discover the way and means of attaining salvation in this Non deficit so omits not any thing of that which is needfull to acquire this End But on the other side Non redundant in superfluis for although there be scattered up and down some general precepts concerning Magistrates and all Relations yet it being not the end of Scripture to write Politicks we may boldly say that all that is good in Government cannot be learned out of the Book of God much might be said to this but because I mean to make short work with him I shall choak him with an Authority drawn from a Patriarch of his own King-lessening Doctrine Buchanan in his Book De jure Regni when he comes to answer the Objection De jure Regni apud Scotos Pag. 47. That however Idolatrous the Kings of Israel were yet the Prophets never exhorted the people to take up Arms and to set things right by such crooked means Possum saith he apud multas Nationes plurimas saluberrimasque recensere Leges quorum in Sacris literis nullum est exemplum The Government is by Lawes Lawes there are and good ones too it may be besides what are there something it seems by him not only for Government but for governing him that hath the Government that yet there is no Scripture for And he did very ingeniously to confesse they had no Scripture for it for all their practises in that are besides the Text Kings must govern by Scripture but they think they may govern them without He is pleased a little after to commend the Testimonies of God for the best Councellours we deny it not but why are they so Because they will tell the Kings freely both their Sin and their Duty Why who should if they should not God speaks by them but sure I am he likes them the better for their freedom with Kings but let me tell you since the Scriptures are so free you might be a little modester then you are and let something else then railing be the Character of a good Preacher amongst you Page 6 Much troubled he is Page 6. with anointing of Kings and after he hath granted that one of he Cases in which the Jews used it viz in the Case of Interruption by Vsurpation which he confesseth was their Case in the present Coronation yet then he flies to this that it was Typical and taken from the Jewes without warrant They make what they please typicall but though they were anointed and Christ were yet thence to infer it was a type is no sound consequence The Jews used Baptisme before Christ Christ makes use of it also will they say this is a typicall action if so why do they not cast that off the sick were anointed with Oyl James 5.14 was that typicall as for his other that it was taken from the Jews without warrant I must look upon it as affirmed Gratis For in these things where we have not directions in the New Testament why may we not have respect to the Old especially when the action doth not deny Christ come so will not lay any Jewish bondage upon us Now to make it more odious he tells us how that this anointing was Most in use with the Bishops of Rome who to keep Kings and Emperours subject to themselves did swear them to the Pope when they were anointed and yet the Jewish Priests did never swear Kings to themselves as for England although the Pope was cast off yet the subjection of Kings to Bishops was still reteined for they anointed the King and swore him to the maintenance of their Prelaticall Dignity Very good Turpe est Doctori cùm culpa redarguit ipsum What art thou O man that condemnest another and yet dost the same things Sure you were asleep when you delivered this I am sure you forgot your self much look into Page 2 in the Chancellors Speech and see what he moves to the King so soon as he had delivered the desires of the people for his Coronation That he would maintain Religion conform to the National Covenant League and Covenant so in Pa. 10. after the Sermon was done they put him to renew the Covenant they had urged him to take it before this was but a renewing for notwithstanding their Articles at Breda they knew well how they had used him in this particular both before he landed and after contrary to their first agreement for no Coronation nor nothing to be done for him without this and who is this to Engage him too but their Presbytery that is themselves and yet they complain of the Pope and the English Bishops that they swear Kings to themselves Accordingly they fashion the people Page 21 to bear Truth and Faith to him and live and die with him with this limitation In your service according to the Nationall Covenant and Solemn League and Covenant So Page 23. the Lords one by one did promise Truth and Faith to him against all manner of Polkes whatsoever in your service according to the Nationall Covenant and Solemn League and Covenant So no Covenant no Obedience no King Yet they doe not as the Pope or the Bishops of England good men they are guilty of no such practises indeed they are not but of worse they are Where was your reason when you say that in England although the Pope was cast off yet the Subjection of Kings to Bishops was still reteined wherein or how is the King of England subject to the Bishops speak it out Man do they meet without his Order but with the danger of a premunire have any of them opposed him or railed against him in their Sermons or have they undertaken at their Assemblies to order the King to order the Army to direct them when they shall Fight when not whom they shall employ whom cast out how they shall keep their King lockt up as a Prisoner when he shall appear and when 't is fit to take him from the Army lest by being seen he prove too popular and give a Check to the Kirk All which things and many more we know who have done that pretend to nothing but the sword of the spirit Do the Bishops at any time use so much as a bold Expression to him do they not acknowledge though not their calling yet the exercise of it in this or that Precinct to him do they in their Synods offer to oblige the people by their determinations till the things agreed upon have received the Stamp of Royall Authority and so made currant can you say that at any time they have held their Resolution firm in any thing without the King's Confirmation do they not acknowledge him and pray for him as supreme in all causes as well Ecclesiasticall as Civill do you give him so much or do you so pray for him Lastly have the Bishops in England since the Reformation ever used any violent meanes to bring the King to their bow who have you known and let them bear the
charge of subjecting Kings to their modell But you go on to tell us how Subjection of Kings to Bishops is still reteined in England now let the Auditor look for some rare reasons for which he may prepare either his laughter or pity or both For the anointed the King ergo he is subject to them Hear as good an Argument the Marquis of Argyle the grand Patron of the Covenant set the Crown upon the Kings Head Page 21. will you say therefore the King was subject to him I will not say what he and you would have made him but a better Providenc hath delivered him out of those storms and a little time will discover the hidden things of that mischievous League The latter part is as good and to the same tune And swear him to the maintenance of their Prelaticall Dignity you are much out for they present nothing but what his Ancestors ever voluntarily engaged themselves too by Oath and do not force an Oath upon him of their own devising The Oath is not of their imposing but of his own free taking and thereby he engageth himself to nothing but what is by Law established not urged by violence and threats and arms And what if he doth engage by Oath to preserve the Rights of the Church is the matter so hainous Yes Bishops are Limbs of Antichrist You say much but you prove little will you make the Apostles Limbs of Antichrist Nam Alexandriae à Marco Evangelista usque ad Heraclam Dionysium Episcopos Presbyteri semper unum ex se electum in excelsiori gradu collocatum Episcopum nominabant Hieronymus ad Evagrium Epist 85 was Mark Bishop of Alexandria a Limb of Antichrist or Peter at Antioch or Rome or James at Jerusalem or Polycarp at Smyrna what have all Ecclesiastical Writers agreed together to lye in a matter of Fact delivering to us the succession of Bishops in the most principal Sees I will not say much to this the Cause hath been handled by many Learned Pens which either you have not read or if which prejudice St Hierom to whom you attribute more then all the Fathers because you think he doth least to Bishops yet if he might determine the Controversie in his Epistle to Evagrius he would give it against you Et ut sciamus traditiones Apostolicus sumptus de Veteri Testamento quod Aaron filii ejus atque Levitae in Templo suerunt hoc sibi Episcopi Presbyteri Diacani vindicent in Ecclesia Epist 85. I will add no more but look beyond Calvin yet anointing and Bishops must Be put together to the door never to come in again Yes they may and never ask a Scotch Minister leave you must not alwayes think to reign as Kings and censure as you please coupling Popery and Prelacy together without any distinction on purpose to make all that be of that judgement in the same condemnation with the Papists and so fit for your Sequestration and Violence But though he cast out the Ceremony of anointing yet he undertakes to tell us presently after how they are anointed of the Lord Because by the Ordinance of the Lord their Authority is sacred and inviolable Take heed you break not the Ordinance of the Lord for we shall have occasion afterwards to see how sacred and inviolable you make it in your opinion and practise Then you commend unto us in the same Page The spirituall Vnction which you say is common to Believers and then That few Kings are so anointed There are but few Kings therefore there cannot be many so anointed when the whole number is so small but let me tell you there are many Rebels and not one of them is so anointed Anon after you come to reckon up the Enemies to the Authority of Kings and we could enlarge your Catalogue with another name to the third sort who you say are such Who rise against Kings in open Rebellion as Absolom and Sheba who said what have we to doe with David the Son of Jesse To your Tents O Israell For at the first beginning of Rebellion amongst us by Tumults a Treatise bearing this very Title wast cast into his Majesties Coach and by whom they were excited to this is evident so they are Rebels open Rebels and Enemies to the Authority of Kings by their own Description Page 7 Page 7. You say the Photinians allow Kings in Profession but they are against the Exercise of their Power in the administration of Justice I have heard of a Northern People that crowned their King and so allowed Kings in Profession but would suffer him to doe nothing so they denied the Exercise of his Power in the Administration of Justice Are not these Photinians in Mr. Robert Douglas judgement A few lines following he makes a profession That they are far from cutting off a lap of that just power and greatnesse which God hath allowed to the King and we have bound our selves by Covenant not to diminish You mean I suppose not to diminish id est more then the Covenant doth Now in the next place when he comes to the principal Verb the Covenant that Covenant which was between God and the King he refers you to the sum of it 2 Kings 23 3. which conteins nothing we can except against But what is this to their Covenant he after mentions and the particulars of it In Josiahs you meet with none of this muster of Popery Prelacy Superstition Heresie Schisme and Prophanenesse nothing of Incendiaries Malignants or the like or engaging to alter other Nations and reform them These Men if they meet with but the word Covenant they think it is a Blank which they may fill up with what they please and then Christen it with the title of a Scripture Covenant I shall refer him for this to Oxford Reasons which when my Scotch Minister can solidly answer we will take it into further consideration and till then lay it by Now then let him boast what he will how much Scotland hath preference before other Nations for their making a Covenant if they get but as much more by it as they have already gotten a blew Bonnet will buy all Page 8 The 8. Page is such a bundle of Calumnies that I am willing quickly to skip over this Dunghill for the scent is very offensive to any good Subject or modest temper Nothing here but of Dissembling Kings the sins of his Fathers House the House of our King hath been much defiled with Idolatry Complaints of a prophane Court in England If this be to preach there is none of our Tub-men that will not doe it as well for they can make any thing idolatrous or prophane as well as he I even Learning too and I doubt if they had their minds it would be Idolatry for some men to eat their meat Page 9 But in the close of this Page and in the 9. he comes to the Covenant between the King and the People in which he saith
this enough and too much yet they rest not here for they are so accustomed to revile the living both present and absent that they spare not the very Dead as you may see in this Author page 4. There are many sins upon our King and his Family a little after I desire the King be truly humbled for his own sins c. the sins of his Fathers House which have been great Page 19. He accuses King James of making a foul defection and in a few lines after sayes that He laid the Foundation whereupon his Son our late King did build much mischief to Religion all the dayes of his life Os impudens was there none that had loyalty enough to stop that black mouth or is it so customary with you that it is to be esteemed a Scotch Elegancy In good earnest that blessed Saint shall hear a Martyr when the Name of such railing Rabshakaes shall either be forgotten or remembred with abhorrency Again Page 22. Sir There is too much iniquity upon the Throne by your Predecessors who framed mischief by a Law And Page 24 I may say freely that the chief cause of the Judgement upon the Kings House hath been the Grandfathers breach of Covenant with God the Fathers following steps in opposing the work of God his Kirk within these Kingdoms What will you disturb the Grave and arraign sentence the Ashes of the Kings how can we expect any Piety where there is a want of that Charity which covereth the multitude of Offences nay where there is that radicated malice that makes offences where there are none and that is not satisfied with a verbal aspersing the Dead but by the Presse indeavours the transmitting these Calumnies to Posterity Aut hoc non est Evangelium aut hi non sunt Christiani 't is the Apostles rule Titus 3. v 2. To speak evill of no man you have not the Authority of the Writers of the Canon of Scripture in censuring the Lives of your KING' 's though you take it Page 2 In the Circumstances of Coronation prefixed to the Sermon you may take notice that assoon as ever the Lord Chancellor had signified their desire of his being Crowned with the same breath he desires the Maintenance of Religion conforme to the Nationall Covenant League and Covenant So it seems Religion must conform to that not that to Religion this is that which they make the top of the Crown its Crosse and then if this be done what will they doe he tells you that They will bestow Land Life and what else is in their power for the maintenance of Religion and the safety of his Majesties person I like well that God should be set above the King and so doth his Majesty too But what the aim of these Men is in prefixing of Religion to the safety of his Majesties sacred Person we know by sad experience and find here in their words Religion conform to the Nationall Govenant would you understand what Religion is in their sense the sum totall is the National Covenant the League and Covenant which being their own device and an unwarrantable composure how little reason there is that either that should be the comprehensive of Religion or Religion under that Notion stand before his Majesty let all sober and discreet Men judge Page 3 In the Sermon to let alone his Conjectures about Joash when he comes to make the Parallell betwixt him and the King he tells you Pa. 3. That the wicked Men have risen up and usurped the Kingdom And who were these wicked men were they not all or most of them Covenanters did they not all swarm out of the Hive of Presbytery and what did your own Country men doe in the dayes of his great Grandmother and by what Principles were they acted and who set them a work and what were the Pretences we are well pleased you should condemn these amongst us as much as you will but desire that you would passe the same Censure upon all that lie under the same Guilt what ever covering they throw over it For we agree fully with you That who ever rises up and Usurps the Kingdome deserves the Title of wicked and as you say in the words following we say also that They put to Death the last King most unnatually but who brought him low and made the way for his Murder who did unnaturally murder him in his Repute and good Name and so prepared him for their Cruelty If you be not able to answer these Questions every Child can with us for the vail is taken off and you must never think these many Ages to deceive so much as the Plebeians with the NAME of RELIGION in your sense before mentioned Page 4 You say Page 4. That there are many sins upon the King and his Family the unhandsomnesse of this expression is took notice of before and now must add that which is proper as it lies here what so young and yet so many sins what are they personal can they see so many and all the world besides admire they can find so few What were they sins in Government why he never yet came to it here when these words were spoken and how long had he governed with you or how much did he govern though you put away most of his Friends from him yet we are not ignorant He that will charge others so Magisterially should look a little into himself and those that side with him and shall we find him or their Assembly spotlesse So much hath been printed so much is known of your wayes and proceedings that you had need to bewail your own Trible ere you charge his Majesty so rudely and violently and if we may trace you in your own way of censuring I think we may say The Event hath shewed that the Lord hath had a Controversie with you as well as you say he hath with the Royall Family Page 5 Page 5 He is not content to strike at the present King and his dead Ancestors but he must discover their wonted dissafection to Kings in Generall for there he gives them this lash Kings use to be so taken up with their Crowns that they despise their People They are alwayes engrafting in the stock of the people a bad opinion of Kings which with the heat of their Sermons they can at pleasure make sprout out into a Rebellion and therefore I shall only tell him to this Passage that He and his Faction are so taken up with their novell Discipline that they despise Crowns and speak evill of Dignities and encourage the People to doe the like as thinking it very safe to speak the Pulpit language That which followes in the same Page is to me very strange when he so confidently affirms I know nothing that is good in Government but a King may learn it out of the Book of God It is a great sign you know not much The end which the Scripture proposeth as to us is to
obliged to maintain Presbyteriall Government but however he should maintain that I doubt he would sadly find that that will never maintain him He cannot leave his Boldnesse in undertaking to tell the particular causes of God's Judgements which he is often at Some endeavour to make you reproach that for which God hath punished your Predecessors Judicia Dei abyssus magna you are very confident in such Speeches and shew little of a Divine But no marvail for he pretends to prophesie For he is so enamoured with this Government that he saith Who ever meddles to overturn it it shall be as heavy to him as the burthensome stone to the Enemies of the Kirk Is it not so to them who submit to it a heavy dull burthen and we have not yet seen his Prophesie fulfilled for we have found that this Covenant hath ruin'd as many of its Servants as Enemies Pag. 17 You shew there plainly how jealous you are of Kings and how loth they should govern for fear their Government should prove prejudiciall to the Cause that is Presbytery For though you say before How well Kingly Government and that agree you scarce dare venter them together It was with much Debate that you yielded to it notwithstanding you sent for him You are free in your advice to the King in your story of Modus but never practise it your selves for such Hot-spurs the world affords not who know no moderation and think they have no zeal unless it put the Nation into Flames Pag. 18 All the charge you lay upon King James amounts to nothing for you never left him till you had gotten him to Covenant when he was young and what he said then of England or Geneva is as of little consequence as the rest But what if he never said it but you for him or what if the Church of England do retain some Ceremonies must they needs be Popish eo nomine because Ceremonies Away with these trivial complaints the Church of England neither retains so many as may hinder her Sons from attending to the substantiall part of Religion nor any so unproper as that they cannot procure the End for which they were commanded As for Geneva if they have any Holy dayes they may perhaps answer you in the Apostles phrase Judge no man in respect of a Holy day But these hot Northern Heads judge and condemn all the world but themselves And all the world besides thinks them scarce worth seeing or condemning What King James did when he came to riper years and more experience doth give a Testimony that he was under Force in his younger time And the Foundation he laid and upon which his Son built was not To mischief Religion but to bring the Church to its ancient splendor and to keep underneath malipert and disorderly Sectaries as Mas Robert who when he had done his Sermon and the Action of Coronation is over and that he hath given the King his Benediction being conscious to themselves by what means they had extorted this from him he falls to his threatnings Page 23. Pag. 23 And to scare both King and Nobles from declining the Covenant As if nothing else were able to hold the Crown but that we have heard of righteousness that it will stablish a Throne but never that a forced Covenant would work such strange Feats But he tells us then afterward that If they keep the Covenant it may be expected that God will keep you out of their hands viz Cromwell and his Party We know not that any thing was broken of it for all was in their hands till Worcester Fight yet they fell into their Hands and the Covenant did not save them Pag. 24 You say freely indeed that the chief Cause of the Judgements upon the Kings House hath been the Grandfathers breach of Covenant with God and the Fathers following steps in opposing the work of God and his Kirk within these Kingdomes Do you know it was Judgements to him who was so unnaturally murdered to the Nation I am sure it was a Judgement but to him a Mercy to be taken away in such a Cause and by such Hands as no bad Man could suffer from and from such a people the Tide of whose affections if it had not turned they had neither been worth living amongst nor ruling And with the like rare confidence you charge him in Christ's Name to Keep this Covenant in all points and if he break it and come against this Cause I assure you the controversie is not ended between God and your Family but will be carried on to the further weakning if not the overthrow of it How dare you charge a King in Christ's Name to keep that which was made in your own name and for your own interest upon what ground can you assure him that the Controversie is not ended with his Family but that it shall continue still to the weakning or overthrow of it Yes now I have found the Reason For if he doe not you and your Party I do believe will do your utmost for effecting what you threatned You doe as the Rebells did here in England before the War predict great Troubles which themselves were resolved to raise For though it becomes us to conceive that all Afflictions are just and so suppose some Default in us yet for any Man to say either of himself or others that such a Lash is for such a Fault is more then we have Warrant for and a presumptious intruding into the secrets of God's justice which such a Boldnesse may bring at last upon us You know who said That neither this Man hath sinned or his Parents that he was born blind yet perhaps had you been there you would have given a REASON why he had been born blind You promise much that if he Befriend the Kingdome of Christ that is the Covenant It may be God from this day shall begin to doe you good Now you are not so confident as before but if you break the Covenant then he is not upon his may bee's but is very positons But ye that Support and he that is supported will fall together You give us that which is very rare in your Writings most of them being an Ipse dixit a reason why you urge this because it is a rare thing you say to see a King and great Men for Christ This being for Christ is a canting Phrase which every Sect takes up at pleasure For whoever is for the Interest of that side is for Christ Sect. and then Ipsum esse illic est pro mereri as Tertullian with you not to doe the Duties of a Christian but to be for the Covenant that is to be for Christ and all you are for Christ and no Body else Pure Donatists ubicunque ipsi ibi Ecclesia The Church is where ever they are and no where else to be found At last for a close of all you tell the King That he is the only Covenanted King with God and