed Socinian and Popish Books especially that called An Introduction to a devout life written by Francis Sales Bishop of Geneva And to omit many other arguments his Protestation at his death of which hereafter is enough to satisfie all but Infidels Bishop Beadle Anno 1633. certifyed Bishop Laud then of London of the dangerous condition of Ireland by the growth of Popery and informed the Earl of Strafford who was newly made Lord Deputy that the Pope had a greater power in that Kingdom than the King governing there by a Congregation de propaganda fide established not long before at Rome That the Popes Clergie there was double in number to the Kings and they were bound by Oath to maintain the Popes power and greatness against all persons That the Pope had erected a Colledge in Dublin to affront the Kings Colledge One Harris Dean of the New Colledge printed a Treatise against Bishop Vshers Sermon at Wansteed and after the dissolving of the new Frieries in Dublin they erected others in the Country where the people flocked in great multitudes to hear Mass forgetting the Principles of Religion That a Synodical meeting of their Clergy had been held in Drogheda in which they decreed That it was not lawful to take the Oath of Allegiance and therefore it was thought necessary to restrain them by a standing Army Whereupon the Lord Deputy was advised to summon a Parliament and so ordered his affairs as to raise an Army of Twenty thousand men which was maintained mostly out of the Estates of the Papists by which means he kept the Irish in awe and had he been continued there that Hellish Massacre on the English Protestants which followed on the withdrawing of that Great man might in all probability have been prevented But these two Great men the one of which made it his business to prevent Rebellion in the State the other to suppress Faction and Confusion in the Church were made the chief marks at which all the Plots
endeavoured to prove 1. That the present was no Vsurpation 2. That former Oaths obliged not against Obedience to present Powers 3. That Obedience is due to Powers in possession though unlawfully entred And for his Authority he is not ashamed to quote these words of the Jesuit Moline de Justitiâ Tract 3. Disput 6. to this purpose Two ways one may be a Tyrant 1. Because though he be the true Soveraign of the Commonwealth he doth unjustly govern it in this case it is a sin for private men to kill him but for his own defence it is lawful and the Commonwealth assembled by their Chieftains may depose him and being deposed kill him unless greater mischief would accrue to the Commonwealth by his murther for then he should offend against the love of the Common-wealth in killing of him Shortly after he quotes Sayr's Case Consc l. 7. c. 10. n. 4. Id curare debet Occisor ita caute consulto facere ut non pejores exitus scandala ex tali Occisione sperentur which I forbear to English You see how firmly the Jesuit and Presbyter are yoked to plow up the Field of the English Church and Government They must needs be their Disciples whose Principles and Practices they so zealously follow I go on to shew in the second place their agreement in practice for by their fruits also you may know them THE INTRIGUES OF THE Papists and Fanaticks Against the Government and Religion Established Historically related WHen the Church of England was established under Queen Elizabeth there was no considerable Separation from it by Papists or Fanaticks until some of the new Society of Jesus invented a method to divide and destroy the Church of Christ among us Which they endeavoured first by opposing those who were Parish-Priests in the days of Queen Mary but allowed of our Church-Communion and having prevaile against them they rested not there but endeavoured by new Artifices to draw off some zealous Protestants into separate Congregations under a pretence of greater purity of Ordinances and Worship than were practised in our Church And to this end they imploy some subtil and Eloquent men in the disguise of zealous Protestant-Ministers to exercise their gifts of Extemporary prayer which they reported to be by an extraordinary assistance and gift of the Spirit Their preaching also was designed to bring the Order of Bishops into contempt to which they were known enemies to lay aside the Liturgie as a stinting of their gifts of the Spirit and run down those few Ceremonies that were retained that we might not have the face of a Church or any decency among us They opposed also the Supremacy of the Queen over things and persons in Religious Administrations which they contended to belong to Ministers of their rank and order And although some of the Popish Priests at that time and afterward such as Widdrington Preston Watson and the Authors of the Jesuites Catechisme opposed them in these things as tending to provoke her Majesty to greater severity against them and wrote very learnedly against those Jesuits discovering their designs to be not only against the Protestants but the more moderate Papists yet were there some troublesome Ministers Goodman Gilby Whittingham c. and others that had been at Geneva and other Presbyterian Towns and submitted to that Discipline which took all those hints from the Jesuits and made such improvements that the Disciples in a short time exceeded their Masters Doctor Cox Horne and others who adhered to the Church of England and had known their turbulent behaviour at Geneva Frankfort and other places opposed their admission to the publick Ministry and so they and the Jesuits creep first into houses and lead captive silly women and beguile the hearts of simple men and afterward gather distinct and separate Congregations under pretence of purer Worship and a more holy Discipline Of which practice we have these undeniable instances In the Ninth year of Queen Elizabeth one Faithful Commin of the Order of St. Dominick got the reputation of a zealous Protestant Minister by railing against Pius Quintus the Pope and defaming the Liturgie as being the Mass in English in opposition to which the first set up the use of Extempore prayers as a gift of the Spirit which ought not to be stinted by Forms and Liturgies but one Mr. Clerkson Chaplain to the Archbishop discovered him to be a Popish Priest which was evidently proved before the Queen and Archbishop So that he being dismissed upon Bail to appear at a certain day and it hapning that on that day the Spanish Ambassador having publick Audience of the Queen he could not be admitted though he attended with his Bail he boasted to his followers that the Queen and Council had dismissed him But finding how uneasie it would be for him in England he told his Proselytes he was resolved to go beyond the Seas to preach the Gospel there and having acquainted his Disciples how poor he was and commended to them the Cause of God he got 130 l. which was collected among the Brotherhood besides what his compassionate Sisters bestowed on him and there was no farther news of this godly man until one John Baker Master of a Ship gave this account of him to the Queen That he had seen this Faithful Commin in the Low-Countries and that one Martin van Duval a Merchant of Amsterdam told him that Commin had been lately at Rome and there imprisoned by the Pope but upon his Letter to the Pope he was sent for the next day and being accused for reviling the Pope and railing against his Church among the Hereticks of England he confessed that his lips had uttered what his heart never thought and pleaded what considerable service he had done the Pope by preaching against set Forms of prayer and calling the English prayer English Mass perswading the people to pray Spiritually and Extempore by which means the Church of England was become as odious to them to whom he preached as the Mass was to the Church of England which would prove a stumbling-block to that Church while it was a Church Upon which the Pope commended him and dismissed him with a gratuity of 2000 Ducats for his good service The next Instance is of one Thomas Heath a Jesuite in the Eleventh year of Queen Elizabeth whose Brother Nic. Heath had been Bishop of Rochester in H. 8. days He comes to the Dean of Rochester desiring him to present him to the Bishop for some Preferment In order to which he pretending himself to be a poor Minister the Dean orders him to preach in the Cathedral which he did on that Text Acts 12.6 Peter therefore was kept in prison but prayers were made without ceasing in the Church to God for him on which he told the people that it was not those of the Church of England but Spiritual prayers that brought Peter out of prison and where said he have we Scripture for any set form in
the Church But it so hapned that drawing out his Handkerchief in the Pulpit he let fall a Letter which the Sexton found and brought to the Dean which was as follows Brother THe Council of our Fraternity have thought fit to send you David George Theodorns Sartor and John Huts their Collections which you may distribute as you see fit for your purpose according to the peoples inclinations These mixtures with your own will not only a little puzzle the Vnderstandings of the Auditors but make your self famous We suppose your wants are not considerable at present by what we have heard how your flock do admire you every day more and more Be not over-zealous in your proceedings in the beginning but gradually win on them as you visit them and according as you find their inclinations to your design let us hear how you have proceeded for it will satisfie your Brethren much and inable them the better to instruct you for the future Hallinghan Benson and Coleman have set a Faction among the German Hereticks so that several who have turned from us have now denied their Baptism which we hope will soon turn the scale and bring them back to their old principles This we have certified to the Council and Cardinals That there is no other way to prevent people from turning Hereticks and for recalling of others back again to the Mother-Church than by the diversities of Doctrines We all wish you to prosper Sam. Malt. Madrid Oct. 26. 1568. This Letter was directed under the name of Thomas Finne and Malt was known to be an English Jesuite at Madrid in Spain and Hallingham Coleman and Benson with one Button and some others that went under the notion of zealous Preachers are noted by our Historians as active instruments of Separation among us whom the Letter calls German Hereticks i. e. Lutherans which Dr. Stillingfleet notes out of Mr. Cambden A. D. 1568. agreeing with the date of this Letter who says that while Harding Sanders and others attacked our Church on one side Coleman Button Hillingham Benson and others were busie on the other who under a pretence of purer Reformation opposed the Discipline Liturgie and Calling of our Bishops as approaching too near to the Church of Rome And these he notes to be the beginners of those Controversies which after broke out with so great violence Nec dum finitus Orestes So that while the Pope held the hot-Iron of Dissention on the Anvil the open Jesuite and the Masquerade Presbyter on each side beat with their Sledges to form the Project after his mind But upon the receipt of the Letter the Dean carried it to Edmond Gest then Bishop of Rochester who instantly caused the said Heath to be apprehended and examined and urging against him what he had said in his Sermon against the Liturgie and for Spiritual Prayers he confessed that he was not wholly of the Episcopal party of England but that he had laboured to refine the Protestants and to take off all Smacks of Ceremonies that in the least do tend to the Romish Faith He confessed also that he knew the said Sam. Malt but objected that the Letter was not directed to him but to one Thomas Finne which as the Bishop observed was usual among the Jesuites And to put the matter out of controversie the Bishop sent to Heaths Lodgings where in one of his Boots were found his Beads and a License from the Fraternity of the Jesuits and a Bull dated the first of Pius Quintus to preach what Doctrine that Society pleased for dividing of Protestants particularly naming the English as Hereticks In his Trunk were also several Books for denying Baptism to Infants and containing several blasphemies Heath being Convicted of these things in open Court the Bishop offered him that if he would discover for what causes he ran into those Schisms and reform his course of life he and the whole Court would intercede for his pardon and provide for his future maintenance To which he answered My Lord I know not what I might have done had I not been so publickly examined but seeing my vocation is so publickly known I shall not acknowledge my self to be guilty of any Misdemeanour for I have fought a good fight for Christ whose cause I have taken in hand This Experiment I tryed among my Country-men that the world may see that all those who term themselves Protestants are not of the Church of England though they speak against Rome The Bishop hearing him speak so obstinately said Behold my Brethren a Jesuits Confession how he hath declared he had set up a certain Form of Religion purposely to withdraw you from the Church of England but woe be to those deluders and to those that will be deluded by them we have a good Law and the light of the Holy Gospel now flourishing among us which hath for many years past been absconded therefore my Brethren consider the condition of your Souls if you start aside once from your Principles having the right way so plainly set before you you will not only run into Popish slavery again but be in peril of a total confusion of Soul and body And if Rome get once her foot on these dominions again not only your selves and your Children but your Princes and Nobles shall become slaves to her Idolatry Then was he remanded to prison and for three days brought to the Market-place at Rochester where he stood by the High-cross with a paper before his breast in which was written his Crimes then he was Pillored and on the last day his Ears cut off his Nose slit and his Forehead branded with the Letter R and was condemned to endure perpetual imprisonment But it lasted not long for a few Months after he dyed suddenly not without the suspition of having poysoned himself How many other Romish Emissaries did act after this manner is not known but certain it is that they had prevailed with too many to walk in their steps and to carry on the work in the same method that they had begun to make a Separation among us for the Authors of the Admonition in the 14 of Queen Elizabeth declared they would have neither Papists nor others constrained to Communicate which although as A.B. Whitgift saith they intended as a plea for their own Separation from the Church yet saith he the Papists could not have met with better Proctors and elsewhere he tells them that they did the Pope very good service and that he would not miss them for any thing for what is his desire but to have the Church of England which he hath accused utterly defaced and discredited by any means overthrown if not by Forreign Enemies yet by domestical Dissentions and what fitter and apter instruments could he have had for that purpose than you who under pretence of zeal overthrow that which other men have builded under colour of purity seeking to bring in deformity and under the cloak of equality and humility would
was forming some Villains were carrying on that horrid and execrable Plot of Assassinating his Majesties person and his dearest Brother And a Massacre was to follow wherein they principally designed for slaughter the Officers of State the present Lord Mayor and Sheriffs of London and others that had been most eminent for Loyalty Upon which Discovery James Duke of Monmouth the Lord Melvin Sir Jo. Cockrane Sir Thomas Armstrong Robert Ferguson Richard Goodenough Francis Goodenough Richard Rumbold William Rumbold Richard Nelthorp Nathaniel Wade William Tompson James Burton Joseph Elby Samuel Gibbs Francis Charleton Joseph Tyley Casteers and Lobb two Nonconformist-preachers Edward Norton John Row John Ayloff and John Atherton fled from Justice Ford Lord Grey made his escape Arthur Earl of Essex killed himself in the Tower William Lord Russel Thomas Walcot William Hone and John Rous were on their Tryals convicted and executed And it is observable that each of them confessed enough to clear the Justice of the Nation The most that they could plead for themselves was that their Crime could amount onely to misprision of Treason Algernoon Sidney another of the Conspirators was tryed condemned and executed afterward who professed to die for the Old Cause wherein he had been engaged from his youth And indeed he was so far engaged that being named for one of the Royal Martyr's Judges he often appeared at his Tryal And Manus haec inimica Tyrannis was his Motto The Earl of Shaftsbury had been indicted of High-Treason 24 Novemb. 1681. for endeavouring to depose and put to death the King and levy war within the Kingdom he having declared That in a short time the Parliament was to sit at Oxford and that he had inspected the Elections and was satisfied that the Parliament would insist on three matters viz. The Bill of Exclusion against the Duke of York The abolishing the Act of Parliament of the 35 of Queen Elizabeth and a new Bill for uniting Protestant Dissenters which he was confident the King would not consent to and if so that he and other Lords had provided strength to compel him under the command of Captain Wilkinson and John Booth he declared the King to be a man of no faith and there was no trust in him That he deserved to be deposed as well as King Richard the second And the said Earl further declared That 〈◊〉 would not desist till he brought this Kingdom 〈◊〉 a Commonwealth as Holland was That the King was a man of an unfaithful heart not fâ—â— to rule and govern being false unjust and crueâ— to his people and if he would not be governed they would depose him Though the Witnesseâ— swore positively to the particulars yet there was such a Jury provided as brought in an Ignoramus Sir Sam. Bernardiston being their Foreman who hath since been found guilty of Misdemeanors of a high nature During the late seditious Stirs and Tumults none was more active than one Stephen Colledge a Joyner of London a pragmatical person that pleased himself with the title of The Protestant Joyner he had been busie for a long time sowing Sedition and talking Treason so openly that his Friends advised him to forbear lest he came to the Gallows He made it his business to serve some dissenting Lords boasting of his acquaintance with the Earl of Shaftsbury Lords Gray Howard Clare Huntington Pagit Lovelace c. He had fitted his Raree Show and scandalous Songs and Pictures reflecting on the Royal Family The sole pretence for his treasonable actions was his zeal against Papists who he said had feigned seventeen or eighteen Sham-plots against the Protestants he affirmed that London was to be seized by the Papists and that they had a designe against the Parliament at Oxford and therefore he with some others whom he had perswaded came well armed thither Divers Ribbons were provided as a mark of distinction bearing this Motto NO POPERY NO SLAVERY one of which he gave to Turbervil and it was proved as the Lord Chief Justice said at the close of the Tryal whom he called Papists The King was a Papist the Bishops and the Church of England were Papists He was indicted for High-Treason the 17 and 18 of August 1681 it being proved that he said That nothing of good was to be expected from the King That he minded nothing but beastliness and the destruction of the people That he endeavoured to establish Arbitrary Government and Popery Dugdale Smith and Turbervil who had been Witnesses against the Lord Stafford were of the Evidence against him though there were enough if these had been laid aside to have proved him guilty Mr. Masters testified against him p. 31. That he said The Parliament in 1640. was as good a Parliament as ever was chosen To which Mr. Masters answered I wonder how you have the impudence to justifie their proceedings that raised the Rebellion against the King and cut off his head To which Colledge replied They did nothing but what they had just cause for and the Parliament at Westminster was of their Opinion p. 31. And being demanded what he had to say against this testimony he answers That Mr. Masters had said nothing material and that it was but a jocose discourse p. 39. To which Mr. Justice Jones replied Do you make mirth of the blackest Tragedy that ever was that horrid Rebellion and the murther of the late King Colledge answered I never justified that Parliament in any thing that they did contrary to Law One Mr. Jennings who was another Witness testified that on the bleeding of Colledge's Nose he said It was the first bloud that he lost in the Cause but it will not be long ere more be lost He saw him sell the Ribbons with NO POPERY NO SLAVERY to a Parliament-man as he supposed who tyed it on his Sword c. p. 32. It is observed in the Tryal that there was not one Papist that gave evidence against him and that they were such of whom Colledge had formerly given a good Character though now the case was altered The Jury were so well satisfied with the Evidence that they quickly agreed and brought him in guilty and so he was condemned and executed at Oxford on Wednesday 31 of August 1681. Captain Tho. Walcot was indicted for High-Treason at the Old-Baily July 12 c. 1683. for endeavouring to move and stir up War and Rebellion against the King to deprive the King of his Crown and to put him to death for which he conspired with divers other Traytors and had several meetings and consults to those ends and provided Blunderbusses Carbines and Pistols c. Which being proved by Col. Rumsey Mr. Keeling Mr. Bourne Mr. West and Captain Richardson he was found guilty sentenced and executed Then was William Hone arraigned on the like Indictment the Evidence against him were Mr. Keeling Mr. West Sir Nicholas Butler and Capt. Richardson upon whose testimonies he was found guilty and executed also July 13. the Lord Russel was tryed for
was such another Fast as those that were kept in the days of their Q Mary of which she was wont to say That she was as much afraid of a Fast of the Ministers as of an Army of Souldiers And yet if you will believe themselves or some Advocates of theirs nearer home there are not a more innocent peaceable and harmless people in the world as the Author of Naphtali said of the Rebellion of Pentland hills There hath not been in Britain such a company of men in Arms for the Covenant and Cause of God for sound Judgment true Piety Integrity and fervent Zeal and undaunted Courage But all this Zeal and Courage was still directed against the King and the established Government and Worship of God For in the year 1679. the Convention of Estates gave the King a Tax of 30000 l. to maintain a Regiment of Foot three Companies of Dragoons and three Troops of Horse to suppress the Field-Conventicles which met in Arms against which their Leaders preached saying It was given by the enemies of Christ to drive him out of his Kingdom and it would be as great a fin to pay it as it was in Judas to betray Christ and that now was the time to try them whether they would have Christ for their King or no. And the same Ruffians that murdered the Archbishop did several times lay wait for the Collectors of this Tax and they so perplexed the peoples Consciences that a Servant of the Earl of Dondonald fell distracted through trouble of mind for having assisted his Master in laying the Tax on Renscot This is that little Sister for whom the Noble Peer pleaded that having no Breasts she might like the Amazons have liberty to take up Arms and once more enter our Nation and rent us in pieces as formerly And it were easie to shew from the Writings of some of our own Nation that the same Principles have been preached to the people of this Land who have greedily swallowed and digested the same and think themselves under the same obligation of Covenant as those barbarous people Dr. Lake in a Sermon before the Lord Mayor says That discoursing some Rebels that were then in Goal in Scotland who did openly avow the Rebellion and refused to pray for the King He told them they were variously reported to be Jesuits or Jesuitically affected or to be Fifth-Monarchy-men wild arrant Fanaticks They told him they were neither one nor other but true Presbyterians according to the Covenant He replying That we had Presbyterians in our own Kingdom who yet did not obstinately maintain such King-deposing and murthering Doctrines They told him he did not understand them for they believed the same Doctrines but onely wanted Power and Courage to act them And at their execution they desired the people to take notice That they died true Presbyterians according to the Covenant It is another Artifice of these People agreeable to the practice of the Papists that they keep their People in ignorance and under the power of an implicit Faith and blind Obedience as the Papists do and bring them up in strong prejudices against their Governors Some have been so mad as to baptize their Children into the National Covenant which they are not ashamed to compare with The Covenant of Grace Mr. Alexander Gibson Clerk of his Majesties Privy-Council certified May 13. 1678. that one David Ferguson taken at a Field-Conventicle being asked why he kept not to his Parish-Church answered That he had sworn the Covenant whereby he was obliged not to hear Bishops Deans or Curats and that others being asked why they kept Conventicles answered To hear Gods truth and being demanded what that was they answered They could not tell And upon examination they could not say the Creed the Lords Prayer or ten Commandments Mr. Jo. Dickson preached to them That all the Bishops and their Clergie never did nor ever will convert one Soul They believe without farther enquiry being forbid to read the Books written for Obedience and Conformity that Episcopacy is Antichristian and Presbytery is Christs own institution They hold with the Papists That the actions of their Kirk and Teachers in Field-Conventicles and armed and fighting men is not Rebellion because the Presbytery is not subject to the Secular Power That the Subjects may enter into Solemn Leagues and Covenants without and against the Prince That Kings may be excommunicate and deposed which some of them have practised against his present Majesty That not the King in some cases but the Kirk have power to convocate and dissolve Assemblies and that they may make Laws without the King That Salvation is not to be had but in their Communion They injoyn new Articles of belief as That Episcopacy is an Antichristian Order and so are the Church-Festivals and Ceremonies That the Oath of Supremacy is an unlawful Oath and the People are absolved from it That the Power of the King is originally in the People and that there is a mutual obligation between them and if the King perform not his part the People are free from performing theirs That for the good of the Kirk and Gods Cause they may rebel against their Prince That the Prince nor any Secular Power can silence or deprive a Minister who is subject to none but Christ That Passive Obedience to the unjust commands of a Prince is as great a sin as Active Obedience to the same That a private person may kill a Magistrate by impulse of the Spirit after the Example of Phinees to deliver the Kirk from Oppression That it is lawful to kill Protestant Bishops and their Curates as enemies to true Godliness and such as would bring the Kirk to a slavish dependance on the King James Mitchel who was executed for attempting the murther of the Archbishop said in his dying Speech They are all blessed that shall take the proud Prelates and dash their brains against the stones as afterward some Ruffians did by the Archbishop These are their Principles and all these they have practised when they had opportunities They come little behind the Papists for equivocation and persisting in falsehood where they think their lives or the good of the Kirk concerned Jo. King being charged for bearing Arms against the King in the late Rebellion denied it until one that apprehended him swore that he had both Sword and Pistols To which he answered he did it not in an hostile manner which was a Jesuitical Equivocation He bore testimony against that woful Supremacy so much applauded and universally owned of such of whom better things might be expected as usurping on Christs Royal Authority spoiling him of his Royal Crown Scepter Sword and Royal Robe by taking those Princely Ornaments to invest a man whose breath is in his nostrils And both Kid and King bore their Testimonies against the Oath of Allegiance and Bond of Peace of which to satisfie the Reader I give him a Copy I A. B. for testification of my faithful