zealous in their doctrine to presse upon the Magistrate as well as upon the people the true practice of piety the sanctification of the Sabbath day the suppression of heresy and schism and repentance for the sins of the time and place wherein they live I his is a crime whereof few of the Warners friends were wont to be guilty of their shamefull silence and flattery was one of the great causes of all the sins and calamities that have wracked the three Kingdoms the stream of their Sermons while they enjoyed the Pulpit was to encourage to superstition and contempt of piety to sing asleep by their ungracious way all that gave ear unto them The man is impatient to see the Pastors of Holland or any where to walk in another path then his own and for this cause would stirre up their Magistrates against them as it was his and his Brethrens custom to stir up the Magistrates of Britain and Ireland to imprison banish and heavily vex the most zealous servants of God only for their opposition to the Prelats profanity and errours The Warner I hope has not yet forgotten how Doctor Bramble and his neighbour Lesty of Down did cast out of the Ministry and made flee our of the Kingdom men most eminent for zeal piety and learning who in a short time had done more good in the house of God then all the Bishops that ever were in Ireland I mean Mr. Blair Mr. Levington Mr. Hamilton Mr. Cuningham and others The Warner needed not to have marked as a singularity of Geneva that there all the Ecclesiasticks quâ tales are punishable by the Magistrats for civil crimes for we know none of the reformed Churches who were ever following Rome in exempting the Clergy from saecular jurisdiction except it were the Canterburian Praelates who indeed did scare the most of Magistrats from medling with a canonical coat though defiled with drunkenness adultery scolding fighting and other evils which were too common of late to that order But how doth he prove The pretended declaration of King James was Bishop Adamsons lying libel that the Scots Ministers exempt themselves from civil jurisdiction first saith he by the declaration of King James 1584. Ans That declaration was not from King James as himself did testifie the year thereafter under his hand but from Mr. Patrike Adamson who did acknowledge it to be his own upon his death bed and professed his repentance for the lyes and slanders wherewith against his conscience he had fraughted that infamous libell His second proof is from the second book of disciplin Chapter II Though always in England yet never in Scotland had Commissaries any jurisdiction over Ministers It is absurd that Commissaries having no function in the Church should be judges to Ministers to depose them from their charges Ans Though in England the Commissary and officiall was the ordinary judge to depose and excommunicate all the Ministers of the diocese yet by the Laws of Scotland no Commissaries had ever any jurisdiction over Ministers But though the officials jurisdiction together with their Lords the Bishops were abolished yet doth it follow from this that no other jurisdiction remaineth whereby Ministers might be punished either by Church or State according to their demerits is not this strongly reasoned by the Warner His third proofe is the cause of James Gibson James Gibson was never absolved by the Church from his Process who had railed in Pulpit against the King and was only suspended yea thereaftâ—r was absolved from that fault Ans Upon the complaint of the Chancelor the alledged words were condemned by the generall Assembly but before the mans guiltiness of these words could be tryed hee did absent himselfe for which absence he was presently suspended from his Ministry in the next Assembly he did appeare and cleared the reason of his absence to have been just feare and no contumacy this he made appeare to the Assemblies satisfaction but before his processe could bee brought to any issue he fled away to England where he died a fugitive never restored to his charge though no tryal of his fault was perfected Mr. Blacks appeâ—â— froâ— the Councel cleered The fourth proof is Mr. Black his case hereupon the Warner makes a long and odious narration If we interrogate him about his ground of all these Stories he can produce no warrant but Spotswoods unprinted Book this is no an hâ—â—tick Râ—gistâ—r whereupon any understanding man can rely the Writer was a pâ—ofest enemy to his death of the Scotish Discipline he spent his life upon a Story for the dâ—sgrace of the Presbytery and the honour of Bishops no man who is acquainted with the life or death of that Authour will build his belief upon his words This whole narration is abundantly confuted in the historicall Vindication when the Warner is pleased to repeat the Challenge from Issachars burden he ought to have replyed something after three yeers advisement to the printed Answer The matter as our Registers bear was shortly thus In the yeer 1596. the Popish and Malignant Faction in King JAMES his Court grew so strong that the countenance of the King towards the Church was much changed and over all the Land great fears did daily encrease of the overthrow of the Church Discipline established by Law The Ministers in their Pulpits gave free warning thereof among others Mr. Black of S. Andrews a most gracious and faithfull pastor did apply his doctrine to the sins of the time some of his Enemies delated him at Court for words injurious to the King and Queen the words he did deny and all his honest hearers did absolve him by their testimony from these calumnies of himself he was most willing to be tryed to the uttermost before all the world but his Brethren finding the libelled calumnies to be onely a pretence and the true intention of the Courtiers therein was to stop the mouthes of Ministers that the crying sins of the times should no more be reproved in pulpits they advised him to decline the judgment of the councell and appeal to the general Assembly as the competent Judge according to the word of God and the Laws of Scotland in the cause of doctrine for the first instance they did never question but if any thing truely seditious had been preached by a Minister that he for this might be called before the civil Magistrate and accordingly punished but that every Minister for the application of his doctrine according to the rules of Scripture to the sins of his hearers for their reclaiming should be brought before a civil court at the first instance they thought it unreasonable and desired the King in the next Assembly might cognosce upon the equity of such a proceeding The Ministers had many a conference with his Majesty upon that subjâ—ct often the mat er was brought very near to an amicable conclusion but because the Ministers refused to subscibe a band for so great a silence
King of his Tythes first Fruits Patronage and Dependence of his Subjects Ans The Warner understands not what he writes The Kings Majesty in Scotland never had never craved any First fruits The Church never spoiled the King of any Tithes some other men indeed by the wickedness most of Prelates and their followers did cozen both the King and the Church of many Tythes but his Majesty and the Church had never any controversie in Scotland about the Tythes for the King so far as concerned himsef was ever willing that the Church should enjoy that which the very Act of Parliament acknowledgeth to be her patrimony Nor for the patronages had the Church any plea with the King the Church declared often their mind of the iniquity of patronages wherein they never had from the King any considerable opposition but from the Nobility and Gentry the opposition was so great that for peace sake the Church was content to let patronages alone till God should make a Parliament lay to heart what was incumbent for gracious men to do for liberating Congregations from their slavery of having Ministers intruded upon them by the violence of Patrons Which now at last blessed be God according to our mind is performed As for the dependence of any vassalls upon the King it was never questioned by any Presbyterian in S otla d. K. James avowes himself a hatâ—â— of Eâ—â—stianâ—sm What is added in the rest of the Chapter is but a repetition of that which went before to wit the Presbyters denying to the King the spirituall Government of the Church and the power of the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven such an usurpation upon the Church King James declared under his hand as at length may be seâ—n in the Historicall vindication to be a sin against the Father Son and Holy Ghost which puts in the hand of the Magistrate the power of Preaching and celebrating the Sacraments a power which since that time no Magistrate in Britaine did assume and if any would have claimed it none would have more opposed then the most zealous Patrons of Episcopacy The injurious invectives which the Warner builds upon this his Erastian assertion we pass them as Castles in their ayr which must fall and evanish for want of a foundation Only before I leave this Chapter let the Warner take a good Sentence out of the mouth of that wise Prince King James to testifie yet farther his mind against Erastianisme His Majestie in the year 1617 having come in progress to visit his ancient Kingdom of Scotland and being present in person at a publick disputation in Theologie in the University of St. Andrews whereof also many both Nobles and Church-men of both Kingdoms were auditors when one of those that acted a part in the disputation had affirmed and went about to maintaine this Assertion that the King had power to depose Ministers from their Ministeriall function The King himself as abhorring such flattery cried out with a loud voice Ego possum deponere Ministri caput sed non possum deponere ejus officium CHAP. VII The Presbytery doth not draw from the Magistrate any part of his power by the cheat of any relation IN the seventh Chapter The Presbytery cognosceth only upon scandals and that in fewer civill things then Bishops courts were wont to meddle with the Warner would cause men believe many more of the Presbyteries usurpations upon the Civil Magistrate The first is that all offences whatsoever are cognoscible in the Consistory upon the case of scandal Ans First the Presbytery makes no offence at all to come before the Consistory but Scandall alone Secondly these civil offences the scandall whereof comes before the Presbytery are but very few and a great deal fewer then the Bishops Official takes notice of in his Consistorial Court That capitall crimes past over by the Magistrate should be censured by the Church no society of Christians who have any discipline did ever call in question When the sword of the Magistrate hath spared a Murderer an Adulterer a Blasphemer will any ingenuous either Prelaticall or Popish Divine admit of such to the holy Table without signs of Repentance The Warners second usurpation is but a branch of the first that the Presbytery draws directly before it self the cognisance of fraud in bargaining false measures oppression and in the case of Ministers bribing usury fighting perjury c. Ans Is it then the Warners mind that the notorious slander of such grosse sins does not deserve so much as an Ecclesiasticall rebuke Shall such persons without admonition be admitted to the holy Communion Secondly the named cases of fraud in bargaining false measures oppression come so rarely before our Church-judicatories that though this thirty years I have been much conversant in Presbyteries yet did I never see nor doe I remember that ever I heard any of these three cases brought before any Church Assembly In the person of Ministers I grant these faults which the Canons of the Church in all times and places make the causes of deprivation are cognosced upon in Presbyteries but with the good liking I am sure of all both Papists and Prelates who themselves are free of such vices And why did not the Warner put in among the causes of Church-mens deprivation from Office and Benefice Adultery gluttony and Drunkenness Are these in his c. which he will not have cognoscible by the Church in the persons of Bishops and Doctors The Warners third challenge amounts to an high crime that Presbyterian Ministers are bold to preach upon these Scriptures which speak of the Magistrates duty in his Office or dare offer to resolve from Scripture any doubt which perplexeth the conscience of Magistrates or People of Husband or Wife of Master or Servant in the discharge of their Christian duty one to another What ever hath bin the negligence of the Bishop of Derry yet I am sure all the preaching Prelates and Doctors of England pretended a great care to goe about these uncontroverted parts of their Ministeriall Function and yet without medling with the Mysteries of State or the depths of any mans particular vocation much less with the judgment of jurisdiction in Political or Aeconomical causes The Châ—rcâ—es pâ—oceedings in tâ—e late engagement â—leered from mistâ—kes As for the Churches declaration against the Late engagement did it not well become them to signifie their judgment in so great a case of conscience especially when the Parliament did propone it to them for resolution and when they found a conjunction driven on with a clearly Malignant Party contrary to solemn oathes and covenants unto the evident hazard of Religion and them who had been most eminent instruments of its preservation was it not the Churches duty to give warning against that sin and to exhort the ring-leaders therein to repentance But our Warner must needs insist upon that unhappy engagement and fasten great blame upon the Church for giving any advice
for the Word and Sacraments so for discipline in this all who are Christians old and late the Prelaticall and Popish party as well as others go along with us to maintain in doctrin and practise a necessity even in times of persecution that the Church must meet for the worship of God and execution of Ecclesiastick discipline among their own Members In this the doctrine and practise of the Scots is according to their setled laws uncontroverted by his Majestie If the VVarner will maintain that in reason and conscience all the Churches of the world are obliged to dissolve and never more to meet when an erroneous Magistrate by his Tyrannous Edict commands them to do so let him call up Erastus from the dead to be disciplined in this new doctrine of the Prelats impious loyalty The third Principle is that the judgment of true and false doctrine The finall determination of all Ecclesiastick causes by the Laws of Scotland is in the generall Assembly of suspension and deprivation of Ministers belongeth to the Church Ans If this be a great heresie it is to be charged as much upon the State as upon the Church for the Acts of Parliament give all this power to the Church neither did the Laws of England or of any Christian State Popish or Protestant refuse to the Church the determination of such Eccclesiastick causes some indeed do debate upon the power of appeals from the Church but in Scotland by the Law as no appeal in things civil goes higher then the Parliament so in matters Ecclesiastick none goes above the Generall Assembly Complaints indeed may go to the King and Parliament for redresse of any wrong has been done in Ecclesiastick Courts who being Custodes Religionis may by their coercive power command Ecclesiastick Courts to rectifie any wrong done by them contary to Scripture or if they persist take order with them But that two or three Pâ—aelates should become a Court of delegates to receive appeals from a general assembly neither Law nor practice in Scotland did ever admit nor doth the word of God or any Equity require it In the Scots assemblies no causes are agitat but such as the Parliament hath agreed to be Ecclesiastick and of the Churches cognisance no process about any Church rent was ever cognosced upon in Scotland but in a civill Court it s very false that ever any Church censure much lesse the highest of excommunication did fall upon any for robbing the Church of its patrimony The divine right of discipline is the tenet of the most of Praelats Our fourth challenged principle is that we maintain Ecclesiastick jurisdiction by a divine right Ans Is this a huge crime is there divine right in the world either Papist or Protestant except a few praelatical Erastians but they doe so If the Warner will profess as it seems he must the contradiction of that which he ascribes to us his avowed tenet must be that all Ecclesiastick power flowes from the Magistrate that the Magistrate himself may execute all Church censures that all the Officers appointed by Christ for the government of his Church may be laid aside and such a kind of governors be put in their place as the Magistrate shall be pleased to appoint that the spiritual sword and Keyes of heaven belong to the Magistrate by vertue of his supremacy as wel as the temporal sword and Keyes of his earthly Kingdom our difference herefrom the Warner will not I hope be found the greatest heresie All the power of the Church in Scotland is legal and with the Magistrates consent Our last challenged principle is that we will have all our power against the Magistrate that is although he dissent Ans It is an evil commentary that all must be against the Magistrate which is done against his consent but in Scotland there is no such case for all jurisdiction which the Church there doth enjoy they have it with the consent of the Magistrate all is ratified to them by such acts of Parliament as his Majâ—stie doth not at all controvert Concerning that odious case the Warner intimates whither in time of persecution when the Magistrate classheth with the Church any Ecclesiastick discipline be then to be exercised himself can better answer it then we who with the ancient Christians do think that on all hazards even of life the Church may not be dissolved but meet in dens and in the caves and in the wilderness for the word and Sacraments and keeping it self pure by the divine ordinance of Discipline Having cleered all the pernicious practises and all the wicked Dâ—ctrines which the Warner layes upon us The Prelats rather then to lay aside their own interest will keep the King and his people in misery for ever I think it needless to insist upon these defences which he in his abundant charity brings for us but in his own way that he may with the greater advantage impugne them only I touch one passage whereupon he makes injurious exclamations that which Mr. Gilespie in his theoremes writes when the Magistrate abuses his power unto Tyranny and makes havock of all it is lawful to resist him by some extraordinary wayes and means which are not ordinarily to be allowed see the principles from which all our miseries and the loss of our Gratious Master hath flowed Ans We must here yeeld to the Warner the great equity and necessity that every doctrine of a Presbyter should be charged on the Presbytery it self and that any Presbyter teaching the lawfulness of a Parliaments defensive arms is tantamont to the Churches taking of armes against the King These smal inconsequences we must permit the Warner to swallow down without a stick however we do deny that the maxime in hand was the fountain of any of our miseries or the cause at all of the loss of our late Soveraign Did ever his Majesty or any of his advised Councellors declare it simply unlawful for a Parliament to take arms for defence in some extraordinary cases however the unhappiness of the Canterburian Praelats did put his Majesty upon these courses which did begin and promote all our miserie and to the very last these men were so wicked as to refuse the loosing of the bands which their hands had tyed about his misinformed conscience yea to this day they will not give their consent that his Majestie who now is should lay aside Episcopacy were it for the gaining of the peaceable possession of all his three Kingdoms but are urgers of him night and day to adhere to their errours upon the hazard of all the miseries that may come on his person on his family and all his people yet few of them to this day durst be so bold as to print with this Warner the unlawfulness of a Parliaments armes against the Tyranny of a Prince in any imaginable case how extraordinary soever CHAP. III. The Lawes and customes of Scotland admit of no appeal from the
any honest man THe bounds and compass of the Warners rage against the Presbytery is very large There is no rigâ—ur at all in the Presbytery not being content to have incensed the King and Parliament against it he comes down to the body of the people and will have them beleeve the special enmity of the Scots Discipline against them first because it inflicts Church-Censures upon every one for the smallest faults Ans The faults which the Warner mentions may well be an occasion of a private advice in the ear but that any of them did ever procure the smallest censure of the Church it is a great untruth no man who knows us will complain of our rigour here we wish we were able to refute upon as good reason the charge of our laxness in the mouth of Sectaries as we are that of our strictness in the mouth of Erastians We would know of the Warner what are these Sabbath Recreations which he saith are void of scandal and consistent with the duties of the day are they not the stage plays and the other honest pastimes wherewith his friends were wont to sanctifie the Lords Day as no more a Sabbath then any other day in the year and much less then diverse Popish Festivals An Aposteme in the lowest gut will shew it self by the unsavory vapors which now and then are eructate from it That ever in Scotland there was one word of debate about Starch and Cuffs is more then the Warner can prove Crimes till repented of ought to keep from the holy table The second oppression whereby the Presbytery treads the people under foot is a rare cruelty That persons for grievous crimes whereof the Magistrate takes notice are called to Ecclesiastick repentance Will the Doctor in his fury against us run out upon all his own friends for no appearance of a fault Will either the English or Popish Prelates admit Murderers Whores or Theeves to the holy Table without any signs of repentance Is not the greatest crime the ground of the greatest scandal Shall small scandals be purged away by repentance and the greatest be totally past by 〈◊〉 The Warner here may know his own meaning but others will confess their ignorance of his mind Excommunâ—cation in Scotland is not injurious to any The third grievance he would have the people conceive against the Presbytery is The rigour of their excommunication in this also the Warner seems to know little of the Scots way let excommunication be so severe in Scotland as is possible yet the hurt of it is but small It is so rare an accident men may live long in Scotland and all their life never see that Censure executed I have lived in one of the greatest Cities of that Land and for forty seven years even from my birth to this day that Censure to my knowledg or hearing was never executed there in my days but twice first upon one obstinate and very prophane Papist and next on some horrible scandalous Prelates Again when any is excommunicated by the Church we go no further with them then Pauls command 2 Thes 3.14 only they who are not tyed to them by natural bonds abstain from familiar and unnecessary conversation to bring them by the sence of this shame to repentance for their sins Thirdly The civil inconveniences which follow that Censure come along from the State and the Acts of Parliament for which the Church ought not to be challenged especially by Prelates who wont to allow their Officials to excommunicat whole incorporations of people for a small debt of mony and to presse the contemners of that frivolous and profane sentence with all the civill inconveniences they could Fourthly what ever be the lawes in Scotland against them who continue long in the contempt of Excommunication which is not inflicted but for great sins and after a long processe yet certainly their executon is very farre from all cruelty as they who know the proceedings of that land will beare witnesse What he objects about fugitives it is true when a processe is begunne a fugitive may have it concluded and sent after him but we count not that man a fugitive from discipline or contumacious as the Warner quarrels us who upon just feare to hazard his life does not compear CHAP. XII The Presbytery is hurtfull to no order of men PRaelaticall malice is exorbitant beyond the bounds of all shew of moderation The warners outrage against the Presbytery was it not enough to have calumniate the Presbytery to Kings Princes and Soveraignes to Parliamenâ—s and all Courts of Justice to people and all particular persons but yet a new chapter must be made to shew in it the hurtfulnesse of Presbytery to all orders of men we must have patience to stand a little in the unsavoury aire of this vomit also Unto the nobility and gentry the Presbytery must be hurtfull The Praelates were constant oppressors of the Nobility and gentry because it subjecteth them to the censures of a raw heady novice and a few ignorant artificers Ans It s good that our praelats are now turned pleaders against the oppression of the Nobility and gentry it s not long since the praelatical clergy were accustomed to set their foule feet on the necks of the greatest peeres of the three Kingdomes with so high a pride and pressure that to shake of their yoks no suffering no hazard has beene refused by the best of the Nobility and gentry of Britaine but natures and principles are so easy to be changed that no man now needs feare any more oppression from the praelates though they were set downe againe and well warmed in their repaired thrones The way of the Scotes Presbytery is incomparably better then that of the English Episcopacy But to the challenge we answer that the meanest Eldership of a small Congregation in Scotland consists of the Pastor and a dozen at least of the most wise pious and learned that are to be found in the whole flock which yet the Warner here makes to be judges but of the common people in matters of smallest moment But for the classicall Presbytery to which he referres the Ecclesiasticall causes of the Nobility and gentry and before whom indeed every Church processe of any considerable weight or difficulty does come though it concern the persons of the meanest of the people this Presbytery does consist ordinarily of fifeteene Ministers at least and fifeteen of the most qualified noblemen genâ—lemen and Burgesses which the circuit of fifteen parishes can afford these I hope may make up a judicatory of a great deale more worth then any officiall court which consists but of one judge a pâ—tty mercenary lawyer to whose care alone the whole Ecclesiastick jurisdiction over all the Nobility and gentry of divers shires is committed and that without appeale as the Warner has told us except it be to a Court of delegates a miserable reliefe that all the Nobility Gentry and
devotion was among them by way of essayes as it were to frame the heart of the Son by the fingers of the dying Father to piety wisedome patience and every virtue but ever and anon to let fall so much of their owne ungracious dew as may irrigat the seeds of their prelaticall Errors and Church interest so farre as to charge him to presevere in the maintainance of Episcopall governement upon all hazards without the change of any thing except a little p. 278. and to assure that all Covenanters are of a faction engaged into a Religious rebellion who may never be trusted till they have repented of their Covenant and that till then never lesse loyalty justice or humanity may be expected from any then from them that if he stand in need of them hee is undone for they will devoure him as the Serpent does the dove These and the like pernicious maxims framed by an Episcopall hand of purpose to separate for ever the King from all his covenanted subjects how far they were from the heart language and writings of our late Soveraigne all who were aquainted with his cariage and most intime affections at New-Castle in the Isle of Wight and thereafter can testify But it is reason when the Prelates do frame an Image of a King that they should have liberty to place their owne image in its forehead as the statuary of old did his in the Boss of Pallas targe with such artifice that all her worshipers were necessitat to worship him and that no hand was able to destroy the one without the dissolution and breaking in peeces of the oâ—her yet our Prelats would know that in this age their be many excellent Engyneers whose witty practicks transcend the most skilfull experiments of our Auncestors and whatever may be the ignorance or weaknes of men wee trust the breath of our Lords mouth will not faile to blow out the Bishop from the Kings armes without any detriment at all to royalty Allwayes the wicked and impious cunning of these craftmen is much to be blamed who dare be bold to insert and engrave themselfes so deeply in the images of the Gods as the one cannot be intended to be picked out of the other more then the Aple from the eye unles the subsistence of both be But in hazard The other matter of his railing against us is the solemne league and covenant The only crime of the Covenant is that it extirpate prelacy when this nimble quick enough Doctor comes aflicted with all the reasons the whole University of Oxford can afford him to demonstrat it as he ptofesses in his last Chapter to be wicked false void and what not we find his most demonstrative proofs to be so poore and silly that they infer nothing of his conclusion To this day no man has shewed any errour in the matter of that covenant as for our framing and taking of it our adversaries drave us thereunto with a great deale of necessity and now being in it neither their fraud nor force may bring us from it againe for we feare the oath of God After much deliberation we found that covenant the soveraigne meanes to joyne and keep together the whole orthodox party in the three Kingdomes for the defence of their Religion and liberties which a popish prelaticall and malignant faction with al their might were overturning who still to this day are going on in the same designe without any visible change in the most of their former principles And why should any who loves the King hate this covenant which is the straytestry the world can devise to knit all to him and his posterity if so be his Majesty might be pleased to enter therein but by all meanes such a mischief must be averted for so the root of Episcopacy would quickly wither without any hope of repullulation an evill far greater in the thoughts of them who now mannage the conscience of the Court then the extirpation of Monarchy the eversion of all the three Kingdomes or any other earthly misery The Bishops are most justly cast out of England As for the third subject of the Warners fury against us our unkindnes to the late King if any truth were in this false challenge no other creature on earth could be supposed the true cause thereof but our unhappy Prelats all our grievances both of Church and Sate first and last came principally from them had they never been authors of any more mischief then what they occasioned to our late Soveraigne his person family and Dominions this last dozen of yeares there is abundant reason of burying that their praeter and Antiscripturall order in the grave of perpetuall infamy But the truth is beside more ancient quarrels since the dayes of our fathers the Albigenses this limb of Antichrist has ever been witnessed against Wicklise Huss and their followers were zealous in this charge till Luther and his disciples got it flung out of all the reformed world except England where the violence of the ill-advised princes did keep it up for the perpetuall trouble of that land till now at last it hath well neer kicked downe to the ground there both Church and Kingdome The Scots were never injurious to their King As for the point in hand we deny all unkindnes to our King whereof any reasonable complaint can be framed against us Our first contests stand justified this day by King and Parliament in both Kingdomes When his Majestie was so ill advised as to bring down upon our borders an English army for to punish our refusing of a world of novations in our Religioâ— contrary to the laws of God and of our country what could our land doe lesse then lie down in their armes upon Dunce law for their just and necessâ—ry defence when it was in their power with ease to have dissipat the opposite army they shew themselves most ready upon very easy conditions to goe home in peace and gladly would have rested there had not the furious Bishops moved his Majestie without all provocation to break the first peace and make for a second invasion of Scotland only to second their unreasonable rage was it not then necessary for the Scots to arme againe when they had defeat the Episcopall Army and taken New-castle though they found nothing considerable to stand in their way to London yet they were content to lie still in Northumberland and upon very meane tearms to return the second time in peace For all this the Prelats could not give it over but raised a new Army and filled England with fire and sword yea well neere subdued the Parliament and their followers and did almost accomplish their first designes upon the whole Isle The Scoâ—â— then with most earnest and pitifull entreaties were called upon by their Brethren of England for helpe where unwilling that their brethren should perish in their sight and a bridge should be made over their carcasses for a third warre upon
general assembly IN this Chapter the challenge is that there are no appeals from the general Assembly to the King as in England from the Bishops Courts to the King in Chauncery Appeales in Scotland from a generall Assemâ—ly were no lesse irrational then illegall where a Commission uses to be given to delegats who discusse the appeals Ans The warner considers not the difference of the Government of the Church of Scotland from that which was in England what the Parliament is in the State that the general assembly is in the Church of Scotland both are the highest Courts in their own kinde There is no appeal any where in moderate Monarchies to the Kings person but to the King in certain legall Courts as the Warner here confesseth the appeal from Bishops lies not to the King in his person but to the King in his Court of Chancery As no man in Scotland is permitted to appeal in a civill cause from the Lords of Session much lesse from the Parliament so no man in an ecclesiastick cause is permitted by the very civil Law of Scotland to appeal from the general Assembly According to the Scots order and practice the King in person or else by his high Commissioner sits as usually in the generall Assembly as in Parliament But though it were not so yet an appeal from a generall Assembly to be discussed in a court of Delegats were unbeseeming and unreasonable the one court consisting of above two hundred all chosen men the best and most able of the Kingdom the other but of two or three often of very small either abilities or integrity who yet may be more fit to discern in an Ecclesiastick cause then a single Bishop or his Official the ordinary Trustee in all acts of Jurisdiction for the whole Dioces But the Scots way of managing Ecclesiastick causes is a great deal more just safe and Satisfactory to any rational man then that old Popish order of the English where all the spirituall Jurisdiction of the whole Dioces was in the hand of one mercenary Officiall without all relief from his Sentence except by an appeal as of old to the Pope and his Delegats so thereafter to the King though never to be cognosced upon by himself but as it was of old by two or three Delegats the weakest of all Courts often for the quality and ever for the number of the Judges The Churches â—â—st severity aâ—â—inst Montâ—â—mery Aâ—â—mson was â—proven by â—â—e King and â—â—e parties â—â—mselves Two Instances are brought by the Warner to prove the Church of Scotlands stopping of appeals from the generall Assembly to the King the cases of Montgomery and Adamson if the causes and events of the named cases had been well known to the Warner as he made this chapter disproportionably short so readily be might have deleted it altogether But these men were infamous not onely in their Ministeriall charges but in their life and conversation both became so insolent that contrary to the established order of the Church and Kingdom being suborned by wicked Statesmen who in that day of darkness had well neer brought ruine both to King and Countrey would needs take upon them the Office of Arch-Bishops While the Assembly was in Process with them for their manifold and high misdeameanors the King was moved by them and their evil Patrons to shew his high displeasure against the Assemblies of the Church they for his Majâ—sties satisfaction sent their Commissioners and had many conferences whereby the pride and contempt of these Prelats did so encrease that at last they drew the sentence of Excommunication upon their own heads the King after some time did acknowledge the equity of the Church proceedings and professed his contentment therewith both these unhappy men were brought to a humble confession of their crimes and such signs of repentance that both after a renunciation of their titulary Bishopricks were re-admitted to the function of the Ministry which they had deserted Never any other before or after in Scotland did appeal from the generall Assembly to the King the late Excommunicate Prelate in their declinator against the Assembly of Glasgow did not appeal as I remember to the King but to another Generall Assembly to be constitute according to their own Popish and Tyrannicall principles CHAP. IV. Faulty Ministers in Scotland are lesse exempted from punishment then any other men THe Warner in his fourth Chapter The pride of Prelats lately but never the Presbytery did exempt their fellows from punishment for their civill faults offers to prove that the Scotish Discipline doth exempt Ministers from punishment for any treason or sedition they can act in their Pulpits Answ This challenge is like the rest very false The rules of the Church Discipline in Scotland obliges Churchmen to be subject to punishment not only for every fault for which any other man is lyable to censure but ordains them to be punished for sundry things which in other men are not at all questionable and whatever is consuâ—able in any they appoint it to be much more so in a Minister It is very untruâ— that the Pulpits in Scotland are Sanctuaries for any crime much lesse for the grievous crimes of sedition and treason Let the Warner remember how short a time it is since an Episcopall Chaire or a Canonicall Coâ—t did priviledge in England and Ireland from all censure either of Church or State great numbers who were notoriously known to be guilty of the foulest crimes Was ever the Warâ—â—â—â— companion Bishop Aderton challenged for his Sodomy so long as their common Patron of Canterbury did rule the Court did the Warner never hear of a Prelate very sibb to Dâ—ctor Bramble who to this day was never called to any account for flagrant scandals of such crimes as in Scotland are punishable by the Gallows the Warner doth not well to insist upon the Scots Clergy exempting themselves from civill punishments no where in the world are Churchmen more free of crimes deserving civill Cognisance then in Scotland and if the ears and eyes of the World may be trusted the Popish Clergy this day in Italy and Spaine are not so challengeable as the Prelaâ—icall Divines in England and Ireland lately were for many grossâ— misdemeanors The Warner is injurious to the Ministers of Holland But why does the Warners anger run out so far as to the Preachers in Holland is it because he knoweth the Church D scipline in Holland to be really the same with that he oppugnes in the Scots and that all the Reformed Churches doe joyn cordially with Scotland in their rejection of Episcopacy is this a ground for him to slander our Brethren of Holland Is it charity for him a stranger to publish to the World in print that the Ministers in Holland are seditious Orators and that they saucily controll the Magistrates in their Pulpits Their crime seems to be that for the love of Christ their Master they are
of Jealousie no man did question but all who were to have the managing of that war should be free of all just causes of Jealousie which could be made appear not to half a dozen of Ministers but to any competent judicatory according to the laws of the Kingdom The Warner hath not been careful to inform himself where the knot of the difference lay and so gives out his own groundless conjectures for true Historical narrations which he might easily have helped by a more attentive reading of our publick Declarations The second fault he finds with our Church is that they proclaim in print their dis-satisfaction with that ingagement It is one of the liberties of the Church of Scotland to publish declarations as favourable to the malignant Party c. Ans The Warner knows not that it is one of the liberties of the Church of Scotland established by law and long custom to keep the people by publick Declarations in their duty to God when men are like to draw them away to sin according to that of Esay 8. v. 12 13. What in great humility piety and wisdom was spoken to the world in the declaration of the Church concerning that undertaking was visible enough for the time to any who were not peremptory to follow their own ways and the lamentable event since hath opened the eyes of many who before would not see to acknowledge their former erors but if God should speak never so loud from heaven the Warner and his Party will stop their ears for they are men of such gallant Spirits as scorn to submit either to God or men but in a Roman constancy they will be ever the same though their counsels and ways be found never so palpably pernicious The third thing the Warner lays to the charge of our Church is The leavy was never off red to be stopped by the Church that they retarded the leavies Ans In this also the Warner shews his ignorance or malice for how sore soever the leavy as then stated and mannaged was against the hearts of the Church yet their opposition to it was so cold-rife and smal that no complaint needs be made of any retardment from them So soon as the Commanders thought it expedient there was an Army gotten up so numerous and strong that with the ordinary blessing of God was abundantly able to have done all the professed service but where the aversion of the hearts of the Church and the want of their prayers is superciliously contemned what marvell that the strongest arm of flesh be quickly broken in pieces The Church was not the cause of the gathering at Mauchlin-Moor The fourth Charge is most calumnious That the Church gathered the Country together in Arms at Mauchlin-Moor to expose the Expedition Ans No Church-man was the cause of that meeting a number of Yeomen being frighted from their houses did fly away to that corner of the Land that they might not be forced against their conscience to go as Souldiers to England while their number did grow and they did abide in a Body for the security of their persons upon a sudden a part of the Army came upon them some Ministers being near by occasion of the Communion at Mauchlin the day before were good Instruments with the people to go away in peace And when the matter was tryed to the bottom by the most Eagle-eyed of the Parliament nothing could be found contrary to the Ministers Protestation that they were no ways the cause of the peoples convening or fighting at Mauchlin The Assembly is helpful and not hurtful to the Parliament The paralel that the Warner makes betwixt the general Assembly and Parliament is malicious in all its parts For the first though the one Court be Civil and the other Spiritual yet the Presbyterians lay the Authority of both upon a divine Foundation that for conscience sake the Courts Civil must be obeyed in all their lawful Commands as well as the Assemblies of the Church God being the Author of the politick Order as well as the Ecclesiastick and the revenger of the contempt of the one as well as the other But what doth the Warner mean to mock at Ministers for carrying themselves as the Embassadors of Christ for judging according to the rule of Scripture for caring for life eternal Is he become so shamefully impious as to perswade Ministers to give over the care of life eternal to lay aside the holy Scripture and deny their embassage from Jesus Christ Behold what Spirit leads our Prelates while they jeer the World out of all Relâ—gion and chase away Ministers from Christ from Scripture from eternal Life Of the second part of the Paralel That people are more ready to obey their Ministers then their Magistrates what shall be made All the power which Ministers have with the people is builded on their love to God and Religion how much soever it is a good Statesman will not envy it for he knows that God and Conscience constrain Ministers to employ all the power they have with the people to the good of the Magistrate as the Deputy and Servant of God for the peoples true good The Warner here understands best his own meaning while he scoffs at Ministers for their threatning of men with hells fire Are our Prelates come to such open Proclamations of their Atheism as to print their desires to banish out of the hearts of people all fear not only of Church-Censures but even of hell it self Whither may not Satan drive at last the Instruments of his Kingdom The third part of the Paralel consists of a number of unjust and false Imputations before particularly refuted What he subjoyns of the power of the general Assembly to name Committees to sit in the Intervals of Assemblies The appointment of Committees is a right of every Court as well Ecclesiastick as Civil it is but a poor Charge Is it not the dayly practise of the Parliaments of Scotland to nominate their Committees of State for the Intervals of Parliament Is it not one inherent right to every Court to name some of their number to cognosce upon things within their own sphere at what ever times the Court it self finds expedient however the Judicatories of the Church by the Laws of the Kingdom being authorized to meet when themselves think fit both ordinarily and pro renata their power of appointing Committees for their own Affairs was never questioned and truly these Committees in the times of our late troubles when many were lying in wait to disturb both Church and State have been forced to meet oftner then otherwise any of their Members did desire whose diversion from their particular Charges though for attendance on the publick is joyned with so great fashery and expence that with all their heart they could be glad to decline it if fear of detriment to the Church made not these meetings very necessary CHAP. XI The Presbytery is no burden to
Magistrates against the Presbyterians let us try if his skill be any greater to inflame the people against it He would make the world beleeve that the Presbyterians are great transubstantiators of whole Commonwealths into beasts and Metamorphosers of whole Kingdoms of men into Serpents with two heads how great and monstrous a â—erpent must the Presbytery be when she is the mother of a Dragon with two heads But it is good that she has nothing to do with the procreation of the Dragon with seven heads the great Antichrist the Pope of Rome this honor must be left to Episcopacy the Presbytery must not pretend to any share in it There is no Lordship but a meer service and ministry in the Pastors of the Church The Warners ground for his pretty similitude is that the Presbyterians make two Soveraignties in every Christian state whose commands are contrary Ans All the evil lieth in the contrariety of the commands as for the double Soveraignty there is no shew of truth in it for the Presbyterians cannot be guiâ—ty of co-ordinating two Soveraignties in one State though the Prelates may well be guilty of that fault since they with their Masters of Romae maintain a true Hierarchy a Spiritual Lordship a domination and principality in their Bishops above all the Members of the Church but the Presbyterians know no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no dominion no Soveraignty in Church Officers but a meer ministry under Christ As for the contrariety of commands its true Christs Ministers must publish all the commands of their Soveraign Lord whereunto no command of any temporal Prince needs or ought to be contrary but if it fall out to be so it is not the Presbytery but the holy Scriptures which command rather to obey God then man Dare the Warner here oppose the Presbyterians dare he maintain a subordination of the Church to the State in such a fashion that the clear commands of God published by the Church ought to give place to the contrary commands of the State If the Warner must needs invert and contradict Christ his ruling of this case let him go on to preach doctrin pointblank contrary to the Apostles that it is better to obey men then God It falls out as rarely in Scotland as any where in the world that the Church and State run contrary ways but if it so happen the common rules of humane direction towards right and wrong judgment must be followed if a man find either the Church or the State or both command what he knows to be wrong for neither the one nor the other hath any infallibility there is no doubt but either or both may be disobeyed yet with this difference that for disobedience to the Churches most just commands a man cannot fall under the smallest temporal inconvenience without the States good pleasure but for his disobedience to the most unjust commands of the State he must suffer what ever punishment the law doth inflict without any relief from the Church Two instances are brought by the Warner of the Church and States contrary commands the first the King commanded Edenburgh to feast the French Ambassadors but the Church commanded Edenburgh to fast that day when the King desired them to feast Ans Here were no so contrary commands but both were obeyed the people did keep the humiliation and some of the Magistrates that same day did give the banquet to the French Ambassadors as the King commanded that for this any Church censure was intended against them it is a malicious calumny according to the author of this fable his own confession as at length may be seen in the unloading of Issachars burden As for his second instance The Warner is full of calumnious untruths the difference of the Church and State about the late ingagement we have spoken to it in the former Chapter at length the furthest the Church went was by humble petitions and remonstrances to set before the Parliament the great danger which that ingagement as it was stated and managed did portend to Religion the Kings person and whole Kingdom when contrary to their wholesom advices the ingagement went on they medled not to oppose the act of State further then to declare their judgment of its unlawfulness according to the duty of faithful watchmen Ezek. 33. It is very false that the Church have chased any man out of the Countrey or excommunicated any for following that engagement or have put any man to sackcloath for it unto this day Neither did ever any man call the freedome of the late Parliament in question how unsatisfied soever many were with its proceedings When the Warner heaps up so many untruths in a few lines in things done but yesterday before the eyes of thousand we shal not wonder of his venturing to lye confidently in things past long before any now living were born but there are a generation of men who are bold to speak what makes for their end upon the hope that few will be at the pains to bring back what hath flown from their teeth to the touchstone of any solid triall CHAP. X. The nature of the Presbytery is very concordant with Parliament IN the 10 Chapter the Warner undertakes to shew the antipathy of Presbyteries to Parliaments albeit there be no greater harmony possible betwixt any two bodies then betwixt a general Assembly and Parliament a Presbytery and an inferiour Civil Court if either the constitution or end or dayly practise of these judicatories be looked upon but the Prelatical learning is of so high a flight that it dares undertake to prove any conclusion yet these men are not the first that have offered to force men to beleeve upon unanswerable arguments though contrary to common sence reason that snow is black the fire cold and the light dark The eight desires of thâ— Church about the ingagement were just and necessaâ—y For the proof of his conclusion he brings back yet again the late engagement how often shall this insipide Colwort be set upon our table Will the Warner never be filled with this unsavoury dish The first crime that here the Warner marks in our Church against the late Parliament in the matter of the ingagement is their paper of the eight desires upon this he vapoureth out all his good pleasure not willing to know that all â—hese desires were drawn from the Church by the Parliaments own messages and that wel-neer all these desires were counted by the Parliament it self to be very just and necessary Especially these two which the wise Warner pitches upon as most absurd for the first a security to religion from the King upon oath under his hand and seal here the question among us was not for the thing it self but only about the time the order and some part of the matter of that security And for the second the quallification of the persons to be imployed that all should be such who had given no just cause