expression of their affection only wishing it may have its dependance on right Reason yet confess petitioning is every mans liberty And for the fourth and fifth That they held their livelyhoods by such titles and were sworn to preserve the immunities liberties and profits of the same I only say they held them at the pleasure of the Parliament whose power is over the enjoyments of all persons and publick much more particular societies against whose Laws no Domestick Laws or Oaths could bind and so their plea in this amounts to no more than what might be said for the Monasteries and Abbies which I presume they will not say were wickedly demolished unless they prove Arch-bishops Bishops Deans Deans and Chapters to be built on a better foundation which I would not advise them to seek in the Statute of Carlile repeated in the 25. Edw. 3 d. in which they are conjoyned Their fifth exception is In respect of their Obligation by Oath and Duty to the King Oxford Reasons fifth Exception to the 2d Article of the Covenant and therein their dissatisfaction doth arise from the Oath of Supremacy Coronation Oath The benefit this Government brings unto the Kings Honour and Estate The â—greeableness of this Government to the Civil Constitution of the Kingdom Unto which I answer briefly That the Oath of Supremacy doth acknowledge the King to be the only Supreme Governour in all Ecclesiastical Causes and over all Ecclesiastical persons and that by the Oath of Supremacy and the protestation of the fifth of May they and we were bound to maintain the Kings Honour and Estate and Jurisdiction we freely grant but in swearing to endeavour the extirpation of this Government by Arch-bishops Bishops c. I see not the danger of disloyalty or injury to the King or double perjury to our selves or contradiction to the Parliaments declared and professed knowledge that the King is entrusted with the Ecclesiastical Laws as well as Temporal and therefore wish the nature of the Kings Supremacy may be well considered That the King is Supreme Head and Governour of the Subjects distributively or particularly considered no sober man will deny or that he is the Supream and Topmost Branch and Apex of all that Honour Power and Authority with which the Collective Body of the Nation the three Estates in Parliament Assembled in respect of which the Lords and Commons Methodiet Majestatis causa apply themselves unto Him under the Title of Our Soveraign Lord no Regular man will deny and that he is Supreme in all Exhibition and administration of Justice so that the Judges are by and from Him and in His Name and Authority and so all Submission Honour and Acquiescency in Judicial Proceedings is to Him no good Statist or Civilian will deny and that He is Supream Head and Governour in things Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Ratione objecti or circa Ecclesiam the Executive Administration about not in the Church within His Dominions in opposition to all Papal and Forraign Power no Free-born Subject Good Christian or Protestant will deny but that He is so Supream as to have in Himself sole Legislation to the Church in things Political but belonging to the Church such as is the publick National profession of Christian Faith in such a Form and Method of Articles such a National uniform and publick method and order of worship and such a National Discipline and Government of all the Churches within His Realm so as that the People in Parliament Assembled may not debate consult conclude concerning them and sedente Parliamâ—â—to put in execution by present supersedeas of former Acts and by present Votes and Orders of Restriction and Regulation as in other Affairs of the Nation I think no Loyal Subject Wise Politician Good Statesman or True-born English-man will affirm for that the Supremacy of the King is affixed by the power of Parliament and in all Writs of Summons they are called to consult the ardent Affairs of the Church no less than of the Civil State and the thirty nine Articles Form of Common Prayer and the Government of the Church lay claim to Acts of Parliament for their Civil Sanction and the Parliament in the Remonstrance of December 1641. owned and cited by these learned men do declare the King entrusted with the Ecclesiastical Law to regulate all the Members of the Church of England by such Rules of Order and Discipline as are established by Parliament and the very Statute enjoyning the Oath of Supremacy and the Admonition of Queen Elizabeth in Her Injunctions appointed by Statute to be the Exposition thereof doth oppose the King to the Pope and * That is to say under God to have the Sove aignty and Rule over all manner of persons born within her Majesties Dominions or Countries of what Estate soever Ecclesiastical or Temporal as no Forraign power shall or ought to have any superiority over them Admon Enacted to expound the Oath of Supremacy quinto Elizab. primo Forraign power not to the Parliament and makes Him the executor of all Jurisdiction Superiority and Preheminences by any Ecclesiastical power or authority which heretofore hath been and may be lawfully exercised which was always directed by power of the Parliament of England And I remember the Lord Chief Baron Bridgeman in his late learned Speech concerning the Kings Supremacy unto the late condemned Traytors at the Old Baily did declare the King to be Supream that is beyond the Coercive power of His people but not to have the Legislative power in His own Breast so as to Rule at His own Will and the known Estate of England is to be Ruled and the Coronation Oath binds the King accordingly in all Ecclesiastical and Civil Affairs by such Lawes quas populus elegerit as the people shall choose so that His Majesties Supremacy is not denied when His Prerogative amplified by the Statute of 1 Elizabethae Ca. 1. is contracted and abridged by the Statute of Caroli 17. Or when the Parliament do see good by their Votes Resolves Orders or imposed Oaths to alter or extirpate the Government which the King was empowred to execute and administer His Supremacy being purely executive and that subject to the Legislation of Parliament upon which account the Peoples Oath of maintaining the Honour Estate and Jurisdiction of the King may be voided as to this and that particular mode and thing and yet the Parliament not take upon them to absolve the People from that obedience they owe under God unto the King nor is the limitation of the exercise of Supremacy as to this or that particular and in this or that species inconsistent with or destructive to the Kings Supremacy rightly understood And on these Considerations let it be observed that the Kings Coronation Oath to grant keep and confirm the Laws Customes and Franchises granted to the Clergy by the glorious King Saint Edward and preserve to the Bishops their Churches all Canonical priviledges c. which
the Infants of believing Parents in their Baptisme who are not capable of such consent and stipulation but were dedicated by the Authority and Interest of the Parent and are accepted by the extent of the Covenant or is confirmation an essential part of the Sacrament and necessary supplement of Baptisme I find a like case in Scripture called a Covenant Gen. 17.13 My Covenant shall be in your flesh the stipulation of Godfathers and Godmothers will not relieve the case unless they be deputed by the Infants though they were which doth not appear commissioned by the Lord so that some Covenants are imposed and pass withour mutual consent 2. May not an agreement between two different Nations passed by the mutual consent of the Princes or Body Politick be for further security sake imposed by the Authority of each Nation on the individual Subjects thereof and that under a penalty which may be a good perswasion against their peevishness and pertinacy who by their private interest may obstruct the more general and publick good and yet be properly denominated a Covenant as suppose between England and Spain which the Merchants of both are bound to keep and I see no cause why they may not be compelled to swear I hope the case will not differ between Scotland and England who are distinct Nations though under the same King it is Sir no hard matter to make this the case of the Covenant But these learned men do except against the Authority enjoyning the Covenant 3. The Authority imposing the Covenant Vindicated which is the third particular in the manner of making the Covenant supposed to be miscarried and herein Dr. Featlie's Ghost doth follow them but so very weakly and with such palpable contradiction that I shall not spend time and paper in observing the same but specially take notice of what is urged by the Oxford Reasons from which he borroweth his strength Here Sir I shall desire it may be noted that I do not affirme the authority to be full and compleat but to have been lawful and sufficient to impose an Oath and thereby bind the people wherein notwithstanding they should have been defective and fallacious yet this will not discharge the obligation laid as I have in my Analepsis pag. 13. and before in Pag. 23.21 this Tract observed against it therefore as such I shall endeavour to weigh the Exceptions The first whereof is Oxford Reasons Sect. 2. pag. 3. That this imposing of this Oath was contrary to the liberty of the Subject expressed in the Petition of Right to which liberty the imposition of a new Oath other than is established by Act of Parliament is thereby declared contrary Unto this Sir I say I cannot but observe what strength of prejudice acted these learned men in making to themselves these Doubts and Reasons against the Covenant which leads them almost throughout their Book to infer generals from specials as I have before noted in our Arguments so in this the words themselves do quote out of the Petition of Right are these Whereas many of them have had an Oath administred unto them not warrantable by the Laws and Statutes of this Realme they do humbly pray that no man hereafter be compelled to take such an Oath according to which words it appears to be some speciall Oath that was complained of and unto which the relative doth refer the which if they would please to observe the connexion of the words will be found to have been a particular and specifical Oath the words in the Plaint run thus Petition of Right By means whereof Your People have been in divers places assembled and required to lend certain moneys unto Your Majesty and of them upon their refusal so to do have had an Oath administred unto them not warrantable by the Laws and Statutes of this Realm so that it appears to have been an Oath of discovery of their Estate upon refusal to lend moneys or some Oath ex officio unto self-accusation beyond the Statute of the 25th Henry the third which is in this point complained of as violated and the prayer of that Petition doth no less specifie this Oath by the Relative SVCH which referreth unto the quality of the Oath complained against so doth also the concatenation of the prayer which proportionally to the Plaint is That no man be compelled to make gift or loan c. or be called to make answer or take such Oath so that this was an Oath to make answer unto the damage of a mans own Estate Life or Liberty which is repugnant to Nature and herein aggravated as not warrantable by the Laws and Statutes of this Realm a more full description whereof these Gentlemen might have received in the Statute 17. Caroli concerning Commissioners for Causes Ecclesiastical Now Sir from this special to argue against all Oaths that pass not by Act of Parliament is a plain non seuquitur and unjust inference the Companies in London or it may be some Colledges in Oxford are constituted by the Kings Charter or Patent and the Master and Wardens of the one or President and Fellows of the other give an Oath to all that become Members thereof and expect to participate in their priviledges will these learned men say that these Oaths not imposed or prescribed by Act of Parliament were contrary to the Petition of Right which never complained of or prayed against such Oaths I do not think these men would have had us to think that the Oath Caetera enjoyned in the Canons of 1640. was against the Petition of Right which certainly would bespeak the Bishops something prejudicial to the Civil State and yet it was never passed by Act of Parliament Moreover these learned men subscribed and swear to the Protestation of May 1641. they did not sure then think that submitting to swear that Oath they did violate or betray the liberties of the people expressed in the Petition of Right they should do well to tell us by what Act I do not say Authority of Parliament it was established I humbly conceive that there is a vast difference between an Oath of exaction self-discovery or accusation which is wicked in its nature and more wicked when without warrant from the Law and an Oath for establishment of publick and general good imposed by the Authority though not established by Act of Parliament it is not the simple taking an Oath without consent of Parliament but the taking such an Oath as may impeach the persons or endanger the Estates of the Subject which was the Peoples grievances not is it the formality of an Act but the full consent of the people in Parliament makes an Oath lawful and preserveth their liberties in the imposing of it But these Masters and Scholars of Oxford fear Ibid. by owning this Covenant they should own a power in the imposers thereof then for ought that appeareth to them hath been challenged in former times or can consist with
ΑÎΑΛΗΨΙΣ ΑÎΕΛΗΦΘΗ The Fastning of St. PETRRS FETTERS By SEVEN Links or Propositions OR The Efficacy and Extent of the Solemn League and Covenant asserted and vindicated against The Doubts and Scruples of Dr. John Gauden's Anonymous Questionist St. Peters Bonds not only loosed but annihilated by Mr. John Russell Attested by John Gauden D. D. The League Illegal falsly fathered on Dr. Daniel Featley AND THE Reasons of the University of Oxford for not taking now pleaded to discharge the obligation of the Solemn League and Covenant By Zech. Crofton Minister of the Gospel at S. Botolphs Algate LONDON Jer. 34.15 Ye were now turned and had don right in my sight and ye had made a Covenant before me in the House which is called by my Name Ver. 16. But ye turned and polluted my Name Ver. 18 20. I will give the men that have transgressed my Covenant which have not performed the words of the Covenant which they made before me I will even give them into the hand of their enemies Error cui non resistitur approbatur veritas quae non defenditur opprimitur negligere quippe cum possis deturbare perversos nihil est aliud quam fovere nec caret scrupulo societatis occultae qui manifesto facinori cum potest desinit obviate Innocent London Printed for Ralph Smith at the sign of the Bible in Cornhill near the Royal Exchange 1160. The Epistle to the READER Courteous Reader I Am not insensible that the subject matter of these papers and the season of their publication may expose them and their Author to the censure of the Committee of Discretion which if they do I cannot but let thee know this will not be the first time I have fallen under their correction For such was my loyalty to the Kings Majesty in His late unjust exile and the cogency of the Covenant on my conscience that my preached Sermons and printed Papers were very frequently under the examination of this Committee constituted not onely of my envious enemies desirous to discover in me a rashness which might prove my ruine but also my trembling friends and timerous brethren in the Ministry who thought any who stept before them in duty thrust themselves into present danger and yet no judgment could pass against me save onely this The state of affairs might have made him more politick but that it is truth he spake and a Ministers duty to speak it could never be denied I presume men to whom I am in any measure known will not judge me such a fool as not to discern the current of the times countenance of the Court clamors of the Countrey contradictions of rising persons in the Church Commonwealth to what is herein asserted the compliance and connivance of many my brethren in the Ministry under the same Oath herein vindicated and the cooled courage of the first Composers earnest Instigators and zealous Promoters of the Solemn League and Covenant and that in dissenting from them and opposing my private apprehensions to their more prudent affections I must needs expose my self to the reproach of singularity inconsiderate heat peevishness of spirit and contract on my self the frowns of men in power and frettings of my complying brethren and fellow-confederates and fail the expectations of my own preferment which my courage and constancy for His Majesties just interest in the worst of oppressing times and utmost of opposition wherein many who now vilifie the Covenant durst not speak nay did basely comply and promise to be true and faithful to the Common-wealth of England as it was then established without a King and House of Lords had heightned in both my friends and foes against which when I reason with flesh and blood and consult a proud heart within and numerous family without me I find sufficient Arguments according to the dictates of nature to determine folly against my self but I hope I have not so learned Christ True piety doth suggest and convince me that wisdom towards God is folly to the world and the Watchmans prudence is to proclaim an approaching evil whilst at a distance capable of diversion and escape and that the most wise of Gods Ministers in all ages judged it their duty to oppose Gods Word to mens prevailing lust and present propensity unto wickedness Elijah-like to stand alone and speak the mind of God when for so doing they may be branded as the troublers of Israel when indeed their sin not the preachers speach doth cause the commotion with Micaiah to denounce the danger of Ahabs design though 400 Prophets encourage it and King and the Court encline to it and with Jeremiah to say to the King Keep thy Oath and thou shalt be delivered when Princes and Prophets perswade the breach thereof and himself must down into the Dungeon as a preacher of sedition Few men will deny that Roger Bacon in his plain preaching to King Henry 3. that if he did not remove his malignant counsellors Peter Bishop of Winchester and Peter de Rivallis he could never be at quiet played a wiser part than did the Bishop who to please the Kings humor preached up the Kings prerogative to such a pitch as brought himself under an Anathema from which he was forced to appeal to Rome for relief And all good Protestants will conclude Cranmer was much wiser in alone withstanding King Council Parliament Lords temporal spiritual in the case of K. Henry 8. his six Popish Articles than in that Court-compliance which caused that doleful complaint in the midst of the fire This my unworthy right hand Magnanimity is a vertue not the least necessary to a man but most necessary to a Christian and most of all to a Minister who should like his Steeple stand in all storms raised under and by the variations of human affairs and not like the Weather cock turn with every wind I am ashamed to think with what vigour some asserted the Obligation of the Covenant in reference to Religion when the civil part thereof was clouded and broken and now would vindicate the civil part thereof whilst Religion is specially concerned Like wise Archers level at the mark because of spectators observation but resolve to shoot fair and far off whilst others wholly couch it are ready to cast it off or by false glosses and frivolous interpretations evade it and study how to charm others into the same silence I had almost said sin It is worth remembrance that Religion and its Reformation never was nor must now be expected to be the result of an ordinary measure of resolution It is needlesse to recite the boldness of the Apostles and Primitive Fathers against the contradiction of the Pagans Alexander and Athanasius that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against the Arrian Empire in promoting and defending the true Religion or Wickliff Hus and Luther and others in the first reformation and the conflicts of Englands Non-conformists against the remainders of corruption and Romish Reliques in our Church
signification yet by long and common appropriation as obvious to vulgar capacity to denote a special kind of government in the Church as tyranny in reference to the Common-wealth Yet it is restrained by a more particular denomination Hierarchy holy government by the order of holy high Priesthood as some do fancy and specifical description by its enumerated substantial parts Archbishops Bishops Deans Deans and Chapters in which it formally existed and separable adjuncts Commissaries Chancellors and other Officers depending thereupon so that these not in sensu composito that the removal of any one Officer might suffice but complexo the Government conaining all or any of these is the object sworne against appears to every unprejudiced Reader and so it squares with the Act expressed by the most significant word which could be devised viz. Extirpate which certainly every ordinary reader knoweth to amount unto more than mutation by dismembring some separable adjuncts thereupon dependent as Commissaries or Chancellors or by limitation and regulation which yet makes the Bishops holy hands essential to all acts of confirmation of Catechumenists or Ordination of Ministers or Jurisdiction in the Church though there be never so many grave learned and pious Presbyters and Pastors a few of whom may be his Lordships Council without any intrinsecal authority in themselves and without him whilst all men know to extirpate signifieth una cum stirpe evellere to pluck up by the very root In this point if the words of the Oath were not sufficiently clear and the Lawyers rule Lex currit cum praxi may point us to a Comment The Petition opposed by the * Bishop Hall Remonstrant defended by Smectymnuus presented to the Parliament the debates many speeches and resolves in the Houses which preceded and produced the advice of the Assembly of Divines Ordinances of Parliament and Oath of His most Sacred Majesty as King of Great Britain in pursuit of the Covenant which ensued upon the swearing the same hath written this sense in such legible Characters that all may run and read it And although I would not require any thing more I can take nothing lesse because God alloweth no abatements in an Oath than what hath been sworn though it should appear good and profitable but not necessary necessitate precepti divini However others may flagge and faulter or fall off from the Covenant I must tell the assertors of the Presbyterial Government that if they have no conscience they are hedged into the observance of it on the account of Credit Reasons of the present judgment of the University of Oxford concerning the Solemn League and Covenant Sect. 7 p. 21. for the University of Oxford as with them combin'd to their reproach from the Jesuites and Sectaries hath charged it to be their property to swear one thing in their words and in their own sense to mean another to invent Oaths and Covenants for the Kingdom dispence vvith them vvhen they please swear and forswear as the wind turneth like a godly Presbyter which if any of them will dare to verifie they shall give me leave to mourn alone for their iniquity for by Gods grace my soul shall not enter into the secrets of an Art so sinful and shameful before God and men but study that Rule Be vvise as Serpents but innocent as Doves Courteous Reader I have held thee too long in the threshold I shall stay thee no longer save to tell thee if in any thing I seem indiscreet it is in venturing something of Answer to the Reasons of the University of Oxford which every simple Anti-covenanter and scurrilous Pamphleter not able by the least Casuistical consideration to discharge the Covenant do revive and run into as the Gordian knot never to be loosed and to which my Antagonist Dr. Gauden beaten out of his own Divinity doth retreat as to his impregnable Castle of confidence which may indeed savour something of arrogancy in any single opponent by whose over-matched weaknesse the cause may suffer Give me leave to tell thee the dread hereof hath smothered in silence what is now drawn out by the reputation of unansvverable Reasons they have received amongst the enemies of the Covenant I cannot live by an implicite faith but in a case of conscience must examine the considerations of the most learned Society General Councils are more authoritative and authentick than any single University yet they have erred and their errors have been detected by single persons And how foolish soever I may seem I have so much wit as to know Timidi ignavi nunquam erigent Trophaeum Honor attends not Dastards And again Trophaeum ferre me à forti viro pulchrum est sin autem vincar vinci à tali nullum est probrum It is an honor to Scanderbeg to beat not any shame to be beaten by the numerous Turks If I be vanquished by their more learned pens it can be to me no disgrace nor to truth any great dammage whilst my being over-poured in so good a cause will engage more able men who have any zeal for or conscience of the Oath of God which lieth on us our King and Kingdom to appear for the relief and defence thereof In expectation of which I cast my self on thy candor and ingenuity Zach. Crofton ΑÎΑΛΗΨΙΣ ΑÎΕΛΗΦΘΗ The Fastning of St Peter's Fetters OR The Solemn League and Covenant and its Conscience-binding Power Asserted and Vindicated c. in an Epistle to the Right Worshipful Sir Lawrence Bromfield Knight and Colonel in LONDON The PREFACE Right Worshipful IF without suspition of blasphemy and irreverence towards Sacred men and Sacred writ I may pursue Dr. John Gauden's Metaphor I cannot but tell you mens prophane neglect and contempt of the Covenant did not a little perplex me but that Solemn and Sacred Oaths should be deemed St. Peters Bonds and that Protestant Divines dreaming of an Apostolical Priority should by Popish Arguments attempt his Release to the Re-establishment of the Papatum alterius mundi as it was is and must be owned of Episcopacy in Lawn sleeves exercising Paternal Authority over their brethren as the peoples * Dr. John Ganden's Analysis of the Covenant p. 17. equals and inferiors because in black coats did much more afflict my spirit Sir in sence hereof I did send out my Analepsis after the Doctors Analysis and made bold to withstand St. Peter to his face for he was to be blamed and indeed condemned as * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word in Gal. 2.11 doth signifie and brought him back to prison it must be so esteemed with silence hearkning for his joyful songs under Christ his Masters yoke and in those holy Stocks and resolved submissively to wait on God to perfect the peace and purity of his Church in England and plead the quarrel of the Covenant but the Grating Files of some more willing than able to dismiss my prisoner have disturbed my rest Truly Sir I love St. Peter better in
of God in the sense there intended is at this time encreased To which Sir I should have then answered 1. Answer Their ability to say it is of little moment nor could we well judge it for whether they were under any natural wilfull violent or judicial incapacity is not our part to determine Others were able to say it and if these reverend Fathers and Students did know it though they were not able to say it it was for us sufficient And therefore may I be bold further to enquire 2. Whether they were able to read the whole Sentence expressing the sense Of the enemies of God whose rage power and presumption was at this time encreased here intended and calling to mind the treacherous and bloody plots conspiracies attempts and practices of the enemies of God against the true Religion and Professors thereof in all places especially in these three Kingdoms ever sinte the Reformation of Religion and how much their rage power and presumption are of late and at this time encreased whereof the deplorable estate of the Church and Kingdom of Ireland the distressed estate of the Church and Kingdom of England and the dangerous estate of the Church and Kingdom of Scotland are present and publick testimonies Are not these full expressions of the sense in which the enemies of God whose raâ—â— power and presumption were encreased are to be understood And is it rational or religious to enquire after and suspend a duty on jealousie of a sense intended when we have the sense plainly expressed Is not this repugnant to the end of Speech the Interpreter of the mind 3. Were the Masters Scholars and other Members and Officers of the University of Oxford such strangers in the Protestant Israel as not to know the Papists and Popishly affected were enemies of God against true Religion and the Professors thereof in all places Or so unacquainted at home as not to know their plots conspiracies attempts and practices were especially against these three Kingdoms the most publick and potent professors of true Religion ever since the Reformation Had they no notion of the Rebellions against King Edward the sixth Of the Treasons Plots Conspiracies Roaring Bulls and Raging Spanish Armado against Queen Elizabeth Of the Gunpowder-Treason and other plots against King James Of the Colledge of Propagators of the Catholick cause erected in Rome under the Government of Cardinal Barbarin and designed against these Kingdoms Or of the grand Plot agitated by Con or Cuneus the Popes Nuncio in England discovered by Andreas ab Habernefield first to Sir William Boswel His Majesties Resident in Flanders and by him unto Laud late Archbishop of Canterbury and since fully cleared and laid open by Mr. William Prynn in his Romes Master-piece published in 1643. four years before their reasons and might have been profitable to their eye-sight 4. Did not this learned University judge it to be an high encrease of their Rage Power and Presumption to distribute their Jesuits into such several Orders as should be capable in any place or profession to propagate their plots To press upon the late King and Archbishop for a publick profession of union with Rome To boast openly of Englands returning to Popery To tender a Cardinals Hat to the late Archbishop To poison our Fountains the Universities and our very people with Arminian and Popish doctrines publickly preached and printed and Popish pictures publickly sold and bound up with our Testaments and Bibles To provoke the High-Commission cruelties and Puritans discontents To plot a plain Popish Service-book with very little variation oâ— from the Mass-book and procure it to be by force and violence imposed on the Church and Kingdom of Scotland to the raising Mutinies and stirring up the Bellum Episcopale with pretence to yoke them and intention to destroy the King and Protestant cause To rebell openly in Ireland and with rage and cruelty to murder and massacre the Protestants To divide between King and Parliament in England and possess themselves of his Majesties Garrisons and Armies as under their command To abet advise and effect the most barbarous murther of his late Majesty and our since confusions All which and many the like to have been the atchievements and accomplishments of these enemies of God to true Religion He that is in any measure observant of our affairs can run and read And are not these expressions of rage power and presumption let right reason judge 2. Oxford Reasons second exception They cannot truly affirm that they had used or given consent to any supplication or remonstrance to the purposes therein expressed To this Sir consider That although they cannot affirm it yet others can do it in truth and with joy 2. What are the purposes therein expressed not as before intended shall we judge it from the Preface It is the glory of God and the advancement of the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ the honor and happiness of the Kings Majesty and His Posterity the publick liberty peace and safety of the Kingdoms wherein every ones private condition is included For the End is the Argument which is urged to enforce the constancy to the Covenant and in Article the sixth it is expressed to be the glory of God good of the Kingdoms and the honour of the King and these are the onely purposes expressed in these particular acts propounded for the production of them and shall we be so uncharitable as to think the Gentlemen of Oxford to have been so void of piety towards God love to their Country or loyalty toward their King as not to have used or given consent to Supplication or Remonstrance to these purposes therein expressed Must we think them so speechless as not to pray to God nor speak to men for the effecting of these purposes expressed No! I will rather presume them modest and not willing to publish their piety and zeal to good purposes or passionately prejudiced against some one expedient propounded to the effecting of these purposes expressed and thereby acted to confound the purpose and pursuing meanes But 3. Had not the University of Oxford Representees in Parliament If they did not sit were they violently excluded Or did they give their No to the Supplications or Remonstrances to the purposes expressed in the Covenant and if they did were not these Supplications and Remonstrances carried by the Majority of Votes And is not the Negative so swallowed therein that all persons and bodies corporate through the Nation did thereunto consent When we finde Oxford excepted we will say they could not truly affirme they gave consent But 3dly Oxford Reasons third exception they did not conceive the entring into such a League and Covenant to be a lawful proper and probable means to preserve our selves and our Religion from ruine and destruction To this Sir we must enquire into the conceipt of these Gentlemen and desire to know whether it relate unto the quality of the Covenant or the act
Containing exceptions to the first Article of the Covenant really and constantly through the Grace of God endeavor in our several places and callings the preservation of the Reformed Religion in the Church of Scotland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government against our common Enemies The Reformation of Religion in the Kingdoms of England and Ireland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government according to the Word of God and the example of the best reformed Churches And shall endeavor to bring the Churches of God in the three Kingdoms to the nearest conjunction and uniformity in Religion Confession of Faith Form of Church-Government Directory for Worship and Catechizing That we and our posterity after us may as Brethren live in Faith and Love and the Lord may delight to dwell in the midst of us II. That we shall in like manner without respect of persons endeavor the extirpation of Popery Prelacy that is Church-Government by Archbishops Bishops their Chancellors and Commissaries Deans Deans and Chapters Archdeacons and all other Ecclesiastical Officers depending on that Hierarchy Superstition Heresie Schisme Profaneness and whatsoever shall be found to be contrary to sound Doctrine and the power of Godliness lest we pertake in other mens sins and thereby be in danger to receive of their plagues and that the Lord may be one and his Name one in the three Kingdoms III. We shall with the same sincerity reallity and constancy in our several Vocations endeavor with our estates and lives mutually to preserve the Rights and Priviledges of the Parliaments and the Liberties of the Kingdoms and to preserve and defend the Kings Majesties person and authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms that the world may bear witness with our Consciences of our Loyalty and that we have no thoughts or intentions to diminish His Majesties just power and greatness IV. We shall also with all faithfulness endeavrr the discovery of all such as have been or shall be Incendiaries Malignants or evil Instruments by hindring the Reformation of Religion dividing the King from His people or one of the Kingdoms from another or making any faction or parties amongst the people contrary to this League and Covenant that they may be brought to publick trial and receive condign punishment as the degree of their offences shall require or deserve or the supream Judicatories of both Kingdoms respectively or others having power from them for that effect shall judge convenient V. And whereas the happiness of a blessed Peace between these Kingdoms denied in former times to our progenitors is by the good providence of God granted unto us and hath been lately concluded and setled by both Parliaments we shall each one of us according to our place and interest endeavor that they may remaine conjoyned in a firm Peace and Vnion to all posterity And that Justice may be done upon the wilful opposers thereof in manner expressed in the precedent Articles VI. We shall also according to our places and callings in this common cause of Religion Liberty and Peace of the Kingdom assist and defend all those that enter into this League and Covenant in the maintaining and pursuing thereof and shall not suffer our selves directly or indirectly by whatsoever combination perswasion or terror to be divided and withdrawn from this blessed Vnion and Conjunction whether to make defection to the contrary part or to give our selves to a detestable indifferency or neutrality in this cause which so much concerneth the glory of God the good of the Kingdoms and the honour of the King but shall all the dayes of our lives zealously and constantly continue therein against all lets and impediments whatsoever and what we are not able our selves to suppresse or overcome we shall reveal and make known that it may be timely prevented or removed All which we shall do as in the sight of God When I consider the matter of these several promises to have been propounded by a Parliament on advice had with an Assembly of Grave Learned and Judicions Divines who were to discover sin and make men to discerne between good and evil I cannot but retain a strong conjecture that it is all good and lawful And when I consider His late Majesties dissatisfaction expressed in His Contemplations to be more in respect of the manner than the matter my conjecture is much confirmed And when I observe His most Sacred Majesty at His late Coronation to have by Solemn Oath testified His allowance and approbation of the Solemn League and Covenant and by His Royal Declaration from Dumfirmling to have professed That on mature deliberation and being fully satisfied of the lawfulnesse and equity of the Solemn League and Covenant and every the Articles thereof Himself had sworn it and conjureth all his Subjects to lay aside their opposition to it Loyalty leads my conjecture unto a conclusion For such serious scrutiny by so sage and conscientious persons and that under the afflicting hand of that God who will not be mocked could not but have described the sinfulnesse of the matter if it be found But when I weigh the particulars promised and find them to be the Preservation of Religion and Reformation wherein it is corrupted and removal of what is thereunto obstructive as to the religious part of it and the preservation of the Kings Prerogative and peoples liberty and Nations unity and removal of the enemies thereof as to the civil part of it my conclusion is established and I find it so farre from unlawful that it binds us not to any thing which in the nature of it is not on us a positive duty though not bound by this most Sacred Bond and so farre is this Covenant from a repugnancie to our baptismal Covenant as our Dr. hath suggested in his * Page 12. Analysis that as I have in my * Page 22. Analepsis noted It is no hard matter to resolve it into the three heads of our baptismal promise taught by our Church For if I must believe the Articles of the Creed I must preserve sound Doctrine and reform to my power what is corrupt If I must keep Gods Commandments I must pursue pure worship and Religion towards God and Loyalty Love and unity towards men And if I must renounce the Divel and all his works I must extirpate Popery and Papal Prelacy Superstition Heresie Schisme will all incendiaries and evil instruments hinderers of Reformation And now I shall pray Dr. Gauden will shew us wherein this Covenant is so vastly different from the Covenant made in Baptisme Yet I shall consider once more the matter of the Covenant by those Rules which resolve the matter of an Oath unlawful and if it be therein chargeable I shall consent to the discharge of this Holy Bond. An Oath is in reference to the matter of it determined unlawful when it is unnecessary and about trifles and that is the prophaning of an Oath yet will
their certain assurance in matter of Fact be any better bottomed than their think so in point of Divine Right I know not what might be their undoubted testimony of ancient Records and later Histories for they mention none and therein their faith must be unto themselves but by such Ancient or Modern Histories as I have observed it is very difficult to find this Form of Government which must relate unto that to be extirpated by the Covenant or else it is vain to have been either universal or uninterrupted in all Kingdoms that have been called Christian for half fifteen hundred years for if they account backward from the time of their writing they will find a violent interruption and indeed extirpation of this Form of Government by Christian the King of Denmark in the year 1537. as contrary to Christ his Institution and then they will lose more then one of their fifteen hundred years without interruption and that in a Kingdom called Christian and this Sir was to sense whatever it was to reason a more considerable opposition than that of Aerius not to mention the interruptions and extirpation in Scotland which I presume may be to them of little weight that people in their eye scarce appearing Christian And if they will account forward from the Nativity of our Lord their fifteen hundred years of universal uninterrupted Episcopal Government by Arch-bishops Bishops Deans Deans and Chapters will rise very heavily for let it be considered that the division and distribution of Churches into Parishes and Diocesses came not into the world for more than two hundred and sixty years Polid. Virg. Invent l. 4. c. 9. and untill that time small Towns and Villages had their Bishops and all Bishops were before and after that chosen by the people not by their Princes and so long there could be no Metropolitan Archiepiscopi vero su Hibernia nulli fuerunt sed tantum se invicem Episcopi consecrabant donec Johannes Papyrio Romanae sedis legatus ad venit Hic 4. Pallia in Hiberniam portavit Archiepiscopal seat nor Cathedral Episcopal Diocess And will they give an Irish man leave to tell them that Saint Patrick sent into Ireland by Eleuth rius more than two hundred years after Christ did consecrate as many Bishops as he did constitute Churches in that Kingdom three hundred and sixty five of each and that from his time to the coming in of Johannes Papyrio the Popes Legate Anno 1152. Girald Cambr. Topograph Hiber destinct 3. cap. 17. Vid. The Religion professed by the Ancient Irish in an Epistle to the late Primate Usher by Sir Christopher Sipthorpe Knight pag. 58. there were no Arch-bishopricks in that Kingdom and yet it was called Christian and if the instance may not offend them I would mind them that Bishop Usher the late Primate of Armagh in his Treatise De Primordiis Ecclesiarum Britannicarum pag. 800. doth affirm out of John Major De Gestis Scotorum That in ancient times the Scots were instructed in the Christian Faith by the Priests and Monks and had no Bishops before the coming of Palladius into their Countrey and after that Palladius made Bishops they had no Diocess untill Malcolme the third King of Scotland but every Bishop did exercise his Episcopal Function wherever he came who citeth also John Fordon Scotichronicon lib. 3. cap. 8. on the same account so that then we shall not find this Form of Government by Diocesan Bishops Cathedral Churches and by Arch-bishops to have been received in some Kingdoms half fifteen hundred years and what then becomes of the assurance of these learned men Moreover though the opposition of Aerius seem in their eye on inconsiderable one yet it is such as stated a principle which being once admittee as it cannot be denyed and obtained but liberty to be improved to the direction of the Government to be practised will subvert the foundation and pull down the superiority of Arch-bishops Bishop Deans and the like for if all Ministers Presbyters and Bishops be of the same order office and authority we cannot but infer Who are ye that advance your selves in the house of God and Lord it over your Brethren and Gods heritage and notwithstanding that this principle be clouded by the occasion on which it was divulged by him the mans discontent we must say that Discontent is a better Dictator than Judge and God knoweth how to make mens grudges grind out the knowledge of his truth mind and will I hope it will be deemed but a poor defence of the Popes Supreamacy in England to say that King Henry the eighth in a discontented humour did cast it off and was for it excommunicated and here the Reason is the same a great noise is made and advantage taken that Aerius was reputed an Heretick for affirming the parity of Presbyters with Bishops and yet Sir it would be well noted by whom and by what authority he was branded as an Heretick it was not by any Council or Primitive Fathers but by one only man Epiphanius though to be Reverenced in the Church yet by this administers little cause of regard I think many in Oxford will be loth to have Arminian notions more opposite to the grace of God than Aerius notions to good order publickly damned as Heresie which yet were condemned by the Synod of Dort and though that were not a general Council it wins more Authority than the censure of Epiphanius Saint Augustine therefore repeating the opinion of Aerius as recited by Epiphanius doth more modestly denominate it Proprium Dogma August de haeresibus cap. 53. and others repeating the Heresies of Aerius make no mention of this among them nor indeed was there Reason if in the Council of Trent Michael of Medina were deservedly chidden for saying History of the Council of Trent p. 591. Hierom and Austin fell into the Heresie of Aerius and affirmed the degree of a Bishop was no greater than the degree of a Priest I hope that is not Heresie in Aerius which is Orthodox in Austin Jerom and others truly Sir I think the ingenuity of the Masters and Scholars of Oxford might have led them to have considered and indeed publickly contradicted * Collected by Mr. William Prynne as an Appendix to his unbishoping Timothy and Titus the Catalogue of testimonies in all Ages evidencing Bishops and Presbyters to be one equal and the same in Jurisdiction Dignity Order and Degree whereby in five several squadrons Christ and his Apostles Ignatius Policarpus Anacletus Justin Martyr and many of the ancient Fathers Peter Lombard Gratian Hugo Cardinalis and many other Canonists and Schoolmen the Waldenses Alphonsus Castro Gersomus Bucer and a multitude of Forraign Divines and Churches our own Sedulus Anselme Beda Occham Fulk Juel Reynolds Whitaker and almost who not in every place and age are produced as thinking the same thing which in Aâ—rius is called Heresie for certainly so general a consent to a
Gloucester 57 in the County of Salop and 73 in the County of Devon who give their testimony and call it the Solemn League and Covenant of the three Kingdoms and in the sense of the National Obligation they give this testimony and thus plead We find the Covenant is antiquated and banished as intended to be of force during the time of our intestine Warres we confess we are amazed at this quirk we pray the Wars may cease for ever which yet there is fear may too soon be recalled by God Pag. 27. for this treacherous dealing in his Covenant but we believe no honest understanding heart can be perswaded the Covenant was intended as a Truce made with God for three or four years but we shall labour to stop this Gap with some few strong stakes cut out of the Covenant and so passing through the several Articles of the Covenant they advise those terms may be viewed constantly Pag. 28 29. all the dayes of our life our posterity the Lord may dwell in the midst of us and good of the Kingdoms whereupon they conclude these are not for a few years but for ever and affectionately cry out to the Nation Oh England turn not Harlot break not Covenant with thy God and the Lord keep England from this Covenant-breaking and his vengeance from his people Unto this give me leave to add this passage out of the Testimony of the York-shire Ministers It cannot be unknown to the Churches abroad Pag. 8. that all the three Kingdoms stand engaged by vertue of a Solemn League and Covenant sworn with hands lifted up to the most High God sincerely really and constantly by the grace of God to endeavour in our several places the Reformation of Religion in the Kingdoms of England and Ireland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government according to the Word of God and example of the best Reformed Churches I shall Sir add but one more and it is that in which we have all the rest their 's being little else but a concurrence with this and that is the Testimony of the Ministers of our own City of London and they profess thus Pag. 26. In order to the Reformation and Defence of Religion within these three Kingdoms we shall never forget how solemnly and chearfully the Sacred League and Covenant was sworn with hands lifted up to the most High God wherein the three Kingdoms stand engaged joyntly and severally c. Yet we cannot but observe to the great grief of our heart that this Solemn Covenant of God hath been and is daily neglected slighted vilified reproached and opposed even by too many who have entred into it and endeavours have been used wholly to evade it and render it useless and that it hath been manifestly violated to the dishonour of God to the prejudice of a real Reformation the sadning of the hearts of Gods people and pulling down his dreadful judgments upon us and upon the whole Kingdom Sir I will say no more Pag. 28. but I pray God London Ministers may retain or recover their first love and Englands Watchmen may remember the loud Alarums they have sometimes sounded and the grounds thereof Sectio semptima Prop. 7. The Obligation of the Solemn League and Covenant is permanent and abiding never by any humane act or power to be absolved or discharged SIR By the permanency of the Obligation of the Covenant we mean the continuance of its Bond on the mind and consciences of men so that the Subjects thereof are and for ever will be bound to pursue and perform the things and matters therein promised nor is it in the power of any man or humane authority to release acquit or discharge them from the same but that when and howsoever the Solemn League and Covenant is slighted laid aside or violated by any the Subjects thereof they shall be liable unto the guilt and punishment of perjury in the breach thereof This permanency of obligation and impossibility of discharge doth spring from a double cause 1. The nature of an Oath which is a solemn and serious Appeal to and invocation of God as Witness and Avenger of the thing sworn and sincerity of the Subject swearing so as in case of dissimulation falshood or non-performance of the thing covenanted we shall be liable unto the guilt and punishment of perjury to be inflicted by the God who judgeth righteously And 2ly From the Manner and Form of the Covenant which is absolute and without a condition which might at any time fail and so cause a Cessation of the Bond of the Covenant thereupon dependent and is expressely exclusive to all manner of discharge or release by any humane Act or Power whatsoever by an express protest That this Covenant we make in the presence of Almighty God the Searcher of all hearts with a true intention to perform the same as we shall answer at that great day when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed and by a peculiar provision That we shall never suffer our selves directly or indirectly by whatsoever combination perswasion or terrour to be divided or withdrawn from this blessed union and conjunction whether to make defection to the contrary part or to give up our selves to a detestable neutrality in this cause which so much concerneth the Glory of God Good of the Kingdoms and Honour of the King but shall all the days of our lives zealously and constantly continue therein So that the matter of this Covenant being as I have before asserted good and lawful because just and possible if there were in the World any power or persons entrusted with that divine Prerogative to discharge the Obligation of an Oath we could not receive it because it is actually and expresly disclaimed We Sir live amongst Protestants who by their very profession do protest against all Papal Dispensations and Jesuitical Commutation thereupon dependent and therefore I need not stand to make any defence in this cause against the same which would be to suggest some Protestant Divines to be so Popishly affected as to have recourse to Rome for relief against St. Peters Restraint I presume Sir Englands Bishops would not be reputed Popish and other ways to discharge the Obligation of the Covenant we have none save the release of Superiors which alwayes must be in such cases and manner as are peculiar unto them and proper to their cognizance I am not insensible that some suppose to themselves and suggest to others a nullity or non-obliging force of the Covenant by reason that His late Majesty of glorious Memory did interdict the Act concerning which it is necessary to be enquired Whether by the Light of Nature Law of Nations or Rule of Scripture the Prince the Political Parent have such full compleat Parental Authority over His Kingdom collectively or distributively considered as by His interdict to make void the Oath they put upon themselves 2. Whether the Parliaments of England both or either House