to order Ecclesiasticall Affairs and reforme the Church within their Dominions ALl Princes and States invested with Sovereignty of power do justly challenge to themselves the right of Convocating Nationall Synods of their own Subjects and ratifying their constitution And although pious Princes may tollerate or priviledge the Church to convene within their territories annually or triennially for the exercise of Discipline and execution of constitutions already confirmed neverthelesse we see how wary the Synod of Dort was in this particular yet he is a Magistrate of straw that will permit the Church to convene within his territories whensoever wheresoever they list to convocate before them whomsoever they please all the Nobles all the Subjects of the Kingdome to change the whole Ecclesiasticall pollicy of a Commonwealth to alter the Doctrine and Religion established to take away the legall Rights and Priviledges of the Subjects to erect new Tribunals and Courts of Justice to which Sovereigns themselves must submit and all this of their own heads by virtue of a pretended power given them from Heaven contrary to known Laws and lawfull Customs the Supreame Magistrate dissenting and disclaiming Synods ought to be called by the Supreame Magistrate if he be a Christian c. And either by himself or by such as he shall please to choose for that purpose he ought to preside over them This power the Emperours of old did challenge over Generall Councels Christian Monarchs in the blindnesse of Popery over Nationall Synods the Kings of England over their great Councels of old and their Convocation of later times The Estates of the united Provinces in the Synod of Dort this power neither Roman Catholick or Protestant in France dare deny to his King None have been more punctuall in this case then the State of Geneva where it is expresly provided that no Synod or Presbytery shall alter the Ecclesiasticall pollicy or adde any thing to it without the consent of the civil Magistrate Their Elders do not challenge an uncontrolable power as the Commissioners of Christ but are still called the Commissioners of the Signiory The lesser Councel names them with the advise of the Ministery their consent is not necessary The great Councel of 200. doth approve them or reject them At the end of the year they are presented to the Signiory who continue them or discharge them as they see cause At their admission they take an Oath to keep the Eccesiasticall Ordinances of the civil Magistrate The finall determination of doctrinall differences in Religion after conference of and with the Ecclesiasticks is referred to the Magistrate The Proclamations published with the sound of Trumpet registered in the same Book do plainly shew that the ordering of all Ecclesiasticall affairs is assumed by the Signiory But in Scotland all things are quite contrary the civil Magistrate hath no more to do with the placing or displacing of Ecclesiasticall Elders than he hath in the Electoral Colledge about the Election of an Emperour The King hath no more legislative Power in Ecclesiasticall causes than a Cobler that is a single Vote in case he be chosen an Elder otherwise none at all In Scotland Ecclesiasticall persons make repeal alter their Sanctions every day without consent of King or Councel King Iames proclaimed a Parliament to be held at Edenburgh and a little before by his Letter required the Assembly to abstain from making any Innovations in the Policy of the Church and from prejudging the decisions of the States by their conclusions and to suffer all thâ—ngs to contiâ—ue in the condition they were untill the approaching Parliament What did they hereupon They neglected the Kings Letter by their own Authority they determined all things positively questioned the Arch-Bishop of St Andrews upon their own Canons For collating to benefices and Voting in Parliament according to the â—ndoubted Laws of the Land Yea to that degree of sawcinesse they arrived and into that contempt they reduced Sovereigne Power that twenty Presbyters no more at the highest sometimes but thirteen sometimes but seven or eight dared to hold and maintaine a General Assembly as they miscalled it after it was discharged by the King against his Authority an Insolence which never any Parliament durst yet attempt By their own Authority long before there was any Statute made to that purpose they abolished all the Festivals of the Church even those which were observed in memory of the Birth Circumcision Resurrection and Ascension of our Saviour By their own Authority they decreed the abolition of Bishops requiring them to resigne their offices as not having any calling from Gods Word under pain of Excommunication And to desâ—st from Preaching untill they had a new Admission from the Generall Assembly And to compleate their own folly added further that they would dispose of their possessions as the Churches Patrimony in the next Assembly which ridiculous Ordinance was maintained stifly by the succeeding Synods notwithstanding the Statute that it should be Treason to impugn the Authority of the three Estates or to procure the innovation or diminution of â—â—y of them Which was made on purpose to controll their vain presumption Notwithstanding that themselves had formerly approved and as much as in them lay established Superintendents to endure for terme of life with their numbers bounds salaries larger than those of other Ministers indewed with Episcopall power to plant Churches ordaine Ministers assign Stipends preside in Synods direct the censures of the Church without whom there was no Excommunication The world is much mistaken concerning Episcopacy in Scotland for though the King and Parliament were compelled by the clamours and impetuous violence of the Presbyters to annex the temporalities of Bishops to the Crown yet the Function it self was never taken away in Scotland from their first conversion to Christianity untill these unhappy troubles And these very temporalities were restored by the Ad of restitution and their full power was first established Synodically and afterwards confirmed by the three Estates of the Kingdome in Parliament By their own Authority when they saw they could not prevaile with all their iterated indeavours and attempts to have their book of discipline ratified they obtruded it upon the Church themselves ordaining that all those who had born or did then beaâ—â— any office in the Church should subscribe it under pain of Excommunication By their own Authority or rather by the like unwarrantable boldness they adopted themselves to be heirs of the Prelates and and other dignities and orders of the Church suppressed by their tumultuous violence and decreed that all tythes rents lands oblations yea whatsoever had been given in former times a should be given in future times to the service of God was thâ— Patrimony of the Church and ought to be collected and distributed by the Deacons as the Word of God appoints That to convert any of this to their particular or
robs the Magistrate of the last appeale of â—iâ— Subjects THe second flows from this The last appeal ought to be the Supreame Magistrate or Magistrates within his or their Dominions as to the highest Power under God And where it is not so ordered the Common-wealth can injoy no tranquility â—s we shall see in the second part of this discourse By the Laws of England if any man find himself grieved with the sentence oâ— consistoriall proceedings of a Bishop or of his Officers he may appeal from the highest judicatory of the Church to the King iâ— Chancery who useth in that case to grant Commissions under the great Seal to Delegates expert in the Laws of the Realme whâ— have power to give him remedy and to see Justice done In Scotland this would be taken in great scorn as an high indignity upon the Commissioners of Christ to appeal from his Tribunal to the judgement of a mortal man In the year 1582. King Iames by his Letter by his Messenger the Master of Requests and by an Herald at Arms prohibited the Assembly at Saint Andrews to proceed in the case of one Mongomery and Mongomery himsâ—lf appealed to Caesar or to King and Councel What did our new Matters upon this They sleighted the Kings Letter his Messenger his Herald rejectâ—d the Appeal as made to an incompetent Judge and proceeded most violently in the cause About four years after this another Synod held at Saint Andrews proceeded in like manner against the Bishop of that Seâ— for Voting in Parliament according to his conscience and for being suspected to have penned a Declaration published by the King and Parliament at the end of the Statutes notwithstanding that he declined their judicature and appealed to the King and Parliament When did any Bishops dare to doe such acts There need no more instances their Book of Discipline it sâ—lf being so full in the case From the Kirk there is no reclamation or appellation to any Judge Civil or Ecclesiastical within the Realm CHAP. IV. That it exempts the Ministers from due Punishment THirdly If Ecclesiastick Persons in their Pulpits or Assemblies shall leave their Text and proper work to turn Incendiaries Trumpeters of sedition stirring up the people to tumults and disloyal attempts in all well-ordered Kingdoms and Commonwealths they are punishable by the Civil Magistrate whose proper office it is to take cognizance of Treason and Sedition It was well said by a King of France to some such seditious Sheba's That if they would not let him alone in their Pulpits he would send them to preach in another climate In the Vnited Provinces there want not examples of seditious Oratours who for controlling their Magistrates too sawcily in the Pulpit have been turned both out of their Churches and Cities without any fear of wresting Christs Scepter out of his hand In Geneva it self the correction of Ecclesiastical persons qua tales is expresly reserved to the Signiory So much our Disciplinarians have ouâ—-done their pattern as the passionate writings of heady men out-do the calmer decrees of a stayed Senate But the Ministers of Scotland have exempted themselves in this case from all secular judgement as King Iames who knew them best of any man living witnesseth They said He was an incompetent Iudge in such cases and that matters of the Pulpit ought to be exempted from the judgement and correction of Princes They themselves speak plain enough It is an absurd thing that sundry of them Commissaries having no function of the Kirk should be Iudges to Ministers and depose them from their rooms The reason holds as well against Magistrates as Commissaries To passe by the sawcy and seditious expressions of Mr Dury Mr Mellvill Mr Bâ—lcanquâ—ll and their impunity Mr Iames Gibson in his Sermon taxed the King for a Persecutor and threatned him with a curse that he should die childless and be the last of his race for which being convented before the Assembly and not appearing he was onely suspended during the pleasure of his brethren he should have been suspended indeed that is hanged But at another Assembly in August following upon his allâ—gation that his not appearing was out of his tender care of the Rights of the Church he was purged from his contumacy without once so much as acquainting his Majesty The case is famous of Mr David Blake Minister of St Andrews who had said in his Sermon That the King had discovered the treachery of his heart in admitting the Popish Lords into the Countrey That all Kings were the Devils barns that the Devil was in the Court and in the guiders of it And in his prayer for the Queen he used these words We must pray for her for fashion sake but we have no cause she will never do us any good He said that the Queen of England Queen Elizabeth was an Atheist that the Lords of the Session were miscreants and bribers that the Nobility were degenerated godless dissemblers and enemies to the Church that the Councel were holly glasses Cormorants and men of no Religion I appeal to all the Estates in Europe what punishment could be severe enough for such audacious virulence The English Ambassadour complains of it Blake is cited before the Councel The Commissioners of the Church plead That it will be ill taken to bring Ministers in question upon such trifling delations as inconsistent with the liberties of the Church They conclude that a Declinatour should be used and a Protestation made against those proceedings saying It was Gods cause wherein they ought to stand to all hazâ—rds Accordingly a Declinatour was framed and presented Blake desires to be remitted to the Presbytery as his Ordinary The Commissioners send the Copie of the Declinatour to all the Presbyteries requiring them for the greater corroboration of their doings to subscribe the same and to commend the cause in hand in their private and publick prayers to God using their best credit with their flocks for the maintenance thereof The King justly incensed herewith dischargeth the Commissioners Notwithstanding this Injunction they stay still and send Delegates to the King to represent the inconveniences that might ensue The King more desirous to decline their envy than they his judgement offers peace The Commissioners refuse it and present an insoâ—ent Petition which the King rejects deservedly and the cause was heard thâ— very day that the Princes Elizabeth now Queen of Bohemia wâ—s Christened The witnesses were produced Mr Robert Ponte in the name of the Church makes a Pretestation Blake presents a second Dâ—clinatour The Councel decree that the cause being treasonable is cognoscible before them The good King still seeks peace sends Messengers treats offers to remit but it is labour in vain The Ministers answer peremptorily by Mr Robert Bruce their Prolocutor That the liberty of Christs Kingdom had received such a wound by this usurpation of the Rights of the Church that if the lives of Mr Blake
Parliament at Edenburgh the 24 of August 1560 without either Commission or Proxie from their Sovereign touching Religion c. should have the force of a publick Law And that the said Parliament so far as concerned Religion should be maintained by them c. and be ratified by the first Parialment that should happen to be kept within the Realm See how boâ—d they make with Kings and Parliaments in order to Religion I cannot omit that famous summons which this Assembly sent out not onely to entreat but to admonish â—ll persons truly professing the Lord Jesus within the Realm as well Noble-men as Barons and those of other estates to meet and give their personal appearance at Edenburgh the 20 of Iuly ensuiâ—g for giving their advice and concurrence in matters then to be proponed especially for purging the Realm of Popery establishing the policy of the Church and restoring the patrimony thereof to the just possessours Assuring such as did absent themselves that they should be esteemed dissimulate professours unworthy of the feâ—lowship of Christs flock who thinks your Scotish Disciplinarians know not how to ruffle it Upon this ground they assume a power to abrogate and invalidate Laws and Acts of Parliament if they seem disadvantagious to the Church Church Assemblies have power to abrogate and abolish all statutes and ordinances concerning Ecclesiastical matters that are found noysom and unprofitable and agree not with the times or are abused by the pâ—ople So the Acts of Parliament 1584 at the very same time that they were proclamed were protesied against at the market crosse of Edenburgh by the Ministers in the name of the â—irk of Scotland And a liâ—tle before whatsoever be the Treason oâ— iâ— pugniâ—g the authority of Parliament it can be no Treason to obey God rather than man Neither did the General assembly of Glasgow 1638 c. commit any treason when they impugned Episâ—opacy and Perth-Arâ—icles although ratified by Acts of Parliament and standing laws then unrepealed He saith so far true than we ought rather to obey God than man that is to suffer when we cannot act but to impugn the authority of a lawfull Magistrate is neither to obey God nor man God commands us to die innocent rather than live nocent they teach us rather to live nocent than die innocent Away with these seeds of sedition these rebllious principles Our Master Christ hath left us no such warrant and the unsound practise of an obscure Conventicle is no safe patern The King was surprized at Ruthen by a company of Lords and other conspirators this fact was as plain Treason as could be imagined and so it was declared I say declared not made in Parliament Yet an Assembly Generall no man gain saying did justify that Treason in order to Religion as good and acceptable service to God their Soveraign and native Countrey requiring the Ministers in all their Churches to commend it to the people and exhort all men to concurre with the actors as they tendred the glory of God the full deliverance of the Church and perfect reformation of the Commonwealth threatning all those who subscribed not to their judgement with Excommunication We see this is not the first time that Disciplinarian Spectacles have made abominable Treason to seem Religion if it serve for the advancement of the good Cause And if were well if they could rest here or their zeale to advance their Ecclesiasticall Soveraignty by force of Armes and effusion of Christian blood would confine it self within the limits oâ— Scotland No those bounds are too narrow for their pragmaticall spirits And for busâ—e Bishops in other mens Diocesses see the Articles of Sterling That the securing and setling Religion at home and promoting the work of Reformation abroad in England and Ireland be referred to the determination of the General Assembly of the Kirk or their Commissioners What is old Edenburgh turned new Rome and the old Presbyters young Cardinals and their Consistory a Conclave and their Committees a Juncto for propagating the faith Themselves stand most in need of Reformation If there be a mote in the eye of our Church there is a beam in theirs Neither want we at home God be praised those who are a thousand times fitter for learning for piety for discretion to be reformers then a few giddy innovators This I am sure since they undertook our cure against our wills they have made many fat Church-yards in England Nothing is more civill or essentiall to the Crowne then the Militia or power of raising Armes Yet we have seen in the attempt at Ruthen in their Letter to the Lord Hamilton in their Sermons what is their opinion They insinuate as much in their Theorems It is lawfull to resist the Magistrate by certain extraordinary wayes or meanes not to be ordinarily allowed It were no difficult task out of their private Authors to justifie the barbarous acts that have been committed in England But I shall hold my selfe to their publike actions and records A mutinous company of Citizens forced the gates of Halyrood-house to search for a Priest and plunder at their plrasure M. Knox was charged by the Councell to have bin the author of the sedition and further to have convocated his Mâ—jesties Subjects by Letters missivâ— when he pleased He answered that he was no preacheâ— of Rebellion but taught people to obey their Princes in the Lord I seâ—â— he tâ—ught them likewise that he and they were the competâ—nt judges what is obedience in the Lord. He confessed his convocating of the Subjects by vertue of a command form the Church to advertise the brethren when he saw a â—ecessity of their meeting especially if he perceived Religion to be in peril Take another instance The Assembly having received an answer from the King about the tryall of the Popish Lords not to their contentment resolve all to convéne in Armes at the place appointed for the tryall whereupon some were left at Edinburgh to give timely advertisement to the rest The King at his return gets notice of it calls the Ministers before him shewes them what an undutifull part it was in them to levy Forces and draw his Subjects into Armes without his warrant The Ministers pleaded That it was the cause of God in defence whereof they could not be deficient This is the Presbyterian wont to subject all causes and persons to their Consistories to ratifie and abolish civill Lawes to confirm and pull down Parliaments to levy Forces to invade other Kingdoms to do any thing respectively to the advancement of the good cause and in order to Religion CHAP. VIII That the Disciplinarians challenge this exorbitant Power by Divine Right BEhold both Swords spirituall and temporall in the hands of the Presbytery the one ordinarily by common right the other extraordinarily the one belonging directly to the Church the other indirectly the one of the Kingdom of Christ the other for his